2014-09-27 - Rite of Spring

Title: Rite of Spring
Summary: Spring has been slow to come, and not a single flower has bloomed. There is more to this than a simple chill, however. What makes a flower, a flower? What makes the sun, the sun? And what wrath might there be, from one forgotten?
Who: Lera Camry, Endo Naoki, Mami Tomoe, Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Kyouko Sakura, Eri Shimanouchi, Kuniko Saito, Cute Wolf Tsukiko, Prism Keeper Red, Prism Keeper Orange, Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, Tuxedo Mask, Scarlet Rune Maiden, Anthy Himemiya, Utena Tenjou, Nadeshiko Fujisaki GM: Pink Moon Stick
Where: Ueno Park
OOC - IC Date: 19 March 2014 - 09/27/2014-09/28/2014

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

Tokyo Phenologists -- and to a much lesser degree, the news media -- have been abuzz by the lateness of the blossoms this year. Even the earliest blooming species of flowers have yet to come out of their buds; they're all sealed tightly against a nonexistent cold.

For, indeed, the sun has been shining bright and clear many a morning, and no late-season frosts have killed off this years crop of blooms. Flowers of all kinds should be starting to show their beautiful faces to the world.

Why are they so shy?

---

It's Wednesday night. The sun has set; good little boys and girls should be in bed, their homework finished, dreaming of the new day to come.

Dozens of bedroom ceilings, veiled in shadow, stare back at their owners. Every sound is agonizingly audible. The tick of the clock. The steps in the hallway. The clink of the after-dinner dishes. The low hum of private parental conversation. The soft purr of the cat.

Sleep is elusive. Something else interferes -- a sense of forboding that rises like bile, that quickens the heart and the mind all at once. A tension in the air; a chill on the spine; the hinge of an unasked question, straining to be free.

An uncharacteristically cold breeze ruffles the curtains at the window. What few moonbeams remained are quickly snuffed out by hungry clouds, invisible in the darkness above but for how they wink out the stars.

---

Everyone has a plant near to them, and dearer than they might themselves realize. Some enthusiasts tend to a rose personally, but far more people have that one bed of daisies that they walk past on their way to school; that particular tree that buds out beautifully every year, calling to them for climbing or sitting or simply hugs; a vine that twists around the veranda of their house; the flowers that grow in the shallows under the bridge; the next-door-neighbor's azaelias, which they can see across the way; the shady hedge that protects them from the sun at the longest stoplight, which they've never consciously appreciated but would suddenly notice, were it gone.

Whether near or far, in the heart's eye what happens next is clear as day:

Leaves strain, twigs rustle, and buds unfurl. Out of the lily, the iris, the lotus, the cherry, the plum, out of everyone's beloved plant shines a tiny spark of light. They glow a maelstrom of colors, from all corners of the rainbow. They're breath-catchingly lovely, even as they twinkle their way upwards into the air, then along streets, down gutters and across yards.

Inexorably they wander towards Ueno Park. Even late at night, heavily shadowed, it is more tranquil than terrifying, and otherworldly and strange with all the sparkles pouring out of the hundreds of trees and flowers. At its heart: Shinobazu Pond, with a central island.

The lights are converging on it in total, eerie silence.

And the feeling is unmistakable: despite its beauty, something is desperately wrong.

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

While she walks along the sidewalk after coming back from a late night out, Lera stops and pauses when she sees her favorite plant. It isn't much to speak of -- it's a fern, but it has those tiny bladed leaves and flexible branches, and it looks distinctive to her eyes. Normally, the leaves close up when she reaches her hand out close, which is another reason to look it. But today, though, she sees a glimmer coming off them.

So she reaches a hand out. The little bladed leaves on the fern do not draw closed at the touch, and instead light comes from them, rising off the fern, and into the air. Lera's brown-gold eyes widen and she turns her head, gasping.

"Hey, wait!" she calls out, before she starts jogging after it.

In short order, she jogs into view at Ueno Park, towards the pond and its central island. All of the lights are swirling together, prompting the Midchildan girl to remark: "Pretty..."

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Truthfully, the delayed blooms have suited Mami Tomoe's mood. She wouldn't admit this; quite the opposite, it's probably a concern for her territory, something likely to lead to more trouble than not. But, as she goes about her days and her routine, the golden Puella Magi feels a certain affinity for the flowers.

Mami hasn't really been trying to sleep, as such; her own clock tick-tick-ticks across from the oven, resting on the countertop there. A little pot of yellow flowers, pale at the edges to pink to almost red within, sits not so far away, to give a little color and vibrancy to the room. Mami is very particular about caring for the appearance of her living space, after all. This little pot is part of what she handles in the mornings; a little bit of water, a little look about the sides, cleaning up any soil that may have made its way out. It isn't very talkative, but it's always nice to have something living around.

...And flowers aren't going to leave at three in the morning for mysterious errands of their own.

She blinks, still in her entranceway, as a yellow light shines from it and rushes outwards. It's silent.

The door closes behind her again; Mami locks it with a gesture and takes quick, graceful steps across her own floor.

With a flash of golden light, she changes, summoning up her magic, and takes the window after her flowers' spark.

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Kuniko Saito gets in late, as always, and takes off her jackets; her body is relieved when she flops down on her room in the petite house where she and her mother live, crossing paths only occasionally.

She dozes for a while. Not well.

When the sense of unease comes, she opens her eyes - and thinks of a lavender sparkle. Blinking, she sits upright; rubs her face.

She walks to the bathroom and rinses her face; walks to the kitchen and downs an entire Pocari Sweat. Despite this, that light remains in her mind; it isn't a transient thing, not some half remembered memory or the residue of a dream or a street light getting fizzly.

No, she thinks - feels -

She remembers the scent of turning over earth with her little plastic spade. The care-worn face of Mom and Dad looking down as she picked up the small sprout and its soil clinging to its rootlets. Setting it down, patting the soil gently.

The tang in eggs and stews, then. The unique freshness, that subtle savor that she's come to feel as the sacred, almost holy token of Terroir.

The tang of...

Kuniko opens the door - and there, in the little herb garden behind the two-meter concrete wall, is the lavender shrub and its two little successors, still growing, still there, and there it goes. A sparkle rises up - into the misty night...

Kuniko runs upstairs. Her mother, sleepily, calls from her room, "Kuni, what are you doing?"

"Teenage delinquency!" she answers as she runs back down the hallway, wearing the glittering costume of a Poissonnier. "I'll be back later, I'll lock up!"

"Well, don't get in a wreck," comes a fond and hidden maternal reply.

AND SO IT IS that a young woman in a sea-hued cook's outfit came to be stalking down the streets, following after a lavender sparkle.

<Pose Tracker> Ikiko Hisakata [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Ikiko tosses and turns. Sleep is being resistant in coming, and it almost feels like she can't even close her eyes. It's not the restlessness of being wide awake; no, this is just a sense of something keeping her from sleep.

With a sigh of frustration, she burrows her head under her pillow, gently pressing the pillow against her forehead to try to fool herself into thinking that her eyes are closed. She thinks about the family's garden in an effort to bring herself to more calmness. The plants are there in their vibrant growth, tended to stay groomed but otherwise left to their natural patterns.

In her mind's eye, she thinks about what the flowers would look like. That corner has daisies; picture their current look, then recall flowers from past years. Roses, now still in their buds; remember dark pink blossoms of last year. Silvery lupine, it already has its glowing blue flowers...

...wait, what?

Quietly climbing out of bed, Ikiko opens the window and looks out towards the garden. Sure enough, her favorite lupine is glowing, motes of light emerging from each flower in the whorl and starting to fly off.

A whispered phrase, a glow of silver, and mere moments later Tsukiko bounds across the rooftops, following the sparkling lights of her flower.

COMBAT: Ikiko Hisakata transforms into Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe transforms into Puella Mami!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito transforms into Poissonnier Kuniko!

<Pose Tracker> Reiko Touyama [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

Reiko Touyama was supposed to be home, but the park down the way of her house reopened for the spring season and she just had to go. It had a lovely, small pond centerpiece- no fish in it- sadly, but it did have some water plants- just enough to imagine that maybe there COULD be koi in there- and really that's what she spent the night in the park with the flashlight drawing. Perhaps she was going to try to convience the park tenders to stock it with some stellar art? Sometimes she wondered if she could convience her parents to let her dig a pond in the back of the yard. She'd take good care of it!

Of course, the art she's drawing is missing the omph. The buds on the water lilies aren't open. But that changes really fast as they struggle and unfurl and lights go scampering off into the evening sky. Her eyes kind of widen. Woah! Wow! Beautiful! Pretty! ---- What's going on. Whatever it, it's kind of pretty. Part of her wants to draw this. But, something seems particularly important about this. She struggles on what to do for a few moments until she draws out her own, orange tinted and slightly glowing Chroma Crystal out from it's necklacked form, and with a quick phrase, is off into the air following just short of those lights, small fairy wings fluttering as she follows along until she gets to the Museum District proper and stops just a bit short of heading out over water. "Woah!" she says with wide eyes, as she descends down towards the ground in a small, controlled spiral leaving a small orange sparkle trail in her wake.

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

Good little boys and girls should be in bed. Bad little boys and girls will try to stay up.

Usagi Tsukino is in bed, but she's doesn't care about sleep. She is sure the rest of her family is asleep now--she heard mom talking to dad about him spending the night near the office--so she has abandoned subterfuge. Twisted up whimsically in her bunnies-and-moons blanket, she reads some manga by the light of her phone balanced just right on her chest. She bartered them from Rei. It's inspired by the Takarazuka Revue. She had to pay Rei dearly and also answer an actual quiz outside of school which was terrifying. It was rough.

Luna cracks open an eye from her spot at the foot of the bed. "Go to sleep, Usagi-chan."

"Mmf."

"Mrrr."

Luna sleeps again because she is a cat and she has priorities. Usagi keeps reading as the clock ticks on, oblivious of the foreboding when it is only minor. This is perhaps the most honest depiction of Usagi Tsukino she is capable of showing at this point in her life.

Something glows. Usagi reads. It glows brighter, which is bright enough. She drops her manga so that it covers up her phone and turns to see what it is (and also to take a break to consider the depths of the chapter she just finished).

Her rose is glowing.

"Whaaat," she murmurs, rolling over and shimmying over to see the plant better. The blanket twists up further in her legs.

It's not really her rose. Well, it is, but she can't keep it on her own yet. It's pretty, with white petals fading into pink, planted in a painted pot on her desk--Anthy gave one to her first, which is now dried and pressed into her journal. 'Diana, Princess of Wales.' A mouthful, certainly, but pretty. It would probably be dead if her mother and Makoto didn't check up on it so much. Usagi tries.

The light rises, catching the sky blue of her widening eyes. She's not sure whether or feel wonderment or concern. The dreamtime world of Sailor Moon has taught her that twinkling lights aren't always good magic.

It speeds off. Usagi yelps and starts after it. The treacherous blanket sends her tumbling face-first off the bed. Luna doesn't wake up because honestly, this child. Usagi drags herself up to her window and stares out into the night, watching the light join others in its march to who knows where.

She glances back at the sleeping Luna and then, reaching for the brooch she wears even now, goes to protect Anthy's rose.

COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon!
COMBAT: Reiko Touyama transforms into Prism Keeper Orange!
COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket - Dual Mode!

<Pose Tracker> Akemi Tsukiyama [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

"Umn?" It takes a lot to wake up Akemi. As one who can generally see ghosts, kami, demons, and all the shades inbetween, one has to learn very quickly how to sleep like the dead and wake like the living at the flip of a switch. The first part Akemi is a pro at. She's still working on the latter. Opening the newly repaired screen of the ancient rental house she lives in in the forested area close enough by, she scratches her fingers through wild strands of dark red hair freed from her braids.

There. In the front lawn area. The flowers. They reminded Akemi of home way in the foothills and mountains, of gathering and picking with Auntie Katsumi, even if the plants here are slightly different. Putting on her slippers hurriedly as the light leaves 'her' patch of flowers, Akemi chases after it, noting, as she gets out of the forest, into the city proper, and closer to the park, the other lights that dot the sky.

Maybe, only Akemi can see them? Is this a disturbance in nature of some sort? "Guma... wake up..." she pleads in a whisper to the bear spirit who resides within her body.

There is no answer.

Seeing Lera remarking on the lights, Akemi approaches and then stands there in a shirt and some long pajama bottoms (sky blue with chicks on them). "You can see them too?" She's fully awake by now, the spring night air feeling cool and refreshing against her face. "The lights, I mean."

COMBAT: Akemi Tsukiyama has fully healed herself.

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

When your life is spent tending to flowers, you notice right away when something unusual happens with them.

Anthy Himemiya is still on the Ohtori rose garden, tending to the roses; mold has crept in and she has to stay up late to tend to the withering leaves, snipping here and there to prevent the floral infection from spreading. Fortunately, she has her fiancee to watch over her now that it's past dark, and after a time, she rises to her feet, blowing out a shallow breath.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Utena-sama," she says, turning with a smile to her companion. "It will only be a little..."

She trails off then as a tiny pearlescent light begins to emerge from the rose she'd just been tending: a single white rose in a large patch of red. Struck mute, Anthy watches from behind glasses that reflect the etherial illumination as they whisper out the door and into the night, then turns to Utena with wide eyes.

It's a silent look, as silent as the faerie lights, but Anthy's entire being suggests a question: what does Utena want them to do about this? Do they stay where they are, or do they follow? As the Rose Bride, Anthy--the girl named for flowers--can only move as the One Engaged commands.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> Gensokyo, Past and Present ~ Flower Land ~Orchestra~WAVE - https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=XeS_0BbqQOQ#GensokyoC_Past_and_Present_~_Flower_Land_~Orchestra~_WAVE

When people ask Eri what her favorite plant or flower is, she rarely has an answer for them. Typically she finds the idea of picking a favorite to be tantamount to choosing a favorite child. If sorely pressed, she might say that she's fond of the Hibiscus Flower, and the Japanese Maple tree. And while that is true, the truth is something she doesn't even realize herself, until tonight...

...a chill breeze awakens her, goose pimples all over her body. Unable to sleep, with the feeling of foreboding, she decides to take a walk around Ohtori campus, in warmer clothing. Bringing out her soul gem, she finds it still, inert of any light which showed the threat of witches.

Perhaps she should have looked up early, but when she reaches the gardens, she offers a loving look towards her gardening club plot. Taking a few steps closer, she crouched down, a smile of genuine pleasure touching her expression as she realizes they're starting to bloom. "Oh wonderful! I knew it wouldn't be much longer."

She looks in particular, unconsciously towards a group of once-drowned, but now hale and hardy violet and yellow pansies blooming. They always received more attention, more care than the rest, even without her realizing it. One of them, the one which had been in the most dire of conditions, and had taken the most care to save... releases a shining mote of light. The look on her expression becomes one of wonder. "I don't think using magic to save them did that." She looks speculatively at her soul gem, as if it had answers to offer her, "Right?" Rising, she watches the mote move off, to join with many others over Ohtori Academy, like a great sea of fireflies over the academy well known for it's love of floriculture.

Somewhat bewildered, and unable to shake the feeling of foreboding, she follows all the way to Ueno park, jogging much of the way, and arriving mostly breathless, the sight of all of them swirling over Shinobazu pond... took the rest of that breath away.

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Though Utena is by no means as much of a fixture in the gardens as Himemiya is, she still enjoys spending time there... or maybe it's spending time with Himemiya that she so enjoys? Either way -- she's there with Anthy, waiting with her as she tends to the garden.

When that mote of light flies off into airy nothingness, Utena's eyes widen a little. She had been /about/ to tell Himemiya that it was no big deal, that she was fine with waiting -- yet, suddenly, that bit of reassurance takes a bit of a backseat to more pressing matters.

"... Let's follow it," Utena says, skipping the pleasantries and moving straight for action.

<Pose Tracker> Mei Akatsuki [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

Two years ago,

"I got two colors: red and pink."

The apartment door slowly creeps open, and then there's Mama, huffing and puffing, lugging a planter, two sizable bags of soil and fertilizer, as well as a bundle of bare, ugly roots. "Our neighbor two floors down was giving them away. I thought they would be a nice touch for our balcony. Don't you think?"

"What--" Mei starts from across the room, hurriedly slamming textbooks and homework papers on the desk to disguise the manga she'd been reading. She crosses the living room in two bounds, then reaches down and attempts to lift one of the bags in front of her mother. It is much heavier than it looks, much too much for an eight-year-old. "What are they?"

"Roses, silly,"

Mei feels a hand on her head, and the plain, slightly dirty roots are pushed into her tiny hands. Mama picks up the bag of soil with a grunt, then gives a kick to the planter to usher it inside.

"I know they don't look like much right now, but once it's spring time, our balcony will be positively bursting with color," she says, wiping off the sweat that pooled on her forehead even in the winter chill. "Red and pink roses. Just like my little girls."

Now,

The planter of roses sits in disrepair, dead flower petals scattering the ground around it, the bush's thorny vines overgrown and in desperate need of pruning. Mama had never been a natural gardener -- their little bush was more stem than flower, and the blooms never seemed as vibrant as the roses at the store -- but her being gone has left a noticeable change on the plant. Biv didn't see the need to tend it, and Mei supposed she didn't either. It was still a little sad, though, to look out on the balcony and miss her mother, wearily pruning and watering the roses, coaxing them to grow as big and strong as they could.

It was in such a glance that the girl saw a light rise from the single, timid bud still pushing towards the sun. And a second later, without a thought of the homework left unfinished or the late hour,

"Chroma Prism Red! Transform!"

Prism Keeper Red leaps off the balcony and into the night, a solitary dot of red pursuing the rainbow of light forming in Ueno Park.

COMBAT: Mei Akatsuki transforms into Prism Keeper Red!

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka Miki has had a hard time sleeping regardless of supernatural influence. Even English homework wasn't able to sedate her tonight. She stares up at the ceiling, twin crescents of light reflecting in her eyes from Madoka's computer monitor. She wishes it would go to sleep already, but can't muster the energy to get up and turn it off.

At what point did she start going wrong?

She sits up suddenly, feeling cold. Her first instinct is to glance at Madoka. Madoka, the eternal victim, the least deserving and most receiving. Madoka is sitting up too, in her night clothes, hair undone. "You too?" Sayaka despairs, and then she sees it.

It's inexplicable at first. A wastebin downtown, left out for the garbage collectors. It doesn't feel like a vision, more like she's somehow imagining it of her own will. As she works her way through it mentally, she sees a dry bouquet atop it. The flowers have little color left to them, but their shape is familiar. Sad little blue stars of borage, their faces shyly downturned. She'd bought this bouquet for Miki the last time he was in surgery. Now it is in the garbage, atop rotting trash.

Sayaka clenches her sleeping bag in her hands, hating the heat in her eyes. What did she expect? Was Miki supposed to keep his bouqet forever?

A light lifts from the bouquet, and heads along the street. It doesn't feel threatening, but it is certainly eerie. Sayaka scoots out of her sleeping bag, but when Madoka starts to rise, she puts a hand on her shoulder quickly, holding her steady where she is.

"Aren't you tired of getting in danger by now?" Sayaka demands, but softens. "Promise me you'll stay here," she urges, with a downward pressure on Madoka's shoulder. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

No monster has ever shown much interest in Sayaka. Besides, if it has something to do with Miki...

When she arrives at Nezu Station, Sayaka is dressed again, but she doesn't have her bat. It's intentional. If there's danger, she'll just have to run away or find some other answer, because the first step to repenting is to stop what you were doing wrong. She jogs along the narrow, diagonal streets until she comes to the outside of the zoo, trailing along concrete walls until finally she finds a staircase into the park. Bounding up it, she pants, watching the light show from beneath a colorless stone torii. She feels as though when she looks down from the sky, Miki will be standing there.

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

Something's wrong.

Makoto felt it even before tonight; she's felt it for days now, watching with growing concern as the flowers that should be heralding the onset of spring have failed to bloom. Her own tiny garden of potted plants, kept safe from unexpected frost or storm in the shelter of her apartment, have produced only buds which refuse to open to any coaxing. Even the camellia which sits in a place of honor on a small stand near her bedroom window, its pot perched on a dish of pebbles and water - though Makoto checks the soil in the pot diligently on a nearly daily basis, and takes care to mist the leaves with water from a sprayer in case the air is a little too dry for it - even her camellia hasn't bloomed.

It's not right, and Makoto has been worried... but what is there to be done?

Her plants aren't especially on her mind tonight, but Mako still can't sleep. Her apartment isn't the safe haven she once follishly thought it was, and right now, as she turns this way and that trying to find a little more comfort, it feels less safe than ever - as though, at any moment, some dark figure might appear out of the shadows.

Shying away from that thought, Makoto looks instinctively toward the window, looking for the reassuring glow of moonlight from outside - but the light at the window isn't from the moon, and abruptly Makoto throws off her comforter and sits bolt-upright to stare in wonder at the potted camellia, at the fat bud that sits at the very top of the plant, now lit from within by a rosy pink radiance.

Even as she watches, the light emerges from the camellia's bud, a spark of pink light that floats gently out of her window and is soon gone from view. Unthinkingly, Makoto scrambles after it, nearly pressing her face to the cold glass in the effort to see where it's going - and, she realizes suddenly, there are more.

"Mamoru-san!" With a shout, Makoto bursts from her bedroom into the living room, and finds it aglitter as though with strings of fairy lights, a multitude of tiny stars drifting their slow, steady way out into the night. "Something's happening!"

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

The apartment is dark, the lights gone out, the low thrum of a fan above the only sound that fills the Naoki household. Endo has eschewed bed in favor of chair, the boy slumped down in a half-sitting, half-sleeping position on the threadbare couch pushed against the side of the apartment's main room. Sleep wasn't coming easy, only a few blurry lapses in time, and then back to consciousness again.

From his second-story window he can see the blocky shapes of other apartments, most of them blotting out anything resembling a skyline. He can also see the soft glow from the courtyard below, and the cherry tree in its center. Memories wander through his mind, faces of friends gathered under it, ill-conceived attempts to surmount its heights, circular games of keep-away around its center.

And while he watches it blooms, violet light seeping out of its petals, shaking free like tiny birds and taking to the sky in a vortex of color.

It takes a second for Endo to realize he isn't dreaming. A few more before he reaches out to grab his jacket and hurry to the door, taking one quick glance down a cramped hall before slipping out. By the time he's reached the park he's breathing heavily, coming to a stuttering halt when he's faced with the splash of lights across the lake.

<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (5)] has posed.

For Nadeshiko Fujisaki, sleepless nights are, at least, not spent in solitude.

"Nadeshiko..." chimes the little voice of the fairy named Temari, her head peeking out from a crack in her eggshell. "You, too?"

"Mhm," Nadeshiko mumbles back. Her estate is palatial, so the odds of hearing anyone in the hall essentially don't exist; but the souzu outside occasionally cracks the silence like hollow bamboo thunder, and unlike usual it seems like it has wormed its way into her ear and won't let her sleep. But something tells her, turning on her side uncomfortably for the third time, that it's deeper than a bamboo noisemaker. "Something's wrong..."

"Yes," Temari says, quietly. "I don't know what."

Nadeshiko takes a long, deep breath, eyes closed to think about...nothing. For a moment. But she feels something unfurl, and slowly, her eyes open again. She can feel it calling. She rises, motions silently for Temari to come; almost reaches for the broad-shouldered leather jacket before she remembers herself and grabs the slender violet sweater, instead. She pads outside, and --

It's the tree. The tallest tree on the Fujisaki compound, cresting high over the wall of the estate. A limber young man could easily use it to climb up, onto the walls, and jump over, out into freedom. It's not so long a drop, if you know how to land properly, which such a young man might just.

Nadeshiko takes a long breath and cinches her sweater up, checking the leggings under her miniskirt. The light curls away from that gardened maple, winding out but hovering low like an invitation. "Nadeshiko?" Temari wonders, uneasy; but still, when Nadeshiko mounts her tree once again, as she did in another life, and starts to climb.

