Karin's Decision; Magical Aka's Fearsome Friend Fight

Aka’s body moved into a charging stance in response to her wish. Her aura glowed around her skin as a soft ember now rose from her body like a flame, with her as its fuel. The softer reds of her energy grew darker and darker, boiling at the edges like the water surface in a boiling pot.

The guard jumped back, feeling the heat before he caught a glimpse of the aura. Raising his baton with shaky hands, he was ready to whack whatever he perceived as a threat.

“What’s wrong?” The guard asked Aka, sweat falling from his forehead and trailing down to his mouth. Whether it was from the fear or the heat, Aka couldn’t tell at this point. The edge of her aura grazed the wall, causing a small hole to open in one of its bricks that glowed orange before smoldering.

“Is someone about to attack this place? Was there some hidden super criminal here we weren’t awaaaaaaaaa-”

The guard’s cries for explanation grinded to a halt relative to Aka’s accelerating thoughts. His right foot suspended slightly above the air, unsure whether to step forward or back.

When Aka accelerated her thoughts like this, she was unable to move. How could she, when all the signals to her limbs and extremities were cut off. Keeping her magic focused on her mind allowed her to accelerate it to speeds far beyond what her physical body could handle.

Though this technique came with drawbacks. Her body was essentially stuck in place, performing the last directive it’d been given. In this case, it was simply to charge up energy for an attack. When her mind reconnected to her body, there’d be a second of lag as her decelerating mind and accelerating body had to reach the same speeds to communicate with each other again. This delay made the technique all but unusable in combat without cover from allies.

‘Am I really doing this?’ Aka thought.

Aka couldn’t help but hesitate. She had a heart of justice; she had viewed the law as justice. She thought the people who worked for the law had the same respect for justice that she did. But through the frustrations she experienced with the judge, the prosecutor, and now this guard, she could see at least some did not feel this way.

But was what she was doing even just itself?

Aka’s hesitation grew even further.

Is it right to destroy this place?

Aka stared at Tyler’s cell for an answer. She should be able to see inside it through the open slot, but all that stared back at her was an endless abyss.

She had hoped for some cry for help, some assurance of a desire for his rescue from him. But she couldn’t find it like this. She had to think for herself and how she felt.

Aka again thought of the guard, who had cruelly tormented the prisoners. She could feel the contempt he held toward them oozing out of his body. He did not see the prisoners as humans, in the same way the monsters she had fought so long ago didn’t see human life as having value.

She felt the depressed spirits of the prisoners around her, brought lower by this very establishment. She had seen their hopes rise and be dashed away. Felt those who couldn’t even bother to hope.

It made it clear to Aka what she was doing was right. Her heart of justice had been betrayed. All she could trust now was her gut and her instincts, which were both screaming at her for allowing someone to inflict misery and suffering upon others.

It was a foregone conclusion, she didn’t even need to think about it, the plan already visible in her mind. After her mind synced with her body, she’d fire her Enraged Explosion Eradicator. Her aura would detonate around herself, expanding to cover the entire prison, erasing it from existence.

The only snag would be the guard. This attack only harmed that which she hated, and as much as he infuriated her, she didn’t want to kill him. In the second she detonated it, she’d have to jump with him outside of the blast radius. The prison would be completely erased, without harming anyone inside of it. After the erasure, she’d have to use her ‘STAY!’ command to ensure the people on the upper floors didn’t fall to their deaths.

Her mind eased itself, the magic around her brain returned to the rest of her body in an instant, but one that seemed agonizingly slow to her. Her perception of movement began to shift back to normal, she could finally see the guard’s step was one of retreat, likely in fear of her powers, no, her animosity towards him.

As the decelerating gears of her mind interlocked with the gears of her body, Aka felt a jolt rush through her entire being. Not letting it stop her, she fired off a punch to ignite her Explosion Eradicator.

“Aka! I can’t let you do that!”

Aka’s punch met a brick wall. No, more like a concrete pole considering its size. She recognized that voice, but it was still a shock to see him. Standing before Aka was Magical Rose, with his sword planted firmly between the ground and his hand, the flat of his blade meeting her fist, causing blood to trickle forth along its length.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see her own reflection in the blade, unable to suppress the shock worn plainly on her face.

“What are you doing here Rose? I thought you retired?”

She attempted to hide the surprise on her face. Though, she couldn’t tell how good a job she was doing, because her blood had covered the blade’s reflective surface.

“You’re not one to talk,” he replied, finally pulling his blade from the ground, causing Aka to stumble forward onto her knees.

“Apologies for my friend’s sudden reactions,” Rose continued, turning to the guard, “she was just wary because she sensed my power without knowing who it belonged to.”

