Battle Fantasia MUSH - User contributions [en]

Eri Shimanouchi

2020-09-27T14:07:59Z

Eri Shimanouchi

2020-09-27T02:50:38Z

Eri:

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 25em; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#008000; border: 2px #FFFF00 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Eri Shimanouchi'''
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" | [[File:EriWraiths.jpg|300px|Wraith Fight Wraith Fight]]
|-
! style="background:#008000; border: 2px #FFFF00 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Full Name:
| Eri Shimanouchi
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Aliases:
| Crazy Daisy, The Bad Shepherd
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Gender:
| Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Age/Birthdate:
| 16 (Aug. 24, 1999)
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Height:
| 5'2"
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Hair Colour:
| Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Eye Colour:
| Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Astrological Sign:
| Virgo
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Blood Type:
| O Negative
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Favorite Food:
| Okonomiyaki
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Favorite Subject:
| Biology
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Least Favorite Subject:
| History
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Character Theme:
|[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiBHHh-1mus| The Mercy of Nature]]
|-
! style="background:#008000; border: 2px #FFFF00 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Dossier'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Organizations:
| [[Organization: The Tuner Organization|Tuners]]
|-
! style="text-align:left" | School:
| [[School: Ohtori Academy|Ohtori Academy]] (Grade 10)
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Clubs:
| Gardening Club
|-
! style="background:#008000; border: 2px #FFFF00 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Source:
| [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]] (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Player:
| [[User:Eri|Eri]]
|-
|}

Once upon a time, Eri Shimanouchi was a Puella Magi who bought into the savage garden mentality of her senpai, Kyouko Sakura. Sacrificing life after life for the sake of cultivating enough power to reach her goals; the guilt and self-loathing caused by her choices sent her on a downward spiral that ended in not only her death, but the deaths of those around her. Only none of this ever happened. Now Eri Shimanouchi has been granted a certain healthy perspective going forward in a world that has been changed to be kinder for girls like herself. Living out her adjusted life has resulted in her swiftly emerging from her shell of protective self-consciousness that she'd built around herself. This has allowed her to swiftly bloom into a more confident girl that is more secure with herself, and happy to live out the second chance she's been gifted with.

==Background and History==

Not so long the world changed. And so much that happened, never did.

One moment dead. Any future I had, lost. The next alive, sitting in class as if it had never happened. But /I/ remember it.

A second chance. Not to make things right, but to live.

The decision mine on how to use it.

I don't even know who or what I am thanking but - I feel such a sense of gratitude for it.

Background and History Under Construction!

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | On her Father...
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I hate hospitals. Most people think of them as places where sick people get better. I see them as places where people wither until they die.

My father was in one for over a month. There had been an accident... and he was brain dead. I heard a few nurses call him a vegetable. How could that be? There was no room for growth. No amount of nurturing could save him, heal him. I felt completely helpless.

He was cold all the time. Machines kept him alive. They pumped air into his lungs and nutrients into his veins and made certain his bodily functions were taken care of. At first everyone was so nice to me, but that changed. I was told I needed to accept it, that there was nothing left but a shell and a burden.

They were keeping him alive until we could accept it. And I couldn't, because I just dumb and believed I'd lost the only person who ever really cared about me. The rest of my family had finished accepting it. They were just indulging me... and soon enough they weren't even doing that anymore.

It was decided it had gone on for too long. They were pulling the plug. I had one more day. Visiting hours ended at nine. They made a special exception so I could stay until ten. I had to make the last train so I could make it to school in the morning.

I wouldn't even be allowed to stay and watch- I was the only one there.

It was nine forty... something... and there was this cute little thing on Daddy's bed. I'd never seen anything like it. Waving it's fluffy tails at me and staring. It told me I had the power to save him, if that's what I wanted.

A destiny of battle against witches in return. It was an easy decision.

It was my decision.

It wasn't a decision at all...

He woke up. It was a miracle they all said.

...

He hates me.

My whole family hates me.

... I hate him.

I should have let him die.
|}
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | On her Early Days...
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If I had to choose a word to describe how I was as a new Magical Girl? The first one that comes to mind is reckless.

I'd do things my way. The right way. I believed in all these things that feel distant and foolish now.

Even the girl who I wanted to be my senpai? I didn't really listen to her at all. I was so convinced that I knew better.

And so my first true senpai was a younger girl by the name of Yaori Kumori.

Sounds weird doesn't it? She was probably eleven, going on twelve. But she taught me more than most when I tried to poach from her.

At the time I would have told you I was doing the 'right thing' rather than poaching. Heh.

All it got me was a crossbow bolt in the center of my chest. I was bleeding out... dying. Right in front of two girls. One who was my friend... and another who I thought might be.

I was saved, by dumb luck. By the decency and charity of someone who had given me up for dead not long before.

A way of life that seemed so 'right' before became meaningless if it was only going to get me killed.

It wasn't easy dealing with what came after. Trying to rebuild myself, dealing with the nightmares, the paranoia. But there were people there for me. One more than most...

And Yaori Kumori was still out there. A silent, invisible demon lord ruling over Shinjuku with an mailed fist.

So I made plans. Most of those plans seem distant and foolish now too. No amount of planning could have prepared us for what happened...

But somehow in the end we were victorious... and the demon lord turned out to be a scared little girl, who had just been trying to survive.

I'd made a mistake, but it was a mistake that allowed me to survive, to thrive. So was it really a mistake at all?

... If I'd known what was coming next, maybe I would have made one more.

|}
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | On Kyouko and the Shepherds...
|-
|
The first time, I met Kyouko Sakura, she chased me away- I had no idea back then how lucky I was to escape death on her spear.

The second time, she caused me to question a lot of things I never had.

The third time, she cared for me after a battle gone wrong.

And the fourth time... she was there for me when noone else was.

Why did she choose to invest in me? A dumb little reckless amateur? To this day I have no idea.

But it doesn't matter why. The point is that she did. And it took me so long to recognize the simple fact...

That she had always been there.

Were you expecting something deeper? More profound? I could list so many reasons why I admire her if you want, but the fact is that Kyouko Sakura was always there for me, always providing support. When others disappointed, she did not. When I held myself up to an impossible standard, she brought me down to Earth. When I needed a shoulder to cry on, she gave me one freely.

And that's why I'd do anything to preserve her happiness.

When I rejected Mami Tomoe and Sayaka Miki, she was there to defend me. When they came to Shinjuku threatening my bottom line, she was there fending them off just as ferociously as ever.

The least I can do is return the favor. And that's why I won't let her fight alone.

It came to pass though, that the two of us weren't enough. The Chevaliers movement would mean our both of our deaths. A quick one or a slow one, but death all the same.

And so we decided to recruit others in defense. In them... I decided to pay forward what she did for me.

To protect them as she does me. To be there for them like she was for me.

Except. Everything went wrong

|}

==Current Events==

What came before...
*Eri murders Mami Tomoe atop the Shinjuku Metropolitian building.
*Sayaka Miki vows vengeance, and comes after Eri at Haneda airport, prompting an all out brawl between Magical Girls to stop her. The two duel in front of the Witch Elsa Maria.
*The Truth about Magical Girls and Witches came to light, when Sayaka becomes Oktavia Von Seckendorff.
*Rika Kumori made a wish for her sister's murderer to come to her. Eri arrives, and leaves without ever telling her.
*Eri resolves to become a witch in Shinjuku to punish herself for all that she's done.
*Kyouko confesses her love to her, a moment she'd hoped for for some time, and swept up in the despair Eri decides to spare her from the inevitable fate of all Puella Magi by crushing her soul gem then burying her.
*Upon arriving in Shinjuku for her final fate, Mikoto and Madoka find her. In one final moment of clarity she asks for help, and is granted the only mercy that is left to her.
*Madoka Kaname makes a wish. Eri's soul says a final farewell to a true friend.

And now...
*Waking up in a New World in the middle of class, Eri runs to a bridge to find out that the world has changed in a way that none of them could have expected.
*Taking the second chance for what it is, Kyouko and Eri decide to begin dating.
*Eri fights Mikoto Minagi repeatedly to try to wrest her from the grasp of Dark Fall and her Lord Brother. Something she had tried, without success to prevent before because she was too caught up in her own head.
*The Shepherds and the Chevaliers come together on Sayaka's birthday. Eri asks Mami Tomoe for forgiveness. The Chevaliers and Shepherds decide to disband in order to actively discourage Magical Girl violence against other Magical Girls

==Personality==

In the new world, Eri Shimanouchi is in a much more stable place. Despite all the despair in her memories, she has a certain anchor in her belief that something has fundamentally changed in the universe for girls like herself which, despite her ordinarily pessimistic attitude gives her so much hope for the future. She fights to live her life to the fullest, rather than simply running herself ragged trying to survive.

She has a tendency towards kindness, and is fiercely loyal to her friends. Often her type of loyalty has been not just strict adherence to her friend's wishes, but what she believes is best for them. Under her new circumstances she's reevaluating whether this type of loyalty is actually healthy. She has a tendency towards being a thoughtful person, and unlike in the past she's less likely to anxiously tying herself up over it. And while she's still more pragmatist than romantic... she's less afraid to allow that romantic side of herself to show.

All of her worst qualities are still there, it's just that she no longer possesses self-loathing for them, and rather feels self-secure in the fact that they're a part of her. She can be petty, jealous, and cruel. And she's unafraid to treat her friends harshly with a certain amount of tough love if she feels that is called for. She no longer worries about abandonment, because she understands that people are with her because of the bonds they have formed. And that those bonds are not so easily broken.

Eri can be a bit of a nerd. Under normal circumstances her grades tend to be pretty good, though she's not living up to her full academic potential by any means due to the Mahou Shoujo lifestyle. She enjoys Shoujo manga, dating sims, and JRPGs though she tends to be a rather casual adherent unless she's sharing her hobby with someone else. At times, due to this, she can have a silly or goofy sense of humor from that nerd cred.

At Ohtori, she's begun to bloom with her newly earned sense of self-confidence, to the point where she no longer is regarded as a shy wallflower by Ohtori at large. While she's hardly considered popular, she's at least well regarded by more and more of her classmates.

Magic she once regarded with a sense of cynicism, in that power was simply used for her survival to the detriment of anyone she didn't know. Now... perhaps she once again thinks that magic and miracles do exist in that romantic way. She puts less of a division between her life as a Magical Girl and that of a normal girl, taking a more balanced approach that they're both intrinsically parts of herself that make her life worth living.

As for dreams for herself, her dreams tend to be rather normal ones in the moment. Small moments, small things. Milestones in romance and life. She's still a Puella Magi and knows that her inevitable fate is to be taken by the Law of Cycles one day, so she's not exactly planning for the long term...

... but neither is she in despair about her inevitable fate, because of the second chance she's been given to live.

==Abilities==

Gardening - A senior member of the Ohtori Gardening Club. One of the organizers of the forest restoration project.

Drawing - Sketches with pencil or charcoal.

Puella Magi - As an extension of her wish, she can create plants in her vicinity and control them as if they were weapons. Her Puella Magi weapon is a thorned vine whip or scourge. She can control it by causing it's tendrils to braid up into one thicker cord, or to unravel, or by directing it to dig underground and spread her plant creation magic to various points with spectacular results. Like all Puella Magi, supernaturally tough, strong, and agile. By expending magic while untransformed, can influence mundane plants, as well as heal herself or others.

Cooking - Eri is slowly putting effort into becoming an amateur home cook. Her skills in it are very humble, but she can make simple bentos now without too much trouble.

==[[Grief Seed Territory|Territory]]==

What's a grief seed? Never heard of it... ''coy''

Wraiths have made competition over territory moot, but Eri still feels a certain sense of responsibility when it comes to Ueno, Shinjuku, and Nishitama.

==Relationships==

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | Allies
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|

*[[Kyouko Sakura]] - Her senpai. Her Girlfriend. There's little that Eri wouldn't do for her. During Kyouko's early career, she invested in Eri despite having no reason that Eri has ever figured out, and was there for her unconditionally no matter what choices Eri made. Kyouko invested in her early in her career, and Eri had felt like she was the only one that was there for her nearly unconditionally. Kyouko's battle instincts and charisma are something she's always looked up to, and as she's grown, Eri feels less like she's dragging her down when the two are in a scrap together. One of the proudest achievements of Eri's life was planting Higanbana all around Kyouko's Church, which became a spiritual experience for her senpai when she saw them all in full bloom. When Eri was at her lowest point, Kyouko confessed her love for her, and Eri responded with the worst kind of betrayal of her trust. All the same, in the new world, the two are enjoying exploring their feelings for each other.

*[[Mikoto Minagi]] - Mikoto was once someone Eri regarded as a little sister figure, but she's come to realize that Mikoto is actually more of a big sister figure to her in Mikoto's sense of protectiveness. Eri was one of the first of her Magical Girl comrades to realize that Mikoto's situation ran far darker than it seemed at a glance, and secretly she once plotted to try to free her from the dark elements that sought to control her. Unfortunately, she saw this as a task she needed to do by herself. As a result of this, when the world changed, she came back to find Mikoto as one of Dark Fall's Enforcers. And while their relationship was strained for a while, Mikoto's rejection of her role has allowed the two a chance to become closer than ever. Now she's trying to encourage Mikoto towards a Happily Ever After with her crush Mai - something that will obviously go well.

*[[Mami Tomoe]] - Briefly Mami's kouhai, briefly her girlfriend... and then her enemy. The two have tended towards a certain intensity of feeling towards each other, in that passionate way that only teenagers can emulate. In the end, when admiration and love turned into desperation and hatred, Eri murdered her atop Shinjuku Metropolitian. By all rights, after what Eri did to her, the two should never be speaking to each other again - if they were not outright hostile. Instead, they've found that while their feelings and bond for each other have evolved into something different. They are both trying to reestablish themselves as friends, with each agreeing to strive their hardest to never forget what's important between them. While she was fighting to free Mikoto from Dark Fall, she always appreciated how willing Mami was to back her up, despite what happened between the two not being so long ago...

*[[Homura Akemi]] - While the mystery of Homura Akemi has been solved Eri has no idea what Homura Akemi really went through, only that she travelled through time, over and over for some secret purpose that she doesn't understand. Noting Homura's continual standoffishness and dedication to constant battle in the Puella Magi lifestyle, Eri has taken it upon herself to try to be a good friend to her no matter how hard it might be. While it's an uphill battle, she's constantly trying to get Homura to relax, to take a break, a breath, and enjoy the normality of life.

*[[Yumi Ohzora]] - Yumi was once a driving force to attempt to have Eri act in a more moral way, but she was always a ray of sunshine. Eri has become increasingly aware of her circumstances and on the sly is trying her best to matchmake Yumi with a girlfriend in order to defy what she sees as restrictive traditions placed upon her.

*[[Chitose Shiratori]] - Once an opponent, then an ally, now a friend. Chitose has tended towards being a bit of a quietly mature force that tried to take the pressure off of the younger Eri, which Eri always appreciated.

*[[Setsuna Meioh|Sailor Pluto]] - A wise, ageless source of wisdom. And also the caretaker of a tiny trash cat the two of them saved by coincidence. The two have become increasingly good friends over time, and Eri as a result has been rather secretly cheering on her relationship between Kasagami, albeit in a way one would be hard pressed to realize given how much she teases the pair.

*[[Haruka Tenoh|Sailor Uranus]] - In the past, Eri was often a very WILLING victim of Haruka's flirtatious game. Now though, while she isn't even remotely on the Senshi of the Sky's level, she at least isn't turned into a flustered wreck by it. On the contrary, at times she's even able to tease back. She tends to hold a lot of respect for Sailor Uranus, and often takes her advice and counsel to heart when it comes to matters of... her senpai and partner, Kyouko.

*[[Michiru Kaioh|Sailor Neptune]] - Eri regards Michiru Kaioh as both a role model and unachievable life goal. While she knows she'll never become the high femme ideal that Michiru Kaioh is, she no longer feels insecure interacting with her on a daily basis. On the contrary, she treasures receiving fashion tips from her, and trading gardening tips in turn. When she becomes Sailor Neptune, there are few people that Eri would rather have her back in a fight.

*[[Kasagami Araki]] - The Secretary of Ohtori's Student Council was someone Eri recruited in a utilitarian way early on. And while Eri often finds herself rolling her eyes at Kasagami's antagonistic ways, she's found her to be a passionate and loyal friend - something that is invaluable to her. She's still not certain what secrets Kasagami is keeping, however, she does enjoy cheering on the relationship between her and Sailor Pluto.
|}

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | Friends
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*[[Someone special|Madoka Kaname]] - Once upon a time, a girl reached out to a lonely girl in a garden by watering her flowers while she was visiting her father at the hopsital. She became Eri's first real friend, and while the Puella Magi lifestyle caused Eri to frequently be cruel to her, she never stopped being there for her when she needed her. For the longest time, Eri felt guilty over how much suffering she'd inflicted upon that friend of hers because of the constant, awful choices she made which led to so much unchecked violence. In the end, when she was at her lowest point, ready to punish herself by becoming a witch - her kindness convinced herself to seek mercy instead. A mercy this friend granted to her. This friend's wish granted her a second chance - and changed the universe irrevocably to be better for girls like her. Now... she does not remember this friend, only a feeling of importance in certain memories of conversation... and a nostalgic feeling she gets from pansies. Like she's meeting a special friend for the first time.

*[[Mai Tokiha]] - Mai is like the older sister she always wanted. She loves her dearly as a result, considering her surrogate family which has replaced her previous family. Eri's choices caused her to walk around on eggshells around Mai for the longest time. Now that Eri's back, perhaps the two are in a better place, but she still worries about Mai's self-sacrificial tendencies. She's hoping perhaps that gently nudging Mikoto her way will help Mai get to a healthier place... if the two were to become close in the way Mikoto wants.

*[[Takeo Akamizu]] - A lovable dork who's been a friend to her since her early days of school. Eri has caught wind lately that Takeo is wrapped up into something that goes way over his head, and believes he's being blackmailed into shady deal after shady deal. She can fully understand his loyalty to his sister, and even admires it but what cost will it exact to him and the people around him?

*[[Shizuru Fujino]] - Eri is surprisingly close to this graduate of Ohtori Academy's High School. One wouldn't understand why at a glance. They couldn't seem more different. It is perhaps only the two of them that understand why they were able to become close. Eri attempts to be there for Shizuru during her depressive and dissociative episodes, trying to force the issue of her self-care - and doesn't appear fazed by the fact that the person who's receiving her care could have rightly been considered the Queen of the School. Eri knows that Shizuru is a HiME, but that's a secret she keeps to herself, as she understands that going near that side of Ohtori Student Council members past and present is dangerous.

*[[Ren Aizawa]] - An early friend of hers. Recently the two reestablished themselves as friends, after Eri willingly confessed that all the rumors about her were true, and the two decided to try their best to move past it.

|}

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | Friendly Acquaintances
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*[[Chihaya Izumi]] - Chihaya came to Eri with an offer to organize a fundraiser for the forest restoration project to demonstrate her organizational capabilities. Eri has agreed readily, and been a big fan and supporter of hers ever since. She wishes she could do something to show her appreciation, but Chihaya often tells her she doesn't owe her anything. That she's just using her. When Takeo insists that she's secretly evil, Eri scoffs at this. Just because a girl has a strong personality doesn't mean they're /evil/!

*[[Natsuki Kuga]] - More Mai's friend than hers, she still nevertheless likes Natsuki. I mean who wouldn't like a cool motorcycle riding girl that pursues her goals with such intensity? She's happy to hang out with her whenever she gets the chance, though she wonders if things won't get awkward between them in the future.

*[[Anthy Himemiya]] - Quite frankly Eri thinks Himemiya is kind of a weirdo, but at the same time she respects and admires her greater knowledge of gardening and cultivation. She's willing to collaborate with her occasionally in the same space purely for the opportunity to pick up some of her knowledge. Sometimes she distinctly feels taken advantage of during Himemiya's Gardening parties, when she's recruited to help out... but she can't help but enjoy those times with her all the same. She still feels strangely unsettled about how Kasagami brought Anthy Himemiya along for power during those battles with the Shepherds. And wonders what the meaning was of Utena winning her back.

*[[Kimiko Akane]] - Making a positive impression in a coincidental first meeting. Eri found out later that she's the Puella Magi who's taken over the bay territory. While she's still feeling her out some, she's enjoyed her company so far, and her chocolate chip cookies.

*[[Utena Tenjou]] - Once upon a time Eri was one of Utena's fans, though she wasn't precisely an aggressive one, preferring to go unnoticed. When Utena became a Chevalier, some part of her lamented the fact that someone she admired so much was now that her enemy. Now though, she's appreciated how Utena has made the first move towards perhaps... healing...

*[[Nori Ankou]] - ... Eri is an Akamira. More seriously though, the two early on had a strange relationship as the goth magical girl tried to collect her sadness. The two have had a tumultuous relationship ever since, as La Sirene became a Chevalier. But in the New World where the Chevaliers and Shepherds don't exist, Eri has been more willing to try and start over. She thinks Batiste is adorable.

*[[Fuu Hououji]] - In the new world, the Magic Knight of Wind tried to reach out her hand as friends. And Eri tried to tell her why exactly there had been so much friction between them. When Fuu resolved to try to fix things, Eri decided to give her a second chance...

|}

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | Acquaintances
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*Yaori Kumori - Eri now regards what she did to Yaori as one of the greatest mistakes of her life, despite it teaching her so much about being a Puella Magi in the world that was before. She has no doubt that Yaori is out there somewhere, and that one day the two will see each other again. She would hardly blame the child if she instantly put a crossbow bolt through her soul gem, but as much as she dreads seeing her again... part of her hopes to one day talk to her about what happened... and perhaps come to an understanding.

*Rika Kumori - If Eri dreads coming face to face with Yaori, multiply that times ten when it comes to seeing Rika again. If in killing Yaori she planted a seed, then Rika contracting was that tree bearing its ugly fruit. Coming face to face with a little girl that had wished for her sister's murdered to come to her sent Eri over the edge, and despite being in a healthier place, she still hasn't quite come to terms with what she did to the burn victim turned Puella Magi.
|}

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | Foes
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*Mikoto's Ani-Ue - Sometimes she fantasizes about all the ways she'd like to punish him for what he did to Mikoto. This is certainly an entirely healthy way of dealing with her anger.
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{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="border:0px solid #008000;background: #ffffff;vertical-align: top;"
!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | The Departed
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*[[Sayaka Miki]] - Eri's feelings for Sayaka Miki will always remain complicated. If they were friends, they were not that way very long. Yet Eri will always remember the girl that held her hand while she was dying in an alleyway. She will also remember all of the ill feelings between the two, as any positive feelings between the two became eclipsed by hatred. Right now, even in a world of second chances she isn't certain how to feel about her... save that she wishes she was still here.

*Alyssa Searrs - She may have been a child, but Eri feels very little pity for the girl after everything her Golden Age has cost her- and nearly cost her. Still she wishes that in a world of second chances... that this girl might have been given one too.

|}

=Gallery=
<gallery>
File:Eri_mh_uniform.jpg|Eri in her new high school uniform. With thanks to Homu-Chu!
File:EriUniformMiddle1.png|Eri in her middle school uniform. Warmest regard to the commissioners. <3
File:EriShimanouchi.jpg|Thanks to Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki for commissioning!
File:Eri_Colored3.png|Pre-Yaori Design: Thanks to Eudetenis for the lines, and our own Gridmarble for the coloring!
File:Eri_mgh_version.jpg|Thanks to Homura-chu for taking this commission!
File:EriCasualModern.jpg|Love Daisy Shirt referenced in many a scene.
</gallery>

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!style="color:black;background:#008000;font-size: 120%; text-align: center;width: 1500pt;-moz-border-radius-topright: 10px;-moz-border-radius-topleft: 10px" | Logs and Cutscenes
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[[Category:Characters]][[Category:Ohtori]][[Category:Tuners]]

Eri Shimanouchi

2020-09-26T21:17:26Z

File:EriCasualModern.jpg

2020-09-26T21:06:17Z

Eri: Eri uploaded a new version of "File:EriCasualModern.jpg"

File:EriCasualModern.jpg

2020-09-26T21:04:25Z

Eri:

File:EriCasual.png

2020-09-26T20:56:17Z

Eri:

2020-05-30T05:47:32Z

Eri:

2020-05-24 - Uminari Matsuri: Firework Viewing At Festival's End

2020-05-25T22:14:49Z

Eri:

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: Uminari Matsuri: Firework Viewing At Festival's End'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''Several Magical Girls gather at a well known playground at the end of Uminari Matsuri to celebrate a magical night.''
|-
| '''Who:''' 
[[Eri Shimanouchi]], [[Yumi Ohzora]], [[Fuu Hououji]], [[Mikoto Minagi]], [[Kyouko Sakura]]
|-
| '''Where:''' 
Uminari Seaside Park
|-
| '''OOC - IC Date:''' 
2020-05-24 - 2015-08-29
|-
|}

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

fzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...*POP!*

shrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiik....*BOOM!*

The Uminari Matsuri festival-goers paw at their eyes, helping one another up. They don't question too much why they were briefly on the ground. Maybe they were helping look for lost coins, or picking up litter. It doesn't matter very much. There's a much more competitive demand on their urgency.

Fireworks blossom gloriously in the sky above Tokyo Bay. Because there's such a large expanse of water adjacent to Uminari Park, the matsuri can host a particularly impressive display. It paints upturned faces in one color, then another, then another.

Though it's difficult to hear, companions -- often with linked hands, something that just seems to happen naturally -- are seen, far and wide, to murmur tenderly in one another's ear. And there's always enough time, between explosive evidence that the power of beauty is real and worth protecting, to exchange other romances, too.

After this, the festival will start to wind down until next year.

But what it celebrates will never truly end.

(OOC Note: Thanks to Pink Moon Stick for this part of the set)

-=-=-

One side effect of the Nakewameke attack means that when the fireworks go off, the bayside is not crowded with festival goers there to watch. Oh certainly there are scattered people who got there early, and those who were en route picking themselves off their impromptu naps on the concrete. Magical Girls don't have to shake off that lethargy, and for once being a defender of Tokyo offers the benefit of a head start - but how will they use that time?

The 'best' viewing area according to many tourist guides would be at the edge of the park is a grassy slope that connects to the bay leads to an upraised platform of concrete and ginkgo leaf patterns in the railing. Give it a few minutes, and it will be in that state.

However, some instinct of familiarity will almost certainly draw them elsewhere.

There is a playground nearby, known to many Magical Girls of Tokyo and right now what might draw one's attention is how abandoned it is. Festival activities having drawn away younger children, and the beginning of the fireworks show drawing parents to take their children closer to the bay. King Penguin stands stately in the center, a high post that allows one to see the fireworks shimmering over the water. Monkey bars and a jungle gym offer similarily high, albeit less regal thrones. A swingset stands ready to receive people, as do picnic tables.

Right now it is a shrine to youth. And it is ready to receive visitors that are on in the liminal space between childhood to adulthood.

To show them the sort of magic a night like tonight can bring all over again.

There a girl stands there waiting beside the Jungle Gym, wearing a lovely green yukata, with white patterns of leaves and budding flowers. On the left shoulder and the right hip, the yukata's color changes to a gradient of pink that transitions back to green, the more vibrant shift offering a sign of the passing of the seasons. A darker pink obi surrounds her waist. On the right side of her hair is an ivy accessory, a trailing of pairs of leaves and budding white berries.

>It's starting.

Before that message was an invitation that was sent to the Magical Girls she knows. A fireworks viewing. Certainly she didn't predict the Nakewameke attack causing this choice of location to become even more ideal, it just worked out that way.

Slipping her phone back in the purse that hangs over the sleeve of her forearm, she looks up with a smile, the bright explosions high above the horizon reflecting in her glasses.

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

After that unusual avalanche of nakewameke, Mikoto returned to the lantern-painting stand, because Mikoto left something precious there.

Also: her cat-faced purse. It goes on one shoulder, while Miroku's case rests on the other. Luckily, everyone was too drowsy to notice her putting a greatsword back in its resting-place. Judging by the keychain danging from the strap of that purse - a cat with a golf club! - there's something much more mundane in there. It's fine.

Her facepaint by now is terribly smudged, all white and red streaks; it's difficult to tell just what it was supposed to be, after that fight. Her red-and-yellow obi sash is a little loose and disorganised, hanging lower on one side of her hip than the other. But somehow she's managed to avoid too much dirtiness on her pale blue yukata; the fluffy white clouds at the edges are still bright in the moonlight.

She looks like she's been climbing trees, not facing down a dozen-dozen bombs. It's not even a bad guess. Would Mikoto really let zori sandals stop her from climbing things..?

Mikoto shuffles the tanabata lantern with its little led light to one hand, as her purse beeps cheerfully at her. Moving the cat brush aside, she pulls out her phone, and her eyes light up as she tucks it back in.