It's desperately far from the Fujisaki estate, but Nadeshiko makes good time at a runner's clip. When she comes upon Ueno park, she slows to a walk, taking another breath of fresh air. "It's beautiful," she says, low.

"...but something's not right," Temari murmurs right back, the kimono-clad fairy's mouth behind her sleeve as ever.

<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.

Rolling a stick of pocky between her teeth in a lazily looping infinity sign, Kyouko's feet idly kick in the air as she lays on her stomach, thumbing through a thick video game strategy guide. She doesn't have time to play them, but she likes looking through all of the glossy pictures, imagining the world second-hand.

The grass is soft beneath her belly. To her side are the ruins of a church grown decrepit with disuse. Its stone skeleton still stands well enough, but its guts were scorched to a crisp years ago..and the surrounding forest has begun to reclaim its space for itself. Vines drape up and down its sides like veins..and all amongst the soil and the loam and the rubble, little green stems peeked out..immature craspedia in an unchecked spread.

These flowers to be are bumpy headed things, drooping from their own weight..the bud looked like nothing of the sort, closer in resemblance to a sunflower having an allergic reaction. Kyouko closes her eyes for a moment, her attention drifting from a map of a fantastical city street..laying her cheek down on the slick magazine style print, she opens them again, half-lidded, gazing at the carcass of her old home.

As she does, she sees something strange..the funny-tipped flowers burst out with tiny yellow petals in every direction, very suddenly, like a kernel of corn bursting into popcorn. One flower after another, three or four at a time, butter-colored buds cooked to readiness in an unseen microwave.

One in particular stands a little taller than the rest. Tiny pinhead sized lights begin to glow from it like a disco ball..spreading out in all directions and, stranger still, converging into a single point in front of it. Like a rope woven from several spindled threads, the joined light becomes a single length..and shoots over and behind Kyouko.

Jerking, she nearly sits up right then and there..but suspicious of the light, she rolls to the ray's side and stands instead. Starting quickly and picking up speed, she begins to trot and dash and run after it, transforming mid-stride and jumping up and over the treeline to try to keep up with its dizzying speed.

The strategy guide is left to flap in the wind. It isn't like she'd paid for it or anything.

COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura transforms into Puella Magi Kyouko!
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki transforms into Sayaka Miki!
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has fully healed himself.
COMBAT: Anthy Himemiya has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki transforms into Chara Change!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The riverbank is quiet.

Nothing dares move or stir to interrupt the serenity of this place. Even as a cold breeze fills the air, the dark-haired young girl near the riverbed does not move. She sits there, hugging her knees against herself as her gaze remains unfocused somewhere in front of her. But then something happens that causes Homura Akemi to tilt her head up towards the river itself.

A bright, red light was shining in front of her. Below this light was a small grouping of Lycoris Radiata, Resurrection Lilies, or Red Spider Lilies. These beautiful flowers normally bloom in autumn, but tonight they bloom on the eve before Spring. They say that the appearance of these flowers means that you will never see a loved one again. This was an ill omen to observe and there was a certain loved one that Homura desperately fights for so that she will never disappear from this world.

Homura Akemi stirs now. She rises to her feet and those purplish-blue eyes of her follow the wisp of red light as it darts off to its unknown destination. A creeping sensation of dread fills the black-haired girl as a frown forms on her face. Something was amiss.

It was now time for Homura to chase the will-o-wisp.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi transforms into Puella Magi Homura!

<Pose Tracker> Mamoru Chiba [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

Mamoru Chiba's been sleeping a little better lately, since he's been staying in one place, and since for now, that one place is Sailor Jupiter's futon. Tonight, he fell asleep reading, and his usual dream has changed again--

--instead of the heartache that comes with the incongruous sight of his phantom princess, he's lost in a shadow of a rose garden. He shifts uncomfortably in his sleep as the dark flowers begin to open, and then to glow.

And then Makoto! The book falls off his chest and his glasses are askew as he sits bolt upright, and the whole room is full of brilliant glittering light, and Mako's shouting, and everything is really, really confusing for a moment. The upperclassman just stares at the fairylights and the suddenly blooming indoor garden for a second, getting his breathing and heartbeat to slow down a little.

"I'd say /so/," he finally says, taking the glasses off and putting them aside, then getting up and moving to the window in a couple of long strides. "Not just here--"

Abruptly, Mamoru flinches, hand flying to his chest and eyes closing: somewhere, Sailor Moon has joined the party. "We should hurry."

Everything happens very fast from there in-- it's not long before they're taking the rooftop express toward the park, transformed and determined, following the glittering and silent beauty.

COMBAT: Makoto Kino transforms into Sailor Jupiter!

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

The flowers have not bloomed.

In the dazzle of the lights, shining so brilliantly against the darkness, it's difficult to really process immediately, but it is so.

Whether the lights were summoned or escaped, once they have passed out of their homes, the buds that briefly opened close tightly shut once again. It's difficult to tell in the darkness, but the buds lack something they had before. They still have color, and softness, and sweet scents. They taste tart and, stirred by the wind, rustle gently.

Whatever is missing is something else, something more profound.

What makes a flower a flower?

The surface of the pond, which is really a small lake, with many lotus paddies, glitters with uncountable hues. A few birds are still sleeping in its marshes, clinging to their wintering grounds. It's too dark for most of them to fly safely, and, disturbed as they are by these mysterious phenomena, they splash about, providing ripples where there were none, for the lights skimmed above but never touched.

Their splashes make no sound, none at all.

Upon the island is a shrine. It is dedicated to Benzaiten, the goddess of fortune, but tonight something else dwells within it entirely.

Someone else.

The night is their cloak and cowl, glittering with all the stars blotted out by the clouds. In their bony, age-spotted hands, they hold an incongruous artifact: an ancient staff, its lustre older than any empire, topped with an iridescent banner, a silvery flag, a wispy cloud, a--

--a net.

The lights settle at their feet, perching on every conceivable surface of the shrine, and free of the blur of their extraordinary swift motion, their true identity becomes apparent.

Their heads are smaller than thimbles; their hands more dainty than blades of grass; their eyes brighter than any gemstone.

Bright with tears.

One of them, not the bravest, nor the wisest, nor the fastest, nor the strongest, nonetheless is the one who steps forward to speak for them all. Her voice is the only sound that trembles upon the night air.

"You're making a mistake! Please don't do this -- breaking this bond will hurt you, too. We need each other."

From beneath the cowl, a voice issues, as hot as the heart of a star.

"You're wrong! For too long have I linked my radiance to yours. For too long have watched from afar as your praises are sung. You adorn every home, every school, every ritual. I can only watch from afar! If I must shine on, I will shine alone."

They sweep their outsized bug-catching net in a wide arc, and the lights are torn into it, all the colors merging into a ball of purest white radiance, incandescence incarnate. It is more than just light -- it is something more.

Something missing.

Bringing it to their lips, they swallow it, passing it between their lips to vanish entirely. Then they turn on their heel, their shroud merging them into the shadows of the shrine.

But the fairies remain. Absent light, there is only one thing they can be.

A low buzz fills the air, an ominous sound, the sound of a million furious wasps.

They still have wings, but now they glitter with motes of ice. They still have hands, but now they are sharp with claws. They still have eyes, but their tears have frozen on their tiny faces, their lips locked in rictus grins of suffering.

With an agonized howl, the swarm buzzes outward into the park -- smashing through everything in their way.

The shrine is the first thing to go. The sleeping birds are the second, exploding into feathers. One is ancient; the others are as young as a year.

Absent a miracle, both are irreplaceable.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Corrupted Flower Fairy!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 18 opponents!
COMBAT: Mamoru Chiba transforms into Tuxedo Mask!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has fully healed himself.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has fully healed herself.

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

The sight of several magical girls converging on the park is somewhat reassuring to Tsukiko; the buzz of corrupted fairies, much, /much/ less so. She's not sure she wants to argue with this mob of magical menace, and she's /really/ not trusting getting close enough to hit them.

Instead, she lands nearby, lit by the moonlight. The wolfgirl takes a deep breath, then gives the fae mob her most intimidating growl. Perhaps they can be persuaded not to tear anything else apart?

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Moonlight Growl on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Lera looks sideways, as Akemi approaches. As she ran, she activated her Barrier Jacket -- it was on Sky's recommendation, since something seemed to be up -- and she nods at the girl in pajamas. She flashes a smile that is practiced but genuine, by now; an effort to be reassuring in the face of something dangerous. "Yeah," she answers. "Don't worry, though! Something weird is happening, but I--"

She pauses, then she winks at Akemi, very seriously. "--Magical Cheeseburger Propane-chan will get to the bottom of this!"

And then comes the buzzing. It makes Lera's skin crawl instantly -- a memory, old but fresh, of running to her mother sobbing after she ran into a wasp, comes to mind -- and she falters for a moment, as she sees the fairies-turned-wasps shooting through the park, shredding apart the shrine and then moving on after that. She looks back at Akemi. "Get back!" she calls out. "This is dangerous, those things..."

She shakes her head, then she lifts up both swords. The twin prongs split open -- and the plasma emitters whirl to life, light crackling up their lengths, forming the swords. She decides she has to go at the wasps, and try to get the to stop; so she leaps, sword extended outward, and tries to use it like a torch to ward them backward.

"Stop!" she calls. "We don't--we shouldn't destroy the park!"

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Strike Soar on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

Prism Keeper Orange looks up to the horizon on her descent and smiles! Red light! It's!..

"Red!" she calls out, follwing up into the sky. "Red, did you-- see?" she asks. "It's pretty isn't it? I wonder what's happening though." she says. Indeed, it's pretty and once again following along with Mei, she sort of stares off with a blink. "What's that?" she asks to the buzzing.

She frowns. "This---feels wrong?" she asks over to Red questioningly?

"They're destroying things!" she says with a gasp!

She raises her wand and unleashes a quick burst of orange energy at the ensuing swarm, with a huff. "Red, did you chase pretty flower lights here, too?" she asks to her as she frowns. "I wonder what this means..."

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Utena and Anthy's arrival at Shinobazu Pond is not a happy one. As beautiful and brilliant as the streams of rainbow light are, Anthy comes to a halt just in time to overhear the voices of the fairies, to see the swallowing of the light and the transformation of the fae into cold and violent creatures. They swarm and shred into the central shrine and a nest of birds, reducing both to nothing. As they begin to hurtle out towards where Anthy and Utena are, the purple-haired girl screams and flings herself away, before tripping on nothing and falling.

Or she would have fallen, if a certain pink-haired Prince weren't here to catch her. The many other magical girls in attendance--none of whom Anthy can currently identify due to how dark and chaotic it is--will no doubt fight their hardest to stop whatever is going on and protect the park, but Anthy...

"Utena-sama, it's so terrible! All those poor flowers! Those poor birds!" she gasps, gazing up pleadingly at her fiancee.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Orange Rush! on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou transforms into Duelist!
COMBAT: Akemi Tsukiyama transforms into Scarlet Rune Maiden!

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Now things are less pretty. Endo is still catching his breath as he watches the scene unfold, as the motes of light are stripped from the faeries and they become something else. He can't comprehend the full magnitude of whatever happened out at the shrine, but he gets the gist that this is a bad thing. Birds are exploding, after all.

"Stern, go! Gogogo!" The boy grips the ring around his neck, lifts his hand, and it goes. A flash of violet and he stands in quasi-medieval regalia, giant sword at the ready.

"Don't go any further!" The warning shots are only kind-of-sort-of that. Triangular symbols appear in the air around Endo's magical device, then explode into several streaks of purple light. They arc upward, raining down at the advancing edges of the faerie swarm, ripping through the ground and anything that advances into them.

COMBAT: Endo Naoki transforms into Barrier Jacket!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Meteor Shower on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The fairies' argument goes over Utena's head a little -- but when they begin to swarm and assault the world around them, well... ... /that/ Utena understands. Her gaze turns to Himemiya, seeing her starting to topple, and immediately she springs into action; she catches the other girl in short order, her eyes meeting hers.

"Himemiya..." Utena says softly, helping her get to a slightly more stable position. "... right." Her hand moves down to her ring, just lightly grazing against it --

-- and in a moment she's ready to move, weaving toward the fairies. Right now, all she can do is fight them... She keeps her offense conservative for the moment, trying to get herself psyched up to do something that leaves her with a bad feeling in her gut.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used Straight Slash on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Fairies are known, of course, to the Blue Ribbon, and so also to Kuniko; but she does not spot them as well as others.

But she knows what's missing, or at least, she has a name for it - one incomplete, perhaps, but meeting her own inner truths.

However, there's a much bigger problem now - "A horde of fairies...?"

Of course, other people are coming in too. The Poisonnier comes to rest, skidding on a walkway - ending up not terribly far from Utena and the stricken-looking Anthy.

A young man comes up. That brave and endearing Orange Ranger (Kuniko misheard a name once). Kuniko sucks in a breath - and slams something down, invisibly, with a metallic clang.

"I've heard it said you can catch flies with vinegar better than with honey, but I don't know how well that applies to fairies," she says. "If we're going to be dealing with a problem at this hour, though, I think we could all do with a little wake-up."

A ritualistic gesture and a hissing of pressed coffee - and that warm and sweet fragrance is invigorating perhaps, even if the magically-spun saucers and the demitasse cups atop them go towards a narrow slice of those nearby. They're easily dashed up - perfect for use on the go!

Namely: Utena, Endo, and Prism Keeper Orange.

COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Espresso Service on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Espresso Service on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Espresso Service on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

Prism Keeper Red is not the fastest flier. She has improved, certainly, from the days when she could barely manage a straight line at a steady speed, but alas, fate did not gift her with an affinity in the air.

So the young girl does not arrive quite in time to see the exchange, to see the fairies, to see the light swallowed up -- though even at a distance, she can see when the great mass of colorful energy is snuffed out. At that, her eyes widen in worry, and she spurs herself on as much as she dares, to the point that she begins to swerve and stutter in the air from lack of control.

It's a rough ride, but despite her growing anxiety, she is not truly seized by fear. After all, Tokyo is protected by dozens of magical warriors, who prize the color and beauty of flowers. Whatever snuffed out the light will surely be defeated, right?

Suddenly, another Prism Keeper!

"Orange!" Red nearly collides with her friend when she shoots into the sky beside her, having to pull back in an awkward tilt-flip to stop her momentum in time. "Sorry! I was going to call you when I saw the light, but it was so late out, and I didn't know what it was going to be," she explains, bringing one hand behind her head in embarrassment. "Though I guess you're here now, so it's alright!"

That's when the angry, consuming buzz reaches her ears. She looks down curiously -- and is met with the sight of a voracious swarm, infesting and destroying the park below. All other thoughts vanish from her mind.

"I don't know, but we have to stop them!" the girl replies to her ally's question, a haze of red glowing around her tiny frame in a messy sphere. "I'll see if I can scatter the swarm a bit. See if you can use your koi to protect anything, okay?"

The light solidifies into solid magic as Red smiles to Orange, and in the next second, she is shooting into the heart of the corrupted fairy swarm like a crimson comet.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Red Comet on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange accepts Kuniko Saito's Espresso Service, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Prism Keeper Orange is Cheered!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki accepts Kuniko Saito's Espresso Service, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka lowers her eyes slowly, expecting a calm, blue-haired violinist. Instead, she sees countless tiny pinpricks, reflective objects in the night that she can't make out. She squints when they are distant, slowly unsquinting as they get closer, until her eyes are wide with fear. Those things are moving like bullets.

Diving behind the torii, Sayaka scrambles to pull her legs in behind her, dragging an exposed ankle to safety just as a woodpecker's symphony of impacts peppers the opposite side of the stone gate. They seem to have no interest in Sayaka particularly, and exhales in relief as they loop around and return to the park for more mayhem.

They'd have all bounced off the shield from The Bat. But Sayaka never intends to pick that weapon up again. Her shoulders slump as she watches the beautiful Bentendou Temple get torn to shreds. But there is no place for her here. Whatever's going on, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Miki. Magical girls will be along soon, to clean it up. Maybe Mami will be here.

Sayaka takes a step back, then turns abruptly on her heel, bounding down the steps two at a time. No more pretending she's a hero. She's going back to her sleeping bag and she's going to ask Madoka for a spare stuffed animal tonight.

<Pose Tracker> Scarlet Rune Maiden [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

If Lera looks for the sleepy-eyed girl who asked her that question, she is simply gone. Possibly blown away from the force of the attack, or, maybe, running to get help. Or, maybe, she's one of the many magical girls who come in, summoned by the seemingly needless violence.

The dark red-haired young woman who walks resolutely towards the center could not be her, long red sleeves trailing behind her as she moves. "This is an issue that pertains to the Balance of nature," snarls Guma, now fully awake, grumpy, and in control of the Rune Maiden's body. "If you all need a mediator to resolve this issue peacefully and sanely, I can play that part, but you must have a _very_ good reason as to why I will try my best to delay the wraith of many fellow warriors trying to defend this place. Not to mention, you need a good reason as to why I need to not join in myself."

Red lips purse in a frown. "So."

Guma points to the fairies, allowing her aura to seep through the exterior of the Rune Maiden, something ancient. Old. Moss and stone, of seasons and the sweet crunch of twigs and leaves. "Explain yourselves. What did you take, why did you take it, and why shouldn't you give it back? Why should the Balance of Nature obey your desires?"

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Mami didn't stay long enough to see the flowers on her counter close again. She was already gone by the time anything changed.

Through the streets and over alleyways Mami leaps, from place to place following the lights--which indeed turn out to be quite a lot of them. Her eyes narrow in concentration; not stopping to appreciate the dance of lights at hand, she just leaps again fro the second story nearby, stopping atop a streetlight to look down towards the...

The scene below. Mami's golden eyes cast about, focusing only after a moment to see something she certaily wasn't expecting at all.

The buzz sets her back on one foot, breath caught in her throat as she sees the horror of the new army arrayed against them. There's a thought for a moment of what to do--...before the shrine goes. Things that can't be replaced are gone.

Mami is not willing to wait for that miracle.

Casting out her hand, she's suddenly surrounded by a ring of silver firearms. "...I'll contain you here," she murmurs, and bends her knees.

Mami leaps, and her guns start spinning as they fire, each aiming at an impossibly small target.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Circle on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has used Guma is a Grumpy Bear on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly counters Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Moonlight Growl, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Tactician ability activates!  Diversion applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Aster Alone, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges Lera Camry's Strike Soar, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Dodge!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Prism Keeper Orange's Orange Rush!, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!  Exhausted applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges Endo Naoki's Meteor Shower, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Utena Tenjou's Straight Slash, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  Utena Tenjou is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Prism Keeper Red's Red Comet, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Prism Keeper Red is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly counters Scarlet Rune Maiden's Guma is a Grumpy Bear, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Aster Alone, partially gets through, doing 23 Fatigue damage to Scarlet Rune Maiden!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Mami Tomoe's Tiro Circle, taking 18 Fatigue damage!  Mami Tomoe is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!

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

There is much elegance in the quest for the fairy-lights. Whether it is the elegance of justice, the elegance of longing, the elegance of duty, the elegance of sentimentality--

"HEY, STOP IT! STOP! IT! STOOOOOOOP!" Sailor Moon leaps between two buildings, reaching fingers fluttering after her plant's lost light and ultimately fluttering too short. Her foot catches on the side of the landing building and she is introduced to the rooftop. The light goes cutting off to join others, gone as quickly as she managed to catch up to it. Sailor Moon looks, stunned, into darkened sky.

At least she has sincerity.

Sincerity and the sting of initial failure carry her to the gathering of lights on surer boots. She lands upon a branch of suitable height to pose heroically from, but instead leans heavily against the trunk of the tree. Beyond and beneath her, a voice speaks heat and a light goes out. Usagi breathes measuredly, and only now thinks to reach for her communicator--not here. Should have thought earlier, Sailor Moon. Her gaze returns to the growing buzz.

It's difficult to say what makes her feel the most twisted up inside. There is the howl, and just the noise of it is sad and fearsome all at once. There is the source of the howl, that kind light her rose joined made kind no longer. There is the desecrated shrine, which Usagi has found a new reverence for in knowing Rei Hino. There is the flock of sleeping birds, dead now, dead like Madoka's Kyubey once was, dead like Madoka once was, dead like most everyone in Tokyo once was.

Sailor Moon reaches for her crescent wand in breath-quickening panic, pulling it from thin air with a silvery flash. She can't do this again. She had Ami last time. She can't--Voices beneath her. Usagi looks down, finding familiar shapes. Maybe it is like Shiori says. Some things she can't change on her own, but if she just does nothing and trusts it will turn out okay...

She exhales and straightens her posture.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

The blonde magical girl leaps from the tree, growing closer to the cacophonous cloud but finding calm in the fellow warriors around her.

"Please--please, I don't know what's happening, but--" Guns go off on her right. She glances to Mami, expression frozen in fragile determination. "--please believe that everything will get better--" A sword flashes to her left. Her gaze goes from Utena to Anthy, parsing but unable to develop a coherent feeling. "--just, somehow! I'm the sailor-suited pretty soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon! And, in the name of the moon--" that isn't here right now "--I'll do everything I can to fix this!"

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used In The Name Of The Moon on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Sailor Moon's In The Name Of The Moon, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Sailor Moon is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!  Diversion applied to Pink Moon Stick!

<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.

Landing lightly on the island shore, Kyouko arrives as so many others do too. A scowl crosses her face as she realizes that they'd been summoned as easily as the lights. She sees as the light is consolidated and consumed, and the ghoulish effect it has on the little ones. Sad. But if she came here to see something sad, or to swat some flies, then she's wasted her time. Let the other girls deal with it.

Her mind changes as quickly as it takes the forsaken little runts to puree the local bird population in record time. Circumstances start to closer resemble self-preservation..and whatever drank the glow could turn these little things into flying piranha seems worthy of a closer look.

Hoisting a spear in the air like a golfer assuming stance, as calm as could be, Kyouko takes a few strides forward, taking a brief running start before hurling her arm forward, momentum and force shooting the javelin forward. In mid-air, it comes apart, as though it had been sliced lengthwise into two dozen thin slices. The splinters part in the air, maintaining their trajectories by the magical reach of their wielder's will.

Each spearshard hisses through the air, meeting the gnashing cloud of fell faeries head-on. Kyouko watches with coldly calm eyes, waiting to see how they handle it.

COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Pincushion on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (5)] has posed.

Nadeshiko looks around, increasingly uneasy. It's beautiful, but, the lights, the sparkling...Nadeshiko knows, maybe better than most, that if you're not supposed to see a fairy, then something's usually *wrong* when you can. X-Eggs are so much easier to see than Heart Eggs, and X-Charas even moreso...

And she stops cold when she sees the congregation at the lake. With no context for it, she can't really appreciate /exactly/ what it is, but...

The words mean enough, and it's at the sweep of the net, the gathering of light, that Nadeshiko is already wheezing, "No..."

ANd when it's eaten, she already knows what's next. "Temari," she whispers, looking up at her trembling fairy companion. "...I'm sorry."

"Don't," Temari replies, firm. "We defend the hearts of others. It is what a Guardian does, yes?"

Nadeshiko can't really afford more than a token smile before the screaming swarm buzzes past, shattering the shrine and annihilating those bathing birds. Nadeshiko staggers back a step, and then her voice is high: "Temari! Chara Change!"

There's a whipping wind of far too etherial cherry blossoms, from which emerges her naginata, and a spark in her hair reveals a similar decoration in her hair to the now-consumed floral anima. Nadeshiko's stance falls back a step and her naginata rises to attack position. "They've been X'ed!" Nadeshiko calls out, loudly.

"I don't think it's really the same," Temari murmurs, uneasy. Watching fairies lose their light is not the most comfortable thing for her to see.

