Three-Way Confrontation
Watching Hemoregia spin her head toward the sudden gunshot after acting ready to fight at any second, I felt a humiliation so sharp I wanted to fire a beam right then and there.
But I already knew it would never reach her.
A monster so powerful that even if Sparkling Blue and Blazing Red arrived together, I still wouldn't feel confident of winning. An unknown whose purpose, whose Principle, whose everything remained unrevealed. One who appeared with strange frequency for a special-grade, and who showed a bizarre obsession with me and with some other monster. A monster whose actions were ridiculously petty compared to the force she commanded.
…And a monster who was clearly connected to my sister in some way.
That was the Hemoregia I knew.
"Hmm. A gunshot. Did some sewer rat come sniffing around? Well, no matter. That thing you carry around—did you leave it at the entrance?"
"…Sky isn't a thing."
Even as I said it my conscience pricked a little, but I still hated the idea of a monster treating my comrade that way, so I pushed back.
"Hmm, is that so? I thought she was an object, the way you haul her around like a bag. For someone who handles her like luggage, you do seem to have a sense of camaraderie."
Hemoregia snorted as if my excuse were amusing, then—whether she'd lost interest or simply grown tired of waiting—drew her lance and flicked her fingers, inviting me to come at her.
"I'll yield the first move. Not that you'll land a hit anyway—that's precisely why I'm yielding."
The unnecessary barbs that twisted my insides made me wonder if this monster's entire Principle was simply to mock me.
The moment she gestured for me to strike first, I fired a beam as if I'd been waiting for it. But she slipped the trajectory with the slightest motion and closed her eyes as if laughing at me. Even when I swung my wand to try bisecting her with beams, she only floated lightly or bent with a flexibility that made me wonder if she was even real. Her every movement mocked me, as if my attacks weren't even worth countering.
I still couldn't reach her. If it were my sister, she would have casually twisted that arrogant nose of this monster's and dropped her to the ground.
"Isn't it about time you learned something? Even a dullard would change their approach after failing that many times—"
That was when Hemoregia was about to preen.
A gunshot rang out again.
And for an instant, a black trajectory flashed into view.
Was that… a bullet?
Hemoregia easily snatched the black object out of midair, then looked toward where it had come from with a slightly stiff expression, as if annoyed that her words had been cut off.
There stood the unidentified shadow monster who was always fighting Hemoregia whenever I saw them, holding a pistol. The same monster who, whenever I appeared and Hemoregia fled, would quietly vanish through something that might have been a shadow or a dimensional gate.
…Why is that one here?
"I stepped on a comet's tail as it flew past, and sure enough—you were here too."
"Oh? Don't tell me you're claiming to be the hunter this time? You can even make jokes that don't suit you. I'm impressed."
From the way they spoke, that monster didn't seem to be in an alliance with Hemoregia either. So an enemy? But then they said they followed me here. If they were a tracker, they were hardly an ally.
My head was spinning.
"Did you take down these strewn about? Weren't they your comrades?"
"I killed them. They crawled up on me."
"I see."
My duty as a magical girl told me to defeat that monster the same way as Hemoregia, but my heart told me to grab them and interrogate them about what relationship they had.
…Even if the two of them ganged up on Hemoregia, they would still lose—but I wasn't about to accept help from a monster, so temporary alliances never crossed my mind. Really.
"You—what did you do to Sky at the entrance?!"
I aimed the tip of my wand at the shadow monster as I asked, and the monster answered matter-of-factly in a voice devoid of emotion that they had shot her in the head.
"No need to worry. She's a magical girl, so that won't kill her. She's just unconscious for a bit."
That voice, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, made me feel pathetic for even briefly considering cooperation. What the hell had I expected from a monster?
"…Then I can't just let you go either."
"Don't interfere, magical girl. You're not the target."
The monster didn't even look at me—as if I weren't even worth considering. Hemoregia, too, only showed interest in the shadow monster rather than me. She was almost completely indifferent to me.
…Maybe I truly wasn't even an enemy to them. To that monster, and to Hemoregia. At best a toy or an obstacle—nothing more.
It might be the same with people.
The people who saw me always said thank you, said I was as wonderful as my sister, but I knew better than anyone. To them, I was an incomplete replacement who had never fully inherited my sister. To monsters, to people—I was always second place.
…Can I really never become like my sister?
"Don't ignore me!!!!"
