Inspired by the 'Sailor Moon' anime series.
MAGICAL BOY
「魔法少年」
{=TSUBASA=VS=Turtle=}
{By: Emerald Sonata}
[~PART 3~]
…*tsukasa*…*Tsukasa*…*Tsukasa*—
"—TSUKASA! WAKE UP!"
"BAAAH!"
Tsukasa Basara snapped awake and bolted sitting up. Sweat covered his forehead and his eyes were wide open with panic. Eventually, he let out a long sigh.
"…Good God, what a nightmare. For a moment, I thought you actually turned me into a magical girl again and I had to fight this ugly turtle thing that kept yapping about 'geckos'…Ugh, like worrying about the science test next week wasn't bad enough…"
"…I really hate to break it to you, Tsukasa, but that was no dream – furthermore, your test has been moved to tomorrow, remember?"
"…Huh?" Tsukasa finally woke up, to the cold hard reality that was sitting in front of him.
The boy was not in his familiar bedroom – rather sitting on a cold hard floor in the middle of a dark room. The memory of his new test date popped up into his mind, causing his brain to go on the fritz of misfortune. And the worst part: he was wearing his magical girl uniform. He was still TSUBASA.
"…,…,…DARN IT AAAAAAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAALL!"
The boy's scream filled the chambers, echoing back at him in a way that sounded like a sad chorus. He then snapped on a fiery look, his burning glare scanning for something all around him.
"CELESTIA! WHERE THE FREAKING HECK ARE YOU?!"
"Haaa…Right here…"
TSUBASA jabbed a hand into a certain pile of broken rock and rubble, drawing out Celestia completely. She had reverted back to her magical stick form due to the fall, the oval-shaped green gemstone within the center of the heart-ring blinking. A sarcastic tone could be heard.
"Why, thank you."
"Don't 'thank' me, you witch! This is your fault that we're in this mess, so you have to get us out of it!"
"I would very much like to do so myself, but I am incapable of defeating the Bakemono alone. That is why I'm counting on you to fight it while I provide my full support."
"Screw that! You're not counting on me – YOU'RE USING ME, YOU LITTLE…Where the heck are we anyways?"
"…Good question."
TSUBASA and Celestia stopped with what they were doing and looked around. The dark chamber they were in was poorly lit, but they could see they were surrounded by something tall and cylindrical. They looked like metallic tanks of some sort – what was inside them, they had no clue.
Ignoring it, TSUBASA picked himself up to his feet, resting a hand on one of those tanks.
"Tch. Lost or not, we got to get moving or that gecko-thing's going to find us and…Hmm?...Ah…HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOT-HOOOOOOO~OOOOOOT!"
"TSU-TSUKASA?!"
The boy suddenly began to hop and scream about, flapping a hand that was throbbing-red and covered with smoke.
What he touched was actually a tank full of water – hot water. A boiler.
The room the duo had fallen into was actually some sort of boiler room, part of an overall water-heating system located underground. It was all connected together to regulate intake and outtake of both hot and cold water, as well as venting out excess steam in the process.
"DARN IT ALL – DARN IT ALL! DARN – IT – ALL! Gaaaaaah! Why isn't there someone randomly popping out of nowhere to challenge me with an ice bucket when you need it?!"
"This isn't the time to be making jokes, Tsukasa! Focus!"
"Tch! Seriously, weren't you designed with a mute button or something? Tell me where it is, or else—OW!"
The boy knocked his foot into a pile of heavy scrap metal in his hopping. Now, not only was his hand scalded, his foot had gone numb. With a stamp of his good foot, he cursed at all the bad luck that could happen to him in a single day.
That was when he suddenly stopped…and stood perfectly straight, ignoring the pain that attacked his body.
Slowly, ever so slowly, a thin dark smile crossed the boy's lips.
"…Tsukasa…why are you smiling like a lecherous old man?"
"Let's just say I have a good idea…"
*BOOOOOOOOOM!*
An explosion rung out behind the boy, but TSUBASA never moved, not even an inch. He even ignored the flood of dust-filled clouds that swept past him from behind, letting his clothing flutter in its wake.
"Giii-giii-giii-giii…Found you, girly!"
The turtle beast rose out of the thick smoke. It had just dropped through several holes that lead all the way down to the underground boiler chamber, from the very surface. It rose to its full height, smashing its shell-covered fists together with a satisfying CLANG-noise.
"Time to have tons-of-damage fun! There's going to be nothing left of you when this is all over – gecko!"
"…Heh-heh-heh…Sure. Whatever you say…Lizard breath—Celestia!"
"Roger! Magical Scattershot – Materialize!"
