2022-10-28 - The Book And Its Boy 1
| Title: The Book And Its Boy 1 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The Witch of Lost Ivy and her friends encounter their first Sulfuric Ogre, a far more intelligent and dangerous version of the ogres they've been battling for a long time. Tragedy nearly strikes when Kyouka makes a great sacrifice to save La Sirene, but she is saved in turn by the power in everyone's hearts. But who summoned this powerful ogre in the first place? | |
| Who: Yumi Ohzora, Akko Kagari, Eri Shimanouchi, Kyouka Okazaki, Mai Tokiha, Mikoto Minagi, Nori Ankou GM: Pink Moon "Stank" | |
| Where: Chofu Suburban District | |
| OOC - IC Date: 10/28/2022 - 01/22/2016 | |
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Omoide - Tsunekichi Suzuki - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t9yQYyXpSE
Chofu. Night.
It's darker here than in most places that can call themselves Tokyo, and darkest of all is the river, more an absence than its usual slow and friendly presence. The distant neon blare of the central city creates a saturation, more a before-glow than an afterglow, that unfailingly shrinks the sky. The only stars tonight are satellites, and there aren't many of those. Wispy cloud, high above, swirls, rain-spent and regathering its strength for another go tomorrow; moonlight collects there, drawn from a waning crescent that has little to spare, and the net result is much more gray than silver.
And yet, the magic is the same.
There is magic on Tokyo rooftops; magical, those wanderings by some, patrols by others, as they slip through the night, unnoticed by a city that never sleeps, unhindered by stoplights, train crossings. It is not silent, but it is quiet -- quieter -- and there's a peace to that, a serenity, that even the occasional car engine cannot stir. A city that never sleeps is not a city that is never sleepy. Especially out here, in a neighborhood where people mostly go, to sleep.
Neither coast-socking fog nor malicious miasma curls in fingerlings up from river's edge tonight. A simpler mist, this. It holds the nearest bridge across the Tama River close without suffocating it. It is almost as though someone has lit a fire beneath it. But it isn't smoke. It's just... water, and harmless enough.
Until it isn't...
A bridge is a good place to fish. Two lanes, chunky concrete construction, a simple palm-height railing of metal bars as containment to either side. As cars approach, their drivers' nostrils flare and with a fingertip they switch their ventilation to recirc exactly too late to avoid the undertone of stench. There are no cow fields to blame here though, and no smokestacks of any real significance. Pedestrians are less fortunate. At least bicycles can pass through the stink faster than those on foot.
They can, but they don't.
No one is getting to the other side tonight.
<SoundTracker Switch> From A Secret Well To A Turbulent Age - Inuyasha OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqjRaxdiJ_M
The fisherman -- fisherwoman -- stands in the river, which is a puddle to her. She must be at least three humans tall, and terrifically muscular. Her limbs are longer than would be proportional on a human, her hair lank and long. Dressed in filthy leather armor, her maw is full of sharp, jagged teeth, and her misshapen eyes have a dangerous glint.
Leaning up against one of the concrete columns of the bridge is her club, gigantic, more like a tree trunk stripped bare than a real weapon. It is just as deadly as something more carefully constructed.
It is not her fishing pole.
One of her palms is faced up, but there is no openness to be found in the gesture. Traced by ghostlight, which reveals her night-shadowed skin as grayish pink, a sigil glows thereupon. Not a Midchildan rune-circle or even the more Earthly sort that is the primary curricula at Luna Nova's Infinity program, this is both a simple symbol and one that contains a multiplicity of meanings, none of them good. It means 'earth' and it means 'power' and it means 'hunger.'
And springing forth from it is a spectral arm. It is not the arm of an ogre, little like her own, but for its greed and its malice; its slenderness puts it in the mind that it isn't just the arm of a ghost but of a ghost other than her. It is long, more than long enough to rise over her head to clear the last few feet to the bridge. It is hook, line, and sinker, and even as the magical girls arrive, they see what she's been up to for the last little while:
A car crossed the bridge. A little more slowly than it might have, in this fog. Crinkling her face in a squint, though her eyes have no direct line of sight over the bridge, she reaches with the arm of her spell, lays her hand across the oncoming lane...
...and the car passes through it. It keeps going for a few more yards, before rolling to an idling stop. It's a good thing this bridge is so flat, for the acceleration of the backside of an arc would be calamitous. What's on the far side of the bridge is more like a parking lot, and more automobile fumes are stinking up the place from cars allowed to exhaust themselves into quietude.
Their drivers aren't there anymore.
Well -- their bodies are. But their Pure Hearts aren't.
It's the same for the many pedestrians who are slumped over on the bridge itself. On the sidewalk, fortunately, whether they collapsed where they stood or fell from their bikes. The Tama River is richer a few more of those, though. Everyone's getting fed tonight.
Clutching her prize, the spectral arm shrinks back towards her physical palm as though she's reeling in a line. The light of the Pure Heart -- reddish-pink crystal, but the glow is white, a simple sort of purity, born less of action or intent but rather from existence, the pure potential of all people to do good, even this poor salaryman whose corpse is slumped over his steering wheel -- is beautiful, and far more real, than that which carries it.
That is, until it goes out. Or, more aptly, is eclipsed, by lips and teeth and tongue.
GULP goes the ogre's throat.
A sigh, afterwards, of success if not satiation. She can never be FULL, but she's one soul fuller. Low-grade stuff, but it goes down well enough all the same. Her muscle is that little bit harder; her eyes that little bit sharper; her height that little bit taller.
Every time she casts the spell, it becomes easier. Not because of the practice, but because of the result.
Patting her stomach with the hand that had the rune, she extends the palm of the other, and another copy of the sigil begins to form upon it. Swift and sure, it unfurls like a heron's wing.
Time to go for another.
You don't have to be a troll to make a bridge your own.
And you don't have to be rotten eggs or a paper mill to smell like trouble.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Sulfuric Ogre! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents! COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Dynamic! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha transforms into Mai-HiME! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora transforms into Witch Ivy! COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Sacred Ray on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Akko Kagari transforms into Shiny Akko!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Yumi Ohzora should be resting. She just got out of the hospital today, and it's nighttime, time for study and sleep and all kinds of things that aren't what she's doing. ...But it's a beautiful night, and so:
Yumi, the Witch of Lost Ivy, is out flying on her broom, lit against the darkness if one looks just right, with her flowing hair and her black cat and her lovely ivy-trailing broom.
Tama already told her she should be in bed, and their compromise was that Tama would accompany Yumi on this joyride. So it's magical, it's wonderful, and it's nice, Yumi avoiding the chill of the mist at the river by flying over elsewhere... until--
"Yumi," Tama says seriously. "I have an evil feeling..."
"Huh?" Yumi starts, and then closes her eyes. "Ah--" She opens them again. "Oh, no." She squints, as she sees it from afar. Ghostlight... and a gigantic figure here. Yumi stares, for a few moments. And then she pulls out her phone.
"Staff of Lost Ivy...!" The Staff appears in a shimmer, in Yumi's hand. "In my hand, rememebered be!"
Brilliant green light shines through the night. Yumi's ordinary clothes and coat and shoes become black and green, a dark dress and leather green gloves and boots, and a wide-brimmed had belted in green. She cuts a haunting silhouette, witch and cat and staff all together against the moon.
"Yumi," Tama says seriously--"Ivy," she corrects. "You can't face this alone. This is no ordinary Ogre!"
"...But I can't not face it," Yumi tells Tama in turn. "Someone has to. I'll just have to hope I'm not the only one out tonight."
Yumi rushes down on her broom, extending the Staff, its green crystal glowing brightly as she traces a rune out in the air with it. A brilliant cascading beam of light crashes towards the Ogress, white-tinged in verdant power.
"Hey!" Yumi calls. "You can't have those--"
"..Tama, what's she doing?" Yumi asks, as she gets closer and sees the empty cars.
"No--the Sulfuric Ogre! This one can draw out its targets with spells! It's never been defeated with only one--"
"Then now's going to be the time!"
Yumi has had to dive in close to be close enough to attack--she looks up at the giant, and prepares.
<Pose Tracker> Akko Kagari [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Akko isn't flying over any rooftops today. Of course, Akko is never really flying.
The sixteen year-old witch is running across the rooftops -- sprint, dash, JUMP -- until she gets to one near a bridge. She comes to a stop, then doubles over. Hands on her knees, she pants hard, face flushed red, as she stares down at the ground.
"Gwaaaahhh," she groans. "That was so much running! It's not faaaair, I should be able to fly a broom, too. I bet Diana is--"
She sniffs her nose.
Then she looks up -- spotting the huge woman, with a club leaning against the bridge, and then some manner of magic. Akko's studies are, ah, not her strong suit, but even she knows: that spectral arm is probably bad.
No, super bad.
She points, with a shaky finger, in it's direction -- right after the car passes through, sans drivers -- and yells: "H-HEY! Put them back right this instant! And don't eat... whatever that is! You have to pay for food at the cafeteria!"
A beat.
"Professor Ursula has told me that at least six or seven times! You're in hot water!"
She points the Shiny Rod -- a length of polished wood, with seven gemstones mounted in it -- in the direction of the ogre. The gemstones gleam, and then the water around the ogre's legs...
