Kiwako paced around the scene, deep in the city. She was also stopping to look down at her shoes, up at the sky, sigh, and otherwise show her impatience with what was happening– or rather, what wasn’t happening at all– around her. Cecilia was sitting at the park bench around which Kiwako paced, and in front of them both, a small, yet seemingly deep lake.

Finally, Kiwako broke her silence. “Well? I’ve been walking around here for about an hour now…”

“Forty-five minutes, to be exact.” Cecilia’s eyes were closed, her head tilted downward. She appeared to be meditating. “And, you are the one who told me I needed to focus, did you not?”

“Give it up, Kiwako”, a voice echoed from all around, but seemingly coming from the lake itself.

“Kiwa-chan–” Kiwa stopped, blinking after realizing it wasn’t Cecilia who said those words. “…Oh. Masako-chan… that’s you, isn’t it?”

Cecilia opened her eyes, staring directly at the center of the lake. “Masako Kamiya.”

As her name was called, ink began to rise like a fountain from the lake’s center, forming into a pitch black shape, coalescing into the form of a swan. Masako’s voice resonated from its beak. “Well met, Cecilia. Apologies for the interruption, but I could no longer stand the silence and lack of progress. You still cannot call your Doppel, correct?”

Cecilia stood, a silver staff coming to her right hand. “I do not need her help. I can fight a Witch on her own just fine, and the same goes for a magical girl. One using the power of the other is equally familiar to me.”

“Do not assume yourself our equal, simply because you caught Yoko off guard.” The swan’s wings spread as the ink rose from the surface of the lake. “The Coven is more than its front line. The Ideal World, more than these Miracles we spread throughout Kamihama City.” The air began to distort, buildings on seeming to warp with the horizon itself wobbling. “Now… come, Cecilia. Show me the power you seem to have over us.”

Cecilia leapt forward from the edge of the water, swinging her staff through Masako’s right wing, finding no resistance as she landed on the other side. The swan-like Witch reformed, however, and turned to face Cecilia. The Oracle wasted no time, lunging out once more and swinging through the other wing, with about the same lack of success.

“You have not fought for long, have you? I can feel your inexperience in combat.” Masako’s wings flapped forward, sending arrows of ink Cecilia’s direction.

Cecilia spun her staff, deflecting each projectile. Her expression remained calm as she called a second staff into her left hand, jumping out and bringing both in a wide arc at the swan’s head. She spun in the air before landing again, watching as the ink reformed a head to replace the one she lost.

“You are wasting your time and energy, Cecilia.” The swan’s wings flared out, inky ‘feathers’ raining down all around both the lake and the shore. The Oracle deflected each as best she could, spinning her body and both staves in her hands, though a scant few projectiles still found their mark.

She jumped back, wiping the cut on her cheek and looking at the blood on her hand. “Am I, now?” She began to run around the edge of the lake, dodging and baiting rains of inkfeathers, deflecting what she can’t avoid. “You are strong, yes. But you give your weakness away far too easily.”

“Wh… what do you mean?!” Masako’s voice was suddenly panicked.

“Look around yourself. You are quick to burn unto your end, Masako.”

The swan-witch’s head peered down, noticing with an audible gasp from Masako that the water had begun to recede. “I… It can’t be!”

“You are far too accustomed to opponents who fall early in battle, Masako. And that is your downfall. I can outlast you.” She began to swing her staves more fiercely with her deflections, sending feathers of ink back at the witch itself. Though none seemed to do any permanent damage, each time the witch reformed, more and more of the water was draining away into its body, before finally, the pitch-black swan stood in an empty gorge. “You can no longer reform. You have lost, Masako. Unless you intend to fight me with your true strength?”

The ink began to fade, the Witch’s labyrinth with it, leaving a scared looking girl in aquamarine robes kneeling in the middle of the empty lake.