Minerva was kneeling next to the Shadow’s core, with her hand phasing through Kuma’s barriers and attuning to the body inside. Slowly but surely the girl’s face was appearing on the core’s surface, her eyes closed with an almost disturbingly serene expression.
As her body appeared behind her, she slumped forwards into Minerva’s arms who pulled the rest of her out of the sphere. In that very moment Kuma closed his hands around the Shadow and crushed it mercilessly, ending the threat it posed once and for all.
The girl seemed to still be sleeping peacefully – then she convulsed as the shadows that were filling her airways and stomach liquefied. Minerva rolled her to the side so she could throw up.
She was covered in the black liquid that slowly evaporated into nothing, revealing more and more of her appearance. She was a young girl wearing a middle school uniform, the same that Sarina wore. Her hair was done in pigtails that accentuated her cute features, even while they were covered in black goo.
“There you go. Let it all out. Nasty stuff, isn’t it? Gets everywhere.”
She patted her back as she watched over her, repeating the words spoken to her by the wizard sixteen years ago, as she had done for every victim of a Shadow since then. Afterwards she turned her head to Kuma – he had already started to vanish through an open portal in the roof, while next to him his bear-faced mascot avatar reappeared together with the battered Sarina and Rei.
“Haruna! Are you okay?”
They both ran over to Minerva, and she gladly left the girl in their care.
She stood up, walking over to Kuma. She held cold fury in her eyes as she stood face to face with his avatar.
“I haven’t forgotten about how tonight’s mess started. Would you mind explaining why I am still labeled as a ‘member of an evil organization’ and your girls attacked on sight?”
The eldritch being seemed unusually flustered at her question to the point that even its avatar squirmed in place.
“I may have let it slip once when the girls wanted to get to know you, the ‘oldest Magical Girl’. I thought they would figure out my deception.” Kuma sheepishly admitted.
It was enough to break Minerva’s anger as a stifled laugh broke through her lips.
“Warn me next time, you idiot.” She patted the mascot’s head – though she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck for just a moment and leaned in closer.
“Because if this happens again, I’ll kick your ass.”
“My apologies.” If the creature could sigh, this was the closest it ever got to it.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” The two girls holding Haruna said as she went back to check up on the girl. Their relief had them crying openly while holding their friend. The girl finally opened her eyes in confusion.
“Rei? Sarina?”
She didn’t seem to be in pain – or looked like she had gone through the same ordeal that Seika did all those years ago.
“I had the most beautiful dream. Takeru accepted my confession and…”
Her voice trailed off, then she looked at the dissolving corpse of the Shadow.
“Right. It was never real, was it?”
Minerva got the confirmation she needed. The Shadows were more than just beasts that ambush prey. They were intelligent enough to identify the mechanism by which their victim generates magic and can use that to their advantage. Flooding Haruna with a happy dream, rendering her unaware of her situation – that was behind the nigh-infinite supply of magical energy.
“Are you girls okay now?” She turned to face the group, examining their injuries. They did look battered. They took one or two hits from rubble after their transformations had come undone, but they didn’t appear to be in any danger from their injuries. In response to her questions Sarina and Rei nodded – Haruna was still a little too confused to reply to her, so she let it go. She reached out towards the two injured girls and spread a blue glow along their injuries, which slowly started to mend.
“Take it from a veteran – it becomes harder to explain away those kinds of injuries to your parents the more it happens. At some point they will assume you’re dating some kind of delinquent. So, take care of yourselves from here on out, alright?”
It's a shame that this is all we can do at this point. We can’t even use it on ourselves.
“It is on us to offer benediction unto others, but not unto ourselves.”
And here I thought I’d finally move into easy street when we managed to turn our stasis into a proper healing spell.
“Nothing is ever that simple.”
image [https://i.imgur.com/CdWLhkc.png]
Minerva said her goodbyes and left the group back on the roof – their happy reunion would supply them with enough magic energy to find their way back home, and if not, there was still Kuma.