...er...
...begins to freeze? "Wait. Got it backwards," Akko says. "Uh--oh, heyyyyy, Witch Ivy, it's going great, check out my totally intended and cool ice spell~!"
COMBAT: Akko Kagari has used Time to Cool Off on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick decisively counters 18 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Sacred Ray, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Unnatural Speed, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Witch of Lost Ivy! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 8 Fatigue damage from Akko Kagari's Time to Cool Off, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Akko Kagari is Psyched! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi transforms into Puella Magi Eri!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
A girl on a rooftop contemplates the mist in the distance, grief cubes clacking between her fingertips. Despite the changes to reality there is a grim calculus whenever she is not fighting Wraiths. Will she have enough magic for the next marathon?
Is this one she can just let go?
Rather than just deciding from afar. Her journey takes her closer through a series of leaps, until she lands in a tree right beside the river. Spying on the fisherwoman.
There's a contemplative look on her face, as she rests a hand on the tree trunk, and watches the spell. The spectral hand.
The pure heart.
Old alliances hang heavy in her mind. However, she still doesn't move, not quite yet. She watches and waits to see if a Talisman will appear.
Then her eyes slip up to the sky, to the girl on the broom. Then back down to the Fisherwoman. And as Lost Ivy attacks...
"... Eh?"
That's the reaction she has to Shiny Akko, when her hot water pun creates totally intended ice.
That appears to make the decision for her. "Okay yeah, I better get in there before she creates a swarm of totally intended bees on Ivy-chan and makes this harder for her."
Eri leaps out of the tree over the misty river bank, as her whip arcs in what's like an explosion of whip lashes across the space where the fisherwoman is, each one blurring so fast that it's like a dozen of them all happened at the same moment.
And then she lands - "Happen to have any advice Tama? Or just a warning this time?"
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Ephemeral Dance on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 16 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Ephemeral Dance, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 7 opponents! COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene de Diamant!
<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
This is Kyouka's second trip out to Tama today. The first one, coincidentally enough, also happened to involve fishing. Well, the fruits of the labor of fishing, which is to say, some fish. Fish and some pre-made meals carried to the dorms at Infinity for a friend of hers: the pre-made meals for Yumi, and the fish for Tama. Carrying those coolers all over Tokyo was a bit arduous, but the result was more than worth it.
And then later, after heading home, finishing the last little bit of homework, and doing her nightly training... she'd gotten a text from her friend. She couldn't sleep, and wanted to know if Kyouka was up for a hang. Kyouka didn't make it a habit of staying up too late (gotta get up early to get the day going), but every once in a while wouldn't hurt...
> Sure! I'll head your way.
She wasn't going to take the bus this time though. Not this late. Besides, there was really only one way she was going to keep up with a witch on a broom.
So in her barrier jacket--vest, tank top, shorts, visor, armored gauntlets and boots--she had taken off across the city, keeping high overhead to rooftops when she could, covering ground with large, magically powered oleaps. But off in the distance...
She was still new to this magical girl business, but that Sulfuric Ogre looked awfully familiar. Awful, for what she could guess it was doing, and familiar, because it put her in mind of something she had fought several weeks ago. "Strike Wolf, get ready for a fight!"
<Affirmative.>
She's not nearly as winded as Akko, using her magic to supercharge her jumps. She bounds off of the last rooftop and goes flying through the air, wind whipping at her vest. She scans the area--there's Ivy! Eri too, and another girl she doesn't recognize yet--good, hopefully they can take care of it quickly. She touches down on the bank of the river and then immediately bounds up again, but the arc of her jump is interrupted as she charges downwards towards the ogre, flipping over to deliver a furious drop kick aimed at her head. Her boot shimmers with bright purple energy as she delivers the blow. "Faaaang Breaker! Kyyyah!"
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki transforms into Barrier Jacket Wolf Fighter! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Fang Breaker Strike on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Kyouka Okazaki's Fang Breaker Strike, taking 24 Fatigue damage! Kyouka Okazaki is Psyched! Cripple applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
It's a beautiful night in Tokyo. The stars might not be able to outshine the glare of the city, but the gloom of the night is like a wonderful quiet blanket after a day of dealing with noise and crowds, and the silence has an elegance to it. Perhaps walking the streets on a night like this might carry some risk, but the rooftops? The rooftops are a wonderful place for a little privacy.
(Also a wonderful place for a late-night argument, but that wasn't Mai's intent tonight.)
The day was a long one, and the sun had been setting when Mai was finished with work. There had been other dinner plans, but - well, she had gone to the trouble to make tori-zosui recently and there was a conversation about that she wanted to avoid anyway. A quick conversation with Mikoto, a slightly less quick trip to gather ingredients, and off they went to find somewhere quiet enough. With, perhaps, another conspirator along the way.
Atop a quiet little rooftop, there's a flicker of light. A single ring of gold with jade magatama burns, flames warding off the chill of night as it turns ponderously in mid-air. A little bit of magic, for those who seek it. Near it, a high school girl in a winter jacket and scarf.
Nearer to the flames, several skewers hold some bits of fish and vegetable for a late-night grilled dinner.
"...this is probably breaking a few rules. Let's not mention this to anyone on the Student Council." Mai flashes a grin at Mikoto, giving Nori a slightly more serious nod, and then laughs as she reaches for a skewer. She risks a quick nibble, and relaxes to enjoy the warmth of freshly cooked food. It's an unorthodox dinner plan, but it's a lovely one...
...up until she gets that feeling of wrongness crawling up her back. Mai joins Mikoto in looking for what's off, picking up on that distant smell of...sulphur? It's nothing familiar - but also not something she's inclined to ignore.
"...okay. Eat and run. We might have to cook the rest later." She wraps up the grocery bag, stuffing it into a jacket pocket, and calls her stray Element to her as she conjures the other three rings.
The distance isn't too great. It's the traffic jam that catches Mai's eyes first - having just enough driving education to know that this is not a good sight to see - but from there her eyes find the looming figure in that sulfurous cloud. Lights and ice flash in the initial assault, and Mai hesitates only a moment before joining in.
The HiME who commands fire shines brightly as she flies in, rings flickering with flame - but she hesitates short of charging the creature directly. That smell might be inflammable. So she crosses her arms, conjuring the heat of a meal shared, and flings a wave of flame in front of the...whatever-it-is. A wall, even, to burn - and to cut off its escape.
"Whoever - whatever you are - care to explain what you're doing?"
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Infernal Embrace on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 16 Fatigue damage from Mai Tokiha's Infernal Embrace, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Diversion and Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
There are conversations Mai wants to avoid, and Mikoto can tell, when Mai is being avoidant. When someone's feeling bad, at times like this...
... she wants to get them out of their room, and hanging out with friends!
(Thank Eri, for that lesson.)
Mikoto, as it happens, knows all the best rooftops in Tokyo. The best rooftop, of course, is a malleable thing: some rooftops are better for naps in the morning, because they get more sun. Other rooftops are better for naps in the afternoon, because they get more sun. Some rooftops are worse than others because the tiles are loose. Some rooftops are made of tin, which is actually not very good for naps, because it gets very, VERY hot. Some rooftops are more fun to climb on because there are lots of chimneys. Some rooftops are the territories of more cats than others, so obviously they're better by default.
This is all very important rooftop calculus, which means that when they needed to find a quiet rooftop for a sneaky barbeque, Mikoto knew just the one... in Chofu.
Mikoto, all dressed in a pink shirt and a blue jacket over a white skirt and black leggings, dangles a skewer of fish out towards a little calico kitten. "Haia, Haia!" She encourages her, as that quick little kitten nibbles. Her other hand, of course, is holding a skewer of her own -- with fish AND vegetables instead of just fish, because Mikoto is not an obligate carnivore -- and she summarily takes a big bite, herself.
"I love it!" She declares, happily. "Mai's food is the BEST!"
Chomp, chomp -- sniff. Once Mikoto has devoured her skewer, there's no delicious barbeque in front of her nose, and it wrinkles. "Mai," she starts, a shade more serious, frowning. "Nori..." She's on-edge, suddenly; something's wrong.
"Stay here, 'kay?" Mikoto asks of the kitten, putting her meat skewer down so Haia can continue nibbling. She straightens up, and draws her greatsword from the case laying on the rooftop, before she springs to the ground in a single leap and begins running towards the noxious smell.
(She really, really wishes she wasn't running towards it. It's the worst thing! The worst thing. Well, the worst thing right up until --)
A carpark full of people less their Pure Hearts; a bridge complete with troll. No -- "Ogre?!" Mikoto yelps, in alarmed warning, to la Sirene and Mai.
She's far enough away that it would be difficult even for her to close the space immediately -- so Mikoto brings her sword about and plunges it into a dark portal, invoking the magic of, "Miroku!" Dark portals open, four surrounding that massive ogre just the same, and they lance out spires of darkness to pin the spirit in place.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Darkness on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 14 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Darkness, taking 6 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Nori Ankou has had a warmer, stranger, more flourishing life lately, but she still remembers being lonely; and so there is delight in a secret meal.
Also, that stuff is her aesthetic, 110%. "Don't worry," she tells Mai, conspiratorially. "I won't."
