2024-02-08 - Burn It All Down

Burn It All Down
Summary: Through some unknown incitement, Conflagria has finally been forced to give up on the love of the Hungry Queen. She decides to take it out on her beloved's beloved, with Plan A being murder and Plan B being the flavor of revenge called cruel revelation. Yumi is shown the true identity of her mother as Lost Ivy's great enemy, The Hungry Queen, who promptly executes Conflagria for her sins. It got late and this wasn't revealed on-camera, but eventually the team discover that the missing school nurse was given free tickets to a movie marathon, which is why she was missing and not answering her phone.
Who: Pink Moon Stick, Yumi Ohzora, Mikoto Minagi, Raiko Takashima, Nori Ankou
Where: Mitakihara General Hospital
OOC - IC Date: 2/8/2024 - 05-15-16

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Mitakihara General Hospital+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
  Recently completed to great fanfare, this 42-story hospital is the tallest    
  in the world, with a glossy glass exterior that folds two great wings inward  
  towards the main entrance. Equipped with over 1,200 beds, Mitakihara is       
  known as a place of last resort for those with difficult illnesses (and,      
  ideally, disposable income). Designed with typical criticisms of health care  
  facilities in mind, this ultramodern building eschews the usual bland         
  pastels and workmanlike right angles for elegant, understated earth tone      
  patterns and dynamic diagonal windows and paneling. Its patient rooms have    
  large windows wherever possible to let in natural light, and are decorated    
  to suggest a hotel-like atmosphere.                                           
                                                                                
  There is substance behind Mitakihara's style; the latest technology           
  dominates its every facet, from the touchscreen controls on its room-sized    
  glass elevators to the particle accelerator in its basement used for          
  precision radiation treatment. For all of its amenities, however, Mitakihara  
  can be a quiet, lonely place; not all of its rooms are in use yet, and those  
  that get lost in it can find themselves wandering empty halls.                
                                                                                
  Mitakihara leverages its sheer size by providing a small, French-style        
  garden on the roof for patients. Low hedges of pink flowers seem to sprout    
  directly from the tiles, in a radiating circular shape, and an ornamental     
  iron fence around the rim of the building ensures safety.                     
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.

PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA

The last time the witches faced Conflagria, they defeated her -- but in the fight, there was always the faintest hint of irony in the flames; assuredly not playfulness; but not a truly deadly intent, either. If anything, her challenge to them was just that: a challenge. A push. Magically, yes, but philosophically too.

'What is retribution, but a hunger for revenge?' the agent of the Hungry Queen asked Wise Levin by way of goodbye. And -- 'How you've grown,' were her last words to Lost Ivy, as she departed, snide upon the singed ear of her foe.

And then nobody heard from her for quite a while.

The last time the witches faced Conflagria, she invited them with a kidnapping. That much, at least, is the same this time. Both warning and invitation were clear: Lost Ivy must appear in the appointed place, at the appointed time, or the life of her friend the school nurse would be forfeit; and, also, that she was welcome to bring the full measure of her strength -- which is to say, her friends.

The last time the witches faced Conflagria, the appointed place was Tomoeda Theme Park; a symbol of all things childhood, all things fun, and also all things sickly little girls are oft denied. And at one in the morning, it was also conveniently empty of bystanders.

Today, the appointed place is the roof of Mitakihara General Hospital. It is in so many respects an opposite. Familiar ground, but not for beloved reasons. A place of tears of grief, or simply of frustration. A symbol of all things childhood... but only for certain unfortunate children, like Yumi Ohzora.

And the appointed time is

NOW

<SoundTracker> Jayou Naraku - Inuyasha OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOTmqXbBFnU

Sunset.

The blinding rays of the dying sun gild each petal of the rooftop garden in blood. In this cruel light, the flowerbeds could be wrought from dense thickets of black snakes with crimson eyes rather than stems and blossoms. They spring concentrically from the tiles; where Conflagria stands, they might as well be radiating from her, personally. She looms large, larger than life even, the center of this little world. Around her, the ornamental iron fence sprouts high and slender; what supplies safety to patients and other garden-goers, tonight feels oppressive, much more like the bars of a cage. Lines of stark shadow fall easterly across the garden, and where they land is absolute darkness.

Her palette is less transformed than that of the world around her; but then, black and red were always her colors; she wears them, in her fine raiment, and she is them, in her hair and eyes respectively. Her hair, as ever, is secured in twin forelocks with clips the shape of flames. And her eyes contain flames also, as she imperiously surveys the rooftop, awaiting her enemy; yet they are also curiously liquid, in a new way; she has wept recently, or perhaps simply wept often of late; but she is not weeping now.

Whatever hurts bedevil her are held at bay tonight by the main force of hatred. It twists her, and makes her ugly. But for the her expression, she would be classically beautiful (and, in fairness, when it comes to humanity, hate is never truly and completely out of style).

Restless, rather than nervous, she flicks her thumb through her own fist, over and over. Each time, it emerges enflamed, like an activated lighter. Then, with a soft sizzle, she extinguishes it against her own palm. Again. Again. Again.

Infinity School Nurse Michiko Nakahara is not present, but no one saw her at school today, and she isn't answering her phone. Thankfully, no doctors or patients are in the garden either. But unlike at the theme park, there's a whole skyscraper full of innocents lying at Conflagria's feet.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Conflagria!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fanning The Flames on Yumi Ohzora.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fanning The Flames on Raiko Takashima.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fanning The Flames on Nori Ankou.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fanning The Flames on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Raiko Takashima accepts Pink Moon Stick's Fanning The Flames, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Raiko Takashima is Cheered!  
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora accepts Pink Moon Stick's Fanning The Flames, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi accepts Pink Moon Stick's Fanning The Flames, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi is Cheered!  
COMBAT: Nori Ankou accepts Pink Moon Stick's Fanning The Flames, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Nori Ankou is Cheered!  

<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Yumi and Raiko came through that day. It was a day Yumi learned just how much she could trust Raiko--a thing she's learned many a time, now, before and after.

But always these meetings seem to come with a danger to someone else...

Not that Yumi loves to be here on the best of days. In the cruel light, she watches, as the elevator opens and Conflagria is there. Many a time has Yumi Ohzora been in this rooftop garden; many a day, many a week, many a month has she spent in this place, and...

And she resents, that her enemy would bring her here too.

A cage is right. But the Witch of Lost Ivy does not intend to be trapped today.

"Give her back," Lost Ivy demands as she steps out of the elevator. She has a healthy... anxiety, of Conflagria; they defeated her before, but it felt only barely. Nevertheless, anger makes her strong today.

How she's grown...

"How dare you use this place," Lost Ivy demands, stretching the Staff before her to point at Conflagria.

She has already transformed, of course. It was at the bottom that the ivy enveloped her, that the black and pink and green of her raiments began.

Now, here, she is ready.

"On my name--I'll stop you. Here, and now."

But not alone.

COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora transforms into Inheritor Lost Ivy!
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Fury on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 0 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Fury, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Witch of Lost Ivy is
Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Castigation, partially gets through, doing 18 Fatigue damage to Witch of Lost Ivy!
Exhausted applied to Witch of Lost Ivy!

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto knows Conflagria. They were co-workers, once upon a time -- and they didn't much get along. Mikoto does not think she has ever met the Hungry Queen, but dealing with Conflagria was, to hear her tell it, bad enough.

Whatever hurt bedevilled her, it scarcely stopped Mikoto from snarling, and --

"rrrRRRRRRAAAHHH--!!"

That's Mikoto's voice. But where was Mikoto?

