*
"Alright, that'll be it for the scope of the project. Get into your groups in 5 minutes and we'll begin." (Teacher)
Cooled air from above softly brushes past my hair, recently our seats shifted and I was sent somewhere near the top right, directly under an air conditioning unit. Some others who were similarly directly under a unit complained about it being too cold to concentrate during the class, bringing jackets and falling asleep. But I loved the sensation of the frigit air prickling into my skin, it kept me awake and just above catching a cold. If I truly caught a cold, it would be go from a comfortable experience to a devastating one.
I look outside the crystalline exterior. To the left were the hallways leading to other classrooms and ways to get down the building. To the right were thick glass walls that close off the outside world. I once had a habit of staring out at the sky for too long, I got scolded by the teacher quite a few times. My eyes drift back to the front, it was a different teacher this time, they shouldn't be familiar with my bad habits yet. They stood at the front, with neither a smile nor a frown, they observed the students moving like busy bees. People gravitated towards their close friends naturally, I quite liked my seat here, so I had hoped that they came to me instead.
Turning around, I flashed a smile at the two most familiar faces yet. Arin and Sariel.
"I knew you'd come." (Lastia)
"Haa~ and I knew you'd be lazy." (Arin)
She looked strangely happy as she said so. Meanwhile, Sariel could barely contain herself, fidgeting roughly as she stood next to my desk.
"Oh right, how many members did we need?" (Lastia)
I turned to Sariel, in hopes of an answer. The ever reliable Sariel... It sounded almost like mockery, I probably shouldn't say it out loud. After all, when she endured that loneliness she didn't have a choice. It was my fault for leaving first.
"... Four, teach just mentioned it! How did you forget already?" (Sariel)
"Oh... My bad, I wasn't paying attention. Then let's get Juri." (Lastia)
After some work, we acquired the last member and got to work. We pushed the nearest desks together and sat around, Arin held the question on her phone as it was posted online. We begun brainstorming, but nothing was coming to mind and everything grinded into a halt.
"Say... I've noticed you guys been getting a lot closer recently~" (Juri)
"Uhh.. Which? Of us...?" (Lastia)
Tried as I did, I couldn't pry away her suspicions. In this era there shouldn't be any concerns with same sex relationships, but how serious were we? What about polygamy? That would be a bigger issue... Her jet black pigtails bobbed gently as she shifted around her seat, her inner hair was a deep blue similar to the edges of Arin's hair. It was a popular colour to dye as it wasn't too obvious for those who were born with black hair, it added a little saturation but not too much.
Juri smiled knowingly, letting the topic pass, instead she brought up the project and asked how we wanted to go about it.
"Alright, since we're given time from this lesson, we should make some progress on the direction we're taking.
Teach said the rest is done at home so we need to agree on a time and place to meet too." (Sariel)
"How about we finish it now, then we can relax at home?" (Arin)
"... Arin, this assignment involves some fieldwork. You can't ace through this one on smarts alone." (Lastia)
"Aww... I wanted to show off!" (Arin)
"Did you still need to show off at this point?" (Juri)
Rather than whispers, people were beginning to shout and discuss at the top of their voice, causing the background to devolve into a sea of cacophony. Everyone wanted to finish it as quickly as possible and take their minds off it once they got home, instead of dragging another assignment home. That's when the noise slowed to a crawl and the world stopped moving.
Every hue was drained from the world, sinking the classroom walls into a monochromatic palette. The tables were ash grey, and I could hear my own breathing. Juri stopped moving and the other two looked around equally as surprised. Of course they wouldn't understand, I was the one who killed Eterna. I was the one who assumed temporary control over partial parts of her authority. Particularly the defensive side of world management, governing humanity can be left up to the super intelligence and organs overseeing the information systems of society.
As for invaders of this universe, I wouldn't look quite so kindly at them. All to say, I preserved the 'Event' system. This was the duty of those that sat atop the world, I'm having the sentinels serve as lookouts in case other parts of the world had any such occurrences. An 'Event' usually cuts off space and time, so even magical girls from other zones wouldn't notice anything, but this time it's different.
It's the same for magical girls everywhere, they will experience this 'Event' too. Albeit it might be inefficient to get reinforcements if there isn't any indicator of where the invaders are. Thankfully, this time, they targeted me. Black lines lay outstretched in the middle of blank air, opening up like maws of unknown beasts. Their blank 'stares' screaming something ominous into our senses.
The heavenly kings are defeated, the organised Trace forces of higher ranks have been wiped out too. Frankly I was concerned, if the world no longer faced threats from Traces then magical girls wouldn't be born after our victory. Our roles as magical girls might also be stripped away, not by the world this time but by humanity. I could only defy such a thing if I wiped out civilisation and converted the survivors into another species.
Ah... I'm letting my mind run. Further and further, they dive, they scrape, the ram into the abyss.
"Relax. We got this. We still have someone we need to save." (Arin)
She holds one of my shoulders firmly, this ray of sunshine pierced through my world like a fabled sword of heroes, casting rays of purifying holy light. Enough to purify anything I held.
"... Transform. " (Lastia)
My classic dark dress wraps around my figure, at the same time the clothes I wore dissolve into magical particles while my hair changed in both length and colour. I always wondered if there was any meaning to these changes, magical girls could customise their combat dress but switching it up too much and they wouldn't have any 'iconic look' to speak off.