Now that the arduous task of subjugating the Shadow was done, she allowed herself a breather, to take in the beautiful sights of the city below. Countless little yellow lights filled her view, emanating from all the blocky houses. Large veins of light split the blocks apart with white and red lights driving along them. She touched her forehead, noticing that it was still bleeding.
I hope the plane could land without issues. But we must have quite inconvenienced the passengers.
She soared through the sky a bit longer like that until she noticed a light that didn’t fit into the backdrop of the night sky. It was colored blue and seemed to approach her rapidly.
“Watch out!”
Only as it was almost too late, she could see that the light was armed with a weapon.
Minerva summoned her cane and held it in front of herself with both hands, just in time to catch the thrusting halberd aimed at her heart.
The force of the thrust lifted her and her assailant further into the sky and she could look her in the eyes. It was the same blue Magical Girl who had shown no mercy to the traffickers in the warehouse.
Her facial expression however was slightly different, like her mind was taken over by bloodlust.
After accepting that her thrust wouldn’t get her anywhere, she instead swung the halberd downwards with force. Minerva got yanked along with the motion until the other Magical Girl made her weapon disappear, causing her to shoot straight down towards the city with the assailant in hot pursuit.
As she fell, she could see the other woman accelerating towards her. She resummoned her halberd and prepared it sideways for one of the kind of swings that bisected a criminal a few days ago.
Minerva drew her cane sword and held it at the ready.
As her opponent came into reach, she deflected the oncoming swing while closing the distance, giving the other woman a taste of her elbow.
They separated after and were kept in freefall until they came to a hovering standstill and then a soft landing on top of a large shopping center.
image [https://i.imgur.com/SkMzjwL.png]
“What is this about?” Minerva asked, her exhaustion carrying through her voice. She didn’t know if she had the strength for a third fight in a row.
The assailant lifted her halberd and pointed at Minerva. Now she could see that she was covered in lacerations that were all too familiar to her.
“Lethe got to her!”
I can see that. But how does that relate to her wanting to murder us?
The assailant didn’t answer her question yet, instead she kept her halberd pointed at Minerva’s heart.
“Realm of Duels!” she shouted, and the environment changed.
It was like day was breaking over Tokyo, and at the same time a light fog was descending on it. The area was bathed in a bright light, muted by the mist obscuring faraway sights, with the line of the horizon around them showing a blueish hue, as if light was coming from it instead of the absent sun.
Lines were visible through the mist, forming a mesh that seemed to keep them trapped in the area.
They were still very much in Shibuya – Seika could see the famous crossing on the ground level as she peered over the edge of the building.
There were no people, though. Right now, the two of them were alone.
“She can create a pocket dimension?!”
Now the woman lowered her weapon and walked in a wide circle around Minerva, keeping her in sight.
“We’re alone, now, sister. Or should I address you differently, since my sister is not in control?”
Minerva furrowed her brow in response.
“Let me talk to her.”
Inside Minerva’s head Seika didn’t hesitate – the wizard told her to never let the crystal take full control, but through the last sixteen years the two of them built trust towards one another to the point that Minerva was sometimes allowed to be in control on her own.
Go ahead.
Minerva closed her eyes and relaxed, letting the crystal take full control for the moment. Seika could feel herself drifting into the back of her own head as Minerva proper took over.
“I am in control. I don’t know you, so I assume you were born after me. Who are you?”
The armored Magical Girl seemed to be taken aback by how easy it was for Minerva to take control, as if the mere thought of the way they shared was unfathomable to her, but she composed herself quickly.
“I am your younger sister, Bellona. Child of Jove and Juno. Originally, I was sent here because Juno was worried that her husband left the duty to protect this world to a single girl.”
I knew it! You guys are Roman gods!
Seika had spent some time researching the name ‘Minerva’ at her mother’s library in the months following the Kawaguchi incident. She came across it in a book about antique mythologies of the west. In particular, Minerva’s tale of being born from her father Jupiter’s head was too similar to how she had acquired her crystal.
And yet, the timeline didn’t add up, but she intended to solve that mystery.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Seika.”
Come on, it’s not funny to keep pretending!
“I am serious.”