MOMENTS PRIOR

A dark figure leaps from windowsill to windowsill, scaling up the side of Mitakihara General, heedless to the smooth, clinical surface which would leave any misstep as the prelude to a pancake. Until she reaches the top, and discards her sword's sheath, right behind the huge generators which power the communications of the hospital. Until --

THE SCREAMING

Mikoto springs out from the shadows which flame casts, blade out, as she CRATERS towards Conflagria like a meteor come down to Earth.

Ohhh. There was Mikoto.

And even if she isn't trying to cut Conflagria in half -- something which takes a non-trivial amount of effort to do -- even SLAMMING her with that greatblade, swinging overhead, is bound to leave a mark.

Full power, right out the gate. Sometimes, you just hate someone.

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi transforms into HiME Mikoto!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Destruction on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick partially dodges 14 Fatigue damage from Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Destruction, taking 55 Fatigue
damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene de Diamant!

<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

That last echoing taunt of Conflagria's had unsettled Levin for quite some time afterwards. (The whole battle had, really--even with Yumi's newfound strength, it had been hard fought and narrowly won. She would remember what her lightning had wrought on Conflagria's arm for quite some time to come.)

'What is retribution, but a hunger for revenge?'

Why would she try to draw a likeness between them and The Hungry Queen?

What they wanted was far, far different from anything The Hungry Queen could desire.

But still, in the end, she and Yumi had pulled through, had stood together, side by side, until the end. And Raiko learned just how strong she was too, in that moment.

She, too, is already transformed as she steps out of the elevator, in black and yellow and silver. It is Levin that steps foward, staff already dancing with lines of electricity. She gets Ivy's anger--Nurse Nakahra was kind to her, too, in a moment when she desperately needed it, and the orange eyes that stare at Conflagria as she steps out are willful and defiant.

"Ivy," she says quietly. "Don't let her goad you. You'll play into her hands."

Still, they have to meet the challenge. "We won't let anyone else suffer because of your aims, Conflagria!" she shouts. She starts to gesture with her free hand, forming a shimmering bolt of electricity as she goes. "Crack the sky and shatter stone!" She raises her hand up and then slams it down, hurling it at the enemy witch. "Piercing bolt!"

COMBAT: Raiko Takashima transforms into Witch Levin!
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Piercing Bolt on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

"Of course I'll come," says a slightly tired-sounding Nori on the phone. "I'll see you there. I'm... I'm sorry." Why is she sorry? Maybe just on general principles.

HERE:

This hospital does not hold pleasant memories for la Sirene de Diamant. But why would it? Hospitals are places of liberation and healing for many. But for many others they are practically prisons. And for many others beyond that... It is the last place where you see a loved one.

And yet, it seems the Witch of Lost Ivy has brought someone else.

Luminous, the sunlight refracting in strange ways as it touches a spectral line seldom seen upon Earth's surface save in the dog-days of summer, la Sirene walks forwards a step and a half behind Lost Ivy. She has a hand on her hip and her steps are deliberate.

"For the sake of this place, where too many sorrows have come, I will" she begins. Mikoto, in a word, interrupts her: but from the look on her pale-eyed face, she is surprised... but not upset by this turn of events.

"You know," la Sirene says, "a fair point." Turning her glare back towards Conflagria, she calls, "Return what you have taken or face the Abyss!" Her hands clap together in front of her as she draws in a deep breath. The light around her flares, even if it may seem dim in the face of the sun, however weary from its journey through the empyrean vaults:

"Have at you."

La Sirene sweeps a hand forwards with a shimmering burst, the sparkling-spangle on her jeweled tunic shifting just a bit before suddenly coalescesing towards Conflagria's face to dazzle her. Perhaps worse!

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Carbonado Kaleidoscope on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 6 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Piercing Bolt, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Witch of
Wise Levin is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Mirror Mirror, partially gets through, doing 24 Fatigue damage to Witch of Wise Levin!
Critical Counterhit!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 9 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Carbonado Kaleidoscope, taking 14 Fatigue damage!
Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!  Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
<SoundTracker> The Painful Way - Hades OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PUzjebdsXw

Conflagria smirks at Lost Ivy's demand for her friend's return, and her outrage at her choice of showdown arena. But the last thing she says gets a rise out of her -- a rise of temper, of words, and of flame, when she raises her arm to gesture at her foe.

"On your name," she repeats, all but spitting mad. "On your name. If I could burn your name straight off your unworthy body -- off your pitiful little soul -- I WOULD!"

She is far too distracted by this unhappy fantasy to notice a cat bounding in from the side. Mikoto connects squarely, and to the extent that Conflagria saves herself from the full power of that blow it is only in how she rolls with it. Tumbles, really; she has been knocked tits over heels. Her palms meet the ground in a fierce SMACK, and come up bloody... but quickly, as she flexes her elbows and vaults back to her feet.

"My, Ivy, what debased circles you're running in," she remarks. "A minion of your very own. Just as she planned. I wonder what your brother would think, that you are so obedient to her, but not to him," that to Mikoto, of course, over a curled lip. "I guess it's family night in more ways -- than -- one."

The blood incinerates to ash, but not before it drips into runes across both palms, and in time with the end of her sentence, flame springs into life just as Wise Levin's bolt is coming in. She catches it in midair, between her burning palms, in a somewhat ungainly but exceedingly effective 'Daddy Shark' gesture, and then flings it straight back at the other witch, with considerably more force.

She shades her eyes from La Sirene's light -- apparently she can't burn her own forehead like this -- and in so doing disperses the worst of it with the licking shadows that it casts.

"Four on one this time," she muses. "A little less insulting than last time, Ivy, but turnabout is fair play."

Conflagria, after all, is not just a pyromancer. She is an enchantress.

When her palm comes waay from her forehead, there's a third eye there. It glares straight at Mikoto, who is, historically speaking, well-suited to being the recipient of mental manipulation. Darkness shades the cat's vision, and it becomes difficult to see--

--and when she looks, what she sees is four Conflagrias, moving identically. What she hears is four Conflagrias, speaking in unison. What she smells is four Conflagrias, who all wear expensive perfume. This is not a matter of mere illusion. This is a deeper magic than that, and a worse one. It is not, however, irresistible, and exactly why Conflagria is attracted to trying to ensorcel Mikoto might be the girl's salvation for the very same reason...

Clapping her hands together again, a whip of flame grows from between them, which she cracks across La Sirene and Wise Levin in turn. The third time, it flies free of her grasp to constrict around Lost Ivy like a snake.

"Do you know why I brought you here?"

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Evil Eye on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fire Lash on Witch of Wise Levin.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fire Lash on La Sirene de Diamant.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Spark of Hate on Witch of Lost Ivy.
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy braces 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Spark of Hate, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Witch of Lost
Ivy's Block and Parry abilities activate!  Blind and Stagger applied to Witch of Lost Ivy!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi braces 0 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Evil Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi is Taunted!
Diversion applied to Mikoto Minagi!

DICE: Mikoto Minagi rolls 1d4+0 and gets 2!

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant braces 14 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fire Lash, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  La Sirene de
Diamant is Quipped!  La Sirene de Diamant's Block and Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

A smirk--and then real anger. Once again, it seems so personal for Conflagria, when Yumi doesn't know why that could be. "That's one thing you can't take from me," Yumi expresses in defiance.

Yumi would be lying if she said she didn't really appreciate Mikoto in the moment. Mikoto acts how Yumi would prefer to say that she feels.