She doesn't bother replying, because it's faster to just /go./ She doesn't fumble with her steps in traditional sandals. Scrambling down to that familiar park --

"Eriii!" That's the only warning that girl in the green yukata will get before a girl leaps to wrap herself around her midsection, lantern /thudding/ against her back as she wraps her arms around her. With that little spin, Mikoto leans back on one leg, reaching up to hook the lantern on one of the rungs of that jungle gym before her arms hoist her up on the metal. With a little grunt of exertion, her arms extend, and she pushes herself up a little further.

She's sitting on top of the jungle gym now. That's happening.

Because this... is a good place to see fireworks.

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

It feels like such a short time ago that she was one of the children to play in Penguin Park, and for all that's happened, the path from festival ground to playground is still familiar - so familiar that she could be blindfolded, her hands bound, and her feet would still find the way for her.

But rather than being trudged along like a prisoner, Fuu is open-eyed and open-handed as she arrives in Penguin Park, armor dismissed and clad again in her festival yukata - a darker shade than Eri's, save the lighter swirls on sleeves and hem, and with a different pattern over her back. "Thank you, Eri-san," she says softly, bowing to the gardener with a smile, then directing her smile towards Mikoto with a shallower incline of her head.

Then she turns her gaze to the sky, although she's still keeping a bit of attention closer to the ground for other arrivals.

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

Kyouko Sakura sashays into the inviting glows bathing the cozy confines of the little playground park. The festive sounds of joyful celebration still make their way into the happy little glen, but with the way things have shaken out those noises are more of a background hum than anything more actively distracting. Her typically catlike stride is somewhat curtailed by her yukata, a more constrictive fashion than is typical, but even that traditional dress cannot fully revamp her loping gait.

The garment itself is a reddish pink, cooler in tone than her flaming hair but not by a great deal. Delicate little white blossoms spill out along the fine material like splashes of spring, occasionally set against concentric white circles that resemble ripples in water. Her obi is very broad, and yellow, and around it is a second obi, reddish-orange and much slimmer, except for the ostentatious bow it is tied to at the small of her back. A broad black ribbon perches upon her hair, and in her hands she carries a tray adorned with various foodstuffs.

Finger food, all. Some savory, some sweet, some fried and some fresh. Nothing that relies too much on heat for its appeal, but instead a leisurely tour of tastes without any urgency or itinerary. As always seems to be the case, Kyouko somehow manages to have just a bit more food on hand than seems reasonably possible. At the center stand two candy apples, one red and one green - they taste the same, despite their appearances, but the significance of the colors speaks for itself.

Mikoto rockets in, either less encumbered by her own attire or just less concerned with it, claiming Eri's attention just before Kyouko calls out to greet her. Instead the red head grins and shakes her head a little, marveling at how little time or transition was required between the running hug and one of the few more cat-like presences than herself clamoring up to a high perch.

Coming up to Eri's side, she leans in and steals a quick kiss, before turning the tray in her hands so that the red candy apple is facing towards Eri, and its green mate towards Kyouko herself. She can eat, or not, whatever she likes in whatever order she likes. But Kyouko wants to signal that much intent, at the least.

"Evenin'...sorry I'm running late, had to get some'a this made specially.."

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Eri's hand lifts, her fingers offering a small wave to Fuu. "Don't mention i-" Eri's neck turns at the sound of her name, the impact of Mikoto to her back causing her to stumble a step. "Mi-ko-to." She enunciates, with a cheerful yet more subdued greeting, her sleeved Yukata arm sliding around Mikoto's neck in a brief one-armed hug. The tips of her fingers touching that braid as she slips away.

"Going up?"

She asks, as her arm moves to smooth out the sides of her Yukata, then her hair. Her fingertips press and glide against the side of her hair in a self-conscious gesture, trying to fix it.

"Can't say I blame you."

The view is nice up there. It's why she picked this spot. Yet for now she stands with her feet firmly planted on the ground.

The motion ceases the moment she sees Kyouko. Her smile warm, her eyes sparkling from the glow of fireworks reflecting off her glasses.

And then a candy apple. She goes cross-eyed looking at it. Then puts the side of her hands up to her lips, as if stifling a giggle that never quite gets there.

Dropping her hand, she looks quite serious again. "Hmm. You couldn't help yourself could you? Well... ah... first..."

Reaching a hand into her purse, she takes out a handkerchief. Leaning in, she whispers discretely to confide something, with a finger pointing at Kyouko's cheek, "... you have a little something... I'll get it..."

Lifting the handkerchief, she steps in as if to get it. Then leans forward to plant a peck on her cheek. Breaking contact, she whispers by her ear, "Got it."

And then immediately she leans down, sinking her teeth into the side of the candied apple to take a delicate bite of it, as smoothly as if she'd merely dabbed Kyouko's cheek with that hanky rather than her lips.

Straightening back up, she takes the handkerchief to her mouth, like she's hiding a secret smile, "Worth the wait." She comments, agreeably.

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

Mikoto's eyes blink closed in a momentary show of content, though they soon open again, bright gold on the backdrop of the night. "Yup!" She chirps, and the agreement is just as happy as her name. Eri has guessed /entirely correctly./

Like a cat, Mikoto likes high places.

From that perch, legs swinging gaily, Mikoto waves to: "Fuu!" That's a cheerful greeting, too, if perhaps not /quite/ as intricately layered. Looking down to the girl still on the ground, it's not at all unusual to see someone else step into the space she evacuated.

(Mikoto hasn't seen Kyouko in a while, but she's grateful for that, really. She thinks it worked out better this way.)

Wide-eyed she watches another intricate exchange in a way which might be construed as /entirely/ rude, right until something clicks in Mikoto's brain and her cheeks colour and she hurriedly looks up at the sky instead, with a hum of distraction. That's... that's /romance.../

ERI IS REALLY GROWING UP?!

Mikoto giggles to herself in unexplained relief and affection, and leans back on her wrists against the jungle gym, looking up to the sky.

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

A little away from the biggest of the crowds, Yumi Ohzora got the message. It's been a lovely festival, to be sure--but this area?

The simple truth is that Yumi grew up in Tokyo, but King Penguin is more a dignitary she's known of for some time than an old friend; stepping onto the playground is a little like being a guest in a whole other world, a quiet thing. She suits a little otherworldliness, though; pale, gray hair, worn loose down her back. Her yukata is pale green, with a sunflower pattern and a yellow obi. She walks with her face up towards the sky, looking over the firework display above. This could of course take her to places where she might trip, instead...

But she doesn't. Instead she comes to a stop near the swings, finally looking down to the others. "...I'd worry about being late, but... Sounds like it's not just me, huh?"

"They're pretty..."

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

"Kyouko-san, Yumi-san," Fuu smiles, bowing her head briefly to the two newest arrivals. She smiles briefly at Eri's stealing that kiss, briefly raising her sleeve to hide the smile and possibly muffle a giggle, and then the bespectacled blonde turns her attention skywards again, leaning gently against the side of the jungle gym, below and to the side of Mikoto's perch.

"Tamaya ..."

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

Eri's smile fuels Kyouko's own. It's hard not to feel an infectiousness to that happy display against the backdrop of bursting cascades of color in the sky, their mutual warmth and love one more joyful explosion among many. Eri's glasses capture that feeling so well, and conveniently enough her eyes excel at capturing Kyouko's attention.

Giggling slightly at Eri's...intimidation? Bemusement? At the candied apple, Kyouko roils her shoulders in a somewhat theatrical shrug, and smirks back at her. "Can I ever help myself?"

Arching her eyebrows a little, Kyouko leans in to listen to Eri, somewhat confused but going along with whatever her girlfriend is up to. It's a policy that's served her well so far..blushing a bit, Kyouko startles a little, not so much from being kissed as from being kissed unexpectedly. Grinning again, as Eri leans in to her ear, she twists her head to steal a kiss of her own from Eri's cheek.

Maybe all the red of her outfit and her crown of hair will help conceal the tinge that's come to her cheeks. Grinning bright and toothily, she pops some mochi into her mouth, and nods in assent.

Setting the tray down on the ground near hers and Eri's feet, Kyouko waves brightly to Fuu, Mikoto and Yumi, greeting them all with a broad swathe of good cheer. "'lo all. Happy evening to ya."

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

"Nope." Is her immediate answer. Even before a kiss touches her cheek from her blushing girlfriend. She doesn't seem bashful in comparison, like she wholly expected it, and even the giggling both muffled, and not does not make it so.

"Maa... Yumi-chan. I feel like you're right on time."

Eri's eyes lift up at Yumi's exclamation. As more fireworks go off. And there's a faint echo of Fuu's word in inverse, as if calling attention to some ancient rivalry.

"Kagiya..."

Her eyes look around from one, to the next, then at Kyouko setting the tray on the ground - as if searching for her finger food of choice that she's not going to let go to waste. "It's nice that we're able to get together like this. If you'd told me three months ago we'd be doing this tonight... I don't think I'd have believed it..."

Eri's fingertips lightly touch Kyouko's back, where they come to a rest. Her smile becoming fond, in this address to the others.

"Ah... I'm sounding a little oversentimental aren't I? I'm not meaning to give a speech. Just... what I meant to say is..." A particularly powerful starburst of fireworks blossoms in the sky, crackling exuberantly like a demi-god holding a sparkler. Her volume dropping only a fraction of an instant, like she'd been captivated by it, "...sometimes its nice to be wrong."

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

Tamaya...

'I'm not going anywhere! Hayate's festival is on the line!'

"Ta..." and at first the mora is a scouting mission on Mikoto's lips, slow to waking, quiet under the glittering /bang/ up above. It is foreign; it is new. And shortly it is /loud,/ as happiness bursts over the sides of the dam and floods the valley of her cheeks. "Tamaya! Kagiya!"

Fuu will shortly find that what she has wrought is an overwhelmingly physical thing: Mikoto swings down from the bars of the jungle gym to land beside her, and shortly her arms seek to wrap about the second girl in green. Even without her sword in hand, Mikoto is entirely capable of giving someone an /excellent/ squeeze. She might well end up just hoisting the other girl up, if she's not careful. "Kagiya!" She declares, brightly. "Tamaya!" Burning bright in her joy - no wonder - is gratitude.

Finally releasing Fuu, Mikoto bounds over to Yumi at the swingset, and unless she takes evasive action she will find herself wrapped up in a tight hug too - though perhaps not /quite/ as tight as employed with Fuu. "Tamaya! Tamaya! Kagiya! Kagiya!" Mikoto cheers, and by the end she grasps at Yumi's hand, fully intending to drag the both of them over to the jungle gym with everyone else.

"Mm!" She hums enthusiastic affirmation, to Eri, on the eve of her speech-which-wasn't-meant-to-be-really. The fireworks are up in the sky instead of exploding in her face, and Eri's voice is a whisper but Mikoto's sounds like a gong: "This is better, yup!"

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

"Haha," Yumi answers Eri, smiling over at her and Kyouko both. "Hi," she adds to her too. She absolutely sees blushing. But she's quiet, at first, after that; she doesn't move away from Mikoto and instead hugs her back. She waves Fuu's way, too, as she comes along over. "All right," she tells Mikoto with a little laugh, and then looks over the group again, thinking about what Eri says.

"I'm not going to bug you for being sentimental, you goof," Yumi replies. "Did you think I would? You should totally be sentimental! It's a festival, you're out, you're with your friends and with a /particular/ friend..."

Yumi grins. "...It's nice," she agrees. "Mikoto-chan's got it."

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

The squeak which Mikoto wrings out of Fuu is half from surprise, half from the sheer pressure exerted fy Mikoto's arms in that exuberant hug - but Fuu recovers quickly enough to hug Mikoto back, startled uncertainty evolving into a happy smile. She doesn't need to know *why* Mikoto is suddenly so happy, after all; it's good that she *is*.

(And getting lifted off her feet, even briefly, serves as an excellent reminder that no matter how slight Mikoto might *look*, she swings a sword which is probably at least Mikoto's own weight.)

Fuu watches Mikoto go on to hug Yumi as well, and smiles at the sight while quietly straightening her yukata. Fuu's gaze tracks upwards again to watch the continuing fireworks - but now, it's more than just a little bit of her attention which remains in the park, with her fellow magical girls, both those who've been friends just about all along and those with whom she's been at odds.

This is how it should be: together, in spite of their assorted differences.

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

To Kyouko there's not much subtle at all about a kiss behind a kerchief, and in its way it seems even more conspicuous. Not that this is a critical thought in her mind, not at all. She's still adjusting to having love in her life, but conspicuousness is not something that she feels particularly shy about. It's more that she doesn't see much of a meaningful difference, and when she initiates her own large and small affections, she is characteristically direct.

As Eri touches her back, Kyouko slings an arm around her shoulders, letting her hand dangle lazily down, a relaxed slouch slightly creeping into her posture as she relishes the ambiance. When her companion observes that there's something to be said for being wrong on occasion, she nods whistles approvingly, lacking enough available hands to clap.

There's some sort of residual tension in the air. Kyouko has been preoccupied with her own affairs for a fair spell, and whatever may be the source of it goes over her head, but it's just as well. There's a spirit of ease and good feeling in the air, and that's the only conclusion that she's interested in drawing.

"Mm..I probably brought too much for Eri 'n me, so help yourselves if you're hungry. Can always get more if we need."

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

When Yumi teases her, she looks briefly flustered, "Ah... I just thought..." She pauses, her expression becoming abstracted, "... well... it doesn't matter what I thought..."

There were a lot of things she thought, assumed. These things don't make much sense anymore.

Mikoto's cheerful gong of agreement, and Yumi's agreement. When Kyouko gets up to sling an arm over her shoulders, Eri responds by moving out of that moment to simply leaning her body weight into her and placing her head on Kyouko's shoulder, having to adjust herself when the pressure sets her glasses slightly ajar.

"Probably... I think I'd like to watch the show first before eating..."

This feels like a moment where she might stay there in silence for some time, just enjoying resting herself right where she is. It does not last too long though...

Abruptly the warmth of her hair, shifts off of Kyouko's shoulder. Her hand away from her back. "Help me up...?"

She's already standing, alongside her, so it might seem momentarily confusing...

... but with a twinkle in her eye, she looks towards King Penguin, the stately bird only a few scant meters away from their current position. "I want to watch from a little higher."

And instead, offers her the fingertips of a single hand. It is perhaps not strictly necessary that she ask Kyouko to help her up to a better vantage point on that regal slide. She's asking anyhow.

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

Mikoto is very strong! It means she gives very good hugs.

There is /the offer of food./ "Thanks!" Mikoto chimes, again - she's eaten a lot in this festival, but apparently Mikoto can always justify a little more food. Excepting, of course, that Eri trails into what she'd like, and Mikoto looks from the food back to her friend. "'Kay!" She chirps, and doesn't move to eat immediately, because /that is how much she likes Eri./ Enough... to put off eating snacks.

Eri spirits Kyouko off to King Penguin, a partnership which Mikoto would not dare to interrupt (though surely she'll find Kyouko to tackle her into a hug at /some/ point tonight), and this is when Mikoto realises something about the teasing she's heard. Subsequently, Mikoto leans up to Yumi.

... Mikoto shortly finds she is /way/ too short to lean up to Yumi.

Instead, she puts a hand on her shoulder to tug her down to Mikoto height. This completely ruins Mikoto's attempt to be stealthy and subtle, as if she hasn't already shattered any preconceptions of her abilities there.

"Yumi," Mikoto whispers, eminently serious, "they're /not just/ friends!" Kyouko found someone to adopt her, as far as Mikoto is concerned. If one were to ask her, she'd reply that this... is the true happiness of every person who has been likened to a stray cat.

(Say, where did Mai go..?)

Looking up from here, Mikoto's eyes pass over the lantern again, and leaning over, Mikoto unhooks it from the bar. The cheerful LED light in the middle has nothing on the sky. She looks up, and looks up, and - it's only when the sky commands their attention that Mikoto glances back down to push it into Yumi's hands.

PEACE and WARMTH and FRIENDSHIP and LOVE glitter out from the burnished gold paint, and Mikoto concludes: "This belongs here."

She doesn't quite get to telling Yumi precisely what she's trusted her with, but maybe she doesn't have to.

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

"I just might!" Yumi answers the offer of snacks, and indeed she's going to think about it /and only take what she'll actually eat/ becase hey she knows Kyouko. But Mikoto's not the only one who can do snacks. However--

Yumi beams at Eri's fluster. "Aww," she starts, but doesn't keep it going--she looks up to the sky instead of focusing on Kyouko and Eri in the next few moments, but Mikoto gets her attention again. Pretty easily, actually. "Hm?" she starts, and leaaaaans down. It's a lot of leaning. And at her whisper--

"Sure aren't," Yumi singsongs quietly, but not /that/ quietly. But before she moves or goes anywhere, as she starts to stand back up, she blinks--and then Mikoto is handing her something and--

"O-oh..."

Yumi doesn't need to be /told/ exactly what it is, no. She can see it, can see the feelings put into it practically radiate in how it was made...

"That so?" she asks Mikoto, and smiles. "...Yeah." She looks out over the group, "...This is something worth hanging onto."

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

Kyouko enjoys just standing there with Eri, their bodies resting against one another, finding a strength and support in each other's upright poise. As Eri leans in, Kyouko leans in with her, and if either were to suddenly vanish, the other would surely fall to the ground. It doesn't last for all that much time, but it doesn't have to, either. There's a confidence that the next such moment surely won't be long, that any interruption of their celebration of each other's company will be fleeting, and thus easily abided.

Kyouko quirks an eyebrow, and follows along with Eri's gaze. It isn't hard to take her meaning, especially given just how prominent the monarch stands above his fiefdom. Nodding gamely, she flashes a grin. "Sure, makes sense to me."

Of course Eri didn't need to ask. Kyouko bends down, hoisting the food into the curl of an arm, and takes Eri's hand with the other.

Kyouko nods to Mikoto. "You're welcome." If anybody's going to scarf down the platter she'd prepared, it would be her, but food's both better off shared, and the one area where Kyouko has the greatest aversion to stinginess. Yumi gets an acknowledgment too, a gracious smile and a nod. Kyouko is less concerned about Yumi taking the lion's share, but as is ever the case, Kyouko always seems to manage to scrounge up something to eat whenever she's in the market, and has learned to trust that she won't go hungry again any time soon.

Hand in hand, she leads the way with Eri to the stairs up the structure. When they reach their summit, and the small tunnel beckoning their way to the slide, she sets the food down, and puts her hands at Eri's waist. Having secured her hostage, she leans in for another kiss, grinning as their foreheads nearly touch. "Going up." Without further warning, she hoists her girlfrield up off her feet, elevating her just high enough that she can scramble atop the king's crown.

Perhaps not the most elegant means of her elevation, but it probably beats tossing her.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Yakusoku no hai hokago - Nozaki-kun OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvSQ2ibkNRw

Eri starts as Mikoto declares that in her defense. The subtlety in Yumi's comment earlier was not lost on her, but it was lost on Mikoto. And she sucks in her upper lip to try to prevent herself from laughing at Mikoto setting the record 'straight' on their relationship to someone who doesn't need it to be.

"I knew it would." Eri replies, with a sort of airy confidence. As Kyouko hoists up the platter and takes her hand.

One step after a time in her Geta, not intending to lose it to playground gravel, Eri comes closer to the monarch. And then as Kyouko puts her arm around her waist, she smiles, "Why thank y-" The word is stolen by a kiss, and Eri hardly minds, applying a certain pressure back.

She's about to make some quip, it can easily be felt by anyone who knows her by now. It is simply her way. But as her forehead touches Kyouko's and her mouth opens for it, Kyouko beats her to the punch.

And Eri squeals in alarm, before she starts laughing, clear and loudly, "My sandals! I'm going to lose-"

Her complaint feels like none at all in that tone. Like she's too enlivened by the moment to actually be grumbling. Squeezing together with her toes and crossing her legs, she wiggles a bit in Kyouko's strong grasp, as she's Princess lifted then hoisted to the tippy top of King Penguin, where she scrambles out of her arms.

Still laughing as she pivots around then half-stands on the crown, holding onto one of the prongs of the crown - she leans over.

It takes her a moment to let her breathing settle and stop giggling, before she says, "Well I was right about one thing..."

She says, as her opposite hand adjusts her hair, leaning her weight so that it looks like she's lounging against the edge of the crown.

"... it's a much better view up here."

The fireworks crackle and boom, flaring their light in the sky. She's not looking at the fireworks though.

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

For the most part, Fuu is content to keep watching the fireworks, and to take in the presence of her fellow magical girls, allies and friends.

She does, after a few moments, go over to pick a few snacks from the tray Kyouko brought, and if the red-haired Puella Magi isn't too distracted by Eri, Fuu bows and smiles to her before making her selection. Just three or four little munchies - just what she'll eat quickly.

There are points when the show, such as it is, in the park is nearly as spectacular as the fireworks themselves, and at least as dazzling to look at.

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

Mikoto hums with certainty as Yumi comprehends what Mikoto has surely just now taught her.

(She doesn't catch Eri trying not to laugh.)

Sparkle spark go the fireworks, as Mikoto looks up; but there's time enough for her to glance aside, as Yumi realises what she's pushed into her hands. The warmth of her smile here is measured in lumens, though Mikoto, still working through her science backlog, couldn't name the particulars of the conversion. "Yup," she agrees, happily.

Kyouko's method of Eri propulsion is entirely direct, and even if Mikoto is /making some vague attempt/ to give them ROMANSU PRIVACY, she can't help but have her attention drawn over as Eri squeals about her sandals.

"It's okay!" Mikoto chirps, as she summarily plonks herself down beside the jungle gym - sword-case all aclatter down at her side - and summarily tosses her zori sandals over her head. They go flying over her head. One gets stuck at the top of the bars.

Mikoto streeetches long in the sand of the park, propping her head up on the side of Miroku's case, and looks up at the fireworks from below.

Perhaps she's not just demonstrating that it's okay to go barefoot. After all, some amongst them might have... problems climbing up. Toes wriggling, Mikoto falls into companionable silence as she watches the sparkle and glitter above.

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

Kyouko smiles to Fuu, polite and precise in her selections of the offered snacks, returning her bow in kind. It isn't typically Kyouko's style, but she's learned that it goes a long way when she matches another person's energy if there's no reason not to. The snacks are coming with her though, and while she's not trying to discourage anybody from coming up and claiming some from where she and Eri will make their temporary nest, she's not trying to encourage it either. Settling the matter now is best for all involved.

Eri laughs with concern for her shoes, and Kyouko laughs with her. After all she'd been through, the thought that Eri would bemoan a bare foot for a minute tops is sweetly absurd, but of course it isn't really about that. Kyouko managed to take her by surprise, which always gives the mischevious miscreant a thrill of pleasure.

She's strong. For all the time that Kyouko spends outside of school, not all of it is consumed in arcades or restaurants. She doesn't strain or rush to get Eri where she's going, and enjoys being able to lift her up with such ease. Only when Eri has secured her position up top does she ease her grip.

Eri speaks, and Kyouko cants her head to the side. "Oh yeah? Guess I better see for myself." She smiles wide. Up above her, Eri peers down with so much peace and warmth and joy and...ease. Relaxation, comfort. Kyouko still remembers that day at the church in the forest, a day which would still be so much more painful if not for moments like this, of Eri smiling at her, blanketed by the night sky and surrounded by a corona of shimmering fireworks.

Holding the tray up with an extended hand, Kyouko reaches up to the top of the King's head with her other arm, and neatly vaults herself up, scrambling somewhat, but not dropping a single morsel. Sighing in soft contentment (and a fair sliver of relief), she settles down, and sets the tray on her lap, unwilling to let it get between the two of them as they enjoy the rest of the show.

"Look how far we've come, Eri-chan.."

Leaning over, she kisses Eri again, kisses her like she knows how. Kisses her in no hurry to stop, or to move on to the next moment. They've arrived at their moment, and at this moment they'll stay.

[[Category:Logs]]

2019-05-09T22:21:56Z

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: <Your title>'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''<The summary>''
|-
| '''Who:''' 
[[Eri Shimanouchi]], [[Madoka Kaname]], [[Mikoto Minagi]], [[Homura Akemi]]
|-
| '''Where:''' 
Shinjuku Capital Ward
|-
| '''OOC - IC Date:''' 
2019-04-30 - 2015-06-02
|-
|}

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Garden of Sinners - A Study in Murder - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5mI700grdM

There are some alleys that are well-traveled by Shinjuku's night life. This is not one of them. It offers the illusion that if you look down one end, that is simply recedes into some otherworldly, lightless place.

If you pass the test of courage to start walking down it though, if you brave those steps past the rusted metal gates, and stagnant puddles to the end, you'll find the corner of the sharp geometric right angle it cuts between the two Shinjuku streets.

The truth is that it is brighter there than any other place because you can see the light shining from both ends. Every few seconds you can see a group of office ladies passing by, off to have drinks for the evening. A Salaryman trying to catch a train. A host or hostess on their way to work.

Day or night, Shinjuku works in cycles. Tonight is not exempt from that. It is not a special, holy night, far from it time simply keeps moving. Everything keeps changing and nothing changes at all. There was once a girl named Yaori who came here to run. Shinjuku has changed hands three times since then.

Give it six months and perhaps it'll change hands several more times. The world won't notice. It will just keep moving.

Or maybe it won't. Maybe the Silence will crumble everything to dust. Walpurgisnacht shatter Shinjuku and litter it with ashes and refuse.

All this girl knows is that she's tired. Not long ago she was angry at the futility of it all. There's a stack of rotten wooden pallets just off center from the alley corner with a girl sitting on it. She's in Ohtori high school uniform, hair matted and unkempt, glasses off. She doesn't remember when she shed her bag, maybe she left it on the train.

She's not watching the people on either end anyhow. Those little snapshots of lives disconnected from her. At this distance she can't even make out the details. Instead her posture is slumped, eyes down.

Her left palm is balanced on her knee as it holds a tiny little bauble. It'd become a fanciful little thing in the daylight. Right now the inlay has lost its golden sheen in this lack of light.

There's a singular green spot left in the gem, from a phantom sensation she holds on her lips. The rest of it swirling with miasmic poison, churning away as the world tries to claim that too. Blackness seethes across its surface like weeds from the shadows, seeking to choke her.

She's tired of holding on - but she's focusing on that feeling anyhow. Shinjuku had been her garden for a while before it changed hands again. It is a place that she hates more than anywhere else, but she's killed so many parts of herself here. Deadheading herself like a rose bush so that she could survive.

Kyubey - why would you make a girl like this a Puella Magi?

Rika-chan? Want me to show you how to make a fire?

I held your wrist and told you not to die, and I'll hold your wrist to stop you from killing, too.

If any part of you still believes in doing the right thing you should get out of my way. But if now you believe as Anko does? In that case you should get the ''hell'' out of my way.

You're right. I want to feel good about myself again. I want to be able to feel the rain on my skin again without thinking about that little child you killed.

That's it. Until one or both of us dies, I suppose.

My wish to Kyuubey was to find the person who killed neechan tonight. So they'll get here soon.

It's not her garden anymore, but there's a rightness to being here all the same.

A place that has taken so much from her can only feel like home.

When she's too tired to focus on that feeling any longer, she'll plant
one
final
sEEd

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

It is dark and close -- claustrophobic, even. Sweat, strawberry shampoo, and a faint animalistic musk combine into a soupy aroma here, along with the musty smell of undisturbed paper.

A brilliant light comes on, demanding attention, but nobody sees it. Things escalate. Shaking, rattling, everything nearby set on edge.

Nothing.

---

The lightswitch in Madoka's room has gone untouched for days, making it -- and her -- especially sensitive to the intrusion of natural cycles.

It is easier to doze than to sleep. The in-between place, where consciousness and unconsciousness are liminal, is safer than either extreme. With full lucidity she has to confront reality. With none...

Madoka sits up with a gasp, and shivers. Sweat has made her cold.

She will not cry. She will not cry. She will not cry.

Setting her jaw, she ignores the heat trickling down along her nose, and, in the name of distraction, opens her bookbag for the first time in a long time.

---

Free at last.

---

Madoka glances disinterestedly down at her phone, the little charms on its straps tinkling as she lifts it out of the bag. Its battery is almost dead. And...

That's a lot of missed calls.

She scrolls vaguely through them.

She should be feeling something stir in her -- so many people obviously care about her -- some called again and again -- but her heart only stirs with guilt that nothing else is, not even a mouse.

Until...

BA-bum.

Missed call: Eri-chan

Her fingertips twitch from something akin to electric shock, then, once they're back under her control, start scrolling and tapping with the frenetic skill and precision of a Tokyo teenager.

There's only one call. It wasn't long ago.

There is no message.

BA-bum-bum-bum-bum-bumbumbumbumbumbumbum

She looks back at the upper right corner, at the urgently flashing battery.

1%

Rejecting the possibility of connecting and sustaining a call, she figures she has enough time to send one text instead. Probably JUST one.

Fortunately she doesn't have to lose time over debating who to contact. The screen dies just as she's pushing send.

