Through the shattered window came a cloaked figure, descending from the roof. There would have been no easy way to get atop the roof while the train was in motion; only a superpowered individual would have been able to do so.
“Cultist! Get down!”
Recognising the situation, I called to my friends to take cover and threw myself to my feet. Protecting those girls was my number one priority, everything else came after.
I engaged my enemy, slipping past a second shuriken and delivering a weighty punch to the cultist’s gut. It was far from enough to win the fight outright, but he staggered enough to be out of range of my friends.
I noticed the veil fall in front of my face as I restanced to fight the assailant. From a sheath on their back, the cultist drew a glistening green katana, one that I could see just by the naked eye was sharp enough to cut through flesh like silk. One misstep would lead me to an early grave.
For a moment, the two of us hesitated to move at all. We were both aware that mistakes could prove fatal, and neither of us was willing to make the first one.
Eventually, the cultist seemed to grow board of our stand off and launched a sudden aggressive attack, slicing vertically upwards toward my left side. I’m able to slip backwards and avoid the slash, but the cultist is relentless, following up with a hortizontal swipe that I narrowly manage to suck under, then a vertical one that missed my chest by mere inches.
In a panic, I found myself automatically triggering 「The Illusionist」once again, my true body turning invisible and a clone substitute appearing to spill blood on the floor.
The following behaviour from the cultist confused me. After watching “corpse” fall to the ground, they moved instantaneously to approach the booth my friends were hiding in. No checking the body to confirm the kill, no slowed pace to recollect their thoughts, not even a moment wasted to breathe.
It was as if the clone was completely on autopilot. No, perhaps that’s not the best word to describe it. Reactionary. There seemed to be no higher thought occurring in their mind. Just automatic responses to certain stimuli.
Hoping to test my theory, I moved behind the walking cultist and delivered a weak low kick to their lower left leg.
Sure enough, as I expected, the cultist immediately lashed out toward the source of the kick without so much as taking a moment to look. They simply spun on the spot and swung their heavy sword with extreme speed and force. Had I not been prepared to duck the moment my kick made contact, I mightn’t’ve had time to avoid being decapitated.
In that very short moment, I confirmed two things: the cultists had blisteringly fast reactions, and seemingly no legitimate thought. It was as if everything that could possibly “slow down” the brain, such as conscience, had been stripped away.
In the next moment, I used the heavy movement of my adversary’s strike to open up an opportunity and deliver a brutal uppercut to the chin. The cultist was lifted from their feet and came to Earth with a crash, but quickly scrambled to get back to standing before I could strike a finishing blow.
I knew I had to end it quickly before I became unable to use 「The Illusionist」 again, so I took a moment to calm down and focus my mind on my ability. Slowly but surely, the understanding of how to use my power seeped into mind, as if I was just learning how to move one of my own organic body parts.
I envisioned the attack I wanted to use, emptied my mind of all other distractions, and focused everything I had on the cultist in front of me.
I began approaching at high speeds, and their defensive stance with their sword became suddenly erratic. This was due to illusions I was feeding to his mind: clone after clone ‘attacking’ them at different spots, forcing them to rapidly change their block and retreat, until I found a glaring hole in the defence. As the final of my clones disappears from the cultist’s perception, I reappear suddenly just inches from their face. In the next instant I slammed my knee into my adversary’s gut with extreme force.
Their constantly adjusting battle stance frequently failed to protect certain areas around the stomach, allowing me to pick the lowest risk place to attack.
As my opponent reeled, I finished the job with a right hook into a left uppercut which laid my opponent out flat before me.
Looking down at my easily dispatched failed assassin, I found myself wondering: why was this attack so lacklustre? Was I being tested or something? The fight was nothing compared to the slugfest against Yokoshima and Shiko yesterday, so why did it unnerve me so?
Trying to kick the thought out of my mind, I move to apprehend the cultist seemingly unconscious before me, but was interrupted by my lungs suddenly filling with smoke. The bastard had detonated a small smoke bomb, and by the time I was able to properly see again, the cultist was gone.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Though I was frustrated at myself for missing a prime opportunity to gain some information, the unfortunate cloud did come with a silver lining. In their scramble to get away from the train, the cultist had left their katana behind. They had been wearing gloves the whole time, so there was no likelihood that fingerprints could be used to unveil the identity of the assailant, but such a valuable and dangerous weapon changing from their hands to my own was nothing to shake a stick at.
Discontent but glad to be safe, I picked up the sword and trudged back to my friends, still huddled in a corner of the booth.
“Cultist got away, but at least we all made it out unscathed. We should count our blessings for that.” I said, taking a seat and ushering the others to return to their own. “You guys all unhurt?”
