After talking with David, I got all the information I needed, I was called to the parking lot below the mall for me and the leader to encounter, I was told to go only with David, and now we were going to that place, since this time I wasn't with Vera I couldn't fly to the mall even though I really wanted to.
"Try not to fight him Amy" David said, he was extremely worried about my well-being but it was annoying to hear that phrase repeated a dozen times already.
"I'm not that weak, I think" I said to him, I tried to sound confident, but the last fight really put a dent in that department.
"It's not that, you see, calling our leader a 'monster' would be appropriate, so even if he challenges you to a duel, please don't accept it" David was almost teary, he was extremely weak-willed in this type of situation that involved him getting his friends hurt.
[I guess he sees as his friend?].
We took 30 minutes to reach the mall, It was already dark outside so we entered the underground parking lot, it seemed like it was completely empty just like last time since we were a bit early I investigated the area in search of any traps or people that could ambush us, I assumed that the worst could happen since this was a group of people but David said that even if that was the case, his leader would never fight in unfair condition willingly.
[I wonder why is he so confident in that statement].
I found nothing out of the ordinary so I just waited in the designated spot, the plot of dirt where David and I fought when we met, David was feeling down because not only his Hot-dog devil called Brat was being held hostage, apparently, I was getting beat up as well, as soon as the clock marked the hour of reunion, I heard steps coming to my direction from on one of the darkened hallways.
I put up my guard, I expected an aggressive person to come running, but I only felt intimidation coming from how firm and elegant the sound of the steps were, they gave me a shiver up my spine since I thought I heard those type of steps before, but the person didn't come to mind, from the hallways the figure appeared, it was wearing some sort of shirt hanging over his shoulders, it was fluttering in the wind, making it seem like a cape.
"You did come to my calling" A modulated but hard-hitting male voice entered my ears, it was extremely scary not because of how it sounded, it was because of how familiar it felt, I sensed the bloodlust coming from the figure slowly coming into view, sharp grey eyes conveying a calm tempest, I couldn't believe my eyes once he came into the light reveling who he was.
[LARK????????].
I was speechless at the sight, the president of the disciplinary committee of my school, Douglass Lark appeared into view, I remembered all the stories of how this guy single-handedly stopped all violence in school by beating everyone up, that made David's story and warnings make some degree of sense.
[Those are just rumors, right?].
He was looking at examining my reaction, he was holding 'Brat' in his arms tightly, his grey eyes devoid of any kindness for me or David, it really made me startled, that he could know my full name was reasonable now since he is that type of person.
"If you want this back, you'll have to fight me" Lark said while showing Brat, I knew Lark didn't have any patience to speak of so I looked at David, he was conflicted, he wanted to save Brat but didn't want me to end up knocked out on the floor.
"I see, I'll accept if you release him first" I said at Lark, I put up my most in trying to sound not that afraid of him.
"Of course" He let go of Brat without any hesitation, he then grabbed the two tonfas that were attached to his belt and put his guard up.
[Does he realize I can escape now, right?].
While I was looking at him puzzled he said, "If you're wondering, what you stated is considered a verbal contract because it was an agreement between 2 contracted magic users, so don't even think about escaping" Lark explained.
[What? a verbal contract? I knew they existed but how is this I...].
I remembered that technically, saying our attacks counted as a 'verbal contract' to make our attacks stronger, so this was probably not a lie at all.
"Also I'm already transformed, so you can come when you're ready" Lark added, I looked at him dumbfounded, he looked exactly the same as he did in school, but slowly I saw the differences, his red band that was attached in his left sleeve of his Gakuran said 'Justice' instead of 'Discipline', his hair was a bit less dark, and most notably, he had a lot of pouches attached to his belt, but that was it.
[Wait a minute, does this means his perfect clothes are his school uniform??? how much does this guy like his school?!!].
He already was planning to be held back with the intention to remain in school, so this really cemented him as a school lunatic in my head, still, I didn't want to fight him at all.
"I'm ready" I said, I wasn't at all, but it was better to not make Lark run out of patience.
