*
She wanted to be a good girl, she wanted to a do her job right and achieved the happy ending where she lived peacefully with everyone. Perhaps her and Kaori can switch back their egoes and be friends.
Her desperation to play her part as Kaori had been going on since she first gained awareness... No, when did it become a fact that she was 'playing' as Kaori? She herself believed with absolute certainty that she was Kaori before then, it only became 'acting' after she realised that she was a fake. This awareness was in the way... But it was also the last vestige of her actual self. The final remaining evidence that she once existed. She can't simply just get rid of it, it was her very existence.
At the same time she wanted to do her part, make sure that Kaori's life was as normal as possible. If someone else was in her body, she had hoped that they would do the same, so that they could live normal lives right after switching back...
Switching back... There's no certainty that this would happen, so the sole fact that she was trying to preserve Kaori's relationships with her friends spoke volumes about Kaede. Helping others for the astronomically unlikely chance that a miracle happened.
Yet this had happened. She was facing before the Karell candidate, a grim expression facing an expression that's holding onto life. Karell pushed with all her strength on her wand, somehow stopping Kaede with a full charge. There was no doubt that there was some damage to her bones just from parrying this attack. Kaede mechanically analysed the situation while pushing her rapier further forward. She notes her surroundings and factors in the dangers and advantages in an instant.
The reason why her actions in this battle thus far felt effortless was because she was fully employing her magic, her first skill that manipulated gradients meant that if she used it on herself she would naturally move. The gradient of her body towards where her body is not. A gradient was not something that's visible, but it was something invisible that matter obeys in the world. Some would call it an equilibrium, but her magic was more focused on the speed moving toward this equilibrium.
Technically she was shifting this equilibrium around as much as her magical particles allowed, the further she shifted it the larger the gradient and the faster the speed. In other words, her first skill is NOT movement, it was to control the position of the equilibrium where things settled at, the natural state of the world. After changing the natural state of the world, the things inside the world will follow it and fulfill this state.
To the world itself, it looks like things are returning back to 'normal', while [Hollow calamity] is the alteration of what is 'nornal'. Like how when people jump into the air, they obey the laws of physics, specifically gravity and fall back down. It is only natural to fall down, it is only natural that Kaede flies at Karell at maximum speed, accelerating immediately in one go. Though she was not consciously shifting the equilibrium, her mind acts on the speed of things in the world and alters this speed as much as her magic lets her, shifting the equilibrium as a side effect.
This is why she had such a comprehensive passive that told her of all the details of her environment and processed it for her instantly. Right now she had used her first skill so much, it acted on the world, then the world acts on her. The world itself is moving her body for her. Her second skill complements this by actually using the power of normal movement, acting on a more physical dimension.
This was also the basis of Kaori's conceptual attack on the progenitor, she changed the 'normal' state of the world where The Progenitor was suppose to receive her own attacks. It was done simply by redirecting the gradients so the magic ends up shooting backwards.
" ghugh...! Don't underestimate me!" (Karell)
A quick and silent blade of wind flies in from the side... No, it wasn't wind. Kaede could tell because Kaori dealt with it before, it was spatial magic. It even carried the vacuum between the molecules in it, forming a sharp flying crescent that could cut anything in existence. Rather, Kaori could do it too. Using her second skill, [The gap of impermanence is a cage], her rapier quickly extends a second branch at the side which warps and forms a black wall, the second skill was applied on the wall.
Usually a space blade can cut a space shield too, but Kaori's second skill was active on the void shield, meaning that even the air and void of the attacking magic was frozen after making contact with the shield. The attack itself stopped moving and the opponent's magic dissipated. Theoretically, it would fracture and shatter any weapon by partially freezing them, the frozen bits slide off the frozen bits, then it extends. Well, this was a fresh way of applying the skill, thought up on the spot.
She felt like her ability was slowly approaching Kaori's, after an insightful inspection of Kaori's personality for so long, she now decided to delve into her skills right now. She felt like a fool, not having done this sooner. The Kaori in her memories had always emphasised her love for magic and magical girls during the year she was learning to get a magical girl license.
After that, it was through the collective integrity and mutual interest of most magical girls that maintained peace in the sanctuary, theoretically someone could abuse their license to kill citizens willy-nilly, but such a thing didn't happen... Until now. The license worked as protection for the magical girl against the law, property damage was reimbursed by the government, crimes were pardoned.
This was to excuse the execution of criminals, deemed necessary by the individual themselves. Magical girls could even kill other magical girls while being pardoned by the law, it was how Kaori and the others had no issues thus far, despite the wanton slaughtering of the cult's members.
What was magic? It was an exchange of an energy currency to phenomena, in a way magical particles were the philosopher's stone for being able to convert into anything imaginable and unimaginable... What was it...? What the hell did Kaori see in these things?! To Kaede, they were more like a curse that had set her in this predicament in this first place.
After blocking the spatial attack, she allowed her rapier to snap in half, shortening its length while freeing herself from the parry. Karell's pushing force sent the front fragment of her rapier flying towards her. She bent her wrist around, shoving her blade into the space in front of her, perfectly predicting the trajectory of the flying weapon and deflecting it effortlessly. Her movements were more fluid than she had ever felt before, she didn't get any stronger, she simply got used to her own body.
