Episode 29: The Witch of Gemini
A torrential downpour.
“Hey.”
There had been no such forecast.
No instructions had come from the meteorological observation team, either.
The [Witch of Gemini] had lost one of her two hearts, her Magus Engines, and should have been weakened as a result.
That was how things were supposed to be.
“…WHOSE heart is that?”
Two Witches spread their paired wings.
M-particles were being dispersed everywhere.
Black, and yellow.
Phosphorescence in warning colours reminiscent of a bee, bleeding into the rain.
“[Strawberry Pink] to [Chihuahua Yellow]. Respond.”
She sent a thought-communication signal. No response. Nobody answered. Nothing came back.
It wasn’t jamming.
“[Strawberry Pink] to [Chihuahua Yellow]… Respond. Quickly.”
“From HQ to [Strawberry Pink]. Welcome back. Communications from [Chihuahua Yellow] have been lost for 672 seconds.”
“How long was I asleep?”
“Do not let the [Witch of Gemini] return alive.”
“I asked how long I was asleep, HQ.”
*
“1,418 seconds. Approximately 23 minutes.”
*
A cold, dispassionate declaration.
The falling rain beat the threads down against the ground.
Threads that sliced through everything they touched were battered out of the air by the rain, scoring the earth below.
Haruka traced the final communication logs from [Chihuahua Yellow]. The last entry was from approximately 680 seconds ago.
The last one. Her final one. There was nothing after it.
[Strawberry Pink] raised her magical cyberdeck staff.
The answer was painfully simple.
“…So if I don’t kill her, I’ll die.”
“■■■■■■■ GREEN VORTEX!”
Lightning.
The magical staff deflected it.
The lightning rebounded, raced across the rain-soaked ground, and struck at her feet once more.
Lightning from the sky.
Lightning again.
An overwhelming force of energy that pierced M-particles.
[Strawberry Pink]’s entire body convulsed violently. Her internal organs, limbs, bones and nerves had all been replaced with magical cyberwear.
Emerald lightning raced along the wet metal.
It burned her brain.
Smoke poured from her eye sockets and mouth.
The pain of her internal organs burning was cut off by severing the pain signals in her spinal cord.
“Phew! If I were still flesh and blood, I’d be dead.”
She had merely short-circuited. The unbearable pain had simply been shut down at the spinal cord. An agony sufficient to kill an ordinary person was merely assaulting her entire body.
A guaranteed-kill zone.
Everywhere the rain fell.
Everywhere the lightning could reach.
It was all an execution ground controlled by the [Witch of Gemini].
Lightning did not conduct through pure water, but this was Chiba City, a metropolis polluted by waste. Impurities capable of conducting electricity swarmed through the water like ants in a nest.
Meanwhile, [Strawberry Pink]’s weapon, the [Monofilament Whip], had been rendered useless. Those thin threads that could slice through anything couldn’t withstand the weight of the rain.
“Why… why won’t anyone just…!”
*
She broke into a run
Her magical cyberwear legs, recovered from their short circuit, kicked apart the ground as [Strawberry Pink] surged forward.
*
“LET ME ENJOY A FIGHT FOR ONCE!”
The grotesque [Witch of Gemini], with her two torsos and spread wings, gave chase.
Her steel wings swept obstacles aside.
Her girl-like black dress soaked through in the rain.
She pursued [Strawberry Pink] at a speed worthy of a bird of prey, emerald lightning wrapped around her body…!
“[Strawberry Pink] to HQ!”
“Your request for reinforcements is approved. Hold out for 300 seconds.”
“That’s impossible!”
*
A gale.
*
Illegal buildings were hurled away.
When she deflected and dodged the debris with her magical staff, emerald lightning struck at the now-defenceless [Strawberry Pink].
The thirty per cent that remained.
The sensation of her living flesh burning.
The sensation of her complex brain turning into protein.
She drove out the pain.
She set [Thought] in motion.
*
A little girl with fluffy golden hair, clutching a stuffed animal and sobbing.
“That’s not it.”
*
A girl who added “Senior” to her callsign, smiling like a sunflower.
“I don’t need that.”
*
A girl who had cheerfully announced that she was going to eat pudding.
“Stop wasting [Thought] on [Chihuahua Yellow], you idiot…!”
*
Magical combat was fought using magical cyberwear.
It was a battle to the death between supersonic weapons controlled through M-particle thought transmission. Any clouding of thought meant a fatal reduction in combat speed.
Emerald lightning flooded her vision.
She used her magical cyberdeck staff as a makeshift lightning rod and dodged.
The shock of the lightning blasted rubble into the air.
And there, in the debris, something entered her field of vision.
*
A girl whose Magus Engine had been ripped from her chest.
With fluffy golden hair.
Innocent.
Her junior.