2020-07-03 - Arrested Development

Arrested Development
Summary: Natsuna Sakurada is fondly nicknamed Super Sakurada by the press; she is a legendary, high-powered, kickass woman who also happens to be Chief of the Tokyo Police. That nickname's become a little ironic lately, though, as years of crimes unmanageable by anyone but magical girls have badly tarnished her record. She's secretly a fan and ally of the magical girls who constantly make her look incompetent at her job... and has strongly suspected some of their secret identities for a long time. Something pushes her over the edge, and Super Sakurada the Akuma is born. Born, and determined to out the identity of the magical girl she was the biggest fan of, yet also she who has embarrassed her most... ...She is the one named Sailor Moon.
Who: Akko Kagari, Usagi Tsukino, Mami Tomoe, Michiru Kaioh, Takeo Akamizu, Rei Hino, Haruka Tenoh, Endo Naoki, Niramo Umokeshi, Fumiko Inoue, Fuu Hououji GM: Pink Moon Stick
Where: Tokyo Metropolitan Building, Shinjuku
OOC - IC Date: 7/3/2020 - 09-10-15

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Papillon - Miraculous Ladybug OST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9PNcZPMz5k

LATE LAST NIGHT

The call ends as abruptly as a click. No, more of a clunk. There was even the slightest ring of a hard-struck bell.

Natsuna gazes down at her cell. She marvels, briefly, at the thought that the phone on the desk of the Mayor of Tokyo is so low-tech that it would make that sound as he slammed it back into its receiver. Or, possibly, it is so hi-tech that it has a retro OPTION to punctuate his hang-ups with a digitized sound effect.

The takeaway is the same. What a pretentious asshole.

She swings her feet onto her desk, pops her hands behind her head, and broods. It turns out that the mayor -- he doesn't rate the capital M when she's alone with her thoughts -- doesn't still have to be on the line for his rage to bark in her ears.

She has a headache.

"Kaitou Jeanne stole her fiftieth painting tonight! What an anniversary! Meanwhile some jewel thieves were dumped at the precinct all wrapped up with a pretty pink bow!"

Don't those two kind of... balance each other out?

"Your tenure has made a mockery out of my police force!"

'His' police force. Crime is down, under her leadership, a trendline that goes through more than one mayor. Or, well, unsolved crime is down. Explainable crime is down. Mysterious incidents are way up, it's true.

"Three years ago children still played cops and robbers! Now my streets are filled with kids in skirts declaiming love and justice! No one wants to be Super Sakurada! They all want to grow up to be Super Moon!"

Sailor Moon...

She closes her eyes.

"This has gone on long enough! You're a miserable excuse for a Superintendent General! Your record of bringing in these vigilantes is a BIG FAT ZERO! Either bring one of them to justice tomorrow... or bring me your resignation instead."

Natsuna slams her fist on her desk so hard that the cell phone screen in it cracks. She leaves it behind as she spins off her chair and strides furiously across her office to an empty wall.

*click*

No ringing undertone this time, just a hidden button. The wall flips, revealing a cross between a fan shrine and a murder board. Push-pins and yarn and pictures, many of them selfies with posing (or blurrily escaping) figures beside her. Also, not a few crane game plushies, hung gently, hung with pride. All manner of magical girls are represented here.

She's been their biggest fan for years.

Natsuna gazes at her collection, feeling hot tears gather in her throat. "I won't do it," she whispers hoarsely. "I can't."

But in her heart of hearts, she knows that isn't true.

She could.

She hasn't made a particularly careful study of the secret identities of the magical girls of Tokyo. Why not?

Because it is difficult in the same way that so many incidents have become inexplicable, and because she feels a certain professional courtesy, and because... she hasn't really wanted to. But... she's been their mostly-unseen, mostly-forgotten colleague for so long. And they are, mostly, children, and not terribly clever or careful children at that.

She has her suspicions. Not for everyone, but... for a few.

Especially her favorite. Over the years, THAT contemplation has been indulgent rather than investigative. It's so impossible. What a juxtaposition. Silly, really, to even consider.

She traces a well-manicured finger along the plushy of Sailor Moon's tiara. Then she removes it. Removes herself, letting the wall flip back to its plain side.

Resignation... the most prominent female authority figure in Japan -- one of the most famous, an icon, in some ways, though she's tried to get the press to calm down. But even if it makes her uncomfortable, it doesn't make it untrue. The female Chief of Police resigning in disgrace will be letting down thousands of little girls, to whom she too is a symbol. Doesn't she have a duty to them, also?

Slipping a hand into her jacket pocket, she takes out her badge and gazes at it.

"I can't," she repeats, but she isn't sure which she can't do anymore. She can't expose a magical girl. She can't let the whole world down by resigning. Both. Rage at being put in this position washes over her, hot red rage, competing with black black bleakness. "It... it isn't fair."

Her fingernails bite into the leather surrounding metal she still spit-shines proudly every night.

It ISN'T fair. All these years she's cleaned up after the magical girls, supported them from the shadows, filed dump trucks worth of paperwork more or less on their oblivious behalf, and every night they get to go home and sleep in their beds, unaccountable to the mayor, the people of Tokyo... probably not even their parents. Meanwhile, she is ridiculed beneath the spotlight. Day after day after day after day.

