Chapter 20 : Kabukicho Battle

“Hoeh?! Kohane?! Nana-chan will come to rescue you!!”

Vroom!

Vroom!

Vrooooom―

A delicate voice that didn’t match the rough exhaust sound.

From far away, an incredible engine sound was heard along with the sound of the bike’s throttle being turned to the max.

The girl on the fluorescent orange bike who had been darting around the streets of Kabukicho.

Nanami rushed in a straight line, waving starlight, to rescue her friend who had been trapped inside the black hemispherical curtain.

‘Wh-What on earth is that?!’

It looked like a giant had trapped a cockroach under a rice bowl.

It was the moment Nanami hesitated, startled by its enormous size.

Whoosh―

A yellow flash approaching from far away.

The flash that rushed towards Nanami at an incredible speed turned as if it had been waiting and started running parallel.

A girl rushing so fast that threatening wind sounds came from her arms and legs cutting through the air.

She chased after the bike with her side tail trailing like a meteor shower’s tail.

“Hey! Toot toot! Bad big sister! Slow down right now!”

“You’re chasing a bike by running?!”

A girl running parallel to the bike.

Nanami was astonished once again at this surreal sight.

Hana, enveloped in yellow energy, avoided obstacles in her path by running along building exteriors. Therefore, her speed wasn’t at all behind the bike rushing in low flight.

Clunk

Clunk

Hana stretched out her fingers while fiercely pursuing. And slowly, yellow energy began to envelop the bike’s rear wheel.

Clunk

Clunk

The bike’s speed gradually decreased with a stiff metallic sound.

Feeling her speed decrease, Nanami changed course in panic. And she shot the fluorescent orange bike while pulling the throttle as much as possible.

Vroom―

Vroom―

Vrooooom―

Amidst the rough exhaust sounds trying to escape from the yellow flash, Nanami lamented with a tearful face.

Feeling pathetic that such a kid was holding her back.

Frustrated by her own speed running parallel with mere running.

“What on earth is this kid?!”

“Eek! Who’re you calling a kid! I’m a proper magical girl!”

“Kohane-chan! Hurry and come out to help!! This kid is too persistent!!”

“That’s mean! You’ll get a red sticker for saying bad words!”

Whoosh―

Vrooooom―

One girl leaving a fluorescent orange trajectory with a bike scattering starlight in the air.

One girl leaving a long tail of yellow flash while traversing ground and walls.

The two girls rushed side by side.

They darted around, frantically passing countless people, signs, and buildings.

A frantic rush where the surroundings were no longer clearly visible, as if the paint of a landscape painting had been broadly spread.

At the end of the rush, the bike pulled ahead.

The bike that could run through the air could run a freer path.

Nanami started to shake off the yellow flash girl by using overpasses or low buildings as obstacles while turning her handle this way and that.

The gap between the two girls slowly starting to widen.

Sato Hana withdrew the psychic power that had almost reached just a moment ago.

‘Ugh… flying through the sky is cheating!’

Hana looked up at the fluorescent orange bike with a tearful face.

‘And I talked so big to Hikari-chan!’

Hana, who had been strongly confident about ‘running fast’ following the whispers of the yellow star since the moment she bloomed, didn’t want to be embarrassed like this in front of her friend Hikari.

[Hana-chan!]

“Huh? Hikari-chan?”

Her friend’s voice suddenly heard.

Hana looked up and saw Hikari’s clone watching her from the rooftop of a tall building in the distance, wearing a mask.

[I’ll guide the path with illusions, so stick as close as you can and slow her down!]

“Hikari-chan! Can’t we just grab her like the robot?”

[I’ve tried a few times, but she escapes before it activates, so we need to slow her down first.]

“How about squashing her like a fly?”

[…The goal isn’t to kill her indiscriminately, but to make her face consequences.]

“Okay! Got it! We have to make her receive punishment like we do at school, right?”

Gathering energy at the tips of both feet.

Lightly pressing both arms to her body.

Lowering her body.

Shifting all her center of gravity forward.

Full-speed sprint.

An extreme posture that seemed like she’d lose balance if she turned even once.

A precarious posture that seemed like she’d fall forward if she stopped even once.

Like an arrow shot forward.

Like a meteor flying straight ahead.

Whoosh―

The sound of air threateningly brushed past her ears.

In that sound, it seemed like the yellow star was whispering that it was okay, that she could run even faster.

“Bad big sisters who cause trouble for others get spanked!!”

A yellow meteor shower shot with a sharp sound cutting through the wind.

The fluorescent orange bike, aware of this, tried to brake and turn the handle to change direction, but had to stop seeing the road condition right ahead.

“Hoeh?! What’s this now?!”

“Wow! This is that thing! Amazing!”

Rumble rumble

Moving buildings.

The cityscape with buildings rising moved like a single organism.

They blocked alleys and side streets like walls.

And absorbed everything except the road the two girls were running on.

A straight line.

The horizon.

A single path.

Before Nanami’s eyes, who had been frantically rushing through alleys and streets until now, only a straight road stretching beyond the horizon was visible.

“Hieeeek?!”

To Nanami, unfamiliar with illusions, this scene was just a huge nightmare causing panic.

Nanami, whose vision had narrowed due to panic, just shot forward.

A pure speed competition.

Hana finally smiled at the competition taking place on equal terms.