"It's close enough!" Nadeshiko barks back, her temper shortened even when she has a grip on her Chara Change. She whips around, eyes flashing with heat. "I can't purify an X...fairy? But I can do my best!" she calls. So she does the thing she always does, when there's a little ball of darkness on the loose and Amu's not around to Open its Heart:

She starts waving her naginata threateningly and shouting mean words and hoping that makes them divert, hoping to control their movement a bit.

COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Unmaidenly Conduct on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Catching her breath, Eri wishes she had enough magic to spare to have just simply transformed for first class travel here. As matters stood, she was conserving at every oppurtunity. But this? This was important, even if her mind couldn't grasp how yet. What made a flower a flower? An unspoken, unasked, yet assumed question, which she deliberated upon in the back of her mind. Any botany lesson she'd learned would be inadequate to give her an answer to that.

She palmed her gem for a moment, and tosses it into the air, which exploded into motes of leaf shaped green light. Suffused by that light, there came the smell of jasmine in spring, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind in autumn. Whirling around and spreading out her hands, she whirled her scourge, snapping it theatrically, before it laid lazily at rest upon the ground.

And even if what the fairies were arguing over didn't make sense to her, she could just /feel/ how much was at stake. And with that, came inspiration to speak out. "I don't know what you're arguing over, but the sublimity of flowers illuminates the hearts of all, even people who take their presence for granted. I can't condone you stealing anything from them! Tonight I fight for all people who put their very hearts into nurturing them!"

The loud buzzing cloud of destruction begins to move, swallowing up a monument, then innocent birds in their wake. Narrowing her eyes, she looks around at those gathered here with us, her eyes falling upon Mami as she begins her graceful assault, her confidence surging all the more. "Mami-senpai! I'm glad you're here!" She didn't expect to see her again for a while, the way she stormed out that night. She still had little idea what that was about, and now wasn't the time to ask. "Now we'll definitely be able to halt their advance!"

Advancing forward she sidearm flicks the vine scourge, each length moving into the swarm seperately. With a twist of her wrist, they snap, tiny droplets of acrid poison emanating from the thorns showering the swarm. Inwardly she wondered how the flowers she once gifted to her for saving her life were doing tonight.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Venomous Lash on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.

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

The nighttime city flashes by as Sailor Jupiter runs and leaps, rooftop to rooftop. She barely sees the buildings, the streets below. Tuxedo Mask is somewhere close by, following the same route, but Jupiter has no words for him. All of her attention is for those sparks of light, flying through the dark air toward the park, the lake, the shrine.

Heart twisted up tightly in apprehension, she races.

Hard as she tries, though, she's not fast enough. She's in time only to see those lights gathered up and swallowed - they vanish, and in their absence, the swarm rages. Already there are magical girls joining the fray.

Is this right?

She finds her way to Sailor Moon's side just as the blonde senshi finishes her speech, and for just a moment Jupiter's hand rests on the other girl's shoulder. "We'll fix it," she agrees, a promise more confident than she feels right now. Somehow, they have to fix it, and restore what was taken.

--but how?

Never mind - they'll figure it out as they go. First: stop the swarm from spreading any more, try to cut down the damage. Sailor Jupiter steps forward, past Sailor Moon, and raises both hands to call the wind. Petals scatter from her fingers, becoming a windblown torrent that surges into the mass of fairies: not to harm, merely to slow them down, to confuse and distract in a flurry of color and perfume.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Flower Hurricane on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Everything speeds back up to normal as Homura drops through the air and onto the large, outstretched branch of a nearby tree. The branch wobbles up and down from the additional weight, but it is strong enough to hold up its new burden. Homura Akemi looks out from her new vantage point over towards the small pond that could have been an ocean to some, especially to the diminutive fairies that have gathered there. Well, that explains the mysterious light sure enough, but it takes a few moments for Homura to discover the reason for her dread from earlier.

The fairies are changed, drained of their light. In the absence of this, they are transformed into hideous mutations of their former selves. And these new monster fairies waste no time in showing off their destructive potential. They had to be stopped before they cause too much damage.

Luckily, Homura has also underwent a transformation. She now rests a hand on the shield-like device that she wields. Visibility was poor and there were definitely some friendly magic girls out there too. This made the use of a firearm problematic. A shame that she didn't have a flamethrower in her arsenal. Homura would have to fix this.

But for now, she will have to merely use something else from her already large arsenal of deadly weapons. Homura reaches behind her shield and pulls an elongated tube that surely could not have been hidden behind such a small device. The object is soon aimed at where the black-haired girl believes the swarm will head next. She didn't need to hit the swarm directly, she just needed to hit near it. The explosion would take care of the rest. Even if she missed, this attack would surely help illuminate the nearby park for a moment. It seems that Homura was going to be a team-player in her own special way.

"..we shouldn't destroy the park!"

SCHWOOSH! There is a brief flash of fire as Homura shoots her RPG towards the fairy swarm. Okay, so maybe she's not going to be a team-player tonight.

Rocket fired, Homura hops down off the branch because of the weapon's recoil and takes a moment now to survey the battlefield. Mami was here. Those guns of hers illuminated her well even on this dark and cloudy night. As long as she doesn't get in her way, there was no need for concern. Afterall, there was no Madoka or Sayaka here for Mami to impress.

......Or so Homura thinks until she spies Sayaka in the middle of it, the Bat in hand. But she seems to be running -away- from the action instead of towards it. Good. But she might need some help in getting out of there. Homura takes a running leap just as Kyouko's javelin and Eri's vine crack through the air. With them being there, that meant she had addtional, powerful allies to assist in this fight. Their odds of surviving were steadily improving. Homura continues to make her way over to meet up with the Bat-wielding bluehair, closing the distance at a frightening speed. "Keep moving, I will cover you." She stoically intones to Sayaka before reaching for her 'shield' once more. It was time to start getting serious.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Rockets' Red Glare on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

It was a windy trip to the park, and in the park, chaos -- a legion of magical girls and a buzzing, angry swarm of psychotic and twisted fairies, and devastation and feathers and blood. All of a sudden, Tuxedo Mask is hit with the feeling that there's nothing he can give that will be enough. When it's all small and there's so much, and there are so many allies of justice--

His face is shadowed and grim behind the brightness of his mask, and all of a sudden, he straightens from his crouch at the edge of the roof. Dark and in darkness, it's only the sharp contrast of white gloves and shirt and mask that are even visible for a moment. There's something he can do: make sure his friends don't feel the way he does.

"The night is meant to be a time of peace!" Tuxedo Mask's voice rings out from above; he crosses his arms and stands stiffly, stern and tall. "Flowers are meant to be beautiful, to open their petals and bask in the sun! I, Tuxedo Kamen, won't stand for the corruption of both the night's peace and the brief, brilliant lives of beautiful blossoms! The love and determination of these girls will set things right!"

With a swoosh and a flutter, he jumps from the rooftop and into the dark frenzy.

COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Eri Shimanouchi is Cheered!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Everything speeds back up to normal as Homura drops through the air and onto the large, outstretched branch of a nearby tree. The branch wobbles up and down from the additional weight, but it is strong enough to hold up its new burden. Homura Akemi looks out from her new vantage point over towards the small pond that could have been an ocean to some, especially to the diminutive fairies that have gathered there. Well, that explains the mysterious light sure enough, but it takes a few moments for Homura to discover the reason for her dread from earlier.

The fairies are changed, drained of their light. In the absence of this, they are transformed into hideous mutations of their former selves. And these new monster fairies waste no time in showing off their destructive potential. They had to be stopped before they cause too much damage.

Luckily, Homura has also underwent a transformation. She now rests a hand on the shield-like device that she wields. Visibility was poor and there were definitely some friendly magic girls out there too. This made the use of a firearm problematic. A shame that she didn't have a flamethrower in her arsenal. Homura would have to fix this.

But for now, she will have to merely use something else from her already large arsenal of deadly weapons. Homura reaches behind her shield and pulls an elongated tube that surely could not have been hidden behind such a small device. The object is soon aimed at where the black-haired girl believes the swarm will head next. She didn't need to hit the swarm directly, she just needed to hit near it. The explosion would take care of the rest. Even if she missed, this attack would surely help illuminate the nearby park for a moment. It seems that Homura was going to be a team-player in her own special way.

"..we shouldn't destroy the park!"

SCHWOOSH! There is a brief flash of fire as Homura shoots her RPG towards the fairy swarm. Okay, so maybe she's not going to be a team-player tonight.

Rocket fired, Homura hops down off the branch because of the weapon's recoil and takes a moment now to survey the battlefield. Mami was here. Those guns of hers illuminated her well even on this dark and cloudy night. As long as she doesn't get in her way, there was no need for concern. Afterall, there was no Madoka or Sayaka here for Mami to impress.

......Or so Homura thinks until she spies Sayaka in the middle of it. But she seems to be running -away- from the action instead of towards it. Good. But she might need some help in getting out of there. Homura takes a running leap just as Kyouko's javelin and Eri's vine crack through the air. With them being there, that meant she had addtional, powerful allies to assist in this fight. Their odds of surviving were steadily improving. Homura continues to make her way over to meet up with the normally bat-wielding bluehair, closing the distance at a frightening speed. "Keep moving, I will cover you." She stoically intones to Sayaka before reaching for her 'shield' once more. It was time to start getting serious.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Moon is Cheered!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Kyouko Sakura's Pincushion, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick is Quipped!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!  Cripple, Exhausted, and Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Unmaidenly Conduct, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Eri Shimanouchi's Venomous Lash, taking 15 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cripple applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly counters Homura Akemi's Rockets' Red Glare, taking 3 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Aster Alone, partially gets through, doing 18 Fatigue damage to Homura Akemi!  Stun applied to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Blind, Stun, and Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick!

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

The fairy swarm no longer has any bright, colorful lights to designate itself, but the magical girls more than make up for the difference. Lera Camry's brilliant orange swords are fairly effective at 'warding off' the swarm, in the sense that they don't actually connect with anything, but all around her -- and around Endo Naoki, whose violet bombardment churns the ground but catches not a single sublimely nimble wingtip -- fairies zip through benches and statues, reducing them to splinters, to shards. Indeed, the park has fast become impassable to all but the supernatural; there is too much debris in all directions to easily escape.

One gets right in Lera's face, hisses furiously, and gestures sharply -- frozen flower petals, what were once beautiful, have lost their shine and bring only pain. Another, fighting dirtier, comes up tiny and silent to attempt to skewer Endo from the back. Kuniko and Tuxedo Mask, serving coffee and encouraging words amid the fray respectively, are not exempt from being run into at high speeds by diamond-hard and -sharp little bodies.

Tsukiko growls at them, and a one-inch-tall fairy that once inhabited a tomato plant gets right in her face and growls back. Louder. She brings forth a round of fiercely rotting petals, and then a second, with a vicious swirl. The Scarlet Rune Maiden receives a similar response from her demand for an explanation, with slightly more articulation. "We stole nothing!"

Prism Keeper Orange scores the first hit, and something curious happens -- her shimmering orange beam bowls a little fairy onto her butt, skipping her across the surface of the pond -- but when she arises, she has changed. A little bit of orange radiance clings to her, fading at the tips towards blue.

The tears on her face have melted.

"Please, they don't know what they're doing..." The fairies? The magical girls?

Perhaps both.

Utena and Mami strike with force untarnished by hope -- reluctance is not much of a substitute, and that bad feeling in the rose-haired girl's gut was an accurate one -- and corrupted fairies, touched by silver steel and golden bullets, explode into clouds of gray glitter.

It drifts towards the surface of the lake, and is consumed.

In the same instant, every tight little bud on a nearby cherry tree crumbles to dust, as do the unspoken promises of life on an aloe vera plant halfway across the city, cared for every day by a child who can rarely leave her bed.

Prism Keeper Red blasts past the tree and into the heart of the swarm, which evades her with moderately more effort. Having seen the deaths of their comrades, they seem determined to, henceforth, defend themselves with more urgency. They no longer take the time to blast at the speakers, instead avenging their fallen kin like a wrathful tornado. Truly cruel, they go for Utena's hair, trying to twist it into knots -- to yank at Mami's artful curls, Sailor Moon's meatball buns, Sayaka's hairpins (and she but a bystander!) -- to tug Red's locks with indecent ferociousness.

The same corrupted fairies that buzzed Kuniko and Tuxedo Mask have to swerve sharply and repeatedly to avoid Kyouko's slivers, but they manage it all the same, screaming wordlessly and sending back more of those rotted petals in turn. These smell like death. Nadeshiko manages to rout some of them, who fly off in the opposite direction, sending more of them behind.

Jupiter blows a huge cloud away from a particularly precious piece of statuary; they tumble end over end. Still more come from another angle, though, to pepper her with frozen shards, cold corpses of flowers that were. Even more of them overwhelm Homura's rocket, choking the vast majority of the blast at the source, then following its trail back to the violet Puella Magi with unerring precision.

The green Puella Magi has more luck. Eri's poison mixes in with the swarm and coats many a wing, a hand, a face. They cough and hack, and though they have no light remaining to start, something more begins to go out of them.

The now fully-blue fairy rushes towards them, beating lake water onto them with her wings, frantically trying to get the worst of the toxin out of them. She is backhanded away for her pleasure, and lands in the pile of dust that was once a tree, stunned.

"Please... they have already forgotten the oath..."

Those she's saved go on to pelt her, and Eri, with more of those awful ex-petals.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Forget Me Not on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Forget Me Not on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Red Spider Lily on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Primrose Path on Kyouko Sakura.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Primrose Path on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Primrose Path on Nadeshiko Fujisaki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Forget Me Not on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Forget Me Not on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Camellia Charging on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has cancelled their attack on Pink Moon Stick. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Sayaka Miki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Camellia Charging on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Forget Me Not, taking 17 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Lera Camry's Fade ability activates!  Lera Camry's Flash ability activates!  Diversion applied to Lera Camry!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Pink Moon Stick's Camellia Charging, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Empower applied to Pink Moon Stick!  Cleanse! All of Pink Moon Stick's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Anthy Himemiya.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flash ability activates!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Taunted!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe perfectly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Mami Tomoe's Fade ability activates!  Mami Tomoe's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Eri Shimanouchi is Taunted!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito perfectly braces Pink Moon Stick's Red Spider Lily, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Brace!  Kuniko Saito's Block ability activates!  Kuniko Saito's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Forget Me Not, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!  Blind and Diversion applied to Sailor Jupiter!
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Primrose Path, taking 18 Fatigue damage!  Trap applied to Nadeshiko Fujisaki!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Red Spider Lily on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Chrysanthemum Crying on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Forget Me Not, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Blind and Diversion applied to Endo Naoki!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Moon is Taunted!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Red Spider Lily, taking 37 Fatigue damage!  Stagger applied to Tuxedo Mask!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Prism Keeper Red is Taunted!
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Primrose Path, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Kyouko Sakura's Block ability activates!  Kyouko Sakura's Parry ability activates!  Tangle applied to Kyouko Sakura!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou accepts Kuniko Saito's Espresso Service, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Utena Tenjou is Cheered!

<Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Lera shrieks when one of the fairies gets right in her face, and petals fly directly for her. Her eyes widen, and she ducks down quickly -- the frozen petals shoot right over the girl's head, slashing into some strands of hair that come up when she goes down, shaving them away. They flutter after her, as she ducks down to the ground, and ducks into a roll, before she comes back up.

She looks around; she spots Endo, and Sailor Moon, and other magical girls that she has fought with before. She takes a deep breath before she turns, looking at the fairy that attacked her.

<Lera. They won't listen. We have to...>

"I know," she says. "We'll stop them from destroying this place, as best we can, and we'll go from there!"

She lifts up her right sword, looking at the fairy that attacked her, and the ones around it. She focuses; a magical circle shoots out underneath her feet, before it flashes straight up under them, and then the ight sword suddenly glows with a crackle of fire around it.

<Edge Burst!>

Then, Lera shoots -- rushing in a line over the park ground, trailing a line of red-orange after her. She launches across the Earth, running fast as she can, and slashes her blade past the fairies.

COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Edge Burst on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Lera Camry has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Utena Tenjou's Fade ability activates!  Utena Tenjou's Flash ability activates!  Utena Tenjou is Taunted!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi perfectly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Forget Me Not, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates!  Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange narrowly counters Pink Moon Stick's Primrose Path, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Tangle applied to Prism Keeper Orange!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange's counterattack, Orangella Obfuscation, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi tries to cover Sayaka Miki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Chrysanthemum Crying, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi tries to cover Sayaka Miki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Chrysanthemum Crying, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi tries to cover Sayaka Miki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Chrysanthemum Crying, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi covers Sayaka Miki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Chrysanthemum Crying, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Tsukiko yelps at the counter-growl, then coughs and winces at the petals. Okay, that backfired, she thinks to herself. Looking around, she sees a few others who also got hit by similar petals. "Tuxedo Mask! Duelist! Orange!" she calls out. "Don't let them discourage you! We can still do this!"

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Prism Keeper Orange is Cheered!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Kuniko hears guns go off - nothing too strange, she thinks, espying that mature and elegant girl with the muskets. The rockets' red glare, the Tuxedos bursting through air, of course, give proof through the night that the problem's still there...

A fairy, once a red spider lily, flies right towards Kuniko. Her eyes cross slightly --

She sweeps a fluffy white towel at the small thing. It works to transfer momentum - the former lily doesn't rip into her flesh - but clean cotton fluff explodes from the rent-asunder towel. Kuniko looks at the remnants in silence for a moment.

Kuniko looks back - in time to see dust touch the lake, and then the buds on a nearby cherry tree erupt into dust.

That one little fairy... it touched the pond, she thinks.

"Is it the water?" she says to herself, aloud. Then she sees more woes befall that little blue one, and electricity runs up her spine. Straightening up, Kuniko pulls the brim of her cap down low, leans forwards --

And runs for the edge of the pond.

In her right hand is a bain-marie - a metal pot in a square shape. She dips it down gently in the pond water, sinking to one knee as she does. Kuniko looks up again at the chaos around them, but she's able to hold onto something reassuring in her left hand.

Something that brings delight to the senses. Something with danger and beauty - something that can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

A blowtorch! A blowtorch... of /hope/.

'Flames... have godlike powers in the hands of a chef,' a wise man once said.

Kuniko pivots the blowtorch underneath the cupful or so of water she's gathered up in the bain marie. "If they won't go to the pond," she says with tones that are in part striving to convince herself, "Then bring the pond - to them!"

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

Prism Keeper Orange is not a power ranger! Though still, a saucer is magically spun to her and---coffee. Now she'll be up all night! But more important, it's given her some pep! "Thanks!" she calls out to Kuniko with a smile. She looks to Red and nods. "Right!..... You can count on me, Red!" she says determinedly.

She watches as the fairy she hits and emerges not as a scary wasp thing, but something else. Her eyes go wide. "Ah! Did I do that!? Sorry!" she says. "But.. what is going on!?" she calls out-- and regardless of what's going on, she moves to tank fairy wasps as she tries to race towards the fairy, raising her hands as koi come up and surround her, which pushes her through the oncoming mess aimed at her. She winces, just a bit, as she tries to get near the recently attacked fairy, "You!? Are you alright! What Oath?..." she asks confusedly.

She turns around and huffs as she sumoons her wand, and summons up more koi. These jump from the water up and into the swarm (or swarms?) as if jumping up from the water.

"You should talk! I'll try to keep these guys offa ya!" she says determinedly.

"I mean, as best as I can..." she muses.

She does however, smile and wave at the Cute Wolf! "I got it!" she says.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Something's Fishy on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used THE BLOWTORCH on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

As he's midair on the way to the ground, tens -- if not hundreds -- of tiny little pieces of living twisted pain and hate pelt him like incredibly sharp hail thrown at dizzying speed, and Tuxedo Mask goes down like a ton of bricks. His cape and his fortitude only help so much, and the ground doesn't help at all. The sound of him hitting the earth is lost amidst the chaos, and he doesn't move for a second or two.

The little blue fairy-thing that flies around pleading doesn't make any sense to him other than the fact that the something that's wrong is multifaceted, and as a tree crumbles down near and partially atop him, he pulls himself up in the shadows, keeping his cape closed around him and his gloves under it. Ash and dust cover the black, making him grey, and the destruction continues; he blinks dust from his eyes and dimly centers on the people he knows well-- on the sudden dousing of the bright singing of the heart he can feel as clearly as his own, sometimes.

And then Cute Wolf Tsukiko's voice cries out in encouragement, and he focuses sharply and at once. "I'm glad to hear your voice, Wolf! Keep up the good work! Eri, don't lose heart-- the trees and flowers need you!"

The trees and flowers-- something snaps into place. "SAILOR MOON! Believe in yourself, believe in your power-- heal them, bring them back to themselves! Look at them, they're hurting even as they hurt us-- I know you can help them be better than what's been done to them!"

COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Tuxedo Night on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Cheered!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Tuxedo Mask's Tuxedo Night, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Moon is Cheered!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Kuniko Saito's THE BLOWTORCH, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  Kuniko Saito is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Lera Camry's Edge Burst, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Lera Camry is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Scarlet Rune Maiden [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Something of value was lost here.

Guma doesn't feel it until Akemi's pain, dripping like ice water down her back, filters through her sleep-addled grumpy brain. ".... Just what did you take from..." What did you take from her. What did you take from Akemi, the girl who asks for so little, who delights in small things like the grass on bare feet, finding hidden stashes of mushrooms in the forest, the smell of sheets hung to dry in the cool spring air.

"You took something. From-" Guma stops. Straightens. Converts her anger into something far more righteous than her lashing out over her helplessness. "You took something from everyone. What sort of selfish-"

("Look out!") Akemi's voice, inside Guma's mind, is a shade too late to warn Guma about the oncoming attack. Knocked onto her back on the dirt, Guma grits her teeth. "Oh, for crying out loud..." Jumping back onto her feet, the Rune Maiden straightens upwards to her full height and brushes off her arms. "Honestly..."

("Guma, please, stop...") "Why should I stop?" The red ribbons of the lotus tattoo on the Maiden's back are already snaking down her arm, weaving intricate patterns over the skin that is open to the air. ("One of them is changing! Look! That one magical girl mentioned they've been X'ed. Like at that fairground?")

The light stops in its tracks. Moving over to Prism Keeper Orange, Guma kneels to look over at the fairy, then back to the Prism Keeper. "You did something that changed this fairy back. She- er I, saw it." Looking towards the fairy, Guma explains, "These people have a responsibility to protect this city. They're working with what information they have. You can change that."

Summoning the power of the lotus tattoo on her back, the Maiden's hands shoot outward, palms out, gathering the energy to protect herself, Prism Keeper Orange, and her companion, Prism Keeper Red. Maybe it has something to do with color...? "If it's energy or color you need, fairy-san, one or both of us can supply it."

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Prism Keeper Orange's Something's Fishy, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Diversion applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has used Lotus Shield on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has used Lotus Shield on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has used Lotus Shield on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden accepts Scarlet Rune Maiden's Lotus Shield, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Withstand applied to Scarlet Rune Maiden!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange accepts Scarlet Rune Maiden's Lotus Shield, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Withstand applied to Prism Keeper Orange!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Scarlet Rune Maiden's Lotus Shield, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Withstand applied to Prism Keeper Red!

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Old colors have been replaced by new ones, and Endo is briefly heartened by the appearance of the city's Magical Girl population. He spots Lera and a few other familiar blobs of motion, but he doesn't have much time to dwell on it.

If it wasn't for magic, Endo'd probably miss the saucer coming at him. But he plucks it from the air, the cup juggling perilously back and forth in the air before he manages to grab a firm hold of it. "I don't--do I hit them with it?" The Knight glances from the cup, to the swarm, and then he just slams it down. "It's good!" There's a brief look of invigoration when the liquid hits his system, his eyes widening, his face becoming more alert, more--

Abruptly twisted in agonizing pain when one of the little creatures slams into his exposed back, digging into him before his Device can prevent it. His grip on the chunk of metal dug into the ground keeps him standing, barely.