Somewhere along this line of thought, her inner voice became a man's. Sonorous. Commanding... capable. Like she used to be. Like she deserves to be...

"You deferred every dream for this one," she tells herself... he tells her. "The first female Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police... tirelessly working to protect her city... you deserve respect. Accolade. Honor!"

She can't see the office anymore. She's only seeing red. Certainly she can't see a violently violet moth landing on her badge.

"It's too late," she growls. "I've made my choice."

With every flutter of its fragile wings, she feels everything so much more intensely. Fear and fury. Righteous rage, and hideous hatred. It's building and building, and soon she's going to explode...

"Your choice... to protect them at your own expense... surely you know what they call you, around the Mayor's office."

She does know. "Loser Sakurada," she rasps out. A bitter tear fights its way out of her eye -- unthinkable here, in the office, the seat of her power, of all police power in Tokyo. A place where tears would deal a fatally feminine blow to the position she had to render herself all but sexless to achieve. It burns her skin as it drips down her cheek.

"But you don't have to be," he reassures her, crooning in a fatherly tone. "Choose yourself for once in your life, Natsuna."

This is not the first time she's been given that advice. Her mother, her sister, her partner -- back when she was in the position to have a partner on the force. Various other would-be romantic partners, usually right before their relationship fell apart. Her therapist. It rings uncomfortably with the kind of truth that only wisdom can bring.

"Choose yourself... and I can give you the power to fix everything. You get your life back, and all you have to do is force your greatest ally and greatest enemy to face the mirror the same way you have, every single day, all this time. And then the Mayor will have to call you by your proper title again..."

Suddenly a terrible clarity snaps into place. And the moth dissolves into the badge.

"Super Sakurada," she agrees, and now they speak with a single voice.

---

TODAY -- A WHILE AGO

It is almost comically straightforward to make the grab. The only element of challenge comes from her target's beau, who has suspicious eyes. Suspicious of the world, alert to all threats. TOO suspicious for a boy his age... which makes HER suspicious.

In the end it's too difficult to separate them. She doesn't have all day. So, she simply takes them both. One moment, a boy and a girl are enjoying a stroll through the park.

The next, their arms are pinned at their waists by gigantic metal handcuffs -- one cuff per person, connected between them by a heavy chain.

And a moment after that, they're both unconscious.

"You're under arrest," growls Super Sakurada, "Usagi Tsukino. And... whoever you are."

---

NOW

Late afternoon.

Not EVERY screen in Tokyo is filled with this image, as it isn't a hijacked signal, but rather the biggest news of the day -- but most of them are. We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this special report, and all of that. The press were even invited, though they're being kept at a distance, down at ground level... the live feed from the close-up camera is HERS.

It is trained squarely on the cell which hangs in midair, strung between the twin towers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building like a fly in a spider's web. The bars are too heavy too break, and too narrow to slip through, but more than wide enough for their contents to be clearly visible to a sufficiently tightly framed shot.

The camera sweeps across them -- Usagi Tsukino and Haruka Tenoh -- then tightens further, to an ultra-super-close-up of Usagi alone. One that follows her, wherever she goes within the metal box. Not that there's much of anywhere to go.

"Bear witness, Tokyo!" Super Sakurada yells through a patrol officer-style megaphone, from her perch below them, in midair. She can fly now, apparently. Her everyday business suit has transformed into a fusion of militaristic and heroic aesthetics, the internal struggle of her heart writ large, now, upon her once strong -- now mighty -- frame; the harsh lines of a police dress uniform paired with a cloak that belongs on Majestia's shoulders, only it's emblazoned, on the back, with Japan's own Rising Sun. "Your days of venerating heroines of mystery are numbered! How can someone claim to stand for justice when they evade responsibility for their actions at every turn! Today, I will unmask no less a figure than... Sailor Moon!"

The giant cuffs binding Usagi and Haruka fade out of existence, leaving them free to act... though not free to leave. No mere mortal is going to be able to escape that magical cell. And even if they did... they're suspended high, high in the air. Even the thirty-second floor is dizzyingly far below them, let alone the proper ground.

Super Sakurada glares up at them -- at her. Natsuna's face is almost unrecognizable, twisted as it is by a mixture of rage and grief. Mostly rage, at this point.

"Go on," she orders. "Save yourself."

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Super Sakurada!

<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"YaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!"

There is a blur of purple and green and pale, polished white through the air. It soars down like a rocket from a broom, flying high in the air, and there is a certain intent to its movement. A certain intensity, a stunning grace, and--

--oh, no, it's a sixteen year-old girl falling feet over butt through the air, one hand slammed down onto her witch's hat, and screaming up at the wide-eyed, glasses-wearing girl on the broom. "Lotteeeeeee!" Akko Kagari whines. "I LIED! I CAN'T FLY WITHOUT A BROOM! I CAN'T FLY WITHOUT A BROOOOOOOOOM!"

She drops down towards Super Sakarada, feet kicking in the air, and the Shiny Rod -- the key to ancient sorceries, sought by many for centuries -- is clutched to her chest like a teddy bear. Lotte looks down, blinking her eyes.

She considers, for a moment, then wails: "G-Good luck, Akko!"

"Waaaaah!"

