Orange looked different now. Before, she had a reserved expression. The look of someone seriously in the game, but they also know that they have to pace themselves, like a marathon runner at the start of the race. Not to be unexpected, considering she had a literal fuel source on her legs.

This was more like a marathon runner, after their second wind had kicked in, fifteen meters from the finish line. A smug, cocky look now hung upon her lips and eyes.

“I didn’t want to have to put all of my psychokinetic energy into this. This was just supposed to be a simple job. Guard a hacker, steal some data, and get to an extraction point. I’d have my in with Phantasm. You’ve made things pointlessly complicated. But maybe we can have some fun.” She licked her lips.

The jets spouting from Orange’s boots no longer had the look of a homemade chemical fire. They had a pure, shimmering quality to them, though they still burned as orange as her coordinated outfit. Her arms and back were adorned in similar-looking flames, which had taken on the shape of large bird feathers.

Orange now kind of looked like a phoenix rising. The metaphor was lost on Riko.

“You may as well release my body, schoolgirl. I can work my flame whether you allow it or not, and push myself around with it.”

Aimi, once she was done admonishing Riko with a look for following her into the sky, turned her baleful gaze back to Orange. “The air is thinning. Soon, you’ll suffocate if you don’t deactivate your fire. When one or the other happens, then I’ll release you. I brought a personal supply of pure oxygen, being time-released into my lung’s capillaries. I can outlast you.”

Sure enough, the bench was still accelerating upwards into the sky, following Aimi and Orange. Orange didn’t seem to be trying to stop herself, though. Instead, she merely laughed, “Oh, I think you’ll release me sooner than that. I don’t think your little girlfriend there can hold her breath that long.”

Aimi turned her angry gaze back to Riko. “Why are you here, Nomura?” Riko could see more debris following them into the sky. A trash can with a slightly melted liner bag. Some boulders, and a tree, its roots dangling in the air. Riko certainly would give anything not to miss this amazing sight. This was way cooler than any airplane. But she had another, more important reason, which  she yelled out to the yawning heavens around them.

“Because I love you, Aimi-chan!”

Aimi’s glare intensified. “You met me this morning. You have no reason to feel that way. Plus, you say things like that to people just to psych them out. You can’t fly. You can’t fight. You shouldn't be here.”

“Of course I can fly, Aimi-chan. Because you’re here.” Riko chose that moment to leap off of the bench. She knew Aimi would catch her.

Riko had, perhaps coincidentally, chosen a pretty good time to get away from the bench. Orange had just done a Half Cuban-8 loop through the air, orienting her boot jets directly at it. Clouds swirled around Orange’s feet as air was sucked into the piercingly bright light forming at nozzles.

Aimi, her automatic flight reacting faster than her mind could, dived downwards towards where Riko was falling, using gravity to quickly gain speed. Narrowly she managed to avoid a fiery beam the width of a city bus, filling the sky with a sound like a roaring dragon. The bench was annihilated, reduced to nothing ash and twisted metal.

Riko felt Aimi’s psychokinetic grasp around her, and she began to fly sideways, shedding her downwards momentum smoothly.

“Tell me first before doing that,” Aimi huffed.

“Just use your telepathy,” Riko giggled, almost fearless even in the face of the massive fiery blast. Just in case Aimi used her telepathy now, Riko pictured them trying on bikinis for summer vacation together. Aside from teasing Aimi, the mental image helped her maintain her calm, given the ridiculously deadly circumstance she had leapt into.

A boulder hovered up towards Riko. It had a nice, flat bottom to it, which it pointed at her feet.

“Stand on that. It’ll automatically push upwards to maintain your balance,” Aimi called out. Riko did so, swinging her feet forward to lay them flat against its surface.

She had to admit, this was better than relying on Aimi to carry her. She found she could even control its path, by pushing down hard on one side, like riding a gyro-stabilized flying surfboard.

Aimi, Riko’s rocky ride, and Aimi’s personal field of debris followed the orange-clad esper at a cautious distance. Even with Riko in danger, the mission was still the same: Orange had to be punished for messing with the parapsychology club. Riko bobbed left to right using the animated rock, getting ready to move without Aimi’s direction if need be.

A rock flung itself through the air towards Orange, who danced gracefully around it with a burst of flame from her boot jets. The tree flew at her from behind, but her wings flared up, and she pivoted around it with a barrel roll. She seemed to be guarding her blind spots after Ishihara-sama injured her. Twice, Riko would later find out.

Aimi drifted down into the clouds in anticipation of a counterattack. Sure enough, a fiery feather shot itself out of Orange’s wings, which was just barely turned to steam in time as a cloud flew up to defend her. Aimi wove back and forth, trying to keep up with subsequent attacks. The feathers were fast, like crossbow bolts. Riko estimated from her knowledge of street brawling that Orange was the more experienced fighter, even if esper on esper combat was a different game entirely.

