The Carnelian Sparrow

Chapter 19

The footsteps that approached Hanako from the center of the track were light and calm. Rui Tomatsu’s expression was equally so, completely neutral. The tone of her voice matched both. “You don’t seem surprised to see me alive, Sasaki. I’ve been dead for over a day.”

Taking a few cautious steps forward of her own, Hanako spoke with a voice just as soft as the girl approaching her. “I figured it out, in the end. What you did… what you made those girls do for you.”

“Damn shame,” Rui added, just as calm as before, “that you figured it out just a bit too late to do anything about it. You know what that bitch Mirai’s biggest mistake was? Letting Akari at my body, instead of my soul. Rule of thumb, kid. If you’re going to kill someone, make sure they’re properly gone before you walk away. I don’t plan on making that mistake here. Just so we’re clear.”

With that, Rui dropped to a three-point stance, then sprinted at a speed beyond normal human limits, colliding into Hanako and knocking her backwards into the school wall. Before letting Hanako recover, a white pistol appeared in her left hand, and she fired several light bullets into Hanako’s stomach.

Collapsing against the wall, Hanako coughed, splatters of blood covering the ground. She focused on the fresh wound, and sure enough, they began to close, though she still felt the pain of the attack. Standing again, she saw a sick, sadistic smile on Rui’s face as she dropped down into another stance.

This time, however, Hanako was able to throw herself out of Rui’s way using the force of her wind. A powerful gust threw Hanako to the side, and she followed with a jump, leaping back into the center where Rui was before. Rui’s dried blood remained at the spot, something Hanako noticed in a passing glance.

Rui was fast on the attack again, and it was all Hanako could do to dodge every swing of Rui’s fists, and deflect each shot with a quickly summoned rapier. Hanako would eventually get off an attack of her own, aiming a thrust right between Rui’s eyes. Much to her dismay and horror, however, Hanako’s weapon shattered against Rui’s skin, causing another smirk to cross her lips.

“You get it now?” A palm strike hit Hanako with the force of a freight train, and Hanako flew back again, crumpled onto the track again. “You didn’t stand a chance then. You sure as shit don’t now.” Hanako coughed again, twitching as she struggled to make it to her knees. She was healing again, but it was taking longer. Rui had done some serious damage with that last attack. “Nothing left to do but finish this.”

Another fierce dash forward, and Rui’s fist crashed into the ground where Hanako was laying. Instead of blood, however, it was water that coated Rui’s fist and arm. Another familiar voice rang out a short distance away. “I really need to quit it with these close calls.” Shinju set Hanako down against the wall of the school’s main building, then turned to face Rui, holding her umbrella up like a sword.

Before Rui could attack, a transformed Yasu appeared at Rui’s left side in a flash, staring at the sight before her. “You’re late,” Rui said quietly, a harsh tone in her voice.

“I’m right on time,” Yasu hissed, equally as harsh.

“Know your place, Yasu. Now get in there and take them out.”

Yasu nodded, and she made her way over towards Shinju. She stopped halfway, however, turning and pointing a floating dagger at Rui’s neck. “My place is here. I’m done, Rui. This has gone too far.”

Rui gave a solemn nod in return. “Figured. I had a feeling that one day you’d turn on me, too. Guess that’s just how it goes. But don’t blame me for what happens next. You knew what I wished for, after all.”

“Course I do. ‘I wish to be better than anyone else that stands before me. To be greater than all who oppose me.’ Those exact words. I was there when you made the wish, Rui.”

An indifferent shrug followed as Rui stepped forward. “For all the good that did you, you stand against me now. Just as well.” She pointed her summoned pistol at Yasu, aiming between her eyes. Before she could fire, however, a jet of water caught Rui’s hand, knocking the weapon away.

Shinju lunged forward, swinging her umbrella upward like a sword, another jet of water accompanying it. It was enough to force Rui back, though she showed no outward injury. Before she could retaliate, however, Yasu’s knives rained down on Rui’s new spot, forcing her back even further. Shinju followed suit, pointing her umbrella directly at Rui. Opening it, another jet of water came out, with much more force than before. It pushed Rui back into the wall, and Shinju held the attack for about a minute or two before dropping.

Rui fell to her knees, coughing and sputtering as she struggled to rise to her feet. “God damn it. Where the fuck is my backup?!” With a rabid look in her eyes, she snapped her fingers. Shinju and Yasu braced themselves for Rui’s attack, but it was a bang from the other side that stunned them both.

Standing behind the pair, Chiemi was holding what appeared to be a sniper rifle, pointed at Shinju’s back. The shot, however, had missed its mark, instead leaving a small hole in the wall behind Rui.

