An actress in our midst! (web version)

It had been so long since they fought together. Years had passed by since the three of them had  retired and they all had moved on since then, not to mention one of them had worked with different magical girls for quite a while without the others.

And yet, when finally faced with a demon again, the four of them seamlessly fell into their old formation.

It felt so natural. Like it had only been yesterday since they last repelled a demon general together.

Well, sparring with Jessica and Devola in the demon realm in their spare time helped too.

“Five to the left. Zero, back two,” Iris – no, Agent Eye – ordered. Just like their sparring sessions. Just like back when they had been magical girls. She remained their leader.

The four moved as one, jumping around, launching attacks, blocking, dodging, and covering each other. Even if they were substantially weaker than when they used to be the magical girls, they were holding on.

The demon they were facing was similar to Tepes in a lot of regards. It preferred to use big flashy spells with a large area of effect rather than something focused. It meant that a lot of the attacks were impossible to dodge, but at least they didn’t pack as much of a punch as they could.

Granted, it was still dangerous since they couldn’t take that much more of a beating than regular humans, unlike when they were the magical girls.

And speaking of regular humans… Oliv– Agent Zero had to wonder why and how the demons had taken a singer and dragged her all the way to the school. From what Jessica had told them, the demons usually tried to recruit people with a lot of negative emotions. Or at least, the demon lord’s ones did. When it came to the rogue demons, what they were trying to do was still up in the air.

“Graaah?!” the demon growled, sending a shockwave around its vessel.

Eye put up her shield and summoned the best barrier she could while the others jumped behind her. It held, albeit barely.

As soon as the wave passed, a black magical arrow was already flying at the demon from the front while a ball of magic circled around and aimed for its rear. Both connected but neither seemed to affect the demon much.

The demon roared again as it sent a huge surge of magic their way again.

They scattered. Zero and Snake to the left, Eye and Rose to the right. Before the demon could continue its assault, Zero closed in on it with her sword as Snake and Rose kept up their ranged support.

The demon shrugged off all their attacks and they barely managed to dodge or block its counter-attacks. They were holding up, but beating it seemed impossible. They could only stall it.

It was frustrating.

Sure, these demonic weapons helped them join the fight, but even the four of them fighting alongside each other was barely comparable to what just one of them would be able to handle in their prime. The only reason why they hadn’t been steamrolled yet was because of their experience and training.

“Gruuuaaaah?!”

Unfortunately, the demon wasn’t completely stupid. Even if it seemed like its vessel was trying to resist, it was getting better at reading them and predicting their movements. They were going to lose and it was only a matter of time.

“Gah!”

“Eye!”

“Damn!”

They had lasted a good few minutes, but the stalling game seemed to be over. Eye had failed to block the attack and Rose couldn’t heal her quick enough. The demon was already charging its next attack, using this as an opportunity to get rid of them all.

“Flame guard!” Zero shouted, recalling one of her less used spells.

A crimson half-sphere formed in front of her, protecting both herself and Eye, but the moment the demon’s attack impacted it, Zero staggered and the barrier popped like a balloon.

“Uagh!”

It had dampened the attack enough to not knock her out, but now she was injured and there was nothing they could do against the next attack.

Snake and Rose tried to raise their own defensive spells into place, but those were never their specialty even in their prime. Now? There was no way they could hold against the demon’s assault.

Luckily, they didn’t have to.

Just as they were about to be annihilated, a bright glacier sprung into existence between them and the demon, effortlessly absorbing the blast like a sponge.

“Raargh!” the demon bellowed in frustration.

A moment later, the glacier shifted, broke into pure magic, and rocketed at the demon in retaliation. The demon managed to dodge, but the distraction served its role as the newcomer approached it from its blind spot, her shield shining brightly, contrasting her jet black sword and demonic features.

“Cryo Sanctuary!”

The demon immediately tried to counter the sealing spell by blasting magic in all directions. But her assailant was undeterred. Zero saw as her sword spewed out miasma into the spell, combining the two and solidifying the magic to levels the demon couldn’t deal with.

With one last cry, the demon stopped moving as its vessel was trapped in grayish blue ice, a sharp symbol of a snowflake… with horns and wings appearing on it.

A second passed as their knight in shining armor – or rather, a cute dress – scanned the seal with her eyes to make sure it held before she turned to the four former magical girls.

“Everyone alright?”

Zero checked behind her to find that Rose had already mostly healed Eye up. The four exchanged a nod and she turned back to their savior.

“Yeah. Thanks for the save,” she said with a grin. “So, what’s this? I didn’t know you had a sexy demon form, Devola.”

Frost sputtered at that before replying with, “This… I… I’m still technically Jessica’s minion, so… I’m just combining the two magics.”

Hearing Jessica’s name, Zero couldn’t help but flick her eyes toward the hole in the wall and into the distance where she, Flame, and Bloom were taking on one of the demons outside.

“Speaking of Jessica. We better go back her up. What about the last demon?”

Frost grimaced.

“I sealed her away, but… Cody and Spark will need some medical attention.” She looked at agent Rose. “Could you…?”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll probably be more useful that way.” Rose nodded.

“Actually…” Agent Eye spoke up. “I don’t think it’s wise for the rest of us to join the other fight either with how it’s going. We should go help those two and then watch over the sealed demon instead.”

The four once again looked at one another and an understanding passed between them after a moment. Zero wanted to argue, but at the same time, she knew just how outmatched they were against this demon. They would only get in the way.

“Right, I’ll be on my way then. Stay safe!”

Zero nodded as Frost flew away… using her demonic wings.

She couldn’t help but sigh to herself wistfully.

They were no longer the main characters here. It stung a little, but at least they could still offer a hand. And, well… the new kids deserved their chance to shine anyway.