2015-05-31 - Monsters By Moonlight 3
| Title: Monsters By Moonlight 3 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: A mysterious message calls magical girls to an oil refinery to stop the strange 'Vampire' monster, and to rescue Midori Sugiura. Unfortunately, it's a trap. It's obviously a trap, and disaster is sure to ensue. | |
| Who: Mai Tokiha, Natsuki Kuga, Mikoto Minagi, Cassandra, Lera Camry, Fuu Hououji, Hikaru Shidou, La Sirene du Nord, Mami Tomoe, Alyssa Searrs, Miyu Greer
| |
| Where: Keiyou Industrial District | |
| OOC - IC Date: 15 July 2014 - 05/31/2015 | |
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm2UHRMKtic
LAST TIME ON MONSTERS BY MOONLIGHT
About a month ago, Ohtori suffered a rash of assaults on young women at night, attributed in whispers to a vampire. Alarm on campus skyrocketed; even by normal school standards, this fear and tension was beyond the pale.
Led by Disciplinary Executive Haruka Suzushiro, the Student Council issued an emergency curfew, which was unpopular with the student body. Fortunately, it only lasted one night; that very evening, several things occurred:
1) Haruka and a small army of volunteers witnessed choir teacher and chapel Sister Yukariko Sanada standing over a wounded Wakaba Shinohara with a weapon in her hands. Somehow the weapon was lost in the chaos that followed; Wakaba was remanded to the hospital and fortunately returned to school the next day with nothing more than a few stitches and a bandage. Sister Sanada, meanwhile, was held and interrogated by the Student Council, but eventually released as there was no material evidence of any wrongdoing on her part.
2) Unknown to the normal students who assisted Haruka in rescuing Wakaba and securing Sister Sanada, but noticed by the magical girls present that night, the true threat turned out to be a massive, winged monster -- identified by some of the magical girls in the forest that night as an Orphan. It had a pulsing red rune on its forehead identical to those of other monsters who, in months prior, had attacked a number of locations around Tokyo (including Library Island, Hikawa Shrine and Tomoeda Theme Park, among others) that were eventually revealed to be coincident with a series of ugly 'modern art' geomancy mirror installations. (The mirrors were later used to move one of the Control Points for the World Tree's upcoming once-a-century energy release from 'underneath Magic Association headquarters at St. Ursula's Cathedral' to 'parts unknown'. This event involved a massive battle against a different forest-monster, one without any such red rune on its forehead. Even magical girls who were not involved in these events may have heard of them through subsequent rumor; it was a big deal in the Tokyo supernatural community.)
3) The magical girls engaged the monster in battle in the Ohtori forest and the skies above it, but it ultimately escaped, fading into the ground like a shadow. However, the campus state of emergency was suspended thanks to Haruka Suzushiro's 'successful' apprehension of the culprit, and even after Sister Sanada escaped, it was never re-instated. There have been no more attacks -- what could the monster be up to?
4) That same night, eleventh-grader Akane Higurashi and her boyfriend Kazuya Kurauchi vanished from campus and have never been seen again. It wasn't noticed right away, but eleventh-grade homeroom teacher Midori Sugiura appears to have disappeared as well; her classes have had a substitute ever since. Neither hide nor hair of these people, or the monster, have been found...
WHICH BRINGS US TO TONIGHT
...until now.
Half an hour ago, Mai Tokiha, Natsuki Kuga, Kozue Kaoru, Nori Ankou, Hikaru Shidou, and Fuu Hououji received a text message on their phone from an anonymous number.
VAMPIRE SIGHTED AT OIL REFINERY IN KEIYO INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT. MIDORI SUGIURA IS BEING HELD CAPTIVE THERE. PLEASE HURRY!
The refinery in question is a gigantic tangle of tanks, pipes, towers and cranes. At night, it's a maze of shadows interspersed only occasionally by the coal-red of hot machinery and the blinding white of spotlights.
One such spotlight mercilessly illuminates Sugiura-sensei, who is, as promised, trussed up around her torso by a bunch of ropes, one of which snakes up to the edge of a balcony. She dangles limply, perhaps unconscious.
Which would make her totally unaware of the good half-dozen blueflame rocket-propelled, razor winged, manta ray-esque monsters screaming towards her, gaping fangs-first.
One of them plows straight through an oil refinery column on the way in, creating a stinking plume of smoke and shooting flame. It can be seen from miles away.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro transforms into Vampire!!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 8 opponents!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Magic Knight!
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou transforms into Magic Knight of Fire!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has fully healed herself.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Half an hour is not a lot of time to make your way across a city as big as Tokyo; fortunately, Fuu was already in the general area when the message came in on her phone. The fact that it's coming from an anonymous number is a small surprise, but she sets that thought aside in favor of making the best speed she can to the refinery in question - mostly in the form of the Magic Knight of Wind.
She gets there just in time to see the manta ray mechanical things zooming towards Sugiura-sensei; she barely finishes landing from her last jump before straightening up, holding her left hand out towards the monsters, and shouting, "Winds of Admonishment!!" She can't slow all of the monsters down with the tornadoes this spell conjures - the monsters are moving too fast, and they're (probably) too far apart for that - but she can at least try to intercept one or maybe two of the closest ... and just because she doesn't think she can get all of them doesn't mean she won't TRY to at least slow them or throw them off-course or something.
Needless to say, she's also hoping she isn't going to be dealing with these monsters alone; that's a fight she's pretty sure she would lose, and a loss HERE doesn't much bear thinking about.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Something strange is going on here. It could be, perhaps, that there's the issue of a vampire being sighted somewhere nearby and a girl is being held captive by the vampire. Or, it could be perhaps the fact that someone somehow knows Hikaru's secret identity and is rubbing it in as a joke. Or, it could even possibly perhaps be that someone is a cruel jokester and is playing a prank on Hikaru just for the hell of it.
Unfortunately, Hikaru doesn't believe that this entirely is a hoax. After all, with youmas and things like that appearing in Japan, what's not to say a vampire could show up as well? Of course, Hikaru's not going to take any chances either. She doesn't show up as her normal self, but as the Magic Knight of Fire instead! She happened to be nearby on a day off, enjoying some time to herself when the message came. The funny thing is, the whole idea about it being a prank only occurred to her as she was rushing to the nearby spot.
Once she got there, after finding a spot to transform along the way, she spots the Magic Knight of Wind and realizes that she made a smart decision coming here. Deciding to assist, Hikaru sends forth some fiery magic of her own. "Fire Arrow!" She calls out, sending forth a fire shot to assist the Magic Knight of Fire in her attempt to slow down the monsters. "This can't just be a coincidence, can it?" She says to the Magic Knight of Wind after casting her spell.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Fire Arrow on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Fire Arrow, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
It was quiet...too quiet, as cheesy as the phrase sounded it fitted the situation. Natsuki stole one more glance at the text message before climbing off her bike to go into the refinery. It was a trap, anyone with half a brain could figure that much out, however she had to go. While Natsuki didn't have much attachment to the other HIME, there was a high chance District One was behind this, and thus there was a slim chance she might find answers she needed.
Before entering, Natsuki took a moment to summon her guns to arm herself. She was not going to be caught off guard. Natsuki then carefully entered the compound, and making sure to duck behind crates to stay out of sight. She spotted Midori up ahead, but since she wasn't yelling or at least trying to yell at her captor, she had probably been knocked out already. Ducking under the pipes, the scent of ash and fumes kept Natsuki on edge...enough that she could spot the creatures heading towards Midori.
Staying behind a crate for cover, Natsuki opened fire on the monster nearest the teacher in hopes to distract or better yet injure it. One bullet might not do a lot...but a series of icy shots might at least grab its attention.
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga transforms into HiME Natsuki!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has used Freezing Bullets on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Nori Ankou's phone buzzes in the middle of what was shaping up to be quite a nice evening of laying in giant pillows and perhaps watching a nice spooky old film. Opening up, she blinks. All frivolity washes away. The vampire.
Sometimes the films come to life.
Soon enough...
La Sirene du Nord did not bring the storm with her; or at least, if the storm yet reigns, it hides inside of the Brazen Pharos. Breathing heavily after leaping across rooftop and freeway and riding two-fifths of the way atop an elevated train, la Sirene du Nord looks up bleakly at the creatures attacking the teacher.
The Magic Knight is here... Both of them. But, la Sirene thinks, even as Batiste moves from coat pocket to shoulder, and then leaps out into the works, what can she do?
Then la Sirene recalls. "At this distance... if anything," she says, straightening up and raising the Brazen Pharos, "it should work better." And then, up on that vast cloud of smoke, a titanic shadow is cast - a huge and looming creature, long-fingered, trailing light. A satanic apparition indeed -- and it's 'diving' towards those creatures! Perhaps it will startle the six of them.
COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene du Nord!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Brockenspectre on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Natsuki Kuga's Freezing Bullets, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Stun, Tangle, and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces La Sirene du Nord's Brockenspectre, taking 6 Fatigue damage! La Sirene du Nord is Psyched! Diversion applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
...A vampire, of all things.
How terribly improper.
Mami didn't find herself at the center of the issue before, not living in the dorms, but as an Ohtori student and professional magical girl meddler, she can't help but look into what happened, pay attention, and see what it might mean.
Her phone does not ring tonight, but she wasn't really expecting it to. ...However, she's still in the area. After what happened at the art exhibit, Mami can no longer in good conscience trust the landscape of the city to stay as it was. She'll have to do some searching for herself, and if someone doesn't like it...
That's just fine with Mami.
She's trying to be subtle all the same, of course, avoiding any unnecessary confrontations, but explosions are the enemy of subtlety. The oil column goes up in flames, and Mami, on the ground, whirls around to see what's happened.
In a flash of golden light, she leaps upward, kicking off against a wall to propel herself to the rooftops.
It won't be long.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe transforms into Puella Mami!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Half an hour ago, Mai was settling down to dinner. A bit of an indulgence on her part, taking the time to make something more elaborate than usual. Citrus-glazed pork, tangy, served with rice and bamboo, with vegetables sauteed in rice vinegar...a melange of several recipes, with a few original seasonings thrown in...the last half hour of cooking filled the dorm room with delectable odours. Just about ready to serve...
And then her phone rang a delightful little jingle to signal that a text message had arrived.
The only good news was that it wasn't about the disaster she feared - but an anonymous number reporting on things that shouldn't be related to her was bad enough. Still, if truthful... A lid slammed down on a pot of deliciousness. "No time to eat, Mikoto - that Orphan from before is back! Let's go!"
Some snuck into the compound with subtlety and grace. Some leapt from rooftop to rooftop to reach higher ground. Mai flew - rings blazing in the night sky, reflecting baleful crimson as she claimed the sky for her own. As a refinery column ignites, billowing smoke, she can see the monsters - the plural being the most concerning part of that statement. Them, and Midori Sugiura...
Saying Mai was fond of that teacher would be an overstatement. Overbearing at times, awkward for her declarations of fighting for justice and for her merciless history assignment. Still, another HiME...another ally, not a bad person, and not someone who deserves this kind of thing. Her rings, blazing with determination, burn just a bit brighter - and as she closes in, they lash out.
