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In hindsight, walking through alleyways never ended well.
It was meant to be a quick stop by the convenience store after school. A simple side quest to pick up snacks for the gruelling study session awaiting him when he got home. Instant ramyeon, chocopies, and strawberry milk to make the homework more bearable. Or at least that was the plan.
Movies tended to play with the alleyway trope a lot, but they were just that—movies. Fictional and not real. So when these… things popped out of nowhere, Abby wondered he was somehow dropped into a horror film of sorts.
What must have been tens of the faceless creatures emerged from everywhere. They crawled down from the walls of the alleyway, from the ground that rumbled as they stirred. Incision-like openings from where they sprouted pulsed, its faint, sickly hum drowned out by the sound of the creatures skittering like a swarm of overpopulated bugs.
Then— they charged.
Lightning-quick, demons lunged at the first thing they saw; him. Devoid of any particular sense or rhythm, as if they had one thing and one thing on their minds only: attack.
Running on nothing but sheer adrenaline, Abby managed to get ahold of a demon before slamming it onto another about to swing. Both fall to a nearby dumpster with a deafening bang. His mind was still reeling when something catches the corner of his eye.
Then there she was— a glittery explosion of teal among the carnage. Rendering a couple monsters incapacitated with a bright magic beam that appeared from nowhere, it took him a minute to register what he was seeing. She expertly twirled her knives, launching two at a demon rapidly approaching before slashing at another. Both disintegrate in a shimmer of pinkish-red.
No time to keep staring though. He strikes a demon that popped up from behind with a metal pipe he’d just picked up, its weight on his hands feeling like an old friend.
Meanwhile, the mysterious girl fends off a larger number of foes with ease, as if it wasn’t the first time. A demon swoops from above but a single knife reaches its target— shing! It dissipates. She yelps, ducking almost too late to avoid a second madly swinging at her before sweeping the third one’s legs out from under it, the large bow at the back of her dress flouncing with every jump and spin. (Odd outfit choice, but now’s not the time!)
Landing the hardest uppercut he’s seen anyone do, she sends the demon toppling towards concrete. With one more pivot, her platform boot meets the last one’s with a crunch before it’s gone for good.
Finally.
The finisher spell falls out of her lips before she knows it, the words her second nature. Something looms over her before she can say the last few syllables, and she turns to face a demon twice her size bringing down its claws on her too late—
Whack! The monster stiffens up before falling to the side with a dull thud.
Abby, metal pipe in hand, offers her a look that screams what the fuck just happened. “…Hi.”
She blinks. What was he doing here-!
The sight of the unconscious enemy on the ground snaps her out of her stupor, and she shakes her head before immediately reciting her coup de grace like many, many times before.
“I’ll show you how it’s done! Honmoon, time for a remix!”
Eyes closed, she lets the familiar flow of otherworldly energy course through her and become one with her being. It manifests into streams of brilliant light swirling around her— skittish, anticipating. Her feet leave the ground and suddenly she’s mid-air, dress swaying in the magical breeze while one, two— countless knives materialize around her like lotus petals. Her skirt fans out as she does a choreographed twirl, flashes a cheeky smile and poses with a wink!~✩
“Vivace Beat!”
Knives zipped after each other until what could only be called a shower— a hailstorm of shin-kal rained on their target like heavenly blazes, coalescing into a large blast of light made entirely of mystical projectiles. It enveloped the demon fully and chipped away at its very existence, before it consumed it completely like a final act of salvation.
The remaining monsters fade along with it. The damage in the scene rearranges itself, as if the world herself was sorting things back on their proper shelves after yet another ruckus.
The light dims. Her boots meet the ground softly.
One more fight won, just another day on the job. She lets out an exhausted sigh. It never got easier.
The sound of a metal pipe dropping echoes in the empty area.
Her eyes snap back to him and she freezes like a deer in headlights.
Magical girl, meet civilian.
Both stand there dumbfoundedly for a good while.
Forcing a smile yet inwardly panicking, she waves as normally as one can. “…Hiiiii. You weren’t supposed to see that.” This must look absurd to him. Hopefully not traumatic. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
Abby looks down to check if he’s indeed not dead. He nods, dazed.
“That’s great! I-” She looks antsy now, either way someone was gonna spot her eventually- “This never happened. Have a nice life!” She gets the hell out of there with the last of her magic, disappearing into glowy teal glitter.
Whatever movie he was dropped in, the writer sure had strange ideas.
He makes a move to pick up his bag of snacks that spilled over mid-battle and mourns the loss of two strawberry milk. It wouldn’t be smart to stay there longer.
For the umpteenth time that afternoon, “What the actual fuck.”
Weirdly enough, her smile is what stays on his mind the walk home.