With two magical beings going at it, collateral damage was inevitable.
Large debris was thrown around. Fluff, small chunks of tiled flooring, pillowcases, and random household objects— all of them were nothing more than background noise in the wake of their battle.
Her first few steps turned into a full sprint and Yuu was in front of the Apparition in an instant. Her feet skid into position, as she twisted into a full-body punch. Aiming right for her face, the marker woman blocked it, allowing her forearms to take most of the impact. It sounded like a gunshot. She barely managed to protect her face in time. Despite this, she slid backward on her heel.
“You self-righteous idiot…” she hissed.
“I warned you, didn’t I, Apparition? You had plenty of time to react.” Yuu put a hand to her mouth, covering a smirk. “I suppose I’m too fast for you. How disappointing!”
“Hold your tongue, then choke on it, brat!”
“A shame.” She clicked her tongue. “I’ll have to put you to rest now.”
Something about this exchange felt off. Like Yuu had become completely unrecognizable compared to the person I had been living with all this time.
As I laid against the wall that Apparition created, I was met with a disgusting sight.
A little girl in a white sweater and gray overalls stood before me, a faint white glow enveloping her entire body. Messy didn’t even come closer to describing the long, thick unkempt, strands of inky black hair that spread out every which way. It was as if the girl hadn’t heard of a hairbrush. A disappointing, good-for-nothing, girl.
Maybe I was in the Labyrinth for too long. Or hit my head too hard when I got separated from Yuu? Maybe it was that mimic creature’s fault, I don’t know. But I blinked over and over again. Open. Close. Open. Close. Willing her to disappear. Even as my eyes stung from doing it, she wasn’t going away. I tried to rub my eyes but hissed as I moved my arm. Pain shot up through it, hot and burning. That single stupid punch I attempted had left it limp and useless.
She crouched as she looked at me with her large red eyes, her left one barely peeking through her bangs.
“Hey miss, do you remember?” she asked. I looked away, fully aware that she wouldn’t break her gaze. “You look like you’re gonna cry. Are you?”
She must have taken my silence as an invitation to come closer. In nothing more than mere seconds, she reached out a hand toward my face. I tried to wince away to no avail. Once her fingers made contact with my forehead, she disappeared and left behind three, small orbs of light.
“What about the last time you saw Granny?” Her words echoed in my mind. It was just as annoyingly loud as when Ako used to do it. “You remember that, don’t you miss?”
Ah, that’s right. I was thinking about that in the morning, wasn’t I?
The orbs circled me before changing colors—red, green, and blue. A small rock flew past my face. The blue orb immediately planted itself at my feet and disappeared, growing long, uncut grass underneath. It tickled my shins as my heart fluttered. The other two orbs followed suit but gained more human proportions. The green orb was now a spitting image of kid Aya, while the red one was something I wish I could forget.
I was twelve here—no, thirteen? Granny was going off on a large trip to Germany in a week. Due to construction that was happening nearby, she banned Aya and me from going to our hideout. After our hide-and-seek game that I was guaranteed to win, the two of us were supposed to bake special heart-shaped cookies as a parting gift but it didn’t exactly turn out that way.
Each time either humanoid spoke, they softly glowed.
“Unfair! You bully! You cheater! It was my turn!” The red one waved her arms up and down. How embarrassing.
“Well, it wouldn’t be any fun if the winner and loser were decided from the beginning, huh Shi?” the green one responded. “Quit being such a crybaby!”
“I-I’m not! Mom says that I shouldn’t cry since I’m a big girl and have a lot of responsibilities now!” She huffed.
Both humanoids were faceless but the green one rolled its entire head before continuing. “Are too.”
“Am not! You’re the crybaby, not me!”
“Well, if that’s true, then no complaining! You gotta work extra hard if you wanna beat me next time. Or you could ask Granny once we’re playing again for a hint, I guess.”
“That’s not fair!” The red humanoid stomped her feet and crossed her arms. “You gotta do it yourself or it doesn’t count. You did cheat, I knew it!”
The green humanoid threw her head back and laughed as the red one continued to argue back. Eventually, both voices faded out. The two soon turned back into their original forms, blowing away with the wind and disappearing altogether.