The witch slams down into the ground in front of Super Sakurada. She hits in a three point stance. Those three points are her jaw, her left shoulder, and her left knee. She sproings up, then lands on her butt, and points the Shiny Rod at Super Sakurada. Light gleams off the tip of the polished wood, gleaming an aquamarine and briefly becoming a cross.

"I'm not going to let you get away with unmasking someone! That's just--oogh, hey, does anyone else get a bit dizzy after that?" She jabs the Shiny Rod at her, and then she tries to stand up. "Ow, ow, ow--okay--okay, I just need a minute, hold your horses for like 30 seconds--"

COMBAT: Akko Kagari has used Just Gimme a Breather on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

"This is the first time you've seen me in my summer uniform - ne?" Usagi strolls besides Haruka Tenoh. Her posture hunched like she is having trouble looking directly at him, hands conjoined around her schoolbag.

She's currently wearing the Juuban soft button down blouse, sans the vest, and blue-green plaid skirt. "Don't you think it makes me look more dignified?"

Usagi tries to steal a glance at his eyes. But it is so difficult... if she looks directly at him. He'll know she's looking directly at them. And then maybe he'll just know, that she's trying to discern the identity of the Moonlight Knight.

"That much... more mature..."

As she continues to try to imply it, without outright saying it, what she wants.

Out of the corner of her eye though, she notes that Haruka isn't... looking at something. Curious, since it almost always seems like he's paying attention to her, she finds herself asking.

"Hmm... what are you looking at Haru-?"

Usagi Tsukino is most certainly looking at him, which is why she is completely oblivious until the moment of contact when the metal ring of the handcuffs encircles her arms and waist. "AH-HUAH!?"

Her school bag drops to the ground, and a first year high school girl slumps into unconsciousness within the confines of its restraint.

-=-=-

Usagi Tsukino slowly drowses awake, in a daze. The first thing she sees is the blue of the skyline, and the glass of skyscrapers. Raising up her chin over her shoulder, the next thing she sees is a glimpse of Haruka's face, as she mumbles, "Ah ya..." A drowsy titter, "...I'm flying with Haruka-san."

Usagi allows her eyes to close again, as if she were simply content with this, as a giggle escapes her lips, "You're holding me so tightly..." She half-complains, suddenly squirming within her handcuff. "... it's too much."

Then suddenly her eyes flare open, as Usagi looks down down through the bars of the cage. A squeak of alarm as her legs suddenly press against the bars and her small form just presses up hard against her fellow cell mate.

"W-What's going on!? Why are we so high up!?"

The megaphone draws her attention, immediately. "I-Is that?"

Certainly Usagi remembers Natsuna Sakurada, and not just from the time she accepted the key to the city...

... like this though? Her dread only grows

As she listens though, her alarm is dialed up to an eleven, as she vilifies those who evade responsibility, and promises to unmask no less than...

"WHAT?!"

The handcuffs come free, and in the void space of not having that feeling like something is holding her, she feels even more vulnerable suspended this high up. The flooring little more than metal slats that allows her to see her doom that much more clearly, so many stories below. Without the safety net of being transformed, she has a distinct feeling of vertigo.

With the speed of fear, she's clinging to Haruka instead, pressing herself up against his strong back.

"I-I'm sorry! I accept responsibility! Please forgive me! I confess-"

BGM Change: Pursuit(Caught) - Ace Attorney OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP1DJ_D4chA

The girl begins to sob immediately

"-I ate the last slice of cake in the refrigerator! Even though Mama said it was for Chibi-Usa-chan! I didn't start my summer homework until the last day of the break - and got none of it done! And I was tardy a lot of days last term because I kept hitting snooze on my alarm! And... I went into Rei-chan's room and read so much of her manga without asking permission! AND- AND-"

Her voice hiccups, before it picks up into a low pitched whine, "-ONE TIME I THINK I WENT THROUGH A TURNSTILE WITHOUT PAYING!"

She's genuinely uncertain on that last one. That time is all fuzzy to her. She just thinks a friend took both of them through one once while she was upset.

Wait...

Is it possible she's genuinely confused about what kind of responsibility Sailor Moon needs to take? Or is this just a girl who is understandably terrified at being suspended so high up and unable to produce what Super Sakurada wants? Either way she certainly seems sincere enough in her contrition...

"PLEASE DON'T THROW ME IN PRISON!"

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

The biggest news of the day. Mami Tomoe spotted it on her patrol, through a screen, and her eyes widened in alarm. In that moment, she could've been any number of girls surprised at the news; who would expect something like this? But she disappeared from that crowd, stepping to the back of those watching a screen and spiriting herself away into an alley.

Unmasking Sailor Moon, of all people--

Golden drills lift in an unseen wind as golden light surrounds a seemingly ordinary girl in an alley. Golden eyes stare forward, into necessity--and ribbons start to bloom.

-=-=-

"I can't let you do that!"

A voice cuts across the distance, a girl in blonde stepping out from a rooftop at which she pauses, to stare up seriously at Super Sakurada. "Some justice can only be found in the shadows! If Sailor Moon were really here, and you really unmasked her--what would happen? Her enemies--"

Akko happens. Mami pauses. She pauses, and notices Usagi stirring, and hears her... speaking. Yes, speaking. That's the word.

"See!?" Mami says, recovering herself. "That girl you've caught is terrified!"

...Mami knows Usagi entirely too well to think she's faking...

"Let them go!"

