*
She stood in the distance, an ephemeral being that only shows up at the end of her life, her white glossy hair sparkled in the darkness like a hallowed ground of untaintable purity.
Her face as usual, made an odd mix of a sour expression and frustration, as if it was angry that Ledia was born. She could never fathom what it meant or why it was going out of its way to kill everyone else first, before it killed her. Why was she so frustrated? So angry? What did Ledia ever do to her? Was that it? Was it because Ledia killed some cult members that enraged her as she was the owner of the cult? A vendetta that will never end because she fought the cult before the time loop started?
When the loop first began, she tried to fight Kaori. She discovered that Kaori arrived at 12 pm, and that she always died instantly..
She then gave up on that and tried to enlist the help of others. Kaori massacred everyone.
After that, she tried to evacuate everyone while staying in central to draw her attention. Kaori had enough power to decimate the continent.
What then...? What should she do...? Everything she tried did not work.... There was nothing she thought would help her situation... If Kaori was the highest order being in the cult, it would make sense that she eliminate any threat to it swiftly... But she fought the cult before the time loop started, what was she supposed to do then...? Her life was destined to always end at 12 pm...
But wait... Ever since she awakened as a magical girl, she could roughly gauge how strong they are by using her magic sense. It allowed her to estimate her enemy's power by feeling the quantity of magical particles contained in their body. But she had never once felt an S grade or an SS grade magical girl's presence... Except for when Kaori appears, her existence exuded a divine aura, a feeling that anything she did would be futile... That must have been how it felt to sense an SS grade... Then why did she only appear at 12 pm? Why does she only attack at this timing? Or target Ledia for that matter?
It's hard to think that she would spontaneously appear. She either has a watered down, non SS grade state... Or that the cultists summoned her from another dimension or some wacky magic. For any intents or purposes, that divine form of hers did not exist or was not present before 12 pm... This was a new potential solution... If fighting and evacuation did not work, it was because she allowed the situation to cross the 12 pm threshold, the entire perceived premise for victory was flawed from the start.
Now there was a drastically different condition for victory, she had to nip the problem in the bud by preventing Kaori's arrival. Rather than fighting or running from such an overpowered being... If she simply stop it from existing... Then everything would be solved. She could report her Intel to the relevant authorities and get Vamaly arrested by stronger magical girls, then there wouldn't be any need to kill her personally... She might even be left alive...
This also meant that 12 pm was no longer a marker of Kaori's arrival... It was a time that marks the end. There is nothing beyond that, it was a time limit to eliminate threats and solve the root problem per se. The issue was how? The first question was her origin.
***
A few relatively peaceful loops went by. Without any big moves to turn suspicious eyes over to her, nothing much happened other than the inevitable end brought by Kaori. Since Ledia didn't resist, Kaori killed her first instead of everyone else. It was the first time she didn't massacre everyone before leaving Ledia for last, it was odd but she didn't think much of it.
Usually Kaori arrived too fast for her to glean much, it took quite a few loops for her to finally learn the direction she came from. The South. This made it much more simple as there wasn't anything other than the sea to the South of the Sanctuary. At least it was possible to deduce that Kaori was from the Sanctuary.
She can't tell if Kaori was experiencing the time loops as well, so she had to pretend to fight while concealing her intent to look for Kaori's origin. In a few loops prior, Kaori didn't bother concealing where she came from and busted through the roof of the labyrinth. So she at least knew that Kaori was not from Central's labyrinth. Whenever 12pm struck, she would arrive almost instantly, but...
After numerous tries to use her magic, she finally got the direction Kaori came from. Ledia had to rely on her magic, since there was no visual cue that would reveal where Kaori came from, she had to homogenised the temperature of a large region and then utilise her thermal radar to see which parts have a different temperature to ascertain Kaori's flight path. One disadvantage of being such an overpowering existence was that as long as she was not conscious of it, she will release so much energy that everyone can see her.
***
An overwhelming existence that bends the world to itself. It made her job far more easier and allowed her to use less than 10 loops to determine Kaori's origin. So she attacked. There was absolutely no way to tell if Kaori was in the Southern territory'city or the labyrinth, so she gathered a large amount of heat for a few hours and bombed the entire region. She also discovered her ability to further augment herself beyond her natural stats and the possibility of having multiple skills.
This brings us to the current loop. How could she unlock another skill within this time frame of 7am to 12 pm?
... What should she do now...? She always felt like she had one option, one goal to pursue. She had always felt pressured to solely reach for that one objective, but that is not the case now, is it? First she fought Kaori, then she ran. After she ran, the conditions were the same and Kaori annihilated everything in the continent. If she had that power, why did she come at 12pm? She realised that sort of timed condition, decided to find Kaori's origin, and happened to discover her true self.
She was a normal girl living in the Southern region of the Sanctuary, but at 12 pm an unknown set of information is given to her, prompting her to fight Ledia. It's not exactly confirmed, she might simply be possessed by an otherworldly entity at noon... This way, Ledia had linearly progressed down a path that is already layed out, but getting a second skill was completely enigmatic, like taking a shot in the dark.