A large ball of fluff scratched against my face before getting stuck in my hair. I quickly swatted it away.
Maybe it was because I was little, but the words that I used to ignore stuck out like a needle among the satin pillows. Every time Aya and I played hide and seek, each time we entered my safe space, I was certain that there were only the two of us. Granny was nowhere to be found. So, for me to ask her for any sort of help wasn’t physically possible. It left a single, burning question in my mind.
“What the hell were you going on about Aya—“
A pillow smacked into my nose and down I went.
Pretty, lacy pillows had the power to hurt pretty bad when they’re whipped directly into your face at Mach 5. I already knew this to be true the night before we named the cafe when Yuu thought it would be funny to do the same. So, when it happened again and the wall I was using as support turned into textureless goop and disappeared, I banged my head against the ground.
I rubbed at my nose with my good arm as I sat up again, blinking away any tears. I would not cry.
A truth that I had been trying to bury all this time finally came to light, that’s all.
The woman had all eight markers uncapped and aimed them. Yuu went in for another punch. She weaved to the side and landed a kick to her gut, launching Yuu to the right. With a flick of her wrist, all eight markers turned green. She raised them to the sky. Three walls were erected behind Yuu but collapsed as quickly as they were created. She crashed into them as dust and debris blocked my vision. The marker woman smirked.
Once everything settled, Yuu was patting her clothes down, seemingly unaffected by her attack aside from the blood from her gash trickling further down her face.
“Come on now, is that all you got for me, wretch?” She glared at the Apparition who took two steps back before gripping her weapons tighter.
Was this really the same girl I knew? Sure, it looked like Yuu, moved like her too. But everything else was pointing to someone I knew nothing about. Had the Labyrinth changed her, or had the mask just fallen?
Or...did I just not know Yuu as well as I thought?
Two purple knives darted toward her face. Yuu clapped her hands together and caught them as if they were nothing. Gripping both edges, she snapped them both in half. Yuu tossed them aside and raised her head to her enemy but she was nowhere to be found. Confused, Yuu whipped her head around.
A lone door appeared behind Yuu and creaked open. I took a deep breath to warn her but found that the words refused to come out. The marker woman leaned with her hip on the doorway and a devilish smile on her face. With a single rotation of her wrist, a burner appeared in front of Yuu.
Her eyes widened.
The burner turned from pitch black to a vibrant orange. Just as the flame flickered before her, painting her entire body the same color, Yuu destroyed the burner with a single strike before howling out in pain. She waved her hand around before holding it close to her body and pivoting on her heel. Even from the distance I was at, I could see the unmistakable red of a burn.
Why didn’t I try to help her? All I was doing was sitting down and watching like an idiot. I hadn’t done anything yet, accomplished anything yet. I swallowed as the burning in my throat worsened.
Two large fans appeared at an angle near her feet. With just a click, the fans turned on and large gusts of wind shot out from both of them. She crossed her arms and tried to move toward the lady but was ultimately blown away. I braced myself with my good arm.
Yuu frantically clawed at the ground to find her footing. It didn’t take too long before she dug her fingers into the tiles. The wind eventually died down as she stood to her feet once more. Oddly enough, her lips curled into a smile. An unnerving one.
“Ah, I understand it now. Magic is really…such a precious thing,“ Yuu muttered, barely able to contain her chuckle. “And yours? It's a truly impressive ability. It’s just unfortunate that you’re using it this way.”
“I’m using it the correct way: for the sake of another. Now isn’t the time for talk—“
“If you and I were angels at Heartview together, I would have loved to pick your brain about what went into it. Your inspiration for your powers, how you perfected them, how much energy it takes to uphold something like this. Everything!”
The marker woman tried to interrupt but Yuu flicked her hair out of her face and continued. Her eyes were glazed over as she laughed.
“Having someone else at the academy like that would have been just the best! Goodness, I think Ako would just love to see something like this. Once she isn’t grounded anymore, I must tell her all about it. For sure, definitely!”
