[I'm just beaten up].
It has been 3 days since I became a ' Third-generation magical girl trainee ', I told Sauriel that was far too long and stupid, but he insisted on calling my classification that since it best described me, he wasn't wrong, but that didn't mean that I had accepted it, In the time between today and the picnic I discovered and learned a few things.
For one, martial arts are extremely hard to learn when your master doesn't even speak 80% of the time, so I had to learn through imitation and just plain guessing, Aqua taught me a lot of things but mainly how to fall without rolling around or sliding in the floor, when I asked about why did I need that type of training first she told me.
"You don't know magic, so let me assure you, you will be tackled a lot" she sounded like she knew it from experience, and it showed a bit in the fight against the bush devil, but the training boiled down to me trying to hit Aqua and her using my momentum to throw me on the ground, in the air or against a wall.
Apart from that, we practiced a few kicks and punches, it wasn't so hard since, in my search for hobbies to appease my mom I did try a few martial arts, I performed decently but the idea of hurting people always held me back according to my teachers, my best kick is probably the back kick since I could do that almost at Aqua's level without much problem, punches were boring since they were like 3 of them, apparently there so many ways to throw punches that they were instead all put in 3 categories, jabs, hooks and miscellaneous which I guess made sense.
My aether training wasn't much better, I started on my right foot but as soon as my left foot touched the floor I collapsed immediately, I could move aether through my body and concentrate on specific parts of my body, with this, I could defend myself from aether attacks if I coated my body before getting hit, it also made my punches and kicks a little harder, apparently my clothes did that automatically but I could boost the effect if I poured more aether into them.
Lastly, I asked about injuries, since I expected Aqua to have them from her fight, allegedly, aether had the capacities to heal our body through ' aether circulation' which was like breathing, and as a bonus, the damage we take in our transformed state became invisible in our normal state, which was nice, our clothes also helped in this task by absorbing aether from the air, Sauriel mentioned that our clothes can't be changed because they were 'Made to perfectly matched the user' so my clothes are fit to only me, our weapon also should be same, though he said that weapons should be 'user found' ... whatever that meant.
[I wonder if I will get a magical staff??, wait no don't get your hopes up, Aqua has a sprinkler as a weapon, but it does show that it does match her style and magic pretty well].
"Yo Amy!!".
I look up at the street corner to see a girl in a poorly buttoned white shirt, a dark green skirt that reaches barely only above her knees, she has dark orange hair and brown eyes and has medium tan skin, she comes running at me and stops in front of me.
"What's up?" She says.
"The sky" I respond automatically.
The girl in front of me is my childhood friend Maria, we have been friends for at least 7 years but know each other for longer, she has an outgoing and cheerful personality but is sometimes a little dense, although she says that I'm the same with other things, this exchange has repeated for at least 200 times since we're friends, I nickname her Mary since I like nicknaming people, she wanted to give a nickname too but 'Amy' was already 3 letters so it couldn't be shortened.
"How was your weekend Mary? did you do any of the things you told you would do?" I continue walking forward.
"Nahhh, too occupied with club activities, but I did get to try skating on Sunday" she is still in front of me but is walking backward with her hands behind her heads to keep up with my walking.
"How did it go, did you do that trick that you told me 'The Ollie' or whatever it was called?".
"YEAH I did, it was pretty fun, you should try it too".
"I will pass up on that offer",
"I also fell a bunch of times so I got myself checked as you told me" she lifted her skirt a bit and I see she has a small bruise in her tight, it is almost completely healed.
[I feel your pain now Mary, falling on the ground is not that fun].
Mary is dumb, but that's what makes her my best friend, many people try to approach me but misunderstand me a lot by calling me things like 'genius' or 'prodigy', I won't deny that I'm intelligent but that was collateral damage, it wasn't my main goal, the pressure of their expectations is too much for my mind and I start feeling suffocated by those people, Mary is different, she is dumb and outgoing but has no expectation of me, so if a say something dumb or show my true personality she doesn't mock me or feel disappointed, she truly is the best.
"Nice, remember that you must take care of yourself more than me since you do a lot of physical activities".
"Yeah, yeah I know, that's why I went for only a bruise" she smiles at me and starts walking like a normal person beside me, we stop at the green light on the street, "What about you, did you do anything this weekend?".
"Yeah, I did the typical magical girl stuff".
[...].
[Wait I shouldn't say that I got too relaxed!!! well, I'm tired from all the training, and Mary is a good person so she will proba-].
"Oh, so you watched the new episode? it was pretty cool, but the monster was pretty lame in my opinion, a sentient fire hydrant is not that original in my opinion since it didn't move at all" She is moving her arm and hands while talking trying to convey her feelings.