But then --
-- supper is denied --
but, "I feel it too," Nori Ankou says with a soft frown, even as she reaches for her bag, and:
It is la Sirene de Diamant who follows along with Mai and Mikoto. The real dining partner. And hopefully, hunger shall not weaken her; but she has taken long journeys, and her endurance can be remarkable.
"An ogre?" la Sirene says. "My goodness, what a dreadful thing. Ah, Mikoto! Have a care!" she warns Mikoto in reflex concern as she raises her hands above her head. What she sends is not a gout of flame but a swirl of glittering unlight, aiming to engulf and sweep past the towering creature's own head.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Abyssal Vision on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges 25 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Abyssal Vision, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Lady Marmalade - Moulin Rouge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGi6dy_ixGk
It's all going beautifully. Astride her broom, in the darkness above, Yumi has every ability to take her enemy by surprise. It is only in the moments after the Sacred Ray has been born that it gives any warning at all; to the very last second, the ogre keeps fishing, fishing, fishing for her next victim. And just as a bicycle ring-dings its way onto the bridge, its bell a lonely sound in all that stinky fog --
"Whoa!" they cry out some yards later, as they nearly add themselves to the involuntary barricade of people and bikes on the sidewalk. But they still can, because they still have their heart, because that spectral arm evaporated right out of its summoning inside that self-same very last second.
This is because, in that sixtieth of a minute, the ogre dismissed the spell while springing to the side. The witch's attack pours into the side of the bridge instead, which is very BEAUTIFUL, in the way that it makes the concrete glow green-white briefly, but not very effective.
For being so huge, she is fast. And once in motion she remains in motion; only the very edge of Akko's ice spell reaches her, and she tears that leg free swiftly enough.
She pauses, craning her head on her neck, lifting a huge palm to shade her eyes from the sky, as though even that bit of moonlight is unpleasant to her, even though it ought to help her make out dark on dark.
"Witch of Lost Ivy," she hisses, a sound ill-suited to such a large throat. A giantess hissing is not so different from a dragon; not reptilian, but the mass involved... the air quavers more than it quivers, a vast and rushing sound, like a great and evil wind.
"In my sight remembered be." And in that instant, she instantly establishes herself as unfathomably more distinguished a speaker than any ogre fought in the modern day so far. Not that the spellcasting wasn't a clue. But what she's intoned she seems to mean. There's something terribly personal, a strong dislike, unmistakable as anything but specific and malicious, to each of her words.
At least she stopped moving. That's great for Eri, until, in the aftermath of filling her general vicinity with lashes, the ogre emerges largely unscathed. No open welts on that mushy-gray-pink skin, just some scratches, mostly on her forearms, which she raised to attract each strand of thorns. They wrapped around them. Now she's pulling, transferring far too much strength straight back through them, a tug of war -- or crack the whip -- with the Puella Magi on the opposite end.
Then Kyouka kicks on in, and when she tries to make herself scarce again, Mai's firewall is in her way. Flame is not her enemy (more on this in a bit) but the surprise of its summoning causes her to flinch, and thus the Device-wielder's drop kick to land squarely. The kick ripples down through the ogre with enough force that it sends her long, lank hair flickering in a concussive wave.
And, her back to the firewall, she grabs at Kyouka midflight instead. If they make contact it's for but an instant, as she catches and releases the girl in a gut-straining twirl, reorienting her trajectory straight at the HiME.
"Eating," she replies to Mai. That simple grunt was more like other ogres. Maybe she really was just reciting some koan before.
"...Obviously," she finishes, with ten pounds of disdain in a one pound word, obliterating that comforting thought as quickly as it arrived.
No one stupid has attitude like that. At least, not ogre-stupid. This is, at WORST, mean girl middle schooler stupid, and there's an ominous feeling that that is definitely the floor and not the ceiling of their enemy's intellect.
Dark portals open around her; spires lance around her. There's still that flamewall behind her, the bridge not quite directly above her, she's out from under it; still, all in all, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
She dodges La Sirene's burst of unlight anyway, in a moment of perfect motion reminiscent of how she avoided Witch Ivy's sneak attack, and it occurs to both witches that THAT might be a spell, too. And she ends that momentary poetry outside of the obsidian clutch of Miroku, too, though she does not shatter them on her way out (perhaps out of professional courtesy).
Mikoto and La Sirene are too far away to retaliate against directly, but she's empty-handed, and, murmuring something unpleasant under her tongue, gives them a taste of their friend's medicine.
A fiery spirit surges into being right on top of them both. It is neither human nor animal; if anything it is reminiscent of a tree. Except for how it's on fire, and composed of fire. It doesn't last long in any case, shedding its combustive leaves right on top of them and then shimmering back to whence it came.
While that's happening, she drags that enormous club that is a much less metaphorical, much more literal tree out of the river, who lets go of it reluctantly, with a gloopy lip-like SMACK.
Her nostrils flare. She looks back up at Ivy.
"But you all smell much better."
It turns out that that broom is in range of her club. It doesn't seem possible, and yet it is so. It moves almost too quickly to be seen.
"I'm partial to witches," she explains to all and sundry, in that low, husky voice. Well, all except for Ivy, who may no longer be on her broom, if she's been knocked hard, fast, and far enough.
And then, with her off-hand (because she only needs one hand to wield that thing, which is also in the 'grossly unfair' column), she reaches out with snakelike speed to try to grab up Akko as an appetizer. Even just the proximate SMELL is punishing, whether or not she gets snatched.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Crack The Whip on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fastball Special on Kyouka Okazaki. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Home Plate on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Spirit of Destruction on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Spirit of Destruction on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Home Run on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Rancid Grip on Akko Kagari. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has cancelled their attack on Akko Kagari. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has adjusted her boss levels. She is now ready to take on 6 opponents! COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Home Run, taking 37 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi dodges 10 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Crack The Whip, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi neatly dodges 28 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Spirit of Destruction, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Exhausted and Stagger applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha perfectly braces 27 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Home Plate, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Mai Tokiha's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant partially dodges 8 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Spirit of Destruction, taking 31 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki perfectly dodges 30 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fastball Special, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Kyouka Okazaki's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
If Yumi had known about the barbecue she might've come to visit! But then she might've brought Kyouka too, and made it a real party! But those rules being broken aside... Yumi now has another problem. And it's--
It's fast. Yumi blinks as the Ogre just ourith rushes out of the way, and her spell hits the concrete. It's almost too fast for her to see. And then, the giantess hissing at her seems to know her, far more than these usually do.
"I--"
There is something very personal in that, and Yumi is afraid. "Yumi!" Tama calls. "Snap out of it!"
Yumi snaps out of it one way; she's knocked backwards on the broom, the spell keeping her held to it shattering under the force of the Ogre's blow. The broom goes flying; Tama herself leaps off, and down to a streetlamp, where she lands gracefully. Yumi is less lucky, landing in foilage and bushes that would scratch her up badly if she weren't so covered. As it stands, the impact winds her more than a little. She's down for a long few moments.
"Yumi!" Tama calls in alarm--and then she looks to Eri. Eri, who has had... perhaps moral issues, but is very reliable, so, "Yes, I know all about this Ogre. I have met her before."
"She's very powerful, and very smart," Tama announces to the group. "Her magic can extract Hearts, and she is crueler than most of her brethren. Her very nature is consumption."
"She is especially resilient to physical attack--but if she can be defeated, then the heart's she consumed can be returned to their owners."
After Tama finishes, she sees Yumi dragging herself back up, Staff-first. "I'm not... done... yet!" Yumi shouts back.
"So what if you're gigantic and terrifying!? I'm a witch!"
She weaves runes into the air, and throws out her hand, laying down a curse that may even work on something this size. "Everyone!" Yumi calls. "Listen to Tama!"
Then she holds out her hand, calling for her broom--but whether she'll get it in time is hard to say.
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Weakness Hex on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 7 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Weakness Hex, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Witch of Lost Ivy is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! Exhausted applied to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri sees her peril the moment her whip grows taut. "Ah. Thi-" She's yanked off her feet, "-SSSS!" It's a rough ride, and at most what she can do is twist to mitigate the damage from the impact that's coming. This is definitely not a stupid Ogress.
She could let go but... there are reasons why she wouldn't want to make an entirely new one.
Eri eventually lashes out with a foot against the G-Forces of the swing to catch her whip between the heel and waits for the next impact against something rough, upon which she grinds that heel down in with a SCHRIP noise of plant matter. Landing roughly, she calls out, a bit dazed, "Hey Mai. Mikoto. Just in time to see my finest moment."
Tama thankfully offers advice. Smart? Check. Physically Resilient? Check. Powerful and Cruel? Double check.
That the hearts will return is a good sign. "Alright. Can work with that." And that's when the battered Puella Magi upends the wooden handle of her shredded whip and stabs it into the ground. There's a gleam of magic - and suddenly what looks like dark serrated briars erupt out of the ground, twisting around the Ogre in rending slices.
"Can work with that just fine. Witch is off the menu tonight."
