*
"For everything before... What are you talking about...?" (Sariel)
Arin gazed in silence with widened eyes. There were no words she could force out of her throat, she felt it a little strange. Was Sariel really just oblivious? No... It couldn't be, she's trembling too... Sariel kept her gaze steady, inwardly she wanted to tear her eyes away. Really? We're doing this here? During our school trip...
"... Jeez, was that what you were worried about? What happened to your bravado? Your mischief... Your charm." (Yggdrasil)
Like a shining ray of light, her brilliant smile illuminated the world around them. Fear of uncertainty, the shaky and false underlying nature of their relationship, it all seemed trivial in comparison. She'll judge with her eyes and wit right here and now, whatever Arin wanted to say. Anything in the past no longer mattered. It's as if that's what Yggdrasil wanted to assert. There's no reason to be that happy right now, so... Even Yggdrasil has learned to smile for the sake of others...
"Sorry... I know... I'm hiding a lot from you guys. And... I have no right to complain if it got too much. Even now, it feels like I am undeserving of any of this..." (Arin)
They resumed their walk, this time with both of Arin's sides covered. How long has it been when Arin could open up? About back then... About so far back that she couldn't remember... She still couldn't do it now, not with the monumental resolve she built up over the course of countless iterations. Just how much had she gone through, that she would even hide the fact she feels she's undeserving of happiness? Yggdrasil didn't know any of her secrets. She didn't want to know, if it protected their daily lives.
She witnessed the tragedy of Lastia, the countless 'her's that were lost to time. She knew exactly how precious an ordinary time like this meant. That's why-
"... It's been a lot more than a month since I've known you. I don't believe it... That you aren't allowed to vent your frustrations. We all go through a bit of it, and when it gets too much it's normal to let it out.
Keeping it in... Is so pointlessly self destructive. Arin, when a time comes that you need help, call me with all your might. I won't let you slip from my grasp. " (Sariel)
A bold and unexpected declaration... Yggdrasil didn't think Sariel would beat her to it, that she had held such fervour within her made even Yggdrasil a little embarrassed despite not being involved.
" That goes for you too, Tia. I'm your senpai as a magical girl, you can't twiddle your thumbs or I would surpass you before you notice!" (Sariel)
Her back lengthed black hair fluttered wildly in the wind, drawing a fearsome silhouette that also seemed ever so reliable at this moment. Were their hearts really so fragile all this time? Arin felt like there was something different about it all this time, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. For whatever reason... Things might finally seem to be okay this time round...
"... I hope I can take it to the grave then. My worries aren't something you deserve to be concerned with...
Being healthy, enjoying life peacefully and gradually... This is enough for me." (Arin)
"... Of course. If it's possible, we wouldn't want for there to be any Traces at all. That way humanity would have run out of enemies, leading to unprecedented peace. " (Yggdrasil)
" Naive, without an enemy, humanity would turn on itself. We learned about this in class, what we have now is an illusion touted as a miracle of abundance.
Everything is barely keeping each other in check, maintaining the illusion. We should know, we look underneath the curtains everytime they come attacking... " (Sariel)
"... "(Arin)
" Are you suggesting that Trace occurrences are intentional? That they occur with a purpose...
Keeping the frequency in mind, it must be... To draw information from us? Their forces are maximised to make magical girls reveal as much as possible rather than making a lasting impact. "(Yggdrasil)
" Maybe it's to test the limits of that abundance of resources, measuring the miracle that humanity has boasted.
At the very least, we know high level intelligent Traces exist. The Remnant, The Fragments. 2 out of 4 were slain, The Observer beyond the veil, and The Otherworldly Super Satellite Calamity. " (Arin)
The Observer was a massive pair of eyes located in another world, or perhaps it resided in a space outside of every world. It contained energy that repulsed reality itself, an ordinary person would die from the stimulation, even magical girls need high magic resistance to avoid the brunt of its skin crawling effects. That's why they had only sent A ranks back then.
Compared to the Grade system, ranks were generally two tiers lower. There was no need for distinction since the limit of ordinary Traces only go up to A rank, though they were supposed to occur extremely rarely, some of the local magical girls might actually be above A rank, and perhaps be at B grade. With the combined efforts of many, they repelled the Eye's invasion, leaving it weakened enough for Lastia to infiltrate and usurp its eldritch energy.
The Calamity... It's energy source hid itself in another world, using an entire universe as its hard. It was at the zenith of conquest, ruling its own world and had begun its efforts on ours. Our universe might be a drastically harder world to conquer compared to The Calamity's homebase, but it was at the summit of malicious design nonetheless. Without Eterna's suppressing, it could have shot a laser that bored straight into the earth's core and blew it up.
With the help of the Sentinels, they fought its humanoid embodiment on the surface of its UFO like body, even then that was a surface level defence attachment. Its real defence was the concealment of its core in another world, but its connection with our world was briefly exploited and Lastia defeated the core in exchange with her life. The Calamity was undoubtedly hostile with humanity, it couldn't contain its own sentiments itself and always droned on about how humanity needed to be exterminated during battle.
An irreconcilable stance of unadulterated hostility against humanity. Traces did not hunt for sustenance, maybe they did it out of condemnation. After all, countless Traces are continuously defeated for as far as humanity has existed, or as far back as Yggdrasil is concerned. Without a single win, how have they procured enough magic to survive? The assumption is that they are spontaneously birthed in nature by natural forces, and their unrelentless coveting of flesh was coded into their existence at birth. But who could say if this was really true?