Delectable

“Fire at will!”

The surviving soldiers took aim at the horrid creature that had just killed their commander, but her speed and brutality were unmatched.

She cut down five before a single round was fired. She avoided gunfire like it was naught but an inconvenience. I loosed an arrow, and she swatted it away like a fly.

It was an utter massacre. Not ten seconds passed before every soldier that survived the firefight was slaughtered by her hand. When the deed was done, she stood in the centre of it all, drenched in blood, carrying two blades that were now more red than silver.

“Lord above…” I found myself involuntarily saying as I watched her.

“Don’t lose your nerve. There’s nothing to savour in a meal that doesn’t fight back.”

“Mistake me not, the brutality I just witnessed is more than enough to invigorate me to stop you getting anywhere near the upper floors.” I would never forgive myself in the afterlife were I to allow such barbarism to reach Tokiko. “Though, I must say, you are not the foe I had anticipated. Is our green friend making no appearance today?”

“That girl has no idea how to properly prepare her food. Instead, I will be your chef for this evening.”

“I’m charmed.”

W wasted not one further moment, dashing towards me with speed greater than any other magical girl I had ever fought. One moment she was far down the hallway, the next her cleaver was millimetres from my neck.

I just barely ducked in time for her swing to sail over my head, but she quickly turned and stabbed at my chest. I dodged backwards, so fast I near lost my footing, as she attacked with a flurry of stabs.

Her speed was overwhelming, especially for one such as myself who specialises in range. My only option was to force eye contact.

Keep my head up. Focus on her. Wait until she looks… Got her!

“Argh!” I recoiled in pain as W’s skewer took a chunk out of my side. I just about moved aside far enough to minimise the damage, but it was still agonising. “How… I was certain…”

“That you had ensnared me with that little trick of yours?” She licked her lips and looked me dead in the eyes. “You did. But you forgot something about me.” She placed her hand under my chin. “I like to hurt the things I love.”

I leapt to the right at the last safe moment, the skewer missing my heart by milliseconds.

This… was a foe that outmatched me entirely. Just as my power was the only one that could neutralise Graviton, this… monster was the only person my control could not ensnare. My perfect counter. How droll.

I would not win this fight head-on, that much was clear. Range would be my only ally.

I drew my bow and loosed an arrow. One which she, of course, dodged as if it was nothing. She made to approach me again, but I loosed another and once again forced a defensive movement.

I was not foolish enough to believe my random potshots would be enough to land a significant blow on such an incredibly dextrous foe, but by forcing this little game of cat and mouse I could perhaps hope to wear her down. A battle of attrition was the only battle I would stand a chance of winning.

She once again drew close, and once more I retreated. Another arrow aimed for her heart, another dodge that would cost her precious stamina.

Attack.

Retreat.

Loose.

Dodge.

It was a rhythm I could keep up near indefinitely, and my quiver was hardly nearing empty. Yet, no slowing did her movements show. In fact, with each attack, she appeared only to grow in ferocity and determination.

A butcher’s knife sailed past my head, my dodge coming not a moment too soon. I aimed for her legs, and she was forced to jump. I predicted her path through the air and loosed another arrow, perfectly striking where her heart should have been. But she stretched a leg and kicked off a nearby wall, narrowly avoiding a fatal shot.

Another missed arrow, another missed stab.

And still she showed no signs of slowing down. She was relentless, brutal, efficient…

Careless.

Perhaps my ability had taken root in her mind, or perhaps she was simply unconcerned with her own safety, but her attacks were reckless. She committed entirely to each one, as if hoping I would be too focused on dodging to counter.

I found my win condition. I simply had to bait the opportunity.

A sudden change in behaviour would alert her to my plan, so I continued our rhythm and loosed another arrow at her head as she approached. As I had predicted, she ducked beneath it and drew back her cleaver for a stab. Her attack was deadly, but her defence utterly lowered.

I knocked.

I drew.

I loosed.

There were two consecutive sounds of the rending of flesh.

My arrow sunk into her right shoulder and lodged itself in her collarbone. Her right arm fell limp at her side and the cleaver attack was neutralised.

But she had seen it coming, and with her other arm she buried the skewer deep into my side. Exactly where she had stabbed me at the opera house firefight.

Ah. How ironic. I had thought I had grown since that day, when my overconfidence in attending a mission I was unready for made me a liability for Tokiko. Yet, once again my hubris got the better of me. My own dangerous and stupid counter rendered me immobile. Had I truly learned nothing?

“Your mistake was thinking pain would stop me.” W ripped the arrow from her collarbone without so much as a flinch. It should have been agony. “But pain is just one of life’s grreat tastes. To feel it is just as much a delicacy as to administer it.”

“In that case-urgh-” I clutched my side as the skewer disappeared, leaving blood to flow freely from the wound. “...I’ll administer as much as you want.”

“As exquisite as that sounds,” she said, rising from her knees to her feet, “it seems this meal is over. I’ll have to savour the next, I suppose.”

I was initially confused at her words, until something haunting and cold reached my ears.

Singing.

Ahh… how cruel… now that I was incapacitated, the foe I had been sent to counter had arrived. What a malicious twist of fate. I could hardly raise my body enough to look up, let alone to meet her eyes.

My body began to feel heavy. Heavy. Heavier still, until my legs crumpled under the weight. So massive was the force on my back, for a moment I thought the building had collapsed on top of me.

All that filled my ears was that beautiful, harrowing singing from the beautiful, harrowing girl in green. So entraptured by it were my senses that I did not notice W approach until her hand was grasping my hair.

“It’s almost a shame you fell so easily,” she said, a touch of disappointment in her voice. “You were never able to try your little plan and see it foiled. But before you die, I suppose I can show you.”

She dragged me off the ground by my hair, my scalp in sheer agony as strands began to be ripped out. She turned my head up to see Graviton at the entrance to the hallway. She was completely engrossed in singing, paying no mind whatsoever to the two of us. And on her head was their masterful counter to my ability.

A simple blindfold.

“Haaah… neutralised by a piece of cloth…” I chuckled to myself. “I truly am useless, aren’t I?”

“No. You’ve made an enjoyable appetiser before the main course. Die with that much dignity at least.”

She dropped me back to the ground and repositioned herself in front of me. This was it. A single downward movement, and my life would end. A legacy of failure. That was all I had to my name in my final moments.

…I simply could not let that stand.

With the absolute last of my strength, I forced my cybernetic spine to curl as far back as my body could take, and plunged my hidden dagger into W’s heart.

“Ah-”

The wind left her lungs, and she dropped her blade with a clatter. I had sacrificed my body, even my ability to use my legs, but I had bested her in the final moment.

“How- careless of you-” I said, attempting to hide the agony in my voice.

“...delectable.”

W’s corpse crumpled to the ground in front of me, blood pouring from the wound on her chest.

My own body soon followed, crushed by the ever-increasing force of Graviton. Even were she not there to finish me, the damage I had sustained would have proven fatal.

Still, as my consciousness faded, I was content knowing I had overcome one of Tokiko’s greatest obstacles. Ms Denka, I leave the rest to you.