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Horticultural Horizon on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The obsidian fades on its own, so politely and courteously left without a victim -- in, perhaps unfairly, a shattering sparkle, as if it were magic just like unlight. (Or, perhaps more accurately, like the flame of rings.) Mikoto grimaces, looking over to la Sirene, and exclaims, "But --"
Whatever she was going to say is shortly cut short by the tree blooming over them -- and Mikoto thinks, briefly, of another fight with a Dark General, fishing for suffering against a witch and a warrior. She's already moving by the time it occurs to her, but a few of those flaming leaves settle on her hair and her shoulders anyway.
She shakes her head and her whole upper body, rapidly, and then she snaps: "Leave Lost Ivy alone!!" This Ogre, horrifically, is able to hold a conversation -- but Mikoto retorts more as an exercise for herself than any kindness to her enemy.
"Eri!" Her voice is concerned, hearing the way Eri is dazed -- but she insists, quickly: "Good landing!"
The differences of this Ogre haven't escaped her, though, even streamlined as her own mental environment is, and she looks to Yumi. "What do we do?" She asks, and -- Tama tells them, anyway.
"She's tough," Mikoto summarises, more simply, frowning at the ogre. She feels, for a moment, quite hapless -- physical attack is really the only string to Mikoto's bow. But Yumi sounds so...
"Lost Ivy!" Mikoto yells, in sharp encouragement. "It's okay, Lost Ivy! We're here!" They'll protect her, she thinks, with a look to Eri. And Mikoto, too --
She charges forward to clear the space between her and her enemy, finally, leaping up -- and up -- and UP, and she can't fly like Mai or like Yumi, but Mikoto is remarkably good at jumping. (Or perhaps the word is escalation.) Blade swinging up overhead, she plunges it down, towards the Ogre, as if she might just try to split her in half from the beginning.
And, of course, she screams, throaty and gutteral and raw.
She always does.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Eating. Obviously.
"Well, so were we-" Mai cuts off as the question of what, exactly, an Ogre might eat comes to mind. A curious followup that seems to have a blatantly obvious answer - and those gathered here are next on the menu. She swallows heavily, and her rings burn a little brighter.
But the ogre has something to throw at her - and that something is a friend. Mai tenses on instinct, extinguishing her flames so as not to hurt Kyouka, preparing to be a backstop for an allied projectile. Fortunately, her new friend is agile enough to partly recover from unintended flight - so Mai needs only reach out to clasp Kyouka's arm, spinning them higher out of the ogre's reach in a little aerial dance.
(She's been at Ohtori for going on three years, she's had to learn a little grace.)
"You're okay, right?" Mai's smile is shaky but warm, but it soon fades as she glowers down at the ogre below.
As instructed, she listens to Tama, who...is a cat, but apparently a knowledgeable one. "Resilient - " She looks down at Mikoto with worry, but...her companion is more experienced than she is. "...so all we have to do is stop an infamous spell-slinging ogre, and everyone will be fine."
Eri earns a cheerful laugh from above. "We all have our days, Eri. Glad to see you." There are briars rising up, and a familiar scream of fury, and Mai is ready to move...
...and Kyouka might be a bit reckless. Mai gives her a grin. "Hold on, and get ready!" Tendrils of flame lick off of Mai's rings as she flies closer to the ogre, swinging Kyouka around in an impromptu aerial waltz - and how those flames shine when Mai finally lets go, flinging ally and fire both at the Ogre's face.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Kyouka is not a violent person, despite her love of martial arts. It's only a tool for self defense, and the protection of others. And in this circumstance, the protection of others requires a frontal assault against someone who most assuredly will not be reasoned with. Still, it's hard not to feel a certain amount of satisfaction as her blow strikes true, when she can just tell that all of that energy and force is driving down into the ogre.
That satisfaction is fleeting, though, because as she's preparing to rebound, get some distance and appraoch for her next attack, the impossibly quick ogre grabs her.
Oh shi--
And the next thing she knows she's flying, tumbling head over head. She doesn't have time to get the words out, but her device is on top of it, and they've, bizarrely, practiced arial recoveries--though they were practiced going down rather than sideways, but together they make it work. Kyouka tucks her arms and legs in so she can tumble into juuuust the right position, then spreads them wide again to brake her sideways fall, letting friction and drag check her course.
She grins as she sees Mai approaching, and reaches out a hand to her. "Hey!" Well, that would've been awkward if she hadn't recovered. She takes a moment to survey the situation, glancing around at the battle. "Can you get me back in close? I can't fly and I don't have any ranged attacks." She considers the ogre. "If you've got enough of an arm to just fling me I think I can manage the rest..."
And Mai obliges--and adds on a little to the attack too. Kyouka tucks into another sumersault, whirling through the air in a much more controlled fashion this time. She uncurls just in time to unleash a driving kick. "Miss me?"
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has started a combo targeting Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has joined the combo started by Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: COMBO! Mai Tokiha and Kyouka Okazaki have used Combo: Returned Wolf Pitch, composed of Ohtori-Style Pitch and Line Drive, on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
'Eating, obviously,' the great beast says, and la Sirene pouts just a little to herself, without even thinking about it, even as the great ogre twirls with speed belying its bulk...
La Sirene expects some sort of twist, or leap, or perhaps even an air-slash with that titanic club!
She did not expect a reversal of spirits.
"KIEIEEEEEHHHHHAAAAA!!!" la Sirene screams as she is abruptly engulfed in flame by the manifested spirit. One might, in this moment, think of the ancient aphorism that 'anyone who can scream that loud can't be that badly off,' and there might be something to it, but la Sirene would surely disagree as she feels her bare arms blister and hurls herself to the side, rolling and tumbling enough to leave her smouldering and greyed with ash. Perhaps it looks even better, but as she pushes herself upright, she snorts in dismay.
Sweeping a hand to smooth out one of the gray streaks in her hair, the flicking remnants of it blowing away in the billowing silent un-light around her, she calls to the Witch of Lost Ivy and her feline aide, "Understood."
"Eri~! Hello," la Sirene calls up, perhaps taking heart in the presence of the Puella as well, before murmuring to Mikoto, "Indeed. But even if you might not be able to carve through, if she has to avoid you, then--!"
Then...
Then what?
La Sirene does not have a good answer for this. Ogres are not her forte, it seems. What did Tama say...? She's smart, she's cruel... resilient to physical attack... la Sirene looks at the river, and then upwards, and she raises her hands up as if to mime conducting.
The strike is indirect; the light ripples from her, swirling and moving down over the water's *surface* with a black glittering before pooling upwards and rising in a sudden glittering ropelike surge, a wave out of season that strives to grasp an ogre's wrist!
And pull.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Polyploia on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Eri Shimanouchi's Horticultural Horizon, taking 49 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 18 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge La Sirene de Diamant's Polyploia, taking 35 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Tangle and Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly braces 38 Fatigue damage from Mai Tokiha and Kyouka Okazaki's Combo: Returned Wolf Pitch, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
'So what if you're gigantic and terrifying!? I'm a witch!'
"I know," the ogre repeats, a little tiredly. A lot more tiredly than she might have, as Yumi's weakness hex sinks into her bones. There's a lot of her to weaken, but that also means that, from another angle, when she does weaken a little, she has to contend with carrying around a lot of self. "That's what I just... hmf."
'Never mind, the dumb ones taste just as good' can be read across her expression, as written in perfect cursive by the roll of her eyes. But she's a little less smug as the rest of the group engages with her in earnest.
NOW Eri's thorns dig deep -- sea thorns, in a matter of thinking, though not on purpose, only by proxy, as her vines must erupt not from ground but from riverbed. They tangle in her HAIR, which is a real problem, because there's a LOT of it. Great clumps are ripped out by her thrashes to free herself. And great currents are formed by this motion too, providing much cover for La Sirene's shadow to get up close and personal, and bind her even faster.
There's little she can do to stop Mikoto from soaring in above the river on one side and Kyouka, flame-bourne, on the other--
--CLANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG.
Pure sonic hell pours off of her -- god damn it! -- breastplate. Yes; it is so. Beneath all that hair the ogre is in armor, and it just took the brunt of the hit from Miroku. And, getting to see it up close and personal, Kyouka and Mikoto notice that it is, like the spirit herself, an aspect of earth; pure stone. Jade, perhaps. Where she is pink, her armor is green. It'd be pretty if it wasn't so -- damn -- tough. And the sound it makes, that awful gong, is almost a counterattack on its own.
Regrettably the hand that reached out to catch Kyouka like a ball straight into a mitt was ACTUALLY a counterattack and now she is held fast. Her arms are pinned against her torso. The smell coming up from the ogre's skin is indescribable.
The ogre decides that what she really wants right now is a little space. One hostage is good, but... when it comes to innocents in danger, more are better.
Remember how she's SMART?
That arm holding the giant club slams overhead. In a roar of collapsing concrete, the surface of the bridge ceases to exist, and a good half dozen innocent people, all but one ("AAAAAAAAAAAAA!") unconscious-or-dead-if-they-don't-get-their-hearts-back-soon totally helpless to do anything about their imminent plummet into the Tama River, and that last one, the delivery guy on the bike, he got unlucky and is already in midair with the rest. Filling all these lungs with water might kill them even if they get their hearts back.
The remainder of the bikes are surely doomed. The people's fates, on the other hand, are still negotiable. Let them slip beneath the dark water and they'll be almost impossible to find again.
