View source for 2016-11-05 - The Lights Before Christmas

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: The Lights Before Christmas'''
|-
|'''Summary''':<br>
''A lovely tree-lighting ceremony is interrupted by Calaveras of the Four Ayakashi Sisters!  And all the ruckus threatens to awaken something even scarier...''
|-
| '''Who:'''<br>
[[Usagi Tsukino]], [[Yumi Ohzora]], [[Marinette Dupain-Cheng]], [[Hikaru Shidou]], [[Fuu Hououji]], [[Ryoko Kikuchi]], [[Makoto Kino]], [[Jad Werke]], [[Kuniko Saito]], [[Minako Aino]], [[Saki Hyuuga]], [[Chika Aki]], [[Hotaru Tomoe]] (GM)
|-
| '''Where:'''<br>
Ueno Park
|-
| '''OOC - IC Date:'''<br>
11-05-2016 - 12-03-2014
|-
|}
[[Category:Logs]]

 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.
 <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebVu86ykHBo

Christmas could have been an uneasy fit for Tokyo, if it wasn't so much fun to simply embrace. So it is that in the intervening decades since the holiday's importation, Ueno Park, in concert with its neighbor, the Museum of Western Art, has had a special ceremony for the unveiling of an annual Christmas tree.

And it's not just any tree -- every year, more elementary schools get involved with a program that allows each class of students to contribute a hand-made ornament to be hung upon its branches. Though Ueno is a thoroughly Shitamachi institution, kids from across the city are filled with pride and joy to see their class' ornament glimmering on a branch. Or, at least, to know that it is there -- there are so many branches, and they go up a good fifty feet, that it's often very difficult to spot any individual bauble!

It's not just the elementary-schoolers and their families that have gathered to see the tree, though; the crowd is a mix of young and old, rich and poor -- anyone who has an appreciation for spectacle, or wants an excuse to party. It gets dark early now, and beneath the twinkling stars of a pleasantly clear but chilly night sky, street vendors hawk cups of warm tea, oden, and the occasionally piping hot crepe. Steam drifts into the air, escaping from many thousands of lips.

Some of those lips are finding each other. While the main event for romance in Japan will be at Christmas proper, there's an undeniably romantic element to this sort of gathering, and couples are often hand in hand, arm in arm, and sometimes cheek to cheek.

It won't be long now until the lights get switched on. This year's lucky button-pusher is a Juuban Elementary Schooler, Mika Kayama, who is a bright-eyed tot with a great big smile -- and a serious talent for dollmaking, which is why her class (which is also Shingo Tsukino's) won the contest for Best Ornament. She bobs up and down on her toes, eager to get this show on the road.

Tonight's MC is the famous teenage charisma model Momoka Kurumi, and she's whipping the crowd into a fever of merriment. "Are you ready?!?"

Yes. Everyone is /so/ ready. The opposite of the calm before the storm, this is a rising maelstrom of enthusiasm, with arms pumping, legs tiptoing and jumping to see over one's neighbor, and voices cheering, loud and clear.


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

Looking at Mika now- well whenever she could spy a glimpse of her through the crowd. It's not much of a surprise why /Shingo/'s class won that contest, if they had talented girls like that in it. However, as this event is decidedly Christmas-oriented it was a little tough to come here single, especially after Shingo repeatedly teased her on her decided lack of having a boyfriend.

Fortunately that's not a big deal when she had a lot of friends in a similar situation, and Christmas didn't have to be /entirely/ about romance right? They could just come here and enjoy being swept up in the holiday fervor- as happiness was in no short supply.

Usagi's dressed in a cyan skirt, a button down dark blue blouse, and a frilly red and white jacket overlaying it. Today she's tied small red ribbons into matching bows around her odango. In her hands was one of the aforementioned hot crepe; since the crepe thief was elsewhere, she could safely have one!

A question was asked though by Momoka- a model which Usagi was a fan of, and Usagi's volume rose to meet the infectious enthusiasm of the crowd, as she pumped the hand with the crepe in mid-air, "READY!" Lowering the pastry she held it with both hands- "Momoka is so pretty isn't she? Ah- what I wouldn't give to meet her in person." - and be a model like her. She could imagine it. The two of them modeling on stage together, Momoka-senpai and Usagi her junior in the latest fashion and- a crepe?

Oh right.

Usagi snapped out of the daydream and took an enormous bite, happily eating it- despite it leaving flecks of cream all over her lips.

But that turned her attention back to the fact that she couldn't see through the crowd. Even standing on her tip toes didn't make it easier, and hopping wasn't an option with the treat in her hand- "Some days I wish I was as tall as you Mako-chan. It's hard to see at events like these when you're short."

A suggestion for hot chocolate has been made- one she can hardly argue with and she starts heading that way, walking with her head facing the two, "So I bet if our class had been part of the contest it would have been you standing up there with Momoka, Mako-chan-" She gives her a friendly nudge with this wide grin, "-unless you wanted to hand the honor over to me, which I'd humbly accept!"

Her eyes dart over to Minako, as if that might be a point of contention, that little stab of selfishness, before she returns her way, "But I mean when it comes to hand-crafted stuff, there's no way you'd lose!"

In the short line she goes she eventually makes her own order and is presented a steaming mug of cocoa. She shifts the crepe over to her other hand for it, "Then again you'd look amazing standing up there too Minako-chan. I can't decide who'd look more dazzling. Hitting the lights- the crowd cheering you on! It feels like it'd be some wonderful dream." Lucky kidlet.


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

Chika Aki had planned to be here with her mother. But her mother had been called off to an important work meeting, leaving the young Juuban Middleschooler to attend by herself. She is wearing a tuque, scarf, mittens, and a nice winter jacket over her school uniform. Cuddled into her hands and close to her chest is a hot chocolate in a cup.

The young Puella Magi is enjoying the crowd, contentedly wandering around the fringes of the big gatherings and eyeballing the large tree with a bright-eyed curiosity. She wants to see it lit up too! She is clearly walking around alone, every so often raising a hand politely to some acquaintence from school, or from the cooking club she attends.

 COIN FLIP: Kuniko Saito flips a coin. It lands on heads!


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Yumi remembers pretty well when she was young and watching this ceremony. All the ornaments, all the lights... All the people, for that matter. It's nice.

Though as she's gotten older, she's gravitated more to the street vendors; she still goes. It might be nice if her mother had come with her, but it's not to be. ...And she certainly doesn't have a Christmas date lined up.

Nevertheless, Yumi smiles up near the remote at Mika Kayama, who she doesn't know, but whose enthusiasm is as infectious a Momoka's for her. She's dressed for the cold, in a light green coat over a knee-length pink dress, with black tights and brown boots. Her coat is totally done up, and she's in gloves the same color as her boots, her hair loose.

So she stands alone, but she doesn't look unhappy. When Momoka asks, Yumi doesn't shout as loudly as everyone else, but she smiles anyway. ...It probably helps that she's pretty tall herself, and has an easier time spotting through the crowd than most girls.


 <Pose Tracker> Saki Hyuuga [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

Minori Hyuuga is in one of the elementary classes presenting ornaments this year, and that means the Hyuuga clan - in a rare family outing as a group - has put in an appearance. Oldest daugher Saki is all smiles (spoilers: she is always all smiles), easily as excited as the younger kids by the prospect of sparklingl lights and good cheer. Their parents flank them, parentally pleased by their daughters' good mood.

It feels a little like something's missing, to Saki. She's with Mai so much lately that going out without her feels a little like she's missing an arm. But her whole family's here, and whatever trickle of unhappiness might pick at the back of her mind, it's dispelled when she and Minori both throw up their arms and cheer, "YEAH!!!" to Momoka's hype work.


 <Pose Tracker> Minako Aino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Standing to Makoto's other side is another blonde, the lucky devil. Minako Aino is dressed with a mind towards both fashion /and/ the cold, with a red fleece-lined denim jacket thrown on over a blue and white striped shirt and a pair of jeans -- and, of course, the ever-present bright red bow in her hair.

More important than all of that, though? /Hot chocolate/. She has both of her hands wrapped around a steaming styrofoam cup of it, and she looks about as happy as can be about this fact.

Beaming, she leans forward enough to peek towards Usagi around their taller friend. She'd look good up there? "Do you think so? I think they both look pretty cute," Minako says brightly, looking up towards the stage. "I don't know if I could compete~"

That is a bald-faced lie. When it comes to the life of an idol, Minako Aino was /born to compete/. Which is why she is down here in the crowd with her friends. And not up there. On the stage. She sighs wistfully and has some more of her chocolate.


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Among the many vendors is Kuniko Saito. This pop-up stall is another initative of the dark and mysterious funds of the Blue Ribbon, no doubt. It is simply decorated, with a big sign up top painted with, on the left, a plush teddie bear, and on the right, a few ingredients. The name of this stall is simple: "STUFFED."

What is being sold there? Stuffed things.

There are several plush bears on the counter, but the actual bill of fare is dolma (stuffed grape leaves with tomato, rice, and a protein: vegetarian, ground lamb, or spicy fish), stuffed dates (full of almonds and rolled in sugar) along with coffee, green tea and hot chocolate. The latter two may not exactly be entirely consonant with the theme of things, but hey: you have to give the people what they want.

Kuniko is not heavily bundled since she's right next to a portable griddle and a rice cooker. With deft skill she passes out little packages of these stuffed and flavorful treats. She's smiling to herself, and occasionally she joins in when the crowd starts shouting!


 <Pose Tracker> Jad Werke [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Jad is here too, although it's less to see the actual tree lightning (although that would be neat, and he won't complain that he gets to see it) but more because he is helping a few of the stand owners in the area move supplies so they can sell snacks and things to people passing through the area. This generally involves moving boxes around, and the blue haired young man has just finished bringing in some takoyaki to be cooked up and consumed by hungry pedestrians.

After thanking the stand owner for his business (and scoring a snack, yum!), it's time to settle in and watch as the tree lights up. It doesn't look like there's too many people here he knows... but that isn't unusual for Jad. He's been a loner on the more mundane side of things since he got here, and he views it as a good opportunity to train while everything is working itself out.

Once he can get back to Mid... well, there will be decisions to be made, but until then he's having a great time exploring and meeting new people.


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

There's nothing like a nice, warm Nutella crepe with lots of whipped cream on a chilly day like today. Makoto enjoys hers with a smile as she walks around Ueno Park with Usagi and Minako. At a time like this when Christmas is impending and you don't have a cute partner to spend it with, good food is definitely the way to go. And even without that--those decorations are really cute (what a funny coincidence that it was Usagi's younger brother's class that won Best Ornament!), and Momoka-chan is as radiant as ever tonight! No wonder the crowd's getting pumped!

"Yeah!!" Makoto cheers as Momoka calls to the crowd, lifting her crepe up high--which is pretty high, given her personal height--alongside Usagi. For her part, she's in a long skirt, an oversized sweater with a puffy jacket over it, dark tights, and knee-high boots. She nods in agreement in regards to Momoka, taking a bite out of her own crepe, chewing, and swallowing.

"She seems really nice, too," Makoto remarks of Momoka. "I like that about her! The kind of girl you'd love to have as your big sister!"

Somewhere else, Erika Kurumi sneezes violently. Maybe.

But Usagi nudges her, and Makoto laughs. "Maybe! I'm glad we didn't, though. That little girl looks so excited to be up there!" She nods towards Mika. "I don't know, though--that ornament she made is *really* nice! I'm really impressed by it! Your little brother knows her, right?"

Minako already got herself hot chocolate, and of course Usagi had to get some too, so Makoto's with her. She looks around at the stands, then spots STUFFED, and specifically, Kuniko womanning it. A warm smile lights up her face. "Hey, it looks like they've got hot chocolate over there!" she says to her friends, pointing. "How about we get some there, Usagi-chan?"

A laugh follows at Minako's blatantly false modesty. "I think they're cute in completely different ways from you, Minako-chan. You'd definitely have a shot!"


 <Pose Tracker> Ryoko Kikuchi [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

No self-respecting delinquent would dare to miss an opportunity to enjoy the incredibly festive....~ahem~....to make fun of the festive atmosphere that Christmas time brings to Tokyo. Ryoko may not have came to the event alone, but she's since ditched her usual crew so she could get a better view of the tree for entirely cool girl delinquent reasons only. And so, the long black knit coat wearing teenager in grey jeans, a white blouse, and some pretty daring knee-high leather boots makes her way through the crowd with one hand tucked in the front left hip pocket of her jeans and the other holding a cup of coffee from a trendy coffee-shop that Ryoko had randomly wandered into only a few moments prior to the start of the event.

Standing a little taller than those immediately around her, Yumi Ohzora gets spotted by Ryoko soon enough and she works her way through the crowd to sidle up next to her before nudging her gently in the arm to announce her presence. "Yo," eloquently greets Ryoko. "Long time no see. The gang misses you." She says flatly with a small smirk appearing in the corner of her mouth.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has fully healed himself.
<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has fully healed herself.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

There are quite a few things that Fuu could potentially be doing if she wasn't here for the tree lighting. However, her parents insisted (in that gentle-sounding-but-not-really-going-to-bend way that Fuu's parents are masters of) that this should be a family outing, and studying can wait. Even if high school entrance exams are just around the corner, there's only one Ueno Park Christmas tree lighting per year, and it's something that both of the parents of the Hououji household feel that they should go to together, as a family.

Fuu isn't even distracted by her 3DS, which remains tucked away in her purse in sleep mode, quietly exchanging data with other nearby systems. What she *is* distracted by is Kuniko's stall; she breaks away from her family long enough to pick up some dolma and some stuffed dates. "Good evening, Kuniko-san!" she greets her sempai with her usual smile; she pays for the food and hurries back to where her family is gathered with a plan to talk to Kuniko later, if they get the opportunity after the Big Event has concluded. She shares out the dolma with her parents and her big sister just as Momoka is calling out to the crowd, and - even Fuu has to let out a loud cheer of agreement. She *is* ready for the lighting - not to 'get it over with,' but to thoroughly enjoy the event. Holiday excitement is contagious, and Fuu's caught an appropriate measure of it by now as well.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has fully healed herself.
}}


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

Hikaru knows how it feels to be dragged along on trips like this with your family. She's been in that predicament before, and she knows it's not fun. So she's decided to accompany her best friend here to keep her company and make things feel less stressful for Fuu-chan. Not to mention, Hikaru wouldn't mind seeing the Ueno Park Christmas tree lightning as well, since it would take her mind off of things.

As Hikaru looks at the various stalls and what not, she smiles as she gets a sense of the Christmas spirit within her. Early, maybe, but it's still nice to feel it. Despite the cold sensation that makes her shiver quite a bit, she doesn't mind it, since that's what makes it feel more like Christmas in her opinion.

Hikaru bows to Kuniko as Fuu-chan greets her, not wanting to seem impolite. Then she smiles at Fuu and says, "It's truly beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"


 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

This is the season of wonder, of glamour, of romance - a season where couples can finally get together, or can just enjoy the atmosphere, and take in the evening splendour. The great Christmas tree in Ueno Park is being lit tonight, and countless souls are here to see it.

Marinette is here, in an outfit that draws on the Akamira line for a few highlights, but that seems to be at least two thirds original. She has a dainty little red beret for a little extra warmth, a poofy jacket with a fluffy red-and-black collar, and wraps mitten-clad hands around a cup of warm tea. She can spy, through the crowds, the stage where celebrities stand to more or less be seen at such an event, and thinks she sees Chloe there - or at least, someone as frustrated as a Chloe Bourgeois unaccompanied by her 'Adri-honey'. But Marinette didn't come alone tonight, and she reflects that really, this is a night for romance...

"Papa, Maman, must you do that in public?! People are watching!" Marinette is here, naturally, accompanied by her parents - a short Chinese woman nuzzling into the side of a French man twice her size in every dimension. Tom and Sabine Dupain-Cheng, a baker couple, are enjoying the romantic evening for all it's worth, and don't seem to care what decorum is regarding public displays of affection.

Marinette, a middle-school girl like any other, is as embarrassed as one might expect - and her parents show no signs of caring. "Marinette, dear, your father and I just want to enjoy the evening out - perhaps you should take notes! Some day, you might want to just spend an evening like this..."

"And of course, you can always get a snack if you're feeling 'cr�ped' out...Ooof!" Tom's pun dies a swift death at the point of a sharp elbow. "Fair enough, I've done better..."

Marinette rolls her eyes. "Fine, fine - I'll meet up with you in a few minutes! I see some classmates I want to say hello to, anyway. ...No giving me a sibling tonight!" As her parents just laugh, Marinette stomps off in a huff. They're not wrong - part of her would love to treat this romantic evening the same way they are. But, she doesn't actually -have- the one shes been thinking about lately, and so...

At least there are delicious smells in the air. Cradling her tea, she makes her way a little closer to the part of the crowd near her age, waving or calling out to a couple of schoolmates in passing, before stumbling a couple of steps upon spying someone confusing. "Oh - evening, Tsukino-senpai!"

At least her tea has a lid, or things could have gotten horribly messy.


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Yumi lifts her cup of tea up to her lips as she watches the tree, and thus doesn't at all see Ryoko coming when her friend works her way through the crowd. She pauses as the tea shakes a little with the nudge, and starts to say something until she hears that familiar voice.

"Oh, hey," Yumi answers, a smile spreading onto her face. She laughs after seeing that smirk. But then, "It's kinda cold out there now though, isn't it? Isn't there like, an inside version?" Beat, "It's great to see you, though! I wasn't expecting to run into you here. You hungry? My senpai said she was bringing her food truck out here, and I was thinking of going to see her in a few anyway." She sips her tea.

"But you like the lights? I used to go with my parents..."


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

"Well that's true. I wouldn't want to take away her big day or anything..." Usagi replies to Mako in regards to her excitement to be up there, just after she takes a sip of hot chocolate. She tries to get another peak through the crowd, "And yeah, he knows her, but I doubt they're- friends or anything. I'd bet he had no part in making it- at all." She waves dismissively, "He's at that age where he thinks stuff like that is dumb."

But Mako points out the STUFFED booth and- "Over there-? Whoa is that Kuniko-chan? We have to then! She always makes great festival food!" She holds up the crepe arm again waving it at Kuniko as they approach, "Kuniko-chan! I didn't know you'd be working working a booth here!"

It's a completely bald faced lie on Minako's part, but Usagi falls for it as she lowers the arm and turns her attention back to her- "Well of course you could Minako-chan!" After Mako's comment though, Usagi points at her, "You'd have more than a shot. I mean come on- you were born to be up on a stage like that, showing your stuff!"

But another voice calls for her attention. It's sort of familiar but in that way where she barely knows it. She has to turn for a while until she catches sight of Marinette. "Oh Marinette-chan! Hey looking good, is that Akamira's latest? I really like the hat! It looks so cute on you!"

She gestures to her two friends, putting her crepe arm around Marinette's shoulders and holding it out, as if to show her off in introduction, "This is Makoto Kino and Minako Aino, they're both friends of mine. Everyone, this is Marinette Du-"

She has to consider for a moment some hesitation as she recalls the middle part, "-du-pein Cheng! She's a second year at Juuban Middle. Hey why don't you join us? We were just going to get something at Kuniko-chan's booth."


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

Chikas wandering has brought her around to the point she sees one person she recognizes. She smiles at the sight of Ryoko heading towards Yumi, and Chika walks in their direction.

"Hey Ryoko." Chika says from a few feet away, not intending to get between Yumi and Ryoko since the pair clearly seem to know each other. She raises one mittened hand from hot chocolate, and wiggles her fingers inside to wave. She hasn't met Yumi (that she can remember) so she offers a friendly smile of greeting. "Beautiful night, isn't it?"


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Kuniko gives grins to customers. "Ah, Hououji! Great to see you." After the instruction, it seems that it is time to cook more food, and so a handful of ground lamb and a filet of white fish of some kind hits the grill. The scent is Extremely Good, savory and unusual without being too disorienting, onion spicing as well as the more traditionally piscine scent.