But she feels more than just anger, whether she'll admit it or not. Like how Nori apologized. Like how La Sirene speaks of the sorrows of this place, and Levin reminds her--

"Right," Yumi says tightly. "She's not my minion," Yumi says, the word dripping with ire. "She's my friend! That's the difference!"

"Turnabout? --Mikoto, look out!"

She doesn't know what spell that was, but it worries her. She doesn't have time to try to undo it though--because that whip of flame constricts Yumi. "Gh--"

"No!" she calls to Conflagria. "I don't!"

But turnabout, Conflagria said, is fair play. While Yumi can't get away, she points with her eyes, tracing a sigil of misfortune with the hand stuck at her side. "Ivy Binding!"

From the gardens all around them the vines come, surging in a sealing curse.

"Why!?"

COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Ivy Binding on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick decisively counters 9 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Ivy Binding, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Witch
of Lost Ivy is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!  Tangle applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Castigation, partially gets through, doing 39 Fatigue damage to Witch of Lost Ivy!
Critical Counterhit!

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Miroku lands, and it's entirely too satisfying, seeing Conflagria tumble like that. (She's glad that Nori sees her point, going straight for the assault. You can't just talk to Conflagria, Mikoto knows that. She'll --)

"Rrrhh--!!" Mikoto snarls, when Conflagria starts talking anyway, calling her Yumi's minion, calling her obedience into question. "That's-- not--!!" Yumi is more eloquent about her denials, and she's glad for it, really.

(Or is she just letting Yumi speak for her? Just like --)

"No one planned anything!" She yells, instead. "I'm here 'cuz I want to be!" She circles Conflagria, to find the best avenue to strike again, but -- it just brings her around to see that third eye, when Conflagria unveils it. Her eyes scrunch up, and she shakes her head, rattle-rattle-rattle, hearing Yumi's warning in the distance. Look out, because -- Conflagria said she'd turn things around, and there are four of them and now there are four Conflagrias, and it's not a heat mirage. "I can smell you!" Mikoto screams, but she can smell all four of her, and as she whirls --

She slams the flat of Miroku's blade into the closest Conflagria she can reach, teeth bared.

COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin decisively counters 18 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fire Lash, taking 6 Fatigue damage!
Witch of Wise Levin is Quipped!  Witch of Wise Levin's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin's counterattack, Storm Guard, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness on La Sirene de Diamant.
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant fails to brace Mikoto Minagi's Obsidian Blade: Dauntlessness, taking 43 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Hit!  Mikoto Minagi is Psyched!

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The shadowy spotlight may be at least formal notice that she's there. La Sirene's head tilts up to say, disdainfully, "Do you truly think this...? This isn't something that's born from chains of terror and need, but of friendship - battles fought together, each link forged in our hearts!" It started with disdain anyway, and got sort of scolding at the end.

She may be a model, but she's hardly all grown up.

Sweeping a hand over her hair, she takes a deep breath -- the whip's coming, though! She braces herself, cross-blocking the snapping whip as it smashes against her forearms. The gloves aren't long enough down to guard her; the whip of flame flares a peculiar chemical green as la Sirene hisses and says, "As she says!" She steps forwards to raise her left hand

AND

IT

HAPPENS

AGAIN

The swung flat of Miroku's blade smashes into the side of the diamond-clad heroine of shadow and sorrow, which, helpfully, hides her facial expression at this turn of events but nevertheless means that she's hurled to the side and onto the ground, skidding on the ground for a moment before lurching upwards. "Wh... what...?"

She looks at Mikoto, and for a moment, it's quite vulnerable. But --

"Mikoto..."

Sway --

"-- she's trying to trick you!"

And NOW she turns towards -- oh gosh I really hope I'm not being tricked too, thinks la Sirene for a moment - Conflagria, before declaiming with some effort, "Les Mysteres--" Her right hand swings round--

"Come!"

Burst! Much of the shadow-litten light show is veiled by the glare of the sunset... but far from all: it's quite a concrete, objectively-provable ball of shadow and silver flying towards Conflagria. Can fire beat -- light? ink? It's a little ambiguous.

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Les Mysteres on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick dodges 13 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Les Mysteres, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon
Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

They have more friends this time--Mikoto, whom Ivy trusts so much, and Levin was learning to trust, too, and Diamant, whom Levin has never seen in action, but is buoyed to know that she has the extra support.

They'll need it, with the danger all the greater due to the presence of so many innocent lives in the hospital.

That is... a rather extreme reaction to Ivy's name. They're enemies, but--

She makes it sound so personal.

Levin scowls as Conflagria catches the bolt--and too late she remembers, that Conflagria has a mastery over mirrors was well as fire, throwing her hands up as the bolt is returned, with interest. She lets out a sharp cry as she is forced backwards, stumbling into the elevator doors. "Fine then."

The fire lash comes next, and Raiko thrusts her staff forward, summoning a barrier of dark angry storm clouds to block the worst of the blow, gritting her teeth as some of the licks of flame beat the barrier.

"Mikoto--" Oh... oh this is bad, Mikoto is ensorcelled, and Ivy is constrained. She charges forward, feet lifting off the ground as winds lift her up and propel her forward in front of Ivy. "Release them, Conflagria! And the Nurse!"

She raises her hand over her head, and at the same time a small storm cloud springs to life over Conflagira's head. "Heavenly fury, fall to earth!" She points at Conflagria and shouts, "Smite!" unleashing a thunderous bolt of lighting right on her head.

COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Smite on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 20 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Smite, taking 16 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's
Block and Parry abilities activate!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Rage of the Myrmidons - Hades OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ39TFAyJgY

Ivy's vines start creeping up Conflagria's legs but she seems to resist their grip not with literal fire but with sheer rage. Her voice drips with contempt. Slices with it. In short order she is walking free of the vines, which wither beneath this verbal assault.

"Because I finally realized what a fool I've been."

In a surprise twist, this contempt is for herself. At least partially...

"I know I can never have what I want. I guess I've always known," she acknowledges with a chilly bitterness most unlike her. "But I'm done pretending. I gave my whole life to someone who doesn't give a single damn."

Les Mysteres come, and Conflagria respects them, as any villainness who's been around the block in Tokyo a few times must. She takes a long moment to sidestep -- but too long. La Sirene has become faster, stronger, than she was when she was a du Nord. Enough so to surprise her.

She is undeterred, advancing towards the entangled Lost Ivy.

"If I can't have HER," she whispers, sliding a sizzling-hot finger down the witch's cheek, then under her chin, "Then she can't have YOU."

Wise Levin's bolt is coming in as this happens, and she wants to mishandle Lost Ivy more than she wants to get out of the way, so she takes it, right to the crown. Afterwards, she spits out a forked tongue of lightning, which goes to sparks on the tile, and retreats.

On his way to La Sirene, Miroku explodes rosebushes all around Mikoto. A whirling style will do that, especially when you can no longer see the scenery. But as she's impacting -- in that moment -- Conflagria's Evil Eye sigil flares on Mikoto's forehead, and then sliiiiiiiiiides down to her hands, to her weapon, and, as fast as the strike itself, onto her victim.

Mikoto can suddenly see exactly who she hit; and she can see countless blood-red petals, floating everywhere, at the violent speed of Miroku himself.

Now it is La Sirene whose vision clouds... the four Conflagrias chuckle a little as her infection of an enchantment spreads.

"Am I?" she asks the veteran, as to who she's trying to trick. "We shall see... how far friendship takes us this day. Well done, Mikoto," she adds, approvingly.