At first, it's like a pair of fiery whips. As they sear through the night, however, they curve strangely - whipping round and round whatever monsters are in reach before closing in. It's a cage, an embrace of fire, to interrupt wild charges and force them down...to where they can more easily be reached.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai-HiME!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Infernal Embrace on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Kozue was in a foul mood during finals week. Anyone who got in her way was subjected to all sorts of verbal abuse, a few even being summarily shoved as she passed by in the hallways. A few naive children attributed it to being jilted by someone from her collection of boyfriends, even though she'd never cared in the past, this one must have been /special/.
Few would have suspected that it was because music was suddenly a part of the Kaoru household again, something hailed by professionals and admirers as a medical miracle. As the melodious rays of the sunlit garden floated through the halls even at night, it only served to make the younger twin feel like she's going to puke- "I'm going out." And slamming the door extra hard just as the piece reached its culmination to punctuate the fact that she was.
Leaning against the wall outside of their home, she took some time to catch her breath, some small part of her elated. The rest of her feeling like she wanted to scream just to release some of the tension. She settled for digging her nails into her palm instead, and tachypnea which set her hands to shaking, her chin tilting to better look at the crimson glare obscuring her vision. Allowing herself to slide down the wall into the overgrown grass and weeds, the buzzing of her phone went unnoticed for a time. Unwelcome, unwanted.
Thinking that it must be one of her collection, she finally moved out the phone with white knuckled trembling hands, determined to just outright dump the offender as harshly as possible for the crime of texting her at a bad moment, she touched the button to light up the screen, then stared. And stared longer. She hardly cared about the 'seventeen year old' history teacher but suddenly the opportunity to vent her frustrations was far too tempting for her not to take.
~Not Long After~
Umbral metal gleams in spotlights as it arcs through the air, a deceptively sturdy weight on a long wire attempting to plow into a one of the manta rays and drive it into one of the refinery's brick walls. The one holding it licks her lips from the catwalk she stood upon, annoyed that that melody hadn't yet vanished from her ears. Well- that's alright. She knew exactly how to get her mind to hit the mute button.
COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into HiME Kozue!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Infernal Embrace, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Diversion and Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Vicious Circle on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Cassandra's Vicious Circle, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is Quipped! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Cripple and Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto Minagi, naturally, does not have a phone. It's dubious whether she even knows how to /operate/ one. What she does have, however, is a roommate named Mai Tokiha -- a roomate who makes food for her and is therefore, perhaps, one of the best people she knows.
It's the most /delicious/ of foods which is interrupted by that text message. Mikoto's face falls in dismay, but it's a sadness which is soon supplanted by a frown and a nod. "Right!"
Some are graceful, coming in. And some charge in, below the lighthouse of flame, screaming and dragging an obsidian sword against the ground. Mikoto springs onto the remains of that column and leaps up, through the smoke, swinging Miroku in a wide arc.
She doesn't have to /see/, after all. She just has to have a /really/ big sword.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Divebomb on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Divebomb, taking 9 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Honoka Yukishiro [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> tinyurl.com/owxvp2c
The intervention is swift, though imprecise, as girls pour into the refinery from all directions. Let's count the mantabeasts diving at Midori:
#1: Wholly enveloped in the Magic Knight of Wind's tornado, then inflamed by the Fire Knight's arrow.
#2: Tried to dodge Natsuki's ice bullets, but even a clip to the wingtip sends freezing veins straight down its form, causing it to slow its flapping, and then drop like a stone.
#3: Distracted by a shadow from La Sirene's lantern, diverts to soar around the flaming column.
#4: Burnt and forced to turn back by Mai's cleverly placed whips -- one of which incidentally, severs the rope suspending Midori in the air.
#5: Wrapped by Cassandra's weighted wire -- and slammed into a brick wall.
#6: Bisected by Miroku. Period.
Midori falls, and at the last moment reveals that she was playing possum; in midair she summons some kind of weird, long double-headed axe that students of history (such as herself) might call a labrys. She lands hard, shoulder-first, on the platform below, and gets to her feet unsteadily.
She wastes absolutely no time laying out what's happening, her green eyes snapping almost as loudly as her voice, which is confident and commanding, if a little tired. "They're going to merge--"
The survivors all turn as best they can, then converge into each other right where Midori was a moment ago. Flesh roils and bubbles as it merges, and then the same massive beast of a month ago is back in living color.
"--yeah. Listen up, kids, in case I don't make it out of this alive: the night of the curfew, I followed a lead on old Fuuka Island architecture and wound up underneath the Chapel. Stumbled right onto some kinda hidden room! Father Greer," the head of Ohtori's Catholic School and main priest of the chapel, "And Alyssa Searrs," a sweet little girl who wins choir competitions at the international level, also the daughter of the CEO who built Searrs Symphony Hall, "Were down there, with all kinds of equipment, talking about Sister Sanada, but I only heard them for a minute before someone took me down from behind. They've kept me pretty drugged since then."
It might have been a mistake to pause for all this exposition, but then, despite her jaunty demeanor, she's leaning pretty hard on her polearm, now that she's on the ground. She might not be much use in this fight.
The 'vampire' Orphan hisses, and acidic steam boils straight off of its fangs and into the air in a gigantic cloud, merging with the toxic smoke from the oil refinery to create a truly awful atmosphere. Then it begins to bank, in order to come around for another pass.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Natsuki Kuga.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Hikaru Shidou.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Hissing Breath on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Wheeling About on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Wheeling About, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha perfectly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Brace! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mikoto Minagi's Fade ability activates! Mikoto Minagi's Flash ability activates! Blind and Cripple applied to Mikoto Minagi!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Natsuki Kuga's Fade ability activates! Natsuki Kuga's Flash ability activates! Cripple applied to Natsuki Kuga!
COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly counters Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Cripple applied to Cassandra!
COMBAT: Cassandra's counterattack, Shearing Spiral, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates! Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates! Blind and Cripple applied to Fuu Hououji!
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Hissing Breath, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Hikaru Shidou!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
At least it wasn't only the Magic Knights who showed up; the Wind Knight sees a number of familiar faces, and a few unfamiliar ones, whether they received summons similar to the message *she* received or just happened to notice the chaos breaking loose. The Wind Knight spares a glance to her fire-wielding ally, noting, "I doubt it could be at this stage!" - and then leaps again ... only to see that Sugiura-sensei was able to take care of her own landing.
The mantas slam together - the five of them which remain, at least, after Mikoto cleaved one like nobody's business - and begin fusing back into their single 'vampire' form - as the Wind Knight alights from her leap and listens to the 'briefing' from the halberd-wielding HiME ... and the 'vampire' finishes its recombination, venting corrosive vapors which mingle with the smoke rising from the burning oil pipe. The Wind Knight brings an arm up to try and cover her mouth, but she catches a whiff of it anyway, starting to cough, then doubling over as merely coughing lets *more* of the noxious miasma into her lungs. Her following dive off of the ersatz perch she was using isn't entirely accidental; she manages to will enough of an updraft into being to slow her descent, managing to land on her feet, then re-harnesses some of that wind to blow cleaner air into her lungs. It's still not great for her, but ...
"Winds of Healing!!"
It's enough for her to cast something more effective. The cleansing, restorative breeze wraps around her, soothing the stinging in her eyes and the burning in her throat, and she sends her healing magic towards Mikoto and Cassandra for good measure, to help them recover from their own exposure to those burning gases - mostly because they're the most convenient allies she can see from where she *is* right now.
She'll climb up to rejoin the fight momentarily, if the fight doesn't come back to her first.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cleanse! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Mikoto Minagi's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The icy bullets fly and hit their target full force. As the creature's wings freeze and it dive bombs to the ground, Natsuki can see others appearing. Some are HIME, others are girls she had never seen before, but nor does she care right now...well, at least Mai and her pet cat were here. She could at least count on them being somewhat useful. Natsuki is almost regretful when she realizes Midori is indeed awake, but instead of a justice speech like she had been dreading - her last one still ringing in her ears - her eyes widened at the names.
"Alyssa Sears?! She's involved in this?..." she exclaimed, as she turned her attention to Mai. She knew the girl didn't want to get involved, but this was something she should know too. "I've been researching them for months! The Sears Foundation is involved in controlling half the planet, at least. They rig elections, ruin or create countries' economies, even decide what diseases should be left uncured for their own benefit..."
Her grip tightened on her guns. "If they're working with...or even if they're rivals against District One, this thing is even bigger than we imagined."
With little further warning, the Orphan appears in full glory, going to attack with a mist that she did NOT want to get near. Natsuki leapt, but not fast enough before she breathed in enough of the mist that it singed her nose hairs. She stumbled as she gagged to get the thing out of her body.
"Tokiha! Keep your and your pet's guard up!" she called out. She then rolled forward and aimed both pistols to fill the creature with bullets. She would take this thing down!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has used Lone Wolf Barrage on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Natsuki Kuga's Lone Wolf Barrage, taking 29 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
That stuff stinks... and stings too. The smoke causes the Magic Knight to cover her face with her arm, but it's no use. She coughs a bit and wheezes, and also finds it hard to keep her eyes open. The tearing in her eyes and the burning sensation makes things a bit blurry. She squints in an attempt to make out what's going on, but it's quite difficult to do as her eyes aren't cooperating with her.
Doing her best to make out where she is and where her opponent is using logic and memory, Hikaru attempts to use her sword to send forth a flaming slash. "This isn't fair, darn it!"
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Flaming Slash on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Hikaru Shidou's Flaming Slash, taking 4 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 21 Fatigue damage to Hikaru Shidou! Critical Counterhit!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
La Sirene leaps up into the catwalks, cat-walking indeed to get close to Midori as she speaks. She is there in time to hear 'in case I don't get out of this alive'. Her eyes widen, and hse listens intensely.
Searrs? What? La Sirene du Nord has heard of her, obviously, but she frowns just the same. Equipment, a nun... what is this? To her it makes no sense, but before she can do more than frown darkly, she hears a warning cry from Batiste up on a pipe.
She looks up as the cloud comes - and makes a sweep with one hand, a cross-breeze keeping her own body unpolluted, at least for now. "Hmf," she says aloud. And then -- "What?" la Sirene says to Natsuki as she reveals the true face, the /harder/ side, of Searrs.
But the creature's making its attack run. "Foolish beast," la Sirene says, pivoting to face towards it. She raises the Pharos then. She watches it - and when it's facing towards them, she opens the lens cap. A streak of dark, almost painful to see black lances outwards, erasing subjective visibility and feeling dismayingly cold -- perhaps it will condense the creature, make its toxins gelid and counteracted. La Sirene hopes.
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 braces La Sirene du Nord's Pieces of the Perfect Black, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There's a cringe from the HiME in the skies as the rope burns through - and a sigh of relief as Midori manages to pull herself out of things. Without hesitation, she descends to solid ground - almost a free-falling descent until blazing levitation 'catches' her. She'd never make it in the Tuners like this, but she wants to check on the person first and the monsters second...
The warning comes just in time for her to see it - Orphans merging together into a visage not seen in weeks...and that still isn't long enough. Mai freezes where she stands, staring up at the Orphan named 'vampire', remembering all too well its attack on the school. Desperation and courage won in one sense, but... Midori's single-word summary manages to shake Mai from memories, and she turns to regard her teacher fully.