As Kuniko minces fragrantly with a flat spatula, she speaks over the clank of metal on metal: "You want some cocoa too?? You here with the family??" Soon enough the dolmas are hand wrapped and presented, though, familiar mingled with the exotic. It'll be easy to tell which one's vegetarian, it doesn't seem like THAT one got a hot treatment. (For protein in that: crushed cashews in spicy hummus.)

To Hikaru, she asks, "You want to try the stuffed dates? They're better than the regular kind!"

And then comes... THE USAGI. Rising like some kind of bright and perky moon, Kuniko looks towards her. She raises her free hand to her lips and makes as if to throw a kiss towards them all. And then she hears--

"Oi! Is that French?? Comment ca va!" calls Kuniko. Which she continues in semi-comprehensible French, "<I'll give you free coffee, you come and try my dolma! Tell me how you like it!>" Actually she sounds like she's kind of speaking Italian but TRYING to speak French.


 <Pose Tracker> Ryoko Kikuchi [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Ryoko focuses her blue eyes on the tree in all its splendor. Her eyes then do drift around the crowd, noting all the happy smiling faces present. And then there the couples and the all the happy families. It was enough to make Ryoko sick with all saccharine sweetness present. She purses her lips into a frown that turns into a grimace as she reflects on what her actual family was up to and the last time they all went to an event like this. Did they ever? The answer to this unclear to the long black coat wearing Ryoko as she takes a hand out of her pocket and cups her coffee now in both hands. Blue eyes close as she casts aside this train of thought to focus more on her current company.

She turns back now to the taller girl, long black hair splaying around her shoulder as she moves. "I'm sure there is. But, this is the main event. It's as crowded as a concert in here, but the music isn't as good." Ryoko takes another sip of coffee before chuckling at Yumi's question. "A bit. A girl can't exist solely on overpriced lattes." A pause. "Besides, I'm interested in meeting your mother. I'm sure she would love to see you out with some friends." The final question draws a dismissive hand wave from Ryoko. "I like lights, sure. Concert lights. Neon lights. Club lights." The tree in question gets a glance. "But, I guess this is okay too."

Chika comes over their way and Ryoko salutes with her coffee as the tea-hot chocolate-coffe trifecta is now complete. "Chika-chan, come to join the party?" Ryoko shrugs. "Yeah, it's quite the night. The feeling in the air is almost electric." She jests to a joke that maybe only she would get.


 <Pose Tracker> Minako Aino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

For a moment, Minako isn't sure where to focus her adoring gaze -- the stage, or at her two dearest friends as they shower her with compliments. She feels her cheeks pinken and quickly waves a hand, laughing at Usagi and Makoto. "You two..! You're too sweet. Just for that, your hot chocolates are on me," she declares, because positive reinforcement is important!

Hmm? Introductions? Minako offers Marinette a smile, her expression brightening. She's always genuinely happy to meet more of Usagi and Makoto's friends. "Oh! Nice to meet you, Marinette-chan!" Straight to the -chan, and it's all Usagi's fault. She starts to open her mouth to ask if she'd like a hot chocolate as well, but then she notices the cup she's already carrying. Right! Two it is!

Minako turns towards the STUFFED booth just in time to see Kuniko's gesture, and without a single shred of self-consciousness, she brings a hand of her own up to return the blown kiss with aplomb. "Two more hot chocolates, please~" she virtually sings, digging in her pocket for some money. "How's business? It's so crowded!"


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Yumi's coat, of course, is Aohime. But she's not thinking about her coat or her clothse much as she talks with Ryoko, her pink eyes focused for the moment on her. She brings her other hand up to warm her glove around her tea.

"...Oh, well..." A little forced laugh, "You probably won't meet her tonight. She didn't come today, so it's just me. But I like to see them anyway." She smiles as Ryoko sas the tree's okay, too. "Great! I really like it. You get all these people together, and they're so... happy. It's like, even if I'm here alone, I get to see something like this, right?"

"But let's get you over to..." The trifecta s complete. "Oh, hey. I'm Yumi," she introduces herself to Chika, missing the joke but agreeing anyway. "It's a great night. Hey, you can come with us.

"C'mon, Ryoko-chan, come on," she says, happily hurrying her along with a free hand on her arm to drag her along and a smile at Chika to show she's welcome.


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

Chika is one of those that was wearing the mask of pleasant contentedness. She sure had hoped her mother would have been able to make it. But, she wasn't one to shy away from an event just cause plans changed, and was trying to make the best of it.

For her, making the best of it meant finding someone she knew to hang around with. She looked relieved that Ryoko invited her into the conversation, and she steps closer to speak more easily with them. Her voice is soft, "Yeah." She murmurs, "I've never seen a tree-lighting ceremony like this before." She smiles towards Yumi, and curtseys briefly, "I'm Chika! Its nice to meet you, Yumi." She looks curious at the offer to go somewhere, and starts to follow along after the Ryoko-dragging Yumi and company. "Where are we going?" She asks with interest.


 <Pose Tracker> Saki Hyuuga [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

There's not a lot of things you can do in life to attract the attention of Saki Hyuuga quite as effectively as being a person who sells food. So although she's blissfully happy to have a few hours with her family, the smell of food and the loud shout that a Kuniko is present - someone Saki sort of dully remembers being adjacent to that time Cure Bloom had to cook a cake for a goose - has Saki looking around a little, sniffing the air. Minori looks at her with slowly dawning comprehension.

And Mom, because Saori Hyuuga is good at this after two kids, gently interposes herself to slip Saki a few bills, and nudges her at the food cart. "You're hungry, right?" she giggles. "Go on!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!" Minori cheers, because obviously this means she is getting treats.

Saki has to briefly mentally recalibrate for not getting to put everything she can buy directly into her face, and then grins and grabs her sister's hand to guide her off through the crowd.


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

Leave it to Usagi to 'chan' a senpai. Makoto's on friendly terms with Kuniko too, really, but she's still only on -san levels. Makoto gives her a smile, then tries to catch Kuniko's eye and wave to her to alert her to some incoming customers. But before she can--ahh, there's an adult couple over there getting lovey-dovey...

Makoto blushes at the sight of Marinette's parents--it'd be easy to lose sight of Sabine, but Tom is HUGE, and thus his affections are extremely hard to miss. She turns away, coughing into her free hand, to focus back on her friends. It's easy to do so, since Minako graciously and generously says she's going to treat the two of them.

"Really? Wow, thanks, Minako-chan!" Makoto says with a grin. "You don't have to, though, you know--" Not that she's really going to protest *that* much, since Makoto lives on a perpetual budget. However, someone addresses Usagi as 'Tsukino-senpai,' which grabs her attention, and then Usagi goes on to introduce the HECK out of Marinette.

"Marinette, huh? That's a really cute name! It sounds like 'marinade'!" This is said with a warm, friendly smile, and apparently no concept whatsoever that this might not sound like a compliment. Marinades are great, though! They're just the thing to make any meal delicious! "It's nice to meet you--I'm Makoto Kino, in Usagi-chan's class at Juuban Middle School!" She nods at Usagi, and adds, "Yeah, feel free to come hang with us, if you want! Oh, but you're probably already here with someone else, right?"

She looks back at Kuniko then as Minako all but dances over to get a couple more drinks, her grin turning a bit self-conscious but nonetheless pleased at the almost-blown kiss. Then Kuniko starts speaking in French, and to Makoto, who knows maybe one or two words that she absorbed from pop culture, it sounds incredibly impressive and worldly and not at all like she's garbling it with a totally different language.

"Wow, Kuniko-san is so cultured!" she murmures to Usagi and Minako, not wanting to interrupt her conversation with Marinette. "That's what you'd expect from a world-class chef, huh?"


 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

Marinette had only waved in passing, and now a hurricane has captured this little lady, drawing her in without any hope of escape. What in the world is with this ridiculously friendly senpai?!

"My beret?! I, um, the jacket is from that line, but I, um, made the hat myself..." She shrinks in on herself a little, fidgeting with the cup of tea in her hands - but with the introductions, she looks up to one and way up to the other. "Nice to meet you both, Kino-senpai, Aino-senpai...and that's, um, a different food joke than I usually hear. It's Dupain-Cheng, my Papa comes from a line of French bakers which is why I have bread in my name..."

She might have made excuses and left, but the storm of FRIENDSHIP has caught her, and she's dragged along for the ride. There's a moment that she manages to glance back to where her parents are standing, and Tom actually seems to spot her...and just cheerfully waves in response. Dangit, Papa....

"Eh, �a va bien, et vous?" Addressed in French, Marinette answers without thinking - double-takes, and realizes that the friendship of Hurricane Tsukino is introducing her to this stall's chef in person. How well-connected is this Juuban girl, anyway? "Enh...est-ce que vous avez offri du caf� libre? Ci oui, bien avec plaisir....um, parlez-vous Fran�ais? Do you speak French?" 

Perhaps not the best idea to rattle off an order before checking...

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has fully healed herself.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> The Four Phantom Sisters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXOYfz67FpM

EARLIER, IN THE BLACK MOON CLAN UFO

"Calaveras -- you're the only one I can trust with this important mission. The Ueno Christmas Tree is a font of positive energy... it's important in the future. By tainting this Crystal Point into a Dark Point, you'll be instrumental in bringing down our enemy, the wicked queen."

Calaveras' stretch, and grin, are equally catlike, and her eagerness shouts from her eyes as she meets the speakers', reflected in her mirror. "Everything for the cause, Lord Rubeus. Just leave this to me."

He closes her hand around a crystal shard. "A gift from our talented Prince Saphir. Use this Droid to help accomplish our goals."

Her grin widens, and she tugs a little at his fingertips as he retrieves them, trying to keep them for herself, a moment longer. "For /me/? I love presents! And I know /just/ what to do with this one.

NOW

Off to one side, standing in front of the construction site that used to be Searrs Symphony Hall and is, according to the great big sign, likely to be so again within a few months, a woman in a snazzy sheath of a rust red winter coat folds her arms and glares at a particularly bubbly couple -- or at least the backs of their heads.

Poisoning this /location/ with dark energy is one thing, but Calaveras is of the opinion that poisoning the /event/ itself, turning it into something so horrible that it will never be repeated, lost forever within the fabric of history, is a far more effective way of forever exorcizing this font of goodness and light from the universe.

As such, she's made a few preparations. And her grin widens once again as she sees them start to come to fruition -- it's amazing what happens to a crowd on a cold night, when the hot tea and cocoa they've been imbibing all evening was spiked all along, poisoned with essence from the Malefic Black Crystal.

The cheers start turning into jeers. Coos between couples devolve into squabbles. What was an incredible sense of companionship among thousands of people is starting to feel overcrowded. The air feels dry as tinder, ready to burst into conflagration at the least spark.

Momoka has security for an event like this, and they hustle her offstage, to a chorus of boos.

OOC: If you've had anything hot to drink tonight bought from one of the stands, feel free to be a little Under The Influence as things turn sour. Magical girls have some native resistance to this sort of thing, though, so if you'd rather not worry about it, you don't have to!

COIN FLIP: Jad Werke flips a coin. It lands on heads!


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

When Minako tells her that her hot chocolate is on her- "Really?! You're the best Minako-chan!" - Usagi never turns down /anything/ free given her perpetual lack of allowance- and she guzzles down her first cup as quickly as the first cup will allow without burning her tongue. It leaves a little matching chocolate ring just outside the edge of her lips with a grin. She may have done that while her arm was still around Marinette.

"You made it yourself!?" Usagi gapes in awe at Marinette, "Wow, you're so talented!" Mako gets a little grin at the Marinade, but then she cocks her head thoughtfully when Marinette says that's not the typical joke, "So the joke is that you're usually called Du-/Pan/ Cheng?" Maybe she doesn't entirely get it.

Before nodding in assertion to Makoto saying she's so cultured. "Kuniko-chan over there says she's trying to learn all sorts of recipes from all kinds of cultures." She whispers over to the side at her, "I bet she's visited Paris!"

Her eyes catch sight of the lovey dovey couple Makoto has been watching, but then she suddenly feels dizzy. Her vision starts to swim and as she looks at one couple that had been kissing moments earlier by Kuniko's booth who are now squabbling- and Usagi suddenly feels this nasty stab within her, like her thoughts are swimming through this dark and hot sea, "Aren't you glad they're not just carrying on anymore like noone else is watching. I mean who do they think they are? Showing off in front of all of us single girls is unfor-"

Her eyes cross, "-giv-a-" She gives her head a little shake.

"-I don't feel so good. Something's..." Usagi tries to stand up a little straighter, her eyes flit all over the crowd, at how it's turning nasty, jeering- the word hasn't quite crossed her lips but something is decidedly wrong.


 <Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

That's quite a crowd around Kuniko's stall all of a sudden, isn't it? Fuu waves to those whom she recognizes close by, and would offer to buy something for Hikaru as well - whichever she prefers, since it didn't seem like Hikaru brought family tonight. But the food is enough to pretty much fill Fuu's hands, leaving no carrying capacity for drinks. And she needed to confer with her family about what *they* wanted, anyway.

So she returns to her parents and big sister, parceling out the dolma (and dates) with her family. Lamb for her father, fish for mother, and big sister Kuu picks the vegetarian dolma, leaving the extra lamb one for Fuu. Which was kind of how she expected it to go. She's just starting to consider the question of drinks (beginning with 'do we need any') when the crowd's mood ...

Sours.

That's really the only way she can describe it, and it's not because of anything on-stage; the turning point came *before* Momoka could be escorted off-stage - Fuu noticed that for herself, and maybe it was her imagination but the idol seemed as confused as Fuu herself is. She finishes her dolma faster than it deserves to be eaten (and possibly burns her tongue a bit in the process). "Excuse me a moment, please, I think I saw somebody with whom I need to speak ..."

She didn't, actually. But her parents are suddenly in the middle of having a rather heated discussion, and Kuu is preoccupied with trying to keep it from escalating into a full argument; that plus her excuse gives Fuu the window she needs to slip out of the crowd, seeking a better vantage point to try and sort out what could possibly be going on. Even without having drunk any of the heated beverages being provided, there's a twisting in Fuu's gut at the situation ...

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has fully healed herself.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Jad Werke [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> World's Most Epic Pirate Music Mix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWAzBZ2hDA

When you're working, you're not drinking. The problem is that Jad finished working and he needed something hot to drink alongside with his snack which means that... well.

Yeah it's not good.

So Jad's sort of having a great time now. But it's weird - he feels energetic even if he's reeling in a way he's never really experienced before. So he walks along with a faint stagger to his step, and a grin on his face. "Weeeellll~ OK this is weird. Schwaaaartz... um..." He pauses, and then pulls himself up. "Nah, it doesn't matter. He gives himself a shake and looks around for a moment, the grin on his face taking on a bit of an edge that it usually doesn't possess. As he walks, he slews just a bit, crashing into a nearby squabbling couple and knocking them apart. The guy turns to look at him, but Jad gives him a rather eager look, causing the man to back off after a moment.

<This is... a little more beligerant than you normally behave sir. Are you OK?? his device queries after a moment.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just... all these people around here." Jad looks around for a moment and grins. And he takes another few steps, and... accidently bumps into someone. That being a smaller auburn haired girl, and unlike his normal mode of behavior Jad doesn't apologize - although he does reach out to steady her. Which means Saki just suddenly has a sixteen year old blue haired teenager nearly bowl her over without a word! He looks at her for a moment, and then looks around the crowd as he makes sure she's steady on her feet. "This is just... lame. People complaining when they don't know how good they have it. It's really damn annoying. People like this *should* have something bad happen - maybe then they'll get some PERSPECTIVE, realize that there's BAD THINGS that can happen."

Jad's getting progressively louder and more irritated thanks to the drink, and he finally scoffs. "Whine and complain, just because of some entertainment show, or... whatever it is. GROW UP PEOPLE! THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE WORLD OR ANYTHING!" Just... louder, and probably attracting more attention to boot.

COIN FLIP: Kuniko Saito flips a coin. It lands on heads!


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Kuniko beams at Minako. "It's packed! I love it!" The hot chocolates get pulled into festive little paper cups and lined up, even as she sees Yumi approaching in the distance. Kuniko's eyebrows raise and she beams in that direction even if she doesn't call out. "Want to know my secret?" Kuniko tells Minako.

She then pulls out a sprig of mint, tugs a leaf off each, and crushes it before dropping it into the chocolate. The smell is subtly changed. Then she starts pouring coffee out, answering her, "Some... And I haven't been to Paris /yet/, Tsukino-san, but I'm /going to/."

And then comes forth the Hyuuga and the smaller Hyuuga as well. "Yahhhhh!! Come here! Have you ever had a date?!" she calls to them, holding up one of the stuffed ones (not yet rolled in sugar) up by way of demonstration. Having caught hold of this approaching group of customers, she says to Marinette, "So do you want anything in it? I have syrup and stuff, I just didn't want to leave it out."

PREVIOUS FESTIVAL APPEARANCE

As autumn leaves fall, a small child walks off with the syrup pump and goes on a magical adventure, known in America as a "Squishee Bender."

BACK AT THIS ONE

"Ehe... So, Makoto-san," Kuniko continues to the tallest of senshi, "I want you to try out what I did with the fish - jeez I'm just throwin' this all away, oh well, festival prices already put me in the black -"

Kuniko didn't sample her own drinks, and remains, thus, cheerily oblivious to the shifting mood. It'll catch up with her in a moment.


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

Hikaru doesn't really pay much heed to what's going on at first. She's more interested in warming her hands and rubbing them together, while looking around occasionally. Partially because something is nagging at her, but she feels like she's being a bit paranoid at first. "Calm down!" She tells herself. "You came here to have fun, not worry!" At least that's what she's telling herself. That is, until she looks again and notices just how things have gone from a festive mood to one that could easily be described as everyone having been sprayed with lemon juice... if you want to be metaphorical.

"Excuse me, please," Hikaru says to no one in particular, just trying to keep a polite demeanor about herself as she attempts to move out of the way. She doesn't follow Fuu-chan, though, instead going her own way to try to get another vantage spot from where she can see things. By now, the twisting in her gut has gotten even tighter, and she's gulped twice now, feeling like her paranoia was justified... again.


 <Pose Tracker> Minako Aino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

"It's nice to treat you two every once in a while! And besides," Minako tells her friends, closing her eyes and raising a finger as she says in english, "'tis the season!" She aims a sunny smile at Kuniko and watches with rapt curiosity. Yes, yes she DOES want to know the secret! Her eyes go wide. "Oh! Mint! That's genius," she practically whispers.

As Usagi drinks her hot chocolate, Minako tries not to sparkle too much at Kuniko and Marinette's exchange, both hands returning to their place around her hot chocolate. French is such a romantic language. She doesn't speak a /word/ of it, but whatever those two just said sounded so pretty. She knows it was almost certainly something utterly mundane -- it is a food stall, after all -- but what if? What if?

As Makoto speaks quietly to her and Usagi, there is a glint in Minako's eye and a downright feline smile begins to creep onto her face... but before she can say whatever she'd been thinking, Usagi begins showing the effects of Calaveras' meddling, and the general unrest of the crowd pings on her awareness. This isn't right.

"We better get her out of this crowd, Mako-chan," Minako says lowly, trying to ignore a sudden spike of fear in the back of her mind. Focus! "We need somewhere quiet."


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

"Wow, really? It's super-cute!" Makoto enthuses of Marinette's hat. "I like sewing and stuff too, but I don't think I could make something *that* nice." Her specialties are cooking, cleaning, and laundry, after all; she can sew well enough to mend clothes and make some basic things and increase style by adding patches and so on, but she couldn't create something as fashionable as that. The news that apparently Marinette's name gets her food jokes earns her a blank stare. Whatever the joke was, it went over her head--until Usagi asks if it's usually 'Du-Pan,' and then FINALLY Makoto gets it to the sound of a pained groan. Minako's already going to be all over that, she just knows it.

