I got off the bus, I waved Mary and Akari goodbye and go to my home, I was tired from going to the beach and fighting Magda and Hui at the same time, the only good thing that I got from that was the military girl's name, which was Ophelia, so I finally could call her name and maybe try to fight her the next time I saw her before I got to my house and idea popped up in my head.
[Since 'sand' is considered 'earth', then can I...].
I waved my hand in the air, all the sand that covered my body started floating in the air and accumulated above one of my fingertips, I flick it off to send the sand to a nearby trash can, I smile at the realization that I can use sand as a cutting mechanism, and moreover, that I needed to research my powers a bit more to understand what I could really accomplish.
"I'm Home!!" I say as I entered my house, my mom was sitting on the couch as always, she had already cooked dinner and had put up the table I went to the bathroom to take a bath and get rid off my stench.
"Amy, you might wanna see this!" My mom called out for me.
"I don't need to see more dramas!!" I reproached, I still went back to the living room on the off chance it was actually interesting.
"You will go to that Comicket thing right?" My mom says, I nod and see the Tv, is on the news and is starting airing breaking news.
"at around 17:48 hours a big explosion occurred on the Beatrice plaza, no one was injured in the resulting fire and firefighters are right now controlling the fire..."
[That's where Comicket was going to be held, How unlucky].
I wasn't particularly afraid since this event is destined to happen no matter what, even with an incident of this scale wasn't gonna stop it from being held.
"The event organizer assures the attendants that the event is going to be postponed for a day, it appears that many souvenirs that were being stored and technical equipment will need to be replaced as they were burned or destroyed during the incident" The report ended, my mom looked at me preoccupied for my reaction, I just shrugged it off and opened my phone.
"I guess instead of the 16th of July, it will be the 17th, how different" I said, I texted Mary to let her know the news about it, our plans didn't really change so I just chucked it up to coincidence and bad luck, As I learned later, that wasn't the case at all.
July 17th came, now we were in the middle of the event, it was an extremely happy and welcoming atmosphere even for people like me, even outside the building where most of the main events were going to be held there were a lot of people walking around, some had a bunch of bags from things they bought inside, some were taking photos of the place and some selfies, even some people had cosplays, we were no exception, Mary was wearing a white sleeveless shirt exposing her midriff, a black miniskirt secured with a black belt with suspenders, she also had red and black gloves with a piece of cloth to make it seem like they extended to her elbows, she was also wearing a dark long-haired wig, she looked cool but said that her tan kinda ruined the cosplay, I told her it was okay.
I was wearing a bright red sleeveless shirt with yellow buttons, blue cargo shorts, and a circular yellow straw hat with a red band, I had also a scar under my left eye made with a sharpie, we looked pretty cool in my opinion but Mary was unusually shy about cosplaying, so I had to help her not be discouraged to enter the event or run away from it.
"You really like these things Amy?" Mary said as she pulled on her suspenders.
"Well yeah, is a good time to let off some steam, and see some cool stuff that normally is overseas" I said enthusiastically, I'm trying to get some positive energy into Mary, she just looked at me with a defeated look.
"I do have a question though..." Mary said almost whispering.
"Shoot" I replied.
"If you like Magical girls so much, why don't you cosplay as one?" Mary said while looking at my outfit, I immediately turned.
"I do like Magical girls a lot but I also have too much respect for them!! Me wearing a magical girl outfit would be a disgrace and an insult to their looks, I just can't bring myself to do it, even recreationally" I explained passionately, Mary squinted to see if I was making an excuse, but couldn't see any of my usual demeanor when I'm lying.
[Wait a minute... maybe that's the reason I don't look like a magical girl when I transformed?].
I pondered at the realization, I was completely enlightened that my random rambling got some useful information that I needed, Mary chuckled at my thinking face and we began exploring the inside of the building, we walked around seeing all the products, I saw some posters that I really wanted, they showed some interesting Magical girls in their usual poses, Mary got a blue shirt with the Nasa logo in it, it was quite cartoony so I smile while seeing her picking up more shirts, we found a booth that sold DVD's of pirated anime, Mary bought a lot of them, she has the tendency to buy them and forget about them, so I stop her before she buys the whole place up and fills her entire room with outdated DVD's.