"Then let's begin" Lark rushed at me extremely quickly, I try to run as well but before I get any real velocity he already was punching me, his tonfas made his strength concentrate on the circular points, so they hurt a lot even with aether coating, and he was relentless, just throwing punches at my guard.
[I need to do something].
I block the tonfas with my palms and push Lark back, Then I made a stone wall between me and him, I needed a break to regain my composure after the barrage of hits made my arms feel sore, it didn't last long.
"What?" Lark broke the barrier with pure force, I retaliated with a roundhouse kick, he blocked with left tonfa, he didn't even move an inch, he lunged forward so I backed off so I could get out of his range, but it was useless, he spun his right tonfa to the long side and hit me in the stomach, it wasn't at full force since I backed off but It made me lose my breath.
[F*ck, it hurts to breath].
The hit pushed me against a wall, Lark attacked me again, I bend the rocks on the wall to coat my arms with them and block his attack, I make a spike surge to try and impale Lark, but he senses it and backed off, I continue making spikes to push Lark back, but he decides to destroy the spikes by hitting them hard enough to break them.
[Got dammit!!! He is too good with his weapons].
Lark's weapons were weird, I have never seen anyone use tonfas before so everything he does is a surprise.
I looked at him and begin throwing boulders made from the ground at him, he doesn't bother to dodge them, instead, he blows them to pieces with the force of his weapons, he charges once again.
[I only get one shot at this].
I begin to prepare by enveloping my fist in rocks, then I moved the ground below me at high speeds towards Lark, I move along with the ground, and with that extra speed and force I punch him, Lark barely blocked it with his left tonfa, he spun his right tonfa to the long side and hit me, first one hit for each of my shoulders, making me unable to move my arms and then he did a swipe hit that landed on my head.
"AHhhhhhhhhhhh" I screamed in pain.
My head begins to bleed and my vision becomes a bit blurry from the force of the impact when I recover myself Lark had already swept my legs with a kick and I was falling to the ground, I see Lark about to kick me, I make the ground below Lark slanted, his leg grazes over me thanks to that slanted surface.
[C'mon you can do this].
I finally fall on the ground, I make two walls beside Lark and try to crush him, he drops his tonfas to stop the walls with his hands, I throw a boulder at him thinking he couldn't dodge it, But he destroyed the projectile with a kick, he breaks free from the wall with pure arm strength, he kicks his tonfas upwards and catches them.
[Okay, I'll admit that it was cool].
"I see that you're another disappointment" Lark said, his patience had an out.
"What? I didn't want to fight in the first place" I reply, Lark's motivation and bloodlust were gone now, I felt tired because I was beaten in the head and couldn't think properly.
"Then I'll end this" Lark said, brimming with confidence.
Lark attacked once again back off with my magic but he outran me, I try to hit him but he just blocks my kicks, in my last ditch attempt I throw a punch, he redirects my punch with his tonfas downwards, he spun his tonfa and hit me in the neck, then stabbed me in the stomach and finally back kicked me in the face sending me crashing into a wall.
I fell from the wall onto my knees, my whole body was burning up, David who was watching the whole exchange was crying, he didn't expect me to actually fight for his dumb devil friend, and now was seeing the consequences of his actions, blood was dripping from my forehead and nose, the last kick almost knocked me out.
[Ahhh, how strong is Lark, I didn't even have a chance to touch him].
I felt pretty impotent at the sight of Lark slowly approaching me while cleaning the dust from his uniform, he emitted the same aura as the military girl, they were like cinematic parallels, Lark only used physical strength while the Military girl only used magic.
"Well, it seems you lost this encounter" Lark said, he only looked at me with disdain and disappointment, I was trying to move my arms to do a fight stance, but I couldn't move them very well since my shoulders and forearms were killing me, the pain from his tonfas was too much even for me.
"I would beat you up properly, but since you helped me apprehend David and Rayleigh for defending devils, I will stop for now" Lark looked at David, he made sure that David knew that he couldn't go back to his group only using his gaze, he turned around and walked away.
[Godammit!!! I can't even stand up you monster].
