*
Her dress unfolds like a blood stained rose, quivering petals that layer together into a thick down facing bud, blackish red dress no different from coagulated blood. One hand on her hip, one other to wipe the blood off her lips. Her pale skin and resolute expression paint an angered noble vampire, her glove only smears the blood onto her cheek. Relentlessly, the assassin unit fired at her head, but she no longer needs to move. The bullets stop just short of hitting her, hovering in the air like puppets.
For less intense attacks like these, she can even absorb the kinetic energy with {Feed}, leaving it in stasis in reality. Not even gravity existed for these bullets now. Faster than the bullets, spikes of dark red grew in an instant, piercing a few of the armed men at the front. It didn't hit their vitals, but having one's limbs impaled was no small thing for a normal human. Their body moved so slowly, like big meaty sausage targets, aiming was easy. So she nails some of them into the wall, dark red stakes materialise and shot forward, brooking no chance for escape.
In those guys mind, this must have been her very first transformation. 11508,January 2. The start of the 2nd year of her high school. They want to eliminate magical girls before they've awakened, an anti magical girl force exists but otherwise have little knowledge about them. Conventional weaponry would have a hard time unless a magical girl had just awakened, in other words only an absolute newbie or preawakened girl would succumb to such an attack.
Then... Were these guys meant to be sacrificed? The floating bullets exploded into dust, no one but Lastia could have observed what happened... After all, Lastia decided to speed up the end of this scenario. She destroyed the bullets with her magic and continued advancing. The remaining backrow of soldiers shot back with their arms, but every bullet met a stake. The stakes continue flying at blinding speeds after destroying the bullets. Well, those who aren't lucky will die. Some get hit in the heart, some in the head.
In a few seconds, half of them got reduced to mince meat and the other half received crucification. Mr Regan is still pinned to the front of the classroom, looking as grim as ever with half his men dead. Magical girls that get chosen are usually those with kind hearts, even those that are evil simply have their kindness twisted and tricked by bad adults. The right course of action would have been a swift and passive retreat. There was a faint chance Lastia would have let them go then.
She wasn't so proactive in this world, she would have been indifferent if they attacked someone else. Rather, she's feeling conscious of the world being a simulation, she doesn't want to get involved fearing that she might get attached. She walked off, picking up the disabled soldiers and throwing them out of the classroom one by one. Once she was down, she closed the door which looked unnatural before heading back to her seat.
She released her transformation and hoped the law of magical girls would do its job. Was she simply yearning for a mundane life too? Being used to transforming too... Sometimes it's these subtle characteristics of the Primordial Shadow that show up instead of Lastia's. For some reason her teacher and classmates continued to stare at her, was there something weird on her face?
"... Tia, you're the only one sitting. Your identity isn't concealed..." (Arin)
"Ah... I thought it would be enough just cleaning the trash, this is more troublesome than I thought." (Lastia)
Everyone starts to sit down, and class continues, but the stares start to hurt.
"... Let's make a deal, you can erase their memories can you not? " (Lastia)
"... From the start, history has been set. Everyone has free will right? Unfortunately reality follows both deterministic and chaotic rules, some things are set in stone. Messing with reality here might break the simulation, which isn't something I want." (Arin)
Anyway, now she starts to want to preserve this daily life? Has she taken a liking to it so quickly? Or did she actually find it a pain?
In other words, she can mess around and only she can tell the tolerance rate of this world. She wants to make things difficult for me on purpose.
Both of their thoughts spun, filling in the gaps, scheming against one another. While they spat venom at each other, they didn't notice Mr Furlin looking down and nodding. Concluding his thoughts with a fist over his palm, he cleared his throat and addressed the class. The silence was palpable save for the gentle humming of the air conditioner, the student's panic was still fresh off the excitement of the classroom getting attacked. They look toward the teacher for guidance, too much had happened in such short of time that they felt lost and restless.
"Alright looks like school is done for the day because an investigation has to be carried out. Security checks, information leaks etcetera.
But we're not done just yet. I have to inform you guys that this class is under a strict gag order over whatever happened today. Do not tell anyone of what transpired, even to your parents simply convey that it was another class that had an incident. Class dismiss! " (Mr Furlin)
The mood was too dull for anyone to cheer, even if there were some happy shouts in the corridor, from students of other classes. The corridor crowds up naturally and the classroom was promptly emptied, with the tables and seats left ajar. Those who had their tables and chairs blown barely propped up their chairs and rested, before Mr Furlin gave them the following instructions. It had barely hit half past noon when only two students were left behind.
"... Is this your plan? To keep sending low level runts after me? You understand, if you send too high a level I might use my old powers and wreck this sham apart." (Lastia)
"... I prefer to watch how things unfold on their own. I was telling the truth earlier when I said I preferred not to interfere. I haven't done a thing today... Except maybe shifting their aim so they didn't hit your face with a bullet. Can't ruin a beautiful face now, can we? " (Arin)
Lastia exhaled through her nose and stood up. Further discourse felt futile, or rather she saw absolutely no value in pushing or winning something so trivial and insignificant to her. Everyone in this world is like an ant to her, waiting to be squashed. Why get so worked up?
"Tch! Let's go. We're heading home." (Lastia)
"... Hmm? Did you want to live together?" (Arin)
"Hmm??!?" (Lastia)
Her veins popped.