Stop to Gloat

The Magician Arc

Four Magical Girls are engaged in a fierce fight to the death, while two untransformed sit near the corner, engaged in rapid conversation. That's the situation as parts of the roof collapse from the force of the clashing powers.

Two around the edge of the pool are in a constant battle of attrition, Tama firing and running from Constellation’s increasingly furious roars, careful to dodge the punches that come her way as she’s bad at tanking injuries. None of her shots seek to knock out the enraged Constellation, though, instead merely distracting her, winging her, or tripping her.

The other battle is not going quite so well. It seems as if neither is holding back, while the creepy-moving Sleepy Angel lashes out with her body like she doesn’t care about recovery afterwards. Rook leaps back and stabs Gungnir into Sleepy Angel’s leg, causing a yell of fury, but not slowing her down even slightly. Rook stabs again and again, impaling through Sleepy Angel’s hand, arm, even her stomach. Each one causes her to lash out harder, stronger, and faster.

Finally, Rook hesitates, and Sleepy Angel grabs her around the head, twisting her and throwing her bodily into a wall. There’s a loud crashing sound as the building shakes from the impact, and Rook staggers to her feet. This one injury was enough of an opening, and Sleepy Angel exploits it fully, attacking in every possible dirty way she could to strike down and deal serious injury to Rook. Every punch, kick, and throw causes Rook to spit up more blood. Finally, she hits with enough power and Rook collapses to the ground, face up.

Starplus, lying on Kurin’s lap, seems to grow increasingly furious with each passing second of the conversation. Finally, Starplus raises her eyes across the room, at the rest of the battle.

A gloating and cruel look appears on Sleepy Angel’s hollow face as she raises her boot to slam it down onto Rook’s face.

Starplus rises and transforms like a rage-fuelled demon rising from the pits of hell, Starplus delivers a powerful punch right into Sleepy Angel’s face.

“You BITCH!”

✰✰ Magical Girl Constellation ✰✰

This tenacious girl is hard to hit. I try to strike, but she dodges, ducks, and weaves. She’s fast, too. The little shots she takes feel taunting. They’re designed to knock me off balance, humiliate me, and slow me down.

“You’re gonna pay for that when I catch up to you.” I pant, glaring at the girl. She doesn’t seem to notice, her face as impassive as a porcelain doll. I let out a grunt of rage and try to start up again, managing to catch her with one blow to the stomach that sends her spinning and tumbling across the room, hitting into a wall on the other side.

It’d be nice if that was enough to stop her, but I can see from how she gets back to her feet, rifle in hand, that it’s not quite enough.

Right as I’m about to charge again, I hear a roar of pure fury, and turn to see Starplus slamming Sleepy Angel in the face, hard. Angel goes flying, and Starplus leaps to her as well, climbing on top of her and smashing her face in repeatedly, screaming in incandescent rage.

I don’t know what’s going on there, but I have to stop it! Maybe it’s some kind of mind control?

I run to Starplus and try to grab her bodily to wrench her away, but she keeps shaking me off.
“This Bitch! I’m gonna fucking KILL HER!” She roars, slamming her fist again and again into Sleepy Angel’s face. I look around and see it… the girl in the middle school outfit is holding some sort of talisman, and strange purple energy is coming from it, flying through the air and wrapping around Starplus’ eyes. How could I not see it before?! It’s some kind of hypnotism!

I run towards her as she turns into a cackling demonic-looking Magical Girl, growing large wings from her back, a revealing black leather outfit, and ready myself to punch-

-when Starplus grabs me and pushes me down.
“DON’T! It’s an illusion!” She says. I struggle to try and get free, and she headbutts me so hard it breaks my nose.

I feel nauseous, the demonic Maniacal Girl returns to being a girl. A girl who I almost killed. I feel sick. There's a hoarse cackle.

Sleepy Angel stands up slowly, bones creaking and snapping into place. She faces me with a bloodless stare.

“Damn. I liked this one.” She says, with a sigh that’s unlike her. Her mouth seems to move, but it’s poorly coordinated, and her jaw is dislocated. She shouldn’t sound so clear…

“That’s not Sleepy Angel.” Starplus glares at the figure.
“This whole thing has been some sort of sick game!” She adds.
“What… how? I thought-”

“You’re almost right. This is in fact Sleepy Angel. Or what’s left of her.” The Sleepy-Angel-Faced person smirks broader. Her back splits open, and the body crumples to the floor. There’s not enough blood.

“She’s been dead for some time.” Rook says, getting to her feet, panting.
“This… thing. Has been using her body to turn us against each other.” My head spins at Rook’s words, and the sight of the crumpled corpse on the floor. Slowly, the body turns from Sleepy Angel to a tired-looking office lady in her mid twenties.

“A Maniacal.” I spit out, glaring at the form. It appears similar to a Magical Girl, with that same impossible beauty, but dressed in rags and filth. Still very artistic rags and filth, like if there were such a thing as bespoke rags.

“The Hermit, Maniacal Girl." She introduces herself, looking around at all of us standing before her.
"You ruined my latest little toy.” She kicks the head of the… body… on the ground. Starplus howls in fury, bloodlust in her eye. I'm surprised she hasn't charged yet, but then I'm not sure what's holding me back, either.

“Why?” I say, staring at her. The others seem to understand, but my mind is a blank. I have to stop myself tearing up as I stare at Sleepy Angel. All those times we spent together now lying discarded on the floor because it was convenient for this… thing.

“I thrive on paranoia, insecurity, loneliness. Much as the Fool did for rage and change. All that infighting had quite the effect in the magical realm. Questioning, doubting, backstabbing. Even you all suffered the bite of paranoia and the solitude of insecurity. I make the world feel that little bit less safe, and bathe in the change.” She gives out that half-chuckle.

“...Why are you telling us this?” I say, glaring.
“Oh, who knows. Maybe it’s just my way of celebrating my victory.” The Hermit grins. Rook moves around, behind the sniper, behind Starplus, then stops directly opposite the Hermit.

“What’s the point of win-”
“Tama, NOW!” Rook yells. The Hermit’s eyes go wide in shock as the sniper turns and fires at what seemed to be just another piece of rubble.

There’s a scream of pain from inside, and the rubble disappears like it was never there.

There’s a single woman standing there in a stage magician’s outfit, equal parts surprised and infuriated. Before she can think of leaving, a high speed magical motorbike driven by an enraged Magical Girl slams into this stage magician, driving her into the wall behind with an echoing slam that shakes the building.

♦ Magical Girl Tama ♦

The second that Rook yells, I take my guess and fire. Rook had watched the video that EMP-Ire had discovered multiple times, and figured out the trick. Whenever eyes were on one thing, The Magician was hiding behind something else. Rook called it a cup-and-ball trick, but I do not know what that means. I’d paced the length of the room during the fight, searching for the most likely point according to the specifications Rook told me.

One of them is a coward. The Hermit, that is what the Magician called her. It would only show itself if it was forced to the brink of defeat, and would stall for time until the Magician could swoop in for a secondary attack. We knew this was coming.

Kurin was the one who told Starplus the plan. Knowing that my gun would not be enough to take out a Maniacal in one attack, Starplus would race into wherever I shot at full speed.

The plan worked perfectly. The Hermit, eyes wide, stares in shock as I swing my rifle around to fire at her as well. Three shots straight into the chest. The Hermit tumbles backwards in surprise, but there is no time to double check.

I reload my rifle, slide the bolt into place, and ready myself to join in the fight. The Magician is tricky, and capable of illusions. But from what Rook said, the more complex the illusion, the longer she had to stay still to cast it.

She would not get that chance.

Beginning Phase 2.