TSUBASA spun about, drawing up his magical stick. At the same time, Celestia began to metamorph. Green digitalized particles appeared and compressed themselves together, forging mechanical pieces that automatically docked onto Celestia's body. In a purging flash, she transformed from a magical stick – to a magical shotgun.
The boy took aim at the end of his spin, directly at the turtle beast's face, and—
*BANG!*
The Bakemono blocked the point-black attack, crossing its shelled-arms up in front of its face. It peeked under its guard at his attacker, spotting that certain boy in a magical girl uniform holding onto a smoking gun – smiling casually.
"Play time – IS ON!"
"GIIIIIIIIIIIII – GECKO!"
The two forces clashed head on – Bakemono VS magical girl/boy, kicking up a mighty storm. The turtle beast threw a fist at its enemy, but its target suddenly disappeared and destroyed only the ground with a FOOM-noise. TSUBASA fell down from his leap, spinning his baton-like magical shotgun around before firing point-blank again with a BANG – only to miss when the Bakemono tilted its neck with a haughty croak.
Their fighting grew more and more serious, turning from a dance-like sparring session to a whirlwind of destruction. The tankers took the brunt of their fleeting wake, earning dents and scattershot fragments into their faces. Nothing was left unscathed.
"BRING IT~!"
*BANG!* – *BANG!* – *BANG!* – *BANG!* – *BANG!*
"GECKO~!
*FOOM!* – *FOOM!* – *FOOM!* – *FOOM!* – *FOOM!*
The battle between the two finally ended up in the main room of the boiler chamber, consisting of several more regular tankers and one giant iron vat in the center with many connecting pipes.
TSUBASA was sent skidding backwards across the ground, at the same time he fired off another round from his magical shotgun. Much to his chagrin, his shot zipped past the incoming turtle beast…strangely by half a meter. He had no choice but to block the shelled-fist with his weapon, but—
*DOOOOOSH!*
—The impact itself was devastating.
"GUUUUU~OOOOOOOO~OOOOOOH!" TSUBASA was sent flying from the immense force. His body tumbled across the ground in a violent roll, before his back was slammed deep into the side of the iron vat.
"TSUKASA!"
The boy laid still to Celestia's cry, but he soon responded with a choked cough. The turtle beast clapped its shelled-fists together in glee, and slowly made its way to finish off TSUBASA.
"Giii-giii-giii. Fun! Thanks for the tons-of-damage fight, girly!"
"…Who died and made you a winner, shell-brain?"
"E-eh?" The turtle beast staggered at those words, as well as what happened next.
TSUBASA pulled himself standing, his legs and arms shaking from the damage he took. Still he was in one piece…and the smile he had on the entire time just grew wider.
The Bakemono could not help a gulp, "…Why are you smiling like a perverted old person – gecko?"
The boy in the magical girl uniform let out a slow and eerie laugh.
"Hu-hu-hu…The more enjoyable to see you lose, my dear…"
TSUBASA slammed the side of his fist into the iron vat.
Then…it happened—
*QUIIIIIIIIIIIII~IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~IIIIIIIIIIIIII~!"
"H-huh?!" The Bakemono began to cower away from the huge column of steam that suddenly burst out from the iron vat. Like rays of light burning through a shattering clay piece, more and more fans of steam shot through its cracks and popping bolts.
Soon, all the other smaller boiler tanks followed in chorus – spitting steam out from their fist-punched and scattershot-ripped holes. Less than a second, the entire boiler room was filled with smoking steam and the temperature rivaled to that of a sauna – soon overshooting that record as well.
"Uuu-uuuuuuu…" Though the turtle beast was not at all human, it was no stranger to sweating and it did it profusely. Its entire skin was drenched in both steam and its sweat, and the Bakemono did not feel comfortable about the heat. "H-hooooot…gecko…"
Even Celestia was complaining, "My goodness, this heat is absolutely unbearable! Not only am I covered in my own sweat, I'm beginning to smell terrible too! It's just disgusting – ugh! And you call this a good idea?"
An equally sweat-drenched TSUBASA nodded, "A perfectly good one." As if to emphasize, he pumped the magical shotgun and shot off into the air.
…*BRRRRRRRRRRRRR~RRRRRRRRRRRRRR!*
A single alarm went off in the midst of the heat-filled room. It was soon followed by an instant downpour of rain – in the middle of an underground chamber.
The sprinklers. After one certain sprinkler head had been shot off, the rest automatically triggered and began spewing water down. Such a thing was strange, as there was not even a speck of fire in sight.
Not getting what was going on, the turtle beast's hanging jaw curled into a grin.
