Elysia(?)

As Lux moved away from Strawberry, I felt myself slip away, pushing away the persona that I'd worn for years into the corners of my mind. I liked that side of me for what it was for, but I had decided to put it on ice.

My body felt loose and powerful, and I smirked at the thought of these two coming at me at once.

Every magical girl had a Signature Talent intricately tied to their souls and origin at the point of contract. Some had the ability to warp or alter physical space around them, while others could grow plants out of the ground or control the weather. They were as numerous and varied as the stars in the sky.

I didn't know what Lux could do exactly, but the fact she could use Nightingale Eclipse's Shadow Dance was practically a giant glaring neon sign over her head.

I was almost certain I'd found my long lost sister, even if she didn't seem to recognize me at all. Or possibly even know I existed.

And Strawberry had been a bit of a mystery, but I knew she was agile, lithe, and quick. A natural and seasoned fighter, no doubt. She was a perky one too, which always made for fun sport.

I stood relaxed, resting my weight on one hip and stretching out as she charged at me.

"Um, Elysia?" Strawberry frowned, looking me up and down.

She looked a little uneasy, and I couldn't help but chuckle as I grinned at her.

"What?" I asked, blinking innocently as I tilted my head. "Ready for me?"

"You're wide open!" she shouted as she rushed me.

I let her approach, pivoting as I moved to the side with one hand still on my hip.

"I am indeed, completely ready, believe it or not. Why not give me your best shot?"

Frowning, she lunged at me with an overhead, but I rolled underneath her, gently tickling her ribs as I pivoted behind her.

I giggled.

"Aw, cripes!" she yelled angrily.

Strawberry stumbled whirled around, and I immediately stepped in and flicked her nose with a finger, giggling as she winced and attempted to counter.

"Hey, take this seriously, dammit!"

I grinned, blocking her jab with my arm as I twisted my wrist and gripped her hand. She tried to kick at my knees, but I ducked low, scooping her leg as I flipped her over my head.

She was skilled, and clearly spent hours upon hours drilling, but that was one of many problems for her.

I'd been raised as the adopted child of parents who were all about propriety and order and doing the right thing. Raised from childhood to fulfill a 'duty' I wasn't even aware of. Nor did I have a say in it.

I'd been trained in all sorts of functional martial arts since I could crawl, fed the most optimal diets a child could be fed, and instilled with habits and mindsets to succeed in practically any path I could have chosen.

And of course, I walked away from all that.

Dark Princess Eris was a persona born out of my desire for freedom and to not to be taken so seriously. A rejection of the training and stifling strictness of my childhood.

Elysia on the other hand... this persona of mine? She was in many ways, the opposite.

Composed and ladylike. Graceful and elegant. Doting and protective.

But not a pushover.

Like the others that I could craft and rotate between, she was just another facet and manifestation of my core ability that made me... me. Elysia, of course, was created from my personal image of the daughter my adopted parents wanted to raise.

I let go of Strawberry's hand and held up my arms with a smile as I swayed back and forth, winking. She kipped up as she eyed my footwork, landing in a wide cat stance with her brows furrowed.

I actually wasn't certain if I could beat Strawberry and Lux at the same time.

Levels, and the corresponding presence of one's aura, of course, were just a representation of the aggregated power of an individual based on their raw parameters and the total advancement of their personal Skills.

The knights had a threat classification for a reason, and specific abilities and the matchups they created mattered more than the sum of one's attributes and skills. Or the durability of their protective aura and the amount of mana they held.

There was no telling what miss Harmonia Lux could pull out from her bag of tricks. Even as inexperienced as the pair of them were, 'Elysia' was limited enough that I could be caught and brought down by the right strategy.

Arcadia Vox and Nightingale Eclipse had been the most freakishly talented magical knights ever produced by Kaleidoscope Academy. Not only that, but the two had naturally synergistic Signature Talents to gather and push power from the hearts and emotions of the people around them respectively. An argument could even be made that they were two of the most powerful ever. And it was undeniable that they'd formed the single greatest team in history ever when both were teamed with Paladis.

