Your Honey Has Strayed

Finish Aquamarine as fast as possible.

Force the enemy commander into retreat first, then peel off to support whichever of the two stalling fights — Sohee's or Doosik's — could be wrapped up sooner, and pull them both out.

It was a workable strategy. In truth, though, the entire operation would never have held together without the effects of the Bespredel Set.

There were a few more abilities besides, still sealed. But what had caught my eye first — and held it — was that very first line.

An accelerated skill-gauge fill rate for allies.

It meant I could shorten the cooldown Kabe needed to transform. Kabe would shift into her Shinsallang form and pressure Aquamarine. I would lay down covering fire with Bespredel, then close the gap ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the instant an opening appeared and finish it with a rocket punch.

A perfect plan.

The three magical girls had not moved from their positions. They stood as if they had been waiting for us to come to them.

"Kabe, how's the transformation gauge look—"

No. Wrong approach.

I tapped Kabe's marker on the map, and the skill gauge bloomed into view. It hadn't shown during the last fight. Apparently the system only exposed a gauge once I knew to look for it.

A quarter of the way full. We had barely started, and it was already climbing faster than it had in the last battle. That much was certain.

We were cutting a straight line across the city when I pulled us to a halt at the edge of Central Park. There was a dampness in the wind that I did not like. The air funneling between the buildings had a genuine bite to it, and the cold seeped into a body that had been standing still too long.

Something was off.

My instincts were sour.

On the map, the magical girls' markers began to move. Aquamarine held the center. Prequ shot in a straight line toward three o'clock. Evangeline peeled off toward eight.

"Doosik, Evangeline's on the move. Sohee — Prequ's started moving too. Doosik, stall her as long as you can. Sohee, engage hard and finish it fast. Then go support Doosik."

"Good. I'm counting on you."

"Evangeline. It's been a while."

"My, Kwak Doosik. It's been quite some time since we last stood face to face like this."

Evangeline, dressed in a gown of purest white, dipped her upper body in a graceful bow. Doosik checked the buttons of his suit once, then returned the greeting with equal formality, folding at the waist.

"I trust you've been well."

"I have, thank you. You look well yourself. If you are to be my opponent today… I take it there are no other Mains with you?"

"There are. They've gone to deal with Prequ."

"I see. Prequ does have a rather poor matchup against you, doesn't she."

A faint smile touched Evangeline's face.

"Kwak Doosik… if they sent you to face me, does that mean they intend to finish Prequ first and then come for me?"

Doosik gave her no answer.

He did not know what his boss — Mother — was thinking. But he believed in her. Whatever plan she had laid, he believed she would seize victory with her own two hands.

"To think you rate me so highly. I suppose I ought to be grateful."

Doosik did not answer her. He spoke the incantation instead.

Golden radiance gathered along his right arm, and what finally took shape was a tower shield so vast it could have hidden his entire body. A tower shield black enough to swallow even the cold moonlight locked into place on Doosik's right arm.

"Evangeline."

"Yes?"

"You will not take a single step from this spot."

"I suppose I won't."

Evangeline spread both hands. Pure white lightning was already coiling and condensing in her palms, snapping and crackling without pause.

"Kwak Doosik. Or should I be calling you Aias now?"

"I discarded that name a long time ago."

"Impregnable Fortress Aias. It's been a while since we last crossed blades. This time, I fully intend to take a decisive victory from you."

"You're welcome to try. If you can."

Doosik kicked off the ground and charged.

The Mains spread wide, putting distance between one another, each settling a weapon into their grip and watching for an opening. Lightning leapt from Evangeline's hands and came screaming toward him.

"Evangeline. Are you looking down on me?"

Doosik did not even raise the shield. He caught the incoming bolt in his bare hand. The lightning spat and flickered for a moment, then lost its light in his grip and died.

"You ought to know lightning of that caliber can't so much as scratch me."

Doosik grinned.

