Seeing how confused Makoto and Yuuko are, Lexar makes a deep sigh. Even though Yuuko and Makoto have shown a lot of positive changes, they are still lacking in many areas. They had been ordinary girls until recently, after all.
The reason for this chaotic argument is due to a lack of a good leader. Back at the previous incident, Hinami was the one leading the student body. Due to her charismatic leadership and aura, she was able to control and unite the students as one being, without any voice of objection. Perhaps it was partly because of her authority power, but her commanding and planning ability are no doubt her own talents. If Hinami was here, she would be able to solve this problem, or such problem would not even occur in the first place.
Lexar himself does a solution for this situation, but decides to wait for a while. This is a good opportunity for these girls to learn how to handle these kinds of conflict, where everyone is right in their argument.
The infighting has continued for more than 10 minutes, yet the two girls have not found any solution for it. Feeling disappointed, Lexar has no choice but to offer the solution to them.
“Girls, how do you see this situation?” Lexar asks them.
Both girls are little perplexed at the sudden questions, but then gain calmness to answer “We are lacking the fighting power to move everyone, either for self defense or saving more people. Unlike the situation at school, we are not familiar with the terrains here, as well as equipments. Thus, we cannot equip the normal people with weapons like Hinami did. Even if we could, I doubt the usefulness as the enemies are much more powerful and troublesome than those random toilet monsters. We could not even put up a strategy where the enemy have so many unknown abilities.” Yuuko analyzes.
“There is a difference in ideas between the students. As the argument escalates, both groups are more resolute in convincing their course of action is correct. They are trying hard to convince both of us to follow either one of them, but firmly rejecting the idea having us divided. They want to ensure their own protection.” Makoto says “What a selfish bunch.”
“We could have shutted them off with our fists.” Yuuko makes a cracking sound on her knuckles “But I am really against that. Such action will make us no less than a tyrant relying on power to rule everyone. Furthermore, that will not solve anything. What we want is to save everyone out safely, so we still need a plan to evacuate everyone without making any sacrifice.” Her hand relaxes.
“Why are you still fixated on rescuing everyone?” Lexar curiously asks “You could have just only brought the friends who are close to you. It’s not like you are closed to everyone at school that you have to save everyone from there.”
Yuuko becomes silent at his question. However, Makoto answers that question for her.
“Because of possibility.” Makoto looks at the arguing students “You can see them, right, Lexar? The light of hope and the inner strength of everyone.”
Lexar looks at the students with potential eyes. White lights are emitting in everyone’s heart, even though they are arguing.
“Their argument is not only to convince the two guardians to accompany them, but the rest of the other students. The ones who proposed to escape with the current number may be selfish at first, but they are now convinced by the other side about the importance of the others. What they are trying to do at the moment is to convince the other side to escape together with them, because they firmly believe that this is the safest choice that can save most people.
On the other hand, those who want to save their friends are still clinging hard on that idea, but not as much as initially. If we choose to escape with only these people, they will accept it without objection, because they understand better how unreasonable their requests are. And same for the opposite case, the selfish side will fully cooperate with the rescue. There are some who are thinking hard for us how to solve this problem.” Makoto says.
“Even though they are selfish in a sense, they are still caring for each other. For those people, it is our job to create a path, a miracle that satisfies everyone.” Makoto smiles at Yuuko “That’s why Yuuko did not want to use violence to settle the argument or just take away her friends only.”
“For me, I believe in these people, in their possibilities. Even though they are in such a desperate situation, they show such an unexpected behaviour. Being selfish, yet at the same time, not selfish. I have a feeling that these people will play an important part in facing the end of the world.”
Yuuko and Lexar look at Makoto in amazement. Lexar finds it unbelievable to hear such a philosophical reason from a high school girl. Yuuko also probably has not met such a side of Makoto before.
At that moment, the white light at Makoto’s heart shines brightly, as if it is touched by her speech. Feeling that, Makoto makes a bright smile like she is acknowledged by someone.
