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“Why the fuck-”
“Language.”
Sulfur growled.
“Why do we need to go, Vatz? Can’t we just have some time for ourselves?”
“Well, you are Tres Magia, defender of this town. What would happen to the town if it lost its protectors?
It already lost one…
“Vatz, this is fu-”
Azul cut her off.
“Vatz, please, can we just have these few days to ourselves? We…We just need a bit of time to…need a bit of time for-for everything.”
Azul’s voice had lost its usual level of calm serenity, instead a wobble, a threat to break, was there instead. Her face had streaks of brown discolouration and skin hung heavily to the bottom of her eyes.
She was tired, oh so tired, and so was Sulfur.
“I’m sorry, girls, but you can’t. You can’t let a setback like that cause you to falter.”
Sulfur felt her fingernails draw drops of blood from her clenched fist.
“Setback?” Her voice was rising. She pointed accusingly at Vatz. “Is that all she was to you? Just an asset, just someone who – something even! Is-”
Her voice failed her. Tears were slowly sliding down her face now as her anger rose.
“Was that all she fucking was to you?” She finished in a voice softer than a whisper.
And despite everything, Vatz’s emotions didn’t seem to change.
“No, of course not,” it continued in that annoyingly calm tone, “but she was just a person-”
“Just shut up.” Sayo interjected as she put her hands on Sulfur’s shoulder, offering that modicum of comfort she could. “Please, just shut up, Vatz.”
Sayo was on the verge of tears as well, as much as it didn’t seem like it. Vatz surprisingly obliged.
Then silence, a moment of tranquility, both parties unwilling to speak.
Sulfur wiped the tears off her face. She turned away from Vatz, and with a voice like glass:
“Fine. Fine, fine, fine. I’ll fucking go if that’s what you want so badly. But no more. If this is what she meant to you, I don’t…I don’t want any part of it anymore.”
…
“Kaoruko…”
Sulfur gulped as she forced those burning tears back.
“Let’s just get it over with. After that…after that I’m done. No more.”
Sayo stayed silent for a moment.
“...Alright.”
…
They had arrived to the pulse of dark mana. It was the devil’s hour and the moon hung overhead, showering the playground they found themselves in with a pale, gentle glow.
They scanned the area.
“Where the fuck is she?”
Sulfur muttered as she turned around, trying to find the girl who was always responsible for these types of mana pulses.
Until she saw her walking out behind some playground equipment.
And in her hands was…
Azul’s breath hitched.
“Wait, Sulfu-”
“You bitch!” She immediately summoned her gauntlets, lightning, leather and the smell of burning gunpowder blazing from her fists. “Are you trying to die?”
Sulfur flew straight in to punch Baiser, going faster than she ever had before.
Baiser originally flinched, and seemed to want to create a portal, but in the end decided against it. Instead, she gently threw the box within her arms to the soft playground floor next to her and spread her arms, almost as if to embrace Sulfur.
And Sulfur didn’t stop, a scream of rage and sorrow and frustration tearing from her throat as the punch landed squarely on Baiser, sending her flying before crashing against a tree in a cloud of smoke and debris. Sulfur flew after her.
Azul, frankly just too tired to fight, went to check what the box Baiser dropped was. She caught a glimpse of what it was and had a hint of what it contained but she couldn’t be sure.
Her fingers glided across the smooth pastel pink box.
It was. Her breath hitched.
There was a note attached to a knot at the top of the box. Azul examined it.
A choked sob escaped her mouth, the first icy tear sliding down her face.
…
Baiser was sprawled out on the ground, with Sulfur on her knees next to Baiser’s waist.
And Sulfur just kept punching. Even when her gauntlets had disappeared, even when her mana had long been used up, even when her punches no longer hurt Baiser, only harmlessly bouncing off, even when there were tears streaming down her face.
She just kept punching.
“Why, why, why?”
She feebly threw another punch.
“Why her? Why did she…”
Even when tears swirled her vision, she continued.
“Why…”
Even when she felt like vomiting, she continued.
“I…”
Another useless punch.
“I just wish…”
She tried to throw another punch but this time Baiser caught it, the fist softly impacting against her palm. She set the fist down against the ground.
Sulfur tried another punch, but Baiser caught that one as well and set it limply against the ground.
Sulfur’s body finally grew too weak to even kneel, as she slumped forward, hands flat on the ground as her tears splashed on Baiser’s bloodied chest.
“I just…”
A choked sob tore from her mouth.
“I…”
And only crying followed.
“Sulfur.” Baiser gently got out through her injuries. “Look at Azul.”
Sulfur begrudgingly complied, twisting her head to find Azul-
Her throat closed on itself.
“Is that…”
“Why don’t you check it out?”
…
It was a figure of Magenta, but not just any figure, the first figure ever made of Magenta. And these figures of Magenta were even more special, since the producers didn’t know whether they would sell well, only a hundred of them ever hit shelves, and as far as they could deduce the box in front of them was the real deal.
And not even that, each box had a hand-written note by Magenta, each uniquely different from each other.
Sulfur’s knees crumpled in front of the box, next to Sayo, who was silently crying, tears softly falling on the ground.
Her limp fingers fiddled with the notes on the top of the box. She read the hand-written message.
“To whoever may receive this figure,
Hello! This is your town’s very own Magical Girl, Magia Magenta! I know this is new to you, but I hope I can be this town’s protector! And my promise to this town is that I will defend it no matter what, and I hope one day, everyone can look up to me, the amazing Magia Magenta!
From: Your very own Magia Magenta!”
And at the bottom right of the note was a little messy scribbled sketch of a chibi magenta.
Sulfur didn't even know these things existed until very recently, when she overheard Magenta and Vatz talking about it.
And now, seeing both the first ever figure and the handwritten note, she broke.
“I…”
“Take it.” Baiser said, who seemed to be on the verge of tears as well. “It…You deserve it more than me.”
Her hands trembled as she picked up the box with reverent fingers. She hugged it tightly.
Baiser went to create a portal to leave,
“Wait, Baiser…” Sulfur choked out. “...Why?”
Baiser looked back to face Sulfur, as a stray tear slid down. And even aside from that, Sulfur noticed the emotions she tried to hide. The shakiness in her eyes, the clenching of her fists, the way her arms only hung lifelessly down her sides.
“You…You said you missed her right?”
Sulfur nodded, infinitesimally small. Baiser turned around.
“I…”
She summoned a portal. Her fists clenched, before relaxing again as a moment of silent stretched out between both of them.
“...So do I, Sulfur. So do I.”