The Electric Princess

“I really thought this would be a boring job, but lookie here. The feds delivered me a good fight and a good paycheque,” cackled the Magical Girl before us.

She looked exactly as she was always described by the rare few witnesses she left.

Her skirt, coloured with vertical stripes of golden yellow and electric blue, had messy spiked ends at the bottom, as if someone had haphazardly taken a kitchen knife to it. Hanging from the waist band was a series of chains, all connected together and covering around half the area of her skirt.

Somehow, it was the most normal part of her attire, as above it she wore a set of full heavy chainmail covering her entire upper body except her arms.

Her hands were hidden inside metallic gloves, and in them sat an enormous sword with a spiked cross guard and a jagged blade. The centre of the blade was the characteristic silver of steel, with the outer edges shining gold.

Also golden was the crowned helmet that sat on her head and hid her eyes behind a slitted visor.

The parts of her legs that were not covered by her skirt also shined metallic, but not from any armour or clothing. No, from her knees down, Denka Fujiko’s legs were fully cybernetic.

Each separate part of her attire was connected with thin metal wires. Every single thing she wore was designed to make her the perfect human conductor of electricity.

A walking lightning rod.

An electric princess.

“How on Earth can she move like that?” Said Ryou aloud.

“She’s freakishly strong, even among magical girls. Don’t underestimate her,” I replied quietly, hoping Denka didn’t hear.

“No one ever tell you girls it’s rude to leave people out of the conversation?” Sneered the electric girl. “Looks like I oughta teach you both some damn manners!”

With speed far greater than her heavy attire should allow, Denka sprinted towards us, the chains and wires adorning her clinking loudly with every step. As she did so, she held her sword out to the right of her body, and a lightning bolt shot from one of the screens to the sword’s tip. The screen went black, and the sword sparked with electricity.

“Scatter!” I yelled, and Ryou bolted in opposite directions. Denka’s slice found nothing but air.

Another premonition.

I threw myself to the ground, hearing the crackle of discharged electricity sail over my head. I barely scrambled to my feet and stepped aside fast enough to dodge the sword that was hurled at me.

“Oooh, you’re a fast one,” she cackled, as the sword magnetically returned to her hand. “I do love a good chase. Make this fun for me, will you?”

She didn’t attack again straight away, instead slowly walking towards me with her sword at her side. Just as was expected of her, she was revelling in the chase.

“I can’t contact either of our guides. We’ll be doing this alone,” said Ryou, who had come back round to my side.

“In a place like this, I’m not surprised. But I think I have a plan.”

“What did I say…” interrupted Denka, sucking up more electricity from another nearby screen, “about leaving me out of the conversation!”

“Duck!”

Ryou reacted to my call just in time, and the horizontal streak of lightning just about passed over our heads. Denka followed up by leaping towards me with a sword thrust, and once again I had to dodge at the absolute last moment. If not for my precognition, I’d almost certainly be dead by now.

She sailed past me, her blade sinking one of the screens on the wall. It emerged once again crackling with electricity.

“That plan of yours?” Ryou said quickly, helping me to my feet and backing away from the slowly approaching electric menace.

“It takes a lot of concentration for her to control all that electricity without shocking herself,” I replied, as we picked up the pace getting away from her. “If we can split her attention enough-” I dived and dragged Ryou down with me, another lightning bolt just barely missing us. “-we can make her discharge it and paralyse herself.”

We scrambled back to our feet and got moving again, sticking close to each other.

“And how could you possibly know that?”

“Trust me on this, Ryou!”

We jumped opposite directions as Denka leapt towards us and slammed her sword into the ground. Electricity discharged into the ground around her.

“What about her power source? Is depriving her of that not a more surefire method?” Ryou asked as we met back up in the middle.

“There’s hundreds of screens, we’ll run out of stamina before she runs out of power.”

“Could we not destroy them?”

“So long as there’s power running through them, she can use them.”

“How on Earth do you speak as if you know so much about her?”

“I’ll explain later, just trust me, dammit!”

“...do not make me regret this,” she sighed.

Instead of running away, we turned to face her.

“Thank you. I can precog most of her attacks if I pay enough attention, so if you take the lead I can guide your actions.”

“I sincerely hope you’re right about this.”

We readied our swords, moving towards her in opposite directions with speed. I took a wider approach, Ryou moved in more directly.

“Finally fighting back, you cowards? Bring it on!”

As expected, Denka turned her attention to Ryou first. Despite her insane weight load, she moved with incredible speed and barely telegraphed her attacks. Any failure in precognition could prove fatal.

But against her? I knew it wouldn’t fail.

“Blink!”

At my call, Ryou disappeared in a flash of light, dodging the wide swing by millimetres. She reappeared and slammed Denka’s nose with her knee, rattling her helmet and sending her sliding backwards.

Unfortunately, she had discharged her electricity with the swing, so it failed to paralyse her.