Mami has no weapons out at the moment, just a pointing hand out, and her black-and-yellow-and-white magical attire on, the flower hatpin gleaming gloriously.

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Wind Knight!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe transforms into Puella Mami!
COMBAT: Niramo Umokeshi transforms into Sourisi!
COMBAT: Michiru Kaioh transforms into Sailor Neptune!

<Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

"Thirty seconds? Alright."

Who said that?

Sailor Neptune. She steps one pace past Akko with a click of the heel and gazes upon that towering figure, resplendent. Crisp.

How did she get here?

NEARBY, an emergency exit door quietly clicks shut.

"Sakurada-san," says Sailor Neptune. "No - Superintendent-General. I wish to speak to you on one of the matters of which you have spoken."

RESPONSIBILITY.

"You have borne a great burden upon your shoulders... and it must seem that there are others who do not do so, yet act freely, without restraint or limitation. Even if we may tell ourselves that every one holds their own story..." Neptune's arms fold, loosely, and her head tilts forwards, just a little, her eyes lidding. "It is with ourselves that we must endure."

"And yet," says Sailor Neptune. Her head lifts upwards. "You have protected this city, the greatest in a precious world. You have stood for the law, and for justice. And so, Superintendent General! I will ask you, on behalf of the new age!"

Her voice raises upwards. "Of what do you accuse these two? Is justice only a cloak like the one round your shoulders, to be cast off when it becomes too difficult and too burdensome? You have taken this upon yourself - and you have discharged it beautifully."

Neptune straightens upwards. "If that burden is too great -- then you have the right to set it down! But by what right do you have to terrify this young girl, this callow youth? By what right do you say to every growing heart within this city, this nation, this world: When responsibility grows to be too much... simply discard it! Do whatever you want!"

Her left hand curls into a loose fist. "On behalf of a new age, I cannot allow this. Let them loose! Set the burdens aside if you must - but do not cast them in the mire. You do not have the right to injure the future thus!"

<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.

Takeo was doing what he normally does at this particular time of day. He's pre-eating. That is, he is eating a snack of dubious quality before he makes his way to some form of delicious, at least to him, dinner. He is in the process of tossing a frito into his mouth when he walks past a television that is broadcasting the scene. He casually walks past giving it no mind, nearly oblivious really.

That is until a small rabbit pokes out of his backpack, grabs his ear and points vehemently at the television.

"OW!" Takeo says rubbing at his ear and then glaring at Merlin. "Ya know. I still wish you were a horse."

Merlin folds his bunny arms and taps a bunny foot before pointing, with an ear, at the television.

Sighing, Takeo tosses another frito into his mouth and looks at the Television. He listens to the officer in charge make her declaration and tilts his head. "Oh. Well. Snap crackers. Why didn't you say so Merlin?"

Wishing, not for the first time even today, that he could shrug off Morgana's curse and talk (More likely yell), Merlin bunny facepalms and gestures to the TV again.

Right. I guess it's time to Armor up." Takeo says and upends the whole bag of frito's into his mouth.

A quick transformation later, and soon the scene where others arriving, and one Usagi and Haruka are being held is visited by none other than the Chevalier, Lancelot. He slides to a stop atop Sparkles, who then rears as he points a finger to the Police Chief. "Stop!" He cries the woman. "You've got the wrong girl Chief! I know this girl, and lemme tell you, she eats waaaaaaay too many donuts to be Sailor Moon!" he nods sagely, remembering the last time they shared a box of donuts. Or rather, she ate the donuts and he enjoyed .... One. "So! Let her go! The evidence speaks for itself!"

He nods sagely and says quietly to Sparkles, "There. Ya see. Solved without fighting and deductive reasoning."

Sparkles rolls her eyes and blows a tuft of her main out of her eye.

<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

From somewhere, over the course of hours, a transmission...

> Usagi, you have to tell me ALL ABOUT IT!

> I'm stuck here cleaning the back room all afternoon I demand every. Detail.

> Don't hold out on me!!!

> Usagi?

> Are you still busy or something??

> Hey, is everything okay?

There's another message she's typing on her phone the next time she gets a moment to visit it, brushing her broad miko sleeves back so she can actually type, but --

BREAKING NEWS, her phone declares.

The broom in her other hand clatters to the ground - and she's out of the shrine office before Yuuichiro can even ask whether she's okay.

-=-=-

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

Atop a well-maintained city streetlight, suddenly there is Sailor Mars, one knee curled up and a hand pointing straight at the woman with a rising-sun cape. "You're a defender of justice! How can you justify holding innocent youth in a cage just to make them answer for these things which bother you so much?!"

A hand splays out, towards the quailing Usagi: "Look at her! She's one of those people we save, Sakurada-san!" This is not -- strictly speaking -- a lie. "You -- and I -- we are defenders of justice in this city! Are you so dissatisfied with our part that you would turn around and terrorise our schoolmates for some paltry revenge..?!"

"In the name of Mars - I'll chastise you!"

COMBAT: Rei Hino transforms into Sailor Mars!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars has used In The Name Of Mars! on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu transforms into Chevalier Knight Lancelot!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Akko Kagari's Just Gimme a Breather, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Dodge!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 0 Fatigue damage from Sailor Mars's In The Name Of Mars!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Mars is
Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!  Pink Moon Stick is Taunted!
COMBAT: Akko Kagari transforms into Shiny Akko!

