Wonderful, glorious air filled Arisu's lungs as she tasted freedom. She lived again, not some abstract entity in the cosmos' lifestream. She'd been one with everything, but that meant little when you were blind to everything else.
"Eh? This is the old queen?" The black-haired girl with twin tails said, mouth agape. Her companions seemed just as befuddled.
Old queen? What had people been saying about her? She wasn't a ruler of anything, much less a damn planet. Arisu considered it too much work.
"Yep, this is her," Charity replied, nodding. Arisu noted an edge of long-suffering resignation in the fairy's voice and rolled her eyes. Typical Charity.
"Charity! Finally! What took you so long?" Arisu grumbled, surprised at how easily words came to her lips after silent centuries. Despite her complaint, she couldn't fight back the tears pricking her eyelids. Damn, it was beautiful to see her partner again. While they'd had their differences, they were blood sisters for life.
"Charity apologies, but she had to work around the Devil Princesses' influence. But she made it in the end." The fairy didn't hide her tears, taking a moment to compose herself before gesturing to the strangers. "They helped me."
"Seina." She stared at the Wicked Queen in wide-eyed wonder.
"Emiyo." This magical girl was warier, unsure what to make of this odd magical girl.
"Masato Kiyojiro." The Wicked Queen sensed a kinship with the man, both rough-edged punks raised in a brutal world.
"That right? I owe you then. I'll buy you a beer later." Arisu said, beaming.
"That's unnecessary." Seina forced a smile. "But thanks, I guess?"
"Arisu, please stop being a bad influence on the younger magical girls," Charity said, chastising her partner.
"Fine, fine." She'd been joking, but Arisu enjoyed playing into the stereotypes about her. It kept people on their toes. "Still owe you all the same."
"I see you've made a royal mess of everything, Reiko." Arisu sent a scathing glare at the monster girl, scary enough to peel paint off walls. "I'm going to enjoy kicking your ass for that."
Centuries stuck in a stupid quagmire had left her ignorant of the current condition of the cosmos. But already, she sensed the wrongness of her former home. A sickness hung in the air, like breathing in tar. A great evil had happened in her absence.
"Damn you! Why can't you go away?!" A hint of trepidation entered Reiko's voice, remembering the ass-kicking she'd gotten earlier.
"After the trouble you caused, I'm too pissed off to die!" Arisu slammed her staff against the ground, making everyone jump.
Reiko's eyes lit with malevolent glee. "I'm going to enjoy this. I wish…" Blood trickled down her cheek as she just dodged the red line thrown at her face, the end of the Wicked Queen's staff implanting deep into a nearby wall. Arisu finally stood up.
"Typical Reiko. Can't win if you can't cheat." Arisu withdrew her broach, flicking aside her cigarette. "I'm not as strong as I was, but it'll be enough to kick your ass! Change Change, Magical Love Dress Up!"
Despite being a total delinquent punk, the dress gave her an aura of elegance and sophistication. Arisu ruined this when she withdrew a white cloth mask and put it over her face, looking more like a street thug than a magical girl. That's better. Arisu wasn't no pretty princess.
"Tsk." Reiko whipped blood from her cheek and licked it off her fingers. "I won't need my wish ability to annihilate all of you. I've gotten stronger since we last met, Arisu. Shall I show you? It's a little trick Kaguya taught me."
"Yeah, kill them all!" Her partner clapped with glee, the little psycho enjoying the bloodshed as usual.
Much to Arisu's astonishment, dark energy coalesced around her, sickly and stale in the air. The light from Starlight Dream's core seemed to shrink from the pure evil emitting from the girl. Blood gushed from her arm as Reiko drove a hand into it, sprouting like a fountain.
"What is this?" Seina retreated a step.
"Is she crazy?" Emiyo trembled where she stood, sickened as the Dark Magical delighted in bathing in her own blood. It's gained a life of its own, moving in globules around the lunatic.
"I'm not like the other dark magical girls, even the other Devil Princesses," Reiko said, her voice becoming less human. "I've completely given myself to the darkness, invested it into my very blood. Every drop has the malevolence of the Poison Ivy. You hear that, Wicked Queen? I've transcended you!"
Blood squirted faster from her arm wound, covering her fingers in sickly claws of crimson evil that extended to the floor. The room dimmed as the lifeblood of the multiverse recoiled farther away.
"Look out!"
While Arisu had already seen the attack coming, its speed was beyond anything she'd expected, catching her flatfooted. Seina showed her stuff, her staff deflecting the crimson claws and splattering blood everywhere. This had been a mistake. Bits of blood splashed onto the other girl's skin.
