***(2 days before the Life Festival)
"Hey! Didn't I tell you to go to school!" (?)
"W-waitttt~ I need to get ready first!" (?)
A mother and daughter prepares their morning, it was a household you could find anywhere in the world. The only thing that would stand out would be their ability to attend school after The Great Disaster.
Despite almost one and a half years passing after The Great Disaster, most of human civilisation remain annihilated, there was simply no way to go back to the way everything was... At least not in such a short amount of time. Life was taken, life was given. The passage of time had taken its toll for better or worse, and for the new lives that now roam the earth's bossom , reaping its benefits...
Kaori cannot reverse time back to before The Great Disaster. She can localise it as a conceptual target, anything, and bring back people from the dead as long as there was something to link to that person. In Gerald, Paridia, Myuu and her mother's case, her memory of them was enough.
To return life that should not be... Is to play God, breaching the border of ethics and standing on it like a tightrope. How can she decide who to save and who not to? If she does save every human in history, the earth would no longer be able to support that population. Inevitably, the current cycle of life and death is what's best for the people of the present and the past. That's why... Kaori would only choose those that she personally promised to save...
Disregarding the mental adversity of experiencing death and revival, if a bunch of people were to beg her to revive their loved ones... It will present a great burden. That's why her existence and powers have been kept a secret. Technically Himei could envision a future where the dead person is still alive and wish it into existence with her magic, but similarly, she has never done that for anyone.
The burden of revival is specific, vicious and cunning when exposed. It was not something a normal person would want to deal with, challenges against ethics erode the minds of those who attempt to be moral. Yet it is they who carry the burden.
"Did you have everything packed?" (Mother)
"Ye-" (Daughter)
*BOOOMMMMMMMMM*
A thunderous roar that reverberates so vigorously that those near it swore it could shake mountains. The ground wobbles under the feet, giving no security to anybody standing atop, only screams and confusion permeate the sky. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why me? Why me? Please... Why?
The daughters thoughts revolved like an orbit, continuously spinning as it was unable to take in the scenery in front of her. Ash and smoke fly off into sky, the scent of smoke assaulted her nostrils and the ash burned her eyes with a fiery tinge. The ground was burnt and the distant screaming only spread but had also quietened down in some areas. More explosive nosies rang out like a chain of thunder assaulting the world. What is going on?
None of the ash, noise or hear assaulting her sight, hearing, scent and touch could affect her. Even though the stimulation were getting through and reaching her brain, she was too perturbed by the same question. Why? Nothing could pull her away from it, she cannot accept it, the sight before her that has captured all of her being like a mesmerising black hole.
Laid across the ground was her mother. She was not in a single piece. Her eyes no longer held life, gone before the pain or awareness of the situation ever set in. She had gone out so fast, there was no chance for her to even know she died. Yet the daughter survived. In the midst of the explosion, another source of heat seeping out of her heart wrapped around her in a layer of light. She had awakened as a magical girl, protecting her from the explosion.
"I... I... I..." (Ledia Herseveny)
She stared at her mother's corpse, unable to accept. Her mouth layed agape for a long while, the ash she inhaled was filtered our and the heat dispersed by magic. Her body was covered in debris, stuck to her body due to the coagulation of her mother's blood, but she didn't notice, she couldn't. Once again, she could not accept it. Her hands shivered, her gaze locked. As if there was some subconscious hope that this was all a wild lucid dream.
In the background, the screams never stop. No one knew when they were next, how or why they were going to die. A bombardment of explosions in the middle of the day, why did it happen? What had they done to deserve this? The demons are gone, shouldn't they be at peace without worrying about the monsters who are grossly weak compared to magical girls?
Where had the peace gone? Where was their daily life now? It crumbled, fragmented and desecrated, it vanished. There was nothing left of it. Her house collapsed and her father was sleeping when it happened.
He's also likely dead. Also...?
"HAaGh!!!" (Ledia)
She took in a sharp breath that tore through her wind pipe, the pain capturing her frustration and keeping her conscious and aware of her circumstances at the same time. She looked at the ground in front of her, there was her mother's dead body. There was also an unfamiliar costume wrapping her body. But she couldn't see it through the tears. She couldn't accept it but she had to acknowledge it.
"uhhhhhh~ uhhhhhhh~... Uwaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" (Ledia)
She can't ignore it, the body in front of her eyes. She was just getting to go to school... There was absolutely no time to tell her she loved her... Her last words with her were of discontent... Just where were these feelings supposed to go now...?
She was 15 this year. She was meant to go to school, get an education, find a great job and support her parents. She was supposed to repay them... For sticking with her throughout her life, reassuring her that everything was going to be okay right after The Great Disaster... Playing with her, doting on her... Indulging her, loving her... Her tears were thick and blurry, stuck to her eyes due to the ash flying in the air.
Why...? Who...? What did I do to deserve this...? With acknowledgements comes awareness and questioning. She accepts the reality that her mother is now dead, but she cannot accept that her mother died. She cannot come to terms with it... Without revenge. Her aura bursts forth from her body, forming a pillar of azure blue that projected endlessly into the sky. This pillar appears during the first time a magical girl uses their aura.