He hits back, symbols flaring to life at his feet, the boy's shout joining the tiny screams of anguish around him. Two panicked, chaotic slashes cut through the air, trails of purple flashing in their wake as Endo tries to get the little creatures away from him. Endo Naoki walks over to Museum of Western Art. Endo Naoki has left. Endo Naoki walks over from Museum of Western Art. Endo Naoki has arrived.

COMBAT: Endo Naoki has used Radial Velocity on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Endo Naoki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Endo Naoki's Radial Velocity, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (5)] has posed.

Nadeshiko's successful rout is accompanied by a backward-facing attack, and she squawks; she tries to juke aside, gracefully, but it doesn't work at all, and she takes a faceful of petals and tumbles back on her butt. "Dang it!"

She grunts, starting to rise, and gawking around to take in the surroundings. She knows a few of these people; that's Eri, that's Mami...and not really anyone else. Not that this is particularly a time to socialize, but knowing what she's got to work with is useful. She manages to rout some of the scattered darkened spirit backwards, and soon drops her stance back low, watching around for their next move. There's no point repositioning until she knows where she needs to go. If they were after a /target/ that'd be one thing, but...

"Watch it with the gunfire!!" Nadeshiko yelps, because Homura's a fairly ridiculous person and Nadeshiko likes this park. "If we can get someone who can purify them, maybe...but if you can't, try to keep them contained!"

She's hoping someone's actually listening since it's about all she's got. She follows her own advice, at least, spinning her naginata in hand to race out at full throttle. Voices mumbling -- voices?

The blue fairy catches her eye, but all she can do for the moment is try to keep her eye on the ball; she tries to get ahead of the swarm with the power and speed of her Chara Change and start swinging her naginata. She's doing her best to swing away. It's like shooing a fly; you're not really trying to hit anything, you just want to change where it goes!

COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Naginata Flurry on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Utena Tenjou is Cheered!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou covers Anthy Himemiya for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Chrysanthemum Crying, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Chrysanthemum Crying, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Utena accepts the espresso, of course... but getting the chance to drink it is a little harder. Doing her best to weave out of the path of the fairies but not quite managing it, Utena's lovely hair ends up tangled and knotted -- and in trying to get out of their path, she loses the cup! Oh no.

Upon seeing the cherry tree begin to crumble at her actions, Utena backs off, instead trying to interpose herself between Himemiya and the fairies. She's invigorated, slightly, by Tsukiko's words -- but really, at this point, she's much more interested in protecting than fighting.

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Mami puts on a smile as she hears Eri's voice. "Of course I'm here," she quips back. "I couldn't miss all the excitement, could I?" Building up her own bravado, Mami hits the ground in a crouch, eyes snapping back up upon her landing now that her weapons of the moment are expended.

...But, only for the moment.

The Puella Magi has a mission, and it's not one that she can afford to let slip any longer. She has no room to be anything less than perfect here; the first fairy explodes into glittering dust, and Mami prepares to unleash her next volley in short order. There is no sense of connection to the dying buds nearby, only to the way these clouds rush back. She's interrupted in short order:

Mami Tomoe cannot let something get to her hair. She spins backward, leaping into th air again and then against a wall, and then futher up, out of the way of the first cloud to begin with. But not all are as lucky as she is. Some, too, get help. Mami glances to where she was, to Utena, but it's the muffled explosion of the rocket that announces Homura's presence to her--and Homura in turn who is there protecting Sayaka.

There's something sharp touching her heart, but it isn't hope, as she watches that rescue.

"Shimanouchi-san!" she calls, though she can already hear someone else calling the same. There are a lot of voices, frankly.

Maybe it was a mistake to listen to so many.

"If we don't stop this here, this is going to be the /least/ of what we see!" she calls as she sees attacks that seem not to try to /hit/ their opponents. But for her, she doesn't lift another gun; instead, she spreads her half-gloved fingers and /pulls/ at something in the air, whirling one before a spray of golden-and-red ribbons curl outward to twist into the cloud, angling for tiny legs or arms.

She pulls harder, of course.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used Naked Determination on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou accepts Utena Tenjou's Naked Determination, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Accelerate and Withstand applied to Utena Tenjou!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Legare on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

The meteor of red light comes to Earth with a *bang* and an explosion of color, cratering the ground beneath it and staining the soil scarlet. The Prism Keeper inside takes a moment to breathe, securely on her feet for the first time in what feels like ages. Surely that scattered them a bit. It's a bit hard to tell in the darkness, with all the lights gone, but the infernal buzzing seems to have quieted--

Her two pigtails are yanked backwards suddenly, her head fills with pain, and she shrieks.

It appears her attack was not as effective as she thought.

"Get off! Get OFF!" the young magical girl squeals, pain like a thousand needles stabbing at her neck as the fairies tug at her hair. Instinctively, she kicks off the ground and into the air, bucking and twisting as she goes to throw the creatures -- and any other stowaways -- off of her entirely.

Her hand connects with one, and she slaps it away as well as she's able to. The other manages to grab hold of her white bow, which breaks with a *snap* and sends half her deep red hair flowing over her shoulder, no longer bound.

"Now look what you've done, you pest!" Red says, the fabric slipping through her fingers as the wind carries it away. "When I get my hands on you, I swear--"

It's only now that she sees the damage to the park. The obliterated shrine. The toppled trees. Pathways littered with debris, nigh impassable. Plant and animal eviscerated by the swarm beneath her, the swarm that is not stopping.

(She does not see the rehabilitated fairy, nor does she see the plants die when the fearsome creatures are struck down. She is too high up -- but would seeing such a thing break through the anger that begins to boil in her heart?)

"You beasts!" she curses, face locked in a grimace of sorrow and indignation. The Prism Keeper has seen damage in battle before, but this is beyond even the worst of it. This is...decimation, and it seems permanent in a way that makes her shudder. "What have you done?!"

Her voice trembles as she sees the corpse of a baby bird nearby; then, she is a blur of motion, flinging rose darts like razors at every buzzing fairy she can see with mechanical precision, too hasty to realize the damage she is doing, too upset to care.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Rose Darts on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The park is tremendously crowded at this point, not just with the deadly fairies but also magical girls of all colors and stripes. When Anthy collapses into Utena's arms, the two of them meet eyes, and Anthy watches her fiance move forward to take on the swarm herself, keeping Anthy at her back. The purple-haired girl, tears in the corners of her eyes, hesitantly retreats, as if torn between running away and sticking close to the one person she knows for certain will protect her, and in the end sticks relatively close--but not too close.

This may turn out to be a mistake.

Green eyes widen as the Indian girl hears a voice, talking about 'they' not knowing what they're doing. Who it refers to, even Anthy couldn't hazard a guess, it's so vague and the situation so overwhelming--but when she sees fairies explode into glitter and be consumed, followed by the crumbling of a nearby tree's buds, she covers her mouth with both hands. When the surviving fairies counter, they too go for Anthy's hair, tugging viciously at the tightly bound curls, pulling strand after strand out of place with painful yanks. Anthy cries out, nearly yelps, and collapses beneath them--

No, that's not what happens. Anthy cringes away from the impending fairies, but nothing happens to her; when she slowly cracks one eye open, she sees her pink-haired protector in front of her, bearing the brunt of fae fury. "Utena-sama!" she gasps, huddling up to her back as the other girl holds off on attacking again for now.

Her hand curls in on Utena's shoulderblade.

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

Sailor Moon looks up to Makoto, unsurprised that she is here and instead uncertain of what they're going to do. She manages a smile. The fire of an RPG blossoms orange and red and yellow in her peripheral vision. She stops being able to manage a smile.

There's no Ami here, no Rei, no Minako--no one with a brilliant plan. Usagi has played at being the leader of the guardians before, occasionally with success, but she has never had to do so with death on her hands. Tokyo Tower was different. That just happened.

The fight grows more intense in its passion, and maybe this is the right way to respond to things--Mami is doing her job with grim resolve, and isn't she one of the best there is?

Well--

"Tuxedo-sama!"

Sailor Moon shouts it. She's not ashamed. It feels good to act a little silly while the dread is building. Love and determination--focus on that. A soldier of love should be rated for this, right?! Usagi grips her wand, considering her options.

The swarm retaliates before that. They descend with dizzying ferocity, impossible to track in their entirety--they pull and tease, yanking at her hair. It hurts, but that's just an annoyance. The real terror is the sensation of powerlessness, the feeling that they're in every direction, a fact of existence here, a force of nature.

The pretty soldier's options to dislodge her attackers are not graceful. They involve flailing (occurs), more flailing (definitely occurs), and screaming (more alarm than pain but we're just splitting hairs here). Fortunately, Sailor Moon comes equipped with an alarm system--her wailing triggers her odango gems into a vibration level somewhere lower than 'capable of destroying property' but still high enough to cause grabby fairies to back off.

She presses back up against her taller fellow soldier. A plan begins to form in her mind--no, that won't work, would it? Or--no, not that--or maybe--maybe--Tuxedo Mask speaks, and Usagi looks up, expression blank. Believe in herself, or believe in miracles? Or--

What if believing in herself, the guardian of the moon princess, is believing in a miracle? Minako is going to save the world one day. Usagi has to be a stronger soldier for her.

"Sailor Jupiter! This should be practice for saving Sailor Mercury! Please, try to stun them!"

Sailor Moon twirls her lunar scepter, slashing a gleaming circle through the air. She glances across the battlefield, gaze lingering on the dead and dying plants, and then tries something new: reaching for the feather pins in her hair, the pretty soldier leaps backward to gain an angle on the shimmering circle she carved and throws them with Rei-inspired forcefulness. The feathers shoot through with whistling speed, trailing glittering stardust that soon fills the air. It becomes bright, almost full-moon bright--a shadow of the healing she must sacrifice her own energy for, but a sincere attempt nonetheless.

COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used There Was A Shrine Here on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Sailor Moon has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Sailor Moon's There Was A Shrine Here, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Nadeshiko Fujisaki's Naginata Flurry, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick is Quipped!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges Prism Keeper Red's Rose Darts, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges Mami Tomoe's Legare, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Homura had misjudged the speed of those deadly, flying ice shards. In the midst of her journey over to Sayaka, she had inadvertantly taken a shard to the gut. It is only when time rights itself that Homura feels the impact of the attack which is enough to drive her to a knee. Thankfully, Puella Magis are made of some sterner stuff. Unceremoniously, she rips the shard out of her and tosses it aside. That was careless of her. She could ill afford to let that attack hit a second time.

So when the second barrage does come, Homura is ready for it. To the nearby Sayaka, the raven haired Puella Magi would simply have appeared to disappear into thin air before reappearing behind her. Poor Sayaka was about to be antagonized by those fairies and normally, Homura would have allowed it. As what harm could some fairies do with a little hairpin pulling and knot tying?

But Homura has seen what her inaction would result in. She has seen Sayaka get her hair tied into knots which caused no lasting damage aside from breaking Sayaka's spirit. But she's also seen Sayaka get impaled by an ice shard since she would be sitting duck thanks to the fairies. And she's seen the fairies distract Sayaka to where she trips over her own feet and tumbles into the awaiting jaws of a rare pond-dwelling alligator. Homura Akemi simply could not take any chances. "Time to go," says Homura before attempting to wrap her arms around Sayaka to get a good hold on her. Should she be successful, both Homura and Sayaka would disappear into nothingness before reappearing -ontop- of a nearby park gate.

Now a good dozen or so feet into the air, Homura nods her head approvingly. "You should be safe here. Sit tight." And then in a blink of an eye, Homura strands Sayaka ontop of the gate. The Puella Magi now stands exactly where Sayaka used to be which means the fairies were now in danger of attacking her precious hair. But alas, she already as spent too much of her magic and is unable to get out of the way in time. One fairy grabs some hair and flies left while its comrade grabs the rest and flies right, pulling Homura's hair in opposite directions. This attack proves to be more annoying than dangerous as a grimacing Homura quickly becomes increasingly agitated with these fairy pranksters.

The frown-equipped Homura swats at the fairies with her shield wearing hand. She does this to shoo them away long enough for her to reach for something else from her shield. The object that she pulls out from behind the device is a glass bottle that is full of some sort of liquid that smells awful. Precariously, someone has stuffed a piece of cloth down the neck of the bottle and then has set that piece of cloth on fire. Homura hoists the bottle into the air and jumps up before smashing the bottle into the ground, seeking to engulf the terrorizing fairies in the ensuing explosion.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Happy Hour with Homura on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Homura Akemi's Happy Hour with Homura, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Homura Akemi is Psyched!

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

<SoundTracker> World of Scattering Flowers - Bravely Default - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy9cjtnLcEw

A lopsided smile touches her expression as Tuxedo Mask offers his speech. It was inspirational at first, it helped bolster her already surging even as she sees the effect upon the fairies. While her heart goes out to them as they become ill as a result, and their heart tries to save the others... they'd made their choice, hadn't they? Hearing Mami's words, she replies back, "I shouldn't have doubted even for a moment!"

The words of the lone fairy start to instill real doubt. Who doesn't know what they're doing? What oath? Questions without concrete answers. Ones she has no time to contemplate beneath the swarm of frozen former petals. She tries to get out of the way, far too late, only to catch one right in the face right on her mask, between the eyes. She pulls it away with her free hand, looking at it.

At first, she thought nothing of it, but then she took another look. It was like the truth that Chrysanthemums represented evaporating away before her eyes. She closes her eyes for a moment, thinking of the person who introduced her to the importance of feelings through flowers, even if she only learned about flower language after that. 'Don't lose heart-- the trees and flowers need you!'

They did. Didn't they? Even if everything they represented to her was losing it's luster. "Right." She replies softly, without any real enthusiasm, the word lost amidst Homura's explosions and the start of Kyouko's deadly dance. Just as Mami implies that this would be the least of the destruction, if they don't stop it now. Whirling suddenly on the swarm, she tries not to let on to how deep her own doubts go, instead calling out to the yellow Puella Magi, "We'll find a way to stop them of course!" She slips up though, in the heat of battle, "I feel much about our chances with you here."

This time when her scourge snaps out, it trails actualy rose petals in the wake of it's movement, as the living tendrils criss cross the length and width of the swarm, trying to bat them out of the sky en masse. Perhaps the sight of her own rose petals would make her feel a little better of course.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Rosary Wheel on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Eri Shimanouchi's Rosary Wheel, taking 16 Fatigue damage!  Eri Shimanouchi is Psyched!

<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.

Rotten petals fly at her face, foul and oozing with blackened decay. The stench of them saps her strength, sticky grime clinging to her face and squeezing filth into the pores of her flesh. Wiping them off with an angry retch and a swiped backhand, Kyouko shakes her head like a sneezing dog, shrugging it off.

The dark little island is awash with color, a magical girl feeding frenzy. Attacks and energies whip all around, bumping and pushing and mixing with one another. The air is iridescent with crackling hues. Leaping up, she makes for some high ground, alighting herself on top of one of the gates of the park..not really removed from the action, but not really in the thick of it either.

When Homura and Sayaka suddenly appear at her side, Kyouko yelps, jerking forward, and nearly falls off. Most of her body leans over the edge, both of her hands clutching a spear that extends straight down into the ground, proppering her in place. Pushing back against her kickstand, she finds fresh footing on the structure of the gate. Whirling around, only Sayaka remains, the grim gunner gone as quickly as she came.

"Wow, she really is fast, huh? How does she do that.." Scratching the side of her head, she shrugs..and notices that something else is missing too. "Hey, where's your bat?"

Some movement catches her eye down below, a cloud of fairies accumulating a little close for comfort. Vaulting down, she lands like a cat, spearhaft pressed against her forearm. She sweeps her spear in a wide arc, slicing in a near half circle two, three, four times, warding them off as though she were brandishing a torch. After her flurry, she leaps back up to the gate, jerking her head down to the ground in Sayaka's direction.

"These mosquitos get bigger every year."

COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Masterstroke on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Kyouko Sakura's Masterstroke, taking 7 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Flash ability activates!

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

The battle, such as it is, continues to be chaotic. The good news is that the fairies are no longer wrecking the park.

The bad news that that's because they have been successfully distracted into giving their full attention to the magical girls.

Lera slashes her blade past the fairies, and once again they evade her, though this time only barely; she's starting to adjust to their speed. They, in turn, seem to think that she's more of a threat than she was, and turns on her, claws and fangs bared, to attack in a flurry of wee-sized violence. Violence begets violence begets violence around Endo, as well; his panicked slashes send the fairies scattering out of his way frantically, before they about-face back into /his/ face.

Tuxedo Mask speaks of healing, and the single fairy with light, the blue one, perks up, then droops limply against the approaching, moderately abrasive Scarlet Rune Maiden. "Your offer... is kind, but those are... not what they need... they need to remember... remember the feeling..."

What makes a flower a flower? What makes it more than a plant -- a collection of cells -- a part of a biogeochemical cycle?

Some magical girls heal with spectacular bursts of power, but there is older magic still.

However, Prism Keeper Orange's koi leap up and wholly eat a fairy. A huge nearby bush of budded but unbloomed chrysanthemums shudders and collapses into dust, and two fairies make straight for the little girl's knees, trying to gnaw them off in retaliation. Even a corrupted fairy can't hope to succeed at such a monumental task, but they get As for effort.

As does Kuniko. A curious fairy rushes up to the pot and dunks right into it. They emerge wet and still black-veined and frozen; it doesn't, however, attack her any further, instead rushing upwards towards Prism Keeper Red. It, as well as its comrades, evade the rose darts with blinding speed, before attempting to inflict the equivalent of a dozen magical mosquito bites on every bit of Mei's skin they can find. Each one transmits a bit of the creatures' own agony. It's a painful way to share a painful thing. Mami gets similar treatment; the fairy she went for with ribbons dodges around and through even the most cunning knots, before trying to slap her harshly on both cheeks with its wings.

Nadeshiko, however, finds modest success; it's almost as though her words have more power than her naginata swings, because upon hearing her feelings the fairies recoil back towards the heart of battle. There they find Sailor Moon's feathers, which they barely avoid -- stardust aside, however, while they are thrown at violent speeds, the lack of malice behind them once again rebuffs the creatures, who speed past Utena and Anthy.

They go straight for Homura: do not pass go, do not collect $200. In the moment of subsequent explosion, two more cherry trees nearby, and a rose bush across the city owned by a girl who is allergic to roses but refuses to get rid of her lost mother's favorite plant, are turned to ashes. Eri's tendrils may have doubt behind them, but they also have determination, and they keep any fairies from drifting out of the area with great but violent success. Most are merely swatted around, but they're so small.

One hits a nearby stone, a part of the park gate that Sayaka's standing on, with an awful crack. It vanishes, and so does a nearby bed of lilies. Two more fairies, their frozen tears black on their cheeks, wreck vengenace by working together to grab a huge tree branch and try to belt her with it, right in the gut. They're nearly eviscerated by Kyouko's nearby efforts -- but not quite, and in turn attracted by it. Whistling shrilly, three more of their buddies start pelting the red Puella Magi with pine cones.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Hydrangea Hung on Endo Naoki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Hydrangea Hung on Lera Camry.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Hydrangea Hung on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Aster Alone on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Aster Alone on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Aster Alone on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Anthy Himemiya.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Sailor Moon.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Vivid Verbena on Eri Shimanouchi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Vivid Verbena on Kyouko Sakura.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Vivid Verbena, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Kyouko Sakura is Quipped!  Stun applied to Kyouko Sakura!

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka is scrabbling at her hair when Homura arrives, trying to pull fairies out of it. "What's the point of this?!" she sputters at them angrily. "You're messing up messy hair!" Sayaka didn't even brush hers before she came, having come right from an attempt at sleep, and even at its best her hair is pretty boring. "Go find the transfer student! Mess up /her/ stupidgorgeous hair!"

Summoned like Bloody Mary, Homura zips right up into Sayaka's face like an icecube sliding on a tile floor, and Sayaka spasms wildly into a kung-fu posture, one leg lifted up to the level of her chest, her vertical palms trying to protect her face. "GAH! Wuh-wha!"

She lowers her knee slightly when it becomes obvious Homura isn't here to murder her for an offense to her sacred hair. "I don't need your help!" she says, as her hair moves around like a medusa's as the fairies tug at it. She starts to put her foot down on the ground. "I was running away alrea-"

"-dy?" Suddenly, there is no ground where Sayaka was putting her foot. She pinwheels her arms wildly, her eyes bulging as she stares down a long drop. Realizing Homura's arms are around her, she changes tactics and grabs onto Homura, hyperventilating as she sweats. "What happened?" she pants, only to have Homura disappear, forcing her to catch her balance again. Homura surely wouldn't have let her fall, but does she know that?

Sayaka realizes where she is rapidly, and ignores Kyouko for a moment. "Transfer student!" she yells down, dropping to her knees so she can shout down at her head. The fairies are out of her hair, at least. "Do you think this is funny or something? Wait till I get down there!" A glow distracts her, as if the moon just came out from behind the clouds. She turns around carefully, looking over the battlefield. So many magical girls have arrived, yet they have so many foes. A captive audience, she has little option but to spend some time watching. Whenever a light dies, a plant dies.

"Anko," she says grimly. "The mosquitos... I don't think you should kill them. It's killing the park." She swallows, continuing in a small voice. "And... my flowers are dying, but I'm not really ready for them to die yet."

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Sayaka Miki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Lera Camry fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Hydrangea Hung, taking 8 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Cheered!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Kuniko Saito is Cheered!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Aster Alone, taking 15 Fatigue damage!  Stun applied to Mami Tomoe!
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sayaka Miki is Cheered!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Hydrangea Hung, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Exhausted applied to Endo Naoki!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Moon is Cheered!
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Scarlet Rune Maiden is Cheered!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi narrowly counters Pink Moon Stick's Vivid Verbena, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Eri Shimanouchi is Quipped!  Eri Shimanouchi's Reverse ability activates!  Stun applied to Eri Shimanouchi!
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi's counterattack, Wistful Wisteria, partially gets through, doing 2 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Aster Alone, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Stun applied to Prism Keeper Red!

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Tsukiko looks around, noticing that the fae have left her alone while she was trying to encourage others. Come to think of it, those that were helping others also seem to be left alone. Hmmm...

She walks forward, looking for a straggling fae. Darting forward, she gently tries to catch one in her cupped hands, bringing it close. "Poor thing, something's cursed you? I'll do what I can to make it better," she whispers kindly, kissing it on the top of its tiny head.

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Wolf's Blessing on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Wolf's Blessing, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Surge applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Aster Alone, taking 35 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Hydrangea Hung, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Prism Keeper Orange's Block ability activates!  Prism Keeper Orange's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Anthy Himemiya accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

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

Where the Cute Wolf's lips touch the fairy's crown, light erupts, a beautiful rose pink, the exact pink, in fact, of a pot of flowers in the window of one of Ikiko's neighbors.

The fairy's frozen tears shatter off of her face, and she collapses into Tsukiko's cupped hands.

"We must... help her..."

Her who?

<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.

Kyouko had been looking down at the action when Sayaka spoke. She'd expected her first words to be sharp, if they came at all..but instead she spoke seriously. Coming from Sayaka, that always catches her attention. Glancing over to her, she blinks

"Eh?"

She looks out over the park again..but this time her attention extends to the entire span of it, not just the signs of battle. In deep focus, Kyouko's expression is stern and serious as she watches and waits..and now and again, something blinks out, stillness turning to motion before nothingness. Sayaka was right.

A hailstorm of pine cones smacks her in the face. Sputtering and flailing, Kyouko nearly falls off of the gate for the second time in moments, but sways back to fall on her butt. Shocked for a moment, she starts giggling, a spasm of laughter that quickly dies off.