That didn’t stop Ryou and I from attempting a follow up. Ryou landed quickly and approached low to the ground, slicing upwards with her sword, while I dashed forward from behind and aimed for her cybernetic leg.

“Shit, stop!”

My call came just in time, and Ryou and I barely stopped ourselves before Denka’s body sparked with lightning. A moment later and we’d have completely incapacitated.

“Ooooh, close call there! You guys must have some pretty good instincts to dodge my attacks. I might have to get a little serious,” she said, the grin on her face widening even further, “starting with the slow one!”

She turned her attention to Ryou and blitzed towards her. If she was fast before, it was nothing compared to that moment.

“Blink now!”

Ryou was caught completely off guard by Denka’s sudden approach, barely managing to teleport in time to dodge the stab aimed at her heart. Denka spun and fired a lightning bolt, but Ryou predicted it and stepped aside before it could meet it’s target. She took the opportunity to return the pressure and sliced crossways at Denka’s abdomen.

The cut missed by a hair.

“Step away!”

Ryou dodged by the skin of her teeth. A lightning bolt ejected from a screen behind her to Denka’s sword in front of her, damn near frying her in the centre.

“Up!”

Ryou leaned her whole body backwards and teleported in the air. Denka’s wide swing failed to meet it’s target, and Ryou spun her entire body to cut down with as much force as she could manage.

Denka stepped away just in time to avoid fatal damage. It wasn’t quite fast enough. The sword sliced her arm and drew a lot of blood.

“Haaa… okay… this is getting annoying.” Denka slowly stepped towards Ryou and swung her mighty sword with a single arm. When Ryou parried, she swung again, and again, and again, slowly gaining ground with each and every movement.

I couldn’t get in and help. The second I took my focus off precognition, I risked Ryou’s life.

“You know what your problem is, blinky girl?” sneered Denka. “That teleportation of yours really is fast… but when you rematerialise…”

“Ryou! Get out of there!”

“You’re just as slow as anyone else!”

Denka discharged an immense amount of electricity, covering an enormous area in front of her. Ryou’s only choice was to teleport to the other side of her.

It was a trap.

“Argh- fuck!”

Denka’s hurled sword cut cleanly through Ryou’s cybernetic arm, striking with enough force to send her careening across the ground.

The sword returned to Denka’s hand, and every screen in the arena began blinking and flashing all at once.

“Y’know, I was gonna let you live a little longer, have a little more fun with you both, but that little move of yours really pissed me off.” She raised he sword above her, and electricity streamed in from every direction. Her sword, her clothing, and even her body itself were all flashing so brightly that my human eye was completely unable to see.

Every screen in the dome turned off. The only source of light was her. The electric princess, sparking with energy.

She channeled all of it into her sword. A lethal attack Ryou could never dodge.

There was nothing left for it. I had to use my last resort.

“Say goodnight, little Ronin-”

“Fuji, wait!” I ran out in front of her and pulled my hood down so she could see my whole face.

“Toki-?! Arghhh!”

The moment of surprise was enough to break her concentration, just long enough for a small current to shock her nervous system and make her muscles seize.

Time screeched to a halt around me. I could only overclock to this degree for a few seconds at most. I had to make it count.

I ran forward as fast as my legs could carry me. Most of the current was in the sword, but electricity moved near the speed of light. My window was tiny. I slammed the sword out of her hand, but it was sloppy and fell to the ground near her feet. The discharge would kill her if I didn’t move her.

She’d likely spasm with her arms as soon as time resumed, so I grabbed both of her hands and held them high. I pushed her back with all the speed I could manage without killing her, locking her arms against the wall over her head and holding her there.

Time resumed.

““Arghhhh!””

We hadn’t completely dodged the discharge. A side flash caught my leg, burning the skin and electrocuting both of us. Our muscles seized and pain flashed through my entire body. But it was mercifully light and lasted only a few seconds.

The two of us slid down the wall, accidentally smashing one of the screens on the way down. Both of our bodies were too exhausted to move.

“Toki… you’re… the fucking… Ronin…”

“Fuck… you… Fuji…”

We both panted for breath as we talked. That amount of electricity would have undoubtedly killed a normal human being, so I was thankful to even be alive.

I also knew Time would kill me when she found out how much stress I had just put my new heart under.

“Tokiko, dear girl,” came a voice from behind me, as a sword’s edge found it’s way under Fujiko’s chin, “once you’ve got your breath back, would you mind telling me exactly how you’re so familiar with this… charming young lady.”

“Hehehehe… never ye worry, lass. Ah can do that fer ye.”

A voice echoed from every angle of the room. An aggravating voice that I had heard often a long time ago.

“Electron…” I muttered.

With all the strength I had left, I turned my body towards the centre of the room. There in the dead middle, a dozen streams of electricity coalesced into a single form. A yellow cat with spiked fur, sparking brightly even once taking form.

“Ye see, lassie, that freend o yers ower there, afore this ‘Ronin’ business, she used tae be wee darlin Fujiko’s pairtner.”

…shit. Cat’s out of the bag now.