With a fleeting gesture, almost an afterthought, she conjures up a ring of flame around the garden, as though each iron spike is now a torch. These flames lick inward with almost prehensile ability to burn anyone they can reach.

"Enough about the nurse," she adds, dismissively. "You'll get her back when this is done. We're not here to talk about mortals."

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Giving Yumi The Finger on Witch of Lost Ivy.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Evil Eye on La Sirene de Diamant.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Ring of Fire on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Ring of Fire on Witch of Wise Levin.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Immortal Affairs on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Pink Moon Stick's Immortal Affairs, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant cleanly braces 0 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Evil Eye, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  La Sirene
de Diamant's Block and Parry abilities activate!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi perfectly dodges 21 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Ring of Fire, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Dodge!  Mikoto Minagi's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Giving Yumi The Finger, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Witch of Lost Ivy is
Quipped!
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Ring of Fire, taking 22 Fatigue damage!  

DICE: La Sirene de Diamant rolls 1d4+0 and gets 2!

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Thunder rolls. Vines crawl - though of course flame is perhaps strong against the wiles of Ivy, at least when it is burning brightly - and standing besides all of them? The one drunk on the seas of Time -- la Sirene de Diamant!

(Some things are just cool sounding.)

"And what does THAT --" La Sirene calls, before something erupts around her. The light gleams around her, contaminating that barrier-aura around her as she shades her eyes and looks at all four of the Conflagriae. "Must you put people in danger to have a conversation!? Get her LINE!"

It's not the finest of comebacks, but it's honest, at least. La Sirene raises her hand up in a sweeping widdershins circle and tilts her head at the shadowy, mocking Conflagrias around her. Watch - think - narrow her eyes and -

A bursting coil of that inverse-light pours out from her and along the floor towards the second from the left. The second from the left - two and leaning from the left - always a lucky number! It pours along the ground, sliding low and then bursting upwards into an engulfing shadow-negative of something not unlike an anemone, aiming to wrap round Conflagria and bind her to the ground against something her fire cannot burn -

Or at least, which isn't quite as intuitively burnable as the ivy.

Of course, la Sirene is unaware of one key fact...

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Polyploia on Witch of Lost Ivy.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi covers Witch of Lost Ivy for La Sirene de Diamant's attack, Polyploia, taking it upon herself instead!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace La Sirene de Diamant's Polyploia, taking 40 Fatigue damage!  Tangle and Trap applied to
Mikoto Minagi!

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mikoto!, Levin cries -- but Mikoto's already assaulting Conflagria, here in the rosebushes. They evoke her school as her vision clears to see them, blood-red and fluttering like a flock of disturbed butterflies.

And she sees la Sirene, as she's scattered onto the ground. "Nnn-- la Sirene!" She very almost slips up, in her horror, taking a step back as Diamant's warning finally reaches her ears.

Her shoulders sink, and she murmurs, hushed, to Conflagria's approval: "... don't..." It's a word all laden with shame, because she doesn't want someone to approve of her for hurting her friends this way. She does get out of the way of those flames -- but it's really all on instinct. If she had to think about it, she'd surely get burned.

She realises, with blanch horror as her eyes widen, that she has given la Sirene the precise enchantment which fooled her. "Look out!" She cries, as she sees that inverse light pouring out -- not towards Conflagria, as Mikoto knows Nori thinks, but towards Yumi.

And so with the speed of a cracking whip she springs forward to put herself between la Sirene and Lost Ivy, somehow fast enough to beat the speed of something not quite light, bringing Miroku up more like a massive shield than the murder weapon it is. She digs her heels in, but Diamant's power is vast; those anemone-fronds wrap about her and send her thrown backwards, right into Yumi herself.

At least Mikoto manages to absorb the force of that unlight -- Mikoto herself is light, and easy to catch.

"Uhhhh..." She mumbles, eyes scrunching up, as she shakes her head to rattle it back to sense again. (Not because of Conflagria's tricks, this time, but just from power of another type of obsidian. Perhaps it's no wonder they both struck each other so grievously.) "L... Lost Ivy," she says, as she straightens up, reseating her grasp on Miroku. "Lost Ivy! She should be jealous! 'Cause --" and there is the reason she knows, and the reason she doesn't know she knows, "-- 'cause we're with you, Lost Ivy! You gotta beat her!"

She calls out, here: "Wise Levin! Put the fire out!!" That's how storms work, right?

COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi has used Familiar Witch's Support on Witch of Lost Ivy.
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy accepts Mikoto Minagi's Familiar Witch's Support, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Witch of Lost Ivy is
Cheered!

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Letting Yumi speak for Mikoto? It's not like that keeps happening, or anyhting.

But Nori and Mikoto clash. "No!" Yumi calls, still trapped, still burning. Only the thick raiments of her Witch's garb seem to stop the flames from burning her skin. But Levin...

Levin is doing her best. So Yumi has to.

"What?" Yumi starts, at Conflagria's strange contempt. She acknowledges something with such bitterness, but it only confuses Yumi. "I don't... what?"

That finger slides down Yumi's cheek, and she grits her teeth in pain and dismay. "I don't understand!" Yumi shouts at her. But she retreats, and Yumi manages to break her arms free, at least, with the Staff.

"What do you mean, 'mortals'?"

Her anger is giving way. Yumi was never the type to burn hotly. But she may be about to run into more trouble, because La Sirene de Diamant's power comes for her. Lost Ivy can't escape the binding in time; she turns, and looks. "Sirene--"

Mikoto interposes herself, and Yumi's eyes feel wet to see her hurt that way. Yumi catches her, and cradles her carefully. "Mikoto!" But Mikoto calls do her, and...

"...Right. You're with me. I know."

Yumi, when Mikoto rises, turns again to Conflagria.

"...I don't understand you," Yumi admits to Conflagria. "Why do you hate me so much? You hated me before I ever did anything to you. And now you're risking the hospital, all these people--and my friends!"

"Who is 'she'!?"

She points the Staff forward, "TELL ME! Wrath of forgotten spirits--"

"DARK RADIANCE!"

In sigils of destruction burst forth white-tinged beams, crashing like the tides towards Conflagria in a rush of purifying light.

Mikoto's called to Levin; Yumi calls, "Together, Levin! Like we practiced!"

COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Dark Radiance on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Conflagria is talking about what sounds like some... awfully personal stuff. It's bad, not just in how it's lead her to threatening Ivy personally and holding an entire hospital building full of people hostage by implication--

But it reeks of desperation.

And another of Levin's attacks that Conflagria takes and just... spits out.

This is starting to become infuriating.

"Whatever it is you think you're proving--" starts Levin, but then she sees that eye slide down Miroku and onto Diamant, and her eyes widen. "Oh, no," she says with all of the due and appropriate dread for recognizing the raw cunning of the clearly more advanced witch. "You didn't."

She releases her staff and starts to gesture with both hands, symbols and sigils forming before her as she tries to figure out just how to stop that insidious spell. It's way above her level, and she's not used to workings on people, because she's not a monster. "Hang on, Diamant--"

And that moment of distraction is enough for those flames to lick in and singe her (in the back-- again--what the hell!?) she lets out a startled yelp and loses her concentration, her working vanishing in a puff of light as she drops into an ungainly pile on the ground. Her staff remains hovering beside her.

She can only watch in horror as Diamant goes for Ivy--and then Mikoto takes the blow for herself.

If she'd had any remaining doubts about Mikoto, they would have vanished in that instant.

She pulls herself back up to standing with her staff, scowling as she whirls to face Conflagria once more. "The best way to put those flames out is to take her down!"

