*
6 days until the Festival.
"Fuuhaa~~agh?!" (Kaori)
She accidentally swallowed something while yawning. She might have choked on her own spit, or it might have been a fly, either way she didn't want to know. Her tears inevitably escape as the object she swallowed irritated the insides of her throat.
"Puheh!" (Kaori)
Were SS grade magical girls not resistant to choking? Her palm had already covered her quivering lips. Uwah... How disgraceful... Well, it's not like she has some high strung reputation to hold up or anything. Right now, it's fine if she just lazes the day away in her bedroom.
"Mrghhh!" (Kaori)
That kind of laziness was all too familiar to the time he was a shut in! The trauma shook her bones awake and she dragged her body up like a corpse. She slid her legs onto the ground and used her bones to support herself, warming her lax muscles up.
"... How Dare You!..." (?)
A muffled voice echoes in her bedroom, it was ambiguous whether it was male or female but did that really matter? Cold sweat dripped down her forehead as she reacted to the mysterious call, it sounded like countless other voices overlapping one another to synthesise one voice. It sounded like it was drowning in countless different tones and pitches, all combining like colours to make an indiscriminate black, baritone, yet reminiscent of other colours of voices. As if someone forcefully combined the audio of numerous individuals saying the same thing.
She used her radar and final skill to trace the location of that voice. Nothing shows up in the vicinity. Her final skill could reverse time, pick up the specified data and bring it to the present. But there was only utter silence.
'HhhHhow DaRE yOu!!??!!' (?)
A second cry, it distorts itself even more as if to mock her efforts, knowing it would never be found. Like humanity attempting to explore beyond a swirling black hole's event horizon, there seemed to be no way for her to find the source of this disturbing noise. The source of the noise, the mystery of how there was no sound in reality... Her results were all a dud, except for a single location. There was absolutely no air vibrations anywhere that would match the articulation, but a single location revealed an anomaly. What she heard was very real even if it didn't exist in reality...
"Shit, am I going insane... But Himei isn't such a malicious ego that the fusion of our egoes would result in this...
I definitely heard it. The anomaly is with my mind. The brain signals that I read showed that anomaly. Even the second time around..." (Kaori)
Was this an effect of becoming a god? When she first witnessed the battle between Himei and Zedicia, her mind was breaking down. To put it simply, Himei and Zedicia were moving at an infinite speed, to Kaori's divine mind who could take in that information... It was still overstimulation.an excessive dumping of information, her mind theoretically had the capacity to take in all of the information, but put into practice there was also the issue of fatigue and deterioration of the mind.
The information was of an infinite volume and her regeneration was similarly at an infinite rate... In other words her mind was barely keeping up, but it didn't account for how her brain was breaking down and decomposing from the overusage. Her regeneration dealt with the volume, but not the natural deterioration. Could that have caused some irreversible damage somewhere?
She was still rational enough to analyse it, but if this damage could be dealt to her unnoticed, she can't keep trusting her natural resistance to protect her any longer. Was there a threat somewhere? It would be convenient if there was such a perpetrator... Then at least it was possible to deal with. How much longer can she hold on?
She left the room with a click, leaving her thoughts behind in the dust. Gazing out the window, she was once again reminded.... This mental affliction might remind her of that long period of conflict. From awakening as a magical girl, all the up till defeating Hikari, it was a tumultuous time with no breaks. But now... There's more to the world than conflict. There's peace. She can just forget about it and move on. Her real body is spiritual, she's just using her final skill to alchemically convert any material into any element she needs to synthesise her mortal body.
Back then, her radar was on at all times. At first only superficial constituents and compounds were recognised, but as she grew she could even read the bare atoms and subatomic particles. She was the one most familiar with her own body's structure. So she could reconstruct it into her spiritual body as much as she wants even if she didn't have her natural regeneration.
Her final skill operated by actualising Panta Rei, an old Greek philosophy that stated everything flows from one form to another. In other words, alchemical conversion and movement. Then there is no distinct element, only the universal element of aether that goes from one form to another, giving the illusion of multiple elements.
"What'chu looking at?" (Myuu)
Her mother woke up late last night and she has been tending to her since. Magical girls don't need sleep, so she told Kaori to rest ahead of her. Even if a magical girl's regenerative ability could cure physical and mental fatigue, there is still a different type of fatigue that plagues them when they abuse their body beyond human condition...
The mind does not feel refreshed, only teetering on the edge of the breaking point at all times, like standing on a tightrope over the abyss at all times. The rope sways your body left and right violently, you could drop at any second if you don't balance with your body to swing to the other side of the rope, a constant state of exertion is like that.
It was hard to describe when magical particles are there to conpletely remove the brain signals that indicate fatigue. An attack on the ego and psyche, perhaps deteriorating sanity would be the best way to capture it... Did Kaori perhaps mistake the rigours of daily life as an attack to her sanity? It's really been such a long time that she could relaxedly admire the urban scenery of civilisation.
