Who Da Boss Lady? 5

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

Who Da Boss Lady?

Chapter 5

-VB-

Mari gulped as she gently floated down from the sky. 

Right now, Venalita was guiding her magical power - whatever it was going to be called - because she wasn’t “precise enough” for long, high speed flight yet. 

“Ready?” Venalita asked her. “Of course, you won’t be Mari anymore,” she giggled. “You are Clarinette the Envious~!” 

She glared at the doll and struggled to come up with a response before she sagged and closed the window behind her. “Okay. I’m Clarinette… the Envious.”

Chiksho! It made her sound like a chuuni! 

The doll cackled. “Good good good!” she sang. “Then let’s be off… to adventure!” 

And then Mari flew.

It wasn’t like how she floated before in that alley. This was different. This was like she was on an airplane. 

She soared as the wind buffeted against her face hard enough to make her squint but not hard enough to hurt. The air screeched behind her and the ground turned into a blur with how fast she was flying. She was barely five meters above the highest buildings, and they zipped past her! 

But it was awesome.

She was flying! 

Not hovering. Not floating. 

Flying!

And to her surprise… she laughed. She yelped and howled as she flew like a plane! 

A really small plane but a plane! 

She swerved around lazily with her arms splayed out and giggled when she almost glided along effortlessly. 

She noticed Venalita grinning from the corner of her eyes. 

She pouted. “So who am I supposed to fight?” she grumbled. Somehow, her voice sounded clear despite the roaring wind in her face and ears. 

Both of them came to an abrupt stop. “Right over there.”

Clarinette turned to look and almost stumbled back midair at what she was seeing in the alley below.

It was some sort of a monster, that much was clear. It had multiple arms and hands sticking out of its long serpentine body with at least half a dozen inhumanely stretched and large faces all along its back. And all of the eyes snapped to her as soon as Venalita spoke. 

And then the creature turned around and looked up to look at her. 

What met her gaze was not human.

It was a monster. 

Misplaced eyes numbering in the dozens covered a human-like head, but its lower face’s mouth had stretched overly wide and long as it gobbled up what looked like a man in a business suit. 

She belatedly noted that there was a suitcase not too far away. It and the alley around it had been liberally splattered in blood.

“Ahh… a monster,” Venalita crooned. “A thing that crawls around in the dark, looking for unsuspecting innocents to snare and devour. From its size and how big its magical power flares in the night, it’s eaten at least half a thousand people.”

Clarinette threw up in her mouth. 

She swallowed and glared at the doll. “How… how can you be so callous about this?”

Venalita turned to her with a flat stare. 

Even though it was hard to convey emotions through beady eyes, she saw Venalita’s eyes murky with tiredness. 

“Should I be crying, then?”

Clarinette grimaced. “T-Then what I suppose to do?”

“Be the evil magical girl,” the doll said as she gestured to the monster below. “Kill it. Because its existence disgusts you, not because you want to do good. It is an affront to your belief and your future ideal world. It needs to submit or die.” 

Clarinette looked down… and saw both the monster and her “wand.” The latter trembled, even as unfocused as it was to her eyes while she stared at the monster and kept it in focus, half-afraid what it might do and half-morbidly curious as to how it assumed the shape it did. 

“Oh, and don’t forget to say a pretty or cool spell name for your spell!” Venalita suddenly cackled, losing her previous tiredness. “After all, if you just shoot colorful beams, then someone might come along and start calling you Rainbow Princess!” 

The monster slithered around, trying to look for a way up.

Then it found one. 

Its many hands and arms latched onto the side of the buildings lining the alley and pushed itself up.

Her eyes widened and she backed away, but the monster was getting too close too fast. 

“F-F-Fire!” she shrieked as she pointed her wand. 

And the wand did nothing. 

“Venalita?!”

“Did ya think I was playing around when I told you to say a cool spell name?!” the doll cackled as she floated away. 

She tossed the doll an aggrieved look before grimacing as she looked back down at the monster that was now no more than twenty meters from her, having climbed up to the top of the buildings. And it looked like it was about to jump.

“D-Don’t be afraid of the dark-?!” she squealed, and it felt like she was saying this more to herself than to cast a spell. But the words flowed out. “F-Final Spark!” 

There was a pause. 

It was as if the world had held its breath. 

For a split second, it felt as if the entire world had turned its focus to her as something happened within her and her wand. 

It was dark. 

It was light. 

It was soft. 

It was weird.

But above all…

She felt it.

It was powerful.

The world grew dark, coming to a singularity like a black hole just in front of her wand’s red jeweled head. 

And then the world drowned in darkness as a ray of unrelenting, unforgiving, and utterly cold darkness roared out not like a beam but more like a circular wall in front of her. 

In her shock, she cut it off almost as soon as it had ripped out from her wand. 

And then the darkness disappeared. 

In its place, the lower body of the monster hung in the air, disconnected from everything, as if it had forgotten that it was not meant to fly. Just a moment later, reality reasserted itself and it fell back in the alley, landing on the ground with a meaty thud.

Clarinette hovered in place, her wand arm and wand just stretched out. 

Too shocked. 

Too numb. 

Too …

Satisfied…?

It felt wrong. 

(But it was right.)

She panted. Didn’t realize she was panting. Wasn’t -. Couldn’t -. Why -? 

“Very nice.”

Venalita’s words broke her out of her spiraling thoughts. 

“H-huh?”

“To think that you would take the words of a hero and twist it into a cruel mockery of what it is… I love it, girl~!” 

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say in response to that. A hero’s words? Cruel mockery? 

Instead, she looked back down at the dark alley and the bleeding corpse of a monster. 

Don’t be afriad of the dark.

Final Spark! 

But what had come out was the darkest thing she had ever laid her eyes upon. 

“... Can we go back home?” she almost whimpered. 

“... Sure, hon. But still, congratulations on your first kill.”

It took her a moment to register what she meant. 

It took her just a moment longer before she threw up and started crying.