CH 53

Chapter 2 — Expand, my world! • Episode 2-5 • Preparation ③

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

Above the skyscrapers of Tokyo, the metropolis of Tokyo, I evade a barrage of magical fire, flying in all directions.

If I shoot Tornado Mixer in return, the gunner, Extend-san, the Expansion Witch, will jump to other buildings and move from one to another. My tornadoes that are unable to cope with such minute movements hit high-rise buildings and pulverize them into pieces, quickly collapsing skyscrapers in the metropolis.

Of course, this is not the real world. I am having a mock battle with Extend-san in a pocket Deception World created by the training center as a special training for me, who has not had any practice or training so far.

At the start of the program, we were evaluated as lean and sophisticated in the way we worked out the magic, and the rest was a matter of working on standing and making split-second decisions.

However, I am not sure what exactly I should do, since my fighting style up to now has been to secure air superiority and unilaterally overrun from above, or, if the opponent also has the ability to fly, to smash them head-on, leaving the gorging to the force.

So, for the time being, we decided to continue to push hard as before. If there are any areas that are not working, I am sure that Extend-san will point them out to me.

「Stop! Stop for a moment!!」

I followed Extend-san’s impassioned voice and disarm my magic once. Extend-san beckoned toward me, and I also landed on top of the building where Extend-san stood, as it seemed that I was being called.

「Perhaps, is Wind Witch-dono already fully liberated witch?」

「Yes, I am? Haven’t I told you?」

At the top of the Magical Girls, there is a third gate that has been opened. That is the Witch. However, there are actually two types of Witches. Or, to be more precise, I should say “stages” rather than “kinds.”

The first is the Witches of Limited Release. Witches who have just opened the third gate or were limited to opening the third gate are the Witches in this limited opening.

Simply put, they are Witches who can only use their power as Witches temporarily. You can open the third gate, but you can’t always open it, it’s usually closed and only opens when necessary. The interval between the next release and the time it takes to open the door varies from person to person, but I have heard that it does not exceed one hour at the most.

Even when they are not open, they are said to be much stronger than Phase 2 Magical Girl, so I guess one could call this Phase 2.9.

And the other is the Witches Of Full Liberation. This one is extremely simple: a Magical Girl who has the third gate open at all times and can wield her power as a Witch at any time. I am also a Witch of this complete Liberation.

It seems to be common for a Witch who was initially limitedly open to the public to change to fully open as she gains experience and grows, so in the true sense of the word, a Magical Girl’s point of achievement is this fully open witch.

The current Witches who are fully open, with the exception of myself, are those above Red Ball-san, i.e., above the sixth rank in the pecking order. All Witches below the seventh place should have had limited openings.

「This is the first time I’ve heard of it, but it makes sense. This is the first time I’ve seen the power of Wind Witch-dono, but I felt it was too strong for a limited release. Then I feel free to open myself up to you and you’ll deal with me.」

「I understand. Please do.」

I didn’t know which one Extend-san was, but from the way she talks, she seems to belong to the Limited Release. The current pecking order is neatly divided between fully open and limited open, but a Limited Release Witch is not necessarily inferior to a Full-Liberated Witch when fighting in the open state.

That’s why, Extend-san was not at her best until just now. I’ll brace myself over this.

After confirming that I was back in the air via Fly Wing, Extend-san opened her mouth.

「Expand, my world!」

When she chanted the keywords for her Enhanced Transformation, Extend-san was enveloped in a dazzling light. The light flashed in an instant, revealing Extend-san, clad in a gray cloak over a shimmering blue dress, a bright white scarf fluttering in the wind around her neck.

「This is, the true form of Extend Traveler*. Watch carefully.」（TN : Eternal Wanderer）

If I look closely, I can see that Extend-san is holding a dull-colored spear in her hand that was not there earlier. Is that her special weapon?

「Ex :『Cannon』」（TN : Expansion : Target — Bombardment）

A mass of energy began to shoot out one after another from the spear that Extend-san held up. It’s the same magic I was avoiding by flying through the air just now, but its bullet speed is incomparable to what I have seen before. I wasn’t hit, so I can’t compare it, but I’m sure its power has also increased.

「It is no exaggeration to say that Magical Girls who shoot out magic power are a staple in fiction, but in reality there are not that many. Do you know why?」

「Wind Armor」（TN : Wind Protection Against Arrows/Projectiles）

While concentrating on evasion, my Wind Armor is put up so that her Cannon, which is beginning to take on the appearance of a barrage, doesn’t graze my Wings.