As Mikoto arrives, Mai not-too-subtly steps around to be close at hand - and between Mikoto and Natsuki when the latter turns up. There was a deal struck, but even so... but there's a lecture to be heard, and for once, Mai is trying to pay attention to one of Midori's lessons. (She can't help it, this one sounds serious.)
"Still digging into what's going on with the HiME, sensei? But...they were talking about the Sister? That's..." That lone wolf of a girl - Natsuki - turns to her, and Mai's gaze is if nothing else less innocent than it was the last time they met. "...she's...part of them? Some mega-corporation bent on world domination? That's crazy, what kind of..."
She trails off, horror dawning as her arms fall slack. Coincidences and crises of recent recollection return to mind, and her next words are chosen carefully. "...you're serious. That on top of these rampaging monsters, and ancient evils bent on controlling the world, and schemes to control a giant tree - there's this, too?!" Further complaints are interrupted by the Orphan rearing up high, mouth seething with acidic steam.
Mai's fury at the sheer scope of the enemy takes the form of a blazing wall of crimson light - hot enough that the toxic smoke ignites, fire wrapping around the HiME. Her head snaps to the left, staring furiously at Midori. "Get out of here, sensei - you're hurt, and I'm not inclined to let this thing get away again." She glances to Natsuki, to Mikoto, takes in everyone else here...
...and still maintaining that crimson light, rises up again. Rather than let it break, she pours more strength into it, until it's not so much red as white-hot...or at least some hue of pink. Then, she lets it break - a surge of heat and light, as the 'Vampire' wings around to face in her direction.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Devoted Scintillation on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mami arrives to the sound of a strangely calm lecture, but she recognizes that kind of voice. ...'if I don't make it out of this alive'.
But for the golden Puella Magi, none of that is /showing/ as she leaps off a final rooftop and into view, sailing through the air in a brief, graceful protest at gravity as she looks down to the creature at hand.
Oil. ...Fire. Acid.
"Searrs?" she murmurs at Natsuki's explanation, but...
Mai, at least, she knows. That's a start.
With a wave of her hand, she sets out one, two, three rifles, arrange almost in a cone. They hang in the air while she falls, and fire with a tug of some invisible cord, all triangulated right for the Vampire.
...While Mami herself touches down on one knee, landing beside a certain teacher. "I hope you don't mind if I cut in," she says calmly. "I'll take care of her," she tells Mai, and... Well, tells Midori, for that matter. She didn't exactly /ask/.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Triangle Sniper on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
'Listen up,' says the teacher who is nice and who is a HiME and fights the same enemies Mikoto does. Natsuki, who also fights those enemies and who is not nice but who Mikoto is not allowed to fight on pain of losing her bento boxes, lends her own information to the spiel.
In the end, all it adds up to is information Mikoto isn't sure what to do with. So she does with it what she does with anything she's not sure what to do with: she shoves it aside and focuses on what's in front of her.
But...
Mai is not focusing on the Orphan. And Mikoto should focus only on her enemies, but Mai cooks the food which Mikoto loves. So she calls out, to her, words sharp and clipped: "Mai! The enemy!"
It's a good thing, too, because that vampiric Orphan isn't satisfied being anything less than the centre of attention. Mikoto springs back, but it's too late -- you can't evade mist! For a moment she coughs, blinking against the pain in her eyes, but the Wind Knight's gust blows the pain away. Mikoto shakes her head, and jumps away.
She'd probably say 'thank you' if she was better socialised, but she's always been a bit of a feral cat.
Up onto a pipe, Mikoto charges forward towards the Orphan, leaping forward to bring Miroku down and do exactly what she did to the smaller manta. Searss, District One -- neither of them are here right now. Neither of them are fighting her right now. Right now, the Orphan's all there is.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mai Tokiha's Devoted Scintillation, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Blind and Cripple applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Triangle Sniper, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe is Psyched!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
Somewhat pleased with the ferocity of her attack, the line zips back into her hand, which after only a moment's rest, she sets back into an easy circle, spinning it in one hand while it remains attached to the haft of a sickle bladed object in the other. Looking at the history teacher out of the corner of her vision, she looks away, then back. Just a little surprised as Midori Sugiura turns out to be- well likely a HiME if she was reading the appearance of that axe correctly.
The exposition comes, and Cassandra's expression stills, any anger that might have drawn the lines smoothing out to take on an all too neutral affect. Saying nothing despite understanding most of the implications, she looks back just a second too late, as a cloud of acidic steam starts to roil towards her. Reacting instinctively, she spins around, before pitching out the line in it's direction. Blades 'shink' out at the end of the weight, the speed and the spiraling motion perhaps denying her a small measure of pain as it disperses a small part of the mist coming her way. And yet, the the spinning bladed weight misses the creature, the line listing then sinking as it loses its momentum.
Even if the acid in the air is more dilute, it still hurts, and Cassandra finds herself gritting her teeth and closing her eyes to deny the acid purchase to more than just her skin, the hissing noise just a little unnerving as it bubbles. Noting the hissing of the metal on the catwalk she's standing upon, she begins to run, just in time before one of the struts collapses, causing a chain reaction as that section does in a screech of twisted metal. Only once the feeling receded from a cool breeze of healing washing over her did she breathe again, casting a glare at the creature as she judges its size, idly offering to the Magic Knight of Wind, "Whatever. Shouldn't you be looking out for yourself?"
However it's a comment from Natsuki that draws her gaze, momentarily flicking towards the aloof girl that sent off the barrage of freezing bullets earlier she says playfully, "Hey, Frosty! If you wanna blab about how it's all connected then that's a-okay, even if I wished you kept it to one of your conspiracy blogs." But then suddenly there's a harshness to her tone, as the next words are growled out, "But call her a pet again and you may just have more of a problem than you can handle." Maybe she liked wild animals? Or just this one at least.
Her gaze flicks around the battlefield, until she decides her course of action. Stilling the circling of the wire in her hand, she shifts her grip and allows the line to retract almost organically. With the weight dangling idly in one hand, and the sickle blade held tightly on the other, she hops up to the railing, and leaps into the air, the spotlights initially illuminating her flight she bounds to a rooftop. She makes one last leap, through the billowing cloud of smoke caused by the manta ray smashing through it earlier. Allowing it to obfuscate her leaping from above from the hoard of spotlights, she leads with the weight as she descends, using it like a heavy sap bludgeon to its manta ray like upper body, before she follows with a vicious slice that... if she's fortunate, will splatter the ground below crimson.
COMBAT: Cassandra accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Cassandra's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Crimson Cadenza on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Cassandra's Crimson Cadenza, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Cassandra is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Speed From The Shadows, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cassandra!
<Pose Tracker> Juri Arisugawa [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
<Soundtracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRpw-8vxZag
Fuu discovers that it's difficult to stay out of the battle for long; on its way in, the Vampiric Orphan flaps its wings, releasing a familiar and deadly cloud of rocket-propelled pinions. It's a good thing it sent them out early; Natsuki lights up its chest with more bullets, forcing it to abort its strafing run any further.
Wheeling to one side, it comes in low and tight with a wing in the same plane as Hikaru's flaming slash, a wing which is razor sharp and leaves pain in its wake. It vanishes back into the shadows, and it is there that it takes La Sirene's beam of purest darkness face-first and mostly without effect, other than to add to the ice entrusted on its belly, causing it to spread with a crackle.
As soon as it's flown out again, it's met with a countering wave of heat and light which seems about as effective as the cold and darkness -- which is to say, not very -- but that staunch toughness does not seem to apply to a trio of golden bullets whose retort is like the finale of the battle's first act. Flapping its wings a second time, it sends out more feathers as it passes by, at Nori and Mai and Mami -- and Midori, who ducks, narrowly.
"Stay, this is more important," Midori replies, meeting Mami's confidence with equal and opposite panache -- and an equal tell to ask ratio. "I'll go rally the fire department to establish a perimeter." The flames of the first oil fire of the evening cast shadows across her grim face. "We're gonna need them." Glancing at Mai over her shoulders, she leaps painfully into the night.
The Orphan finds Mikoto at the end of its trajectory, and veers sharply to the right, causing the impact to raise sparks but no ichor. The HiME winds up on its back, a problem possibly solved with a nimble barrel roll truly and creepily impressive for its size, one that comes with sufficient speed as to be painful.
Especially since it's now flying over a vat of some awful refinery byproduct.
In midspin, it parries Cassandra's bludgeon with one wing and takes the slice on the other one, raising a sharp TING! and sparks. Lots of sparks. Then the wing slides up the length of the blade, trying to counterslash the HiME on the backswing, as it were.
"You're close, Natsuki Kuga," calls a flat voice from higher up the industrial towers. The total lack of intonation, the perfect neutrality, is in its own way bone-chilling. "The Searrs Foundation has been steering the course of the planet for thousands of years. It has many names, and many faces... it is as inescapable as gravity itself."
From out of the shadows, into the red light of the flames, two figures step: the speaker, Miyu Greer, still in her mustard Ohtori High School uniform, crimson eyes totally without affect --
-- and the hot-topic-of-discussion Alyssa Searrs, a tiny doll in black fabric and lace, her rioting mane of blond hair secured by a silken ribbon.
"This Valkyrie may have stumbled on us by accident," Miyu continues, chinning at Midori blandly, "But the arrival of the rest of you is /no/ accident. This is the end of the line... the end of the world. Your world, anyway."
Alyssa's tiny hand tugs gently at the hem of Miyu's skirt, and the older girl kneels. Standing on tiptoe, she whispers something into Miyu's ear.
When Miyu rises, it is with inhuman grace. Whatever dampeners she had previously had in place to disguise her precision of motion are gone now, perhaps for good.
She closes the distance between herself and Natsuki in an eyeblink, her right arm shifting its structure into a metallic blade even faster than that. Its presence is known after the fact by a sonic 'zing', which is what happens when a sonic boom is compressed into a line of atomic width.
Alyssa remains up on the higher platform, watching the battle with her hands clenched in her skirt, lower lip bitten by her recently-acquired new front teeth.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa transforms into MIYU: MODE D!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 8 opponents!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Sword And Borg on Natsuki Kuga.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Wings To Freedom on Hikaru Shidou.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Speed From The Shadows on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Speed From The Shadows on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Speed From The Shadows, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Cassandra's Block ability activates! Cassandra's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates! Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 14 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Sword And Borg, taking 12 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 26 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Speed From The Shadows, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Wings To Freedom, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Hikaru Shidou's Block ability activates! Hikaru Shidou's Parry ability activates! Bind Break! All of Honoka Yukishiro's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
She was worried--but it seems like Mami doesn't really need to 'take care' of Midori much at all. Hardly about to /argue/, she instead smiles slightly as she nods. "You can count on me," she answers instead, and makes no move to follow.
...Maybe she ought to be in less cheer in such a dire scenario, but there are a lot of maybes at Ohtori that don't ever work out.
But--
Mami's eyes narrow at the strange voice, her eyes immediately searching out the source. The uniform, the voice...
"What?" she asks, covering her confusion with anger. "Don't be ridiculous," she replies, but says no more at first. The end of the world, is it?
She has a bad feeling... but the feeling alone doesn't tell her what's going on. Miyu moves with a speed that takes her out of even Mami's vision, and it's only with a harsh leap that Mami can hurl herself out of the way of what could otehrwise have been a fatal maneuever. She drops through the air again toward a lower rooftop, landing in a roll that takes her back to her feet in moments.