<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

"You know, I was thinking you'd grown a centimeter," Haruka agrees amiably. "Maybe it's just the uniform."

He's in a summery outfit himself today. The black sport jacket and white dress shirt combination is conventional enough in theory, but the lapels on the former are unusually narrow, and the deeply unbuttoned mandarin collar contributes to the casual mood of the attire. The pants are grey with a subtle monochrome plaid, and the choice of simple black sneakers in lieu of dress shoes trades 'elegant' for 'hip'.

"Say, Odango," Haruka begins. "You're acting a little strange today. Is there something you--" That's where he cuts off, just barely noticing the danger before Usagi.

The giant cuff pinches his arms to his side, and Haruka's arms reflexively strain at it. Not to break it; to reach inside his jacket.

One of the reasons Haruka likes to wear jackets is that she likes to be able to carry around her transformation pen without people wondering if she's happy to see them. It's a sin for a track star to wear loose pants. And purses don't really fit her aesthetic, so...

"Damn it," Haruka complains faintly, his elbows locked against his sides, unable to bend them more than a few inches. In two stages he drops, first to his knees, and then right over onto his side.

-=-=-

Haruka awoke before Usagi; maybe his larger body metabolizes dark magic faster, who knows. He stares with those sharp eyes at the new and not improved Super Sakurada, back to back with his much smaller fellow captive. When Usagi starts talking about flying with him, he assumes she's awake now.

"It's not exactly flying," he says grimly. "Be careful what you say, you're on--"

Usagi's fantasy continues, and Haruka realizes he's talking to nobody awake. He sighs in resignation.

As the cuffs drop away, Haruka takes a step to catch his balance, lifts a fist to the level of his chest and rubs at that arm to restore circulation. He never took his gaze away from Super Sakurada. He's cool, after all. And it's starting to click for him that he was just collateral damage. Anybody with Usagi at the time would have gotten the other cuff.

"You really--" he begins to reply derisively, but Usagi suddenly glomps onto him, causing his eyes to bulge mid-heroic banter as the sudden shift in weight gently tilts the cage and nearly causes Haruka to lose his footing on the bars. He grabs the ceiling bars with one hand and exhales with relief.

Eyes shifting to look behind himself at the girl clinging to the back of his jacket, Haruka grows increasingly amused at the string of confessions.

"Do you get it now?" he calls down. Reaching back to rotate Usagi around to hold onto his side so she's more visible he jerks his head at her. "Sailor Moon isn't here."

Usagi feels Haruka's hand crush her shoulder meaningfully at that comment.

"Just don't do anything," he says under his breath. "They're all here, see?" He smiles in particular to see Mami Tomoe, his old foe.

Looking down to Sailor Neptune, he gives a Gallic sort of shrug. What's he supposed to do?, his eyes say? He didn't lock himself in a cage with another girl.

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.

Super Sakurada and Akko are not the only people who are discovering the wonders of flight.

There is also Endo Naoki, who flies now. The knight emerges from the skyline of Tokyo, rising from the earth in a streak of purple light that heads toward the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. He slows as he approaches the airspace that Sakurada occupies, unwilling and wary of pressing any further.

"Hey!" He calls, his voice joining the rest shouting out in protest. "Isn't this a little too much?"

Endo's eyes slant toward the boy and girl and the cage-the latter who appears to be quite distressed by her predicament. Usagi Tsukino, he decides, probably agrees that this is excessive.

"This isn't justice!" Endo continues, "You can't just put people in the sky!" The boy shrugs his sword from his shoulder with a wobble, leveling it at the woman hovering above once he's steadied again. "Set them free!"

COMBAT: Endo Naoki transforms into Barrier Jacket Zerstörer!

<Pose Tracker> Sourisi [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

Shortly after the airwaves of most major news networks started to report upon the suspended cage squarely in Shinjuku, a masked heroine is quickly making her way across the rooftops towards the Metropolitan Government Building. A frown is deeply etched on her face as she thinks about the three victims of all this.

Not only was one of those in the airborne prison known to Sourisi, but there's also the Akuma Villian who made the cage in the first place. A fatherly detective speaks occasionally of all the good work that Natsuna has done for Tokyo, and for La Papillon to be able to reach out to her and twist Natsuna's desires?

It shows just how far his power can reach.

Sourisi's boots kick off the pavement as she reaches grounds of the twin towers, catching up to the other magical defenders of Tokyo who have come to the defense of one accused to be Sailor Moon. The idea of Usagi Tsukino being Sailor Moon being laughable. Usagi is sweet yet...something of a klutz while the Pretty Soldier of the Moon is known for her grand speeches!

"I really think you're going really ahead of the process here, Superintendent-san! A televisied trial is only good for ratings, not true justice. Besides that, you're endangering innocent lives doing this. Isn't the police supposed to protect the public?" Sourisi points a gloved hand towards Super Natsuna, trying to appeal towards the woman has been an inspiration for her father.

Maybe reasoning can reach through her magically clouded judgement?

COMBAT: Fumiko Inoue transforms into Serpentina Ruse!
COMBAT: Sourisi has used Beseech the Police on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Serpentina Ruse [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.