She doesn't know if it made it or not, if it will be trapped like a bird in a cage... more like a bird's ghost, ephemeral and flickering, feathers moulting into plasma... into pale ribbons... into piano keys.

Madoka blinks with a gasp, and shivers.

---

Eri-chan. And then an intersection. She'll never forget those street signs.

---

"Madoka-chan!" Tomohisa is overjoyed to see his daughter emerge from her room, but his smile doesn't last even as long as it takes for her to pass him at a run.

The door slams behind her.

His gaze, bewildered and concerned, wanders to the ornate vase at the door... and the umbrellas there.

One, two, three.

---

Tokyo blurs by. Madoka can hear only the timpanis resounding in her ears, punctuated occasionally by the hot, sharp sound of breathing, that other necessity to a heartbeat, and the splatter of her shoes in what seems like every conceivable puddle in every conceivable place, and some that aren't.

Raindrops falling on her head, her body, the concrete, merging with the puddles, makes a noise more like background radiation. When it does enter her awareness, however, it only ever sounds like raindrops falling on a tarp.

---

The Madoka who skids to a stop at Eri's side is covered with evidence of prior falls. Muddy stockings. A big splash on her left side, darkening her mustard jacket to something closer to the chrome of some ambulances. The hem of her skirt is ripped right down the side, unable to match the pace of the legs that sprinted beneath it.

Eri...

Moonlight reflects off a fractured atrium window.

Madoka blinks with a gasp, and shivers.

Struggling for air with her hands on her knees, she collapses onto them fully at Eri's left side, and wheezes.

There are so many things she could have said.

But only one thing that's true.

"...I'm...here..."

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> NieR - Emil (Sacrifice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDhPsYeK-jU

'...I can't stay. You need to pull yourself together.'

'W-- wait, Homura... Don't leave me! I need help! Please--!!'

Mikoto has not been home for some time.

It's a little more complicated - than not being welcome in her dorm.

Let's examine, here, the concept of a home. It is the experience of hearing ''okaeri'' to welcome you back inside, one of the many calls and responses of Tokyo learnt in the shadow of one girl. It is the comfortable knowledge of belonging; sprawling anywhere at all. It is the scent of dinner cooking. It is leaning Miroku against the wall because there are no battles to be fought here.

It has never been a place. Home was never once a place.

Home is a person.

Home is her Lord Brother; home is Mai Tokiha; home is Eri Shimanouchi.

Maybe home is even Yumi Ohzora, now.

Mikoto has not been home - no. She can't. She can't find them, or else she is certain they would not want her to find them. All those people who found and loved her when she was lost and frightened and alone... they're all...

She can't ask for help.

She needs to try harder-harder-harder, offer every drop of blood unto the altar, because it's just as she told Endo, after all. It doesn't matter. There is still so much she has to do.

It really isn't so different to when she came here, making do. Evading scrutiny. Suspecting everyone. She knows more about how Tokyo food can betray her, now; she is more successful at stealing lunches. Desperation is a sharpening force. Sharp enough to push her forwards, even though she has only slept unbroken once since Mai cast her out.

She has so little left. She has made so many promises. She will shatter --

No. She needs to pull herself together.

Push, push into the night, deeper and darker and every shadow looks familiar in the black. Every shadow looks familiar until she sees their face, and they're all brown eyes and blue eyes and purple eyes and pink eyes and green eyes and not one set of too-bright gold like hers.

Through the city streets at a pace not quite like running but still too fast too fast, the heel of a sensible Ohtori flat comes down and the other is already rising. One braid has come halfway undone, somewhere along the way, the little tie lost to a fitful nap or a too-quick scramble from the rain. Dark hair flutters out behind her as she turns her face to catch a glimpse of a boy walking past. Another disappointment; another lance of failure through a heart long-carved.

There is a particular characteristic to clothes worn too long, soaked by rain and dried underneath bright bright billboards which send their messages out for the whole of Tokyo to see. A hundred little scuff marks, and they are hardly limited to her clothes. A smudge of dirt here; uncombed hair there. She is still wearing her winter uniform, long sleeves on a jacket now closed. Now she is as cold as they are. It just took a little longer.

And at first when her phone chimes she pays it no mind. She borrowed Eri's charger, when she went to her empty dorm. She didn't check her messages when she turned it back on. She hasn't checked them since. It would be easy not to check them now.

Except -- it's so late at night, she realises, a moment later.

It's not the sort of hour someone would send a concerned message, unless...

She slips in to lean against the brickwork of a building, slips her phone out of her pocket, fumbles with it until she remembers how to get to the most recent message. (She has not set a password. She's sure she'd just forget it.) At the top of the list is Madoka, and golden eyes narrow as she taps the message open.

A pit sinks in her stomach. She thought the void could grow no deeper. She is proven wrong each time.

She does not bother to reply. She is uncertain at the keys, too slow and too inexperienced. The phone slips back in her pocket, and now she ''is'' running, faster faster, without care for who she passes. A sensible Ohtori flat slams into a puddle not yet dried. A woman yells as her shopping bags are splashed with old rainwater. It is far away; they are far away.

...

The alleyway darkens, small girl shading the light. They're the same height now - Madoka and Mikoto. She used to be smaller. But she ate a lot of good food, and had a long time to grow up...

And now Madoka is at Eri's side and Mikoto rushes there just the same, and Miroku's case clatters to the ground as she shrugs it off of her shoulder to crouch to the right of something dead and rotted through. Eri told her once that she hated to be given flowers. Perhaps wood is just the same.

"Eri," she says, and her name on her lips is care and concern sharpened to a desperate edge, brow arced and lips fallen. She wanted to think Eri was getting better, since Eri wasn't in bed. This isn't better, she thinks. This isn't better at all.

Eri holds herself in her left palm, so dark so dark, and Mikoto reaches for the right with fingers which tremble. She has never had the words to shape her love; it is only a name. "Eri..."

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Life passes her by. It's fitting. It's right. Her eyes are on that singular dwindling spot of green on her gem. The sensation on her lips and in her palm is growing distant. Like she's beginning to not feel it anymore. She does not see the blur of motion from the figure sprinting down the alleyway. Not until she collapses.

The sound of breathless respirations striking her ears. It's enough to cut through the static void of nothingness. The girl lifts her eyes off her gem and right upon her. From the little pink twintails to the tear in her skirt and the fractured reflection of her off a window

"Madoka... I was beginning to think..."

There's a twisted smile upon her lips, like a shadow of a real smile. True happiness.

"...I don't know what to think anymore... it just makes sense that you're here..."

Her eyes glimmer in a reflection off the light in a puddle. The shape of Mikoto enters her vision and there's a strange symmetry to her showing up right now. Like a dark reflection of the girl that had showed up in the past.

"Mi-..." She whispers. "-koto..."

The two girls have something in common.

Because I love you! 
I love Eri.

Even now. Even knowing what's coming, she could never have the courage to send them away. "... it feels like all I've ever offered either of you for your love is grief. That's all... I ever offer anyone." Those better times, like quiet moments of friendship after Gardening Club, or walking home together, or sleeping over at her home. Those times when Mikoto unveiled the latest baby kitten she was taking care of, they're so far away now. She struggles to even grasp upon their fleeting images, "I really am a witch."

Before the declaration can be protested though, she adds another's love betrayed into it, "Kyouko's dead... she told me she loved me and..." There's a certain struggle in her consciousness like, she doesn't know how to articulate it. Kyouko tried to share responsibility for her death in those final moments. Yet it doesn't make sense. "...and I killed her." It is a reedy whisper, high pitched and low all at once. "Now... she doesn't have to see this."

Now the tears spatter on the decaying wood of the pallets. "... You don't have to either. If you leave right now..." She whispers, closing her eyes, mustering her courage, "Yaori's sister... Rika... she got cheated out of her real wish by Kyubey." Then her chin turns fractionally downward, her eyes opening to stare at the soul gem that feels already like a nascient grief seed.

"... I can give it to her though... she won't even have to dirty her hands." The smile she wears seems paradoxical, to what she's saying. Like she's inebriated on the feeling of despair that's driving her to such irrational thoughts, "My despair - can become her hope."

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Madoka is so alive right now. The blood all rushing from her legs to her head. Her lungs, heaving. She is not Eri's opposite, for there are also ways in which they are deeply similar right now, but she might be her inversion, just now.

She doesn't appreciate it the way that she ought. It's impossible to tell where the sweat ends and the rain begins. She doesn't feel either, really, just a numbness, with occasional vague prickling, that has less to do with her skin and more to do with her heart.

More to do with that smile.

It's barely even recognizable.

But then, neither is Madoka's face.

She isn't smiling, she's grimacing. It's a terrible expression.

Fierce in the full meaning of the term. Ferocious.

She doesn't close her eyes or turn away at the newest awful truth: the tears fall freely but without being stirred by lashes from half-lidded eyes, without being torn free by the swiveling of her head.

She just looks at Eri -- ''looks'' at her.

Not her Seed.

Unlike Mikoto, she has seen that before.

She loves Eri so fiercely, right now.

At some point her hand has wound up under Eri's and close to the Seed; very, very, very close indeed. But it is the hand that she's touching.

She's cold; she's so small, and it is relentlessly wet. She cannot warm Eri thermally. She may not even be able to warm her in any sense at all.

But she touches that hand, that murderer's hand, with her own.

And she says three words, in her tiny, quivering excuse for a voice.

Three simple words.

They were never any good to Sayaka, either, but they're all she has.

"I'm sorry, Eri."

She's sorry that Eri killed Kyouko.

She's sorry that this world is such a twisted and terrible place that Eri Shimanouchi would become someone who would kill Kyouko. Who would kill Mami. Who would kill Sayaka, for that matter, in all ways but the very last.

She's sorry that she can't think of anything better to say.

Her mind is one big razor.

It pierces her lips, on the way out.

"That's not true. She wouldn't want that for you."

And Madoka, Madoka, friend of Kyouko, friend of Mami, sister of Sayaka, must be the most qualified person in the world to say so.

She hitches a breath that is more like a cough and more like a whimper.

"I'm staying."

Her eyes are opened wide, and the starscape there is less of the majesty and more of the void. And yet...

"I will not leave you."

She found another true thing to say after all.

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Nine Inch Nails - Please https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8aJxSyVwiE

There's a little shake of Mikoto's head, humming discontent as Eri says she has given her so much grief for her love, and perhaps she is a pretty little liar after all. Her eyes are bright and shiny-damp as they catch the light from the street to her side, and her lips part to make way for a jagged little gasp as Eri describes herself as a witch.

Her fingers curl around Eri's right palm, grasping at that dirty hand, as if she could chase the shadows away with her contact. Eri rarely responds, any more, when Mikoto curls around her in the darkness. Mikoto never stopped. She doesn't stop now, either.

Not even as they twitch with the way her chin jerks up, gaze tearing from a green gem almost black to green eyes which have said so much in so many ways. "Kyouko..." She speaks a name in echo as she tries to comprehend it. Her throat tightens to a chokehold, cheeks risen in tension as her breath falls past lips tugged down. It only serves to underline the sorrow in her eyes and the knit of her brow. It does nothing to catch the liquid which escapes down black lashes.

(She'd talked to her so recently. Kyouko had seemed so centred, to Mikoto, even though they had lost the hope of recovering a Witch's soul. She told her to keep her head above water...)

But Eri had to kill another girl she loved, and Mikoto aches for her, heart pounding in her throat where her air has lodged and refuses to pass through.

'If someone-- dies, and, you want to die too, it's love, right?'

'Yes. That's exactly it.'

Mikoto has cried so many tears for Eri Shimanouchi, while her eyes remained dry. A hundred-hundred teardrops, like the world is summer rain. Now Eri has learned to cry again and it is no comfort at all.

But - what is Eri saying?

Now she doesn't have to --

'Did you know Yaori has a little sister who still doesn't know what happened? Every day she probably wishes the worst punishments on whoever was responsible.'

Mikoto's fingers tighten around Eri's as she shakes her head again, more emphatically. Eri is smiling but it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right, Mikoto never wanted to see her smiling like this, this is not the happiness she wanted to protect. And at first the sound of tongue pressed to the back of clenched teeth is wordless in its misery, a single syllabic sound, before she remembers the shape of the word: "No!"

Her breath comes quick and shallow as she struggles to order her thoughts through her distress. "I'm not leaving Eri alone! I won't! I promised!" And there are so many things she has promised, and perhaps it is not just the gape of her jaw which leaves her mouth so dry. "I love Eri - I'll always love Eri - no matter what!" No matter what she has to do; no matter how many people she has to kill; as many as it takes, Mikoto said, that night. Some people matter more than others. Eri matters more than the others. Eri is the third most important person in the world. "So I'm not leaving! I won't! Just, eat something, Eri, and - and we'll survive, and..."

'I always thought, maybe if I tried hard enough, protected Eri... maybe we could be better one day... but it never stops. Just keeps going, keeps getting worse. I'm trying, I'm ''trying,'' but I can't, fight this...'

Her head bows, and her braids and the bead at her chest sway forward with the movement. "... please," she whispers, again, like she has too often. "Eri... my Eri..." Her fingers tremble as they clutch the skin there, leather stretched over the frame of a facsimile, "I'm begging you." Her voice is hushed and brittle as she looks up to her; it will shatter at a touch.

'... I... want... help then. ... your help.'

Her fingers coil into Eri's right hand, and she is an anchor, dragging her down. Holding her there, as her other hand lifts to curl around Madoka's, joining the three of them together.

It is deliberate; was deliberate from the start. Her body knows what her mind rejects. It always has.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Three words. Never much good when you hear them typically. 'I'm sorry.' You bombed the big test. I'm sorry your snapdragons didn't come in well this season. It doesn't feel like they'd do much good against the immensity of this despair.

Yet it's different when it comes from someone that actually cares. From someone who actually stays.

From someone who's actually known every cruelty the world has thrown at her.

Perhaps it makes nothing better. Yet it still validates the fact that Madoka Kaname loves her. So that's wrong too - it makes everything better just by its existence.

There's a slow blink of her eyes, and a tug at the corner of her lips.

"She wouldn't." The girl allows. "She was cross enough with me already."

Kyouko as she died - thought that Eri had chosen not to become a witch. Rejected it. Had chosen simply to embrace whatever comes after together.

If only it were so simple, neat. The world has no storybook ending to offer her.

Madoka offers the truth that she won't leave her. Mikoto cries and her hand tightens around her right one. Eri's hand is limp, it has a coolness which one would expect more from a corpse body than a living girl. How long has she been out here? She isn't even shivering, which is information enough on it's own.

Neither will leave her. Which means both will be consumed by what happens next. The explosion of grief will consume them both.

Wouldn't it be bETtEr?

To take both of them out of the world with her, rather than force either of them to suffer any longer. It's a unilateral decision in the madness of her own despair. It has always been one of her greatest flaws - that her loyalty is to what she thinks is best for someone.

Her eyes glimmering as they slide from one of them to another.

"You're... begging... me..." She echoes, and there's an abstracted quality, like she no longer comprehends the full context of what Mikoto is begging her.

It feels like everything has changed... so I wanted you to know, I haven't.

Eri's always taking care of me. Let me take care of Eri now.

Her lips part and suddenly she can articulate a certain truth, "I don't want to become a witch." There's a plaintive, frightened, small quality to it - like a child afraid of the unknown. Afraid of the creatures of the imagination that thrive in the darkness and shadows, "Not really."

Something in her breath hitches, and spasms, and it carries into the touch contact.

"... I just wanted to punish myself... for ruining another little girl's life." And smaller still, "For ruining everything. There's... just something wrong with me..."

She remembers how she felt while she was battling Sayaka. Hurting her. She remembers - letting herself enjoy it. The feeling is gut-churning in it's revulsion.

If she enjoys hurting her - she can only be a witch.

"... that has nothing to do with Kyubey."

When she asked for Mikoto's help back then - she truly didn't know what it meant. She always takes so much on to herself that even admitting she needed help provided no true catharsis or relief.

I'm here for you. You don't have to handle it all on your own.

Maybe if she'd truly unloaded these feelings in the past it would have made a difference. Truly relied on them. Perhaps - Kyouko's final words would have been enough.

Kyouko is gone though.

There's only one difference to be made now.

"If you won't leave me then... please... help me..."

The fingers of her palm no longer grip her gem. Her elbow straightening just fractionally as she offers it forward. The green spot of light left is less than a pencil prick.

In the reflections of the glass and puddles you cannot even see it. Like it's an optical illusion that it's there at all. There's a strange thickness to the air right now. Like those imaginary creatures are waiting in the wings, behind the veils of reality. Waiting to claim her.

And her only salvation is that the two of them are here for her.

"... there's no way to save me anymore..."

And in that, she finishes imparting a terrible truth of her own.

"...except...one way..."

If she did it herself, then it feels like she'd betray all of them. All of their love. Every lesson that she's learned through her many mistakes. Many sins.

Everything.

"Tell Homura... Kyouko was sorry. That it was a surprise for her."

More tears slide down her cheeks, they're stolen by her lap away from the hungry concrete and rotten wood that's awaiting an awful seed.

"I'm sorry too."

The words feel inadequate to cover how many promises she's broken. In how twisted and broken everything has become from the world - from her own actions - her own responsibility.

Maybe it does no good at all to say the words. It makes them no less true for her - than it was for Madoka to say them right now.

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Gardener - The Dresden Dolls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osv-kKKeUy4

"Ne, Madoka..."

"Mm."

"You really don't know anything about Sayaka, do you?"

"Mm."

---

This time, Madoka knows everything.

Her mind is a razor.

It cuts and it cuts and it cuts.

Madoka knows how much a regular Soul Gem weighs.

But now she knows how incredibly light and fragile it feels at the end of everything, and she bleeds with it.

Her hands are so small. They are pale, weak hands. The hands of a child who has enjoyed an easy life. The hands of an artist who has never had to produce to survive. The hands of a student whose mediocrity has always been enough.

But now she knows how big and strong they look, holding what's left of Eri's soul, gently, so gently, and she bleeds with it.

Madoka knows what's about to happen next.

But now she knows what it's like when everyone knows what's about to happen next, and she bleeds with it.

---

"How is Madoka?"

"I don't know. I feel like she knows something... but she doesn't seem to be lying. This is the first time I can't see through her. I'm pathetic... she's my daughter!"

"This is getting to you, too."

---

Madoka really doesn't know anything.

She doesn't know that her shoulders are quaking, that that she's bleeding anguish, squeaky and strangled, without ever bidding her throat to make noise.

Can she do this?

---

"I was thinking that it's strange. She locked herself up in her room instead of coming to talk to me about it like usual. I thought I could support her no matter what..."

"Kids her age grow up so suddenly. It must be shocking for a parent."

---

"Pr-prom...ise," she stutters through lips as numb as though this were the heart of a polar vortex. Because it is, of course. She's so cold. Everything is so cold.

Her gaze flicks over to Mikoto for the first time, and the single word is all she says. The rest is contained in her eyes.

There are still parts of her that haven't bled yet, but the razors are everywhere, and they gleam within, dripping. Scarless is the part that doesn't know what it's like for Mikoto to kill her own sister.

It can stay that way.

It was only ever going to be one of them -- Mikoto, inside a Labyrinth, with Madoka for company. As witness, as support, as reason to return.

Things never work out the way you think they will.

She can't tear her full attention from Eri for long. It isn't that she won't. She CAN'T.

Eri wanted to be punished, and Madoka bleeds with it.

Eri blames herself, even knowing everything, and Madoka bleeds with it.

Eri needs her help.

Eri needs her to SAVE her.

Be careful what you wish for.

Madoka -- Madoka who can finally save someone, anyone, to even begin to return the karmic debt that she owes so many people, so many times, including both others here -- she bleeds, and she bleeds, and she bleeds.

It drips onto the Gem in her palms, salty and, paradoxically, despite everything else, warm. The only hot thing left in the world.

---

"So that's how it is?"

"You have no choice but to believe in her. What Madoka needs the most is time to get her thoughts in order. Just wait for a while."

---

"Mmm!" she whimpers, as she positions her thumb like an executioner's axe. "Nnn!"

I gotchu.

Would Sayaka approve? Would she be mad? Would she be glad for the wrong reason? Would she be glad for the right one?

Madoka really doesn't know anything at all, and she bleeds with it.

Her little chest bulges with her breathing, faster and faster -- it hurts to do it hyperventilating -- it hurts to not do it -- she's rocking back and forth -- it hurts and hurts and hurts but her heart will somehow tear itself in two -- for Eri -- for Eri. One of the last things the surface of Eri's cursed phylactery will know is the fiercely miserable way Madoka's heart quickens, pounding straight through her hands. Every beat breaks her in a new way.

And then she pushes. All at once. She wants it to be quick and painless.

Her thumb goes straight in, breaking the thin, thin shell of the witch's egg so easily, and then she knows that it STILL isn't the latter, even if it is the former, even though she tried so hard --

-- and she bleeds with it.

---

"It's tough... not being able to do anything."

"You're still bad at that, huh?"

<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Sam Tinnesz - Even If It Hurts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReA_3z4gl5s

Can't they go back to when everything made sense?

Can't they go back to snacks on the rooftop?

Can't they go back to the way Mikoto never cleaned up like Eri did, after they detransformed?

Can't they go back to chasing kittens through Ohtori?

Can't they go back to secrets no one else knew?

Can't they go back? Can't they go back?

Eri says she does not want to be a witch, and the answer is made clear. Madoka echoes the word-concept-vow, and Mikoto's eyes find her in her misery. "Yes," Mikoto says, again, and the words are hollowed out and there is nothing left because they are all gone. In one sense she is here, looking at Madoka with eyes which long since learned to resign themselves as she confirms what she has choked out.

She does not stutter. Don't ask why.

'I won't let Eri hurt everyone. I'll make sure Eri's got enough to eat. I'll protect Eri. I won't let Eri turn black. No matter what... I'll be right here.'

And they slip back to Eri and she speaks the truth, and do not speak to how hard it is, how great the strain.

"I'm right here."

She always knew what it meant, and she shatters beneath the weight of them with no further complaint. She shatters because she will.

Gardening.

Ah, she thinks - there are so many people she has failed to kill, all for the necessity of Eri Shimanouchi. Even though she kept failing her, Eri told her she was the only one who hadn't. Eri was never angry with her; Eri never meant to hurt her. No matter what she did, Eri always just said she was... glad...

... Mikoto was there, feeling the way she did.

And she is. She's right here, love in her sad, sad eyes.

Because Mikoto was always just as glad Eri was there.

Eri's always taken care of her - is still taking care of her, Mikoto thinks. She's asking again, asking plainly. There is no ambiguity to her desires. This is what she wants; this is what she needs. This is what Mikoto can do for her. This is always what she was able to do for her. Here is one time she cannot fail, because Eri needs her once again.

She was not designed to hesitate. She isn't hesitating. It is the genius of distance.

The fingers of her right hand curl into Eri's, and the purpose of an anchor is not only to drown. It hold a ship in place in the middle of rough waves, keeps it from drifting away from the friendly shoreline lights. It digs into the deepest depths and holds them there, so they will not be swept away.

Perhaps Madoka saw it better than Mikoto ever could.

'Don't you know how important you are to her? Don't you know that if you hadn't been there for her, she'd already be--'

But even though she's always been there for Eri, she could never fix this. Mikoto can feel her, extending herself out. Her fingers have trailed over the glass of that gem before. She has felt how breakable it is. How breakable she is.

The full moon shines through a gap in the clouds, into the gap of the alleyway.

Mikoto does not know the word for 'deja vu'.

"Anything," Mikoto whispers distant echo in a vehicle separate from her body, and Eri is not the only one crying. "Anything Eri asks."

It's not 'I'm sorry.'

She has apologised to Eri many times, but she won't apologise here, not at the end, not as Mikoto faces down the sum of their sinful existence. She will carry it in her heart to the ends of the earth, and a part of Eri will still be here, and Mikoto will not betray her.

The muscles of the hand are so much more delicate than the others. It takes so little to disturb them, so fine is their movement. They are delicate, delicate things, and they feel every angstrom of movement. Madoka does not act alone when she does. There is power here, in their hands. Strength enough to rend the thicket whole.

She does not dig in her fingers, as such. Madoka provides the claw.

Mikoto's hand curls to a fist; it clenches. Hers is force, made strong even without her blade. She is well-bred and finely-crafted, and she is so, so practiced.

And it always feels the same.

It's not their fault. 
They have to do it. 
Eri asked them to. 
It's their fault. 
They have to do it.

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Million Years Ago - Adele - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc4rqVwlbjU

I wish things were less terrible. I wish we didn't need to make choices like this.

It wasn't so long ago that she was scared of dying. A fear that had taken root into her in this alleyway, had been leeched up from the concrete inside of her. For a long time that fear was what had dominated her. Over time that changed.

By the time Haneda Airport happened - Sayaka Miki wanted to kill her, more than she wanted to live. It didn't matter though whose desire to kill or whose desire to live was stronger though. It feels like none of that really matters anymore, like everything she fought for, everything decision made just missed the point.

Perhaps that's why in truth she wanted to punish herself. If that much of her regret stemmed from wanting to live, then her punishment ought to be living for a while in a state worse than death. It's not what she wanted - it's just what she felt she needed to do. Like so many actions she took. What she wanted is simple.

If someone-- dies, and, you want to die too, it's love, right?

She must be such a terrible coward to have the resolve to kill someone who loved her so they wouldn't have to suffer from what came next, only to back out at the last moment, for being more scared of living that way than dying.

Is cowardice so terrible though when it's born out of love? From the love of Madoka Kaname and Mikoto Minagi, who will stay with her anyhow. From finally understanding the lesson in Kyouko's final words.

It can't be.

It is said one's life flashes before one's eyes as the end approaches. This is not precisely true for her. Her mind feels like the first thirteen years are barely worth review. She lived more in the last two, than all the rest of them. A million years might have passed for how much changed in so short a time - and not a single one anticipated by childhood innocence.

She is not simply shown those past two years, and the darkness that filled her life. Instead what happened, and what might have been blurs together in the space of a few short seconds.

Madoka and herself at Gardening club comes swiftly, more quiet afternoons of comraderie that came from nurturing things that grow. Okay then - I declare this the new home of Jackolantern-kun! Welcome home, Jackolantern-kun! When Christmas comes, we should give them all ornaments according to their names! They'll be the cutest little forest in all of Japan! Do you think we should play them music? I always thought it was silly for seasonal flowers, but these guys are going to be here for years and years and years. Kyouko and herself holding hands at a school lunch felt within her grasp. Can't we be... for a while.

Until her mind grasps for more distant and impossible might have beens. All of them taking tea at Mami's apartment before a study session. Making Homura laugh for the first time over something truly unexpected. Playing Dungeons and Dragons at the Kaname home with all of them, while they keep an eye on Tatsuya.

Mai telling her she's proud of her at her high school graduation. The three of them enjoying dinners together. Mikoto showing off her latest kitten adoptee. The three of them planting a vegetable garden together. Eri held on and saw Mai smile. Eri held on and saw flowers Eri made bloom. Eri held on and saw ginger kittens.

Some things too possible had she made different choices. Other things completely improbable. It is both hope - and happiness in what they are - and despair and regret in equal measure for why they could not be. A balanced equation.

As Madoka approaches the gem. She can see the way her shoulders quaver and quake. The trembling, and the rhythm of her tachypneic breath. She can hear the little whimpering noises as she works herself up to do it.

There is no pressure from her despite the urgency of what happens if it delays too long. She has asked so much of her in this. Too much. She does not know why Madoka bleeds this time - not specifically, but only that the thorns of her request have wounded her all the same. Like the request intrinsically has asked her to thrust her hand into a bramble patch.

She does not have to know which bramble will claim its due, to know it will hurt.

She can feel the warmth of Mikoto through her palm, and knows from that she is right there - even moreso than from the words assuring the same, she can feel the way her pulse quickens enough to carry into her hand even though her fingers do not search for it. She hears the way she says she would do anything for her, and her thoughts have no time to consider both the darkness and love in such a simple statement.

An image of a thumb sliding towards the fragile egg housing her soul dominates her vision, a sign the end is coming that she can notice as a tell far more easily than a hand about to clench. She does not flinch, which would be an understandable reaction, like watching a needle moving towards one's heart. Instead her lips form the words 'I love-'

The words do not finish forming. The gem shatters, her soul released from its gaol, and thought ceases. The lips grow slack, her body sags as gravity seizes the control her muscles now lack.

A girl dies in an alleyway where she might have died before.

A final mercy granted by love.

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Homura has searched for Kyouko Sakura and Eri Shimanouchi everywhere else she can think to look, has sprinted Tokyo's streets through falling rain and amid arrested droplets both. She burns time honest and stolen, all too aware how precious each commodity is. How ruinous it could be to run out of either.

Every time the insidious question whispers from the darkness she has caged within her ribs -- "what is the point?" -- she stomps it back down with her pelting feet, reminds herself of the Incubator's insinuation: Very soon.

