Episode 24: A Different Face
A light hurtled towards them.
A moment later came the explosion, the shockwave bursting outward.
And then, impact. A very young, innocent-looking girl had landed.
Her dress was bright yellow magical cyberwear, fluttering as she spun around.
Her hair floated softly about her, so yellow it made you want to smile.
Her wide-open eyes sparkled like the petals of a sunflower, and atop her head sat an adorable headband with little dog ears.
From the point where she landed, yellow phosphorescence burst forth in jagged cracks, splintering and shattering the ground.
The towering illegal buildings collapsed.
“Wah-wah! My Yellow ♥ Punch missed!”
“[Blue]!”
“…!”
Black phosphorescence enveloped the [Witch of Gemini].
A pitch-black mask covered her expression.
A black dress billowed around her.
Magical cyberwear wings unfolded from her back, but only one of them.
“No! Emerald!”
“■■■ run”
The [Witch of Gemini] managed a brief warning.
A blast of wind exploded outward.
The wing of her magical cyberwear caught the yellow shockwave.
“Chii-waaa…”
The moment the impact subsided…
“…Wah!”
The second impact came.
The fist of [Chihuahua Yellow], which had been caught by the wing, punched straight through it.
It was a spear.
A blow concealed within chrome-steel gloves shaped like paw pads.
The [M-70 Pile Driver]. It seized its target with its paw-shaped grip, then drove a stake from the centre of the palm.
The wing was pierced.
Mechanical feathers scattered through the sky.
The pitch-black mask of the [Witch of Gemini] was struck and pierced through.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!”
“Nyah-wuff?!”
As the collapsing mass of illegal buildings swallowed them, Sere looked up.
The [Witch of Gemini], her wing pierced.
And the black phosphorescence pouring from her.
*
The sky was painted black.
*
“■■■■■■■■■■■ GREEN VORTEX!”
“Gyaaaah?!”
An emerald light came crashing down.
A strike faster than sound.
Falling from the heavens, it was a bolt of lightning, followed by the thunder that roared in its wake!
Using her two Magus Engines, the [Witch of Gemini] generated an extraordinary quantity of M-particles, scattering them into the air through her wings.
M-particles transmit thought, colouring the space around them.
And then…
They allow her to control the weather at will.
“…No! Emerald! You can’t do that without Jade-chan! If you do, then…!”
“Ehehe! ♥”
At the lightning’s point of impact, [Chihuahua Yellow] rose to her feet, black smoke billowing from her body.
Her yellow dress was unscathed.
There was not a trace of cloudiness in her shining yellow eyes.
“Output is half what it was in the data from twenty years before the Battle of Hakodate! Are you feeling poorly, Witch-san?!”
[Chihuahua Yellow] didn’t have a single injury.
The girl’s pale skin showed no sign of pain or discomfort.
The [Witch of Gemini], by contrast, was falling. Dark, blackened blood spilled from behind her shattered mask as she tumbled into the rubble of the collapsing illegal buildings.
Right towards Sere.
“…!”
“Wuff?! A-a civilian?! Oh no, HQ’s gonna be mad at me…!”
“Emerald!”
Sere caught the falling Witch in her arms.
Then, without stopping, she ran, slipping into the rubble to hide from her pursuer and shake off the chase.
“…Ahh…”
[Chihuahua Yellow] smiled, her face crumpling into a soft, lopsided grin.
*
“If they’re terrorists, it’s fine to get as many of them caught up in the collateral damage as we like, right?”
*
Her sunflower-petal eyes fixed on the fleeing figures, tracking them right to their core.