This just in: an Akuma is trying to reveal the identity of Sailor Moon by harming innocent civilians that she somehow mistook for her. In other news, a snakelike Magical Girl has (hopefully not) been seen hopping from rooftop to rooftop and gliding like Mary Poppins using a parasol! "Of all the..." she grumbles, "...how could it come to something like this? Is everybody really that vulnerable? Is that how easily we're corrupted? Super Sakurada falling victim and making more victims?"

Serpentina Ruse finally arrives, but stays mostly in the shadows. It does not look like her fight - other Magical girls are here, more capable ones, and they have already made their speeches - but... She scans the area for Ladybug. If she's not here, Serpentina may have to track down the Akumatizing butterfly afterwards. Then she glances Sourisi, nodding to her if Sourisi can see her. Maybe everything is handled after all. Still, backup is nice to have, right?

<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

For all that the Magic Knight of Wind has been fairly unguarded with her own identity (her enemies already knew who she was and how to find her in any case), she's learned to respect that plenty of magical girls have Good Reasons to keep their civilian names separated from their magical personae. So when word gets around that Super Sakurada, famed head of the Tokyo police force, is on TV and threatening to unmask Sailor Moon? That's not something Fuu can ignore - not out of her own long-held curiosity about who the other girl actually is, but out of respect for that secrecy.

Rather than landing atop a street light (Sailor Mars stuck that landing better than she could, and picked the absolute best one for the purpose to boot), the Magic Knight of Wind alights on the roof of a bus shelter, a subtle updraft whittling some speed away from her descent so that the impact won't break anything. And while the Wind Knight does produce her bow and quiver, even going so far as to nock an arrow - she does not attack.

"Chief Sakurada," she calls out, "this isn't you. This isn't who you should be, who you want to be. It's true that we magical girls keep our identities secret, but so many of us *need to* - Sailor Moon among them. Even if you had the right girl up in that cage, forcing her to reveal herself ... *that* is a crime in its own right."

COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Gentle Chiding on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Fuu Hououji's Gentle Chiding, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Pink
Moon Stick is Quipped!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 0 Fatigue damage from Sourisi's Beseech the Police, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick is
Quipped!  Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.

The press start running chyrons like

SUPER SAKURADA SNAPPED! POLICE CHIEF HOLDING TERRIFIED SCHOOLGIRL HOSTAGE

so Usagi's tears, crocodile or otherwise, may be getting her some cover. Sakurada's camera, however, is relentless in its pursuit of her, and follows her across the cell, until the shot contains her tearful face AND Haruka's chest, which she is crying upon.

Sakurada herself has long marveled at the juxtaposition between Usagi and Sailor Moon, and is prepared for this reaction. Her rage is unmoved.

"You're quite capable of escaping from this situation, Sailor Moon... don't drag it out to gain sympathy!"

But her defenders, as they arrive, make some excellent points. In particular, Sailor Mars' -- that Usagi is one of the people they SAVE, and Sourisi's -- that lives (innocent or not) are being put in danger. Deep within, her tormented heart wavers. (Akko does, indeed, have time to get up.)

Regrettably, Akumatization does not so easily loosen its grip upon its victims, once the process is complete. With every heartbeat, fury spikes within her.

"How dare you judge me!" she shouts back at Mami and Fuu. "You think I, and other officers, don't have enemies? We protect one another -- and we will protect you as well!"

Her eyes narrow at Sailor Neptune. "I'm under orders from the Mayor. You seem like someone who understands duty... so don't talk to me about 'simply discarding things' when they become unbearable. Nothing about this is simple or easy. The real world never is."

At last Super Sakurada blurs forward, and the space between her and Mami Tomoe vanishes in an instant. Along the way, she pulled a nightstick from beneath her cape. Now, she brings it down...

...with a light tap on Mami's left shoulder...

"You!"

...then the right shoulder, faster than thought...

"Are hereby!"

...then the top of Mami's head...

"Deputized!"

...oh no.

Mami's outfit mostly stays as it is, but its yellow transforms to blue. Also, a matching police cap replaces her ordinary beret (complete with floral hatpin, now placed centrally above the sharply angled brim, rather than at the side), and a golden police deputy badge sprouts on her chest, right over her heart.

And although she's still very much Mami Tomoe, everyone else (except, of course, for Superintendent-General Sakurada) is suddenly, in her eyes, a criminal. A criminal in the midst of committing the most serious crime of an attempted jailbreak. And criminals... must be stopped.

Super Sakurada isn't done; zipping like a pinball of justice between victims, she gets Endo next (blue hat, blue raiment, gold badge), then Lancelot (blue hat right on top of his great helm, his silver-blue armor stays the same, gold badge pops out over his heart).

By the time she's done, the odds have gotten a lot more even. Or, all things considered, even worse than that...

But she's got more: pulling a pair of cuffs out, she flings it at Sailors Mars and Neptune. It engorges massively as it approaches them, until -- as occurred to Haruka and Usagi, earlier today -- falling over them like twin lassos. Twin lassos that will bind them together, connected by a few heavy links in between. A quick reaction, however, will save their arms from being pinned to their sides, when the cuffs tighten, then lock. The main difference between this situation and wearing a belt, mobility-wise, is the 'being attached to someone else' part.

Actually -- she pulled out THREE pairs of cuffs. Serpentina Ruse (shadows or no; evidently she's been spotted) and Sourisi, plus Akko and Fuu, will shortly find themselves cuffed together in pairs as well.