I was trying to get up, I look at Lark's black uniform swindle in the wind, he untransformed, I only noticed it because he stopped emitting aether from his clothes, they didn't even glow a bit, he's appearance barely changed.
"By the way Amy, If you say a word about this, I will beat you up again, and it will be a full-on beatdown" Lark said as he stepped into the shadows cast by the unlit area of the parking lot.
[Is that reason no one knows he is a 'Magic user'? he just beats everyone up who announces it].
I was gonna become one of those people anyway, Lark was holding back since he was testing my strength, I guess since I beat David he thought I could be somewhat strong, but it looked like my strength wasn't anything out of his reach, so he spared me in hos own way.
"Are you gonna just stand there?" I shouted at David, he immediately jumped from his position and helped me get up, I made a chair out of stone to sit on because I couldn't walk.
"Are you okay Amy?"
"DO I LOOK OKAY TO YOU?" I shouted at David, he was startled but didn't answer back, he truly was stupid, I tried to sigh but it hurt my stomach so I stopped midway.
[He destroyed me completly].
I chuckled because I didn't want to cry, It hurt like hell, my skin slowly started to bruise heavily in the places I was hit, in my head I was rewinding the fight to see what I did wrong, I found nothing, I had no idea who I was fighting so I couldn't prepare, Lark knew how to use his weapon to the fullest, using momentum to spin his tonfas to gain range and be able to hit in swiping motion.
[I really need a weapon].
I had forgotten that I technically wasn't even an official Magical girl since I still didn't find my weapon, my magic was useful, it made the fight last more than 2 minutes, to a grand total of 10, but I still didn't land a single hit, my projectiles and long-range magic were still not useful against enemies like Bellatrix or Lark, since they just blocked, hit, or cut them.
"David, why didn't you tell me I had to fight against LARK out of all people?" is screamed at David, he lowered his head while apologizing.
"Well, you see... all people in our group didn't know who he was, I only learned his name right now actually" David explained.
[What type of group is he running?].
After resting for an hour, I decided to go back home, David helped me to get there, I was limping and had to untransformed, so although o looked fine in my untransformed state, I was completely spent, once I reached my house I waved goodby to David and just took a bath and went to bed.
"Ah~ finally some comfiness, how I missed you my beloved bed" I kissed my bed goodnight and tried to sleep, i couldn't since my body was feeling pain even with the smallest movement, suddenly, Sauriel jumped in front of me and began seeing my face, he was inspecting me pretty closely.
"Yeah, I got beat up, so what?".
"No, it's not that" Sauriel answered, I was surprised that sauriel was curious about something for the first time, after a bit of time he looked at me and told me in a worried tone "What did you do?".
"Why?" I asked in confusion.
"Your rank is different".
"WHAT?"
"You're a 2 star magical girl now"
"WHAT?"
[The f*ck you mean I'm a 2-star magical girl????].
"Uhhh explain?" I asked him, I was perplexed at the thought, especially since i didn't notice anything wrong with me.
"Well, your aether pool increased drastically, but I didn't feel it drained, so the only reason it could have increased is that you increased in ranked, let me reiterate, what did you do while I was sleeping?" Sauriel tilted his head in anticipation.
"I got beaten up by an enemy?" I transformed and showed my numerous bruises to Sauriel, my head stopped bleeding but still hurt a lot, especially when I moved too quickly.
"Wow, You really got beaten up".
"Shut up, dumb cat".
"Well that explains it then" sauriel sat down.
"What do you mean 'that explains it?' ?" I asked.
"Well, there are no strict rules about how to get stars, it just kinda happens with some feats, I guess this Lark guy is someone you feared but because you still choose to fight and didn't die in the process you gained a star" Sauriel explained.
[I mean I did fear him, but I do fear him more though?].
"You are something else Amy, you are the first in history to have 2-stars before encountering a weapon!!" Sauriel congratulated me, but it was kind of pointless, having more aether doesn't make me stronger directly, it just means I can go for longer, and even then, I didn't deplete my aether reserves in any of my battles, since it was big enough to even support my training.
[I guess I'll really need a weapon].
