"So you know of me."
"There aren’t many people living in this country who don't know your name."
She was one of the heroes who had fought against Dark Matter. While few had seen her in the flesh, everyone knew her name.
And, naturally, everyone knew of her valor.
"I heard you retired quite some time ago?"
"I was retired. But a lot has happened lately, so I decided to return to duty."
Magical Girl Rain was supposed to have stayed retired after the destruction of the Dark Matter Syndicate, but as luck would have it, she had apparently just made her comeback.
"Since you know who I am, this will be quick. Please deactivate your transformation and surrender quietly. If you do, I won't have to resort to rough measures."
"Why should I? I haven't done anything."
"You, of all people, should know that logic won't work here. The moment you chose to show yourself in that form, you put yourself in a position where everything you do is suspicious."
Well, she was right about that.
A Hero and a Villain at the site of a flashy battle—even if I claimed I was a collaborator, no one would believe me without having seen the proof for themselves.
In fact, there was a high probability I was being suspected of being a Dark Matter remnant responsible for this entire incident.
Right now, I was the prime suspect.
"I will say it once more. Please deactivate your transformation immediately and surrender."
She could have just attacked me without a word, yet even now, she was still trying to talk me down.
Sora was truly kind. However, I couldn't accept her kindness right now.
"I’m sorry, but I refuse!!"
I gathered flames in my right hand and ice in my left.
"Factor Release!! Flame Kaijin Hellflame x Freezing Kaijin Form Tundra!!"
I slammed the two abilities of equal output together in front of my chest.
"Steam Burst!!!!"
The ice and fire collided, generating a massive, explosive cloud of water vapor.
The pure white steam completely obscured the area, serving as a smoke screen. While Sora's vision was blocked, I turned and bolted with all my might.
"—Tempest."
Suddenly, a massive whirlwind rose up, blowing the steam away in a single gust. The air cleared, leaving my position completely exposed.
My escape had been crushed with a single move.
"If you're going to resist, then I have no choice. I'll have to teach you a painful lesson."
The magical girl called the strongest moved.
"Here she comes...!!"
I didn't need to win a head-on fight. My victory condition wasn't defeating Sora; it was somehow finding an opening to get away.
"Tempest."
Sora transformed the raging winds into wings, closing the distance between us in a single breath.
"Factor Release, Steel Kaijin Iron...!!"
She swung her black umbrella like a sword, and I intercepted it with a steel-hardened right arm.
"Guh...!"
Heavy. Even though I’d blocked it with a steel limb, a dull pain throbbed through my arm, and the force pushed me back.
Sora's assault didn't stop there. She followed up with a second and third swing of her umbrella.
Matching her rhythm, I hardened my left arm into steel as well, parrying her strikes with both hands.
"Tempest."
She unleashed a high-speed thrust.
I managed to catch it with my arms crossed—or so I thought.
"What!?"
A second impact followed an instant after I caught the thrust.
Sora had wrapped compressed air around the tip of her umbrella, letting the wind burst the moment I blocked the strike.
The unleashed gale generated a destructive force akin to a shockwave, blowing me several meters backward.
"Hail."
Suddenly, a large shadow loomed over me.
I looked up to see a massive block of ice, about three meters in diameter, falling from the sky directly toward me.
The projectile was moving too fast; there was no time to dodge.
"Factor Release!! Flame Kaijin Hellflame x Superstrength Kaijin Muscular!!"
I stacked the fire and superstrength abilities onto the already active steel hardening, performing a desperate Triple Activation.
I wreathed my steel right arm, reinforced by overwhelming strength, in flames and punched the approaching ice head-on.
"Guh...!!"
My flaming steel fist successfully shattered the block of ice into fragments.
However, the recoil was massive. A Triple Activation placed a heavy burden on my body and wasn't something I could use repeatedly. I’d been forced to play my trump card for this body far earlier than I'd hoped.
"Who are you, exactly?"
Even with the heavy recoil, I had managed to intercept all of Sora's attacks. To Sora—to Magical Girl Rain—such a result should have been impossible.
"Exactly what I look like... as you can see."
"How long do you think I've been fighting your kind? There's no way a mere combatant could parry my attacks."
Every combatant she had fought until now had gone down with her opening strike. Yet the one standing before her had not only withstood her first move but had managed to endure every single follow-up attack.
Multiple abilities and excessively high combat prowess. Realizing the sheer abnormality of her opponent, Sora drastically raised her threat level assessment.
"I'm going to get a little serious."
A single drop of water hit the armor covering my face.
It started with a few drips, but the volume and intensity quickly increased.
"Rain..."
I looked up at the sky. The blue firmament that had been so clear just moments ago was now a leaden gray.
The sun that had illuminated the world was gone, swallowed by thick clouds.
This was bad.
Sora stood in the downpour without even opening her umbrella.
Her silky hair was soaked, and her gothic dress clung to her skin. Despite her beautiful appearance, she was now completely drenched.
Yet, in contrast to her bedraggled state, the pressure emanating from her only continued to grow.
"This is the last time. Please deactivate your transformation and surrender."
"I refuse."
"Why? If you know my name, you must know my magic as well."
I knew it all too well.
Magical Girl Rain's magic allowed her to rule the sky. The weather itself was her weapon.
Being her opponent right now was like having gun barrels pointed at me from every conceivable direction.