Very soon, it expects her fellow puella to be dead.

And every time she thinks with all mortal desperation: NOT YET. Madoka has not wished; her allies have not all died; Homura has not given up. Not yet.

There is one place left in sprawling Tama either puella might reliably be. Perhaps Homura will get lucky, and catch them there together.

The rifle-straight line she shoots through the forest says to Hell with winding paths, however meaningful. The ruined cathedral is hollow of life.

Soundtrack: Lee DeWyze - Blackbird Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2pIoK0ID5E

She goes out into the rain.

Red spider lilies brush against her calves and paint her leggings with wet. Homura does not remember this field being so thick with them. Eri, she thinks.

They grow so thickly that she does not see the graves until she is upon them. No one is there, but... something isn't right, something else is not as she remembers, and as she turns to dash off again the feeling halts her mid-rotation.

The same number of markers stand in the Sakura family plot, but it has gained a grave.

Homura steps close to better peer at the fallen marker. It is Kyouko's father's, collecting stormwater in a dent upon its skyward face. Her eyes go next to a mound of earth nearby. Its texture better resembles fresh-turned soil than packed and settled ground.

Very soon, her adversary had crowed.

Her dead-thing heart thuds in her throat. Such a quick girl she is, yet slow, so slow to draw her gaze across the bouquet upon it and up to the new stone at its head. To trace the character carved there.

However drenched a girl can get running through the rain, that cannot compare to half a minute standing motionless within a downpour. An eyeblink eternity passes while her fine black bangs soak flat across her face: thirty long seconds of water coursing in cold rivulets down her back and through her henshin layers, right down to the skin. Time, precious time ticks away and Homura Akemi stands frozen and grey while she wages a silent battle against grief.

When the name escapes her in an exhalation, it goes unwitnessed by any but Homura and the rest of the ghosts: "Kyouko..."

Without fully understanding the how or the why of what has happened, she sees the dread shape of things enough to know -- she has to move. And she thinks she finally knows where...

Finally knows what place Eri Shimanouchi might seek, at her nadir, if she has agency left to her. If she is still Eri. Maybe even if she is not, any more.

-=-=-=-

The intact roof of the Metropolitan Building hosts nothing but satellite dishes; its many floors, only the usual smattering of too-devoted worker bees burning the midnight oil. It's always the last place you look...

Shinjuku teems with alleys. She makes directly for one among the many. One specific and fateful and nondescript alley... An alley where a more amateur Eri nearly died, once.

However fast Homura runs, it has never in her long and attenuated existence been fast enough.

Soundtrack Change: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Perihelion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISN03aa34OU

As she nears the alley's mouth a terrible echo reaches her: anguish, strangled and squeaky. She knows that voice, however pain twists it. That sound... Panic flares violet eyes.

Homura rounds the corner at a dead run, keeping her feet on rainslick pavement in that uncanny way of hers. She stumbles to a halt, after.

Not yet? No; too late.

If she'd gotten here even thirty seconds sooner...

Mikoto might not be holding the crushed remains of a Soul Gem that used to be green.

The shape of a girl, empty once and for all, might not be sagging against a dirty alley wall.

Madoka's thumb...

If, if, if. The thing caged in Homura's chest batters its strange dark wings against the osseous bars of its prison as she stares at Madoka's thumb -- at the wider base of a digit small and pale and soft, at where it disappears between the jagged edges of Eri Shimanouchi's broken soul.

What cost, Homura's friendship to the girl she dared call friend? And what cost, her love...?

If only her adversary could see her now. Perhaps it does; perhaps it observes the twitch of her empty fingers, the trauma shaping her eyes... and perhaps it is well pleased.

The only Puella Magi left to face Walpurgisnacht stands somehow on numb, splayed legs and feels the cold of a ghostly pistol grip in slack fingers -- feels the pull of the heaviest trigger in the world.

She sees, again, the grotesque ruins of a Soul Gem which used to be pink instead of green -- sees with indelible detail exactly how much damage a bullet can do to one precious, eggshell-delicate bauble.

The smell of latent grief in the air is the same now as it was then, and she is so small and dark beneath the gathering clouds -- just a girl with wet hair and wide eyes after all, tiny in the gap between towering skyscrapers.

Just one Puella Magi, against a storm.

[[Category:Logs]]

2019-04-27 - Witch Interrupted: Kyouko's Confession

2019-05-09T22:13:56Z

Eri:

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Witch Interrupted: Kyouko's Confession'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''Kyouko abandons survival for something she considers more important.''
|-
|'''Who''': 
[[Kyouko Sakura]], [[Eri Shimanouchi]]
|-
|'''Where:''' 
Abandoned Church
|-
|'''OOC - IC Date:''' 
4/27/2019 - Ambiguously late May to Early June 2015
|-
|}
 

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> No Lights on the Horizon - Metric - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvm3_oXZZtg

"Huh?" It's a groggy noise on the other end of the line as you can hear shifting. "... ... ..." You can almost feel her checking the clock. She must have noticed that it's two three-oh-eight PM. Which means there's no way she went to class.

"I'm up. I'm up." She echoes herself blearily. "I'll go to Nishitama today. Promise." That's odd, typically when Eri exhausts herself it was because she had been overhunting. 'Today' sounds like she hasn't been in some time.

-=-=-

It's nothing unusual, her not wearing that understated layer of foundation and gloss.

It's nothing unusual the way her clothes have that rumpled quality like she picked them straight up off the floor, like she hasn't done her laundry in weeks.

It's nothing unusual, the lack of those subdued floral scents clinging to her, like she hasn't tended - been in a garden in weeks.

It's nothing unusual, the way she walks around like she's in a waking daydream - despite the fact that all she seems to do lately is sleep.

It's nothing unusual, the way she stands still sometimes on the sidewalk as people flow around her.

It's nothing unusual, the way her phone pings and she never seems to hear it.

It's nothing unusual, how when her food is presented to her by the waiter, how she doesn't take a bite until Kyouko reminds her not to waste food.

It's nothing unusual, how in those quiet in-between moments, she lacks those little tells on her expression as to what she's thinking.

She's still Kyouko's angel of light. The one that saved her in Shinjuku on the rooftop. She's just dimmer, and there's nothing unusual about that everything that's happened.

It's nothing unusual, how one might swear she's more herself in a labyrinth than anywhere else.

It's nothing unusual, the shifts from complete detachment to fury to detachment as she smashes a witch into an existence that only fills a tiny seed.

It's nothing unusual, that moment where she almost forgets to press it against her soul gem to suck out the serpent's poison until it's pointed out she should.

-=-=-

Three rings. Voicemail. Hang up. Two rings- "... Hello?" There's the shallow sound of breathing. It's five-oh-three PM. "... I'm..." Like she was about to say 'up' then switches it to, "...homework. Doing homework."

She was in bed again. She had to be. Kyouko can't remember the last time she called her and she wasn't.

"... hunting? Oh. Not... not today. Mikoto has it today..."

-=-=-

It's two days after Oktavia Von Seckendorff was defeated. There are unread voice mails. That's strange, Kyouko doesn't notice any missed calls.

Maybe they came while she was in a labyrinth. That's nothing unusual.

The transcription function can't give her any preview of what the messages are, each one looking like garbled characters arranged in ways that are entirely incoherent.

First message.

The message is nothing but noises, crackling for a while, but before one would hang up.

"-just want you to know... I'm not mad... I'm not... that you.."

End of message.

Second message.

There's something lulling in the first few seconds of sound spewing into the receiver. Then all of a sudden it becomes an angry buzzing crescendo before speech can be made out.

"-WERE YOU THINKING!? YOU SAID IT WAS TIME TO GO HOME THEN- THEN YOU GO-"

End of Message.

Third message.

It's just a flat white noise, like a test pattern.

"-were doing it for us. I... I understand."

End of message.

Fourth message.

The white noise that was present before rising up to the peak of this sine wave, like someone was turning a knob on a radio that's out of focus, for the volume to peak out.

"-DON'T UNDERSTAND! HOW COULD YOU? AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE-"

End of message.

Fifth message.

The message begins with the sound abruptly being amped down, until it was almost non-existent.

"-I shouldn't have... don't know what I was thinking. Sometimes I just get so... nevermind."

End of message.

Sixth message.

The rustling of leaves and static. The wind transmitting. It permeates the recording for a few seconds before it goes dead.

End of message.

Trying to call her phone gets a tinny message: We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service.

 

<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoK63Bk7pgw

Kyouko had never been the best phone friend. She doesn't reach out as often as she should, and she's often slow to respond. More than anything it thanks to the faithful efforts of her few friends that she keeps conversing. Over time she's gotten better, and will even start conversations of her own, or go off on tangents of thought. Over time, the interest shown by a few agents of humanity had helped to return this prodigal girl to its fold. Over time, she began to return that interest in kind.

First among them, naturally, has been Eri. Eri has not allowed those silences to go on for too long. Whenever the embers of friendly talk needed tending, Eri has been there to give them a stir. Not straight across the board, everybody has their ups and downs. But she's always been there. And now she is receding.

How subtle those first signs. Oh, a teenage girl is moping in bed and skipping school? Not the first, and hardly the last. But as Kyouko watches a stray bird arc about with a phone to her ear, she detects a shift. Ever the animal, she has always prided herself on a sensitivity to environmental change. Lately, the social void that Eri had so helped to fill has reclaimed some of its emptiness. The conversations they had shared had lately transformed into check ins, and Kyouko has assumed the mantle of reaching out.

She understands if Eri is troubled. She's troubled herself. They're living in troubling times..

"You don't have to promise me that. Just that you'll take care of yourself."

-=-=-

All the little things. One doesn't notice immediately. That's why they're little things. But for a familiar student of another being, sooner or later one notices that something is different, and in seeking the answer to the question one finds an answer. But that piqued feeling remains. It is true that Eri is not wearing her makeup as she usually does. Why, then, do I not think 'That must be it' but rather that 'it's something else?' The appetite of the question is unsated by the one answer, and further inquiry yields many more. All the little things. Not so little when they're all stacked up. For all her answers the question hangs with a newfound weight.

What has changed?

They talk as they've talked, but in those spaces in between, Kyouko is looking and listening with total focus. They fight together as they've fought, hunt as they've hunted, eat as they've ate, and Kyouko looks and listens.

Kyouko used to have little things too. She still does, but she used to have more. It meant something when they'd fallen away, and though at the time she'd been far more distracted by other things, they hadn't all come back. She wasn't the same person that she'd been before, when she had all the little things of her own. And now Eri's losing some of hers.

She's still Kyouko's angel of light. The one that saved her in Shinjuku on the rooftop. The one whose done so much besides. She just seems tired.

She understands if Eri is tired. She's tired herself. They're living in tiring times...

-=-=-

Kyouko won't be beaten that easily. Did Eri pick up on the second try to accept Kyouko's hand in friendship? Or because she knew Kyouko would keep calling for as long as it took her to arrive at Eri's residence in person?

It had been late before. It's getting later. Before she had wondered if Eri had been lying when she said she'd go hunting. Now she lies casually and transparently, though not about hunting.

She's getting worse. That much is clear. Kyouko thinks of inviting Eri to stay with her, but her heart catches. Why would anybody want to stay in that grubby little sewer system, or in one of the broken down warehouses along her tarnished strand? Kyouko's house has many rooms but none are good enough for a girl who still lives in humanity's world, even if Eri has been cutting class lately. A dingy little cot in a dim little room without any doors surely wouldn't cheer her up or snap her out of her state, and that's what's called for.

Still, Kyouko wants to do something, and increasingly feels that something must be done.

She understands if Eri is depressed. She's depressed herself. They're living in depressing times...but this cannot continue. The demands of these demanding days deny much room for anything else, but as soon as the storm eases off just a bit, she's going to intervene.

-=-=-

It's two days after Sayaka was killed. Was it Sayaka, in the end? It was Sayaka in the start. Kyouko's good at containing her panic until she is able to suffer it, which usually means containing it until she is alone. Sayaka had changed, and they could not bring her back. Mikoto had dragged her from that arena and had eaten with her that night. Kyouko had affably parted with her and crawled down into the dark and screamed.

She thought of Sayaka, and Oktavia, and all the witches and all the familiars that she's ever killed..and cultivated. All of the grief seeds that she's ever drained, or accumulated, or weaponized. She thought of Walpurgisnacht, and how she found herself telling Mikoto that she didn't fear the thought of facing it so much, anymore. She thought of Mami, who had died before she could learn this truth. She thought of herself, and what might be in store for her. She thought of Eri, and despaired that what had happened to Sayaka might happen to her.

Eri...

Sayaka...

That what had happened, might...

Sayaka had been despondent too, hadn't she? In the days before...they were enemies in the end, and Kyouko was not in a position to observe the full slump of her decline. But in the end, when Sayaka had transformed, it was not like an alien bursting from her chest or an explosion or a gunshot or a car accident. It was like she had given up on herself, and had given herself over...like the poor people marked by the Witch's kiss, given over to despair.

In the days since the killing Kyouko had been preoccupied with her own thoughts, and had somewhat neglected her checkins with Eri. Now she holds her phone with a frightened urgency, her hands unsteadied. Before she can dial she sees the voicemails, and listens to each in succession. She's running by the last one, and a terrible sound spills out from her when her own phonecall falls on deaf ears, grasping at a connection that is no longer there. Climbing up the ladder that leads to the surface, she grasps a single rung, pulling on it with such force that she flies up, crashing through the manhole and ripping the rung free from its concrete wall.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> ibid

There is wind - but the crimson blossoms do not falter. Usually you would think of them as bending to avoid breaking, like a willow. Yet they do not rustle. They stand as guardians of the dead, frozen in time.

This side of the Church is thick with them, having multiplied to the point where they're nigh overgrown. Animals do not track through here, have learned of their poisonous nature and now know better. It creates a thick red carpet around the headstones with no clear path to them.

They've failed in their duty, as right now there are places where bootprints have flattened them without a care. A miasma thick within the center that makes the tongue tingle with a taste like acid rain. It's dead silent yet there's a spiritual wrongness with the feel like nails on a chalkboard, or a record scratch in the room - like the score for some movie that has only started to reveal its genre is in fact horror.

Twilight looms low in the burnt orange sky, and it has a foreboding quality, like it's sun-setting over some dark fairy tale wood. The stained-glass church windows cut slashes in the light that emerges from this side of the church sending the strange geometry into a dazzling array of macabre imagery.

A hole caused from a thrown rock makes a particularly sinister gaping hole, like a portal to hell included in images of the divine.

The girl stands closer to the makeshift headstone of Kyouko's father than she ever has, in a sense that's almost like desecration. Standing right on top of the bulge in the soil where he's come to rest.

She's stated that she comes here to talk to them sometimes. It has this sense of projection, like she uses it to work out her own issues with someone she can't tell off - misdirecting it onto a dead man that she'd never met.

Perhaps it is simply a place to whatever rational thought that is left - that is most strongly associated with Kyouko - or more importantly, Kyouko's survival instinct.

How long she's been standing there is unclear. Minutes perhaps. Hours maybe? All of a sudden she lifts a boot, decorated with leaves, and places it against his makeshift headstone. Her expression so stoic as to be unreadable.

Holding it there for a time, she's utterly still, one might swear she's not even breathing in her corpse body, like she's simply turned that function off.

Then her leg spasms violently as she gives it a push, and it does not budge. Whipping her leg back, her breath hisses through her teeth as she slams her toes into it again and again and again. Scuffing her magical boot as she puts an ever-widening dent in the stone only possible due to her being transformed.

And then with a sharp crack - loud enough that one might swear they heard bones break, it falls over, with a thud that crushes part of the outer ring of flowers.

Placing her foot back down in a way that feels almost - dainty, she finally says something,

"Don't get so full of yourself..."

The foot flattens down from toes to heel and there's another crack. The pain registers on her face - but not as much as it ought to.

"... just because you were right. So what if she's a witch? So /what/? All I have to do... all... I have... to do..."

The wind picks up and there's an ephemeral noise like wind chimes, glass scraping, construction paper being folded.

"... is break it..."

There's a weird shift in emotions on her expression. Like she's both happy and angry - and neither all at once.

"... then your daugh- no... no no... /my/ senpai..."

Near her forehead, her gem swirls with poison that feels like it's dripping out into the world. It is a living thing in how it twists and moves chaotically within it. Are there any slivers of light left? They may be present, but if so it feels like a trick of the eye.

"... she'll survive... forever..."

She's staring down at her hand, the fingers curled up, without making it all the way into her palm. It feels like a hand for squeezing something out of the world itself. Out of people. In the same way that she tears up weeds.

"This hell isn't worth saving, but if she wants it..."

Picking up her foot, she steps off the place where he rests to plant it on top of the now horizontal marker.

"... it's all hers. Every part of it. Because..."

Her foot twists like she wants to grind it into the dirt. There's a manic twitch of her lip like she's just thought of a joke that's funny only to her.

"... she, deserves, better..."

Inhaling once, her breath hitches into her chest like it's climbing down a scale until it arrives upon one final note - an awful conclusion.

"... this is all there is though."
 
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igITHmsGKw4

Kyouko's hair whips in the wind as she runs.

Cautious Kyouko makes no pretense of a low profile. When the manhole fell it fell on the roof of a nearby car, and the milling throng of pedestrians concluding their errands all had something to gawk at for a few minutes. Shoving past the nearest of them, she threads straight for the nearest building, scaling up its side as quickly as possible. She travels, as she typically does, by leaping along the lower skies.

Where to go? She does not know. In her heart she believes that Eri is not at her apartment. Nothing so mundane or regular as that. Her mind reels and gives her legs over to instinct, the pistons of her thoughts churning themselves into a fearsome pace.

If Eri is gone, she is gone. If she is not gone, then she is still going. Why else would she have disconnected her phone? What else could explain those broken little messages, a last testament of the Kouhai of Kyouko Sakura, to her Senpai. If Eri is to be a Witch, it would likely require allies to defeat her, as it had taken many to put down Sayaka. If Kyouko is at her side when she transforms, she will likely find herself pulled into a labyrinth in a compromised emotional state. What if she is unable to escape? What if she can't fight in the first place?

It was hard to fight Sayaka, but Sayaka was Sayaka. Eri...could Kyouko really steel herself to kill Eri?

It would be merciful, wouldn't it? Who would want to live like that...but it would be living, wouldn't it? Could Kyouko really make that decision for Eri, that it would be better for her to die than to live in pain? Others might have to die so that Eri might live, but isn't that how it's been? Isn't that true of any Puella Magi? Of any human being? Of Kyouko herself?...together they'd allowed the familiars to feed, so that they might live. Is it so unthinkable to allow a Witch to feed, so that they might live still? Eri wouldn't be the same Eri she'd known...but she'd still live...for Kyouko, for whom the act of living meant so much, is that enough?

Is living worth it, no matter the cost?

Kyouko does not debate over this for long. In fact, she does not particularly debate it at all. As her mind shakily erects its scaffolding of thought, her legs never waver in their course nor hesitate in their stride. And as soon as the question is unearthed, the answer comes to her cleanly, and without fanfare or doubt.

The answer, of course, is no.

Life is the engine, not the goal. One has to have something to live for..to exist alone in a labyrinth, a personal pocket of nightmarish strangeness, accompanied only by familiars which seem no cleverer than dumb beasts, devouring hapless humans and waiting to be hunted and killed..that is no life at all. And Kyouko...Kyouko has lost so much. She had lost her life when she was first cast to the streets, and lost it again along with her father, her mother...her sister...she lost all her friendships, and then lost them again to war and death. She had shared so much with Mami, and in the end, if it weren't for Eri, her former senpai and best friend would have shot her dead. Kyouko had tried to befriend Sayaka, to steer her towards a path she could survive on. When Kyouko helped lead a mission to save her, it ended with her death.

Kyouko had survived a great deal, but her losses only ever compound. Whenever she thinks she has gained back what she'd lost, she is doomed to lose it again, far worse than at first. But Eri...beneath her wordless, panicky fear, Kyouko finds another truth. She does not want to lose Eri. She does not want to survive Eri.

She cannot lose Eri.

At first she thinks that this is because she has lost so much already...that Eri is the fulcrum, the threshold beyond which she will have lost too much to endure, the straw that would ultimately break her back. But that thought rings hollow.

Eri is special. The others were special too, but Eri...none had gladdened her heart like Eri. None had filled her with pride like Eri. None had inspired such feelings of protectiveness and concern and joy and...and ease. A feeling of comfort, and security. A feeling of comradeship...no, companionship. A feeling of no longer being alone.

There had been times when Kyouko lived in comfort, and times when she had lived in squalor. The death her family had been a terrible blow, and to someone like Mami, who until then had only known Kyouko in comfort, it must have seemed utterly transformative. It's true, that when the church burned some piece of Kyouko had burned with it...but she had been a survivor before. From a young age she had always swung between the two states..and she could remember, when Mami had welcomed her back with all her hospitalities, the quiet tightness behind her eyes that understood it was surely temporary.

But Eri...Eri had changed that, hadn't she? Kyouko still lived a guarded life, but she was not lacking for friendship or joyful moments. She was still surviving, but she had been joined. The two disparate conditions that her life seemed to endlessly bounce between had been calmed and united into one. Eri has transformed her life...and as she takes some small stock of that life, she realizes that she cannot bear to consider it without her.

Kyouko realizes that she loves Eri Shimanouchi, that she loves her with all of her being, an that she has loved her for some time.

If running to her now means risking her life, so what? Her legs, her instinct, knew that all along. And they knew where to find her, too.

As the buildings start to thin out, Kyouko realizes where she is heading. It had touched her so deeply when she first learned that Eri had quietly been tending to it, never saying a word to Kyouko about it. Eri had disconnected her phone, but she had called out to Kyouko first...and if she is here, then she's calling out still.

-=-=-

She watches, and she waits. Her relief had been overwhelming when she laid eyes on her...and her terror flooded her blood when she saw the state of Eri's soul. Kyouko knows what she's looking at. She's seen it before.

Against her every earthly desire, she does not tackle Eri to force a grief seed to her gem, afraid that such a shock might trigger the metamorphosis. She does not stop her from pulverizing her father's headstone, either. He deserved what he got, and Eri deserved to be the one to give it to him. But she can only contain herself for so long...time is numbingly precious. Her voice quavers when she calls out, tears openly streaming down her cheeks. There is nothing guarded about her expression at all, no control to her poise.

"I don't want to live forever. Not without you. And I don't want this hell unless you're in it too. Wherever I am, wherever I go. I don't want it if I'm on my own...I don't want to live alone anymore...I don't want to live without you.

Eri...I love you...I think I always have...please don't go...please...please don't leave me..."
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> And All That Could Have Been - Nine Inch Nails - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwc-amI7AmE

The girl states in that position for a time, her green eyes settled on her curled fingers. Her body language twitchy - erratic. Like she's a nail bomb set to explode and gouge the world with the shrapnel of bitter thorns. There's nothing to be done about the world's corruption. Cleanse it away it won't matter - it will dirty you sooner or later. Try to live with it and it infects you.

Kyuubey didn't choose them to be the the one that holds the mop. He chose them to be part of the squallor - to spread it. That is what she thinks at least. There is no way to ever know that for certain. The critter is dead.

The girl rubs her thumb and forefinger against each other.

She took Yaori's happiness away. She can give it to her sister.

She took a lot of people's happiness away. She can pass what she took from them onto Kyouko - refuse to take any more from her.

The best thing she can do for any of them is...

The girl stands in silence for five seconds - ten - after Kyouko speaks. Fifteen. One might swear she had not heard her - or that her gem had actually reached critical mass. There's a strange janky quality to how she finally moves, turning her head to regard her. "Senpai...?" And she just has this smile that feels a little off, "I knew you'd be here. I... knew."

She didn't know that. Not really. Her logic is simply that part of Kyouko is always here - and that she must always come back to touch the hot stove again.

Though then her expression screws up in thought, like she's comprehending her words a few seconds later than she should be. "No. That's not right. It's better if you do. Live without me. That's what I came here to say. I need to break my promise before it's too late for you. It's better if you leave." She doesn't take a step towards her. "You can send that girl who took over Shinjuku after me. Yaori's sister. It's what she wants..."

She actually takes a step backwards, "... her wish. Her happiness..." And another. However, then she gets this confused look in her eyes.

And it's like she's actually hearing Kyouko - seeing her for the first time. It happens before she would take a step back that would trample more flowers, her foot hovering in the air over one. "Wait..."

And then there's something in her eyes sparkle like water droplets, like it's all caught back up to her. Like time has meaning again. Like she can focus in - yet is in disbelief over what she's hearing.

"... wait... what... what did you just say?" It's the faintest whisper, but it's a human one. "But I thought..." She trails off, tries again, "... I thought ..."

Her expression is spasming - like whatever manic confidence she had in her course is shattering under this revelation. And now instead of a step back, she takes a step forward. It's tentative, guarded almost. Like a skittish animal that's frightened of trusting what she heard to be true.

"Please... say... say that again."

The world shivers - her gem spewing off it's foul runoff - but whether the foul apotheosis has been arrested or is only moments away...

...well - to approach her right now is a leap of faith in and of itself.
 
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf58TiGtIe4

Kyouko can feel her heart in her chest, tension in her throat..her brow feels taut, there's pressure in her teeth. Her lips are slightly downturned in a grimacing frown, but curled up at the corners in a tremulous smile. She's so afraid...absolutely sick with fear. How stupid she had been not to know it sooner...how much might have changed if it hadn't taken her this long.

There's not much of Eri left...her posture, her motions, her manner of speech. Kyouko recognizes distressingly little of it..but not none at all. Eri is still in there...and as Kyouko looks at her, too afraid to blink, she doesn't only think of Sayaka. She thinks of herself in the days after the fire..would she have stood here like this, kicked over the same stone...spoken in those halting tones...if she hadn't decided to live, instead?

Hearing that Eri knew she'd be here nearly breaks her. Her face screws up in reddened misery. "You should have told me...I would have been here sooner...like hell it's better. Like hell you need to break your promise!! Why the hell would I send anybody after..."

That's when she knows. She knew before then, but now, she knows. Eri came here to give herself over, to..."

Kyouko's entire body tenses. Moments from launching herself forward with all the desperation shuddering through her nerves and slamming the grief seed to Eri's soul gem whether she likes it or not, the look of confusion stops her. When Eri says wait, she listens..but her body remains bound with thrumming urgency.

"I love you..."

Lifting up her arms to the air in a sign of peaceful intent, she takes a step forward..another. She moves slowly, intuiting Eri's cautious posture, but steadily.

"I love you, Eri...I want to say so much to you but I want to say that most of all...again and again I want to say it...I want to hold you in my arms, and I want to kiss you...I..I haven't done that..before..but I would really like to kiss you now..if..if that's ok...I love you, Eri, and I am terrified of losing you...please stay with me...please don't leave me alone..."

<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Say Something - A Great Big World - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVgixOjGhVU

It didn't even occur to Eri to call Kyouko on the phone the further she plunged into despair. The phone is not how you connect to Kyouko Sakura. Even giant fools like her know that.

And so she has this surreal look on her expression like a teacher is chastising her for paying attention in class. It only makes sense to her - but the things that make sense to her would not make sense to anyone else.

Then Kyouko says it again - and her eyelids just lift. It has that certain quality of disbelief to it. The thing is she's wanted to hear it for so long. So long that she'd given up on it long ago.

She'd decided so long ago not to burden her with her feelings. To let them speak for themselves.

Those eyes shimmer as she says it again.

Like it's introducing long lost hope back into the dam she'd built up to armor away her despair.

It's like she doesn't know what to do. How to react to this. Twenty seconds ago it was a world where Kyouko Sakura could not fall in love with her. Now it's a world where Kyouko Sakura has. The two versions of the world collide - one made of rusted razors and the other of cleaner blades and it's like she's trying to dance between being dashed to pieces by the collision.

She takes a slow, tenuous step forward. "You..." There's this quality like she's caught between being overwhelmed- "You... do."

TOO LATE TOO LATE TOO LATE

That thought throbs in her head, a bitterness that had been smothered, but could now start to metastasize.

The problem is that that bitterness was being strangled by a surging joy at the realization that this was happening.

"Oh..." The girl puts crosses the fingertips of both hands over her lips, at the thought of Kyouko kissing her. It's not her creating a barrier. The gesture feels self-conscious - bashful - vulnerable.

In a way that feels almost adorably prim. She's certainly kissed someone else before. It's not her first. The thought of Kyouko kissing her is overwhelming all the same. "...Oh."

I'm not going anywhere without you.

It was the promise she came here to break. To give up on. Whereas Kyouko came here to reaffirm it.

Kyouko's peace offering gesture is not met with a whip lash. It's met with her lowering her hands. It's met with wet eyes, as her lips crease into a smile.

"I'm happy."
 
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtXPFOkJz-g

Of course Eri didn't call...of course she hadn't wanted to burden Kyouko with this. That Eri is here meant that...she'd given up.