She gestures with her hands, forming an angry, tumbling, mini-vortex of electrical sparks. "Swirl and tumble, glittering lights!" She holds it in one hand and snatches her staff with the other, surging forward and unleashing a spray on Conflagria. "Sparkshower!"

COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Sparkshower on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Without the Barrier flag, only a ranged attack can counter a ranged attack. Please counter with the correct range of
attack, or with an attack with the Barrier flag.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick neatly dodges 40 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Dark Radiance, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Pink
Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 12 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Sparkshower, taking 12 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Hit!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!  Blind applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Castigation, partially gets through, doing 20 Fatigue damage to Witch of Wise Levin!
Exhausted applied to Witch of Wise Levin!

<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Through Asphodel - Hades OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt1l-gut5ow

"I didn't come here," Conflagria tells La Sirene, overcalmly, "To have a conversation."

Mikoto tells it like it is -- the sorceress does not deny the accusation of jealousy, having just confessed it herself. In her daring intervention, however, the enchantment rebounds, delivered back unto its original target by the many tendrils of the Polyploia even as they grasp her! The last thing she sees, before she can only see Conflagria and darkness...

...is that the thousand petals in the air are starting to burn. They were falling like snow, but now, they fall like ash.

The others, the freed La Sirene included, perceive smoke rising from more of the foliage. Not from some accidental sparkshower catching, nor from the licks of flame from the fenceposts. No.

The smoke is thickest, already succumbing to tongues of flame, in the spot that she slapped with both palms while rolling out Miroku's original impact. And it is proceeding to burn in a very clearly defined line, which, some feet away, is becoming a very well-delineated curve.

That seems... bad. The Sulfuric Ogre once drew an enormous Earth rune on the floor of Ajinomoto Stadium and turned it into Lost Ivy's tomb.

If a massive Fire rune engulfs the roof of the hospital, it could be very bad for a lot more than just Conflagria's opponents.

"I came here to kill you," she tells Lost Ivy, measured -- in words and in steps, as the witch's massive beam is sidestepped, transforming the edge of her cloak from red to white, but no more. But that momentary centering of her mood cracks beneath Wise Levin's sparkshower, one of which nails her RIGHT in the eye. She sucks back a wince, and it comes out as a hiss instead.

"But I have enough in me for you, too, child!"

It is her turn to whirl. Flames erupt beneath her footsteps, trail behind her graceful upraised arms -- and gather, in heretofore unseen intensity.

Having vented some of her rage like a steam valve from a boiler, she regards Lost Ivy from across the burning garden. The sun, which was kissing the tower-filled horizon before this even began, will very soon sink out of sight. It is perhaps an eighth of a circle, now, rather than half.

"Who is 'she'?" She laughs, and her voice rises, cracking in her devotion and in her madness. "Who else? I speak of your enemy, my Mistress, the Insatiable. She Who Reigns Below The Root; Earthdrinker, Hearteater. The Queen Of All Hungers! Yours..."

Softly, "...and mine."

She smiles. It is intended to be a cruel smile, but it's a little sad also.

"Everything I've ever done for her... everything any of us have been ordered to achieve... has always, really, been for you. The one whose fate she treasures before all others. Her chosen one, destined for the most precious gift on this world or any other!"

Her eyes narrow, yet her smile is unwavering -- as the flames she's collected pour forth, suffocating from their heat alone; blistering to the slightest touch; deadly to the greatest.

"I burned for her... now you will burn for me, INHERITOR!"

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Whirling Flame on Witch of Wise Levin.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Whirling Flame on Witch of Lost Ivy.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Whirling Flame on Mikoto Minagi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Whirling Flame on La Sirene de Diamant.
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi counters 12 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Whirling Flame, taking 36 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi's
Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi's counterattack, Obsidian Blade: Dynamo, partially gets through, doing 11 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant decisively counters 39 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Whirling Flame, taking 13 Fatigue
damage!  La Sirene de Diamant's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant's counterattack, Wake! The Boundary Glass, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!  
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant covers Witch of Lost Ivy for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Whirling Flame, taking it upon herself
instead!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant perfectly counters 48 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Whirling Flame, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
Critical Counter!  La Sirene de Diamant's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!
COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant's counterattack, Wake! The Boundary Glass, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!  
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi covers Witch of Wise Levin for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Whirling Flame, taking it upon herself instead!
COMBAT: Mikoto Minagi fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Whirling Flame, taking 56 Fatigue damage!  Mikoto Minagi is unable to keep
fighting!

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

"Eh? Oh! Oh my god!" la Sirene cries out as she perceives what's happened. "Oh no - she's tricking all of us --?!" She tries to will the light back, but like an opened box, some things are easier 'go' than 'come'.

The haze clears - it becomes clear that there WAS haze, however mystick - even as la Sirene hears Conflagria's words. She breathes in air that has the scent of flame licking upon it. It's rising around them. Something is forming around them. The first part of a glyph.

A glyph wrought in flame on top of a building full of hundreds of sick and suffering people.

La Sirene's heart pounds as she hears the spiteful words of Conflagria. On some level she can resonate - she hears that resentment - but experience and her own heart spur her to sudden motion.

Without quite thinking, she hurls herself towards the Witch of Lost Ivy as the flame erupts to incinerating furor and force. The flame rises, bright enough here at least to outshine the distant fusion-fires of the star. They rise --

and when they dim --

There is melted strange glass --

For a moment ago, so close to Ivy that only she could hear the curiously sonorous whispers of la Sirene in extremity, she had raised both hands and whispered a phrase of prayer. "Les Mysteres," she had said:

wake!

https://youtube.com/xTouBqPkhtc?si=8XPFBxU8tWi1iNQV&t=126

And the truth is revealed as the light dims. La Sirene, her body between Lost Ivy and Conflagria, her hands thrown to either side in upraised and silent salute. A shimmering hemisphere of brass-fitted glass, glowing with the strange iridescence of insect wings and casting a thousand subtle prismatic distortions on the ground in the alien light of Earth - yes, for to other worlds, the Sun is but one star among many -

And there, eyes blazing, is la Sirene de Diamant.

"No," she says, breathlessly. "You won't."

She is dripping with sweat, or light, or both.

"If your pain is so great," la Sirene grates, "that you cannot endure it without remorseless rending of the flesh of others - if you can only see a world with MORE pain than LESS - then you are drowning in sorrow."

"And I will, with DELIGHT," la Sirene half-screams, "TAKE IT FROM YOU--"

The boundary glass begins to evaporate (part of it already did; la Sirene was licked by flames, if not incinerated). Her hands come upwards again, held before her one over the other as she shines brighter, now with the sunset at *her* back from all the turn and turn-abouts: a repeat of her earlier theme, now, but with desperate intensity behind the cool and IR-dead light-show aiming to lick over Conflagria's eyes.

"Are you - alright, witches??" la Sirene forces out. "Hurry--!!"

COMBAT: La Sirene de Diamant has used Abyssal Vision on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 26 Fatigue damage from La Sirene de Diamant's Abyssal Vision, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Hit!  Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!  Blind and Tangle applied to Pink Moon Stick!

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

"I won't let you!" Mikoto yells, when Conflagria tells Lost Ivy just what she's here to do. She won't let Conflagria kill one of her very best friends. She'll --

-- what? What will she do?

She is caught in the horror of her mental calculus as Conflagria spins, revealing just who she is. She sees la Sirene, moving -- but la Sirene is one girl, and she cannot protect the Witches who Conflagria hates alone.

She might be here to kill Yumi, but that doesn't mean Raiko is safe.

