Magical Girls Being Hunted (1)
"My body... ugh... Aaaahhhhh!!!!"
"Wh-what!? Are you all right?!"
—Kuuuuaaaang—!!!!
The attendant suddenly cried out in agony, doubled over at the waist, and staggered before a massive explosion erupted right where she stood.
"Kyaaah?!"
Aquamarine and Seraphina were hurled backward by the blast's flames and shockwave, slamming their backs and shoulders hard against the building wall behind them.
"Why... why did it suddenly explode...?"
Smoke and flames filled the street.
Aquamarine pushed herself up from the wall, brushed off the dust, and sprayed water droplets over the burning spots to extinguish the fires.
"That... that's...!"
Seraphina remembered.
The same thing that had happened when an attendant was turned into a bomb and hurled in front of her—begging for help, only to vanish without leaving even a handful of ash.
The terror etched into her spine told her this was the same method, used by the same kind of person.
"Who are you!? Show yourself!"
Aquamarine quickly doused the remnants of the explosion with her ability and gripped Seraphina's hand tightly, trying to clear the smoke.
—Thud... thud...
"Kekeke... ehehehehehe...!!"
A chilling laugh answered her, accompanied by the sound of footsteps drawing closer through the still-settling smoke.
"Haa...♥ It's been so long since I've felt this...! My pussy is throbbing so hard...♥ I think I'm gonna come...!!♥♥"
Perverted words poured from the voice laced with madness as the footsteps grew steadily nearer.
—Tap.
Aquamarine turned her head toward the voice and footsteps—only for something to brush against her toes.
—Kuuuuaaaang—!!!!
"Kyaaah?!"
The moment it touched her, a heavy explosion detonated, but the water barrier she'd prepared in advance shielded both her and Seraphina.
"Kuhuhu... kyahahahaha...!!"
The voice beyond the smoke paid no mind to whether the blast had landed; it simply reveled in every explosion and shockwave.
"Seraphina! Are you okay? You're not hurt, right?"
"I-I'm fine......"
Seraphina, who had been panicking, quickly regained her composure and clutched Aquamarine's hand while recalling the earlier memory.
'We barely survived thanks to Aquamarine's barrier just now, but... we might not be able to block the next attack with it.'
The explosion from the bomb that had touched Aquamarine's foot wasn't as large as the first, yet the water barrier had only just managed to hold thanks to its material limits.
"That guy... isn't just throwing bombs. It's definitely an ability that turns anything it touches into an explosive."
"You don't mean... that attendant...?"
"Yeah..."
Aquamarine, who hadn't been able to see the explosion clearly because of the shockwave, was visibly shaken upon learning it had been the attendant.
"We have to stay focused. If we don't... we'll end up the same way."
While the two leaned on each other and braced for the next attack—
"You have a rather troublesome ability, don't you? Magical girl friends."
Another, slightly more mature voice overlapped from beyond the smoke.
"Not one... but two, it seems."
Realizing their opponents were two instead of one, Aquamarine and Seraphina released each other's hands and stood back-to-back.
"At this rate... we'll just keep defending unless we attack first."
"Yeah. I think so too."
Explosives kept being thrown from unseen locations, the smoke refusing to clear, and all they could do was dodge or barely block each blast.
To break the stalemate, they either had to escape the smoke to secure visibility or launch an area-wide attack while accepting some damage.
"Haaah...!!"
—Kugugugugu...!!!
Deciding visibility came first, Seraphina stomped the ground. Massive plant vines erupted from beneath the two magical girls' feet.
"Nngh...!"
The vines lifted them high enough to see beyond the smoke, but the backlash made Seraphina cough up a thin trickle of blood.
"Where are they...?"
Time passed and the explosions briefly stopped, allowing the smoke to slowly thin, yet the two villains who had been attacking them remained difficult to locate.
"Their voices were getting closer... was it just my imagination?"
Aquamarine sent water droplets created from her wand in every direction, searching for villains possibly hiding in blind spots.
'There...!'
Reflected in one droplet were two women dressed in pitch-black clothing.
They were hiding in the narrow gap between two buildings behind the still-burning villain transport trailer.
"Over there!"
Aquamarine pointed out the villains' location to Seraphina, grabbed her hand, and leapt down from the vines.
'Something feels off... how did they get that far away so quickly...?'
Seraphina found it strange that the villains who had been close were now much farther away—and specifically in such a cramped gap between buildings.
—Splash!
The two jumped while holding hands. Aquamarine created a puddle of water just before landing to soften the impact.
—Tap tap tap—!!
They carefully widened the distance from nearby objects that might have been turned into bombs while running toward the secured location without giving away their position.
'They still don't know we've come this far...'
They had finally closed the distance enough to see the villains clearly with their own eyes.
The two magical girls didn't rush in. Instead, they held their breath and exchanged glances.
'If we use any more high-output attacks... our bodies might not hold up. But... if it stops the hero hunt...'
Seraphina and Aquamarine's bodies were already in tatters.
Thanks to multiple ability-enhancement procedures, their power output had grown tremendously, but the physical strain had increased accordingly.
They had already been using techniques that caused severe backlash, and now blood trickled from their mouths while dizziness threatened to overwhelm them.
'Just once... even one perfect hit is all we need...'
If a single attack landed and subdued the villains, they could stop the hero hunt even if their bodies broke apart right now.
Seraphina and Aquamarine exchanged glances filled with that resolute will.
And then—
""Haaaaah...!!!!""
—Shwaaaaa—!!!!
A sharp, massive blade of water resembling the heavy sword aura from fantasy games.
—Kugugugugu...!!!!!!
The sharpest, deadliest thorn thicket rising from the ground.
The two magical girls poured their full-powered attacks toward the villains.
"Uwaaah?!" "Kyaaaaah!!"
The unusually tough thorn thicket wrapped tightly around the villains to prevent escape while the sharp water blade cleanly sliced through both the bound villains and the building to their left.
—Kuuuuaaaang—!!!!
—Kugugugu...
The cleanly severed upper half of the building slid along the cut surface and crashed onto the road with a heavy thud.
The two villains who had taken the full brunt of the magical girls' attacks couldn't even scream. Tremendous amounts of blood gushed from their nearly severed abdomens.
"Are they... dead...?"
The blood-soaked villains lay completely still, their breathing already stopped.
"We... did it."
Having used their highest-output techniques, they coughed up blood and turned pale, but upon confirming the villains' deaths, they sank to the ground in relief.
"The other attendants... must be badly hurt too."
After subduing the giants—the reason they had come to this street in the first place—dozens of attendants had arrived on-site to handle the aftermath and restore order.
However, the sudden explosion of the attendant-turned-bomb had left many of them dead or critically injured.
"Yeah... probably."
Despite having defeated two dangerous villains, the two magical girls lowered their heads in guilt for failing to protect the attendants.
Heroes were supposed to protect citizens from villains.
The attendants were no different from the citizens the heroes were meant to safeguard, so the two closed their eyes and mourned their sacrifice.
—Clap... clap... clap...!
"Aah... to think you'd fall for such a cheap trick."
"Wh-what?!"
A familiar voice came from behind them as they caught their breath.
It was the same mature voice that had been laughing maniacally beside the villain.
"A-Aquamarine... over there..."
Seraphina pointed in horror at the spot where the villains' corpses should have been.
"Th-that's impossible...?!"
Yet the two villain corpses that should have been there had vanished without a trace, leaving only rubble and thorn vines.
"Fufufufu...♥"
And then came the mocking laughter from directly behind them.
"As expected, you heroes... are truly foolish and weak. I can't possibly lose to you, can I? Hehe...♥"