Had she? She's still here..here, not there..Eri says she knew Kyouko would be there...here, this place of death and life, where Kyouko has began and ended. Where nobody comes, not really, but them...of course. Where else could it have been?

So many cautious years...it's usually wiser, pragmatically speaking, not to commit. Not to do anything at all, really. Actions beget reactions, compounding ripples of causation that go on and on, creating such a stir..it's so much safer to be still, to carefully manage that chaos. So many cautious years...look where they've led.

Kyouko came so close to losing Eri...she could lose her still. It sickens her that it took so long to see what was, in retrospect, so obvious. That it took so long for her to act..so long to live, instead of just continuing on, alive.

Kyouko trembles in mid stride when Eri laces her fingers to her lips, smiling crookedly before continuing on. She understands the gesture well enough..it says she feels it too. It says she'd given up.

Kyouko knows that Eri has been on dates before, maybe even had girlfriends...as for Kyouko...well, she's never delved too deeply into such topics. A preacher's daughter, even now...and one who had never wanted to defy him. It's not that she doesn't know what sex is, or that she's never seen dirty pictures and all that...she's lived as she has for too long to have missed it. But she's always skirted around it, recoiling as if it were hot to touch.

She doesn't mind that Eri's more experienced than she is. Kyouko kind of likes it, now that it occurs to her. A place where she could be the kouhai..to be shy and uncertain again. All of a sudden, that vast world she had always avoided now terribly interested her..and the same must be true for the rest of the world, too.

She just needs to take a step towards it...and another, and another...

Kyouko smiles, so widely and bashfully. Her cheeks redden against the messy shapeliness of her hair, her teeth shining in the sweeping glow of the setting sun, that one pointy fang in particular catching a fleeting glint. They're quite close now, Kyouko and Eri and the rest of the Sakuras.

"I'm so glad...I'm happy too...Eri-chan...I'm going to hug you now...and then...I'm going to k...I'm going to kiss...you..." She swallows, and blushes.

"...and then...I'm going to give you a grief seed...every bone in my body wants to just...shove it to your soul gem...to be honest, I'm really, really scared right now, Eri...I think I'm more scared than I've ever been...but I think you have to...you have to take it from me, instead...you have to choose to stay with me...because if it's up to me..."

They're standing very close now. Kyouko gingerly steps onto her father's burial mound. Eri fills her vision...her milky skin and her delicate smile...the incandescent shine of her gorgeous green eyes...and every benighted undulation of her soul gem, still leaking despair into the world. Threading her arms around Eri's waist, Eri's shoulders, Kyouko gathers the girl up into her embrace, pulling her close..the verdant brush of her bushy hair presses gently against Eri's more well kept crown, scarlet strands passing into her kouhai's sight...Kyouko trembles ever so slightly as she holds Eri close, and the soft raggedness of her quietly fearful breath can be heard at this distance.

Pulling slightly back, Kyouko reaches up with her hands..tentatively, with the appropriate trepidation of one handling something sacred, she very, very gently, tenderly drags her soft little fingertip along Eri's cheek...and another to trace the line of her jaw, down from her ear..Kyouko's red gaze is lost in Eri's emerald pools, utterly enraptured, looking into this face she has seen so many times with eyes newly unveiled from an obstinate gauze. She can see her soul gem all too well...a beautiful treasure tarnished so distressingly...Kyouko understands..that gem, truly named, holds her love's soul.

Smiling again, Kyouko leans in...but not to Eri's lips. Heedless of its tainted tears, she brings her lips to that gold rimmed hair clip, and presses them to the blackstained soul gem. She tastes it...her lips buzz with a dully acrid sensation, as though smeared in some sort of venom...but her heart sings out with joy.

Her first kiss...

Emboldened by her exhilaration, Kyouko presses her forehead to Eri's own, their eyes very close now, gazing into them..cupping her kouhai's chin between her the flat of her forefinger and the press of her thumb, Kyouko leans in...and presses her lips to Eri's own.

Eri's taste...Eri's scent...the feel of Eri against her fingers, her arms, her body...the sound of Eri's breath, the pulse of Eri's heart...for a moment all the crisis is forgotten...Kyouko wants to stay like this for forever. Maybe, in a moment...maybe she'll get her wish...

But first...

Holding Eri closer with one arm, she fishes into her pocket with the other...and produces a dark star. She does not clap it to Eri's hair clip, for all her desperate desire to do just that...but instead she extends it towards it in an offering.

"...I'm not going anywhere without you..."
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Our Hell - Emily Haines - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AfklbzSV9o

Eri's eyes have this almost dreamlike quality. Like she's in a haze - disconnected from reality by the possibility of receiving another wish. Another miracle.

There's a shyness of sorts to the way her eyes dip down just so as Kyouko lays it out - blood rushing to her pale cheeks. Her upper lip moistens the lower, like she's wished she's used balm, or put on lip gloss. Kyouko will have to forgive her - for making her first kiss against cracked and dry lips. It doesn't matter though. When she said she was happy. She meant it.

Does she consent? "Okay." It's a soft assent. To all of that. "Okay." Her lips turn up a little wider. Like Kyouko had successfully talked a jumper off the ledge - or someone with a gun to their head into dropping it and stepping away so they could take it. "I... I can't believe this is happening..."

Eri doesn't step closer, she lets Kyouko come to her. And there's that self-conscious quality about her right now. Yet she knows for whatever she lacks right now - Kyouko loves her anyway.

In spite of those failings and flaws. Her eyes lift to stare into the other girl's crimson ones. And as Kyouko slides her arm around her waist, there's a slightly nervous tension about her - in anticipation.

The miasmic flow from the gem hasn't stopped until now. It just remains constant. Like it isn't progressing any farther. Remaining the same.

Remaining the same is still gasping for air under the deep end of the pool. It's being thrown a life preserver by someone who loves her.

However just as she grasps it - just as Kyouko gathers her in close... a thought seizes hold.

Will you be happy tomorrow? What happens then?

There's a certain clarity of epiphany in there as the other girl holds her. Her life extended by this breath of fresh air of love and an untarnished gem - how long until she's gasping again? Eri's left arm drifts to the small of Kyouko's back.

When you go under again - will you drag her down with you?

Love perhaps then is the mercy of never allowing her to drown with her.

Love is the kindness of never allowing her to suffer for her love of her.

For Yaori - for Mami. Anyone could argue that killing any of them was a mercy given how Puella Magi live. She's never accepted that. She's never accepted the possibility of life ending as a mercy.

::Until now.

As she grew up - she was often accused of thinking too much. Thinking on weird things other children didn't. Perhaps that is her curse. Her terrible flaw.

Only a few seconds past being confessed to - and she's already trying to wrap her head around all the angles - all the problems.

What a sickening twist. A world where Kyouko loves her is a world where she can't save her - and only because she can't save herself.

A world where Kyouko loves her is still a world where Rika is waiting in Shinjuku for her innocent revenge - and innocent sin thrust upon her.

The tears in her eyes have never abated - the smile upon the corners of her lips has only smoothed out just a touch, from trepidation as the two girls touch foreheads. Their skin touching - their bangs touching. There's a certain warmth to be found in the touch - in the arms - in the gaze of someone who loves you.

And Eri certainly feels warm - like she'd been wrested from the grip of hypothermia only to be all aflush with anticipation. Eri is patient - and let's Kyouko make that first move - as she said she would not long ago. Offers no resistance to her gripping her chin between her fingers.

Their lips touch, and her efforts to pre moisten her lips bring this slick wetness to the kiss, as Eri allows the herself to be consumed by the other girl's desire - need. Finding herself gripped with her own. Light-headed, and dizzy - she lays a hand upon Kyouko's chest suggestively, the base of her palm touching down right above her cleavage.

It's the kind of kiss where one can forget anything that came before.

::She almost does.

::Almost.

When Kyouko separates from her, the girl's eyes are wet, tears streaming down her cheeks, her whole body trembling as she reaffirms it. While she does not clap it against her gem, the amount of grief overflowing that leaves only the most minute speck of green - when the offering of the seed approaches it, Kyouko can start seeing the rivulet of despair moving towards it. Like smoke.

To enlarge that spot of green until it's about the size of a fifty yen coin, an oasis within the gem's sea of despair. The despair ceases to have a life of its own. The world feeling more real - less affected by the nascent power of a witch's coming birth.

As Kyouko says that, the girl's lips quiver, like she was trying to hold in the sensation, her eyes tear-filled eyes meeting hers.

"Not... for long, at least..."

Because when Eri's fingers slid there in suggestive want - it was a sincere gesture. It was not meant for betrayal. The thought only occurred to her again after. Her fingers started to close around the other girl's soul gem the moment she said that. It's gentle at first - the way she caresses it.

She doesn't let go though.

"... I love you so much ..."

... so much that she'd send end her suffering and send her out of their shared hell ahead of her. The pressure of her grip increases so swiftly that it feels like something has to give before long.
 
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-pbKklwqzE

Kyouko has an uncanny thought of herself standing in a shallow bank of a great river. Tiny little firefly bursts of sensation wink in and out along her shoulders and her arms, gentle kisses of an unseen rain. The water around her is at her ankles, then her knees..she cannot tell if the river is flooding around her or if she is sinking down into its waters. Like a bucket of cold water upended over her head in reverse, such an insistent wave of feeling cascades up her body from her toes to the tip of her head.

Her body is shaking. It's a small one, as bodies go, but it's only from this distance and in this embrace that Eri might make out just how little Kyouko really is. The tears flow freely now, and as Kyouko makes out that little sliver of green in that little garden, her knees slightly tip, a strangled expulsion of relieved tension spilling out from her parted lips. She had been holding everything together with a vein-popping insistence of brute will, and now she knows that it will all be alright.

She's staying with her after all...

That one grief seed seemed to make so small an impression on the greater dark, speaking surely to the scope of its task. One alone cannot reverse fate all alone, but there's no need for such lonely lengths. Perhaps two will do.

Laughing quietly in semi-delirium, she murmurs for the both of them. "It's alright, I've got more.." It's difficult for Kyouko to look away from Eri's eyes, swirling with such enormity of sentiment and feeling. It's much more than Kyouko can parse, so much more...and she is far from clear-headed herself in this lovestruck state. When she does look down, it is only for a fumbling moment as another grief seed appears in her light touch.

When she looks back up, she realizes that she had missed, at first glance, something very significant in the myriad emotions in her darling's gaze. Parting her lips again, no sound manages an exit this time, and she allows herself a moment to doubt the streak of tragic determination that is staring at her so plainly.

That moment is short-lived. Eri's mouth and hands join with her eyes to make a chorus, and her meaning becomes that much more clear.

Kyouko's eyes well up again, her brow crinkling in confusion, betrayal and fear. Not Eri's betrayal, no...she'd never do that. The world's, maybe. Fate's. Perhaps God's. She is not sure who has betrayed her, but the girl who had hardened her heart so that her eyes would stay clear is quite certain that she has been cheated of something.

"No...please...p-please wait..."

Her stomach is trembling now, twisting itself into Gordian's knot. Kyouko is completely unmoored now, the full rush of first love's realization now supplemented by her every feeling about her own demise. Coherent thought is beyond her, just snatches of impressions of possibilities.

"We haven't...there's so much left..."

Her sister and her mother must have screamed so terribly when they died here. She screamed for her father when she watched him die here. Now she'll die here too, never having escaped her past. All that running and she never got anywhere.

"I want to...can't we be...for awhile, at all?...I'm not...I'm not ready..."

For somebody who had been so desperate to live for so long, to live at all costs, to scorn all other consideration beyond survival, her vision of her own future was...practically non-existent. Where did she see herself in five years, or ten or twenty? Kyouko's life was dictated less by positives than by negatives. She did not embrace life so much as she rejected death. She would say that she had never seen an adult Puella Magi before, and she was going to prove that they could be real. She might as well have been hunting for Big Foot. What, exactly, was a twenty something Kyouko Sakura going to get up to that she wasn't doing already? So she might have produced something that had been unseen. So what? What then?

Moments before, that all changed, and all of a sudden that string of black pearls of obscured abstraction of the future of her life had been clarified. Her life had been given a positive purpose, and her future had been given definition. And now it was about to be taken away. It unspools in her mind, the only existence it will be afforded within the realm of her own senses. Holding hands, eating cakes, riding rides, restaurants and onsens and amusement parks and beaches and mountains and forests, little gardens they could tend together and a home they could make in each other's light, a real home. An apartment, or maybe a house, or even a fort in the woods...an abandoned castle maybe, why not?

There was so much life they could live in each other's company. So many things they could do. To live life like people...to grow old together, and...and...

Kyouko smiles a little smile. It is a bitter smile for a bitter pill swallowed, not in the way of a squalling child but in the way of one who is old enough to embrace the benefits of something that does not sit well on the tongue.

The world is still the world. Kyouko learned that a long time ago, a lesson imprinted upon her from this place and from the streets of the city. Her life has radically changed before, more than once. In the flush of those times it felt like the world had changed with it...but every time, Kyouko was reminded that the world had actually not changed at all. Her perspective was the only thing that had.

Kyouko and Eri would not grow old together. Not in this world. That would require nothing less than a miracle, a wish that rewrote reality...and they had both used theirs up.

From there, it was simple to work backwards from the loftiest of her heart's ambitions. They would not have children. There would be no college, no jobs, no high school reunions or high school at all, ever again, in Kyouko's case. As for the rest...the restaurants and the amusement parks, the laughter and the tears, the heightened moments that summoned all attention and weight to their considerable gravity, the flattened moments of unspoken, unthinking recovery...they'd shared all that already, hadn't they? Kyouko and Eri...

As Kyouko stands there, crying and shaking and thinking and knowing that she is about to die by her lover's hand, she realizes that she is not being denied that life at all. She is being denied more of it, more of the good and more of the bad. They could find a castle right now, if they wanted. In fact...what is this place where they stand, if not that? They could ride ferris wheels together and snuggle in movie theaters and on park benches and watch fireworks. But they would have to fight, and they would have to kill. Would they be able to go on as they have gone, now knowing what they know about the nature of their prey? Would they be able to continue cultivating the Witches that safeguard their survival, knowing what they once were, remembering how Sayaka was then, and how Eri is now. The conditions of survival that they must adhere to have not changed, but the consistent pursuit of those aims had taken a toll. Kyouko was not personally familiar with the concept of entropy at this time, but she would have grasped it if she were to learn. The road they had walked had led them here. Who was to say that it wouldn't again? And even if it didn't...to farm Witches...were Eri and Kyouko capable of becoming vampires, immortal beings of terribly power of inured hearts who live on the lifeblood of human cattle?

Maybe, her heart whispered. Maybe so...but the choice was not hers alone to make, and it seems that Eri has made her decision.

So there will not be more. Looking back, she takes solace in how much there has been. Their hearts had grown together in what they had had. If only there had been more time to hold each other, to touch each other...more time to live like this. If only, if only, if only...they hadn't even held hands.
 
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed.
Kyouko's face crinkles into a tremulous smile, as shaky as an infant fawn but just as sure of its desire to stand. She speaks gently, very quietly, an intimate voice meant only for somebody as close as could be.

"I wish you'd have asked me...we're supposed to be partners, you know. But I understand. I probably would have said no, and I think you think you wouldn't have been able to deal with that. I don't want you to follow me, but I know you will anyways..I don't know if there's anything after but I'll wait for then to chide you about it."

Kyouko closes her eyes, slightly afraid that she won't have the chance to open them again, and takes a deep and calming breath, embracing serenity. She opens her eyes.

"...just a few moments ago I realized that as much as I wanted to live, I was never really living for anything until I was living for you. If this is what you need...then I understand. I spent so much time thinking about how I would die and I was sure it would be so...terrible...I was sure I would die violently, or in suicidal despair. In recent days I imagined I'd become a demon...but I never believed I would die happy. I didn't think I even could..."

Leaning forward, she kisses Eri very sweetly on the lips. She'd meant just the one, but at that distance...her eyes, her visage, the scent of her skin and her hair, the electricity radiating between them...she kisses her again, and again, not just on the lips but on Eri's forehead, the tip of her nose, her cheeks, her neck, her jawline and her chin, a flurry of little desperate kisses falling like rain.

"...so even though I'm a little cross with you for this, and I mean it when I say you're gonna get an earful... I'm not gonna let it matter right now. I'm so happy right now...I'm happier than I ever thought I could be. For you to take what I feared most and replace it with this...I can't put it into words. So I can accept it."

Kyouko steps a little closer now, the toes of her boots pressing up against Eri's own shoes, her knees drifting forward to grace Eri's own. To be nearer to her...as near as they can be right now.

"If you see Homura, please tell her I'm sorry, and that it was a surprise to me too." Kyouko smiles a little, and gives no more thought to anybody but the radiant angel before her. "Take whatever you need from me. I love you with all of my soul, Eri Shimanouchi..."

Reaching down, Kyouko takes Eri's hands in her own. With her left hand, Kyouko laces her fingers into Eri's, squeezing the palm of her hand so tightly...with her right hand, she lays her touch upon Eri's own, gently, so as not to alarm her. Kyouko smiles, and lifts up Eri's left hand to her lips, kissing its back very tenderly. So this is what it's like...she got to hold her hand after all.

"You always try to carry it all on your own..I guess I'm partially to blame. It's how I taught you..but you taught me different. You're the one who brought me out from the sewer. I think we were so busy learning from each other that maybe we've swung to the other side. So this time I get to teach you, Eri..."

Kyouko grins a wide grin, flashing her fang in the setting sun.

"I'm here for you. You don't have to handle it all on your own."

Kyouko moves as quickly as she has ever moved. Her right hand presses down upon Eri's own, as hard as can be. There is a cracking sound.

Kyouko sags.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> ibid

Within Eri's eyes there is a certain commitment, within her wet eyes. A certain commitment driven by her single statement.

She loves her so much.

And so, she will do this. It is a commitment that swims in despair of the cruelty of the world. Her fingers crease with a slow, but inexorable pressure.

If you looked on her face, you might think she was ignoring Kyouko Sakura's plea. Anything but - she's taking it in. And going forward with it anyway.

There's so much time left. She's not ready. Time. More time.

The first sign that Kyouko Sakura might get that she is in fact listening, is this simple, small, helpless shake of her head.

There's no time left for Eri Shimanouchi.

Kyouko smiles her little smile. She cries and shakes. And the other girl squeezes fractionally harder.

They are partners- "I'm the worst kouhai ever." The girl finally offers at that, without interrupting her words - or even contradicting that they're partners. It's all true. Kyouko doesn't want her to follow her. She knows it. That doesn't change the fact she will.

It's inevitable. Maybe Kyouko would buy them that ferris wheel ride - or that apartment they could share together. Then she'd come home one day sometime soon to find Eri Shimanouchi gone. A vanished husk within a labyrinth.

She's certain it would be even sooner than that.

The other girl kisses her on the lips, and Eri slides her lips against Kyouko's during another kiss shared between them.

Her toes slide against Kyouko's, her whole form pressing against her. There's only the faintest hint of surprise as the other girl takes her hand. Her fingers slide into hers, and she squeezes even harder than she does the gem.

To offer her what she can. She may be the worst kouhai ever, but she loves her, and she'll hold her hand as she dies. She knows she must be scared - despite her brave face.

::She's terrified too.

Her eyelashes flutter faintly as Kyouko kisses her hand. All of her body feeling light suddenly - save her hand.

Kyouko faces the setting sun, and Eri just faces her, the shadows of wicked trees extending far beyond the treeline over her.

A final lesson is imparted to her with that grin. That grin that's always a comfort. It always told her that everything. /Everything/ would be alright.

That image causes her to doubt herself for one - singular - beautiful moment.

And then the gem cracks - spilling through her fingers like light - unable to truly keep hold of the precious being that is inside, and the other girl sags against her like a tired - wounded soldier.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> In Memories - Kotowari - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8FFQ5T-LuU

Eri's hand leaves hers to slide up to her shoulderblade, as she shifts her weight against her, holding her up. Staring off into that distance.

The wind picks up - sifting through crimson blossoms and fiery hair and her own besides.

Kyouko is not cold. She could not fail to ever be warm. And the two are here together. On the same spot that she remembers from not so long ago.

I saw my family again. I maybe saw God too, again. I didn't realize how much I needed it until you gave it to me.

Giving Kyouko a reprieve from running away from those memories. It was perhaps the crowning achievement of her wretched, sad life.

There was a part of Kyouko before that day that she felt like she could never touch. Never get close to. Never reach it. You could see it in everything she did. The way she separated everyone from that side of herself. Put up a barrier. A wall. And now at the end she understands.

It isn't there anymore - not between them The only barrier between them is the one she herself raised right now.

The girl keeps a hand to her shoulderblade, as she sinks to Kyouko's knees, bringing her with her.

I wonder if you'd treat me like an angel too, if you found me full of holes.

The hand that took her soul - reaches up and closes her eyes slowly. "I'm happy too - happier than I've ever been." She echoes now that she's gone. Because that wasn't a lie for as happy is she is right now, she's also never been sadder, despaired more in her entire life.

It is perhaps - perfectly fitting for a girl who knows without a doubt she is meant to be a witch.

-=-=-

The rough stone with a thorn chiseled character is put into place at the head of the mound of dirt. The girl levels her eyes on the higanbana bouquet she'd left on them.

The guardian flowers ringing the quartet of graves, with a singular defiled headstone on the one furthest to the left.

We're all just girls. And some families are better off without. Mine would have been. But there's no taking it back.

There's a slow, pained blink of her eyes tearful eyes. It feels like she should give a eulogy. However, if she can't take Kyouko's final words to heart to her immediately - then she shouldn't be allowed.

She truly is the worst kouhai ever.

There's one thing she has left to do, before she can.

"I'm going now." She whispers, quietly - her regret, her shame, "I understand if you're even more cross with me - you should be." As she sucks in a noisy, nasally breath, and repeats quietly, "You should be."

The cicadas begin to sing as she steps towards the edge of the grave ring, then takes a short hop to avoid stepping on any of the spider lilies ringing the site.
She does not look back, she starts her slow trek away from the church. There's a smell like wrong-smelling rain as her transformation dissolves into green motes fleeing her.

Leaving just a girl in an unlaundered uniform, unclipping her glasses from the edge of her uniform jacket, she unfolds them, raising them up to her eyes.

Would you want to go back to being just an ordinary...

...ordinary seems wrong... but a girl again? Like you were? Is that what you'd want?

So I wish I could be innocent again. But you can't get it back. And even if you could, the world won't all change for you. I wish the world weren't what it is. But that's such a childish thing to wish for. I don't really think about things, as much as I should. I'm always so caught up by what's right in front of me. Like I've been running from something and still haven't felt like I can stop to take a breath. Would you go back if you could?

I think it'd be wonderful in a lot of ways. I could dream about having a future again. Right now I have trouble even dreaming of having a high school graduation some days. On worse days I can't even think of reaching high school. I guess I'd want to be normal if I had a choice... but I almost think we'd be better off a Sailor Senshi or a Pretty Cure...

... p-please don't tell Setsuna-chan or Haruka-kun I said that. They'd never let me hear the end of it.

I won't say a word of it, and I know friends tease... but they should understand what it is to be us and why we would wish for something else. But we are what we are. It is what it is and it's not what it's not.

The girl hesitates as she regards them, turning them over in her hand.

I'm so glad you're in my life Eri-chan.

And slowly folds them back up, putting them into her bag. Where she's going, she has no need for them on her face. The dilapidated Cathedral fades away into shadow behind the trees of the forest as she turns.

The world has a soft blur to it past a certain distance, and it's fitting. It feels more real to her. The path to the train station is filled with the soft orbs of multi-colored light that bob faintly with every step, things coming more into contrast with every footstep.

You've done enough. It's time to go home.

Home.

The turnstile accepts the tap of her card, as she slides through to the line that will ultimately take her there.

Sounds nice.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> ibid

The train shifting jolts her, and she does not so much settle in for the long ride, so much as allows it to take her on its necessary journey. Her gaze everywhere and nowhere as she keeps standing, fingertips resting on the bar.

... heaven without the people you care about doesn't feel like heaven to me. It feels like the worst kind of hell.

... maybe this is hell.. but you're here. So maybe it's not..or maybe it's not all that bad.

The distance earthy watercolor transforms before her eyes to the city of grey towers and yellow lighting.

The train forcibly screeches to a halt, causing her to stumble forward then back in a whiplash like rhythm. It had done this many stops before. However this time she is unravelling her fingertips from the bar before she even hears the words announced. "Shinjuku. Shinjuku Station."

Leaving the vessel that brought her home, she passes through the turnstile that demarcates her entrance without reflecting upon it. The colorful lights of its numerous stores were a glossy veneer that she ignored, on her way out from the station down to street level, hugging the rail the whole way.

Let her go, Eri-chan. She shouldn't end like one of us, not when she's got one last chance to end up where she ought to.

Shuffling down the streets, she had a brief flash of Madoka and her walking home, the three of them smiling on that day. She remembers herself bringing up Saotome-sensei's latest beau. Sayaka teasing her back. It feels like decades ago that she went in this direction.

For as much as she felt like she belonged there - this is the first time she'd ever truly gone back.

Do you ever think you'd consider giving school another try?

I never much thought about it.. but.. maybe someday. You and me. Once this is all over...

There is another figure there for a moment in her vision. Hair aflame, and the girl's eyes blur, soon enough the sidewalk is damp in several spots, as she hiccups wretchedly and starts to walk onward quickly.

I don't..I don't know if in that head of yours you're flaying yourself..in that heart you're hardening yourself..but you are an angel of light and you have saved my life and I will never forget what you have done for me.

She has so little time left. She knows it. She knows it. It's a mercy that Kyouko does not see her prove she is anything but her angel of light.

She knows now she loves her. So at least she can spare her this much.

And maybe..I've gotten soft. Softer than I'd like to admit. You've helped me remember how hard you have to be, to be what we are.

Kyouko won't have to harden herself to survive - again - to prevent the world from crushing her anew. Eri had hardened herself so that Kyouko had the right to be soft in a world that will punish her for it. Kyouko blamed herself for it in her final moments. However she has never once regretted crystallizing her heart further and further for Kyouko Sakura's right to be soft. The world owed her so much. If it wouldn't give her that - then /she/ would.

Now she can die a girl in love - rather than as a witch.

To a heart that has become as twisted as a tenacious mass of roots, it was perhaps the greatest gift she felt she could offer her.

It's funny how some places can etch themselves in her head. She's never been back to the alley after that day. Not once. Yet she recognizes it immediately. The edge of that filthy place might as well still be fouled with the scent of her blood.

She does not hesitate to walk towards the angular shadows that slice across Shinjuku walls.

You're okay now.

What a strange moment to know that is true - without any doubt.
 
[[Category:Logs]]

2019-04-27 - Witch Interrupted: Kyouko's Confession

2019-05-09T22:09:53Z

2019-04-20 - A Wish Granted: Someone Scary's Coming

2019-05-09T21:16:07Z

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''A Wish Granted: Someone Scary's Coming'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''A wish is granted.''
|-
|'''Who''': 
[[Eri Shimanouchi]], Rika Kumori
|-
|'''Where:''' 
Ohtori Dorms
|-
|'''OOC - IC Date:''' 
4/20/2019 - Ambiguously late May to Early June 2015
|-
|}
 
<Pose Tracker> Rika Kumori [Juuban Public School (11)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Signum Malum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VD-09cfiLk
A silvery cord has been hanging on the ceiling for weeks. It's over by the dresser, only about three inches long, and of such indistinct color it is hard to notice. At night it seems glossy; during the day, dull. It is somehow always in the corner of one's eye, inoffensive though it is. Is it insulation? Is it a bug, or some sort of animal waste? It's like an eyelash on the lobe of one's brain.

Eri asked what it is.

It was supposed to be there, Chichi said

Eri was relieved. So it's safe then, she said.

I didn't say that, Chichi replied.

That was today. Now, tonight, it has moved over the bed. Eri can see it get longer and longer, stretching, or dripping. She can't move, or something bad will happen. But it's getting closer. It's reaching down to her chest, right above her heart. It looks so cold, cold enough to gasp and--

Awaken. Eri is in bed, in her dormitory. There is no ceiling thread. There never was.

Her bed glows faintly from moonlight. The window is open--did she leave it so? Surely she did--and the curtains ripple gently. Cool spring air washes across her, but a twist of luscious summer warmth flavors the breeze.

Something is wrong. Eri can feel it in the way her digital clock changes minutes; the number snaps over, taking away something precious. She can feel it in the matchstick flicker of moonlight cast across her bedside table by her glasses. She can feel it in the restless tacky texture of her sheets, now an unwelcome film of cloth to be torn away if her skin is to breathe.

There is nowhere in the world that Eri belongs, suddenly, except the worst place of all. Shinjuku. It has to be Shinjuku.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Muddy Waters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss8t7a8n0U4

If you blink hard enough sometimes the minutes of the digital clock move faster. It's true.

