The battle had waged on for hours now, Motus Invidia and Motus Timor had been battling such a great foe and their efforts had been in vain. They stood winded and battered, their beautiful gowns and wands torn and broken, the villain simply puffed their chest in pride at their disdain.

I’ve known these girls for a few months now, becoming fast friends in our collective literature class in college, and not long after knowing them I became privy to their secondary lifestyles of magical girls. They referred to themselves as “Motus” and were given names upon their “re-birth” as they so-called it. My classmate, Naili, and I watched on in horror as they waged their battle, concerned that their attacks wouldn’t be able to stop their great adversary.

“The dance of the black swan!” Motus Timor called out, one of her beautiful signature moves. The black sparkles scattered and exploded around the villain with gorgeous intricacies that could only be attributed to ancient magic that we regular humans were still too unfamiliar with.

The move simply dissipated into thin air over the side of the cliff, the battle taking place on a high plateau away from most civilians save for Naili and myself. Motus Invidia cast another spell, plethoras of large green orbs surrounding her, suddenly shooting towards their foe. With a wave of their hand, they had cast the orbs away, heading in every direction.

One was heading straight for me and Naili.

It landed with a large ‘boom’ at our feet, just barely missing us as we tried to rush out of its path, but the ground below our feet began to crumble. The rock was sliding off the side of the plateau with me on it. Naili called for me, rushing to me as quickly as she could while I simply held my hand out to her in fright, surely this would be my end.

I closed my eyes, resigned to my fate when I felt Naili's soft hand grasp my own. I was pulled with great force towards her as she used her entire body weight to toss me to safe ground.

But she was now falling into the abyss in my stead.

A scream ripped through my throat as I reached out for her, already too far out of my reach as I watched her plummet to the ground. Tears flooded my vision as I did my best to focus on her, only catching one last glimpse of her tanned skin and brown locks flying around her face.

She was smiling up at me, she had saved me.

She fell for quite some time before I heard the loud thud of her body hitting the ground. Her limbs were mangled and her body contorted in odd ways, blood pooled around her lifeless form as I wept and screamed out to her. She was gone.

The Motus were a strange thing, unsure of their power themselves in some cases, but they had never told either me or Naili how to become magical girls ourselves. They had kept their origins a secret and would either quickly change the subject or shut us down entirely when we asked to become like them. Saying that what they had to give up wasn’t worth the power they were given in return. However, for the first time since I had asked since finding out about their powers all the time ago, I was finally given the answers that I sought but realized now that I did not want them.

From my height on the plateau, I could make out Naili’s body fairly well, I could still see the morbid smile plastered on her face as her body began to convulse. Her chest sunk in deeply as she shook, and I felt goosebumps rise on my skin.

A hand had burst from her chest, covered in blood and gore, and the familiar sight of Naili’s smiling face stared back up to me from within her chest.

A new Motus had been born.