2015-05-02 - Monsters By Moonlight 2
| Title: Monsters By Moonlight 2 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: A sinister presence haunts Ohtori campus, attacking girls - rumors claiming it to be a vampire! With a strict curfew in place, the Student Council will stop at nothing to see the perpetrator brought to justice! | |
| Who: Mai Tokiha, Mikoto Minagi, Cassandra, La Sirene du Nord, Lera Camry, Kyouko Sakura, Fuu Hououji, Hikaru Shidou, Mikoto Minagi | |
| Where: Ohtori Academy | |
| OOC - IC Date: 1 July 2014 - 05/02/2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R51s8BhvdHg
Only the truly blessed at Ohtori Academy have failed to ever interact with Haruka Suzushiro on business, but everyone knows her name. The Chief Disciplinary Executive is considered a terror by some and a joke by others, but nobody can deny that the high schooler takes her job -- equal parts judge, jury, and executioner of those who violate school rules -- extremely seriously.
It is thus unsurprising that, beyond the significant horror of the escalation of attacks on members of the student body at night, Suzushiro is taking this disruption to the relative peace of campus life as a personal affront. And, for once, she's getting some amount of appreciation for it; coordinating the first line of defense against a stalker, or vampire, or whatever-this-thing-is!!, takes vast reserves of energy along with a killer commitment to the task, and she has both.
She also has resources. It's unclear whether they're from Student Council coffers or her essentially infinite allowance as one of the richest heiresses on Earth, but that distinction is ultimately irrelevant to the outcome. Money cannot buy happiness, but it can buy:
- Dozens, possibly hundreds of high-end security cameras with motion-sensitive alerts
- Pots of adhesive with which to affix these cameras to every conceivable surface, and a few inconceivable ones
- For example: a hot-air balloon functioning as a skyhook as it hovers above the forest, its sides dripping with anti-vampire iconography painted on by some enthusiastic art club member
- Also: the headbands of every single volunteer (and now less-voluntary, more-drafted) member of the curfew safety patrols, who are also outfitted with flashlights and radio headsets
- Traps! Helpfully labeled with those yellow, stand-up 'Slippery!' danger placards during the day, once curfew starts the campus is positively crawling with tripwires, pits of sticky goo, motion-detecting spotlights and klaxons.
- All the energy drinks. Forever. To keep everyone awake and alert. Forever, and even after that.
She has taken over the chapel as Disciplinary Emergency High Command, and it is filled with banks of monitors and microphones necessary to monitor and communicate with all of these devices (and people). She herself is generally scurrying back and forth trying to keep track of the flood of information coming in, a job that might be easier with the assistance of her best friend Yukino Kikukawa (Student Council Secretary), who is weirdly nowhere to be found tonight.
Tonight, of all nights! The first night of the Emergency Curfew!
It's teeth-gnashingly frustrating, but she has to stay focused. She has to stay in control if these attacks are ever going to end.
She has to... eat an entire Super-Spicy Curry Bread in one bite, to keep herself awake.
Her scream is drowned out in the next moment by the tsunami sirens going off, as planned and announced, to herald the beginning of curfew: 9:00 pm. In the same moment, patrols and checkpoints snap to, covering all official entrances and exits and several of the more popular and well-known unofficial points of egress, as well. Some march down the paths. A few creep through the forest, more nervously, trying not to set off the tapestry of traps. The trapestry.
The travesty, others think. Others who value their freedom. Their life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (or money).
Anyone found out of the dorms will be subject to immediate search, seizure, and incarceration.
OOC: Please enter the scene accordingly, either with extreme sneakiness (or, if you want, extreme sneakiness failure). You are also welcome to have joined the security team and been assigned to one of the patrols! Anyone who takes this option can assume they were randomly all assigned to the /same/ patrol.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
She may not go to Ohtori, but Lera Camry cannot let accusations of vampires sit idle. It might be nothing, but experience has taught her to not assume that it is nothing, and that it may not require just the investigation of the student council -- formidable, to be sure, but not familiar with the secrets of this world! -- but a determined and powerful magical girl with incredible deductive reasoning!
She has confidence in that last bit about deduction, if not necessarily the skil to match.
"What do you know about vampires, Sky?" Lera asks, as she soars through the sky, rapidly approaching Southern Cross Island. She sucks a breath in, as she looks over Ohtori's skyline; it's even more beautiful by night.
<Little.> The Device pauses, before adding: <They drink blood. Be careful.>
She makes a face. "Y-Yeah, I know," she says. "So gross..."
She looks down at the island, with its landscaped grounds. Every forest perfect, every garden immaculate. She knows they will be on patrol tonight. She came prepared; she does a backflip, before she dives down feet-first towards the woods at the edge of campus. Her eyes dart about, taking note of paths. She prepares herself to begin zig-zagging forward when she lands.
She smiles, a hint of cockiness there, and her feet hit the ground with a thump. She leans forward, ready to bolt into the woods, and...
...her feet stick to the sticky goo that she just landed in, pulling her back with a firm tug from the adhesive. Her eyes widen and her expression screws up. "Y-You gotta be kidding me!"
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The 'vampire' issue at Ohtori is no less a concern for Fuu Hououji, despite that she's an Infinity student and thus *theoretically* safe from late night depredations on the Ohtori campus. But she has friends who attend Ohtori Academy, and there's no telling that if the vampire, or whatever it is, is simply chased *away* from Ohtori, it might turn up on Infinity's campus next ... so it really is everyone's concern.
So on hearing the call for volunteers to patrol the campus, Fuu slipped her name into the proverbial hat via e-mail, and that leads directly to her joining a patrol team. Having friendly faces on that patrol team just makes things better ...
On the premise that it's actually a *vampire*, she may very well (at her own suggestion?) be toting a Super Soaker loaded with holy water, possibly laced with garlic and/or salt for additional anti-vampire/anti-monster properties. (Admittedly, a garlic/saltwater solution may at least slow down totally mundane threats as well, if it catches somebody in the face ...)
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
There may be no such thing as vampires to some, but Hikaru Shidou feels otherwise. After all, given the youma attacks and things of that nature which have been occurring constantly, as well as for the longest time, Hikaru's willing to believe anything's possible. And when there are vampires on the prowl, there's definitely going to be trouble... not to mention a shortage of garlic! But that's for another time and another episode.
Coincidentally, or not if you want, Hikaru was also part of the patrol team as well, and she didn't bring a Super Soaker with her. Instead, she simply bought a few cloves of garlic and acquired a few bottles of holy water. She even managed to purchase a crucifix if things come to that. Unfortunately, they were sold out of whips, saying they were bought by a 'Mr. Belmont.'
Nevertheless, Hikaru's ready to go, whether there are real vampires here or it's just another false report. Of course, in this place, you never know what could happen.
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
As the curfew sirens go off, lips curl into a sneer as she murmurs. "Punctual." Casting an amused glance towards a 'danger placard' marking a trap as she weaves around a copse of maples and the even more dangerous brambles, she flattens her back against a wide trunk, turning her head to watch a flashlight wielded by the silhouette of a high school student. Tugging the hood of her jacket further over her head, she crosses her arms and waits a few minutes for him to move on.
"Suzushiro-san doesn't really believe in half-measures, does she? Even for a snipe hunt." The statement lingers for a time, even though Kozue doesn't /really/ believe it's a snipe hunt, else she wouldn't be here. After she sure the figure is long gone she motions at the girl with her with a flick of her hand. "Come on-"
Which is when a nearby thunk draws her attention, the girl arches a brow, before moving around a tree, only to find herself a short distance from the girl caught fast in the trap. "Aren't you a little short to be a vampire?" The joke may be missed due to the fact that Lera is a bit tall.
Far from helping someone in distress though, she keeps walking past her, seemingly uninterested in who she is despite the appearance of her barrier jacket. Holding up a hand and wiggling her fingers non-chalantly at the girl mired in the goo, her voice irritatingly sing-songy. "Later~" Before looking over her shoulder at her accomplice, "You coming?"
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mai Tokiha has had her clashes with Haruka before. Not for a while now, mercifully - but Mai hasn't forgotten the incident on her first day transferring in, and is willing to bet the Disciplinary Executive hasn't either. (Admittedly, being found in the middle of a scorched circle after a boat sinks sounds suspicious...and Haruka wasn't -entirely- in the wrong with that makeshift interrogation...)
The point is, she's done her best to keep her head down, and not to be seen causing trouble. There's a lot riding on it - her brother's academic future, what leeway she has to be working while studying, having some good graces to burn when HiME business rears its ugly head - so the approach has been to not complain, not break any rules openly, and generally do her best to avoid getting into arguments with the Council.
This has failed.
Specifically, it's the curfew's timing rankling at her. The rule has long been that students don't work after nightfall, but with travel time taken into consideration, Mai realized her hours at Linden Baum might be at risk. Requesting a revised schedule is all well and good, and probably would have been accepted...but she wants those extra hours. Needs them, by her own metric. And so the 9 PM curfew, in the end, she regarded as more of a...suggestion.
This may have been a bad idea, considering Haruka Suzushiro's security resources. Work was fine, she got out at sunset, and made her way back to Ohtori quickly...but it was perilously close to 9 PM as she reached the bridge, and any hope of making it back to her dorm room without getting caught began to dwindle. So...time to be sneaky.
One of the cameras, adhered to the underside of the bridge, might catch something - a swift movement, alit with searing flame, some phantom figure flying underneath the bridge to reach the island. Whether or not that camera was being watched is another question entirely.
(Mai's idea of 'stealth' may need some work. One shudders to imagine her definition of a 'diversion'.)
Just in case, she dismisses her Elements again upon reaching the border of the woods - if she is caught, she'd rather not have more to desperately explain away than necessary. She tries to sneak her way through the verdant greenery, trying to remember just where the dorms were, and doing her level best to avoid the patrolling volunteers. At the very least, her innate aversion to certain blonde-haired males is a bit of a help, and things are going well...
Okay, maybe a squirrel she spooked set off a floodlamp, and then the tripwire she hit started ringing bells - but there's plenty of trees and bushes to use as cover against those volunteers. As long as no one can literally scent her out, she might be able to wait out the heat a bit...
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sometimes you can take a great deal, but at a certain point you get tempted by something that's forbidden firmly enough. Whether it's an apple, a friend your parents hate, or sneaking out late at night. Slipping out at 11 PM to watch the stars had never been FORBIDDEN before...