The guard’s shaking slowly stopped as he processed what Rose said. Letting out a breath of relief he said, “That makes sense, just be more careful about notifying your friend. I thought this place was going to be leveled any second now with the way Aka was looking. No offense or anything.”

Aka didn’t even give his words a single thought, too preoccupied with Rose’s appearance.

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future,” he replied, walking past Aka, “let’s get going now.”

His steps continued on, like it was the most natural thing in the world; that she should just follow him without question.

“No,” she whispered.

The footsteps stopped.

“What was that,” Rose replied more than asked, already back in front of Aka’s kneeling body without a sound.

Aka turned away, not wanting to look him in the eye. Her body quivered.

“I think we’ve imposed upon the nice gentleman long enough. We should get going.”

‘The nice man,’ Aka thought as her shaking came to a halt. How could Rose say that without hesitation.

Rose always argued better than her; fought better than her too, as much as she hated to admit it. He probably would have convinced the judge, the prosecutor, or the guard over there that what they were doing was wrong.

She had always gotten frustrated with how right he always was. Seeing him make such a bad judgment call on someone’s character, she felt invigorated to stand her ground. Her quaking stopped. She rose to her feet.

“I still have business here.”

“I see then. Apologies to you,” Rose pointed his sword at the guard to indicate he was speaking to him, “but I must break the prison wall. I’ll repair it in just an instant.”

“Huh?” Aka and the guard replied simultaneously.

***

Smoke cleared outside the prison building, revealing an Aka-shaped hole in its side. Flying backwards nearly 50 meters away was Aka herself.

“Dammit!”

Aka was always caught off guard by Rose, even when he told her exactly what he was going to do.

“Mending Broken Heart!” She heard echo out from the hole, followed by its source leaping out of it,

He was quick to keep his promises as well. Something clocked her in the back of the head hard, she felt blood gush out into her hair. It tumbled past the side of her face and she could see it was a brick from the wall, flying toward the hole it had come from. Rose dodged and danced through the flying debris with the elegance of a ballerina, which was made more impressive by the fact that the bricks only slowed down as they reached their point of origin.

Aka grimaced, knowing this wasn’t a great match-up. She felt the wound on the backside of her close up automatically, and with her red hair, the only sign of her injury now was the sticky sensation she had on the back of her head. Not pleasant, but she’d live.

She had to regain her composure, or else Rose would capitalize on it. Aka prepared to punch the sky to bring herself back to the ground, but as she winded up, the air escaped her lungs as she was kicked from below.

The wind knocked out of her as she flew upwards, she saw Rose’s face for a second before he poofed away, indicating it was just a clone.

She was greeted by Rose’s face again as she reached the apex of her ascent, .Before she could even wonder how he’d gotten this high, she was struck by the flat side of the blade, sending her flying even farther back through the air.

Rose was rising like a bullet towards Aka-- she could now see that a clone would poof into existence behind him and swing the flat of the blade at Rose’s feet, propelling him forwards.

Aka pulled back her fist, ready to intercept his attack. As Rose closed in, Aka felt a presence below her. Her legs twisted to the side in order to force her lower thrusters downwards, and flames burst out underneath them.

She heard a scream. One of Rose’s clones had materialized below her in preparation to strike Aka at the same time the original Rose did, only to be consumed by her flames. The opposing reactions forced Aka to ascend above Rose’s trajectory.

“You’re relying on your clones too much, Rose!” Aka yelled, her legs twisting above her body as Rose’s trajectory put him squarely in her line of sight. Aka’s thrusters activated again, pushing her down with an intense force, her fist leading the dive.

“Meteor Impact!” Aka screamed. Her punch connected directly with Rose’s face, sending them both in a dive bomb to the ground.

*PWWWFFFFFFFFFFFFFF*

Dust rose high into the sky, birds cawed and flapped, animals ran and screamed. Rose lay on his side at the epicenter, with Aka’s fist still grinded into his face. She couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride at the sight. With Rose’s face acting as a platform, and her arm acting as a pole, she guided her body’s descent on top of Rose so that her legs straddled his stomach.

Only when she felt confident that her legs gripped Rose’s sides as tightly as they possibly could did Aka finally withdraw her fist.

“You rely on your clones too much,” Aka repeated, breathlessly.

“Only because you keep falling for them,” he wheezed.

Aka turned around, expecting the real Rose to be behind her, only to then realize her mistake. Aka lost grip and Rose kicked his legs beneath him, shaking the ground and causing a wide fault to open beneath them both that he fell into. Aka stretched her legs out both ways to catch herself on the sides; reaching down to try and grab him, but she was a second too late.

She pushed up against the sides of the crevice to launch herself out, and saw Rose jump out from the opposite side of the crevice. She landed near the epicenter of the crater, while Rose stood at its rim, staring down at her.