"Get it off, now!" But her vision already came to pass as the vile blood seeped into her skin, blacking her entire right arm as it spread like an infection. Seina screamed as her body tore apart from within, rotting it away before anyone could even blink.
Too slow. I should have foreseen that quicker! Arisu cursed as she realized just how weakened she'd become. Before her imprisonment, she could foretell years in advance. She usually never did, but it'd still been at her fingertips.
"You're becoming a part of me, Seina," Reiko said, giving a manic grin. "Your blood is becoming my blood!"
"Bastard!" But Emiyo rushed to aid, her hoop slicing off Seina's infected arm before Reiko could spread further. The nutcase's glee died as Emiyo's hoop passed through where the missing limb had been, restoring it to a point before it'd gotten damaged.
"Damn." Arisu whistled. Were these the powers magical girls had nowadays? It was an impressive bit of time manipulation.
"Thanks," Seina said, backing away in fright as Reiko approached. Everyone kept their distance, not wanting to suffer the same fate as Seina's late arm.
Reiko cackled. "You're scared, Arisu? So much for the Wicked Queen! Running like a scared mouse!"
"You have some guts saying that." But Arisu didn't take the bait, running hundreds of scenarios through her head. Dammit, she was still so weak. This, of course, won't stop her from kicking Reiko's crazy ass.
"She's so cool. It's like nothing scares her!" Seina said, amazed. Which was the point, of course. Looking scared would destroy morale. A girl needed to maintain her reputation.
"Pointless, pointless!" Their opponent only increased the ferocity of her attacks, blood tendrils keeping the others at bay as she focused her wrath on the Wicked Queen. The window for victory seemed to decrease at every exchange as Reiko's crazed attacks hounded her.
But that was okay. Even a chancce as slight one in a trillion was all Arisu needed. Her opponent's claws scraped against Arisu's summoned staff, putting them face-to-face. Tendrils grew from her claws, stabbing at the exposed Wicked Queen. But she didn't even bother dodging as Arisu gathered power into her staff. While she sucked at magic, she had some tricks. The blood burst into flame as her power repelled it.
Seina proved her worth by summoning destructive bubbles, limiting Reiko's movements. With her future sight, Arisu flittered around them, striking at Reiko's blind spots. Emiyo was a wild card, her time magic keeping her unpredictable, even to Arisu.
"To the right!" Arisu yelled to Emiyo, who followed by instinct. Arisu's staff struck a nearby bubble, causing a burst of destructive energy. Their opponent slipped to the side, only to scream in pain as Arisu's thrown staff burst another nearby bubble.
"Impressive power." That Seina girl was stronger than she looked, considering the state of Reiko's shoulder. But the mad girl only laughed, her smile too wide.
"I wish for all of Seina's bubbles to burst at thrice their power!" Reiko shouted. Fire consumed the chamber, bursting with the power of a million exploding suns. While her future sight helped, her summon shield burst like it'd been made of cheap plastic.
"Damn." Her entire body ached, coughing smoke from her lungs. But she was a tough bastard, taking the damage in stride. Emiyo wasn't as fortunate, the poor girl was a bloody charred mess. She'd recover, but it'd take time. Only Seina, her human friend, and the fairies seemed alright, the bubble shield surrounding them taking the full brunt of the damage. No, Arisu realized, Seina had summoned a bubble whose inside existed in a different universe. Clever.
"Pest. Pest. Pest!" Arisu's eyes widened when she saw what remained of Reiko. She'd lost her head, her entire upper torso gone. But she wasn't dead, far from it. Blood sprouted from the wound, her lips moving on a half-constructed head. What the hell?
"Oh, come on." Seina's partner said. "Why can't you die!"
"I've transcended being a magical girl. Beyond life. A construct of pure evil. Merely killing my body won't kill me!" A smile grew on her blood lips, extending past her ears. "I wish the explosion would happen all over again!"
Arisu cursed, seeing the explosion coming, but could do nothing about it. It hurt. It hurt bad. Even Seina had been unprepared, taking the full brunt of the fire as she protected her human friend. Arisu didn't see what happened to Emiyo.
"And I wish for the explosion to happen again and again!" Reiko screamed, her manic laughter filling the chamber.