Well, they weren’t that different. You fought for dominance, not honor and glory. And there was no such thing as fighting dirty. Even winning by outnumbering your opponent was acceptable. And, no one complained if you singled out and picked on the weaker enemy.

Wait, was Orange really focused on Aimi? Riko watched her closer. Each volley of fiery feathers served to separate her and Riko further as she drove her deeper into the cloud banks. Riko knew any moment now, the next attack would be directed against herself.

“You say you’re a former shut-in? You should come outside and fly more often,” Orange called out. Riko realized Orange knew she was going against a telepath, and talking would distract her from mentally broadcasting what tactics her fighting instinct told her to adopt.

“We’re violating JCAB regulations on human flight. I don’t want to be a criminal. I just want to go home.”

Not good, Aimi, Riko thought. If you don’t banter properly, the enemy will claim the spiritual high ground. Riko tensed her body in anticipation of whatever was coming her way.

“You shouldn’t fear what society thinks of you. You should be more like your girlfriend here!” There it was. Orange would be showing her hand now. Sure enough, just as she said that, both of her boots fired up, forming a massive sphere of blazing light beneath them. With a final sweep of her right foot,she kicked it like a soccer ball,sending the sphere soaring towards Riko.

It was arcing around unpredictably, but one thing was for sure, it was going to keep making its way towards Riko until it hit her. But Riko was ready. She kicked into her rock, and took off sideways. No point trying to outrun it, Riko knew. It was moving slowly, but that was a deception; it would pick up speed sooner or later. It would be a psych-out followed by an actual hit.

She had to lead it somewhere before it sped up. Orange was probably not going to be hit by her own attack; that’d be too predictable, without someone like Ishihara-sama using a trick like Apportation. So trying to weave around her was the wrong idea.

There, that tree Aimi yanked up. Wood was flammable, but it'd have to do. She kicked her rock into overdrive.

“You’ve done well, Rock-chan. Now it’s Tree-chan’s turn.” Hopefully, Aimi was watching.

Moving just behind the floating tree trunk as the fireball sped up, Riko tensed in anticipation. The tree, suddenly kicking into life, began to spin around on its horizontal axis, like a fan, dispersing all of that gaseous flame into little bits that sputtered out harmlessly.

After it was all over, the tree was still mostly intact, as was Riko. A little blackened, but it was still in the fight. “Okay Rock-chan, Tree-chan, let’s work together!” She leapt towards the tree, and grabbed hold of the branches. The rock followed along, in case it needed to catch her again.

She looked across from Orange, trying to find out what Aimi had been doing, aside from directing the tree to protect and carry her. She saw her picking 1 and 5 yen coins from her pockets, and tossing them into the air, where they bobbed gently, waiting. Those could be excellent bullets, if Orange didn’t see them coming.

It was her turn to banter with Orange. “Hey, Orange-chan! That was fun! Now why not let Aimi-chan go home? All you need to do is apologize. Let her know you won’t seek revenge against her or Riko-chan or the parapsychology club.”

“That’s what you ruined the mission for? Over some stupid school club? I’ll kill you! I don’t care who your father is!” Orange lifted a leg up, ready to fire from her heels at Riko. Just then, a coin slammed into the wound on her shoulder, and she let out a scream. Hitting her with the edge, the small surface space, high velocity, and spinning motion caused it to cut right through her and emerge out the other side.

The stink of burning flesh filled the air as she once again used her pyrokinesis on herself to cauterize her wound shut. Riko had an idea of what would come next, but she had to keep Orange distracted.

“Orange-chan wouldn’t kill Rko-chan. Riko-chan is too nice and sweet. Everyone loves Riko-chan. Even Aimi-chan, though she won’t admit it. Just apologize and we'll all go to my place! Mom will cook us a big dinner!”

“Shut up you manipulative pest! You’re nothing but a parasite,” Orange yelled out, taking aim with her foot again. Good, she didn’t seem to care much about the coin bullets, she thought she would just keep patching herself. It was a mistake.

The next coin hit her leg with the flat side before she could fire her boot at Riko, hammering it with concussive force instead of going for penetration. Her bone was completely shattered, and began to hang limply in the air. She was groaning loudly in agony, but Riko could see in her eyes that she was concentrating through it. Despite the injury, she still seemed to be able to use her leg to fly, but that was one less weapon to worry about.

“You’re just a minister’s kid and a spoiled shut-in. You won’t walk away from this!”

Aimi simply continued to glare, still not interested in bantering back. Riko could see in her eyes she had another attack coming. Bad idea, Aimi, Riko tried to think aloud. She’ll see this one coming now. Pain and adrenaline have their way of giving someone focus.