As much as I took after my own dear mother, Lux was from what I'd seen, just as crafty as Nightingale Eclipse was said to be.

Out of the corner of my eye, a Lux I recognized as an illusory clone flanked me from the left as Strawberry's nose twitched, and she swung again. No doubt to open up a blind spot.

I laughed, spinning out of the way as I slammed shoulder-first into a thin light construct, bouncing off and back toward Strawberry. She grinned, seizing on the 'opening' Lux created with a barrier to unbalance me, but I tightened my elbows and threw a palm strike at the catgirl's throat.

It was a glancing blow to the side of her trachea. Just enough to make it unpleasant for her, but it pushed her back just enough to cause a slight imbalance. I twisted and whipped her away from me, scooping my arm over her elbow.

I swung her up and reaped out her legs, slamming her onto her back, stepping over to crank the elbow. She yelped in pain, and I quickly let go to blanket her torso over with a sheet of ice.

Then, I turned my attention to the invisible Lux approaching me from behind.

Strawberry grimaced, clumsily rolling away as she hacked, sinking back to her knees as she tried to try to catch her breath through pained coughing. I could see water vapor rising from her body as she desperately tried to heat herself back up.

Then, I playfully leaned back as the real Lux emerged from her mirage, firing a beam of light directly at me. I turned to smile at her, countering with a burst of silver-blue, icy energy.

Her light became a crackling, buzzing stream of white and blue energy that twisted and turned with my icy wind, crashing and reverberating in the center of the arena.

I smiled, pouring just a bit more mana into our clash as the energies ground against each other, ripping the floor and padding apart.

Did she know just how impressive that was, I wonder?

Lux's level had risen quickly — no doubt due to her experience of surviving the Cataclysm, but she was a still a true novice. She was working off her natural cleverness and intuition, but the raw magical output she was capable of was already world-class.

She had inherited her mother's exceptional Magic score, no doubt, just as I'd inherited mine.

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Lux smirked at me, straining in the clash and I decided it was time to switch it up.

I felt my body moving, flowing as my emotions and instincts carried me through the motions.

She was right about all this.

It was fun.

It wasn't like the endless, soulless drills I'd been forced through as a child.

And she seemed to be having fun, too.

Her body blurred as she activated the Luminary Art she'd used earlier — Ethereal Moonlit Dance, was it?

She darted in and out, surrounding me with four separate copies that danced and looped around me.

And that was what finally caused me to frown.

Compared to even the most run-of-the-mill average cadet around our age, she was... slow.

She was a good head shorter than me, and her frame was slender and lean. I didn't know what conditions she grew up in, but given the extent Nightingale Eclipse had gone to hide and disappear, I guessed it wasn't exactly in the lap of luxury. That was something I'd have to change if... if I got the chance.

I didn't want to overwhelm her or Strawberry. Or hurt them. I was completely earnest and serious about that.

Dark Princess Eris was a transformation I'd created with the driven goal of compartmentalizing my own emotions. The weight of my true purpose here and the last three years of my life.

I'd hurt them as Eris, but it was a transformation that replaced my pain with... an almost cartoonish flippancy and creativity.

The persona allowed me to treat my fights with the Knights as a game or sport, to find fun in something that, under my true personality, I knew was real and dangerous.

It was necessary to compile the most creative, cunning, and adaptive parts of my psyche to find my remaining family, but Eris was a hollow, childish shell at the end of the day. She was a performance, just as much as being Elysia was a performance.

I always felt guilty after my capers, where the dulling effects of wearing a 'mask' with my Talent wore off. I'd always justify them with my true intentions... But now that I had found my sister. Lux. I felt a wave of overwhelming emotions.

How long had I looked for her without knowing she existed? Nearly three years.

Three years just grasping at wisps, ghosts, and classified files I'd memorized and copied.

Was she already coming around to me? Elysia?

Would she hate me for deceiving her when I eventually revealed myself?

