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I sensed that Kurona-san and Karen-chan have left past my back.

I then approached the Phantom that was in front of me, Ziege.

“Haa!!”

I enveloped my fist with sakura-colored light, and punched with all my might.

“Meeh!!”

The Phantom intercepted with its own fist, shrouded in darkness. It was the exact opposite of Black Rose’s fist. Hers has a beautiful light would remind you of the night sky. Its has mundane dark and gloomy light, radiating endlessly.

My fist clashed with its.

The sakura-colored light and pure darkness blended and burst. A torrent of sakura and dark devastated our surroundings.

I felt it since I have made a contract with a spirit. My magical reserve exceeded the Phantom’s. However, its experience and techniques exceeded mine multiple times over.

And so, that limits the number of strategies I can pull off:

One, I can run around, bidding for time.

Two, I can pour all of my large magic reserves into defense and stall for time.

Or three, I can pour all of my large magic reserve into offense and batter Ziege with an overwhelming number of attacks, a number that he won’t be able to keep up with.

There may be other strategies I could use, but at the moment, these were the only ones I can think off. And so, I was stumped with choosing one of them because both the situation I was in and my emotional state.

I poured some magic into my other fist and immediately unleashed it too.

However, the goat simply sidestepped it. However, that doesn’t matter. If I missed, if I can’t aim at it, then I would throw more and more punches until one hit.

Punch, punch, punch. The one-sided barrages continues. It was a barrage with no brilliance or beauty. It was just a barrage.

Actually, I wanted to fight coolly like Black Rose, however, all my techniques and attacks were all still crude.

Regardless, it still worked.

The Phantom was gradually falling behind against the intensity of my punches.

I can do this!

Or so I thought. When I poured more might into my barrage, Ziege stepped forward.

“—!?”

When I suddenly trembled, the rhythm of my punches was disturbed.

In the gap of the disturbance, it punched through an opening and hit my stomach.

“Schwartz Hoof!!”

“—Ukh!!”

The moment its punch connected, I was thrown through the air while spinning like a drill¹.

I forcibly tried to anchor my feet to the ground, but I failed to stop and crashed into a bookstore.

“Guuuuuuuuuu!!”

I finally stopped flying after bookshelves and books were scattered around.

“……Look at how I entered the shop……the owner would be angry……”

I muttered without being worried about it, and stood.

As I had expected, it was strong. I thought I could do it, but it might had baited me into thinking so. Of course, my opponent was better than me.

“However…”

I grasped a nearby bookshelf.

“As if that will break my spiritttttt!!”

Using the brute strength granted by transforming into a magical girl, I mustered my strength and hurled the shelf.

After I hurled the shelf, I kicked the ground hard.

It may be meaningless, but I’ll do anything if I can give the Phantom even the slightest pain. I don’t have the time to think about whether it was effective or not. Then, I was doing whatever came to mind.

“Hmmm!!”

A bookshelf was stopped by Ziege only with one hand, and then it threw another bookshelf that was already in its other hand back at me.

This was easily dodge-able.

I know that, but how can I just dodge!

I spun around once, and threw a bookshelf at Ziege.

And then, even as I was a little off-balance, I ran at the Phantom. Right then, I just had to keep pressing on.

The Phantom again lightly parried the bookshelf with a hand.

I then grabbed a row of nearby shopping carts, which have at least a few dozens of them connected together, and swung it with brute force. The shopping cart row broke apart midair and scattered towards Ziege like a shotgun fire.

Not yet, not enough, this isn’t enough.

I haphazardly grabbed anything that was close to me and hurled them at the goat.

“Meh god, I didn’t expect that a magical girl would fight so barbarously!”

“I have only just become one, after all!!”

I don’t know how to fight lovably.² My fighting style was also far away from my imagination. However, what about it? If this fighting style can protect others, then I would fight with any way, no matter how hard it is to watch!

More, I need more! I need to throw more!

As I closed in on Ziege inch by inch, I hurled anything at it.

It parried my attacks, and also hurled magic at me in the meantime.

Sometimes, I dodged it, but sometimes I also take it on. Regardless, I kept throwing and throwing.

“Aaaargh, meh are irritating!!”

After the Phantom voiced his displeasure, A black shock-wave was unleashed from him.

It was only a moment, but an opening presented itself during its moment of irritation.

I disregarded protecting myself, and then plunged forward to cover the remaining distance between us. I gathered my magic at my legs, and then kicked the ground as hard as I can. The distance was covered in an instant.

Even as the things I had thrown flew back at me, which also crashed at me, I only thought about closing in on the Phantom.

Shrapnel and the shock-wave assaulted my body.

The shrapnel cut my body, and the shock-wave smashed my body.

But, what about it!

“Meh!”

I gathered magic power at my right hand. It shined more and more with glitter of sakura-colored light, and it swayed softly like flower petals.

I aimed at Ziege’s bosom, and kicked the ground so hard that it shook and an explosion can be heard. I put all my might into that punch.

“Falling Cherry Blossom!!”

From the face of my fist, thousands of sakura flower petals beam danced.

This was how my image of Black Rose’s technique turned out. Black Rose had utilized this technique as a long-range attack, and so I also treated it as long range attack in my imagination. However, it would be ineffective if I released my attack from afar. That’s why, I have to attack it from point-blank.

“Stop making fun of Meeeeeeeeeeeeh!!” it bellowed so angrily that I quivered.

The Phantom had just released a shock-wave attack, but it reacted to my attack immediately. However, from its angry and hotheaded state, it can be inferred that the overwhelming enemy has been cornered.

Ziege chose to defend against it rather than counter it. A dark shield appeared in front of my eyes, colliding with the flower petals.

The big shield that blocked the magical flower petal deflected the petal into every direction. Naturally, I was also in the line of dispersion, and I received a part of my own attack.