So now Nori really wants to do it.
Her dark striped leggings (she has several pairs) help break up her profile, as does the navy blue hoodie which she has donned despite the risk of sweat and hair crises. She is not quite as graceful as Kozue Kaoru - and so she's been picking her way in the younger but more... mature girl's path.
She leans out from behind Kozue as Kozue peeps from behind a tree. This is a little precarious, but not quite topple-worthy. She regards Lera with wide, bright eyes, and says to Lera with a little uncertainty, "You'll probably be fine. But -"
Kozue looks at her. "Oh! Yes yes," she says, then to Lera, "I'm sure the committee will let you out if - this really is an accident." This is said with a slightly dubious pause, as if to give Lera an opportunity to declare her clan and sect allegiance and preferences in vitae.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
A curfew? Mikoto Minagi wouldn't last five minutes out there. Perhaps that's why Aoi and Chie went to find her after they were pressganged into this sorry business. 'Can you help us?' Of course she could! Aoi and Chie are good people!
(Even if Haruka is not.)
She's since ditched her team and lost her flashlight somehow, but the camera affixed to her brow and the headset have, thus far, survived contact with the demon cat. She seems to have forgotten about the former, and the latter she's filtered out long ago -- Chie had asked her /not/ to rip the equipment off, so she hasn't yet tossed it aside, at least. She'd been asked to /find people/, and Mikoto Minagi is very good at /finding people/, or at least she doesn't like to think about the consequences of her being /bad/ at it. (Lord Brother, she'll find you, someday.)
It's a command she forgets as the klaxons sound, and she bolts off the path she'd been patrolling into the woods. Loud! It's loud! It's too loud!
After a moment or two, Mikoto realises that it's a /planned/ alarm. It makes her no less on-edge, but she's at least able to slow herself down, fingers curling against the bark of a fallen tree she'd been about to vault over. She wishes Mai were here. In fact, she can remember Mai very vividly here, the acrid smell of coffee beans and --
That's not a memory, Mikoto realises, as her face lights up and she turns to face the scent. Sniff, sniff. It really is Mai!
And so Mikoto jumps over the log and runs towards the scent, calling out, happily: "Mai! Mai!"
By the looks of the blinking light on that camera, it's still rolling.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura transforms into Puella Magi Kyouko! COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has fully healed herself. COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Lera Camry! COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has fully healed herself. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has fully healed herself.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko Sakura leans nonchalantly against the trunk of a tree, off of the beaten path and a good ten meters into the suffocating woods. Only her arm moves as she casually lifts her spear, and slams its butt back into the bark, a red apple falling down to spear itself on the blade's upward edge. It seems odd that an apple tree would randomly stand here among its countless peers, stranger still that the fighter found it without even looking. It makes no sense whatsoever, yet here's an apple, all the same.
Twisting her wrist, she brings the bleeding fruit to her mouth, taking a big bite. The juice runs down her chin as the blaring klaxons sound off..and she grins, baring her fangs like a wicked fox in the henhouse. The sound probably means a few things to many people. To her it's a starter pistol cracking out.
Abruptly thrusting her belly forward and her shoulders back, she throws herself away from the trunk's support by her spine, and casually ambles out towards the treeline, munching as she goes. The party is probably behind her, but she intends to put eyes on whatever's happening outside as she does. She sidesteps two tripwires on her way, slicing a third with a blade so sharp that it severs instantly without moving a milimeter out of place.
Ohtori Academy is a vortex of rumor and legend, but Puella Magi look upon it..or rather, the island that it sits upon..for reasons of their own. This place is a frothing hotbed of Witches, like a feeding frenzy of sharks that never ends. It makes no sense, defying all natural laws of population. In a shadow world of territories and claims held by Kyouko and her ilk, Southern Cross Island is an exception. This place has never been held, and likely never will be.
And now something seems to be prowling the darkness. If it's a Witch, then it seems like an easy opportunity to enrich herself and earn some favor to boot. As so many students seem to be in panic or alarm, this scenario would be an ordinary day at the office for Kyouko, but with a little cherry on top. If it isn't a Witch..then that's a curiosity itself. These aren't the easiest woods to live in. Whatever it is, it's an opportunity to inspect and investigate one of the greater enigmas of the world of her kind.
Besides, a predator like Kyouko needs to kill challengers to the throne. How else can she assure her place atop the food chain? Now that the school's been transformed into a hunting ground, she's fully in her element, and couldn't be more pleased. There's blood in the air. Be still her beating heart.
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9flMplnkaWs
"Sir! We have a curfew breach at XLK1249! And another one fifty yards away at XZK1250!"
They missed Kyouko.
Haruka snaps to attention, sparks now coming from her eyes as well as her abused mouth. SHe nearly stabs herself pushing pins into a master map. "That didn't take long, did it?" she snarls, storming straight out of the Chapel headquarters and down the path, towards where patrols are converging upon Lera, Kozue, and Nori, sucking her abused fingertips when no one's looking. This will be caught on camera, and will appear in this year's video yearbook.
There are a lot of someones, in general, of course, as the radios go up and all patrols in the area are rerouted to converge. Flashlights immediately start blasting towards the girls, though the "Freeze!" "Hold it right there!" and other such exclamations lack the conviction of their bravado. These are students, not soldiers.
Well, except for Haruka Suzushiro herself. She isn't happy to see all these dumb kids breaking curfew; she's here to catch a vampire. "You idiots, you've all got detention!" she blares at drill sergeant volume, more than loud enough to reach both the Lera cluster and the Mai cluster. "Come with us, we'll keep you safe for the rest of tonight, but the dorms are locked down."
---
Somewhere dark and dank, with electric lights that should be torches and regardless only barely manage to penetrate the thickness and stillness of the air, there is another headquarters.
It, too, has banks of security monitors, though no chairs. The closest it comes to comfort is a thin blanket draped over a stone bench. This is an odd choice for an operation that is part of an infamously wealthy conglomerate, but all the same.
The steel-haired woman at the console doesn't glance over her shoulder as she reports, but her red eyes soften fractionally, as they so often do when she addresses her charge. "It's time."
Sitting patiently on the bench, her tiny feet kicking in the air as they cannot reach the floor, said ward nods seriously. "Yes," she agrees, melodious even monosyllabically.
Raising her arms, she slides to the ground with a soft thump, and a brilliant red rune begins to trace itself out of pure light.
Entering as gradually as a whispered prayer, the air becomes faintly perfumed with the smell of blood.
---
Elsewhere, within earshot but obscured by that damnably thick and treacherous forest: a scream, just like all the other screams that have shattered the nights at Ohtori for the last two weeks.
Haruka's face somehow reddens and darkens at the same time, and she heads in that direction at a flat run, faster than the patrols, who converge behind her, charging at a flat run.
The scream comes again, this time not merely frightened, but in pain.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera yelps and turns her head hurriedly, facing the hooded Kozue and Nori with wideneed eyes and a stare for a moment. She makes a face at both girls, utterly confused for a moment, before her cheeks redden. "I'm not too--I mean, I'm not a vampire at all--um!" She tugs on her leg with her free hand. The sticky goo doesn't give. She calls out to Kozue and Nori both, as they begin to walk off. "I'm Magical Propane Cheese--Cheeseburger Propa--I'm here to help!"
She sighs and calls out, louder: "Can I have a hand?"
Until a bright light suddenly shines in her face and she yelps. She turns to look at the students approaching and she raises her hands in the air. "I'm, um--" Does claiming to be a magical girl work? Probably not, she thinks. Her expression screws up. "--I'm a vampire slayer! I was in that play, remember, as QUINCY MORRIS, TEXAN?"
She grins, sheepishly.
"I'm here to help, gosh darn it!" She nods, raising a finger up next to her head. Her eyelids half-lower. "I'm gonna put a stop to them... bloodsucking creatures of the niiiiiigh--"
She hears the scream, but it's muffled. Her finger droops, then her eyes widen. "Oh no," she mutters. "That sounds bad!"
She yanks -- this time with much more might, thanks to her Barrier Jacket's spells -- and her feet tear free of the adhesive. She goes bolting away from the patrol. "I'll let you put me in lockup after we help!"
<What! No we won't!>
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There's chaos, and shouting, and incredible tension, and Mai grits her teeth. At the rate things are going, maybe she'd have been better off camping out overnight, or...something. The idea's rejected almost as quickly as it's concocted, there's a few reasons she has to make sure to come back here. Among them, Mikoto-
Mixed among the shouts of justice and heroism is one voice calling her name - and Mai turns, incredulity emblazoned across her face, just as a cheerful Mikoto crashes into her. "Wh- Mikoto?! What are you doing, patrolling-"
A question she might have been wise to ask just a little more quietly. They're surrounded, Mai caught out without permission, and Haruka Suzushiro herself is close enough at hand that there's no way she's getting out of this-
-unless something even worse happens. There's a scream, and a dreadful feeling, and even more commotion. The sinister stalker, menacing the campus, attacking yet again?
Not quite untangling herself from Mikoto, Mai stands up as the patrolling students get ready to follow Haruka. "That sounded like the culprit - let's go!" She follows, hanging back - partly curiosity, and partly hope that no one will actually notice she doesn't have one of those headbands.
Just pretend at following along and being part of the crowd, and she can sneak off when no one's paying close attention again. Just she and Mikoto, heading back to the dorms - sure, the doors are locked, but....it's a decent plan, and not much can go wrong.
Not -much-...
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
"Magical- what?" Turning around to look at Lera again, she quirks a brow, before grinning viciously, "I'm not even going to ask. And- nope. Get yourself out of that mess, 'Slayer'." As the sound of footsteps reach her position, Kozue initially wonders how they found her before she looks up, and catches sight of how they found them. The video yearbook crew will have to edit out a gesture. It's not a particularly nice gesture.
Crossing her arms, Kozue seems to handle being put in the spotlight with the non-chalance of a practiced delinquent.
She squints from the sudden flare of light from a zealous flashlight wielder, but otherwise crosses her arms and rolls her eyes as Haruka blares out that she'll have detention, along with all the rest. "Uh huh." Is all she says, completely intending to just ditch when the intended time comes.
