2019-06-08 - Cooking Class: An Eggcellent Adventure!
| Cooking Class: An Eggcellent Adventure! | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Another day, another joint cooking class hosted by celebrity chefs Mari Cherie and Jean Paris, this time at Juuban, making eggs benedict. But the Death Busters have another egg dish in mind... | |
| Who: Akko Kagari, Utena Tenjou, Sucy Manbavaran, Fuu Hououji, Yumi Ohzora, Usagi Tsukino, Steven Universe, Kasagami Araki, Anthy Himemiya, Rei Hino GM: Hotaru Tomoe | |
| Where: Juuban - Club Rooms | |
| OOC - IC Date: 6/8/2019 - 06-06-2015 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Club Rooms +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
In truth, every classroom hosts a school club, but there's a particular row
of classrooms on the third floor that are especially well-suited for this.
They are specialty classrooms, with equipment and layout to assist in
teaching subjects that don't rely on pencils and books. During the day, they
host students taking elective courses, and afterschool, they host clubs
related to each room's function.
The home economics room, for instance, uses its stainless steel counters,
sinks, and ovens to host the cooking club. The computer lab, with its aging
equipment and grey nylon carpet, hosts the technology club. The art club
uses the easels, clay, and pigments of the art room, of course, and likewise
the music club makes use of the music room's instruments, tiered seating,
and black aluminum music stands. When not found practicing in the theatre,
the drama club uses the open space of their eponymous room to rehearse and
improvise.
Juuban has many other clubs, of course, some of which may share these rooms,
others preferring more standard classrooms.
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> The Town With A Sea View https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bweQE1G3tQg
It's a beautiful day -- summer more than close enough to taste -- and a beautiful day to be at Juuban, too. The walls, be they red brick or gray concrete, gleam. The morning glories bob and bounce.
All the windows are thrown open to let the sunshine pour in, and the cooling breeze. It's easy to hear the PE classes outside. Sounds like they're playing baseball today. It smells like freshly mown grass.
And, a little bit incongruously, insofar as it's afternoon and the last class of the day... it smells like breakfast.
Class is well underway. Cooking class, that is. This pilot program of shared Sister School classes, with the kids sent to whichever campus the class is meeting at this week. There, they're trained by celebrity chefs.
Today's lesson: eggs benedict!
Students have been split up into groups of three or four: someone is frying the bacon, someone is making the hollandaise sauce (this involves melting butter, and adding egg yolks and lemon juice, then blending; separating the eggs into whites and yolks is by far the most complicated and messy thing happening in this kitchen right now), and someone is poaching eggs. In the case of groups of four, the 'separating the eggs' and 'making the sauce' jobs for hollandaise sauce have been split.
Groups were assigned today, and they happen to include:
- Usagi Tsukino, Rei Hino, Steven Universe
- Utena Tenjou, Anthy Himemiya, Kasagami Araki
- Akko Kagari, Sucy Manbavaran, Yumi Ohzora, Fuu Hououji
There are other groups as well, of course.
Mari Cherie is advising Naru Osaka on her poaching. There's a slight, grandmotherly quavery to her voice. "Now that your water is barely simmering, break an egg into a small bowl -- yes, just like that. Now gently slip it into the water. And watch carefully as it begins to solidify..."
Jean Paris is trying to help Sakura Kinomoto separate eggs. The girl is holding half an eggshell in each hand and nervously trying to transfer the yolk in between them, while the eggwhite runs out, as it's supposed to, into a bowl beneath. "Yes, like that," he booms at her, more sanctimoniously than approvingly.
It startles her, and Sakura drops the yolk, which oozes onto the floor. "Rehhhhhhh?!"
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Atsuko Kagari is in the middle of poaching eggs.
Or, at least, trying to.
She has literal egg on her face today. A little splotch of yellow is on her nose, as she leans over the pot of water. Inside it, is a bowl; beside her is a second bowl, and that one is filled with the runny, yolky, egg shell shard-ladden mistakes of her youth (of the last fifteen minutes).
She has tried timing things. She has tried scowling at the eggs. She has tried yelling at the eggs. She has bribed the eggs (there is an eggy hundred yen note tucked in there). Now, she resorts to sobbing at the eggs.
"PUH-LEAAAAAASE," Akko wails. "Just... don't... overcook! I've tried everything! You can do it! You don't have to be bad at cooking! I believe in you!"
She has her hands clasped as she pleads with the egg. In the bowl, it burbles. Will she manage to not overcook the eggs this time?
Only the gods can say....
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
As usual for cooking class, Utena's hair is in a high ponytail whose crown is hidden, in turn, by a white scarf wrapped around her head. Her uniform, meanwhile, is tucked away beneath a broad teal Ohtori apron. It used to be plain, but someone (Wakaba) broke into her locker (Wakaba) and added a KISS THE COOK laminate (WAKABA.). She tried to trade it in for another one but the school quartermaster denied her request, citing a lack of available budget for more aprons with a straight face that broke down completely after Utena stomped off.
She has bigger problems right now, though.
The oil in the pan pops, and paradoxically Utena steps into it instead of out of it, which would be very sweet and all except that some got on her hand, and, ow.
With a soft hiss, she brings one of her knuckles to her lips, where she blows on the grease burn gently, trying to soothe it.
In the same motion, she's transferred her spatula to the other hand, and continues to poke at the bacon. There's a pile of blackened pork off to one side, from her first batch, in which she learned a valuable lesson about what setting to put the burner at. She may have overreacted, however, because, hot oil or not, this time the bacon seems to be taking FOREVER to cook.
Utena shoots it a disgusted look -- UGHHH -- and then glances over to see how fares her classmates.
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Sucy Manbavaran is slouching over her little portable burner, which is something she's familiar with. She is stirring the sauce -- at the moment this is just a matter of very gently melting butter, as she awaits a yolk delivery. Several nearby ramekins contain failed efforts which she disposed of due to curdling or, in one case, an eerie look like something was reaching out of it--
Just a weird bubble, though.
"Hououji, yolk me," Sucy states, looking down. "The butter's going to carama... carame... go brown again in a minute." She reaches without looking for one of the --
Why does she have like three little bottles, all more or less identically shaped, right next to the lemon juice squeezer? At least one of them is just lime juice, which would probably still work.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"It's mainly about timing, Akko-san," Fuu says encouragingly from her station. She's taking on the task of separating eggs - and it really is a process which benefits from one person's undivided attention.
... relatively undivided, anyway.
The hard part, in Fuu's opinion, is cracking the egg *without* rupturing the yolk; her experience with cooking eggs tends to revolve around either scrambling them, in which case it doesn't matter, or boiling them, in which case it's up to whoever cracks open the cooked egg, be it soft- or hard-boiled. But once the eggshell has been separated into halves and the yolk is contained on one side or the other, it's just a matter of very careful pouring.
That, at least, Fuu can manage. Mostly. The occasional outburst at greater or lesser proximity startles her a little, but - well, archery isn't just about sharpshooting: it's about discipline and inner focus, the ability to concentrate without tensing up.
"Caramelize?" she replies to Sucy's request. "And here you are ...." She passes the half-eggshell which holds a just-fully-separated yolk over to Sucy, and starts working on the next egg.
- crakc*
Fuu looks discontentedly at the eggshell, which chose in its inanimate whimsy to separate into *three* sections instead of two, and starts trying to salvage the precious golden treasure from within its fractious defenses.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Breakfast is nice! It's good, it's friendly, it's filling, it's... It's here. And Yumi Ohzora is not entirely certain if she'd be better off trying to play baseball at the moment. She eyes the pan she's working with on the stone dubiously, her glasses a little crooked thanks to her wrinkled nose and generally contorted face as she eyes the issue.
At first, evrything went fine! That is to say, nobody got burned or splashed or anything, mostly because the gray-haired girl turned the wrong knob and heated up an eye she wasn't even using.
Beside her in the trash is the attempt when she thought you were supposed to shake the pan to flip them like you see on TV sometimes. It went... poorly.
But now--now she has the heat on, the skillet is merrily heating, the bacon is sizzling--
"Aaah," Yumi complains vaguly, holding the spatula in one hand as the pan... slides a little under her attempts to get under the bacon to flip it. She is poking it very gingerly, jumping a little when the oil pops too much (which is to say, 'audibly, at all') and is attempting to sort of slide it around with--
Is that the smell of burning plastic?
"Don't give up," Yumi says to Akko, and it would sound more convincing otherwise. "Maybe you should... um... think of chickens?"
She frowns, and leans down over her pan as--
Clack! Clatter... szzz...
That is the sound of Yumi's glasses sliding right off of her face, hitting the edge of the pan, and becoming one with bacon grease. "Um--Uhh, it's--it's fine, nothing's wrong, everything's cool--"
Now she is trying to blindly fish her glasses out of the pan with her spatula.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Usagi Tsukino finally threw up her hands and gave in with a "Fine-!" earlier. She is currently stirring a bowl of simmering water into a whirlpool. "Woosh-woosh-woosh..."
And making sounds while she does it, like she's being a sound board for a scene at sea.
Surprisingly, she's doing a good job this time - so far at least! Kitchen miracles abound. Perhaps it's the fact that she's created two kitchen disasters that she's actually trying hard to avoid creating a third with Utena Tenjou in the room... not that she wouldn't mind Utena leaping to her defense from some egg monster.
Currently she's wearing a pink and white lacy apron that might make fellow secret Sailor Senshi wonder if she took her disguise pen to a side room and asked it to make her into a fabulous homemaker. However it's something quite plausible for Usagi to own on her own, so the suspicion isn't too high.
Looking up as they advise Naru-chan again, she keeps stirring the water with her ladle again and again. Until she takes a look at the bowl she has an egg in, noting the pattern at the bottom of it.
Usagi suddenly gets this conspiratorial grin of imminent revenge as she leans sidelong to Rei Hino mid-whisk job and whispers, "Rei-chan." Then again closer to get her attention. "Rei-channnn~"
Obviously being a nuisance, but one that demands her attention if she intends to go back to her tasks. Usagi then at that moment picks up the bowl to display the inside pattern of it to Rei at a light angle that prevents the eggs from slipping out. There's a look on Usagi's face like there's some joke but it's not obvious what it is.
Her face just screams 'get it? get it?'
And then whispering to Rei she lays it out, "Boiling-" Tipping the bowl upwards, she lets the eggs slip into the still churning water of her pan. "-Mandala!"
Snickering at her own joke, she straightens up and clears her throat to ask the youngest member of her group while she continues to swirl the water, "How goes the bacon Steven? Are you bringing it home?"
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
THANKFULLY for the team he is on, little Steven Universe has run out of egg jokes. He had a good dozen or so, and kept cracking them out, but they have finally been laid to rest.
But they weren't anything to bawk at.
A pair of chubby little hands are under a running sink, being properly washed. His dad had taught him how to be safe around raw meat, even if you dont touch it due to contamination. "So! How much do you two like bacon?" he asks politely toward Miss Usagi Tsukino and Miss Rei Hino, his two lovely partners for this excersion.
"Theres a buncha neat ways to make it, like some folks like it crispy, or soft." He gets serious for a second. "And some knaves like it half-cooked. What travesty!" He holds a bottle of cooking oil, as how it is desired dictates oil amount.
As the package of delicious breakfast meat is set on a plate and the frying pan is already sizzling, the boy looks around the utensils for something specific that doesn't seem to be here. "Ah, they don't have any metal handled utensils that can be removed! Dad showed me this cool thing to do where you can wrap the bacon around a round metal handle and make curly-Q bacon."
The boy has on his light blue with yellow star apron again, sized just right for a little boy. He didn't really have any utensils in his cooking set for this particular class, but that was okay! The class had lots to spare. The two fantastical teachers were here again, known far and wide famously for their culinary expertise.
"I am glad I am not doing eggs or the sauce, I would probably mess those up. "How are you two doing?" he asks, as he lays another batch of bacon in to be cooked! It crackles to life as it touches the pan. "I sure am! Listen to it roll in! How about your job! I bet you are doing Egg-cellently!"
Oh lawd he got a second wind.
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"I'm tryyyyyyying," Akko whines to Fuu. "But it's hard!"
She turns her head, peering off towards Sucy; her eyebrows lift for a second as she gets a good look at the trio of rejected things. "Spooky," she murmursunderneath her breath. Then, she looks at Yumi. She blinks.
"Because they lay eggs?" she asks. She turns her head -- and then yelps as her glasses fall off. "Oh no!" she calls out. "We gotta do something, before they're--" Before they melt? She isn't sure. Akko reaches down to her belt; her wand comes out -- and then she turns her head, slowly, to the Juuban teachers and staff.
Her expression screws up.
"...uhhhhh, we should do... not magic... to save... Yumi-senpai's... glasses," she says.
Behind Akko, her eggs begin to overcook.
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Kasagami Araki is slowly beginning to respect the many cooks that keep Ohtori kids fed with their many fancy foods that take an insane amount of manual labor and skill to make. This is an abject lesson in the skills of others, and one that the mighty and fabulously-haired Duelist is tucking in the back of her pocket.
Or at least in her lunchbag for later. Because the kitchen smells delicious!
The Girl Who Would Be King perhaps foolishly jumped at the chance to do the hard part, both to prove herself to a certain pink haired cooking partner and to avoid any chance of demise due to Anthy's input. Complicated feelings as ever for both Ohtori students of Pink and Purple respectively, she's been trying to not let it distract her.
Kassie has actually managed to wrangle her hair into a bun, with a pair of wooden sticks keeping it in place. It took some doing, and over that is a bandanna to keep it all back. Her coat's on a rack, the girl needing to not cause a fire incident, and she's rolled up the sleeves of her Student Council uniform. Her right arm, curiously, is all bandaged up despite no apparent injury.