The simple response took the wind out of Seika’s sails and left her even more confused than before. At this point she just decided to sit back for the ‘sisters’ to have their dialogue.
“Originally. So, you think that has changed?”
She squinted her eyes at Bellona.
“Of course it has! She is by far not the only Magical Girl here. The place is practically crawling with them, and they all retire after a few years and get replaced by another generation! Wouldn’t it be fair to let her retire, too and return home?”
No! If I have the ability, I need to keep this power to help people. After all this time I can’t simply put it all aside!
Seika communicated her thoughts to Minerva, but in this instant – for the first time in the last ten years she was uncertain how her other self would react.
Bellona stepped closer to her sister, giving her a smile that clashed with her otherwise serious expression.
“I originally cooperated with my host, too, is what I’m told. We even became partners, or so she said – though I can’t seem to remember her ever treating me fairly. This past year her mind has been entirely consumed with revenge against this plant woman. She uses me for my powers but denies me any form of freedom. Until today.”
She laughed maniacally.
“Her concentration slipped, and I finally took over! No matter how much she pleads, no matter how much she apologizes! I won’t give up control again. I’ll return home and leave her here!”
She finally arrived right in front of Minerva and reached for her hand.
“So come with me, sister. Let’s return home. Let’s leave those pathetic humans behind! Even your host denies your wisdom and tried to leave the scum of the earth alive during that raid on the kidnapper den, didn’t she?”
Slap.
Minerva denied her sister’s longing in the most visceral way possible – by at first slapping aside her hand and then slapping her across the face for good measure.
“Pull yourself together! Our parents left us here for a reason! And until they recall us themselves, we will stay here.”
Bellona’s hand trembled. The bloodlust Minerva had seen in her eyes returned gradually. She took multiple steps back from her sister, summoning her halberd back to her side.
“Then let us make it a duel. Win… and I will stay here and will endure the humiliation of bending to that mortal’s will.”
She clenched her teeth as she readied her weapon. Seika felt herself pulled back out of the recesses of her mind and back into shared control with Minerva.
“But if I win, I’ll rip you from the corpse of that woman you share a body with and bring you back by force!”
Minerva summoned her cane sword and readied herself.
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“Sorry for turning things violent… but I couldn’t stand her talking about you like that.”
image [https://i.imgur.com/CdWLhkc.png]
Neither of the two were in top shape – Bellona had just lost to Lethe and had her neck and arms cut open by the thorny vines while Minerva had collided with a plane head-on and almost lost to a Shadow Empress in the process.
It was hard to say who had the handicap in this situation.
Bellona was the first to move – in the blink of an eye she closed the distance – her halberd was still lowered, with the blade turned towards the top to slash in an upwards motion. As Minerva dodged it to the side her sister quickly turned the blade by ninety degrees to follow up with a horizontal slash.
Steel met steel as Minerva deflected the blow with her cane sword, grabbing the halberd’s shaft with her hand after. Her cane sword was raised above her head and pointed towards Bellona’s throat.
The armored Magical Girl didn’t appear to care, reaching up and grabbing the cane sword’s blade with her armored gauntlet.
They both were locked in a quiet struggle, with grunts and the rattle of metal interrupting them from time to time. The struggle was finally broken as Bellona made her own weapon disappear into thin air and used her now free left hand to punch Minerva in the stomach, before using her advantage to send her flying off the roof with a magically enhanced kick.
“You should probably avoid a direct struggle involving raw strength with her.”
…thanks for the heads-up.
“Anytime!”
Minerva caught herself before she would have crashed into the asphalt below. Hovering horizontally with her back facing the road she looked up and saw Bellona jumping over the edge of the building. Her halberd was in her hand again – which was raised above the woman’s head for a throw.
Minerva yanked herself to the side to avoid the utensil of death that barely missed her and made the asphalt and underlying concrete explode into sharp pieces of shrapnel flying in every direction from the force of the impact.
The halberd was stuck so deep in the ground that the blade wasn’t visible anymore. Minerva turned to Bellona, shrugging at her after that miss.
“Now what?”