The answer to Extend-san’s question is simple: it wasn’t energy-efficient. Compared to the use of magic by consuming magical power, an attack by directly shooting out magical power is not expected to be very powerful. Even so, it consumes as much or more magic power than using magic, so it is obviously better to use magic.

If Extend-san intends to continue the magic bombardment, she should run out of gas considerably faster than I do.

「Hmmm. You’re focusing on evasion and trying to run me out of my magic. Unfortunately, my Magical Cannon is different from that of a normal Magical Girl. I’m “expanding” the velocity and power of Cannon with a small amount of magical power. Although the amount of magic itself cannot be expanded, it can be expected to be more powerful at a much lower energy cost than using ordinary magic. There it goes, another one!」

「Kuh——」

The previous barrage was so dense that if I didn’t focus on avoiding it, I’m likely to miss some of them, but the next wave, added at the call of Extend-san, consisted of a much larger number of magic bullets than the previous one. So it was not yet serious.

This cannot be avoided. I’m prepared to be hit and dispel it.

「Quadra Tornado Mixer!」

Four tornadoes appear, starting from the great staff I hold, and devour the mass of magical power spreading before my eyes. She said she’s expanding her power, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to push it over my tornadoes. I can do this.

After cleaning up enough of the barrage, the target of attack is shifted to Extend-san, who jumps around on the roof of the building. Manipulating three tornadoes, I attack Extend-san with the remaining one while crushing buildings ahead of her that Extend-san could jump from her Extend’s current location.

After all the buildings in the vicinity were destroyed, Extend-san still leaped into the air. There is no foothold to go to, and no further movement is possible.

「Ex :『Distance』」（Expansion : Target — Distance）

Four tornadoes swallowed Extend-san like a swarm.

The power of the tornado was greatly reduced just before it engulfed Extend-san, so I think she’ll gain only small cuts on her at best, but I wonder if she will be alright.

「I’m not impressed with you looking the other way during training!」

「!?」

Extend-san, who should have been swallowed by the tornado, is calling out to me from a building a short distance away. How did she do that?

Even if she had the ability to fly, she would be in my line of sight if she moved to escape the tornado. But Extend-san moves to that place abruptly, as if she had made a momentary shift. The direction is certainly the direction from which Extend-san jumped out earlier, but what kind of magic did she use to move?

「Kukuh! You seemed surprised. You know, this is just another application of my Expansion Magic. And this, too, you know.

Ex :『Time』」

She disappeared!?

The next moment when I was about to look around to find Extend-san, who should have been there at this very moment, I heard a voice behind me.

「Ex :『Impact』」（TN : Expansion : Target — Impact）

「Wha–!? Gohuu——」

Extend-san, who had been approaching behind me before I knew it, swung her spear down as hard as she could at the same time I turned around. A small but sharp spear pierces my Wings, and with the force of the swing it hits the ground and sews me up.

「I don’t like to stand on a stick just because I’m upset. Also, you’re taking too long to make a decision after you lost me.」

「Ahh! Gah! I–It hurts!!?」

「Hey, no need to worry. The wounds here don’t carry over into reality. It’s like an avatar created by the magic of the training center. The pain should be lessened. A Magical Girl’s sense of pain is slightly dulled to begin with, and the synergistic effect should not be so painful that you lose consciousness, right?」

「It still hurts!! Pl–Please pull it out!」

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!

「It will hurt now, but once you get used to it, you can tolerate it a little better. I’m sorry for being deceptive, but I thought that what Wind Witch-dono needed the most was neither skill nor tact, but a tolerance for pain. Nearly every Magical Girl and Witch has been hurt, fallen, and experienced pain in battle. If we succumb to pain in battle, defeat awaits us. If we are ready to fight, Magical Girls have to get up and fight right away, no matter how hard and painful it is. Let’s do our best, Wind Witch-dono! I, here, am rooting for you! Don’t let the pain get the better of you!」

「Don’t joke aroooooouuuuuunnnndd——!」

My outrage at Extend-san, who had begun to support me with outrageous theories, temporarily distracted me from the pain, and I pulled myself up to my feet, pulling out her spear as hard as I could. Naturally, the pain was so intense that tears came to my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and persevered.

It hurts. It hurt so much that I felt as if my knees would break at any moment. But more than that, my anger at Extend-san for suddenly doing this without any explanation is bubbling up and distracting me from the pain a little.

「What is, wrong, with your head!? There’s no, explanation here, none, do you think I’ll forgive you for this!?」

I denounce Extend-san, my breathing disrupted and choppy from the pain.

「Every time you’re in a battle, the enemy won’t tell you that it’s going to skewer your stomach from now on. Besides, if I had explained it to you beforehand, you would have said no.」

「If that’s how you feel, then don’t do it, I beg you!」

Ahh, enough! There’s so much more I want to say, but the pain is making it hard to get the words out at all!

