章 92: 92 - night's shadow 3
*
"Pffftttt, what do you mean by the secret of magical girls?!" (Myuu)
Struggling to stifle her laughter, her arms were clutched onto her stomach as if she was trying to contain her convulsions from laughing too much. Her cheeks reddened in colour as she barely maintains eye contact with me. I was standing right nearby while observing her hysteria breaking out.
As it was still afternoon, I had returned back to my untransformed state to walk with Myuu under the sunlight. I suppose we would look like a visiting young couple due to our casual clothing, though I couldn't really think of Myuu in that way. If I did, I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping in the same bed out of guilt. The suns rays beat down on my whitened skin, it had become pale almost unnaturally so due to lack of exposure. It was a relief when Myuu said my complexion had improved, as my body is dyed with daily life, I hope my daily life also gets dyed with my own colour.
It was inefficient, yet necessary, at least I felt that it was. Ever since I had first released my transformation, it felt like I had lost something important to me. It felt like I was missing something as long as I stayed transformed, I use my original body's health as an excuse, but honestly it was suppose to be fine to stay as a magical girl forever. It would preserve my health to a bare minimum and let me live as long as possible. It was the treasured gift of immortality. So why? I couldn't find out myself.
It was inefficient to travel like this, irrational to understand and still remain like this. It went against common sense to be this inefficient, it also left a burden on our shoulders. It's unreasonable, yet I still do it. I'm still selfish and weak. I wish it was not the case, but my only choice is to move forward.
As we made our way towards the centre, soldiers have started appearing to stroll around more frequently. By soldiers, I had meant human soldiers, the ones that wore camouflage and held rifles.
Where these soldiers came from may vary, but it wouldn't be a surprise if a large army from a country decided to take over the faction right after The Great Disaster. There was only confusion and madness as a result the disaster, seizing control with force was nothing hardly expected. But to say that there was anything left of that country now would be an exaggeration. Volunteers and other conscripts had joined to make the military non-homogenous to one country. It was also more accurate to say that they were the Eye God's army.
As we trudge over the sandy road, stone and wooden buildings had lined our surroundings along with numerous stalls. Shops selling pottery and other places sold farmed ingredients, like this there was also a lot of normal citizens living here that pass their day to day daily life in this quiet manner. Though we were slightly on the more expensive side in terms of fashion, we didn't particularly stand out in this environment.
*Pa*
".... What the hell. Did you watch where you're going?!" (Soldier?)
My right shoulder brush passed that of a soldier's, he cranes his neck shaking his scruffy black hair and half shaved beard. Small dots of his hair had occupied his chin, his body was built to be decently fit. He could boast off his toughness to his friends and seemed to have trained well to reach such a muscular structure.
He stares at me a little, slightly dazed and my face and even more pissed off. He lifts up his arm towards my face, seemingly about to grab it when Myuu blocked it with her bare palm. In sheer exasperation and raised eyebrows, he attempts to nudge out his arm away from Myuu's steel grip. Myuu merely kept him in place, all the while his tension flew further into the stratosphere.
It didn't take long for him to realise. Generally speaking, being a magical girl had raised our ranks far higher than his. It was only natural considering the amount of strength we can contribute in a fight. When it comes down to it, out running his rifle's barrage would hardly be rare for magical girls. It was such a domineering existence that makes one felt like their head was forcefully stepped on, unable to even look up anymore he lost feeling in his grip and collapsed on the ground.
Seeing as such, it was too troublesome to stay untransformed at this rate. Before his body hit the ground, I had already gained some thoughts on how to make things more convenient. I transformed into a magical girl, the surrounding ground caved in by half a metre from the impact. That was except for the parts of the ground covered by Myuu's legs, a beautiful crescent crater had formed to intimidate.
Light gray locks flutter from my head with sharp bangs covering the center and right side while parting on the left. They were of a shiny silvery texture that wrapped like a band around the back of my head to end sharply in front, a soft collar made of cloth partially covers up around my neck. It was a collar similar to that of a sailor uniforms, and it had a similar middle clothe piece but it had a large difference. It was sleeveless in its original design with the top starting from around the centre to carefully wrapped around my back.
With the unlock of my second skill, it had slightly changed to include a sleeve that reached all the way to an exposed wrist, a tiny gem and blade attached to it on the back of my forearm. A partial Cape had also expanded out from the collar. 2 pieces of cloth extend from the centre below my back, around my hips, to the centre of my thighs and then outwards like a coat. Under it was 2 layers of half-skirts that extended in opposite directions with their embroidery and texture, below it was transparent black thigh highs.