“We have wasted quite a lot of time. Lexar, please tell us your plan. I figured you are trying to guide us to an answer, but we do not have much time left.” Makoto says in a soft voice “Or perhaps, you have confidence that we can escape here safely even if we waste more time.”
“I guess I cannot deceive you. Here is my plan.” Lexar tells his plan directly to the girls.
A clapping sound vibrates the area. Eveyone stops what they are doing and focuses their attention toward Makoto.
“Everyone, we have decided what to do.” She says as she scans everyone “We will save everyone you are requesting.”
The students become rowdy with her words, but most of their responses display agreement to the decision.
“Have you figured out a way to evacuate everyone safely?” Takaki asks.
“Yes, that’s right. And we will make sure to bring back everyone we need to save out of here safely.” Yuuko says with confirmation.
“I understand. Our safety is in your care. Please tell us what we can help with.” Takaki nods.
“Please turn on all the faucets in the rooms and flood the floor. We will need a lot of water for this.” Yuuko gives instruction.
While some students are responsible for the water, the rest and Makoto help wake up the other students and teachers. As expected, the process is chaotic as the students wake up only to find themselves in the red world again, and panic. Those who were led by Hinami before have belief in Makoto and Yuuko, and calm down immediately after explanation. However, it is different for the group escaping separately from them. They do not know how powerful the magical girls are, so they are still doubting their safety despite the guarantee from the before group.
Lexar, who sits on the shelf, observes everything in front of him.
(Strange. These people. There is no light inside them.)
Even though he has met normal people with no light before, it is still a very strange scene where there are so many people without light in them.
A loud crashing reaches everyone’s ears, followed by a small earthquake. The whole area becomes noisy with fear of a strong earthquake coming.
Another crashing sound comes, and every objects in the room is vibrating lightly from the shock.
“Everyone, calm down. This is intended action.” Makoto yells out to explain to everyone.
A series of deafening smashing sounds echo the whole area, and the floor is trembling more violently than before. Glass vases on the tables cannot withstand the shock, fall on the ground and shatter to pieces.
“Geez. Can she do it in a quieter manner?” Makoto complains.
In a certain hallway, a big hole connecting to the outside is created. Debrises of concrete lie everywhere on the floor and the ground beneath the open hole. Water is flowing down from the upper floor like waterfall, sweeping the dust along with it. Next to the hole, Yuuko is standing with a giant hammer in her hand.
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“Yuuko, you just only need shatter the window only. Why did you have to smash the whole wall along?”
Makoto comes at her with frustrated voice.
“There are people with extremly heavy injuries. It is not easy to make them jump over the wall to come down. I figure this will make thing easier.” Yuuko says while leaning on the giant hammer “Anyway, it’s your part now. Hurry up.”
“Yeah” Makoto walks to the middle part of the wall “Everyone, please stand firm. Do not get swept up by the water.” She warns to the nearby students.
Makoto closes her eyes and begins to concentrate deeply. A white light soon envelops her whole body, making her shine brightly in this dark red world. Her current appearance mesmerizes everyone who sees her. Not only displaying a charming beauty, her white light makes her look like a holy existence, an angle that is sent here to save them from this bloody hell.
Water begins to flow fast at everyone’s feet. Some people lift their legs up because they feel like a horde of rats just run pass them. More water concentrates at the hole and a magical scene appears in front of them.
An ice road starts forming with the hospital floor as its base. It sticks out firmly in the air, even without support, then descends slowly as the ice road lengthens. After three minutes, a two meter wide icy slide connecting from the 5th floor to the hospital yard is created.
The people who witnessed the whole process are rendered speechless, even those who have witnessed Hinami’s power before. One girl who can lift a giant hammer that seems to weight over hundred kilograms uses it to break down the whole wall and shake the whole building. One one side, a girl who can manipulate water creates a nearly 20 meter high construction in a matter of minutes. Their powers are too astonishing for them to consider as reality.