[...].
[Forgot that 'typical magical girl stuff' is what I always say, ufff~ mayhem adverted, now what did she say?? the monster was a fire hydrant so..].
"Well yeah it doesn't move but it probably represents another creative problem like the incessant water that it shoots out, in reality, it required an effort ...".
Maria and I began to talk about the episode while we walked to school, my worries were unfounded, really Mary is the only person which I would tell about the magical girl stuff, but I will keep it secret as long as possible since it was like a trope that I needed to try and replicate.
It takes 20 minutes to reach school on foot, I do it since I only get like 20 dollars of allowance per day, and the bus takes 5, so I get to waste or save an extra 10 dollars each day by walking, and since Maria likes exercise she doesn't mind walking, she gets 70 for her allowance per day and regularly tries to give some, I keep denying it since she deserved better in my opinion.
[Now even I have more reason to deny it, since I do exercise now, in the form of martial arts, but exercise is exercise!!!].
"So Amy, what are your plans for summer vacation?".
"What summer vacation?" I do remember we have that but.
"In 3 weeks we get out of school, don't tell me you forgot the thing you looked forward to every year?" she is teasing me.
"Yeah, I kinda did" She had a point, how could I forget about it, the magical girl stuff is taking too much space in my head.
"So what are you gonna do?" She is trying to get me to say something.
[I will indulge her a bit since she reminded me of the summer break]
"The same thing we do every year Mary~ " I say in a fake spiteful tone, she is ecstatic since I actually said without much pressure.
" Going to Comicket !!
Going to Comicket !! "
We both say at the same time, there are 5 weeks before that event so we have time to prepare, but my thinking stops once we reached the school, it has a white wall that is incomplete, since it only has it at the front, in the sides, and in the back, it is only made out of chained fences that are coated with cheap plastic, the school itself isn't half bad, but the installations are pretty not well kept.
[Ugh, time to take classes].
Classes were not out of the ordinary, everything was really like normal except for me trying some stuff up with aether, for example, I try concentrating it in my head, it made everything a tiny bit slower, it was only noticeable if I looked at the class clock and compared the intervals of seconds with them before concentrating.
[This is pretty fun, I can lift my school bag and it doesn't even weigh].
"Hey Amy can you lend me the Chemistry homework, I didn't do the last 2 exercises, please " she was holding her palms together as if she was praying.
"Here take it, remember to do your own procedure".
I hand her my notebook, people often misunderstood Mary, she wasn't slacking off, she just sucked at any form of math, and electron balancing was a punch aimed at her brain, so I often helped her with the condition that she had to make her own procedures so they didn't look too similar.
"You're a lifesaver Amy, I will give it back later".
She put the notebook in her bag and continued her work, I already had my work done but was waiting for some else to finish and hand it to the teacher, that way I'm not a burden on my class by becoming the 'model student', I probably was overthinking it but it didn't matter to me, so right now I'm only staring into the distance.
"[Amy do you read me]" I hear a voice in y head, it isn't me so it takes some by surprise but the gentleman does sound
[What? who is this?].
"[Don't worry it's me Sauriel]" I'm hearing Sauriel in my head.
[What??, how are doing this?] I'm trying my hardest to not look startled on the outside.
"[I'm currently hidden within your Aether pool, Normally I could not do this but since this place is empty it's not a problem]"
[So you are doing things without my consent, again].
"[This an emergency!!]".
[What's happening?].
"[There are some aether signatures close by]"
[So you need me to~?].
"[Dispacth them]".
[Can't do, Don't you see I'm in the middle of math class right now?].
"[Find a way to reach the destination, this is part of your training and your job, it is also on the contract]"
[I still don't have access to that contract so I can't say that you're not lying].
"[Well then, I'll just make the appropriate call an...]"
[Ugh ok, I will do this, just give a minute] I turned to Mary.
"Mary I'm going to buy something".
"Nice, If you're going then I can accompany you".
"No, I'm going like, right now, I need you to hand my work to the teacher if I take too long".
"Huh? that's weird, but okay just leave your notebook open on the problem so I can give it to him" I leave my notebook open on the work and get up, I walk to the teacher and ask to go to the bathroom, he lets me so I exit the classroom.
[Okay now what?].
"[I'm gonna show you the location of the nearby devil]"
An image appears on my mind, is kind of foggy if I take my mind off it, the devils are close by but not inside the school, so I need to exit it without alerting anyone, which is rather easy.
"[I expected you to take longer to get out of school]".