When the scream happens however, Kozue's head turns in that direction, standing stock still as the patrols run past her. "Head back Ankou-chan. I'm going to go see what all the fuss is about!" And then she proves that she's the best 'friend' ever by promptly running at full tilt to ditch her in the forest. A lot could go wrong with this course of action, but living life dangerously was far more interesting than the alternative.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAST6SgLmQg
Lots of flashlights slashing around and a panicked pack of students holding them, huh? Kyouko's lips twist in a smirk. Isn't this supposed to be the rich school? They have all this money for gear and absurd architecture and everything but they couldn't hire some real security guards? Off duty cops or something? Or..perhaps they just want to keep this in-house. Her smile fades as she toys with the thought.
Her body hears the scream before her mind does. By the time she processes the sound she's already mid-leap for a tree top. Perching at the peak like a cat as the narrow height precariously sways, she shoves what's left of the apple off of the blade with her heel, hoists up her spear, and hurls it like a javelin. It whistles softly in flight, and emits a chain in its wake like a silkworm's rope. The tip buries itself near the top of another tall tree a decent distance away, and a second spear head emerges from Kyouko's end of the chain. Brusqely stabbing it into the bark, she's produced a makeshift tightrope.
It could be a trap, of course. It wouldn't exactly be reinventing the wheel to divert attention away from the school, only to attack it when everybody's faffing about in the forest. Of course, that would imply intelligence, and coordination. Until she sees otherwise, Kyouko assumes this to be the work of a beast like any other, or at least a solitary target. She's playing it by ear after all.
She sprints forward across the chain with an improbable speed and a marked display of confidence in her own balancing act. The next spear is already in her hand..launched for the next tree by the time she's halfway across her current length, fully intending to simply run over the treacherous terrain like a light-footed leapfrog, straight to the source across chain after chain. She's quiet, and it's night, but a girl charging among the treetops isn't the most inconspicuous thing. Noticing the dashing disciplinarian and the gaggle in her wake, she touches the tip of her fang with the tip of her tongue. It's always more fun when it's a race.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto is, of course, followed; after all, it must be easy to track her with all that expensive equipment on. And following the stray cat must be easier than trying to pin her in, especially when she gets results.
It's probably a good thing that the people surrounding them didn't get much time to make themselves look threatening, or else Mikoto might realise she's gotten Mai in trouble. But instead, there's something else to protect her from -- some unknown enemy which rips a scream from some girl's throat.
Mikoto's eyes narrow, and she swings Miroku's bag around to free it and clasp it in her hands. Any hopes Mai might have had of playing this off... well, Mikoto seems intent on dashing them all. Unless Mai wants to go home alone, that is.
As the bag swings back to rest on her back, her headset is knocked askew. Mikoto doesn't really care as she runs off behind Haruka, but with the mouthpiece tilted up towards her nose, HQ will have to deal with the whuff-whuff-whuff of her breathing.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Nori of course recognizes who Cheeseburger Propane is, but she doesn't want to let /on/ that she does, because that implies they've met, which suggests she might secretly be - yes-- it's true-- Mami Tomoe.
But then - flash! Are they made!? Are they going to jail?! Nori raises an arm, shielding her face from immediate vision. Fire bursts in the air nearby, too, or at least the sound and flash impinges on her vision. Her own posture is much less relaxed.
"Ah!" she says, as Kozue -- ditches her hard and fast, abandoning Nori with a speed and verve more conventionally associated with rescues or reconnections. Nori feels a certain degree of lassitude creep up on her, a tide of apathy that often tugs at her metaphorical heels. But -
"Ankou-chan, huh," she mumbles to herself.
With that, Nori turns... and slips further into the forest. Adjusting the messenger bag she'd been carrying, doubtless to carry the fruits of delinquency, she reaches inside and draws out a darkly brazen object. Crouching down, she says as she looks into the gleaming strip of darkness behind it.
"I wonder if they'd see anything, now," she muses to herself. It clanks softly, promisingly, as she grasps the handle firmly, centering herself. "Twinned in the mirror--"
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
That's the kijnd of scream that Fuu can't really ignore; she hurries towards the source of it, pumping up her Super Soaker along the way ... and lagging behind the Infinity students in her team. She tries to catch Hikaru's line of sight and signal for her to slow down as well, although if Hikaru misses the signal ... well, she'll worry about that later; odds are she's thinking the same thing Fuu is anyway, more or less.
Either way, getting out of immediate sight and earshot of her teammates on patrol is necessary; Fuu quickly digs out her glove-jewel, slipping it onto her left hand and letting her water rifle vanish into it. "Belief becomes power ... Winds, guide me!" she intones, and a green-tinted whirlwind briefly wraps about her ...
After the transformation sequence concludes, the Magic Knight of Wind is able to make substantially better time than Fuu, who's admittedly never been a track star - just archery, although she stays in shape. The Wind Knight, on the other hand, can harness the wind to boost her bounds across the school grounds towards the sound of screaming - and hopes along the way that she'll be there in time to help.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
A scream like that is more than enough to make Hikaru realize that there's definitely something going wrong here. And it's definitely not a mistake either. If it's a vampire or not doesn't matter, Hikaru knows that it's time to go into Magic Knight mode. Fuu doesn't have to signal to Hikaru to get her to fall back. She too ducks out of sight and looks around before reaching into her pocket.
"Belief becomes power ... Flames, guide me!" The flames wrap around her and replace her civilian form with her Magic Knight armor! "There's no time to waste, let's go!" Hikaru says, running as fast as her legs can carry her towards the sound of the screaming.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou transforms into Magic Knight of Fire! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has fully healed herself. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto! COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene du Nord! COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into HiME Kozue!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Patrollers stare nonplussed at Lera's pronouncements, while largely ignoring Mai, just as she planned. Even with some extraordinary supernatural competitors, Haruka is the first on the scene, but everyone bursts into the underbrush just in time to see something unexpected even by the high standards of the evening:
Sister Yukariko Sanada, one of the resident nuns at the Ohtori Chapel, who coaches the school choirs and gives stammering, uncertain advice to lovelorn teenagers, wielding some kind of shimmering white... bow?
And there's Wakaba Shinohara, who had haplessly gotten separated from the rest of her patrol when she went to investigate a strange noise, sprawled out with a weird, reverse-barbed purple arrow in her arm.
That's all that Haruka sees, and even as the nun falls to her knees in horror and Wakaba continues to wail, the bow and arrow both vanish (though the wound remains). It's all she needs to see -- she starts barking orders to get the student to medical attention and the apparently wayward Sister to house arrest.
But others -- those with eyes more accustomed to fighting in dark places -- can briefly see what Sister Sanada was actually trying to shoot at.
It's a shadow among shadows, as much their king and overlord as their user and abuser, and it blurs back into the treeline with hardly a rustle of the leaves. A definitive shape is thusfar elusive, but it's at least adult-sized.
And ever-so-briefly one might be able to pick out a hint of familiar runic red light on its brow.
A horrible chill falls over the clearing.
The Disciplinary Executive is already declaring victory. Who's to say there won't be more victims tonight?
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Vampire?! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 8 opponents! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Kyouko Sakura. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Cassandra. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Forboding Chill on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cassandra fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cassandra is Taunted! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Taunted! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates! La Sirene du Nord is Taunted! COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! Lera Camry is Taunted! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha is Taunted! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Kyouko Sakura's Block ability activates! Kyouko Sakura's Parry ability activates! Kyouko Sakura is Taunted!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera draws in a sharp gasp as she runs up, seeing the attacked student. She has enough experience to keep looking, though, and not fixate on the fact that the sister shot a student with an arrow -- though she wonders. She catches, then, the shadow that moves with a rustle of leaves. Her head snaps up, and she catches a brief flash of red. Haruka's declaration of victory reaches her ears but not her heart.
The chill already does. She tries, of course, to shake it off -- but she can't quite. She can only catch a glimpse of the shadow, after all.
She points up with her sword, the haze of plasma energy acting light a bright flashlight. "Wait!" she calls out. "Up there, look!"
She narrows her eyes; then, a magical circle alights at the tip of her sword. A ball of plasma shimmers into existence, before it fires off, zigging and zagging before it shoots up into the trees and, hopefully, where that shadow is.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Plasma Ball on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Forboding Chill, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Hikaru Shidou's Block ability activates! Hikaru Shidou's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Well, whatever that is, it *feels* like it doesn't remotely belong anywhere around an inhabited school campus.
Trying not to dwell on the chill that's seeping into her heart from that disturbing presence, the Magic Knight of Wind wills her bow and quiver to materialize, in her hand and across her back. She doesn't wait for her weapons to fully manifest, though, raising her left hand even as her bow is taking shape. "Winds of Admonishment!!" she calls out, trying to bind the half-visible figure within an imprisoning whirlwind.
And what she can't see clearly enough to aim properly at, she trusts her will to make up the difference - she CAN see some movement, and that flicker of eldritch luminescence. Her *will* is focused upon binding that probably-monster where it is, and she trusts her magic to do the rest. Will it be enough, though ... ?
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Somehow, no one bats an eye at how she's apparently brought a claymore to apprehend the Sister. Well, it /is/ Ohtori.
But even as Haruka apprehends the villain, Mikoto's eyes dart from shadow to shadow. Cats have a sixth sense, after all, and like a cat...
"She's wrong," Mikoto mutters to Mai, her words as sharp as the blade she's holding. "Not her." Not Sister Yukariko. It's a /wrong/ feeling, like copper-blood on her tongue, and if only she could find it -- -- her eyes catch a glint of red runes in the shadows. "There!" Without another word, Mikoto springs into the treelines, chasing after it. The next time she spies it in a shadow, down her blade will come -- and if she fells a tree in the process, well, that's too bad for Mother Nature.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Destabilise on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Kozue vanishes, and a HiME named Cassandra reappears on the edges of the clearing. Casually dangling a hooked weapon, her eyes narrow as they fall upon Yukariko Sanada. In particular, the shimmering bow. "Well well." A glance is cast at Wakaba, and briefly her mind wonders how that girl who always hang around Utena Tenjou got caught up in the patrols, but even she can't help but bat an eye with a wince as she sees the purple arrow embedded in her arm.
Having learned something new and extremely interesting, she initially turns around, footsteps crunching upon leaves as she starts to make her way back to the dorm. However, she stops, feeling something- it takes her off guard, hitting her in waves, a foreboding chill that leaves her weak in the knees and trembling. Her eyes scan the clearing wildly, before falling upon the dark shape, looming above them all. For a moment, she feels so small.