When the drinks come out, Usagi guzzles hers down fast, but Makoto blows on the top, sniffs a bit, and decides to let it cool for a moment while she eats the last of her crepe. "Be careful, Usagi-chan! You don't want to burn your tongue," she chides her friend--but it's a little too late for that now. Oh well. Instead, she nods along with talk of Kuniko's worldliness. "It sure wouldn't surprise me!" But Kuniko puts in her two cents, and: "Oh, wow, really? I never would've guessed! I'd love to visit Paris someday... It seems like such a romantic place--and when you think of pastries and baked goods, you think of Paris!" Makoto nods decisively.

But then, all of a sudden, the crowd turns mean. Couples who were being lovey break into arguments, shouts and boos break out everywhere--even Momoka's escorted off the stage to a chorus of jeers. Makoto looks around, alarmed at this sudden change in the wind. "What's going on? What's come over everybody?" she asks. Usagi's response makes her jaw drop. "*Usagi-chan*! What's gotten into you?! You'd never say something like--"

But then Usagi's stumbling, mumbling that she doesn't feel good, and on the verge of outright fainting. Without a second thought, normally litter-conscious Makoto drops both her still-full cup of hot cocoa and the remains of her crepe paper to grab Usagi in both arms. She'll throw those away properly later, but for right now-- "Usagi-chan!" she says urgently, holding her firm and strong, supporting her as needed. "Are you okay? I've got you!"

Kuniko is offering her some of the fish. In other circumstances, Makoto would *love* to try it; right now, she shakes her head firmly. "Sorry--Usagi-chan's not feeling well. I'll have to get back to you on that later!" Really, the entire *crowd* doesn't seem to be feeling well, but it's not everyone. She nods over at Minako. "Yeah. I'll carry Usagi-chan, you lead the way." She trusts Minako to guide her well--and presumably they'll soon be out of here to somewhere quieter, where Usagi can sit down and recover. When they do:

"What's going *on* here?" Makoto declares, if in a subdued tone to keep it between the three of them. "It's like everyone turned mean all at once for no reason!"


 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

Abruptly, the tone of the evening shifts. The handful of sips of tea Marinette had earlier turn to bitter elixir in her stomach, and the cheerful atmosphere shifts from comforting to smothering. As the chorus of jeers starts up from all corners, Marinette shrugs off the arm that had pulled her into this group.

The praise for her talent got a timid little thanks in response, but the pun about her name...that got a loud, exasperated groan. "Don't even start with those jokes, I've heard enough of them over the years!" Her tea, warm and comforting as it once was, is tossed negligently to the ground, where warmth can spill into the harsh, cold world. She folds her arms with a huff, as Usagi tears into the nearby couple, and frowns. "Even if you're my senpai, I'm not putting up-"

And then she stops, eyes crossing as if someone just whacked her on the head. "That-" She blinks, briefly dazed, looking at those around her in worry as if she's listening to something. "I...sorry for going off like that, it's just...if some of my classmates heard that joke, they'd never let it go..."

A step forward - but her senpai are huddling together to figure out what's up, and she's left behind. Maybe for the best - she looks over to Kuniko, shaking her head. "Sorry, I'm...not thirsty at the moment, given the mood...I hope you get a chance to experience Paris, though! I, uh..." Sheepish, she stoops to clean up her garbage, and stays there for a few moments.

("Okay, I'm taking a look...it's not an Akuma, but there's something wrong with it..."")


 <Pose Tracker> Saki Hyuuga [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

Saki pops on over to Kuniko's stand with a big smile. "Hiii!" she cheers. "Minori, Minori, look! It's dates! Have you tried that? I got to try them once they're really good!"

Minori, who has been nursing something her mother got her for a little while, and despite her sister's infectious excitement, is slowly making a more sour face as she looks at the thing.

Saki tips her head slowly. "Uhm?" she wonders, and looks up at Kuniko for a sec, like searching for guidance. "Uhhh. I think they look good..." she says, and then back to Minori, just in time for the shorter Hyuuga to whine "Nee-san!!" loudly. "Why is it always what you want, anyway!? We don't get to go out with mom and dad ever and you had to go get food now!? And it's, it's weird, too!! I hate you!"

And with the ultimate weapon of little sisters everywhere, Minori whips around and tears off into the crowd - blindly, not aiming for their parents.

Saki gives Kuniko about one second of attention to signal she's leaving before shouting, "What? Mino--Hey! Minori!"

So it is at least somewhat mutually blind when Saki slams into Jad, stumbling a couple steps back. She lets him get about five words out before she feels a fire burst in her gut and she shouts, "God, shut up! Get out of the way!" before shouldering hard past him and wading into the crowd. "Minori! MINORI!"


 <Pose Tracker> Ryoko Kikuchi [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Ryoko considers what Yumi has to say about the crowd around them. She couldn't deny that while this wasn't exactly her scene, she could see the similiarity in the energy that the crowd was exuding. It was as infectious as any shlocky zombie plague. It threatened to spread through the entire crowd until everyone present was underneath this spell of good vibes and equally good will. Ryoko gets suddenly reminded on why she doesn't go to pop concerts that much anymore. It was just too easy to get infected by the earworms of catchy beats and uplifting music which was sometimes the antithesis of Ryoko's harder rock soul.

"Sure. Yeah, you can't help but be in awe of it. I mean, look at the crowd around us. It's pretty diverse and yet everyone was here just to see the lights and feels something special with those close to them. Many hearts all beating to a similar rhythm." The rocker shakes her head as she starts to get dragged along by Yumi. She shifts her coffee to her other hand before gesturing for Chika to follow the two of them. "Whichever way the wind seems to be blowing, or where our tall friend's leading."

And then the winds change.

Lovers begin to squabble. The warm and inviting crowd feels claustrophobic and overbearing. Tch. It's Ryoko's first concert all over again. The wave of malaise and ill-will hits her and she leans into the taller Yumi, her weight resting against her for a moment as she regains her balance. Ryoko tries to wash these bad vibes away in corporate coffee, but even that leaves a sour taste in her mouth as a barista reading her last paycheck. She tosses the entire drink into a nearby trashcan before looking to her former tri-force of hot drink holders. "I feel..." She looks at Chika for a moment before shifting her attention to Yumi.

Ryoko's already got a little bit of a rough edge to her. Her suddenly acting a little mean wouldn't be all that different from her typical behavior. But there are other ways that negative energy can affect someone into doing things that they normally wouldn't do. Blue eyes blink as Ryoko suddenly looks into the pinks of Yumi's eyes. The delinquent begins to blush a deep red before stepping back -away- from Yumi now, suddenly finding herself speechless.


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

To Chika Yumi's eyes light up. "You haven't? Well, this one's the best! I've been coming since I was young!" And to Ryoko a more thoughtful, "...Yeah," Yumi agrees, at what Ryoko says. "You're really good at putting things the right way. That's kinda... poetic, right?" A smile, "I wish I could o that." But then they're going along, Yumi-first, and Chika asks where they're going and Ryoko has a good answer already.

"I'm leading us to food!" A beat, "It's nice to meet you too. And it'll be nicer to meet my senpai. She's the /best/ with this kind of thing. I thought about skipping dinner so I could load up more at her truck."

She doesn't even notice the crowds change as she walks, sipping away at her spiked tea without a care in the world showing on her face. When Ryoko leans on her, she slows and then stops, blinking her way. "Huh...?"

Yumi's looking back at Ryoko as the shorter girl suddenly stares into her eyes and blushes, and Yumi blinks back and wonders why--and starts to blush back herself. "H-Huh? Why aren't you saying something?"

"Did I... Did I say something wrong?" she asks, looking between Ryoko and Chika in obvious worry, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. "I did, didn't I? I always do that. I say something stupid and I don't even notice what it was. Maybe that's why Mom wouldn't come. Maybe that's--"


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

The young Puella Magi happily follows along after Ryoko and Yumi. Ryoko was a familiar face, and it was good and healthy for the young Juuban Middleschooler to have company. She didn't get to have her day-out with her mother, so she was pleased to have found a pair she could tag along with.

She sips her hot chocolate, looking around at all the happy people. Her eyes light on a young mom walking with two boys, one on each hand. Chika smiles faintly at the sight, before it sours. Why couldn't that be her? She is behind Yumi and Ryoko, and her eyes fall to the walkway as she steps, a frown forming. Her mother was always so busy. They always cancelled plans, or something came up. Her hands ball into fists as she feels an unusual pang of anger. Frustrated tears well into her eyes as she inwardly twists her heart into knots over her mothers clear priorities; her job meant more then Chika did.

Something causes her to snap out of that fugue, blinking as her eyes go up with almost alarm. What brought THAT on!? She looks forwards to see Ryoko backing away from Yumi with a deep blush, and the puzzled Chika looks around. Families are fighting, lovers squabbling, and the young mother she had just been looking at was dragging her two squabbling children away, chastizing them as she did. Chika is confused, and shrinks in on herself. She hugs her hot chocolate to her chest, warming her fingers on it.

She looks back to the uncertain Yumi, her eyes still a little red from the summoned tears. "I... I don't..." She shakes her head sharply, "I don't... I don't feel very good. Why is... Whats going on...?"


 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Droid Battle! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGauJZDcplM

Calaveras is all too happy to provide a match that will light the candle of this riot. She leaps onto the tree, emerging from her coat in midair, to reveal a yellow and red number that combines a short skirt, bodice and collar in a way somewhat like and entirely /un/like a Sailor Senshi. Hanging off of it like a fireman on an (immense) pole, she casts her arms out wide. Her grin is as bright as the inverted moon on her brow is dark.

"People of Tokyo! Behold the end of your era... and the beginning of the Black Moon Clan's!"

She looks down at little Mika, cowering all alone on stage, and issues a smooth order: "Hit it."

With a gulp, the elementary schooler pushes the button--

--and all the lights on the tree ignite not golden or red and green or even rainbow, but black, black, black. They cast spooky shadows across the crowd, which erupts into screams...

...at which point it's a matter of seconds until the first person is shoulderblocked to the ground by someone trying to flee. It's a young man, whose girlfriend had been screaming at him, but now she hauls off and punches the person who knocked him over, right in the face. Similar incidents are occurring all over.

And if that isn't bad enough, the tree is continuing its transformation from beacon of hope to pillar of despair. There's something distinctly limblike in the way that its branches move, taken well beyond the usual metaphor to something disjointed and scary, like a massive beast that is propelling itself on dozens of green arms and legs, all at once. Individual ornaments have been perverted into shams of their former selves; Mika's little angel, which had been hung near where she was standing so that she could appreciate it, has become a leering devil, while Minori's class' ornament, higher up, is no longer a sunflower, but a frozen black lily.

Maybe this monster isn't an it but a she -- there's a distinctly feminine face popping out of a thousand pine needles, twenty feet up, like when you go to the science museum and mash your face into the table full of blunt-tipped pins. The black moon on her brow, though, that's not made of needles -- it might as well be painted on with liquid shadow.

Calaveras perches higher up on her monstrous tree, sitting almost daintily on an especially thick branch. She's taken a compact from somewhere, and is reapplying her lipstick. Pouting into the mirror, she gives herself a wink, then casts her arm out wide.

"Smash them, Droid Treetears. Smash them all until nothing of this event is left but a lifetime of nightmares and therapy bills."

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into A Calaveras Christmas!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 12 opponents!
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has fully healed herself.
}}


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

Usagi's own crepe and empty cup hit the ground just moments after Makoto picks her up. She's not really resisting the idea of being lifted up because she doesn't feel good. "Sorry Marinette-chan-" She murmurs, "-didn't mean it... won't tell... classmates..."

Maybe she was on the verge of fainting before but she's becoming more alert by the moment, as if her own cheerful spirit is fighting off that infusion of negative energy, purging it- Minako guides them away and during the trip she just rests her head against Makoto. This was becoming a habit as of late- being saved by her friend's strong arms, but she doesn't mind.

Eventually she feels good enough that she gives a pat to Makoto's shoulders, "I'm okay Mako-chan, I think I can walk now. That was just strange. I just- suddenly felt so nasty." But from Marinette's reaction, the response of the crowd- "Something's gotta be doing this."

But it doesn't take long to figure out whom, because Calaveras reveals herself, standing so high that even at this distance it's easy to see her, easy to hear her, "The Black Moon Clan? It's just like with Koan!" Suddenly she was glad that Chibi-Usa wasn't here...

But then the tree erupts into black light, just infinite black, full of shadows and continues it's transformation and-

They all know instinctively what they're going to do, her eyes turn to the other two girls, suddenly serious and a hand to the Cosmic Heart Compact and-

"Moon Cosmic Power - Make Up!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Minako Aino [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

"Stay safe, Marinette-chan. This is beginning to get kind of rowdy." Minako offers the younger girl a reassuring smile before she nods crisply to Makoto and, taking a moment to toss what's left of her precious drink into the trash to free up her hands, she helps guide her two friends out of the crowd. Somewhere close by, but quiet -- and, out of habit, out of immediate view.

Minako's expression is grave as she and Makoto fuss over their friend, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, hugging herself as if she were cold. "It isn't right at all," she agrees in a low voice, looking back over her shoulder. "Do you think --"

She never even gets the question out before Calaveras reveals herself. Minako's eyes snap up to see her atop the tree and narrow into slits. The Black Moon Clan? "Just how many of them are there?!"

There's only one thing to do. Minako trades a look with her friends, gives a crisp nod, and her Transformation Wand leaps into her hand.

"Venus Star Power - Make Up!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Minako Aino transforms into Sailor Venus!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Jad Werke [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"Hey. HEY I'M TALKING DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!" Jad shouts as Saki just takes off into the crowd! He's not someone you can ignore like that, even if there was a little sister involved! That... wait that didn't sound right. That was weird. Hmmm.

Was it something that he should be thinking? That really wasn't like him. It was... strange. "...yeah, I think there is something wrong here, Schwartz. Can we do something about it?"

<I'm working on tracking down the problem - but I can't say for certain just yet. This seems like some sort of energy contamination. If we activated your barrier jacket I could probably blunt the influence somewhat.>

It is at that moment that the tree lights up with a baleful black light - far too evil to really be considered natural. The fact that it actually transforms into a monster a moment later seems like only the obvious extension of what Jad was expecting given this chain of events.

"Actually partner, I think I can work this feeling off the old fashioned way." Jad pulls his pendant from around his neck, the blue jewel in the center flashing as he kneels down and holds the frame for Schwartzritter in one hand. "Let's go."

There is a flash of light as his barrier jacket, gauntlets, and greaves flash into existence around him. He doesn't make it too flashy - no, he really doesn't want to give any speeches or give the monster the element of surprise. Given how he's feeling right now, he just wants to HIT IT. "Charge up," he states, and a flowing triangle of energy appears underneath him, a circling vortex of water rotating at the outer edge of its three points. And as soon as he's gathered enough energy, Jad puts one foot forward. The entire circle collapses into a single small symbol under his foot... and a jet of water launches him into the air, the water flowing along behind him as Jad spins around and unleashes a single punch, a blast of blue energy traveling down from his shoulder to blast off his knuckles towards the monstrous tree thing.

"I hope you don't mind, but I'm gonna have to ask you to stop needling these people!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke transforms into Barrier Jacket!
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has used Water Boost Punch on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has finished attacking.
}}


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

"Yeah, keep an eye out!" Makoto tells Marinette. She nods one last time to Kuniko, lets Usagi have her say to Marinette too, and then it's off into a quiet spot for her, Usagi, and Minako. Makoto certainly doesn't mind carrying her friend, either; whatever Usagi's weight may be (and that's between her and her set of scales), to Makoto, she hardly weighs a thing.

Still, when Usagi asks to be let down, Makoto nods and sets her down, though she still keeps a hand on her shoulder just in case. "Yeah. I knew that wasn't you," she says, nodding over at Minako. "This is beyond weird. It's like--"

Calaveras happens. Makoto's jaw drops--what's that little girl still doing on stage? She thought security was going to go back for her! How could they just abandon a kid?! But at least that Black Moon Clan lady isn't harming her directly, though that's hardly better than the kind of emotional trauma she's visiting upon poor Mika by transforming that Christmas tree into a monster--a droid?--and setting up all the lights to glow back (which, admittedly, would be totally sweet if this were a club scene). Not as importantly, but still pretty darn important, everyone was so happy, and enjoying a nice romantic holiday--something maybe they could've gotten in on, too, if they'd met some cute guys! All of these things and more are unforgivable, and Makoto clenches a fist.

She nods at Minako and Usagi, holding up her Star Power pen.

"Jupiter Star Power - Make Up!"


 <Pose Tracker> Marinette Dupain-Cheng [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

The words 'Black Moon Clan', accompanying black light and endless horror, send a chill down Marinette's spine. Well, maybe that term isn't quite right - there's a terrible burning feeling on her back, phantom pains from Koan's assault. Even after all of Tikki's help, it's hard not to feel that fear, remember that agony...

Marinette looks down to cupped hands, hiding her friend who looks back. Under her breath, she murmurs, even as the crowd around her devolves into fear and panic and shouting and fighting. "I guess there was more than one...after last time, I'm not sure we can do much..."

"Marinette..."

"...I know. I have to...no. I want to at least try. To remind people that this night isn't supposed to be about misery..." She looks back, to where her parents where enjoying the night...but they're caught in the fleeing crowd, she can just see her Papa's head above those nearby. They're going to worry, but...

There are reasons Marinette was chosen.

Stalls are being abandoned across the park in a hurry, and Marinette ducks behind one. She closes her eyes a moment, takes a breath, and calls quietly. "Tikki...Transforme-moi!" From her mitts, her Kwami companion flies to her earrings, and brilliant light shines behind that awning for a moment. A moment - and then with a zip, an impossibly long yo-yo cord whips out to snag the tip of one branch. As it starts rewinding itself, a girl follows - clad in a red bodysuit with black spots, wearing a mask to match, she flies recklessly through the air to swing past the terrible tree.

The heroine Ladybug, now getting a view of the monstrous tree, and the woman who seems to be commanding it...or rather, re-doing her makeup while the Droid menaces. Ladybug's brow furrows, as momentum carries her wide, and finally she calls out. "So, you're from the Black Moon Clan, huh? Any relation to that 'Youngest and Best' sister who was causing trouble? Not that it matters - a night like this is meant for family and friends, not for needling people with your bad mood!"

She pulls abruptly on the cord, without warning, and her wide arc around the monster shifts into a sudden flying charge from behind. She's not aiming for Calaveras in particular - just aiming for a nice solid branch to kick to give this tree reason to leave...

...Chat's not here yet, why is her brain coming up with puns?!

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Marinette Dupain-Cheng transforms into Ladybug!
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug has used Reverse Trapeze on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi transforms into Charged Ryoko!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Saki Hyuuga [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

Saki Hyuuga doesn't care about your ego, fancy man!!

She continues into the crowd, ignoring almost everything except the distance between her and Minori. Her stomach's churning and her chest feels an unpleasant heat as she shoulders past the increasingly rowdy crowd, unaware of her own part in that.

"SAKI-LAPI!!" penetrates her consciousness, and she looks down, not quite stopping - and for a consequence, stumbling into somebody she doesn't really look at. "Watch it!" Saki snaps, then pushes past. "WHAT, Flappy!? Minori's gone weird, I don't have time for you!"

Flappy bristles a little, but demonstrates the tremendous maturity that makes him so cool and great and wonderful and handsome* (*self-declared) by not snapping back with anything but, "I sense a dark power-lapi! Someone's using evil magic to do this-lapi! If you stop them then maybe the crowd will calm down-lapi!"

"I can't just LEAVE Minori, Flappy!" Saki yells back, halfway to screaming. Calaveras reveals herself, and Saki...raises a fist. "I don't have time for you, either!!" she shouts. "Jeeze!!"

"SA-KI!" rises above the din, maybe only standing out to Saki by virtue of being the familiar voice of her mother. Saki looks over, her rapidly-boiling emotions already seething, but she calms when she sees, through the crowd, that Minori is attached firmly to Saori Hyuuga's leg. "I have your sister! We should get out of here! This is..." She looks around, and Saki can see her mother isn't in much better mood than Saki herself. Saki curls her lips down. She can't just /go/, anymore than she could've left Midori. "Uhm!" she yells, and looks around her as the frustration spikes into actual Malice. She sees someone suddenly stumble out of the crowd, pushed away, but that person stumbles into her burly father, who uses his firm baker hands to gently hold the man's shoulders in a decisive but also nonthreatening sort of way. Daisuke Hyuuga is cool like that. "I...have to...go check on a friend!" Saki yells, half-heartedly. "I'll meet you at, uh, at the train!"

