After we detained the criminal, Rose reported that there had been an accomplice, someone who easily overpowered her, but left once Josten lost to me. Rufus took back his wand from me and easily restrained her. It also wasn’t very hard for him to take down the barrier along the city.

“With the barrier gone, mana can circulate through the air. Everyone should be back to full health in a few days,” he said.

I wanted to ask about what Josten meant when she said that humans aren’t affected that badly, and what a mirror world was, but I let it rest. For now, backup had already arrived, this time, many humans in uniform. Rufus and Clara had no problems with them, but I could tell something was strange about them.

The way they covered themselves in their uniforms, with full suits and even wigs, made me think more about them. There were many things I could’ve asked as they interrogated us for our recounts of the incidents, but they were all so strangely kind, in the way adults are to lost children that it was hard to hold anything against them.

The main reason I couldn’t focus enough to even form a question was that Rose was badly injured. Some of the strangers were using restorative magic on her, especially on her arm, where her clothing had torn up underneath her protective suit. It was red and seared, but when Rose first reported back she hid it from us and gave us the A-Okay.

First, I thought she separated to deal with the summoned beasts but rather she probably had my back with someone even stronger than herself.

She was crying now, completely unable to talk. I really hoped she felt better, but every time I looked at her and the medics, she winced and smiled back.

And in all the adrenaline I forgot about my own parents. I was out so late and would probably be delayed longer. They don’t usually check up on me, but I totally forgot to deal with my younger siblings.

“You’re okay, young lady. How do you feel?” one of the medics asked Rose.

“Fine, Fine, it just stings.”

“Please be more careful. Ms. Clara here did you a great disservice, so we apologize on her behalf.”

Then I realized, that burn was self-inflicted. Rose’s elemental aptitude was electricity. Whoever she fought pushed her to the limit. Just like sometimes I felt the cold when I overused my magic.

Then the medics came to me and I refused them.

Clara was not punished as far as I knew, but she left the moment the barrier fell. I suppose Rose’s injury was because of her neglect, but I didn’t think it was a very fair remark.

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On the other hand, Rufus told us that it would be a while before we could leave. The roof of the building was a lot brighter now, so it wasn’t a bother to stay for a while.

“How about then, Lillian, would you like to hear about happened. I promised I won’t exaggerate,” that was a strange thing to say.

“Lily is fine.”

“Anyway, so the moment we were separated, I saw a second figure, a short girl about the same age you were. She strange too, and unlike Ms. Josten here, she was not human. Instead, she had small and, um, cute horns on the side of her head. She also didn’t conjure any protective suit, so I could she was dressed in a long dress, nor did she ever use a wand against me.

When she cast spells, she did it directly from her hands. Everything passed very quickly, but before she left, or rather, let me escape, I swear I saw some kind of magic implement in on her waist,” They Rose described her sounded hurried, as if I had to know.

“Hey, you’ve told Clara all about this, right.”

“Right,”

“Okay then,” I said, “Then tell me about how she resisted.”

“No, resisted isn’t the right word,” She put her finger to her chin, “It was more like, she was testing me. Right, I guess since even with our borrowed power, we would be on the weaker spectrums of magical girls.”

“Don’t you mean magicians?”

“Huh, so anyway, I could tell pretty quickly that this was someone I couldn’t fight. I fired a lightning bolt at her, as she was first huddled on the floor and had just turned towards me.

Except, that in a golden flash, she caught my attack with her palm and crushed it in her fist. I didn’t even aim there, except it seemed to turn towards her hand.

Rather, I felt fear the moment her arm was surrounded in that haunting gold light. I was not nearly as afraid as when we had to deal with all of those summoned beasts. This was different. Not only a fighter, but one with infinite confidence in her defense.

She slowly shuffled towards me, and I backwards walked myself into a different room. I tried to hold my ground, because there was always a chance that I had another way to hurt her, but that only closed me off into a large room, herself guarding herself the doorway.

Then, Rose slowed down. I didn’t think that recounting tonight’s events would be so hard for her.