"You're all under arrest until this is over!" Super Sakurada declares. "If you won't save yourself, Sailor Moon, maybe you'll save your friends!"

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deputized! on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deputized! on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Deputized! on Lancelot.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Cuffed Together on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Cuffed Together on Sailor Neptune.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Cuffed Together on Akko Kagari.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Cuffed Together on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Cuffed Together on Sourisi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Cuffed Together on Serpentina Ruse.
COMBAT: Akko Kagari cleanly braces 11 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Cuffed Together, taking 2 Fatigue damage! Akko Kagari
is Quipped! Akko Kagari's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle applied to Akko Kagari!
COMBAT: Lancelot has adjusted his boss levels. He is now ready to take on 2 opponents!
COMBAT: Sourisi braces 7 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Cuffed Together, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sourisi
is Quipped! Tangle and Trap applied to Sourisi!
COMBAT: Lancelot accepts Pink Moon Stick's Deputized!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lancelot is Cheered! Blind
applied to Lancelot!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 2 opponents!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Pink Moon Stick's Deputized!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse dodges 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Cuffed Together, taking 9 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
Serpentina Ruse is Quipped! Serpentina Ruse's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Tangle applied to Serpentina Ruse!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki accepts Pink Moon Stick's Deputized!, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Blind and Diversion applied to Endo Naoki!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has adjusted his boss levels. He is now ready to take on 2 opponents!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji counters 5 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Cuffed Together, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Fuu Hououji is
Quipped! Tangle and Trap applied to Fuu Hououji!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Trick Arrow Shot, partially gets through, doing 9 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars counters 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Cuffed Together, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
Sailor Mars is Quipped! Sailor Mars's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Tangle and Trap applied to Sailor Mars!
COMBAT: Sailor Mars's counterattack, Searing Serpent, partially gets through, doing 14 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Sailor Neptune fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Cuffed Together, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Neptune
is Quipped! Tangle and Trap applied to Sailor Neptune!

<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.

Lancelot blinks a few times at Super Sakurada's speed. As he is deputized he slides off Sparkle's back and shakes his head and then slowly turns toward the collection of Magical girls. He then rolls his shoulders and starts to walk toward Sailors Mars and Neptune. "You heard the Chief ladies." he holds out his hands to the side and twin bolts of lightning flash from the sky toward them. As if it was nothing, he snatches the bolts of lightning out of the air creating twin cracks of thunder. The lightning solidiefies into the gleaming white blades of the Demon's bane; Arondight. He snaps them to the side and then rushes forward.

As he closes in he points with the left blade at Neptune and cries out; "LIGHTNING BLAST!" Then leaps and double slashes the bright white blades at Sailor Mars with a cry of; "LIGHTNING SLASH!" The blades crackling with pure blinding lightning. He slides to the side, the blades leaving a trail of electricity in their wake and the boy crouches. He looks right at the two Sailor Scouts, and tenses, prapred to leap at them again, lightning crackling and bursting around him...

COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning Slash on Sailor Mars.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used Lightning Blast on Sailor Neptune.

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mami keeps her eyes on Sakurada. She might have said a good bit more to that idea, that the police might protect them too--but before Mmi can respond, can address the 'real world' she mentions to Sailor Neptune...

Blur. Tap. "Wh--"

Deputized! Mami is now in blue, and her hat changes. Her badge appears. And as she looks round, she begins to frown at those assembled and present, stern. Her chin lifts. Her hat keeps the perfect angle of its brim even as she turns to regard the field. "Criminals..."

Mami looks down over Akko and Fuu, handcuffed together, and has an impassive kind of expression, a glint in her golden eyes. "Speaking of crimes," she says, "Jailbreak is a serious offense! I won't stand for such lawlessness in my city!"

Mami throws out her hand at Akko and a set of ribbons bursts into being to go right at her arms and face, "You'd be less dizzy if you sat down!"

To Fuu, however, the blonde jumps. She just leaps right off the building, and as she falls, guns manifest ahead of her, a semi-circle of golden glory that fires straight for Fuu--or rather, straight for her feet. It won't hit anything too important...

If Fuu moves quickly, anyway.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Velare on Akko Kagari.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Circle on Fuu Hououji.
COMBAT: Akko Kagari fails to dodge Mami Tomoe's Velare, taking 15 Fatigue damage!  Mami Tomoe is Psyched!  Blind applied to Akko
Kagari!
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji braces 21 Fatigue damage from Mami Tomoe's Tiro Circle, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Fuu Hououji's Block and
Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.

Bop, bop, bop. Endo doesn't have time to react as Super Sakurada's nightstick when it touches down, not even to raise a hand in defense.

When he rises again he is DEUPTY ENDO, more blue than purple, and equipped with an authoritative cap. Also still with a giant sword, which wobbles indecisively in the air-until he swipes it decisively to point at the magical girls on the ground below.

"Stop right there!" He calls, seized by a sudden change of heart. "Trying to break these hardened, heartless criminals out of jail!?" Isn't that too much!?" In particular the pair of Sourisi and Serpentina Ruse has earned his ire (due to their IMMENSE GUILT), and Endo begins to descend toward the street and the two former allies.