“We’re all a little shaken up, but none of us got hurt. Thanks for the save, Sora. That’s twice over we owe you our lives now.” Saki was the first to speak, rising to her feet and returning to her seat. Despite her words, she seemed surprisingly composed. It took a lot to rattle her, so I suppose I should have expected as much.
“You owe me nothing. I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I just left you guys out to dry, would I?”
“Even so, we appreciate it. You’re putting your own life on the line to protect ours.” Mai added, a little more white in the face that Mai but still keeping it together.
“Y-you saved us again, of course we’re thankful,” chimed in Sunao, by far the most rattled of the three. “W-we’re just baggage that you have to protect.”
“Hey, you girls are never baggage to me. If fighting is what I have to do to keep you all safe, that’s what I’ll do.” I well and truly meant those words, and I’m not sure those three could ever understand just how serious I was. I was ready and willing to sacrifice everything I had for them, the last people on Earth I was able to call friends.
“Sora’s heroics aside, the hell was a cultist doing attacking us? I mean, there’s no way that’s a coincidence, right?” Saki asked the question that had been in everyone’s minds. One day we have a near miss with a nefarious magical girl group, and the very next day we’re the victims of an attempted cult assassination? Something didn’t add up here.
“I don’t think we have enough information to say for sure… but the most likely explanation is that the cultists are in league with the magical girls in some way.” I voiced my opinion aloud, thinking over every detail we knew about both groups.
“Isn’t it also possible that the cultists have some way to trace magical girls? I mean, the two groups always end up finding each other in the city. Now that Sora’s one of them, maybe she’s attracting them, like moths to a flame in a way?” Saki rebutted my point, but her suggestion was quickly shot down by Mai.
“No, I don’t think that could be the case. There’s no way the magical girl hideout would be safe if it were. Even assuming the hideout itself has some way to avoid being traced, magical girls would almost definitely be followed back to it. I think this is something else entirely…” Mai breathed in heavily before she continued, as if the words she was about to say caused her physical pain. “I think… I think that’s what happens to the girls who go missing.”
“The girls who go missing? Like those Toukyouto kids that disappeared?” Saki asked.
“Yeah, those guys. Think about it: we know nothing about the cult except that they terrorise the streets for seemingly no reason, they can use some sort of magic power, and they’re constantly at odds with magical girls. Every time they show up, they cause a mess, hurt innocent people-“
“And get stopped by the brave and heroic magical girls…! It’s a publicity stunt! A fucking PR play! All those civvies hurt and even killed, just to make those magical girl frauds look like some damn comic book heroes!” The realisation set in for Saki, and she seemed completely enraged at the idea. Normally I’d have been against accepting such a conclusion without further evidence, but there was something that had bugged me too.
“Nao, these ‘mind control’ drugs or whatever, do you know what people tend to act like when under their influence?”
“Eh- u-um, I’ve never seen it for myself, b-but I hear they become kind of zombie like. Like they lose higher brain function and just-“
“Act completely reactionary?”
“Y-yeah.”
“That cultist… they didn’t seem to fight with any sort of intention or thought. Their actions had no strategy or intelligence behind them. It was like they were driven by a single-minded desire to kill the four of us, right up until they realised it was a lost cause and disappeared. They… almost seemed lifeless. Without a real will of there own.”
“Definitely sounds like a drugged up superpowered puppet to me.” Mai seemed to take my testimony as proof that her theory was correct, and even I had to admit it felt pretty damning.
“In that case, we know what we have to do: we have to free these girls from captivity. Give them their lives back. And throw it in the face of those bastards who took it all away from them.” Saki put her fist in her hand and grit her teeth. Her overwhelming desire to protect the weak was my favourite thing about her, so I hid a smile as I watched her get fired up.
“Forcing innocent people to despicable things, just so you can look good for stopping them. This is completely unforgivable. It doesn’t matter how outmatched we are, we have to do something to fight back.” Mai met Saki’s ferocity with her own determination, her strong sense of justice shining through her words.
“I-If I can identify the drug they use, I might be able to make an antidote. Then we can give these girls their lives back properly.” Despite her own anxieties, Sunao looked determined to do her part as she followed her comrade’s lead.
“Well then, ladies, I think we’re in agreement. Let’s take down an underground crime syndicate.” I finished up with a line I had always wanted to say, my own desire to do right by those who had been wronged pushing me along the path.
Despite our recent brushes of depth, the four of us looked between each other with renewed vigour.
This was no longer just about us. This was about helping those in need. Those that no one could help but us.
“By the way, what are you planning to do with that thing?” The long silence was eventually broken by Mai, who was pointing at the katana still in my left hand.
“Oh, I think I can find some use for it,” I said, as it slowly turned invisible in my hand.