*
Without regard for the decimated roof tiles, Lastia smashed her feet to gain traction, pouncing at blinding speeds. Arin reads the attack and throws her own fist, causing them to collide knuckle to knuckle above another roof. The shock wave tears through the roof tiles and causes a minor tremor in the surrounding neighbourhood.
They inch closer to each other, with the arm they threw their elbows lowered to bring each other closer. Lastia swung her left fist, Arin intercepted with her right arm, her open palm slid under the fist and pushed against Lastia's fist like a fan. Arin threw a kick but Lastia jumped backwards and avoided it entirely before throwing her right once more. Again, Arin met Lastia's fist head on and the collision released more shock waves.
Lastia pulled back her right fist, and so did Arin. Throwing a few more punches, they met in mutual collision before one of Lastia's punches completely slipped through and landed on Arin's chest, throwing her body off the roof. Lastia leapt off the roof, reaching close to Arin to attack. Without gravity to back her, Arin blocked another punch only for her body to be thrown into the ground. A small crater formed and the debris caused a storm of dust to well up into the air. Mostly it was composed of the pavements base materials like run down concrete, dust and rocks.
Arin jumped out of the dust cloud, a new set of pistols in her palms, shooting rapidly as she got close to Lastia. She let go of her pistols and swung her leg high, rushing Lastia. Moving to the side to dodge the high kick, Lastia shifted her body lower and raised her arm, blocking a successive kick in anticipation. Still, it was more impressive than she had expected as it caused her bones to creak in protest. No doubt the skin must have been bruised black now, but she was too busy to check.
She retaliated with a punch, but Arin blocked it by catching it with her left palm. Her right fist swung and miss as Lastia dodged, instead of giving up on the attack, Arin bent her arm and smashed her elbow into Lastia cheek. The impact thrusted her head into the ground like an ostrich that was caught in fear. With one final kick to the abdomen, Arin sent her flying a few metres into the air before she landed with a painful thud, the sound of her flesh impacting the ground rang out unhindered.
Lastia pressed her palm into the ground, in an attempt to lift her body over the ground her arm shook with excessive vigour under her own body weight. With one last push, she slid her feet under her and stood back up. She was clearly exhausted from using all of her strength for an extended period of time, in an attempt to overwhelm Arin. Arin was still more injured, taking less but more significant hits.
There was a certain gap in the information available to them. Arin knew how strong Lastia was, but the same can't be said for the other way around. Then...
"Don't take pity on me... I don't want it. This strength, this history... This inquisition...
None of it belongs to me. None of it will satisfy me. If I truly break the curse, I wouldn't know how to live anyway." (Lastia)
She finally began to speak, were these her true feelings? Why bother confronting Arin then?
" You're mistaken. Everything I do isn't for the Lastia you love, it's for the me who is here today. The me who wants to contribute and leave something behind for the next 'me'. The me who has already found meaning in living.
That's why... For the sake of myself...
I'll defeat you. " (Lastia)
Her magical energy explodes. There wasn't any mysterious source of power or anything, what was fueling her right now was the last of her resolve, the brightest brilliance released by a dying star before its nonexistence. Her blackish purple dress and enormous frills dotting her lower back fluttered like a storm. In a single moment she threw multiple punches. Maybe going all out against a friend was a little excessive, but Arin had proven her strength.
This was the last spark contained in her body, the rate of magic energy collection by yggdrasil's simulation wasn't enough, after all the simulation was imperfect and didn't actually expand across the entire world. A flash of black light exploded around the point of impact... The point being Arin's own fist. She didn't want to back down either, call it her ego, but she wanted to finish it knuckle to knuckle. Grey light poured out of Arin's fist in resistance, before the black submerging Lastia exploded into dark red, flashing the surroundings for a moment.
Arin crashed into a wall that was the outer perimeter of someone's garden walls. She spat out a mouthful of blood, her ribs piercing through her flesh. The fragments would soon return to their original placements, akin to how humans are pulled to the ground by gravity, her organs will eventually settle in their most natural state of health. That was the regenerative power boasted by magical girls, some might say they were closer to zombies.
Inexplicable beings chosen by natural selection and activated by their environment. Like how the fur on a himalayan rabbit can grow into various patterns of 2 different colours, due to the different temperature acclimatisations of its body, when humanity is at risk magical girls will appear. Similar to temperature, risk isn't an absolute yes or no, but it's actually a range of danger levels.
Panicked, Lastia ran up to Arin and pulled her out of the rubble in someone else's garden. She layed on her back amongst the debris, staring into the deep evening sky. She felt a tug of her hand before being flung into the air, a firm weight was placed against her leg leaving her in a standing position. She resumed staring blankly, likely mulling over her own thoughts.
"Uhh... Uhmm... Sorry. I've overstepped my bounds. Just because I find it displeasing, it shouldn't mean that I could deny your feelings..." (Lastia)
Regret... Regret...? Was this the sensation squeezing her heart? It didn't feel so bad, maybe because she was stubborn to herself too, refusing to acknowledge her own feelings. It feels like just accepting it was akin to solving a maze, her heart wanders with no end in sight. However there were certain things that she could firmly accept and prioritise. Without giving Arin a chance to speak, she embraced her.