"Conspiracy theory is the refuge of the desperate," Mami calls out. "I suggest you quit while you're ahead."
She doesn't give her much chance, though; Mami pulls out a rifle, conjuring and firing in the same instant, and lets the recoil carry her backward; again, again, shot after shot to gain her some distance on this dangerous new opponent.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Flourish on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
A barrage of feathers showers down around the Magic Knight of Wind - and stuck in the 'alley' as she is, she can't dodge all of them, although she certainly tries to outrun the Orphan's strafing. She hears the new voice, though ...
And in striving to escape the feathers and the alley, she manages to get a clear if brief view of the speaker, Miyu Greer. What brings the Wind Knight up short is that Miyu as much as takes credit for the message that led so many magical girls here; the blood starts to drain from her face ...
The Orphan takes priority for now, though. And given the battlefield, it's pretty clear to the Wind Knight that holding back isn't much of an option.
"Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi!!" shouts the Magic Knight of Wind, conjuring a violent storm and attempting to catch the Orphan fully within its rending winds. It won't restrain the monster like the Winds of Admonishment are meant to, but then, the Winds of Admonishment are meant to HOLD an enemy, not flense it like the sickle-weasels of Japanese folklore.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa perfectly dodges Mami Tomoe's Tiro Flourish, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Juri Arisugawa's Fade ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"Tokiha, have your freak out later!" Natsuki snapped. "Now is hardly the time for it!" Natsuki ran as she shot rapid fires into the battle ahead of her. Her hands mood non-stop as she spun and shot around her. She didn't take time to see the damage she caused, but instead uses her moment to shoot a glare at the unknown HIME who mocked her from above. "I'm hardly going to take orders from strangers, especially those who refuse to keep themselves blind to the truth."
Then to her horror, Natsuki got the proof she needed as Miyu and Alyssa appeared. She gave a wolf like growl and pointed her gun at them. "I wish I could say I was surprised by this, but I'm not. What is your plan for the HIME?! And what do you mean, end of the world?! What could you possibly-"
She was cut off as Miyu chose then to lunge impossibly fast and strike her with her sword. Natsuki barely managed to hold her ground and block the attack with her guns, but she gave a wince. This girl was strong! Was she even human?! She managed to pull back and glared. It was time for back up.
Natsuki stood straight and as she spun the gun in her hand. "DURAN!" she called out with all her might.
Within seconds she was surround by ice and wind as a mechanical wolf appeared and stood next to her protectively. "Load Frost Cartridge and fire!"
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga transforms into Natsuki and Duran!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has used Frost Cartridge on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Hikaru is countered, leaving her open for another attack. She tries to defend, but it's not easy with her vision still impaired. She grits her teeth and tries to brace herself for impact, but the pain still stings within her body. She curses silently, wishing that her eyes would clear already. She attempts to locate her enemy with logic and memory once again, this time preferring simple swordsmanship.
"Dunno who you are, but you're gonna pay for this!" Hikaru cries out as she attempts to strike with the old sword!
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Sword Slash on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Razored feathers storm down on la Sirene; she raises her arm up and high, in order to block her face. To her great chagrin, this only works to a certain extent, and she feels a hot sting on her inner arm. She straightens up - but the sting doesn't fade, and she looks at the catwalk, and the depth in which the feathers are buried.
Then at her wrist. Her face ashens momentarily. Then she looks back up as the young Ms. Searrs lands and as a flat voice speaks to them. Her eyes widen, even as she clutches her wrist to her chest. "... My - world?" she says.
"Cousin!" Batiste says - and he leaps into la Sirene's lap. No, not to be reassuring, for once. Some hurried consultation and la Sirene stays in her crouch, wincing faintly. As clever paws do their work, she replies to Miyu. "Then -- are you the one who contacted me?"
Then she rises upwards, that blue ribbon tied around her wrist. Batiste, now unadorned if pretty easily recognized nonetheless, scampers behind her as la Sirene raises up her Brazen Pharos. "Les Mysteres," she whispers, raising up her injured arm - but injury or no she can complete the charm: "Come!!"
And the Pharos disgorges an inky ball swirling with silver towards the high-speed, high-efficency mechanical assault aiming at Natsuki Kuga!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Les Mysteres on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 34 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa fails to counter Natsuki Kuga's Frost Cartridge, taking 28 Fatigue damage! Tangle and Trap applied to Juri Arisugawa!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa's counterattack, Bullet Julienne, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Natsuki Kuga!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa perfectly dodges La Sirene du Nord's Les Mysteres, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Juri Arisugawa's Fade ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Those comment - Mai whips around with a glare, retort just on her lips as Midori leaps away. "And what do you mean by that, sens..." Too late - her teacher is already gone. She manages to spare a glare for Kuga...but they're distraction that cost her. The brilliant flare was less effective than she might have hoped, the monster considerably readier to retaliate than she'd expected. A hailstorm of feathers practically swats her out of the way, the barrage forcing her back to crash into a nest of piping. Yet more of that barrage assaults the piping itself, releasing steam to hiss into cool night air.
From the hissing cloud, Mai emerges - a little the worse for wear, watching warily as the Orphan wings its way over. Tougher than she remembered - though that might be partly due to her not seeing the whole battle previously - but still, this time it shouldn't-
And then a bright, young, and impassionately cruel voice answers Natsuki's theories, and Mai's blood goes cold. She tears her gaze away from the Orphan to stare at the girl, terrible certainty settling in. "Y-you! You two, again, just like with the World Tree..." Her voice raises to a heated pitch, as she flashes back to the last time she faced this inhuman foe...and her bodyguard. "What is this supposed to be - not world domination, since apparently you -already- run things - what are you even trying to..."
Miyu's gone. Flashing with movement, to...blue catches her eye, and she shouts a warning far slower than the sword. "Kuga, MOVE!" She's about to lunge down there, to try to do something...but Duran appears. Enough?...enough to buy a few moments, hopefully.
Eyeing the Orphan, Mai takes a deep breath, and calls out one dangerous sentence. "Mikoto! The girl with the sword - that's an enemy! Understand, an enemy!" Hopeful that those words will reach her companion, Mai doesn't look back as she charges towards the flying orphan - aiming to smash into a wing, anything to hinder its flight. Dealing with both it and that girl...
Midori might be right to get the fire department, at this rate.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Binding Ember on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Hikaru Shidou's Sword Slash, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Hikaru Shidou is Psyched! Stagger and Stun applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Mai Tokiha's Binding Ember, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates! Stagger applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Darkness In Flight, partially gets through, doing 6 Fatigue damage to Mai Tokiha!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
The Orphan wheels, and Mikoto digs in her blade and sticks to its back, flattening herself against the wind. For a moment, as it maneuvers, that's all she does -- tries to avoid falling into that pit of whatever-it-is. (It smells bad. Not bad-food bad, or even boys-after-swimming bad, but boil-the-skin-and-kill bad.)
There is someone else here -- she can hear the new voice, even as she tries to keep her position on the Orphan. But she's busy, and so, her attention is only drawn when she hears Mai's voice.
'The girl with the sword, that's an enemy!'
And something slot-shlink-CHNKS in her brain as her second most important person yells those words. Her yellow eyes seem to blaze with sudden intensity, and as Mai charges towards the beast she'd been riding, Mikoto leaps off of it, using it as a springboard to charge towards Miyu, who might have been a classmate, at one point or another.
Mikoto screams as her blade swings down, all force and fury. She sees the speed the girl moves with. She sees her power. And yet, now, acting on someone else's will, Mikoto does not think of Miyu's strength or her power as she strikes.
Miyu Greer is an enemy, and enemies must be destroyed.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Devastation on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly counters Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Devastation, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Stagger and Stun applied to Juri Arisugawa!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa's counterattack, Armed And Dangerous, partially gets through, doing 16 Fatigue damage to Mikoto Minagi!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
The counterslash comes up, and Cassandra finds herself using the momentum of the impact to roll backwards, her chin raising just in time for the razor tip to fill her vision. Realizing at the last moment that it was too fast, that if she didn't act that she might lose something vital, so her hands raise suddenly, the tip making contact with both ends of her weapon. Sparks fill the night as it screeches against umbral metal.
The impact alone of something that massive sends her spinning out of the sky, her guard shattered almost instantly. And yet, she has just enough control in her descent that she manages to right herself and land heavily upon the rooftop, her shoes skidding backwards enough to cause rubber skidmarks. For a moment her own cream colored uniform is lit up by the spotlights, marking at least that she's an Ohtori middle schooler. A moment later and she's looking down at Natsuki again from high above, calling down with a single hand cupped over her mouth, "Idiot. Just listen to yourself. 'Blind to the truth?' You and Sugiura can have each other. It'll give you someone to bounce your Illuminati theories off of at least while the rest of us take care of business." It's not that she really /didn't/ believe her, because she did. It's just that she took the bait and now has to follow-up.
And yet that voice, so flat, and yet carrying such authority draws her attention instantly, seeming to prove everything Natsuki says all at once. Or at least mostly prove it. This time she can't keep her expression neutral, as she looks upon Miyu Greer, a girl she recognizes only as 'eccentric' at best from the rumors around campus, and- the elementary schooler makes her balk a bit, visibly surprised by her presence as Miyu confirms Natsuki's words all the more. It's one statement of Miyu's in particular that draws her attention... "Interesting choice of words." She says flatly to Miyu, before her gaze flicks over to Alyssa again, "Isn't it past your bedtime?" She gets out. It's pretty condescending, but honestly it's more that she's upset about the idea of someone so young pulling the strings. Hypocrisy given how precocious she was herself? Maybe.
There's no time to contemplate that as, there Miyu goes, a blur of motion. So fast that it makes her dizzy even /trying/ to follow her. At once, she reassess who is the greater threat to her despite there being a stab of fear that she might be more than she can handle. With the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she's no longer hearing that song at least. Hopping down, she begins trying to track Miyu Greer's motions as she converges on Natsuki, past Natsuki.
Spinning it faster and faster, she suddenly lets go with her hand, letting the arc attempt to clothesline her where Cassandra 'thinks' she'll be, which would then cause the weight's motion to wrap around her and cut off some of that supersonic velocity and perfect reflexes. It's a bit of a desperate gamble given the reaction time Miyu is displaying, but if she can cut it off even a little? During the motion she idly she calls out, cocking her head towards Mami, eyes trying to keep Natsuki in her vision as she twists around the gun-wielding Puella Magi's words to suit her own devices, "Even she agrees that you're a sorry bunch."
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Enmesh in Tragedy on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly dodges Cassandra's Enmesh in Tragedy, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Juri Arisugawa's Fade ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Flash ability activates! Tangle and Trap applied to Juri Arisugawa!
<Pose Tracker> Juri Arisugawa [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bxYyUmvpFk
"Yes," Miyu agrees coolly as she seems to effortlessly sidestep one of Mami's golden bullets after the next. "The desperate do submerge themselves in /theories/, Puella Magi Mami Tomoe."
She continues forward inexorably, one step after the next, tilting her head to one side to allow La Sirene's mighty energy ball to fly past.
And then she's continuing to walk past, catching Mami with a literally backhanded blow, a pulse of energy out of the back of her palm. She doesn't so much as look at the girl as she sends it out.