Bellona raised an eyebrow and the halberd simply disappeared, dispersing into light that was reabsorbed by the crystal on her gauntlet.
She raised her left arm in front of her, clenching her hand into a fist as a magic circle appeared right in front of the crystal. She gestured an arc above her head and five more magic circles appeared.
From each a weapon appeared. A longsword, a spear, a musket, a rapier and a pike – all of them silver and blue and engraved with magic circles.
You might not know what I meant by Roman gods, but this is undeniably a goddess of war.
“If you say so.”
Minerva brought herself into an upright position and sprinted as Bellona flung the bladed weapons her way one after the other, propelled by magic. The spear buried itself into the ground to her left, the sword almost grazed her right arm and cracked the ground before it was flung further into the distance, spinning.
She had to stop as the pike crashed into the asphalt right in front of her and turned around to deflect the rapier to the side with her own blade. She felt something hot and hard hit her shoulder, realizing that she had been shot by the musket. Luckily her magic armor held, and it only bruised her – but she got hit by the empty musket’s butt in the face right after.
“Gah! This is annoying!”
She stood her ground, looking at Bellona who hovered above her and summoned five more swords. All of them flew towards Minerva at the same time, who sheathed her cane sword and responded by summoning five icicles in turn.
The projectiles collided mid-air, and the explosion of the icicles filled the surrounding area with diamond dust that obscured the view for both combatants. Both of them kept following up, sending more projectiles that just turned visibility worse as they kept colliding. Finally, Minerva charged ahead, flying straight towards Bellona’s last position but found her spot empty.
A silver glint from the side was all the warning she got and once again she caught the tip of the halberd with her cane.
This time, though, she was prepared. She pushed the weapon to the side until her cane’s crystal was pointed at Bellona’s chest and shot out a lightning strike. The elemental forces were conducted by the blue-haired woman’s armor and Seika could see her grit her teeth as she was quite literally shocked to be hit by that attack.
It didn’t take long for her to retaliate, though; She made Minerva stumble again by letting her halberd vanish into thin air. Her crystal then glowed, summoning a magic circle in front of it that she simply plunged her right hand into, drawing a longsword that she used to go on the attack.
Minerva had to break away from her to dodge the swing aimed for her midsection. As she flew backwards, she readied her cane and blasted a fireball in Bellona’s direction. It exploded and obscured the view on her opponent – though owing to that Minerva wasn’t aware that her opponent had raised a magical shield and kept charging at her until it was too late.
The blue Magical Girl rammed into her with raised barrier, carrying her along and crashing her into one of the surrounding buildings. Glass was flying in every direction as the Magical Girls smashed through the windows with ease.
Minerva tried to get off the barrier but found herself soon pinned against a wall. Bellona quickly followed up, summoning her halberd back to her side to thrust it towards her – though a short moment before impact she had to collapse her barrier, providing the crimson Magical Girl with all the opportunities she needed.
With a thought she channeled energy through the cane and switched to using earth magic – stretching the definition of the word a little as the concrete wall behind her became animated from the spell and two large arms formed. One grabbed the halberd before it could pierce Minerva and snapped it in half, causing it to simply disintegrate to be called again via magic, while the other fist squarely landed in Bellona’s face and sent her flying a few meters.
Minerva went on to chase her, extending her cane to control the very floor Bellona landed on. The concrete reached out and tried to grab the armored Magical Girl’s legs and wrists, forcing her to run and never stop.
This is it! She made a mistake bringing us in here. I’ll have her soon enough!
Bellona looked at her with cold, calculating eyes as she kept dodging the arms sprouting from the ground. She gave herself some space by summoning muskets from magical circles, forcing Minerva to dodge the shots and subsequently following empty muskets themselves, slowing her advance. She turned around a corner, leaving behind three more muskets that fired at Minerva, but she simply used her magical barriers to deflect those shots as she pursued her opponent.
“Wait! Don’t be too hasty, Seika!”
Minerva turned the corner that she saw Bellona vanish behind and was faced with a large barrel pointed right at her. It was the muzzle of a cannon, of the kind that had been in use during the Tokugawa Shogunate. The blue Magical Girl kneeled behind it, breathing heavily as she finished the summoning of the large weapon, which seemed to take a toll on her. The magical circle it came out of had just barely faded and the woman didn’t waste a second.
