"Hey, this ain't happened before. The hell is wrong with her?" Yokoshima let go of me as I writhed in pain, my every nerve on fire.
"Dunno. Bad reaction to the drug, maybe?" Shiko replied, completely nonchalant.
"Oh, great. Disappearances are one thing but a death is gonna get us in real hot water. Maybe we should hold off on injecting the other three, get these doses checked for contamination."
The assailants continued casually discussing my death amongst themselves, while agony coursed through my body. I could only assume that my friends were frozen solid due to fear, but I could barely see through the burning pain.
Just as my attackers began discussing how to dispose of my body, however, the pain began to alleviate. In fact, in just a matter of a few seconds, I stopped feeling it entirely. And another feeling also started easing up.
My… weight?
As the pain disappeared, my body began to feel lighter. Much lighter. As if I were practically weightless. I felt like, if I were to jump with all my might, I might never come back to Earth.
I might have a way out.
"Looks like she's out like a light. Let's check the body, see if there's any visible damage." said Yokoshima, as she reached down to move my now motionless body. As soon as her hand made contact, however, I grabbed her arm and spun my entire body on the spot, clipping the back of her head with my heel.
"Kyoko!" Shiko immediately took up a fighting stance as I effortlessly got to my feet. As I stood up, something black fell in front of my face, and I became aware that I was now dressed entirely in black. Not only that, but Shiko was now suddenly wearing a familiar uniform.
"Flame of time…" despite seemingly being in a state of complete shock, Amai was still able to recognise the unique outfit of the most famous magical girl group.
There was now not a shadow of a doubt: these girls were the real thing.
"You bitch. You should learn when to stay down." with superhuman speed, Shiko dashed towards me and threw a straight right punch at my head. At least, I assumed it was superhuman speed. To me, it almost looked slow.
I stepped right and dodged the first punch, then blocked the followup left turning kick with my elbow. I tried to strike back, throwing two right jabs into a left straight, but I was outmatched. Shiko blocked the first two punches, and when I overcommitted to the third she did a back handspring that narrowly avoided my fist, her feet striking my chin as I left myself defenceless.
As we backed away from each other, Yokoshima slowly rose to her feet and joined Shiko. Not only did I have the disadvantage in experience, but numbers too. Not to mention…
"It's time to end this."
"You took the words right out of my mouth, Ayacchi"
My adversaries both outstretched their right hands, and at the end of both appeared a sand timer wrapped in a purple magical energy. Their trump card.
"Time dilation!" as soon as the words left their mouth, their speed increased dramatically. No, from their own frame of reference they were likely no faster at all. I was simply moving in slow motion.
The strikes they threw in the next seconds were so blisteringly fast that, by the time I realised I had been hit once, I had already been hit again. My head, my liver, my thighs, they attacked every point that could disable me quickly. My endurance was good, but the overwhelming number of strikes began to add up. At the rate things were going, it would be a matter of seconds before they render me unconscious.
I began to think, 'the only way I can get out of this situation is to disappear entirely'
And, as if fate itself had intervened,
"What? Where did she go?" The question came from Shiko, as her and Yokoshima suddenly stopped striking my body, a look of confusion on both of their partially masked faces.
It took me a moment to understand what was happening, but as I looked down and noticed my own body absent from my view, I realised.
I was invisible.
"She just disappeared? The hell?"
"She must still be here somewhere. She wouldn't abandon these three."
"Then where the hell is she?"
As I silently regained my wits, I also noticed that they were talking at a normal pace. In other words, time dilation was no longer active. I also knew that the adrenaline was likely to wear off soon, and the pain would overwhelm me, so if I was gonna act, I had to act fast. Judging Shiko as the more physically capable of the two, I took a silent step back, before jumping off my right foot and delivering an aerial turning kick to the side of her head. As she reeled from the sudden impact, I landed lightly on my feet and bent my knees, launching an uppercut into her chin with more strength than I had ever used before.
It didn't matter how good her endurance was. Two strikes of that strength would knock out a grizzly bear, let alone a human. She hit the deck, out cold, leaving me one-on-one with Yokoshima. I was stronger than her, and my invisibility had yet to wear off, but my legs were starting to lock up from the repeated strikes, and my liver was in an immense amount of pain. I had to finish it quickly, or I'd be shit out of luck.