She'd gotten to work after a few appropriately dramatic knuckle cracks and needless posing, as well as tossing a few teasing comments at Utena's BEAUTIFUL apron. Kasagami reluctantly donned one herself. Can't get her perfect uniform messy, after all.
Anthy's gotten the usual shades of mistrustful glares whenever she thinks Utena isn't peeking her way.
Not that she can do a lot of that, because this is kind of freaking hard. She's gotten the butter melted, bowl ready for a bit of blending with a whisk, but it's getting yolks and whites out that has Kasagami squinting her good eye. A sure-handed crack of an egg, a Serious Look at the half-shell of delicious protein and protein runoff!
"....I won't allow a mere unfertilized chicken to defy the will of a King!" She whisper-threatens it harshly, eye ablaze!
And then she's transferring it into her other hand, eggwhites running....splooch!
Frown! Half of the yolk is on the counter, the other's in the yolkbowl.
An eye to both of her classmates. "Alright, so, maybe cooking club isn't in my future. Cook the bacon, not yourself, Utena-chan!" She offers, finally doing her own check-in for the two.
<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Anthy Himemiya's pot simmers merrily, the water aswirl around a milky mist of poaching egg. Through some kitchen witchery, the rare wayward splatters of yolk have landed upon the bib of her lavender apron rather than spotting her grey Ohtori skirt. She glances at the joking command on Utena Tenjou's apron from time to time. Kasagami's glares receive the occasional sweet and utterly unthreatening (or is it unthreatened?) smile in return. Yep, her egg looks to be turning out quite nicely, to possibly no one's shock.
She might have cheated a little, though, depending on one's definition of cheating. All of the eggs the school provided sit to the side; she could have tested them for freshness, but... instead she slipped her own brown-shelled egg from her apron pocket, freshly laid that very morning.
At her farm, of course.
Once the egg's in the water there's really very little to do except wait, something Anthy has exceptional practice at. She looks over others' brewing disasters and breakfasts, then back to her own group's efforts just in time to see grease singe skin.
"Oh, Utena-sama...! It will keep burning unless you wash the oil off." With one hand she pulls on the cold water paddle for their faucet, and with the other she makes a curled-fingers gesture beneath Utena's burned hand, like a gentle beckoning.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
'Clack! Clatter...'
Those noises are enough to jerk Fuu's attention away from the egg she's attempting to separate, and she simply sets the whole thing down in the closest convenient bowl (which egg whites had been accumulating in). "Yumi-san, are you all right?" she inquires, reaching in to try and grab the lost glasses.
.... with her hand. If she's fast enough, she's not too worried about the popping grease bare inches below her fingers.
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Daimon Creation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fh3b-2PbXk
MEANWHILE
IN DARKNESS
A DARK MAN WAITS
WITH A DARK PURPOSE
The brightest thing in the laboratory are the scientist's glasses. The flame of the bunsen burner lingers and shines there, gleaming.
He is bent over his beaker with a manic expression, mumbling to himself.
"...perfectly timed... ... ...must be... ... ...yes, that's it..."
Behind him, Eudial's hair competes for brightest thing.
She clears her throat.
"...just a liiiittle more... ... ... ...easy, now..."
Eudial clears it again.
"...yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees..."
"PROFESSOR!"
"Yaa!"
The hiss of boiling water hitting flesh accompanies his yelp, as he spins around. "You-you-Eudial! Why are you sneaking around down here?"
Ah, for a camera for Eudial to look into. She stares at her boss levelly instead. "You called me down here?" A line of light glints off her glasses, too. "Hm, is that a new experiment?"
"Yeeeees... I am developing a foolproof technique to generate the perfect..."
Eudial leans in, enthusiastically.
"...boiled egg."
"..."
"..."
"........."
The professor wilts slightly beneath her expression, then shakes his head and stands his ground. He's in charge, dammit!
"Eggs -- eggs are the ultimate source of power. They're nutritious! They're delicious! In consuming them, we are transferring all the power of a Hoste into ourselves, much as we shall do for our great mistress!"
Eudial's expression has failed to become any more impressed.
Or any less nonplussed.
"...a chicken Hoste. For our glorious leader. And also, I don't think they're usually fertilized..."
"Ugh. Just go -- go get a pure heart already! We must bring about the full awakening of our mistress... and take this with you..."
He slaps the oozing remnants of his 'experiment' into the oven at the end of the lab... and puts a very different kind of egg on top.
"...a daimon egg...infused with a regular egg...it's EGGCEPTION! Ahahaha...ahahahahahahhahahahaaa...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!"
- sigh*
TEN TO FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER
(COOKING TIMES MAY VARY)
Hell really is other people, Eudial thinks to herself as she fastens her seatbelt, and hits the road.
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Yeah, that's it," Sucy says. "I keep wanting to say carbonize or calcine but I don't think we wanna do that for sauce." She accepts the gift of yolk, blops it into the pot, and resumes stirring. Her visible eye turns downwards as the long strings of rich yolk start to spread apart.
Something goes thump and Sucy hears the familiar sound of frying plastic. She looks up gradually. She blinks slowly, and then she reaches into her apron pocket to fish out her own wand--
Which she just uses to reach over to try and fish out the glasses. Unfortunately the layout for this combined with Sucy's less than Ohtorian torso length means she has to get on her tip toes and lean over, which knocks over her juice (and 'juice') containers, which rattle and tinkle as they start rolling. "Dangit," Sucy mutters, reaching blindly down to stop them --
Sucy arches up one leg to avoid pitching into everything, but she has to freeze. She brings her wand round-- but Fuu is already doing it.
Sucy rewinds most of her previous motions, including putting her wand back into the apron pocket. "Your eggs are going extinct," she then tells Akko, as she sets her little bottles back up the way they were*
- - no**
- - the lemon juice squeezer has moved two spaces over. in its previous location is now a mysterious green glass bottle half full of... something. It looks viscous. It is still sloshing back to the bottom of the container.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"Give it here!" Rei demanded of Usagi's stick of butter, when it came time to decide who was going to do what. "I'm obviously the girl for this job!"
(She let Steven decide what he wanted to do first, of course.)
And so, through argument and perseverance, Rei Hino has earned the illustrious (and difficult) job of MAKING THE HOLLANDAISE SAUCE. The task of separating eggs was long and arduous, but somehow she managed to succeed without getting much eggshell where it shouldn't be. (There was a little incident. It's fine. She rescued the eggshell. And then she had to wash her hands.) To ward against the mess, she's wearing a teal Ohtori apron over her uniform -- but hers, in contrast to Utena's mystery alteration, has been more deliberately trimmed with ruffled red fabric.
Rei smiles to Steven as he explains the many aspects of bacon. "-- Curly-Q bacon, really?" She asks, with kind interest in stark contrast to the hard time she's giving the blonde girl on their team. "That sounds special!"
For her part, she blends the mixture, trying to beat down the little internal doubt that maybe she didn't use enough lemon juice. (The acid helps cook it, right? Lemon juice is basically like lime juice? Is that right? Rei really wishes Mako-chan were on her team to ask about this stuff.) Whisk-whisk-whisk, and she scoops at the edges to try and get the entire mixture blended, but there always seems to be a little bit of the mix escaping her efforts. She hasn't noticed the pinched little scowl of concentration which has crossed over her face, because if she had, she would have wiped it off immediately. Lips all pursed and scrunched up, intensely focused on getting everything smooth why won't it blend.
This is about when Usagi sidles up. At first, Rei ignores her. And then she very delibrately Ignores her, in a fashion which would have an unconventional 'ignooore' sound effect in the manga Usagi always steals from her. And then Usagi hefts up the bowl, and Rei's hand slips in her whisk-whisking, but she manages to press the whisk up against the side of her own bowl so it doesn't go everywhere. "What?" She asks, finally, blinking as she looks from Usagi's own eggs to Usagi. "What?!" There's a joke and she is not getting it.
And that's when Usagi tips the bowl into her pan. Rei throws her head back and groans. "Usagiiii," in great suffering.
She is suffering because it's actually a pretty good joke. Which is to say, a terrible joke.
The other girl brings their attention back to Steven, just in time for him to make one, too. Rei sighs, smiling in a way which is just a little ever-suffering. "I'm doing..." here she looks down at her bowl, where she has hesitated in her mixing just a little too long, and she forces her smile a little wider. "Perfectly! This sauce will be amazing!" Rei insists, as she beats at the mixture with even more vigour.
(It's a good thing she's wearing an apron.)
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Utena rolls a shoulder back, the muscles beneath tightening then loosening her apron strap as they squeeze.
"Yeah, I always burn myself when I make bacon, Kasagami," she admits calmly, glancing over at Kasagami. Her eyes dance a little at the mess on the counter but she doesn't say anything. "Worth it, though, so I keep at it... ah."
That last was her soft, unconscious intake of breath when Anthy took her hand and led it to the sink. "Himemiya," she objects, gently, "It'll burn..."
Something's already burning. Her ears are as pink as her hair.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Yes!" Yumi replies to Akko, though, uh, then she's busy with the glasses problem, and--and she doesn't have to be able to see to wince at the fact that Akko sounds like she just pulled out her wand with plans to use it in front of everybody. "Um," she says. Her hand with the spatula sort of... slows. "...Um."
"Oh no!" Yumi turns towards Fuu not really seeing clearly as she reaches into the pan and lets go the spatula in surprise, where it too clatters around and drops to her feet after a brief adventure, at much the same time that Sucy's bottles are mixing up. Sucy leaans over at first, and indeed, Fuu does get Yumi's glasses without even burning herself! ...Well, probably, because--
"Eek!" Yumi feels the spatula hit her shoe and jumps, losing her balance and starting to tumble before she flails out to grab Fuu's arm to catch herself.
...Szzzz... It's clear that the bacon is still cooking... halfway off the eye.
"It--it looks fine," Yumi says, not at all convincingly.
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Akko watches the acrobatics of Fuu picking up Yumi's glasses with such precision... and Sucy starting to helping, then stopping herself, and catching all of the bottles and everything on her leg. Her brown eyes widen a little. "Whoa," she says. And then Yumi drops the spatula with another clatter--
--but Akko's ears are for Sucy's dire warning.
"WAAAAGH, my eggs!" she shouts. She slams a spatula under the egg, lifts it, and then whirls about towards the serving station. In whirling, however, Akko does something unfortunate. Let us consider the following equation:
y = 0.5at^2 + v(0)t + y(0)
Akko can't solve this equation. She doesn't even know what the equation for projectile (vertical) motion is; she isn't sure what projectile motion is. She knows, mostly, that at the start of the whirl, there is an egg. Midway through the whirl, there is not an egg.
At the end of the whirl, however, there is an equation that Akko does understand:
E = Anthy, where E is the current location of the egg.
Splat.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Usagi Tsukino laughed at every one of Steven's egg jokes because making Usagi giggle is really really easy.
"Guilty!" She raised her hand quickly, nearly dropping the ladle when she was asked if she likes bacon. "Of loving it too much!"
Usagi is now continuously stirring the bowl to keep up the whirlpool of water that is poaching her egg.
"Perfectly? You can cook that well too Rei-chan?" Usagi blinks her baby blue eyes as she takes on this new information. Sure she'd never witnessed Rei making her friends meals before, but that didn't mean she couldn't. "Sugoi Rei-chan! It figures that a hard worker like you would be able to handle some cooking-!"
It's so sincere coming from her, a genuine compliment. Perhaps before she hadn't been able to know it because she'd never known Rei to cook - but now?
A thought occurs to her, as she uses her free hand to tap her chin. "Maybe that means we can have you split baking duties with Mako-chan for Chibi-Usa-chan's birthday party..."
Which is a subtle hint for Rei to also split duties for Usagi's birthday party since it's also the same day.
What has she gotten her into?
Then suddenly Usagi realizes she's been stirring for too long and suddenly lurches for the lid, grasping it, and putting it down decisively.
She almost forgets to turn down the heat. Almost. But then she spins the dial down.
Will Usagi Tsukino actually manage to make it through this cooking lesson without disaster!?
"Eggs'll be ready soon." Usagi declares with a sense of pride, using this moment of break to walk over and high five Naru - or at least that's the plan. At least until the moment she hears Akko's shout, and turns, her eyes following the egg in it's flight-
Her mouth opens a little bit. Could it be that Akko when she's here is absorbing her clumsiness magically?
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Eep!" goes Fuu, a rather uncharacteristic squeak of alarm escaping her as lifting her arm (with its precious cargo) is suddenly complicated by Yumi grabbing her arm. The natural half-conscious reaction is to bend her arm upwards ... which doesn't QUITE plant her elbow in the skilletful of hot grease and sizzling meat.
Thankfully.
Instead, her elbow baps against the stove's surface (hot enough, especially with stray grease spattered about as it tends to) and her forearm comes WAY too close to the hot skillet's edge, and reflexes kick in all the way, literally before her brain can go 'okay that's painful,' and she launches herself back from the hot stove.
.... probably half-lariating poor Yumi for her trouble, along the way.
End result: Fuu is sprawled on the floor next to Yumi, her own glasses askew from the impact, and taking stock of the state of her hand (mild burns), arm (near-miss glancing impact to the funny bone and slight burn to forearm), back (oof, but not bad) and head (probably gonna have a bump there).
"Are you all right, Yumi-san?" are the first words out of Fuu's mouth as the dust settles. "I hope your glasses aren't too badly damaged ..." She sits up, straightening her glasses with her free hand.
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Somehow, that unthreatening smile always gets under Kasagami's skin. It's only through herculean effort, a brief contortion of her mouth, and the presence of Utena that keeps her from really being venomous to Anthy. With a small breath, she tells herself that she's better than that. Better than Anthy.
It didn't get her anything in the past, now did it?
