Chapter Text
“The time is now ten p.m.,” the speaker crackled. Leana tightened the grip on her halberd and watched as the dome in the middle of the city began to light up. “All citizens should be indoors and all magical girls transformed.”
Right as the announcement ended, the Inner Barrier began to spread, a horrible patchwork of neon green and deep purple overtaking the city. Just looking at it gave her a headache, and that was the last thing she needed on her first night solo. It hadn’t even been a day since—
“Get a grip,” she muttered. There wasn’t time for that. She could grieve later. Right now, she had a job to do.
Already, there were monsters scurrying around. At first, she thought they might have been civilians caught out after dark, but there was no way a group that large got stuck outside by accident. And as they got closer, she could tell they were too off to be people. Limbs too long, no real faces to speak of, clothing was a patchwork of different outfits.
Why’d it have to be humanoid ones? Of all the monsters she could’ve run into.
“Get a grip,” she repeated, hefting her weapon. With one burst of concentrated magic, the blade of the halberd flared to life, bathing the surrounding area in blinding light. Then she swung, casting that light into the street as a wave of heat.
In an instant, the whole street was on fire. The heat was even enough to warp the streetlamps. She knew she’d used too much power with that last attack, but right now she didn’t really care. She just wanted to see these assholes burn.
The monsters shrieked as they charged, despite not having mouths. Thrashing every which way while the fire raged all around them. Leana charged, swinging the halberd and cleaving through monster after monster. Carving through chests and faces, barely able to hear the fire or the shrieking over the roar of her own thoughts. She kept picturing Mitsuki’s face every time she swung. Laying on the floor, half buried in ice, with that horrid sludge leaking out from everywhere.
She caught the last one in the head, sinking her halberd right where it’s nose should have been, and it began leaking that same purple sludge. Slowly, its face broke open, revealing two pits where the eyes should have been, and a long, rictus grin. With a laugh, it reached those awful, spindly arms up to wrap Leana in its grip.
“Burn,” she spat, sending more magic to her weapon. It flared, and the monster began to peel away, flaking apart into dust as the heat from her halberd enveloped it. The laughter still rang in her ears, though.
“Who’s next!?” she shouted, whirling around to face the empty street. Right. She’d already cleared it of monsters. Time to move on.
She trudged down the street, trying to keep an eye out as best she could. She couldn’t afford to lose focus tonight. Last night, she’d been complaining about homework with Mingxing on patrol. They’d cut a lazy path through the city with no real sense of urgency. If only she’d been more alert, more focused, then maybe…
“Get a grip,” she muttered. She started jogging, eyes peeled for the next group of monsters. The CDD allegedly pulled some strings to get their area covered for the foreseeable future, but she couldn’t just sit by and do nothing. Not again. Finding monsters was hard without Mingxing to scout things out, but she’d make do. It wasn’t like she had any other choice.
It took her a while to find more. Tonight was a quiet one, unfortunately, which left her way too much time alone with her thoughts. She was actually relieved when she saw the slimy frog creatures pull themselves out of the alley. Slapping sets of webbed fingers on nearby windows, trying to grab at the people inside. Like she was going to let that happen.
She rushed forward and thrust her spear into the first one, lighting it on fire from the inside out. It practically burst, spewing hot, wet mess over the whole street. Gross, but at least it got the attention of his friends. They clambered down off the window and puffed their cheeks up, unleashing a torrent of barbed tongues. Three each, all lashing around and trying to hook her in.
She spun her halberd, slicing through most of the oncoming mess, then swung the blade through the monsters themselves. Their guts split open, spilling green slime out onto the street. And catching on her weapon, too. The arc of her swing brought the halberd into the ground, and there it stuck, adhered in place by the quickly drying goo.
Another flash of magic burned the stuff away, but it took her mind off the battle for a split second. And in that second, the leader of the frog-things lurched forward and struck her in the shoulder with its tongue. The barb sank in, lodging itself in her shoulder blade from behind, and the rest of the tongue enveloped her torso.
As quick as the tongue came out, it lurched back in, pulling her with it. She only just managed to twist around and wedge her knee up as its jaws clamped around her, keeping it from immediately swallowing her. But she didn’t have her weapon, and this thing had strength. All of which it was currently applying to crush her between its gummy jaws.
Images of Mitsuki flashed through her mind again, and she screamed, concentrating her power to unleash a blast of light directly from her hand. The tongue began bubbling around her, melting and fading into nothing in the same breath. But the rest of the monster didn’t feel like following suit so quickly. It reached up, trying to pry her out of its mouth, and she lashed out, striking through the roof of its mouth and flaring her fist once more. And then she struck it again. And again. And again. Screaming and burning and punching until it was dust.
She could feel her strength fading as she turned around. She’d used up a lot of magic tonight, and if she pushed herself any harder she might end up like Mingxing. Her first night out solo, and she almost got herself killed. Of course she had. She wasn’t strong like Mitsuki, and she didn’t have Mingxing’s sheer determination. It had been easy back when Team Spear were all together, but on her own, this was all she amounted to.
