*
Her thoughts, her wishes, they gently swim by along the current of life as they near their inevitable destination. This was a life she could never have imagined, this was an incomprehensible place to arrive after being thrown about by the currents of life. But it's all fine, even if everything she cared about slips past her fingers. Even if anything good in her life were to vanish from her grasp... Because, she's a magical girl.
It's natural. It might not be natural to have nothing good in one's own life, but it's absolutely natural for a magical girl to fight for all that is good. Human evolution has allowed the gene for magical girl awakening to be retained in the human species, passing on from parent to child just like any other traits. But the gene was directly linked to their survival more than any other, naturally this meant that it was linked to their sex chromosomes.
This makes it completely possible for a transformation to activate magical particles, sparking a chain reaction for the entire body's cells... To change his sex chromosomes to female and manipulate hormonal balances. In other words, magic took care of everything complicated, so we can just leave things at that. Related to the magic gene was another gene that favoured the survival of the entire species.
From time immemorial, humans banded together to form groups, societies in order to survive. In other words, it was the gene that raised the chances for a person to express their inherent altruism. The innate human ability to be kind to each other and save one another. That's why magical girls would particularly care more about others or be more emotional about the things they love.
For Kaoru, this heightened his love for magical girls, translating his inherent traits into a strong sense of justice... As a magical girl would. In the end, it was reasonable for anyone to say Kaoru was roleplaying. Whether the fact that his act and attempt to be real became a facade on the sole basis of it being all a performative ideal, or whether his act was so real, the premise of it being an act and fake instead transformed into something real, it no longer mattered.
What he wanted to achieve, she will do now. There was no sound, smell or light. Of course when verified, there was also no taste or touch at the edge of the world. From the start, everyone had the ability to detect their surroundings using only the magical particles that they sensed around them. Through these supernatural senses, the world looks grey. She no longer payed attention to the small things, but every once in a while, a burning inquiry sears the back of her mind.
It was regarding the current situation. The 2 have been going at it for a very long time, there was no real sense of time, they must have started fighting when she gained awareness as Kaede or even before that. She gained self awareness of her own ego after her defeat by Zedicia after all. Then... How long has it been since she came to meat her again...?
"Haa~" (Kaede)
She releases another sigh and ups the pace. If there's nothing left to do, then she should just overwhelm them with attacks. After all, their current states were akin to being asleep. Then all that's left is to fight. When did she ever get fixated with becoming a magical girl?
Even if her memories show Kaori talking about her dreams with Myuu, it was impossible to know how Kaori felt at that time. Her memories were from an observer's perspective. Now that she's reached all the way here... Yeah, the switch in memory perspectives was right before she fought Zedicia for the first time. There was only one person who could possibly be the other party of the contract now.
Now that the matter with her memories was cleared, then... The reason she's fixated on magical girls... It must have been during the first time he transformed into a magical girl. At that time... He must have been disappointed with his skill's effects, after all, shifting gradients? It's boring, it doesn't sound like something a magical girl would use at all. Even manipulating fire would fit a magical girl more. Then... It must be that sentiment of disappointment and overwhelming compensation.
Was that really the reason why she fought as a magical girl? Kaede shifted into different locations 3 times before slamming her foot into the side of an unsuspecting Himei. Himei was sent flying for a moment but quickly recovered her balance. Zedicia attacks, teleporting behind Kaede who then shifts behind Zedicia. Zedicia's back was not exposed at all, she promptly turned to her side and swung her claw down. Kaede jumped backwards and into the air, then she teleported a little distance away. She immediately felt Himei's presence and swung her rapier, only to meet her staff.
For slumbering deities, they sure do hit as hard as she does?! How absurd, it's taking all she has just to survive at this point, as if the rough currents was completely under the domination of their collective tempo, a storm of 2 counteracting fierce wind currents cutting at each other, and she's simply caught in the middle unable to exert any of her own power.
This battle that had a timing pressure that was tighter than the speed of light or the skin of her teeth, no measure of time could ever accurately capture this chaos and constriction. The repeated collisions of their weapons had somehow caused sound in this soundless space, loud enough to pierce her eardrums over and over and assault her head with a relentless heat.
It was as if the battle was stripping her of her Intelligence sobriety, waiting to lull her into joining these deities in their unending sleep fight that would stretch on to the end of the world. Under all of these pressures... She was beginning to arrive at the truth.
Who are you... Kaede?
I am Himei.
Just a single day before the fight with Zedicia, Kaori made a deal with me. We switch egoes, and if I couldn't kill Zedicia I would die, if I could then we would switch back and she would be rewarded, after all I was using her body as a mere weapon to combat someone I couldn't trust myself to kill. She had so much potential, it was like a shiny new toy I couldn't resist reaching my grubby mits over. I agreed to Zedicia's terms while forcing her to compromise as much as I could for a long time, despite my long life I suppose I got impatient and ended up wasting the lives of some of my precious subjects.