Elysia was a part of me, but it was a very specific part of me. How would she feel about the real, complete me? Not Eris or Elysia, but all those parts of me combined?

"Luminary Bolt: Rapid Fire!"

She began to bombard me with those rapid-fire projectiles of hers, and I sighed. Throwing up a simple silver barrier.

She was sloppy.

Very sloppy.

A novice was an understatement.

If she could be this effective against Eris in spite of it? Her talent and imagination was astonishing.

Just then, I saw a flash of crimson as Strawberry flitted towards me, her claw blades roaring to life with a honed red light.

"Dawn's Flame: Berry Delight!"

Her whole body lit up with an indigo flame as she flew forward with tremendous speed, her attack ringing with a high-pitched screech as she carved through the air, one arm raised high in the air.

It was a powerful strike, and if it were a real combat situation, there would have been plenty of supervillains that she would be effective on. Especially with a team behind her.

Still...

It was a fundamentally flawed style. Strawberry's movements were too big and showy, her emotional state erratic.

I wasn't sure if it was something that could ever be fixed.

She would always be able to punch above her weight with it. Literally. But it was a style that developed raw, unfiltered power. There were far too many ways to counter it effectively. She was telegraphing her power and formulating her thoughts too slowly for my tastes.

Of course, she was already a much better fighter than Lux. Something I could sense immediately when I fought her initially. She'd made the mistake of feeling me out, and I was never one to draw out a fight if it was going to be a disadvantage to me.

"Luminary Art: Celestial Guardian Dome!"

Lux ceased her attack to clap her hands together, and a prismatic dome sprang up to enclose Strawberry and me in a sealed, tight cage.

One thing was for certain. Lux was more creative and adaptable than her sparring partner. More stubborn and determined, too. And far more willing to sacrifice her mana and stamina on risky maneuvers.

Frankly, that mindset made me worry for her, and... I really hoped we could work that out together.

I sighed, letting my body loosen up for what came next.

"I've got you!" Strawberry growled, rocketing toward me with yet another explosion.

Too predictable. Too eager. She'd made the exact same mistake she'd made against Lux.

One... two...

I bounced off my feet and closed the gap with Strawberry in a flash of blue, intercepting her with a straight kick directly beneath her. I could see a slight flicker of surprise and panic in her eyes as she hacked in pain and I let her drop to the ground, whipping my body around as I froze her again.

She'd left far too much space again with her large jumps.

Even though she was extremely quick for a first-year trainee, her style ultimately made her predictable and easier to close the distance on. If she'd been more conservative and only exploded like this when she needed to, she wouldn't leave as many openings as she did for someone to take advantage of.

Lux tried to follow up. She'd tried to sneak into the dome as she summoned it by cloaking herself again, but I was one step ahead.

"Silvermoon Art: Celestial Veil!"

I held out my arms as a wave of silvery, crescent energy burst out around me, distorting and disrupting everything around me. Including Lux's Ethereal Moonlit Dance.

She flinched in surprise as her illusory clones blinked out of existence, and I swept in, aiming for a gentle takedown.

"Luminary Barrier!"

She raised her hand with a grunt, and a golden dome sprang up between us.

Sloppy again. Barriers were my specialty, after all.

The semi-circles, walls, and domes she was using were inefficient and wasteful in their output.

And for something that was meant to hold off attackers, it was pathetically fragile.

...If we got the chance after this, I wanted to talk her ear off about hexagons and arches and all kinds of geeky stuff like that. Hopefully she wouldn't hate me too much for this.

I balled up a hand and struck the center of the dome, shattering it in a concussive blast of mana. Her eyes widened in surprise as I continued to step in, and she pulled her hands back to block a half-assed jab from me as she shuffled back.

I flowed into a series of follow-up strikes, tapping her here and there as she desperately put up a weak guard.

Rather than hurt her more than necessary, I hit her with a burst of frost and energy to blunt her focus. She tumbled back into the mats, groaning as she rolled to her feet, scrambling back to a distance between us. I followed her to the ground in a quick stride, placing a knee on her belly as gently as I could.