“How the fuck do you miss a shot from that fucking close?” Rui dashed forward, past Shinju and Yasu and grabbed Chiemi by the neck. “It’s like you weren’t even trying to hit them at all. Like you were trying to hit -me-.”

Chiemi felt herself lifted off the ground, kicking in futility at Rui’s legs, which didn’t budge. She coughed, both hands grabbing desperately at Rui’s wrists. “I… I was… ugh… trying to hit you… you stuck up bitch!”

A glint lit Rui’s eyes, and a sick smile followed. “Seems like someone forgot what she wished for. You, of all people, can’t touch me. You should know that better than anyone.”

“E-Even so! You…” Chiemi pulled at Rui’s wrists with all her strength. “You will never control us! Even if you made us make those wishes for you! You will never control us! We’re not your puppets!”

The smile faded from Rui’s face as she gripped Chiemi’s neck. “Then you’re not very useful to me anymore, are you?” She jerked her wrist to the side, and Chiemi’s neck snapped. Before she could heal, Rui called a pistol into her other hand, and a few bangs echoed around the track. The sound of a Soul Gem shattering followed, and the light left Chiemi’s eyes as Rui dropped her lifeless body.

“Now then. Akari. It’s your turn, and now you know what’s gonna happen if you try and pull this double-crossing shit with me.”

Akari had been hiding near the entrance to the track the whole time, and her eyes hadn’t left Chiemi for one moment. Both as she jumped forward to try and take Rui out, and as Rui had finished her off. Now, her eyes were on the body that her dear friend once belonged to. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she clutched at her chest, clawing just under her collarbone.

“I meant -now-, Akari.” Rui took a few steps toward Akari, but the girl instead fell to her knees. Taking her shaking head in both hands, she began to tremble, until finally, she let out a sharp, nearly inhuman shriek of pure agony. The air around the track began to warp, wind howling in seemingly every direction at once. The ground shimmered, rippling like water until it reflected the image of the sky itself. The track, the walls, the very image of the school faded like a mirage, and only an endless sea of clouds remained. The girls were all seemingly stood on a few clouds, and all eyes were on Akari’s convulsing form.

Her body floated up a bit, and in her hand, her pitch black Soul Gem. Akari held the Gem aloft, staring at it with lifeless eyes before it cracked open like an egg. In its wake, a Grief Seed hovered in her palm, and her body soon became engulfed in the eruption of grief. The pooling, gathering corruption began to take a new shape, a single thread of blackened despair shooting upwards, vanishing into the infinite sky. The rest of the mass would pulse and shift, eventually settling into what resembled a shadowy arachnid, with eight empty, white voids opening, scanning the surrounding.

“Is that… i-is that a Witch?!” Shinju spoke first, stunned into silence by the events leading to this, having taken place far too fast for either herself or Yasu to react to. “What happened to Akari?! What’s going on?!”

Yasu simply sighed, gathering a cloud of daggers in a formation like attacking wasps around her. “It’s a Witch alright, Shinju. That is… that -was- Akari. I knew she and Chiemi were inseparable, but to go this far so fast… I’m so sorry.”

Rui was staring blankly at the Witch before her, raising both the weapon she used to kill Chiemi and another summoned into her free hand, both pointed at the spider-like Witch. “Tch. It’s impossible to find good help these days. Oh well, what’s one more distraction before I finish off my enemies for good?”

Before she could fire, however, the spider had swung forward with impossible speed, one of its eight tendrils swinging for Rui’s head. Rui tried to jump, but the Witch was quicker, catching Rui in the side. The force launched Rui onto a cloud behind Shinju and Yasu, and it slowly became stained, glowing red with Rui’s blood.

“Wh… What the fuck? How… How could anything hurt me anymore?!” Rui pulled her palm away from the wound, staring at the blood that had pooled in her palm. “How?! I’m supposed to be invincible!”

Shinju had continued to stare in utter bewilderment at the entire scene, her breathing quickened. It was Yasu’s palm on her shoulder that caused her to catch it. “No, this makes perfect sense. Any wish that gets granted has a detriment to it, based on the hubris of the wish. And Rui, there’s no one alive with your hubris.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Yasu?!” Rui wheeled to face the girls, her eyes wide with horror. “I wished myself invincible! Untouchable! A fucking -god-!”

“No. You wished for protection from -Magical Girls-. No human or Magical Girl could touch you. It’s why Hanako’s weapon broke, why you didn’t drown with several gallons of water in your lungs, and why a sniper from about ten meters out missed by a hair. But Akari’s not a Magical Girl anymore, is she?”

“So we can’t touch her?!” Shinju, relatively calmer, held her umbrella up, defensively. She shifted her gaze between the Witch and Rui, as if anticipating an attack from either, or both at once. “What the hell do we do?”