When she wanted to fight, she simply had to wait till noon. When she wanted to run, she convinced Marie and the others and got everyone to run before noon. When she wanted to see where Kaori came from, she found a way to observe her flight path. How exactly would she get a second skill? If she repeatedly used magic and trained her body, would 5 hours be enough? Would her progress carry over to the next loop? It was disturbing... To think about the possibility that it took more than 5 hours, and that the progress wouldn't carry over to the next loop, so she would be training endlessly with a false image of hope.
But lastly... What was going on in that previous loop? When she bombed the South with her magic and caused Kaori to fly into rage, she could make natural emotions and cry or grief. Nothing like the monotonous expression she wears after noon, a complicated mix of frustration and futility born out of some unknown reason she could never decipher.
9 am, she reached the south. She found Kaori by coincidence last time, but now she knew roughly where Kaori was. There was 3 more hours. She could try to fight her again, but... There was no time lag between the transition from normal state to divine state. That divine state was something Kaori could always do, but she attacked at 12 because of some condition. At first when she was attacked, Kaori was enraged and confused, but after noon it all died down and she wore the usual expression again.
The easiest explanation was that she gained some sort of information that could subdue her emotions... Understanding... It was likely information about the time loop then. At 12,she was catching up to Ledia... So even her time loop advantage only held on until 12 pm, but that was already a limit that she had in mind so it changed nothing. She planned to defeat Kaori before 12 anyway.
Ah, there she was. Casually strolling outside before the Life Festival. Was she also making preparations? For some reason she felt really calm now, with full confidence that she wouldn't get attacked no matter what. So Ledia... Stepped in front of her path.
"...?" (Kaori)
"... P-p...." (Ledia)
"May I help you...?" (Kaori)
"Please... Don't... Kill me..." (Ledia)
Ah... That was a mistake. She was supposed to ask Kaori how to unlock her second skill, someone strong like her would surely know... This was the oblivious Kaori before the effects of the time loop that's affecting them both... Was the condition for the time loop to stop... To kill Kaori? Then it makes natural sense that Kaori wouldn't want to die, and to prolong her existence by perpetuating the time loop's presence.
But why now...? Why of all times...? This was a mistake, restart the loop now! What if simply speaking to her was another condition to help her remember the previous loops?! It would bring her efforts to nothing again...
Warm... It reminded her of Marie. Ledia was a little short... So it was easy for Kaori to hug her into her chest... Treat her like a child and patronise this stranger she knew nothing about... Patronising this stranger that wanted to kill her. It's fine now right? She's in her powered down state, only A grade... She could burn her with her flames and finish it all with her self enhancing flames...
Why... When victory was so close, she couldn't bear to do it...? This aversion to taking a life... It's completely normal, it's something every ordinary person has... So an ordinary girl like Ledia naturally had it too.
"... We're drawing too much attention, let's go somewhere else to talk." (Kaori)
Moving to a secluded area, they sat down a bench that was lying around. It was faint and difficult to see since she didn't spread her flames everywhere, but the both air and heat was trapped behind a barrier. Kaori had set up an air barrier around them, likely to keep their conversation private. For some reason, she felt it was fine to let her guard down and relax. It was 9 10, there was more than 2 hours left to relax. Nobody has hurt anyone yet...
"Alright... I hope you don't mind the hospitality, but it's fine now. You had something you wanted from me...? What do you mean by kill you...?" (Kaori)
This confirms it. The Kaori before 12 pm was completely oblivious to her situation. Once her memories return, this moment might add to everything. After this loop, she'll definitely know Ledia was trying to scrim information from her to kill her. But that's just part of the process isn't it?
In between all the deaths, the pain and frustration, there's still a growing mystery in the background. Why has Kaori done such things? For now, she had stopped crying. Pleading to Kaori wouldn't change a thing. For now...
"Have we met in the past?" (Ledia)
"....?? I don't think so...? If I had met a cutie like you, surely I would remember... Maybe not, I've met a lot of people this past year." (Kaori)
At least she considered to be a lot, for an ex shut in like her. Ledia ponders to herself. She was now a step closer. They haven't met in the past, Kaori doesn't even know anything about her... Then...
" Are you part of a cult?" (Ledia)
She gazes at Kaori with a strong will.
"Hmm... I guess not. I definitely believe in The Eye God though! But the reason is a secret!" (Kaori)
She flashes an annoying cheeky smile, it was a little irritating but Ledia wasn't in the mood to care about it. This should be her real self, right? No cult affiliation... Then the bombing back in the first loop... Was Vamaly's doing? Kaori happened to come at 12 pm too, it doesn't necessarily mean that she was the one who set off the explosives...
So pretending to be part of the cult was part of post 12 pm Kaori's efforts to taunt her... To make her vindictive... No matter how she saw it, Kaori was a person unwilling to kill themselves but has gone out of her way to goad Ledia into killing her.
But she's mistaken. Even if Ledia has achieved A grade extremely quick, she was no killer. Just an ordinary girl...