"I know. Even so, I won't stop!"
No matter how gargantuan the enemy, I couldn't give up here.
"That's a shame."
Sora pointed the tip of her umbrella toward the sky.
"Lightning."
A flash of brilliance, followed immediately by a roar.
A bolt of lightning, the light that sears through space itself, descended.
"Factor Release!!!!"
Reflexes weren't enough. Relying purely on raw instinct, I instantaneously activated the ability of Electric Kaijin Eleking and somehow managed to ground the bolt.
If I had been even a fraction of a second later, that one strike would have ended the fight.
"Tempest."
"Gah!?"
With an impact like being struck by a car, I was lifted off my feet and sent flying backward.
"Hail."
Mixed in with the rain were a massive number of light-reflecting shards.
Countless blades of ice, each several centimeters long, rained down over the entire area like the storm itself. There was no place to hide.
"Factor Release!! Flame Kaijin Hellflame!!"
I forced my body, which was rolling across the pavement, to scramble up and unleashed a torrent of fire toward the sky to melt the ice.
One wrong move would mean instant defeat. Even a split-second delay would be irrecoverable.
"What insane scale...!!"
The sheer volume of her attacks was just as terrifying as their destructive power. She was on a completely different level from any enemy I had ever faced.
"Hail."
Another rain of ice fell. This time, instead of small blades, they were blocks nearly a meter wide.
Small shards were one thing, but I didn't have the firepower to instantaneously melt a mass of ice that size.
Fortunately, as they increased in size, the number of blocks decreased, allowing me to somehow dodge them by running.
The rain of attacks was relentless. The scale and frequency were threats, but what was truly frightening was that she showed absolutely no signs of exhaustion.
In this world, supernatural powers were divided into Magic and ESP.
There were several differences, but the major one was the resource they consumed.
ESP drained physical stamina, while Magic consumed an energy called mana, which only those born with the gift possessed.
While Magic didn't drain stamina, its fuel efficiency was far worse than ESP. If anyone else were to fire off magic on this scale repeatedly, they would have run out of gas long ago, no matter how much mana they had.
Except for her.
"So the legends were true...!!"
Magical Girl Rain. As her name suggested, the falling rain was her true essence.
People often spoke of "blessed rain," and for her, it was a blessing in the most literal sense. Every drop of rain she summoned with her magic contained mana. By staying wet, Rain could absorb that mana directly into her body.
As a result, as long as the rain kept falling, her recovery rate exceeded her consumption. She would never run out of magic.
She effectively possessed infinite mana.
"Mael—"
The rain brought blessings to Sora, but it brought terror to her enemies.
A massive volume of water began to converge at the tip of the umbrella Sora pointed at me.
The mana in the rain wasn't just for her recovery. The water itself was her domain.
"—strom."
The massive concentration of water was unleashed.
A swirling torrent. A pure mass attack. While the essence was the same as the water attacks used by the fake hero I’d defeated before, the quality and power were on a completely different plane of existence.
"Factor, Release...!!"
I unleashed absolute-zero cold. It didn't stop the torrent.
I manipulated rock to form a wall. It was pulverized instantly.
The water surged forward, maintaining its crushing momentum.
"Factor, Release!!!! Flame Kaijin Hellflame x Gale Kaijin Tatsumaki x Bomb Kaijin Dynamine!!"
A Triple Activation of fire, wind, and explosions.
I resisted with the strongest abilities I could muster, but it wasn't enough to stop the overflowing mass. Although I succeeded in slightly reducing the volume of water, I was swallowed by the torrent and slammed into a pile of rubble.
"Gah...!!"
I was glad my body was sturdy.
My final resistance had paid off just enough to keep me from losing consciousness.
"Who are you, really?"
I somehow forced my battered, wound-covered body to stand. My entire frame was screaming in protest, and intense pain shot through every nerve.
Even though I was at my limit, this result was still impossible in Sora's eyes. I had endured what should have been her finishing move.
Sora intensified her caution even further.
"Who am I, huh..."
In response to her question, I looked down at my right hand.
"Yeah... it seems I've been overestimating myself."
I had been underestimating her. To think I could somehow manage against Magical Girl Rain without going all out was nothing but arrogance.
More than that, I was being disrespectful to her. I had been far too dismissive of her power.
"In the end, I'm not a human."
To be honest, I didn't like my Kaijin form. It forced me to realize that I wasn't a person, but a monster.
If I could, I would have stayed in my human form forever. Above all, I didn't want to show her the "me" that was a Kaijin.
But the "me" that was human wasn't strong enough to indulge in such selfishness. There was only one way to force my will through.
"I am just a Kaijin."
The person standing before me was the strongest magical girl.
If I was to face her, then staking my very soul was the only proper etiquette.
I had to take on a form worthy of her.
"Transform."
I released every ounce of power flowing within me.
The Battle Suit couldn't contain the overflowing energy. Spitting out error messages, the suit deactivated.
The armor vanished in a flash of black light, and a black humanoid aberration appeared in its place. A black muffler fluttered in the wind as I turned my red eyes toward her.
"You are...!?"
To her, I would announce my name. I would show her my threat.
"Me? My name is—"
The masterpiece created by the Dark Matter Syndicate. The aberration that held a "strongest" title that rivaled her own.
"—End Kaijin End."
The Kaijin born to destroy the world.