Yasu, however, turned to face Rui. “The Witch has one goal. It’s the same as ours. So we protect the one thing in this world that can actually hurt Rui now.” She cast a sidelong glance at Shinju behind her. “…At all costs.”

The pair nodded at one another, and both lunged at the same time, jumping from cloud to cloud towards the injured Rui. Shinju struck first, a column of water dropping onto Rui’s cloud as she swung her umbrella downward. Rui jumped away, and the cloud she was on began to rain into the endless void beneath it. Staggering onto her feet, Rui began firing both of her pistols at the oncoming sea of wasp-like daggers, diverting and deflecting each in turn.

Shinju jumped forward, a cloud away from Rui and swinging her umbrella in frustration. Jets and columns of water accompanied each, yet they did little to move Rui. “Damn it… she’s still too strong!” Yasu growled in frustration, jumping forward onto Rui’s cloud with two daggers in hand. She swung at Rui in a frenzy, though Rui blocked and swerved around each hit. After a while, Rui charged forward, a shoulder tackle knocking Yasu off balance, stumbling back off the cloud.

She wouldn’t fall far, however, before an updraft swiftly propelled Yasu upwards, back onto another cloud a short distance away. Standing beside her, a healed, yet battered Hanako staring directly at Rui.

“Whoa whoa whoa! You shouldn’t be up and about, Hanako!” Shinju jumped back, just before Rui could fire on her position, then stood beside Hanako.

“Just get her out of here. I can handle Tomatsu on my own, Shinju.” Hanako pointed a renewed ivory rapier at Rui, the wind around her going completely still.

Yasu caught a glimpse of the darkened emerald necklace resting against Hanako’s chest. “…It couldn’t be. All that healing… Undoing all the damage that Rui had done…”

Shinju was next to notice. She stared at Hanako in silence for a moment, then scooped Yasu up into a carry. “Don’t overdo it. Okay?” She jumped back onto a cloud behind Hanako.

“You really wanna try this again, Sasaki? You know how this went a minute ago.” Rui jumped to another cloud beside her, dodging an attack from the spider Witch. She then dropped one of her pistols, clutching at the wound just under her ribs. “Even like this, you’re nothing compared to me.”

Hanako showed no outward reaction. “You’re still unfamiliar with how my abilities work? I’ve been hurt… forced to use more and more of my magic to heal myself, recovering from impossible injury. I’ve watch someone die before my very eyes, and learned a potentially terrible truth. I might not be too far removed from Akari’s fate. … And all I can think about now is making sure that no one else ever suffers it.” She raised her rapier, a fierce cyclone surrounding Hanako’s body with much more force than before. The cloud beneath her dissipated, yet Hanako remained floating in the cerulean void.

Rui looked between Hanako and the Witch, summoning another pistol into her bloodstained hand. She pointed one at Hanako, the other at the spider. “Fine, then. Fucking bring it!”

Without hesitation, Hanako threw herself forward. The wind around her surged, propelling her straight into Rui. Her rapier bounced harmlessly off of the elder Magical Girl, as if Hanako had struck a steel pillar. Before Rui could react, Hanako held out her opposite palm, and a gale threw Rui from her cloud, the white fluff disintegrating from the force.

Rui reoriented herself in midair, landing on another cloud and firing at Hanako multiple times. Each shot was redirected by Hanako’s personal cyclone, leaving Hanako unharmed. The smaller girl hadn’t even flinched. Hanako launched herself again, flying straight into Rui and using her wind to throw the older girl around, taking clouds out with each attack.

Despite how many times Hanako repeated this attack, the labyrinth never seemed to run out of clouds, as if they reformed when no one was observing. After a few more repeats of this pattern, Rui finally found her mark. As Hanako lunged, Rui was faster, and her shot grazed the silver necklace housing Hanako’s disguised Soul Gem.

Flying off course, Hanako rolled onto another cloud behind Rui, slowly rising to her feet. It was fortunate that her Soul Gem wasn’t damaged, something Rui noticed with a scoff. “You and your god damned luck, Sasaki. Doesn’t matter now, though. You’re running on empty.”

Sure enough, the cloudiness that had threatened to overtake Hanako’s Soul Gem before was even more visible now. If Hanako had kept up the attack any farther, she risked losing to it completely. She was panting, tightly clutching her rapier before falling to a knee.

With a smug grin, Rui jumped forward onto Hanako’s cloud, her weapon pointed straight at the jewelry that housed Hanako’s nearly corrupted Soul Gem. “Fun as that game of cat and mouse was, I think I’m done here. Your friends can’t save you now, either.”

It was true. Hanako’s dance of gales had created a nearly impossible distance between herself and Shinju, the latter having spent some effort trying to create a bridge of water to reach her, to no avail. “Any last words?” Rui tightened the grip of her weapon.