[Well what can I say, I'm well-liked by the school staff since I helped them a lot!!.] I indeed help a lot in school, but it was mostly out of peer pressure than out of the goodness of my heart, so my revenge is using their favor for this 'evil deed' of exiting the school grounds.
Once I make sure that nobody is watching, I transform to get my physique boosted, I start running to one of the side fences and jump over it, I succeed and now I'm in the middle of the street, I start running toward the appointed direction.
"By the way Sauriel, is it necessary for you to be still in my head?".
"[Well it's just so spacious in here]"
[You can hear my thoughts, just get out of here is creeping me out].
Sauriel jumps out of the Hairpin and lands on my shoulder, he is sleepy but quickly composes himself by shaking his head rapidly, I continue running towards the devil's location, in the way some people are fleeing the scene, it seems that this will be a public fight.
[I don't know if I'm prepared for those, there gonna be a lot of eyes in me].
There are already a lot of eyes on me, but I just don't notice it since I'm running at top speed, I get to the location, it is surrounded by people with their phones out, there are also some cops making a perimeter so that people don't get close.
"This is the lo-location right?" I'm stuttering, I didn't expect so many people here.
"Yes, the devil is behind the barricade" Sauriel leaves my shoulder and starts flying with his wings.
I breathe out and in repeatedly and slowly to calm my nerves, I visualize my aether stirring and clumping in my feet, then I get a running start and stomp the ground, the ground cracks a bit, but o get a lift off, I fly over the people and they stare at me.
[How awkward, how awkward, how awkward, how awkward, how awkward, how awkward].
I pass over the primer and land perfectly on my feet, everyone now is centering their attention on me, I feel their gaze burning a hole in my head, then my clothes.
[Jeez I don't need a reminder of how my clothes look].
I'm frozen in place, and sweat starts dripping off my forehead, of course they are dumbfounded and interested, a child in weird clothes just jumped over a wall into the wolf fangs, but I decided that I was going to be a magical girl, backing out is not an option, although is the one that I want to pick.
[Goddammit just think and relax, You're no longer Amy Rochelle, the weird introverted girl that likes magical girls, you're now...].
"I'm a Magical girl, you don't have to worry" I'm looking at the audience with my head held high and imposing, I need to look reassuring like a real magical girl, so at least I need to act like one.
[Okay now that I dealt with that I need to find my objective].
I walked more into the perimeter, the cops are calling out to me to turn back but I just smile at them and say.
"It would be better if you followed your own advice".
[Well now that's menacing, I'm mismatching too many concepts together, gotta make it more consistent in the future].
I'm searching for anything that moves, and then I see the objective near a car on the side of the closed road, they are hiding behind it, its a small group of 3 devils, 2 of them look like small bushes with small white flowers resembling daisies on one of their sides, the flowers are looking around the environment, it seems that they have not noticed me yet.
The last one is on the back and has the form of a large metal trashcan with the lid slightly open, I'm only a foot taller than the trash can, the lid has teeth carved out in them, in the inside of the can there are a pair of red eyes.
[More trash to dispose of, but will I be alright? there's no backup here].
"Time to work I guess".
I start walking towards the devil, I'm using the car as a way to block their line of sight, then I noticed something, there's a teenage girl on the other side of the road, she had poorly brushed dark green hair tied in a bun in the back, she was wearing big rounded glasses with an unbuttoned white lab coat revealing a grey shirt, the lab coat had a pocket on the right sheet and was filled with 2 pens, one black and the other red, she also wore black pants with black shoes.
[Huh? is she researching those things? what a weird hobby].
I had no right to think that, I still followed through with my original plan, first I trick them by throwing a pebble behind them, all of them got caught since they look in the other direction, that included the green-haired girl.
[Easy enough, time to see how was my training].
I run towards the devil, they are still looking into the sound the rock made, I pass the bush devils and head directly to the trashcan, I stop just in front of him, it starts to turn around and back off, but I already had begun my attack.
[Now there's no stopping me].
I try to do the same thing as before, land on the left foot as an anchor point, retract the right leg, begging spinning a good 270 degrees gathering momentum and speed, once I see the target on the way back just shoot my leg towards him trying to hit it in a vital point with the heel, the difference is that before spinning I had accumulated Aether in my foot, this time to test it in a real battle.
"Aether back kick" I shout.
[Direct hit].
My sole starts denting the trash can, the lid starts slowing lift up and see the eyes of the devil directly, It is surprised and in pain, it makes sense because my kick made a loud thud, I finally finished extending my leg, the trashcan devil is shot away from me, it's looking at me while flying backwards, it hits the ground and starts rolling around while being stunned.
[That should do for a while].