Annoyance shoved in her other emotional pocket, she starts in on egg number four out of ????. This one goes slightly better. Three fourths this time end up on the yolk bowl. She's also wiped up a bit of protein spillage with a handy cloth. Salmonella is awful kids!
Kassie's second sigh is more audible, tossed with deadly aim at Utena. She considers herself to be a good King-to-Be. "Well, when you're done flavoring our bacon with royalty, check my coat pocket for ointment."
But of course Anthy's already dragging her off to the reasonable solution. Those ears do not get missed. Kasagami blinks. Then looks very swiftly away from Anthy and Utena, for some reason having an urge to take out her phone and text Setsuna before any more inconvenient thoughts pop into her head.
Right at Team Adorable Witches. Kassie is not the greatest at math herself. But she does make the connection of Akko Flail, what might be an egg in there somewhere, and towards a shock of purple.
Somewhere in her heart of hearts, she makes a mental note to send Akko a care package as she's reminded one of the reasons she loves the Infinity student so darn much! She might feel bad about not interveneing later.
She starts to whisk away with a bit more pep. Fuu, Yumi, and Akko do get a look that reads 'You guys okay?' with actual concern for the girls.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"Well, ah --" oh no what has Rei done. "Of course I can handle a little thing like this!" She laughs off the assumption, each word a shovel to keep digging that hole she's made for herself. Perhaps she's laughing just a little too forcefully at the idea.
Okay, no, she can handle this, all she has to do is somehow learn how to become an expert cook before Usagi notices she's all talk. Surely Mako-chan will help her, or she could ask Kuniko, or...
Rei's gaze first cast over the room in search of something to help her, but what she sees is, in fact, a variety of girls in sore need of assistance. "-- whoa!" She exclaims, between Akko's complicated egg mathematics and Yumi and Fuu going sprawling. The surprise of seeing it all almost makes her lose grip on her bowl when she feels the urge to reach out to them, and she grasps at it hastily for a few moments before pressing it to her chest.
Slosh, goes the sauce up over her apron. At least most of it stays in the bowl..?
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Possibly the greatest gift you can give is the gift of laughter. If anything Usagi spurned Steven to aspirations of greater jokes and japes this day. He seems so proud of himself whenever she laughs! "Bacon is amazing, and full of proteins too!" he comments. "I dunno what those are but I heard they are good for you!"
Even over the hissing bacon there are sounds of a smidge of contempt in the group he was in. Eh, perhaps they don't get along? Nah that wasn't right, they always hang out. Maybe it is complicated. Part of growing up and all that. "It is like normal bacon, it just looks cool!" he adds toward Rei.
The scent the bacon makes as it cooks could make one hungry easily. Hopefully everyone here ate at a decent time! The boy watches curiously as Usagi sidles up to Rei and gets in on the joking. He watches, a little wide-eyed, and the development of the joke and resulting delivery.
He does his best to remain straight-faced, especially when addressed by Rei. She is holding something back for sure. Could it be anger? Rage? A drip of her mixture flies out and tags Steven's face. He can't help but giggle.
"Cool, good job Usagi!" Steven chimes in with as he looks over from that lid clang. The boy himself has two slices of bacon on a spatula, lifted for a moment. They may be cut a little thin as they were cooking faster than the rest. He will set them back down in a moment.
Eyes track to the other parties in the room. One of which seems to be having a really bad go if it. "Eeeehhhh... Are they okay?" His voice picks up a decibel. "Need a bit of help? No ones hurt?" he asks.
He doesn't have any bandages, but a momentary thought comes to mind about some kind of bacon bandage to help with scrapes, and instead of throwing it away, you eat it.
A good thought for like, two seconds, before his face reflexively scrunches up at the fifty or so reasons you wouldn't do that arrive.
A head peeks up over the counter, this time toward Kassie's team. A plump little hand waves at them from afar! Hello!
He really should hang out with Kasagami sometime soon, They haven't really gotten to talk since, ah. Everything??? That too, was complicated. Everything is so complicated.
"Last call if you want a particular kind of bacon!" he asks Usagi and Rei. He had enough for one more batch...!
<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"The bacon?" she asks. Those round green eyes of hers take in burning cheeks and then flick sideways, to check Utena's stovetop settings. She offers her Engaged a shrug, a light and birdlike movement which transmits no concern. Whether Anthy thinks the bacon won't burn, or just doesn't care if it does, can be one of today's mysteries.
(Really, it's both.)
"Araki-san, did the egg crack to your liking?" A friendly question, as Anthy carefully keeps Utena's burned hand sandwiched between cool running water and her own warm fingers.
Splat.
And what a beautiful trajectory it is, that connects egg to girl's back, as if a bullseye target was painted between Anthy Himemiya's shoulderblades. "Oh...!" Packed with surprise and dismay, that syllable. Anthy cranes her head around, trying to see one of those spots on your body you just can't see yourself. She can feel the wet yolk dribbling through her uniform shirt well enough.
She has no idea who threw it, but for a girl whose habitat is Ohtori, the natural conclusion is that it was thrown, with purpose. Anthy ceases her peering-about with the instincts of someone who does not like to make a spectacle of herself and murmurs a quiet apology to Utena, whose hand she has released. "Pardon me, I... think I need a paper towel."
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Sucy looks at Akko's spatula as the egg is launched on its voyage, a five-yard mission to seek out strange new girls, to seek out new life and new civilizations - to boldly go where no egg has gone before.
Sucy looks in that direction for several seconds.
"Do you wanna switch stations?" she asks Akko then. "This is mostly stirring."
"If the lens melted you can ask the optics club to recast it," Sucy then tells Yumi, not unkindly. "Lotte gets that done like once a month."
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Utena lets the water soothe her, even though it's Anthy's touch that really did most of that. "Thanks," she breathes, afterwards, her gratitude casual, easy, and honest.
Making her way back to her station, she discovers that her roommate was, in fact, right, and the bacon is not only unburnt but about as uncooked as it was a minute ago. She wrinkles her nose at it.
"Nah, it's not so bad as that," she says at to Kasagami's offer. "Hey, um, do you want--"
Help, she was going to offer, but she is thoroughly diverted by the splatter on Anthy's back, instead. She leaps into action without hesitation, or further thought for the eggy disaster going on at station two.
"I got it!" she announces immediately, and so she does, providing a girl-shaped black and pink and teal wall between Anthy and the room, and a paper towel, though she doesn't release the latter immediately. "It looks hard to reach," she murmurs, lower-voiced and gentle. Some hesitation dwells there, though its exact reasoning and source does not bear examination. "You want me to maybe?"
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.
Jean Paris has left Sakura's depression to Tomoyo to cure, and wandered off to bother someone else. Mari Cherie, meanwhile, has wound up at the witches' counter. She's got an arm underneath each of Yumi or Fuu, helping them both up from the floor.
"All right, now," she says, "Easy does it. Back onto your feet, we'll get that hand some ice..."
---
Below, Eudial pulls her station wagon up on the curb, then glances down at the printout of her target.
She glances over at the massive gun sitting on the passenger seat, its pink-fluidic barrel bubbling, then at the metal, black-starred briefcase propped up against the door.
She pops her jaw.
"I don't get paid enough for this," she mutters.
---
Shortly thereafter, she crashes through the classroom door, having kicked it open: and in that same, loud moment, fired her gun straight at Mari Cherie. Its projectile, a blob of dark energy, passed right between Fuu and Yumi to get there, and right THROUGH the chef. What emerges out the other side, however, is something else entirely:
The sparkling, glittering spines of a Pure Heart Crystal.
Mari, already unconscious, is collapsing onto the girls.
And Eudial, with her red ponytails and matching outfit, is standing in the doorway.
Most magical girls have met Eudial before.
Eudial: First of the Witches 5, elite Death Buster agents who steal pure hearts for some unclear but obviously dubious purpose
Eudial: tried to set everyone on fire at the edge of Rubeus' black hole in Jindai and basically succeeded
Eudial: is one of the Dark Fall operatives who made the wish on the World Tree that might have ended the world if not for the Wolkenritter's intervention
Eudial: is generally extremely bad news all around.
Eudial: is opening the case at her feet, causing a massive billow of steam.
"Take care of the rest, daimon!"
Eudial: out.
But someone else is in...
The moment that a daimon first takes its form is a crucial one in its life cycle. In a way, until this moment, it hadn't yet been born.
Unlike people, daimons are blessed with the gift of self-knowledge.
The first thing they say is their name.
"EGG..."
Students scream. Little Sakura makes it her mission to lead the evacuation, and in short order there's a stampede out of the door that Eudial just emptied.
Leaving a room still veiled by steam --
-- and a monster.
"-CELSIOR!!"
So far the only details to make it through the miasma is that it has the size and shape of a woman.
And it's getting bigger.
No, it's getting closer.
It's going for the pure heart.
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Daimon Eggcelsior!
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The look that Akko gives Kasgami could best be described as 'holding, please wait.'
Splat.
Akko makes such a face, indicating that no, all is not right. She stares at Anthy for a moment, and then she quickly hides the spatula behind her back because she hasn't learned the Words of Arcturus that translate to 'own your mistakes.' She makes an apologetic face, about to open her mouth and make some excuse in response to Sucy, when:
'EGGCELSIOR!'
It is a whirlwind of movement and activity, some of which Akko is poorly equipped to understand; she merely sees Eudial crash down, then sees the monster veiled in steam as it billows and it goes for the Pure Heart Crystal. "Oh, wow, that's lucky for me, now no one will ever--" Her eyes widen. "Wait, if it gets the Pure Heart Crystal that's bad!"
She turns on a foot, spinning and drawing out -- tucked, as it was, into her overstuffed bookbag under the table -- the resplendent Shiny Rod. The polished, carved wood glints, all angles and curves; the little seven gems on it remain dun, though they glint in the light.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" she yells.
There is a flash; a billow of wind, and Akko's there with gritted teeth and hair and coat blown backward. The billowing wind deposits a witch's hat on her brow, and then she goes dashing forward. "C'mere, Humpty Dumpty! You're about to take a great fall!"
Akko leaps, swings the Shiny Rod back over her head -- and then slams it down with a two-handed strike, which explodes with those shiny starbursts of teal light on impact.
COMBAT: Akko Kagari transforms into Shiny Akko! COMBAT: Akko Kagari has used Shiny Smite on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
It's fine. Sure, Akko's eggs are on the move, everybody's looking at them, and Yumi's bacon is... definitely burning, but--
But Yumi is sort of blinking up in the vague direction of the ceiling with Fuu for the moment, and she does not see little birds running about her head. Really! However...
"I'm fine," she says distantly, sitting up with a little wince (but then, Yumi winces at a lot of things) and then finding Fuu and accepting her glasses back, lifting them up to squiint at them. "...Hm..."
They are... greasy! This much she can tell with the naked eye. "Oh..." Sucy's helpful suggestion and the matter of some dramatics happening--does Yumi smell roses all of a sudden over by Utena and Anthy???--both hit her. "Oh cool," she says. "I uh, maybe, I..." Mari Cherie is helping her up and Yumi's expression shows some obvious relief. She is lighter than a girl her height should be naturally but she fell away from the stove so, no burns for her! ......Probably bruising though, considering that the floor is somewhat harder than a stiff wind.
About to address the worried talks and not especially reassured that she can't see the faces that looked her way, the older of the student witches finds that her plans change quite abrubtly. "--!"
Bracing herself back against the counter, Yumi helps support Mari Cherie's weight when she abrubtly starts collapse, and stares right at where Eudial is, with the blank look of someone who can't really see for the life of her. "Who--" The voice. "Eudial???" Yumi answers in some disbelief. "Hey, get back here! You're giving witches a bad name!"
But there is smoke, and the sound of an awful voice, and... and the sensation that there's a pun on the wind...
"Hey Akko," Yumi says. "You know how I said we should be all secretive?"
She gently sets Mari Cherie down, seated, maybe with Fuu's help, and then grabs at her purse to fumble around for her phone. "....it's fine!"
With a flash of green light, a great staff is in Yumi's hand, of beautiful white wood, topped with a glowing green crystal--and then Yumi closes her eyes. "Staff of Lost Ivy," she intones, and as she does green light begins to billow around her, "In my hand, remembered be!"
She brings it down to slam the butt of the staff on the tile, and in a column of verdant radiance she changes; from her silhouette flows the black cloth of her dress, the tight green leather of boots and gloves. A pointed hat drops down onto her head, her hair suddenly back in a long braid. Her eyes open--
"I don't think so! Not every egg gets to hatch!"
Yumi points with her free hand in the direction of the miasma, "And yours breaks here!"
She traces a strange, glowing rune in the air--and thankfully doesn't have to aim curses because this one lights up the mist, practically visible against all the haze, a black cloudy mass that's... vaguely sickly and unsettling, actually, lit up half-green like this, different from going off in clean air.
Though the effect may be ruined as, "Um, am I the only one who can't see anything?? I can't tell if it's just me."
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora transforms into Witch Ivy! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Hollow Curse on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Akko Kagari's Shiny Smite, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Tangle applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 7 Fatigue damage from Yumi Ohzora's Hollow Curse, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Cripple and Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Thank you," Fuu says in reply to the teacher helping her to her feet. "I don't think it's burned too badly -" And she doesn't want to fall behind in egg-separating duty, but there are three-person teams which are juggling tasks adequately amongst their number.
SUDDENLY EUDIAL
"- Sensei?!" Fuu exclaims in entirely legitimate surprise as she suddenly has half of Mari Cherie's weight sagging against her, instead of propping her up.
Oh, and there's a monster closing in on them. "Them" being very specifically herself, Mari Cherie-sensei, and Yumi. The good news is that the noncombatant students are clearing out in a highly well-advised hurry; the better news is that the magical girls in the room are already taking matters into their own hands.