She hates that feeling.
And while that terror settles into her, she takes that feeling, she uses it. She gets angry, remembering her performance from her last battle. How was she ever supposed to grasp what she desired, if she allowed herself to be afraid? "Suzushiro you idiot! Stop patting yourself on the back and get everyone out of here!"
From the end of the kama she wields, a length of wire drops down ending in a small obsidian weight, which she grips with a shaking hand, adrenaline only causing it to steady slowly upon her sleek version of a Kusari-gama.
She sets to swinging that length wildly, with a loud 'woosh' of air as it moves before moving out into the clearing and shifting her hand on the wire, allowing it's arc to increase with each spin. And then with a sudden motion, the circular arc tries to cross paths with the shape in the dark, trying to wrap around it, and enmesh it within entangling lengths of wire and create that terrible feeling of being snared.
If it really thinks that she's going to sit there and allow it to lord over them, then it had another thing coming because- "I've always been good at bringing monsters down to my level." She murmurs to herself, self-depreciating in a way, but in another way- she found it comforting, and that's what she needed to beat this fear.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Hikaru braces herself for the attack, and finds that her defensive stance works well to her advantage. Despite the fact she can't fully see what just attacked her, she does have a decent idea of where it is. What it truly is remains a mystery to Hikaru for now. But vampire or not, it's going down no matter how tough it might be! "Prepare to burn with my fiery might!" Hikaru calls out.
With that, Hikaru points at the figure and a small flame forms. "Die!" She calls out, sending a fireball or something similar at the figure.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used You're Fired on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cassandra has used Enmesh in Tragedy on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mai lingered, a bit. Didn't run quite as quickly - the gasp of the crowd is at a scene almost completely obscured to her. Almost - but there's enough milling about for her to see what's going on. A nun from the chapel - with a mysterious bow?! That glint of light as the weapons vanish-
This is crazy. Another HiME?! And for that matter, a HiME attacking other peop... Mai's train of thought trails off, and she glances to Mikoto. Maybe Mai had gotten complacent - the day she found out what a HiME was, it was thanks to two of them getting into a fight. What's to say that this girl isn't...
For the most part, Mai finds herself utterly lost as to what's going on - and then realizes that there's more lingering in the darkness. That glint of a rune writ in crimson light, that slinking shadow, that sudden chill of dread and horror sinking into her very....an Orphan. That's what's been haunting the night, preying on girls, causing this whole curfew to happen...Mikoto spies the same thing, and Mai joins her in leaving this group.
As planned, she slips away from the now-distracted patrollers - but the dorms are no longer her target. With everything else, she doesn't patrol as regularly as perhaps she should - a duty neglected in favour of more pressing ones - but when an enemy appears before her, there's no question of having to do something about it. Mikoto's hot pursuit goes nearly unnoticed, - Mai takes it almost for granted that her companion will join in the battle. As for herself...
Mai let this slide - ignored the situation for days, weeks. She has to do something about it.
Flames flicker among the trees - swirling, becoming rings of jade and gold. Mai-HiME does not fly this night, does not spring, but strides forward with grim purpose. Those flames, swirling around her rings, lash out - she doesn't know exactly where the shadow is, but darkness can be fought with light. And in spite of the rains of the last few weeks...there's a few things here that can burn brightly enough to make the Orphan visible.
In that fire-light, one can see hatred reflected in Mai's eyes.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai-HiME!
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Unlike the others at the scene, Kyouko arrives from above. Perhaps this perspective helped her spy the barely-there thing creeping back into the dark. Seems small for a witch but big for a familiar...but about the right size for a vampire. It has a vaguely unsettling quality that washes over her..but like the chill of a splash of cold water, she just lets it drip away.
She's long idly wondered whether vampires are filled with blood or completely lacking it until they feed, like a tick or a mosquito or something. Now seems like her best chance to find out.
One last chain-spear. Without a word of warning she hurls the lance straight down the middle of the clearing, between the injured girl and the hot-shot holy woman, aiming it where that elusive figure seemed to melt away. Sprinting down along the chain, she runs straight for the spot, a new spear clenched between her hands, emptying her lungs in a blood-curdling war cry. The blade leads her charge.
Whatever she'll find, if anything at all..the razor tip will tell her first.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Masterstroke on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Light Up The Night on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Someone's hurt - Shinohara - Nori knows her, even if her grounded onionesque ways do not often pass ways with her own free-floating seaborne paths. La Sirene du Nord, however...
She slips among the shadows, the Brazen Pharos not so much lighting her way as making the shadows clearer, easier to slip through. There's a shape out there, and when she sees a glimpse of ominous red on the thing's brow, she feels her blood chill.
The feeling, while dismaying, is at least something that has a curious excitement to la Sirene - blame, perhaps, the quirks of her raising or a thirst for enigma and mystery. When she sees others fire their bursts and blasts, though, she realizes - to her surprise - that she is, however orthogonally, /ahead/ of the -- the mysterious form.
I wonder, she thinks -
Shadows upon shadows upon shadows, and suddenly another shadow lances out among the many. Not onto anything in particular, but it casts a huge dark swath onto a tree trunk -- which does not, therefore, appear clearly when cast in shadow by the bursts and blasts of light and magic.
La Sirene, standing a dozen yards or so away from the newly invisible tree, watches. Maybe it will take this helpfully 'clear' route --
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Brockenspectre on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Plasma Ball, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly counters Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Darkness In Flight, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Destabilise, taking 19 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Cassandra's Enmesh in Tragedy, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Darkness In Flight, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cassandra! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's You're Fired, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Mai Tokiha's Light Up The Night, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Darkness In Flight, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Kyouko Sakura's Masterstroke, taking 38 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge La Sirene du Nord's Brockenspectre, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene du Nord is Psyched! Diversion applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Chaos erupts.
Lera's plasma ball doesn't manage to make contact with the shadow, but it blinds the first few ranks of patrollers, which is a mixed blessing. Haruka herself clutches her eyes even as Kozue yells at her about her mistake. She has many negative traits, but a total denial of reality is not one of them. The opposite, in fact, creates many problems for supernatural elements trying to perpetrate Ohtori mayhem, pranking troublemakers aside. "She must have a compatriot!" she yells. "Everyone retreat to the headquarters -- we'll regroup and study the footage! Protect Shinohara! Keep ahold of the Sister!"
That's right, there are cameras all over the place.
There are also traps, and patrollers are going to be falling into them all night. They may not be the only ones.
Fuu's whirlwind briefly drowns out any further orders, but by then the fight is already moving away from the group of students. The shadow can no more be pinned down than a sunbeam.
It can, however, be sliced out of a tree. Mikoto gets the first good look at it, and sees darkness that is its own cloak, gently roiling and undulating even as steam rises off of the Obsidian Blade. Its ichor is instantly sublime, and sharp, acrid.
The smell of an Orphan. It is not bloody at all.
Then the tree crashes down, separating HiME and prey, and it's dashing off again -- Cassandra's wires briefly finding purchase before discovering that they, too, cannot hang onto the shadow for long. It's trying to get distance now, ducking under Hikaru's fireball, leaving only a bit of its darkness behind for Mai to incinerate.
It runs right into Kyouko's spear, which makes a wonderful, horrible skultch on impact, and then, with a shriek, turns and flows into the seemingly safe space created by Nori's false darkness.
When said darkness retreats to reveal it, /everyone/ briefly gets the opportunity to view the creature: planes of black, yes, but also a brief slash of bone-white claws, and that omnipresent red rune that has graced the faces of so many of these monsters of late, all across Tokyo.
Then: it exhales, its lungs contracting with the iron strength of a bellows, and blows out more of its boiling vitae onto the girls assembled to oppose it. It smarts, it burns, and most importantly it blinds, allowing its opponents to bring darkness with them wherever they look.
In the confusion, it fades back into the trees. Once again it must be chased.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Kyouko Sakura. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Cassandra. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord fails to counter Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Blind applied to La Sirene du Nord! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord's counterattack, Les Mysteres, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates! Blind and Cripple applied to Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Blind and Cripple applied to Hikaru Shidou! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi's Fade ability activates! Mikoto Minagi's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 8 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Blind and Cripple applied to Cassandra! COMBAT: Cassandra's counterattack, On the Upswing, partially gets through, doing 4 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera glances at La Sirene du Nord, but it's only briefly. She's trying and failing to take it all in; Mai isn't an enormous surprise, given that they are at Ohtori, but Mikoto's sudden darting makes her jump -- and then more people show up. She takes a deep breath, trying to steel herself, but the dread of the chill from the forest is digging deep into her mindset.
She tries to follow the Orphan, too, but she can't keep up with it. It's only when Kyouko's spear hits it that she locks onto it, and the retreating darkness reveals the monster. She draws in a sharp gasp to match the sharp exhalation of boiling hot, acrid breath. It strikes her full in the face and she yelps, stumbling back, a hand coming to over her eyes belatedly.
"Ow!" she hisses. "What--what is this thing!?" She yells it vaguely in Mai's direction. She thinks. She blinks her eyes, but they're blurry still; she can only dimly make out the shape of the thing as it heads into the trees.
Better move quick, she decides.
She takes off from the ground, bolting into the skies and tree branches. A ring of light bursts from her feet, leaving a trail of red-orange behind her. As she comes at the shadowy monster, she spins -- and her plasma-wreathed Device chops hard for the Orphan--
--or perhaps the tree closest to her.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Bolt Diver on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko's eyes light up in delight as her advance is messily halted by the fleshy resistance of a clean hit. Her hands roughly twist at the shaft of her spear, attempting to dig and tear more flesh from her foe before yanking it all back, hopefully ripping fresh furrows as it leaves.
Well..it's certainly no Witch. There was little doubt before, now there's none at all. That red thing seems a little familiar..but she could very well be imagining things. It really doesn't matter at the moment though. The puke is a little more immediately relevant.
Kyouko scowls as the acidic gunk sprays onto her face, but she doesn't blink. Whatever blinding consequences her fellow fighters were suffering from, she seemed thankfully free of them. And then..it runs. That in itself is more significant than anything. Either it doesn't want a fight..or it's leading them to more favorable ground.