Instead she accelerates towards Natsuki. Her blade comes up in self-defense, and beautifully, precisely impacts Duran's Chrome Cartridge--
--which explodes onto it in a cloud of frost. The shoulder joint of the blade shatters a moment thereafter, sending fragments everywhere in a cloud of razor debris. "You'll find out soon enough," she promises Natsuki grimly, not giving her the satisfaction of a wince, but narrowing her eyes as she catches the falling blade-arm in her other hand, now wielding it like a more traditional sword.
Logically enough, she slices it towards Duran, since a Child is a greater immediate threat than a HiME. Then, in order to directly undermine that very concept, Mikoto screams in and rather than aborting the slice, she continues it, succeed or fail, to parry Miroku directly, sword to sword. The blades are locked for a moment, before Miyu leverages truly inhuman strength to send the girl flying backwards.
In that moment, the Orphan blows past, struggling to overcome the galeforce winds from Fuu's Storm Dance, which rip and tear away a number of its feathers. More grow immediately, forming directly out of acid, which is uniquely disgusting to watch. Hikaru leaps in while it's still distracted, landing another hit on the growing feathers. Mai goes for this weak spot, and in that moment of exposure, she leaves a burn, but finds that the creature was all too happy to be impacted by her, accelerating into the blow to try to knock the HiME silly.
More of its razor feathers fly out to litter the walkway where some girls are gathered around Miyu. None of them come close to the Searrs operative, but they do seem determined to remind Mikoto that there are multiple enemies here to fight.
Alyssa just smiles and shakes her head at Kozue. "I received special dispensation to stay up this evening," she explains, not quite brightly, not quite sweetly, but certainly youthfully, despite her above-board vocabulary for her expected reading level.
Kozue's wires go mostly avoided, but one manages to loop Miyu's arm. She tears at it with horrible force, trying to drag the HiME towards her like she's the fisherman rather than the prey, towards her and towards her blade. As she hasn't been addressed directly, she says nothing, as nonchalant about this outstanding act of strength and violence as she might be buttering her bread.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Energy Pulse on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Debris Cloud on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Viking Florentine on Natsuki Kuga.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Slashing Free on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Quills Aflight on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Quills Aflight on Hikaru Shidou.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Speed From The Shadows on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cassandra fails to dodge Juri Arisugawa's Slashing Free, taking 28 Fatigue damage! Bind Break! All of Juri Arisugawa's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Quills Aflight, taking 20 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe fails to dodge Juri Arisugawa's Energy Pulse, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Stagger, Stun, and Trap applied to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Speed From The Shadows, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Debris Cloud, taking 5 Fatigue damage! La Sirene du Nord's Block ability activates! La Sirene du Nord's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga perfectly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Viking Florentine, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Natsuki Kuga's Fade ability activates! Natsuki Kuga's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Natsuki smirked slightly as she saw Miyu attack the shot directly, only for it to backfire and find herself within the cloud of frost. The blade shatters, but it's a short victory as Miyu now holds the blade as if was a regular sword.
Her eyes narrow as Miyu briefly comments on the plan. "And wait until you guys are ready to attack, never mind that I'm betting it includes us in body bags. I'll pass-"
Mai's warning alerts her as Miyu goes into another strike. Natsuki barely had enough time to climb onto Duran, yet it proved enough for the best to move both of the out of Miyu's path. She blinks momentarily - she hates to admit it, but Mai might have saved her butt then. "Um, thanks Tokiha," Natsuki grumbled and turned to see Mikoto go to attack head on. While not directly allies in her fight, they were both proving to be useful in a pinch.
She heard that HIME girl snark at her again, but she's too busy on the battlefield. "Duran," Natsuki ordered, "keep Miyu at a distance. Load Flash Cartridge!" The wolf howled as he shot a cartridge that exploded into a blinding light. Hopefully, it would have some effect on Miyu.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou perfectly dodges Honoka Yukishiro's Quills Aflight, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has used Flash Cartridge on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly counters Natsuki Kuga's Flash Cartridge, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cripple and Stun applied to Juri Arisugawa!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa's counterattack, Bullet Julienne, partially gets through, doing 12 Fatigue damage to Natsuki Kuga!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"What?"
Mami's eyes widen, first at the casual ease with which Miyu is able to dodge her shots, but then at the retort. Her eyes narrow, she tenses--the little signs that are easy to miss that reveal her feeling. "Who are you?"
She doesn't get the answer she wanted; instead, her backward movement isn't quite fast enough, as Miyu moves past--
And, to add further insult, strikes without even /looking/. There's nothing to read, to way for Mami to guess her move until it's too late, and the blast of force catches her full-on. The Puella Magi sails backward, crashing over the railing and tumbling down in a pile of dust and broken cement.
...Along the side, her hand catches an outcropping, and Mami catches herself before she falls any further with just the one delicate hand.
She doesn't argue with Cassandra; the girl's words registered, but now Mami can only focus on... Well, /this/.
This, and on making sure she doesn't fall the rest of the way.
Closing her eyes, she takes a breath before she jumps back into action: she pulls, and with magic reinforcing the maneuver she flips upward, her ribbons bursting outward to give her the push she needs to alight gracefully back on the roof, already firing back again at Miyu.
She saves the witty retort this time; she's too uneasy for humor.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Evadere on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Evadere, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mami Tomoe is Psyched! Bind Break! All of Mami Tomoe's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The refinery is aflame. That is the only thing that Lera Camry knows, immediately. Her teeth grit together as she flies through the air, fast enough to send her bangs back across her head and make her coat all aflutter. The girl's brown-gold eyes are narrowed; she dreads what she might find as she approaches. People could be hurt.
But she wasn't expecting the presence of the Orphan that she saw before. The look that gave her sent a shock of terror and darkness through her; it sapped her will to fight and it sent Soaring Sky into a terrified, silent state. The sight of it makes her pause. Her heart skips a beat and her eyes widen with that sudden feeling of fear.
"That... that thing," she murmurs, as she sees the Orphan struggling with the winds and hurtling razor-sharp feathers below.
<Lera.> Sky hesitates a moment, too. <Let's go.>
She nods. "Right!"
She goes flying in towards the Orphan. She is a bright blur of light in the sky -- well over the heads of those fighting Miyu -- and then she comes in swinging at the Orphan. Her sword ignites with a fiery glow, plasma leaving a twin trail of red-orange light in her wake. She slashes the Device sword down for the Orphan with a chop and a shout.
"Sorry I'm late!"
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket!
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Line Burst on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto meets Miyu's eyes as they struggle, her lips curled up to show her fangs.
(Strong. Stronger than her. But the same eyes, the same heart. And so, to destroy her--)
"Hrrrr," she snarls with the effort, a sound which pitches higher and louder as Miyu sweeps her sword and sends Mikoto flying backwards.
"--rraaaAAAAAAAH!"
The force of the swing sends her through the air, and Miroku slips through her fingers, swinging about and about before it embeds itself in steel so many metres away.
Mikoto slams into the ground a second later, that too-light body bouncing once before it comes to rest. She pushes herself up to her knees, and lifts her hands, staring blankly at her palms.
Open palms. Open palms. No. No! This is not how it's supposed to be! This is wrong - wrong! Where is he-- where is-- the realisation clasps her heart in cold iron, and her lips shape sounds.
"Mi... Mi, ro..."
So far away, the sword shimmers, slightly --
And then the razor-feathers slam into her, knocking her back to her hands and knees, the shrine maiden's prayer cut short.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi accepts Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 41 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Lera Camry has cancelled their attack on Juri Arisugawa. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Line Burst on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
More feathers get hurled through the air by the Orphan, and as much as the Wind Knight tries to dodge them, it seems almost as if the quills intercept her at the point in her jump where she CAN'T do anything to evade them; the end result looks almost as if she was pinned to a too-hot tank by an outline of the feathers ... except they aren't all arranged in a convenient outline.
The Wind Knight manages, with some caution, to wrest herself loose again, using one of the embedded feathers as a springboard to boost her leap away; as she lands on surer footing, a streak of light emerges from her glove-jewel, dividing into two and materializing in to her bow and quiver, the former resting in her hand, the latter across her back. She takes a moment to consider the Orphan's flight path, then plants her feet, pulling an arrow from her quiver; the pain and worry seem to fade away from her expression as she raises bow and arrow, nocking the latter to the former's string, and lowering the bow as she draws the arrow back. It's the same almost ritual pattern of movements that she uses to prepare herself for a difficult shot ... And given that she's currently facing AWAY from the Orphan, it's going to be a very difficult shot indeed, it seems.
But she's patient, holding her position, her eyes open and her gaze clear and focused, holding the drawn arrow ready. The sound of Lera-san's arrival draws a faint smile on the Wind Knight's face -
The Orphan makes the turn she expected, the wind is right, the arrow flies as though without a conscious action on the green-clad Magic Knight's part, and with just the right amount of luck, the arrow should find its way across the sky and into the Orphan's body, ideally somewhere vital.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Line Burst, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Trick Arrow Shot on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Trick Arrow Shot, taking 18 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
The luck of the draw seems to be with Hikaru. Her eyes are cleared and she can avoid the incoming attack with ease. Still, she's not letting up in this fight one bit. She knows that there's still quite a hard battle ahead of her. Now that she can see again, though, she looks to the Magic Knight of Wind and says, "We've come this far, now let's prepare to finish this!" She looks ahead and stares down the enemy with a scowl on her face.
"What you can't see can hurt you, sorry to say. But now that I can see again, I can definitely see that YOU have a lot to look out for!" She attempts to punctuate this with another strike from her sword.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Horizontal Slash on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Hikaru Shidou's Horizontal Slash, taking 4 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Reverse ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro's counterattack, Darkness In Flight, partially gets through, doing 14 Fatigue damage to Hikaru Shidou!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Struggling against the Orphan, Mai has little attention to spare for Miyu's own ominous words. It's tricky at best and disastrous at worst - there's this sword-armed war machine, a giant Orphan flying around and fighting half as many foes as it did last time, and that blond-haired girl of omen. Alyssa Searrs...
The Orphan met the tackle head on, and spun Mai off to the side - narrowly, she manages to avoid being more than clipped by the wing that follows that terrible beak. Feathers flying everywhere, this Orphan flying freer than ever before...for all her passionate fury last time, it wasn't enough.
Howling icy winds catch her attention for a moment, the battle between Duran and Miyu going better for Kuga than Mai had expected. With the addition of Mikoto to the fight...maybe they can deal with the strange girl. And as soon as Mai finds a way to deal with the Orphan in the skies...she can move to help them. Hesitance in that thought, more than she'd like to admit...but the last encounter, Miyu terrified her. Merciless and unstoppable, departing only because their task was done...
Briefly, Mai considers Alyssa - youthful, taunting with neither malice nor joy - but if there were a surefire way to bring that monster's attention to her, it would be that. Uncertainty in her flames, even as more help arrives...and then a pained shout grabs her full attention.
Mikoto - injured - swordless - helpless. Someone Mai truly cares about, in peril, with powerful enemies on all sides...
It takes a word - a call to arms, a plea for aid. "KAGUTSUCHI!"
A refinery stack explodes. Pipes fall in shards of half-molten metal as an inferno arises from behind Mai-HiME - and from the billowing smoke, a shape appears. Towering, alabaster and jade, a mighty dragon with wings of living flame - the Child of Fire, Kagutsuchi. Sword thrust cleanly to pierce its mouth, the dragon lets out a terrifying screech of fury.