The Apparition jumped away from the doorframe she was leaning on. Her boots clicked as she landed. “It’s too late to try and beg your way out of this. I’ve made up my mind already—“
“I mean, creating copies upon copies of objects on this large of a scale? That would be extremely dangerous. So much so that I doubt even a squad of five of us would be able to take you down. That’s why it’s such a shame!” Her laughter stopped all at once. Yuu slowly craned her neck until the marker woman’s green eyes met her blue unforgiving ones. “That is, it’s a shame that by restricting yourself to Earth objects, you’ve guaranteed your loss.”
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“You arrogant brat, don’t you dare look at me with those eyes!”
All eight markers turned red as she crossed out Yuu’s head multiple times from afar. Four burners surrounded Yuu as my heart dropped. They erupted at the same time, creating hellfire that shot out in all directions for as long as one could see. Yuu collapsed to her knees as she cradled her head, dodging the flames without breaking eye contact with her target. She launched herself back up and snatched the burners out of the air with an audible hiss, melding them together as they sizzled and popped. The flames died out. Taking advantage of her momentum despite the visible pain on her face, Yuu held onto the deformed, makeshift ball of burnt metal and flung it directly at her head.
The marker woman stumbled back and forth, dazed.
“You see, as much as I hold it dear to my heart, Earth is a world akin to the most delicate of flowers! I have to try my hardest every single day so that everything doesn’t crumble away! But unlike your poor excuses for household items, ” The gap between the two was closed within a blink of an eye. She crouched as she readied herself. “You can take it, can’t you Apparition?”
I winced as Yuu delivered a devastating punch to the gut, launching her up into the air. The sound alone was enough to get me to hold my stomach, and she wasn’t finished. She was in hot pursuit after all. Spreading her wings as feathers shot out and disappeared as they touched the tiles, Yuu soared after her. Once she flew behind the lady, she arched her body as far as it would go and raised her arms above her head before spiking her into the ground, her wings vanishing on impact. Both girls plummeted toward the ground.
The Apparition still had life in her, however. She erected one last row of walls to cushion her fall. With another flick of the wrist, every last one became a canvas for her to draw upon. As she crashed into the row of canvases, they squished around her. She gasped desperately, taking as many deep breaths as her body would allow her. Her grip on her weapon tightened once more.
In comparison, Yuu had a much better landing. On her feet in front of me, her back turned once again. She looked back, cold eyes finding mine.
There were times when I laughed with Yuu. I ate with her— I went to school with her and wanted to have lots of fun classes together in the future. She tried to help me boost my grades and I wanted nothing more than to return the favor one day. In the cafe of my dreams, I truthfully—and selfishly, mind you— saw her as my second in command.
I talked with her, enjoyed my time with her, and wanted to continue to do so for a very long time.
But none of that mattered.
The truth was that you could spend as much time as you wanted with another person. It didn’t mean that you were truly close. And for Yuu? This entire situation all but confirmed it. As that icy gaze turned from me, I realized that I didn't recognize those eyes.
“I’m so glad! You did it, you really could take it. Good for you.” Obviously, there was no response aside from labored breaths. “That means it's alright then, right? You’ve been trying so hard this entire time, but keep in mind I still haven’t cast a single magic spell myself! ”
Yuu’s entire body stiffened as she finished her thought. She cleared her throat before turning around again.
“You know dear,” She smiled at me. “Since we’re not sick anymore, shall we begin your first real magic lesson?”
Her regular tone of voice returned if you could even call it that. Soft and sweet. Although I didn’t understand what she meant by the sick comment, I still nodded. As frazzled as I was, if I could learn even one more thing about her to make up for lost time, I’d do it in a heartbeat. There wasn’t much I knew about Yuu, but that would change. Starting right here.
“Perfect! An angel’s magic reserves are much lower compared to demons or Apparitions, so we have special techniques to keep up with our more… magically inclined foes. ” Yuu put on a smile as she grabbed her sleeve and began to roll it up. She paused for a second before gasping and pulling it back down. With a cough, she raised a finger. “In this world, there are hard-set rules that can’t be changed. To get our bodies to function, we need the nutrients we get from eating. When we inhale, our bodies take in the necessary oxygen and discard the rest. Do you get it?”