This was the most painful experience I have received until now.
This was the strongest skill I have unleashed, a skill where I have poured in enormously amount of magic into. I, who was confident of the power of this skill, understood after personally experiencing it. Certainly, with this much power, even Ziege wouldn’t survive a direct hit unscathed. It would be natural for such attack to be painful.

Yet, you know.

“So what about itttttttt!!”

I increased the intensity of my attack.

Compared to my pain, Karen-chan has endured far worse pain than mine. When she had to tell her beloved Kurona-san those harsh words, she was the one most tormented by those words. Karen-chan’s heart has been injured.

It’s obvious that Kurona-san was also hurt. Even if he had gave that cool refusal, his heart must also have ached.

Compared to those two, these physical pain were trivial.

Most importantly, my presence was a contributor to the cause of that situation. That’s why I can’t simply not do my part. I cannot withdraw from this fight.

“U, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

I roared at the top of my lung.

I haven’t been acting like a magical girl since the beginning…

I was a little exasperated.

This was far from my dream. I looked disheveled, and the aesthetic wasn’t there at all. However, I can suck it up if I can protect with this power and this method!!

I exerted the last of my full power. I put the last of my full power into this one attack.

I felt lightheaded and hazy, maybe because I lost too much blood, or maybe due to magic deficiency.

I bit my lip to keep myself awake.

After that, I screamed out my fighting spirit and my hope.

“I, will protectttttttttt!!”

You can hear some cracking sound.

Before long, that cracking sound turned louder.

And then–

“N, no way…. impossible! As if this Great Meh…!!”

A big sound of shattering can be heard. The big shield has collapsed.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

Ziege was blown off after receiving the thousands of flower petal directly. He was slammed to the wall, and then also squashed by the flower petal which hasn’t stop. Eventually, the flower petal stopped.

Ziege, who was pinned on the crumbling wall, dropped to the ground.

“Haa…haa…”

While catching my breath, I somehow maintain the strength in my legs and kept standing.

“I, I did it…”

I won, I thought I won’t, but I did it…!

“I, I w–”

“Not yet, meh…”

“—!”

Ziege stood up, pushing away the rubble. He didn’t look as neat as he was in the beginning. He looked like he had been taking a beating, but it appeared that he still have some strength to fight.

He’s still standing…!”

“It was negligence on meh part… I didn’t think, that your magic power exceeded my expectation…”

“Kuh…!”

I could take on a battle stance, but I can’t put any more strength into my hands or legs.

Ziege instead leisurely pat some dust off his suit while walking. However, he’s not walking to me.

“Good grief, if I had known that this would happen, I shouldn’t have split up, meh.”

“Split, up…?”

Ziege’s step stopped. And then, there they were, the two Phantoms that attacked me on two different days.

“—-! No way!”

I tried to stop it. However, I ran out of magical power, and my arms and legs also can’t move.

“Return to me, meh. After that, I will end this, meh.”

“This, guy…!”

I tried to summon any kind of strength for the last time, but it was useless.

Both of the Phantoms melted, turning into dark puddles.

After that, those dark puddles head towards Ziege, and he let the puddles onto him.

The dark puddles wrapped Ziege.

I could guessed it even before the puddle cleared up. He had hid some incomparable power until now.

My body was trembling, either from the fear or from the lack of strength.

After the dark puddle that wrapped the Phantom disappeared, there—

“Haa… I knew it, being in my original body is the best, meh.”

—A satanic horn grew on the goat. Its appearance is reminiscent of a neat young man wearing a monocle on his left eye and a tailcoat.

Gray head of hair, ears like a goat. And golden goat-like pupil. It looked as much as a young man as a goat can look like.

“Good afternoon. This here is meh real appearance.”

“…You have been playing us from the beginning…”

“That’s correct, meh. But even so, I was serious in that form too. I didn’t think that you would have managed to beat me, meh. I give you my highest praise for that, meh.”

“Thank you for that…”

I replied while I was grasping for my breath.

Ziege, who could see my condition, even though it scoffed at me, it wasn’t contempt, but it looked at me with the same way it has been looking at me.

“Mhm. As I have expected, you are a potential threat, meh. I will eradicate you here, meh.”

With ease, Ziege raised his hand forward.

In an instant, the hair on my skin all stood up, all alarm bells rang inside my head.

However, my body didn’t move the way I want them to.

“So, goodbye, meh.”

Dark light beam was released from Ziege’s hand.

Ah, it’s impossible…

That might be something that I can’t dodge even in perfect condition. I can’t dodge that thing.

Aah… I just turned a magical girl, and yet…

Aware of my impending death, I instinctively closed my eyes.

“I won’t let you!”

I heard a voice I recognized.

I reflexively opened my eyes.

The girl which was wrapped with brilliant black light kicked the dark light off its trajectory.

She deflected the attack that I have prepared to die from with only one kick…!

I felt a sense of astonishment and bitterness, but also admiration and sense of safety all at once³.

A girl stood in front of me, and she turned to me and said:
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Cherry Blossom. Leave the rest to me.”

“…yes.”

With the sense of safety that arrived with the girl, Black Rose, my leg lost strength and I collapsed, plopping down on the ground.

…Aah, I knew it, you are my adored…!

1. They are punching each other, but each punch has a range of 10+ meters, so it was less of a punch, but the magic or aura- you get what I mean
2. Tbh, it’s hard to describe a fighting style that would tug at someone’s heartstrings.
3. In case you didn’t think that ‘astonishment and bitterness’ is not the opposite of ‘admiration and sense of safety’, I think, the former imply surprise, while the other imply relief I feel like the former would make you want to get away, while the latter would make you want to approach..?
   Anyway, this is why I use the word “but” there.