In the meantime, while everyone's distracted saving lives, the ogre -- Kyouka in tow -- alternately shakes off or dispels the bonds holding her in place, and retreats along the river.
"Order up," she purrs -- oh no, her breath is somehow even more sulfuric than the rest of her -- and spectral unlight begins to trace beneath the Device-wielder, as she begins the spell to extract her heart using that very same grasping palm. Kyouka can feel energies building around her, against her back, and it feels like someone's walking over her grave.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Roadbreaker on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Roadbreaker on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Roadbreaker on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Roadbreaker on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Roadbreaker on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used While You're Busy, A Little Me Time on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Pink Moon Stick's While You're Busy, A Little Me Time, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Empower applied to Pink Moon Stick! Cleanse! All of Pink Moon Stick's debuffs are cleared! COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy braces 19 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Roadbreaker, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Witch of Lost Ivy's Block and Parry abilities activate! Cripple and Tangle applied to Witch of Lost Ivy! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha braces 23 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Roadbreaker, taking 10 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Mai Tokiha's Block and Parry abilities activate! Tangle applied to Mai Tokiha! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi braces 13 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Roadbreaker, taking 11 Fatigue damage! Eri Shimanouchi's Block and Parry abilities activate! Diversion and Tangle applied to Eri Shimanouchi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi cleanly braces 17 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Roadbreaker, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Diversion and Tangle applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant braces 28 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Roadbreaker, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! La Sirene de Diamant's Block and Parry abilities activate! Cripple and Tangle applied to La Sirene de Diamant!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Hey, YOU try being witty when you just got knocked out of the air by a giant club!" Yumi grouses at the Ogress. It is a brief moment of levity that she will later regret. But before she regrets it, there's some more time passing, and there's Tama sending out instructions to everyone. There's unfortunately no secret weakness, no hidden vulnerability that could easily be exploited.
"...She's never been defeated without at least two Staves," Tama says more quietly, though it might go on the wind towards the girls fighting--she's especially close now to Nori, attacking at range.
Yumi Yumi's broom races to her hand, finally reappearing and giving the Witch a chance to get airborne again. She zooms upward, hanging onto her hat, and rocketing forward.
"No!" the familiar Tama calls again. "Everyone--you have to save them!"
She's a bossy cat, but she's very old... and she doesn't say what she's thinking--that if they don't, the Ogre will grow even stronger.
Yumi dives down, down, down, to grab the screaming delivery guy by the arm and hurl him up onto her broom. That's when she spots Kyouka, in danger from the Ogress above. "Hang on, buddy," she says to him, and casts a spell to gentle his landing as she sets him down and races up towards Kyouka. Kyouka, who just today came over with food for her now that she's out of the hospital, who worried so much when she visited even though they'd just met...
"Let her GO!" Yumi says, and swings the Staff with purifying energy in a sudden wave for the Ogress's wrist, her other hand snaking out to grab Kyouka. "Up here!" she calls, and lowers her broom to give her a place to brace her feet against. "I'll catch you!"
"DON'T BE RECKLESS!" yowls the ancient cat from far beneath, tail lashing in worry as she hops down next to Nori.
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Friend, Not Food! on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Witch of Lost Ivy's Friend, Not Food!, taking 9 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Q: How do you make a Sulfuric Ogre smell even worse?
A:
"OW," barks the ogre as coruscating energy -- just a little, but of a particular quality that a little goes a very long way -- burns her wrist. She does not so much choose to release Kyouka as drop her from nerveless fingers. While the girl makes her escape (a drop over the river, even with a broom nearby, is sure to require some significant acrobatics), she falls back a step or two further, into the shadow of the remaining span of bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
The jubilation of a fleeting team-up quickly turns to horror writ on Mai's face as the ogre catches the hurled fighter. "Kyouka! Let her-"
Whatever fury Mai was about to spit is cut off by abject horror when the ogre simply...complicates the situation. She holds up her arms to try to deflect rubble - but realizes that the goal wasn't to harry the assorted magical girls with mere rocks. It was to drop the unconscious victims (and one screaming one) into the frigid waters below. To sleep, perchance to drown...
Mai Tokiha knows all too well the effects of hypothermia and waterlogged lungs on a human body. She won't forget.
"You MONSTER!" There's a scream of utter burning rage at the ogre - but Mai lets it escape with Kyouka, abandons the fight, rushes into the falling rubble to grab whoever she can. Her rings spin faster, burn hotter, shine brighter - because she needs light. She needs to see who's falling, who needs rescue, who's in peril.
There isn't a single victim here she knows personally. But they would have loved ones, and she won't let a tragedy happen here.
"Don't - I won't let them fall, I can't-" Singleminded, she repeats what she tried with Kyouka, trying to catch people as they fall, trying to whisk them to safety. Her Element lets her fly, lets her shine, and amid the peril she can dance.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has used Devoted Scintillation on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly braces 9 Fatigue damage from Mai Tokiha's Devoted Scintillation, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Brace! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
If the Ogre has to avoid her... "Right!" Mikoto calls, to la Sirene, with more confidence. There's still something she can do!
(She takes a moment to be impressed at Mai and Kyouka -- perhaps more weighted to the former than the latter, but Mikoto has always been biased, and she also thinks Kyouka reacted well.)
But this Ogre is smart enough to wear armour, and Mikoto winces, grimacing, as the jade CLANGGGGS in her ears. (Somehow, despite that, she still manages to hear Tama. Perhaps it's magic.) She crashes down -- and down, and down! -- to SPLASH into the water, and thanks to Miroku, she sinks.
That's fine, though, because heavy sword or not, Mikoto is still very good at jumping; she disappears for but a moment. (A moment is all the ogress needs.)
From below, Mikoto grasps one of those unconscious people as they hit the water -- an unassuming waitress, so like the ones who attend to Linden Baum, though her uniform is unfamiliar to her -- and erupts from the river, sword grasped in one hand and girl in the other. She lands on the bank of the river, and lays her down, remembering advice Mai gave her long ago to tilt her head to one side. "It's okay!" Mikoto yells, to Mai, hearing her distress. "I got her out, Mai!"
Mikoto couldn't save her bike, but that's okay. Even on a waitress's salary, she can always buy another one, if she lives to see another day.
Mikoto turns, and calls, to Yumi: "Lost Ivy! You're the strongest witch! Who cares if she's tough?! Blow her up!!"
She, at least, believes the Witch of Lost Ivy can purify this titan.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Familiar Witch's Support on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy accepts Mikoto Minagi's Familiar Witch's Support, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Witch of Lost Ivy is Cheered!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Having pinned the arms of a great ogre against itself... truly a feat worthy of legend, even if it was brief. It counts! It counts. La Sirene would feel more successful in this matter if the ogre hadn't been able to just slammed her club into the bridge surface, smashing through it. Through it!! Oni are terrifying!
Alright, she's an ogre, not an oni, but the difference is somewhat academic.
La Sirene does not have the advantage or the blessing of flight, but she does have several other advantages - tutelage in certain arts - and she demonstrates them after a short gasp as she jogs up the rest of the way to the river bank and --
-- vaults in!
There is a splash followed by kicks and strokes. Strength is behind them, a rather desperate strength. In the water, she gleams - the darkness becomes brighter, more poignant, more highlighted. The darkness in photographs and films. It's a subtle nuance, but perhaps welcome. She ducks her head and hooks her arm underneath the waist of a salaryman, bearing upwards and turning them towards shore.
"Do not fear," la Sirene calls upwards, hoping the witch of the air will hear her. "We'll get them out!"
Indeed: many arts.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used An Encouraging Squeak on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy accepts La Sirene de Diamant's An Encouraging Squeak, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Withstand applied to Witch of Lost Ivy!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri manages a tiny grin at Mai's greeting, "Good to see you too. Hoping Ogres turn out to be real flammable..." La Sirene bursts into flames, "... might be too much to hope for. Yo Sirene!" Eri greets her while knelt to the ground, "Looks like we're both having that kind of night together." As she notes the still rising wisps of smoke off of her.
Eri looks up in alarm at Kyouka being grabbed, before...
... with a swing, the bridge collapses, and there are so many in danger of plunging towards the river, there's alarm on her face.
And then she hops from one intact bridge column to the next, her whip lashing out to encircle a car that's sliding over the edge, while another catches a strut opposite to her destination.
While her free arm catches another, a newspaper delivery boy, whose cap falls off into the drink, a whole rolled up paper from his pocket still flying out.
A car slides off at the moment she reaches what's left of the struts underneath the collapsed surface, and she awkwardly braces herself with her foot jams the handle through it and wraps it around and through right as it becomes taut. A whole car dangles precariously between the two gaps, and for a time the vine sways and it bounces but - then it becomes still.
With an exhalation of relief, leaps to the top of the dangling automobile as she's now more sure it will hold, reaches over the side, smashes a window then just - stuffs the newsboy inside like a newspaper in a mail slot.
It's not the kindest rescue perhaps, but they're alive???
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Gardener's Trick on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges 40 Fatigue damage from Eri Shimanouchi's Gardener's Trick, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Dodge!
<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Kyouka goes crashing forth, ready to unleash vengeance upon the ogre. The ogre is, unfortunately resilient to the one thing she's good at--and once she sees the jade armor she understands a little bit of why it's so resilient--but she and Strike Wolf are basically all melee and all physical. But they'll make do. She unleashes a yell as she gets close--
"Kyyyaaaa--"
And gets snatched. Again.