And so, this is what Mikoto does: she leaps through the fire, slicing it with her blade as if it had flesh to cut, and lands before the Witch of Wise Levin. "Get down!" She yells, as she brings Miroku up again, to absorb the power pouring out of Conflagria. It would be nice to say that her direct might hurts less than her trickery, that her flames do not burn as hot, that there was some trade-off --

-- but no. The might of Conflagria's feelings tower and wash over her, and all she can do is make herself a stone to part the flame deluge, to offer Levin some shelter behind her.

"Nnh..." Mikoto grunts, smoking toastily, as she sinks and falls; she can't stop Conflagria from killing anyone, when her blade tumbles from her grip. She is left to look up to her, bleary and horrified, as her words sink in.

"Conflagria..." She says, dazed, trying to focus on her. "... think... she'll forgive you? This isn't just... testing Lost Ivy, no more..."

If only she could focus a little more, maybe she could remember just what's bothering her.

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

She didn't cme here to have a conversation. Levin says she hasn't proven anything; she tries to figure out how to stop the spell, and Yumi hopes she can.

She hopes she can, because the spell is rising. Yumi coughs, and coughs, at the smoke beginning to rise. She begins to understand the rune that's coming. The rune, that could consume the entire hospital...

She came to kill her. Not to fight; not to gather hearts; not to advance some plot. Just to kill her.

Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to this prey. It is a sobering statement to hear; Yumi's blood runs cold. ...But it is a thing she has danced with before, in this very hospital.

She hopes she can meet that attempt, this time. But she doesn't have the chance. La Sirene de Diamant shields her. She hears that whisper, in the silence, and sees the truth revealed. No, she will not see Yumi burn today.

But still, the things Conflagria said...

"...I don't understand," Yumi says again, and all the things that Conflagria says, they make no sense to her. "I don't--I don't understand! What do you mean? What do you mean, 'chosen'!?"

But the Queen of her hungers...

"...I-I'm--"

"I'm tired of your lies!" Yumi shouts. "Levin was right! You're just trying to mess with my head, and I won't have it!" She knows that's not true. She sees that sadness in Conflagria's smile, and the Witch of Lost Ivy is filled with an interminable dread.

"You hurt Mikoto. You do nothing but hurt people. How could I ever understand someone like you?"

Mikoto knows something. Mikoto, her faithful friend. The one who has stood by her through so much. She knows something, and Yumi turns to her for a moment. That dread deepens. "What?" she asks. "Mikoto, I don't understand."

La Sirene de Diamant will take her sorrow, but Yumi cannot. Yumi can only banish her darkness. And that, in this moment, she will do.

"Holy light," Yumi begins to intone. She lifts the Staff in both hands, and its white wood is lit by the flickering firelight. She does not cough anymore. Green light shines, radiating in all directions from the crystal at its head. "Rain down in verdant might!"

Lost Ivy grips the Staff, holding it in both hands as it tilts down, down, until at an angle facing Conflagria:

"BLESSED SHINE!"

The light of the Sun erupts, though it was only an eighth on the horizon now. It is noon here, the full splendour of summer brought to bear. The sun emits from Yumi's Staff of Lost Ivy, and it shimmers towards Conflagria in a column twice Yumi's height. Where it passes, the green flame of spirit, of purification, will sear away all unholy flames.

"LEVIN!" Yumi calls, still holding the Staff as if the gentle light it emits were a rocket she was barely hanging onto, "NOW!"

COMBAT: FINISHER! Witch of Lost Ivy has used Blessed Shine on Pink Moon Stick.

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Fire, in a perfectly straight line, and then into a perfectly curved curve. Raiko's eyes go wide as she sees it, and flashes back to the Sulfuric Ogres' spell. "Ivy--" she says with utter horror and urgency both. "Look!"

They ahve to end this now.

One of her sparks lands her a lucky blow, right into Conflagria's eye--but the retailatory strike is enough to drop her to her knees once again. More than enough for her. "I won't go down so easily," she declares, defiant.

Magic doubled back at her again and again, attacks from foes deflected at each other. And now the spell. Things are getting dire, and she's leaning on her staff for support as she tries to get back to her feet once again, glaring at Conflagria the entire time.

And finally, Conflagria both explains, and doesn't. Despite the intense, mounting heat all around them her blood runs cold and chilly in her veins. Conflagria had it bad for The Hungry queen... who has been working for Ivy's benefit, somehow? A precious gift... "You're... you're not making any sense, Conflagria!"

She doesn't have to make sense to kill them, unfortunately.

She watches with amazement as La Sirene intercedes on Yumi's behalf, blocking the flames meant for her with a barrier of glass and still manages to retaliate in turn.

But the flames are coming for her, too, and though she is still defiant, her burns and muscles ache from the wear and tear of battle--

But then Mikoto appears, to be a rock against the flame, and she can only stare in wide-eyed wonder as she is spared Conflagria's wrath a moment longer--only to succumb to it herself.

"Mikoto..." she whispers. Then, shouts. "Mikoto!"

She only spares a moment to share in shock at a girl she had once doubted, so long ago. But only a moment, as her gaze lifts to settle squarely on Conflagria. She finds the strength to stand, finally, proud and tall.

No more words. No words would ever be enough, except--

"Under watchful sky, through whispered breezes!" The sun is yet in the sky still (and Ivy's spell creates more sunlight still) but if there were stars in the sky to witness as the blanket of night unfurled, they would be hidden beneath a thick layer dark, gray, stormy glouds that unfurl from nowhere. They spark and shoot great licks of lightning in every direction, but after a tense moment where they suddenly stop they suddenly release all their fury at once, concentrated in a single point--

Levin's staff.

The ingrained silver patterns shine in the firelight, but the crystal itself blazes with a furious electric energy as Raiko grips her own staff in both hands.

"No misdeeds shall escape my notice!" She tilts her staff forward too, and the snakes of electricity that had been dancing and winding their way up and down all suddenly gather into the crystal. It might be like a second sun to Ivy's own staff, only this one is crackling and angry, furious and raw storms.

"Receive this--" Ivy calls 'NOW' and the raging maelstrom in her staff redoubles and then doubles again.

Her voice echos with borrowed power as she shouts, "Retribution!"

She thrusts the staff forward, and unleashes her full might.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Witch of Wise Levin has used Levin's Retribution on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Witch of Wise Levin's Finisher, Levin's Retribution, taking 144 Fatigue damage!  Critical
Hit!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Witch of Lost Ivy's Finisher, Blessed Shine, taking 90 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick is
unable to keep fighting!

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

Conflagria may in fact have more sorrow than La Sirene can handle, though given that she handled not one but two magical girls' worth of fire, she can clearly handle a lot. She would be a tremendous get for her rival d'Argent, who might measure such finely distilled, perfectly composed misery on the axis of her own goals; but catharsis, today, is not either of theirs to bring. Though mirror and setting sun alike may shine into the sorceress' eyes, they are intent upon her enemy. Her foe. Her prey.

Lost Ivy, who is, even now, frantically backpedaling, retreating into denial. Conflagria is scornful of this; it shows in her eyes, suddenly brightly lit, to the whites of them, by the witch's invocation of the Sun.

White which transforms to electric blue as Wise Levin's cascade of lightning gathers and then erupts, in tandem with the sacred light, towards her.

Nobody gets the feeling that Conflagria is, by any metric, spent. She is not out of gas. She has tricks up her sleeve. Mystic might as yet unrevealed. She performed greater invocations in the not-so-fun house of mirrors, before the end. She may not be able to catch the sun in one hand and the storm in the other and hurl them back, dismissively, like she did earlier thunderbolts, but...

