*
Why? Why give off such a sad smile at the end? You're going to save the world aren't you? I... My role ends here, I've brought the final factor into play, so that you can save everyone we love. I know... Because... I lived as you... So if you can save everyone in my place, you should.
A bright light swallows everything in the space behind Kaori, casting a large shadow the size of her silhouette. In this invariable storm of photo bombardment, she mouths off: I Love You.
Was it because I acted as you? Was it because I helped you achieve your dreams? I... Cannot understand... Why...? Should I deserve this...? Kaori steps closer, her soft lips slip into mine before I noticed. Her tongue reaches the back of my teeth, and-
I'm back... In her body... She is back to being Himei... And I'm... Kaede... Why...? I can't comprehend anything if you don't tell me... This... Is the magic of human relations... I'm not experienced enough to understand that without words... Please tell me... Please tell me you plan to come with me... For you to die here alone... Would be the most unfortunate thing in the world... After all, this is your skill.
What happens after someone travels into the past? Does the present instantly change into another reality? To reflect the changes in the past. Or does it stay the same and branch itself off into an alternate reality? It it's an alternate reality where everyone else is dead... Then it sounds cruel and messed up but there's no point staying here.
But I understood in the end. Her presumably gentle expression of joy... Was a parting smile. With this, the final skill is in my hands, but... Going back in time might be a one way trip... She might vanish the next time I go back to this point in time, there was no guarantee over how nay of it worked. At the very least, I'm utterly terrified of losing the her who is here now.
Our egoes were switched, we're not the same as the originals any longer. The deviation has been too far gone for a while now, I've been choosing to ignore it for a very long time now, so that everything can go back to 'normal'. But... Kaori saw through me... I can't let any of it go... All of it, bad memories or good... They cling to my heart and I cling to them as they are all precious.
I see... She's just fulfilling her promise to everyone. That she would save everyone... It's just that the first person she saved... Was me...
But! The white light hasn't consumed the entire realm yet! We still have time! I look at her with a determined gaze. The blood coursing through my body heats up like a rampaging haze.
This is no time for parting.
" Fuh~ Let's fuse!"
I look at her with the coolest grin I could muster, but in this body it must have only ended up cute. I thought I was narcissistic for admiring the beauty of my past beauty, but did I fall for Kaori instead in the end? She looked at me strange, but then she stretches her hand out, her fingers facing down ready for someone to grab from below. I could feel her soft breath from this distance, waiting in anticipation. My heart rate was rising, I wonder if she felt like this too.
I think it goes without saying, with all your wishes for others in mind, you still want to be saved too, don't you? Kaori, you struggled for a while and lost comrades... Well, I lost them in your place... So maybe I was the one most impacted by it. But with this, I think we wouldn't be so lonely anymore. We can't separate after all after this.
I reach my hand underneath and gently clasp her wrist. My index fingers sink into her palm while my thumb wraps around. Then I pull her in, she was strangely light, like a leaf. Our bodies converted into bursting radiance, in that split second our final skills activated, we became one.
There is no need to change this... We're... I'm Kaede the magical girl, saviour of saviours. The ideal magical girl. When the light swallowed everything and fades away... We went back to the time of The Great Disaster.
"Himei... Just in case, we went back all the way here. But... What should we do...? How much of the past should we change?" (Kaede)
Originally, I had only wanted to save the select few who were my friends. Gerald, Myuu, Paridia, the ArcMaidens, Himei and Zedicia. But now we could do much more, we could prevent The Great Disaster and become the new god of this world, if we simply revealed ourselves before all the other god magical girls did. We could do so much more, but what was the right answer?
In the first place... Why did The Great Disaster happen? Is it preventable? Using Himei's knowledge to deduce the information available... It could have been a mechanism built by the planet to curb the exploding human population. Maybe 7 or 8 billion was their limit. But we don't have much to go off on, at best, this is the end goal that we are looking at for the current moment. To one day reverse this... Would be the day, she... ******
Through their magic, the 2 have fused into one entity. She was no longer wearing a simple wedding dress along with her veil, bracelets and horns. Her chest had grown to a median between the 2, there was a second layer of cloth over her wedding dress, similar to a kimono, but thick and coat like. Even with a white dress under and a black coat over with gold embroidery, her collar bone and shoulders were still exposed.
The coat extends to her arms, wrapping around her elbows before forming a sleeve on her lower arms rather than at the shoulder. Below her waist, the coat perks itself atop the wedding dress and forms a lower cape, flitting through the air as she floats in the clouds staring at the modern world. Her memories were now a mishmash of the 2, the mind deviation has gone too far for her to be any single person that she consisted of. No longer Kaori nor Himei.
"Hmpf, we can start slow, it's not like [Idealism of a magical maiden's transient heroism: panta rhei] only works once. Let's go back to when the Demon King used her final skill then work our way back. We'll eliminate The Great Disaster(imitation) first." (Himei)
It should be fine. They only have to tell present day Kaede and Himei that everyone died without revealing that it was a trick. That should solve the inconsistencies.