I was stupid to think for even a second that she seemed like a good person! I knew it, the Witches are all eccentrics, freaks, and lunatics!

「I’m making room for an automatic repair setting this time, so the pain should be much less, no? Let’s continue.」

「Let’s get it on! I’ll beat you to a pulp!!」

Extend-san was right, the little hole in my stomach was closed before I knew it. I still have pain, but if you ask me, it doesn’t hurt so much that I can’t move anymore.

I know it’s training, but that doesn’t mean I can let it slide! I would have put up with it for Elephant-san if she had explained it properly! Ahh, seriously!! It’s impossible!!

.

For the next few minutes, I was hurt a lot until Extend-san’s Release time was over. In the course of the fight, I realized that I was far superior in terms of magic power and destructive power alone, and that I definitely had the advantage over the Diest, but at the same time, I also understood the difference between fighting against people and fighting against Diest.

Basically, the more powerful the Diest, the bigger it gets, so even if I don’t aim precisely, I can hit them with magic anyway. And even though they learn, they are not as intelligent as humans, so it is not difficult to catch them even if they move a little fast.

On the other hand, the target of Extend-san is small, so even if I use magic at random, I won’t hit her. It’s even more difficult because she naturally take evasive action when I aim at her.

「I feel like it still hurts…」

「I think it’s just your imagination. It didn’t even leave a scar, did it?」

「It hurt that much!!」

After the first one, I was never skewered, but I was still cut repeatedly with sharp hand spears and hit with such force that I didn’t think she was human, and it really, really hurt. If it wasn’t for Elephant-san, I would have run away crying long ago.

「I think you were crying, though.」

「Please shut up!!」

I mean, Extend-san must be a psychopath to talk to me like this without feeling any guilt after all that she did.

「We can’t do things by halves when we have these girls in our care. Besides, Jack had asked me to take care of Wind Witch-dono.」

「…Jack, you say?」

I was surprised by Jack’s name, which came up without any context, and my disgust at being hurt fizzled out.

I’ve almost forgotten about it recently, but I’m rather angry at Jack when I think he’s involved in the things that have hurt me.

「You kicked Jack out, didn’t you? Wind Witch-donl is still inexperienced, so he came to me to asking to take care of you.」

「He’s going to that extra mile…!」

「It’s not something to be done so wickedly. I was also talking about the possibility of teaming up with the Wind Witch-donl for a while, seeing as how you were fighting solo. I didn’t call on you, though, because you seemed to have joined Elephant-kun’s team. He’s worried about the Wind Witch-dono, after all.」

「…Hmph!」

That guy is only worried about the “Tyrant Sylph,” not me. But I don’t think Extend-san would understand if I said that. I can’t possibly tell her what happened.

…But well, if I hadn’t become a Magical Girl, I would never have met and become friends with Elephant-san, and if he sincerely regret what he did and swear that he will never do anything like that again, I can forgive him——

「——Hah!?」

「I’m getting off-topic, aren’t I? Anyway, I hope Wind Witch-dono understand that I’m not hurting you because I like it.」

No way, there’s no way! What are you trying to bond over! It may have turned out well, but that’s just a consequence, and it doesn’t change the fact that Jack made me a girl for his own selfish reasons!

That’s right, at the very least, I need some assurances that I’m going to be a man again…, …? Going back as a man… And…?

……Huh?

I want to go back to my old self. I should be. That’s why I became a Magical Girl and fought… But, my reason for fighting now is to protect Elephant-san, right…?

I didn’t want to fight anymore, I didn’t want to have to go back to being a man rather than go through such a horrible experience, and the reason I was able to become a Magical Girl again after breaking down like that was because I strongly wanted to protect Elephant-san. So I could transform once again.

But the original me is not a Magical Girl, and of course I can’t use magic. So if I go back to being a man, I won’t be able to protect Elephant-san, will I?

Still, do I really want to go back to the way things were…?

「Wind Witch-dono? Are you listening to me?」

「Eh, ah, I apologise. I was in a bit of a daze.」

「I guess you’ve been flying too fast on the first day. Either way, our time is up for today, and Wind Witch-dono can return. You’ll have to wait until the Elephant-san and others to grow up more.」

「…I’m here to observe.」

「Is that so? Then I, will be teaching Elephant-kun and the others.」

Extend-san said so and went into the training room used by Elephant-san and the others.

I just keep staring at the monitor showing the inside of the training room.

Now I just want to do this. I want to look at Elephant-san without thinking about anything.