The veil fell in front of my face and I immediately assumed a fighting stance, waiting for my new adversary to make a move.
"Why must you rush to violence, Sora? I'm sure we can solve this little spat with words. Don't you think?"
I didn't recognise her voice, but clearly she was aware of who we were. Yokoshima and Shiko must have already told the rest of their accomplices everything they knew about our identities.
"Why are you making magical slaves and posing as heroes? Fame? Influence? Money? What could possibly make you stoop so low?"
"Slave is such a nasty word. I prefer to think of them as… superpowered workhorses. Yes, that's about right. We don't hurt them or mistreat them. We just tell them what to do and they happily do it. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, really."
"Beneficial? Stripping someone of their free will? Are you completely insane?"
The girl's mask covered only her eyes and nose, so I was able to see the cruel smile curling onto her lips. If Yokoshima was manipulative and Shiko was misanthropic, this girl seemed outright sadistic.
"Do any of us truly have free will, my dearest Sora? So many things about our lives are decided for us, are they not? We live to work and serve the system. A cog in the machine does not require thought to turn. All we're doing is taking away that unnecessary baggage, they work oh so efficiently without it."
Though I couldn't see her eyes, a slight head movement told me that she had switched her focus from myself to Sunao, who I had previously realised was quietly preparing a syringe with the serum while I kept the girl talking.
"Unfortunately, it seems the four of you lovely ladies have taken it upon yourselves to interfere with those plans. An antidote, was it? Now, I'm afraid that's something I simply can't allow."
As soon as she finished speaking she raised her right arm in front of her. Immediately clocking what she was trying to do, I closed the gap between us as quickly as possible, but I was a hair short of my target.
"Time dilation!"
Just as before, everything but the mysterious girl slowed to a crawl. She was looking at Nao with killing intent, but there was no way for me to stop her. All I could do was desperately try to slow her down.
Reading her eye movements, I predicted she would run to my left, so I took a quick step to intercept her path, only to be met with a shin kick to my left calf that almost caused me to buckle. Strikes to the calf aren't as painful as strikes to the thigh, but they cause quick swelling that makes it difficult to walk. In other words, she was laying down the groundwork to take me out early. It was a trap, and I was careless.
With speed so great that I was barely able to process my own pain, she battered my body with precisely placed strikes, mercilessly attacking every nerve she could reach. All I could do was protect my head, but the onslaught didn't slow down. After what felt like just a few seconds for me, but was likely nearly a minute for her, I was struggling to even stay on my feet.
"Nao, inject yourself!" Amai's voice sounded out across the room, and both the mysterious girl and I momentarily turned our attention to Sunao, who was holding a fully prepared syringe to her arm. However, she hesitated.
"Not on my watch, Naochan." With a well placed kick to the back of my leg, the girl sent me to the floor and moved to dash towards Sunao. Thankfully, her time dilation ended, giving someone else a brief but crucial moment to intervene.
As Nao flinched and covered her face, she accidentally let the syringe fly, and on the other end of its arc was Saki.
In a movement so swift and so precise that you'd believe she was already a magical girl, Saki jumped from the spot and grabbed the syringe in midair, slamming the magical girl's head with an aerial kick in the process. By the time she landed on the ground, the needle was already in her arm.
"No!" The mysterious girl yelled, hurling a punch at Saki's face. However, Saki deflected the strike with her hand and returned in kind, slamming her fist into the girl's nose with unbridled fury. Between the blood now pouring from it and the crooked angle it sat at, it was clear that Saki had broken the girl's nose in one strike.
"Argh, you bitch!" The fake friendliness now gone from her voice, the mysterious magical girl shrieked at Saki in pain. As I sat unable to help, the two launched into a fight of pure violence.
It was clear to anyone watching that Saki was stronger, faster and had better endurance, but her adversary was leagues ahead in technique. I recognised her fighting style as Muay Thai, and it was clear she was well trained in it. While Saki pelted her with random attacks, the assailant struck precisely, aiming for weak areas and seeking to shut her opponent down early.
It became increasingly obvious that Saki was on the back foot. And I could do nothing but sit and watch, my muscles aching too much for me to get to my feet.
Then things became dire quickly. The enemy hit a clean throat punch, making Saki retreat in panic as she gasped for air. The magical girl didn't let up for even a second, using the opportunity to launch low kick after low kick into Saki's legs, getting closer and closer to incapacitating her.
As Saki seemed to hit a point of total desperation, however, I felt my body suddenly relax and my pain begin to ease somewhat. My body felt even lighter than usual, and somehow I felt I was able to perfectly read Saki's thoughts.
'I can't fight this girl alone. I need a miracle.'
As it happened, I recalled a miracle of my own making, and I now had just enough strength to make it happen. I got to my feet and traipsed my aching body over to the large cabinet by the wall, from which I removed the no-longer-invisible tachi that I had hidden there earlier.
"Saki! Catch!" Aware that I was in no state to wield it myself, I launched the great sword across the room and towards our adversary's head. The girl caught on at the very last second and was forced to step away, giving Saki a moment of reprieve to retake her stance and, more importantly, to catch the blade.
With over a metre between the two, Saki now had an enormous range advantage, and she sought to use it as quickly as possible. She feigned a heavy vertical slash and used her opponents' panicked dodge to attack with a much faster slice across the body. The sword made slight contact around the abdomen, but only enough to draw the slightest bit of blood. She continued with attack after attack, but her opponent kept managing to dodge just out of range of the cutting edge.