Something—rage, desperation, I couldn't tell—erupted out of me. I gathered starlight into my wand, but this time I didn't shape it into a beam. I abandoned direction. I abandoned power. All I wanted was to land one solid hit on them.
And the starlight that had gathered beyond any ability to hold form—
erupted into a blinding explosion.
My hearing is fine. My sense of pain is vivid. My sense of smell is fine too. So it's only that my eyes are nearly blinded by pure intensity of light.
That tremendous flash must have been a magical girl's technique. I never expected her to just abandon all directionality and detonate light raw like that.
"…A miserable strike. But the right answer."
My vision hadn't fully returned, but combining the sizzling sounds, the smell of burning flesh, and Hemoregia's words, it seemed the blow had managed to wound her somewhat.
"…I'll defeat both of you and make you spill everything you know!"
As if that had given her confidence, Radiant White declared war again in a voice that seemed to have found its composure.
…It looked like fighting her would be hard to avoid now. I'd already extracted various weapons and information from her side, so I didn't want to attack—but if she came at me, I had no choice.
"I don't mind humans who show courage and will, but know that trying to take me and that thing down alone is sheer recklessness."
As my vision recovered enough to see again, I could make out Hemoregia, lightly scorched here and there. Of course she recovered almost immediately, but she was no longer smiling. Radiant White was clad in those brilliant light armaments I'd seen a few times before.
As both of them seemed ready to go all-out in a full-power battle, I tore several shadows from my own body and floated or scattered them around. Spreading shadows like this hurt like tearing out healthy teeth or fingers, so I usually avoided bringing out many… but this wasn't a time for such restraint, so I scattered them everywhere at random.
My plan was to pressure Hemoregia as much as possible in coordination with Radiant White—but if things looked bad, I'd retreat through the shadows I'd laid in my hideout.
When I drew a shotgun from my sleeve, Hemoregia sneered with a look of contempt, asking if it was that toy again. I couldn't exactly pull out the weapons I'd received in human form in front of Radiant White. I answered by firing a shadow-saturated bullet.
I parried the flying light sword-strike with my lance while coating my wing membrane in blood armor to block the shadow bullet coming from the portal behind me. I whipped White's thigh with my tail to break her stance, then grabbed her with my free hand and hurled her straight at Su-hyeok.
"Ugh…"
Su-hyeok barely dodged the flying Radiant White—and because of that, he couldn't avoid the blood mace I swung wide horizontally.
"Kh…"
Still just a nuisance. Coming at me separately like this, they didn't feel particularly threatening. White especially—forcing herself back into a fighting style that didn't suit her at all made it worse.
Trying to force on clothes that don't fit—of course it won't work.
The light-burst from earlier had actually felt more threatening, which said everything. If Su-hyeok had even tried to support White through his portals, I would have had to start using Hematokinesis, Time Acceleration, and various other abilities in earnest.
…Honestly, I'd been hoping for that.
But looking at White, who even while fighting me kept firing beams at Su-hyeok as if trying to keep him in check—I wasn't going to see these two cooperate today.
"Is that all you've got? Where did that spirit from a moment ago go?"
"Hah, hah… It's not over yet—don't act like you've already won…!"
Su-hyeok said nothing, apparently debating whether to run or not. White's head needed fixing, but so did that one's. That habit of bolting the second things got complicated wasn't good either.
Well, today's three-way confrontation hadn't been planned, so maybe I should wrap it up here. I decided to say something appropriate and withdraw for today.
"Already? What an amusing thing to say. I won from the very beginning. Surely you're not about to claim you still don't know that?"
She must have known the gap in power better than anyone, but Radiant White's eyes still burned with fighting spirit. Ordinary words wouldn't break her will to fight.
…Then maybe I'll try this.
It had only lingered as a vague instinct, and until now I'd only ever used it unconsciously—but I couldn't keep going like that forever. Trying to use it consciously just this once might be good.
"Do you crawl up because I show you mercy?"
Dragon Fear. Or overwhelming presence, or whatever they called it. I looked Radiant White straight in the eye and used it.
And even White couldn't withstand a dragon's oppressive aura—she dropped to her knees. The fighting spirit in her eyes didn't vanish, but her body only trembled, as if it no longer obeyed her.
"…Clinging desperately to clothes that don't even suit you. How pitiful."
I delivered the advice Shining White had left within me, and left that place.