With a super blatant magical girl combat dress like this, surely people would stop messing with us. As expected, disregarding the soldiers, everyone had begun to part away for our passage. It was as if we were royalty, what Is aw in their eyes was dear. It was a very familiar kind of fear, fear of the unknown. After all, to most people magic was not something to be comprehended. It was a tool for war and violence. Seeing their reactions I understood. I would have been much better off in a normal magical girl show... This world was way too cruel for it...
"Hmpf, now you've done it huh..." (Myuu)
"Meh. I don't regret it one bit. Let's just take advantage of this while we can. Anything you want to do before we look for a place to stay? We can continue renting a cheap room in the outer parts of Central before going further in where its more urbanised and expansive. "
Her pondering expression was cute as well. Her long eyelashes fluttered along with her brunette hair and pigtails as her right hand was placed on her chin. You know, maybe we really do look like villains from the perspective of the average citizen here. The scary bodyguard + the innocent looking but evil mistress. Well, we aren't doing anything bad for now, so I'd just continue this way.
"We could stock up on food, but we aren't exactly going to the middle of nowhere. I doubt we need any particular supplies other than some mosquito repellant." (Myuu)
"Hmmm~... Then let's just go. I've already bought plenty of those."
Hopping onto the top of a building, the surrounding ones were only around 2 or 3 floors at most so it wasn't too difficult. Using some strength to leap forward, some ceilings may have gotten chip along the way but we managed to shorten travel time by hopping over roofs at extremely fast speeds. It took around 6 hours and had caused to sky to shift into a dark twilight blue before a navy-bluish black.
After a certain point the roads and buildings had become concrete and we noticed some movement on the peripherals of our detection range. They were skirting it, trying to be careful even if we may not have been paying attention to our radars. But before any of that, they were long caught by my passive. The buildings here weren't much different in height, but as we travelled further inwards there was a visible incline from 2-3 storeys to around 14 storeys. If I had to guess, those were mostly office buildings as solving the housing issue with short houses would be more efficient in terms of speed.
Urban society. A taste of previous modernity that invokes nostalgia and yearning. It felt like we had returned back to the past, at the same time we didn't. There was an undeniable foreign feeling to it, whether it be the massive presence of the Eye God blocking out the sun and the moon or the slight difference in architecture that prioritised function over beauty.
It was oppressive and warm at the same time, a person's reaction... No, a magical girl's reaction as well was no more better than anyone else. Neither rational nor logical, no one knew what they were feeling towards the Eye God. Was it fear? Or was it admirance? This unending flow of uneasiness and discomfort sure didn't make it easy to judge.
Finally the presence came next to us, since we froze upon feeling the Eye God's presence. It felt like we were being observed, examined and picked apart. It felt like just breathing here was far harder than anywhere else, even if the affluence raised the quality of life here. Maybe normal humans wouldn't be able to feel such a thing and could go on normally with their own lives as such.
The magical girl that entered our detection range and had come next to us as we froze spoke up. She had brilliant blond hair with a frilly and lacy black jacket that covered her grey baggy thin shirt and dark crimson red skirt. Much of her legs were exposed by the relatively short skirt of hers though I don't think I'm one to speak because of my own outfit also revealing quite a bit of my legs. When I stay still it's still fine, but when I move around it starts lifting by itself so as to not restrict my own movements, my legs begin to feel windy but not cold due to the black thigh highs.
".... Are you guys from the sanctuary? Usually enemies would ignore that confusing feeling and start attacking things irrationally, so I assume you aren't here with violent intentions?" (Border guard, Claire Miria)
"Yeah, you could say we're country bumpkins on a long vacation."
She made an inquisitive look as if trying to peer into my soul, but the intrusive feeling from the Eye God was easily more disturbing than a mere border guard's gaze. Not that it hurt my job, it was her who simply received the bad end of the stick. Her job made harder by this faction's leader and God magical girl, The Eye God. I heard that the progenitor of magical girls resided somewhere around here in the inner part of Central, so that would be the main focus of our objective for now.
Finding lodgings had become an experienced habit, judging the quality of every place in an instant and analysing if the room was worth the price. To save up on cost, Myuu had resigned herself to sleeping on the same bad. Honestly it was a big save for my wallet, I was thinking if she didn't want to do that I would get her a second room this time.
A hostile environment from the start, there was a lot ahead of us. To avenge Owner's daughter, to dissolve the organisation under the progenitor, to obtain the truth of magical girls and the Eye God. Surely I'll achieve it here. I'll achieve my goal, to be the ideal magical girl. Though that all depends on what one person thinks when they think about the word 'ideal'. Everyone would have different expectations. So first and foremost, I would have to fulfill my own expectations. My heart beat faster at the thought of all those, this anxiety residing in my chest echoing my heart beats , I'll savour it.
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