With the amount of precisely placed strikes Saki had taken to her legs, it wouldn't be long before her calf muscles began to seize up, at which point she'd be unable to fight. With that in mind, I took a desperate measure and used my remaining strength to run for my bag near the table where Sunao had conducted her testing. From within, I drew the second weapon I had taken from the cult member: a shuriken.
At my current position, I had just as much of a chance of hitting Saki as I had of hitting the mysterious girl. And yet, somehow I felt like Saki already knew my intentions, and that I'd be able to throw the star without any risk of harming her.
Praying to god that my hunch was right, I launched the shuriken with every ounce of strength my sore arms had left. Just as I somehow expected she would, Saki ducked the moment I threw it, allowing it to sink deeply into the other magical girl's shoulder.
"Aaargh! T-Time dilation!" Seemingly realising that there was no conceivable way for her to win, the girl desperately cast her signature magic and sprinted for the door. By the time she left the room, her time dilation had already ended, but it was enough to ensure her escape.
Saki and I both collapsed to the ground, every muscle in our bodies exhausted. Whatever effect had previously alleviated my pain had completely disappeared, and a shockwave of agony coursed through my overworked muscles.
"Sora!"
"Saki!"
Amai and Sunao ran over to me and Saki respectively, a look of grave concern painted on both of their faces. It wasn't at all surprising that they looked so scared; this was our closest brush with defeat yet.
"Sora, why did you throw that star at Saki?! That was so reckless! If she hadn't ducked you'd have killed her with it!" Sunao shouted at me angrily, her usual meekness nowhere to be seen.
"It's fine, Nao." It wasn't me that responded to her anger, but Saki. "Somehow… somehow I knew exactly what Sora was going to do. And I think she knew that I knew too… I can't explain how, but it's like we were communicating without actually speaking to one another."
"Yeah. I felt it too." That confirmed that my intuition wasn't misplaced. In some way or another, Saki and I had seemingly been able to read each other's thoughts. "It was almost like Saki's intentions were being transmitted right to my brain."
"Hmm… like telepathy?" offered Mai. "Like, you were able to read each other's thoughts? Maybe that's a magical girl power, then? The ability to telepathically connect to their allies?"
"No, I don't think that's right." To my surprise, Saki shot that notion down immediately. Despite her unsure phrasing, it seemed like there was certainty in her voice. "I think… this might be my power. Sora has the power of 「The Illusionist」, right? Well, I think my power is 「Fearless Leader」."
"Fearless Leader? Like, you're able to directly lead your teammates in battle even without speaking to them?"
"Yeah, something like that. But not just that. When I thought about how it would be impossible for me to win the fight alone, I suddenly felt a burst of energy, and my pain got lighter. As if I was directly borrowing Sora's strength."
"Actually, I felt the same thing." I butted into the conversation, Saki's explanation had suddenly cleared up exactly what had happened at that point. "I suddenly became able to read what you were thinking, and all the pain and exhaustion I felt seemed to alleviate slightly. I felt stronger and faster, and it was almost like I was borrowing strength from you."
My power had first awakened during a moment of great distress too. The first time I used my 「Illusionist」was when Yokoshima and Shiko were overwhelming me with their time dilation. This time, it seemed like a similar situation had awakened Saki's ability to use 「Fearless Leader」.
"Hmm… maybe your ability isn't to borrow and lend power between allies, but to combine it?" Amai put her hand to her chin as if deep in thought. Despite her prior concern for my wellbeing, it seemed the forefront of her mind was now focused on what exactly Saki's newfound power truly was.
"Combine it? What do you mean by that?" Saki asked, seemingly also forgetting about the pain in her own body.
"Have you ever heard the old platitude, 'a lone stick is easy to break, but a bundle of sticks is unbreakable?' A group of sticks all stacked together doesn't become hard to break because each individual stick is now stronger, but because together they amount to a much greater strength than they ever could alone. I think your ability works by taking the strength of yourself and your allies and binding them together, making both yourself and those you're leading stronger."
The logic made plenty of sense. Saki's strength and my own were both practically spent by the time her 「Fearless Leader」activated, so if we were lending that strength to one another it would have amounted to nothing. But combining both of our powers in a way that we could mutually benefit from… that would have worked much better.
"Well, regardless of what power it was achieved with, the four of us narrowly escaped death today. By the fact that our attacker aimed directly for the defenceless Nao, it's obvious these bastards won't think twice about taking a life if it means we can't get in the way of their plans." I said, remembering the merciless look in the girl's eye as she seemingly locked onto Sunao.
"That just means we have to try even harder to stop them. If they're willing to not only turn people into slaves, but also kill anyone who gets in their way, there's no telling what else they'll do to achieve their twisted goals." Despite the ruthless beatdown she had just taken, Saki seemed more motivated than ever to make a change in the world.
"In that case, we're gonna need all four of us on the frontlines! Naochan, let's get to making two more doses, pronto!" And, as ever, Mai seemed full of drive to do the same. It seemed practically inevitable that all four of us would be magical girls at this rate, but to our collective surprise.
"I'm… not making any more doses. Not again. Not anymore." Sunao had completely turned against the idea.