Mai rises with the heat, alights on her summoned creature's head - and eyes burning with a glare as furious, she simply points. Kagutsuchi's wings spread wide, and it unleashes a series of fire blasts spreading wide - each smashing through steel and oil in pursuit of the enemy. Orphan and sword-wielder both, subjected to a fragment of the Child's power - with billowing blasts of flame to hem each of them in.
All the while, claiming the air, the child circles around for the right moment...
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai and Kagutsuchi!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Fervent Flame on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Fervent Flame on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa fails to dodge Mai Tokiha's Fervent Flame, taking 39 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Mai Tokiha's Fervent Flame, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates! Trap applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The person doesn't speak to la Sirene, but that's fair enough; well, alright, she does in her way, in the universal language of exploding shrapnel. Diving forwards, she eludes another deep penetrating sting like the one in her wrist, though her face tightens as she feels that razored feather - secured tight as it was - shift, just a bit.
Mami Tomoe went shooting past her, she thinks, albeit in a general way - 'that girl,' more than the personage in specific. The Orphan screams by too, even as she exhales.
The air feels wrong, she thinks. It's hot. The stink of it. She makes herself draw in breath anyway. "You're fast," she calls to Miyu. "And you're strong. But I have not had the honor of meeting you formally... May I have the honor of your name, before you, well, before things continue?"
La Sirene sweeps her uninjured arm out as she straightens up to her full height. "After all, you would seem to have the advantage of me... given that you were able to contact me, but I have never heard of you."
(From behind her is a squeak of, "What are you doing?")
The unwounded arm is brought closer, and la Sirene bows, if without taking her eyes (which are cold and glittering even in the chemical smoke rising around them all) away from Miyu. She doesn't answer Batiste, though she does say, "I am la Sirene du Nord - but I suspect that you knew as much!" Of course, this is around when Kagutsuchi starts rampaging out, which makes la Sirene inwardly question the wisdom of her plan of 'try to distract the swift Greer'.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has used Eyes in the Mist on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly counters La Sirene du Nord's Eyes in the Mist, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Juri Arisugawa is Quipped!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa's counterattack, Bullet Julienne, partially gets through, doing 27 Fatigue damage to La Sirene du Nord!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
She'd been mostly paying attention to her speed, but her strength was just as impressive, perhaps moreso. "Well aren't you a precocious one? Most kids would have used the opportunity to stay home and watched some late night anime rather than atta-" Realizing her error just as Miyu begins to tug on the line, she's torn from her solid footing before she even had a chance to pull it taut herself, cut off from.
Too shocked to just let go of her element, she twists to the side, just in time to avoid an impaling strike. Instead the blade glances off her side, the laceration leaving a giant slash in her uniform, a growing crimson flower blooming just above and below it, while droplets steadily fall.
Eyes dilating just a little as the immense pain hits her, she grits her teeth to avoid yowling, even as the loop around Miyu's arm falls lax, the weight striking the walk they're upon with a clanging thud. She realized then just how outmatched she truly was. Just like that one time. That infuriatingly beautiful man, all smiles and mocking laughter as he so easily thwarted her best efforts. How stark a contrast from this girl. Like the difference between a forest fire that would consume her eagerly and a hurricane that would hardly even realize she was there. In the end it didn't matter, they were both still forces of nature, weren't they?
If she died here, then everything would be for nothing. Everyone else would die too, including people she was minorly fond of. And so teetering on the edge of desperation, despite barely having the energy to summon it, much less control it, a word leaves her lips. "Cass-" She chokes, from the intense pain she feels at her side, before speaking it anew. Not realizing in the least that she would be playing into her hands
"Cassandra."
Even as 'Cassandra' sinks onto her knees on the platform, the true one leaps out of her, like a second soul leaving her body. The first thing Miyu might notice are crimson eyes, staring down from above the slender point of its beak a few meters above her, a moment before two thin walls of razors crash down in front of its mistress to protect her, and sweep outward to try to ward her away with fast moving strikes.
Once one has a chance to get a better look within the illumination of the moving spotlights, they would realize they look like feathers lining wings that glow faintly cerulean on its underside, attached to what had long been a symbol of grace and beauty amongst many cultures. It's known for something else too to anyone who had encountered, its ferocity. Opening its beak, it makes a loud trumpeting call, before the wings continue to lash out with light and forceful strikes, threatening their very footing with each clash of metal upon metal, sending up showers of sparks.
COMBAT: Cassandra transforms into Kozue and Cassandra!
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Toccata on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly dodges Cassandra's Toccata, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Juri Arisugawa's Fade ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Juri Arisugawa [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Natsuki claims that Searrs' plan involves the HiME in body bags. "Indeed not," Miyu corrects her calmly, seriously, right before her blade bisects the incoming Flash Cartridge, creating a massive explosion, "If you surrender now, I can assure you that you will be totally unharmed."
She pitches her voice more loudly, amplifying it so effortlessly that she might as well be hooked up to a speaker. "That goes for all of you," she announces, in the same moment that Mami's ribbons settle around her shoulders. The question as to her identity goes unanswered for now. "I cannot promise that your defeat will come without incidental injury, otherwise."
She yanks herself free with such a clean slice that it seems possible her whole body is sharp. That, or her sword was just wielded too quickly to see. "I didn't contact you," she remarks simply to La Sirene, who successfully distracts her in the sense that her blade heads directly towards the girl, without passing go or collecting money of any kind.
The Orphan jerks itself out of the way of Lera's downwards stroke, directly into Fuu's arrow, which buries itself in one of a dozen eyes spread across its mammoth head. As Hikaru tries to slash it on its way past, it once again lifts a razor wing to intercept, with jarring impact.
As Kagutsuchi makes the scene, the air shrieks in the wake of the speed with which it turns on a wingtip and gets OUT OF THE WAY. Miyu has less success in this effort, and the platform on which she (and others) are standing is promptly lit on fire, the girl disappearing into the flames entirely.
There is a moment of silence. From her perch on high, Alyssa watches quietly.
Then, just as the Orphan screams back into view, hurling itself at Kagutsuchi rather like David at Goliath while exploding more of those rocket-propelled feathers at anyone harrying it, Miyu emerges from the firestorm as though walking across the classroom. She has not caught flame at all, not even her clothing, which implies that she doesn't exactly wear the standard uniform after all.
She dives out of the way of the new Cassandra's wings, then dashes away, along the platform, trailing her sword behind her such that it can, if she is lucky, neatly bisect anyone between herself and the end of the line. Anyone, in this case, being 'Duran, Mami, and Nori'.
Then she leaps off the edge in a magnificent swan dive, fires a zip line -- just like Batman -- from her wrist -- swings in a splendid arc -- just like Tarzan -- and brings this overwrought series of analogies to an end as she kites her legs underneath her to land on a much higher platform.
Using gravity as her friend, she plunges downwards, directly towards exactly where she started: the fiery platform. She lands at the end, behind Cassandra-the-child. Possibly /upon/ Cassandra-the-child. Either way it is definitively Sword-first.
Deep, deep down, below pipes and vats and cranes... Mikoto goes momentarily unattended. But is she really forgotten?
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Armed And Dangerous on Natsuki Kuga.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Armed And Dangerous on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Armed And Dangerous on La Sirene du Nord.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has used Viking Florentine on Cassandra.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Hikaru Shidou.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Razorstorm on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has used Body Slam! on Mai Tokiha.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cassandra narrowly braces Juri Arisugawa's Viking Florentine, taking 21 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cassandra's Block ability activates! Cassandra's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 29 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Armed And Dangerous, taking 15 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Body Slam!, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Mai Tokiha's Block ability activates! Mai Tokiha's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou fails to dodge Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 39 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly counters Juri Arisugawa's Armed And Dangerous, taking 11 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe's counterattack, Tiro Retort, partially gets through, doing 35 Fatigue damage to Juri Arisugawa! Critical Counterhit!
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga narrowly dodges Juri Arisugawa's Armed And Dangerous, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Natsuki Kuga's Fade ability activates! Natsuki Kuga's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Honoka Yukishiro's Razorstorm, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Natsuki Kuga [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
She stared wide eyed as Mikoto was tossed into the air like a rag doll, and then pinned by monstrous feathers. The kid was either very strong or simply too stubborn to die. It was amazing she survived that. Granted, the look of rage on Mai's face could have caused water to boil...and if that wasn't enough, the rest of HIME seemed to have decided to join in on the fight with their Childs. Mai's dragon she had witnessed before - still just as terrifying as the last time - but the other one, a swan?
She hadn't encountered that before. 'Cassandra' it was called? Who was that HIME? Natsuki's eyes narrowed as she caught a glimpse of an Ohtori uniform on the girl. "Not surprised," Natuski remarked quietly to herself - if the HIME were to gather on that island, then this made perfect sense.
Miyu's oddly calm voice returned her attention to the battle. Her comment on how they wouldn't be needing body bags just brought a sick feeling to her gut. "Something tells me that what you guys have planned is worse than death. Sorry, but I won't be a part of it." At that point, Miyu attacked again. Duran jumped away, but not before the tip of Miyu's sword struck a legs causing Natsuki to stumble from the wolf's back. She hissed and cursed the pain away as she regained her composure.
"Alright, I'm going to end this mess!" Natsuki declared as she whistled for Duran, trying to gain some distance from the monstrous sword-armed girl. "Duran! Load Chrome Cartridge!" she called out. With a howl, loud enough to rouse the dead, Duran leapt back to a more distant platform before loading the next giant silvery bullet. "Fire!" Natsuki ordered, pointing at Miyu. "And take this girl down!" Her wolf glowed, and the blast was shot as the bullet seemed to glow bright as the sun.
"Get ready!" Natsuki called out to the other girls in the area. "I don't know if this will do it, but be on guard!" Natsuki had no idea if this plan would work, but one way or another, this had to end.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Natsuki Kuga has used Chrome Cartridge on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Natsuki Kuga has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly dodges Natsuki Kuga's Finisher, Chrome Cartridge, taking 46 Fatigue damage! Juri Arisugawa's Fade ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Bright lights above her are well out of Mami's field of view right now. /Most/ things frankly are, as she finds her questions going completely unanswered, until the loud boom of the offer Miyu makes comes through. It's so /calm/.. even as Mami finds that that sword can cut through her magic, too.
But it's only /worse/ as she hears a name she hasn't heard in some time, turns immediately to see the explosion that heralds the arrival of the gigantic Kagutsuchi in the midst of all this oil. The sword still through its mouth, the dragon takes up a /presence/ here--and is too alarming.
"No--!"
Cassandra's beautiful razors grab her attention next, as Mami finds herself in a rapidly changing battlefield--
Just in time for Miyu to seemingly come out fine from the flames. The sword is almost on her when Mami steps back, the blade cleanly slicing through flesh as the Puella Magi hefts a short cannon that was there only moments ago.
In the same instance, Mami takes the wound and fires her weapon at the passing enemy, the recoil knocking her the rest of the way back so she only takes a deep gash in her side instead of dividing in two.
She lands eventually, a few yards away, on a lower platform, teeth together to suppress any outward sign of the pain.