Then she slips into the crowd. She's not THAT worried about being seen transforming, except maybe by a few specific people. And amid the crowd, she doesn't feel any concern reaching for her Mix Commune. "Flappy!" "Yeah-lapi! Transform-lapi!"

A flash of gold amid the crowd, and then a bright pink streak of light as Cure Bloom suddenly bursts across the distance toward the Droid-ized tree - swinging a bolt of magic light straight into its core.

She ends up hitting somewhere near her sister's ornament. Seeing it mutilated makes her lips curl even more, and rather than her usual Spirit-guided speech, all she can manage is, "CUT THAT OUT!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Saki Hyuuga transforms into Cure Bloom!
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has used Bloom Charge on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Ryoko Kikuchi [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Ryoko doesn't reply straight away as she needs a moment to regain her composure and quell the impulsive tendencies inside of her. She looks away from Yumi now and the blush travels from her face to purely her ears as she looks to Chika now whom seems to be dealing with her own inner demons. "Something strange. Or maybe something good. I don't know!" The delinquent says most unhelpfully to Chika before shaking her head. "I mean, something is going on that I cannot quite put into words, but I feel it inside of me like a fire just waiting to flare up again."

She now forces herself to look at Yumi and she holds her hands out to her sides and shakes her head. "N-no. You definitely didn't do anything wrong. But...we....should try to figure out what is going on because it seems we are not the only feeling...flustered." Well maybe the people feeling -that- way were few and far between, but Ryoko's point mostly still stands. And it is not long before the source of these conflicting emotions reveals itself, or herself in this case. The situations goes from awkward to dangerous and Ryoko's fight or flight instincts are in full swing. "You two can run. I'll keep it distracted in the meantime. I...I need to work out a few things and punching a creepy tree seems like just the right remedy." The delinquent reaches up and pulls the scarf she wore underneath her jacket away to reveal her black choker necklace that she never seems to leave far from her person. She then reaches down to push back the sleeve of the hand that features her peculiar ring. Both choker and ring begin to glow a hazy purple as a crack of thunder warns of an impending thunderbolt that seeming strikes down on top of Ryoko. But it is not Ryoko that the lightning bolt strikes, but the suddenly appeared gauntlet on her ring-hand. A series of mini lighting rods slide back into the gauntlet as she flexes her now armored fingers. Her outfit remains entirely the same as it was before except for the gauntlet on her hand. Ryoko then takes off for the tree, jumping here and there to close the distance before leaping up into the air and attempting to pummel the tree with a series of electrified blows, the teenager crying out with every thrown punch.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has used Danger: High Voltage! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Kuniko frowns at this sudden outburst around her.

Did SHE cause this?! Kuniko says, "It's fine - No, it's cool - it's fine-" often enough to keep her from fulminating over this. She couldn't be doing all of this. Some of these people didn't touch a single thing from her stall. It is mystifying, but before she has the opportunity to dig deeper into culinary mysteries, a greater problem presents itself.

Fistfights! Everywhere! Kuniko discreetly reaches over and kills the flame to the griddle. This at least minimizes the harm all this hot stuff can cause. But things just keep getting worse and worse and then - THEN -

\\ %rKuniko frowns at this sudden outburst around her. %r%rDid SHE cause this?! Kuniko says, "It's fine - No, it's cool - it's fine-" often enough to keep her from fulminating over this. She couldn't be doing all of this. Some of these people didn't touch a single thing from her stall. It is mystifying, but before she has the opportunity to dig deeper into culinary mysteries, a greater problem presents itself. %r%rFistfights! Everywhere! Kuniko discreetly reaches over and kills the flame to the griddle. This at least minimizes the harm all this hot stuff can cause. But things just keep getting worse and worse and then - THEN - %r%Calaveras. The tree. Mostly the tree. %r%rKuniko turns away from the horror, tying an apron on. A blue apron. A /magical/ apron... %r%rAnd it is the Poissonnier Kuniko who walks out into the crowd. Struts, almost. Part of this is the cold, though the culinary enchantments in her glittering sea-green cook's outfit helps with that: part of it, in fact, is restraining a hint of sick helpless terror under learned habits of stone-faced obstinacy... and a fair lick of real, genuine anger. %r%r"Yeah?" she says up to Calaveras. %r%rAND THEN - Well, conveniently enough, Kuniko DID have a great many dolma left with her. Some of the vegetarian ones are in her hand, and she grimly weighs a good chance that her stall is gonna get stomped into the mud, so she doesn't feel too bad. Kuniko silently wills them - inflaming the essence of Terroir within them well beyond the gentle nudging she gives everything she cooks by sheer habit (or perhaps just by the nature of proximity to the flames of a heart that loves fish and couscous). %r%rThe grape-wrapped treats shimmer in the air. They fly towards the upper branches of that horrid Droid - towards its face, perhaps its mouth - but erupt with the fragrant rush of their contents, alkali leaves reacting with acid lemon juice. %r%r"Well... I'm not gonna LET YOU!!" Kuniko shouts. Pulling the brim of her cap down she mutters to herself, "I need to get inspired about this stuff again--" And then she looks back up with surprise at the surging electrical attack from Ryoko! %ralaveras. The tree. Mostly the tree.

Kuniko turns away from the horror, tying an apron on. A blue apron. A /magical/ apron...

And it is the Poissonnier Kuniko who walks out into the crowd. Struts, almost. Part of this is the cold, though the culinary enchantments in her glittering sea-green cook's outfit helps with that: part of it, in fact, is restraining a hint of sick helpless terror under learned habits of stone-faced obstinacy... and a fair lick of real, genuine anger.

"Yeah?" she says up to Calaveras.

AND THEN - Well, conveniently enough, Kuniko DID have a great many dolma left with her. Some of the vegetarian ones are in her hand, and she grimly weighs a good chance that her stall is gonna get stomped into the mud, so she doesn't feel too bad. Kuniko silently wills them - inflaming the essence of Terroir within them well beyond the gentle nudging she gives everything she cooks by sheer habit (or perhaps just by the nature of proximity to the flames of a heart that loves fish and couscous).

The grape-wrapped treats shimmer in the air. They fly towards the upper branches of that horrid Droid - towards its face, perhaps its mouth - but erupt with the fragrant rush of their contents, alkali leaves reacting with acid lemon juice.

"Well... I'm not gonna LET YOU!!" Kuniko shouts. Pulling the brim of her cap down she mutters to herself, "I need to get inspired about this stuff again--" And then she looks back up with surprise at the surging electrical attack from Ryoko!


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Kuniko frowns at this sudden outburst around her.

Did SHE cause this?! Kuniko says, "It's fine - No, it's cool - it's fine-" often enough to keep her from fulminating over this. She couldn't be doing all of this. Some of these people didn't touch a single thing from her stall. It is mystifying, but before she has the opportunity to dig deeper into culinary mysteries, a greater problem presents itself.

Fistfights! Everywhere! Kuniko discreetly reaches over and kills the flame to the griddle. This at least minimizes the harm all this hot stuff can cause. But things just keep getting worse and worse and then - THEN -

Calaveras. The tree. Mostly the tree.

Kuniko turns away from the horror, tying an apron on. A blue apron. A /magical/ apron...

And it is the Poissonnier Kuniko who walks out into the crowd. Struts, almost. Part of this is the cold, though the culinary enchantments in her glittering sea-green cook's outfit helps with that: part of it, in fact, is restraining a hint of sick helpless terror under learned habits of stone-faced obstinacy... and a fair lick of real, genuine anger.

"Yeah?" she says up to Calaveras.

AND THEN - Well, conveniently enough, Kuniko DID have a great many dolma left with her. Some of the vegetarian ones are in her hand, and she grimly weighs a good chance that her stall is gonna get stomped into the mud, so she doesn't feel too bad. Kuniko silently wills them - inflaming the essence of Terroir within them well beyond the gentle nudging she gives everything she cooks by sheer habit (or perhaps just by the nature of proximity to the flames of a heart that loves fish and couscous).

The grape-wrapped treats shimmer in the air. They fly towards the upper branches of that horrid Droid - towards its face, perhaps its mouth - but erupt with the fragrant rush of their contents, alkali leaves reacting with acid lemon juice.

"Well... I'm not gonna LET YOU!!" Kuniko shouts. Pulling the brim of her cap down she mutters to herself, "I need to get inspired about this stuff again--" And then she looks back up with surprise at the surging electrical attack from Ryoko!

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito transforms into Poissonnier Kuniko!
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Yalanci Dolma on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Makoto Kino transforms into Sailor Jupiter!
}}


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

 <SoundTracker> In the Name of...! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEsGj0tCT4E&list=PL3CRUt-GCCPPpiB0sVqNxUzbNQQkoZsn1&index=6

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" three voices chorus--and three shadows, illuminated from behind as if by their own inner light, appear.

"Christmas is a time of happiness, with good food, good friends, and good future boyfriends!" shouts one, stepping forward to reveal Sailor Moon.

"But you've ruined all that in the name of your own selfish ambitions, breaking up adoring couples, terrorizing poor little kids, and shooting down single girls looking for love!" says another, posing fiercely to reveal Sailor Jupiter.

"Santa Claus may forgive you for ruining the celebration of the day he invented reindeer-powered flight, but WE. WILL. NOT!" yells a third: flipping her long hair to reveal Sailor Venus.

"The sailor-suited pretty soldier of love and justice: SAILOR MOON!"

"Likewise, the pretty soldier of love and courage: SAILOR JUPITER!"

"And at last, the pretty soldier of love and beauty: SAILOR VENUS!"

"In the name of the Moon--" "In the name of Jupiter--" "In the name of Venus--"

"WE WILL PUNISH YOU!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has joined the combo started by Sailor Moon!
}}

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus have used Combo: Oshioki Taimu!, composed of In The Name Of The Moon, In The Name Of Jupiter, and In The Name Of Venus, on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Jad Werke's Water Boost Punch, taking 16 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Ladybug's Reverse Trapeze, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!  Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Cure Bloom's Bloom Charge, taking 32 Fatigue damage!  Stun applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Ryoko Kikuchi's Danger: High Voltage!, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Ryoko Kikuchi is Psyched!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Kuniko Saito's Yalanci Dolma, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus's Combo: Oshioki Taimu!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Venus are Psyched!  Blind applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
}}


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

What is going on?! As the tree erupts into a fountain of black ugliness, and reveals the woman atop of it, Chika at the very least can focus on that. Oh. There we go. Black, creepy, and calling down mayhem. That helps her focus, helps her ignore the fluttering and insecurities in her belly. She has something thats causing the problems now!

"No, Ryoko." Chika says softly, shaking her head as she reaches down to pull a ring off her finger. "I'm not going to run." She looks over to the other girl, smiling softly... And that smile turns to widened eyes of surprise as she sees Ryoko sudenly... conjuring down lightning that strikes her... gauntlet?!

Chika has starry eyes of admiration when Ryoko suddenly leaps into the fight with a gauntlet. Her turn! Chika closes her eyes, and concentrates on her ring. It conceals her in a brief flash of Cyan energy, and when it fades what is left behind is Puella Magi Chika Aki! Anyone that knew her as Chika will definitely recognize her. There is nothing hiding who it is. She is wearing a cyan dress with white ribbons tied around her joints for freedom of movement. A bright clear crystal is centered on her chest, glowing with a pure cyan light. The most stark difference is that on either of her hands is... a massive pair of metal gauntlets, of a size that would seem rather peculiar for someone built as slender as Chika is. She should hardly be able to swing those around; yet she is able to leap into the fray right alongside Ryoko with hardly any effort to throw her big mitts around! While Ryoko sounds out her punches, Chika strikes with a silent efficiency, no flashes of electricity around her own heavy metal fists. She even is wearing a small, warm smile as she fights alongside Ryoko. Squeee! Company!

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki transforms into Puella Magi Chika!
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has fully healed herself.
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has used Metal Blitz Combo! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Chika Aki's Metal Blitz Combo!, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Just the fact that somebody is shouting 'People of Tokyo' in that tone, in the middle of a festive event that's suddenly gone drastically downhill, is a warning to Fuu's ears of trouble making itself known. The words which follow only confirm it beyond all doubt - and rather than climbing the bleachers, she ducks underneath them, confirming briefly that nobody's underneath them to see her transform. Or further behind them, for that matter.

"Belief becomes power ... Winds, guide me!'"

Anyone who's still on *top* of the bleachers might notice a sudden draft from under the risers, but more than likely they have bigger concerns ... such as the great festive tree being transformed into a monster, which is literally a much bigger concern than who's transforming into which magical girl.

In this case, it's the Magic Knight of Wind who emerges from beneath the bleachers, bow and quiver materializing from streaks of green light. She's tempted to take a shot at the woman perched in the tree, but Treetears is the much bigger and more direct threat. It's also *the* Ueno Christmas Tree, though, and the Wind Knight has some qualms about simply attacking it indiscriminately ...

So she'll have to be picky about what she aims at. The black moon on the monster's forehead is terribly conspicuous, and an obvious target in that respect: the Wind Knight nocks an arrow, angles her bow upwards as she draws back ... not exactly proper kyuudou form, but she's not worried about a scorecard.

She looses, noting as she does so that there are plenty of other magical girls - three Sailor Senshi, a few other familiar faces, one or two she doesn't recognize so well. Reason enough for confidence - but not for sloppy aim.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Wind Knight!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

It takes Yumi a moment; something feels wrong, but this feeling she has is so /strong/ that she wants for a moment nothing other than to disappear into the crowd. ...But she probably couldn't, anyway; there's no way she could outrun Ryoko. But that isn't it.

Chika's distress rings in her mind and Yumi looks to her in worry, though she colors again as Ryoko indicates it might be something /good/. But something inside like...

She can't /think/ it, at first. But Ryoko answers her, points out the rest of the crowds, and Yumi blinks, as it starts to come together for her. "Um, right... What /is/ going on...?"

Calaveras's declaration is almost helpful. At least, it tells Yumi what's going on, what /must/ be going on, though the all-black lights of the tree make her eyes widen and dismay rise in hre stomach. Right up until...

'Smash them all until nothing of this event is left but a lifetime of nightmares and therapy bills.'

Pink eyes narrow suddenly. "You two should--" 'You can both run'. "Buh?" Yumi looks and /stares/ at Ryoko for a moment, until the thunderbolt jolts her to step back. It clicks for her, and that feeling from a moment ago comes back, tempered by... Well, she doesn't know what's up with Ryoko. But she knows she can help.

"Wow, Ryoko-chan..." A shake of her head, ad "She's right," she says to Chika. "You..." She blinks.

"All right, then." Yumi pulls out her phone and, in the midst of all this chaos, can't bother much with the secrecy she usually would. She presses an icon and suddenly--a white staff much taller than she is in her hand, tipped with a green orb.

"Staff of Lost Ivy! In my hand, remembered be!"

There's a brilliant flash of green as Yumi's outfit is completely replaced, changed to a black dress and mantle with green accents, a pointed black hat. She holds her staff out before herself.

"...This isn't what magic is meant to be used for!" she shouts at Calaveras up in her tree. "Ruining something like this... This event deserves better! Everyone here deserves better! What do you have to say for yourself!?"

She slams her staff down against the ground, and raises both of her hands to her sides as her staff stays mystically upright before her. "Know the agony of hunger unfulfilled!" Her hands glow green. "Hollow Curse!" She throws out both of her hands, and with them a wave of black power Treetears.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Trick Arrow Shot on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora transforms into Witch Ivy!
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Hollow Curse on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Fuu Hououji's Trick Arrow Shot, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Yumi Ohzora's Hollow Curse, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Cripple applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Sinking Into The Tree, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Yumi Ohzora!
}}


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

The cold air is nothing to be worried about anymore. The heat is now on!

Realizing what's going on now, there's no time to lose. Reaching into her pocket as she ducks into a hidden spot where no one will see her, she reaches into her pocket and slips on her glove-jewel quickly. At the same time, she calls out the magic words that she's used to reciting by now.

"Belief becomes power... Flames guide me!"

Then with a flaming display, Hikaru goes from being her usual red-headed self to the Magic Knight of Fire. Meaning that she's got her powers to keep her warm, although her adrenaline flowing through her might work even better. Regardless, she knows what must be done!

She points to Calaveras and yells, "You are going to regret what you have done!" She conjures up a fiery arrow projectile, her signature attack perhaps, and casts it at the enemy while calling out its name.

"FLAME ARROW!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou transforms into Fire Knight!
<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Fire Arrow on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Fire Arrow, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Christmas At Ground Zero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU

Sadly, the arrival of the forces of love and justice do not instantly put a stop to all the trouble being caused. Only victory can do that, perhaps.

There are any number of vignettes to worry about in the background; someone dressed up as Santa Claus falling beneath a barrage of tiny punches and kicks from a pack of high-on-cocoa-and-dark-power children who want to see the contents of his toy bag; a skinny child separated from her mother, perhaps, who's sprawled out on the concrete, struggling to find her feet amid a stampede of fleeing people; the crepe stand knocked over, sauces and syrups puddling everywhere in a sticky, oily mess, none too far from a barrel that is already on fire thanks to the help of some pissed-off teenagers who decided to improve this event's decor a little while returning feeling to their chilly fingertips.

But while the monster is engaged, none of these innocents are in half the deadly danger they would be otherwise. Because this Droid, she means business -- despite being dozens of feet tall, she bobs and weaves, causing Jad's blast of blue watery energy, and Hikaru's flaming projectile, to each pass mostly harmlessly between branches, tearing off a cloud of pine needles as they go, while ducking her chin and closing her eyes just in time for the worst of Kuniko's lemon to waft by. Chika, too, has trouble finding purchase on the tree with her gauntlets; it's so easy to punch it, because it's big, but every little branch just seems to have an infinite number of layers of more little branches behind it! Yumi's wave of dark energy just kind of fades into it, too. Landing a solid blow is tough.

And those who do discover that the tree itself is /also/ tough; Ladybug's foot and Ryoko's zappy knuckles both sting from their impacts, and though the vibration shakes off more needles -- and a couple of ornaments, which crunch into sad little shards on the ground. Cure Bloom is spared this fate solely because of all the magic between her fist and the trunk, and the nice solid crack she creates causes the needly face to glare down at her and her alone, before branches converge on her from all directions, trying to string her up like a Christmas goose. Fuu's arrow, meanwhile, simply bounces off the Black Moon she's targeted so accurately, with a TINK!

Words have been said, too, of course. Treetears isn't a big talker, but Calaveras /loves/ to hear herself speak. She smirks at the double-needling pun from two different sources, apparently not above appreciating the humor of her enemies. Which isn't to say she appreciates their interference. Ladybug's reference to Koan, however, cannot go unremarked upon. "Youngest and best at running her mouth, maybe. Didn't she leave you all smoking on the ground recently? I'm not sure whether to be proud of my baby sister or embarrassed that she left you alive."

She taps a finger to one cheek, then looks through her long lashes at the Sailor Senshi. "I guess embarrassed," she concludes, after rather pointedly sizing them up. It's amazing how much can be said -- and dismissed -- with just a glance.

"It's your turn, Treetears!"

Chika and Ryoko and Ladybug are all close enough to the tree to get grabbed just like Cure Bloom, and they have entirely too-prehensile branches coming at them from every conceivable direction. Distance is no guarantee of safety, however; perhaps in response to Kuniko's citrusy challenge, the Droid's mouth gapes open and out comes a cloud of pine scent so potent that it rivals tear gas for effect. It soars towards the Poissonnieur and detonates near her, which is also not far from Jad and the Magic Knights.

