[b][color=ffcc00]“Tsk.”[/color][/b]

The sound of a tongue clicking in displeasure was the only thing heard before a wave -- no, an avalanche -- of blinding, hot light swept through one of the many streets that were part of the cold, concrete maze of Miso City’s Downtown, ridding it of a whole horde of over-aggressive Nightmares in one fell swoop.

The one responsible for such an overreaction, which seemed to have been drawn by nothing but an unexplained annoyance, was none other than a certain [url=https://image.ibb.co/hBSooV/hikari-xenoblade2-img.png]well-endowed blonde[/url] that appeared to have a permanent frown glued to her face. Curiously, instead of magical girl’s idiosyncratic costume, she wore a uniform that distinguished her as a student of Miso City’s University. She stood alone at a barren crossroad as the last few rays of the sun disappeared behind the City’s impregnable skyline. While her eyes were focused on the miserable humans that were prey to the Nightmares not even a minute ago, no one seemed to be able to notice her presence, despite the apparent lack of any transformation that would allow the city’s magical girls as well as their dark counterparts to slip away unnoticed.

[b][color=ffcc00]“Just look at what you did. These people are not your playthings,”[/color][/b] she said under her breath in a voice that sounded as if she were chastising someone who wasn’t there, or perhaps, chastising herself for some perceived wrongdoing.

Before she had the time to go deeper into her introspection, another group of Nightmares captured her attention. The evil creatures fed on the negative feelings of a homeless group that gathered around a dying fire in one of the back alleys wallowing in bitter poverty in the otherwise richest part of the city.

While the disillusioned adults were completely oblivious to the ravenous masses of shadow that hovered over them, feeding on their dark emotions as their own power sucked the life out of the fire on which the humans depended, a small child seemed to notice everything happening with a terrorized look of shock in her face. She tried time and time again to get the adults to move, crying about the monsters in the shadow, only to be met with increasingly bitter responses until one of them knocked her aside, accusing the girl of trying to steal the fire only to herself, before hitting her in the face.

The blonde tried to look aside, forcing herself to ignore this situation which was out of her reach and take care of Nightmares. However, once the characteristic glow of an old CRT illuminated the alley as a mascot crawled out of the shadows toward the small girl, the blonde finally got fed up.

[b][color=ffcc00]“Get away from her!”[/color][/b] she shouted at the felonious feline in an angry voice, startling the girl who seemed to only now notice that someone else could see the monsters. [b][color=ffcc00]“How many do you plan on making suffer? Get away from here now, and don’t ever try to trick this girl again, or else...”[/color][/b] the blonde said before blasting the Nightmares with enough fury that she caused the fire to ignite again with renewed vigor.

[b][color=ffcc00]“I’m sorry for that,”[/color][/b] she said, approaching the girl who was too bewildered to reply with more than a nod. The adults were dazzled by the fire lighting itself up like that that they didn’t even notice the girl talking to someone that wasn’t there and certainly they didn’t notice as well when the blonde reached into her book bag and gave her a still-hot yakisoba bread that she bought not long ago. [b][color=ffcc00]“Here, you can have this. I’m sorry that I can’t help you anymore at the moment,”[/color][/b] she said before getting back to her feet. [b][color=ffcc00]“If we ever meet again, I swear that I’ll do better than that. Please, take care of yourself in the meanwhile.”[/color][/b]

The girl had finally snapped out of her shock after the blonde placed the hot sandwich in her tiny hands. The only thing she asked before the blonde continued on her way was the name of the girl who saved her since she was too worried about gobbling down her present before her “caretakers” noticed and stole it from her.

[b][color=ffcc00]“Aegis.”[/color][/b]

Was the reply she got.
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