Kyouko sprints after it, swinging her spear from side to side. As she does, it elongates more and more, and soon she's slicing a hundred degree arc in front of her, cutting down trees to clear the path and deny hiding spots..and maybe, hopefully, cutting at it again and again, even if she can only manage to nick it.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Pincushion on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Flames lash out at wood live and dead, chasing the shadow at every turn - to little avail, it seems. It lurks, it slinks, it hides among shadows and falling trees. (Perhaps have a word with Mikoto about that last bit?....no, that's not really the issue here.) Mai's repeated attempts to illuminate the area don't seem to be doing the trick...
At least, not alone. There's weapons - Mikoto having found a spear-wielding ally from the sound of things - and fire, and wind, and light...and in the end, darkness proves to be its enemy as well, and the Orphan's true nature is revealed at last. In spite of everything she's seen, Mai staggers back in shock at the sight of it - terrifying claws, that abominable rune, and the overall feeling of dread and menace incarnate...
Flames are her ally against darkness - fleetingly, against that rushing dark wind. Mai is driven back, shadows seeming to linger around her...her vision is, steadily, darkening. Again, that dread has found purchase; again, she starts to move forward out of grim purpose more than any true determination. The Orphan is slinking away, to menace anew...
"...if you think you can get away with..." Mai stumbles forward, reaching out for the nearest tree to steady herself. Into the deepest shadows, the monster is retreating - and the Disciplinary Committee retreating in the other direction. If this thing is stopped tonight...that girl, the nun, will probably be blamed for everything. But...if it isn't stopped, it'll attack other people tomorrow, or even tonight.
Familiar voices, in the dark forest - that mysterious HiME she'd met before, Mikoto, la Sirene - but she can't bring herself to focus on them. The fact that these attacks have been going on so long is eating at her...and so, with fleeting apologies to that nun in her head, Mai rushes forward. Her flames, burning with darker dreads than usual tonight, light her way - she pursues the Orphan as best she can, hoping she can accomplish something if she can just connect once..
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Burning Away Regret on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene is briefly pleased when the creature comes up short thanks to her illusionary veiling of a tree. While it is not exactly the 'slam into a tree and be disabled' she had dreamed of, it's encouraging nonetheless. She steps forwards, the Pharos in her right hand.
"Creature!" she calls out. "How dare you menace the darkness? So many are already afraid of the night, and are kept from its beauties and its wonders - all that you do is add to it. You replace beauty with huddling fear--"
And apparently shrieking, hissing blood. It floods into la Sirene's vision and she cries out in dismay; an effort to call up that silver-written spell aims out into nowhere, disturbing an elm of moderate age and adding to the colorful lighting in this shadow-ridden forest.
Darkness, at least, may call to darkness. La Sirene raises her lantern as she struggles to wipe her eyes clean. The lens cap shifts slightly - and a lancing streak of cold darkness, scented faintly with the sea, snaps out. Hopefully where the nameless Thing will cross it. But will it even strike home on such a shadowy beast?
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Pieces of the Perfect Black on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Lera Camry's Bolt Diver, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Speed From The Shadows, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Kyouko Sakura's Pincushion, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped! Cripple and Exhausted applied to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Mai Tokiha's Burning Away Regret, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces La Sirene du Nord's Pieces of the Perfect Black, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
The wires make contact for the snare, but then slide through the inky blackness, like a net trawling through water. Notably spooked by its seemingly ephemeral state, she quickly jiggles the wire to launch it back into the air, to begin its arcing swings again. 'Some' part of her takes satisfaction in the fact that Haruka Suzushiro actually listened to her for once, but its distant, compared to the terror, both the feeling of it, and the very real creature in front of her.
Instinctively she turns as it hisses, and the arc of her swing moves from horizontal to vertical, as she casts it out straight ahead. The blackness parts as the edge of the weight comes precariously close, perhaps grazing the umbral absence where the 'vampire' was. However, like roiling smoke, it closes the gap she parts, consuming her, leaving her feeling like a four year old bereft of a night light. She makes a choking sound, half a sob, half the sound of actual choking as she tries to force it back down.
Shivering, her element clatters to the ground for just a moment, trying to remember what she did the last time she was afraid of the dark. It was a distant memory, but she remembers shaking her twin awake, letting him reassure her, comfort her. Suddenly the feeling of helplessness and terror in the dark was embarrassing, humiliating, and thus completely unacceptable. With a flick of her wrist, her element dematerializes, and shunts through the gap in space back into her hand.
While the creature made her feel small and helpless and left her afraid and shaking, it also made her angrier by the second. Each spin of the cord was angrier, more wild, moving from a wooshing sound to a blurring, whirring movement that she could still track, gleaming even in the dark. With a another flick of her wrist, blades appear upon the weight at the end of the wire, spinning, fanlike, and deadly.
Squaring her stance for a moment and listening for any tells, she casts it through the night on pure angry instinct, the cord moving in serpentine spiral like motions as it tries to shear through the night. And if she just had to ignore the tears in her eyes, well what were a few more tears? At least right now in the dark, noone could see what a wreck she was under fire.
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Shearing Spiral on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cassandra's Shearing Spiral, taking 33 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Not like blood, but just as sharp.
Mikoto hates it, hates it so naturally and innately that she does not even realise the way her face has curled into a frown. It is how she was raised -- how she was trained -- Orphans are her enemies, and enemies must be destroyed.
She cleaves it out of a tree, and snarls at it, only for the wood to come down and seperate her from it again. Luckily, another magical girl is more clever - she tricks it into revealing itself, and it is full of darkness and claws and malice and Mikoto /hates/ it.
It exhales, and Mikoto runs forward, holding her breath and pinching her nostrils and squinting her eyes as she skirts around the horrible air. For a moment, she is blind to all her senses -- but then she's free of the cloud, and she opens her eyes, and cleaves through a branch she had been /just about/ to run into.
She keeps the momentum from that swing as she looks for, listens for, sniffs out the Orphan. She swings in a circle, blade cutting through the earth, and then she spots it -- and leaps.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Divebomb on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
The Magic Knight of Wind doesn't hang around when the monster starts exhaling over the group; she bolts, almost as if dancing upon her element, and jumps among a few branches of trees that have *not* been toppled by the fight so far. Once she's clear of that darkening miasma, she simply bolts in pursuit, finding what she hopes is a good, serviceable vantage point before she finally comes to a halt.
An arrow is pulled from her quiver, nocked to the string, and drawn back .... and amongst the shadows, the Wind Knight bides her time, watching for that glimmer of crimson that represents the mark on the monster's ... forehead?
And as soon as she spots it, her arrow flies.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Trick Arrow Shot on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
That breath is really strong. It not only leaves Hikaru having trouble seeing, but she also feels like she's uneasy on her feet. She struggles to keep from falling down, since her legs feel like jelly right now. She also tries to make out where the creature was. But it's hard to tell, given how her eyes are right now. Nevertheless, Hikaru attempts to use her ears to try to find that creature. When she does, she attempts to stab at it with her sword.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Horizontal Slash on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Divebomb, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Trick Arrow Shot, taking 17 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Hikaru Shidou's Horizontal Slash, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Speed From The Shadows, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to Hikaru Shidou!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiMDpacHzic
Lera's blind chopping kills more trees than Orphans, but it does connect. So does a claw, brushing back the hair over her right ear with a line of pain as it passes in the other direction, straight past her. Kyouko joins into the deforestation of the Ohtori campus somewhat more deliberately, closing off avenues of escape as quickly as they're found.
Finally the tip of her spear finds purchase, tearing at the hem of its self, but it's already fading backwards, and it slips through a crack just in time to avoid Mai, whose attempt to exploit this moment of vulnerability comes just a hair too late.
As some may have anticipated, darkness does not do a great deal to bludgeon darkness -- the Orphan does not bother to dodge La Siren's strike. This is a crucial mistake, for it /does/ have eyes, glittering darkly beneath that rune, and turnabout /is/ fair play.
This levels the playing field: Kozue's cord wraps around it brutally, and she can more feel than see it desperately wriggling free -- out of the way, barely, of Mikoto's spinning, leaping strike -- and leaving wisps of itself behind, instantly obliterated by the latter.
When it lands, the Magic Knights are waiting for it: a Wind-bourne arrow buries itself into its forehead, then seems to pass through and out the other side. The rune is unharmed, but the arrow trails shadowstuff before it buries itself in a tree.
Panicking now, it buzzes past Hikaru, accepting a wound from the sword in exchange for a scratch across her torso, and then unfurls...
...its...
...massive...
...wings.
They have razors for feathers, which fly everywhere as they beat, whipping up fierce winds and sending the fallen tree trunks and branches and limbs, which are everywhere, into a dangerous, destructive dance.
And then it goes UP
UP towards the moon
UP towards the star, as red as the Orphan's rune, that twinkles near it
UP towards, much closer, that absurd hot-air balloon that has been hovering nearby this whole time.
There are surveillance people in it, frantically filming the forest. Their footage is about to get a killer close-up. There is also a rope thrashing like a snake amid the temporary tornado below, which could serve as a ladder. It is bound to nothing below, but attaches to the basket above.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Feathery Doom on Cassandra. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Feathery Doom on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Feathery Doom on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Feathery Doom on Kyouko Sakura. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Feathery Doom on Lera Camry. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Wings To Freedom on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Wings To Freedom on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Wings To Freedom on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Feathery Doom, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Quipped! Lera Camry's Fade ability activates! Lera Camry's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Wings To Freedom, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Feathery Doom, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene du Nord is Quipped! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Cassandra fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Feathery Doom, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Cassandra is Quipped! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Feathery Doom, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Quipped! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, partially gets through, doing 11 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Wings To Freedom, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Wings To Freedom, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Hikaru Shidou's Block ability activates! Hikaru Shidou's Parry ability activates! Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Feathery Doom, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The claws fly in, just over Lera's ear. All she sees is a flash of white and then a sharp, red feeling of pain as those razor-sharp tips of the claws leave a light gash over her ear on her scalp. Strands of red-orange hair go flying away, and she jerks back suddenly, especially after Kyouko's spear rams into the Orphan. She glances at the Puella Magi and nods, once, fiercely; she sees her through a blur of tears from the pain. "Thanks!"
Even if her assistance wasn't deliberate, Lera doesn't realize -- or perhaps doesn't care.