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye, we explored some of the stores looking at the figurines that they had, we entered a kind of theatre, where some voice actors that did the dub of some of the anime I liked made their appearance, even a famous singer of dubbed openings stood up in the stage and started singing some of his most popular songs, we of course sung with him filling the entire theater with noise and good vibes, most surprising some people even took photos with us since we looked 'cute', some of the moments were a bit awkward but it was a good experience overall, this is exactly why I liked this event in particular since it let us just waste time on the things we liked.
"Amy, can you grab these things for a moment? they are killing me" Mary hands me her gloves.
"What?? you need them for your costume to be authentic!!" I replied at her, she was shaking her hands and saw that they were a bit shriveled up.
"Yeah but they are extremely tight, So hold them while we get lunch, okay? I'll put them on once we finish" She says with an apologetic voice, I sigh.
"Alright" I say, I put the gloves in my cargo pants pockets.
When we were planning on having lunch something happened, the light started flickering a lot, eventually, I noticed a strange warm breeze wash over me, it seems Mary also felt it, I became a bit wearier of my surroundings and heard something.
"Attention all weirdos inside the Beatrice plaza!!!" I heard a familiar annoying voice, the lights were dimmed out and in one of the biggest walls something was protected, It was Magda's face while looking at the camera.
"Amy what's happening?"Mary asked in a panic.
"I don't know, why do you ask me!!" I replied the doors around us started closing on us, all the attendants that were inside were trapped, including us, people started to panic and started trying to run while others just stood watching Magda projection.
"Yall were selected to be part of a social experiment, considered yourselves lucky, hahaha" Magda laughed and the projection was cut, many people were left confused as to what 'social experiment' implied, suddenly some rumbling and screams were heard across the buildings, we looked at the source of the scream and saw what was happening, wild devils were charging everywhere, trash, bushes, plushies, anything, inanimate objects suddenly started to move on their own and were attacking anyone in sight.
"DEVILS!!" people screamed, everyone started running away trying to take down the rolling steel curtains that were blocking the doors, the lights were getting dimmer and dimmer blocking any discernible thing, I tried to search for Mary and see her running off to the center of the building.
[WHAT ARE YOU DOING? were in the middle of a crisis!!!].
I reached and grabbed Mary's arm and she stop and looks at me.
"You should go to a safe place!!"
"And leave you here? are you dumb, I'm not leaving my best friend here!!!" I say at her, I feel a presence rapidly approaching me, Amy grabs me and puts me at her side.
Mary's clothes begin to glow, they extended and became slightly baggy, once they stopped glowing they settled on a white and red color, I looked closely and saw that she had a classical shrine maiden outfit, her hair turned a shade of grey resembling ash and she had a hand fan with a gilded clover printed in the middle.
"What?" I said at the view of my friend completely changing appearance.
"Sorry, I hoped this would be a surprise" Mary said with a smirk on her face, she waved her hand, I looked backward, A bush devil that was trying to tackle crashed into a green glass-like wall, the wall disappears once Mary closes her fan.
"So you are..." I say in complete disbelief.
"Magical girl!! I hoped you would find out in a more natural way but I guess this is fine, you don't hate me for holding this a secret, right?" Mary seemed actually scared that I would hate her for withholding information.
"That would be hypocritical" I say, I see more devils charging in our direction.
"Well yeah you like magical girls, but you need to get out of here, NOW" Mary tried to push me but fails to do it.
"That's not the reason why hating you would be hypocritical" I say, one of the devils pounces towards Mary now that she is distracted.
"Then why wou-" Before Mary can finish her sentence I transform and move the ground to punch the devil out of the air and into a nearby wall, it immediately stops moving once it crashes into the wall, cracking it, Mary looked at me in awe.