" Alright... Ah, ah ah... It feels really weird to hear you using the exact same voice as I do... To talk to myself, yet not myself at the same time... " (Kaede)
She closed her eyes in contemplation while crossing her arms. The coat was quite warm, though it must be an offence against those who love the shrine maiden outfit, considering it's been scrunched into a coat instead. Was she going crazy? The boundary between Kaori and Himei in this body was pretty much nonexistent. So theoretically, they're one person rather than split personalities... Well, whatever goes, goes.
"Hmpf..."
She snorts out air once more to relax her tense chest, emptying her lungs and calming down her fast heart rate. The effect of her final skill... Combining the subjective idealism of Himei and the [hollow calamity] of Kaori, in other words she can recognise anything as a gradient, sense it, turn it into values and manipulate it. Turning back time became as easy as tuning a clock. But from Himei's knowledge, she knew...
Manipulating time was the largest violation of the universe's law. Just like how the universe's end has a representative like HuoLi, there is a representative over time that would hunt them down. This was why there hasn't been any records of time manipulating magical girls, at least not for turning back time. Going forward in time, predicting the future or changing the future was still okay, it was rewinding time that was the issue...
It was theorised that the time guardian magical girl, Chronos would hunt them in order to ensure the continuity of time and eliminate paradoxes. The reason they haven't been hunted yet is because they're a completely new existence not present in any previous timelines, having been a fusion 2 people together.
Activate final skill [Idealism of a magical maiden's transient heroism: panta rhei]. I'm sorry, mum, dad. I'll deal with this later. You guys put up with me while I was a shut in for a year, in the end I still didn't have the chance to apologise nor thank you. I have a mission.
The world changes scenery, it shifts in an instant like the turning of a page on a book. I recognise these skies. To prevent the first paradox, we have to go to the time after Kaede and De Lan left. Then to save De Lan. The giant flash wave approaches, our allies, the ArcMaidens also notice our arrival.
"... Which are you? It's getting confusing... How are you both...?" (HuoLi)
"... Looks like they made it in time, doesn't it? The only way to solve everything now... Was to travel back in time, wasn't it?" (Kanou)
Hey, Himei. If we save everyone, wouldn't that in and of itself be a paradox? Ah. Well, let's start with small changes first, if it inevitably turns into a paradox... We'll deal with that later at the end. But first, let's at least fulfill our promises first before dealing with Chronos.
Hikari in this state was strong enough to decimate any magical girl as long as they weren't regenerating at infinite rates like god magical girls. But even before with her white fire, Kaede wasn't able to defeat her. Like Zedicia, she had some resistance to all kinds of magic phenomena. But physical attacks don't work as well...
But compared to before, she got used to fighting as a god. Compared to before, she has gained a lot more from the fight with Zedicia. First, let's isolate it. Right now, none of the ArcMaidens have died yet, we should finish it fast.
Name: Kaede no Himeishin
Title: saviour of zenith and idealism, God of Calamity, Allflow and Sight, One who has faced an end
Magical girl effectiveness level: SS
Perimeters:
- Physical: SS
- endurance: SS
- speed: SS
- will: SS
- well: SS
"Isolate, Oblivion Magia. Hallowed bridal judgement." (Kaede)
A white space swallows the ArcMaidens and Hikari in an instant. A new dimension of white spreads out as far as the eye could see, simulating an entire continent's worth of land. A throne was built under me and I was sat down before I even noticed, was this from Himei's half?
In this space, All flow is visible. An interlocking dimension where no single variable could escape the system as I view the past, present and future... Hikari survives in the future. She's using a magical phenomenon similar to Myuu's final skill, an invulnerability that exists as long as the concept of Demon King exists in any single world... Not just the Demon King... It's even worse. As The Great Disaster is intimately linked to curbing the proliferation and prosperity of humanity... As long as humanity exists, she will continue to ravage this world.
The most brute forced way to defeat her is to destroy all of humanity in every iteration of the universe.
But that was clearly counter intuitive.
Whatever. Fate. Charisma. Reinforced existence. I wonder what haven't I seen? For now...
I wave my hand to the right, drawing a beautiful arc with a straight arm. In an instant, the entire flash mass the size of a country engulfing flood shrunk into a small orb, before it was swallowed into a black pillar of energy, giant rapier beam. A beam of raw energy that would move through any defence and engulf everything. It would take another god magical girl to resist that attack. The entire mass of Hikari was isolated here, detecting the entire earth did not yield any signals of any lose pieces that Hikari would use as an insurance.
Then this is it. Hikari, you've been so trouble some, just disappear. [Idealism of a magical maiden's transient heroism: panta rhei], recognise time as a gradient and turn it back for Hikari. If it's her before she turned into the embodiment of humanity's sins, The Great Disaster, then it should be possible to defeat her.