She stares, though, as the wings unfurl. She didn't see that coming. She gasps, and then sees the wings coming; she shoots off at it, even when it shoots down those feathers. They come rushing down at her, sharp and deadly, and she only barely manages to weave and bob through them. One comes so close that it splits open threads (albeit magically produced threads) on her coat's sleeve.
She sees the observation balloon and the people in it. "Oh, no," she murmurs. She looks down at the battlefield, spotting La Sirene du Nord. She dives down, right for the lantern; it's clear enough for her blurred vision. "Hang on!" she cries out, desperately. "There's--there's people up there!"
She gives her a moment to reply, before grabs Nori by the arm. She blitzes upward, suddenly bursting a good dozen feet into the air. "I'm gonna throw you! See what you can do!"
It's all the warning she gets. Lera tosses Nori with one arm, her Barrier Jacket-enhanced strength enough to throw a girl one-armed for that dangling makeshift rope ladder. Then, Lera shoots up in front of the Orphan, shaking her head; her heart thunders in her throat, her eyes sting, and she wants to panic. She feels her control over the situation slipping.
No, she never had it in the first place.
<Aura Surge!>
Lera's sword ignites with a bright, white light -- and she swings it for the Orphan. She lets out a wordless yell -- and then it explodes in a flash-bang of loight, making a brilliant starburst light up the night sky.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Aura Surge on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mai's wild charge finds no purchase, and instead damages some carefully cultivated Ohtori forest. Amid broken branches and burnt bushes, she struggles to get back to her feet. Things are...not going fantastically, and that lingering doubt invading her heart whispers that she could just leave. Abandon this duty, find something more pleasant to do. But...
...deeper within, she knows. She can't let this thing get away. Can't abandon her allies - her friends, her companion. Even if things are going badly...she has a duty to her star-crossed heritage, to herself, to her friends. The rings she bears burn, and begin to spin to life...
And the Orphan claims the skies.
Shocked, Mai can't dodge in time - a storm of feathers and wind slamming into her, hurtling her deeper into the brush. Painful, and a stern message from the Orphan as it soars up towards that baleful star. 'Stay down.'
Mai has one word, in response to that. A single name - the name of one she can count on, to make sure that this monster falls. "Mikoto!"
The HiME tears free of the brush, flames trailing in her wake as she goes to meet her fellow HiME. A moment's pause, to get a secure grip on the smaller girl - and then the two of them fly up, to meet the Orphan where it threatens to menace the balloon.
Flames, flickering, blazing in tune to some distant cry. Flames, blazing bright to carry Mai and Mikoto towards the Orphan - and blazing out in a wide sheet. She can't - she won't let this monster get away with everything it's done- and the heat of the flames conveys that finally-found desperate determination. A veritable conflagration, a grand fireball in the sky, broad enough to envelop the Orphan entirely...
Quite the show, for anyone on surveillance duty right now.
Beyond the flames - approaching it rapidly - a voice calls out. "Get ready - the moment you can see it!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mai Tokiha has used Passionate Conflagration on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Aura Surge, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Lera Camry is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha's Finisher, Passionate Conflagration, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj1-IxNGEjI
Kyouko nods a clipped nod to Lera, grinning wildly. Her voice is a raspy thing that sounds ripped from her throat, thick with bloodlust and the fog of war. "My pleasure.." The other girl's in a bad way, but she'll make it through. Probably.
This thing, whatever it is, is unbelievably fast. No fighter, this. An assassin, a creature of shadow repulsed by the visibility of open light. Kyouko would rather enjoy pinning it to the ground and waiting for the sun to stroke it. Maybe it would turn to dust or flames like in the movies. A pity that she probably won't get the chance.
And then like a dark angel it spreads its span to its fullest. The Puella Magi can't help but giggle in gleeful delight. A wonderfully unusual fight is only getting more and more preciously unique. It sprays metal shards with vicious abandon, studding the fallen limbs of the forest with tiny merciless blades and whipping them up and about. Her mastery as a Dance Dance Revolutionary comes in handy. She bends and twists and darts and dashes in between every last inconsolable chunk of debris.
The creature, the vampire(?) hurtles up as though lifted by the hand of God. Kyouko produces another chain-spear, wraps the loose end about her waist, tosses it up almost nonchalantly...and launches it for her target with a brutal roundhouse kick. The length of the links grows and grows as needed. She aims to pierce the beast so thoroughly that it couldn't possibly dislodge her savage touch..and to be lifted to the heavens along with it.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Masterstroke on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Kyouko Sakura's Masterstroke, taking 44 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Oh.
It is so much larger than Mikoto thought. In the pit of her stomach, she feels something cold -- fear, fear that she might not be able to destroy it. That it would fly away, and her sword would not reach it.
She scrambles back to avoid the feathers, but she's just a hair too late. The feathers slice her, cutting skin and uniform alike as she crashes to the ground.
A sound comes from her throat - a snarl, as Mikoto pushes herself upwards. It won't get the best of her -- it won't -- She hears Mai's voice, and runs towards it, calling: "Mai!"
It won't escape, it won't get the best of her, because she has Mai. Mai, who has always helped her -- Mai, who fights alongside her with that burning light. She runs to Mai, and Mai picks her up and ushers them both into the sky with her bright fire-rings, those flames which should be terrifying but which Mikoto is comfortable around because it's /Mai/. 'The moment you can see it--' "Right!", Mikoto nods.
And when the monster appears again, Mikoto will hurtle towards it, launched by her companion to cleave right through its shadows. Her obsidian blade is so much darker than it will ever be -- and its blood will only stain Miroku darker.
(The headband has since tilted askew, but the camera light is still blinking. Are they getting all this?)
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Destruction on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Destruction, taking 43 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
It can fly?
Since becoming the Magic Knight of Wind, Fuu has run into a truly incredible variety of adversaries, including some who are not remotely above scaling buildings in the middle of combat. But a monster that can genuinely fly under its own power is another whole level of tactical complications. Fortunately, while actual flight is a little beyond the Magic Knights' capabilities, the Wind Knight has a trick up her sleeve to help make up for that deficit.
First comes the storm of blade-like feathers, though; the Wind Knight calls out, "Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi!!" as the feathers come in, and a powerful whilrwind of her own whips through them, scattering a number of the razor-edged 'feathers' and continuing onwards to buffet the Orphan itself. Not that the Wind Knight escapes unscathed, but she could be far worse off.
And then it's time to give chase. "Hikaru-san, leap with me!" she calls out to her fire-wielding sister-in-arms; a split second's coordination, and the Wind Knight leaps, simultaneously conjuring a powerful updraft beneath herself and the Fire Knight.
Of course, she can't sustain the updraft *and* continue launching arrows at the same time; if nothing else, her own updraft would throw her aim very badly off. With that in mind, she lets her bow and her quiver vanish, and focuses instead on her magic. SHe can feel desperation clawing at her mind, at her heart - that terrible uncertainty, the doubt that she can do enough to stop this monster from wreaking even further havoc than it's already done.
There's only one thing left she can do, really - in short, everythign she's got left.
"EMERALD CYCLONE!!" shouts the Magic Knight of Wind, whipping her arms up as if slinging something underhand at the fleeing Orphan ... and sling something she does: namely, the winds of the storm itself, almost as if she's pulling the updraft out from under herself, turning it into an attack, and throwing everything she can muster in the Orphan's wake.
Of course, that's not really a safe idea in her currently airborne position ... how will she handle the landing?
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 29 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Hikaru finds herself getting hit harder than before, and feels like she's going to pass out... until Fuu's magic helps lift her spirits in more ways than one. She leaps upwards and finds a bit of strength. "Right, Fuu-chan! We can do this!" She aims her hands at the enemy and yells, "Fire arrow!" Before sending a fiery projectile at the enemy.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Fire Arrow on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Oh, la Sirene thinks, staring upwards - it has wings. A shower of feathers come down, and she raises up the Pharos in reflexive attempt to protect her face -
But what she's thinking in that brief moment is: How unfair! And also: I want wings!
And then Lera Camry - Cheeseburger Propane - sweeps down and takes her aloft. The lantern, clear and black as it may be, /does/ stand out in a weird, slightly eye-watering way, doesn't it? Hoisted upwards abruptly, she says, "What?!" And then up she goes, flying ahead towards the orphan, tumbling lantern over teakettle up into the air.
The wind, at least, buoys her, along with Lera's outrage. As she passes, rising upwards still, la Sirene aims a swift kick upwards-angled at the side of the orphan; her coat/dress catches the Emerald Cyclone, propelling her further upwards yet!
Hopefully there's something soft to land on.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Riders On The Storm on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Hikaru Shidou's Fire Arrow, taking 22 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Black feathers move through the night, each as sharp and deadly as any quarrel. She hears them coming and instinctively tries to leap, only to be struck in the side by one of them. It's solid enough of a hit to spin her around, and send her sprawling and skidding against dirt, leaves, and muck.
Groaning on the ground, she sees a flash of movement, which parts the smothering blackness, to let in dire crimson light. It was a reminder of power that had came to her, had been granted to her. Power she loved. And yet at the same time, power she despised, because she hadn't earned it. A hand grips the manifestation of her power so tightly that her skin begins to redden. Getting up, seeing it above them, seemingly unassailable by her, she felt even more helpless than ever. What could she even do now!? She might as well just-
Her eyes flash towards the absurd hot air balloon camera, listing away in the sky. A ghost of a plan forms, one which reeked of weakness, desperation. And yet, it's all she had. Looking down at her element, she decides to test its limits. It begins with a spinning motion, slow at first, but quickly gathering in momentum. Like a reflex game where one has to hit a button at the right time, she watches the gleaming arc, trying to get down the timing in her head as she moves it faster, and faster, to the point where it's a complete blur.
All of a sudden, she spins on one foot, and plants it, before casting the line high into the sky. At the same time, it extends, long past it seems the thing ought to be capable of, so quickly that the length seems endless. The weight hooks around the balloon, just above the camera, before she flicks her wrist, telling the magic within her element to stop. It grows taut. Wishing she'd paid more attention in physics class, she wonders how long the thing would be able to hold her weight. "Only one way to find out." She mutters, before she says, as a way to psych herself up and tell her the plan isn't quite so desperate, "Hope you're filming /this/ Suzushiro!"