"Are you insane?" Mami shouts up at Mai. "You're going to blow up half the city /with/ her!" She can only glance above at the Orphan, what should be her target. ...But there are so /many/ dangers here, all at once. How many can she stop? Which is in the most danger?
She hurls her arm upward, and from it a brilliant red ribbon leaps into existence, to try and coil about the Orphan and take hold. If it works, Mami will be drawn up after it all too abrubtly.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Legare on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly braces Mami Tomoe's Legare, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Tangle applied to Honoka Yukishiro!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
"If you know us as well as you're hinting at," the Magic Knight of Wind spares a reply to Miyu, "you must know that we aren't the sort to surrender easily!"
Most of her attention is STILL on that flying Orphan, though; while Miyu is certainly posing a valid threat to the gathered - baited? - magical girls, the fact is that the Orphan is the bigger threat by any standard, and is far more likely to send the area up in a sea of flames (which it's already kind of doing) than the cyborg, gynoid, or whatever form of construct Miyu is would be.
So she can't spare much attention for Miyu or her opponents, partly because even more of those sharp-edged giant feathers are flying at her. This time, the Wind Knight resorts to conjuring a barrier to try and protect herself ... a barrier which those feathers are heavy enough to plow right through, albeit at some loss of speed and severe disruption of angle. In short, she gets slapped by them rather than skewered. It hurts, but it's better than the alternative - an alternative which she's gotten a few tastes of so far, and could do without any more of.
The wind-barrier dissipates as the green-clad Magic Knight gathers her focus and her will again; as before, when she was readying an arrow, her gaze scans the sky, finding the Orphan and gauging its path. Unlike before, there's a stiff breeze gathering about the Wind Knight as she leaps for a better perch, not wanting to stay in one place if she can help it; the wind boosts her jump, and softens her landing, even as her hair and skirts are whipped about by the breeze that envelopes her ... and grows.
And grows, and grows, leaving her standing in a one-girl typhoon. She finds the Orphan once again, drawing her arms up and back ...
And she shouts at the top of her lungs,"EMERALD CYCLONE!!!" as she brings her arms down, forward, and up, as if gathering up fistfuls of the wind about her and flinging it at the 'vampire'. And fling, in a sense, she does - save that the wind which follows her hands forward and howls away from her is no mere breeze, but the wrath of the tempest, driven to a fever pitch and sent screaming towards the flying Orphan, as if to either rip it into shreds, or to hurl it off the shore, past the bay, and into the depths of the vast Pacific Ocean beyond.
<Pose Tracker> Hikaru Shidou [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Unfortunately, Hikaru's gotten a bit too ahead of herself here, and found herself badly hurt. You'd think that with her badly beaten like this, she'd be holding up a white flag. But instead, the flames of justice burn deeper inside her as she forces herself back up. A supernatural glow can be sensed from within her. She clutches her sword and the glow seems to emenate into her sword as well. The flames grow as she stares.
"This battle has to end SOMETIME!" She yells out, raising her sword and causing flames to flow from it. "I will let the flames of justice burn and destroy you!" She sends the flames at her enemy. "SWORD OF FLAME!"
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Full on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Full, taking 56 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: FINISHER! Hikaru Shidou has used Sword of Flame on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Finisher, Sword of Flame, taking 68 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro's Fade ability activates! Honoka Yukishiro's Flash ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera flies over the top of the Orphan, just narrowly avoiding ramming into it, and looks down at it as Fuu's arrow strikes true. She grits her teeth, then looks up sharply as she gets a good look at Kagutsuchi. She has seen Mai's dragon before. She saw it attack another dragon once before, at Tokyo Tower. She breathes in sharply, looking up at the dragon. She isn't paying attention to the Orphan, though, and that costs her.
Two of the razor-sharp arrows fly fast and true into her. They slash along her left side; one hits her hip, the other along her torso, and leave two gashes there. A little red begins to blossom there and she almost plummets with the sudden sharp pain.
Her hiss is soft and sharp; she draws backward, then she looks at the Orphan, eyes narrowing -- and then they widen again quickly. She sees that bright red ribbon whip out and a familiar form follow. Lera goes flying in after Mami Tomoe, rushing back at the Orphan -- and to close to where Mami is coming.
She strikes, hard, by swinging her left foot in a spinning kick at the side of the Orphan. She turns, flashing a quick smile at Mami. "Tomoe-san! I thought you might want a hand against this thing!"
Before the damage spreads, she thinks, grimly.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Spin Kick on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro narrowly counters Lera Camry's Spin Kick, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Lera Camry is Psyched! 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 11 Fatigue damage to Lera Camry!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mai is there. Mai is there, and she is calling Kagutsuchi.
Mai will protect her even as she fails to do the one thing she was born to do.
Mikoto pulls herself to her feet as Kagutsuchi calls the attention of the Orphan, swaying, staggering a step back. She grits her teeth and holds out her hands, and calls, now, with clarity and purpose and power: "Miroku!"
And the blade shimmers and disappears in a moment, leaving only a deep gash in the metal it had embedded itself in. The blade shimmers and appears in her hand, and its steel feels warm in her hand. The blade feels its abadonment and it demands blood and Mikoto does not, cannot, protest.
She curls her fingers around the blade and plunges it into the earth and this time, the name is a scream.
"MIROKU--!"
From the earth come black spires, gigantic stalagmites which slam upwards with earth-shaking force. They pierce through the steel platforms and walkways, seeking to plunge themselves through the heart of the Orphan.
But they don't stop there. The earth itself lifts, grinds upwards, a hill formed by the mass what must be something /huge/ underneath the ground. It pushes, and pushes, and it means to take Miyu with it as well.
And Alyssa.
They are one hundred obsidian spires, each sharp, each jagged, and every one heedless of the safety of its allies.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mikoto Minagi has used MIROKU! on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mikoto Minagi has used MIROKU! on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, MIROKU!, taking 83 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly braces Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, MIROKU!, taking 31 Fatigue damage! Juri Arisugawa's Block ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene du Nord [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Birds, dragons, wolves - this is quite a menagerie, la Sirene thinks with the elegant and brittle internal wit of someone who is on the verge of screaming. Especially when Miyu speaks and -
"Oh," she answers, nonplussed, even as the blade slashes out towards her. Another stroke, which hits the boning on her dressy coat; fabric tears as she staggers back, grasping nearby railing and leaning back - leaning back HARD, which is most of why she gets only another agonizing line drawn across her abdomen rather than being cut into two marginally smaller Les Sirenes du Nord.
The fires rage around them. Swallowing, la Sirene lowers herself, creaking and wrapping an arm over her midsection. Misery trickles out; misery at the fire, at the horror she's stepped into, at the helpless feeling of knowing SOMEONE contacted her, of feeling like she's led into a trap. The pain in her wrist and in her belly.
Her breathing gets faster. Natsuki tells them to look out. Tomoe tells them - no, the dragon - to be careful...
What grows in her is petulant, childish, foolish, and /stone-crushingly powerful/. Pulling herself to her feet again, she looks up towards the distant Miyu. "I don't know your scheme, but if your plan is to start a fire and encourage it to spread, I hope for your sake that you have another one. Because -" And once more she raises up the Brazen Pharos.
That impulse, that turning-away, that sorrowful frustrated petulance - la Sirene grips it and it blooms inside of her, turning into stony determination as the familiar spell ripples out. The Pharos, in this case, only channels it upwards. What comes out of it is not quite darkness, but a rising branch of cool air, ascending high, punching through a stray cloud of smoke and raising it upwards...
The winds smash into the byblows of the emerald cyclone. That Magic Knight commands the wind, but what la Sirene touches is something not quite the same - the storm. The air crackles, growing heavy with tension then.
Thick droplets fall out, here and there. Harmless individually. Some of them flash to steam - others do not, accumulating steadily. The downpour is doubtless not so good for young women out in black lacey outfits, but la Sirene du Nord, of all people, knows that kind of person isn't up to any good.
The wind whips its way up. Drafts from above, slamming downwards - Miyu may be able to hold her place, with all of her nails and grapples and sundry hidden sharp objects. But the Orphan?
COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene du Nord has used L'Appel de la Tempete on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: FINISHER! La Sirene du Nord has used L'Appel de la Tempete on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: La Sirene du Nord has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa narrowly dodges La Sirene du Nord's Finisher, L'Appel de la Tempete, taking 41 Fatigue damage! Juri Arisugawa's Fade ability activates! Juri Arisugawa's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge La Sirene du Nord's Finisher, L'Appel de la Tempete, taking 85 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Cassandra [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.
The inferno caused by the smoldering refinery is just as uncomfortable for the Child as its mistress. As 'Cassandra' holds her side and looks up to behold the majesty of Kagutsuchi the first time, the sight perhaps more awe-inspiring as Greer in motion, another force of nature, she tries her best not to swoon. The actual Cassandra keeps its gaze upon Miyu, even as she emerges from the Inferno once more. Folding its long neck against it's body to try to make it as small a target as possible for the agile Greer, the Child tracks her movements from one HiME, to the Puella Magi, to the Sirene- and back above!
As Miyu falls down, the Child remains in place, both of its wings folding above itself to create two effective shields. Only for both wings to be impaled by Miyu's sword, having underestimated it's capabilities against its kind. Fortunately, despite both its wings being impaled, the sword stops just short of the main body, preventing any fatal injury. Even beyond the folded wings, the child stares at her, with both respect- and hatred.
Neither Child nor HiME felt like they had anything left, and yet in her mind's eye, a desperate plan forms as she both heeds and ignores Mami Tomoe's warning about how Kagutsuchi was going to blow up the city deciding upon a way that she can do as much damage to Miyu at least, as she wanted. With both of her wings pinned together she can't gain an advantageous position, so the Child switches tactics, cerulean light flaring into being. Despite the dry air, liquid materializes all around Cassandra and 'Cassandra' who doesn't seem all that uncomfortable despite suddenly being wet, the water at first either dissipating into steam from the intense heat or sloshing all about the burning platform, raising even more steam.
Then all of a sudden, another pulse of light asserts control, and the fluid rises up as if alive itself, flowing all around the area in streams like a pianist playing the slow adagio sostenuto of a famous sonata. It consolidates like a tank with intangible walls, the mass of water slowly beginning to fade into sweltering, scalding steam before the relentless, oppressive heat.
Without much left to actually control the great quantity of water, this would do nothing more than make Greer, who could certainly swim, uncomfortable and inconvenienced. However this might this allow another child, to both 'unleash hell' while simultaneously mitigating the disaster The Child begins to usher the now soggy HiME backwards with its beak, realizing the danger in those blackened spikes as well, the HiME making a pained shout upwards as she sloshes out of the heated water, "All yours Tokiha. Don't screw it up!" 'Or we're all dead.' She thinks, but doesn't say. NO PRESSURE.
COMBAT: Cassandra has used Moonlight Sonata on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Cassandra has finished attacking.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Kagutsuchi Kourin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO_Z4Y-3xuk
Serpentine tail trailing behind it, fiery wings spread wide, the white phoenix-whale-dragon Kagutsuchi soars around the battlefield, its very passage setting broken oil pipes ablaze. Where Cassandra is a brilliant symbol of ferocity and grace, and Duran a cool manifestation of efficient determination, Kagutsuchi is monstrous passion and fury - embodying its legend as another pipe briefly becomes a small volcano.