I stared with bated breath.
“It’s an action and reaction. Give and take. As an angel, I’ve been given the ability to create and bestow new rules upon myself for better magical results, binding pacts that cannot be broken. In other words—a Condition.”
Multiple doors surrounded us and flung open. All of them except one. Yuu pivoted on her heel only to be pelted with small pebbles coming from each direction. She put her hands out to block as many as she could. In her small moment of distraction, the door directly above her head finally dropped open and out came the Apparition, her body limp as she brandished one of her makeshift knives.
She swiped at Yuu from above. With a swivel of the head, Yuu dodged and clasped onto the woman’s wrist. She held her in place and looked anything but amused. The knife dropped to the ground and lost its shape.
“What is with you and this…insistence on blabbering on and on about nothing?" The woman asked to no avail. “Either fight and die or give me back that necklace! Those are your only two options. Eli doesn’t need this right now.”
“What necklace?” Yuu’s grasp tightened as the lady grimaced. “Better yet, who gave you permission to get back up and interrupt me?”
Wasn’t Granny looking for something too?
The air became thick once more. An intense pressure weighed me down as if someone had tied cinder blocks to my limbs. Yuu tensed her body, a small red burst of air emerging from her core and brushing past her opponent.
The marker woman’s eyes went wide as she slipped out of Yuu’s grasp and fell backward into an open door. Once she popped back out again, she had distanced herself by quite a bit.
“Oh well, you heard her didn’t you, dear?” Yuu smiled as she put her hands up, absolving herself of any future blame. “If those are my only two options, then fine.”
She raised her knee to her chest and took a deep breath in. With a stomp that broke the tile below, Yuu yelled from deep within her gut.
“Divine Dissonance!”
A raging crimson-red wall of wind expelled from Yuu. It burst out as if it was begging to escape since she had returned. Before its might, we were nothing more than ants. It acted like an inferno. It shot forward, stretched elongated mouths and bulging eyes flickering about in the chaos as the wall engulfed everything in its wake. The wind dispersed upon touching its target all at once, leaving only a trembling mess of a person behind. Yuu yelped as she grabbed at the right side of her face.
The woman dropped to her knees but refused to let go of her markers. Even as her eyes were as small as pins, even as she shook gently.
“Can’t…go overboard like usual,” Yuu muttered as she heaved a sigh of relief. With a weary smile, she turned to me with a thumbs up. Her right sclera was red and inflamed, veins scattering throughout her entire eyeball. “ Let’s see here…I. In exchange for slight damage on one of my two eyes... I instill fear into whoever is hit with the attack. Can’t do it too much though, I’ll definitely…go blind. That would be quite unpleasant, wouldn’t it?”
Maybe it was the face I was making but she put her hands out and waved them.
“I’m alright, dear. Really. It doesn’t hurt too much. Thank Empathy though, I can finish this.”
Yuu began her last steps toward the trembling lady. Although the Apparition kneeled, she still had just enough strength in her wrists to cast. I knew this because that’s exactly what she continued to do. Over and over, without any hints of stopping. In desperation.
Knives? They fell apart and plopped onto the ground long before they ever reached their target.
Doors planted beneath her feet? Yuu noticed them, of course. Since we got here that’s what she was especially good at. With each step she took upon them, they too lost their form, oozing onto the ground and disappearing.
Walls to block her path? I wasn’t lying when I said that the row of walls she used to cushion her fall was her last. The ones she created now were too flimsy to really be called walls. They were more similar to a little kid’s sandcastle with the way they crumbled into nothing as Yuu walked through them.
Yuu continued forward despite the overabundance of magic being thrown her way until she finally stood before the fallen Apparition. Her lips pursed into a straight line as she looked at her with narrowed eyes. A single droplet of blood trickled down the bridge of her nose and fell onto the lady’s face as well. Despite the way she was acting this entire time, it seemed like she was sad to see her like this.
