*
"I didn't think you were able to cook..." (Lastia)
"Isn't it natural? I had to live by myself after my creator died. Some little skills here and there go a long way." (Arin)
"Sorry. I just have the image that all magical girls are unreliable and not so independent." (Lastia)
Step by step, they approached the school with uniforms donned. Undeterred by the brightening sky, illuminating from violet to azure. She could feel her skin heating from the sun's rays and a lack of breeze. The arid air pricks her skin as she settled her gaze on the open gate. At the centre of residential zone 2A,like any other residential zone, held the collective educational constitutions of humanity. A massive and open zone sparse with buildings, the few that they have stood on a grand scale unlike any other. Needless to say, it was to accommodate every student from nursery to university.
For that reason, hospitals and other amenities were also collectively located here in the form of districts.
" I can't get used to using a bus after we enter the gate..." (Lastia)
"It can't be helped. The actual classrooms are all the way at the centre. The other facilities need to be closer to the homes." (Arin)
Pulling Lastia up with her hand, Arin held her warmth in her palm, dragging it further in to find a seat. Settling down, she turns her sight to the moving scenery outside the bus.
"... Do you have any questions you want to ask? Any problems adjusting to life here? " (Arin)
To others, it must have sounded like she was taking care of a transfer student. Ostensibly innocuous, in plain sight they converse without fear.
" Why haven't you killed me?" (Lastia)
Turning back her head, she found Lastia staring straight into her eyes. It was impossible to glean any thoughts from Lastia's expression. Whether it'd be because she lacked said emotions and thoughts, or that she was just that skilled at concealing her own motives and intentions, an unseen pressure envelopes Arin. Sensing the ensuing silence, Lastia parts her lips and continue on.
"In this form, I'm powerless. Without my usual resistances, it might be pointless kill this body since I would just manifest in my own body.
However if we ignore that very premise, rather than this body you kill my actual body instead, the result might be different. " (Lastia)
She wants to talk about this here? In the open? Naturally, no one will pick up on it. How many conversations go on in the bus? How many voices interlace into the contributed cacophony? No one actually pays attention unless they were particularly eye catching. Lastia and Arin are naturally beautiful, but with the current level of technology most people are beautiful in this era.
"What about you? You didn't take advantage of my distress. You didn't humiliate me in front of my creation. You didn't take my head when I turn my back to you. What could possibly be your reason?" (Arin)
Answering a question with a question. There are multiple ways this could be interpreted, but Lastia isn't that dumb.
" You wish to emulate me. To take the challenge on with all your soul... But you're not all powerful like I am.
You shed my false coil already. Even that mirage that was shed was on the level of an average deity. I am still a fragment of a shadow, a tiny portion of a reflection on par with major deities. The full shadow would be able to fight the heads of pantheons, and nothing needs to be said of the real deal.
... You are pushing beyond your limit and right. It's no different from suicide. " (Lastia)
"... Oh come on. I won't know unless I try. My creator wished for me to live in her stead. She never had much of a life, constantly facing a full wipe of her memories.
The memories went to me, feeding my existence... Or part of it. It fed the curse, and I consumed the curse and inherited sin. At first I believed nothing happened to my own memories because I simply wasn't the target of the curse, and it was true in a way.
Without the true target, Lastia. It gradually dissolved into my being like a vitamin tablet. It's gone. There's no longer anymore traces of Arin. " (Arin)
Glancing at her partner briefly, Lastia stifled a sigh as thought over her next words. Their destination was in sight, the next stop would be the last. At the heart of the academic complex.
" You owe too much, and you wish to run. It's not my place to admonish, far from it. I think it's okay to run.
Even if you're immortal, you're due to death some day. Someone or something will target and kill you. That's why not even the gods survive. Eterna being the last of your garden. We place importance on so many things in our life that it's easy to lose sight on a couple of the more minor significances. One or two, maybe ten will be shed. No one can remember all.
If you run, you won't be adding to the list of important things anymore. It sounds paradoxical, but by not running, by 'living' it's natural to keep accumulating those important things. It will only hurt yourself but hurting yourself is also the only true way for people to live. Without pain, there's no reward. " (Lastia)
Arin steps down from her seat. Taking a step or two, she smooths out the wrinkles in her uniform, her slick hair curled in certain places. A subtle scent of flowers envelops her with body heat. Was this how Arin smelt when she had sweat? She could only recount this faint fragrance from hugging her awhile ago. They trod towards the exit of the bus, being the last to leave.
"It's okay to run? When has that ever been the case! Are you trying to sink me into depravity? I didn't take you for a succubus." (Arin)
"Fufu... It's fine isn't it? After all this is the face of your most beloved is it not? Thinking carefully, isn't it stranger that you gave me the face of your beloved?" (Lastia)
Stepping off the bus, they walk off in the direction of their classroom building. Yggdrasil has done this enough times that she could do so without thinking. Lastia follows closely behind.
"... Enough teasing. I've built enough of a resistance before coming here. Do you understand now? Why I don't kill you?" (Arin)
"Your hubris sure matches those of the gods. They take their powers as a given and stagnate in mires of their own making.
Make sure you don't turn out like them in the future. There is always a way to get stronger, a way to be defeated. They think themselves omnipotent, and that's why they're dead and I'm not. In fact I got so powerful it became hard to manifest in reality! " (Lastia)
" Yeah yeah... You're the shadow of the dog of the uncle of the fragment or whatever." (Arin)
" You...!?!! " (Lastia)