The closing of your eyes sometimes changes nothing. And sometimes you notice the differences in the passage of the time.

What do you think the moral of that story is Eri-?"

A child who can't be older than half of her years blinks her eyes behind her glasses, thinking upon it in that easy to read way that children do.

I think... the thread broke because he was selfish. He was concerned with his salvation over others.

That's right.

It's over the dresser. It's supposed to be there though.

Was he sad about it?

It's over the bed. It's stretching down.

Only for a little while...

Some primal instinct knows it offers not salvation, sending a shiver through her sleeping self - even that amount of movement means too much.

Blink again she does anyhow. What happens.

...it's hard to feel anything for someone like that for long.

Blink. The numbers are moving strangely.

Blink. Her bedsheets are feeling all wrong. All her senses are swimming in it.

...maybe this /is/ Hell...

Abruptly the girl draws in breath like she was drowning, throwing off the sheet.

A hand groping sidelong to a bedside table for her glasses, which slide off of it. Behind it.

She doesn't move to pick them up. She simply looks within the dark for a while. Then slowly starts to get up.

::There's only one place she belongs.

-=-=-

Boots tap down upon a train in motion, as she crouches down, three fingers atop it. The momentum sweeps through her hair, the smells of the city assaulting her rapid fire as she lowered her head. The echo grew louder abruptly in the dark and the strobe light of the tunnel. Then out on the other side she could see it.

Shinjuku is not a pretty place from the distance - even at night to her eyes. The few things she loves here are kept in isolated places. Cordoned off like they were imprisoned.

The monuments to avarice which squeeze the city dry. The bright lights in the distance closer to street level where the vulnerable are spellbound by the allure of the wicked.

She knows - because she could mark every place where human suffering could be exploited there.

::And that is how she knows...

She doesn't belong in either of those places. Where she truly belongs are the two worst places.

::An alleyway. The Metropolitian Building.

What does it matter if the bloodstains are dry by this point?

Abruptly she swings off - leaping to tap down on a pole dotting the powerline - then to the top of the train station where her landing sprays dirty water from a rooftop puddle.

That awful wrong-smelling rain scent permeates her despite there not being any signs of rain in sight.

::It is this wretched place's way of telling her - 'Welcome back.'

COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi transforms into Puella Magi Eri!
 
<Pose Tracker> Rika Kumori [Juuban Public School (3)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Lights in the Sky - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd0nIsGHIvc

The rooftop repairs are completed at last. It's recent; the scaffolding hasn't even been taken down fully yet, and the concrete in that section is a much ligher color than the rest. But the wound has healed. The longer-lasting scars are in flesh.

Phosphourescent in its own nocturnal haze, Shinjuku gleams in the dark. It always ends up Shinjuku, and Shinjuku always ends up here. The restless feeling, like the air itself wanted to spit Eri out, is gone now, replaced by a strange sense of peace and belonging. This is her castle, now. She conquered Yaori. She conquered Mami. And when the Chevaliers reclaimed Shinjuku, she conquered Sayaka, too. Now the Chevaliers have no one who can find Witches, track familiars. What will become of this place is a question for Nori Ankou and the others, now, but how, half-blind in the most densely-populated area of Japan, are they to /stop/ Eri if she wishes to cultivate again?

But there's an eyelash on the lobe of her brain.

It takes some time to spot it. An anxious minute or two. But there it is, unbelievable and inevitable. A silver thread on the edge of the roof.

As soon as she sees it, it slides away, slithering off the edge. She can reach the edge fast enough to see where it goes; it's dreadfully long, meters and meters of it. Glinting like a spider's silk in the night, it falls, and is slurped into an open window below, right below where the towers split.

There is no choice but to follow. Eri's boots crunch broken glass as she pursues the thread, which is already slipping away down the hall, gleaming quicksilver in the carpet. It whips around corners silently, always seeming to catch the light even as the halls grow darker. This is a place with no easy escape route, no windows, and too far up to jump from them if you reached one. This is a frighteningly good spot for an ambush.

Eri should know. She picked it.

She realizes what she's about to see just before she sees it. A long hallway with a red carpet. Glass walls with conference rooms within. A ruddy, dim emergency light above two bathroom doors. And a small, dark-haired girl.

The girl doesn't move. She has an odd little staff in her hands, wooden with two notches cut all the way around the circumference near the tip. The thread dangles like fishing line from one of those notches. A large bow on her back spreads like wings, marked with large spots, like strange eyes. She wears a grey skirt and bodice with a stark red triangle on the chest, and in her shortish black hair, two feather-like red ornaments on either side. Her outfit is narrow at the shoulders and flares out dramatically, giving a triangular impression that matches its signet.

She is small. Her eyes, though strangely intent, are also wide and startled. Even in the dark, the shadow of scar tissue mars her face heavily, and leaves one of her eyes the color of a moonlit cloud. Eri has seen her before, around Shinjuku, but never like this.

With the taciturn shyness of a child, Rika gives her odd, crooked staff a twist, and it begins sucking up the thread again, into one of the notches. Once it has disappeared, she hesitantly lets the staff down, turning her head reflexively to present Eri with the good side of her face. She regards her with that eye, curious and diffident, as if waiting to be spoken to.

It must be said that her outfit would probably not be red, in normal lighting. Probably it would be orange, like her sister. Flat yet poofy, delicate yet fey, her garments seem to blend into the dark at the edges, but that symbol all but glows.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Does she remember the moment the light faded from her eyes?

::Yes.

Could she count the pieces of her soul gem as they shattered, glittering ephemeral?

::Yes.

Which girl was it?

::...

Something moves in her vision and Eri moves serpentine quick, dropping off the building, her lash unspooling as she flies Through the window after it. She ducks into a roll. Tugging upon her line simultaneously, feeling it come unravelled.

By the time she's back up on her feet it's in her hand.

Glass crunches under her footsteps as she jogs. And jogs.

The floor is familiar.

::She knows it.

Before and after images flash through her mind - the office. The ruined - shattered - drenched husk.

::She remembers.

So it stands to reason she should know what she's going to find at the end of her chase.

That's before her breath is strangled out of her throat.

Her eyes slip over her. Up and down.

Neechan loves you, Rika. She loves you so much. She's always going to take care of you, forever and ever.

She's older. And there are more differences besides from what she saw. Her eyes settle upon the shadow that she knows must hide the scar. "Rika... right?"

Again and again and again. Her mind wouldn't let her stop considering it.

There's a shake of her head, almost like a willful, numb denial of this awful reality. The creature that is Kyubey is dead - gunned down by Homura Akemi.

::Not before taking one more contract though.

"Ohhhh..." It's like the thought jams needles into her skin, her eyes sliding over her, "... Oh Kyubey..."

There's nothing threatening about the way she holds her lash. There's a laxness to the wrist holding the lash despite the fact that every other part of her is tense - taut like an overwrung and overstretched vine. Kyouko has taught her that anyone who threatens their bottom line must be eliminated.

Even as those lessons scream at her - her mind makes excuses to exclude her.

She's so small.

She's too young.

She shouldn't be a Puella Magi.

She can't be a killer.

She can't be a predator.

She can'tbE A wITcH

The denial is wrenched from her in another step, as the light shines just right and she catches just enough of that scar tissue.

An awful symmetry in the world's cruelty seizes her.

"... why would you make a girl like this a Puella Magi?" It comes from her throat like the hoarsest possible whisper. The sprinklers could be on - and she'd still be breathing in the steam drifting off the ashes of what she's done.

Yaori Kumori did what she did to her because she was terrified of bullies tormenting her. Bullies who were desperate and frightened girls just like her. In coming back - in killing her with such overwhelming force - she only proved her right.

The lesson she learned was not that some Puella Magi are demons. She learned instead that all it takes to make a Yaori Kumori is to make someone desperate and scared enough.

I know... girls can be broken... Eri-chan...

And now the world was either going to kill this girl young if she was lucky - or grind her into the dirt - centimeter by centimeter - until it reshapes her into something terrible.

And just like with Sayaka Miki Is aLL hEr fAULt 

<Pose Tracker> Rika Kumori [Juuban Public School (3)] has posed.
With an eyeblink, Rika sets the point of her staff on the ground, holding it like a tiny wizard might. No, perhaps a tiny pixie; the impression of wings is keen, as is the sense of unnatural eyes staring from them.

"You know Kyuubey?" It's hard to tell if Rika's voice is hoarse because she's too shy to talk enough to keep it clear, or for some reason related to her scar tissue. If it is the latter, it does not seem to trouble her, and she carries herself with a little more confidence than Eri remembers from her earliest days as the Shinjuku groundskeeper. She may not have heard the whisper, however.

"Puella Magi," she cites to herself, as if to hear it aloud. The word comes to her tongue readily; children are used to learning new words every day. "Senpai," she decides to herself aloud, softly.

Her eye shifts back to Eri, and she bows tentatively. "Sorry... if I scared you with my thread. I'm waiting for someone."
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Eri's wordless in the way her chin drops in assent about knowing Kyuubey.

It's not as hard as it seems, Rika-chan. 
It's hard. 
I thought so too. Nobody likes you when you're quiet.

Eri marks it as shyness more than anything. The girl never wanted friends after all. She only wanted one person.

The way the girl recites the words causes the muscles in her cheek to grow even more tense. She's so new.

If she has confidence - then perhaps it's from determination.

However then she says a word and Eri looks like she's been struck. "Please don't call me that." She whispers sharply, remembering the cruel words she spoke - that Yaori was the best senpai she had before Kyouko Sakura. She taught her the most important lessons.

However then she closes her eyes, and starts again, "Sorry just..." Her eyelids move back to wide open. "... I'm Eri. Eri Shimanouchi." It's a hollow sounding request though perhaps it might sound friendly to her, "You can call me anything else if you want though. Anything at all."

Her breath saws in her chest, feeling like nettle teeth in her lungs as the girl mentions she's sorry - that she's waiting for someone...

"It's fine. This... life tends to make us all a little..."

She stops, tries to think on her choice of words, but ultimately decides, "... jumpy."

Her eyes slide over to the staff, with it's little notches and designs. The threads look so similar to her sisters. So difficult to see. So deadly.

Eri suddenly feels tired - she's exhausted all the time lately. Yet right now it feels like something deeper than that.

Taking a few steps sidelong - her gait just this shuffle as she works her way over to a nearby office-chair. The desks are a good distance away. "It's just..." There's something terrible and loud and accusative in her ears. Like they were being watered with fluid despair and could only ring under the pressure. She can only accept her own cruelty.

"... I used to call your sister that..."

Turning one sideways, she allows herself to sink into it, the chair rolling a few centimeters from the lack of resistance of her feet, her posture slumped a little forward like someone in a class that had gone on far too long.

"... even though I'm older."

There's something whispery thin in her voice as she rubs her hands over her eyes, the coils bearing thorns in one palm brushing the skin without grazing them seriously. More's the pity.

"She thought that was funny."

<Pose Tracker> Rika Kumori [Juuban Public School (3)] has posed.
The reference to her sister gives Rika a start, the big ribbon-wings at the small of her back bobbing briefly. She doesn't turn her body to follow Eri as she walks over and slumps in a chair, just her eyes, until she can't anymore. Rather than turn her head, she drops her gaze to the tips of her narrow boots. Eri is on the bad side of her face, now, mottled and darker. But her eye has that same soft thoughtful look as the other, even clouded.

"Eri-san," she tries. Eri's family name is a bit long, and Rika's not the first who has gone a bit more casual than they might have because of it. Her eyes refocus, and she finally turns her head over her shoulder to look at her. "I think it's funny, too."

Eri remembers the soft soles of Yaori's boots. Rika, too, makes little sound as she walks over to the wall near Eri, and, with the self-conscious double-takes of a girl about to sit at the far end of the popular table, seats herself a good few yards away, against the wall.

"I thought she hated me," Rika says. Kids are good at learning words, and good at saying weighty things to strangers. "But..." Her hands twist contentedly on her staff. "Kyuubey says she saved people. I guess even big kids like Eri-san called her senpai. Even if it's instead of me... that's better."

She doesn't look away from Eri when she's done talking, like she ought to. Her large eyes just stare, blinking occasionally.

"Someone scary's coming," she remarks, strangely lightly.
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The sound of her name so casually from those lips makes the pressure in her ears increase. She would say this was her punishment.

Yet she knows this is her sin. Not her punishment.

There's a difference, her senpai would not accept a kouhai who couldn't understand that much.

She could have climbed that thread long ago - but it snapped and sent her back down. Her selfishness is plain. It's twisted and taken root in her soul like the most stubborn of weeds.

Even the way Rika walks reminds her of Yaori - the girl she once thought she wouldn't hear when she finally came to murder her in her sleep.

If only she'd now been so stupid as to realize - the girl didn't care enough for that.

She just wanted her gone from Shinjuku forever.

When Rika starts talking to her like that, she runs her hands over her face again. This time there's only the faintest graze on her cheek.

Lowering her hands, she looks at her. Her expression stricken and twisted at how lightly she says someone scary is coming.

It's so like her that it's soul-searing. The thought of the person coming being a boogeyman. A demon. A Youma. That's who the killer must be to Rika.

Just like Yaori was to her. It makes her feel more childish than the child in the room - at what her immaturity caused her to do. Instead - the scariest thing in the room is already here. A couple of witches to be.

She can imagine her breath steaming in front of her face. "She didn't hate you. She just felt bad about what happened to you. So bad..." There's something in her breath that hitches like a sob, even though her eyes are dry save the slightest itch that makes it feel like they're about to water, "... that she must have wished to disappear. She-she loved you more than anyone though. That's why she felt... so horrible..."

Why is she telling her this? It doesn't change anything. It doesn't change the wish that she made because of her sin. It doesn't change the fact that her sister can't tell her these things on her own. It doesn't change the fact that it's /worse/ that she's hearing these things from sOMeOnE SCarY.

::"Sometimes it's hard to face up to the things you've done."

If she were truly Kyouko Sakura's kouhai - her disciple - her student - she'd get close and shatter her gem before she knew what was happening.

If she truly felt bad about this, she could just give her what she wants right now. Hand her her tainted soul gem. Let her crush it in her palm.

::"I'm such a coward."

The girl whispers almost inaudibly.

One choice kills a threat to her bottom line. One choice turns the other child into a murderer and condemns her.

Even knowing now what she does - she cannot countenance considering the idea of killing her a mercy, sparing this life.

::She is not some hand of mercy.

She could never be that.

And if she walks away right now - she'll keep feeling the urge to come back here. She realizes that now.

"... What are you going to do to them?" She asks - as distantly as if she were back in her bedroom - noticing the cord dangling again for the first time.

<Pose Tracker> Rika Kumori [Juuban Public School (3)] has posed.
Taking her staff close to her chest, Rika folds her arms around it. Her bare knees knock together and tremble there. She sniffles softly, a tear tracking smoothly down one cheek, and circuitously down the other. Her eyes are wide, pained. She had given up hope on believing the sorts of things Eri just told her, and healed around them.

"I just missed her," she protests, meek at first, then more forcefully. "I just missed her, so why?"

Eri's question stills her. After a few seconds, she wipes her tears, and stands up, wobbly as she gets her weight beneath her, her crooked staff planting on the ground again. "Kill," she answers distantly. There's no venom to it. Mortality, even for Rika who suffers so frequently in its shadow, is such an abstraction at her age. Looking towards the bathroom door, she stares at just the spot on the ground that, to Eri, most glowers with pain. How does she know?

"My wish to Kyuubey was to find the person who killed neechan tonight. So they'll get here soon."
 
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

"I know." Eri says and the first time her eyes aren't actually dry tonight is in the sight of a child who cries upon hearing truth from the last person who should be offering truth unto her.

"I know you did - do. She loved you so much that it... was just... too awful. She hated herself for it."

As Rika says 'Kill' Eri's eyes drift to the spot where Kyouko initiated their ambush.

Eri remembers being Rika's age. To her mortality was pulling up flowers that didn't make it. Pruning. It wasn't hard at first - it got harder as her legs got longer and she truly considered mortality.

It's not too dissimilar to why she became a vegetarian.

The thought - the hypocrisy of a girl who won't eat meat raising witches to glut themselves on people makes her nauseous. Like it's the first time such a thought is really settling in to her.

Like that night, she feels sick.

A hand clamps down over her mouth as she starts to dry heave behind her hand.

How cruel was the little witch-maker to have not told her she could just wish for her sister back. How terrible would it be for her just to tell her that now.

To break her even further with the knowledge of what she could have had.

It feels like if she wasn't dry heaving, she'd be screaming. "Oh god... oh... god..." The words are smothered by the rhythm of her breathing behind it.

It's a good thing the girl didn't call her senpai. Right now the child is acting more mature than she is. Saline drips over the edge of her hand and moistens the vine she holds.

Rika Kumori's wish has already been fulfilled - and she doesn't even know it.

She's been wanting to run from the world's terrible cruelty like her senpai does - run away like it's a hot stove. Yet it keeps catching up to her kouhai - getting to Eri. Or perhaps it's just that she doesn't run from it. That she presses her hand against it until it consumes more and more and more and more.

And in that moment the most twisted sort of epiphany is revelation.

Slowly wiping away with the back of her hand, she pushes a hand against the back of the chair, and pushes herself up to a standing position. Forcing herself to look away from that spot - from her. "I'm not... going to tell you not to." She'd be the worst kind of hypocrite if she did. "Who-whoever did it - deserves it."

Still looking away from her, her soul gem on the other side of her head. She says almost deathly quiet, her face starting to split into shadow, "I'm not your senpai Rika, but... here's some advice for you. Take Shinjuku as your territory to hunt witches. It was your sister's."

Her own cruelty in telling her to take Shinjuku no longer surprises. No longer horrifies. It's intrinsic. It's like breathing.

"And if you don't find who killed her tonight. Stick around."

Eri's head turns, her hair shifting back over her ear, and there's this strange look in her eyes and this smile that's more than a little unsettling. Like someone who's happy at a funeral.

"I'm sure you'll get 'em soon."
 
<Pose Tracker> Rika Kumori [Juuban Public School (3)] has posed.
"Eri-san, wait," Rika objects weakly. To be so lightly made the custodian of a ward that is a city unto itself is dizzying. She would have asked more about it, but Eri's next comment was one of the few that could have been even more important.

Falling silent again, Rika watches Eri depart. Soon the hallway is clear, and she is alone with her vigil once more.

As Eri is leaving the Metropolitan Building, she notices that silken thread slip out the window again, climbing up the windows. Like a blind worm, it makes its way, bait for a fish Rika's already thrown back.

 
[[Category:Logs]]

2019-03-26 - TIMELINE 3: Let's Go Home

2019-04-15T08:34:22Z

Eri:

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: TIMELINE 3: Let's Go Home'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''When Wild Animals Fight - does anyone truly win?''
|-
| '''Who:''' 
[[Kozue Kaoru]], [[Sayaka Miki]], [[Miki Kaoru]], Hitomi Shizuka
|-
| '''Where:''' 
Asakusa Traditional District
|-
| '''OOC - IC Date:''' 
2019-3-26 - Timeline 3
|-
|}

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Hitomi Shizuki's feet are sore. Normal school, cram school, then classical dance. It's night already as she walks home from her station, following the winding path of the Sumidagawa beneath bridges and across walkways. Concrete is frequently both above her head and beneath her feet, but the faint warmth of dusk glitters purple on the water.

Swaying a bit as she goes, Hitomi considers a side trip to a ramen stand. She's supposed to be sticking to a diet, but would it really hurt after she burned calories at dance? She can just tell her mother that she's not hungry, when she arrives home. She's beginning to talk herself into as she nears the staircase that would lead her up from the riverside and into the town proper again, where her much-desired dinner awaits.

These are normal problems, at least. Things are getting back to normal.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Umbra Nigra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O1oOeAoKcw

Prim, proper, ... and even a dancer. She wasn't a musician - the two had nothing in common - however there's something about Hitomi that rankles Kozue Kaoru. It gets under her skin and makes it crawl, like this is who her parents would prefer she were...

...this is who her brother would prefer she were...

...this is maybe even who Sayaka would prefer she were...

...after all - the two were friends, weren't they?

Tailing her she'd worked herself to a boil that was about to simmer over. And while her victim was undeserving of such fury, she got it anyhow.

It's in the form of Kozue appearing at the top of the staircase, the street light above her shading her in silhouette. A hand resting on the rail. The other raised up in what appears to be a friendly wave. It's hard to see who she is - but she's wearing the Ohtori girl's uniform - so surely it must bear the face of a friendly classmate?

At least until she's up close, "Good evening - Shizuki-chan..." And that's the moment that Kozue's waving hand grabs Hitomi by the bow, twisting her around and shoving her against the opposite rail so hard that she's lifting the other girl up off her feet and shoving her against the opposite rail. The metal rail becomes a fulcrum to the skin of the small of her black, precariously overbalancing her upper body over the side

"...don't struggle." Her hand taut as it pulls against her bow, such that the little stitches feel like they might rip if she holds her like that long enough. "... or you'll fall..."

There's something pregnant with menace in the blue-haired girls tone as she leans just over the other girl and murmurs, "You have a bright future ahead of you don't you? Well - you'll continue to have one so long as you tell me /exactly/ which magical girl that shiny key you had went to."

The hand on Hitomi's bow twists even harder. "I don't know how much longer I can hold you like this..." Her assailant observes casually, but the threat of what will happen if a hasty answer isn't offered is unmistakable.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Hitomi has both hands on the handle of the bag in front of her when Kozue approaches her. She regards Kozue politely, if without special warmth. Sayaka's friend or no, Kozue has never given Hitomi much reason to like her. Nor, as it happens, is Kozue looking to start doing so tonight.

Hitomi ends up a fulcrum over the railing, grabbing onto Kozue's wrists to try and avoid falling. Her bag is on the ground, tilted over, her little knit ball charm splayed on a short chain off to the side of it. She's making a constant whine of fear, though the water is not so far below.

"Kaoru-san!" Hitomi gasps. "What are you doing?"

"Kozue," Miki calls, his voice tightly controlled. "That's enough."

Miki and Sayaka stand atop the stairs, from the same direction Kozue came. Miki is in his Council uniform, Sayaka the simpler cream blouse of a normal student. Both have a similar, mournful expression, though Sayaka's is a bit sadder and Miki's more shocked.

"K-kaoru-kun," Hitomi whispers, in a tone of such keen relief that Sayaka glances at Miki's face to see his reaction. Kozue may be happy to know that it's not enough to distract Miki from his twin right now.

"Hitomi-chan, it's okay," Sayaka adds, muted.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Kozue whispers, seeming not to care about Hitomi grabbing onto her wrist.

She allows Hitomi's angle to subtly dip, an illusion of her grip slipping by simply allowing her hand to jerk downward. "Now talk."

However - there's a familiar voice behind her. Too familiar. And Kozue looks over her shoulder with a single eye.

"Is it really in your best interests to stop me /Miki/?"

The girl asks, still holding Hitomi over the water.

"Do you really think I don't know /anything/..." There's something in her gaze that lulls as it looks upon Sayaka. "...about what my twin brother is up to?"

There's something vicious in her smile and it feels like perhaps for a moment - she might just let the girl go, "It's just /like you/ - to get squeamish about dirtying your hands. But..."

And then all of a sudden, Hitomi is yanked back, so suddenly that she might feel thoroughly gaslit about it. Kozue even takes a moment to fluff the girl's bow, before adding- "...if my /onii-chan/ is asking me to stop... it's not like I have a choice."

It feels almost like a parody of submission, like simply because a White Knight - or perhaps Prince - has asked her to stop, then she does so. Like it simply the way of this world.

Yet one can feel the contempt radiating off of her as she lets the other girl go free. "Go on then. Take her." She says venomously - like poison directed specifically at Sayaka - before taking a few steps down the stairs, stretching out the arm that was holding Hitomi over her head, "I've got a busy night ahead of me though - so I'll be home late - Miki."

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

From the look on her face, Sayaka clearly came here determined to get tricked by Kozue a bit less than she normally does. This reference to Miki's doings, though, has the backing of enough unexplained memories that Sayaka is taken aback by it, glancing again to Miki. He makes no denial.

But before the two Mikis can press on the matter at hand, Hitomi's feet drop gently to the ground. Hitomi's luxuriant green hair seems frayed as much by stress as by struggle, and she stares at Kozue carefully, unmoving at first even as Kozue cossets her. Watching Kozue, she takes a step to the side, then forward, cringing lest there be a reaction. Then she hurries forward, climbing the steps, her bookbag abandoned behind her. Sayaka moves to embrace her, but Hitomi reaches Miki first, throwing her arms around his neck. Sayaka looks down at Kozue as she tries to sort out how she feels about that, and for just a moment it's as though the two girls are twins, not Miki and Kozue.

"She wasn't serious," Miki soothes Hitomi awkwardly. Maybe he's trying to convince himself.

"Wait," Sayaka calls. Dropping her own bookbag to the ground, Sayaka unzips it, and lifts a rolled up tee-shirt she's wrapped in tape. Even from this distance, Kozue can hear a whisper of music coming from it. "I answered your question," she says. "So will you tell me why you wanted to know?"

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue appears unfazed by Hitomi's state, though perhaps her vision sharpens at the way Hitomi hugs her brother - instead of her friend who had tried to hug her first.

Staring at Sayaka in that moment where the two seem like twins, more than the boy who's hugging the green-haired girl she's already turned around by the time her brother is soothing Hitomi with that reassurance that is denial.

The girl is in mid-stretch when Sayaka calls out to her, Kozue is all the way to the bottom step, but hasn't quite stepped off, turning around to look at it.

There's a smile.

"Well that's convenient..."

And it feels like Kozue just might.

"No."

Lowering the out-stretched arm, she then holds it out to Sayaka palm up.

"Though if you give it to me right now... you'll save yourself - and your friends a lot of trouble later."

That threat is unmistakable. Kozue doesn't even try to take the edge off of it by implying it might be someone else that comes for it. Someone less nice.

Instead Kozue /is/ that person. The bottom rung of enforcement. She knows very well that she'll be back. That they'll send her rather than one of their Golden Boys.

"I think that's a pretty good offer - don't you Sayaka-chan? No fuss that way. Then you don't have to worry about what happens to Shizuki-chan when she's clumsy around stairs again. Or your best friend's little brother - what was his name again?"

Kozue puts her opposite finger to her chin, "Tat-su-ya-tan?" She sounds it out, like she was simply remembering it.

"He's at that age where kids just... wander off... get into anything..."

The girl just offers this smug little smile, like she's totally uncaring about how this makes her seem to her. "...and his big sister can't exactly be there to watch him while she's at school..."

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Sayaka and Miki both seem frozen. Hitomi knows Tatsuya very well herself, and she's beginning to tremble in horror, shaking her head minutely. Kozue has the stage to herself for the duration of her threat.

Then Sayaka drops the rolled tee shirt back into her bookbag. With three half-step, half-hops, she gallumphs down the staircase, continuing her momentum to rush up to Kozue. Her hand pushes Kozue's shirt beneath the collar, forcing her back a step, then pulls her back to where she started as it twists in. "Do you listen to yourself?" Sayaka demands. "I don't know if you mean that or if you just like hurting me, but either way it has to stop. Your own brother and--" Sayaka struggles for a moment to define herself, "--and /me/, followed you because we were so worried, and this is what you've been doing? Now that SEARRS lost, most people with YOUR part time job were literally born yesterday, out of evil purple smoke and some sort of object you find lying around!"

"Sayaka-chan," Miki warns nervously, nodding at Hitomi.

"I know already."
"She knows already!" the two friends say in unison. Sayaka continues on alone. "So what's your excuse? This isn't what wild animals do!"

Miki blinks at that. Separating Hitomi from his shoulder gently, he whispers, "I think you should go, please." Hitomi glances down at Sayaka.

"Thank you," she tells Miki, holding eye contact with him for a moment, before she starts jogging. Miki had scarcely been paying attention to her at that moment, but suddenly he's confused, and glances after her for a long moment before he turns back to his sister--his two sisters, perhaps.

"Kozue," he implores, his boyish voice kinder than Sayaka's right now. "Let's stop this... okay? Just for tonight, don't worry about the key or the council or whatever you're trying to do. Just... come home on time tonight."

There is a scorched expanse of earth between the two twins which both know not to cross. Miki isn't crossing it, exactly, but he's definitely set foot on it for the first time in a long time, and his anxiety is visible.

"Whatever's wrong, we'll figure it out together," he concludes shyly.

Sayaka, her anger cooled, turns back from Miki to Kozue. She's still holding her shirt, but she gives her a little encouraging nod, too. 

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue gets a few seconds of smug satisfaction for so long as the echo of her threat within their skulls is the only sound she can hear.

And then Sayaka rushes up to her. It's not entirely unexpected. She does not even try to avoid it. Allowing the tomboy to push up her shirt and force her back out.