"Do you have something to say?" I asked.

She looked at me, breathless, sweaty, and frustrated as she tried to catch her breath. "Yeah... it looks like I do. I guess we lose?"

I grinned back at her as I pressed my hand to her head, letting a stream of soothing, blue-green energy roll down her.

She grunted as she sat up, tossing her wavy strawberry blonde hair as it spilled over her face. Then, she flashed me a cute and awkward smile.

It actually suited her quite well. She seemed so... serious. But she really did have a pretty smile.

I turned away, walking toward the sulking Strawberry, who was face-down and grumbling as steam began to rise from her body.

I chuckled, curling a strand of bright platinum blonde hair in my fingers as her tail flicked left and right. "Is Strawberry broken forever or can I fix her up too?" I called over to Lux.

"Hey! I'm right here!" she practically yowled, tail shooting straight up into the air.

I giggled. "Just checking."

Lux snorted, trying to hide a giggle. "Go ahead. She may be like that for awhile, though."

I bent over, studying her closely as I ran a gentle, shining wave of healing energy over her. Her aura began to stabilize, and she pulled herself to her feet, brushing her knees and hips as she stretched.

"You know, I think you guys have something, even if you both have a ways to go," I smiled, looking between them. "I think we should do this again, but there are some things I saw that I'd like to point out next time.

Lux's eyes widened in surprise, but she slowly nodded. "What kinds of things?"

I shook my head. "A little early for that, but I promise it'll be helpful. You two have some real potential if you keep up your training and... polish out the rough spots."

They were on the right track. Especially Lux.

With a little direction and fine-tuning, she had the potential to become incredibly powerful. Already, I'd seen her use both the signature Arts of Nightingale Eclipse and her own inherent magic to complement each other and create brand new techniques.

...Perhaps she could teach me a few things too, whenever she caught up to me. If she didn't hate me forever after all the deception and... the fact that her mother was a vengeful magical girl assassin who used to terrorize the world and that I wasn't much better in terms of conduct. And as far as she knew, I was just another student here on scholarship who'd approached her out of the blue.

The problem was, I had no idea how to approach the subject or tell her without scaring her off. It was almost unbearably frustrating.

...Hopefully, I could make things right. If I kept gaining Lux's trust, maybe I could come clean and not lose her. Or not have her hate me for the rest of my life. I'd have to find her a nice pair of shoes at the earliest opportunity without making it awkward or forced, at least. Sometimes, my Signature was as much of a curse as it was a blessing.

We finished clearing the debris and made our way out of the arena, chatting a bit about generalities and ice cream and plans for the start of classes.

And then, we exchanged contacts on our Nexus devices and went our separate ways.

I'd have to be careful not to slip up. As much as I'd enjoyed myself, there was still... so much to worry about.

As much as it pained me to not spill everything to her, I knew the circumstances were delicately balanced. It wasn't my place to force something on her.

Maybe, when the time was right, things could come to a head naturally.

I frowned, catching a familiar witch's hat out of the corner of my eye as a trio of magical girls passed down the courtyard at the head of a group of knights in tow, sneaking glances in Lux's direction as they walked away.

Gazing curiously.

A stuck-up bitch with a familiar witch's hat.

Pointing.

I narrowed my eyes, trying not to draw any attention to myself as I casually leaned against a wall in the shadows cast by the late afternoon sun.

...Lux and I could talk later.

I bit my lip as the idea popped into my head.

The shy, elegant girl faded away, and I nodded and snapped my fingers with a grin.

A manic glee overtook me as I practically felt my eyes flash red.

Hehehe, that was a fun romp.

Poo-Poo Princess had a job or two she needed to plan and pull.

Hopefully it was nothing, but if it wasn't, they'd get the message.

Whatever the circumstances were, the warnings signs were already there.

Clear as fucking day.

And that was something I absolutely wasn't going to tolerate. No sirree.

Not in this girl's lifetime.

Nobody. And I mean nobody fucks with my little sister and gets away with it.