She helps Yumi get Mari Cherie seated, hopefully safely out of the way, and pulls her glove-jewel out from under her apron (or rather, from the pocket said apron was covering). "Belief becomes power ... Winds, guide me!!" she calls out, and a miniature whirlwind kicks a lot of turbulence up in that part of Eudial's Cloud of Dramatic Fog.
Normally the Magic Knight of Wind would follow up by calling out a spell, or possibly conjuring a weapon. This time, however, she does neither; she's definitely on the move - Yumi and Akko may notice as much - but she's grabbing something from their ill-fated cooking station ...
"CLASS IS IN *SESSION*, EGGCELSIOR-SAN!!"
There is the sound of a swish.
If all goes well, the swish will be followed by a *thwack* and a sizzle, as the Wind Knight tries to clock the daimon with a skillet of burning bacon. (It's better than just letting it burn uselessly, right?)
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Wind Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Bacon and Eggntering on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Sucy's single visible eye widens at the sudden burst of scintillant darkness and the revelation of the Pure Heart Crystal. It's beautiful, she thinks, but this isn't a good place for it to be, is it? That woman with a voice like a French horn is telling the daemon - no, daimon.
Sucy's sleeve sweeps over her side of the station. The little bottles disappear, as do several of the rejected egg sauces.
We ought to run, she thinks but doesn't say as people scream. As Akko turns round - 'oh no you don't,' she says.
Sucy's head turns then to look at Yumi.
And then Sucy drops down behind the cooking station into a crouch, where she put her bookbag. Within that bookbag are two key objects, which she removes. One of them is an ancient looking, aeon-stained flask of thick glass. The other is her folded up hat, which she paps back into shape.
"Ovum in potentia," Sucy mutters, "with the cross and cross again of the sweetness of summer and -" As she says this she pours her little bottles into the larger retort, along with, more dismayingly, the failed attempts at hollandaise sauce and a single withered-looking mushroom cap. "Matter awaken--"
The retort makes a thumping THOOM noise and releases a breakfast-scented acidic steam. "Chrysopoeia!" Sucy declares. Then she upends the entire content and downs it all, her free hand coming up into the air as a fist.
After this she pulls the hat on.
At this point, with a subtly different and more radiant stance, Sucy Manbavaran rises, reaching into her apron to draw out her wand - which veritably crackles with cool blue-green light. The apron itself is swished off of her and wrapped up to be put back into the bookbag, and as she reaches forwards to flick off the portable burner (safety first!) Sucy looks out with triumph and a rising feel of power to see--
-- "I can't see it either," Sucy says. "Hold on a moment here."
That mystery purple stuff gets put back into the glass container. Sucy shakes it gently. "You know, I kinda wonder how egg's gonna react to all of this. They say if you have the right kind of reptile egg tissue you can totally keep all kinds of living stuff separate on its own, Ivy, isn't that *sick*?" The contents of the retort bubble gently. Sucy puts what looks like a piece of dirt into it.
"So I kind of wonder if it's gonna work as a medium for the growth of a big strong rhyzome!" Sucy then dumps the piece of dirt, now purplish and significantly larger, into her hand.
"Hey," she calls to the Daimon, "catch," and then she throws the ensorcelled piece of mushroom spore culture at it.
COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran transforms into Sucy a la Chrysopoeia! COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran has used Multiplicate! A Fungus Among... YOU on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Does she like how the egg cracked?
The tell in Kasagami's simmering fury that she's keeping choked down is in how her jaw tightens. That she doesn't immediately answer with something cutting? Maybe part company, part increasing restraint, and part actual introspection.
Kassie hates it when she can't find answers to questions like that. Once more Anthy finds new ways to dig. The Duelist finds herself wondering if Anthy even realizes it.
"I've gotten more yolk in the bowl that not by now...so it could be worse."
Splat. Kasagami pointedly is looking away from Anthy, but man she looks smug for a second. Which transitions to the beginning of glorious acceptance to Utena, but Anthy pulls the pink Engaged away. Kassie should've seen it coming, but it stings a little.
You're better than that Kassie, she echoes in her own head.
Steven gets a grin and a wave with one hand as she texts with the other 'sneakily'.
Which is dropped as Eudial kicks the door in, and shoots the teacher. Her gaze goes wide, then narrows instantly as recognition dawns.
"YOU!" Kasagami is still really angry about that whole gravity-slash-setting-on-fire business. It's a bit interspersed with uncharacteristic panic. The arm underneath the bandages tenses up involuntarily, and the cold sweat at her neck lessens only as she doesn't smell that magical flamethrower on the redhead.
The woman's gone though, and a good hard spike of fear has Kasagami waking up. With steam and that vague shape in the smoke of the Daimon saying it's name so proudly. The Duelist on swift boots gets in the worst of the concealment, her ring shimmering just once.
She needs something for this.
Kasagami is back out of it, her coat on her back with rose-petal tinged glory at the cuffs her now undone hair flutters dramatically in some unseen and un-smog-moving breeze! She points her sword once at Eggcelsior!
"There's no place in a righteous kingdom for rotten eggs like you! Honestly though? I'm much more a fan of fairy tales than nursery rhymes!"
Akko's brave blow with that brilliant staff earns a firm nod, as the Crimson Rose Duelist's long legs have her striding forward confidently, pausing for Ivy's curses and whatever unholy mushroom Sucy is hauling at the thing.
She's glad for her sword's length, in this case. Both hands grip as she swing it down in a wide cutting arc as a warcry issues from her throat. Tense, iron-like muscles flex in both arms for all to see.
"I'm better at cutting than cracking eggs anyway! Off with her head!" But can she hit through all of this dense fog!?
COMBAT: Kasagami Araki transforms into Crimson Rose Duelist!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
JUST AS the last set of bacon is set to cook, of course something happens! "Who just kicked in the door?" asks the boy. THat sounds like something someone else would do, and isntead there is a lady that is familiar somehow. And she has some kind of gun. "Uh--"
The shot goes off and pegs one of the teachers. But it isn't a bullet per se. There's no splash of crimson thankfully, though something does exit the teacher's body. And then he recognizes it.
He remembers it from the Glassworks. The heart shaped crystal. "Oh no. Can we please wait on this I just started cooking the last batch!!!" he shouts to surely deaf ears.
A creature forms from soem kind of case? It is a creature nonetheless, and is definitely not friendly. What causes Steven to take a sharp breath is the fact that its name is a pun. "Okay, that crosses the line, I will not put up with that!" he says defiantly! The boy reaches for a skillet and holds it in front of--
"Wait, I have a magical thing, why am I trying to use a frying pan." He tosses it aside and, more appropriately, summons a beautiful pink shield instead!
He keeps the apron on though.
"Okay, time to beat this egg!" he says, running to slam into the greature, and interpose himself in its targeted path! He doesn't know much about those Pure Hearts, but letting badguys have it certainly seems, well, bad!
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe dodges 8 Fatigue damage from Sucy Manbavaran's Multiplicate! A Fungus Among... YOU, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Sucy Manbavaran is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Exhausted and Tangle applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Serious Steven! COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Shield Slam on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Kasagami Araki has used Rose on the Wind on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly braces 9 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Bacon and Eggntering, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe partially dodges 3 Fatigue damage from Kasagami Araki's Rose on the Wind, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Kasagami Araki is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters 20 Fatigue damage from Steven Universe's Shield Slam, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Eggceptional Quick, bursts all the way through, doing 30 Fatigue damage to Steven Universe!
<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
There was, on Anthy Himemiya's pretty features, a careful smile. Utena's intervention changes that smile. "Thank you, Utena-sama," she says, and among other things it is also a 'please.'
So perhaps the taller girl can feel, with a hand cleaning her egged back, the way Anthy jumps when dark energy bursts through Mari Cherie -- the way delicate ribs expand to accommodate a deep gasp. Eudial makes a daimonic mess of their kitchen classroom and Himemiya shrinks behind her roommate, a thing her small frame helps make possible.
She peers at the threatening shape through the fog, at the woman. Then, with her fingers lightly covering her own mouth, she looks up at Utena's strong figure.
The door is not so far, but...
The steam rises.
Where is awkward Anthy Himemiya with egg on her back?
A brown hand falls on Utena's shoulder, but a red cuff adorns it. A girl's figure, complete with great feminine belled skirt, steps from behind Utena. Red hugs her torso and blooms out from her waist, edged in white and gold and the green of the sea; she wears a shining crown atop purple curls. A bindi marks the centermost point between eyebrows lax and smooth above shuttered lids. Every inch of her gown, every strand of her hair, each thick eyelash is perfection in placement and form and curvature.
She is the Rose Bride, and she has, she is, an offer to her Engaged, with hand raised.
Affirmation received, she begins the ritual.
Soundtrack: Dios he no Inori https:'www.dailymotion.comvideox2x9uvt
Her eyes drop and close; her palms rise before her. "Rose of the noble castle." Light gestates within the curled cage of her fingers.
"Power of Dios that sleeps within me." She holds the light and shapes it, rays coruscating across the Arena and its occupants.
"Heed your master and come forth!" Her skirt ripples with rising power. Back she bends to describe an arc of contorted grace with the curvature of her spine, chin tilted back to offer her surrender and the light that blooms from her chest to her Engaged.
COMBAT: Anthy Himemiya transforms into The Rose Bride!
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Would a youma attack even have been required, for Utena to become draped in epaulette and cord, to be surrounded by ruffles and roses? She was already wholly engrossed in the twin-delicate tasks of caring for Anthy's clothes and also for the girl beneath. Wholly committed.
Transformation, to Utena, is closeness to Himemiya.
The prince startles at Anthy's shock, having been wholly oblivious to the threat until that moment, and responds to it by immediately broadening her shoulders and widening her stance. She was already a shield between the girl and hypothetical bullies; now she is a fortress.
Her voice can be heard amid the steam.
"Should we get you out--"
A hand rests on her shoulder, and Utena's offer dies in her throat, while something else is born in her eyes.
Something like surprise.
Something like honor, as in, to be honored.
Something like warmth.
"Himemiya..."
Accepting what shall be, her affirmation lives there, in those empyrean orbs, along with an oath, unspoken but as easy to read as Utena's heart ever is: so long as we are together, you shall not be harmed.
Then, delicately -- tenderly -- but also confidently --
-- Utena's hand is on her back, her arm cradling her, supporting her, bearing her up --
-- her hair, unbound, wild and free as Anthy's isn't, becomes a momentary curtain around them, veiling their expressions from friend and foe alike --
-- in that moment of contact, when she grasps the hilt and draws the blade forth --
"Grant me the power to bring world revolution!" yells Utena, the Sword of Dios reflecting her lips on one side and Anthy's on the other.
Unseen bells toll as light gathers on its edge -- on the signet ring on her finger -- on her smile, as she looks over at Anthy, returned safely to her feet, and to balance.
The promise lingers there, even after she's gone forth, exploding forward to join Kasagami and Steven on the front lines, white rose petals in her wake.
"Himemiya!" she calls, as she thrusts, poetry in motion. "Maybe try to get the crystal back in her chest while we keep this thing busy? Teach is an old lady, she's not looking so good!"
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou transforms into Revolutionary Girl Utena! COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used Recklessly Oncoming Reality on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe partially dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Utena Tenjou's Recklessly Oncoming Reality, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Utena Tenjou is Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Of course Anthy gets egged. Rei has to wince, because she's seen the sorts of things students do to her, at school.
But there's scarcely time to reach out, because shortly afterwards there's another crash -- and this one isn't a couple of students tumbling down. It's the door, and behind it, Eudial. "Stop!" Rei yells, to no effect. Her bowl, and all its hard efforts, scatters to the ground as the Pure Heart Crystal erupts from Mari Cherie. Her teeth set in a line.
"Usagi!" Rei calls, grasping for her hand, and tugging her to follow Sakura's evacuation. No matter the hard time she was giving her, she's the first girl she sees to when everything goes wrong.
... of course, they're not really evacuating. And it's not so hard to miss two girls paring off from the stampede to slip into an open classroom. "Let's get it done," Rei nods to her. "Mars Star Power -- Make Up!"
With a flash of light and ribbons, and weaving flame which would bring a tear to the eye of any chef --
The steam parts around Sailor Mars and her cohort, framed on a counter. She stands, one hand rising through the air to swipe the steam from before her, the other curling at her hip. One foot points forward, the other planted firmly against the marble. Beside her, Sailor Moon does not swipe the air, but instead points fiercely at their foe. The two command attention in their deliberate posing, effortless in their condemnation of evil.
COMBAT: Rei Hino transforms into Sailor Mars!
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed. <SoundTracker> In the Name of the Moon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEsGj0tCT4E
Usagi winces as the egg disaster meets its culmination upon Anthy. She then returns to her station. Just as Eudial arrives. It's instantly pandemonium, and Usagi stumbles in a way that causes her to knock her poached eggs off the counter. "Eudi- My eggs!" Fortunately the water is no longer at a scalding boil. Instead dumping a poached payload and warm water on the ground.
As Rei takes her hand, she crouches down low and starts to scoot to the opposite side of the room as the evacuation, using the counters for cover and reaching under her apron for her brooch. "Ready? Let's transform right now!"
"Moon Cosmic Power - Make Up!"
There is a flash of ribbons, and a hint of angelic wings, as they encircle her to form a Sailor Guardian of Love and Justice.
"Hold it right there!"
There are then two figures standing on the counter, two silhouettes of Sailor Senshi striking fierce poses.
"There's no excuse for hatching evil plans over our breakfast efforts!"
"Even if Cooking Class is really hard - how dare you betray the dreams of all of our empty stomachs!"
"I won't forgive you for disrupting the peace of Juuban Public School!"