Yumi, meanwhile, is unfortunate enough to be standing near the Sailor Senshi, so she gets the extra-special treatment that they're getting -- ornaments start shooting off the branches like machine gun bullets, which explode on impact like grenades. Grenades filled with the tears of the children who spent a month making them, no doubt. The zone is showered in painfully sharp shards.

Treetears looks upon the devastation she has wreacked, and smiles. Have you ever seen a face made from the tips of a thousand pine needles smile? This particular example is a smile like a rainstorm at a wedding -- it hits fast, hard, and then everything is ruined.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used How Clingy Are Thy Branches on Cure Bloom.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used How Clingy Are Thy Branches on Chika Aki.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used How Clingy Are Thy Branches on Ryoko Kikuchi.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used How Clingy Are Thy Branches on Ladybug.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Piney Fresh on Fuu Hououji.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Piney Fresh on Hikaru Shidou.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Piney Fresh on Kuniko Saito.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Piney Fresh on Jad Werke.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Bauble Barrage on Yumi Ohzora.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Bauble Barrage on Sailor Moon.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Bauble Barrage on Sailor Jupiter.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Bauble Barrage on Sailor Venus.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Satisfaction Guaranteed on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's Satisfaction Guaranteed, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe is Reinforced by Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Piney Fresh, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Jad Werke's Block ability activates!  Jad Werke's Parry ability activates!  Stagger and Stun applied to Jad Werke!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Bauble Barrage, taking 37 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's How Clingy Are Thy Branches, taking 29 Fatigue damage!  Tangle and Trap applied to Ladybug!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Bauble Barrage, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Venus's Fade ability activates!  Sailor Venus's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Piney Fresh, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Hikaru Shidou's Block ability activates!  Hikaru Shidou's Parry ability activates!  Stun applied to Hikaru Shidou!
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Piney Fresh, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Kuniko Saito's Block ability activates!  Kuniko Saito's Parry ability activates!  Cripple, Stagger, and Stun applied to Kuniko Saito!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Bauble Barrage, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Dodge!  Sailor Moon's Fade ability activates!  Sailor Moon's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's How Clingy Are Thy Branches, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Cure Bloom's Block ability activates!  Tangle and Trap applied to Cure Bloom!
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Bauble Barrage, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Yumi Ohzora's Reverse ability activates!  Yumi Ohzora's Tactician ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora's counterattack, Witch's Mirror, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's How Clingy Are Thy Branches, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Counter!  Ryoko Kikuchi's Reverse ability activates!  Ryoko Kikuchi's Tactician ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi's counterattack, She's Electric, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's How Clingy Are Thy Branches, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Blind and Trap applied to Chika Aki!
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Piney Fresh, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Fuu Hououji's Block ability activates!  Fuu Hououji's Parry ability activates!  Stagger and Stun applied to Fuu Hououji!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

The Wind Knight winces a little as her arrow richochets harmlessly off the tree-turned-monster. Maybe there needed to be more force behind the shot, but the monster's height works against that. And in the meantime - that is a lot of chaos and potential carnage. The Wind Knight is just wondering if she should try to blow the flames away from the growing puddle when ....

Pine scent should *NOT* be that overpowering. She's been in *forests* that didn't smell so unreasonably strongly of pine needles and sap and cones. She's not prone to hay fever, thankfully, but the Wind Knight's eyes are still left watering, her head spinning from the offensively fresh odor. The Wind Knight reels, gagging on the thick cloud of pine, then covers her mouth and nose with her sleeve as she tries to catch her breath. At least she recognizes who she's close to - two more than the third, but one of those two *especially* needs to be able to smell what she's doing. And to see it clearly, for that matter.

Another careful inhalation, and the Wind Knight lowers her arm to utter, "Winds of Healing!" as she focuses her will on herself, Kuniko, and Jad. Normally it's outward wounds she's healing with this spell, but breathing in the soothing breeze will clear the stinging from their windpipes and sinuses just as surely as it mends cuts and scrapes and twisted ankles.

Once she can breathe comfortably again, the green-clad Magic Knight gives her allies a chagrined smile. "I am, admittedly, open to suggestions," the Wind Knight says as she offers her allies a hand back to their feet (should any of them need it).

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Jad Werke.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Fuu Hououji.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Healing on Kuniko Saito.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Kuniko Saito's debuffs are cleared!
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Jad Werke's debuffs are cleared!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Jad Werke [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

The whirling mass of pine branches are not exactly a big deal, but the massive cloud of overpowering pine oil scent that comes off the tree is enough to make Jad gag for a moment as he breathes it in. He leaps back away, trying to scrub his hand across his face to clear his eyes in the wake of that bombardment. "Gah - that's horrible!" he states with a grimace. And given his irritation earlier, this onslaught isn't anything that is going to improve his mood.

"OK, that's enough piney badness for one day. We're gonna take this tree down, even if we gotta break every ornament on it!" They all look evil - there's no reason to try and keep them in one piece as far as he is concerned. Gotta smash a few dozen ornaments to make a safe city and all.

Jad really isn't thinking that straight - he's still feeling the effects of that dark poison that had hit him earlier, and just smashing things feels like more and more of a good idea.

He does cough again, but a cleansing, clear breeze blows past as the green magic knight unleashes her power to blow away the sickening pine strength. Jad grins for a moment, and he can feel the purifying wind blowing away some of that dark feeling as well. "Thanks!" he calls out, giving a thumbs up with one armored gauntlet as he invokes another magic circle under his feet. The spinning triangle flashes into existence, producing three spheres of blue light that hover around the mage.

"Going in! Let's do it Schwartz!" And with that, Jad rockets forward - sliding across the ground on a thin ribbon of water as he goes into a tight curve around the huge tree monster. He lashes out with a one two punch, smaller spheres of blue water magic carving from the larger ones floating around him and lashing out at the tree demon like fist sized shots - and then he throws a few kicks in as well, unleashing a rapid fire barrage of magical strikes in an attempt to weaken Calavera's creation.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has used Tsunami Barrage on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has finished attacking.
}}


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

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Especially with good smells, like the smell of fresh pine. And while the Fire Knight does enjoy it in moderation, a huge dose is really not something she enjoys. She sniffles a little and sneezes a couple of times (Gesundheit!) and then rubs at her nose before shaking her head as she recovers from this unfortunate allergy attack.

"The only sickness I have," The Fire Knight comments as she grips her sword tighter, "Is that I'm sick of creatures like this disrupting things and making our lives harder!" She rushes at the creation of Calavera and attempts to strike it directly with her sword, showing how powerful she is as a melee fighter as well as a magic user.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has used Sword Slash on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Ryoko Kikuchi [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Ryoko does notice that both Yumi and Chika stuck around. She may have had some inside knowledge that one of the two were more than they seemed, but the other came at a complete surprise to her. It was a slight wrinkle to the plan, but she would just have to roll with it. Chika gets a gauntleted thumbs up before she looks to the pink-eyed Yumi. "You...have powers like this?" She feigns aloud, sounding a bit unnatural. "Well fine, show me what you got then and let's chop down this tree!" That second line seemed much more natural coming from the delinquent then her forced surprise.

Ryoko learns a valuable lesson today. Trees are not the most efficient conductors of electricity no matter how evil they are. Her punches fizzle into dull thuds as her heavy gauntlet probably does more damage than the electricity itself does. Well no matter, she would just have to amp things up a bit and increase the voltage. But before the delinquent can think about going about that, she has to contend with the grabbing branches of the tree. "No, you don't!" A singular lightning rod juts forth as a lightning strike slams downward creating a shield of electricity around Ryoko just before the branches impact. The intrusive tree-limbs would get nothing more than a chastising zap of electricity as any serious voltage fails to transfer over. "Don't you know that it's electric when I touch?" She purposefully avoids eye contact with Yumi after saying this.

The same branches that went for her also went for Chika and two other girls that Ryoko was less familiar with. But whomever they were, they could probably also use a helping, electrified hand. The shield of electricity still around her, Ryoko holds her gauntlet over her head and grins most mischievously. "This might sting a little, but you'll thank me if it works!" More lighting rods start to protrude from Ryoko's gauntlet and before hops into the air and slams her fist against the electric shield around her. It shatters almost immediately and bright flash fills the area as electricity discharges from every direction around her. It's not enough to hurt, but Ryoko hopes that it will have a similar effect on the branches that sought to trap the rest of the girls. Ryoko herself doesn't move after she punches and merely raises her hands to shield herself from her own electrical discharge.

Finally, she takes a moment to look to Yumi and offer an encouraging nod of delinquency. "Hey Witch-chan, keep it up! That thing could not have liked...whatever it is that you did!" Ryoko actually has little working knowledge of magic and witches, but she certainly knows a pointy black hat when she sees one.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has used Shock Therapy on Cure Bloom.
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has used Shock Therapy on Ladybug.
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has used Shock Therapy on Chika Aki.
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug accepts Ryoko Kikuchi's Shock Therapy, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Ladybug's debuffs are cleared!
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki accepts Ryoko Kikuchi's Shock Therapy, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Chika Aki's debuffs are cleared!
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom accepts Ryoko Kikuchi's Shock Therapy, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cleanse! All of Cure Bloom's debuffs are cleared!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Calaveras' words are having quite the effect on at least /one/ of the Sailor Senshi, it seems - but not one of the ones who had a rough time with Koan.

Maybe it's the hot chocolate she was drinking before. Maybe it's being reminded that, once again, her friends needed her and /she wasn't there/ to protect them. Whatever it is, Sailor Venus' hands are clenched into tight fists at her sides, shaking in irritation as Calaveras taunts the trio of sailor suit-clad heroines.

She has Venus irate enough that when the tree launches its attack, she very nearly doesn't manage to dive out of the way in time. It's a near thing and a somewhat rough landing, but she rolls with it as best she can, coming up on one knee. "Why, you -- come down here and say that, why don't you?!" she shouts, and as she brings both of her hands up to bear on Treetears, gold and orange light begins to sparkle to life around her fingertips. "I'll give you something to be embarrassed about..!"

"LOVE-ME CHAIN... BIND!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus has used Love-Me Chain Bind on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Jad Werke's Tsunami Barrage, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Jad Werke is Psyched!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Hikaru Shidou's Sword Slash, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Venus's Love-Me Chain Bind, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
}}


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

Chikas onslaught doesn't do well against the sheer size of the tree. She throws a few punches, managing to snap a branch here, and damage one there. But where one gets hurt, there a lot more to take its place!

Chika is suddenly snared, her big gauntlets being grasped and yanked to the sides as the Puella Magi struggles gamely, pulling back with a grimace. She looks upwards when Ryoko gets free, seeing the way her electricity has pushed away the branches! This gets filed away in her mind, moments before that explosion of electricity rattles outwards. It gives her the moment she needs when the branches are stunned to pull herself away, getting some space. Her hair is standing up a bit, and she twitches once or twice before calling up, "T-thank you!" To Ryoko. She shakes her head to clear it, a little wince after being battered around by the branches.

She couldn't punch through them how she tried before... So, if brute force doesn't work... You clearly aren't using enough!

"Lets see how this works... Mega... FIST!" She throws a single punch forwards, jumping into it as she does. The gauntlet on her first swells in size to be nearly as big around as a dumpster; Chika is absolutely dwarfed by it as she flings her self bodily into the tree with the mighty blow! Chika seems to have no quarrel going right back into the fray that Ryoko freed her from.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has used MegaFist on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Chika Aki's MegaFist, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

That horrible woman keeps speaking, and the barrage on the tree itself is throwing needles everywhere. That's not much good, but far worse is that burst of visible pinelike gas, erupting like a sheer cloud of a single massive volatile molecule (though it wouldn't be a single one for long, would it?) towards her. Kuniko steps forwards - Whips out some kind of a kitchen tool -

And it waves through the gas. It accomplishes VERY LITTLE! Kuniko is on her knees, coughing into the cold air of December before the Winds of Healing whip those fumes aside, letting her catch her breath. She inhales and exhales several times, swift and purging, before she answers Fuu, voice slightly rusty.

"I've got something."

Still crouching, Kuniko raises an index finger, head half-turned in a way that is deliberately rather dramatic. "I always wondered... what would happen if you had something like this... and you were to purify aspects of it and then recombine them with the greater whole. You know? I guess that's kind of classroom stuff, but maybe you'll get what I'm saying..."

Kuniko puts her hand down. Something near her bubbles, sizzling faintly. "But it never really came up. It was one of those things you wonder in the back of your mind. But in a situation like this... I think I've gotten angry enough to try it, Knight of Wind."

And then the chef rises upwards, lifting with her legs. "And the way it's throwing chunks of itself around... Heh. I guess it's worth it to try, right? With this Christmas on the line, I can't hold back just because I might get a pan dirty!!"

Kuniko looks upwards towards Calaveras and the Droid, before there is the noise of a plate being slapped down and something thence being flipped onto it. "Appetizer up," she calls, before hoisting the plate and spinning it forwards, like a discus of FLAVOR on a curving route around and UP - towards that needled face. As it flies, the fragrance rises, and the curious can glance along the way.

APPETIZER: Tempura-fried pine needles! They get as crisp as sesame sticks this way, with that cool woodland nostalgiac flavor mixed with the savor of light dough. No dipping sauce today, though, we had to rush.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Tempura-fried Pine Needles on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Cure Bloom [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

Cure Bloom's frustrated glower is eased, just a little, by successfully slamming the horrible tree monster.

This is only brief before she realizes she, specifically, made it mad. "Uh oh!!" she yelps, before she is wrapped up in a wave of branches that leave her tangled up, one leg strung awkwardly upward while the rest of her is bound up in thorny branches. "Jeeze!" she groans, frustrated again already. But looking around, her eyes land on something in the tree. SHe'd noticed Minori's mutated ornament once already, now limply wilting. Light starts to gather around her as her spirit stirs in response - but before it can roar out of her, Bloom yelps as an electric force surges through her, blasting the binding branches apart. She glances over to see Ryoko, grinning and tossing her wave. "Hey, thanks!" she cheers, her spirits a little higher now that that's over.

That only lasts a second before she hears scremaing in the crowd, and memories of Minori from momnets ago fill her thoughts. She grunts in frustration, swinging hard around to slam the monster tree with a magic-boosted kick, flashes of gold light exploding around the point of her impact (...she wasn't actually falling, held aloft by little sparkling motes of Earthly spirits) - but rather than wait around, she slams another kick in and shoots down across the distance, toward the crowd.

Trailing golden lights, Cure Bloom dives into the churning sea of panicking people, scoops the fallen child up in her strong, gloved hands, gives her a reassuring smile, then immediately leaps into the air, with a gentle acceleration not quite like an actual jump. "Hi!" she says, kindly. "I'm Cure Bloom! Let's get you somewhere safer."

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has used Fistful of Flowers on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters Kuniko Saito's Tempura-fried Pine Needles, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Counter!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Sinking Into The Tree, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Kuniko Saito!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Cure Bloom's Fistful of Flowers, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  Cure Bloom is Psyched!
}}


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

In all fairness, it's not JUST Sailor Venus who's stung by the reminder of how badly Koan wiped not just the Sailor Senshi but almost everyone who stood up against her. All the same, Sailor Jupiter swore that she'd become stronger to protect the people who need protecting--and although there are plenty of people here to fight the Droid, there's still people in danger. The Christmas ornaments shoot out fast and furious, and Jupiter stands up against them--but they're a lot faster and more furious than she'd anticipated, and smash into her *hard*, ramming her down into the ground.

She groans as she picks herself up, head spinning for a moment. That really *was* embarrassing. When her vision stops swimming, she fixes Calaveras with a glare. "I'll show YOU embarrassed!!" she shouts, spreading her arms as she begins to twirl. "Let's get some REAL decorations on that tree of yours! FLOWER..." Pink rose petals erupt into existence around her, spinning with her; then she comes to a sharp halt. "HURRICANE!!" The petals storm forward, aiming to slice Treetears and deck her halls with pink and jolly. It might give the others an opening to help them hit harder, given how much Treetears was just shrugging off attacks earlier.

For Jupiter's part, it gives her time to take a look around and see who's hurt, who needs helping. Her eyes widen when she sees a little girl about to be trampled by the crowd, and starts over in that direction--but Cure Bloom's already on top of it, and she breathes a sigh of relief. However, that's not the only problem, and the next one she spots makes her grab Sailor Moon by the shoulder and point to the Santa assaulted by a bunch of children. "Sailor Moon, those kids are being controlled! We've got to stop them and save Santa before they do something they'll regret forever!"

It's not hard to decide who does what--Sailor Moon is a lot more iconic to the kids than Sailor Jupiter is, and Jupiter is stronger and thus will be able to get Santa away to safety quicker. Once Sailor Moon has the kids good and distracted, Sailor Jupiter will try to come around from behind and gently help that poor guy in the Santa suit up and away--but will she be able to do it fast enough, when the enemy is a bunch of hyperactive kids hopped up on evil juice?

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Flower Hurricane on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"Yeah!" Yumi says back to Ryoko, and then nods right back. "Let's do it! I'll show you what I can do!"

That's pretty encouraging, but hearing about what Calaveras's /sister/ just did is plenty intimidating. That's even leaving aside the way this monster can absorb attacks from everyone, not just from her curses. Yumi takes back up her staff from in front of herself and tries to steady herself.

The young Witch is lucky enough to be part of an assault meant for others, and by instinct as she sees the first ratcheting at her, Yumi starts tracing a glowing black rune in the air before her. The first two burst past before she can erect the shield, but the third and more impact brilliant green, bouncing off and fueling a beam launched straight for Treetears--even if it's not enough to get through. She huffs another breath and steps back, rocked by the explosions that she didn't stop.

"Call me Ivy!" Yumi calls back to Ryoko. "You can really move!"

But the /monster/ can really move, too, and Yumi takes her staff in both hands and looks up at it. "Okay--I can do this!" She traces another green rune in the air before her, this one speaking wordlessly of cleansing, and lifts her staff in both hands, knocking the implement right into the rune and letting loose a crashing beam of white-tinged green power that should may darkness afire with green flames.

"Take that! If you wanna ignore me, then I'll just--Oh crap is that on /fire/!?"

Yumi rushes away from the position she'd taken for firing and runs towards the crepe stand. She swings her staff vaguely at the other teenagers on her way through, "Move it! This thing's going to blow up if you don't /move/ it!" ...She /means/ the barrel, but... It might come off otherwise, as she looks around for something to use to block the puddles and finds... Nothing.

"Oh, whatever--" She runs past and goes to the food cart, throwing out more items, "There has to be one in here," until she finds its--

"/So/ glad senpai told me about her food truck," she mentions and points the fire extinguisher right at the barrel--and at any teenagers who haven't gotten out of her way--and puts out the fire.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Sacred Ray on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking.
}}


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

"Hey- what makes you think it's okay to badmouth your sister publically!?" It's a lesson she hopes Shingo takes to heart- if he's listening and isn't in a negative energy frenzy but it's also really hypocritical given that she doesn't always say the best of Shingo when asked either.

But Treetears is firing off ornaments, and Sailor Moon immediately starts running, shrieking as she stays one just one singular step ahead of the exploding ornaments and shrapnel shards. Her path takes her just off the stage, where she dives down below the edge, vanishing as the edge of the stage explodes under the weight of all of those shards.

The barrage stops. Her bejeweled odangos appear first over the edge, then her eyes. Then it's like she exhales relief as she stands up straight- as the air fills with petals. But a hand upon her shoulder, and Jupiter's words cause her to give the crowd a look and with that chaos- and she realizes she's right, something needs to be done. "You're right! We've got to do something fast." She holds up a finger as if to say something to the others, "Ah- I'll be right back!"

Bloom is beelining for the kid- others are headed for the barrel that's on fire and right now those kids are really giving Santa a pounding- and she dashes over to them! "Hey- hey! I know you're all excited for toys- but that's no excuse to beat someone up!" That doesn't seem like it's doing anything- she remembers Jupiter saying they're controlled so instead she blurts out- "I can get you Sailor V's autograph!" -outright bribery.