/Pinecones?/ Maybe..well, maybe they're not so much of a threat that she has to go full steam at them. Maybe there's another way. Probably not. They'll probably all die if they don't run first. But if they meet spears with pinecones..maybe she's got room to ease off a little.

She stands up, and walks to Sayaka's side. Turning her back to her, she brandishes her spear in a ready position. "..ok. I'll keep us safe. But if nobody comes up with another way, we may not have a choice."

Fishing into her pocket, her shoulder rotates, twisting her arm to reach back without needing to move otherwise. Her hand holds a pair of plums, ripe and plump. "Take one." The other's juice will be dribbling down her chin in moments.

COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Breaking Bread on Sayaka Miki.
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Orange [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

Prism Keeper Orange looks at the Scarlet Rune Maiden with a wide eyed look as protective energy covers her. "Well---I used my.. color energy." she says with a blink. She looks up to Red, who is-quite throughly not very happy. None of them are- but Red is being very angry and stern about it. "Excuse me a minute...um---!" she flies up and towards Red.

"Red---we need to-- calm down a moment! Um! Color energy does something. Maybe! I dunn---akkk!" she moves to brush fairies aiming for her knees away as she gets nipped. She frowns. "Ugh I need to.......!" she pulls her Chroma wand out and unleashes a stream of energy, and attempts to use it to slow down the various fairys as it waves throughout from the tip of her wand- like small breezy waves on a pond, or a wavy orange peel.. or a streamer at a party.

"...hinder these a little." she says with a frown.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has used Orange Peel on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange has finished attacking.

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

Sailor Jupiter brings up both arms crossed before her in an impromptu shield against the bombardment the fairy swarm subjects her to. Frozen splinters stick in her clothes and gloves, and draw pinprick drops of blood from her skin.

It stings, but she can endure it. The worse feeling, the one that brings a grimace to her face, is the inescapable conviction that this is all wrong. How, she doesn't know, but she can't shake the sick feeling it brought up in her gut to see those myriad sparks of light collected into one and snuffed out--

--but how can she fix it when she doesn't even know what's wrong?

Her eyes sweep the chaos of battle, searching for something in the midst of the brilliantly colored lights and swarming fairies and explosions of violence that will bring all of this into clarity and show her what she's supposed to do. Instead she sees fairies bursting into dust, flowers crumbling into nothing.

Sailor Moon's words almost bring tears of frustration to Jupiter's eyes. She barely has any kind of a plan for how to save Ami, and that goes no further than 'sit on her until Sailor Moon can break out some Moon Healing' - these fairies are tiny, almost too fast to keep track of, and she wants Jupiter to stun them?

What her leader is asking her to do seems practically impossible.

But, where Sailor Moon goes, Sailor Jupiter faithfully follows.

"Got it," she answers, though it's not much more than a murmur, and with no clear idea of what on earth she's going to do, she charges into motion, plunging headlong into the thick of the fray.

It's wrong. It's wrong. It's all wrong.

As abruptly as she moved, Jupiter skids to a stop, plants both feet firmly on the ground with her hands clenched at her sides, and she bellows at the top of her not inconsiderable lungs.

"STOP!!"

Maybe no one will listen. Maybe it'll count for nothing, but she doesn't have any power to heal and she has no other idea of what to do, so she cries out to the other fighters at the top of her voice. "Don't you see what's happening?!" Jupiter shouts, throwing out a hand towards the trees stripped of their buds, the bare earth where there was a bed of lilies. "What do you think will happen if this keeps up?!"

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Prism Keeper Orange's Orange Peel, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Tangle applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Sailor Jupiter is Cheered!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou accepts Pink Moon Stick's Clarity, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Utena Tenjou is Cheered!

<Pose Tracker> Scarlet Rune Maiden [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Guma nods to Prism Keeper Orange solidly. "Do what you must, and I'll do the same." But what? She could use the purifying light of the lotus seal, but would that actually harm or even kill them instead? "Shoot..." Guma curses.

There's a mental tap, a knock, on Guma's shoulder. ("Let me try.") Unheeding of anyone who may overhear amongst the chaos, Guma answers, "Are you sure?"

Maybe, it's a question a lot of other fellow magical girls and boys are asking themselves, at that very moment. The cusp of a decision, the moment where the unexpected path could yield the biggest reward... or bring disaster.

The Maiden makes her choice.

Something changes in the scarlet-haired magical girl. It's as subtle, yet unmistakable as the motes of light that led Akemi here in the first place. Gold eyes soften, lips uncurl from their fierce frown. An inexperienced, less stern weight shifts the balance in the maiden's step; she seems to hold her breath, as if in disbelief.

A moment later, spreading her arms open, the Maiden gathers her power, clutching her chest as red energy flows down her arms, her wrists, her hands, her fingers, then spreads in a glow in front of her. "I'm sorry I was so angry," she says, tears forming in her eyes. "Please, if it helps you... You've given me so much joy, so it hurts to see you all in so much pain. I was so angry, thinking you were all dead, but you're still right in front of me. So please, you don't have to hurt anymore. We're all here."

<Pose Tracker> Tuxedo Mask [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.

That bright 'Tuxedo-sama!' called out like that, in that way-- that rallies the Mask, and so, too, do the words of the little blue fairy. People all around are starting to put things together, and that very nearly makes his heart sing. They can fix this. They can. There's a miracle coming; 'remember the feeling'--

Shaking the ash and dirt and dust off of himself with a billowing of his cape, keeping Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter and Puella Magi Eri in his peripheral awareness, Tuxedo Kamen leaps up in the air and toward the small girls with the roses and fish and broken heart and worry, respectively, then lands breathlessly lightly behind them. As his cape drifts soundlessly down around him, he crouches and produces a small bouquet of thornless roses from thin air, presenting them to Prism Keeper Red. He holds up a white-gloved hand to Orange and gives her a small, wry smile of encouragement, but his words -- and the blossoms he presses into Mei's hand -- are for Red.

"Remember the feeling," he says gently, "that beautiful flowers and bright shining magic give you. Try to forget your anger and sorrow, and remember your love. To help what's being done here, you have to help them remember-- and you can't do that if the hurt is blinding your heart, can you?"

COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Inspirational Monologuing! on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Tuxedo Mask's Inspirational Monologuing!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Prism Keeper Red is Cheered!  Cleanse! All of Prism Keeper Red's debuffs are cleared!

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The first sign something is wrong is that Sayaka doesn't laugh when Kyouko does. She's as serious as she was a moment ago. She feels a clarity she didn't possess a moment ago, even if she has not a shred of power to act on it. But she does not feel any joy.

Standing back to back with Kyouko feels natural. But not all natural things are good. She only has to tilt her cheek slightly to see the plum offered over Kyouko's shoulder. It is succulent, taut. And Kyouko has made it so easy for her to take. Kyouko made /everything/ seem so easy.

Sayaka's hands remain at her sides. "Don't talk to me like we're friends." Her voice is a cold stone slab. "Don't even talk to me like we used to be." She takes a step forward, unlinking from their united posture.

"Transfer student!" she shouts down, a little wildly. "You want to save me, right? Well, do it!" She doesn't look back at Kyouko.

COMBAT: Sayaka Miki accepts Kyouko Sakura's Breaking Bread, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Empower applied to Sayaka Miki!  Cleanse! All of Sayaka Miki's debuffs are cleared!
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has used Hatred on Kyouko Sakura.
COMBAT: Sayaka Miki has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

They need to remember? Remember a feeling? ...It's no good. Anthy can be of no help whatsoever in that field. Her eyelids droop as she continues to huddle close to Utena. Still, when the fairies zip past the two of them once they stop offering resistance, Anthy's head turns to follow them. She recognizes a few of the magical girls in the crowd now: she sees how Mami guns them down mercilessly, contrasting how Moon attempts to heal them and her green compatriot Jupiter calls out for everyone to stop attacking...

"Utena-sama," she murmurs to her fiancee, "I think she's right. The more the fairies are killed, the more it kills to flowers too..." Her face falls, a very vision of disappointment and despair that cannot be so easily lifted. "But... What can be done to help them...?"

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

A fairy dunks itself in the water. It flits off then - and it doesn't seem changed. But it does seem as if Kuniko is not being bothered, not right now.

She packs up the blowtorch with efficient practice, pursing her lips. What can she do in the face of this? It seems like comfort is what is needed. Understanding. Healing.

Kuniko is not laden heavily with the power to make others feel better...

Wait, she thinks to herself: Yes I am.

Frowning she looks down, her mind whirling through the virtual pantry that is her Mise-en-place's hidden kitchen. (To an external observer she is just sitting by the pond like a jerk. Yes, she sat down fully. A LAZY jerk.)

What to use? she thinks. What makes a flower special?

Kuniko pulls out a ceramic bowl and crushes a handful of chamomile blossoms into it, lightly dried but fairly new. With a lingering pause, she draws up two springs of lavender blossoms.

It might be the last she sees of it, she thinks bleakly. One of them might have already destroyed that bush, if that's what's going on here. The shrubs Father planted with her.

Kuniko closes her eyes for a moment. The lavender blossoms warm in the palm of her hand, the wistful motes of terroir rising out. A sweet smell, one that reminds millions of grandmother or British gardens.

Kuniko doesn't dare to crush them; she sets them in the bowl intact.

Scooting back a little, she sets the bowl on the ground and pours boiling water out of a hidden and suspiciously convenient kettle. Gently. Gently, gently.

Kuniko sucks in a deep breath. She raises her voice again, brassy as usual. "Come on, guys! Come and get it! Tea's up! You want a sweet with it, you're gonna have to wait a minute!"

COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Lavender and Chamomile Tea on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Kuniko Saito's Lavender and Chamomile Tea, taking 21 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura fails to brace Sayaka Miki's Hatred, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Kyouko Sakura is Quipped!

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

"Are you okay, Himemiya?" comes the immediate question for Anthy, as Utena sticks close to her; she doesn't want to leave her to fight again -- but she can't just let this happen either, not like this...

Pursing her lips slightly, Utena tries to figure out what, exactly, it is she should be doing. She's not going to hurt the fairies -- not after that went the way it did the first time... but...

Looking to Himemiya, she says, "... you're good with flowers, Himemiya, aren't you?" She brushes her knotted hair aside, saying, "I dunno what to do here... other than keep listening, I guess."

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Homura Akemi sails through the air gracefully and safely out of the range of her own thrown explosive. She hits the ground in an acrobatic roll and soon rises to her feet in quick order. Her eyes go back to where she hears some shouting from the gate where she marooned Sayaka with Kyouko. The blue-haired girl should be safe there. It was out of the melee and Kyouko was there is protect Sayaka now. The red-clad Puella was definitely somone that Homura could rely on when the going got tough. And it certainly was starting to get that way as her explosions didn't seem to be slowing down the enemy much. There were simply too many that controlled detonations weren't getting her anywhere. Perhaps napalm was an apt solution.

But before Homura could put any plan into motion a group of fairies head straight for her. They are fast, too fast for Homura to keep up with. She attempts to swat at them again with her shield,but they easily skip out of the way of every swing of hers. It appears that these fairies were adjusting and adapting to her tactics as she was to theirs. Suddenly, a fairy latches onto Homura's shoulder and sinks its fangs deep into flesh, puncturing through her clothing like it was nothing. She bats at this flying menace now, but again she is too slow. Another fairy seizes this oppotunity to bite into Homura's leg which draws blood when the fairy finally lets go of its bite. Homura makes another effort to smack the flying devils out of the sky, but she is once again too slow. And to add insult to injury, a 'mosquito' bites into the arm that made the swing. This quick combination of deadly bites happens in less than a handful of seconds and the combined effect of these attacks has the transfer student a bloody mess as every one of those bites was deep enough to draw blood.

"Get....away...from me," growls Homura towards her adversaries. From somewhere else, she hears someone yell STOP! But it's too late for that. Their enemy won't stop until they are torn to shreds. The only thing that needs to stop is for Homura to stop playing nice. She reaches for her something again, but this time it looks a bit bigger than before. The transformed fairies rear back to strike again and this is where Homura attempts a manuever. If she manages it, Homura will blink out of existance and leave a nice present behind for her attackers. A nice, ticking, colorfully wired present for them that will soon explode. A present that Homura is all to happy to give them after what they did to her.

Success or failure, Homura would probably have bought herself enough time for a breather. She idly puts a hand over where she was bit on her arm and glowers towards the gate where Sayaka and Kyouko were at. Those purple eyes focus on Sayaka whom had just thrown something of an insult her way. She lets that gaze linger for a bloated moment before shifting her gaze towards Kyouko suddenly. "Sakura-san, get her out of here before she makes another rash decision!" While she could have sent that telepathically, she has apparently chosen not to do so. The wounded Puella Magi didn't have time for anymore banter. This fight was quickly becoming uncontrollable and Homura knew that she would have to focus on the fight and the fight alone if she wanted to make it through it.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Anarchist's Cookbook on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Sailor Moon tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Endo Naoki tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!

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

Okay, tiny bit of progress!

Maybe.

It's hard to tell if it's doing anything. Usagi does not have this evil spirits begone thing down like Rei does. It doesn't help that there's no evil spirits here--from her understanding. Ami's the one who knows how to read the visor.

It's probably best to move on to the next dumb idea. Perhaps once Makoto stuns some of them with lightning powers, Usagi can--

Stop.

Sailor Moon freezes, wand raised in preparation for another invocation. She abandons her defenses and sense to spin around and see what is wrong with her friend, doubly pale in the lingering light of her own magic. "Jupiter-chan?" Her tone is dismayed.

Usagi believes her. It only takes her word. If her magical healing won't work here like it has before, what's the answer? There's no one to rely on, and--it looks like she made the wrong call--and--

Remember the feeling that beautiful flowers give you.

Okay.

"Jupiter-chan," Usagi, having flown to Makoto's side, places a hand on her arm. "You're right. I--sorry. I should have asked you what you thought."

She turns her gaze out to the changing mood of the field. It's not over yet, but--"Flowers just need to be loved, right?"

Then the arms race progresses from RPGs to IEDs.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!

<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.

Kyouko's arm holds in the air for a pregnant pause or three, before slowly rotating back to her side, pushing the plum back into her pocket. Her spear straightens, she holds it more like a staff, and she turns to look at Sayaka, her face lit up in anger.

"I never wanted you to contract. I told you not to. I wanted you to be able to do more than piss yourself like a quivering baby if you got into trouble. You got yourself where you are now."

She spits on the ground, full and angry, a shot from a blowgun, red-faced with rising heat. "Do you have any clue how rare my friendship is? It's too preciously given for an pouty little brat to throw aside like trash. You wanna be done? Fine. We're done."

Turning on her heel, she strides imperiously for the edge of the gate, feet hanging off of it like a diving board. Homura calls out, as though Kyouko were some wretched baby sitter to have burdens foisted onto. Kyouko calls back in return.

"Homura Akemi! I'm leaving this fool to her fate. Don't expect me to lift a finger for her."

Turning her head, her lips contorted into a snarl, she tears off a few last words like a dog ripping at a strip of beef jerky.

"You should've brought your bat. Try not to die. Idiot."

With a leap, she hops off..and runs, and leaps again.

And then she's gone.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red tries to cover Pink Moon Stick for Homura Akemi's attack, Anarchist's Cookbook, but cannot get there in time!

<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Endo's jerks his head around, stumbling to the side to avoid losing any important bits, though the swarm of creatures still rips across less-vital areas, slamming against his armor and setting him all a-wobble. His fingers are still gripped tightly around his sword, ready to turn and bring it up again to swat more of his little foes out of the air.

But through the din combat and tiny screeching, he hears Jupiter's shout. He watches several trees turn to dust when the faeries icy little bodies are sheared through, and something finally starts to get through to him.

<KNIGHT. WHY DO YOU HESITATE?>

"It'll kill them." Which, until just recently, was basically the plan. It was, until he remembers the cherry tree. Big, pink, shady, strong. Good for eating under. Good for hiding behind. Pink and billowy. Screaming. Dead. Maybe already reduced to ash, because he's been a big insensitive idiot.

<THESE ARE OUR ENEMIES.>

"Yeah, they don't have to be!" The point of the sword is planted into the ground, the boy braced against it like shelter in a storm. He doesn't use it for anything more than that, though.

"I'm sorry!" It seems like the best place to start. "We don't have to fight! I could help, I could replant, or grow, or water, or, or-"

And then he spies the ticking package on the ground, though the swarm. Not good.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Homura Akemi's Anarchist's Cookbook, taking 32 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Clarity on Endo Naoki.

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Her knots don't work at all; the effort to contain the fairies proves fruitless, and Mami's cheeks sting from the blow of the fairy's wings.

Her pride stings about as much in the moment, and her eyes narrow.

It feels hot in the cool night air; that's just as well. She has no reason to listen to the voices around her for the most part, to focus on anything here except for the moment, the enemy around her, the next shot. Clearly, an effort to bring them down is goig to be unworkable short of simply firing them out of the sky. And for that...

She'll just need bigger ammunition.

Rather than listen to Jupiter, Mami hops backward, then once more, onto a higher vantage than before: a fence on which she stands as if it were nothing. Lifting her hands, she calls forth two huge hand cannons, silver and shorter than her usual fare, but with barrels easily the size of her head each. "I'll protect everyone," she murmurs as she takes aim.

Takes aim, and sees Utena and Anthy close by one another, talking amidst a battle; Sailor Jupiter, seeming so insistent on something. And Kyouko and Sayaka...

Well, they aren't fighting at all that Mami can see. The Puella Magi hesitates, and slowly begins to lower her weapons. It's hard at first, and then it's easy, since they stop existing at all. She lets herself look at Homura again amidst the chaos before falling back. Already she's stopped listening, doesn't hear Kyouko's voice.

She lands on her feet behind, and starts to walk.

COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used No More Flowers on Mami Tomoe.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe accepts Mami Tomoe's No More Flowers, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Mami Tomoe is Quipped!

<Pose Tracker> Nadeshiko Fujisaki [Ohtori Academy (5)] has posed.

Nadeshko's used to wrangling renegade fairies, but she is but a girl and therefore must be a product of her experiences, like anyone else. To whit: She figures you can only fix an accursed critter by smacking it around for a while and then shooting a sparkle beam at it. Nadeshiko does not have sparkle beams. It is a known issue.

But now people are yelling to stop the attacking altogether and Increase the Peace, and she ends up looking at the fairies she chased away, slowly lowering her blade. She's a Guardian, of course, and Nadeshiko Fujisaki besides, so she knows all about talking gently to people, but...

It doesn't exactly come naturally to her like this, in Chara Change. The blade of her naginata hits the ground, untended for a moment. Well. There is one thing.

So she whirls around her feet and, semi-improvisationally, sweeps into a slow, rhythmic dance of the traditional Japanese mold. Without a beat to it, Nadeshiko can only do so much, but...perhaps she can express something like calm this way, without having to find the eloquence she lacks right n--

that's a freakin' bomb.

...

"ARE YOU FOR FREAKIN' REAL" she declares in a voice like thunder, and then whips her naginata up in a single neat overhand flip of her wrist, and attempts the most magical of magical girl bomb disarmament techniques: Throw a spear at it.

It...misses completely and embeds in a wall. Nadeshiko looks sheepish.

COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has used Flower Letter on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Nadeshiko Fujisaki has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The stunning blow from the pine cones takes her aback, to her knees, even as she swats a few back with flowering vines.

What do they need to remember?

Suddenly her arm grows lax, still, as Sayaka's words register. And the clarion call from Sailor Jupiter to stop is even more striking. But what could she even say to remind them? She was hardly the most eloquent or poetic person. As she looked at the destruction around the park however, she realized that this would get them nowhere. Or would it? She gives Mami a nervous glance, before turning back to the swarm. Suddenly her belief that killing them was the right thing was wavering.

She takes a deep breath. This was far harder for her than any classroom introduction. It felt even more difficult than imagining herself making a love confession to someone. "I didn't really didn't have any friends before last autumn."

She hesitates, mortified that she was actually saying this. She could quit now, noone likely even heard her right? And yet, she doesn't, bracing herself for the worst. "It was tough for me, but most of it was stubbornness I think. Not giving ground for anyone. Telling myself I was always right, even when I wasn't. Caring too little for the feelings for others and thinking I cared too much. My only friends were plants, trees, flowers. Chrysanthemums and lilies. Maples and pine. Roses and..."

More hesitation, a small grin, like some sort of inside joke that gave her confidence. The embarrassment of saying all of this flooding away. "...pansies. They were good listeners. They never judged me when I cried. If I ever messed up while nurturing them, they'd let me know, without being angry. Then they'd appreciate it when I did it right, blessing me glimpses of their beauty. I guess plants were easier for me than people. So I tried to learn everything I could about them, when what I needed to know was there for me from the start."

She places a hand to her heart, "That I loved them, and not just because they were beautiful, but because they're always there, patient and forgiving. They give us all so much even when we take them for granted, and they reward those who don't with so much fulfillment to their lives." The intonation of her voice is, pleading, "Don't you love them too, in your own way? Can't you see what you're doing?" She too participates in the Homura arms race. Horrified, but not particularly surprised given that the violet Puella Magi had once thrown down a bag plant killer in front of her in the midst of her own garden. Unfortunately she's not not particularly known for her speed. "Wait! STOP!" Just a mite late, Eri. And unfortunately, given how fervently she's speaking, she doesn't even notice Mami withdrawing at first.

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Embarrassing Heartfelt Confession on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka Miki grabs Eri's other arm.

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

It hurts. It hurts to be this full of anger and sorrow -- more than the tugging pixies on her hair, more than the few that make it past her whirling defense and pierce her skin with their teeth. (The red shield settling around her and keeping the bulk of the swarm at bay goes mostly unnoticed, in this battle-induced trance. It's not hard for her addled mind to write it off as a byproduct of her own magic.)

More than once, as her eyes well up with tears and the thorns scratch her own skin, a quiet part of her mind protests, sensing that something is not quite right, that this enemy may be different. But each time her throwing arm falters, the dead birds flash in her mind with stark clarity, the rubble of the shrine, the collapsed trees. And a new wave of rage takes her, ushers her onward, until--

Roses that aren't her own catch her eye, followed by the dapper man in a tuxedo presenting them. She blinks once, twice, the shockwaves of emotion from seconds ago still rocking her soul.

/He's right./

The tears pooling at her eyes begin to spill, and Red sniffs softly as she takes the small bundle, which she notes is thornless.

"I'm sorry," she says, eyes shooting from the stranger to Orange and the Rune Maiden and back again. "I just...they destroyed the park. They *killed* things. I haven't ever -- I haven't seen--"

She's never seen anything die before.

A conversation from some weeks ago springs to her mind, when she fought the monster alone with Grace Chapel. 'I've seen girls your age die.' 'Better to be smart than good.'

For a second, that had been the magical girl she was. Ruthless, angry, blind. And she was *better* than that.

"If they can be saved, then we have to help them," the Prism Keeper says, more resolute now, wiping the tears from her face. "Orange-chan. I'm sorry for going off on my own. It was a silly idea to begin with. You said color energy made them better?"

Here, she turns to the Rune Maiden, who had shield her from the enemy, and the stranger, who had shielded her from herself. She smiles. "Thank you. Both of you. I don't know if we've met before -- well, I've seen you before, but I don't /know/ you." She nods to indicate the older girl. "I could just be forgetful, of course. But anyway. I'm Prism Keeper Red."

Introductions made, she looks down at the roses still in her hand; then, possessed by an idea, she takes one out of the bunch, ties up her loose hair into the missing pigtail, and holds it in place with the flower -- and perhaps a bit of magic. "Alright, so how are we going to--"

Before she can finish, she hears the sound of a firing rocket, and can only watch as the great metal bomb spirals towards the very creatures they had just resolved to save.

"N-No!"