"Much less cracking our instructor open to get at the pure heart inside!"
"In the Name of Mars-"
"In the Name of the Moon-"
"-WE WILL PUNISH YOU!"
COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Sailor Moon has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Sailor Mars has joined the combo started by Sailor Moon! COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars have used Combo: In The Name Of..., composed of In The Name Of The Moon and In The Name Of Mars!, on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 0 Fatigue damage from Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars's Combo: In The Name Of..., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars are Psyched! Hotaru Tomoe is Taunted! Cripple and Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Daimon Battle #1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZEx2neikps
Eggcelsior never makes it to the Pure Heart Crystal, which continues to twinkle, beautiful and fragile, on the floor near its owner.
There's a small army in its way.
And they... converge.
It's hard to know exactly what the daimon looked like originally, since by the time the mists have cleared, it has been beaten with a Shiny Rod, smacked with a frying pan, infected by a sickly curse, used as mushroom food, sliced up and... yelled at.
"Ooh! Ouch! Sss! Oww!"
But -- after all that -- here's what we're left with:
Its flesh is the dark orange of the organic, high-grade yolk, shot through with something redder than blood that doesn't belong in any earthly embryo.
It has a bodice of sorts that is unmistakably egg carton, if egg cartons were so gigantic that only two could fit horizontally across its chest.
Its arms terminate in more of these; the one on the left is purpled and gooey with shrooms and sickliness, and has a more normal-sized carton which, from the way it's lined up along the arm, looks kind of like a mini-missile launcher.
The right is more normal and ends in a single, larger carton-end, like the ones on her chest but... even bigger.
And then it launches an egg.
A HUGE egg.
At point blank.
No... it has autofire.
There's one for each of those who chose to engage it up close: Akko, Kasagami, Steven and Utena.
And those massive eggs have an alarming tendency to explode on contact, with goop that burns like fire. Or, perhaps more accurately, like acid.
Maybe, really, more like bacon grease.
For those who remain afar... they discover the true horror of the daimon's cursed infected arm's carton, which launches a massive barrage of rotten eggs at the group.
Soon, another kind of cloud fills the room...
"OUTTA THE WAY!" bellows Eggcelsior. "I'M AN EGG ON A MISSION AND NOTHING'S GONNA STOP ME!"
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Akko Kagari. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Kasagami Araki. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Utena Tenjou. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Last One Out Is A... on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Last One Out Is A... on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Last One Out Is A... on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Last One Out Is A... on Sucy Manbavaran. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Last One Out Is A... on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Sailor Moon partially dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Last One Out Is A..., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Moon's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Blind and Diversion applied to Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Sailor Mars perfectly dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Last One Out Is A..., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Sailor Mars's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Kasagami Araki partially dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Kasagami Araki's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Steven Universe braces 16 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 13 Fatigue damage! Steven Universe's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle applied to Steven Universe! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Last One Out Is A..., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Blind and Diversion applied to Yumi Ohzora! COMBAT: Akko Kagari counters 5 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Akko Kagari's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Tangle applied to Akko Kagari! COMBAT: Akko Kagari's counterattack, Metamorphie Faciesse!, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji partially dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Last One Out Is A..., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Diversion applied to Fuu Hououji! COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Last One Out Is A..., taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sucy Manbavaran's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Diversion applied to Sucy Manbavaran! COMBAT: Utena Tenjou perfectly dodges 27 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge! Utena Tenjou's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Moving up to intercept the Daimon was a bad idea. Boy does Steven have egg all over his face. Literally. He gets checked across the room as it barges its way in proper, and the boy ends up on the floor. "Okay, this is not the kind of breakfast that makes a balanced meal," he comments, attempting to retain composure as he stands.
"Like, I dunno, wait until after we we're done cooking would be nice! We can fight then! Just wait like fifteen minutes!" Yeah, no the badguy, err, she? Its definitely feminine. It looks like Eudial just went down the breakfast aisle and said 'I wanna make a monster out of this'.
...There's definitely worse picks out there. At least this one smells nice???
WAIT NEVER MIND. It just shot something that smells awful at people. The boy puts his shirt up to cover his nose. And even still a little dazed from the earlier hit, he can't help but go starry-eyed when Sailor Moon and Mars show up. The day is totally saved!
BLAM.
Okay, Steven might not be awake to see it. A concussive shell is shot right at the boy, who only barely manages to block a direct hit to his torso. The force still sends him sprawling back into a pots and pans rack, which on being knocked into it, rain down a few heavy skillets. One or two bonk him on the head.
"Err... Pretty... Sailor..." If one could see imaginary effects, there might be an entire Senshi cast dancing around his head.
...He might have to sit this one out.
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Kasagami keeps her eyes forward, away from her cooking partners as the Rose Bride and Engaged join, as light and bells toll. Does she even really need to watch? Something worms its way back into her heart, shuffled up from the depths of her worse nature, her lesser impulses. Writhing jealousy.
Oh, but to grip that Sword of Dios again, to wield its power. To draw upon the brilliance within Anthy, to use that surging light for strength. She's a Duelist, and she wants so, so badly. Kasagami focuses hard. To drive back down those feelings lest it show on her face towards the pink haired girl she calls a friend.
That resides in an uncomfortable place in her heart, a hot potato she doesn't know where to toss, when elsewhere one etched there is so comfortable. She wishes she could hold Setsuna's hand right now.
But having Utena, the One Engaged, fighting at her side alongside Steven and the more Witchy members in the back? Now that does much to allow her to not dwell on her feelings.
Plus, there's an egg giving many, many reasons to be more worried about breakfast and pure hearts than internal struggles! The realization of 'Autoshotgun Egg Arm' comes more in instinct and her own skilled perfection than any utterly conscious thought, though many flow after she's shoving her left leg to slide away from that point blank shot! Her beloved coat is caught up in that burning eggtillery, grease and other cloth-ruining things having her 'urk!' in alarm! Followed by a sucking hiss as her side too is splattered. She is very grateful she didn't take off that apron!
Oh that feels bad! And Steven goes down! Kassie lets loose with a good dose of all of her various stored up anger from things Ohtori and beyond, pushing forward through eggfire. She ducks low, pulls her long blade to the side, and with an almost ballroom-like spinning step, brings her nodachi towards Eggcelsior like a whirling blender!
"Forget your mission! You don't get to scramble one of my best friends without becoming whisked away by a King's fury!"
Inside, Kassie is hoping Moon and Mars hardboil this jerk of an egg!
COMBAT: Kasagami Araki has used Rose Flash on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Steven-san!!" the Wind Knight calls out, concern cleaer in her voice (and on her face) as the young boy gets sent flying into the rack. She doesn't have a chance to go to his aid, though, since she has problems of her own to deal with - problems of the rotten and eggy variety. Problems that, while she tries to roll away from, manage to land with a crack and a poof of smelly smoke.
She can put up with the smell for a while, though. Some of her witchy allies in cooking and combat are notably worse off than she is.
"Winds of Healing!"
A gentle breeze stirs the fumes from the rotten-egg barrage - and for Akko, Yumi, and Sucy, they would find that the Winds of Healing push the fumes away very effectively despite their gentleness. Even the burning-hot grease is blown back off of them, the balmy, green-tinted breeze soothing the pain and letting the witchy trio bring their full power to bear once more against the daimon.
That still leaves the green-clad Magic Knight enduring her own egg-inflicted cloud of sulfurous stench, but she's conjuring her bow and quiver anyway, ready to go back on the offensive when the chance presents itself.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Akko Kagari. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Sucy Manbavaran. COMBAT: Akko Kagari accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Cleanse! All of Akko Kagari's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"I-I guess we're not really doing that now!" Akko calls back at Yukmi.
The mists clear and Akko is left seeing what she hit: not, as she had thought, a giant egg-creature. Except, it is sort of a giant egg creature; the the horrible yolk-like flesh and the cartons suggest it. She makes such the face, her grip on the Shiny Rod slacking. "Th-that's---AAAAAH, RUN!"
The egg fires.
Akko yelps -- and, suddenly clutching the Shiny Rod so tight that her knuckles whiten, -- casts a spell with the first thing that she can think of, foremost in her mind: "METAMORPHIE FACIESSE!"
The huge egg just barely strikes Akko, and yet it sends a burst of dark brown feathers into the air...
And then Chicken Akko -- which is a brown field hen, with red tips on the feathers, but the expressive brown eyes of Akko and a little curl of a feather like her hair -- rises above the egg, wings flapping desperately. "HEY! What's the big idea!?"
She squawks when she yells. "You should show some respect! That teacher was really nice! She only yells at me sometimes!"
Fuu's winds buffet her. They lift the round, brown chicken up high. Akko squawks after Kasagami -- and then she goes into a dive, straight for the terrible head of the Daimon.
COMBAT: Akko Kagari has used What Comes First on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Yumi Ohzora's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Cleanse! All of Sucy Manbavaran's debuffs are cleared!
<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
There is an awareness in the Rose Bride of the danger they're in, the power of the youma they face -- even if the monster's details are not yet known through steam's shroud. That tension does not leave her. But... neither is she the sometimes blank-faced, sometimes more clearly terrified doll of a princess some might remember attending to Kasagami Araki in some of her more powerful moments.
A part of the Rose Bride's offer is this, her implicit acceptance of a prince's pledge of protection. Another part is the light way she lies within the arms of her Engaged. The way her shining crown of purple curls catches wild-flying strands of rose-blush hair feels more like Anthy, though.
She looks up to Utena in the privacy of the moment with her lips parted -- as if to speak or to exhale -- and the Sword pours forth from her.
Up again with the help of a gallant arm, the Rose Bride swirls a few steps back with her hands clasped together beneath her chin, like a little prayer. She watches the flutter of white rose petals and the girl whose wake they are, and her grand skirt settles long seconds after she does.
She is fully prepared to adorn the edge of the battlefield, to keep those hands clasped before her and those wide green eyes on the brilliance of Utena Tenjou in motion. Isn't she just a pretty sheath, after all? What use could she be, after the Sword is drawn?
Well -- there is one use she has, one she revealed to a girl she once called Araki-sama.
That promise in eyes bluer than sky, to keep her from harm... A heart beats more quickly deep in the thorny bracken of her. Does she fear, or hope? Is there a difference, for the Rose Bride?
But when Utena Tenjou calls out, it is not for a sword's blessing; it is for a different sort of help, something she believes Anthy can do. The girl blinks, owlish, amid the hiss of bacon grease and the splatting of launched eggs.
"Yes, Utena-sama! I'll try...!"
She crouches low with a crinkle of crinoline, although there is only so small of a target she can become, being a girl in full ballgown of bright arterial red. Marie Cheri isn't that far -- a classroom is but so large -- but the threat of Eggcelsior looms large. The Rose Bride tries to keep cooking stations between herself and the youma.
The sparkle of the Pure Heart Crystal keeps catching her eye. She looks its way, then looks away, to the teacher she's nearing.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Sucy can't see it either. Yumi can at least appreciate that for the moment. ....She can imagine what kind of gunk Sucy's putting into bottles now, naturally, especially with, "Wait--really? Like, it'll just, make the other components stay apart?" This is admittedly more excited and interested than a reasonable person should be hearing Sucy talk about weird potions, but, this is what we have, so that's how it is.
But then, Kasagami and fairy tales gets a, "You would!" from Yumi as she turns to keep trying to look at themonster such as she can. There's a pang of something--guilt? shame? ...general just, feeling bad??? when she hears this is interrupting Steven actually doing well at this. It... might not ruin the rest?
But despite her vision issues for the moment, and the bruising that she'll feel later, Yumi doesn't fall back or feel like she can't help here--but then, with this group, who could? "I've got her over here!" Yumi calls to Anthy and Utena at the suggestion, the head of her staff gleaming brilliant green helpfully, as Sailors Moon and Mars say about what needs to be said here. Eggcept...
"Uh?" Yumi sees.. colors and shapes, definitely. And motion. "You're kidding me," Yumi says about the Daimon, the smell at first making her wrinkle her nose again before--
Nope, definitely gagging. "Ugh--Is the mission to smell terrible??" Yumi asks, "Because that's definitely what you're doing so far!"
She is indeed coughing instead of fighting until Fuu's wind brings a welcome reprieve. "Thanks!" she calls. And--...
"..."
Chicken Akko. That's real. That happens. Yumi pauses. Yumi opens her mouth, and closes her mouth, "I-is your magic telling you to run away??"
Either way, Yumi sets her jaw, because--the teacher was nice. Is nice. "Hey, it's not all left for the 'King', Yumi calls to Kasagami, holding her staff to push it forward at an angle, green light gathering around her. "Light of the morning..." The glow becomes more intense, and she actually closes her eyes.
"Lost Ivy, help me find her," she murmurs more softly, turns in the direction of the daimon--
And a brilliant beam of radiant green erupts from her weapon for the monster, edged in white, holding emerald flames for the things of darkness.
She holds her breath as she opens her eyes again.
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Sacred Ray on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe counters 6 Fatigue damage from Yumi Ohzora's Sacred Ray, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Eggxtreme Luminario, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Yumi Ohzora!
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6N1_GJAyFw
It would seem that this omelet will not be solved by a single mushroom.
"Wow," Sucy says, before "WOW" and a simultaneous "AKKO LOOK OUT" as the egg is launched towards her. The carton keeps discharging and one egg flips up and lands right on top of Sucy's deactivated burner, cracking in her half-completed and now-abandoned hollandaise sauce. She looks down with a slowly growing expression of disgust because she can SEE the vile sulfrous plumes rising upwards and she knows in a moment she is going to experience the suffering hell of ten thousand elephants eating poor diets rich in fats and garlic and -
'winds of healing!'