"Giii-giii-giii…Nice trick, girly. But it ends here. Now, I'm going to give you tons of dam—"
*KRRK!*
"Hmm?" When the Bakemono pulled back a shelled-fist, it heard something crack. It sounded as if a sheet of hard metal had broken in two pieces.
"Ah."
Neither Bakemono nor TSUBASA had uttered a sound. It was Celestia who gave a small gasp of surprise.
The Bakemono somehow looked at its reared back arm – its eye popping wide open.
A crack.
There was a visible crack across the turtle beast's shell that covered its fist. More fracture lines appeared and the entire thing shattered into millions of pieces at the next second. Before the turtle beast could even gasp, the other shell on its second arm followed suit. It too broke apart as if it were cheap glass, falling to the ground as dying dust.
"…Wh…why did my tons-of-damage shell break – gecko?"
"Thermal conduction…When you add a heat source to a piece of metal, it will absorb the heat as energy and eventually become hot itself."
Tsukasa's let out a low laugh, an eerily calm tone leaking from his voice.
"There's a certain phenomenon to this theory as well. If you expose an extremely heated metal to an extremely cold energy, its molecular structure will receive a major overload due to the altering states and will cause it to break down…Heh, if only the science test had that as the one and only question, I am so going to ace that test hands-down…Now, time to get the bonus mark…"
The Bakemono had no clue what the boy meant, but it was rather simple really.
At first, the turtle beast and its shells were exposed to the hot steam. Now, it was constantly sprayed with cold sprinkler water. When you add the two components together, the results were as clear as day.
And everything was planned from the very beginning, by the one and only TSUBASA.
"…Celestia…Drill…"
"Magical Spiral – Materialize!"
The magical shotgun metamorphed. In a flash of light, it instantly expanded into a giant hand-held magical drill that covered its wielder's entire arm. The Bakemono sweat-dropped.
"...Finishing Move…"
"…W-W-W-WAIT! I HAVE NOTHING TO STOP YOUR TONS-OF-DAMAGE ATTACK – GECKO! THIS ISN'T FAIR – GECKO!"
"…So is life..."
A burning neon-red magic circle popped open under TSUBASA, augmenting his power to an all new height. Taking it as a cue, the Bakemono ran for its life screaming – the shell on its back slowly crumbling away like a melting ice sculpture. Still, TSUBASA smiled even wider until it showed his fang-like teeth – a truly sadistic grin.
"Scarlet Diver—"
The magical drill spun alive, flaring up a blazing magenta fire around its entire body like a divine torch. Step by step, TSUBASA moved forward after the fleeing Bakemono – soon, diving into a straight smoke-kicking dash.
"—Iron Force – BUSTEEEEEEE~EEEEEEEER~!"
TSUBASA and the magical drill shot off like a rocket, zipping across the ground like a heavenly magenta-burning arrow.
The turtle beast struck a dead end, a pile of rubble that blocked off the only exit (ironically caused by itself earlier). The Bakemono turned around to find another escape—
*FOOOOOSH!*
—And the blazing arrow of magenta fire pierced right through its stomach, shooting out of its back to smash apart the dead-end into clouds of dust.
"Ge…cko…"
After its last words, the falling Bakemono with the huge hole in its body disappeared into a fading mist before it could even hit the floor. Several pieces of its turtle shell bounced across the dirt, like a pebble across a lake, but they too disappeared into vanishing smoke.
[******]
"Everyone! Please stay behind the cordon or you'll put yourself into harm's way!"
A young policewoman of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department ushered back a group of onlookers and reporters, who were all bunching up too close to the police tape that was set up before-hand. The crowd complained at first, wanting to see what was going on to feed their curiosity, but nonetheless they complied with her demands.
The policewoman gave a sad frown to herself when they were far enough away. Like those curious people, she too wanted to see what was going on with the scene of the crime.
The police had received various emergency calls, being told that a mad bodybuilder in a giant turtle costume was wreaking havoc on traffic and civilians. More reports said that there was some pretty fighter girl in a pink maid outfit (or whatever) who appeared out of nowhere and battled with that rampaging culprit. No matter how you look at it, though, this all sounded like it came from an old anime or manga that the policewoman had seen before when she was a child.
However, upon arriving at the heart of that site…she and her colleagues could not believe the amount of detailed destruction that covered the whole city block. Faces of stores and buildings were blown open; cars were piled up into a crumbled heap; and everything else on the street was practically defaced. Could the reports have been true? It was difficult to say at this time. What's worse, the policewoman's was a simple patrol officer – she has no part in the entire investigation other than to keep unwanted people out of the taped sites.
"Sigh…I should've listened to father and inherit the family ramen shop…"
*Kung*. *Kung* – *Kung*— *BONG!*
"HEH?!"