It was a bluff. In the old days, a strike like that would have sent him reaching for the shield. But this was different. Mother was on the field, and her orders were to buy as much time as possible and wait for Sohee to join him.

His condition itself was different. The vitality running through every inch of his body was proof enough of that.

Black monoliths erupted from the earth around Evangeline and closed her in. The stones had real mass and real weight; they cut off her movement and ringed her the way a siege net rings a city.

One of the monoliths collapsed as if it had never had any strength at all. Evangeline slipped through the gap and thrust a hand toward the onrushing Doosik.

A magic circle bloomed at her back, then leapt as if reflected and settled above Doosik's head. Lightning vomited from the circle and came crashing down; Doosik raised the shield and knocked it aside.

He shook out the lingering sting in his hand and bore down on her.

"Mozgovaya—!"

"Not a chance!"

The tower shield smashed into Evangeline. A heavy crack of impact rang out, and her body lurched mid-incantation. The shield vanished from Doosik's arm at his will, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the freed hand seized her by the collar.

"Solar plexus!"

The blow landed with a dull, meaty thud, and Evangeline's body shuddered. Behind her, the Mains came charging in with swords leveled, hungry for a follow-up.

"You've gotten stronger. To think Mother taking the field herself would do this much. I'm impressed."

The Evangeline who had been dangling from his fist was suddenly standing a long way behind him, brushing out the wrinkles in her slightly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crumpled dress.

"But I can't afford to lose either, Doosik. My honey will be watching the broadcast."

"Branch Leader Frilly, you mean."

Doosik's mouth curled. Right. That was it. Evangeline's lover was Frilly.

"Come to think of it, Evangeline — you probably don't know."

Evangeline, who had been gathering lightning in her hands again, looked at him with a puzzled frown.

What would happen if he said it? Doosik's heart was pounding.

"Your honey — Branch Leader Frilly, that is — already confessed her love to my boss. To Mother."

"…I beg your pardon?"

The lightning she had been gathering spat once and scattered into nothing.

"Simply put."

He drove the tower shield into the ground. A skill that needed no incantation at all.

Buying time? That was fine too.

But knocking the enemy down wasn't against the rules either.

KRA-KOOM!

Doosik kicked off the earth again. Shield first, he drove straight at Evangeline, who stood frozen where she was, staring as if she had been struck dumb.

"You stupid bitch. Hauling around a piece of garbage like a great scythe — as if that thing has a shred of practical use."

Prequ grinned from ear to ear as she swung her beloved weapon, Healthcare, in lazy, humming arcs.

"Kh—hk."

Sohee coughed and spat a mouthful of blood-streaked saliva. The strength went out of her legs and she swayed. Power was draining from her body in every direction, as if she might collapse at any second.

Watching her, Prequ did not doubt the outcome for a moment.

She had been tense enough, the first time she laid eyes on Sohee — a girl in a pitch-black hanbok, carrying a great scythe as tall as she was. A scythe was a liability in a real fight more often than not. The length gave it reach, but the parts of it that could actually deal a killing wound were absurdly limited, and beyond hooking a pull or slashing it sideways there was hardly anything you could call a technique.

Anyone who walked onto a battlefield with a weapon like that had to be the real thing. That was what Prequ had thought, and she had been nervous.

Then she had actually fought her, and it turned out exactly as expected: a girl with nothing but style, swinging a weapon with not one ounce of practical value, all flash and no substance.

The hanbok was crumpled and torn in a dozen places. The great scythe lay on the ground, looking pathetic. To Prequ's eye, Sohee — half-sprawled, barely sitting up — was in no condition to keep fighting.

"Hey. Fall back. You can't keep this up anyway. I've got to go help Evangeline-unni."

"Heh… heheh."

Laughter.

Prequ looked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠down at her with an expression of pure disbelief.

"You're laughing?"

"It is rather funny, yes."