I went to bed for the day, the next day my body had given up, all my muscles were sore, but I needed to get up, I only gathered enough willpower to make my leg's work by thinking about this day, a Friday, the last day of school, with that motivation I went to school, I met up Mary along the way.
While in the first classroom I revised our schedule, I never got to memorize it since I had it glued to one of my textbooks, I fell into despair when I looked at it, we had PE this day.
[I will not survive this day].
I started praying to not die today, Mot of our professors gave half of their time to thank us for being students and let us early, this type of education was oddly comforting since somehow it felt lazy, something I quite liked, while we were going to our PE class I was completely tired, I was dreading it with all my might, Mary noticed it and asked, I told her I was not feeling that great, and then I bumped into someone.
"Look where you're going" the person I bumped said.
"Oh sorry I didn't mean to-" I looked at the person in question, it was Lark, I froze for a few seconds, and then backed off, we look at each other.
"Don't give any problems while you're in school" he said.
"Uhh will do?" Lark walked away with my words, Mary got annoyed at the exchange.
"WHO DO YOoo-" I put my hand over Mary's mouth.
"Do you want to get beaten up by Lark?!!" I said to her, Mary moved my hand aside and look away.
"Those rumors won't stop me!" Mary exclaimed, I patted her back in approval of her thought, but I still stopped her from actually doing it.
[Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?].
We began our PE class, it was just a game of dodge ball, I was really bad at it before becoming a magical girl, then I got really good at actually dodging, but now I barely could move without feeling like i needed to be put down, I stumbled through most of the game, but at the end bit I was completely exhausted, Mary noticed it and positioned herself in front of me so I could get a breather, but I tripped and fell into the ground.
"Ow... my head" I opened my eyes, and saw Mary on top of me.
[Huh?].
I accidentally triped Mary as well, and now we were in this situation, she was extremely close to my face, she was red and sweaty, her left hand was on my stomach, she slid her fingers along my stomach, she became extremely flustered while doing ti.
"Ummmm?" I mumbled, I couldn't speak, I was so embarrassed, this situation had happened before when I was inept at sports, but Mary's reaction threw me off, she never blushed like this before.
"Oh... Sorry" Mary immediately got up, she helped to stand up and carried me to the nearest bench.
"Thank you, Mary" I smiled at Mary, I was completely out of it, too many things were happening so I just defaulted to kindness.
"Oh... don't worry" Mary didn't look a time in the eyes while saying that, I was confused about her behavior, even when I did get a bit 'happy' when this type of situation happened, I never had seen her Mary so... turned on?, not even I was really sure what she was thinking.
The rest of the school day Mary was fidgety, she look at me and was clearly normal, but sometimes would look at my stomach or her left hand and get flustered.
[What the heck is even happening].
We had plans to meet up in two days, so our routine didn't change even though it was the final day of school I waved goodbye to mary and strolled directly to my house, I was thinking about the PE incident all the way home, I got home, I threw my schoolbag in the chair, got a change of clothes, and then started to take a bath, while in the shower I was washing my body, the cold water felt really nice since my body was bruised I felt kinda weird, so this was extremely refreshing, I started cleaning with a towel and thought about the incident.
I slowly pressed my fingers in my chest, then slowly dragged them down, imitating what mary did to me, everything was fine until I got to my stomach, I felt something foreign, my skin was still smooth but, it felt a bit bumpy, I started to feel more, the bumps were big, and evenly spaced, I got scared and looked down, I was shocked when I saw my stomach.
"AHHHHHHH" I screamed out of surprise, it was good that my mom worked this hour, the view just gave me a small heart attack.
[WHY THE FUCK DO I HAVE ABS????].
In my stomach instead of a completely flat, even a bit lumpy tummy, rested a 6 pack, it was poorly defined and barely noticeable even if I decided to wear tight clothes, but it was there, I touched a bit more to confirm I wasn't hallucinating.
"Ahhh... what do i.. how?... what?" I couldn't think at all, I realized that Mary probably felt this and got flustered by them?.
[Wait was Mary embarrassed by these?].
My train of thought wasn't exactly straight, in more ways than one.