Now that got their attention, the tots turning on her, but suspicion was in their eyes, "Prove it!" "Yeah I bet you don't even know Sailor V!" "That Sailor Moon costume is sooooo fake!" And while these kidlets are destroying her self-esteem- she motions for Jupiter to help Santa up as surreptitiously as she could. Putting a hand to her forehead, she waves at them, "Alright! Alright! Look- if you're all good, I /promise/ I'll get Sailor V to stay after and sign her autograph for all of you- and throw in some of her toys too!"

-she may have to have Venus contact Artemis mid-battle through a communicator for it but-

"-And-"

Sailor Moon then leaps as far as she can away from them, so they won't get caught in the crossfire there's retribution for this, landing atop a toppled stand, and putting a hand to her brow, "-Watch this! Moon Tiara-"

The tiara comes to her hand, becoming a gleaming disk of light, "-ACTION!" She flings it with all her might at the distant tree, as it arcs inexorably towards the seasonal tree Droid. But more importantly, would it be enough to satisfy the kids away from naughtiness!?

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Action on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter is Psyched!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!  Cripple applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Yumi Ohzora's Sacred Ray, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!  Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly dodges Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Action, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

Ladybug is briefly distracted by what seems, briefly, like a trio of spotlights illuminating a grand speech, looking over and half-expecting to see Chat delivering a grand speech. It's a relief that he isn't - though she can't help but smirk at the topics. Venus's interesting take on the holiday aside, Ladybug is torn between exasperation that romance is the recurring theme to complain about...and kind of wanting to agree with them.

(Halfway across town, there's a photoshoot featuring someone who may have dodged a bullet tonight.)

Calaveras took the time to answer Ladybug, though, and the free-swinging heroine wags one finger. "She certainly seemed a bit hot-headed over something - I don't suppose you're more willing than her to cool down and just leave everyone here in peace?" She grins - but wasn't paying enough attention to the tree. The branches are winding in, and she winds up zigging where she should have zagged - slamming into one branch with her midsection, letting out a whoof as the breath is knocked right out of her.

The rest of the branches winding in as a net to catch this bug is just insult to injury.

She starts looking for a way out, concocting and discarding a half dozen plans within a couple of seconds - but then there's a worrying shout from outside, and then a lot of lightning in the area...

The branches don't open for long, but it's long enough for a yo-yo to whip out, snag something, and haul Ladybug out of that little snare - looking a bit worse for the experience, but free once more. She gives Ryoko a wave and a thumbs-up, grinning - "Thanks - getting a rescue like that was a bit of a shock, but it-" And then she winces at her own pun.

She passes some delicious-smelling tempura as she swings wide, surveying the area as she perches on one cheerful lamppost to catch her breath. The crepe stand is a mess, Santa's under attack, there's a fire, there are lost children caught in the mess...but disasters are also being handled from all sides, putting a smile back on Ladybug's face. She calls out - not to Calaveras, not to her newfound allies here, but more to the crowd at all. "That's just the thing! However much this little light show might try to blacken this night, I know that everyone here has hope for the season in their hearts! Christmas is coming, whatever might go wrong along the way, and that joie de vivre won't be stamped out!"

She started swinging her yo-yo, round and round, and with that last word she flings it wide. It's a glorious little trick - shooting down to the stage, rebounding off to catch a trio of falling ornaments, and then looping around a handful of trees to close in on the tree - shining glitter and all.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Ladybug has used Deck The Halls on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Ladybug's Deck The Halls, taking 24 Fatigue damage!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Carol of the Bells https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzsSpsJimPw

'Embarrassing' or not, the magical girls are eager to put up a real fight. With Fuu and Ryoko covering the rest with clever applications of their elemental magicks, Hikaru and Chika are able to charge at the tree -- and come out the other side, mouths and eyes potentially full of twigs and needles -- unimpeded. Kuniko's tempura never emerges at all, but not because it wasn't eaten... it got lost in the maze of branches on the way in. Jad meanwhile starts to find his mark but isn't leaving much to show for it -- some smashed ornaments where his blue orbs detonate, some quivering boughs that got kicked real good, but the mass of foilage and decor that is Treetears remains large and in charge (of dealing out buttkicking, which it commences immediately, assailing the Midchildan, the Puella Magi, and the Magic Knight with a flurry of slaps, and you haven't been slapped until you've been slapped by eight feet of sickly-sweet piney, glass-shard decorated, dark-energy-infused Christmas tree monster).

There's more than enough of that to go around to encompass Sailor Venus as well. Her signature chain lassos about a third of the tree's branches -- and Calaveras' eyes, which ignite with interest -- but there's just too much tree to love-me, and it bursts out, sending four or five huge branches to smack the leader of the Inner Senshi back, or perhaps up, up and away.

All this motion serves the dual purpose of canceling out much of the strength of Jupiter's winds, though nothing is going to stop those lovely pink petals from coating everything in sight. They land delicately upon Treetears, upon Calaveras' shoulder -- she flicks them off with a fingernail, with a wince of distaste -- and also in everyone's hair.

That includes the child Cure Bloom saved after kicking that tree /but good/ -- it appears to have elemental weakness: Precure -- and Santa, too. Both people look at their respective rescuers with awed, grateful eyes, and can be presented to their mother and Mrs. Claus respectively, who will help them out of the park.

Sailor Moon gets no such respect.

"Yo, what are you talking about, obaa-san," mouths off -- oh god, it's Shingo! The twerp all but crackles with dark energy, because he drank /three/ cups of cocoa, his own, Mika's, and Ikuko-mama's, too. His buddies leer up at Sailor Moon as she lectures them, an effect thankfully mitigated by the fact that none of these kids come up much past her waist.

"What, was that tiara supposed to /do/ something?" asks Kenichi Kato (buddy #1) as the Moon Tiara leaves and returns absolutely untouched.

"It's not her fault. I've never seen a Christmas Cake that's still around by December third!" All three of them cackle, and perhaps now is a good time to remember that they're only like ten years old and are just repeating things they've heard on television or from their older brothers.

Or maybe it's time to burn the city down around their unwashed little ears. There are multiple options here. Yumi takes another path; while her lovely beam turns a bit of the tree white rather like spray-on snow, it isn't slowed much -- but that fire is /out/ and so are the teenagers, who cast baleful glances at her as they slouch towards their favorite ramen stand instead, because that was totally not cool, and they have better places to be.

Yeah.

That tree sure hasn't slowed much. If anything, it's getting bigger and darker, energy crackling around it as it extends further into the battlefield. Soon no place is safe from its holly decorations, which detach at point blank like shuriken.

Some ornaments are safe, though, courtesy of Ladybug's fancy yo-yo work, and this causes the tree to lessen in her rampage minutely. She peers down at the Miraculous-user, bending in the middle very slightly (her trunk /is/ rigid, limiting her ability to see things right at her base).

"Get on with it!" barks Calaveras, bringing Treetears back to the present. Obligingly, she fills Ladybug's general vicinity with more ornaments. A lot more. Many dozens.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Boughs of Holly on Cure Bloom.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Deck The Senshi on Chika Aki.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Boughs of Holly on Ryoko Kikuchi.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Bauble Barrage on Ladybug.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Boughs of Holly on Fuu Hououji.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Deck The Senshi on Hikaru Shidou.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Boughs of Holly on Kuniko Saito.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Deck The Senshi on Jad Werke.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Boughs of Holly on Yumi Ohzora.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Eat My Shorts on Sailor Moon.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Boughs of Holly on Sailor Jupiter.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Deck The Senshi on Sailor Venus.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke perfectly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Deck The Senshi, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Counter!
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke's counterattack, Reverse Tide, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter perfectly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Boughs of Holly, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Brace!  Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji accepts Fuu Hououji's Winds of Healing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Fuu Hououji's debuffs are cleared!
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Boughs of Holly, taking 25 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji's counterattack, Spinning Slash, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Boughs of Holly, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Yumi Ohzora's Block ability activates!  Yumi Ohzora's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Boughs of Holly, taking 8 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Hikaru Shidou narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Deck The Senshi, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe is Psyched!  Hikaru Shidou's Block ability activates!  Hikaru Shidou's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Bauble Barrage, taking 27 Fatigue damage!  Ladybug's Reverse ability activates!  Ladybug's Tactician ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug's counterattack, Around The World, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom narrowly counters Hotaru Tomoe's Boughs of Holly, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Cure Bloom's Reverse ability activates!  Cure Bloom's Tactician ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom's counterattack, Petal Flash, partially gets through, doing 9 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!  Critical Counterhit!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Eat My Shorts, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Moon is Quipped!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus fails to counter Hotaru Tomoe's Deck The Senshi, taking 24 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus's counterattack, Venus Iron Muscle Punch, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Ryoko Kikuchi narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Boughs of Holly, taking 7 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Deck The Senshi, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Given that her archery isn't going to help a whole lot, the Wind Knight has already switched to her sword, and when the tree-turned-Droid lashes out, she tries to parry. Not just a simple block, either, but spinning around to add momentum to her swing, in the hopes that the extra force will be more effective at repelling the strike.

Physics does not work that way, though - at least not this time. Treetears still has all of the advantages imparted by size and mass, and the Wind Knight is slapped off her feet, several meters through the air, and into what's left of somebody else's food stall (not Kuniko's, she thinks). "Nngh ..." The Wind Knight shakes her head to clear it, makes sure her glasses are still in place and intact (which they are), and decides a change of approach is in order.

"WINDS OF ADMONISHMENT!!"

She's cast her binding wind spell on very large targets before; *sometimes* it works. It at least worked well enough against Queen Metallia to slow her down a bit (and to retaliate against the Wind Knight specifically for her cheek in making the effort). Also, wind is kind of a notorious enemy of trees, so the Magic Knight of Wind may be hoping for an elemental advantage.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Winds of Admonishment on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters Fuu Hououji's Winds of Admonishment, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Counter!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Sinking Into The Tree, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Fuu Hououji!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Jad Werke [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"ORRRRYYYAAAAAA!" Jad bellows as the tree limbs come rushing at him. He brings one fist back, pushing as much of his magic as he can into it... and then slams it forward. There is a burst of water, which creates a shockwave that ripples outwards and turns into a burst of snow in the cold air. And the branches that are whipping towards him are blasted away, leaving a more normal and pleasant pine oil scent in the air for a moment. But Jad lands on his feet, grinning at the result of his strike.

It may not have done much good, but it certainly felt good to give the monster that sort of lashing.

Sadly he doesn't have any sort of Santa power that might help in actually pushing this thing back, which leaves the only real weapon in his arsenal - complete and utter recklessness! Because when there is some sort of problem in the blue haired mage's way, he could try and find some clever way to deal with it... but that was for other people. What HE preferred to do was just scream and leap into the fray and just see how things played out. Which was probably going to get him in trouble one day. But...

That was one day, and this was today. And so Jad stamps his back foot, his magic causing the water flowing through the air around him to gather at the point where his armored boot had struck the ground. A moment later it shoots upwards, pushing him into the air on a stream that gives the mage enough height to get above the evil tree... and then he pulls that stream of water into a wave that follows his foot down as he aims at the strange woman controlling the thing.

Maybe if he bonks Calaveras in the head it will distract the thing and let the other girls get some hits in. But he looks at her for a moment as he strikes, and then grins. "I gotta hand it to you, at least you made sure this wasn't too boring today! Cheeky kids aside, this is the best holiday so far!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has used Wave Drop Kick on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Cure Bloom [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

Cure Bloom swoops in for a landing where the young girl directs, and gently sets her down on her feet. She sets down on her knees, grinning reassuringly at the kid, before her eyes cut up to Mama and give her a somewhat more serious look. "You should go!" she urges them both, before turning on her heels and -

"Aw, nuts!"

Seeing a wave of weaponized tinsel coming her way. Her fingertips disappear in a sudden seething golden light, which she shoves forward in a wave of golden light that sends the incoming oranments ricocheting away from her, mostly back toward Treetears. She huffs a breath, and then her feet ignite with light and she bullets forward, right back into the tree beast's striking range. Her hands are already glowing when she gets there, and she lashes out with a series of strikes ("HATATATA!"), sweeping blow after blow down on the tree beast!

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has used Bloom Strikes on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has finished attacking.
}}


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

Chika... punches right through the tree! Bam! So much power! So much... well... She comes out the other side, sputtering out a mouthful of pine needles as she turns around in confusion to see the 'hole' she punchd through the tree seal up behind her like it wasn't even there. Oh thats just rude.

She brings up both her arms, hiding under the heavy metal guantlets as a barrage of branches leaves her sticky with sap, covered in pine needles, and decidedly more bruised then she had been a few moments ago. Oh this tree was annoying!

She huffs under her breath, backing away from the tree (for the first time since she started fighting it) as she sizes up the opponent, narrowing her eyes and trying to discern a more viable method of attack then 'hit it really hard!'

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has used Studious Examination on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

EARLIER, Kuniko may well have given a brief talk about the importance of knowing where the fire extinguisher is, at all times, even in a food truck. She may have then blasted one of the other people in her grade with it just to make a point.

NOW, THOUGH, Kuniko has her theory, if not disproven, not endorsed either. The branches are a confounding factor. She steps backwards as she is nearly decked by a bough of holly; the joke escapes her, even if the swishing branches nearly de-cap her. (Not decapitate - she has a fisherman's cap as part of that silky outfit.)

"Tsk... This won't be ready even with the pressure refiner," Kuniko mutters to herself, cryptically. This will no doubt bear fruit shortly in some form.

But what to do in the interim? She could stand here with her knife in her hand and get beaten up by a tree, Kuniko thinks. To paraphrase Chef, 'leaping out the window and into traffic is in fact always an option.' But no. Her mind naturally moves in a direction. A direction guided by a burst of shining light--

"Sailor Moon!" Kuniko declares. And she slides a blade to the side, shaving a curlicue of SOMETHING with a faintly savory aroma forwards. "Here! Catch!" And even as Sailor Moon is taken into the 'own zone' by her own little brother (maybe), something sails towards her.

Sailor Jupiter is not forgotten either. Nor Sailor Venus. Both of them also get tossed something the size of a small onigiri, guided by passion into their hands if they don't actively hurl it away! Each of them a warm round piece of bread, packed with flavor - buttery rice, crisp cucumber sticks, a little vinagrette, and a central piece of sliced and shredded shawarma-spiced salmon.

Also, each has a characteristic dab of something. For Sailor Moon, a dill-infused yogurt. For Sailor Jupiter, citrus ponzu. And for Sailor Venus, a fiery touch of harissa pepper - stimulating and hot. JUST LIKE HER?

Either way, it can be snapped back in two bites. The taste is like being taken halfway around the world and back on a very brief but inspiring vacation.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Shawarma Salmon on Sailor Moon.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Shawarma Salmon on Sailor Venus.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Shawarma Salmon on Sailor Jupiter.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter accepts Kuniko Saito's Shawarma Salmon, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Empower applied to Sailor Jupiter!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Kuniko Saito's Shawarma Salmon, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Empower applied to Sailor Moon!
}}


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

The Fire Knight attempts to protect herself once again, but even with her best defenses, she still struggles a bit. She drops to one knee as her defenses are penetrated somewhat. She tries to get back into the fight, but the Fire Knight feels that it's not right to keep fighting. "I'm sorry, everyone..." She says as she retreats. "I did what I could... You'll have to do the rest from here..."


 <Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

This tree is terrible, towering, and traumatizing - and as it lumbers forward, Ladybug flips down to the ground. All the shining lights and ferocious attacks in the world didn't even give it a moment's pause - but somehow, getting a few decorations back to the tree distracted it for a moment. Distracted it enough that it tried to turn to her...

There's an idea there. Or at least the seed of one - give it time to grow.

She doesn't have long to revel in this, though, as Treetears unleashes dozens of ornaments all at once. To her credit, she reacts in a hurry, whipping her yo-yo around as a makeshift shield - but each of the ornaments winds up catching on the cord, making it heavier and heavier until finally the weight winds up overwhelming her. With a tinkle of glass on glass, the barrage sends Ladybug flying across what feels like half the park - but a ruined hot chocolate stand breaks her fall. Mostly. Ow.

Ladybug doesn't emerge right away. Perhaps she's nursing her wounds; perhaps she's wishing for help from her usual partner; perhaps she's quietly making a plan to run away. And then she emerges, running full-tilt towards the thing, and her arms are filled with the majority of the ornaments that had been flung her way. The immediate crises, apart from the tree itself, seem to be under control - so it's just Calaveras and Treetears to worry about. "All right, let's see if this gets this dismal decoration's attention....HAH!"

She's agile. She leaps, flips, and with a shout, flings the armful of ornaments - with a spinning ladybug-yo-yo at the heart of the pack. This one doesn't go straight for the tree - but it's shiny, and defies logic and physics on its path. Off an awning, around a post, looping round and round the tree. It's a ridiculous idea...but with a little luck, those ornaments will be returned to their center.

The giant tree wants to look at her? As her weapon completes its circuit, Ladybug leaps on top of a stall that should be in its line of sight, a smirk on her face. "Do you two feel more festive, yet?"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Ladybug has used Lindy Loop on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

There is a flash of fierce pride in Sailor Venus' eyes when her chain strikes true, but it is just that: a flash. She realizes quickly that Treetears is simply too big for her to contain in that way, and that message strikes home -- literally -- as one of its branches comes hurtling her way.

Sailor Venus makes an entirely undignified noise as the blow catches her square in the midsection and sends her absolutely /sailing/ across the park. She lands in a tangle of limbs and pine needles a short distance from where her fearless leader is being absolutely /savaged/ by small children.

Venus' head pops up and she spits out a mouthful of pine needles, letting out an irate growl as she hauls herself back up to her feet. Yeah, that hot chocolate's put her in a /bad mood/, alright, and somebody's gonna be on the receiving end of it. Somebody BETTER be on the receiving end of it.

She isn't so furious that she doesn't catch the tasty morsel that Kuniko sends her way, and she eagerly chomps it down without a thought. Anything to get the taste of pine out of her mouth. She'll express her gratitude properly later. First things first!

"Sailor Moon! Sailor Jupiter! It's time to trim this tree!" Venus growls, and if she had sleeves, she'd be shoving them up her arms. As it is, she's trusting her friends will follow her lead as she begins another brightly-colored wind-up...

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus has started a combo targeting Hotaru Tomoe!
}}


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

"Take care, Santa-san! Be sure you get somewhere safe!" Sailor Jupiter calls to the dress-up Santa, as if he actually *were* Santa, with a friendly, encouraging smile and wave. Once he and Mrs. Claus are out of the park, she turns back to Treetears with a fierce scowl, one arm pumped back as she forms a fist. It's fine that the winds of her Flower Hurricane weren't too effective--they were good enough as a distraction to keep the Droid and her mistress busy while everyone else was helping the civilians get to safety. The *real* fight is about to come!

Treetears is certainly keeping it real, anyway--it seems like she's getting bigger and meaner the longer the battle goes on. Like she's getting energized from the fight, somehow. ...If Jupiter were a smartypants, she might have an illuminating moment about that. As it stands, her thought is basically 'THEN WE JUST GOTTA PUNCH IT /HARDER/.' The bough decorations detach and hurl forth like deadly shuriken, but this time, Jupiter's ready for that speed: she has her arms up in defense mode and stands her ground, and the bits of pine and branch crack apart against her like waves on the rocky shore. She smirks, whipping one hand around--and then Venus CRASHES right near her and Sailor Moon, and Jupiter nearly jumps.

"Venus! Are you okay?" she asks, taking a step forward, green eyes full of concern. It looks like the answer is both yes and no--Venus gets herself back up onto her feet, but she looks *piiiiissed*. Sailor Moon's savaging at the hands of her own brother and his friends gets her a sympathetic wince, too. Oh boy... Jupiter anticipates making a lot of consolation snacks later.

Then she hears Kuniko's shout and looks up just in time for the magical chef to throw something her way. Sailor Jupiter knows well not to throw *this* gift away. She catches it, looks at it in appreciation, and then--*chomp, chomp*. It truly is like taking a trip to heaven and coming back in just two bites. That warmth, that crispness, that smoothness, and that citrusy flavor that brings out the salmon's strength while not overpowering it--she feels like she could take on a hundred Droids now!