The resulting explosion was too much. Whatever mini-dimension was holding the underground chamber burst to pieces, reality flowing back into the room. It hurt like hell. She coughed from half-formed lungs as she crawled free from the rubble. When the reality bubble burst, it took a significant chunk of Starlight Dream's surface with it. Kilometers of the city were reduced to ash, leaving a blemish on the focal center of the multiverse's surface.
Arisu coughed again, her entire body hurting like hell. With effort, her skeletal body pushed through the rubble. She lowered into a crouch and moved to get a cigarette. She grunted in annoyance that her favorite cigs had burned to ash. "Damn."
As her body reconstructed itself, Arisu looked up and admired a view she hadn't seen in literal ages. It brought an unexpected tear to her eye to see the majesty of the multiverse, even if smoke and dust obstructed it. Damn, she was getting soft in her old age. Arisu still remembered when she'd first arrived at Starlight Dream, Charity in tow, staring up at the endless dots constituting all reality. It had awed her and humbled her too. That was hard to do to a stubborn punk like her.
"You ain't dead either?" Arisu said, not turning as a vision told her what she'd already guessed.
"Can't. Not when you still live, Wicked Queen." Reiko said, her body little but bits of twisted, seared flesh. "Of course, I'm still alive. I wished I cou't die long ago."
"How irritating," Arisu replied, standing firm on her reformed legs. While she sucked at magic, she had powerful healing abilities.
"And now you're all alone. The final member of the old guard magical girls, sans one. With no allies to save you."
This only earned a snort from Arisu. "You think that matters? Always been alone, fought alone. The others were friends, comrades, but they never understood me. All except Hinata and Charity. They were my family."
"And now only one remains. Hinata's dead. Yuuka killed her. Never liked her. A self-righteous b**** who talked too much. Did you know what Yuuka did to silence her?"
Now Arisu was mad. It was bait, drawing her into making a mistake. But that didn't matter. No spoke ill about her kin. She didn't give a damn about this monster being immortal. She was going to kick her crazy ass!
"You think you can beat an immortal with your fists?" The vile magical girl laughed as Arisu threw her fist into her half-solidified body. She wasn't as mirthful as Arisu channeled her fury into magical might, howling as the Wicked Queen's light magic tore her substance to pieces. While a piss-poor human, Arisu Ikehara was still a holy warrior of the light.
"Damn you!" Reiko scattered blood, only for it to reform in the air and slash wildly at her hated foe. Arisu winced as a tendril drove deep into her legs, inflecting it with death. The Wicked Queen only responded by punching the bastard harder.
Both combatants were panting as they tried to recoup their strength. Immortal or not, Reiko still didn't have unlimited magical reserves. She tried wishing herself fresh, but Arisu stopped that nonsense before it happened.
"Damn you! Damn you!" A puddle of red goop said, undulating as it cursed the Wicked Queen's name.
"Instead of whining, how about wishing me a new box of cigs? Seven Stars, if you don't mind." The infection spread further through her leg to her waist, but Arisu ignored it. It was stubborn, resisting her holy magic. Restoring herself from the previous explosion had taxed her past the breaking point. But the Wicked Queen refused to be broken.
"Say, you said, Kaguya, right? She's behind this?" Arisu gestured to the stake she'd implanted into Starlight Dream's surface. Cracks and black splotches grew across its surface, spreading ever quicker. And here Arisu had thought she'd finally gotten rid of her.
"Turned the entire cosmos into a hellhole just for you." Reiko said, her laughter mocking. "Got Mei wrapped around her fingers."
"Kaguya." Blackness spread into her fingers, but she ignored it as she tightened it into a firm grip. She didn't need a history book to guess what her former school friend had done. It wasn't hard to guess her plan. As usual, her machinations had caused harm. Her old friend couldn't help but reach for what didn't belong to her. Always taking instead of earning. Becoming a monster when life disappointed her.
"I'll handle her later. Are you gonna wish me some cigs are not?"
"******* pest. Just die already." A spike shot from the puddle of ooze, directed right at the Wicked Queen's heart. Of course, Reiko had been using their short conversation to gather power and weaken the Wicked Queen from within with her evil blight. It'd worked. Arisu had lost any ability to move her lower body. But she wasn't worried.
"What?" The vile magical girl gasped as her tendrils exploded, vanishing into dust.
"About time." Arisu had been buying for time too. She knew something the maniac hadn't. Her allies weren't dead.
"But I atomized you!" The puddle bubbled in shocked outrage, furious at such an unlikely survival.
"I crawled inside my hoop and escaped five minutes into the past," Emiyo said. "Seina will come along soon enough."