The fumes dissipate. She looks towards Fuu. One hand comes up and she gives the Magic Knight a wordless thumbs up, before her attention snaps forwards.
Akko has become a chicken. Sucy doesn't quite smile to herself but there is a faint silent glow of pride. Finally, Sucy thinks. Maybe that'll be her new dream.
After this her eyes saccade around to the as-yet-undevastated sections. Her wand comes out and she points it towards several of the containers and cups of lemon juice, yanking them upwards and sending them into a rotating swirl in the air which she then directs with an emphatic sweep of the arm down towards the head of the Daimon.
As she does this she sidles backwards, away from where she was standing and its range of garbage and abandoned eggshells. A moment later she pops up behind the Sailor Soldiers, just as their condemnation completes. "Hi," she says. "... is the Crystal supposed to go back into sensei or what. I'm kinda scrambling here."
COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran has used Object Control Magic on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 15 Fatigue damage from Kasagami Araki's Rose Flash, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Kasagami Araki is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Akko Kagari's What Comes First, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Akko Kagari is Psyched! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe cleanly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Sucy Manbavaran's Object Control Magic, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Sailor Moon breaks out of her pose to giggle at Sailor Mars, "Mars-chan you made a joke!" She's so proud of her right now. "I can't wait to tell Venus-chan!"
However then - THEN - Eggcelsior begins to become threatening. And as the mist clears, Sailor Moon recoils at the sight of her launching a large egg. "Eggs aren't supposed to have a mission! Other than to be delicious!"
And then - the stench arises, and as it hits Sailor Moon's nose she makes a little noise of disgust, eyes watering against her will and nasal passages erupting in torturous despair. With no better alternative she simply lets herself fall behind the counter she's standing on.
There's the sound of her groping through cabinet after cabinet, until she pops back up with...
A clothespin on her nose.
"Yoush-shtink!" Keeping low the girl flaps a hand in front of her face as she takes off down one aisle and down the other. However during that time she's seen Himemiya start to move to make good on what a glamorous Prince asked of her.
"Marsh-cha! Weneedtuh covuh Himemheeyuh!"
The Spiral Heart Moon Rod spins into her hand, as she takes the clothespin off her nose, and kneels down over Steven, "Don't worry Steven! Let your Senshi-senpai handle this one!" She beams at him. Popping up into a low dash, she rushes to a flanking position, before skidding to a stop. "Mars- you're forgetting the most important one!" She says - perhaps as an understood signal between the two.
The Sailor Senshi pivots, moving her arms in a flashy choreography before pointing the rod at the creature. "Moon Twilight-"
Silver energy builds, until it shines so brightly at the head.
"-FLASH!"
And then erupts forth into one silver orb after another. It's joined by a searing spiral of supernatural flame, that sets a flaming course for each orb to follow on it's way towards the Daimon.
It detonates into a purifying twilit inferno on the Daimon's position.
Moon then declares something proudly to Mars. "Fried!"
Which is the moment she double takes at the squawking chicken in Akko's voice who isn't so far away - right as she declares Fried, "Ah... sorry I didn't mean to-" Waving a hand she looks embarrassed, "-really I'm not in the mood for Karaage at all! Honest!"
Then Sucy pops into her field of vision. "HI!" She squeaks back at high pitched volume. To be fair Sucy is very startling in her witch aesthetic. Sailor Moon nods quickly, "It goes back in! It's like it knows where it's supposed to go-! Just - scramble the Daimon not the Pure Heart Crystal!"
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Raspberry Swirl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0O2-xV5XEA
What does Utena know of Kasagami's jealousies? No hint of fear of them -- no hint of awareness, either -- washes over her face as she flips out of the way of her egg, and lands, untouched, at the other Duelist's side.
The only part of her that's goopy is her blade, and that, from a solid hit landed on the youma, moments prior.
And yet. Even if she did know Kasagami's heart, would she understand it? Not when she was rotting to death, body and spirit, on the tatami floor; not when she was collapsed in the Shinjuku rubble, the blessing of Lera Camry flickering into nothingness in her palms; not when she was torn to shreds in the garden greenhouse, Sayaka and Kozue's bestowal barely a sliver;
not even then did she wish for the Sword of Dios.
Not even then did she fight for it.
She fought for something else.
And so it is that the look that she gives Kasagami is fiercely warm -- fiercely innocent -- fiercely kind.
"Cover me!" she yells at her -- and in so doing, she trusts her -- as she ducks back to reclaim the falling Steven, to catch him before he can even hit the floor, and to settle him safely out of harm's way, in a far corner of the room, with a tablecloth for his pillow.
Though not far from Anthy, whose presence has never left her; her awareness of her roommate's position, and danger, is as total as it apparently was for the boy's in the moment.
Through the chaos of everything, she offers a second smile, only for Himemiya. For her bravery. For her action. For her choice.
Though, in the heat of the moment, she may have also innocently forgotten that that choice may not have been as much of one as it seemed...
But she smiles, all the same.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used I'll Believe In Myself Because I Want To Believe on Kasagami Araki. COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used I'll Believe In Myself Because I Want To Believe on Anthy Himemiya. COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used I'll Believe In Myself Because I Want To Believe on Steven Universe. COMBAT: Kasagami Araki accepts Utena Tenjou's I'll Believe In Myself Because I Want To Believe, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Withstand applied to Kasagami Araki!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Sailor Moon giggles over Mars's joke, and Sailor Mars just smirks, immensely pleased with herself. "Mm-hmm." When she least expects it, even Mars can make puns. That's what makes them effective enough to break Sailor Moon's posing escapades.
But unfortunately, the monster doesn't much care for letting them banter. "Exploding eggs?!" Sailor Mars demands, aghast, as it launches its offence on the front line. "Come on! That only happened the one time!" How was she supposed to know that putting an egg in a microwave would result in a crime scene?!
Let's not focus on that, though, because clearly a) Sailor Mars is behind a great cook and b) there are more eggs flying around. Including, distressingly, from that diseased carton, with a stench to turn even the staunchest of stomachs. With a disgusted grimace, Mars dives out of the way, using the cover of the counter to spring out of range of the barrage; a heel presses against the side of the surface to propel her forward, and a hand presses at the ground to push her up at the termination of her lunge.
It's just a few inches away from where her hollandaise sauce fell.
That's just unfair, she thinks. She worked really hard on that.
She looks to Anthy, as Sailor Moon makes the call. "Right!" She says -- and follows it with: "Take that thing off your face, it won't help!" Everyone's a critic, especially Sailor Mars. One thing she isn't critical of is Steven, though -- relief on her face as Sailor Moon checks on him, as Utena sees him to safety.
Her own task clear, Sailor Mars points accusation at Eggcelsior. "Your mission stinks! Don't you know how easy it is to stop an egg?! Cracked or boiled, baked or flipped..."
Sailor Moon picks up what she puts down, and Mars nods to her. Her hands clasp together, index fingers outward -- "FIRE --" and a bead of flame erupts there, "-- SOUL!", spiralling out towards moon-touched orbs. The cord of flame coils around the silver, a flaming path which sends them crashing right into the eggstravagant Daimon.
"Fried?" Mars shoots back, with a significant look to Akko's predicament. "Geez, I wasn't going to say it..."
She can't help but smile, though.
And then, suddenly, there's Sucy, which is a thing that just happens sometimes. "-- eh?" Mars squeaks in surprise, before understanding floods her face. "Oh! Yes, it's very important. If we don't get her Pure Heart back to her, she'll be in real trouble!" Meanwhile, Sailor Moon explains the technicalities, and Sailor Mars nods along. "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm!" For all her criticisms, they're of one mind when it comes to the Daimon.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has joined the combo started by Sailor Moon! COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars have used All-Star Senshi! on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges 115 Fatigue damage from Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars's Combo: All-Star Senshi!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.
Things are getting destructive in this communal kitchen; the daimon is not a complete idiot, isn't just standing there taking it. Kasagami's able to land a hit but at the direct expense of the station she'd been making her sauce at; as much not-yet-hollandaise goes flying as anything off Eggcelsior itself. Chickakko flaps around its face and it clumsily tries to wave her off -- it doesn't have hands, just those cannons -- and in its flailing destroys the one-time counter of Steven Universe, and all that fabulous bacon sitting there.
Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.
Bacon to bacon bits.
Apparently the single-egg launcher also has a 'ray' setting because as Yumi's blast comes in, it is met, and mostly dissipated, by a golden-yolky blast of Eggcelsior's own. What sacred light does get through, happens to land on the multi-launcher arm, and seems to remove that purplish stuff, burn off the fungus.
Maybe at least now it will stop launching rotten eggs??
Sucy's lemon juice it mostly endures.
But the twinned powers of Sailors Moon and Mars... it sees its death there, and it LEAPS, leaps gloriously, leaps over the entirety of it, and lands right in their faces.
"This one," it announces, "Is FOR MY MISTRESS!!"
Eggsplosion.
Emerging from its own ground zero -- apparently it can't be hurt by its own powers -- it precedes itself with more of those huge eggs. Only, instead of detonating them at point blank, as it did earlier, it lets them soar through the air.
And they don't land ON their targets.
They land near them, and seem to do nothing.
Well, some eggs are duds?
Eggcelsior's smile suggests otherwise.
"You wanna make an omelette," it quips, "You gotta break a few eggs."
Everyone's been making that allusion all fight, but man, there's something way more chilling about it coming from its lips.
And then they snaps their finger.
...and the yolk cometh...
COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Usagi And Rei's Eggcellent Adventure on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Usagi And Rei's Eggcellent Adventure on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Egg Timer on Utena Tenjou. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Egg Timer on Sucy Manbavaran. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Egg Timer on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Egg Timer on Akko Kagari. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Egg Timer on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Egg Timer on Kasagami Araki. COMBAT: Akko Kagari braces 23 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Egg Timer, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Akko Kagari's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora braces 13 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Egg Timer, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Yumi Ohzora's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Utena Tenjou fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Egg Timer, taking 31 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Utena Tenjou's counterattack, Flight of the Wingless Angel, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Sailor Moon partially dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Usagi And Rei's Eggcellent Adventure, taking 26 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Stun applied to Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Usagi And Rei's Eggcellent Adventure, taking 35 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran dodges 20 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Egg Timer, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sucy Manbavaran's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"My magic is not telling me to run away!" Akko squawks back at Yumi. She only has the sense that Sucy's looking at her -- and not really catching that flash of pride.
Akko lands on a counter, her little talons landing. She bobs, feathers flying--and then she squawks when she sees the acidic yolk flying at her. She reaches out with a feathery wing, grasps onto a cast-iron frying pan, and throws it between her and the blast of yolk. It splashes over it, smoke rising and sizzling; Akko drops the pan, with a clatter.
"Metamorphie Faciesse!" she squawks; with a burst of smoke, she turns back into the witch hat-wearing girl that everyone knows. Her crimson eyes lock onto the Daimon, and she holds the Shiny Rod aloft. "Shiny Rod! Please, help me cook up something for this egg monster!"
Aquamarine light bursts out from the Shiny Rod. Bacon bits, a pair of bread slices, and a piece of cheese lift up into the air. Each aglow, they fly at the Daimon like bullets; a piece of bread flies first, then a slice of cheese, and then another piece of bread.
And then, finally, a cast-iron skillet.
"Huh... kinda literal," Akko says with a glance down at the Shiny Rod.
COMBAT: Akko Kagari has used Egg Sandwich on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Kasagami Araki fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Egg Timer, taking 35 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji braces 26 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Egg Timer, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 5 Fatigue damage from Akko Kagari's Egg Sandwich, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Exhausted applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Kasagami manages to shoot a smirk Ivy's way amidst the general din of combat! "Well, this egg dish COULD use a bit more vegetable in it!"
Ivy counts as a vegetable right? She'll have to consult Eri on this later, but for now it's time to be a living cuisinart. Kasagami is pretty good at that one.
The Duelist also tries really hard to not think too much about Anthy's seeming display of bravery. Surely it's the urging of the Engaged. A pretty sheath, that's all it is. Surely. And right now she's not her sheath to be protected.
The fierceness in the gaze of th prince, the pure kindness behind those innocent eyes? Now those Kasagami can believe there's nothing but truth behind. It can be exasperating, even worrying, just how much trust Utena can place in others. It's just a bit terrifying when Kasagami realizes it's her that's getting it placed right in her lap.
Even after all she's done? That's Kasagami's first, self-slashing thought. The second has her eyes narrowing and a grin starting to form on her face. No. Maybe 'because of all we've been through'.
Isn't it natural for a King to fight beside a Prince? A hand beats away the egg on her coat, a shoulder flicks it to flying proudly,and she fixes Eggcelsior with a confident grin worthy of royalty!
The effect of a battle-hungry Duelist is slightly interrupted by Chicakko launching herself at the Daimon. Squint. "...You'd better not use that spell near me, Akko-chan, I fear what I'd turn into!" A brief image of a fried turkey leg dances in her brain.
"My pleasure!" Returns Kasagami to Utena with a very much Kassie level of enthusiasm and volume, and by the way she's pushing off her back heel as her blade rises in this perfect ready stance? The Duelist looks ready to embody the purely unfair skill and talent for all things curved, long, and cutty in the world.
Because when she gets ready to slice again this time in defence of two friends? She looks even more into it that normal. The adrenaline of combat and a love for the blade shine perfectly in her eyes.
BUT THE YOLK COMETH!
An eruption of eggs everywhere signaled by the eggsplosion on the senshi has Kassie within her own problematic amount of eggnades going off! She swings her blade defensively, stepping with the toe of her boot to stop the charge she'd been planning before improvised eggsplosives were involved in the matter! Step, slice, her hands find the spine of her sword! She presses against the pressure of it all, barely managing to redirect the harmful splatter away from herself. Holding that belief of Utena's in her heart, her hands feel a little stronger.
