Singer I

Yuko had been a Magical Girl for three minutes, and she already stood in front of a Witch.

She had been doing that for the entirety of her miniscule career: she remained completely still, not daring to breathe or move a single muscle in front of the titanic monstrosity before her. It felt as though if this world had a sky, the monster would have been able to touch the clouds. At the very least, it had not noticed her presence yet.

Yuko wore a thin, black trench-coat with a tall collar, a red T-shirt underneath. On her head, a visored cap, adorned with a golden, round gem at the center. On her legs, a pair of slim-fitting pants, secured by a brown leather belt. On her feet, dark leather shoes. On her hands, a pair of brass knuckles, each as long as a fist; like a fist on top of a fist.

She looked like a stereotypical Japanese delinquent wearing clothing a size bigger than what fit her, but although her clothes were larger than what she was comfortable with wearing, it suited her well, because that's what she used to be - just a delinquent.

She was here to deal with the mistakes of her previous delinquent life. Daisuke Yuko harassed Ryouichi Miyuki into a miserable, grief driven suicide, the consequences of which threatened to continue claiming more lives; those very same consequences currently surrounded and towered before Yuko in a very literal way, and they threatened to take her life first.

Her brain only then started to register the biting cold haunting the Witch’s Barrier, this infinitely stretching field of cyan ice. The discomfort became considerable enough to snap her back to reality. Yuko realized that she was about to choke on her own saliva, so she swallowed. She found it hard to do so, and the noise such a simple action caused was loud. Comically loud. So loud that the Witch turned its head at the noise. The sound echoed as if in mockery, rubbing her mistake in her face. Yuko took a deep breath; the fight was about to begin, whether she liked it or not.

Her face twisted into a scowl. She wanted to get ready of her own accord, and wished she hadn't been rushed by such a stupid error. Though, Yuko beginning this fight of her own volition was unlikely to ever happen. After all, her courage hadn't been improving as she stared at the Witch; rather, the opposite was occurring.

There was no time to get ready, and the few minutes she spent in this world were wasted on cowering. She didn’t have the slightest semblance of the combat training or mental conditioning required to take on a monster like this. All she went through was an interview with a blonde girl, filled with more "subtle" psychoanalysis than should be legal. If they really wanted to know her mental state so much, they should have just made her go to a psychiatrist, she thought. At least it would have felt more honest.

The Witch was akin to a silhouette - its body consisted of pitch black nothingness molded into the shape of a human being. A blue dress that reached down to its feet gave it an uncanny semblance of immature innocence; it previously had been soundlessly frolicking about, as if overjoyed by the azure surroundings of its home. It had wings of ice sticking out of its back, two split halves of a single snowflake.
When it noticed the nuisance, it turned its featureless face towards the source, cocking its head to the side in curiosity. As if realizing that something fun could come out of the creature, who it most likely thought to be nothing more than a cute little toy, the lower half of its face spawned a set of pristinely white teeth, each tooth as large as a person. The Witch was grinning, a smile filled to the brim with childish cruelty.

In this world, Yuko was completely alone, save for the giggling monstrosity before her. No one who she could rely on, and no one who could interfere with anything. However, that was exactly what she wished for.

- - -

The Witch fluttered its wings. The motion created a gust of wind so cold that it felt like it could cut through flesh and bone. Yuko crossed her arms in front of her face, providing the kind of protection that served more to make her feel better instead of actually helping. She was forced back, not because she relented, but because the wind made her slide backwards along the slippery surface.

Yuko gritted her teeth and, the moment the wind stopped, charged at the Witch. She couldn’t even go at half her speed because of the ice under her feet. It was a clumsy, almost amusing display. If it wasn’t so difficult to keep balance, she would have been cursing out loud - at herself, no less. After all, this was her fault. Being here, and this Witch being at all.

It took her far too long to get close to the Witch. It just stood there, looking down at her with its nonexistent eyes. Yuko raised her fist in an attempt to stub its toe, as that was all she could reach, but the monster fluttered its wings again, forcing her to the ground with gusts of icy, razor sharp wind.

The gigantic child then took off, making its way up towards the void that substituted the sky of this world. It hovered above Yuko, still with a grin on its face. Miniscule pieces of its wings split off, propelled downwards by the wind. It created a hail of deadly ice shrapnel, each shard as big as a person's hand.

Staring down impending, unavoidable doom, the girl somehow felt the power to stand up. Despite the wind pinning her down, she mustered the strength to get back up to her feet. It was the unnatural power granted by her wish, no doubt.

Even though the projectiles were as fast as bullets, Yuko's fists were still faster. There was a deafening cacophony of horrendous noise as countless shards of ice were struck out of the air in their bullet-speed flight, inches away from reaching their target. One after the other, the ice shards were smashed into tiny, harmless particles.

She wasn't even trying to move her hands - they, quite literally, moved on their own. When she felt the agonizing pain of one of those enormous shards of ice penetrating through her shin, she wasn’t able to even flinch - that would have interfered with her movements, so her body did not allow that.

Successful hits continued passing through her guard. One lodged itself into her knee, neighboring the one in the shin. One grazed her by the right shoulder, nearly lopping off the entire limb. About seven went into her torso, one making it all the way through and coming out on the other side, colliding with the ground. At least three of her vital organs were turned to mush, and her ribcage, broken into pieces, was scattered around her insides.

No longer could she breathe, and no longer was there enough blood to transmit oxygen.

Yuko was about to go mad from the sensations of her brand new, undying magical body. She just wouldn’t die, even after receiving a dozen lethal injuries. Her arms continued to defend her head, even as she wanted them to stop. It was as if everything else, including her sanity, was considered to be an acceptable loss.

One of the shards, split into two with a sloppy punch, ricocheted into the right side of her skull. Yuko lost vision in one eye. The brain damage stripped away her sense of pain. Some of her other senses shortly followed, but Yuko could not even tell which. She was left as some kind of an unfeeling automaton only capable of throwing punches, which she aimed at the things recognized as danger, perceiving the world only through the lone remaining eye.

Her wish was to fight, so she was going to fight, whether she liked it or not.

The barrage finally stopped.

Despite being unable to feel her own body, she commanded it to leap. In response to that simple mental order, her body flew up several stories in just a brief moment, like a human bullet. Boosted by the momentum of the jump, her brass knuckles went straight into the Witch’s forehead. The impact was strong enough to make the monster careen backwards in midair, pushed back by the mutilated Magical Girl.

She then repeated the barrage she previously used to survive the hail. As if made of black ice, the monster's head began to crack and shatter under the force of the impacts, getting swiftly chipped away and leaving behind a hole. The Witch had no lips, but its teeth formed into a frown, as if it was unhappy with the outcome. Clear, watery liquid leaked out of the wound, turning everything it touched to ice.

Yuko started to fall. Her body refused to move. She crashed into the ice below, breaking a dozen more bones. She couldn't feel the pain from that fall, but it still disturbed her. What little remained of her blood leaked out, mixing with the melting floor.

The Witch split into countless snowflakes. The barrier was losing its shape, deforming back into reality.

With no more magic left to support her consciousness, the girl had finally died.

However, for a Magical Girl, death was a negligible thing.

...

Part II: http://pastebin.com/ZTPCMQgC