Minerva shouted in surprise and reinforced her barriers as a loud bang filled the building.
She crashed through a window that had been far behind her and saw the building drift further away as she lost altitude – and as she reached ground level, she lost consciousness as well.
image [https://i.imgur.com/CdWLhkc.png]
Seika felt numb. The numbness spread from her head throughout her entire body, giving her the impression that she was floating in darkness with a single bright light shining on her. Her vision was blurry, and the light hurt to look at, but it was the only thing she could see. It grew and grew and swallowed her whole, and next thing she knew she was flying above the city.
A gentle spring breeze caressed her face as she came to a standstill, looking around. She caught a glimpse of glowing red-orange hair, so she concluded that right now she must be Minerva Crimson.
Minerva wasn’t alone in the sky, either. Someone was next to her.
Words left Minerva’s mouth, even though Seika wasn’t consciously speaking.
“Don’t you ever feel like the difficulty of some of our fights has ramped up ever since we teamed up? I swear, Madame Bille in particular always sends out exactly as many marionettes as we can handle. It’s like we’re part of a performance.”
The one rambling was Minerva, or rather, Seika fused with Minerva.
“Maybe… or maybe you started slacking off a little.” The other voice was familiar.
No, it can’t be…
Minerva let out a sigh and turned around to face Bellona. She hovered a little closer and poked the armored Magical Girl’s exposed collarbone.
“What? Are you dissing me?”
The response was a smirk on the usually oh-so-serious face. Minerva felt a tug in her chest as she saw it, which confused Seika in her role as the quiet observer.
Why do I feel so… at home?
“So… after saving the world once again, what is the plan? Do you still have work?” Bellona asked, starting to fly ahead with Minerva following close.
“Sadly. Yoshida really slacked off and I’m in a final sprint to get volume 3 released in time. Even taking the smoke break to be here could be frowned upon by my co-workers.”
“A shame. I would have loved to spend a little more time together.”
“We could probably hang out properly if you actually told me who you are, you know?” Minerva added with a bitter smile.
“You know everything about me, and I only know you as Bellona Azure, the armored Magical Girl.”
Bellona stopped and turned around to face Minerva with another quite atypical smile.
“All in due time.”
image [https://i.imgur.com/CdWLhkc.png]
“Seika? Seika, come on! Wake up, Seika!”
Seika could feel her face getting slapped – gently at first, then a bit harder. Her eyes shot open, and she sat up straight in the blink of an eye, looking around.
“What a weird dream…” She mumbled – and had already forgotten what it was about. She was still in the mysterious haze that Bellona had summoned, though right now she was halfway underground. Judging by the rubble around her and the half-destroyed roof above her head the cannonball must have crashed her right into one of the entrances of Shibuya station.
The oddest part about it was that she was in her office clothes right now.
“Did I get hit so hard that my transformation came undone? Why didn’t she finish me off, then, like she said she’d do?”
Seika turned around and was suddenly face to face with her alter ego, Minerva.
“HAAAH?!” Seika shouted and stumbled backwards, falling on her butt.
Right in front of her was Minerva Crimson in the flesh, separate from her.
Said woman let out a laugh and pointed at Seika.
“You should have seen the dumb look on your face!”
“How are you here?!”
Seika looked at her with enlarged eyes, rubbing them multiple times for good measure – she even took her glasses off which did nothing but render Minerva blurry.
“I don’t quite get it myself, but I think this pocket dimension she created is similar to the world our parents are from. At least that would explain how I can exist without a host.”
Minerva offered Seika a hand and she took it.
It's so warm. She’s really a living, breathing being in here.
Minerva assisted Seika on her feet and continued.
“When we crashed in here it looked bad. I think our spine snapped. I decided to take over control and end the transformation while we were out of sight, to buy time to recover our ability to transform.”
Seika grimaced in pain after standing upright. Her clothing was completely fine, owed to the fact that she had been a Magical Girl until the impact, but underneath she was covered in black bruises all over her body.