The concussive yolk though does send her skidding back, coat finally fluttering away and her sleeves and bandages ripped away. A flinch, reflexively hiding her arm, before better sense realigns. Taking another stance, she lets out a breath. Then she moves!
It's a far more energetic waltz, though this one isn't with a lover, but an enemy. Her spins directly feed into each other, Kasagami utterly uncaring for how she slice at, through, or into the cooking stations (rip her sauce!). Her blade whirls into strike after strike, unbroken strings of well-practiced kata aimed to carve away at the daimon. Particularly to the arm-launchers, which she's now gained a hateful appreciation for! The Duelist moves with her blade and wields it, and is wielded by it in turn, her skill such that the two increasingly act as one with every blow!
COMBAT: Kasagami Araki has used Crimson Flurry on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
If she thought Sucy in her face was startling. That's nothing compared to when Eggcelsior lands right there unscathed from their joint attack. Sailor Moon squeaks and puts up a hand like she's trying to wave it away. "Can't we talk about this!?"
That's one moment. The next Sailor Moon is taking a one way trip to the back of the classroom. Her only salvation is that she at least rolls with the landing a little.
"Nnngh..." It starts off with pain. However then she realizes the texture of what she's been exploded with. It's yellow, and filmy, and all over her. "EUGH!" Suddenly there's a gesticulation of her arms as she tries to flick it off of her, "IT ISN'T HALLOWEEN YOU KNOW! EGGING SOMEONE FOR REVENGE ISN'T IN SEASON!"
Still flicking off yolk, she takes her Tiara off her brow, "Moon Tiara-"
Sailor Moon stops mid-spell because she just noticed- "Mars my tiara - it's dripping!" The Senshi complains as she starts waving it up and down to try to get the clinging yolk off of it, grimacing all the while with an 'ew ew ew' expression.
However then a thought occurs, "Oh wait it'll just burn right off - alright!" The girl cocks her wrist back across the classroom once, twice, thrice, "Moon Tiara-"
And suddenly purifying stardust lights up her sacred tiara.
"-ACTION!"
The glittering Tiara sails across the classroom spinning end over end in a chaotic arc that eventually takes it straight towards the Daimon.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Action on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe counters 10 Fatigue damage from Kasagami Araki's Crimson Flurry, taking 29 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Eggceptional Quick, partially gets through, doing 6 Fatigue damage to Kasagami Araki! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 28 Fatigue damage from Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action, taking 23 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Utena tries another of her graceful flips away from the second egg bomb, but her luck runs out -- the blast radius catches up to her while she's in midair. She is not fluid enough to be able to just catch herself, land on a surfboard, and ride the wave. Instead she's lost from sight, and emerges, some time later, soaked to the skin in yolk.
Well, it's less that she 'emerges' and more that she washes up, like a seashell on the shore, sliding on her back. She kips up without slipping -- barely.
There's a splattering sound, as she slicks her hair backwards instead of forwards, and comes away gooier than ever.
Then, after a quick look to make sure Himemiya's still all right, she makes her way forwards; this time, towards the assaulted Sailors Mars and Moon.
Yolk and all, there's still something to her grin at them, which she casts over her shoulder, as she's put her back to the senshi, and her blade to the youma who seeks their demise.
"Thanks," she says, "For helping me look out for her."
There's still something that shines.
BGM Start! Rinbu Revolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrFpdgadlI
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used Take My Revolution on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Utena Tenjou's Take My Revolution, taking 44 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Look what am I supposed to think!? You don't usually turn into a chicken!" Yumi complains back at Akko. But, at least Usagi is explaining, "I mean it's not like it wants to be out, right??"
Yumi winces as she sees tables going. ...But maybe her spell.. worked??? Yellow versus green, but something burns. SHe's pretty sure. "Uhh," she starts, and then, "Oh, did you two get--" No. No they did not, apparently. Yumi throws up a hand in front of herself, against a blast that she's sure is coming, except that... it doesn't. She blinks, peers around, and hears...
"That's really creepy," Yumi says, hunching her shoulders a little and making a nervous expression. But the snap comes, and Yumi throws out a hand, a green barrier of magical runes erupting before her--
It shields her face, anyway, but not being sure where the blast is coming from makes it hard to defend against such a powerful attack, and she hits the ground a few yards away, covered in goop. "Augh," the witch complains, "This is so GROSS! And it's not even kind of sanitary!"
But--but Kasagami answers and, "Don't eat it!" Pause. More... vegetables, "Ivy's not a vegetable!" she calls, apparently on the same wavelength. "Also many ivy varieties are poisonous to humans it's just pretty and symbolic and nice!"
"Egging for revenge is never in season," Yumi mutters about Sailor Moon's statement then, seeing her bright light and using it as a guide. "If that's how you want it..." Yumi drags herself up with her staff and puts out a hand, breathing in and quickly tracing magical sigls in the air. "Let the weight of your deeds settle upon you..."
She throws out her hand and an aura of dark magic surrounds her gloved palm, "And show you what you've done!"
Twining runes become a projectile that luckily is seeking, aiming to tire.
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Weakness Hex on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 3 Fatigue damage from Yumi Ohzora's Weakness Hex, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Yumi Ohzora is Psyched! Exhausted and Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Got it," Sucy tells Sailor Moon a moment before the youma leaps outwards and makes an Easteric level of egg production. Sucy's visible eye tacks towards the egg near her and she is about to ooch away from it when
SPLORT!
The yolk's on her.
She doesn't shudder. This is like the eleventh worst thing she's had splatter on her this month, but it is still staggering in its strength and the fact that this critter is able to engage with all of them so quickly. Her head snaps up as Akko calls on magic again --
The articles of the sacred rite known only as 'lunch' fly outwards. Sucy's eyes flick from them down to the pure heart crystal, to the Juuban teacher, and her grip tightens round her wand. Inside of her head a dialogue begins. Several Sucies chime in.
A Sucy wearing glasses elaborates: The Pure Heart Crystal is really important but all we have to do is get it back there, and I guess it'll go back in. The big issue is doing it. If I had my broom this would be easy... but thinking like that never helps anything.
A Sucy in a holy robe considers: She's probably suffering really badly without that if that's inside of her. I would hate it if someone took out my pure heart crystal. I don't even know where it is.
(The real Sucy scrunches down a little more as glamorously glorious swordswomen leap into action, alongside the soldiers of the Moon, and of Mars.)
A Sucy wearing little devil horns speculates: I bet it'd be a great ingredient. There is silence in the interior of Sucy's mind for a moment. The Sucy with the devil-horns looks uncomfortable and opts to shuffle off stage.
Glasses Sucy contemplates: I probably could move the crystal with Object Control... but...
Angel Sucy frowns: What if it does... something?
A slice of cheese then flops on the floor, unheeded by most.
But to Sucy Manbavaran, that cheese is sacred - a relief - an inspiration, a hope, a dream... and if it were to be Swiss, of course, it would be holy as well.
The object control magic sparkles again, blue-green light at the apex of Sucy's wand. It reaches out, limns that slice of delectable processed dairy... which curls upwards for a moment, does a curlicue, and then slides forwards, aiming to insinuate itself terribly gently underneath the Pure Heart Crystal...
Sucy judges the distance between Sensei and the Crystal. She sucks in a little breath through her teeth, holds out her arm carefully and -
flip!
Aims to pap the Crystal, born by cheese, onto their fallen teacher's chest. It is only then that she answers Ivy, sounding distracted. "Yeah," she says, "she's been working hard on that one. I guess you could say,"
Now she grins, "she was finally bread-y."
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"We're not making omelettes, Eggcelsior-san," the Wind Knight retorts sternly. "We're making -"
And the scattered eggs explode before she can finish. Fortunately, the green-clad Magic Knight saw the scattered eggs, and was already steeling herself against whatever they were going to do; as such, the detoneggtions don't really surprise her by much - and a quickly-conjured barrier of wind keeps the worst of it off her.
"Now hold still," the Magic Knight of Wind appends, "for your well-deserved *beating* ... Winds of Admonishment!!" she calls out, unleashing her binding spell in an effort to keep the daimon where her allies can get cracking on it.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"You?" Sailor Mars calls to Kasagami. "You'd turn into a --"
Whatever Kasagami would find herself as in the eyes of Sailor Mars is left a mystery, because Eggcelsior lands in front of them. Suddenly, she finds herself staring down the artful arrangement of cartons, and she's not about to blink.
Except -- there's something in its attack declaration which makes her glance to the girl beside her, and it means she's just a hair too slow when the explosions ring out. She doesn't even get as far as tumbling away: her knees bend and suddenly there is egg, everywhere, just like that time she tried to microwave one in its egg. But there's no big metal box to contain the explosion, this time, and shell like shrapnel buffets her sailor suit.
Yes, to answer the eternal question: there's egg on her face.
For once it's even literal!
"pfeh, pfeh, pfeh," is the sound of Sailor Mars wiping it off, grimacing as she puffs out dismayed little breaths. "I knooow," she groans, as Sailor Moon complains about her tiara. Why she knows ought to be entirely obvious. The Witch of Lost Ivy comments on sanitation, and Sailor Mars calls back: "This is the worst?!" With the sort of despairing rising note which can't quite just be called an exclamation.
But once she's got her eyes clear (she doesn't have to worry quite as much as some girls), she finds herself being grinned at by a Prince, and, really, it's a good thing warm cheeks can't cook eggs. "Ah-hh," Sailor Mars fumbles for her words for a moment, "of course! We'd never let anyone get hurt by these schemes! You can count on us!" Yes, maybe Utena is a girl, but, just -- look she's very dashing, okay, no one can blame her.
"Right," she nods, as she produces an ofuda -- it's stayed dry, no matter the close-quarters explosion -- and pulls her hands together, in the same meditative stance she used before. She chants Acala's mantra in low and forceful tones, and the spark of flame erupts again. "Fire Soul --" but the fire, as it courses out, lances through the ofuda, "-- BIRD!" And what would have been a spiral instead takes the form of a flaming phoenix, seeking to envelop Eggcelsior whole in its wingspan.
Let's see it dodge this.
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used Fire Soul Bird on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 20 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Fuu Hououji is Psyched! Cripple applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe braces 15 Fatigue damage from Sailor Mars's Fire Soul Bird, taking 12 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.
Things that happen in the next few seconds:
Eggcelsior gets magic sandwiched, Moon Tiara'd, sworded multiple times, blasted with a hex, bound with a whirlwind, and set on fire, while in turn launching eggs at all who would oppose it.
And then, two more things:
First: Sucy is able to return the Pure Heart Crystal to Mari Cherie.
Her breathing wasn't so good, but now it's coming a little bit more easily.
Second: Kasagami did, in fact, succeed at slicing open the multi-egg launcher.
Things that don't happen after that:
"...guess I'll just leave."
Instead:
"NO! THE CRYSTAL!" screams the youma, apparently more upset about that than the near-loss of its arm. In fact, Eggcelsior gazes down at it almost meditatively...
...and then twists it upside-down, and lets gravity do the rest.
Explosive eggs start to fall out of it.
More... and more.
It's an open portal to the Egg Dimension, and it's filling up the entire room.
When Eggcelsior detonates them...
...it's not going to be pretty.
"IF I FALL, YOU'RE GOING DOWN WITH ME!" the daimon screams.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Ulteggmate Eggsplosion on Sailor Mars. COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Ulteggmate Eggsplosion on Fuu Hououji. COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used Ulteggmate Eggsplosion on Sucy Manbavaran. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Kasagami Araki. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Yumi Ohzora. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Utena Tenjou. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Sailor Moon. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Those Cannons Are No Yolk on Akko Kagari. COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora decisively counters 15 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Yumi Ohzora's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora's counterattack, Witch's Mirror, partially gets through, doing 30 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe! Critical Counterhit! COMBAT: Utena Tenjou braces 13 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 19 Fatigue damage! Utena Tenjou's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle applied to Utena Tenjou! COMBAT: Kasagami Araki dodges 7 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Kasagami Araki's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji partially dodges 16 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Ulteggmate Eggsplosion, taking 63 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Sailor Mars dodges 42 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Ulteggmate Eggsplosion, taking 28 Fatigue damage! Sailor Mars's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Sailor Moon braces 12 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Sailor Moon's Parry ability activates! Tangle applied to Sailor Moon! COMBAT: Akko Kagari braces 20 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Those Cannons Are No Yolk, taking 16 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Akko Kagari's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Sucy Manbavaran braces 46 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, Ulteggmate Eggsplosion, taking 31 Fatigue damage! Sucy Manbavaran's Parry ability activates!
<Pose Tracker> Kasagami Araki [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"I'll scratch 'Ivy Casserole' off the birthday gift list then!" Because a King doesn't poison! That's more of a vizier's job.
Kasagami also pointedly ignores Mars' insult to her Metamophability. Clearly she'd be a grand hawk with a crown!
Or maybe some kind of shiba inu. Who knows.
Kassie always winces. Poor Utena. That's....so darn much egg. The Duelist radiates sympathy even as the fight continues!
She also can't help but feel a bit of pride as that egg launcher is properly sliced open. Which fades away in about a second as that arm is then used to create a portal to the egg dimension!!!
Kasagami Araki looks upon this coat-and-hair ruining potential apocalypse as eggs begin to fill the room. She runs a hand through her beautiful black-and-red locks protectively.
Nevermind what the effects will be if Marie loses her Heart Crystal. She really likes the woman after the many Sister Schools cooking classes. It ignites a far less vain fury in her own heart, pure though it most certainly isn't.