Oh f--
"Dammit!" And her arms are pinned, which makes getting out of this a lot more difficult. "Strike Wolf! Any ideas?!"
<Analyzing.>
"Analyze faster! This ogre smells-- Eugh. Gah."
Block it out. She's blocked out pain and tiredness after a grueling marathon workout session, after a long distance run at track. Gotta reach down deep and power through-- But it's just everywhere around her. And soon it's in her mouth.
She is at once both incredibly grossed out and incredibly pissed off. "Hey! Ugly! You think you're so tough why don't you try me in a real fight?!" Will it provoke the ogre? Probably not. Distract it? Maybe! Worth a shot, anyway.
And then it carries her off as Kyouka keeps trying to sling insults (and wishing she were slinging punches instead). And once the Ogre's retreated... Kyouka grunts, shuddering as a quiet and yet foreboding dread wells up within her. Her barrier jacket protects her from all manner of things but here, now, held helpless as she is, with the ogre having plenty of time to work her magic? Strike Wolf is working overtime, Kyouka's doing her best to provide Strike Wolf with the mana, to clutch back and keep what is hers with every fiber of her being, but it's a losing battle... "N-no... You can't..." It can't end like this.
'Let her GO!'
It is a relief on multiple levels. The release of pressure the confining her chest, the release of captivity, of finally being able to move her arms and legs again, the sudden influx of fresh air as she drops away from the sulfurous grasp, the relief of a dear friend swooping in to rescue her, and of course... her heart settling back where it should be, fully within her, and ready to help power her righteous anger.
Now all she has to do is avoid the river. "Ivy!" Strike Wolf helps her angle her arms and legs just so to tilt, angle herself so she can divert her fall, steer towards the offered hand--and she grabs it, grabbing the broom with the other just in time so Yumi doesn't have to take her full weight. "Am I glad to see you! Quick! Back to the bridge!"
Yumi's broom is much faster than she is right now, and they need all the time they can get. And once they get close enough--Kyouka lets go, dashes straight down towards the river to intercept another victim. "I hope you got this figured out, buddy!"
<Freerunning mode activated.>
A purple shimmer appears over Kyouka's boots as she surges downwards, snatches one victim out of the air oh so perilously close to the water, flips over... and plants her feet down directly on the water's surface, wobbling for a moment as Strike Wolf works to adjust and correct for the unsteady surface.
<Long-term traversal not recommended.>
"Got it. Can someone give us a lift?" she calls out.
She'll get this person to safety, and then... it's time for the ogre.
COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki has used Risky Midair Dive on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 0 Fatigue damage from Kyouka Okazaki's Risky Midair Dive, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Kyouka Okazaki is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Who else was out late at night, anyway?
<SoundTracker> Omoide, again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t9yQYyXpSE
Mai saves a taxi driver -- a tall, sleek person, well-suited, for being a driver in Tokyo is not much like New York -- and her passenger, an old man who is probably someone's grandpa and still smells faintly of the hospital he just left. They were on their way to his home. Discharged at last.
Mikoto's waitress and La Sirene's salaryman might have known one another. They weren't traveling together, but their lives could so easily have intersected, if the latter often stopped for a drink on his way home.
Eri's delivery boy might know EVERYONE in this neighborhood, given the circumstances of his work. But it's much too late at night for him to have been out making those deliveries, even if he likes to start early. He must have been losing sleep for some other reason. Young love? Or young loss? Those feel like the only possibilities to keep such a necessarily early riser from their bed at this time of day.
And Kyouka caught a fellow teen in midair. Black jeans and a leather jacket; a good way to get hit by a car at this time of night, so presumably they either don't listen to the advice of their parents or don't receive it in the first place. Their black hair is shaved to stubble on the sides and long on top, falling over one eye with a few judiciously added violet highlights. Maybe they just like being out at night. Maybe they weren't planning on going to school tomorrow anyway. Maybe they're the delivery boy's best friend.
But none of these people are going to ever wake up if the ogre isn't defeated. And the ogre is loath to relinquish their hearts. Even now, the puissance of these stolen souls pounds through her veins. She cannot keep them for always -- hers is a mission that must be completed -- but they are hers now, and rightfully stolen.
And she was so close to just one more. Any one of these magical girls' hearts would give her infinitely more strength. Enough, perhaps, to be able to change the parameters of that mission, given the old adage that possession is nine-tenths of the law. But...
...but.
No berserker is she. Greedy and cruel, but not foolish. And, fighting in the river as she has, she has been unable to bring much of her greater strength to bear.
One more try, she decides. One more shot at this, and then she'll just... go. Sink into the river like the stone that she is, and let herself be washed to safety.
It will have to be something big. At least now both her hands are free. She grips the club in both of them, and brings it down with so much force against the river that flames flicker in its wake despite the water surrounding it. The surface explodes into steam, blending unwholesomely with the foul-smelling fog that presaged her arrival. Now that's the only clue before she bursts out of the river to attack someone by surprise.
Not Ivy; it would be her preference, but she's riding with Kyouka.
Not Mai; she is in midair. Eri's up high, too. And Mikoto's already made her a little too familiar with Miroku for her to be extremely eager to have to chew that up after she bit.
It's La Sirene who her shadow falls across, as the girl is just crawling onto the shore.
This time, when she goes for the heart, the hand she uses is not spectral.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Stealth Mode: Activated on Kyouka Okazaki. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Stealth Mode: Activated on Eri Shimanouchi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Stealth Mode: Activated on Mikoto Minagi. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Stealth Mode: Activated on Mai Tokiha. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Stealth Mode: Activated on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Hearttaker on La Sirene de Diamant. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Stealth Mode: Activated, taking 12 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Mai Tokiha fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Stealth Mode: Activated, taking 18 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Stealth Mode: Activated, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Eri Shimanouchi! COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi dodges 5 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Stealth Mode: Activated, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Mikoto Minagi's Fade and Flash abilities activate! Blind applied to Mikoto Minagi! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki braces 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Stealth Mode: Activated, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Blind applied to Kyouka Okazaki! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki covers La Sirene de Diamant for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Hearttaker, taking it upon herself instead! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki fails to counter Pink Moon Stick's Hearttaker, taking 104 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Kyouka Okazaki is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Kyouka Okazaki's counterattack, Howling Wind Barrier, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Nothing tonight has gone according to plan. Everything after that first, perfect hit has been... well, not at all how she'd hoped, though saving the last falling citizen was at least a nice balm to almost having her heart ripped out.
She's been flung around so much tonight it's been hard to keep track of the action. Strike Wolf is doing his best to keep her afloat but this improved spell was completely untested. And then, she sees the ogre lifting up that great big club.
An attack? Too far away. A diversion--?
Multiple people in the sky, or out of reach, but-- She spots the siren, crawling up on shore, not aware, and she takes of running. She's skipping across the surface of the water, little spell circles made of bright violet energy snapping to life under her feet and vanishing just as fast as she tries to get up to speed.
That great big steam cloud plows her way and she twists in midair, turns to interject her body between herself and that citizen. She grits and bears it as it passes by, then keeps running. The teen is shifted to a shoulder as her right arm is held out. "C'mon, buddy. We're not letting him take another one!" A band of violet mana, inscribed with runs, encircles her gauntlet as a tempest of winds builds up inside it.
The ogre is moving, charging for the siren and it's a race. Her last step takes just a moment longer than the others, more mana building up in that circle. Then, she's blazzing across the remaining distance, great waves of water spreading in her wake as she surges to close that last little gap.
And then she's standing over Nori, quickly turning, snarling as she brings throws her gauntlet out.
<Howling Wind Barrier.>
The pent-up tempest explodes outwards, forming a barrier that furious pushes back against the ogre's attack. "No... You... don't!" growls out Kyouka through gitted teeth as she single-handedly tries to repel the ogre's sneak attack and save at least one more heart that night.
But against the onrush her barrier isn't enough. The hand reaches through, grabs--And the rest of the attack disperses harmlessly as Kyouka hangs there, helpless as she becomes the new--and also old--victim of the ogre's theft attempt. Her pure heart, shining so intently, is fully out of her chest, and a moment later Kyouka collapses to the ground, along with the citizen she'd been hoisting on her shoulder.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
That 'OW' may be a relief, but it's also very LOUD. Yumi winces as she's too close to it, but when Kyouka says 'let's head down', Yumi does it. "Going, going, going!"
When Kyouka lets go, Yumi banks upward, one hand on the broom and the other on the Staff as she directs herself upward to turn towards the Ogress again.
"Ogres are not especially more flammable than anyone else," Tama advises Eri since she asks. "The only real way to bring them down is purification. They are dark and terrible spirits, bound to the Hungry Queen's will for all eternity..."
She does not comment on Eri's rescue. Perhaps she's being nice.
But Yumi hears something different. She hears La Sirene, assuring her that they'll get them out. Her call is something Yumi hears, and she feels stronger for it, remembers she's not alone. "Right! You can get them!" But Mikoto--
Mikoto... says she's the strongest. Even if this Ogress is tough. And it's more than just encouragement--it sinks in, it tells her... Even after this time in the hospital again, this is something she can do.