...surely she could have done more than face them directly, her chin raised, her arms, at first, crossed... and then, gradually, as they succumb to the dual forces of two witches in their full power, flung wide, flung backwards.

La Sirene, more than anyone else, perceives this truth on the frequency to which she is uniquely attuned, not through prior experience with Conflagria or with acumen around magical tactics, but through the raw emotion she was built to sense:

This might be a suicide by cop.

Maybe not. The anger is there too, the hurt; it's so real, and so raw. There's no question that she would have bathed in everyone's blood with a smile. But there is... a question, as she falls backward, as to why she did not try harder to prevent this outcome.

She falls hard. Half her hair is white, where Lost Ivy's radiance poured into her; the other half a bird's nest of still-coursing lightnings, which make her fingertips twitch even now. Her eyes are cloudy. They gaze up at nothing.

"You're right... Minagi," she allows, catching up her former colleague's words on rings of smoke that she inhales willfully, as though indulging in the essence of Mikoto's commentary, the degree to which she is correct. "I wasn't here... to test... this Ohzora."

And her flaming rune -- remember that? the one that had been tracing some invisibly inscribed path throughout the garden since she lit its fuse in her very first move, using the rooftop's entirety as some terrible, apocalyptic magic circle -- the rune that everyone was way too busy, too confused, or simply too distracted to deal with --

-- completes.

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

The lines of the rune flare red, then white, exploding upwards in sheets of flame -- in waves of heat -- it defies looking at directly. The entire garden is aflame now, and the distinct scent of melting rooftop is mixing with all that smoke; this cannot be good for the hospital. Nor for any of the girls, who are, to a one, spent in exactly the way Conflagria wasn't; their greater powers invoked, or else beyond their battered, burnt and exhausted grasp.

The rune pulses in time, quickening with Conflagria's heartbeat, obviously about to explode, finally and profoundly, and then--

--the sun slips below the horizon.

<SoundTracker> In The Blood (Reprise) - Hades OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojx8dyes__8

Night falls, and She rises.

Rises from a crouch, at the very center of the rune, where she had -- kissed? -- the ground.

There is an echo of a magical working already completed. It happened in an eyeblink. It happened in less, and the world still quakes from the hunger that was unleashed; even more raw, and even more terrible, than Conflagria's sorrow; and in its greatness, its greater-than, well able to consume it, and all the fiery power there.

She licks her lips of lingering flame, and swallows; and the rune is no more than a memory.

She is tall, her form feminine writ large, some six feet tall or taller in her heels. She is imposing, taking up space with long, draping skirt and wide brim on her witch's hat. And she is terrible, with glinting red eyes behind a jeweled half-mask of glittering teeth that reveals lips of deepest red over white teeth and sharpened canines. She is imperious, staring down at any who should approach her with all the regality of the Queen that she is.

The Hungry Queen's color palette is dominated by empty gray, by deep black, and by violent red. She wears an ornate dress with gold brocade and a long, jagged skirt. The bodice is tight; her shoulders are draped with a magical mantle inscribed with ancient runes. Her sleeves are curved, with wide cuffs at the wrist, perfect for sweeping motions. Her boots beneath the skirt are tall, laced and pointed. She wears no gloves; this reveals the many rings on her hands, and the bloody polish of her sharpened nails.

Sigils of corrupted earth line her sleeves, with further runes of captive fire. And in her hand she carries a great Staff of black iron, tipped with a great ruby, a symbol of her office... but not the greatest symbol. The greatest symbol is her black, gem-inlaid crown, heavy and cruel, which she wears at all times on her braided gray-white hair.

There is neither mercy nor pity in her red eyes.

"I knew you'd come," Conflagria murmurs. In the confusion she has rolled onto her side, propped herself on an elbow, which is all she can muster; but muster she does, to get one long and one last look at her beloved.

And she smiles, somehow even both sadder and crueler than ever: "Kim--"

A slagged iron railing erups from the middle of her chest, center mass.

The Hungry Queen, who had vanished mid-syllable, reappears behind her, holding it like a spear; she didn't even deign to impale her servant with her own Staff, but summoned a replacement out of materials at hand. Nor does she kneel to reach the face of her lieutenant; the rooftop bubbles, amorphous as magma, to raise Conflagria to just below her own level, so that she can say:

"If this treachery is your love, then I want no part of it."

Conflagria strains -- not against the grasp of melted rooftop but with it, strains upwards -- and, as her final act, brushes her lips against the temple of The Hungry Queen, who turns away from her in disgust, to gaze upon the girls.

Well.

To gaze upon a girl.

But by then, it is too late.

A final flame dribbles from Conflagria's own lips, as she dies --

-- and the mask on The Hungry Queen crumbles into ash, revealing the unmistakable visage of the familiar face underneath.

Kimie Ohzora.

Yumi's mother.

Yumi's mother... is The Hungry Queen.

She inhales, sharply, at the feeling of air across her unexpectedly exposed skin. But she maintains her dignity; her eyes flash with -- with what? Her own rage? Her own sorrow? Conflagria took something from her tonight, something irreparable; or maybe she hasn't a single thought to spare for her lieutenant at all; maybe all her thoughts are bent upon,

"Yumi," she acknowledges, a violation of her own. It should be 'Lost Ivy.' But they're past that already, aren't they? Or maybe it's something she refuses to accept. Like daughter, like mother.

Her nostrils flare again.

"This is a family matter," she says, as crisply as the phenomenally intimidating woman who frequented art shows and school plays and anything else her daughter participated in might have. "But, thank you for taking care of my daughter." Such a familial phrase, bestowed upon any number of friends, by any number of parents. So ordinary.

So extraordinary...

The hunger she carries carves a hole within her big enough to feel, a hole big enough to swallow the whole world, and she turns away. In profile, in the dim glow of the cooling rooftop, where the orange meets the stars starting to peek out from fading conjured stormclouds, she cuts no less terrible, no more human a figure.

"You will want answers, Yumi. All will be prepared for you at home. As everything has been to prepare you, all along."

Conflagria was telling the truth, it seems, or at least a truth. An important one.

"Be joyful," she whispers. "Your true destiny awaits."

And she is gone, even as the waxing moon slips out from behind the nearest skyscraper -- the Tokyo Metropolitan Building.

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Mikoto is there to remind her. She is confused. Mikoto reminds her. "The enemy... The enemy must be defeated." There is something that Yumi must do. Mikoto says it.

Red, then white. The garen is flame, and it is melting. Yumi is coughing again in the aftermath of her spell. Raiko had said Conflagria wasn't making any sense, but she made too much sense. Something creeps around Yumi's awareness.

She can't see it. She can only see its outline.

She says that Mikoto is right. The runes complete.

Yumi has never witnessed this visage, but she knows this woman all the same. That crown says all that must be said.

Conflagria is there--and suddenly she is not. The Hungry Queen has taken her servant to hand. Conflagria seems to Yumi fade from her awareness, as the inevitable, inexorable gravity of one woman sees her gaze turn. The final flame comes...

Yumi's eyes widen. Pink irises almost disappear. She feels dizzy. She cannot look away. She never could look away from her mother's attention. There is something she must do, though. There is something that she must do, and Mikoto is saying it, but Mikoto knew something.

'Yumi', Kimie Ohzora says, and Yumi stares up at her, at her greatest enemy manifest, at the mother who has guided her entire life.

"M-Mother," Yumi starts. This is a family matter. Thank you for taking care of her.

All has been to prepare her, all along.