The first swing of his weapon sends a dozen baseball-sized spheres of light streaking out from the blade, a dozen tiny meteors that preceed his arrival. They cut through the air, homing in on the two magical girls below and crashing into the ground in a shower of miniature explosions around Sourisi.

Endo finishes his descend after, dropping to the ground with a swing of his sword toward Serpentina.

"Surrender now or you're going to jail--in the sky!"

COMBAT: Sailor Neptune fails to dodge Lancelot's Lightning Blast, taking 26 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Lancelot is Psyched!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Asteroid Eilen on Sourisi.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Blauverschiebung on Serpentina Ruse.
COMBAT: Sourisi braces 28 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Asteroid Eilen, taking 23 Fatigue damage!  
COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse perfectly counters 37 Fatigue damage from Endo Naoki's Blauverschiebung, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Counter!  Serpentina Ruse's Reverse ability activates!
COMBAT: Serpentina Ruse's counterattack, Cobra's Hood, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Endo Naoki!  
COMBAT: Sailor Mars fails to dodge Lancelot's Lightning Slash, taking 22 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Akko blinks once at Usagi Tsukino. Then, her expression screws up, and she says: "Um... I think you're not supposed to confess or people realize you did something you shouldn't have! That's how you get away with crimes, like the time I wrote 'DIANA WUZ HERE' underneath the missing cherry tarts in Infinity's cafeteria!"

Somewhere, Ursula Callistis's eyebrow twitches. She has her work cut out for her.

Her eyes turn towards Mami, then to the others. She sighs with relief, then she finishes standing up. Her knee creaks a little. And then she looks back over her shoulder, peering at the people who suddenly get turned into police. Akko's eyebrow twitches. "H-HEY! That's not nice! You--WAAAGH--"

A handcuff slams into her, and sticks her to the Wind Knight. She looks at her, then looks back at her. "Uh--"

She only really half-caught that Mami got hit by something. As a result, she is rather surprised to seeing a blue-garbed Puella Magi, and sending ribbons at her. They catch her, wrapping around her arms and legs, and she makes a face. "Aaah, no, I'm not a Christmas present! That's not faaaair!"

She does, however, have the Shiny Rod gripped. She thrusts it out towards Mami -- and then there is a brilliant blue glow. Then, one of the air conditioning units on the side of the building is covered in that glow. It lifts up -- yanks away from the piping, which sends water spraying out every which way -- and hurtles towards the Puella Magi's side.

"C'mon, you gotta snap out of it!" Akko yells at her.

COMBAT: Akko Kagari has used Time to Cool Off on Mami Tomoe.

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Super Sakurada demands that she not drag this out, and Usagi looks quite distressed. The reality is that she thinks Super Sakurada is simply accusing Sailor Moon of being a bad role model for her many offenses. Yet it's clear that she wants her to transform. And Usagi is about to give just to prevent anyone from getting hurt.

Haruka's hand squeezes her shoulder, she can feel the strength in those fingers. It's insistent, and Usagi just finds herself recomposing herself under the weight of that urging. Brought to the side, her eyes look up at Haruka and it's clear she's about to say 'But-!' It's like she's accepted the jig is up. The law has her, even if the law has been Akumatized.

The word is never said though, because Haruka murmurs at her. "I..." And Usagi finds herself looking at Mami, at Mars, at Shiny Akko...

Denying who she is. Defending her identity. Saying they won't allow her to be unmasked. Though Akko's comment on her not confessing briefly causes her expression to grow abstracted, like 'You know that's a good point.'

Usagi's admiration over Michiru's speech gets a ??? at the word callow, though she says everything else about responsibility so elegantly that she decides it must mean good things.

Then Lancelot causes her mouth to separate in an expression of discontent anger. Her eyebrows narrowing. A vein bulging. She's about to bleat out any number of indignant responses about how much she eats.

Yet Sourisi and the Magic Knight of Wind bring her back to a more relaxed state. "I get it." She murmurs back quietly. "I won't act rashly."

Before she then increases her volume, "Everyone...! Please... save me!"

Even if she's scared for herself. And scared for them, she seems content to leave it to so many people that she admires.

That idea goes wrong so quickly though, as suddenly one... two... three, they become her deputies. "Wait - no - stop! Mami-san please don't listen to her! They're not criminals at all!" And then handcuffs the others together. "No! If you do that then-!"

And all of it is just to bait her into transforming. Usagi's eyes sparkle, remembering the Dark Kingdom. How many plots were undertaken where other people got hurt just because they were after her - or the Legendary Silver Crystal?

"Please! I don't know why the Mayor is ordering you to do this but..."

Usagi doesn't know what she's feeling at first seeing Super Sakurada and her Deputies other than distress over the situation. Yet there's another feeling tugging at her, welling up as she sees Super Sakurada forcing Mami, Endo, and Lancelot to fight at her side.

"... is... is this what you really want?"

It's a question that's asked with no small amount of sadness. Right now, she needs to put her cheek against Haruka's shoulder just to have the strength to not transform immediately. "I never thought... it'd be so hard... to do nothing."

She takes a few long moments trying to find the strength to keep doing nothing, trying her best to feel strong in this situation before opening her eyes and calling out, "Sailor Mars-! I know what I said before but... don't worry about me! Just..."

She hesitates.

"... save them." One might think she's referring only to the deputies, but it isn't long before she adds, "Save her too."

<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.