At high speeds, she slid closer into Karell's personal space before she even noticed... Then she slashed off her left arm at the shoulder. Karell gripped onto the new stump at the side of her body, her torso convulsed in response.
"Uuu... UUAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!" (Karell)
She let out an ugly cry as her skin under her eyes, cheeks and on the ridge of her nose stretched to let out all the pain. Even with a magical girl's diminished sense of pain, taking an entire limb off... Was something that she would be forced to feel. It would weird otherwise... Pain was the feeling telling the body that something was wrong, it was crucial and couldn't be removed completely.
Kaede stabbed her small rapier into the palm clutching at the stump, driving it through the palm and then the stump. Then she kicked her in the solar plexus, sending her flying off the stage. She was too distracted by her pain to put up spatial barriers, if it was anybody else like Neli they would have had difficulty dealing with her, but with Kaori their affinities with each other were high, their powers incredibly similar.
As a result it all came down their individual prowess.
Soft groans could be heard from off the stage, but she could also hear teeth gritting against each other. It looks like the opponent was finally taking her seriously. She leaped off the ground, lowering her feet from mid air, she slid around the wobbling Karell as she materialised a new rapier. With a clean and beautiful swing, the tip of her rapier drew an arc, moving so fast that it looked like it was bending when it was completely straight.
The moment she swung, the dirt and debris blew into the air, forming an opague cloud of pollutants. She jumped back immediately, and sure enough a fist swung through the cloud simultaneously to strike the air right in front of her. Before the cloud formed, she saw her opponent swung the magic staff at an equally fast speed, the collision had sent the matter around them into a frenzy.
However, a trick this rudimentary wouldn't get her no matter what. Surprise attacks and the like are easily tracked by her radar skill, if she wanted to she could close her eyes and the passive would still be able feed her visual information, making it as if she had eyes at any place in a 100km radius. She gripped her rapier with both hands and held it close to her body as she sensed another attack incoming.
Holding it close to her body, she can react easier to an attack from any direction, then exploit her rapier's reach to parry far away from her body, keeping herself safe. The problem was that the staff had a similar reach, she swung her rapier and the collision shook her entire body. The point of collision was close to her face, her opponent's positioning and handling was better. She had assumed that Karell was not used to battle from how she freaked out from the pain earlier... But her weapon handling skills told a different story.
She didn't have superior strength at all... Stats wise, Karell might be higher, a low A grade. Kaede was simply getting by with combat experience, merging techniques and her surroundings to bring herself higher than what is normally possible. Her first skill was also greatly increasing the effects of her swings as well as her agility.
Her arms pushed desperately against the staff which was thrown with enough force to bisect her, the strain of her arms permeates her entire body, she could feel her skull trembling as it struggled to stabilise. She grit her teeth, her bones caved under the pressure as her opponent's strength crushes everything in its way, lifting her into the air and throwing her into the sky. Thanks to her rapier dispersing the force, she didn't get bisected, but it still felt like a car had crashed into her.
Her arms were broken and blood pour out of her throat without restrain as her rapier transmitted some of the force into her lungs, fracturing her ribcage and splintering her air sacs. But she retains her composure. Right now she couldn't give in to the pain, she had to be the perfect imitation of Kaori. Kaori was strong, she faced her battles head on despite being a mere B grade, going on to fight S grades with Magia Retainment and other techniques she invented.
She could only create so many techniques because her first skill allowed her to do so, though some of them were arguably pointless... That's right, despite everything, Kaede had her own thoughts and opinions about Kaori's life. A point of divergence that would never close up. This entire time she wanted to plug up this gap in ability between her and Kaori, though it was in vain and she couldn't tell why. She could only have thoughts of resignation to the fact that she was weaker than Kaori.
Yet, she was in Kaori's body. For now and for the foreseeable future, it was a tentative fact that would never go away while she's conscious here. Use it, use everything at your disposal. Seize victory. No one said that it would be easy, but no one said that you have absolutely nothing as well.
What would Kaori think in this situation? Who cares, the one that's fighting for your life right now is you. The one who is executing the defilier of life in front of you right now is you. Seize control of your own fate.
Using the hollow propulsion technique, she props herself in midair and directs her body to rush toward Karell. Karell was also rapidly approaching with her staff in hand. It was invisible, but she could tell that there was a scythe-like blade of space attached to her staff. Her void rapier was an extremely similar principle. She tightens both her hands on her rapier's handle, bending her knees closer to her body in a squatting position while lifting her rapier above her head.
Her body rotates forward, rushing down the sky like an elusive comet, only it was a comet of death that rapidly advanced towards Karell's location. She swings down the rapier, carrying all of her momentum and weight into that single strike. It collides with the staff once more, shooting forth shock waves that rend everything behind Karell. The stage splits in half to reveal a deep ravine, a result from the shock waves.
Using her second skill to move her body against inertia, Kaede lowers her position swiftly and launches a surprise kick into Karell's face.