"... I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic...? Could I just retire and leech off the government in days of peace?" (Kaori)
"... That's the drowsiness speaking. You didn't change at all." (Myuu)
She approached Kaori to take the spot next to her. There wasn't much to see, just the mundane and uniformly distributed tall scrapers of the labyrinth, the layout of the buildings are like the square indents of a waffle. But having various heights, colours and conjoined buildings have certainly added some colour to this world of grey. Did they renovate a whole ton after she left for central? It wasn't this vibrant before... So even magical girls who have lost their humanly needs are capable of this much vibrancy...
Then it's not a mistake, to have fought for them. After all... -
"Let's go get breakfast. I've already prepared hot soup for mum and place it on the desk next to her bed.
The ingredients are in the fridge, we can prepare something at home." (Myuu)
"Awesome, Myuu's home cooking!" (Kaori)
"You'll be the one doing the cooking!! I'm resting on the sofa here. I'll watch over you, so get to it!" (Myuu)
A warm flush had been present on her cheeks for a while. Kaori wasn't sure if it was from the exhaustion or from something she said, but Myuu seemed cheered up so it's all okay for her.
She obediently went on to prepare the ham and eggs. Eggs could be used to make a variety of dishes, she didn't know what Myuu would prefer so she tried her best to make a variety for her to choose from, add on with some good ham so that the taste could overpower the egg if she didn't like it. Maybe she should just ask her... Well, she'll leave it for another time. Her heart stopped for a moment and her mind froze because the thought of inquiring made her feel some shame and embarrassment, but she quickly resumed. She recovered so fast, that even she thought that it was nothing.
"Fuhah! Your hands aren't moving. It's fine, just make what you like~" (Myuu)
Her heart skipped another beat and a hot pink flush crept over her face. She could feel her temperature rising despite how the air in the labyrinth was mostly cold and air conditioned. But she put away her antics and progressed smoothly. Kaori arrived at the table with plates of hot scrambled eggs and ham. She loved when the fluffy scrambled eggs that she had back before The Great Disaster.
She dug in before, blowing on the egg before putting the fork into her mouth. The taste spreads across her tongue and proliferates as she chews down, she couldn't hold back her smile. Even if shoddily cooked due to her lack of experience, one would usually feel like their own cooking tastes amazing. It might be because she had to endure the rigour and prudence that came with the cooking process, even if it was just eggs it was daunting for a non-chef like Kaori, who only prepared her meals a number of times that could be counted on two hands.
Her flush intensified when she looked up, and all she saw was Myuu's cheeky face piercing into her own gaze. Her mouth was caught open for a second, and she subconsciously slowed down her pace of eating. Myuu began eating as well. Just what was that? To eat by herself with someone staring was really embarrassing!
Mealtime went by peacefully, it was hard to talk while eating so they only slip in some small talk here and there.
"... What should we do today? I'm not one to plan, because I rarely have any particular thing I want to do.... " (Kaori)
"Hmm... We haven't been here for a while, so let's walk around the labyrinth today! I saw some new shops on the way here yesterday." (Myuu)
"Sounds good. But... We also need to take care of mother. We can't just leave her to wake up alone." (Kaori)
"..." (Myuu)
She might have fixated on something too much, since the person in question doesn't notice what she said. Myuu quickly pats her cheeks with her palms to psyche herself up and forget about it.
"How about this, we can relax at home for more than a day if we need to, and when she comes to, we can bring her along...?" (Myuu)
It wasn't exactly a date where the 2 would be alone. For some reason Kaori would catch on to this, myuu's assumption that Kaori wants a date with just the 2 of them... Nothing seems to be moving on as the 2 tend to be communicating in different dimension. The 2 look away in silence before Kaori forcefully shattered any awkwardness from forming.
"That's a sound plan. You could teach me to cook at the same time. I never really had a knack for it, did you?" (Kaori)
" just a bit more than you do... It was a past time that I dabbled a little in, just not to the point that you think... " (Myuu)
"... Hmmm... If you can't teach, maybe we can buy a cook book and learn together?
It's only after The Great Disaster destroyed all resources, that I regret not having picked up some skill in cooking and took the ingredients that were available for granted... "
She nodded in agreement. There wasn't an internet web to while away their time anymore, so Kaori had trouble deciding how to spend her time. She really was a shut in in the past... Activities other than surfing the web weren't exactly attractive to him then, cooking instant noodles were the most that he did. He really hadn't cooked egg in years even then.
The first floor was a living room and kitchen similar to their previous apartment, with a window peaking out at the rest of the labyrinth. Myuu had a habit of peaking out of the window every now and then, as if anticipating something to change drastically. It was at times like these that Kaori found herself admiring her features, her slim eyelashes, her picture perfect nose, her pondering gaze.
When Kaori turned away to ponder on her own, she didn't notice that Myuu did the same. What activities could one do at home? They could just have one person go out and buy some games, Kaori can go so Myuu can take care of her mother while she's out. Choices and choices... Which one is the right one?