Sohee, who had looked ready to keel over from her injuries, was pushing herself to her feet with a crooked little grin. The wounds that had been welling blood were closing at a startling speed. The torn hanbok mended itself, the fabric drawing taut until it looked as if it had just come off the iron, not a wrinkle in sight.

When she was fully upright she stretched out a hand, and the discarded great scythe flew to her grip.

"Ahh. That feels wonderful."

Prequ stared at her, thrown by the sudden remark, and said nothing.

"What, are you some kind of masochist or something…?"

"A masochistic streak… I would not go so far as to say I am entirely without one. Prequ, was it?"

"Yeah."

Scythe in hand, Sohee lifted her head and looked Prequ straight in the eye. Color was flooding back into a face that had gone deathly pale, a warm flush rising under the skin.

Terminal lucidity?

No. Prequ shook her head.

Something ugly was coming. Sweat had started to gather in her palms without her noticing.

Sohee gave the scythe a few experimental swings, then tipped her face toward the sky and gazed at it, vacant and far away, as if Prequ were no longer even there.

"I wonder if you have given any thought to why I would choose a weapon as impractical as a great scythe."

"Why the hell would I think about that, you dumb bitch. It's just for the look. Obviously."

"Heh… heheh…"

Sohee's eyes began to glow violet.

"Have you ever heard of a deductible?"

"The hell would I not know that? It's the money I gotta pay out of pocket when insurance handles a car wreck."

Sohee was silent for a moment.

"…I haven't the faintest notion what you mean, but in any case. I wield a weapon of so little practical use as a restriction I place upon myself."

"And what the hell is that supposed to do?"

Complicated talk made her skin crawl. Prequ hoisted Healthcare again and charged.

A violet gale came howling in.

The wind hit Prequ mid-charge and staggered her, and in that sliver of a moment Sohee's weapon had already changed.

"I have taken your measure well enough. One minute. One minute shall suffice."

Cold metal bit into Prequ's side. A dull shock started at her ribs and rolled through her whole body, and she could not stop the low sound that tore out of her.

The blade in Sohee's hand was no longer a great scythe. It was a sickle — the ordinary kind, the kind used in the fields.

Violet smoke poured off Sohee's body in thick, rising coils. The same violet smoke uncoiled from the sickle itself.

"What are you even— kh?!"

A sickle whispered past the tip of her nose. Prequ twisted clear by a hair and felt a cold sweat run down her spine.

"Did you think you dodged that? You ought to be thinking I let you."

Prequ swung Healthcare again.

KANG!

Metal rang on metal. The sickle had caught Healthcare and locked it — the head and the haft clamping the weapon from both sides. In her other hand Sohee raised a second sickle, looking down at Prequ with a smile that did not belong on a human face.

"Wai—!"

SHHUK!

Flesh tore. Prequ dropped to her knees. Blood ran down from the meat of her shoulder in a thick, dark sheet.

"You may thank Unni that I was forbidden from killing you. I very nearly opened your throat, and only just restrained myself."

Sohee's voice was dense with killing intent, thick enough to coat the tongue. The sickle wrenched free of Prequ's shoulder, and another raw, broken sound ripped out of her.

"Retreat. Do so, and I shall pardon you."

Prequ clamped a hand over the wound pumping blood and glared at Sohee as if she meant to chew her apart and swallow her. But she was already past the point of being able to fight.

"…I'll retreat."

A flicker, and Prequ was gone. Sohee glanced once at the empty space where she had been, then brought the two sickles together and folded them back into a great scythe.

"Unni. This place is finished. I shall go support Doosik."

"She was hardly a worthy opponent."

Sohee's face changed in an instant. The words she had been about to say — asking for Doosik's exact position so she could go support him — died in her throat.

"Unni, where are you? I shall come to you at once!"

No answer came back.

Sohee simply started running. And the seven Mains who had not even dared to set foot in the fight between Prequ and Sohee finally found their legs, and ran after her.