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Red-Letter Day on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Red-Letter Day on Prism Keeper Orange.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Red-Letter Day on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Orange accepts Prism Keeper Red's Red-Letter Day, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Empower applied to Prism Keeper Orange!

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

Prism Keeper Orange sends tiny streams of magic to bind fairies, and catches a handful. They plummet to the ground, unable to fly, and immediately begin working themselves into a frenzy. The ground churns beneath them, so fast and furious are their claws. Even their feet join the tantrum, and the sound is not dissimilar to the tearing open of a tree with a chainsaw.

What makes a flower a flower?

Sailor Jupiter's voice covers the park like the clarion peal of an enormous brass bell. Her protectiveness, her earnest plea to cease hostilities, her determination to save the fairies -- all of this has a great deal more potency than she thought. True strength does not come from wands, or gems, or even lightning-rod tiaras.

Or perhaps it might be said that such manifestations represent it, embody it, project it -- but in the end they aren't what really matters.

Enfolded in Makoto's true strength, the fairies beneath the orange net gradually slow, then stop, then, gently, tentatively, kindle into delicate new light. They must have been cherry tree fairies; their sakura color is unmistakable.

In the same moment, another girl discovers she is also far more than she thought. As the Scarlet Rune Maiden becomes truly herself for the first time, her first act is to give of herself to others. She speaks of contrition, of compassion, of joy and of pain. The blue fairy nearby smiles a tiny, relieved smile as her erstwhile protector discovers her voice -- and is rapidly joined by those same fairies who were pelting her with frozen petals, who are now the shimmering white of lilies, the brilliant green of the vines on a Juuban wall, secretly tended to by Haruna-sensei on her lunch.

The ground is littered with the shards of frozen tears, melting into the earth.

Tuxedo Mask speaks not to the fairies themselves but to another magical girl entirely, but a nearby witness hears his preaching, and, tugging her black-veined arms around herself, closes her eyes. She feels warmth all over, and when she reopens them, gazes in wonder unto the violet shimmer she emits. There's a bed just like them outside a classroom at Ohtori.

Sayaka and Kyouko are distracting each other (and Mami), Prism Keeper Red is still processing, and Anthy and Utena don't know what to do. Kuniko thinks she does, though, and while the tea she creates has no particular power, the act of creation does. The tender way that she holds the lavender blossoms. The thoughtfulness as she pours the water. The memories of another time, more precious than any currency.

Two fairies perch on the edge of the bowl. They lap at the tea like cats, recoiling from the heat, then immersing themselves in it. Bright yellow, soft blue; lights reflect from the tea's surface, brighter than the moon.

Sailor Moon's question is brighter still, and it is answered with radiance. A fairy, who a few moments ago was tugging on a bun like her life depended on it, perches on her nose, staring her dead in the face. Her rictus grin softens, and she luminesces with precisely the creamy shade of a houseplant she's seen in Ami's apartment.

Endo leans on his sword, and apologizes -- offering a more practical kind of love, the actions that are more than chores, the tending that is more than scientific need. Fairies pelt him like bullets, but they do not fly on, instead clinging to his hair, his shoulder. One sits on his hand. They glow like zinnias, like ginko balboa.

Nadeshiko's naginata, conversely, sweeps artfully through the air. It's just for a few moments -- but then, when the dance ends with a desperate slice, and a vibrating shaft perpendicular to a wall, that, too, is another kind of love. Fairies land on its length, stilling it to quiescence, and themselves, as well. They become pink like aster, gold like sunflowers.

The only Puella Magi to speak of plants and friendship, of loss and gain, of knowledge and truth, Eri's words mesmerize the double handful fairies who she had earlier poisoned, who the blue fairy had tried to wash off in the lake. They dance about her in a frightening tornado that gradually becomes more mysteriously lovely than it was, with the bright lights of Ohtori roses, yes, but also cornflowers, crabapple blossoms, and wilder hues. The untended fields are still flowers, and what they give and receive is, too, another kind of love.

Magic pennies multiply. What comes from the heart is infectious -- having reached a critical mass of tiny orbs of luminosity, they begin lighting each other like candles, a dazzling display. It's an outpouring of hope and support, an explosion of stars reborn. Once again the lake is alive with light

--the earth shakes with an explosion, which cracks the air to bleeding with its thunderous roar. The fairies within it had not yet been reached by words or by their friends, and they die still filled with sorrow, the agony in their hearts greater than any that shrapnel could provide.

Another half-dozen Ueno cherry trees vanish, plus other plants from other places. A favorite rosebush from the Royal Garden; a waterlily patch that grows under the Mansei Bridge. A tomato plant, so carefully cultivated and ultimately joyously consumed. Now its star-like yellow blossoms are gone before they could ever be born, buds rendered unto dust, blown away in the night wind, which ruffles Homura's hair, spreading it out behind her like a black cloak.

OOC: Players of characters departing the scene are welcome to bring a different alt tonight. People who weren't here last night may arrive this round to see the fairies being revived (and blown up, as the case may be).

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Tsukiko places the fairy she kissed on her shoulder. The little one still looks kind of weak, and the wolfgirl has no problem with giving her a place to rest. "Let's see how many of your friends we can rescue!" she smiles to her little passenger. She turns towards the other fairies...

And the bomb detonates, killing dozens of fae and destroying a similar number of plants by proxy. Tsukiko glares at the Puella that threw that bomb, a growl starting to rise in her throat.

Shaking her head, she returns her focus to the remaining fairies. "Better to celebrate life than berate death, right?" she says to her small passenger with a sad smile. Steeping forward, arms outstretched and slightly curled, she offers a large (and gentle) hug to the nearest cluster of fae.

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

"Do you like that?" Kuniko says to the fairies who sip from that bowl, then climb on in. She breathes in the fragrance, feeling her eyes prick with tears that don't quite come out. They're safe. They're alright.

She feels a faint moment of quivered guilt at being so sappy, but it's faint and brief, residue from somewhere else. She raises her head, looking out at the peaceful miracle of the fairies spreading hope around and -

BOOM

Not all of them.

Kuniko stares in disbelief, her ears ringing.

"YOU MANIAC! You blew them up!!" she calls, accusingly, looking back and straightening up to her feet. A knife slides comfortably into her hands, though that's as far as it goes - not least because she can't actually spot out /the culprit/.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka refuses to turn and look at Kyouko, but she can't refuse to let her eyes sting. Kyouko's expectoration is so forceful that she doesn't need to look to flinch from it, her shoulders lifting in a spasm.

"It doesn't matter how good a reason I have. It's wrong, so I won't use it again. I don't expect you to understand."

She lets Kyouko get the last word. It doesn't matter what that girl thinks anymore. The fact that she ever thought it did had led her down a bad path. Thinking of how Kyouko's approval made her feel makes Sayaka want to spit as well. Her hands clench as she hears Kyouko leap away, and she turns her eyes down to Homura, questioningly.

No bat, no Kyouko. If she's going to stay alive, she needs the transfer student. The fear and disdain she feels for Homura keep her from begging, but they don't keep her from asking, with her eyes.

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

Did her words even reach anyone? To be honest, Makoto doesn't know. Some of the magical girls here were already trying to help; other combatants have stopped, whether because of anything Sailor Jupiter said or, more likely, because they're coming to the same conclusions on their own. There are others, however, who are still fighting. The damage hasn't stopped.

But the fairies--

Green eyes widening in surprise and wonder, Sailor Jupiter watches as the lights rekindle. A few at first, those reached by her own feelings and those of others, and then more as the change takes hold, until the night is alive with tiny multicolored stars, a glow that dazzles her vision.

And then, in the midst of it, she sees the bomb.

"NO--!!" Sailor Jupiter leaps into motion, but it's already too late, and she's too far away. She can only watch in horror as the explosion adds its own brief and violent light to the darkness and the fairies die within it, who knows how many more little lives that could have been saved if only...

"That's enough already!" Jupiter shouts in a voice that vibrates with anger. "Are you satisfied now?" She looks around her, searching for the dark-haired girl who left the explosive - but before her furious gaze can find Homura, it stops on a glowing fairy hovering in the air nearby, and she stops, some of the anger going out of her. What's the point in picking another fight now?

"Sorry," she murmurs instead, and reaches a gloved hand up not quite all the way to the little glowing figure. "We should've gotten it sooner, but it'll be okay now..."

...right?

Sailor Jupiter breathes out, and then in again, and she takes a moment to steady herself before looking around at the other magical warriors nearby. The fairies may be all right now, but - is it really over?

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Steady Like An Oak on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter accepts Sailor Jupiter's Steady Like An Oak, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

As more and more of the fairies regain their light, Anthy gazes up at Utena, who encourages her to take control of the situation. It isn't that Anthy doesn't know what to do; it's that she feels she is completely incapable of doing it. To make such a grand emotional gesture, to heal the hearts of others... The Rose Bride is said to have a great many powers, but there are some things that are beyond even the power of miracles.

And so Anthy shakes her head. "I couldn't," she murmurs, lowering her eyes. "All these people... It makes me feel unsafe." The bomb exploding in the area punctuates this, scything through several more fairies that don't receive the salvation that many of their friends do, and Anthy clutches harder to Utena. "But you..." She nods towards the fairies regaining their light as those around them offer hospitality, kindness, speak in their defense. "You can see just by looking at them. They aren't so far gone that a hand stretched out wouldn't reach. What they need is to be saved--to have someone extend to them kindness."

Anthy flicks her eyes up back towards Utena's, a desolate smile on her lips. The radiant lights of all those fairies that *have* been saved light up the lake, but as long as there are people like Homura about, and the creature that devoured the lights in the first place is still at large, the danger is not yet passed.

"Isn't that the role of a Prince?"

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

There are certain types of explosions that Prism Keeper Red has become familiar with over her months as a magical girl. Explosions of color, certainly. Explosions of light, usually with a fair amount of sparkle, were also quite common. Explosive feelings made themselves known in nearly every battle she's faced.

But explosions from rockets, from bombs? Those were a first.

Red is temporarily blinded by the blast that hits the last rebellious remnants of the swarm, ears ringing despite standing several yards away from the point of impact. It's intimidating -- /terrifying/ -- to be so close to weapons like that. After all, a magical girl knows how to dampen her magic, how to stop it from going to far. Once a bomb leaves your hands, it is beyond anyone's control.

And now those fairies are dead.

The temporary surge of heart from Tuxedo Mask's speech becomes muted within her, melancholy and regret encroaching on her spirit. So much destruction today -- why weren't they able to stop this in time? Is it even over?

Spying the familiar face of Sailor Jupiter, Red gently floats over, landing at her side with a *clack* of her tiny block heels.

"Are you alright, Sailor Jupiter?" she asks, having to tilt her head up just slightly in order to meet the older girl's eyes. "And...do you have any idea why the fairies were acting like that?"

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Himemiya's right, Utena realizes; this is /her/ role, not Himemiya's. Finally, a chance to be the pri --

-- nevermind. Utena stares at Homura in mute horror. Sure, there was a problem that needed solving -- but it was getting solved without...

She blinks a few times, trying to find the words for the situation. Unconsciously, her feet move her such that she's between Homura and Himemiya; it's not out of any actual malice or fear -- just a feeling in her stomach. Her blade comes up into a firm, defensive posture, and she watches, carefully, quietly.

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The dust finally clears where Homura Akemi had planted her explosive. Not much of anything remains other than the scorched ground and the small crater that the explosion left behind. Even the mysterious transfer student is not nearby. Somehow, in the brief instant between the bomb being planted and it subsequently going off, Homura had travelled far enough away that even the shrapnel from the bomb would not be a threat to her. The displaced air from the explosion blows past her and kicks her hair back behind her for a moment before it falls in a gentle cascade back behind her shoulders. The manuever had worked just as Homura Akemi had planned.

Cold, purple eyes now sweep over the charred battleground that once was a serene pond that was full of life. Homura returns Tsukiko and Utena's look readily as she doesn't seem to shy away from the sought after eye contact. She then turns and looks at the others whom announced their condemnations of her explosive counter-attack, but hadn't yet noticed that she was behind the attack. She would have to fix that. Homura stands up as tall as she can muster and straightens her blood-stained clothes to the best of her ability.

Her mouth then moves to say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions. One day everyone here will realize that wishes and hopes alone are not enough to save those whom they love and care about. Until then, just stay the hell out of my way." Homura Akemi then reaches back with her right hand and flips her hair outwards before turning to walk away from the battlefield. The immense power of love is hard to imagine let alone measure, but Homura Akemi can precisely measure the power that a brick of C4 contains. Her choice between the two should be obvious.

This causes her to come into direct line of sight with Sayaka Miki. Homura pauses and motions quietly for Sayaka to follow her before resuming her withdrawl from the area. She will leave it up to Sayaka whether she chooses to follow in her bloody footsteps or to go join the others.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Prism Keeper Red's Red-Letter Day, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Empower applied to Prism Keeper Red!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Color Recharge on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Prism Keeper Red's Color Recharge, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

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

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3LAFJbKyY

Having been given a gift, the fairies give back, still-smaller sparkles pouring out of them, back into the magical girls, filling them with hope and strength. Invited, they perch on fingers and shoulders, their soft wingtips gently pressing against cheeks or lightly stirring hair.

OOC: Brought hope and strength by the fairies, please +heal/full!

Then, as though cued by an unseen signal, they lift off to converge not on the blast site, but on the dusty ground where a tree once stood. Fine details of their purified selves are not in the offing; there are too many of them, moving too quickly. And there is also a sense of incompleteness -- the world holding its breath.

The blue fairy, the first to be healed, emerges from the swirling prismatic cluster to address the girls nearby. "It isn't quite yet too late... what you've returned to us is bright, but transient. She still needs your help. She thinks she shines alone... but we need each other, to shine together. Without her, we cannot grow. But without us..."

The warning drops from the fairy's lips like a portent of doom, cast dice of fate, runes engraved on old bones.

"If she does not remember what she is by Vernal dawn, the world will also forget. There are a million million million stars in the sky... and she will become one of them. A simple source of light, a distant furnace. She has no idea how much she has to lose--"

"Enough."

The voice of the net-carrier emerges, cowl converging from multiple disparate sources of night. The utter blackness, shadow within shadow, of a parked car in a dead lot. The sable of a midnight lake unlit by even moonlight. The unyielding obsidian of an abandoned classroom. The persistently ebony darkness in the hallway, turning familiar into unfamiliar.

All of these and more, she has spun into her raiment.

Her net is once again empty, as she has already swallowed the radiance she stripped from the flowers. Twisting it in a wide circle, she slams the butt of her pole on the ground, and it burns away entirely, becoming the point of a sun-burning spear.

Its very tip becomes red, a cosmic crimson not seen in this part of the universe, but omnipresent as a herald of doom in other systems. The beginning of the end. The expansion before the collapse.

The rest is still a familiar, shining yellow... but for how long?

"If you would draw these mayfly humans into our conflict as your champions -- I will put the rest of them on the line. You need me so badly? Fields will burn! Concrete will crumble! Forests will become deserts. The oceans will turn to acid. All will curse my name, but with every oath, my presence will be felt, heard."

She levels the point of the spear at Homura Akemi.

"You have rejected these flowers' pap. So you I will spare, to be my harbinger."

Brutal heat cascades out of the blade, beams reminiscent of too long spent on the beach without protection, the fevered agony that comes the next day. They pass by, but do not touch, the violet Puella Magi... instead moving forth to impale every other person in the park.

It goes straight for the heart, and what it burns is not the skin. Rather it enkindles the feeling that accompanies having to stay inside and have your sunburn tended, while all the other kids go out to play without you, magnified by a billion years.

Loneliness.
Resentment.
Fury.

"My cup overflows -- taste of it, and see what petty hopes might survive the drinking!"

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Anthy Himemiya has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Corona Invictus!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has fully healed herself. She is now ready to take on 9 opponents!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou transforms into Duelist!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has fully healed herself.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Sayaka Miki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Furious Firestorm on Anthy Himemiya.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Kuniko Saito's Block ability activates!  Kuniko Saito's Parry ability activates!  Kuniko Saito is Taunted!
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Taunted!
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red perfectly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter is Taunted!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi transforms into Puella Magi Homura!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou perfectly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Dodge!  Utena Tenjou's Fade ability activates!  Utena Tenjou's Flash ability activates!

Eri Shimanouchi has left. Eri Shimanouchi has arrived.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi covers Sayaka Miki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Furious Firestorm, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi perfectly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Dodge!  Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates!  Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou covers Anthy Himemiya for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Furious Firestorm, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Furious Firestorm, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Utena Tenjou's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Being around the flower fairies was quite calming for Tsukiko, but unfortunately calmness also slows her reflexes. The solar fury hits her, and each and every of her frustrations over the past few months comes boiling back to her. She gasps as she tries to keep from acting on them, but this has definitely left her rattled.

"Gotta focus," she mutters to herself through gritted teeth. "Gotta stay in control of myself." Taking a breath, she glances around at the others. Some seem unfazed by the sun-inflicted emotions, some simply avoided the red tendrils, but some seem to have the same sort of inner turmoil she has.

Taking a deep breath, the wolfgirl tries to smile. "Come on, everyone! We worked together to save the flowers; now let's save the sun!" she calls out, looking towards some that seem to be in need of a hopeful word.

COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has cancelled their attack on Kuniko Saito. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has cancelled their attack on Sailor Jupiter. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has cancelled their attack on Scarlet Rune Maiden. If there are more attacks that need to be +cancelled, please hold all +attacks until the process is complete.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Encourage the Pack on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Scarlet Rune Maiden is Cheered!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Kuniko Saito is Cheered!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Encourage the Pack, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Prism Keeper Red is Cheered!

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

"I'm okay." Sailor Jupiter manages a smile for Prism Keeper Red as the younger magical girl touches down nearby. Her eyes flick away for a moment as she hears Homura speak, and her gaze hardens - but she makes herself push it back, and turns her attention back to Red again. "What about you?"

The girl's other question, Jupiter has no answer for, and the smile soon leaves her face as she looks up, brow creasing with worry. "I don't know what happened here," she admits quietly, listening to the blue fairy's voice even as she speaks. "But it seems like--"

--like it isn't over. The words die on her tongue as that voice resounds out of the dark, and the net-bearer appears.

As the net burns away and becomes a spear, and that voice rages, Jupiter squares her stance and digs in her heels. "Look out!" she calls to Red, and then there's no time to do anything but brace herself as beams of searing heat fly from the point of the spear and one of them slams into her, going right into her chest as though the arms she'd crossed defensively before her weren't even there.

It draws a gasp of pain out of her, and for all that she's not injured, Jupiter sinks down onto one knee. She feels it all, as sharply as though she were still living it herself--

"Watch out, it's Kino!" "Better run for it!"

"A big, boyish girl like you isn't my type."

--Loneliness and anger, burning underneath her skin. Makoto knows these feelings far too well, but now they're magnified to the point that she can barely breathe.

Even so, she has to act - this is the real battle, and there's no more room for mistakes.

Somehow, she struggles back onto her feet, and sucks in a shaky breath. Her voice is rough with emotion. "It's the worst," she says, "feeling that alone. But you don't have to be." Once more, her hands spread at her sides, roses blooming in her cupped palms to scatter their petals into the wind that kicks up around her - yellow roses, for friendship, gold like the sun. "Nobody does."

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Flower Hurricane on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

The fairies near her make Kuniko feel protective. "Punk!" she calls at Homura, but -

The fairies pour reviving energies into her... relaxing ones. It may be said that relaxation isn't what you want in the kitchen, but recuperation is not to be despised. Kuniko's eyes turn towards where her two little rescuers flew to - turn towards that blue fairy. She speaks -

It's the sun? Kuniko thinks bleakly. Am I going to have to fight the sun!?

These thoughts fade when the figure appears. Kuniko straightens, adjusting the brim of her cap.

The darkling cloak is enigmatic - and concealing. No wonder I didn't see her, she thinks further, and then the spear is revealed. The tip of it is red; to Kuniko it means nothing, not yet.

Then comes the sun. It is not gentle.

Kuniko feels her skin ache momentarily, but it isn't a sunburn - except in the more literal sense. Something wraps around her heart; an aching loneliness, the sunlit force resting on seeds that, for better or worse, are already present in the soil bank that constitutes the young Creme de la Creme's heart.

Being alone. Hurting, for years - hurts that still linger now, even if she's used to them. Surgeries. Awkward smiles. Running in the street alone, late at night - like tonight, but with less purpose, only blackness in her mind.

But then a young voice speaks, sharp and clear, and Kuniko thinks of an order she had to fill for an insistent woman.

Kuniko adjusts her cap again, pulling it down low. Her hand slides to the side...

And she draws out three wooden skewers, bearing fresh-grilled and savory cheese, glistening with a herbal sauce.

"I know how you feel," Kuniko Saito answers the Sun, before her hand flips forwards -- hurling the hot halloumi cheese forwards, the radiant fragrance of its seasoning preceding it. "But if you're sharing your CUP, you can eat what I cook you - and listen to what I've got to say!"

COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Halloumi Cheese on Skewers on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly counters Sailor Jupiter's Flower Hurricane, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Tactician ability activates!  Blind and Trap applied to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Incandescent Rage, partially gets through, doing 27 Fatigue damage to Sailor Jupiter!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Kuniko Saito's Halloumi Cheese on Skewers, taking 4 Fatigue damage!  Kuniko Saito is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Taking a deep breath, Utena steels herself against those feelings. It's not to say she doesn't feel them -- but she knows she doesn't /have/ to feel that way. She couldn't be alone -- not with Himemiya right here...

She stands in front of her, taking the brunt of those feelings for both of them and managing to push them back down. "... wow, if this is what you're carrying around..." she says quietly, taking a second to really appreciate just what she's been shown.

Moving toward the spear-wielder, she moves in to lock up with the blade, pushing back against it. "... It doesn't have to be like this, though!" she says, trying to shove her back with the force of weapon on weapon.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used Pump Fake on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Utena Tenjou's Pump Fake, taking 25 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Scarlet Rune Maiden [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

The Maiden has been quiet, fully engaged in her duty, too afraid to speak aloud among so many others she has witnessed in her time here. Yet, fully invigorated by the fairies' boon, Akemi finally opens her mouth, and speaks.

"As one of many fighters here," Akemi finally says as the Maiden, fairies swirling around her and amongst floating deep scarlet hair, "I am the Scarlet Rune Maiden, carrying on the wish of dozens of maidens before me to protect and uphold the delicate balance between nature and humanity."

'She has no idea how much she has to lose.' Curious eyes gaze down at the blue fairy. Akemi blinks. "How do we get to her? S-she doesn't look like she'll listen!" Looking up towards the being with the staff, she calls out, "Who are you? Why do you hurt? I'm sure we could figure out something, I mean-"

("No.")

In a split second, warm yellow becomes sharp as yellow obsidian; lips twist in a snarl. Twirling in an effort to throw any remaining fairies off her and into safety, the Maiden moves to the side at the last possible moment, the attack brushing by her hair violently.

Straightening from a bended knee, Guma runs a hand through her hair proudly. "Of course it's never that easy..." She feels the encouragement from Cute Wolf Tsukiko, and nods.

It reminds her of something very important.

"Listen to everyone and to how resilient they are. Loneliness is something we all experience the moment we become aware of ourselves and the world. Even humanity, as short-lived as every human is, has had their share of such pain, but let me tell you this: their love, their will, _their determination_ is like no other. Their fire may be cruelly fleeting, but its value is worth more than any jewel, and burns hotter than any sun!" Forming a ball of energy around her right fist, Guma charges forward, moving and timing her blunt attack with Utena's own.

COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has used Humanity's Spirit on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Scarlet Rune Maiden's Humanity's Spirit, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Scarlet Rune Maiden is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Red Dawn on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Coronal Spear on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Coronal Spear on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Coronal Spear on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Climate of Change on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Heat of Battle on Anthy Himemiya.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Heat of Battle on Sayaka Miki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Climate of Change, taking 2 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is Quipped!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Block ability activates!  Stun applied to Cute Wolf Tsukiko!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Coronal Spear, taking 25 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Coronal Spear, taking 6 Fatigue damage!  Stagger applied to Prism Keeper Red!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou perfectly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Coronal Spear, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Dodge!  Utena Tenjou's Fade ability activates!  Utena Tenjou's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Red Dawn, taking 19 Fatigue damage!  Homura Akemi's Fade ability activates!  Homura Akemi's Flash ability activates!  Tangle and Trap applied to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden fails to counter Pink Moon Stick's Coronal Spear, taking 47 Fatigue damage!  Stagger applied to Scarlet Rune Maiden!
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden's counterattack, Scarlet Knife, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter narrowly counters Pink Moon Stick's Climate of Change, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter is Quipped!  Stun applied to Sailor Jupiter!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter's counterattack, Sincerity of Oak, partially gets through, doing 2 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!  Pink Moon Stick is Quipped!

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Tsukiko winces, the thermal heat from the outpouring of power slightly painful, but not as painful as the feeling in her heart. The distance she has from her classmates, because she can't talk about her family's history. The distance from her friends, who go to different schools. Even the distance she has from her family, using the Lycan Locket in secret because she doesn't want to face their disapproval. For a brief moment, she feels completely alone...

...and then she sees the little fairy she kissed.

"No," the wolfgirl whispers, taking deep breaths to focus herself. "The flowers are counting on me -- /everyone/ is counting on me."

She glares at the lonely sun, a silvery light of her own starting to glow. "I will NOT let you turn friendships and lovely plants into ash!" she yells, channeling the earlier rage the hooded figure had brought to the surface. "If you think you can just condemn us to sadness and misery--"

In an eyeblink, Tsukiko goes from standing still to dashing towards the lonely sun as a silvery blur, her sorrowful rage propelling her forward.

"--MY ANSWER IS NO!" she screams.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Cute Wolf Tsukiko has used Silver Wolf Tackle on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko has finished attacking.

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

Even as she winces under the onslought of burning emotion, Sailor Jupiter tries once again to smile at Prism Keeper Red when the girl holds out the rose to her. "Thanks," she manages to say, as she reaches to accept the flower. "I'll be all r--ah!"

She can't finish the reassurance - the sun spirit's rage squeezes around Jupiter's heart, and her hand drops as she flinches, clenching her teeth against the fresh assault.

This time, though, Makoto resists. This jealousy, this scorching envy - this isn't her. She refuses to let it take hold.

"You don't get it!" she cries out instead, eyes stinging. "You feel like no one looks at you, but you don't know - how beautiful it is to see the sun rise, after lying awake all night alone in the dark - or breaking through the clouds when it's been gray and dreary all day. You think we only love the flowers, but everyone knows they can't grow without sunlight!"

She shakes her head fiercely as though to clear the blur of tears from her vision, and making a fist with one hand she presses her knuckles against the palm of the other. "I don't want to do this," Sailor Jupiter says as electricity sparks across her hands. Her stance is fierce, but her expression is full of regret. "But if there's no other way to make you stop and listen--"

In the wake of Tsukiko's charge, Jupiter launches into motion as well, coming at the spear-wielder with a fist alive with lightning.

COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has used Lightning Fist on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly braces Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Finisher, Silver Wolf Tackle, taking 29 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Block ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Sailor Jupiter's Lightning Fist, taking 31 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Jupiter is Psyched!

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

For a moment, Utena falters, seeing the sheer pain on display -- and, for that matter, having her own dredged up. That's right -- she /has/ been left behind... but...

... she got back up. She's a little hazy on the hows and whys of it -- but that much, at least, she knows. She's moved forward, and...

She glances back at Himemiya.

... it's been worth it.

"You know that people love the sun, right? It's not just the moon, it's not just the flowers -- it's you, too." It seems like such a petty sentiment to express at a time like this, but... it's true, isn't it?

She continues to focus on the weapon rather than the target, going for a quick one-two cut at it. Unfortunately, she can't quite put together more words; she's never quite had the knack for this kind of thing.

COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has used V-Cut on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi covers Sayaka Miki for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Heat of Battle, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Heat of Battle, taking 11 Fatigue damage!  Stagger applied to Homura Akemi!

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

The burning light washes over her, and Kuniko grinds her teeth at the pain -

And -

An image flits through her mind as the mysterious sun-woman spins her spear. The image appears, yes, of a parent, but not the parent perhaps which she had hoped to evoke. Anger clenches around Kuniko's heart...

Anger, though, that finds a ground in a memory of someone in a black cloak.

For a moment she thinks - was it her - but no, she thinks. That man was... well, a man; he had a KNIFE, she thinks, too... She sucks in her breath, looking at Prism Keeper Red, Sailor Jupiter, and clutching a hand over her chest. Her voice is slightly shaking, but fierce behind it.

"Everything I do," she says, "is thanks to you."

Her voice rises again, even as Sailor Jupiter goes in to get her punch on, as Cute Wolf Tsukiko raises that sweet voice. "I'll show you!"

She slaps things on a plane of invisible force in front of her. "You see this - couscous. Grown from wheat on the shores of northern Africa. Do you know what makes the wheat grow...? The sun!"

A sheet of black seaweed. "Nori, the crisp algae we use to anoint our treats and meals. It's grown in the sun's light - with the sun's energy, it gathers minerals and salt, producing a beautifully crisp and gelatinous flavor note!"

A slice of grilled eel. "The eel - it goes from fresh water to salt water, all of it underneath your watchful eye. Feeding on what grows in your sight. Growing larger and stronger. And they're all here, and what brings them all together? /I/ do - sure - but my talent's like a prism!"

The couscous is put on the sheet - the eel set atop with a squirt of brown sauce - wrapped up in a neat hamentashen-style wrapping. "Everything I cook comes from you! Without the sun, even a mushroom wouldn't grow before too long! You bless us with your energy... and maybe we don't appreciate it."

Kuniko squeezes down, lightly, on the 'onigiri'. "But you don't correct a forgetful friend by burning them up like cheap white bread."

Exhaling, the poissonnier steps forwards - near to Prism Keeper Red. The exotic snack in her hand smells heavenly as she offers it to her, crouching down slightly to get on her level. "Eat this," she says, pausing momentarily as Utena lunges forwards, towards the star.

"I'm fireproof," she lies-to-children to Red, "so I gotta go back them up, she'll burn them up -- Just try to do what you can, alright? It's gonna work out."

COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has used Tekkadon au Couscous on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to dodge Utena Tenjou's V-Cut, taking 15 Fatigue damage!  Utena Tenjou is Psyched!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red accepts Kuniko Saito's Tekkadon au Couscous, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Empower applied to Prism Keeper Red!  Cleanse! All of Prism Keeper Red's debuffs are cleared!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

When Sayaka mentions that particular name, Homura immediately snaps her attention onto her. There is no scowl on her face, nor is there a frown. She suddenly looks exhausted, but there is a definite danger lurking with those purplish eyes of her. "No, you should not have came. You should have stayed by her side." She says in a softer tone than she had been using thus far this night with a touch of loneliness residing in her voice. But before any of this can be expanded upon, a dozen things happen at once that prevent this conversation from continuing.

And when things calm down again, the conversation has already moved on. Homura, the white of her outfit stained red from her own blood, looks squarely back at Sayaka when she gives her impassioned reply. "Would you rather that I left you up there?" An empty question. "Do you even realize how much you mean to Madoka?" A not-so empty question. But yet again, their conversation is interrupted as their foe tries to alight Sayaka and Homura's heart on fire. The distracted Puella Magi doesn't have much time to react to this barrage of attacks. She immediately reaches forward and grabs Sayaka by the wrist. A firm hold on Sayaka again, Homura uses the extent of her powers to avoid the majority of the attacks. But the expenditure of her powers is reaching its limit, the final attack that was aimed perhaps at Sayaka forces Homura to step in front of the other girl which leaves her wide open to the full extent of the attack.

The combined effort Homura uses to protect the two of them leaves the Puella Magi drained. Her untreated gashes from earlier reopen from all this sudden movement and the blood starts flowing again. Homura drops down to the ground and braces herself with her arms as she collects her thoughts on what is even left to do. "Start running," begins Homura in a low voice. "I'll cover you." She instructs before rising back up onto her feet. Homura reaches once more behind the shield on her arm and pulls out a rather nasty looking weapon. It's long, it's metal, and it has a belt of ammunition wrapped around it. The machine-gun is placed on the ground and the black-haired girl flops behind it. She prepares the belt of ammuniton and reaches forward to charge the weapon which lets out a metallic CLUNK in response. "Go! Go now!" She yells at Sayaka as Homura proceeds to make good on her promise. The weapon comes alive as it begins to spit round after round towards her most recent attacker. Spent casings and brass begin to fly everywhere as Homura keeps her focus entirely on providing covering fire for Sayaka's escape.

COMBAT: Homura Akemi has used Machine Gun Fury on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly dodges Homura Akemi's Machine Gun Fury, taking 26 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick's Fade ability activates!  Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick!

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

For a split second, it looks like things are going to be fine. And then--

"Jupiter!"

The older girl is rocked by some unseen force, and the thornless rose falls to the ground unaccepted, a single petal knocked loose and carried away by the winds. Red's concern blossoms into worry, and she takes a step forward to help steady the kind warrior who had helped her and Orange so many times.

But she is gone before her small hand, offered in support, can reach her shoulder, and briefly, she stands alone.

"Why are you doing this?!" the Prism Keeper shouts, voice cracking as she snaps her head to look directly at the shining figure. "Do you think feeling lonely makes all of this alright? Are we supposed to let you do as you please because you feel *bad*?"

The burning light comes her way, but her rising emotion has already erected a red shield around her, and only a few stray rays singe her skin inside of it. Her fists clench and her eyes narrow as she sees the two silver chargers shoot towards the sun, and she prepares to do the same -- when the impassioned speech and food preparation of a certain chef catches her attention.

Curious, the girls holds off the attack, watching rapt as the girl quickly prepares a treat, explaining the sun's worth more aptly and practically than she herself could manage. It really is remarkable, how forgiving magical girls can be. How sympathetic. It's something that she has to work on; it's much easier to get angry than to be empathetic. But when the cooking girl turns around and offers the finished product to her, and when she eats it and is filled with its kind energy, Red knows that she must try to be understanding.

After all, the fairies were saved, weren't they?

"I'll do my best," she assures Kuniko with a smile, though she evidently does not believe her statement about being fireproof. Then, with a face set in determination, she turns to face the sun again. "I...I don't know how you feel, I guess. I've been lonely before, and jealous. But not of the whole world. Not for as long as you." The crimson around her brightens once again, solidifying into a protective barrier. "But you really must stop doing this! How will the world appreciate your light if you destroy it? Who will appreciate you when the people who need you every single day are gone?"

She's not eloquent, but she is sincere. And the red comet that she shoots off in is not backed by righteous indignation, but by an effort to knock the misguided star back into good sense.

COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has used Red Comet on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick narrowly counters Prism Keeper Red's Red Comet, taking 5 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Prism Keeper Red is Psyched!  Pink Moon Stick's Reverse ability activates!  Pink Moon Stick's Tactician ability activates!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Coronal Spear, partially gets through, doing 34 Fatigue damage to Prism Keeper Red!  Stagger applied to Prism Keeper Red!

<Pose Tracker> Scarlet Rune Maiden [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

As the next wave of solar energy(?) comes, the Rune Maiden attempts to send it back with her own, only to fail.

Loneliness.

"Gh!" Falling down to one knee, the Maiden is visibly shaken, her hair rippling from her downed stance.

Yes. Loneliness. Guma has felt its pain deep inside her soul. When was the first moment? The moment she laid her eyes on the bodies of her dead cubs over a millenia ago, an act that stirred her to violence, or the moment, so much later, when she watched, from the second Maiden's viewpoint, the passing of the first Maiden, Kazue Tsukiyama, the first human to ever appease Guma's rage with her heart? Was it the passing years, decades, centuries, watching the land she first set upon changed and transformed into something unrecognizable, and old faces leave with no new ones to replace them? She was part of a forgotten culture, a forgotten way of life. There was the coldness of time marching on, and the way humans, like insects, remained unaware of their mistakes as they created tragedy after tragedy, and oh, the pain, the pain. No one could understand what it was like, especially-

Akemi's voice rings out in Guma's mind. ("Guma!") The lotus tattoo, hidden underneath the Maiden's long hair, glows bright red for a heartbeat, then calms, the boundaries tested and resolved by the pure will of the girl hosting it.

"I never thought I'd meet someone who feels the way I do..." Guma finally says as she stands right back up, gold eyes wide. "Your pain is different, yes, far older than mine. Interesting." No Maiden, no matter how earnest, could tame the Sun(?) into a Seal. Could anyone here be able to slice past all these negative emotions and straight to this being's heart?

Looking up, she notices the guarding Homura, and remembers the words from earlier. Harbinger. 'Join them in doom if you prefer.' Ah. It makes sense now. That was the one the being was referring to? To have to pay so dearly for the protection of the girl behind her. Who is this girl this 'harbinger' is protecting, and why hasn't she run away yet?

Moving quickly towards Homura as she shoots, Guma stands protectively by, preparing for the next wave of attacks.

COMBAT: Kuniko Saito covers Anthy Himemiya for Pink Moon Stick's attack, Heat of Battle, taking it upon themselves instead!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito perfectly braces Pink Moon Stick's Heat of Battle, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Critical Brace!  Kuniko Saito's Block ability activates!  Kuniko Saito's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

There's nothing like the strength of a Prince when she has a Princess to protect. But... it's no surprise to Anthy that Utena's words aren't very effective. Princes do have a tendency to be careless and not understand the feelings of those around them, don't they? The purple-haired girl shuts her eyes, hearing the cowled being's spat venom, hearing the encouragement that those assembled shout back.

Will it really get through, though? For one who's lived in solitude and bitterness for so long, these kinds of words are especially difficult to accept. They all sound like lies and empty platitudes, made to soothe anger long enough so it can be once again filed away and ignored. Anthy understands this well. It's why she says and does nothing beyond bearing witness. She knows well she's incapable of healing anyone's pain.

Her eyes linger on Utena's when the other girl glances back at her.

Still, Utena taking the foray means she is less able to directly protect Anthy, and as the wild surges of heat burst out, while they might not sear directly at Anthy, she hasn't the magical protection to save her. She cries out as she staggers several steps to one side, taking her closer to the young woman making an impassionate speech about the value of the Sun to every ingredient she uses--and at some point, the smell of that unagi-couscous 'onigiri' spreads a gentler warmth that cuts through the violent heat.

Anthy lowers her arms slowly to stare at Kuniko.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka was untouched by the tainted radiance of this malevolent sun, but she feels its words keenly. She does not raise her voice, but it's tight unto snapping. "No," she tells the sun, from a great distance. "You did something horrible. You deserve to be left behind." Why did Mami-senpai think Sayaka was worth anything to begin with?

Homura is an imposing figure, bloody and sharp. Sayaka takes a half-step back before she steels herself. "You're right, I should have stayed with her," she admits. "But you need to stop talking about Madoka-chan like you know anything about her. The only reason she likes you is that she has no idea what you are." She moves the foot that took a half-step back a full step forward. "You've barely met her, but even you should realize that if she knew you were a murderer, she'd hate you more than I do! What do you think a girl who cried when /I/ got a shot would think about the things you've done?"

Not a lot could stop this rant, but 'Do you even realize how much you mean to Madoka?' is one of those things. Sayaka stands dumbly for a moment, and then the flame returns.

Sayaka is far better protected just being near Homura than she was even after getting skilled with The Bat. Homura drags her about wildly by the wrist, the experience less like a dance with a partner and more like accidentally being handcuffed to a particularly rambunctious bumper car. Finally, Homura is forced to take the final flame fully upon herself, while Sayaka watches in a confused mix of guilt and fear.

She swallows as Homura prepares her massive machine gun, the clank of its great bulk reminding her of the menacing flanks of the construction equipment/mammoth that was her first companion in the world of the supernatural. She can see how badly Homura is injured. The blood makes her feel faint. "Why?" she demands. "Why does it matter to you what Madoka thinks about me?"

The final shout drives her away. Sayaka turns to run, and run fast. When the casings start spitting wildly from Homura's weapon, and its mouth barks, deafening, Sayaka crams her palms into her ears to protect herself.

It is not her eardrums she is worried about.

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

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlBifX0H3yg

Tsukiko bursts forward in a blaze of silver light, and the force with which she impacts the extended spear is sufficient to rend it in twain. "And why shouldn't I?" The sun adjusts her grip on the blunt half of the shaft in order to dual-wield them both together, but is driven back one step, two -- and right into the waiting fist of Sailor Jupiter. Lightning flashes across the darkness, blasting back the cloak. "That's right -- I make the /flowers/ grow. I grow the /food/. That's why I took back my radiance from them. I don't want to be appreciated through the lens of another. I want people to see /me/!"

Utena grants her wish, as the Duelist's slender but mighty swing removes the cloak entirely. The length of night is sheared off at the shoulders, and discorporates into motes of shadow which vanish into the lake. What lies beneath is, inevitably, blinding. The sun rises in the heart of Ueno Park, and to stare at it directly is essentially impossible and certainly painful, tears induced instinctively by humanity for their own protection, as it has always been. "If you love me so much... why do you weep at the sight of me? Why do you veil your eyes with shadowed shrouds?" The advent of sunglasses has been such an offense. SUNglasses, indeed. Sunlessglasses, more like. An entire industry designed to help people avoid her.

It's like the fairies-times-infinity, the impossibility of seeing what lies beneath the light. Certainly at least times-two, since /their/ light, their original light, still lies inside of her. The fairies themselves have scattered to avoid being burnt to a crisp, but they've remained on the edge of things. As Homura covers Sayaka's escape (though her bullets go astray; though they are slower than light, they are not, it seems, /much/ slower, creating tiny iron-red sparks against the yellow-red of the sun), they helpfully light the blueberry a path, green then blue then purple then red, wending around the debris as safely as possible.

Swirling into the fray, the sun lays about with her half-a-shaft and her now javelin-length spearhead-on-the-other-half -- trying to belt Jupiter right in the gut, and bringing up the sharp edge of the spear at the last second when Prism Keeper Red closes in to deflect the girlcomet most painfully. She swats at the comparably tiny girl again on the backswing. "/I/ will. I don't need you anymore. I don't need any of you!"

Leaping upwards, she curls in on herself, her power rising from yellow to gold to platinum to white. The rainbow of fairy light within her swirls in three ribbons around her, before condensing into balls... then holes.

Out pours the heart of the sun in all its fury and despair. Nobody understands her. They call her petty, selfish, cruel. Maybe she is. Maybe she should just embrace it. She's stoically endured for so long -- is this the only path left to her? It feels that way. 'You deserve to be left behind.'

One goes straight for Tsukiko, right at point blank. Like calls to like, the next arcing towards Guma, as embodied in Akemi. And opposites attract; the third slides down Utena's blade, straight towards her heart.

The touch of a fairy upon one's ear is an astonishingly gentle thing. It is easiest to feel their hearts beating, rather than the pressure of their fingers and feet. They pound so quickly that it might as well be a hum, a purr.

"She lies."
"She lies."
"She lies."
"She lies."
"She lies."
"She lies."
"She lies."
"She lies."

It's an individual whisper from a strangely familiar voice. Lavender's grandchild; silvery lupine; a single white rose in a field of red; a patch on the lawn; tangled, unkempt briars overgrown, but with one bud remaining; dried-out, fading blue stars of borage; rosy pink camellia; red spider lilies. Perhaps they have whispered before, but gone unheard.

'She lies,' they say as one.

COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Blinded By The Light on Anthy Himemiya.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Blinded By The Light on Sayaka Miki.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Blinded By The Light on Homura Akemi.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Blinded By The Light on Kuniko Saito.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Red Dawn on Prism Keeper Red.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Touch of Summer on Sailor Jupiter.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Pink Moon Stick has used Sunwrath on Cute Wolf Tsukiko.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Pink Moon Stick has used Sunwrath on Scarlet Rune Maiden.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Pink Moon Stick has used Sunwrath on Utena Tenjou.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Cute Wolf Tsukiko narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Finisher, Sunwrath, taking 100 Fatigue damage!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko is unable to keep fighting!  Cute Wolf Tsukiko's Flash ability activates!
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito fails to brace Pink Moon Stick's Blinded By The Light, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Blind applied to Kuniko Saito!
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter perfectly braces Pink Moon Stick's Touch of Summer, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Brace!  Sailor Jupiter's Block ability activates!  Sailor Jupiter's Parry ability activates!
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Finisher, Sunwrath, taking 60 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Homura Akemi fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Blinded By The Light, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Blind applied to Homura Akemi!
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Red Dawn, taking 13 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou narrowly braces Pink Moon Stick's Finisher, Sunwrath, taking 98 Fatigue damage!  Utena Tenjou's Parry ability activates!

<Pose Tracker> Cute Wolf Tsukiko [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

The fairy reaches Tsukiko's ear, and in the ebbing adrenaline the wolfgirl smiles at her flower friend.

Then the sun open a portal of pure solar energy, and it's all Tsukiko can do to scoop the fairy into her hands and roll out of the way of a direct impact. But those who work around great amounts of heat know that just being in close proximity of high temperatures can be just as dangerous.

The raw blast of heat knocks the wolfgirl over, striking her down like a harsh fever. She lands on her side, still cradling the fairy. With the last traces of her strength, she brings her hands close to her face and peers in.

The fairy is still there, still alive. "I-i'm glad..." Tsukiko smiles, just before exhaustion takes her.

COMBAT: Sayaka Miki narrowly dodges Pink Moon Stick's Blinded By The Light, taking 0 Fatigue damage!

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The situation has gone FUBAR.

Homura Akemi should have been better prepared for this fight. She should have known better. She should have really brought out the big guns and sooner. Out of the corner of her eyes, she focuses briefly on her shield. There was always that option. But was everything truly lost? Finger still held down on the trigger, Homura looks around at the charred landscape that was the home to this most desperate battle.

Rays of sunlight blast around the area. Darkness and light swirl together creating a kaleidoscope of colors. And everywhere she looks; she sees pain, injury, and despair. This may not be Walpurgisnacht, but it comes close. Homura's machine gun fire comes to halt as she had melted the weapon's barrel into a red hot mess, rendering the weapon inoperable. She frowns to herself before turning her head to see how far Sayaka has gotten or if she listened to her at all.

From her vantage point, she could barely make out the bluish blob speeding away from her. Sayaka may be making a hasty retreat, but her spirited words remain with Homura. They had cut deep into her just as the fairies fangs had done earlier this night. But the pain from this was greater. What did Madoka really think of her this time around? It didn't matter. It didn't matter as long as Madoka was safe....as long as Madoka listened to her warning. But could she truly be safe if a rampaging sun being like this was left around? Homura looks back at the sunray shooting foe. Unfortunately, this is just as a bright ray of sunlight shines towards her, impairing her vision considerably. Between the melted barrel and her current eyesight, this machine gun was now useless. Homura flings the inoperable weapon away from her and steels herself for what is goint to happen next.

It was time for her to make another move. Homura Akemi leaps up onto her feet, ignorning the nagging sensation that her wounds were providing. If she was going to do something, now was her chance while this powerful foe was busy trying to disintegrate the other magic girls.

"She'd hate you more than I do!"

Homura frowns and then moves forward. Words can cut deep.