"Thanks, Kuniko!" Jupiter shouts back, winking and giving her a thumbs up. "We'll show this Droid what for for sure now!!" She looks over at Venus as her fellow Sailor Senshi calls for a combination attack, then nods fiercely. "Right behind you!" she declares as the lightning rod extends from her tiara. Clouds form and send down a massive thunderbolt, which crackles around Sailor Jupiter even as she guides it around and in front of her with arms crossed, pinky and index fingers extended.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Cure Bloom's Bloom Strikes, taking 13 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has joined the combo started by Sailor Venus!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly counters Jad Werke's Wave Drop Kick, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Jad Werke is Psyched!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Sinking Into The Tree, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Jad Werke!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly braces Chika Aki's Studious Examination, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Brace!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly dodges Ladybug's Lindy Loop, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Flash ability activates!  Stun and Trap applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
}}


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

"Eh?" A familiar voice assails her ears, and Moon turns to look. And she recoils, a hand in front of her. "Shingo!?" - there's so much dark energy all over him. "Look! I am not an old lady! Don't talk to your s-" She changes that mid-conversation, "-your hero like that!"

It's just then that the shape of her tiara catches her vision and she puts up her hand to catch it- just a moment too late. The tiara bonks the side of her head just as her hand catches it. "-hurk-"

And she's probably met with more and more laughs from the kids. She puts it back onto her forehead, and massages the side of her head, "Look just because I missed! I-"

More and more laughs and the Christmas cake joke just does it. It hits that chord of hers that's self-conscious about being single. Balling up her fists in front of her chin, her eyes are sparkling and- yes this is a bunch of prepubescent kids making Sailor Moon cry. "That's horrible! Mean! I hope-"

She wipes her eyes, "-I hope- I hope all of you spend Christmas alone until you learn how to /be nice/ to single girls!" Sailor Moon they're /possessed kids/. But this was a moment were pettiness leaked through.

But- if there's anything that can bring her out of something like that, it's food, and Kuniko's call draws her gaze and she leaps forward to catch the- small salmon dish. "Oh! Thanks Kuniko-chan!" She gives the kids one last dour look and then harumphs with a tilt of her chin, "Well- I guess since you're all being like that, you don't get any!" She tastes it, as yogurt infused dill, the taste of salmon, buttery rice, and- it's so much, it enters her mouth in a cornucopia of flavor. A hand reaches up to massage her cheek- as it leaves her breathless.

In her mind's eye she imagines herself leaping amongst the salmon swimming upstream, before catching one when it's at the freshest. It's then prepared in so many kitchens, so many restaurants. In so many ways, and shared amongst her and her friends, "D-Delicious! It's so good! I don't think I've ever had something so good~ Ah! This salmon dish could only exist as a result of your training Kuniko-chan!"

She's taking her second bite when Venus calls for her and that alone is enough to get her to focus- and she hastily swallows, and then licks the fingers of her gloves after- "Oh right! Mmph. ...so good." Another look at the kids for one last jab, "You don't know what you're missing!"

She points the Spiral Moon Heart Rod, spinning around in a flourish. "Crescent-" "Supreme-" "Moon Twilight-" Energy gathers at the tip and-

"-BEAM" "-THUNDER!" "-FLASH!" that vivid rush of power lashes out, striking the Crescent beam and bolt of lightning mid-flight- the energy naturally is picked up by that beam and twilight orbs begin to revolve around the electrified crescent beam and turn it into a kaleidoscope of light that's heading straight for the Droid.


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

"Eh?" A familiar voice assails her ears, and Moon turns to look. And she recoils, a hand in front of her. "Shingo!?" - there's so much dark energy all over him. "Look! I am not an old lady! Don't talk to your s-" She changes that mid-conversation, "-your hero like that!"

It's just then that the shape of her tiara catches her vision and she puts up her hand to catch it- just a moment too late. The tiara bonks the side of her head just as her hand catches it. "-hurk-"

And she's probably met with more and more laughs from the kids. She puts it back onto her forehead, and massages the side of her head, "Look just because I missed! I-"

More and more laughs and the Christmas cake joke just does it. It hits that chord of hers that's self-conscious about being single. Balling up her fists in front of her chin, her eyes are sparkling and- yes this is a bunch of prepubescent kids making Sailor Moon cry. "That's horrible! Mean! I hope-"

She wipes her eyes, "-I hope- I hope all of you spend Christmas alone until you learn how to /be nice/ to single girls!" Sailor Moon they're /possessed kids/. But this was a moment were pettiness leaked through.

But- if there's anything that can bring her out of something like that, it's food, and Kuniko's call draws her gaze and she leaps forward to catch the- small salmon dish. "Oh! Thanks Kuniko-chan!" She gives the kids one last dour look and then harumphs with a tilt of her chin, "Well- I guess since you're all being like that, you don't get any!" She tastes it, as yogurt infused dill, the taste of salmon, buttery rice, and- it's so much, it enters her mouth in a cornucopia of flavor. A hand reaches up to massage her cheek- as it leaves her breathless.

In her mind's eye she imagines herself leaping amongst the salmon swimming upstream, before catching one when it's at the freshest. It's then prepared in so many kitchens, so many restaurants. In so many ways, and shared amongst her and her friends, "D-Delicious! It's so good! I don't think I've ever had something so good~ Ah! This salmon dish could only exist as a result of your training Kuniko-chan!"

She's taking her second bite when Venus calls for her and that alone is enough to get her to focus- and she hastily swallows, and then licks the fingers of her gloves after- "Oh right! Mmph. ...so good." Another look at the kids for one last jab, "You don't know what you're missing!"

She points the Spiral Moon Heart Rod, spinning around in a flourish. "Crescent-" "Supreme-" "Moon Twilight-" Energy gathers at the tip and-

"-BEAM" "-THUNDER!" "-FLASH!" that vivid rush of power lashes out, striking the Crescent beam and bolt of lightning mid-flight- the energy naturally is picked up by that beam and twilight orbs begin to revolve around the electrified crescent beam and turn it into a kaleidoscope of light.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has joined the combo started by Sailor Venus!
<br>COMBAT: COMBO! Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Moon have used All-Star Senshi! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Yumi lets the fire extinguisher bounce to the ground after she's got the fire out, and blinks at a glare headed her way. Then she frowns. "Whatever, look at me that way all you want! Jerks!" She shakes her staff in their general direction.

But the tree's crackling power is more than enough to reach her too, and Yumi looks up at its shadow. She's used to fighting monsters a lot bigger than her but /this/ is really something.

"Aaah--!" The holly decoration runs at her, and Yumi traces in mid-air just in time to slow down a holly shuriken, which doesn't cut into her but instead slams in, blunted by her glowing green magic.

"Okay, fine! We can do this," Yumi says to herself and gears herself up. She pauses with her staff in hand as she sees the Senshi not just move together, but /attack/ together, and despite her serious mood she finds herself staring with big pink eyes at their magic. She saw senpai's--Kuniko's--cooking, too, right before they launched those attacks. But actually seeing it all in action?

"...Wow..." Pause. "O-oh, right!" The Witch focuses back on her foe, and makes a spell of her own to follow along. She carves out a symbol in the air before her, glowing black, and then points /through/ it, launching the whole thing off as an answer to holly shuriken, a black-edged green projectile meant to sap away a little more of the Droid's strength.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Weakness Hex on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Yumi Ohzora's Weakness Hex, taking 1 Fatigue damage!  Yumi Ohzora is Psyched!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!  Exhausted and Stagger applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to dodge Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Moon's Combo: All-Star Senshi!, taking 168 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Mistress 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAfgowW6xBw

Fuu's tornado may not pin the tree down for one second, but it does send all those branches writhing, making them a little harder to control. Not so hard that Treetears can't interpose them between Jad's watery kick and her mistress, though.

For what it's worth, Calaveras gives Jad an appraising look, having teleported behind him. "We're always recruiting freedom fighters," she points out with a laugh lighter than the lightest puff pastry. A moment later, she's gone, repositioning herself to -- somewhere else. Probably nearby.

But maybe not, because the tides are finally -- finally -- starting to turn.

Cure Bloom and Miraculous Ladybug fail to make their marks, but the sheer quantity of punches and ornaments coming Treetears' way forces her to retreat, big stumpy feet (no roots...) clumping across the plaza, which buys Yumi some time to curse, Chika some time to think, and Kuniko some time to cook.

And the Sailor Senshi, some time to plan.

Sign it across their hearts -- love and justice is delivered in triplicate, with crackling thunder, burning laser, and coruscating moonlight combined as one to wash over the monster. She howls, most of the rest of her ornaments shattering at once, all of her needles standing on end (moreso than they do naturally). Afterwards, she is charred, not quite a lump of coal but certainly a shadow of her former shadowy self.

Is this the end?

---

Earlier, several of the magical girls paused in their assault on the monster to do a little crowd management -- rescuing (and being scolded by) children (the last of whom run away scowling after Sailor Moon's rejoinder), dousing fires, saving Santa.

They missed one, though.

They can be forgiven for this; in her black tunic, black leggings, black flats, and with her black hair, she's very hard to see at night, especially in the black light that continues to coruscate from the tree -- albeit more weakly now than she has been, as she teeters beneath the might of the opposition.

This child wasn't separated from her parents. She wasn't supposed to be here at all. She didn't sneak out for the event, exactly... it's more that she was reading on an Ueno Park bench, and fell asleep, overcome with her typical fatigue. This is a particularly bad idea for a sick kid on a cold December day, so it's no great surprise that when she woke up, she was suffused with a coughing fit that wracked her delicate little form with misery for a good ten minutes.

The same ten minutes in which this fight has taken place.

---

Her breath is coming weakly now, in ragged gasps, more out than in, as though she's losing air rather than gaining it with each knife-stab effort to force it through her lungs. Her eyelashes flutter, her eyes unseeing -- a kindness, perhaps, as that tree is crashing down towards her, toppled by cosmic power, by star power.

And then everything freezes.

A pair of burning red eyes gleam like lamps, but that's all of the silhouette that can be seen, as a pair of hands, unshaking, reach out to caress Treetears, catching her fall effortlessly while touching no more than the most delicate, external branches.

There is a sense of motion -- physical, as the tree is righted -- but mystical, much moreso, as though a power so great that it rattles the air is passing silently through the plaza... or perhaps between parties.

Treetears seems taller than before, and darker, too. The black lights that twinkled with antipathy from her branches explode in a symphony of pops, causing cold fire to rush up every branch and down every twig. This spectacle of conflagration, however, is dwarfed in horror by the glory that crowns the Droid, very literally.

A black star, both great and terrible, completes a tree that had previously lacked ornamentation at her very tip. The air around it seems distorted, shimmering. How can something so dark be so painful to look at directly? Is this what a solar eclipse is like? Or perhaps it's the opposite -- light painful in its absence, that which is shed at the emptiness of the heart of a former supernova.

The plaza, mercifully evacuated now of all but magical girls, explodes. The eye of this maelstrom is the tree, an unholy burning bush that spins out her newly augmented strength with her mouth open in a silent scream, tears of black sap tracking down her needled cheeks.

Many are targeted by a multitude of smaller fires, the blasted lesser lights of the tree swirling like malicious fairies to apply more than enough tiny burns to reduce anything to ash. An unfortunate few, however, meet the greater power, for which the crowning star is the engine, directly, as it pours out in waves, crashes over its foes, extinguishing, erasing, destroying all that it can.

Maybe the eyes were just a trick of the unlight, an illusion constructed by tormented minds to explain the tree's unlikely survival and the horror that came after. There's no-one there now.

But the monstrous tree, now a double perversion of Christmas, remains.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used A Star Is Born on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe accepts Hotaru Tomoe's A Star Is Born, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Empower and Surge applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Yumi Ohzora.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Sailor Jupiter.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Sailor Venus.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Kuniko Saito.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Cure Bloom.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Jad Werke.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps on Fuu Hououji.
<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used 1950s Americana Christmas Fireworks on Sailor Moon.
<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used 1950s Americana Christmas Fireworks on Ladybug.
<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Hotaru Tomoe has used 1950s Americana Christmas Fireworks on Chika Aki.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 28 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus perfectly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Sailor Venus's Fade ability activates!  Sailor Venus's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Yumi Ohzora's Block ability activates!  Yumi Ohzora's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 24 Fatigue damage!  Fuu Hououji's Fade ability activates!  Fuu Hououji's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, 1950s Americana Christmas Fireworks, taking 41 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Moon's Fade ability activates!  Sailor Moon's Flash ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Ladybug narrowly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, 1950s Americana Christmas Fireworks, taking 53 Fatigue damage!  Ladybug is unable to keep fighting!  Ladybug's Block ability activates!  Ladybug's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Finisher, 1950s Americana Christmas Fireworks, taking 64 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom perfectly braces Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Brace!  Cure Bloom's Block ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 25 Fatigue damage!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Jad Werke [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Freedom fighters? Hmph - that was a laugh. "I don't see a lot of freedom when you're just forcing emotions on other people," the blue haired mage comments before his target gets whisked away by the tree. But he continues anyways, adding, "All it feels like is a never-ending parade of monsters trying to assail people for one reason or another! I'm always up for a good challenge..." And he grins, not... noticing the fact that there are a bunch of wisps coming in from all directions. "...and it seems like you youma are always willing to keep me happ-"

Oh great googly moogly the CHRISTMAS BURNING FLAMES ARE HERE!

The wave of flames from the spinning tree pushes Jad back off his feet and sends him sailing across the plaza. He hits the ground once, bounces, tumbles, bounces again due to OH DEAR SOMETHING IS STILL ON FIRE, crashes into a nearby stand, and then finally comes to rest in a snowbank.

Jad groans and pushes himself to his feet. Unfortunately he isn't sensitive to the strange sorts of things that those red eyes would trigger in those whose powers were more directly related to opposing darkness. So he shrugs off the feeling of unwholesome dread that had swept across the plaza - determined to get back into the fight - and pushes himself to his feet.

Someone more sensitive might have stopped and questioned why there was a negative sun burning from the top of that tree. Someone with more wisdom would consider coordinating with the others, making a plan, trying to see if there might be a smarter way to tackle this problem.

That someone is not Jad Werke. All he knows is the challenge seems to have gotten bigger, the wall in front of him taller, the danger more acute, the enemy more terrifying. And so he slams his gauntlets together, a pair of magical circles appearing around each of them, and a larger triangular circle appearing at his feet. "Schwartz, set us up!"

<Indeed sir. Engaging spread.> his device comments, the gem on the back of one wrist flashing as Schwartzritter speaks. Jad spreads his hands out, both palms open with one facing up and one down. And as he moves them in a circle, spheres of brilliant blue water form in the air following his motion. Twelve appear on each side of him, and the mage sets himself on the ground - his stance ready as he looks at that huge dark tree.

It would be easier if he had some power to purify this sort of evil - but sadly that's never been his forte. He didn't even really believe in this sort of 'absolute' evil before coming to this world from Midchilda. But what he could do was crash in, make an opening, and let the girls who were better able to deal with these problems have at it. And so Jad rushes forwards, trailing the two dozen water sphere bullets behind him as he closes with the demon tree. And as he approaches, the blue haired mage leaps into the air and shouts: "GRAND! GEYSER!"

And he launches the barrage of water shots in a sustained barrage at the tree - aiming to saturate it in a massive number of strikes at once that will prove difficult to evade.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Jad Werke has used Grand Geyser on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Jad Werke has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly dodges Hotaru Tomoe's Infernal Will-O-The-Wisps, taking 22 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Sailor Venus [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

As their attack strikes true, Sailor Venus grins fiercely, suddenly finding it a lot easier to stand up straight with her chin held high. "That's the way!" she calls, shooting a big smile towards Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter in turn. It's an expression those two are growing more and more used to seeing from the more experienced senshi:

She's proud of them.

And then everything goes wrong. The tree -- seemingly defeated a moment ago -- has regained its footing and now looks even more terrifying, disturbing enough to cut through whatever effects the hot chocolate were still having on her state of mind. Venus' jaw tightens as the monster rounds on the collection of heroes. No. She /refuses/ to be afraid.

As waves of force and fire rip outwards from the creature, Sailor Venus is able to leap clear, twisting gracefully through the air as the flames go roaring harmlessly beneath her. (Maybe this is what people will remember from tonight, Venus reflects, and not the image of her spitting out pine needles.)

As she alights between Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter, she takes a quick look to make sure they're both alright, not missing the heavy blows that have landed elsewhere. This really, really needs to stop, before anybody else can be hurt..! She catches sight of Jad across the way and, setting her jaw, nods once as she swings both arms above her head.

Golden light once again begins to swirl into being around her hands. "VENUS..." Both arms drop forward, one hand grasping the opposite forearm as she points an almost accusatory finger towards the rampaging creature. "CRESCENT BEAM..." The beam of light erupts from her fingertip, carving a path through the air -- and then it splits! "SHOWER!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Venus has used Crescent Beam Shower on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Venus has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Ladybug [Juuban Public School (8)] has posed.

It's really not clear what, exactly, Treetears is. Ladybug continues to be a study in parkour as she tries to examine it from several angles - what drives it? What is its goal, if there's one beyond 'ruining a nice evening'? Re-decorating it seems to confuse it, at least, so maybe there's something that can be done there - though her musings are cut short as a storm of shining elements seem to more or less resolve the problem. "Nice one!"

The tree's still standing, though there's not much left. Ladybug grips her yo-yo, and prepares to call out - but the words die a swift death in her throat as everything seems to freeze, all at once. A terrible silhouette, embracing the tree - it's like nothing she's ever seen, nothing she's ever imagined. Black light is supplanted by cold fire, and a dark star rises to crown the tree.

(Well, there goes the plan where she tries crowning the tree herself...)

"What in the world...did anyone know that it can do this? Is it even supposed to do this?!" She hasn't been at this for long, and most of what she's been told about the forces of evil pertains to Akuma in particular - but something seems wrong. The tree transformed into a monster, but this is like a whole other monster entirely...

It's painful, it's monstrous...but at least it's clear what the source of the evil is right now. With an eye on the black star, Ladybug winds up to hurl her yo-yo straight up. "LUCKY-"

And then everything explodes. Unholy weeping turns to a scream of terrible flame, baleful starlight brought to bear to swat a little bug.

Abandoning her plans, Ladybug starts to backpedal - but then the wave of destruction hits, and the most she can do is try to roll with the worst of it rather than be obliterated entirely. She's carried across half the park, it seems, getting tangled in the wreckage of two more abandoned stalls along the way. When the flames finally clear for a moment...

It's quiet, but a pile of half-incinerated tarps distant from the tree shifts to reveal a beleaguered-looking but luckily un-incinerated Marinette. She moves gingerly, trying to avoid any attention from that -thing- that defies explanation, cupping something precious in her hands as she winces with every third step.

"Thank you, Tikki. I don't know what would have...I'll get you some cookies, as fast as I can, and then maybe...then..."

The little kwami stirs, drained of strength from the effort she just spent keeping the two of them safe. "Nnn....you can't help anyone like this, Marinette. Focus on keeping yourself safe. Trust in everyone."

Taking cover at the fringe of the area, Marinette looks back - a pang of guilt impossible to bury entirely - and nods, solemnly. "...you're right. They can...they have to do it. I'll believe in them" Barely able to see the battle proper from here, eyes just barely picking out shining lights against the darkness, Marinette flops down onto the grass. Exhausted, all she can do is...hope.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Ladybug transforms into Marinette Dupain-Cheng!
}}


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

Chika sees the Fire Knight leave the fight. And Ryoko seems to have gone as well. The Puella Magi backs up from the large animated tree, looking closely at it... but she can't discern anything helpful, or useful. She is a bit crestfallen. Tired, a little beat up, and definitely a bit unsure. How could she hit this thing? She'd swung for the fences twice, and barely caused a dent.

