God A Sword (CWMGQ Spin off #64)

One, two, three… One, two, three…

"Hyah!"

"Gah!" I yelled as I fell to the floor. My entire body hurt from Lan's assault on me, apparently she was still pissed about this morning…

"Ah I think we can call it here." My blue haired friend replied as she sat down on the ground, "You're doing about as well as always."

Which was to say, not well at all. Truly, I had no real talent for fighting, which really made it all the more shocking that I managed to do so well yesterday.

Er, well enough. I guess.

I think I looked cool during that finisher but than Lizard Guildy had to say final words like that… Eesh, gonna haunt me to the day I die.

Of course, while I was more than comfortable telling mom and Twirl about my new status as a Magical Girl, I was still at a loss as to how to explain it to Lan, which was why I was currently sparring in my regular male form.

I kinda remember Twirl mentioning something about magical girls being given fighting instincts as part of becoming magical girls? But that was in the middle of some other Twirl Talk that I didn't really understand…

"Here, water." Lan handed me a glass of cold refreshing water thank god! "Woah!"

"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed, grabbing the glass from her hands and chugging it all down. Oh yes that was good…

"Christ Hong, you're acting like you haven't had water in weeks." She sighed, "What's up with you?"

"Huh?"

"Don't 'huh?' me, you were all sluggish during our spar today. You're at least usually attentive." She put her arms on her waist before tilting forward, "So, what's gotten into you?"

"Ah, nothing much. Just something occupied my mind and I couldn't get much sleep last night…"

"Oh." Lan dropped her arms, "You were probably thinking about new Twintail styles or something like that."

"Nah, not that." I waved my hand, "Something else."

"...S-Something else?" She looked at me, hey what's with that face? "Like what?"

"You know, the future and stuff."

"T-The future?!" The blue haired girl was instantly in front of me, placing a hand on my forehead. "You're not sick are you?!"

"Oi if I was sick wouldn't you have already noticed by now?!"

"Well I could've just made it worse!"

"That makes no sense! Why would you spar with me then?!"

"I thought a twintial idiot like you couldn't get sick!"

"I feel like I should be really offended by that!"

The two of us paused before we ended up laughing so hard we had to sit back down on the floor. Honestly I didn't really think too hard last night about the future, I didn't really know what I wanted to do in the future but now that I'm a magical girl it feels like the world has both opened and narrowed…

Oh my god, is this how a college student feels?

"Hey Hong." Lan began interrupting my thought process, "We've been doing this for two years right?"

"More or less, why?" I asked, looking over at her.

"It's just… You haven't really improved at all." There was a pause before she continued, "Do you even want to do this?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, you're better than someone untrained, yeah, but you're not at the level where you could even be considered a fighter…" She sighed, "And maybe it's because I kinda forced you into this so you don't really have any drive to improve… do you want to just stop sparring?"

I couldn't say anything.

I mean, it's true that I wasn't really a fighter but I knew why Lan was doing this with me…

Eventually, I gave the only answer I could give.

[] No, let's keep sparring
[] Yes, I don't want to do this anymore

"I see…" She went quiet, not saying anything.

Than my phone buzzed and I groaned before pulling it out.

New Message from: Twirl:

"Hey, Hong! The preparations for your testing have been all set up so stop hanging out with that Ape and come see poor old me~"

I gulped, nervously turning around as the sound of fist hitting flesh boomed across the room. "I feel like that white haired cougar said something bad about me."

"Ahahaha! Of course not!" I laughed, standing back up. "Well, gotta go. See you later Lan!"

I burst out of the dojo and ran as fast as I could to my house.

My survival instincts told me I did not want to be in the immediate vicinity of Lan for the foreseeable future.

---

I had to say, now that I wasn't in combat, I could really take in my Magical Girl form's body fully.

Mostly to realize that my twintails were quite honestly the most beautiful I had ever seen. If this weren't myself, I'd probably be blinded by such magnificence.

...Is, does this count as being vain? Like from an objective standpoint they are good looking twintails. You just couldn't deny it. Except they also belong to me so-

"Alright Hong!" Twirl's voice announced through the speakers. I could see her wave through the monitors in the corner of the white room. "I'm about to unleash the bots so get ready! Oh, and don't worry about causing too much damage, this room can take just about anything."

"...Should I be worried about what you do underneath my house if you need a room like this?"

"Don't worry, I follow all scientific procedures!"

A beat.

"Mostly."

Yeah I'm just going to soundly ignore that or else I'll be worrying for the rest of my life that a bomb will go off while I'm sleeping.

"Alright! Beginning testing in three… two… one… go!"

Siren's blared as the room was bathed in red. The floor in front of me opened up and from it crawled out two humanoid machines, each holding a sort of electric baton of sorts.

