8PM. The streets surrounding the main mall are still bustling with business and people, since today it's a Friday night.
Atop it all, here I am, watching everything from above the said mall's rooftop on the heart of Merry City. A gentle breeze makes my now pink-colored hair sway against the wind. Instead of the usual school uniform, I am wearing a frilly dress, holding a magic wand in my left hand and over the top of my head now lies a pair real cat ears. Twitching, as I talk with someone over the phone with my free hand.
"…I see…do you know if its similar situation to one that happened yesterday? Did he take any hostages again? Any words on his whereabouts now or where he last was, earlier this morning? No! There’s no need for reinforcements! I'll take it from here. Dealing with that pest is also one of my responsibilities after all! Leave it to me Beatr- I mean, Agnicia-Sama. Hm! Have a nice night and good luck with your thesis!"
As I press a button and end the call, I let yet another tired sigh for how god knows how many times today. I can hear the voice of the tabby cat from earlier ringing from inside of my head:
"So, what's the situation Nya? I was too distracted following the pretty street lights and gazing at the food court below to hear the report."
I am taken aback by my Partner straightforwardness and one track mind but quickly recover quick enough to answer her question:
"…Agnicia-Sama and some of her scouts confirmed it. After our tiresome fight yesterday, he had somehow escaped the magical shackles I cast on him and hid himself by shapeshifting into one of the civilians amongst the crowd. While they were searching him, one of our scouts claimed seeing him talking with a tall and menacing man with a malformed arm and dressed in dark robes."
"An malformed arm and dark robes Nya? Something about this man rings alarms bells in my head... But I can't exactly remember why…" The cat comments while frowning. She appears to be trying to remember something. Causing literal smoke to seep out of our collected mind and ears.
"His face was concealed and nearly killed the scout once he knew they were followed. She got a large cut on her back and legs, losing a lot of blood. Agnicia-Sama told her to retreat immediately and leave for us to find out what happened while the scout is being treated. Sadly, she was too far to have heard what those two were talking about and we can’t just wait for her to recover and ask ourselves." I explain to her while reading a mission report that I summoned out of thin air into my hands.
"I still think its remarkable how Bink-San can still move this much! Considering his situation when we found him, the chicken chase and then the intense battle yesterday! I never heard of a situation where a robber invades some candle store at random, demands his hostages steps on him, then melt and pour all the wax in stock all over on him! He looked like he came out of inside a cake, Nya! Then again, he still is a demon and the embodiment of the Deadly Sin of Lust for a reason…"
I immediately feel the goosebumps and hold back the sudden urge to vomit when reminded about the scenes of yesterday in excruciating detail.
"Geez! Don't remind me of yesterday, Nyamo! I getting the shivers just from remembering what we witnessed back when we went infiltrated that store to rescue those hostages from him! That disturbing face he makes every time I punch, burn or restrain will haunt my dreams for years! If my uncle is a pig, that thing might as well be a cockroach!" My voice even gets a little squeaky at the end because of the nerves getting the better of me.
"…You do know that Bink-San would be overjoyed if he heard you insulting him like that, Nya..." Nyamo hits me with a retort of her own.
"What scares me the most right now is the fact that you might be not wrong about that…Anyways, let's stop talking about this before I get ulcer! Let's just start looking for him already, stop whatever the hell he intends to do so we can get a decent night of sleep for a change!"
"Ok… but just to remind you that I am a cat! I just slept through the entire morning while you were in class Nya!" She answers me without showing much resolve over the task at hand.
The blabbering cat here is Nyamo. My housecat and also a Nekomata. Always full of energy to spare and bit of an airhead. She is someone I first met back when I was twelve or rather, I summoned a familiar and she was the one beckoned my call.
It's kinda of a long story to explain in full right now so I'll keep it short. Through thick and thin, the two are I are Partners.
I… am what some would call it, a Magical Girl while Nyamo here is a Sacred Beast, our "Partners". We are pretty much like the ones you would find in Saturday Anime and Manga. Except that, we also happen to hunt demons and retrieve for magical artifacts all over the world in the side.
I sort of ended becoming one by circumstance and ended following the footsteps of the person I admire the most in this world…
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The organization that congregates all Magical Girls is called Arcadia. Who is rumored to exist since the Stone Age.
We try fight to keep the world order and hunt demons or anything any threat that might unleash chaos upon this planet or to harm others.
The one chosen to lead is Valkyrie and every time one decides to retire, one of the current Magical Girls is automatically by chosen by the very nature of the world itself to decide who is the next one.
I don't have all night to talk over all its intricacies at the moment. Besides, the faster we deal with the pinnacle of masochism named Bink, the sooner I get decent night of sleep today. So for now, let’s return and focus on finding that idiot now shall we?
"The scout reported last seeing him above that water tank. So he shouldn't have gone that far…"
I point at the building on the other side of the street and start planning a strategy on my head when suddenly…
"My! Perhaps, were you looking for moi? Aika-Chan?"