The girl still keeps that look on her face, though perhaps there's something in her eyes that's more dangerous during this time. Her lips crease together though as she's compared to a creature born of Dark Fall's arcane might.

She simply keeps silent. Even as they sent Kozue away. Even as Sayaka implores her, tries to reach out to her.

And her eyes are past her, on the double image of Miki - a twin of himself.

It's there her eyes are looking at - when Sayaka concludes.

"You don't know anything." Kozue Kaoru says, "I keep trying to tell you - and you just won't listen. You act like everything that happened there was just some battle to be won. Yet all the lives lost - all the real sacrifices made of any consequence... they were all girls - ne?"

There's something in that slasher smile.

"That's the truth of the world that we live in. Everything magical and miraculous doesn't belong to us. Girls like us live and fight - to be used..." She whispers in a sotto voce, "... and abused."

She's still made no motion to wrest herself from her grip. "And wild animals? Heh. They either die-"

Something shimmers into Kozue's hand, a sickle-kama in it's current form with the chain retracted. It glides up to the other girl's neck, where she keeps the blade just shaving length away from their skin, "-or they're tamed. There's no middle ground."

In that reversal of fortune, there's this twitch of her muscles, as it feels like Kozue is about to step forward a split second before she actually does, the sickle held against the skin of the other girl's neck.

"We'll figure it out? Just come home on time tonight? Don't be stupid."

And another twitch before she takes another step, in her inevitable drive to move her to the opposite rail.

"There's no figuring this out. There's no going back to how it was. Besides - do you really want to go back? Do you really want me to come home on time?"

Her eyes glint off the mirror like edge of her Element. "... or would you prefer to walk my /brother/ home and comfort him about how horrible I am? Do you want him to invite you in so you can /see what happens/ when you're alone together?"

The smile disappears into an affect that feels like it might belong more to a cold-hearded serial killer, "Why not tell me just how long you think it'll take for him to 'domesticate' the wild animal in you - Sayaka-chan?"

COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into HiME Kozue! 

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Sayaka shakes her head distantly, her eyes wide. "I try," she says--she tries to listen. "But nothing you say makes sense to me anymore." She's still gripping Kozue's shirt, but it seems like perhaps she does not want to be anymore.

Then she's standing erect, her chin up, Kozue's kama blade resting against her skin. The metal has much in common with moonlight. The whites of Sayaka's betrayed eyes have more. Kozue manages to trade hurt for anger, as she often does lately, needling her captive until Sayaka no longer seems to fear the blade. Isn't that a sort of trust, too? Much as she worries about Kozue killing others, she and Kozue can't help but know that if either really, really wanted the other dead, it would happen. Grimacing, Sayaka touches her throat instinctively as the blade leaves it.

"K-kozue," Sayaka half stammers, half growls. Kozue has such a talent for saying things outright, right in front of the worst possible people. Her final barb startles Sayaka with its audacity, and she jerks, trying to contain her reaction enough to avoid getting herself slashed over it. Glancing to the side in panic over the damage Kozue may be doing to their tripartite sibling relationship, Sayaka expects to see Miki up on the top of the stairs, still, with Hitomi. Instead, neither of them is there, and Kozue is moving forward to force Sayaka against the opposite rail.

Instead, Kozue's kama shrieks as a thin blade slides across it, driving it down to waist level and containing it for now. Sayaka falls ingloriously onto her ass, startled by the sudden blur of motion from just the angle she'd been expecting an attack.

"Kozue!" Miki objects sternly. "Sayaka-chan doesn't think of me like that. We were practically raised together, all three of us! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Sayaka stares mutely at Miki's back for a moment.

Putting his shoulder against the flat of his sword, Miki shoves into Kozue, walking her step by step back towards the water. "If you think things are unfair for girls at Ohtori, then talk to the Chairman! I'll go with you and make sure he listens."

Faintly, Sayaka shakes her head at Miki.

A moment and a rush of water later, Sayaka stands behind him, girded in her armor, a sword in her hand. She does not rush to join the fight, however, instead lowering her head slightly and biting her lip, unsure. This isn't what she and Miki came here to do, and Sayaka's aware that that's her fault, not Miki's. He used words when she started using force.

"She's here for /you/, Kozue," Miki insists. "Don't be so selfish you can't even see that."

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue keeps piercing Sayaka with her pupils more than the blade of her kama. A penetration by her gaze that just seems startlingly vicious. It's like an accusation. 'Do you?' to her plea that she's trying. 'Doesn't it?' to it making no sense. She's always considered Sayaka smarter than most people give her credit for. Even when she acts like she's stupid - says it.

There's a glint of a reflection, and Kozue is jerking the blade away even before Miki's thin blade fully slides across it. Reflex perhaps more telling than any of her words, as it's already out of the way of her throat even before Miki's parry with that skinny epee drives it down to waist level.

Her chin lifts up a little at Miki's challenge of whether it means something.

"What makes you think I want to change anything Miki?" The girl slides her kama blade all the way up to the guard of her brother's, over Sayaka on the ground, as she scrambles up to join him. "What makes you think I'm talking about just Ohtori?" She whispers.

And now as Sayaka girds herself, Kozue is leaning over their crossed blades, in a strange sort of fencing duel. Like she were leaning in for a kiss. "Don't you really like it - the way things are?" It's a position that would be terribly vulnerable if this were a fencing match. Kozue makes no move of her sickle, keeping it locked against her brother's blade, the upper part of her leaning over the low cross.

:As Sayaka watches right on.

The way she leans in so close - using her sexuality as a weapon even on her own brother. "Hmmm? Because-"

She whispers so close to his lips, "-I /love/ it."

It's the same moment that her knee viciously jerks up below his Solar Plexus, as she roughly shoves with a motion from her Kama, sending him hurtling towards Sayaka in what's certain to be a collision.

She trusts the other girl not to impale him on her sword at least.

"Silly boy - you can stuff your outrage on her behalf. For a genius - you can just be /so dumb/ and /so blind/. If you'd only read between the lines..."

The girl makes this little motion at the bottom of her sickle's guard, and the chain suddenly violently drops - descending with enough force that the concrete stair that Kozue's standing on has a large dent on it. Concrete dust floating through the air.

"... then this wouldn't be necessary. You have your letters." Oh yes - she certainly found them. "And I have my orders. We both answer to someone - and all of Sayaka-chan's concern means nothing compared to what a man in power wants. And as for you..."

:She gives her own brother this look of complete contempt.

"...you've reached the limits of where you can order me around - compared to someone like that - Oniichan."

The girl takes a short hop backwards, except her hop carries her off the stairs and to the railing that marks off the walkway from the riverside, the chain giving a scrape of metal off concrete as its jerked backwards to slide to the barrier.

:"Cassandra."

Her image doubles for a moment, to that like a photonegative, then in the water of the river behind her - a giant geyser of water erupts, like a creature from the sky had belly flopped to create the largest cannonball the two had ever seen, showering them all in water as if they'd come just too close to one of those bridges that are strategically placed near water rides.

:"Now - hand the key over and go home."

COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into Kozue and Cassandra!

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Miki startles at first, and Kozue can see the guilt that flickers across his eyes. He blamed himself briefly, didn't he? He thought himself at fault for the fact that their closeness felt intimate. Not /too/ intimate, perhaps--what can be a greater intimacy than twinship?--but the wrong /kind/ of intimate. Sayaka had already been indecisive, but now she is outright frozen, not quite believing this.

It would probably take a lot for Miki to realize his twin sister was hitting on him, but unfortunately Kozue supplies a lot. Gritting his teeth, he shakes his head minutely. What is it Kozue thinks she's understood that the Council hasn't?

His eyes get wider the closer Kozue's face gets to his. He pulls his head back, but he can't /step/ back without releasing the kama, so Kozue is able to pursue deeper past their crossed blades. An incestuous whisper tickles his lips, and his sword rattles quietly with the tremble of his arm. One of three things seems like it's going to happen in the next few moments: he overpowers Kozue, he retreats and gets slashed, or the Kaoru twins kiss on the mouth.

Kozue elects for an option that wasn't on the list, which is typical of her. Miki woofs, taken utterly by surprise, backpedalling bent over like a crab, his sword lifting to defend his retreat as best he can. He doesn't realize Sayaka is behind him, however, and tries to yelp when she catches him unexpectedly, the sound coming out as a cough instead. Miki and Sayaka look at Kozue together as she points out his folly, his face cold, Sayaka's more pained. She picks him up onto his feet, concrete faintly dusting his shoes. Both turn more and more stunned as Kozue continues her reasoning, Sayaka's cheeks warming slightly with humiliated anger.

Now faced with two opponents, Miki and Sayaka glance at one another. Sayaka seems to think they came to an unspoken accord, and suddenly erupts forward, a pale blue circle of music fading where she stood. Miki, from the hand he extends after her, did not have the same interpretation. Sayaka sails past Kozue, tucking her legs to her chestplate to just barely clear Cassandra's dangerous beak. "You gotta be joking!" she calls to Kozue midair. Her boots plant onto Cassandra's metallic back, her sword lifting high.

Miki charges immediately, realizing the danger Sayaka will be in if Kozue and Cassandra can team up against her--in a body of water. His crisp bladework is far superior to Kozue's, and at once he's got her on the defensive, boxing her in and controlling space, trying to force her to rotate away from Sayaka and Cassandra. But that's all he has: that classical fencing of his. Kozue is more well-rounded.

"Kozue," Miki says, consciously forceful. "A-are you saying that if I become more powerful," he disengages from a bad exchange and reenters into a better one. "That if I become someone like that..."

He jukes back to avoid Kozue's chain. "--you'll listen to me?"

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Like HiME like Child, Cassandra could simply attack Sayaka, but she chooses the option that doesn't seem on the list. As Sayaka plants her feet, the Child suddenly lowers her beak rather than turning it upon her.

Lurching underwater - she dives like a bird that's fishing - spoiling her footing as her back angles upwards abruptly and /rolls/ in a diving twist as she enters the water. The Sword blade screaming down the Child's flank, yet off-center, peeling off a metallic plate with a screeh of sparks.

Of course her Child would be like her HiME in this way too. Kozue was always so incredible in the pool.

Simultaneously, as the Child dives - the water rises before Sayaka can follow. A geyser like blast that erupts dead center, and continues to pummel her with short blasts that might feel like musical keystrokes to her. Pressurized streams of water.

The Child looms below like a dark shadow below - twin crimson orbs becoming the only distinguishing characteristic other than its eyes. A creature of the Black Lagoon, a shark in a horror thriller.

Or perhaps it simply calls to mind Kozue holding her breath.

Meanwhile the girl dances on the railing as Miki slices at her feet, forcing her to take short hops as he tests her ability to work her feet on it. A blade swipes at her calf with an elegant blow. And the girl realizing her error - with that leg struck starting to overbalance and topple off.

As she does so though, her arms tosses out a loop of chain, to snag his blade arm before he can capitalize upon her fall.

Landing upon her side - she pulls on the chain hard enough to bring herself up to a knee, and starts to tug him towards her with controlled force. It feels like a dangerous position for him, but she simply holds his tremulous blade at bay, it pointed down at her.

The girl smiles in this way that seems almost smug. "I'm saying if you become someone like that..."

She cranks back on the chain with both arms, trying to keep his arm entrapped - like a spider drawing in prey. There's something dark and terrible in her whisper like she's unveiling one of the cruel truths of the world in a way that seems akin to temptation, "...I won't have a choice. What girl could even think of refusing a guy like that..."

Another tug - the girl is still down on her knees. Her sickle arm not setting up for a strike at all. What is she doing? "Wouldn't you like that Miki- having the power to force me to do-"

Abruptly she lashes out with a leg - trying to hook his ankle and send him sprawling. "-ANYTHING?" Her perhaps figuring that the best way to 'trip up' an elegant fencer is to turn this into a street brawl. To bring him down to /her/ level.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Sayaka tucks her feet again, having lost her feathered platform. She knows Cassandra pretty well by now, enough to preemptively cover her face. It pays off as jets of water batter her back and forth like a ball.

"Kozu--stop--!" she gasps. "Listen to us!" she manages. Then she drops like a cannonball into the water, bubbles trailing behind her, many caught beneath her billowing cape. Opening her eyes beneath the water, the mermaid knight with puffed-out cheeks stares down at the shadowy bulk beneath her. Shuddering either from the cold of the water or the heat of those avian eyes, she summons a circle behind her and uses it to jet through the water.

Despite the water theme of her transformation, Sayaka doesn't visibly use much water in her magic. She is, however, at least reasonably suited to combat underwater, as the summoning circles function well there where many other magical girls' means of mobility would be hampered. Grasping onto Cassandra's wing as she passes, she starts hacking at the pinions. It seems likely that Cassandra can hold her breath longer than Sayaka, but maybe if she's hurt enough, she'll try to escape upwards...

Miki grimaces as Kozue so openly uses his greatest weakness in this fight--he's not willing to hurt Kozue badly. The safest place for his sword is pointed right at her throat. Step by step he's dragged towards her, in the paradoxical position of resisting Kozue's efforts to give him a lethal opening. Glancing towards the water as if hoping Sayaka will save him from this stalemate, he glances back down in horror at Kozue.

"That's not what I meant!" he exclaims. But isn't it? Just because he would make it sound good and Kozue makes it sound bad, is it not the same goal?

And does he have another choice?

Miki's ankle slides from beneath him and his chest hits the ground painfully. It's the right way to fall, actually; he collapses well. But being on the ground is the real problem. Miki hacks at the chain around his ankle, but it's too strong for a light sword like his to break, save perhaps with leverage, and all it does is waste time and strength. As Kozue gets closer, he lodges his sword inside the kama blade again to keep it away. It's less clear to him how badly Kozue is willing to hurt /him/.

Unexpectedly, Miki cuts loose a bit. Kozue's not used to him being willing to shove her this hard, and so he drives her onto her back, straddling her stomach. Forcing her kama down, he pins it next to her head with some effort. "Fine! You think I can't win? Who is this guy?" A casual mode of address like that is as potent as a curse word when it's Miki saying it. "Who do I have to beat for you to listen to me?" 
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Another time - another place. Another summer after summer camp. It would be nice to believe it was then. That Sayaka's cannonball drop into the water was indicative of fun and mischief between the trio. Not that the girl was sinking down to deal with a monster summoned from the girl who taught her how to swim. The bird launches forward at the same moment as Sayaka Miki in this underwater joust. It's wings swinging out like arms stroking before the forward momentum is simply enough that it folds them against its side. It was supposed to deal with her cleanly.

Now she's holding on - and hacking. Hacking away. Bright flashes with every strike as metal is tested by her steel.

Bubbles wrench through the water as the thing shrieks - it must be. It's horrible noise distorted. Then as if it were simply a vessel getting its barnacles scraped off, it twists to the side in the cold water, and scrapes its back against concrete. The concrete giving as it's momentum pulverizes it into a canal shaking explosion of concrete and debris, pulling away in a sharp turn to try to rake what few pinions remain against it - and thus force the girl off of it.

Catching her brother in those loops, it's a sibling wrestling match. Onlookers if there were any compare it to roughhousing to more innocent times.

... except ...

Kozue and Miki were never like that. Never. As young children the idea of hitting each other was unthinkable. Most parents would have trouble conceptualizing the idea of a brother and sister that didn't ever fight.

Look at them now. Just look at them.

Trying to leverage her advantage, her sickle descends, and his blade parries it. Just as he shoves her off-balance, and catches her on the ground, straddling her stomach, blade forced down beside her head, the chain crossing over her torso as she holds it white knuckled in the other hand. It feels like he's won - right?

"Oh? That's what you're worried about?" Kozue has this smile, as if even beaten - she's not truly, "Come on Miki - you've got me." She raises her other hand to her throat, fingers playing with the chain, wrapping it around her hand in little loops, "All you have to do is put your other hand right here - squeeze just right... ... force me to call Cass off..."

It's like he's goading him for his priorities right now, trying to prod him into greater viciousness.

"If you must know - Touga Kiryuu." There's this motion in her eyes in the way she's looking. It's one of those little tells that she's lying - at least obviously. Too obviously for her. "That has to be him right...?" She whispers, baring her throat further - like a wolf before a pack leader in a contest for dominance. "Or maybe you wouldn't believe me even if I told you... he's as high as you can imagine? Isn't he?"

She leans her neck upwards, murmuring, "... there's higher though... men powerful enough that you can't even begin to understand. The fact you think you can fight someone like them... is just..."

The angle of the hand she has at her own throat is such that the elbow is pointing down parallel to her body. "... adorable."

At this angle and distance, the way her fist jerks down to slam into his groin would normally not be so forceful...

... except that her fist is wrapped in chain links. Waiting for him to go slack with the sharp blow to somewhere so vulnerable, she frees her blade, ramming the handle against him to try to shove him off of her.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.

Churned down through the water, Sayaka abandons the wing, reluctantly but hastily, shoving herself free just as it rips through the concrete. And it really is 'just'--her body strikes the ground hard, squeezing out thanks to the smoothness of the wing. Chunks strike Sayaka, bruising her but thankfully slowed by water resistance. She smacks one away with her sword, though the impact sets her arms to ringing. Letting out a few bubbles from her mouth accidentally, her lungs starting to burn, Sayaka shoves off the floor of the canal and charges sword first, her cape wobbling in a stream of bubbles.

The blade doesn't strike head-on, and armor deflects it. Sayaka improvises, scraping it along Cassandra's side, knocking a feather free as she goes, then grasping on to hook her momentum and land atop Cassandra's back. She lifts her sword...

"Stop messing around!" Miki demands. "Like I'm going to choke my own sister!" He tucks his chin slightly, eyes narrowing as Kozue tells him a clear mixture of truth and lies, with no obvious line between them. A look of discomfort crosses his face as she bares her throat as if in ghastly invitation.

Disbelief is almost as painful as the actual impact, when Kozue strikes Miki where she strikes him. ...almost.

Visibly gagging with agony, Miki doesn't resist at all, shoved off to topple back over onto his butt. Keeping one hand against his injured groin, Miki tries to hurry back onto his feet, but takes a false start or two before he can stand, and his posture is still a bit awkward.

"You idiot!" Miki expels. "You don't /get/ it!" Lifting his sword, he grimaces, eyes damp. "You don't think I'll fight Touga Kiryuu? You don't think I'll climb higher than him? I'll do it! I'm tired of things being this way! I'm tired of YOU being this way!"

It's tremulous when it forces out, as if it's bubbling out on pure rage. It's an honesty he hasn't had with her in a long time... perhaps even before he got the flu.

"I want you back," he confesses weakly. 

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue uses the opportunity to rise back up, The knuckles of one hand white as the other sickle, she holds away from Miki - though in a position of readiness. She's slower to rise than before, but rise she does.

There's this look in her eyes that's just a little predatorial when Miki yells at her. Like it truly is meaningless. However then there's like this flicker of disbelief, and for a moment it looks like Kozue is biting on the inside of her lip.

Miki might even catch it. That little nervous habit she had when she was a kid - when she was swinging Aotori-chan around when she was in a particularly shy mood and the situation was getting to her. It's the sort of thing only a twin might know.

Like she's genuinely distressed by this after all.

And then he says it...

With that sort of raw truth. "It doesn't work like th-..." Kozue expels, then her eyelids flicker like shutters for half a heart-beat, like she's trying to begin that again, "... Miki..."

There's a note of truth in that too. Like perhaps she might answer his feelings.

It's the same moment that Cassandra surfaces - in a sloshing mass - water pouring off of her all over. The creature flapping its wings furiously like it itself has been caught by the fish it's been fishing for.

And that blade is lifted like a Sword of Damocles. Cassandra thrashes - her neck turning backwards - rearing as if getting in position to inexpertly skewer the girl with its beak.

And something in Kozue freezes.

Jolted out of whatever might have happened by a singular thought.

If you're going to fight - you'll have to put what's most important to you on the line.

:Her life ending here and now.

The girl calls out only a single word with a shrill desperation. "-SAYAKA!"

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> I Don't Want to Change You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYYdQ_Z-c6s
It feels like it's been a long time since his sister just... said his name, without a sardonic tone, without mocking him. Miki gently lowers the tip of his sword, still holding it between them, but with the point down. His face is tight. He gave in this far, but it doesn't mean he has much trust left. It took so much just to do that.

But maybe... just maybe...

...Kozue has a little left, too.

"Kozue?" Miki asks, softly, pleadingly. It's all he has in him, to make this easier for her.

Sayaka gasps as a great dome of water is lifted by Cassandra's back, then dumps off her rapidly. Red-faced and dripping, she freezes at the sound of her name, her eyes briefly locking with Kozue's. She hesitates, just a moment. Then, with a cry, she brings the sword down hard, dropping her weight with it.

This time, the blade punctures right through, driving a half-foot of steel into the great swan. "I have to save you!" Sayaka shouts back at Kozue, ripping her sword free violently. It tears a feather up, baring a less-armored section of 'skin.' "This THING!" she cries as she hacks down into that section, her balance pernicious, maintaining even as Cassandra bucks. "Ever since it came around, you've changed! It's hurting you!"

Cassandra finally manages to get her head around to peck Sayaka, and she manages to stab Sayaka's leg. Sayaka hauls back and cracks the flat of her blade against Cassandra's head as though she were hitting a home run, forcing the deadly beak away.

Miki body-checks Kozue, wrapping his arms around hers, forcing them to her side. "Sayaka! Wait!" he cries. "Kozue, don't hurt her--Sayaka, you... don't need to do this!"

Kozue can hear in Miki's voice the doubt, the indecision.

The sword stabs deep into Cassandra, so deep that this time Sayaka pulls and it won't come out. "If you won't protect her, I will! It's a monster!" Sayaka yells at him. "Things will never be the same!" Tearfully, she rips another sword into the air, hacking fiercely at the base of Cassandra's neck. "Until..." A beak slashes her shoulder, but with a choked sob of pain, Sayaka rips her sword savagely through the Child, back and forth. "It DIES!"

Bucking, Cassandra manages to drop Sayaka to her knees, but she clings desperately. Like a tick that won't let go. Like a girl in love. She lifts her blade again, and this time she reverses it. Cassandra will be in position to reach around and knock her loose in a few seconds, but the blade is already lifted, and Sayaka's muscles are already reversing direction.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> ibid

"No-!" The girl gasps, "No-!" Cass and her shared a bond. In a way - it's easy for Kozue to imagine that her Child understood her more than anyone else.

That she was not simply an extension of herself - but that she was... not a blood bond - but something else. Something deeper. Perhaps it's like what friendship is supposed to be like. Something pure.

:Which is why of course it'd kill her if she died.

In any other world - the girl might have been touched by Sayaka's feelings of wanting to save her. But in a world where those feelings would kill her Child in a misunderstanding...

"Cass-! Please! Sayaka if you do that- you won't save me- you'll-!"

Her Child is fighting for her life, and Kozue is about to run to her. Which is when Kozue tries to start towards her, even as Miki tackles her and pins her arms, "Miki let go! LET GO! CASS IS GOING TO-"

She shrieks as Sayaka sinks it deep, becoming incoherent for a few moments, a hysteria born out of desperate thought as she watches the girl and Child struggle in their bloody war for dominance. "-PLUH-PLEASE!"

Trying to wrench her arms up and wiggle free, she struggles against her Brother's grip and-

then there's one great moment of clarity that stills her blubbering.

This is going to happen. And there's nothing she can do.

:"... Miki... Miki..."

It's said in the same tone before, though now it sounds wretchedly sorrowful, like someone who's on the executioner's block, "... I'm sorry..." She whispers - and the boy is perhaps startled by the sight of tears in her eyes that are now looking at him. The first he's probably seen her cry openly in years. "... I'm /sorry/."

Even resigned, she's no less frightened, sounding like those times she was hiding below the stairs because strangers were coming to visit - or because a girl who was a family friend was showing up for the first time.

:"Goodbye."

The blade is glinting as it's held overhead - she should be watching - but she finds she does not want to watch Cass die - killed by a cruel misunderstanding by a well-meaning girl. Instead right now, knowing she's about to die. Her eyes are only for the brother she's known since before either of them were born.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The blade drives down all the way to the hilt, this time, right through the base of Cassandra's neck. Cassandra is pacified immediately, falling limp on the surface of the water, turning as slow as the second hand on a clock. Sayaka holds her sword and slowly lifts her face.

"Kozue," she calls softly, hopefully. There's something so affectionate in her eyes that it sparkles her tears.

Miki keeps holding Kozue as she ceases struggling, but he can feel a chill in his chest. Something has been done that can't be undone. His sword clattering to the ground, he catches Kozue more gently, no longer trying to hold her back, just trying to... hold her. His eyes flick back and forth, as if trying to read hers like a book. He doesn't understand.

"Kozue," he bleats back softly, catching up her face with his hand clumsily. "It's all right... /I'm/ sorry. You..."

That goodbye catches up to him slow, but it catches up to him. He freezes for a moment, then looks over at Cassandra. She is slowly dissolving into green flame. Sayaka, somberly, lets the swan fade from beneath her, then gently touches the tip of one boot to the water beneath her. Still surrounded by ethereal green flame, she launches herself, just gently, enough to step onto the sidewalk with the other two.

Miki looks back to Kozue. He understands now. He's supposed to be the smart one, after all.

"No!" he urges her, squeezing his arm around her shoulders. "L-listen," he stammers. He wouldn't have been prepared for this moment seventy years from now, and he's certainly not prepared for it today. His eyes are frantic. "I love you. I love you!" He nods with a desperately unhappy smile.

"Kozue?" Sayaka whispers softly, in a voice that sounds younger than her own.

"Whatever else h-happened, there's two of us," Miki assures her. "Just two, right?"

"Kozue?" Sayaka whimpers, almost inaudible.

"Let's just--!"

Miki's words die on his lips, his hand still cupping Kozue's cheek. His eyes are looking up past her for a moment, then he lowers them, slowly. He does not know what he is feeling. But he /understands/ what he is feeling.

Every wild animal does.

"Let's go home," he whispers. Motes of light are pulsing all throughout his body, visible right through his clothing and flesh. They are more numerous by the moment. Tired, Miki starts to lower his forehead. 

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Ensei - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ntxaXHIWo

Kozue doesn't know the exact moment her Element fades, but it's no longer important that she is holding it. The only things that are important is that right now she's holding Miki. And that the three of them are here the moment they become two. Cass is dead now - and she knows it - and something wrenches inside her. Is this how she is supposed to die? With the feel of Miki's arms around her and the sound of Sayaka's boots as she lands.

"I'm listening..."

She whispers, surprised she has breath left, not even realizing the words that Miki had hoped her to say for so long.

"... I know." She echoes, "... I love you too."

Just the two of them? That no longer sounds quite right to her ears. She'd struggle to remember anything but fragments before there were three. And yet she'd felt that was true for so long, in her darkest moments. That the only relationship that can last is one bound by ties of blood.

"I..."

The back of her hand reaches up to touch Miki's hand, and then-

-her vision is flooded with light. And her eyes are just on Miki. And the moment he understands is the same moment she does.

"No... no... it's not..." She stops - starts, tasting bile, "-it's supposed to be...!"

And now it's her holding him up, the weight of him, her arms around him. "Not like this - I don't want to go home /like/ - /this/!"

And now it's Kozue that sounds younger too. Even feeling lighter, he's starting to sink down - so tired, and she sinks down with him, as she clutches him while kneeling on the ground clinging to him like her stuffed bluebird that she just did not want to give up. "Please - don't go. Don't go. I'll do whatever you want. I'll play the piano again with you... I promise!" She bargains with the boy who looks like he's falling asleep, he doesn't even seem like he's heard her.

Of course not. Right now such a thing that came between them, it feels so meaningless to her - compared to having her Brother.

"Onii-chan!" She cries out, as she holds him close to her, feeling a paternalistic hand taking her away from him again. "...onii-chan... onii-chan..."

There's so little of him left to cling to, he already looks half-asleep, like Kozue remembers him when he's just on the edge of sleep. Even like this... even at the end... "...onii-chan... onii-chan..."

... he still has time for just the faintest hint of a smile to show up, like he was freshly awakened from a pleasant dream.. "It's been years since you called me that..." Then even that smile is claimed, as parts of him rise like fireflies, and Kozue's grip just frantically tries to catch hold of one like a child in summer. If she can only catch one, perhaps she can keep him with her. It's a child's sort of logic. They slip through her fingers as if her fingers don't exist - rising unto the night.

The girl's shoulders shake for a few moments at her failure to preserve even the smallest piece of what made up Miki Kaoru before she screams unto the uncaring night, "ONII-CHA---N!"

The three of them - she'd thought earlier.

Now nothing feels right anymore.