“Come on. Let’s go down through this slide then run straight to the outside of the hospital. There is no black liquid blocking the way this time, so we can run straight out.” Makoto claps her hand to get everyone’s attention.
“Is this thing really safe?” A student asks while looking at the slide.
Because the slide is made of ice, it is quite transparent and people can clearly see the ground below. From the view of the one who rides it, it looks no different from falling down directly from the high floor to the ground. Their fear is justifiable.
“Well, I guess I need to volunteer as a guinea pig for this thing.” Yuuko steps forward while saying in a joking tone. She is now standing on the even ice part before the slide “But I have to admit that this thing can be a good attraction in the amusement” She looks down on her feet. The debris that fell down before can be clearly seen, and her feet looks like she is just standing on empty air.
Yuuko sits on the edge of slide, and begins to glide on the descending ice path. Despite its smooth outlook, the slide has quite a lot of friction on the surface, helping Yuuko slide down gradually to the ground.
“Every thing is OK. You can come down now.” Yuuko calls out with loud voice.
“And there you see it. We have assured you the safety of this thing. Please get down one by one without pushing.” Makoto turns to the people.
At first, they are hesitant to come down. However, after the 10th people, there is no problem so far. They start to hurry up and urge the one before to get down faster with no more unbiased fear. Everyone wants to quickly escape here as soon as possible.
When half of the group already descended to the yard, strange noises from different places are heard. Lexar, who has the clairvoyance, sees many closed doors suddenly swing open. In the area where there is water on the floor, continuous water splashing is heading toward Makoto’s group. On the ground level, there are traces of something moving toward Yuuko’s group.
“Makoto, Yuuko. Those invisible guys have come out. Be on guard.” Lexar warns the two girls.
“Roger that. Look like they have run out of patience already.” Yuuko readies her katana “Everyone, stay within 20 meter diameter around the slide. Makoto! I am counting on you.” She calls out.
“You don’t have to tell me that.” Makoto channels her energy on the water below her.
A stream of water flows down through the slide. Reaching the ground, the water spreads out widely, forming a large puddle that nearly covers the whole yard. As Makoto gradually rises both hands up, four ice walls are constructed, surrounding the powerless students.
“I will guard this place. Please hurry up with the descending.” Makoto urges the rest who are still on the high floor.
“Thank you. Be careful, Makoto.” Kaho who belongs the later group says to her.
“Don’t worry. I am quite strong, you see.” Makoto makes a confident pose.
On the hospital yard, eight splashing sources are rushing toward the ice slide. They are coming in different directions, and it is impossible for Yuuko to protect all sides of the ice walls. However, she is not slightly worried about such thing.
“Graaaaahhhhhhh!” A painful shriek comes with a sudden appearance of a monster. A big empty hole with white smoke is on its chest. The flower monster staggers a little bit then collapses.
On the highest floor of the hospital, a barrel of a two meter long sniper gun protrudes from the window. The scope is attached with a wire connecting to a mechanic eye gadget which is currently worn on a girl. She is loading another bullet on the gun she is holding.
“That one did not crawl, but ran on two legs, huh? I guess I have to take that into consideration.” Hinami mumbles.
“I know it. You are not the one to really run alone and abandon everyone else.” Makoto says in delight.
“Now that we are together. Nothing can stop us.” Yuuko says as she cuts a monster into half.
The three girls’ morale is at the peak with them being together. With the teleporting move, Yuuko instantly appears in front each of them and slices them in half with her sword in white flame. Hinami snipes the monsters which are running on the ground. She cannot see the monsters, but thanks to the puddle Makoto creates, she knows the position of the enemy and aims by calculating the feature of the monsters.
After sending the last normal person down the ground, Makoto immediately dissolves the ice slide into water. She looks at the monsters on both side, trying to break the thick ice walls that she created to block them off. With a finger snap, the walls immediately turn into water, pushing the monsters back a bit.