"Right! I'll do it, Mikoto-chan!"
She turns, breathing in despite the AWFUL SMELL--coughing once, and bringing up her cloak to breathe through instead. She feels great. The monster is terrifically dangerous, horribly awful--but they can do it, together. They've saved these pele!
But earlier, Yumi said something she would later regret. That moment of levity haunts her the Ogress goes for Nori... and hits--
"Kyouka-chan!"
Horrified, Yumi stares for half an instant at her friend falling. "NO!"
It's all too much. She's barely out of the hospital, not even a full day yet, and this Ogre is stronger than ever. What if all it takes is her having a bad day? What if--
Mikoto says that she's the strongest witch.
La Sirene assured her--they will get them out.
Mai shouts that this creature is a monster, that she can't let them fall. She dances. And Eri... Eri does a rescue in her own style. Even Kyouka...
"No," Yumi says. "...You just started at this and you still..." She's brave, Yumi thinks. And Yumi has to be, too.
Her pink eyes glint in the dark as she raises her head again, braid fluttering in the wind.
"Everyone!" Yumi says. "We can't let her go! We have to get those hearts back! So... On my mark, do everything you can!"
Yumi breathes in, and does not smell the sulfur this time; a faint green glow radiates from the Staff's crystal, and starts to grow.
Tama, down on the ground, looks from Kyouka to her young charge, and calls out: "Yumi, no! You can't do it alone! The strain on your body will--"
Yumi interrupts, "But I'm not doing it alone," Yumi declares, tears in her eyes, as she stares down at the Ogress trying to get ready to leave. "...Everyone is with me."
Yumi lifts her Staff in both hands, hovering high in the air, and that light begins to shimmer that much more brightly.
"If you can hold her down, then I'll--"
Tama's green eyes are wide-pupiled in the dark. She doesn't want to see what could come of this. But she must watch over her.
"I'll banish her!"
"So... GO!"
Yumi keeps charging her spell, tracing runes with the staff, as it grows brighter and brighter--soon, it will outshine a spotlight.
But if she can't hit with it, it won't help at all.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Witch of Lost Ivy has started a combo targeting Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
For a time, it's as if Mai has blinders on. The light from her rings shines over the waves below, and she's frantic, almost in a panic as she looks and looks again to make sure she hasn't missed anyone in her panicked rescue-
And then a familiar voice calls out. Mikoto. Mai had nearly forgotten Mikoto in her haze - and as Mai sets the driver and passenger down on solid ground, she breathes a sigh of relief. Not just for her companion's safety, but for the lesson learned. "Good work, Mikoto. And...thank you."
She glances up, to take in the others...and sees Eri's rescue work. "Eri! ...not exactly ideal, but-"
A heartbeat. "Wait. Where's the ogre?"
This is no Orphan. This monster is intelligent. This monster is cruel. The only question is whether it's crueler to run away with a bounty of hearts, or-
The river seems to explode, a wave of water and flame battering Mai from the air, sending her crashing to the shore. For a moment, the spray obscures her sight -
And clears just in time for her to see Kyouka - Kyouka who Mai left to the ogre's nonexistent mercy - taking a terrific blow in La Sirene's place.
Mai's heart stops a moment in her chest as Kyouka's shines in the air.
"You - get away from her. A heart like that doesn't belong to you!"
Mai's heart is still in her chest. Still beating. Pounding, even, thundering in her ears as she glares hatred at the ravenous ogre. "...Mikoto. I'll take the left."
The rings Mai bears around wrists and ankles start spinning, burning, whining with their heat - she doesn't explode forward in that instant, because the ogre is canny, and to catch it off guard, to land a solid enough blow-
Witch Ivy has a plan. She has a plan, and Mai can only put hopes in her hands. "The ogre won't keep this meal. Even if-" She shakes her head. "...no. I won't let it come to that. The bridge is broken enough."
Her rings haven't stopped spinning. She has fury - but grief at her own folly weighs her down. Still, with familiar faces beside her - she'll try. And on Yumi's mark - she explodes forward, charging the ogre head-on - then veering to the left, spinning to unleash fire. Not the fire-that-burns - a pillar of flame that she can wield as a bludgeon, something to approach the size of the ogre's own club. From one side, Mai strikes with the regrets and anger in her heart.
COMBAT: Mai Tokiha has joined the combo started by Witch of Lost Ivy!
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Swim, swim. A river isn't a wide place. A river is, despite the cold and the wet, somewhere la Sirene is GLAD to be. A river is *simple* compared to the ocean.
Often deceptively so, but la Sirene has a secret charm that gives her confidence. And sometimes that is what you need.
Reaching the shore, there is a steep sort of incline. She tries to heft the salaryman onto shore but can't quite manage it. Move down a yard or two... there. One leg is swung up, the diamond-soled shoe digging in as she pushes herself upwards with an "allez!" as her doom is written.
La Sirene might have been willing to shove a man onto shore in order to avoid wasting too much time but she does not try to make a throw out of it. The dripping salaryman is swung over; she steps two paces away from the shore as the ogre turns towards her and she lays him down, and she rises, sweeping her hair back and revealing her pale, bared back, as--
The wind reaches her. La Sirene turns her head...
<HOWLING WIND BARRIER>
The clash is immense. It is enough to spare la Sirene; it is not enough to spare Kyouka, even as she strives. La Sirene whirls round but it is not fast enough to intercept the ogre as it reaches forwards, as the great hand pulls something unimaginably precious out of -- out of that eager young girl who she remembers from the Wraiths, from --
There is a momentary upsurging of a helpless, diffident feeling in the heart of la Sirene, something tremendously guilty and crippling, except that it alchemizes somewhere in her throat and it comes up to her eyes and her eyes brim over and that is enough
Les Invisibles - Blue Oyster Cult - https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=126&v=xTouBqPkhtc
for the left hand to raise upwards, swift enough that Kyouka has not quite fallen as la Sirene steps forwards, screaming outwards, "NO! FOUL CREATURE--"
Right hand upwards, as so many times before. Fingers grasp at a silver piece of the cosmos.
"I won't let you! Les Mysteres,"
Down it:
"COME!"s, and there is a great echo, a chord of a faraway sky wailing outwards. The light washes out behind her in a great dark-and-silver billow and bursts from her hand with unusual vigor and force upwards, towards the central point of the great creature. "Back to whence you came, foul thing!" la Sirene shouts, echoing across the waters even as her eyes flick towards the Witch of Lost Ivy. She spoke - I heard her, la Sirene thinks - didn't I?
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has joined the combo started by Witch of Lost Ivy!
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The fog rises, the steam; Mikoto coughs, nose all scrunkled up. It's not just her eyes, stinging. To her, this is the worst smell in the world.
Or, in a word: it's distracting.
By the time she catches the movement of the Ogress through those veils, she is too close to la Sirene even for Mikoto's speed to reach her. She gasps and cannot quite cry out, voice tearing, gaze tearing through the fog just the same -- before she sights the burning mana, racing the Ogress through the steam. "-- Kyouka!" Mikoto calls, manages to call, in relief and in confidence. "Yeah!! Kyouk--"
Her face falls from its support in sync with Howling Wind Barrier, and Mikoto realises, all at once, just how much weight she's placed on her shoulders so quickly. Even though she's just started fighting, she was willing to stand against Goliath, all alone, and --
(and they should have been there with her.)
She shoves the guilt aside, though, as she reminds herself it was the Ogre's dirty trick which separated them in the first place. She can't fault Kyouka's bravery, so she'll try not to fault her own distraction, either. "Hold on!" She yells, even though she knows Kyouka can no longer hear her. And then, not to that Pure Heart, she calls: "Lost Ivy...!"
Yumi issues her instructions, and Mikoto nods, sharply. "Right! I'll do it! Mai..!!" Mikoto calls, to her fellow HiME -- and she'll take the left, she says. "Right!" Mikoto says, again, two statements for the price of one.
She charges the Ogress, and drags her blade in revolution, once, twice, three times -- before she stabs her blade upwards into one vast leg, the one on the right, as if to skewer and secure her. She snarls, and then she yells, in order of ease of expression: "GIVE HER BACK--!"
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has joined the combo started by Witch of Lost Ivy!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"BLESSED SHINE!"
And there--there, in the middle of the fires of Mai's heart, Les Mysteres, and the terrible force of Miroku--that is when Yumi's spell finishes charging, and begins to tear loose. The Staff of Lost Ivy is a shining green-white star, and suddenly, a column of light big enough to engulf the entire Sulfuric Ogre. But it is no mere light.
In its brilliance, what is night could be day, and the day has come with not fury but gentleness. It harms nothing but its target; in its wake, everything shimmers... and corruption begins to burn in green flame.
COMBAT: COMBO! FINISHER! Witch of Lost Ivy, Mai Tokiha, La Sirene de Diamant, and Mikoto Minagi have used Combo: Blessing of Flame and Sorrow and Blade, composed of Blessed Shine, Impassioned Ignition, Les Mysteres, and Obsidian Blade: Destruction, on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Witch of Lost Ivy, Mai Tokiha, La Sirene de Diamant, and Mikoto Minagi's Finisher, Combo: Blessing of Flame and Sorrow and Blade, taking 297 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting! Witch of Lost Ivy, Mai Tokiha, La Sirene de Diamant, and Mikoto Minagi are Psyched!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
When the great clawed hand closed around Kyouka's Pure Heart, it felt like -- like shadow across a sunlit valley. What had been warm was suddenly very cold.