Her voice breaks. "Mom?"

She tells her to be joyful, but she is gone. Yumi cannot look at Raiko, her stalwart sister Witch. She cannot look at Nori, la Sirene de Diamant, a grand and protective ally. She cannot look at Mikoto most of all.

She can look at nothing. "I-I--"

Everything Conflagria has said makes perfect sense. It all adds up; she understands her, as surely as she never wished to, and she turns towards her to stare in horror. "You..."

There is a terrible crack, and though the Staff is whole, Yumi is not. She is just a girl in ordinary clothes, the Staff hovering nearby.

The Staff of Lost Ivy exudes her quiet peace, as always. There was always a sadness in it. Yumi always wondered why.

But now...

"A-aah..."

Yumi stumbles back and then falls to the ground in a heap, all at once. She screams, a rending cry that echoes across the city streets.

She screams, in heartbreak, as her life rips apart before her. As everything she knew turns to ash.

As Conflagria has her revenge at last.

The Staff hovers silent vigil as Yumi curls up against herself and becomes blind to the world.

COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy transforms into Yumi Ohzora!

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Raiko is okay... at least Raiko is okay. Maybe it really takes a Witch to fight a Witch...

(just like it took a young Puella Magi to fight a matured Puella Magi, perhaps.)

... regardless of those reminders, what Mikoto can do is make sure that Wise Levin can execute her spell, alongside Lost Ivy. Lost Ivy, who doesn't get it; Lost Ivy, who doesn't believe nearly as easily as Mikoto does. She wonders if Conflagria is blinding her, here, as she did before. She is easily fooled.

But she knows... something.

And she knows that Lost Ivy is angry, seeing her laid low like this; she hears the way it drives her to greater strength. She has inspired her -- she has...

"Ivy," Mikoto murmurs, when Yumi turns to her. "The enemy..."

Is it right to remind Lost Ivy of the fight, when she's so confused? It feels like the right thing to do. It isn't even incongruent -- Conflagria will kill her if she isn't defeated. It all makes total sense.

It's always made total sense.

And she is glad to see the Witch's spells lay Conflagria low; it isn't, exactly, that she wants to see her die, but she doesn't want her to kill Yumi, either. She hears that reminder of her bonds -- reminding her, once more, of her family matters -- and her head aches. From the smoke. Right?

Certainly there is smoke, smoke where there is fire, burning beneath her. "Hot," she mumbles, fingers twitching against the concrete. She knows she shouldn't just lie here, but -- "Lost Ivy," she tries and fails to push herself up, as her swimming gaze focuses on the rune below her. "You gotta..."

She might have told her that it's all up to her -- that Yumi has to summon the strength to abjure her fiery counterpart -- but she can't string the thoughts together in time. She doesn't even know just why the weight settles like a pit in her stomach, this horrible burden --

Someone is coming.

And Mikoto doesn't know why she knows just who, as she rises six feet from the ground she's laying on.

As Mikoto doesn't know why she laid a chrysanthemum in Yumi's hair, in that traditional garden.

The way... was prepared for Yumi, long before she knew to brace.

Mikoto is not surprised to see the Hungry Queen kill Conflagria; she'd warned her, after all. The Queen would not forgive this trangression. But how did she know? How can she know?

Why isn't she surprised... to see that mask burn away?

There are things you know without knowing. Mikoto looks upon Kimie Ohzora -- the Hungry Queen -- and she bows her head.

It's a family matter, and Yumi has always been like her. With someone waiting for her -- along a dark passageway. Someone she could... s a v e . . .

Mikoto pushes herself up, slowly, painfully. She does not entirely manage; her arms comply, but her legs are still jelly. She drags herself to that curled ball of Ohzora, and curls about her, embracing her; a hand to the back of her head, a hand about her shoulders.

Or, perhaps, the word is 'encircling.'

"It's okay," she murmurs, and she is her comfort, entirely warm, entirely caring.

"It's okay..."

<Pose Tracker> La Sirene de Diamant [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

SHE COMES

The Hungry QUeen appears. La Sirene may be the tallest of the group but she has to look up too. She is quaking already. Even so. She straightens upwards. Her nose flares. If she must --

It happens so fast.

"Ah!" la Sirene cries at the killing. But at the words that the Hungry Queen speaks -- to her, they sound like a threat. Until...

'mom?'

Her eyes widen.

A horrid understanding. There is no romance or anguished beauty to this. It is simply pain, the raw substrate. When Yumi screams, la Sirene raises her hand, biting the flesh of her thumb to stifle a sympathetic wail.

Some sounds deserve their solitude, even if Mikoto has stepped forwards already. By the time she looks back, the Hungry Queen is gone.

La Sirene's doleful eyes turn towards Wise Levin, then.

She has no words to say.

<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Levin pants, heavily, after she discharges all of that fury and retribution. She barely has anything left, in that moment. Starting to run on fumes, one might say.

But she is still standing, staff gripped in both hands, staring at her foe.

They've taken her out. But she didn't fight back. Why didn't she fight back? Is she really that far gone?

And then she utters the name 'Ohzora.' She, at once, knows she should not react--/must not react//--to the utterance of Ivy's civilian last name, but even as she has that thought her eyes still widen in a combination of shock and slowly creeping horror.

Deny? Deflect? Demand further answers? Try to bind her, before she can make another escape? It is an intrusion too deep and too personal to think about rationally in the moment. They had suspected, but to have outright confirmation, given so freely...

And yet, as unthinkable as the confirmation is, Levin doesn't miss that tiny little word.

This Ohzora.

But there is only a moment to ponder that before her senses catch--

The sigil completes. And in that moment there is too much to do and yet not enough time for resources to do any of it with. A feeble attempt at a shield, a shimmering field of electricity at her feet to meet the torrent of flames. It is a brief, and ultimately futile effort as the flames vanish, but even that minor act of self-preservation sends her to her knees once more.

She knows, just by looking, by that hunger, who arrives to save them. (Well, who arrives to save Ivy.) And for a moment, all that she can do is watch in horror as The Hungry Queen kills Conflagria, Conflagria steals a kiss--and a mask, wth it--revealing...

Her eyes widen in shock, and dread floods the deepest pits of her stomach. "No..." she whispers, in shock. She is hyperventilating a bit now as things suddenly start to make sense. She wants to scream defiantly, to tell her off, to believe this is all a mistake, but she can't stop putting every horrible fact she knows together into the world's most terrible jigsaw puzzle.

Hearing Ivy's first name this time barely registers now.

A family matter, taking care of--she can barely believe it, still--her daughter. Everything prepared...

And then she is gone, but the aftermath still lingers.

She is still panting, deeply, thoughts focused inwards as she spirals on everything this could possibly mean, to have The Hungry Queen in the line of the Inheritors, and a million other little details.

Then something cracks, and Yumi falls, and Levin looks up, finally, broken from her thoughts. The person who saved her from her own despair, in what seemed like forever ago now, who encouraged her her to take up her mantle, supported her, showed her kindness, who understood her magic, when nobody else could.

Who had been her friend when she had been utterly, terribly, alone.

Levin finds that she has the strength to stand again, after all. She rises, slowly, limbs shaking with the effort but a tiny spark of determination in her eyes again. She releases her own henshin and lurches, in staggering steps, over to Yumi to add another encircling layer. She makes it just in time for her eyes to become to blurry and stinging hot to see clearly.

"We'll figure this out, Yumi-chan. Promise."

The dam breaks, the determination fades, and she joins in Yumi's wordless sorrow.

COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin transforms into Raiko Takashima!