The lid of a nearby manhole popped off and cluttered loudly across the asphalt, frightening the policewoman. Shockingly, a certain high school boy poked his head out and began to pull himself out of the very manhole. He wore a simple white dress shirt and sand-colored pants – nothing entirely out of place from him (so to say). In one hand was a pink cellphone which quietly sat in his clenched grip.
The only thing to note was how drenched he was. His entire uniform and hair matted tightly against his body – as if a heavy rain struck him and he was unlucky to bring an umbrella. It looked uncomfortable, but it seemed that the boy was too exhausted to even care about that detail.
"Stupid gecko. Thanks to that creep, not only did I lose precious time in preparing for tomorrow's exam, I'm gonna catch a cold because of…of…ACHOO!...Darn it all."
Tsukasa Basara let out a groan as he patted his sore arms and legs. He took a moment to take up his bag, flipping it upside down to let a bucket-full of water fall out from it. With a tired huff, he slung his bag over his shoulder and just walked past the dumbfounded policewoman – all the while grumbling to himself.
"…H-h-Halt!"
"Hah?" Tsukasa finally noticed the policewoman's shaky command and turned to face her. She tried to put on the best brave face she could muster – but it was undeniable that she was both super anxious as well as shaking all over, "…Can I help you, madam officer?"
"Wh-wh-why did you come out of the man-hole like that?! C-could you be involved in the recent traffic incident and you are currently on the run from the police?! I-if so, d-d-don't move and put your hands up!"
Tsukasa blinked at the quivering policewoman, a flat expression on his face. He straightened his body with a serious aura, took in a deep breath, and spoke the following confession in a heavy monotonous tone.
"This insane man in a green suit came out of nowhere and started attacking everything he could see. I tried to call the police, but he spotted me and I ran away as he gave chase. We both ended up trapped into the sewers – how exactly we got there, I forgot the details – and he was going to skin me alive. An unknown person with special powers suddenly appeared and beat the living daylights out of him. Thanks to that helpful stranger, I was able to escape via that manhole and return to the surface. In short: I am one of the victims of this incident, not the culprit."
To emphasize his 'innocence', the boy added a 'V' sign with his hand.
There was a notable pause between the high school boy and the policewoman…with the latter believing in every single word.
"Oh, I see! Th-then do you mind cooperating with us and stay for a while, so that one of the other officers can record your testimony on this case?"
"Sure. As long as you let me study for my exam tomorrow, I don't care—In other words, 'yes, I'll cooperate' if you were wondering, due to that confused look you're giving me."
Still a little flustered by what happened, the policewoman nodded back a thanks to Tsukasa and trotted off to return to her duties. When out of earshot from anyone, the pink cellphone in Tsukasa's hand began to blink.
"Lying to such a pure-hearted maiden like that is an absolute sin, you know."
"First of all – bite me. Second – that was not lying; that was twisting the truth to my utmost advantage. And C…I wouldn't exactly call her pure-hearted; more like naïve."
Tsukasa let out a great big groan, from the ordeal he had experience up to now. He trudged over to the side of the road and plopped sitting down on the curb. Exhausted, he hung his wet school bag on the knob of the fire hydrant that he was sitting next to.
Setting an equally soaked Celestia on the warm sidewalk, she continued with a casual air.
"I really hate to add salt to your already hideous injuries, but how exactly do you expect to prepare for your science exam tomorrow? Your text-book was destroyed in the chaos, has it not?"
"Tch. Ever heard of a back-up plan. I know my rotten luck when it comes to times like this, so I already prepared some study notes to use beforehand. I just prefer to read the text in full detail before I use my short-cut review."
"…If memory serves me right, I believe those notes were actually photocopied from one of the top students in your class, no?"
"…You really never give me a break do you, witch?"
With a snarl, the boy pulled out a certain notebook from his bag and—
"…AAAAAAAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAAAAA~AAAAAAAAAAH!"
In a flash, the policewoman from before came sprinting over at the horrendous scream.
"Wh-what happened?! Another attack! E-excuse me, sir! Ar-are you alright? Why are you lying on the floor like that? Are you injured? Is it a heat stroke?! Please say something!"
No matter what the policewoman did, it could not change the hard reality she was seeing right in front of her.
Tsukasa was lying flat on the ground, his body having lost all strength. His one arm shielded over his eyes, making it impossible to tell what was wrong with him. Sitting next to him was a wet pink cellphone…and right next to that was a pile of extremely soggy photocopied notes – whatever was printed on them faded away into illegible blotches.
"…I'm screwed."
A drop of water slipped off Celestia's body in an irritating manner.
"And it was all thanks to that brilliant idea of yours from before…how ironic for you."
{_FIGHT=END_}