A moment later, it felt like nothing at all.
Such a precious thing, that crystal. In the monstrous hand, so small, so fragile; each one of its pink-red shards needle-like in comparison to any ogre-finger; each one exuding a brilliant and beautiful radiance totally unlike that of the one they saw her consume, the salaryman's. If his heart contained Tama River, Kyouka's is the entire ocean. Her constellation to his star -- no, her galaxy. Even as it is taken from her, her friends are allowed to see the vast, infinite scope of her potential.
Not that they needed to see it twice.
For she'd already shown it to them all, only a second before.
The ogre smiles, and her smile is greedy and it is cruel and, most of all, more than anything, it is hungry. A hunger that is opposite that of her favorite food, opposite but not equal.
And then she makes a crucial mistake.
If she'd only waited; if she'd fled, precious heart in hand; if she'd eaten it later, alone; the story might have gone very differently.
But, wise as she is, she could not resist.
It's in her nature.
Standing over Kyouka's body, she holds the crystal like an apple, smaller even within her giantess hands. Like a small plum, from early in the season. And she lifts it to her lips, and--
FLAME and MYSTERY and OBSIDIAN and LIGHT and LIGHT and LIGHT
consume her, blast through her. Though a spirit of earth she is fiery too, but she can still be burned. Though her flesh is hard and her armor harder, a demon blade can sink in deeply, can pin her into place. Though she knows much of mysticism, that of sorrow can defeat her, for she knows nothing of the true freedom of the heart to experience catharsis.
The light she knew already, long ago.
And now she knows it again.
As she dissipates -- not out of existence, just out of corporealness -- returning to the spirit-stuff she was made of, before she was summoned and bound -- she swears,
"I WILL NOT FORGET THIS, IVY WITCH--"
But then, she'd said that before, already. It was always obvious.
---
All of this immense power, by necessity, passes directly over Kyouka's body, and directly through her Pure Heart Crystal, but it does not harm her. The HiME especially do not enjoy such an immunity from friendly fire, but it seems that the magic of Lost Ivy was protective as well as pure, and allowed this miracle to occur.
The Crystal falls, slowly, landing upon Yumi's outstretched hand as lightly as a tiny and delicate bird. It will take but a moment to return it whence it came. Cupped in worthier palms than the ogre's, it feels... gentle. Gentle, and warm.
---
There are other Crystals, too, blown in a wider scatter by the magic that disincorporated the Sulfuric Ogre; it is only a brief matter for everyone to work together to return them to their owners. They know, instinctively, to whom they belong, and it is somewhat like holding a dowsing rod.
And when they awaken -- before that, even, it happened right away, unnoticed until someone turned to look -- it is in a neighborhood with a bridge unbroken. The sacred light that engulfed not just the ogre but, briefly, the world -- for what is a Pure Heart, if not the entire world? -- has left more than destruction in its wake.
The bikes that fell in the river are gone for good, though.
The Tama River keeps what she takes.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"...I know," Yumi says to the Ogress, when she is gone. Somehow, she knows.
But today, it's almost over.
Yumi takes Kyouka's Heart carefully, gentle with such a precious thing, as she flies over towards Kyouka's body, steps off of her broom. The Staff hangs in the air, its silent light standing vigil over the restoration of the world.
And Yumi kneels down, and places Kyouka's heart where it belongs. She murmurs as she does, "...You can't die. I haven't even tried your food yet..."
A tear falls onto her, when the Pure Heart begins to shimmer and shine and return, and Yumi waits for her friend to open her eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouka Okazaki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
If anyone ever had any doubt about Kyouka's dedication to protecting others... If Kyouka ever had any doubt about that, or her worthiness to wield Strike Wolf in their common cause to protect the innocent, surely there can be no greater reinforcement of both than the sacrifice she almost made this night... Almost made, though, fortunately, not quite.
For blessedly, Kyouka does not fight alone. And though she cannot see the merging of blessing, blade, sorrow, and flame that excoriates the ogre from coporeality, the fact that her heart's radiance still shines is the most literal outward manifestation she'll ever be able to show of how her heart would be warmed by her friends coming to her aid.
Kyouka is, naturally, a friendly and outgoing sort. Willing to help others, wanting to just be friends and not have to worry about honorifics and social norms and all of that. She's quick with a hug, eager to share food, and all of that Yumi can just feel as she holds Kyouka's heart in her hands.
Then that heart lowers, returns to its proper place in her chest, and for a moment, Kyouka is still.
And then she gasps, drawing in a big, heaving breath of air as her body jolts back to life. She animates, her eyes blinking open to see her friend over her, crying... "Yumi..." she says softly once she's gotten enough air in her to make the sound. A gauntleted hand goes to her chest and she shudders, recalling just how... wrong that all felt, not once but twice, even.
And then a brief panic, her eyes going wide. "The ogre, she--" She slowly sits up, looking around. No ogre in sight. But Yumi's right there, she saved her twice tonight...
Kyouka leans over to pull Yumi into a tight hug, "H-hey, I'm here, I'm good..." And she's getting a bit misty-eyed too. "Thanks," she whispers.
<Pose Tracker> Mai Tokiha [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Mai had braced herself for the impact, but the Ivy Witch's magic had a kindness to it. Decisive - but kind. There's an oath, even as obsidian and flame tear at a creature born of the earth - but it's over. At last, it's over, but the cost-
The cost might not be a truly permanent one. Yumi has Kyouka's heart in hand, is returning to it - and there are grateful tears in Mai's eyes, but she dares not approach. It's a moment for them, and there is work to be done to gather up and restore the rest of the hearts.
Work that keeps Mai busy is the best kind, sometimes.
Mai does take a moment to switch off car engines while people recover - and once the drivers' hearts are restored, she retreats, for the traffic jam is not one she wishes to be involved in untangling.
At last - at last, Mai returns to the others, a hesitant smile accompanying her return to the ground, to Mikoto's side. There's a light glittering in her eyes as she looks at Witch Ivy. "...that was amazing. You- you were great out there. Thank you."
She turns to Kyouka, starts to speak, then cuts herself off with a glance to Mikoto. "...and I'm glad you're all right, Kyouka."
Mai takes a deep breath, runs her hands down her coat to brush off the water, hits a lump in one pocket. She looks to Mikoto again, then to La Sirene, and finally to Yumi and Kyouka. "...right before this, we were having a bit of a barbecue. I...think I know a place to get some more ingredients, if either of you want to join us?"
<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
La Sirene, silent, had knelt near to Kyouka when the ogress was addressed. There is no space here for triumph. She watches Yumi, and when Kyoua speaks, she does too:
"Thank you," she tells Kyouka, softly. With this she rises upwards -- but Mai is already there, foiling her guilt-raddled thought to escape into the mist.
"Ah...? Well," she says softly; "Alright."
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
The hearts have a home; Mikoto makes sure they find it.
Kyouka's, too, belongs with her, and when she rouses, Mikoto chimes: "Kyouka! You were so great! Kyouka! Kyouka!" It's an enthusiasm which carries, to Mai's offer, as she smiles brightly. "Mm! Mai's food is the best! Come and see!"
She's a source of brightness -- now the battle's over, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"A barbecue is lovely and all," says a voice that hops from below, up, then up, then beside Yumi. "And is a fine occasion. ...In the morning. Yumi here is going to bed."
Yumi sees Kyouka wake up--and laughs, still hugging back for the moment.
"Okay, okay. I am pretty tired..."
It's a nice problem to be able to have. Tama sits primly down next to Kyouka for the moment and says, "Though frankly you all should..." If one didn't know better, one could imagine a cat to be... relieved. "Well," she demurs. "One snack. But just one. You did all do well tonight."
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Youen - Inuyasha OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2EFgtGbvLc
Bridges have two ends.
But they also have two sides.
On the far side of the bridge -- the other side of the big concrete pillars -- near the edge, where big, flat rocks worn over geologic time, and carved-out chunks of concrete put in place over more human eras -- that's where the boy was, all along. Yumi and her friends can be forgiven for not noticing that he was there.
He certainly didn't notice.
He hasn't noticed, even now, when everyone is long gone. Now that the sun is beginning to rise. Now that he's being drawn forward, knees jerking as though strung, eyes without sight, steps without thought. Now that he's stumbling away, away to safety, away to where he belongs.
He belongs in bed, but it's much too late for that.
Blinking, he rubs his eyes, then looks down at the book in his hand. Perhaps he'd think more of it, but noticing that he's in soaking wet pajamas is the greater distraction. He shivers. It's January, but he feels so hot. He feels like he's burning up.
Like he's being burned alive.
He wants to sleep; and feels like he might never sleep again; he wants to paint; but it feels like anything his fingertips touch will turn to black, not the beautiful and complex palette of nighttime but an absence, an emptiness, a void.
A hungry void.
With a shudder, he passes through the front gate. On the wall beside it is a plaque emblazoned with the name of this family home:
YAMASHITA
TO BE CONTINUED