"Because I'm also a Magical girl" I smiled back at her dumbfounded face, she shakes her head and walks up to me.
"This isn't a dream right?" Mary says.
"Is as real as it gets, now we have work to do Mary!!" I say and begin throwing rocks at the devils.
[Can't believe Comicket got ruined by that dumbass].
Mary waves her fan making the 'barrier' on top of the devils, and then slams it into the ground defeating a few of them at a time, I make spikes come out of the ground and also throw rock projectiles at them, we quickly mowed them down to a dozen of them, the people are looking at us with admiration and cheering us on.
[It's pretty unnerving still].
Mary gets pushed back as her barrier almost shatters because a new devil showed up, It was a life-size statue of a pink-haired magical girl, she looked like the first generation and had the engravings on the back with the name of the girl, 'Adele', the devil looked quite smarts as it discovered how to dodge Mary's attacks.
"Let me help you out" I say as I throw a rock at the Adele Devil, it starts targeting me, I make a tiny wall to make it stumble and punch it directly in the stomach, the devil tried to grab me but failed, I send it flying at high speeds into a drywall destroying it completely.
[The f*ck? I didn't even hit that hard?].
I looked at my hand to see if maybe I got buffed again, instead, I'm met with the realization that I'm wearing a pair of black fingerless gloves, in the backhand is a gilded 8-pointed star symbol that glows whenever I close my fists, the knuckles on the gloves seemed to be covered by some sort of soft metal.
"You found your weapon!!!" Sauriel jumped out of my hairpin, he sounded pretty excited at the finding.
"But I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, how could thi-" I stopped myself from talking, I remember that I was holding Mary's gloves for her.
"I get it, BUT WHY EVERYTHING I NEED TO GET JUST ROLLS UP TO ME ON ACCIDENT" I scream, Mary looks at me and sees Sauriel on my shoulders, and starts approaching me.
"Must be fate" Sauriel said without hesitation.
"I'm gonna kill you if you don't help us out" I reply to Sauriel's dumb answer.
"That's your angel?" Mary asks, she started petting Sauriel and he likes it, a lot.
"Yeah, he's kinda dumb" I say while looking at him, judging him for every time I brought a weapon so I could use it in training and he rejected it immediately.
[Still, gloves? LITERALLY, DOESN'T CHANGE HOW I ATTACK, that's useless].
"Hey Amy dodge to the right" Sauriel says, I immediately slide the ground to the right, a dart passes beside me grazing me, I looked over at the direction of the projectile and see Magda with a blowgun in her mouth, he changes targets and shoots at Mary immediately.
"Mary Lookout" Mary doesn't notice the projectile, So I punch her down and accidentally get hit with the dart, it prices my asking in my left shoulder, Mary runs to help me out, but it is useless, I feel my conscience fade out, I try my hardest to stay awake but fail, I drop to the ground.
"AMY" Mary screams, she shakes Amy to make her wake up but fails to do so, She looks at Magda and sees she is kicking a bright ball at her
"Shield that" Sauriel says, Mary complies and puts a barrier on herself and Amy, The explosion shatters the barrier but reduces the impact on her body, she gets thrown into the ground, she tries to stand up before being met with another frozen explosion directed at her.
"IRON MAIDEN".
Mary's body gets coated with a thick barrier, completely encasing her, the explosion sets off and sends Mary flying straight into a wall, she falls onto the ground, she couldn't hold onto Amy's body, she was tired after being thrown around like a ping pong ball.
"Finally Magda does get her revenge on you dumbass bruiser!" Magda says, she approaches Amy's body and picks it up, Mary gets furious at seeing this and gets up immediately.
"STOP, where do you think you're going with Amy!!" Mary screams at Magda, she looks back at Mary.
"She is a big problem, so I was tasked with taking her out, don't worry, she's not dead, but she will wish she was" Magda laughed maniacally as she started walking towards one of the staff rooms.
"BARRIER CRUSH".
