Overclock

“How- the fuck- are you- still- alive-“ I said, clutching my shattered ribs. If not for the magical girl healing factor, that injury would have put me out of commission for months.

“A magician nev- argh- never reveals her secrets,” she replied, her bloodied human arm hanging limply at her side. I could see burn marks all around the sides. She must have escaped a fatal wound by the skin of her teeth.

Did she teleport out? If so, how did she still get caught up in it? Why was there a few seconds between the explosion and her counter attack? It just didn’t make any sense.

Either way, both of us were hanging on with the last of our will. One slip up from either of us would spell immediate death.

I stood up tall, the agony in my ribs made just barely tolerable by adrenaline. I raised my sword one last time. I couldn’t keep my guard down forever. Though I had absolutely no idea what else I could possibly do at this point.

Fortunately, Time did.

“Toki, I think I’ve figured it out!”  She called.

“Figured what out? Tell me straight, Time,” I said quietly, hoping the girl was too far to hear.

“Her limitation. Why she sometimes has to dodge instead of teleporting. She can only teleport the way her body is currently facing!”

“What? How do you figure?”

“Think about it. It’s always when she has to dodge backwards that she does it physically. And that explosion, if she was able to just freely teleport out, she’d be unscathed. But if, say, her body was facing upwards…”

“She could only teleport through the blaze. She must have misjudged in the fraction of a second she had and burned herself to bits…” Time’s theory lined up almost too well. I hadn’t taken much note since there wasn’t much lateral space to move on these carriage roofs anyway, but she always teleported directly forwards, to the point it became predictable. If I could exploit that…

“I think I have an idea, but it’s risky. You’ll need to overclock to get it right.”

“Overclock? That’s an all-or-nothing approach, you sure this is the right way?”

“Sorry but it’s all I’ve got. You’ll have to make it work.”

“Fuck it, you’ve never led me wrong before. Hit me with it.”

Time laid out her plan quickly, and it was bold to say the least. It would require precision and timing unachievable for most people.

But I’m not most people.

I readied my stance, and prepared myself to overclock.

“Oh? You’re finally making a move instead of just standing th-“

Time slowed to a crawl as my opponent taunted me, her final word seemingly stretched out ad infinitum. The train seemed to stop moving almost entirely, as did the suited girl.

I had only a few seconds to make my move.

I threw myself towards her with all the strength I had left. From my frame of reference, it was fast. From hers, it was probably near-imperceptible.

And yet, perceive it she did, because fractions of a microsecond before I could cleave her in two, her body dematerialised into a flash of light right in front of me.

Just as I had expected.

Before she had even vanished, my right hand was reaching into my cloak pocket for something I had been hiding since the very start. The shuriken taken from the dying soldier. I spun on the spot and launched it with all my might as she rematerialised some few metres away.

The shuriken embedded in her shoulder, just as my overclock came to its end. My body was heavy, but it wasn’t over yet.

“Argh, fuck-“ the suited girl yelled as the metal blades cleaved flesh like paper. She turned her whole body and attempted to raise her guard, but the shuriken stuck in her shoulder limited her movement. Her eyes widened as I slammed her sword down with my own. She was left completely open to attack.

I sliced up from the ground to her elbow, and felt metal crumple and split as I severed her cybernetic arm from her body.

There was a look in her eyes that was all too familiar to me. The look of a person who knew they were facing their own death. As I brought my sword up one final time, thrusting towards her throat, for a short moment she almost seemed at peace.

My blade stopped the very instant it made contact. A small drop of blood trickled from her throat.

The force of the stab knocked her to the ground, but no fatal wound was inflicted. The shock had set in too strong for her scramble to her feet, so I stood over her and pressed my katana against her chin. Any sudden movement, and she’d cut her own throat.

“Who the hell are you?” I barked, trying to hide the sheer exhaustion I was feeling. “You butchered an entire company of MPs, so you’re clearly not working for Kurogaisha. So who are you? Why are you here? Huh? Answer me, dammit!”

I pushed my blade ever so slightly up, drawing blood from the bottom of her chin. I was one quick stroke from putting her left and right brain through a messy divorce. And yet, the bastard smiled.

“Hehehehe…”

“Something funny? I’m this close to performing a bottom-up full brain lobotomy if you don’t answer me, bastard.”

“Oh, my dear Ronin. Tonight has gone far better than I ever could have expected.”

“What? Are you a bloody fool? I’m seconds away from killing you.”

“And I came into this fight knowing there was every chance you or I would die. I thought I would either overestimate you and kill you by accident, or underestimate you and find myself in an early grave. But you… you certainly did not disappoint. A total defeat at your hands, and yet you stayed your hand and let me live.”

“You looking to change that? Talk.”

“Very well. I suppose it’s time you knew. Higgs, come on out.”

At her confusing order, something even more confusing occurred. A white cat, just as ethereal and graceful as Time, popped into existence at her side. No flash of light, no theatrics. One moment there was nothing. The next, there was a cat.

“What the fuck…”

“What on Earth…”

“So, Higgs? She meet your expectations?”

“Brash, reckless, destructive… yet undeniably skilled. And resilient to a fault, to boot. She has not merely met my expectations, but exceeded them in every way.”

“So does that mean we’re really doing this?”

“I suppose it does,” said the white cat, turning to look up at me. “Ms Ronin. You’ve proven yourself stronger and more capable than I could ever have imagined. Would you allow us to join you on your crusade?”