"Ah, the standard Twirl-Bot model." The scientist sighed wistfully, "It's good that I can finally pit them against someone other than that inhuman friend of yours."

I had seen Lan actually bend steel with her attacks so I knew where she was coming from, but still…

"Am I the test subject here or are they?"

"Details!" She waved, "Alright Hong, I'll be throwing about different types of bots at you and you're job is to try and destroy them all! Kind of a waste of resources but who cares! Now, Fight!"

"HOSTILE DETECTED. DESIGNATION: TAIL RED." The bots spoke in unison, their batons sparking as they got into a fighting stance. "BEGINNING COUNTERMEASURES. FIGHT: ENGAGE."

"Alright!" I held the Blazer Blade up before charging forward. "Show me what you got!"

Blazer Blade: 40 Base Damage, +7 Dice = 47 Total Damage
Twirl-Bot D.U.V.S.: 50 Base Resilience, +0 Dice = 50 Total Reduction
Twirl-Bot D.U.V.S.: 50 Base Resilience, +0 Dice = 50 Total Reduction

0 End Damage

Twirl-Bot D.U.V.S.: 100 - 0 = 100 Remaining Health

With all the force I could muster I swung the blade.

The sound of metal hitting on metal rang throughout the room.

Nothing happened.

"Hm, might have reinforced them a bit too much." Twirl what the fuck did you make these things out of, "Good luck~"

I swear I could see a glint in the bot's metallic eyes.

I gulped.

"GODDAMMIT TWIRL!"

---

This whole testing thing wasn't fun.

At all.

"One… Down…" I let out as I jammed the blade into his chest before kicking him off the sword. "Alright- Woah!"

Stun Baton: 50 Base Damage, +0 Dice = 50 Total Damage
Tail Red: 35 Base Resilience, +2 Dice = 37 Total Reduction

13 End Damage

Tail Red: 175 - 13 = 162 Remaining Health

"Grah!" I yelled, moving out of the way as the baton scraped my back. "Did you have to put the voltage on these batons so high?!"

"You'd be surprised what Lan can push through!" Twirl cheerfully replied, "Anyways, one down, one remaining, go go go!"

Blazer Blade: 40 Base Damage, +15 Dice = 55 Total Damage
Twirl-Bot D.U.V.S.: 50 Base Resilience, +0 Dice = 50 Total Reduction

5 End Damage

Twirl-Bot: D.U.V.S: 100 - 5 = 95 Remaining health

Twirling around, I slammed the Blazer Blade into the remaining robot's side only for it to amount to just a shallow scratch and a bit of a dent.

No seriously, what the hell were these things made out of?! I had to carefully run around whacking it just to get one of them down! I was a magical girl right?! No, more importantly, I was someone who had vowed to protect twintails! How could I protect them if I didn't have enough power to destroy a single robot?!

Wait, power...

"Do you see now the true strength of Dolls?" He began, "Each and every doll here is imbued with my power, which I can recall to boost myself at will. Unfortunately, I have to sacrifice the doll in question in order to access that power but their memory more than remains! When you are young you play with them as your companions, and when you are old you look back at them with the fond Memories of Youth! That is what a doll is and that is my power!"

I don't know why, but at that very moment, somewhere deep in my heart those words resonated within me.

I flipped out of the way of an incoming strike from the machine and landed on my feet with a small thud. My knuckles went white as I gripped the Blazer Blade and held it towards the machine, "Lizard Guildy… In order to be a worthy Twintail Hero, I'll use your dolls to push myself forward! The memory of our encounter, I'll never forget it! Now stand by my side, Gear Shift!"

Affinity changed to Doll

The power, the knowledge of his ability. The moment those words escaped my lips I understood.

I glanced at the corpse of the broken robot as the remaining machine charged at me.

A smirk escaped my lips, "That'll do."

I ducked out of the way of it's swing before rolling forward to the bot corpse, touching it with the edge of the Blazer Blade before a feeling inside of my chest stirred and flowed straight through the blade and into the pile of scrap metal.

The flow stopped as I dodged another attack from the second bot.

"Oh! An ability, nice." Twirl commented, "Now that you made that fiery speech there's only one thing left to do right?"

"That's right! The finishing move!" I kicked the scrapped bot to the wall and held my fist up to the the remaining opponent, "AURA PILLAR!"

Just like last time a beam of light shot towards the Robot before he was enveloped in a pillar of fire and energy, "ERROR! ERROR! MOVEMENT BLOCKED! ATTEMPTING TO MOVE! MOVEMENT FAILED! ERROR! ERROR!"

I slid across the floor and landed against the scrap metal. Instincts that I had never felt before overwhelmed me as I closed my eyes and let the world fade away for a bit.

....Almost there… The power I seek… The true strength of Lizard Guildy… It's building up within me!