Exploding with fury, the Orphan smashes bodily into Kagutsuchi with enough force to send the larger Child reeling back. Mai, atop the dragon's head, is forced to catch the sword's hilt - itself as tall as she - to keep her position. The Child's claws eventually find purchase, grappling briefly with the slippery Orphan before shoving it away - and itself back a few paces.
Mai's eyes dart around the battlefield, searching. There are more than a few figures she can recognize here - beacons of hope she's fought alongside before. But...for all their help in fending off that girl, in opposing the 'Vampire' Orphan...they're not who she's looking for. Her search is interrupted when Mami comes to her - shouts warnings and accusations that she can't utterly ignore. But when Mai turns to face the Puella Magi - her Child still glowering in fury at the Orphan - it's with an expression of grim certainty. Far from the wavering conviction or wild emotion she usually has - there's no room for hesitation here.
"Kagutsuchi..." Her eyes flick from Mami and the arriving Lera, over to where Alyssa watches, and finally down to the battle around the mysterious girl. To where Nori and Cassandra and even Duran stand - and the swan-Child is new, certainly - in search of one dark figure. The sight of her - standing, defiantly screaming, and most importantly safely out of the direct path. Passionate fury overwhelms sense, and she gives the order. "...aim for the sea."
A sword, impaling a dragon, strains to restrict its power. Nonetheless, the monstrous many-fanged maw opens, steam hissing from within, and Kagutsuchi screeches. A screech of fury, of triumph, of warning. From its back, tomoe-marked cylinders extrude, beginning to spin.
The wind howls as Kagutsuchi inhales. The heat builds from within as chrome blazes and obsidian rises - working inexorably up the dragon's throat to reach that maw. And then, with a final cry of victory, Kagutsuchi unleashes shining power - like a miniature sun, a blazing fireball to blaze forth and smash through the refinery. The Orphan. Miyu. And possibly the ocean.
One of Mai's loved ones was put in peril here, and there will be a reckoning - even as the effort of channelling that power into her Child exhausts her. Even as flame sears forth, the monstrous fury is fading, Mai sinking to land atop a partly-burning platform, to do little but watch what her command unleashed.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mai Tokiha has used Shining Days on Honoka Yukishiro.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Mai Tokiha has used Shining Days on Juri Arisugawa.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Honoka Yukishiro fails to dodge Mai Tokiha's Finisher, Shining Days, taking 132 Fatigue damage! Honoka Yukishiro is unable to keep fighting!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa perfectly counters Cassandra's Moonlight Sonata, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa's counterattack, Bullet Julienne, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cassandra!
COMBAT: Juri Arisugawa fails to dodge Mai Tokiha's Finisher, Shining Days, taking 156 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Juri Arisugawa [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Alyssa claps her hands over her ears at the sound of Duran's howl, squinting her face with discomfort. Miyu shows no such signs of unpleasantness; indeed, it's almost as though she expected the attack, like she has familiarity with Natsuki's tactics.
"You may reject us now, but you do so at your own peril," she remarks a moment later to the long-haired HiME, having emerged from the subsequent explosion in a triple backflip that lands in a spin. Her hair is smoking a little bit. It does not smell like hair, but rather how a microwave smells after you put a CD in it to watch it glow.
Mami gets her hold on the Orphan exactly as planned, very similarly to how Kyouko accomplished similar with a mighty summoned harpoon on a previous evening. This, and the time it takes to spin into Lera's kick with a nasty impact of its own, slows it moderately, reducing its typical weird nimbleness for the crucial moment in which Fuu's Emerald Cyclone rises to meet it, and then fans the flames from Hikaru's sword. La Sirene's storm gets sucked in a moment later, and combines with the firestorm to boil the Orphan alive.
It screeches horribly out of its three mouths, two of them appearing from its underbelly for the first time.
And then the obsidian spikes find it, and pierce it, and its second screech is so much more horrifying than the first.
Another spike makes for Alyssa.
With a parting slash of her sword which somehow disperses Cassandra's animated water, sending it harshly splatting onto the burning wreckage of the platform, Miyu backflips, faster than even Mikoto's rage, to face that spike head on. She meets it with her blade as well, and the two strain against each other, before it forces her back a few steps and finally stops short of her ward by a good three feet.
Then comes the flame.
It washes over the Orphan, who screams a final time and is vaporized. A vampire will never again assault the girls of Ohtori.
It washes over the refinery, setting every single oil drum on fire that wasn't already and turning a large-scale catastrophe into a state of national emergency. It will be on the news tomorrow, and though the maelstrom will eventually be stopped, it will be stopped only at loss of life, of brave firefighters who give everything of themselves to keep Keiyo from burning to the ground entirely.
And it washes over Miyu and Alyssa. It's hard to see exactly what happens to them, but when the blast clears, the two of them are still on the platform, and the latter is still untouched -- not just by flame but by rain, because Miyu has dropped her armsword and turned her left hand into an umbrella. It has interposed itself neatly between the child and La Sirene's tempest, something made easier by the fact that Alyssa is now wedged neatly between her hip and elbow, as a mother might hold her daughter.
The umbrella is pink, with little cartoon ducks on it.
"Impressive," remarks Alyssa. "The valkyries always are," Miyu replies.
Alyssa turns her vivid blue eyes upon the crowd. "Next time," she promises quietly, her voice so perfectly pitched that it cuts through the sound of crashing equipment and roaring flame regardless, "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse."
And then she reaches up a hand to tug her hair free of its ribbon. It blazes gold, then white, blinding beyond belief.
When the dancing motes of the coiffure-cum-flash-grenade fade, the two of them are completely gone.
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Swept up by the Orphan thanks to her ribbon, Mami Tomoe has a better view of the battlefield than she did even moments ago; it means she can see Lera, now, close enough by, and can't bring herself to smile back. "Camry-san, be careful!' she answers instead, seeking out a new platform by which to make her assault as she ascends. And as...
As Mai looks right back to her, so certain of what she's doing. Mami knows what has to be coming. Not the details; she can't anticipate that. But something.
...And she's not wrong: Kagutsuchi's power blazes beyond even her memory, and the attempts of the other with the monster speaking to her can't abate it, it seems.
The whole thing goes up in flames, and Mami has to let go her ribbon to avoid being caught in the blast; only narrowly does she move out of the way of the obsidian spires bursting upward, avoiding the power Mikoto commands only to land in a roll to the side back upon another roof again.
Everything is fire. ...And the enemy is gone.
Just for a moment, Mami lets herself breathe, but it's not the wound that's troubling her, and not the heat that's clawing at her either.
She looks after where Miyu stood before, where a little girl stood too, and gets back to her feet.
"Tokiha-san," she calls, from amid the burning, before she leaps to a place that at least isn't about to be caught in more of the conflagration. It's too hot to stay even /near/ here.
She jumps up, and further, to stand looking up at her.
"Do you have any idea what you've done? How reckless that was? How dangerous? ...Is defeating your enemy really all that matters to you?" There's a tension in her face, in her voice.
Is it fear?
"I won't let you endanger this city with thoughtless action. This is your only warning."
...What Miyu said can't be true. Mami just needs to focus on the dangers she /can/ see, that are real.
"If you plan to keep up this way, I suggest you do it carefully... And where you're sure I won't be."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mikoto's far down enough that it's difficult to see whether Miroku's rage reached her enemies, though the bright flash suggests that at least some of them weren't killed. Still, the proper response is to jump up and see.
The heat is oppressive; if she follows it, she'll find Mai. So she does. Up, and up, and there she is... and Miyu is gone, but there's someone else speaking to the person who cooks the food she loves.
Mikoto comes up beside Mai, and glares at Mami, with a sound low in her throat which can only be called /growling/. "Defeating the enemy matters," she says, with the same words Mami uses and all of the malice Mami is too calm to expose. She shifts her grip on Miroku, taking a step forward, in front of her roommate. "Don't threaten Mai!"
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
This time, the Orphan doesn't escape to threaten people yet again. This time, utterly exhausted, Mai can only stare at the fading image of Kagutsuchi - myriad eyes catching her gaze, a comforting trilling resounding with...dissatisfaction. Even as it fades, its other eyes glare at Miyu and Alyssa. Threats - but threats leaving for now, and the Child can rest. In short order, Mai is alone before the inferno of her making.
Alone - up until Puella Mami stands closer and condemns her. Condemns what she's wrought with fury, as everything burns...and for a moment, as Mai's face turns in her direction, that tense hint of fear finds a reflection in her eyes. A drawn-out moment, as the words sink in...
...and then Mikoto steps up, defending and reminding her. Mai's wide-eyed gaze narrows and hardens, tension in her own voice causing her to clip her words short. "It wasn't. Not just defeating the enemy." She can't keep meeting that gaze - this went beyond what she'd expected, that she'd become reckless again. But...that averted gaze wanders back to where Alyssa Searrs had stood.
An offer she can't refuse...there's only one thing that could be. And that means something she can't accept, because this might not have been enough....slowly, she rises, still not looking at Mami.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
It isn't entirely a relief when that fire rushes in and washes over the Orphan. Lera realizes that Mami's warning was wise; the girl turns and bolts, a ring of light exploding from her feet as she shoots away from the ensuing explosion of the refinery's oil drums. She hits a platform on a lower level hard, skidding and rolling, but comes up into a practiced three-point stance. She stands up and looks over her shoulder, staring back at those icy blue eyes of Alyssa Searrs. But, mostly, she stares up at Mai.
Did... did the girl that she fought with and had fun with really do something like that? Did she mean to? She doesn't jump to the situation the way that Mami does. She has a nonconfrontational streak when it comes to people she likes, and so she freezes up.
But she wonders and she stares, her grip slackening on her sword. The girl looks up, watching when Mami goes to confront Mai. She swallows, nervously, before she looks at Mikoto -- and then her expression hardens. She remembers the time that she was on the receiving end of the girl's attack. Her hand tightens on the hilt of her Device.
But she waits.
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Mami has no room in her heart right now to worry about Mai's remorse, or what she intended. There's too much else here, too much else that demands her attention and her action now.
...Especially lately, Mami is /very/ quick to confrontation. How much has she already let slide, overlooking things in the name of peace, or harmony, only seeing what she wanted to see?
Who's already suffered for her lenience?
Mami looks down calmly at Mikoto, and while it's not a sincere calm, it looks the same thanks to all her practice. The smell of fire and burning oil is nauseating.
But there's something unsettling about Mikoto's honesty, too.
Is she threatening? ...It's not the first time she has been. But Mai's clipped words and refusal to look at her say just as much to Mami as Mikoto's outright growl.
"You're lucky to have someone so loyal," she says instead. "...I wonder how many other people had someone like that in their lives, before tonight."
Mami turns, and starts to walk away. She only turns her head to look at Lera as she passes, a tight expression that only hints at her feelings beneath.
She doesn't look back.
<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Lera's glower is interrupted by that look that Mami gives her. It's a funny thing that it cuts her resolve like that, because she doesn't hold onto the growing anger. Instead, she sees the tightness in that look and it makes her expression soften into a frown. Her shoulders sag after that. She turns, watching the Puella Magi fly off. She hesitates, while her fingers slacken on her Device, and her head droops after she loses sight of her.
"Tomoe-san..."