"Alright, Sora, where did you go? I knew you were sharp but I didn't think you were a cowa-ngh" I cut her taunting off with two quick punches into her upper-right abdomen. As had been proven on my ribcage not one minute ago, the liver was a very effective point to strike to cause someone as much pain as possible.
Predictably, she lashed out at where the punch came from, giving me a chance to slip behind her and throw two more quick punches, this time into the back of her head. Knowing she was likely to throw a wide-area punch, I ducked my head and threw another strike at her liver, to which she recoiled in pain. But as the punch connected, I noticed…
"Can see you again now, huh? Looks like this fight is over." My invisibility had worn off, putting us on a completely even playing field. Considering I had sustained more strikes and had less experience fighting with powers, the odds were certainly stacked against me. My only advantage was that I had more raw strength. And I didn't have the time to consider how to use it either.
With tremendous speed, Yokoshima closed the gap between us and aimed an uppercut straight for my head. No time to block or dodge. Only option was a counter strike.
We made contact at the exact same time. Her left fist struck my chin, as mine came down onto the side of her head. With superhuman strength like hers, I was lifted off of the ground and came back down with a dull thud, completely dazed but just barely clinging to consciousness. Yokoshima, however, hit the deck with force. Against a normal person, a strike to the head like that could have been potentially life threatening, but for her it just put her out like a light.
"Sora!" I heard one of the girls call my name, though I wasn't cognisant enough to know which. I felt two of them grab me, one on each shoulder, and hoist me to my feet. Though the dizziness of multiple strikes to the head still had a vice grip on me, I was able to recover myself enough to remain standing, where I saw Amai holding me up on my left and Saki doing the same on my right. A quick scan of the room and I saw Sunao heading for the door with a bag slung over her shoulder. Did she have that when we came in?
"It's too heavy for me, is Sora awake enough to do it?" I heard Sunao call as she tugged at the door.
"Sora, hey, you still with us, girl?" asked Amai, still supporting me on my left side.
"I… I'm awake." I struggled to get the words out, and my head was still spinning, but I knew I had no time to stand around. "Help me… get to the door…"
Saki and Amai supported me every step of the way across the room, where I grabbed the handle of the heavy door and pulled with all my might. Luckily, I managed to get it open, but Mai had to catch me to prevent me from falling flat on my ass.
The four of us clumsily slipped out of the door, and quietly made our way along the hallway. I was still so out of sorts that I could barely even walk, so Mai acted as my crutch the entire way. At the end of the hallway, we crept down the stairs, with Saki going out just ahead to make sure the coast was clear. Ever so quietly, we hugged the wall and moved from the staircase to the front door to make our escape. We didn't see anyone along the way, but there was no telling where they could be hiding. If their ability was like mine, it could be in plain sight.
Finally, we got to the door, where we realised…
"How the hell are we gonna get down?" Saki was the first to voice the question on all of our minds. We had only gotten up here in the first place because Yokoshima and Shiko could fly.
"Reckon you can do what they did, Sora?" asked Mai, though she didn't sound particularly hopeful.
"Even if I can… normally… I can't… in this state." I struggled to even get the sentence out, my mind and body both aching.
It seemed we had no options. We were over 20 metres above ground, dropping from this height would be a death sentence.
"...what about a jump?" asked Saki, without further elaboration.
"What?"
"Just one jump, with all four of us, from here to the next roof over. Reckon you could make that?"
I looked at the roof she was talking about. With my newfound strength, I didn't doubt that a jump like that would be trivial when I was in good condition. But when I was dizzied, battered and carrying three people?
"It would be… a risk, to say the least."
"Do we have another choice?"
I thought about it some more, but she was right. This was our one shot at getting out of here alive. I stood up straight, made sure I had found my balance, and prepared for the worst.
"We have to try. Get closer, you three."
I grabbed hold of Mai and Saki, one in each arm, and Sunao climbed on my back. I took a deep breath, found my footing, and leaped with everything I had out of the hideout door.