As she limped over to retrieve her halberd, however, she saw more motion out of the corner of her eye. A large chittering thing making its way down the street, scraping claws against the barrier as it went. The light didn’t catch it right, producing a strange array of colors that made her head ache, so it was hard to tell exactly what it looked like. But Leana knew one thing. She was in no shape to fight.
Still, that was no reason to give up.
“Come on!” she shouted, hefting her weapon up with her good arm. “I’m not done yet!”
As she stepped forward, however, something in her leg gave out, and she collapsed to one knee. After a moment, she began to drag herself forward instead, gathering magic in her chest to send to her weapon.
Before she could unleash it, however, someone stepped between her and her target. She had a matte gray dress that seemed assembled out of random shapes, with hard edges and angles crossing all over her body. It tapered out toward her arms and legs, ending in jagged points, and taken together it felt like she was wearing a dress made out of knives. She also wore a hooded cape with the same lines crossing back and forth over it. She glanced back at Leana, but most of her face was still obscured by the hood.
“I’m borrowing this,” she muttered, holding out her hand. Leana felt a gut-wrenching sensation in her shoulder as the blood leaking out of her wound began to flow faster, flying off her body and forming a long pole in the girl’s hand. The sudden loss of blood was enough to make her feel dizzy, but as she caught herself, she noticed the wound had scabbed over.
“Alright big guy,” the new girl said, swinging the pole of blood around. As she did, the lines along her dress and cape flared up bright red, casting her in a crimson glow. “Let’s dance.”
She rushed forward and ducked as the iridescent giant swung a large hand at her, and she scraped the pole along its arm. As she did, the end of the pole changed shape into a blade, and she sliced the arm clean through. It swung another down at her, and she flicked her now spear toward it, fanning the length out into a large shield. It absorbed the brunt of the impact, and immediately she stuck her hands into it, twisting them to drag the blood into a new shape.
Twin spirals formed on the shield of blood, and after a moment, they shot forward as lances, spearing through the monster’s arm and piercing its chest. It shrieked and lurched forward in a last-ditch effort to crush her, but she moved quicker, drawing the blood back into a long blade and slicing through the beast before it could land. The two halves of it hit the ground on either side of her with a heavy thud.
“Here,” the girl muttered, tossing the pole back to Leana. She didn’t really know what to do with a polearm made out of her own blood, but as it landed next to her, it returned to liquid form and lurched back up into her shoulder, pressing through the newly formed scar tissue and rejoining her body. The sensation as the blood reentered her body was absolutely awful, but at least she was alive.
“Thanks,” she said, using her halberd to push herself to her feet.
“Don’t mention it,” the new girl said, flicking her hood back up. It had come off at some point during the fight, but Leana had been too focused on her movements to notice. She did notice the red streaks running through the girl's hair, though. They seemed to flare the same as the lines on her dress, veins of crimson in a sea of gray.
Finally, she put together who the new girl was. Scarlet something-or-other. Leana had seen her around Future’s Promise a few times, but they’d never spoken before. From everything she’d seen, the girl was kind of a loner. Always sulking around with a large hoodie over her uniform. Never talking in class. Brushing off anyone who talked to her with one- or two-word answers. The dictionary definition of prickly, in a lot of ways. But she had just saved Leana’s life, so she couldn’t be all bad.
“You really saved my hide there,” Leana said.
“Don’t make me do it again,” Scarlet said. “The CDD has me here until the end of the week, but if you don’t figure your shit out, you’re not going to last that long.”
“I can take care of myself,” Leana huffed.
Scarlet stared at her for a moment, then shrugged.
“Suit yourself, I guess. Just try not to do anything stupid. And probably get that shoulder looked at. My patch job won’t last forever.”
Leana stared down at her shoulder. Yeah, that wasn’t ideal. Had to do better to make sure she didn’t slip up like that going forward.
“Thanks for the heads up. My name’s Leana, by the way. I go by Sunlight Spear.” She stepped forward and offered her hand.
“I know,” Scarlet said. She took the hand and shook it once before turning around. “I’ve got to get back to patrol. You should head to the hospital.”
“Not going to tell me your name?” Leana asked.
“Scarlet,” she muttered. Low enough that if Leana didn’t already know that much, she probably wouldn’t have worked it out. “Sorry about your team, by the way.”
And with that, she disappeared down the street.
Well, she wasn’t the nicest person Leana had ever met, but she was a competent magical girl, at least. And if Leana was going to keep holding down this route, she’d have to learn how to get along for the next few days. At least until she was back to a hundred percent, which very clearly she wasn’t.
“Nice to meet you too,” she muttered. Then she swung her halberd over her shoulder and started walking. It was a couple miles to Shrine Memorial, but if she needed to get her shoulder looked at anyway, then it was a good excuse to visit Mingxing. It’d do her a world of good to see her best friend again, after the night she’d just had.