A simple tug, and the explosive force of the line retracting sends her into the sky like it was some mechanical grappling hook. The answer as to whether the balloon can hold up her weight? Well it's almost certainly a no, given that it was designed for a camera. And so it dips in the sky even as she rises up to meet it, descending as she ascends. But as she reaches the absurd 'camera' balloon, the line detaches, keeping up the momentum as she's sent skyward, towards the thing, leaving just a kama in her hand. Even as Mai's passionate conflagration crashes against it, she rises in altitude over the 'vampire' before she reaches the apex of her climb, and starts to fall.
Another blackened kama materializes into her opposite hand, even as a wicked grin hits her lips. Even if this didn't work- she had to admit it was a hell of a ride. Spreading out her limbs like a skydiver, she attempts to crash into it on the way down, and if successful becomes a crimsom silhouetted creature of spitting mad feral fury, wildly slashing, kicking, and perhaps even biting, repeatedly, over and over and over without any sense of wanting to stop.
For just a few moments, losing herself within the scarlet haze of rage, as she tries to channel every feeling of terror, every iota of hatred she feels towards it for making her feel so small, so helpless, into the vampire. What it had done to the girls on campus? Well that more righteous feeling of fury takes a distant second.
Even if it connects there was still the question of surviving the fall, which was almost certainly going to hurt.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters La Sirene du Nord's Riders On The Storm, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Speed From The Shadows, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to La Sirene du Nord! COMBAT: FINISHER! Cassandra has used Wild Animal on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Cassandra's Finisher, Wild Animal, taking 101 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdKKYSLbM1s
Lera's the first into the sky, or the second behind Nori but faster than the throw and faster than Mai's truly immense and blinding wide-area flamethrower, which lick her heels -- and the monster's faintly-visible, shadowy talons -- even as they both soar ever higher.
It barrel rolls around the explosion of her Device, but there is a moment of connection all the same. It is not physical. It is palpable -- Lera's eyes meeting one of the Orphan's. What she sees within is... otherworldly, and not like Midchilda is so awesome while Earth is so backwater. She doesn't see another place that could be this place in another time -- she sees another place that must not ever be here, in this time.
Jagged darkness; painful heat; and most of all, a howling, chilling isolation, as though there are thousands of prisoners in one space who cannot see that they have one another for company. What -- who -- they yearn for is outside their reach.
All that remains is a terrible emptiness, a hunger so absent of feast that it cannot even be its own feeling, before the ground -- Earth's ground -- reaches up to claim her.
---
Meanwhile, Kyouko harpoons the Orphan.
Her kicked spear pierces it right in the intersection between wing and torso that might be a shoulder if its limbs worked like anthropormorphic joints, which they do not. It hooks, hard, and moments later she feels herself pulled aloft, a few drips of that acidic ichor raining down upon her from the wound. Mikoto passes her on the way up -- and then on Mikoto's way down -- as her blade forces the alien creature to bank, hard, away from the balloon.
It's overturned now, and totally unable to escape the Emerald Cyclone and Fire Arrow of the Magic Knights, which engulf it, the former fanning the flames of the latter.
When the smoke clears, La Sirene, thrown what now feels a lifetime ago to and by the plunging Lera, has an opportunity to kick, but inadvertantly finds herself impaling herself on one of those talons, if only the very, very tip.
Cassandra is there, though, with far more lethal impaling to come. The balloon drops a sickening thirty feet in an instant, brushing the tops of the trees even as the film club students scream, then starts wobbling back up into the line of fire. The HiME is by then on the Orphan's back, there and piercing and slicing and committing terrible, terrible violence that is turning the shadowy... bird...? bat...? robot...? into shreds.
It's still alive, though, and swirling in place, sending feathers out which somehow seem self-propelled, tiny blue rocket flames around the base of each pinion, to chase each of the girls in sudden, individualized dogfights.
All except for Mai, who is directly in the line of fire of its trajectory -- straight into the balloon itself, trying to pierce it, ignite it, explode it and everyone nearby.
---
Back at the chapel headquarters, Haruka sits on the edge of her seat, watching THE WHOLE THING from the Mikoto-Cam.
By tomorrow all of this footage is going to be mysteriously erased and she is going to be FURIOUS.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Cassandra. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on La Sirene du Nord. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Hikaru Shidou. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Kyouko Sakura. COMBAT: FINISHER! Honoka Yukishiro has used Final Flight on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking. COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Cassandra's Block ability activates! Cassandra's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to brace Honoka Yukishiro's Finisher, Final Flight, taking 98 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 38 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 9 Fatigue damage! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Kyouko Sakura's Block ability activates! Kyouko Sakura's Parry ability activates! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 19 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The world that Lera Camry sees isn't one that she wants to see, much less live in.
She remembers, unbidden, standing on a rooftop with Sailor Moon and staring up at the night sky. It wasn't a night like tonight; it certainly wasn't a night like the one in that thing's eyes. The moon was much larger, then. She remembers not feeling lonely, despite the way she always does when she looks up at a night sky with stars that aren't hers. That feeling is far off, though, in the cold blackness within those eyes.
Her throat catches -- her heart catches. She forgets to keep her flight spells up.
And so she dives down, slamming into the ground below with a loud thump. She hits the earth hard enough to leave a small crater; she has fallen from worse, though, and her Barrier Jacket absorbs the blow.
It flickers out, though, and leaves her in the sky blue uniform of Infinity Institute. She punches a hand into the ground, hard. It was just an illusion, she tells herself. It wasn't real. "Sky," she says, hoarsely. "Set up."
<...>
Nothing happens. No flash of light shoots up around her; nothing comes from her partner. She looks down at the tiny pen in her hand. "Sky," she says, her voice ragged. Her bangs hang in front of her eyes, shadowing them and hiding the tears welling up. She lacks the conviction, and it shows in her tone, to make her command stick: "Set up!"
No response comes to.
She makes a gutteral, angry noise, and punches her hand into the ground again. "Sky, c'mon," she says, a third time. The growl in the back of her throat turns into a whimper, though. He isn't replying. She realizes, then: he saw it too.
A couple of tears fall down onto the ground, before she pushes herself to her feet. She doesn't look back up into the sky. Instead, she takes off into the forest, walking first, and then quickly running.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
For a short time, the night is bright. Mai's desperate flames pursue and ensnare and generally just burn in the skies - the Orphan banks away from them, but at least by that light, it can be seen...and in the chaos of the battle, she hurls Mikoto to greet it more personally. Somehow, one way or another, it won't escape...
Mai can't help but let a small grin loose at Mikoto's attack - one that widens at seeing Cassandra tear into the monster. Violent, yes, but...this, at least, is a target deserving everything it gets. The 'vampire' is struggling, flailing to escape - and attacking once more, unleashing those burning feathers to pursue almost everyone. In her case, however, the Orphan is throwing itself forward with those same rocket-flames - a powerful, clumsy force to bring to bear. Easy enough to fly out of its way...
There's a scream from behind her. Mai looks back for a moment - the balloon's right there, with a pair of terrified 'volunteers' staring in horror at death fast-approaching.
Mai Tokiha turns back to the charging Orphan, menacing fiery doom for whoever it manages to reach. Her, or the bystanders in the balloon...she doesn't even know them, wouldn't think twice passing them at school. Are they her responsibility to protect?
It's an easy decision.
With a scream of defiance, she stands her ground - upon rings now blazing white-hot, thin air is as solid as stone. The Orphan charges, some pointed appendage first - talon, beak, whatever it is...she takes it alone. Rings slamming into it as a desperate defense, raw power meeting raw desperation...and raw determination. The full power of the Orphan's attack slams home, ignites, detonates - and when the smoke clears, Mai is falling. To crash into the tree canopies below, unable to do more than watch...
...but she didn't move. Before it could reach the balloon, the Orphan was stopped. That....that's good enough, right?
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
It remains alive through the onslaught. Some part of Cassandra is impressed by its resilience. However it also leaves her feeling less sure of her abilities. The swings slow after a while, weariness settling into her limbs to replace the fear that she'd vented out through pure rage.
However, as the thing regroups, and begins to create self-propelled pinions their way, she lashes out with a hand, digging into the thing with her hands, ceding nails for purchase that'll keep her from falling. She rolls to the side and clenches her abdominal muscles as eerie blue flames appear underneath her, barely keeping her grip, growling as they lance into her, tearing the lower half of her hooded jacket to pieces.
As the thing heads towards the balloon, she has a vague look of horror which is perhaps a little paradoxical given that she endangered the lives of everyone in that balloon not long ago, before it turns into further fury. "Oh no you /don't/!"
She growls, her opposite hand raising the blade high, even as it rams into the other HiME, jostling her before the strike can fall, spoiling it. "Tokiha..." She utters as she watches Mai plummet from the sky, her tone a touch sad. Well- she hopes she lives, she at least didn't hate Mai Tokiha, even respected her a little, which elevated her above 'people who Kozue Kaoru despises' which was an understandably long list.
The element blade raises again, and this time she puts all of her remaining strength into it, wielding it like a rice farmer at harvest time. Except, in this case, the fruits of her harvest wouldn't be rice- as she attempts to cleave it deep into the creature's back.
Feeling utterly spent, she tried to figure out a way to get off, weighing her options as she looks forward at the balloon, then down. Eventually she notices the Puella Magi created harpoon chain that extended from the creature down to the ground, allowing herself to fall until her tired fingers barely grip the line, and then starting the long trip of attempting to monkey bar her way back down to the ground, at least trying to get as far down as she can manage while the opportunity presents itself.
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Savage Harvest on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto catches hold of Kyoko's chain with one hand and both feet at the end of her attack, using it to swing herself back towards Mai. She'll catch her, and then they can --
Mikoto sees it all happen in an instant, even has time to correct her trajectory to try and leap, to save her.
But she's too late. She's too late, and Mai crashes down, and Mikoto catches onto one of the free rungs of the ladder rather than fall beside her. "Mai!", the girl cries, struggling to keep hold of Miroku and the ladder and her grief and worry all at the same time. "MAAAI!"
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Up high like this, la Sirene can finally see the world spreading out beneath her, night and all. The sight of Cassandra's kama reminds her of that frustrating feuding - brief as it was - that they had in that museum...
Flames billow out, the hot air making la Sirene's form hover in midair as it rises. Handy as this, the furious storming of the Orphan's corpus makes la Sirene wonder, faintly, at herself. Her own weapon - it's a lantern, lights, the storm... It suits her, but...
Doubt rings in her, like a struck bell, as the talon sinks into her shin, tracing a hot red line of pain through her leggings.