“I get it. Your heart is probably beating out of your chest. As sweat piles out of every orifice, regrets pile sky-high. Thoughts you believe could never come to the surface do just that: if I had just done it this way… if I had only said that… If I could just see this person one last time—“
The woman gritted her teeth and managed to get a single leg up. A burner formed on Yuu’s right. She didn’t budge an inch as it smoldered and went off. A small cloud of black smoke was all it mustered, briefly throwing Yuu’s hair to the side. She paused for a second, messily wiping the soot and ash from her cheek.
“It…feels like the world is closing on you as you can do nothing but look up to the sky and hope for the best. It’s really just the worst, isn’t it?” Yuu clenched her fists as she took a deep breath. In through the nose. Out from the mouth. She unclenched them. “Fear is a natural thing, but you mustn't let it consume you. Well, it’s alright now, I suppose. It’s finally time to be put to rest for all of eternity, the way it should be.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself, aren’t you supposed to be an angel!?” The Apparition cried. “Pride is a cardinal sin. How dare you look down on me for doing what’s right!”
“I have nothing to be prideful of. There is always something more that I can do, something I can improve on.”
“If it isn’t pride, then is it satisfaction that you’re taking two lives today?”
My body which previously couldn’t move an inch tensed upon hearing her. Two lives? She couldn’t possibly be threatening us with Granny. Apparitions…were truly the worst. But something was wrong. Even if that was what she was implying by her words, she sounded just as scared as I was of that coming true.
“The second you two were trapped within this Labyrinth, a Condition of mine had already been set. Don’t you get it, already?” She sniffled as her eyes became glossy. “As long as that necklace isn’t returned, then you’ll be stuck here to wander for the rest of your days. Don’t you want to go home and see your family again?” Her arms shook, as she lowered her head. “I can’t die here, I can’t…If I do then Eli… Eli will…”
Was that why I couldn’t find an exit, no matter how hard I tried? She set a rule on my safe space.
Wait, die? I only assumed it was an honor situation. You defeated me, so I let you go and release Granny. Just like in Cardcollector Blossom. To put to rest, to make the Apparition go away, to be put at ease— they all sounded so much more peaceful.
The concept of having to kill never once came to my mind.
Yuu continued to stand over her with a dead expression. It seemed she wasn’t having it.
“And if you’re bluffing to scare me? What happens then? I have things I want to protect as well. What makes this Eli more important?” She raised her hand but it seemed like there was hesitation in that as well. Although she didn’t get hit with her own magic, Yuu was also shaking a bit. “I trained for this. I am Heaven’s number one angel, others look up to me as an example. Someone like me. “
Yuu fingers curled in on themselves until she lowered her arm altogether. “So then why… can’t I—”
“Why on earth would you even consider any bluffs for a second right now, are you stupid? Just listen to me!” The lady cried, wiping her tears with her sleeves. “Just give it back already, give it back! I’ve done nothing wrong by helping Eli with what's troubling her and I don’t deserve death for that! I haven’t even gotten the chance to see the youngest Watanabe girl and her friend again, see how they grew up after all this time!”
Well, that or you could ask Granny once we’re playing again for a hint.
Aya. She was talking about Aya.
Back then, when things were so simple. Back then, when I was obsessed with winning a stupid game of hide-and-seek and Aya was cheating by getting tips from something she thought was her grandma. Something that sat across from Yuu now.
“How dare you steal that poor little girl’s hairpin and Eli’s precious necklace. You people are the worst.” She spat.
Eli was Granny. If this lady died, then a piece of Granny would be forever lost, and I’d never be able to forgive myself. And if they were truly connected in some way, then what I said to Yuu earlier today never changed.
I wanted to be the same hero she was to me, using any means necessary.
I looked a bit different from back then, I guess. I dug the star hairpin out of my pocket with my one good arm.
Standing to my feet, I put my pin back in and yelled to get her attention. “I didn’t steal it! That’s me! I am Aya Watanabe’s best friend, Shiro Hoshino! This is my hairpin! ”
The woman’s head turned to me, eyes full of tears as Yuu looked on in confusion. “You’re…Shiro?”
At last, she allowed her markers to fall from her hands, and they scattered all over the ground.
As teary eyes finally met mine, the floodgates of chaos closed on this battle.