The first aura and awakening was always particularly powerful, as it was the first time their body acclimated to the augmentation magic, it was not stable and if it went too wild it might erode the body instead. Her hair was dark blue like the deep oceans, her combat dress... Was a white jacket with vibrant blue highlights over an ashy grey-ish pink dress with frills lining her abdomen and waist. At her hips, it puffs up a little and looks like a skirt. Random black lines lay atop the dress, intersecting into an 'x' shape at various areas,including her jacket and torso.
Underneath her jacket, her dress was sleeveless. There was an odd wooden pole hanging off her waist that was short like a wand but... The bottom had a circle shaped indent that seemed like the wand could extend a bit more. She flew into the air, she didn't know how but she did. It was her most instinctive magic, her primary use of magical particles... Her first skill.
Where is it...? Where are they? Those who bombed the town she lived in... They would pay...! On the ground... Was wanton destruction. Houses razed to the ground or collapsed over, people who were crushed to death or in the process of being crushed... Burning corpses, some people who were still alive being burned to death... Others... Inhaled the hot ash and passed out, to die in their unconscious state.
"... Cool." (Ledia)
At once, the fires were snuffed out and a blanket of snow fell on top of everything in a short radius.
"... I was just trying it out so it's possible... I have a feeling the opposite is also possible, but I'd rather not..." (Ledia)
In the distance, she could see a small skirmish. A few hooded figures have been surrounded while many others have escaped. They were fighting the local police force who were using batons and riot shields... Perhaps they are the ones... Who did this... She pointed in that direction with her right index finger. There wasn't any particular resistance, her magic simply worked as she intended.
"Freeze." (Ledia)
As if the world was following her command, ice gradually rose from the ground and spread to swallow them whole quickly. At the same time, the local police force had defeated the other hooded figures that were surrounded. Now they've all been taken care of. If Ledia has to guess, these individuals were terrorist and cultist. Rumours of cults have been getting all over the place lately, for Ledia who loved gossiping with her neigh ours and friends her age... She definitely came to knew that cults might have existed the current Post Great Disaster society. She was definitely skeptical, writing it off as nothing more than a rumour until today....
If she ever knew how things would turn out... Could she have changed the outcome...? She propelled herself in the air towards the giant ice cube in the distance. The local police force and some oddly dressed girls have arrived to surround the ice cube...
"Hey...!" (?)
Before she reached anywhere near the ice cube, she hears a shout from the round near her. It was one of her distant neighbours, she never talked with then much but they were definitely aware of each other's existence. The town was practically similar to a village's social structure, secrets could never be kept but everyone knew each other and helped out one another whenever they needed it
She stopped flying, and stared at the person on the ground. They had blood all over them but otherwise seemed fine.
"Y-you...! If you're a magical girl, why didn't YOU SAVE US EARLIER!?!!" (?)
His scream was as clear as the sky above the drifting ashes, bellowing and berating... She could only stare at him in shock. If she could have helped... Of course she would have... But... It's impossible.... She only awakened after an explosion had already killed her mother, what's the point in saving anything else...? The only thing that mattered to her was her family... Nothing else...
Her tears had begun leaking out of her tear ducts before she noticed... She looked away, holding her grief close to her heart and trying to get rid of it... She wiped her tears off as she got closer to the ice cube. They noticed her arrival.
Since she had aided the police, they won't suspect her of anything yet. It was anything but confirmed that the hooded figures before them, the cultist were the cause of the explosions anyway, it couldn't e this magical girl that just arrived. What's more.... She was a new magical girl, and magical girls awaken in response to great stress...
That means... She's one of the victims of the explosions... And... High chance...
The magical girl in front of her working with the police had a white jacket and collar like a lab coat. Underneath was a striped dark reddish and dark grey button shirt. Underneath was a normal looking skirt that seemed comfortable and soft to the skin, wrapping around her thighs with a velvety smooth texture. Ledia grabbed her by the collar, her fingers almost missed where the collar was since her vision... Was blurred by too much tears...
"Why.... Why didn't you save us sooner...??" (Ledia)
She spoke and the irony struck. Just like her, they were unaware of anything before something serious truly happened... So of course they wouldn't be able to respond before any meaningful damage was done... There was nothing they could do to bring back the dead, if they could they would...
'But they're the police', she reasoned, but a pang of guilt struck her heart. She knew it was wrong to blame them for something that essentially no one was sufficiently aware of, to avoid it... But nevertheless...
"We're sorry." (?)
One of the police officers put down their baton and riot shield, walked in between the 2 magical girls... And kneeled into an apology... The man held his palm over his chest and looked at her with pity...
"..." (Ledia)
Even though it wasn't their fault... They still apologised... Why...? Is she at fault...? It can't be... Then... Who is...? What should she do with her broiling emotions...?
The magical girl in the lab coat hugs her tight, coat to coat, she struggled causing the fabric of their coats to shuffle together at first, but then she stopped, accepting the embrace.