“You have good instincts Aka, but you're overly gullible and too emotional,” he said, pointing his sword accusingly at her,

“I’m a Magical Girl. Being emotional is kind of what we do,” she spat back.

“You’re not wrong,” he mused, planting his sword down into the ground, “I admire the ferocity with which your emotions bloom forth, especially on the battlefield. But it’s a problem if you keep being blinded by them. A lot of people could’ve been hurt with the stunt you were about to pull.”

“I was ready to save each and every one of them, even that shit-head guard.”

“That’s not what I mean,” he countered, his hand planted on the hilt of his sword as he leaned over it.

She couldn't tell if he was taking her seriously or not, and it pissed her off. She pulled her fist back in a twisting motion, causing it to ignite. Her back and leg thrusters glowed orange and heated up, ready to guide her next attack.

Aka yelled, ready to attack, her body launching forward. Then she screamed, as a pain shot up her leg, and her forward momentum halted.

She looked back, and saw her foot nail to the ground by Rose’s sword. It made no sense, because Rose was still standing in front of her with his sword planted firmly in the ground.

“Like now. You assumed that because I was talking to you, I wasn’t already planning my next line of attack.”

Aka ripped out the sword from her foot, the hole closing up as it exited, only for another sword to appear in her gut. And then another to appear in her arm, soon swords came raining down upon her from the sky, skewering her upon their blades.

“I kicked you over here for a reason. I had already won this fight before we even started.”

A blade dove straight through her neck, its hilt forcing her head up to see what she was talking about. At least two dozen clones had surrounded the perimeter of the crater, all empty handed due to having launched their swords at her.

Aka coughed up blood, pain ringing throughout her body. She felt like she was more sword than flesh with how many of them had skewered her like a shish kabob.

“Let me ask you, what were you going to do after your plan of freeing all those criminals worked?”

“I was going to save them,” Aka gurgled out through the blood in her mouth.

“Save them how?!” Rose shouted. “Were you going to protect them for the rest of their lives to keep them from being arrested? Were you going to monitor each of them every single day to ensure that? Or were you going to just keep them all in a single place, so you could protect them easier? Restrict their freedoms to ensure their safety? You’re just making another prison.”

Aka wasn’t even sure what he was talking about at this point, the pain making it hard to think. Her fist tensed, but immediately went limp as another sword plunged itself through the back of her hand.

“You felt weak, and so you wanted to save them, but you did it without thinking about what that would mean for their futures. The infinite toll you would put not only on them, but yourself,” he pulled his sword out of the ground, touching his finger to the blade, causing a small drop of blood to flow out, “compare the pain and toll I felt from my actions to what you’re enduring right now. Just to gain a perspective on what you’re doing to yourself.”

“SHUT… UP…!” Aka screamed loud enough that the blood that had pooled in her mouth spilled out.

Her face grew a dark shade of red, as the heat of her body kicked up to the next level. The metal blades stuck within her melted due to her intense heat.

Rose pointed his sword forward and sent the clones on a death march. A heat wave unleashed itself from Aka’s body, causing them to explode in a magical poof upon contact before they had gotten even halfway to her.

With her arms freed from the swords that had imprisoned her, she began to rip sword hilt after sword hilt from her body. The blades had been all but melted, but some of them refused to leave her body until she pulled them out by force. As the last blade was ripped out, she felt a freeing sensation.

Her aura expanded itself further, the holes covering her body soldering themselves shut due to the heat.

“Rose, I may not have won many of our fights, but you’ve never beaten me once I’ve gotten past my boiling stage.”

Aka gripped her fist, ready to inflict the pain back upon Rose one hundred times over.

Rose looked unimpressed. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have taken it so lightly. I wanted to illustrate these feelings through our fight, when I should’ve taken you out immediately. It means I’ll have to crush your spirits completely.”

Aka took a step back, she could tell it wasn’t a bluff. She’d forgotten something important.

“Rainbow Mode Overdrive!” Rose lifted his sword to the sky as he screamed these words, a rainbow manifesting itself from the sky that crashed down upon him like a waterfall.

As the rainbow ended, what emerged was the same Rose she knew, his armor now glowing with all colors of the rainbow instead of the familiar pink Aka recognized.

“I didn’t want to end it like this. We should’ve talked with our words, not our fists.”

Aka tried to say something, but no words came out. The only thing that did come from Aka was a spray of blood from her chest. An x-mark had been engraved upon it.

Magical Rose stood behind her, having already dealt the finishing blow. Aka collapsed to her knees, unable to stand anymore, her body overtaxed from all she had endured.

‘So this is the difference between me and a true magical girl,’ Aka thought as her eyes closed to blackness, her mind slowly fading.