She watches the three Sailor Senshi do such harm to Treetears... but then, something changes. She doesn't know what, she hadn't seen the girl suffering on the bench. All she knew was suddenly things were different, that dark light was so much stronger. And then, exploding. She gasps softly, taking a frightened step backwards as the eye starts to explode. She runs, barely able to avoid the first of the onslaught before she is caught up in the destructive blasts of Treetears, sent caroaming into a bench and left sprawled on the walkway when the attack fades away.

As the power of that great eye fades, and the onslaught on her body ceases Chika stirs from where she lays. A little groan escapes her, a slight whimper as the Puella Magi pushes her way to her hands and knees and lifts her head from the cobblestones. Her hair is dishevelled, knocked out of the cyan hair-band that kept it neatly in place. Her outfit is singed, cut and battered in places. The soul gem on her chest is dimmer, swirling with a few tendrils of black that weren't present at the onset of the fight.

She rights herself, bringing herself to stand as she raises her scuffed and burned gauntlets up in front of her. She looks around with hazy eyes, focusing on those around her. She watched as Ladybug stirs from the remains of the stalls she was blown into, and turns her attention back towards Treetears.

The watermage she remembers from the train is here, and so are the sailor Senshi. No one has given up. Chikas gauntletted hands can't do the job of wiping the tears of pain from her eyes, and she lets them well and run down her cheeks as she tries to get her ragged breathing under control.

"Okay Chika..." She mumbles, "You can do this. We can still do this. Lookat them all. Strength in numbers. You aren't alone." Her voice is low, speaking to herself. Its probably obvious she is trying to psyche herself up after the heck of a beating she just took. She is wobbly on her feet, but even so... she isn't done!

"Okay. Lets go." She looks up towards Treetears, concentrating for a moment before she places both her hands palms down on the ground. Water briefly coalesces on her gloves before she is skyrocketing upwards on a fountain erupting from her hands. It gives her air overtop of Treetears and that terrifiying dark eye that had spat all that pain out. Chika spins in the air, orienting herself first first towards the ground.

"Knockout.... PUNCH!" She cries, her voice splitting the air as she falls down like a meteor towards Treetears. She picks up speed, and like before when she whiffed through the tree, her gauntlet swells in size. It doesn't stop until its nearing the size of a city bus, Chika barely visible as being attached to the fist rocketing down towards Treetears. Her eyes are squinted shut as she hopes beyond hope that this one lands, cause its the last blow she expects to be able to throw.


 <Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

There is a moment in which something dark and terrible happens. The Wind Knight is conscious of that much - that something which should not exist in the mortal realm briefly paid attention to the battle, and then it was gone, leaving behind that black star ornament at the topmost tip of the tree.

The rest of whatever she might have noticed is blotted out, perhaps mercifully, by explosions that wrack her body and hurl her back off her feet. It's a bad landing, half on top of her own sword, but at least she lands against the flat of it instead of getting cut by its edge. She lets go of the weapon long enough to get back to her feet, though - and then the weapon simply vanishes in a flare of green light, before the light too disappears into her glove-jewel.

Arrows haven't worked, swords haven't worked, *magic* hasn't worked - at least, her own magic hasn't. But she can't afford to give up; this monster, this 'Treetears,' *cannot be allowed to continue existing*. The celebration has been wrecked, the crowd has scattered for safety, but this can still be salvaged if the tree is recovered.

At least, that's what the Magic Knight of Wind hopes. She's out of 'gentle' spells, though; she's going to have to risk damaging the tree. She brings her arms up ...

"Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi!!!"

And she unleashes her magic, weaker than the full Emerald Cyclone would be, but it's the best she can muster in her current state: a whirling, tearing tempest that she focuses around the top of the tree-turned-Daimon - trying to tear into the black star and the black moon as best she can.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Chika Aki has used Knockout... PUNCH! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Chika Aki has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has finished attacking.
}}


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

The Sailor Senshi's combination attack, supported by everyone's spiritful onslaught, takes down Treetears a few pegs. Jupiter grins back at Venus and Moon, and offers them both hands for a double high-five. "Yeah!" she cheers. And even if she laughs while she does so, Calaveras decides to muck off somewhere else. It seems for a moment that victory is in sight.

And then...

And then darkness rises. An enormous, ominous power envelopes Treetears, powering her up even further than before. A shudder runs up Jupiter's spine as she gawks at the display, complete with a pitch black Christmas star. This... this is an outrage! There's nothing about this that should be!

But before she can vocalize that, the plaza explodes. It's a good thing that everyone worked hard to get all the normal people evacuated, because... well, let's not finish that sentence. Those burning red eyes, that strange silhouette, a figure both alien and terrible righting the Droid--and then Treetears's twisted, open-mouthed form, while all that passes does so in absolute, total silence. They will be more than enough to haunt Jupiter's nightmares for days to come.

Worst. Birthday. /Ever/.

The wicked faerie lights blazing bright whorl out towards her and several others, and Sailor Jupiter runs in pace with them, attempting to weave and dodge between them. She's not fast enough to avoid all of the damage, but it's enough that she gets scorched to painfully reddened skin rather than to ash. She comes to an abrupt halt, gritting her teeth. "Sailor Moon! Sailor Venus! Are you all right?!" she shouts. Sailor Moon in particular--she got hit by those waves of terrible energy from the black star. And..

"Ladybug!!" Sailor Jupiter shouts, concern in her voice, as she's blasted out of the plaza and out of sight. If her guess is right, and that's really Michiru Kaioh, then the senpai who so kindly encouraged her only a few weeks ago might be...! No. She has to trust in her. Sailor Jupiter shakes her head and narrows her eyes at this abomination of a Christmas tree. Sailor Venus lands in between her and Sailor Moon, and Jupiter nods back to her--then lets out a long, growing kiai shout as electricity arcs down through the dark sky onto her tiara rod. With a fierce CLAP, Sailor Jupiter slaps her palms together, arms charged with lightning that, as she pulls her hands apart, arc and crackle powerfully between her fingers.

"SPARKLING..." she calls, pressing the charge into a football-sized lump. "WIDE...!" She pulls it back, half-turning, and then *hurls* it towards Treetears. "PRESSUUUUUUURE!!" It doesn't looks like much at first, being functionally a rotating oval of light, but if it strikes true, it will EXPLODE with electric energy.

Sailor Jupiter won't allow any more chaos or destruction!!

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Jupiter has used Sparkling Wide Pressure on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
}}


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

 <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKtJQqzro9w&list=PL663AAD73DC8B43F5&index=22

Can they actually be forgiven though, for missing someone who is so used to being overlooked- forgotten?

The tree is toppling, and Sailor Moon makes a wary advance back towards the stage. And then everything is frozen in time. She feels something, but she doesn't know what it is. It's unease, heaviness in the air, just a moment before a pair of burning red eyes appear in the night.

It's the sort of thing that might have made five year old Usagi Tsukino clutch the edge of her blankets and scream that there's a something in her closet. It's the sort of thing that makes fifteen year old Usagi Tsukino just as terrified.

There's something in the dark, and it's reaching for the enemy, and all she can do is stand there watching it's hands caress the droid. She tries to speak, once- twice- manages it on the third time, "What- What's that?" She whispers, as if afraid it might hear her.

She doesn't even want to look at Treetears now, not with that black emblem that seems etched into the darkness itself- seems more dark and terrible than anything she'd ever seen, like some void sucking everything out of it. Sucking in- to explode outward.

The tree is screaming. Her world is screaming. The air is a star of fire- hot to all of physical senses, and cold to all the others. It feels like fingernails on her cheeks stuff from her worst nightmares all over her and it's only barely touched her. Now she's screaming- but it has no mercy. It's only the fact that she's already running that she was that she hasn't been buoyed off her feet and given to more agony. Diving into a roll, she sacrifices her back, her Fuku seared by violet hellfire as it washes over her.

She wants to just curl into the fetal position and cry as she coughs and hiccups and- but she's seeing the other girls- /her/ girls in the case of Venus and Jupiter still up. And that gives her the strength claw her way back to her feet. To behold the monstrous tree once more.

She almost- double takes. Had she just imagined all of it? But no, the monster was bigger and still aflame and- more /wrong/ than before. "What- what happened-?" She whispers in wonder to herself- looking at Venus, at Jupiter for insight perhaps- staggering once from the intense pain on her backside. Jupiter asks if she's alright? "I- I- don't know... I don't-" But then her grip on the Spiral Moon Heart Rod tightens- whatever this feeling was, she needed it to go away right now.

BGM Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbPztpB7keA

She holds it high, in a chime that seems to resonate throughout the ages. A window into the glory of the Silver Millenium- or at least a dream of it. The Moon shines high above her, in a crescent overlaying dark orb that seems to illuminate her. Bringing the rod down like a baton, she begins to spin it like a Drum Major that wanted to bring her world into the beat, into a balletic dance- that seems like part of the spell she's weaving.

Raising it high again she begins her call, "MOONN SPIRAAALLLLLLLL-" She begins to spin, holding it out in front of her as it unleashes a wheel of pink sparkles. Seeming like three seperate blurs of motion of rod's mystical light, of blonde streams, of her body. Starting high, she weaves it low, faster and faster, "-HEEARRRRTTTTTTTTT-"

Until abruptly she stops, finishing like a figure skater at the climax of the routine, in a dramatic pose, "-ATTTACCKKKKKKK!"

Glittering stardust sparkles out as if the rod itself were the center of a spiral galaxy. And from it- hearts, streams upon streams of them, tributaries joining into something greater than the whole. A giant heart that attempts to crash right into that tree. A brilliant, albeit lesser- opposing force to that Dark Voidstar.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Moon has used Moon Spiral Heart Attack! on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

It's in the middle of a battlefield, so that makes all the passing words and looks of pleasure on the faces of the Sailor Soldiers all the more precious. Kuniko smiles, looking around, and perhaps this is what DOOMS THEM ALL!

Staring into the horrid transformation of the Droid into... into whatever horrid intermingling it has become, resonates through Kuniko like she were a drum of water that was just struck on the side with a vigorous mallet.

"Oh... crap," is all that comes from her lips before an immense blast of fire SLAMS down near her. Kuniko is most decisively launched upwards.

But. BUT! There's always an up side: Kuniko's heart of a chef makes her resilient to heat, relative to your statistically median magical girl. (The clothes help too.) In the air, she tumbles, and she ends up skidding to a halt near, coincidentally, the damaged sections of STUFFED. Looking up momentarily, nearer to the Witch of Ivy, and then back at the enemy.

"... I guess we keep meeting in bad places," Kuniko says, with a weak smile.

Then she pours something out onto something else - and twists it towards Yumi. A plate with a pair of 'dumplings' made of ice cream, held no doubt in some powerful freezer, glazed with an herbally fragrant and sweetened sauce.

"That attack... This is the best I can do. Turning the essence of that Pine Tree into something delectable... I balanced it with rosemary. Against a thing like this, it's the best I can do. But I'm cheering for you!!"

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Rosemary and Pine Ice Cream on Yumi Ohzora.
<br>COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora accepts Kuniko Saito's Rosemary and Pine Ice Cream, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Yumi Ohzora is Cheered!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Yumi can hope it's the end. Her silver braid trails off behind her as she looks up towards the monster, her pink eyes peering out from underneath the brim of her at up at the charred monster.

She stares as it all seems to freeze. It sends a shiver down her spine, until she looks up the cold fire, up the great height of Treetears to a thing even she can't look at, diferrent by far from her own darkness. But she doesn't think about that, and won't think about that. She doesn't even get to think about the way her breath catches in her throat, because the plaza explodes.

She just sees black sap and then awful lights that crash into her. Almost not in time she erects another of he tiny barriers, draining of the worst of /her/ fire, but she can see that it isn't only hers that could benefit from some aid. There's nothing she can do for tose at the heart of the conflragration through, and one of them is the girl she only just met, Chika. Not only her, either.

It's even bigger than before, and Yumi stares out, again from under her hat. She sets her staff to tap the ground before her as she psychs herself up for facing off against this terrible, nightmarish thing. She can feel her hand shake, and it's not from the cold. It's then that Kuniko appears before her, and Yumi jumps in surprise at her sudden stop. "...I guess we do, senpai--ah?" She blinks, and lets her staff hold still for a moment as she takes the plate. "P-pine?" She's immediately skeptical, but she reminds herself--this is her cooking senpai. It must be delicious, if Kuniko is willing to serve it. "All right!" She eats one, and then the other, very quickly, and it seems that she gets the food out here that she wanted to begin with. "That's--That's really good, thank you." A firm nod as she gives the plate back, "I'll do what I can! Nightmares or not!"

She turns back up towards the monster, takes a deep breath, and puts both hands on her staff to steady herself. No, not just to steady herself: she picks it up, tilting her head back and lifting the staff before her, where its green crystal head can start to gather up what real light remains here, not only physical light but more than that, too. It begins to glow, radiant green.

Intoning in a voice that almost sounds like two, high and and loud, "Holy light, rain down in verdant might!" She speaks the incantation and hangs on more tightly, using both hands to trace a magical circle and symbol before her, which hangs there shining. She pulls back her staff--

"BLESSED SHINE!"

She breaks through the circle and her white staff erupts in sunlight. A brilliant sunbeam twice the Witch's height bursts forward, crashing towards the awful black star at the top of this horrific tree.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Yumi Ohzora has used Blessed Shine on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has finished attacking.
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Cure Bloom [Infinity Institute (8)] has posed.

Cure Bloom is slipping back toward the ground after her swift series of attacks. She lands with a soft tap of her shoes on the ground, taking a few deep breaths as she assesses the field. Things are starting to turn around, she thinks...

...she thinks. She feels something invisible run her right through, a ghastly blade of malice that feels as much like a spear through the heart as any magic blade she's felt. She finds her hands on her chest. Looking down. Expecting to find herself run through.

She's fine, physically.

The wrold rushes back in on her. "Bloom-lapi! Bloom-lapi! CURE BLOOM-LAPI!!"

She looks down at the head poking out of her Commune's pouch. "F, Flappy," she stammers.

"That power...I, I don't think it's the same exactly, but it feels a lot like what destroyed the Land of Fountains-lapi! It feels like The Power of Destruction-lapi! Be careful-lapi!!"

The weight of the words settles on her sickly. She's tasted other powers Flappy's compared to the day his home was destroyed - they've never been good. They've all been terrifying, down to her bones. Down to her soul. And they've all rather efficiently demolished her, even when she had Cure Egret at her side.

Her hand clenches and she becomes suddenly, painfully aware of her partner's absence, the wishful illusion of her dear friend soon washed away as the doubly monstrous tree erupts in fire silent roaring, the shockwave of nothing ruffling her skirt and hair. "Ahhhh!" Bloom squawks, throwing up her arms defensively, motes of Earthly gold swirling around her in defiance of that anti-light. When the assaulting fire comes in, Saki calls those lights together into a solid shield, a blazing light against the Darkness crashing against her. Her feet slide against the concrete. The shield shudders. She wishes Egret were her to hold her hand.

Maybe their power, for once, shines across the distance, or perhaps Cure Bloom alone can withstand this power of once-removed darkness; regardless, though cracked and battered, when the assault passes, Cure Bloom remains unbowed. She lowers her arms, limply, huffing. The barrier falls.

She looks up. "O Spirits of Earth," she whispers, and her whole silhouette shines with light, whirling spirits of Earth rising up around her and shining on amid the Silence. She feels her arms and legs bolster with power. She takes long, slow breaths, steadying herself. She doesn't have Cure Egret. SHe doesn't have the Pretty Cure of the Sky beside her. Tonight, Pretty Cure will perform no miracle.

She shifts her stance. There's still one thing she can do. She can still punch it really, really hard.

"HAAAAAAAAAAA!" she screams, back arching, drawing all that spiritual power into herself at once - and then, fist blazing with spiritual light, she shoots toward the newly-empowered Treetears like a pink and gold missile, and SLAMS her fist into it, releasing all the power of the Earth she can draw together on her own against the tainted tree!

Usually, when Cure Bloom does this, things go flying into the air and land in other districts.

{{Quotation|1=<br>COMBAT: FINISHER! Cure Bloom has used Bloom Petal Straight on Hotaru Tomoe.
<br>COMBAT: Cure Bloom has finished attacking.
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Jad Werke's Finisher, Grand Geyser, taking 82 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Chika Aki's Finisher, Knockout... PUNCH!, taking 30 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Storm-Dance of Kamaitachi, taking 40 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Yumi Ohzora's Finisher, Blessed Shine, taking 51 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Cure Bloom's Finisher, Bloom Petal Straight, taking 68 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe narrowly braces Sailor Venus's Finisher, Crescent Beam Shower, taking 82 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe's Block ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe's Parry ability activates!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Jupiter's Finisher, Sparkling Wide Pressure, taking 164 Fatigue damage!
<br>COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Moon's Finisher, Moon Spiral Heart Attack!, taking 199 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe is unable to keep fighting!
}}


 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (6)] has posed.

UP IN THE BLACK MOON UFO

Calaveras, who /absolutely/ teleported out as Sailors Moon/Venus/Jupiter launched Supreme Twilight Beam at her droid, squints down through the window at the black hole that used to be the plaza.

"What the heck is /that/?"

"Good question. Next question: why aren't you down there?"

"A-ah, Lord Rubeus. I was just following orders and giving Saphir's dr--"

"/Prince/ Saphir's," Rubeus corrects with a smirk, just for an excuse to interject.

Calaveras swallows, audibly.

"It's not her fault." Support comes from an /extremely/ unlikely source, as her closest sibling-cum-rival saunters into the room and the conversation. "This is too much responsibility for such a little girl." Oh. Never mind.

"BIG /SISTER/!" she yelps.

"It's okay, I'm here now," Petz says oh-so-soothingly. "Rubeus, s-"

"/Lord/ Rubeus."

Petz rolls her eyes.

"Send me, the oldest and greatest of the Four Ayakashi Sisters, on the next mission. I will not allow my sisters' failure to stain the honor of our clan any further."

"WHAT? I HAVEN'T FAILED Y--"

The window fills with light -- watery and golden and spiritual and aerial and electric and holy and heartful and hopeful. Calaveras is forced to shield her eyes with both hands, and discovers, to her annoyance, when she peeks between her fingers, that both Rubeus and Petz have instead calmly slapped on mirrored shades, of unmistakably twenty-first century make.

"--et," she finishes, with a sigh.

---

DOWN BELOW

The light clears, and Droid Treetears is no more.

The light clears, and the Ueno Christmas tree is back in one piece, its ornaments revived, and the rainbow glimmer of the twinkles it's /supposed/ to make, ever since Mika's thumb depressed the power button, filling the immaculately clean plaza. The food stands are in one piece. The smell of cocoa is once again beginning to fill the air.

And people, attracted by the beauty that shines from this particular town square, are filtering back in, as well.

"That was some freak storm, eh?" Shingo remarks to his buddies, puffing out his chest. "We were the bravest to stay for as long as we did!"

"I'm just glad the tree's all right," Mika adds, joining her classmates. "Look! There's our angel!"

"Yeah," Shingo agrees, without looking at the tree.

THE END...?

---

MARVEL AFTER-CREDITS CODA

Alone in his meditation chamber, a cowled figure floats thoughtfully, his hands endlessly caressing the surface of his crystal ball.

Normally, this mystical sphere shows little other than roiling shadow. And in a matter of speaking, that's still the case. But this--

"...Tau...Ceti..." Wiseman sounds out, tasting the syllables on his tongue like the head of a fine wine. "Hmmm..."


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

The light had faded, and the Magical Girls had come out victorious. Chika had taken the moment in the aftermath of the fight to get to a bench before others returned. She is slumped over resting her elbows on her knees, hands clasped together in front of her as her eyes look forwards towards the bright, well lit Christmas tree. Tired as she is after that battle, she is wearing a small smile. They'd done it. Another victory for the 'good' guys, and another evil plan thwarted. Her smile fades slightly. Boy, there sure were a lot of evil plans going on.

The tired Puella Magi looks around to see if others are surveying the crowd. She is easy enough for the other Magical Girls to remember; Just imagine her with gauntlets.