"I'd call you brave, Eggcelsior, except that stealing the hearts of ladies through force is a horrible crime! You'll meet the just blades of a King and Prince this night!" Calls out Kassie proudly, casting a firm nod to Utena before she steps back, then kicks into an anime slide to give herself ample charging room near the path of her dear friend and storied rival!
Her eyes close, and she doesn't need to look at the pink haired Prince, the One Engaged. It's a little hesitant, difficult to do, but she offers trust to the innocent-eyed girl who fought for someone rather than something.
Kasagami then grins, takes a step forward that's almost slack and boneless, then PUSHES. Her blade is held in one hand at first, a horizontal strike prepared as her long legs bring her charging forth with a fury, timing her feet to the sound of her fellow Duelist. Her breath to her friend's. It's one single, massive swing, each finger clamping down individually to make a wider, stronger, more powerful arc before the next hand continues the chain. She has no fear that she'll hit Utena, trusts in her own skill, her own purpose, her own dreams for a moment.
That blade, that single strike becomes many more, for just an instant as if a broken mirror refracted the strike where Kassie puts her whole body, hips twisted and muscles flexing at the end of it all.
And what few gaps might be in such a thing? She knows there's another sword to fill them. She's not fighting alone, after all.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Kasagami Araki has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Sailor Moon is perhaps holding her breath when she sees Utena's Princely smile.
Suddenly perhaps there's a frame of rose petals around Utena as she sees them protecting them out front. Sailor Moon at least is in the same pose as when she released her tiara. Her hand open, her eyes fixed upon her. "It was the least I could-"
There's a flash of light in her periphery on the return arc. And Sailor Moon totally misses the catch of her tiara. Fortunately it only causes her to get lightly bonked against her temple - sending her tiara up high as she clumsy stumbles, before she catches it on the way down.
And then a piece of cheese knocks the Pure Heart Crystal back into her chest - and she follows it unto... "Was that you-?" Sailor Moon asks Sucy, "Hey way to go!"
However Eggcelsior goes berserk. And as explosive eggs careen at her, frantically she spins the Moon Spiral Heart Rod in glittering spirals which catch a few explosive eggs, causing them to detonate away from her body. Then more and more and more.
It may cover her in sticky yolk but she's still on her feet-
And the Daimon proclaims their doom in rapidly multiplying eggs from the egg dimension. The memories of Walpurgisnacht feel even closer. Of what they could all stand to lose.
"No - you don't. Everyone - let's send this thing back to where it came from!"
Because when her Moon Spiral Heart Rod snaps into her hand, she has it pointing at it in short order, "Moon Twilight-"
Sacred energy gathers. There is something silvery fierce in her determination and resolve, as she allows it to erupt forth with one final word of the incantation.
"-FLASH!"
It erupts forth - one after another screaming towards its Daimon target. It is perhaps only meant to distract it, to interrupt it. Alone perhaps it cannot do all too much.
However... Sailor Moon is hardly alone right now.
"Mars - you remember the time I charred toast so black that even Luna wouldn't eat it-?" There's something almost cheerful in her challenge, "Can you go hotter than that?"
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Twilight Flash on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Mars [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
An egg bursts through the purifying flame, hard-boiled, and Sailor Mars dives to the side as it impacts the place she was standing a moment prior. It explodes in a shower of shell and white, shaking the ground, and she has to take a moment to get her footing again. There's a little crater filled with yellow yolk. Oh, she thinks, if it did that to the ground, what would it have done to her?
It's a moment of distraction which thankfully goes well for her, judging by the cries of the daimon. Mars doesn't really have time to reflect on wishing one of them would just take the chance to leave, because shortly, the floor starts flooding with more eggs.
That's a bit of an understatement, she thinks. 'More eggs' sounds like, oh, perhaps a couple of cartons of eggs. A couple dozen eggs. Go pick up some more eggs from the store, that sort of thing. These eggs don't stop there. They keep pouring out, and pouring out, and pouring out, and Sailor Mars can scarcely believe the volume of eggs she's seeing.
But there's one thing which incenses her even more, and she demands: "How do you expect to blow yourself up when you've already proven you can't do that?!" It was totally untouched when it exploded in their faces! As a close study of taking her enemy down with her, it's just offensive..!
Beat.
"-- anyway, we won't let you!" Mars hastens to add, because, obviously, that's the most important point, not pointing out the youma's hypocricy. Obviously. There are vulnerable people here!
Sailor Moon marks the Daimon in silver, and issues a challenge. Sailor Mars grins in reply, an outpouring of confidence. "That's easy," she insists, even though the toast was impressively charred. "Watch this!" Because, having declared how easy it is, there's no way she can let down the wholehearted belief Moon surely has in her.
Besides, she has something which can easily follow up the silvery orbs of Moon Twilight Flash.
She spreads her arms and plants a foot, claiming a zone of exclusion around herself. "BURNING --" With a finger, she lights a flame, and sweeps it around and above her head in circular fashion; the flames resolve into burning orbs, marked in the fashion of the Womb Realm. She gathers her hands, and they gather within them, held tense as a bowstring for a moment -- "MANDALA!" -- before they barrage out toward Eggcelsior, the force of their flight slimming them to eight discs of flame and fury.
Compassion burns.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Mars has used Burning Mandala on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"...Ahahah..."
Yumi can't help but laugh at Sucy's pun. Especially since it seems she might have things handled there, which--which would be a relief, for sure. The teacher who just tried to help them...
But at least Sailor mars, "The super worst! It's sticky!"
"I'd rather not--Oh, that's... that's really not good..." Yumi sees the eggs filling up, and this time, she can guess what's going to happen, and immediately starts to trace runes like her life depends on it. This time, the blast to come hits a set of green shields, which--as soon as they finish blocking most of the blast--erupt with a countering beam as Yumi behind them grits her teeth and stands back up,coughing from what did get through.
"Y-yeah!" she calls to Kasagami. "Better not!" She's not sure--bravery? ...Anger? They kind of mix up don't they? And yet--
"Is THAT the part that bothers you????" Yumi calls to Sailor Mars. "...But..." She brings both hands to her staff, setting it out parallel to her standing form before her. "Eggs aren't supposed to destroy things," she says, "But...."
"You're not how anything is supposed to be." A little bit of light begins to glitter around her as she breathes in--and a small aura of peace pervades in her immediate vicinity. "...To set it right..." Her voice echoes faintly, with the sound of her own but also someone older, different, as she opens her eyes again--and sets her jaw.
The light that was shimmering around her starts to gather at the tip of her staff, at the gem, and it isn't just green radiance--it has the look, the feeling of sunlight. It gathers, and gathers, until blindingly bright--
"Holy light! Rain down in verdant might!"
She points--and finishes, "Blessed SHINE!"
A column of brilliant solar power erupts from the gem atop Yumi's staff, forcing her to hang tight just to keep holding it--as this, too, rolls right for the Daimon, utterly gentle on everything except its target.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Yumi Ohzora has used Blessed Shine on Hotaru Tomoe.
COIN FLIP: Sucy Manbavaran flips a coin. It lands on tails!
<Pose Tracker> Sucy Manbavaran [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The crystal is absorbed... No, it goes back where it belongs.
Crystals are pretty cool, Sucy thinks for a moment as she lowers her wand, breathing out a little heavily, and then looking towards the Daimon. "Heh," she says. "Looks like you're a little steamed. Let me practice my English."
<<"You Can Try Again">> "Tamago," Sucy says, which is probably a great reason for her to be suffering here. Her slouched posture means that the tide of egg pushes her back against a table, whereupon she says "ngh" and struggles momentarily, before lowering herself down and raising up her arms.
This is a technique she'd had to learn once in case of an avalanche - make a big space so you have lots of air to breathe while they send out the rescue dogs. And it is a similar principle here, in an eggalanche. Sucy is removed from view, her hat swept off and sitting atop a higher drift of delicious and nutritious eggs.
And in this space, Sucy begins her work.
She reaches out for an egg, which she punctures with her thumbnail and then turns upside down. It's a waste, but she can't do anything about that. With the other hand she raises her glass bottle, this sacred retort, the Cucurbit - and into it, she begins to pack some wadded up materials. Three different kinds of mushroom. Some moss. One of those nasty eggs from before that the Magic Knight heroically smelt so that Sucy herself would not have to be dealt (that one's for sulfur).
"C'mon," she thinks to herself, having prepared... something. "ughhh c'mon c'mon... Akko's gonna get squished out there or turn herself into half a bee or something..."
"Everyone's in trouble..."
"..."
Sucy, in her eggscavated hole, muses, "They're talking about burnt toast...? Wait, yeah, that's Sailor Mars, not just Sailor Red. Doesn't she..."
The glee sneaks into Sucy's heart. This is going to be great, she thinks. The potion in the bottle seethes - boils - steams - and dessicates into a powder, all like a timelapse video. Sucy pours the powder carefully into the egg just as she hears Mars say 'that's easy!'
Sucy wiggles her arm to the surface and lobs the gimmicked egg towards the Daimon as Mars begins to chant. It breaks, creating a patch of purple dusted eggs. Has Easter come early?
No, it's distilled fiery potential in potion form!
"I wonder if eggs are blast proof," Sucy muses around the 'ing' in Burning. "Omelet Lotte know later."
COMBAT: FINISHER! Sucy Manbavaran has used Ultimate Burning Potion Compound Calcination! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
It's time; Utena can feel it. They all can. The electricity that fizzes across skin when things have become critical. There's a rush to the sands of time running out that little else can match.
Sailor Moon calls for it; Sailor Mars executes on it; and Utena's smile widens.
Then it sweetens, as it settles on the rescued Mari Cherie across the room; and then, last but most crucially, on Anthy Himemiya.
Finally it fades into a much more serious look.
It's their turn now.
Kasagami nods at her -- and Utena returns it.
BGM Start! Revolution - Megumi Hayashibara https://vimeo.com/332043251
Somewhere along the way in her transformation and battle, she lost the white headscarf, but kept the extremely high ponytail, and miraculously now her hair bounces back with the gesture, sloughing off the yolk to recoil in its usual, glorious roseate waves.
She sets herself like a runner, the Sword of Dios thrust backwards, parallel to her arm. One leg sinks, the knee flexing; the other leg extends backwards, and just seems to keep going, further and longer than reality should allow.
Ready!
Its muscles tighten like a gunshot.
Set!
She shifts her grip on the sword, and it makes a soft, metallic click.
Go!
And then she's on the other side, having crossed over Kasagami's strike as a pink blur, completing their perfect, lethal X. For her part, she felt agonizing friction -- and then nothing.
Unclenching her hand, she glances down to see where the rose pommel of the Sword of Dios has imprinted its side on her palm.
Then she glances up to see what the two of them have wrought.
But she already knows.
The bells are tolling their victory.
Today two Duelists have won.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Utena Tenjou has joined the combo started by Kasagami Araki! COMBAT: COMBO! FINISHER! Kasagami Araki and Utena Tenjou have used Crimson Rose Cage and I Swear That I Will Change The World on Hotaru Tomoe.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The Pure Heart Crystal is back where it belongs; the Wind Knight heard Sucy coordinating with the others, and while she doesn't have the leisure to watch the crystal's return to Mari Charie's form, the daimon's screech of fury pretty much confirms that the teacher's heart-relic is safe inside her once again.
There is, however, one small problem with monsters flipping out at being thwarted: they look to retaliate, especially when they literally have nothing to lose - and given Eggcelsior's starting to deposit eggs all over the classroom, plus what she's already seen those eggs *do*, the Magic Knight of Wind isn't inclined to stick around and get blown up.
So she scrambles - literally and physically, trying to put what distance she can between herself and the highest concentrations of eggs. Her desperation pays off; she only gets moderately singed, rather than flash-broiled ... but it still hurts more than a little.
But the dust and ash and flakes of eggshell settle, and as best the Wind Knight can tell, everyone who was in the fight is still in it ... and the daimon is, hopefully, out of tricks. But she's not inclined to give Eggcelsior long enough to demonstrate any other tricks it might have up its egg-carton sleeves.
"Emerald ... CYCLONE!!"
These are fairly close quarters; while she'd rather not leave any of the daimon intact, she keeps her assault focused in on Eggcelsior. She's not worried about any of it surviving the onslaught - there are enough magical girls hitting the monster hard enough from so many angles that she'd be *exceptionally* surprised for anything to remain.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Fuu Hououji has used Emerald Cyclone: Focused on Hotaru Tomoe. COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe cleanly braces 79 Fatigue damage from Sailor Moon's Moon Twilight Flash, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Finisher, Emerald Cyclone: Focused, taking 60 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sucy Manbavaran's Finisher, Ultimate Burning Potion Compound Calcination!, taking 127 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Mars's Finisher, Burning Mandala, taking 129 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Yumi Ohzora's Finisher, Blessed Shine, taking 107 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Kasagami Araki and Utena Tenjou's Finisher, Combo: Crimson Rose Cage, taking 233 Fatigue damage! Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.
Time is running out...
...and so is space.
In the sense that soon there won't be enough room to breathe. The eggs are all around, crushing tighter and tighter -- stubbornly refusing to break, instead flexing like packing peanuts.
...and then they aren't.
They just 'pop' out of existence when the daimon is defeated.
Defeated by swords and moonlight and sunlight and wind and fire, but mostly by the hearts of girls who would not stand for the theft of anyone's pure heart, no matter what.
The room's back in order, too -- it's probably safe to thank Sailor Moon for that -- and, in short order, the awesome power of normality reasserting itself takes care of the rest.
It transpires that the fire alarm went off at some point, so first they have to rejoin the class on the lawn, and then re-enter the school.
"Can't believe someone pulled that kind of juvenile stunt," Jean Paris complains as the troops come wandering back in.
"What are you talking about?" asks Mari Cherie. "I sent you all out for more ingredients! We're going to need more butter, dearie."