Instead of a reply, however, Hanako let out a sharp, surprised gasp. Instead of the bang of a gunshot, Rui’s sputtering, gargled breaths. Rui’s hand shook, finally dropping the weapon. And through her chest, the tendril of a large, shadowy spider. “Y… You…!”

Akari’s Witch pulled Rui away from Hanako, onto a nest of clouds that had gathered, marking the center of the Witch’s barrier. A flurry of claw swipes and pounces, and finally the sight of its fangs tearing into Rui’s body. A mix of Rui’s screams and the spider Witch’s agonized shrieks filled the void, seeming to echo throughout the empty, impossible sky. Finally, Rui’s body, lifeless once more, sank through the nest, falling through the clouds.

Shinju had finally found her way over to Hanako, an arm around her shoulder. “A-Are you okay?! Hanako!” She noticed the state of Hanako’s Soul Gem, eyes widened, yet trying to remain composed. “C… Calm down. Calm down, okay? W-We’ll find a Grief Seed—”

The sound of shattering glass, the second since the fight started filled the air. Yasu had dove into the nest of clouds, and when she emerged, she held out the shattered remains of Rui Tomatsu’s Soul Gem. “Can’t be too careful. She came back from the dead once, already. Anyway, if you need a Grief Seed… there’s one surefire source.” Yasu turned to face the spider-like Witch, daggers at the ready. Shinju turned to face it as well, brandishing her umbrella, and Hanako staggered up to her feet, shakily holding out a rapier. The trio braced themselves for one final fight.

The spider, however, didn’t move. It was staring expectantly at the girls, as if waiting for them to act. Not out of any sense of strategy, nor any means of counter attacking. But just waiting.

Yasu waited a moment longer, then nodded. “…I see. Your lingering regret was taken care of, then. If that’s really what you want.” She then turned to gaze down at Hanako. “…You know what to do. Shinju and I don’t have the power to finish this in one shot.” Seeing Hanako’s confusion, Yasu elaborated. “Akari deserves the mercy of a swift end. Don’t you think?”

Hanako’s face contorted in pain, a tear rolling down her cheek. She raised her rapier, several others forming and hovering behind her. “…Th… thank you… Akari… I-I’m sorry.”

With another shriek, the wind around Hanako surged once more, and holding out her left hand, the cloud of swords flew at the Witch, piercing its body over and over. One sword finally found its mark, striking the spider through the heart, and a silk tear rolled down one of its eyes as all eight closed. The Witch faded into the clouds, and soon, the clouds themselves faded into the school’s race track.

Hanako collapsed again, clutching her chest with heavy, uneven breaths. She could feel herself at the very limit of her power. She hoped, at least, that her Witch wouldn’t trouble Shinju very much, and that she could be granted the same mercy in the end that Akari had received, though the heartache this would cause her crept into her mind.

She thought about her life up to that point. All the haze in her mind keeping her from living fully, all the trouble that she had caused her mother. Every doctor visit, every office, every stranger coming into her room to try and fix something that could not be fixed. She thought of the Newspaper Club, and how Koharu would take this development. She thought of Yui, who appeared to her as a rival, yet became a fast mentor, who wanted only to see her grow. The failure of her life as a Magical Girl would not likely cause Yui to grieve, yet the sorrow of these events still would leave scars.

Finally, she thought of her very first friend. A friend she only knew through a game’s subpar chat system, yet the only friend she had ever known throughout her life until meeting Koharu. Someone so relentlessly cheerful, someone who could pierce through the veil covering Hanako’s mind, until one day, the messages stopped coming.

A tear rolled down Hanako’s cheek as she prepared to let the feeling consume her.

A slap across the cheek would shake Hanako from her stupor. Her eyes opened wide, in shock, but the pain on her cheek distracted her from the fading pain in her chest. Yasu was standing over her, a Grief Seed held to Hanako’s chest. As she noticed this, she felt the wind around her weakening, and the pain in her body receding.

Shinju sighed in relief, falling back onto the ground and staring up at the sky. Yasu continued to cleanse Hanako’s Soul Gem for what felt like minutes, then turned away. “…I know this doesn’t make up for everything I did. And even though you’re free from Rui’s torment, I know you have questions. I could answer them, but… I think -you- are in a better position to answer them.” Yasu tossed the spent Grief Seed, which was caught in the mouth of the familiar, feline-like white creature. “Isn’t that right? Incubator?”

Hanako and Shinju both turned to face Kyubey, who stared at the trio with its familiar, ever unchanging expression. “Indeed. It seems I have a lot of explaining to do. Hanako Sasaki. Shinju Hayama.”