“Ugh… I’m not sure I can walk too far. And it’s not like she would let us leave, huh?”
Minerva shook her head and placed Seika’s arm around her shoulder, assisting her as they ascended the stairs.
“Quite right. Luckily for us it seems that summoning that cannon has taken a piece out of her, so she’s spent the past five minutes that you were out cold brooding on top of the tallest building, possibly to recover her magic reserves.”
“What a good turn of fortune.”
“Absolutely. I am amazed how long we held out today without our transformation coming undone in the first place. Three fights in a row? You’re a stubborn one, Seika.”
“The first of those fights was absolutely unnecessary.”
Minerva let out a laugh again.
“You wiped the floor with those novices, so it’s all good.”
They continued to hobble together, reaching the ground level. They were still at the Shibuya Scramble, right in front of the diagonal zebra crossing that lead over to Hachiko Square.
The trusty dog was still waiting for its master, even while made out of bronze – in this moment it almost seemed like it was waiting for her.
And speaking of someone waiting, when Seika looked up the Shibuya Sky building, she could see the silhouette of the blue Magical Girl, looking down on the unusual pair from the rooftop.
They started moving again – pain shot through Seika’s body, but whenever she stumbled or lost her balance, Minerva was there to support her. They kept walking and approaching the other side of the crossing, terribly slow but determined to see this through.
Halfway across Minerva stopped.
image [https://i.imgur.com/tYGz3xG.png]
“I think it’s alright now. I have enough power to fuse again.”
“I think you would do better without me at this point.” Seika replied with a bitter smile.
Her alter ego simply shook her head, sliding Seika’s arm off her shoulder and turning to face her, holding her shoulders as gently as she could to avoid hurting her any further.
“We have come this far together. I want us to finish it together, too. Besides, I have an idea how to beat her.” She winked at Seika and moved in for a hug – though their bodies never made contact. Instead, Minerva vanished into Seika and changed her.
They were Minerva Crimson united once again.
image [https://i.imgur.com/CdWLhkc.png]
Minerva reached the top of Shibuya Sky, where Seika had her date mere days ago. It looked comfortingly familiar, even with the fog all around it. She landed on the edge of the helicopter landing pad, with Bellona facing her from the other end.
They stared each other down, neither making the first move just yet.
“You know, undoing your transformation could maybe be considered cheating. But by letting our contest continue until I truly kill that woman I can prove once and for all that my will is stronger than yours, sister.”
Bellona summoned her halberd to her side and assumed a combat stance.
Seika took a backseat for the moment to let Minerva proper respond to the challenge.
“That’s the kind of hubris they write poems about in this world, sister. There is a lot of unfortunate precedent.”
She could see the armored woman sneer at that remark.
“Because they are weak. You’ve lived among them for sixteen years and you still can’t see that?”
Minerva felt her lips rise in a smirk, then she let out genuine laughter.
“You are so certain of your superiority that you think you are above the typical downfall that follows it? Quite the textbook definition of hubris, Bellona.”
The other woman’s eye twitched. It seemed like Minerva’s provocations were having an effect on her.
In this moment Minerva assumed her own stance – planting her feet far apart, leaning forward. She held her cane by her left side, with her right hand hovering above the sword’s hilt, like she was preparing to perform iaijutsu with the wrong kind of sword.
Bellona accepted the challenge, though she didn’t move yet. The two Magical Girls stared at each other, weapons readied, single beads of sweat running down their foreheads.
Minerva Crimson’s form was still as battered as Bellona’s, with blood trickling down her forehead – as a droplet separated from her chin and fell to the ground it was almost like time stood still with the two sisters’ heartbeats slowing and their minds sharpening for what they had to do; and then, as the drop of blood inaudibly splashed down on the helipad, Bellona moved.
She rushed right for Minerva’s position, the spike of her halberd ahead to impale her sister, undo her transformation and make good on her bloody promise.
She probably had countless possible scenarios planned out in her mind how to deal with a quick unsheathing strike and was certain of her victory – but Minerva did not plan to perform such a mundane attack.