The metal trash can flew up at her, rapidly gaining momentum. Orange’s gaze shot down, and with her good foot, gave it a burn-boosted kick. It flipped around to the open top, and Orange shoved her foot down inside of it.

“Take this! Elephant’s Foot Retort!”

The thick, durable metal of the trash can began to turn red, and then white, as it was melted from the inside out. It began to liquefy, and looked sort of like wet clay that had been half-shaped into pottery, as the building flames warped it further and further.

Riko could feel the heat being stored in the metal from far away as the attack charged up. She knew that even if Aimi managed to catch the can with her power, when she let it loose, it’d bake her alive, as long as it got remotely close to her. And if it came for Riko, it’d blast straight through Tree-chan no matter how valiantly it guarded her.

They’d have to beat this one together.

She pulled on the branches like joysticks, trying to direct the tree towards Aimi. It seemed to work well enough, it had a basic understanding of such motions, like the rock. But it wasn’t fast enough. Orange was almost about to fire that thing. Desperately, she leaped off the tree, missing Aimi by a good two meters.

Just then, the rock flew up and caught her feet. The trash can, now what looked like a gigantic piece of white cotton candy, launched itself from Orange’s foot. Just then, Riko leaped off the rock and caught herself by wrapping her arms around Aimi’s waist, holding on for dear life.

“Love-Powered Psychic Transmutation!”

Riko tried not to think about how good it felt to squeeze Aimi, but rather, about what Aimi needed right now. What Aimi needed was a way to nullify a massive load of psychokinetic heat. She needed a force field. Riko had never seen her use one. Her psychokinetic force was always attached to something tangible. But maybe she could make a force field, if Riko supported her.

The trash can splattered into flaming bits of shrapnel. It had hit a shield of glowing light, shaped like a cartoon heart. Probably a shape Aimi herself would have never chosen, but this was the power of Riko’s touch. Riko got to choose.

Aimi’s gaze never left Orange, even as Riko’s intimate embrace made her cheeks turn a deep red. One by one, those shards of melted trash can turned their pointy ends at Orange, and buried themselves in her flesh. They were too fast to dodge, at least, with Orange trying to control her boots with a gimp leg.

And then one flew into one of the fuel tanks on Orange’s good leg. A large gout of flame erupted from her calf, accompanied by a spurt of blood. Both of her legs were dangling uselessly now, her burning wings barely keeping her stable. Her one remaining jet flopped around, Orange grimacing as she tried to keep it stable beneath her.

Suddenly, her entire body began to glow. She was using herself for fuel now, it looked like.

“What’s going on, Aimi-chan? What’s she doing?”

Aimi narrowed her eyes, focusing her telepathy. “She’s… focusing all of her remaining psychokinetic energy into a single attack. She’s going to blow all of us up.”

“Aimi-chan?”

“Call me Aoki-san,” Aimi huffed.

“Throw me at her, Aimi-chan. Shield me if you still can. I know what to do.”

“If you die, Ishihara-san will kill you.”

Riko let go of Aimi’s waist. Just as she had hoped, Aimi gripped her with her psychokinesis, and sent her flying forward. Riko wasn’t sure how long Aimi would possess an ability granted by Riko's touch, but for now, it seemed she did manage to shield her, keeping her body heat in, and Orange’s psychokinetic heat out. Time for her signature flying lariat!

Riko wrapped her arm around Orange’s neck as she flew in, gripping her tight. “Psychic Transmutation! Ice Comet!”

Riko thought about her delinquent friend that worked part-time at a repair shop. One time, she showed her a refrigerator that was powered by a propane tank. “Why would you use propane? Isn’t that for making fire? How could it make things colder?”

"Well, it does use a propane flame", she explained, "but the heat moves hot water upwards, and cold water downwards, using pressure to make sure they where you want them."

Rikodidn’t really understand the mechanics, but they didn’t matter. She just needed to grasp that fire and cold were related, and think about that really hard. And about how nice it would be if her beloved Aimi-chan wasn’t nuked.

The orange light was replaced with frost. It extended over Orange’s neck, chest, arms, and her disabled legs. Riko shivered with the cold building around them. Soon, she was nearly completely covered in chunks ice, formed from the clouds around them. Her wings and remaining jet had been completely snuffed out and frozen over. Orange fell out of her grasp, tumbling around as she plummeted towards Tokyo Bay, disappearing from view.

“Parapsychology club wins! Bye bye Orange-chan.”

The military could worry about searching for the body. Riko was tired. She had missed dinner. She had to wrestle Blue-chan into submission. A ghost snake bit her. Plus, it was a Monday night, and she had school tomorrow. She didn’t even think to yell for Aimi to catch her. Luckily for her, a helpful tree rose up and placed its boughs just right to cradle her.

Aimi, Tree-chan, and a snoozing Riko began to drift back to the train station.