“Pit fall trap, ice witch version!” Makoto yells as she punches the floor. An explosion sound occurs, and accompanied that, ice spikes rapidly thrusts out from the flooded ground, piercing everything on top of it. Her movement is so impacting that even the people on the ground floor and Hinami can see the ice spikes piercing through or behind the walls.
“Such power.” Hinami says in amazement.
“Amazing” Yuuko says with excitement.
“This is the true capability of these girls.” A female teacher who is rescued along says.
As if shocked like every one else, the monster attack also comes to a stop without any more monster appearing. The whole crowd is safe for the time being.
Lexar checks for the presence of any possible enemy, but finds nothing. Nodding to Makoto, he jumps onto her shoulder and prepares to get down with her. Makoto jumps off directly from the high floor and slowly descends, using the power of the wind, She then regroups with Yuuko and dissolves the ice wall protecting the normal students.
“Are you ok, Makoto? Your face pales quite a bit.” Yuuko worriedly asks.
“It’s ok. It’s only overworking. A good rest and I am back to normal.” Makoto says “Anyway, I still need to help Hinami get down here too.” She then makes hand signal to Hinami.
However, in return, the girl on the top floor makes a series of hand signal, refusing to come down.
“She said she wants to observe from high ground to detect any potential enemy. She will escape after us.” Makoto understand what she means.
“What a drastic change in behavior. She said that she would like to escape alone first, now she wants to stay back here alone to help us escape.” Yuuko complains.
“Well, girls are complex beings after all.” Lexar says happily.
“Did you know that she would not escape by herself?” Makoto curiously asks.
“Correct. I also watched over here, after all.” The cat answers.
“And you dared to hide such thing so long for us. I will teach you a lesson after we get out of here.” Makoto grabs him by the collar and angrily grinds his head.
“Ok, everyone. The path is clear now. Once we pass through the entrance, we can get out of this world.” Yuuko guides the whole crowd to run to the hospital gate.
The group overjoy that there is only one step left to get out safely. Witnessing the girls’ power, especially Makoto’s special move, they fully believe that these girls can escort them to safety. Everyone hurries in the direction to the gate with Yuuko leading the front, and Makoto at the back.
When there is only five meter left between the gate and the group, a ripple appears in the air. Suddenly, a container suddenly appears and runs straight at the group.
“Spread out!” Yuuko shouts out.
At the same moment, Yuuko creates a sturdy big shield in front of her. A truck rams directly at her with a great force. Luckily, the shield is only slightly bent, and behind it, Yuuko still firmly stands and holds the shield. However, she is pushed back a great distance, but that creates a good amount of time for everyone behind her to stay away from the truck path.
“Go! Go through that gate and get out of here!” Yuuko shouts while being pushed back by truck. The truck does not even stop after hitting her, instead, it further accelerates, strongly pushing Yuuko further back.
Being scared by the sudden appearance of the truck, the normal students immediately run to the gate after her order. Yuuko’s friends who hesitantly stay back also run after being shouted by Yuuko the second time. At the end, only the three girls remain in this red world.
“There is no driver!?” Hinami checks the driver seat of the truct “If that’s the case.”
Several shots immediately pierce the engines at the truck’s front, shutting down its acceleration. The wheels explode by the ice shards that Makoto shots sideway. Without the any driving force, along with the strong friction, the truck rapidly slows down and comes to a stop. Its container tail tilts to the left and heavily crashes on the ground. In front of the truck, Yuuko is breathing heavily. Big cracks appear on the shield as well as her amour. On Yuuko’s mouth, blood slowly drips out.
However, that is not the end. The gates of the container suddenly opens, and a big mass of meat on two legs jumps out of it. Its target is Yuuko.
Seeing it, Makoto immediately dashes toward Yuuko and drags her away as fast as possible with the help of the wind. Hinami immediately switches to the special ammo for this type of monster.
Even with their fast reaction, they are already too late. The meat lump explodes, and a fire storm covers everything inside the red world. If there is someone who is looking from afar in the red world, he can see a red sphere incinerating in the hospital and surrounding area into ashes.