My Normal Life Now Has A Desperate Battle

“No—stop!”

Sarine arrived to the sound of a crash, to screaming, and to a certain magical girl thrown into a building. Yearning Yuriko scrambled back to her feet and took to the air, Sarine joining her as Lavi flew off to distract the monstrosity before them.

A monstrosity—best described as a human. A massive women who crunched concrete beneath her dagger-sharp heels, a jaw which stretched farther than it should’ve, and claws growing out of her fingertips, swiping at the little faerie desperate to keep her distracted. Sarine left Lavi to it, focusing on catching up to Yuriko before she flew too far away.

She had to say something. She had to…

“Where’s Tama?” Yuriko asked, eyes watering as she crouched on a roof, watching each swipe of the monster as she readied her baton and her heart to rejoin the fight.

Where’s Tama? A question Sarine asked herself before she came. Another one came to mind soon after: Why wouldn’t Tama wake up?

A shake of the head. “She’s sleeping,” Sarine said, and Yuriko gasped. She understood just as well, so Sarine hoped, though the more Sarine thought about it, the more she wondered if either of them understood anything at all.

Weren’t they both supposed to be magical? Tama channeled magic too, but she wasn’t under the protection of the Powers of Prime?

How was that fair? Why did the Gods turn away from them now?

Lavi screamed. Sarine dove, muttering a spell and throwing a fireball at the raging Nacht—it wailed and swung at her, next, though Sarine had no trouble weaving around the monster’s clumsy actions.

Sarine prepared another fireball, about to throw before she saw it. A pulsing light in the monster’s necklace. “Hey, Yuriko, aim for that!”

With a flutter of her wings Sarine kept her fireball with her. Brighter, brighter still the flame burned, capturing the attention of the beast as Yuriko jumped down, grabbing an injured Lavi and raising her baton. The creature noticed; too late, though, to stop a beam of light from striking her jewelry.

The monster stumbled back. With a pained cry came a sudden, piercing headache—Sarine doubled back, a vision stretching to every corner of her mind.

She was familiar with this spell. A simple act of telepathy, projecting an image into the mind of another. Nothing terrifying.

Nothing dangerous, usually.

This image showed a sleeping Tama. Just as Sarine left her. In the distance, outside the apartment window, the battle raged on, though as Yuriko’s familiar beam of light filled the night, Tama’s eyes shot open and she seized. Screamed, thrashing to and fro as the veins on her forehead popped—the beam sputtered out, and she stilled. A string of blood trickled from an eye.

The vision faded, and Sarine faced the necklace, which now bore a crack down the center. The click of heels stole her attention, and she turned to see another girl, around the same age as Chiho and Tama, standing on a nearby roof.

As the Nacht attacked, Yuriko went back to work distracting it, though she fought now with a heavy hesitance—Sarine knew, she had to have seen the exact same, nightmarish vision, and came to the only conclusion she could. Harming the necklace meant harming Tama.

And this woman…

“Do—do you have something to do with this!?” Sarine screamed, pointing and snapping her fingers; a bolt of lighting crashed down, but the odd girl jumped out of the way, the frills of her dress fluttering as the moon casted blue over her pale face and piercing blue eyes.

The mystery girl pulled an umbrella out, protecting herself from the light and taking off. Sarine almost followed, but another crash pulled her attention away. Yuriko had been thrown into another building, and now, she struggled to get up.

Sarine grabbed her and pulled her out of the way of another attack. “C’mon, just use your beam and get rid of this thing!”

“But—what if that harms Tama!? What if it—”

“If we don’t touch the necklace, then we’re good, right!?”

“It’s not that simple.”

Both turned to the dressed-up woman, who watched over them from around the corner. She smiled. “Your friend’s life is tied to this monster. Feel free to sacrifice strangers to save her, if that’s what you want. I’m sure there’s plenty of places to hide a Nacht, if you don’t mind a few casualties along the way.”

“That…” Lavi said, trailing off, glancing between Yuriko and the stranger. Sarine grit her teeth, bolting away, shutting everything out except the monster who needed to get out of Tama’s head.

She spread her arms out. “I’ll take care of this,” Sarine said, “so go save yourself, first!”

A gasp. The strange woman ran after Sarine, for reasons the faerie couldn’t be damned to puzzle out. “Don’t you dare—!”

“Oh, I’ll dare all I fucking want!” Sarine flew circles around the Nacht, casting sharp breezes, icicles, fireballs, attacks meant to hurt and distract, but not destroy. All the while Tama’s limp form seized in her mind.

If this monster resembled a certain woman long absent, Sarine didn’t feel bad for a second harming it. Only Tama. This was all for Tama. For the stupid, selfish girl who insulted her, tore her dreams apart—then put it all back together again.

Who fought side by side with her.

Who made Sarine feel like she could achieve anything, as long as she had Tama by her side. She didn’t have to be just a guide. She could be a part of the amazing destiny she wanted to achieve too.

She wanted to believe, as she continued to fight, as she threw everything she had at the Nacht, hoping it’d be worn down. Screw it, even if the world woke up and saw this monster, Sarine wouldn’t care, if it meant finding a solution. Maybe it’d disappear under the glow of the sun.

Under the light.

Sarine flew as high as she could and concentrated. She put every ounce of energy she had left into shining, glittering as bright as the sun, hoping it’d wake this nightmare, stop it from consuming her first friend.

But it didn’t flinch. It reached for Sarine, and the little faerie’s wings failed her. She’d done everything she could, and it wasn’t enough.

So the hero arrived.

Yuriko snatched the falling faerie, throwing her to safety as she raised her baton and fired off a beam of light—it missed, purposefully, Sarine noted as she landed in a nearby bush. From there she had a front row seat to the magical girl’s desperate stand.

She fired off attack after attack, talking all the while, not landing a single hit. “I don’t know if you’re connected—if you can even hear me, but please! Wake up! I know you wouldn’t want this!

“I know these nightmares feel paralyzing. Like you might be better off never opening your eyes again, but you can’t! Because then you’d never be able to live again! Like us going for karaoke, sharing meals, going to school together! Our sleepovers, I…I still need you to see more of my family! They’re all nice, truly, the nicest people you’ll ever meet!”

Yuriko shot a glare at the Nacht. “Much nicer than this fiend. But you can’t even be a part of that in dreams, so please, please fight this! I know you can! You’re strong! Stronger than—agh!”

She zipped out of the way of a clawed hand, panting as she fired off bolt after bolt of light into the night sky. Almost like a flare shot upwards in the middle of the woods—please, save us.

Please.

“Save—her—” Yuriko stuttered, and as she raised her baton once more, she looked back down at the necklace, failing to notice the creature lunging not with its hands, but with its mouth. It latched onto Yuriko’s arms, dug in right above the elbows, and ripped them off, a spurt of blood falling like ribbons as Yuriko’s—Chiho’s limp, terrified body hit the ground.

The Nacht, grumbling, spit out the baton. It shimmered, despite it all.