"NOW!" I roared, drawing the energy from the fallen robot back within me and letting out my all, "Brake Release! This is the end! GRAND BLAZER!"

Grand Blazer: 60 Base Damage +6 dice, +8 dice, +6 dice, +12 Stationary Target = 99 Total Damage
Twirl-Bot. D.U.S.V.: 50 Base Resilience, +0 Dice = 50 Total Reduction

49 End Damage

Twirl-Bot: D.U.S.V.: 95 - 49 = 46 Remaining Health

I charged towards it, the Blazer Blade held up in my hands burning with power as I charged forward and slashed with all my might.

"HAAA!" I roared, flying past it as I felt the metal of it's torso being cut up on my sword. I held my pose up for a little bit before sighing and turning around to see my handywork-

It was still standing. It's torso had this ridiculously nasty cut inside of it that cleaved through it clean but it still stood up high, albeit with it's circuitry showing.

I took a deep breath before letting out everything I had, "OH COME ON!!!"

---

In the end It took a lot more whacks until it died but by that point I was just utterly done with the fight.

Man, talk about depressing. I even tried to act cool and everything…

Even if Twirl mocked me mercilessly for it afterwards for being a "Tryhard when it didn't even matter"

After that I decided I needed a break and so here I was, manning the cafe while mom went took a nap for the next few hours. Gotta keep my ear to the ground and all that, even if most of the customers are like… this.

"One coffee, as black as darkest night." The man in front of me ordered. He had his face wrapped up an everything so I think he was pretending to be a ninja or something. With a smile I prepared the coffee he asked for before delivering it to him, "My thanks."

A sigh escaped my lips as he walked to one of the seats in the cafe.

"Oh, Hong?" A familiar voice reached my ears and I turned my head to meet the bespectacled eyes of the brunette in front of me, "You're managing the cafe today huh?"

"Ah, yeah." I rubbed the back of my head, "Mom's out back taking a nap. So what can I get for you?"

"The usual please." She smiled, taking a seat in front of the bar portion. Soon enough she had a plate of cake and a sweet coffee in front of her, and she gleefully took a bite of the dessert. "Mmm, good as alwa-"

The brunette paused, "Hong you're a guy right? Do you think these cakes are making me gain too much weight?"

"Please don't ask me that."

Instantly the customer seemingly deflated on the table, "Waaaaah! They do don't they?! Is this why I can't get a boyfriend?!"

Oh god here she goes. Better stop her before this gets too far.

"Have you tried, um." I struggled for the right words, "Online dating?"

"Are you kidding?!" She slammed her fist into the table, "Have you not seen the fainting reports on the news?!"

"Fainting reports?" The question left my lips with a shrug, "I… Don't really watch the news much."

"Mmph, yeah. There's been an increase in woman of all ages suddenly having fainting attacks. Not with anyone around either, they were alone off doing something when they suddenly fainted." She sighed, calming down. "Nobody on the news can seem to agree on what it is. Some say it's just the weather, some say it's an illness going around, and some even say it's some sort of magic stalker or something. Either way, I'm not risking it."

"Huh," I let out, "Well thanks for letting me know."

"Yeah, probably won't bother you due to your gender." Her face turned dark, "Guys sure have it easy huh?"

Oh shit this conversation turned in a dangerous direction!

---

"Haaa…" I let out as I collapsed on the couch.

"Busy day hm?" Mom asked, switching the channel.

"Yeah." I sighed, glancing at the TV. Hm she was watching… "Aren't you a little old to be watching this kind of stuff?"

It was a… Kids show I think? Imported straight from the Japan-region at the very least. Standard super hero show from what I could tell. I think I can recall catching a glimpse of this when I was a kid so it's probably a rerun.

"Silly boy, don't you know?" She let out a smile, "A true fan doesn't let something such as age stop them."

"Please stop, you're starting to sound like Twirl."

Mom let out a laugh as I slumped in my couch. "Now Hong, don't stay up too late. You have school tomorrow after all."

Yeah… School huh…

I jolted up from my chair, "Oh god there's a test tomorrow! I haven't studied! Loveyoumombye!!!"

And with that I dashed straight into my room and spent as much time as I could cramming until my brain started hurting and my body dragged itself into bed.

Then, unfortunately for me, tomorrow came.

You have (2) Actions

[] Social
-[] Hang out with Lan
-[] Hang out with Twirl
-[] Hang out with Mom (Loser)
[] Martial
-[] Spar with Lan
-[] Test yourself Against the Twirl-Bots (Read: Throw yourself into the meat grinder)
[] Information
-[] Waste time crawling through shitposts Read threads on ToHO
-[] Man the cafe and keep an ear out on what the customers have to say

+3 EXP Spar with Lan
+5 EXP Throw yourself at the robots

8 EXP gained = 22 EXP

[] Spend EXP?