Sorry, Scarlet. But Homura is about to leave whatever protection she left behind to go on the assault. At first, she simply sprints forward in a b-line towards her target. And then she disappears and is now running about five feet to the left of where she used to be. This approach is repeated over and over again until the distance is finally closed. Once close, Homura initiates a total freeze. It was time to get to work. It seems to take Homura only a few seconds to set up these bricks of C4. In reality, Homura had to take much longer to painstakingly daisy-chain so much C4 together. When she is finished, a tight circle of C4 surrounds the sun-creature with a blob of C4 being tossed directly into the center. To the casual observer, they would have seen Homura Akemi charge at the sun-goddess and then they would have seen a chain of explosives go off a mere moment later. When the dust from this finally clears, Homura will be back near where she had tossed her machine gun, but crouched low to protect herself from the debris that was soon to come. Fire in the hole.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Homura Akemi has used Time Bomb on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Homura Akemi has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Kuniko Saito [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.

Kuniko glances over her shoulder.

"Ma'am," she says to Anthy, briefly. Crap, she thinks: now I can't... can't go cut the Sun, she thinks further, lips puckering. The idea isn't that good when she puts it that way, is it?

Then someone fires a machine gun. But that's almost trivial, compared to the pained words of that sun. Kuniko's eyes water, despite the words. She steels herself, against that heat. She can't see further than that - and now she has some innocent woman standing behind her. She can't just abandon her, even if an obscure twinge of guilt fills her at the sight of Jupiter, Red, and Tsukiko taking those blows.

Her eyes burn -

Something whispers in her ear. 'She lies.'

At first she thinks it's the woman with the purple hair, but before she can form more than that, the pain in her eyes, the wriggling agony on the back of her retinas, forms a certain pattern, causing certain other connections, and with a mental POP -

Kuniko Saito knows what she must make.

There is no shade for what Kuniko prepares. She works in the blinding light, assembling pistachio and walnut, setting out sheets of dough to bask in that light.

"We cry when we see you because you're too beautiful," Kuniko says as she pushes things down, makes cryptic passes. "Throughout history everyone's thought about you. They worshipped you - and if we've forgotten to for a while, it was our mistake. We need you - we love you - I'm gonna show you!"

She slaps a spatula. It flips a plate that lands in front of her; Kuniko hunches over, shading her workspace from the blinding radiance of the sun, as she prepares her last gasp.

It takes her long, lingering seconds, with handfuls of -

Raisins?

Kuniko's final act is a drizzling of honey and a few seconds' hasty, terrified work with a toothpick. Then she claps her hands, twice, and steps back from the plate - the enchantment of Service lets it float in the air and move ceremoniously towards the sun. Moving closer, Kuniko murmurs to Anthy, "Are you alright...?"

The offered food is an extremely large portion of baklava - practically a small sheet of it in its own right. The nuts and dough are, of course, top of the line. Atop it - like a stele - are simple images, the best Kuniko could do with such pressure. Raisins spell out a simple message: "LOVE THE SUN' - with space filled by smiling faces, decorated by a sprinkle here, a suggestive crook of a raisin there, a frowny face there (that one's probably Homura).

At the top of the sheet is a single umiboshi plum, rolled in sugar. Wildflower honey makes its rays - the clever business with the toothpick have spread them out, so that they permeate everything there.

Seen from the direction where the 'sun' is placed, all the faces are looking towards it. It's a subtle trick of perspective, not immediately apparent from directly above - but guess what angle the pastry is approaching that solar girl from?

COMBAT: FINISHER! Kuniko Saito has used Plum and Raisin Baklava with Wildflower Honey on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Kuniko Saito has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

'She lies,' hum the flowers.

Anthy is well-acquainted with liars.

She listens to the Sun's anger and bitterness, at her deep unhappiness and sorrow and frustration. Her expression does not particularly change. The Sun doesn't really understand humans, does she? Anthy almost feels sorry for her. Then again, perhaps she's more fortunate that way, for all her loneliness. Understanding humans has never brought the Rose Bride happiness.

But that doesn't change anything, either. Whether you understand others or are understood yourself doesn't matter if no one does anything about it. If no one succeeds, the Sun will vanish from their sky. Anthy has little attachment to anything in this world, but... The radiant, hateful light bursts out, and pure instinct drives Anthy to cover her face with the back of one hand.

...That's not the same as none at all. She wouldn't have come this far if there weren't something.

She hears Utena's scream as the Sun's blade pierces her chest--hears her nonetheless manage to stay on her feet, to keep fighting. "Utena-sama!" she calls, a note of... *something* in her voice. There's something about this that's achingly familiar, something that compels her to want to act, if only in the tiniest way.

She hears the voice of the chef nearby, asking her if she's all right in between speaking passionately to the Sun. "Yes," Anthy murmurs back to Kuniko, smelling raisins and honey on the air. "Thank you."

Slowly she lowers her hand. Between two of her long fingers is the arm of her glasses, which slip off her face without a sound. The brilliant light radiates even through her shut eyelids, and grows that much brighter when she steps out from behind Kuniko.

Anthy opens her eyes and looks directly at the Sun.

COMBAT: Anthy Himemiya accepts Pink Moon Stick's Blinded By The Light, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Blind applied to Anthy Himemiya!

<Pose Tracker> Scarlet Rune Maiden [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Guma intended to protect Homura Akemi, but when the Maiden found herself in danger, perhaps due to her own idle comments, all Guma could do was attempt to dodge, taking all her strength to leap away.

Akemi didn't deserve to see that rage again, even if this was easily resolved within the confines of the Lotus Seal. If Guma has her way, Akemi will never have to see, feel, or even consider it ever again.

Landing on the grass a distance away, the Maiden's body tumbles to a stop, curled in a fetal position.

To be forgotten. She deserves-

Fairy encouragement brushes past the ear of the Maiden, many voices combined down into one sentiment.

She lies.
("She lies!")

Guma stands, exhaustion evident in the angle of her walk. The others are preparing their final assault. Guma shall do the same. "... Your feelings are legitimate," she says, stopping a distance from the sun being. "I'm sad we cannot sit down and talk about this. If you are any part of who I think you are, you make me look like an infant, in comparison. It's a feeling I don't get to feel very often. But, as many do here, I have a mission, and not much energy left to express it."

"O Spirit that has strayed from the path of Balance--" Light filters through the Maiden's hair as it floats upwards, drifting in mid-air, her back tattoo exposed. Tendrils of red flow outwards like glowing ink, trailing down Guma's arms. "--be it torn by jealousy, hatred, and loneliness--" Guma, with one fingertip, traces a glowing red circle in the air, the shape filling in with intricate linework in the vague, stylized shape of a lotus blossom. "--may your heart be purified by the dawning light and love of the Scarlet Lotus Seal!"

A beam issues from the lotus seal drawn in the air, trailing red wisps of light as it sails forward, the embodiment of one solemn girl's pure will embedded in the prayers of generations of Maidens.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Scarlet Rune Maiden has used Scarlet Lotus Seal on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Scarlet Rune Maiden has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Utena Tenjou [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The force and brightness of the sun bears down on Utena in its entirety, piercing her chest -- and somehow, she manages to stay up in spite of it. Squaring her shoulders and pushing against it, Utena summons all the love she has in her heart... and it's still only barely enough to even keep her standing. Her shoulders sag, and her body reels; she can't quite keep it together, at first. But... R ... it's not quite enough. She's hanging on by a thread; she feels like at any moment she could simply collapse. Gripping her duelist's blade tightly, she inclines her head just slightly toward Himemiya's cry, conveniently also directing her gaze away from the sun itself just slightly; it makes her entirely certain that she needs to end this.

"... you need us, and we need you," she says, before pressing forward with her blade, trying to stop her. Once again, she focuses on the weapon, rather than the sun itself -- only this time, she tries to totally disarm her. It's a little desperate, but she doesn't know what else to do, and Himemiya's hurting...

COMBAT: FINISHER! Utena Tenjou has used Down But Not Defeated on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Utena Tenjou has finished attacking.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Sayaka manages her first real smile of the evening as the little fairies land to either side of her. In the grass, on the pebbles, they create a guiding path so soothing that it takes her a few seconds to even get so far as to wonder why she instantly trusted them. But it's a hypothetical worry; her trust in them has already been proven well-placed. They guide her around obstacles, some Sayaka would have seen anyway, others which would have sent her sprawling. Sad though she is, she feels warmed by their kindness.

The great eye-searing brightness of the forsaken sun is preceded by enough tumult that Sayaka almost makes the dangerous mistake of looking. Blindness might not affect her already nonexistent combat ability, but it would be even worse for Sayaka than the girls engaged in combat. After all, it would be easier for Sayaka to find the evil sun than it would be for her to find Nezu station.

But as she glances back like Lot, a fairy flits by her face, tiny and friendly and distracting. She turns to look at it, and the combination of her growing distance from the battle and the direction of her eyes protects them from the initial brightness, whereupon she's plenty smart enough to not look back.

She doesn't need to look back to know who caused the explosion she just heard, either. It's not that no one else is capable of such a loud boom. It is more that the stomach-churning explosion is the final note in an arpeggio that Sayaka heard the beginning to when she saw the last look that Homura Akemi gave her before sending her away.

Sayaka doesn't know if Homura is alive or dead. She doesn't know which she'd prefer and doesn't think about it. She lets her lungs burn as she takes the stairs down to street level from the park, and hopes there is enough kindness left in the world to let her see Madoka again tonight.

<Pose Tracker> Prism Keeper Red [Juuban Public School (4)] has posed.

A few weeks ago,

"Akatsuki-san!"

Her teacher's harsh voice startles Mei awake, a muddled 'bwaaah?!' escaping her as she blinks, then flips through her textbook in a panicked attempt to appear on task.

"Since you are confident enough in your knowledge of myth to sleep through my class, perhaps you would like to tell us all the tale of Icarus?"

"Ummm..."

Now,

Red feels the heat of the sun and sees the spear's tip all too late, feeling the magic around her crack and give way underneath the searing pressure. Her shield impales itself on the spear, catching her on the hip and slicing through the layers of her skirt before the great luminous figure slaps her away entirely. She is not a crimson comet when she is flung away from the sun -- she is a little girl, gossamer wings shimmering in the blinding light, costume torn and burned. And gravity does her no favors.

The Prism Keeper hits the ground with a great thud, skidding back a few feet on impact, flailing about as best she can to avoid even greater damage to herself and the park. Only when she comes to a complete stop does she hear the sun's words, and see her strike at three of her fellow fighters: two of whom she knows, one of whom is bested completely.

"Tsukiko!" she cries out, eyes tearing up both from the great light and the pain of seeing her friends injured so. That righteous indignation -- the desire for vengeful justice -- begins to waken again in her heart, and with a groan of effort, Red begins to summon her vicious, rose-tipped brambles, vines multiplying and tangling around her like snakes. She doesn't care if this is the sun; sometimes, crimes go beyond forgiveness.

'She lies.'

Prism Keeper Red blinks, then feels the hum of fairy wings near her ear. And immediately, the image of the rose bush from home flashes into her mind -- not its current, sorry state, but its former glory, when red and pink roses grew wild and natural on their balcony. Could it really be--

And why is the sun lying? What could possibly make her so full of jealousy, after all these years?

Are these really the sun's true feelings?

Red feels her anger diminish as the fairy's words sink in, the vines withdrawing before vanishing in a blink of scarlet. The emotion is still alive within her -- really, you aren't going to change the nature of a protective and hot-headed girl in a day -- but its lost the venomous edge that threatened to overwhelm her. The empathy everyone (well, almost everyone) is showing towards their attacker speaks to her on a level deeper than the knee-jerk reaction of fury.

Why add more destruction to today's memory?

"I don't know how to help you," Red says simply, straightening to her full height. Her bearing is far from confident, but still, she summons her weapon, a white wand that appears from nowhere in her right hand. "You're returning everyone's kindness with cruelty, and that is unthinkable. But it is not something that the kind sun that brightens our Earth would do. Something is wrong." The Prism Keeper eyes her weapon for a moment, pauses -- then removes the glimmering red crystal from its head, the rest of the scepter vanishing as she does so.

'Orange-chan said that color energy might do something.'

"I don't know if this will heal you, or make you feel any differently. But it's all I have. And I have to try." The girl holds out the Chroma Crystal in one hand, already pulsing with a small amount of red magic. "Prism Aegis Power!"

Immediately, the power expands into a great orb around the gem, with such suddenness that Red has to brace it with her other hand. She's only used this power once before, when Momo's life was on the line. "Please, Chroma Crystal. Do what I can't do."

"Red Chroma Burst!"

The orb explodes in a burst of light, and a massive beam of purest red shoots towards the great luminous being. It is an energy born from light itself, from the innocent dream of a child and her friends. And it is not meant to destroy, but to cleanse.

"If there's a darkness inside of you, let the passion of scarlet cast it out!"

COMBAT: FINISHER! Prism Keeper Red has used Prism Aegis Power! Red Chroma Burst! on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Prism Keeper Red has finished attacking.

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

Even as the blinding radiance of the revealed sun makes her eyes water, Sailor Jupiter moves reflexively, and the broken spear-shaft that the spirit drives toward her midsection is caught instead, its force intercepted and stopped without doing any harm.

If only it were always so easy.

This close, the light is overwhelming; Jupiter has no choice but to fall back. Just as she did before, she feels helpless - she could fight freely against a creature born of darkness, but what can she do for someone she wants to save? Her power isn't like Sailor Moon's - she doesn't have the means to convey her feelings the way that Kuniko does with food, or the Rune Maiden with her Lotus Seal, or the Prism Keeper with color. All Sailor Jupiter has at her disposal are force and lightning, and they are not kind.

But what else can she do?

'She lies,' the fairy's voice whispers, and Jupiter hears it, but the knowledge brings her little hope. She lies - but how to reach the truth?

Tears stream down her face, only partly from the incredible light. "...Our eyes are too weak to face your brilliance," she says, and the words are heavy with sorrow. "It doesn't mean we love you any less. I'm sorry it's not what you want."

The lightning rod emerges from the center of her tiara.

Overhead, the blackened sky rumbles with thunder.

"I'm sorry I don't have any other way to get through to you," Sailor Jupiter whispers.

The lightning bolt comes crashing down.

COMBAT: FINISHER! Sailor Jupiter has used Supreme Thunder on Pink Moon Stick.
COMBAT: Sailor Jupiter has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Homura Akemi's Finisher, Time Bomb, taking 122 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Kuniko Saito's Finisher, Plum and Raisin Baklava with Wildflower Honey, taking 70 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Scarlet Rune Maiden's Finisher, Scarlet Lotus Seal, taking 134 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Utena Tenjou's Finisher, Down But Not Defeated, taking 64 Fatigue damage!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Prism Keeper Red's Finisher, Prism Aegis Power! Red Chroma Burst!, taking 147 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Jupiter's Finisher, Supreme Thunder, taking 69 Fatigue damage!  Pink Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting!

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

<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeuVBc76jas

Earlier tonight, the bluebell fairy's warning was simple, and yet complex.

"If she does not remember what she is by Vernal dawn, the world will also forget. There are a million million million stars in the sky... and she will become one of them. A simple source of light, a distant furnace. She has no idea how much she has to lose."

What makes the sun the sun? What will rise in the morning?

The edges of the world are growing bright, as the Vernal Equinox approaches, the crux of the season of Spring. The sun hasn't risen quite yet -- this is false dawn. It is difficult to see because of the sunset in the midst of the park. Having spent a huge portion of her rage, her flaring corona has both darkened and wideneed to a sickening blood red. It is fuzzy and indistinct, spreading hungrily.

The ring of C4 that detonates around her contains her with simple force, condensing the red giant into a more confined space before she turns the park into an internalized conflaguration. This buys crucial time -- and time is always the essence for Homura Akemi, isn't it?

But what reaches her next is something else, a different kind of power. It is realized in so many different ways.

It comes as baklava, sweet and sticky and marked with a message. It is instantly consumed by the flames, releasing the sweet scent of sublimated wildflower honey throughout the park. There is a softening to the roar of the flames.

It comes as a gigantic scarlet seal, the sign of the Lotus, the prayer of an ancient order of maidens, the fervent wish of a compassionate child. Faced with the sun, nothing is ancient, no order and no spirit, and in the moment of impact between Seal and spirit, they feel one another's hearts, and know the truth of the interconnectedness of all things.

It comes as a tearing feeling in the hands, a sharp twist that is painful in the moment but a release afterwards, as a sword of the soul, wielded by someone who has willfully dived into the heart of a star, plucks first the blunt half, then the spearhead, away from their wielder.

It comes as an explosive release of 'color energy', but instinctively any witness and especially its source will understand that this isn't about light, nor color, despite being about the sun. There is no single language with which to communicate one's feelings, but the Tower of Babel was never built when the Sun first rose. Innocent dreams -- pure intentions -- something even simpler and more fundamental, as well, like the feeling one gets when the sunrise reflects in their little sister's eyes.

And it comes as lightning. Lightning is not kind, but Jupiter is, and what she wields is, in the end, not heaven's wrath but the will of her own heart. A single pillar of silver momentarily outshines even the darkened sun, a strand of fate, a moment of electric connection. It is a reminder of what was, and what is, and what could be. The wind carries with it the scent of tears.

Sayaka's back is turned at the most final moment, but even she sees the rainbow that follows; not an explosion at all, but an outpouring across the sky, so wide and all-consuming that the clouds cannot hope to block it. Anthy is facing the Sun, and is the only one who manages to meet her eyes. They are all colors and none. They are ancient and youthful, as old as the stars and reborn every year. They carry within them pain, but now it is another kind of pain, the throbbing of a lanced wound, the bittersweet catharsis of a difficult realization. In them, she can see herself reflected, her verdant green, her brilliant violet, her gorgeous brown. And another shade, too, a hue without name, without, yet, meaning.

What makes a princess a princess?
What makes a witch a witch?

The rainbow only lasts a few seconds, but they are long ones.

"Thank you," the Sun says simply, humbly. "I will not forget."

Out of her mouth pours a second rainbow, which cascades into the countless millions of fairies on sight, turning their lambent glow into equally brilliant shine.

She vanishes at the exact moment that the sun rises, not a gigantic incandescent ball of gas but the beginning of spring, the harbinger of hope, the granter of renewal.

And with a 'pop' made audible by the sheer impossible quantity of this event reproduced across Tokyo...

...every bud blossoms at once into full glory. It is a full-sensory experience; the air is sweet with perfume, the wind feels different, pregnant with the blooming season.

The fairies change, too. As they watch the sunrise, they are still enough to be properly regarded, and their simple raiments abruptly explode with complexity and loveliness. Delicate multi-tiered petal skirts. Tender, soft leaf hats. Tiny shoes carved from individual grains of pollen. Stalks woven into jaunty jackets and sharply cut slacks.

No tears touch their faces, not anymore.

They glance over their shoulders at the girls, and then zip away, vanishing into the hearts of the flowers, from whence they came.

Spring has come.

<Pose Tracker> Anthy Himemiya [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

Even seconds can last an eternity. Those who know this, know it well.

Though spots dance in Anthy's eyes, she doesn't turn aside her gaze, nor does she allow tears to fall. Through the dazzling light, she meets eyes with the Sun, and finds herself reflected there in a rainbow of ways, both literally and figuratively--in ways that even Anthy, with all her experience, cannot yet fathom.

It's frightening, but for the moment, Anthy feels unafraid. It's a remarkably refreshing sensation.

'Thank you. I will not forget,' says the Sun.

Anthy smiles in return, gently, kindly.

The predawn light culminates, and the Sun returns to her place in the sky, the harbinger of light and hope. While these might not exist in Anthy's world--while tomorrow or even later today may bring a return of the same vicious cycle--for the moment, glasses still cradled in her hands, as flowers burst into bloom everywhere around her, filling the atmosphere with a heady perfume that fills the body and soul, she lifts her gaze to the radiance on the horizon.

"Good morning to you."

For a moment, she lingers; then, at last, she turns towards the brave hero who fought with all her love to protect both Anthy and the world. As she moves towards Utena, she nods at Kuniko, a discreet but genuine signal of her gratitude for her help earlier. Then she kneels next to her fiancee, eyes and smile gentle for her as well.

"Well then, Utena-sama," Anthy murmurs, "shall we head home?"

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

The combined might of the magic girls here tonight was enough to bring forth a new dawn even if it just a false one. Homura Akemi now stands alone, merely playing the role of an observer as the park begins to right itself. Trees, birds, and fairies all come back to how it used to be as if nothing had happened here at all. Homura's eyes flicker downwards as she takes in her own condition. She's an absolute mess and expended more time and magic here than she should of. And for what? Many will not even know that such a battle took place. And Madoka Kaname wouldn't even have the slightest clue how close her tomato plant came to dying or how much blood, sweat, and fairy tears Homura shed on her behalf.

The black-haired teenager outstretches her hands, palms up. And were these the hands of the murderer like Sayaka said? Homura shifts her gaze to those who had levied their own complaints over Homura's violent tendencies this night. They probably still felt the same way about her despite everything going back to 'normal'. But in the end, none of this matters. Homura was still on track with achieving her goals no matter what her reputation may or may not be. And that was good enough for her.

Blood stained hands reach back behind herself and she flips her hair forward with both hands simultaneously. It was time for her to leave. And that is precisely what Homura Akemi does next. She turns around, takes a few steps, and vanishes just as magically as how the damage inflicted on this area tonight had faded away.

<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Even walking at her unhurried pace, Mami Tomoe has covered a lot of ground since she turned her back on the faeries and the assembled magic working to save them. ...And on the people who were there. The sounds of battle, the flashes of light from behind--all of that seemed a little more muted after she just turned enough corners. At some point along the way, her own magic shimmered out, leaving her in her regular Ohtori middle uniform once again.

Her eyes stay forward, as she just keeps putting one foot in front of the other. She barely sees the path in front of her, but she doesn't have to; she's walked around here more than long enough to remember the way. She's more occupied remembering, and thinking. The magic she spent here is the least of her concerns.

"Protect everyone," she murmurs to herself with a sigh, stopping to lean against a closed storefront as she studies the sidewalk below. She has no guns, this time, no weapons, no battle to be swept up in. She's just alone.

It's then that the brilliant rainbow comes, visible even to her, first from a reflection and then as she looks up towards it. The sun rises, despite the darkness, flowers everywhere bloom.

...But, not Mami. She blinks back tears at the sight of the warm colors, and closes her eyes against the warmth of the coming morning.

She'll make it home eventually.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (8)] has posed.

What makes the sun the sun?

As it so happens the green Puella Magi never finds out. It would be something of a disappointment if she knew what she had missed. For as deep seated as she thought her convictions might be, and despite the wonders she saw from grateful fey as a result of confessing her innermost feelings... she withdrew.

While truth and understanding were important to her, in her current state, there was something even more important.

Trust.

Trust that others could handle the responsibility of defending what was important to her, what she loved without her. Trust that they wouldn't allow anyone important to her to fall. It didn't even need to be spoken. It just existed.

And so she stood beyond the edges of the park, watching expectantly for some sign, given to her by an explosion of prismatic incandescence, and the sun rising gloriously to meet the new day. Her shoulders grew slack with relief.

A moment later she pressed her last grief seed to an adorned gem that had lost most of it's luster. As wisps of tenebrous mist arose, she held her breath, releasing the former wicked object from the latter as the sun's light caught it just right, causing half of it to gleam with verdure light.

All the people who were capable of judging her had left for reasons she didn't entirely understand, save one violet warrior, who had already cast her judgement long ago on what her first responsibility should be. She was looking at it.

She turned it in her hands again, watching the luminous rays set it to sparkling one last time, before it shimmered and changed to a band around her fingers. Stuffing her hands into the pocket of her coat, she smiled sheepishly, embarrassed by her doubt and self-recriminations for the choice she made.

She looked fondly upon a patch of blooming anemones that uplifted her mood considerably. then started to walk down a path that would lead her to the soon to be bustling streets of Tokyo. It was a brand new day after all, the first of Spring, maybe she'd get lucky today.

Maybe.

And maybe she would dig deep again, and find just enough confidence to knock upon someone's apartment door.