Is this her place? Is this her fight? Perhaps she is more akin to this being than to the others. Where they burn hot (in one case literally!) she runs cold.
The wind whirls in her ears as she reaches the apex of her slightly-delayed rise upwards. For that moment she is perfectly in balance, the Earth yet to reclaim her, and then the doubts find something to rest inside of. A memory, a recent one - the helpless face of the fallen Wakaba Shinohara. A victim. Helpless in the face of this.
Down much lower, Lera sheds tears. La Sirene sees them sparkle, impossibly clearly.
The feeling runs down her spine like liquid silver. The light that never warms, Batiste called it cryptically. La Sirene feels nothing resembling warmth, but she does not feel bad at all. Her eyes blaze as she turns the Pharos forwards, saying as she does: "Creature!!"
Walk into the storm, she thinks. I can carry it. Let the seas rise, let the wind smash like stone. A razored feather rockets up and smashes directly into her shoulder hard and her face doesn't move beyond a hitching in her eyes.
"For the wounded and the broken," la Sirene du Nord says, "I will end this. I, la Sirene du Nord, will stop you - if it takes me all night long!!" She turns herself and if she must she will fall into the creature and smash it down as best she can, but this is not a desperate plan.
La Sirene squeezes the handle of the Brazen Pharos has hard as she can. The lens cap does not flicker open, letting a momentary gleam of shadow come out. What lances outwards is a surging tidal ripple - anyone who had the unique pleasure of the perfect line of sight up into the mirrored dark-reflecting depths of that strange ammolite-chased source of shadow would see a thin square, a sliver showing something else, glimmering with moonish light and strange aurora -
Cold light rolls out like a living sea, over a dozen surging tendrils seeking to embrace and /grind/ into the Orphan.
The liberating tide of this comes out through la Sirene's mouth. "You won't break me! Come and try!" she cries, her voice high and penetrating. Perhaps she will have cause to regret this in a moment - no, though; there won't be any regrets.
COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene du Nord has used Paint It Black and Take It Back on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqEmRjtTVzQ
Ground floor. Going up.
Kyouko is launched from the earth so savagely that, for a moment, it feels as though she'll be torn asunder at the waist. Her eyes are screwed shut from the shearing resistance of the air, the flesh of her face visibly depressed against the G-forces. She opens her mouth wide, all the saliva battered from her throat and drying in instants, and screams with a ferocity that's lost to the stratosphere.
She's going up, and she's going to do her damndest to kill it. She'll chase it into the sun if need be, she'll have her satisfaction.
Two things could happen. It could climb and climb..and her only choice would be to climb herself, up the chain between them to slowly close the gap. Or, it could turn abruptly, and she'll be lifted..the latter isn't up to her, and the former requires her efforts, so against the terrible forces conspiring to remind her that she is not meant for this swathe of the earth, she shoves a hand up and clutches at the chains..then another...a small shape hurtles up beyond her, a snarling beast of tooth and nail that Kyouko feels a strangely kindred spirit towards. That same bundle of black hair and black blade falls soon after..but as she does the long-winged vampire sags and shifts for the first time..
Kyouko is catapulted high into the air, above her quarry. The momentum of her rise has not yet been co-opted by the sudden bank. Her fist still tight against the line between them, she yanks herself forward, her supernatural strength rocketing her down. Her eyes are slits, barely seeing a thing..for the moment her hands remain free, but she produces a spear..then another, and another, and dozens and dozens more.
With a thousand tails tipped by a thousand stingers, she crashes into the demon. A pair of blades manifest in her grip, more shiv than shaft and closer resembling daggers than polearms. She shrieks like one of the Eumenides, stabbing both hands down into the thing's neck like a psychopath, the cloud of spear-tails behind her biting and striking like the enraged hair of an immense Medusa.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Kyouko Sakura has used Prominence on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Sure enough, taking the time to fling an Emerald Cyclone at the Orphan costs the Wind Knight most of her lift; when the Orphan launches its retaliation, she's already falling. Which actually helps a bit as far as evading; she conjures a few more updrafts, enough to make her weave unpredictably in the air, coincidentally steering herself towards a moderately safe lannding.
... except she doesn't really WANT to land yet, does she? And more importantly, Mai seems to have been knocked out of the fight; if the Wind Knight can provide an updraft to soften the fire-using HiME's fall, it's certainly not going to be a waste of her magic.
At the same time, though, it's not like she has a great deal of magic to waste. Her bow and quiver reappear after she finishes casting the updrafts where they can be helpful, and she lets another arrow fly. She doesn't quite have the strength of will or focus left right now to sheath the arrow in magic to guide or acccelerate it; she just has to try and use the winds themselves to get her arrow where it needs to go ...
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Basic Archery on Honoka Yukishiro. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking. COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro perfectly dodges Cassandra's Savage Harvest, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges La Sirene du Nord's Finisher, Paint It Black and Take It Back, taking 86 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Kyouko Sakura's Finisher, Prominence, taking 112 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Hikaru, unfortunately, is unable to control herself well enough, and even with the updrafts, she falls towards the ground a little faster than she should. She lands with a thud, and while she's not out cold, she's in no state to keep fighting. "Sorry, I need to pull back..." She mutters.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Basic Archery, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erG5rgNYSdk
Girls are dropping like flies, like chafe, like sakura petals. They are beautiful and deadly, and beautiful in death, or near-death as the case may be.
Mai's body sprawls -- Mikoto's eyes look more painful. The balloon, at least, is still intact, drifting aimlessly a few handspan above the trees.
Lera walks away -- Kozue too, after a Parthian slice that catches only air, denying her even satisfaction. The Magic Knight of Fire falls back.
But two girls stand their ground.
The first is the keeper of tears: she of cold seas and dark skies, wielder of a lantern that sheds not light but its opposite. Even in the darkness, every color can be found. There are lessons that can only be learned in such places, at such time.
One such object lesson is inflicted upon the massive Orphan as the surging tendrils wear away at its bulk like an endless millennia of tides. All things come to an end.
The second is the wielder of thorns, of chains, of fire. Wielder of herself, of her heart, and her consequences. She plunges like a falling red star and a meteor shower of spears fall with her, landing on the creature's still-bare back and piercing it in every conceivable direction.
Each blade weeps a hint of blood that has nothing to do with the Orphan.
It crashes to Earth, plowing an immense furrow, every moment of grinding impact wearing more of its body away. It becomes smaller and smaller, until it's barely large enough to bear that twinkling crimson rune.
Even that is pierced at the last moment by the Magic Knight of Wind's arrow. It fades into the ground, clinging the last of its existence around it like a tattered cloak, blasted beyond repair.
The ground will be poor refuge, but there are other places it can go next.
---
Back at headquarters, Sister Sanada says nothing, her head bowed in horror, as Wakaba's wound is bound by a summoned nurse in anticipation of the arrival of an ambulance. Haruka glowers at the screens as the tree-perches of most of the cameras fall, the equipment with them, fuzzing on impact with the ground or any of the detritus -- or flame -- tumbling through the air. Now all that's left nearby is Mikoto's, though it's more than enough.
But further away, across the forest, another camera observes a different scene entirely. It's video only -- no one can hear Miyu scream.
---
No one, that is, except for the little girl directly underground, whose cameras /do/ have microphones attached. Narrowing her eyes, she extends her palms further apart, her fingers straining.
A second rune appears on the stone, beside the first.
She collapses to her knees, pouring sweat.
---
No one, that is, except for Akane Higurashi and Kazuya Kurauchi, the disgustingly cute boyfriend-girlfriend pair who wait tables at Linden Baum as efficiently as they're patrolling another part of campus. Kazuya insisted, as it's the right thing to do. Akane refused to let him go alone.
Apparently that consideration doesn't go both ways. "Stay here!" she shrieks at her dearest friend and ardent love -- possibly future husband someday -- as she charges into the woods, closing with the scream at a tremendous pace, one helped, after a few moments, by the fact that she is riding a sabre-tooth tiger, or a creature very like it, with blades jutting out of its neck. Its faintly mechanized tail lashes back and forth as they dart through the trees, hunting the hunter.
They arrive just in time to pile-drive the shadowy Orphan, twin to the one above, off of their classmate, Miyu Greer. Somewhere along the way Akane has materialized twin, massive tonfa, which beat the monster back, away.
Her Child roars, lightning crackling around his back, which is beginning to unfurl massive prongs even as the Orphan unfurls its wings.
A moment later, the world is lit up white and black by the power that passes between the two of them, lightning finding its target and shattering it into even purer nothingness than it was composed of in the first place.
Akane crouches next to Miyu, banishing her tonfa whence they came. "Don't worry," she gasps, "It's okay. Everything's going to be fine -- you're safe now."
Miyu's red eyes are as unreadable as usual, but they seem dimly relieved. "Yes," she agrees softly, almost inaudibly. "I was able to gather some very valuable data."
The Child, Hari, turns from the scorch mark that was an Orphan to growl quietly at Miyu, but Akane doesn't see. Her eyebrows knit, confused, in the same moment that Kazuya bursts into the clearing.
"...But there's one last thing that I need to test..." Miyu continues, as she flashes towards the Child, faster than the eye can see. Her foot lashes out and sweeps the beast into the air. Her arm is waiting, pointed upwards. She doesn't have fingers any longer, only a blade.
Akane feels Hari get impaled as though it was her own heart, but that's only the beginning of the pain. Hari turns towards her, confusion in his eyes, before shattering into bits of spirit.
Kazuya rushes over to his girlfriend. Miyu has already faded back into the forest, but a camera is watching as he holds Akane gently. "It's okay! I don't..."
"No," she croaks. "You don't understand. If Hari dies, I..."
Sparkles are rising all around her, each one a beautiful mote of light so pure and transcendent that it defies a single color, encompassing all and none.
"...I..."
Kazuya coughs weakly, interjecting. "Akane-chan," he whispers, the last breath that will leave his disintegrating body, "I... love..."
And then he's gone, and there is nothing holding her, and she is holding air.
The fourth scream of the night crashes through the forest, and this one decimates its precedents for agony. By the time she's found, the girl sits listless, dull-eyed one moment and wild-eyed the next, with only one word passing her lips, over and over, its syllables instantly breaking and rebreaking in endlessly changing cadence:
"Kazu-chan -- Kazu-chan."