"I'm sure." Seina had taken the brunt of the damage to protect her taller, older friend, trapping her in rubble. But she'd escape once her grievous injuries healed. Not that she'd return anytime soon. The Wicked Queen and the novice stood alone against this monster.
Arisu had previously only seen death, but maybe Emiyo's time powers would alter the future to one where victory was possible.
"Whatever." Reiko threw her head back and laughed. "What do you expect to do, traitor? Look at you! You're cringing just looking at me! You've always been a waste of space!"
After taking a deep breath, steel entered Emiyo's eyes. "No. I've grown thanks to her. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm grateful to Seina. She's made me someone better. For once, I'm happy with my life and my choices. I've become a bird set free. I've soured higher than you, Devil Princess. Look at you. You've lost anything that's made you human."
"Who gives a ****!" Reiko's melted face formed into a scowl. "Being human has only been a weakness!"
A look of pity grew on Emiyo's features for the mad magical girl, mouth forming in a firm line. "And we're putting you down, or your own sake."
"Try if you can!" The puddle surged forward, slashing wildly at the interloper. They flashed around the ruins, Emiyo just keeping her opponent at bay. Despite wearing herself out to an insane degree, Reiko only kept coming.
A step stomped forward as Arisu forced her body to agree with her. While sluggish, she could move again. Or so she thought, until a blood spear pierced her torso, driving Arisu to her knees. Even with prediction powers, Reiko was too ruthless and canny to allow an opponent any chance to recover. But the Wicked Queen had planned on this reaction. A nifty distraction for an overconfident bastard.
"Wicked Queen!" Emiyo said, eyes wide. She focused her magic, slowing time to an insane standstill. Her hoop battered away at their opponent, using its properties not to destroy but erase. Immortality didn't matter if you didn't exist.
The Wicked Queen watched in fascination as Reiko's future timeline distorted. It was twisting and turning like a drunk trying to look into a kaleidoscope.
With her waning magical girl defenses and body so spread apart, the mad magical girl's ability to protect herself slipped apart. Reiko's attacks became more frantic as she realized she'd pushed herself too far.
"Gah!" Emiyo screamed as an unlucky twist of a waist got her in range of Reiko's blood tendril, but retaliated by erasing it into nothing. But this earned Reiko the split second necessary to gain the needed distance.
"You think you got me cornered? Fools!" Reiko said, her misshapen head beaming.
"Yeah, you're all so dead!" Justice said, laughing.
"I wish for all my injuries to be healed!" And her body did as instructed, reforming her back into her magical girl form. But Arisu smirked, knowing there was a slight problem.
"What the?" Emiyo recoiled, horrified and almost losing her lunch.
"Impossible! It can't be!" Her fleshy, skeletal mouth said from her now twisted and deformed body.
"No! Reiko!" Her partner said, frozen in horror.
"Idiot. Did you forget you can't make an impossible wish?" Arisu said, limping forward towards the mangled flesh that was Reiko. "She erased bits of you from history, and you ain't getting them back, even with your powers. Sorry."
"Damn you all." What remained of the mad magical girl tried to repeat her old trick and form her body into something usable. But Arisu won't allow her the chance.
"You should have wished me those cigs. I would have spared you."
"No, you can't!" Reiko said in abject horror.
Arisu stretched her neck and cracked her knuckles. It was time for an old favorite. "Dynamite Punch!"
The punch connected, channeling everything she had. The results were messy, the mad magical girl bursting like a ripe tomato, gore coating everything. Her fairy partner cried, grabbing at the icky remains with frantic paws.
"Hey!" Arisu said, trying to restore the ill Emiyo to her senses.
"Yeah." The girl's stomach turned again, but she regained some composure.
"She ain't dead. Immortal, remember? It won't be long until she reforms herself. Erase her before she tries anything else." Arisu collapsed against some rubble, too tired to stand, and her transformation failed. She'd used everything for that trademark punch.
"No, you can't!" But Justice was ignored as Emiyo erased any trace of her partner. A fitting end for such a psycho.
"Please, no!" The fairy looked at herself as she faded away, unable to keep existing with her partner gone. "We can work something out. My partner can wish for anything! Anything you want!" When Emiyo kept ignoring her, the fairy turned to rage. "You can't do this! We are the Devil Princesses! The most feared in the multiverse! You can't do this! We are invincible!"
"No!" The fairy stared at her translucent paw, gripping a paw on Emiyo's skirt. Anything to save her sorry hide. But it came to nothing, vanishing as the deed was done.