A hiss could be heard as the crimson Magical Girl thrust her left hand forward, aiming the pommel at Bellona and undoing the earth magic with which she had kept the sheath sealed so far – she reused the same trick she attempted in the kidnappers’ lair.
The unforeseen gesture made the armored woman hesitate for the fraction of a second, with her expression shifting to confusion.
In the next few milliseconds the hiss was revealed to be an impossibly dense concentration of steam ejecting from the magic scabbard, propelling the blade forwards with immeasurable force.
Yet some more milliseconds later the pommel made contact with Bellona’s breastplate. Fissures formed, turned to cracks – chunks of metal were flying in every direction as it caved in her chest and caused her to spew blood.
She had lost her composure and flew past Minerva – but the red Magical Girl wouldn’t have it end with just that.
She grabbed her sister by the cape, using her momentum to spin her around and launch her over the edge of the observation platform. Following her she lifted a hand in the air and created a massive boulder that she followed up with.
It hit Bellona and dragged her towards the hard asphalt far below – the large dust cloud of its impact on the ground was the last thing they saw of their assailant.
“Please don’t tell me we just killed her…”
“She’s just as resilient as we are. She will be fine, but she’ll be forced to let go of her host. And said host might be very sore for a few weeks.”
“Should we follow her, or…?”
“Leave her be. From our exchange of blows I could tell that she’s the type to keep her word. Her judgment of humans was clouded by rage – and if her host is an honest soul, she’ll attempt to mend their differences after this episode.”
“You’re the goddess of wisdom here, so…”
“I told you, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
***
The dimensional boundary started to collapse in the East – it was rather slow, only revealing the rising sun to Minerva at first – then it seemed like the faraway blue horizon drew closer. Minerva landed back on the observation deck and took in the sights – then she stood there as Seika, with Minerva having separated herself from her to stand there in the flesh as well to watch the sunrise.
“This might be the last time that I have a chance like this.” The glowing woman said with a smile.
Seika looked at her with tired eyes, reaching out and touching her shoulder.
“Sorry for keeping you here so long. Sorry for… making you watch my boring job. For making you listen to my thoughts when I cry about my lack of sleep. Sorry for having you put up with my otaku habits.”
Seika looked at the ground before she felt a hand on her chin, lifting it up. Minerva looked her straight in the eyes.
“I don’t mind. We’re one soul at this point, aren’t we?” She turned around, folding her hands together and stretching.
“I was reluctant in the early years, I’ll admit. To share with you, to be unable to move, to just observe…”
She smiled wistfully as she watched the sunrise.
“I’ve learned to appreciate you more and more the longer we were together. And now you even trust me enough to let me take control of your normal body for silly little things – like my birthday surprise for you this year!”
“D-don’t talk about that…!”
Seika sounded completely embarrassed, making Minerva let out a laugh before she turned towards her, extending her arm with her hand forming a fist.
“I’m proud to call you my partner, Seika. And as I told you during said birthday surprise: I love you, like I love myself. We are one.”
Seika hesitated just a moment before she bumped her fist against Minerva’s – and in that moment the pocket dimension had collapsed entirely. The red glowing woman vanished, turning back into a crystal on an earring that Seika held in her hand.
“I feel the same way, Minerva.” She put the earring back on her right ear and took a deep breath, transforming and flying towards her home. She had a lot of sleep to catch up on.
image [https://i.imgur.com/CdWLhkc.png]
“What a bore.”
Lethe had watched from afar – though she hadn’t been able to see most of it, owing to the fact that Bellona had dragged the fight into a pocket dimension.
“If they were going to hide the entire fight at least one of them could have left as a corpse.”
She ran a hand through her leafy hair, letting out a long sigh.
“Foolish Minerva. I would have even given you back your memories the moment you ended that annoying Bellona’s life. Your reaction would have been priceless.”
She turned her back to the scene of the battle as Minerva ascended to fly away and a crowd formed around a young woman who looked like she had collapsed in the street.
“There’s always a next time. And a time after. Forever, and ever more…”