The moment I hear that voice out of nowhere I begin to feel an immense sense of discomfort and dread wash over my body. I begin frantically move my head around the whole perimeter in search of where the voice is coming from and prepare to gather Mana to cast a spell just in case.
"My, My! You should learn how to broaden your horizons and perspective sweetie! Above you!”
I do as the voice suggested at and raised my head. Only to find a bizarre, scaled, humanoid-looking being looking at me from above of the parabolic antenna nearby and hanging down from while being tied down by the waist by a strange piece of cloth, like a spider down its thread. All mere inches away from where I am. Worst of all? This "thing" is wearing a VERY tight spandex bodysuit. How he can move so freely wearing it or he had managed to move past me unnoticed and get on that the antenna is a mystery to me.
The very moment my eyes matches his, the scaly monster lets go of the antenna, dropping directly below me and starts to twist his limber body around in a corkscrew motion while holding his hands forward. A short pair of blades were suddenly protruding out of his hands.
"MAGNIFICENT BINK SPIRALE!!!"
I immediately lunge myself forward to avoid the surprise attack and his arms get stuck on the concrete flooring. In the split of a second, I start to focus my mind and begin chanting a magic spell in a foreign language. My eyes begin to glow in a translucent green light in response to my casting and:
"THUNDERBOLT!!"
Following my shout, a current of lighting starts to shoot out of the tip of my wand and goes at our assailant's direction. A cloud of smoke rises from where I aimed my counterattack.
"Did we got him?" I ask Nyamo from the inside my head.
"Negative! We would have heard moans or something by now if it did Nya!"
I then imbue mana beneath the soles of my feet and flutter a few meters above the trail of smoke, start spinning my wand continuously in a rotating motion, forcing the cloud of smoke to disperse.
There, I find one of most obscene scenes I have ever witnessed yet in my entire life. Bink had glued the top of his head on the floor while bending down in a bridge position, making soft grunts, his arms crossed and eyes rolling into the back of his head as both his veins and muscles were bulging and twitching disturbingly. He actually took our spell head-on without flinching, but his breathing was getting ragged.
"No way! He used his body like a lightning rod?!" Both me and Nyamo have a look of surprise in our faces.
"*Whistles* I was right in defying Arcadia and the order of this world for so many millenniums! Nobody in this world manages to hurt me this much! But I will tell you one thing as the being who embodies the Deadly Sin of Lust Aika-Chan! After Lena, nobody hits me better than you do! Not even Lady Agnicia punches can make my body tingles like this! Hyahahahaha!"
He proceeds to laugh after his disturbing and passionate declaration, like the freak of nature that he is.
"I will stop you from causing trouble no matter how many times it takes!" I answer Bink with enough determination to push back the sense of dread and disgust that I feeling right now.
He suddenly stops laughing, looks at me with face that he never showed to us before and speaks in a menacing tone.
"…You are correct. Out of my 378292th bouts with Arcadia since time immemorial. I currently have five wins in my favor, 378015 losses and 270 draws! Counting inside these, I have zero wins,37 losses and 20 ties against you sweet Aika! I don't mind losing that much against the all mighty powerful Magical Girls corps but, I have to agree with what that man had said It's about time I won for a change! It been a long time since I tasted victory!”
"That man? You mean the one in the hooded robe? Who is he and what is his plans?!"Nyamo tries to pry an answer out of him.
"It doesn't matter sweetie! Because of my new secret weapon, today, I will win!!"
Following his statement, Bink reaches for the gap between his neck and the bodysuit. He pulls a small orange orb from it.
After straining my vision and giving a better glance in this dark night, I make out what it seems to be an eyeball on his hands. I can feel Nyamo's very ominous feelings towards the object, by the very moment Bink pulled that out and tries to recognize the object in his hands and impending sense of doom.
"That eye…*Gasp* It can't be! Ai! We have to run! Now! Do not let that eye directly look at us!"
Once she realizes what the strange object is, Nyamo shakes our combined soul desperately and tries to pull me away from the fight.
"Huh?" Since it was so sudden, I didn’t have the time to comprehend or respond her plea.
"Eat this! Feel the might of the Magekiller's eye! DISPEL!!!"
But it was too late, I couldn’t act fast enough and the eyeball gaze shifted its focus towards us.
"Urk! Ahhh!" I feel the very essence of our being getting torn apart as a splitting headache assaults the two of us. The mana previously collected inside my body starts to seep and fade away. I can feel we getting weaker and weaker by the second.
I barely manage to stay afloat with my levitation spell and crash against the trash bin below me, behind the building.
“…Ai….C…an…hear….me…A...i…”
Nyamo tries to speak with me, but I cannot make out what she is tell me. Her voice sounds far away, blurry from and full of static.
"It's my win today Aika-Chan! Hyahyah!!!"
Bink hisses and laughs as he rushes towards me. His scales are vibrating lightly in response to his elevated mood.
My body tries to move by itself out of instinct for fear of my life. I drag my hurt body and try to run away from the rubber-skinned attacker…