Hahah... What am I saying? I have none of Himei's memories. Just some rough guesswork that I am presumably her. Because the point where my memories split, was during the contract. In the end, nothing would change the fact that I lead Myuu and Paridia to their deaths. I deeply regret it, how could I not? If only I was a little stronger, if only my heart wasn't so weak that I would build a shell of 'no regrets' as some kind of idealistic motto to follow.
Kaori, is this why you follow such a motto? It strangely resonates with me, maybe because I came into this world as Kaede, living a life fraught with danger and death. It was so frightening that I felt like my heart and mind was about to break down at any moment. I'll be truthful for once.
After seeing all this dangerous crap, I want to live my life as a normal girl. Or guy if I have to relinquish my transformation, either way was fine. I want to go to school, meet with others my age, talk to them about life, hobbies, studies. I want to pointlessly worry over homework with them, fear the stringent teachers with them, laugh with them.
Ah... In the end of it all, I sought to be Kaori and to surpass Kaori. I am honest to a fault, Kaede. I am neither Kaori nor Himei, it feels like at the end of this journey when this contract finishes, I will vanish along with it. In other words, this sense of self I've built up will vanish a long with the contract, after all I was never meant to exist. How scary, I knew I was destined for a short life filled to the brim with monsters, demons and enemies to fight and no time to live, so I adopted your motto.
But at this moment Kaori, you don't exist... So I know full well the fear of not existing, and will not resent anyone for wanting everything to turn back to normal. After all, you want to exist too, right? I who is not meant for long in this world, shall then dedicate this existence to bring everything back to normalcy. Hahah?! How absurd. After everything I pondered through while fighting these ferocious gods, I ended up at the same answer as before, it's cyclic!
After all, I fight because I am a magical girl. Nothing more, nothing less. I felt my mind lightened and my heart stirring. These deities were fighting on instinct alone, they can sense my every movement and somehow make appropriate judgements while asleep. Normally this would make them susceptible to traps, but there was no concept of time, set up or traps on this space, so they were practically invulnerable.
But notice, I haven't used my skill one bit on the enemy. I've only used it to power up myself into this god form through converting my mortal body into a spirit body. But technicality in magic is the same as the genuine article. I am a god magical girl now, so I will face them with the pride of someone who is awake.
A rapier the size of a sky scraper materialises next to me and spins at infinite speed, catching the 2 who cannot avoid it. In this space there was no concept of speed, only positioning. So using an area of effect attack should be the best tactic. Then... Kaede claps her hands together and summons numerous more of these gargantuan rapiers. They were practically pillars of death that reigned everywhere.
"Let's erase you down to the last atom." (Kaede)
I wonder what will happen when even gods are stripped into their bare sub atomic particles, if they are broken down further into their fundamental particles will they still be able to rejoin back together and revive? Inputting so much energy, the rapiers surpass the energy capabilities of nuclear bombs and their atom splitting capabilities.
God technique - atom rend.
A particularly potent rapier strikes at Kaede, of course the energy was diverted to slide around her body instead of striking her directly. Instead Himei and Zedicia who were trying to attack her were caught up in its blast. Their infinite will stay might defend them for a bit, heck this rapier may be a toothpick compared to their defences. But there was so much force that they couldn't move as well. They were restricted on the spot. This was the problem with infinite attack and and infinite defence, it was practically nonsense, no end to it whatsoever.
This was something only Kaede or Kaori could do, and why Himei saw potential in her in the first place. Her second skill [The gap of impermanence is a cage] forcefully moves things with magic, but her first skill [hollow calamity] manipulates gradients instead of movement, in other words [hollow calamity] makes things move on their own accord.
"[hollow calamity]." (Kaede)
She points a finger gun at each of their heads. Their bodies unravel flesh from flesh, splitting apart into their bare molecules. Their clothes vanish, but what was under was a mass of tissue and cells. The cells split as well into their bare molecules, then atoms, and finally into-
Of course it wouldn't work. Gods are divine and unrestricted by their flesh. As god magical girls, naturally they were just like Kaede, they possess spiritual bodies formed by magical particles. But this thorough annihilation of their body makeup succeeded. It woke them up and forced them to revive their mortal body, as well as to make them shift outside her attack arrange.
The 2 mass of cells vanish only for the 2 deities to float next to Kaede in opposing directions. They face each other and then her with animosity, their irises had returned to their eyes, their eyeballs were no longer completely white. There was colour, life and a strong will to live and rule residing in their eyes.
She wonders how long they've been in their slumber fight. Time doesn't exist in this space, meaning she should be seeing all the god magical girls who had fought other god magical girls throughout history, continuing their fight into this space. In other words, this space at the edge of the universe should span all of human history and then more. But just as it is timeless, it was also spaceless. In other words, they might just be fighting so far away and right inside them, that they could never see the fights of other people.
So it was a miracle that Kaede even found these 2 in the first place. It might have been the magical connection from Himei's throne, or it was pure luck. Whatever the case, the real fight starts now.