“Ahaha! In just running, I won’t lose!”

Arms moving dazzlingly.

Feet running swiftly.

Due to the afterimages emitted from her two legs endlessly explosively accelerating, Sato Hana became the form of a complete meteor.

The yellow meteor rushed forward to stop the bike.

Nanami’s shoulder and Hana’s shoulder finally started to overlap side by side again.

The narrowing distance.

“Now, now I can reach it!”

Hana tried to extend her psychic power to the rear wheel, narrowing the distance that had been just barely out of reach until now.

“Just a little!! Just a little more!!”

“No!! I can’t stop the bike!!!”

Nanami screamed while pulling hard on the bike’s throttle.

The front of the bike’s body rising up.

Simultaneously deploying fluorescent orange starlight as a foothold.

Creating a new road by herself.

The bike turning 180 degrees like a roller coaster, stepping on a curved foothold created over terrain with nothing.

The bike that instantly changed direction from front to back brushed past where Hana was.

“…”

Hana, dumbfounded watching the back of the bike shot in the completely opposite direction.

Hikari’s voice was heard in her ears again.

[Not yet!]

[Deception] Magical Girl’s Unique Skill

Dream World

Rumble rumble

The straight road was no longer a plain.

Like stairs to heaven rising towards the sky.

The balance of the bike Nanami was driving was collapsing on the unfamiliar road with a steep slope.

“Ugh! The slope…”

Nanami confused in the cognition changed by illusion.

Thinking this was the chance, black curtains were created in the direction Nanami was heading.

But she skillfully avoided them while grasping the throttle even in her confusion.

[Now, Hana-chan!! You have to slow her down!!]

“Ahaha!”

Sato Hana regained her confidence.

Because it was such a familiar form of track.

Well.

She had practiced countless times in her head running towards the sky since the day her legs couldn’t move.

[Swiftness] Magical Girl’s Unique Skill

Flash Girl

There was a streak of meteor chasing after the bike that had lost balance on the unfamiliar form of road.

What lay ahead on the path the starlight was heading towards was a track stretching out to the sky.

The yellow meteor that had once fallen to that low place regained its light and advanced to where it should originally be.

Rumble rumble!

“Kyaa?! N-No!! Please!! Don’t stop the bike!!!”

“The game of tag in the corridor ends now, big sister!”

The yellow starlight shot from Hana’s hand slowly started to grasp the rear wheel of Nanami’s bike.

Grip

Grip

Grip

Clunk!

“Now, Hikari-chan!!”

[Well done, Hana-chan!]

At the end of the chase that seemed like it would continue forever, the bike that finally slowed down was covered by a black curtain.

A complete prison of illusion.

There, Nanami, whose cognition was completely distorted, completely collapsed.

Crash bang-!

The bike tumbled down miserably.

“Hic?! Is that big sister really alive?”

[A bloomed 2-star won’t die from something like that.]

“Phew, that’s a relief. If she dies, she can’t receive a spanking! She has to be punished!”

[…]

What appeared when the curtain was lifted was the wreckage of the crumpled and tumbled bike. And the figure of Nanami collapsed on the road, panting.

Nanami was muttering half-unconscious through the visor of her helmet that had somehow opened.

“If the bike… stops… Mom will… me…”

“…”

Seeing this, Hana hesitated for a moment. Then she approached Nanami and started patting her head.

The sight of gently patting the cat-eared helmet Nanami was wearing.

[…Hana-chan is kind.]

“Ugh, why won’t this come off?”

[Huh?]

Clunk!

When she completely closed the helmet’s visor that wouldn’t come off well because it was crumpled, Nanami’s muttering could no longer be heard.

“Mom said that making excuses saying ‘This is why I did wrong’ after doing bad things is the worst!”

[…I see.]

* * *

Kohane, trapped in the black curtain, was looking for a way to escape while moving the armor.

[Nyufufufu! Super Cool Armor No. 1 is an all-purpose armor that can deal with even such emergency situations!]

Click!

Pshhh―

[It’s literally super cool!]

“Oh really? To my eyes, it looks terribly lame.”

[Nyufu?!]

Kohane hurriedly discovered through night vision goggles that there was a girl in front of her armor.

That girl was wearing an old-fashioned sailor uniform.

And she had a green special attack uniform draped over her shoulders.

The green girl.

She was quietly looking at her armor in the darkness.

[W-Well, originally the eyes of lowly ordinary people can’t tell the difference.]

Even while speaking, Kohane felt her heart pounding with tension.

The green gleam in the eyes of the girl in front.

Because those burning eyes seemed to be looking straight at her inside the armor.

“If I beat that lame armor flat with the hands of a lowly ordinary person. I think your and my thoughts might become similar.”

[How dare you say you’ll smash the Super Cool Armor No. 1 that I made with big bro, no, my assistant!!]

Whirr―

A threatening red light.

The red mono-eye shone in the darkness and all the armor’s drive systems were activated.

The brightly shining armor.

Click

Click

Pshhh―

[Nyufufufu… I was just going to skip the performance demonstration today and only do a march dedicated to the magical girl of [Beginning]…]

Whirr!

[I’m looking forward to showing how amazing abilities it has against a magical girl!]

“That [Beginning] is my boss, you fool.”

[Nonsense!!]

Boom!

The armor rushed threateningly towards Ichika.