A barrier tried to crush Magda from above, she dodges by using the impulse of an explosion to get away from the barrier, Magda looks at Mary with disdain, she snaps her fingers.
"You Idiot Amalgam, Deal with her" Magda says, one of the piles of electronics starts shaking uncontrollably, it begins making cables, DVD players, game consoles, and LED lights to a group up and take a snake-like figure with eyes made from empty eye sockets with red LED, it was gigantic easily over 9 ft tall, It slithers along the ground and whipped its tail towards Mary.
Mary put up a barrier but it cracked by the immense tech Amalgams force, Mary was incredibly scared as she saw her friend being dragged like a corpse towards the staff door, making Magda disappear from view, she tried to get around the Tech amalgam but failed as it was intelligent and could predict her movements.
"HEY YOU LOOK OUT" Mary heard a familiar voice, but she was suddenly punched in one of her sides, the Adele devil returned, slightly damaged by Amy, she send Mary to the other side of the building with a single punch, she looks at the voice that warned her and her eyes lit up.
"AKARI!!" Mary instinctively screamed as she saw Akari dodge one of the Tech amalgam attacks, she transformed and showed her outfit of a classical magician, she trusted her magic wand and multiple steel rods pierced the tech amalgam, it retreated back as Akari had hit hard enough to destroy some of its wires, Mary Thought that this day could not get any more surprising
"MARIA, deal with the statue!! I will destroy this other thing" Akari ordered Mary, she complied and made a barrier and moved it to draw closer to the Adele Devil, it seemed to understand the situation and began to prepare to attack Mary.
"Magda took Amy out and drag her to the staff room" Mary said, Akari immediately got filled with a mix of emotions ranging from anger to caution, she took a good look at the tech amalgam and decided to fight it all out.
The Adele Devil sprinted rapidly at Mary, she tried to put up a barrier to stop her but Adele jumped over it and kicked Amy, she was hit so hard that she crashed into another wall, this time she went through it and left the building, The Adele devil followed her outside.
Akari was worried about Mary, but she couldn't unfocus from her own battle, she was getting barraged with rapid stabs from the tech devil's 'tail' and she was trying to dodge while also shooting more steel rods at it, She tried to move some of the objects that made the Tech amalgam's body, but they were glued to it, she then saw its serpent mouth open, it glowed a bright blue and shotted lighting towards Akari hitting her.
"Ahhh" Akari screamed, her skin was burned and her hair was all over the place, her entire body was in complete shock and couldn't move from the electricity that just entered her body, the tech amalgam started to approach her while opening its mouth once again, it took all her power to even try to crawl away from it, this time she wasn't afraid of dying, she was scared of what could happen to her friend Amy, she was wishing that Mary could help Amy even without her help, she closed her eyes when she heard someone approach her.
"You!!" Akari was confused, she saw a familiar figure but it wasn't who she was expecting, porting a knightly figure with a silver chest plate and a blond ponytail, Bellatrix was in front of her, the Tech amalgam shoots its lighting at them.
"Lancelot cut".
Bellatrix swung her sword vertically, the electric lighting was divided into two, it shoot to the sides of Bellatrix, barely missing either of them, Akari was looking at Bellatrix while on the ground confused.
"Why? why are you helping me?" Akari asked while trying to stand up, her muscles were starting to unclench from the electric shock she suffered, Bellatrix kept looking at the Tech Amalgam.
"I pondered over Miss Amy's words, this isn't what I wanted, I wanted to help people all over the world, so I decided that's what I'm gonna do" Bellatrix exclaimed, The Tech amalgam whipped towards Bellatrix, she parries the hit with her sword and cut the ends of its tail, the Amalgam seemed to scream with the sound of scraping metal, it shot another lighting at Bellatrix which she promptly cut, diverting it.
"How can you do that?" Akari stood up, she wasn't sure if trusting her was a good idea, but at least she could as long as Amy was in danger, Bellatrix looked at Akari and showed her muscles in her arms.
"I can cut anything!!!" Bellatrix said with a wide smile on her face.