I sensed something so I quickly turned around and do a small hop backward, I dodged a small vine whip from one of the bush devils, I'm surprised since it's the first time Aether sensing helped in something.
Aether sensing is weird but basically, it feels like hearing someone breathe, yes you can tell where the breathing comes from but not much else, because everything has aether in some capacity you can hear many things breath but using it as a warning is stupid, since you can get startled by a sudden rise of aether, turned around and retaliate in a kick and then feel like an idiot when you hit a tree.
[Ok, this time I didn't take a hit or destroy a tree by accident].
"Don't even begin to think that I forgot about you" I strike a pose, a simple one, but I hear a small crowd cheering for me.
[Yall are not helping my nerves but whatever, I get to know that my acting is good to a certain point].
I turned towards the green-haired girl, she is still taking notes, I prepare and start approaching the bush devils, one shoots a big sharp leaf at me, I deflect it with the palm of my hand, then the other bush devil tries to get a whip in, I dodge by turning my torso, I grab the vine with my hands and smile.
"Gotcha!!" I chuckle before starting to run towards the devils.
The devil I grabbed is trying to shake me off by whipping with its other vine, I dodge by jumping and sliding bellow them, I got close to it and pass by it, it's startled as it didn't expect to be ignored, but I had bigger plans.
[Now I hope this works, If it's how Aqua said then it could be awesome].
I'm now closing the gap between me and the other bush devil, it tries to shoot me to slow me, doesn't work as I just tank the shoots with my aether coated body and clothes, it still scratches my face but I continue running, The bush I got in my hands is being dragged along the pavement, the words aqua said to me plagate my mind as I'm in the middle of this fight.
Aqua said in her training "First device a plan with the following guidelines" These words make me accelerate until I'm a few meters from the no running bush devil,
[Simplify the problem] I jump a few meters up, then I raise both arms above my head while grabbing the vine tightly, I lock my eyes on the bush devils that are fleeing.
"Bush Hammer" I throw my arms in an arc forwards, the action makes the vines I grabbed follow up, the bush devil I grabbed slams into the other one, the sound of branches breaking and leaves rustling against each other is heard.
[Prepare an affective move] while in the air I start pouring aether into my right foot as I start falling, my objective has been reduced to one.
[Deal a devastating blow] With the bushes as my objective, I first move my weight backward, and immediately throw all my strength forwards while extending my right leg, my center of gravity changes so I do a spin air, it won't finish before I land, but that was my objective.
"Flying Axe kick" I shout, The heel of my boots impacts directly into the bush devils, it crushes them completely turning them into a bunch of scattered leaves and branches, I feel a hard material in the inside of the bushes, but it shatters with the kick, I stumble and almost fall.
[Okay it worked].
I now turn myself around, the trashcan devil from earlier is fleeing but I won't let it escape, not after knowing that some people are looking up to me from behind the perimeter.
"You will not escape justice!!!".
[Cringe but gets the point across].
I Pour a lot of aether into my feet.
"Fleet Footwork".
I begin running even faster than before, I started shouting my moves a long time ago since apparently, it counts as a 'verbal agreement' between me and my opponent, so the move becomes more effective, it's kinda weird but I like it, it lets me make and shout cool moves like in a videogame but with an actual reason behind it.
[When I get my magic I will try to replicate some anime moves for sure, I wonder which would be first, maybe one pi-].
I suddenly feel a breath approaching me.
[Aether signature!!!].
The trashcan devil launched its lid at me, it's rotating and flying pointed at me.
"That won't be enough!!".
I jumped in the air and do an aether-coated kick in a sweeping motion.
"Flying Roundhouse Kick".
I hit the lid, it starts flying in the opposite direction.
[Oh wow, it's going to hit the devil, not intended but good].
The Trashcan devil abandons its trash can by jumping from it, the lid hit's the trashcan and sends it flying rolling around, the trash devils lands poorly on the ground.
"Your time has come evil one".
I prepare to pull my arm back, the devil gets scared when I get in front of it, I completely stop in my tracks, the momentum is throwing my body in forward, I used it to enhance my punch.
"Magnum Shot".
I twist my torso and pull my closed fist forward, the aether-coated punch lands directly above the trashbag I squashed it to its limit, the bag bursts open spilling out its contents, I hit another tough material, but it also gets shattered from the impact.
[It's over].
I take a step back, the people are cheering me on my victory, so I strike a pose, it's me smiling forming a peace sign in front of them, I try to look for the green-haired girl, but she isn't there anymore.
[Guess she got scared of how brutal my fight was].
I'm pretty confident in my fighting abilities thanks to aether coating, but I still don't have magic or a weapon, so I'm only halfway done.
[Glad is over though].