2019-03-26 - TIMELINE 3: Let's Go Home

2019-04-14T21:12:41Z

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: TIMELINE 3: Let's Go Home'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''When Wild Animals Fight - does anyone truly win?''
|-
| '''Who:''' 
[[Kozue Kaoru]], [[Sayaka Miki]], [[Miki Kaoru]], Hitomi Shizuka
|-
| '''Where:''' 
Asakusa Traditional District
|-
| '''OOC - IC Date:''' 
2019-3-26 - Timeline 3
|-
|}

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Hitomi Shizuki's feet are sore. Normal school, cram school, then classical dance. It's night already as she walks home from her station, following the winding path of the Sumidagawa beneath bridges and across walkways. Concrete is frequently both above her head and beneath her feet, but the faint warmth of dusk glitters purple on the water.

Swaying a bit as she goes, Hitomi considers a side trip to a ramen stand. She's supposed to be sticking to a diet, but would it really hurt after she burned calories at dance? She can just tell her mother that she's not hungry, when she arrives home. She's beginning to talk herself into as she nears the staircase that would lead her up from the riverside and into the town proper again, where her much-desired dinner awaits.

These are normal problems, at least. Things are getting back to normal.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Umbra Nigra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O1oOeAoKcw

Prim, proper, ... and even a dancer. She wasn't a musician - the two had nothing in common - however there's something about Hitomi that rankles Kozue Kaoru. It gets under her skin and makes it crawl, like this is who her parents would prefer she were...

...this is who her brother would prefer she were...

...this is maybe even who Sayaka would prefer she were...

...after all - the two were friends, weren't they?

Tailing her she'd worked herself to a boil that was about to simmer over. And while her victim was undeserving of such fury, she got it anyhow.

It's in the form of Kozue appearing at the top of the staircase, the street light above her shading her in silhouette. A hand resting on the rail. The other raised up in what appears to be a friendly wave. It's hard to see who she is - but she's wearing the Ohtori girl's uniform - so surely it must bear the face of a friendly classmate?

At least until she's up close, "Good evening - Shizuki-chan..." And that's the moment that Kozue's waving hand grabs Hitomi by the bow, twisting her around and shoving her against the opposite rail so hard that she's lifting the other girl up off her feet and shoving her against the opposite rail. The metal rail becomes a fulcrum to the skin of the small of her black, precariously overbalancing her upper body over the side

"...don't struggle." Her hand taut as it pulls against her bow, such that the little stitches feel like they might rip if she holds her like that long enough. "... or you'll fall..."

There's something pregnant with menace in the blue-haired girls tone as she leans just over the other girl and murmurs, "You have a bright future ahead of you don't you? Well - you'll continue to have one so long as you tell me /exactly/ which magical girl that shiny key you had went to."

The hand on Hitomi's bow twists even harder. "I don't know how much longer I can hold you like this..." Her assailant observes casually, but the threat of what will happen if a hasty answer isn't offered is unmistakable.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Hitomi has both hands on the handle of the bag in front of her when Kozue approaches her. She regards Kozue politely, if without special warmth. Sayaka's friend or no, Kozue has never given Hitomi much reason to like her. Nor, as it happens, is Kozue looking to start doing so tonight.

Hitomi ends up a fulcrum over the railing, grabbing onto Kozue's wrists to try and avoid falling. Her bag is on the ground, tilted over, her little knit ball charm splayed on a short chain off to the side of it. She's making a constant whine of fear, though the water is not so far below.

"Kaoru-san!" Hitomi gasps. "What are you doing?"

"Kozue," Miki calls, his voice tightly controlled. "That's enough."

Miki and Sayaka stand atop the stairs, from the same direction Kozue came. Miki is in his Council uniform, Sayaka the simpler cream blouse of a normal student. Both have a similar, mournful expression, though Sayaka's is a bit sadder and Miki's more shocked.

"K-kaoru-kun," Hitomi whispers, in a tone of such keen relief that Sayaka glances at Miki's face to see his reaction. Kozue may be happy to know that it's not enough to distract Miki from his twin right now.

"Hitomi-chan, it's okay," Sayaka adds, muted.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Kozue whispers, seeming not to care about Hitomi grabbing onto her wrist.

She allows Hitomi's angle to subtly dip, an illusion of her grip slipping by simply allowing her hand to jerk downward. "Now talk."

However - there's a familiar voice behind her. Too familiar. And Kozue looks over her shoulder with a single eye.

"Is it really in your best interests to stop me /Miki/?"

The girl asks, still holding Hitomi over the water.

"Do you really think I don't know /anything/..." There's something in her gaze that lulls as it looks upon Sayaka. "...about what my twin brother is up to?"

There's something vicious in her smile and it feels like perhaps for a moment - she might just let the girl go, "It's just /like you/ - to get squeamish about dirtying your hands. But..."

And then all of a sudden, Hitomi is yanked back, so suddenly that she might feel thoroughly gaslit about it. Kozue even takes a moment to fluff the girl's bow, before adding- "...if my /onii-chan/ is asking me to stop... it's not like I have a choice."

It feels almost like a parody of submission, like simply because a White Knight - or perhaps Prince - has asked her to stop, then she does so. Like it simply the way of this world.

Yet one can feel the contempt radiating off of her as she lets the other girl go free. "Go on then. Take her." She says venomously - like poison directed specifically at Sayaka - before taking a few steps down the stairs, stretching out the arm that was holding Hitomi over her head, "I've got a busy night ahead of me though - so I'll be home late - Miki."

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
From the look on her face, Sayaka clearly came here determined to get tricked by Kozue a bit less than she normally does. This reference to Miki's doings, though, has the backing of enough unexplained memories that Sayaka is taken aback by it, glancing again to Miki. He makes no denial.

But before the two Mikis can press on the matter at hand, Hitomi's feet drop gently to the ground. Hitomi's luxuriant green hair seems frayed as much by stress as by struggle, and she stares at Kozue carefully, unmoving at first even as Kozue cossets her. Watching Kozue, she takes a step to the side, then forward, cringing lest there be a reaction. Then she hurries forward, climbing the steps, her bookbag abandoned behind her. Sayaka moves to embrace her, but Hitomi reaches Miki first, throwing her arms around his neck. Sayaka looks down at Kozue as she tries to sort out how she feels about that, and for just a moment it's as though the two girls are twins, not Miki and Kozue.

"She wasn't serious," Miki soothes Hitomi awkwardly. Maybe he's trying to convince himself.

"Wait," Sayaka calls. Dropping her own bookbag to the ground, Sayaka unzips it, and lifts a rolled up tee-shirt she's wrapped in tape. Even from this distance, Kozue can hear a whisper of music coming from it. "I answered your question," she says. "So will you tell me why you wanted to know?"
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue appears unfazed by Hitomi's state, though perhaps her vision sharpens at the way Hitomi hugs her brother - instead of her friend who had tried to hug her first.

Staring at Sayaka in that moment where the two seem like twins, more than the boy who's hugging the green-haired girl she's already turned around by the time her brother is soothing Hitomi with that reassurance that is denial.

The girl is in mid-stretch when Sayaka calls out to her, Kozue is all the way to the bottom step, but hasn't quite stepped off, turning around to look at it.

There's a smile.

"Well that's convenient..."

And it feels like Kozue just might.

"No."

Lowering the out-stretched arm, she then holds it out to Sayaka palm up.

"Though if you give it to me right now... you'll save yourself - and your friends a lot of trouble later."

That threat is unmistakable. Kozue doesn't even try to take the edge off of it by implying it might be someone else that comes for it. Someone less nice.

Instead Kozue /is/ that person. The bottom rung of enforcement. She knows very well that she'll be back. That they'll send her rather than one of their Golden Boys.

"I think that's a pretty good offer - don't you Sayaka-chan? No fuss that way. Then you don't have to worry about what happens to Shizuki-chan when she's clumsy around stairs again. Or your best friend's little brother - what was his name again?"

Kozue puts her opposite finger to her chin, "Tat-su-ya-tan?" She sounds it out, like she was simply remembering it.

"He's at that age where kids just... wander off... get into anything..."

The girl just offers this smug little smile, like she's totally uncaring about how this makes her seem to her. "...and his big sister can't exactly be there to watch him while she's at school..."

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sayaka and Miki both seem frozen. Hitomi knows Tatsuya very well herself, and she's beginning to tremble in horror, shaking her head minutely. Kozue has the stage to herself for the duration of her threat.

Then Sayaka drops the rolled tee shirt back into her bookbag. With three half-step, half-hops, she gallumphs down the staircase, continuing her momentum to rush up to Kozue. Her hand pushes Kozue's shirt beneath the collar, forcing her back a step, then pulls her back to where she started as it twists in. "Do you listen to yourself?" Sayaka demands. "I don't know if you mean that or if you just like hurting me, but either way it has to stop. Your own brother and--" Sayaka struggles for a moment to define herself, "--and /me/, followed you because we were so worried, and this is what you've been doing? Now that SEARRS lost, most people with YOUR part time job were literally born yesterday, out of evil purple smoke and some sort of object you find lying around!"

"Sayaka-chan," Miki warns nervously, nodding at Hitomi.

"I know already."
"She knows already!" the two friends say in unison. Sayaka continues on alone. "So what's your excuse? This isn't what wild animals do!"

Miki blinks at that. Separating Hitomi from his shoulder gently, he whispers, "I think you should go, please." Hitomi glances down at Sayaka.

"Thank you," she tells Miki, holding eye contact with him for a moment, before she starts jogging. Miki had scarcely been paying attention to her at that moment, but suddenly he's confused, and glances after her for a long moment before he turns back to his sister--his two sisters, perhaps.

"Kozue," he implores, his boyish voice kinder than Sayaka's right now. "Let's stop this... okay? Just for tonight, don't worry about the key or the council or whatever you're trying to do. Just... come home on time tonight."

There is a scorched expanse of earth between the two twins which both know not to cross. Miki isn't crossing it, exactly, but he's definitely set foot on it for the first time in a long time, and his anxiety is visible.

"Whatever's wrong, we'll figure it out together," he concludes shyly.

Sayaka, her anger cooled, turns back from Miki to Kozue. She's still holding her shirt, but she gives her a little encouraging nod, too.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue gets a few seconds of smug satisfaction for so long as the echo of her threat within their skulls is the only sound she can hear.

And then Sayaka rushes up to her. It's not entirely unexpected. She does not even try to avoid it. Allowing the tomboy to push up her shirt and force her back out.

The girl still keeps that look on her face, though perhaps there's something in her eyes that's more dangerous during this time. Her lips crease together though as she's compared to a creature born of Dark Fall's arcane might.

She simply keeps silent. Even as they sent Kozue away. Even as Sayaka implores her, tries to reach out to her.

And her eyes are past her, on the double image of Miki - a twin of himself.

It's there her eyes are looking at - when Sayaka concludes.

"You don't know anything." Kozue Kaoru says, "I keep trying to tell you - and you just won't listen. You act like everything that happened there was just some battle to be won. Yet all the lives lost - all the real sacrifices made of any consequence... they were all girls - ne?"

There's something in that slasher smile.

"That's the truth of the world that we live in. Everything magical and miraculous doesn't belong to us. Girls like us live and fight - to be used..." She whispers in a sotto voce, "... and abused."

She's still made no motion to wrest herself from her grip. "And wild animals? Heh. They either die-"

Something shimmers into Kozue's hand, a sickle-kama in it's current form with the chain retracted. It glides up to the other girl's neck, where she keeps the blade just shaving length away from their skin, "-or they're tamed. There's no middle ground."

In that reversal of fortune, there's this twitch of her muscles, as it feels like Kozue is about to step forward a split second before she actually does, the sickle held against the skin of the other girl's neck.

"We'll figure it out? Just come home on time tonight? Don't be stupid."

And another twitch before she takes another step, in her inevitable drive to move her to the opposite rail.

"There's no figuring this out. There's no going back to how it was. Besides - do you really want to go back? Do you really want me to come home on time?"

Her eyes glint off the mirror like edge of her Element. "... or would you prefer to walk my /brother/ home and comfort him about how horrible I am? Do you want him to invite you in so you can /see what happens/ when you're alone together?"

The smile disappears into an affect that feels like it might belong more to a cold-hearded serial killer, "Why not tell me just how long you think it'll take for him to 'domesticate' the wild animal in you - Sayaka-chan?"

COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into HiME Kozue!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sayaka shakes her head distantly, her eyes wide. "I try," she says--she tries to listen. "But nothing you say makes sense to me anymore." She's still gripping Kozue's shirt, but it seems like perhaps she does not want to be anymore.

Then she's standing erect, her chin up, Kozue's kama blade resting against her skin. The metal has much in common with moonlight. The whites of Sayaka's betrayed eyes have more. Kozue manages to trade hurt for anger, as she often does lately, needling her captive until Sayaka no longer seems to fear the blade. Isn't that a sort of trust, too? Much as she worries about Kozue killing others, she and Kozue can't help but know that if either really, really wanted the other dead, it would happen. Grimacing, Sayaka touches her throat instinctively as the blade leaves it.

"K-kozue," Sayaka half stammers, half growls. Kozue has such a talent for saying things outright, right in front of the worst possible people. Her final barb startles Sayaka with its audacity, and she jerks, trying to contain her reaction enough to avoid getting herself slashed over it. Glancing to the side in panic over the damage Kozue may be doing to their tripartite sibling relationship, Sayaka expects to see Miki up on the top of the stairs, still, with Hitomi. Instead, neither of them is there, and Kozue is moving forward to force Sayaka against the opposite rail.

Instead, Kozue's kama shrieks as a thin blade slides across it, driving it down to waist level and containing it for now. Sayaka falls ingloriously onto her ass, startled by the sudden blur of motion from just the angle she'd been expecting an attack.

"Kozue!" Miki objects sternly. "Sayaka-chan doesn't think of me like that. We were practically raised together, all three of us! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Sayaka stares mutely at Miki's back for a moment.

Putting his shoulder against the flat of his sword, Miki shoves into Kozue, walking her step by step back towards the water. "If you think things are unfair for girls at Ohtori, then talk to the Chairman! I'll go with you and make sure he listens."

Faintly, Sayaka shakes her head at Miki.

A moment and a rush of water later, Sayaka stands behind him, girded in her armor, a sword in her hand. She does not rush to join the fight, however, instead lowering her head slightly and biting her lip, unsure. This isn't what she and Miki came here to do, and Sayaka's aware that that's her fault, not Miki's. He used words when she started using force.

"She's here for /you/, Kozue," Miki insists. "Don't be so selfish you can't even see that."
[
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue keeps piercing Sayaka with her pupils more than the blade of her kama. A penetration by her gaze that just seems startlingly vicious. It's like an accusation. 'Do you?' to her plea that she's trying. 'Doesn't it?' to it making no sense. She's always considered Sayaka smarter than most people give her credit for. Even when she acts like she's stupid - says it.

There's a glint of a reflection, and Kozue is jerking the blade away even before Miki's thin blade fully slides across it. Reflex perhaps more telling than any of her words, as it's already out of the way of her throat even before Miki's parry with that skinny epee drives it down to waist level.

Her chin lifts up a little at Miki's challenge of whether it means something.

"What makes you think I want to change anything Miki?" The girl slides her kama blade all the way up to the guard of her brother's, over Sayaka on the ground, as she scrambles up to join him. "What makes you think I'm talking about just Ohtori?" She whispers.

And now as Sayaka girds herself, Kozue is leaning over their crossed blades, in a strange sort of fencing duel. Like she were leaning in for a kiss. "Don't you really like it - the way things are?" It's a position that would be terribly vulnerable if this were a fencing match. Kozue makes no move of her sickle, keeping it locked against her brother's blade, the upper part of her leaning over the low cross.

:As Sayaka watches right on.

The way she leans in so close - using her sexuality as a weapon even on her own brother. "Hmmm? Because-"

She whispers so close to his lips, "-I /love/ it."

It's the same moment that her knee viciously jerks up below his Solar Plexus, as she roughly shoves with a motion from her Kama, sending him hurtling towards Sayaka in what's certain to be a collision.

She trusts the other girl not to impale him on her sword at least.

"Silly boy - you can stuff your outrage on her behalf. For a genius - you can just be /so dumb/ and /so blind/. If you'd only read between the lines..."

The girl makes this little motion at the bottom of her sickle's guard, and the chain suddenly violently drops - descending with enough force that the concrete stair that Kozue's standing on has a large dent on it. Concrete dust floating through the air.

"... then this wouldn't be necessary. You have your letters." Oh yes - she certainly found them. "And I have my orders. We both answer to someone - and all of Sayaka-chan's concern means nothing compared to what a man in power wants. And as for you..."

:She gives her own brother this look of complete contempt.

"...you've reached the limits of where you can order me around - compared to someone like that - Oniichan."

The girl takes a short hop backwards, except her hop carries her off the stairs and to the railing that marks off the walkway from the riverside, the chain giving a scrape of metal off concrete as its jerked backwards to slide to the barrier.

:"Cassandra."

Her image doubles for a moment, to that like a photonegative, then in the water of the river behind her - a giant geyser of water erupts, like a creature from the sky had belly flopped to create the largest cannonball the two had ever seen, showering them all in water as if they'd come just too close to one of those bridges that are strategically placed near water rides.

:"Now - hand the key over and go home."
COMBAT: Kozue Kaoru transforms into Kozue and Cassandra!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Miki startles at first, and Kozue can see the guilt that flickers across his eyes. He blamed himself briefly, didn't he? He thought himself at fault for the fact that their closeness felt intimate. Not /too/ intimate, perhaps--what can be a greater intimacy than twinship?--but the wrong /kind/ of intimate. Sayaka had already been indecisive, but now she is outright frozen, not quite believing this.

It would probably take a lot for Miki to realize his twin sister was hitting on him, but unfortunately Kozue supplies a lot. Gritting his teeth, he shakes his head minutely. What is it Kozue thinks she's understood that the Council hasn't?

His eyes get wider the closer Kozue's face gets to his. He pulls his head back, but he can't /step/ back without releasing the kama, so Kozue is able to pursue deeper past their crossed blades. An incestuous whisper tickles his lips, and his sword rattles quietly with the tremble of his arm. One of three things seems like it's going to happen in the next few moments: he overpowers Kozue, he retreats and gets slashed, or the Kaoru twins kiss on the mouth.

Kozue elects for an option that wasn't on the list, which is typical of her. Miki woofs, taken utterly by surprise, backpedalling bent over like a crab, his sword lifting to defend his retreat as best he can. He doesn't realize Sayaka is behind him, however, and tries to yelp when she catches him unexpectedly, the sound coming out as a cough instead. Miki and Sayaka look at Kozue together as she points out his folly, his face cold, Sayaka's more pained. She picks him up onto his feet, concrete faintly dusting his shoes. Both turn more and more stunned as Kozue continues her reasoning, Sayaka's cheeks warming slightly with humiliated anger.

Now faced with two opponents, Miki and Sayaka glance at one another. Sayaka seems to think they came to an unspoken accord, and suddenly erupts forward, a pale blue circle of music fading where she stood. Miki, from the hand he extends after her, did not have the same interpretation. Sayaka sails past Kozue, tucking her legs to her chestplate to just barely clear Cassandra's dangerous beak. "You gotta be joking!" she calls to Kozue midair. Her boots plant onto Cassandra's metallic back, her sword lifting high.

Miki charges immediately, realizing the danger Sayaka will be in if Kozue and Cassandra can team up against her--in a body of water. His crisp bladework is far superior to Kozue's, and at once he's got her on the defensive, boxing her in and controlling space, trying to force her to rotate away from Sayaka and Cassandra. But that's all he has: that classical fencing of his. Kozue is more well-rounded.

"Kozue," Miki says, consciously forceful. "A-are you saying that if I become more powerful," he disengages from a bad exchange and reenters into a better one. "That if I become someone like that..."

He jukes back to avoid Kozue's chain. "--you'll listen to me?"
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Like HiME like Child, Cassandra could simply attack Sayaka, but she chooses the option that doesn't seem on the list. As Sayaka plants her feet, the Child suddenly lowers her beak rather than turning it upon her.

Lurching underwater - she dives like a bird that's fishing - spoiling her footing as her back angles upwards abruptly and /rolls/ in a diving twist as she enters the water. The Sword blade screaming down the Child's flank, yet off-center, peeling off a metallic plate with a screeh of sparks.

Of course her Child would be like her HiME in this way too. Kozue was always so incredible in the pool.

Simultaneously, as the Child dives - the water rises before Sayaka can follow. A geyser like blast that erupts dead center, and continues to pummel her with short blasts that might feel like musical keystrokes to her. Pressurized streams of water.

The Child looms below like a dark shadow below - twin crimson orbs becoming the only distinguishing characteristic other than its eyes. A creature of the Black Lagoon, a shark in a horror thriller.

Or perhaps it simply calls to mind Kozue holding her breath.

Meanwhile the girl dances on the railing as Miki slices at her feet, forcing her to take short hops as he tests her ability to work her feet on it. A blade swipes at her calf with an elegant blow. And the girl realizing her error - with that leg struck starting to overbalance and topple off.

As she does so though, her arms tosses out a loop of chain, to snag his blade arm before he can capitalize upon her fall.

Landing upon her side - she pulls on the chain hard enough to bring herself up to a knee, and starts to tug him towards her with controlled force. It feels like a dangerous position for him, but she simply holds his tremulous blade at bay, it pointed down at her.

The girl smiles in this way that seems almost smug. "I'm saying if you become someone like that..."

She cranks back on the chain with both arms, trying to keep his arm entrapped - like a spider drawing in prey. There's something dark and terrible in her whisper like she's unveiling one of the cruel truths of the world in a way that seems akin to temptation, "...I won't have a choice. What girl could even think of refusing a guy like that..."

Another tug - the girl is still down on her knees. Her sickle arm not setting up for a strike at all. What is she doing? "Wouldn't you like that Miki- having the power to force me to do-"

Abruptly she lashes out with a leg - trying to hook his ankle and send him sprawling. "-ANYTHING?" Her perhaps figuring that the best way to 'trip up' an elegant fencer is to turn this into a street brawl. To bring him down to /her/ level.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Sayaka tucks her feet again, having lost her feathered platform. She knows Cassandra pretty well by now, enough to preemptively cover her face. It pays off as jets of water batter her back and forth like a ball.

"Kozu--stop--!" she gasps. "Listen to us!" she manages. Then she drops like a cannonball into the water, bubbles trailing behind her, many caught beneath her billowing cape. Opening her eyes beneath the water, the mermaid knight with puffed-out cheeks stares down at the shadowy bulk beneath her. Shuddering either from the cold of the water or the heat of those avian eyes, she summons a circle behind her and uses it to jet through the water.

Despite the water theme of her transformation, Sayaka doesn't visibly use much water in her magic. She is, however, at least reasonably suited to combat underwater, as the summoning circles function well there where many other magical girls' means of mobility would be hampered. Grasping onto Cassandra's wing as she passes, she starts hacking at the pinions. It seems likely that Cassandra can hold her breath longer than Sayaka, but maybe if she's hurt enough, she'll try to escape upwards...

Miki grimaces as Kozue so openly uses his greatest weakness in this fight--he's not willing to hurt Kozue badly. The safest place for his sword is pointed right at her throat. Step by step he's dragged towards her, in the paradoxical position of resisting Kozue's efforts to give him a lethal opening. Glancing towards the water as if hoping Sayaka will save him from this stalemate, he glances back down in horror at Kozue.

"That's not what I meant!" he exclaims. But isn't it? Just because he would make it sound good and Kozue makes it sound bad, is it not the same goal?

And does he have another choice?

Miki's ankle slides from beneath him and his chest hits the ground painfully. It's the right way to fall, actually; he collapses well. But being on the ground is the real problem. Miki hacks at the chain around his ankle, but it's too strong for a light sword like his to break, save perhaps with leverage, and all it does is waste time and strength. As Kozue gets closer, he lodges his sword inside the kama blade again to keep it away. It's less clear to him how badly Kozue is willing to hurt /him/.

Unexpectedly, Miki cuts loose a bit. Kozue's not used to him being willing to shove her this hard, and so he drives her onto her back, straddling her stomach. Forcing her kama down, he pins it next to her head with some effort. "Fine! You think I can't win? Who is this guy?" A casual mode of address like that is as potent as a curse word when it's Miki saying it. "Who do I have to beat for you to listen to me?"
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Another time - another place. Another summer after summer camp. It would be nice to believe it was then. That Sayaka's cannonball drop into the water was indicative of fun and mischief between the trio. Not that the girl was sinking down to deal with a monster summoned from the girl who taught her how to swim. The bird launches forward at the same moment as Sayaka Miki in this underwater joust. It's wings swinging out like arms stroking before the forward momentum is simply enough that it folds them against its side. It was supposed to deal with her cleanly.

Now she's holding on - and hacking. Hacking away. Bright flashes with every strike as metal is tested by her steel.

Bubbles wrench through the water as the thing shrieks - it must be. It's horrible noise distorted. Then as if it were simply a vessel getting its barnacles scraped off, it twists to the side in the cold water, and scrapes its back against concrete. The concrete giving as it's momentum pulverizes it into a canal shaking explosion of concrete and debris, pulling away in a sharp turn to try to rake what few pinions remain against it - and thus force the girl off of it.

Catching her brother in those loops, it's a sibling wrestling match. Onlookers if there were any compare it to roughhousing to more innocent times.

... except ...

Kozue and Miki were never like that. Never. As young children the idea of hitting each other was unthinkable. Most parents would have trouble conceptualizing the idea of a brother and sister that didn't ever fight.

Look at them now. Just look at them.

Trying to leverage her advantage, her sickle descends, and his blade parries it. Just as he shoves her off-balance, and catches her on the ground, straddling her stomach, blade forced down beside her head, the chain crossing over her torso as she holds it white knuckled in the other hand. It feels like he's won - right?

"Oh? That's what you're worried about?" Kozue has this smile, as if even beaten - she's not truly, "Come on Miki - you've got me." She raises her other hand to her throat, fingers playing with the chain, wrapping it around her hand in little loops, "All you have to do is put your other hand right here - squeeze just right... ... force me to call Cass off..."

It's like he's goading him for his priorities right now, trying to prod him into greater viciousness.

"If you must know - Touga Kiryuu." There's this motion in her eyes in the way she's looking. It's one of those little tells that she's lying - at least obviously. Too obviously for her. "That has to be him right...?" She whispers, baring her throat further - like a wolf before a pack leader in a contest for dominance. "Or maybe you wouldn't believe me even if I told you... he's as high as you can imagine? Isn't he?"

She leans her neck upwards, murmuring, "... there's higher though... men powerful enough that you can't even begin to understand. The fact you think you can fight someone like them... is just..."

The angle of the hand she has at her own throat is such that the elbow is pointing down parallel to her body. "... adorable."

At this angle and distance, the way her fist jerks down to slam into his groin would normally not be so forceful...

... except that her fist is wrapped in chain links. Waiting for him to go slack with the sharp blow to somewhere so vulnerable, she frees her blade, ramming the handle against him to try to shove him off of her.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
Churned down through the water, Sayaka abandons the wing, reluctantly but hastily, shoving herself free just as it rips through the concrete. And it really is 'just'--her body strikes the ground hard, squeezing out thanks to the smoothness of the wing. Chunks strike Sayaka, bruising her but thankfully slowed by water resistance. She smacks one away with her sword, though the impact sets her arms to ringing. Letting out a few bubbles from her mouth accidentally, her lungs starting to burn, Sayaka shoves off the floor of the canal and charges sword first, her cape wobbling in a stream of bubbles.

The blade doesn't strike head-on, and armor deflects it. Sayaka improvises, scraping it along Cassandra's side, knocking a feather free as she goes, then grasping on to hook her momentum and land atop Cassandra's back. She lifts her sword...

"Stop messing around!" Miki demands. "Like I'm going to choke my own sister!" He tucks his chin slightly, eyes narrowing as Kozue tells him a clear mixture of truth and lies, with no obvious line between them. A look of discomfort crosses his face as she bares her throat as if in ghastly invitation.

Disbelief is almost as painful as the actual impact, when Kozue strikes Miki where she strikes him. ...almost.

Visibly gagging with agony, Miki doesn't resist at all, shoved off to topple back over onto his butt. Keeping one hand against his injured groin, Miki tries to hurry back onto his feet, but takes a false start or two before he can stand, and his posture is still a bit awkward.

"You idiot!" Miki expels. "You don't /get/ it!" Lifting his sword, he grimaces, eyes damp. "You don't think I'll fight Touga Kiryuu? You don't think I'll climb higher than him? I'll do it! I'm tired of things being this way! I'm tired of YOU being this way!"

It's tremulous when it forces out, as if it's bubbling out on pure rage. It's an honesty he hasn't had with her in a long time... perhaps even before he got the flu.

"I want you back," he confesses weakly.
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Kozue uses the opportunity to rise back up, The knuckles of one hand white as the other sickle, she holds away from Miki - though in a position of readiness. She's slower to rise than before, but rise she does.

There's this look in her eyes that's just a little predatorial when Miki yells at her. Like it truly is meaningless. However then there's like this flicker of disbelief, and for a moment it looks like Kozue is biting on the inside of her lip.

Miki might even catch it. That little nervous habit she had when she was a kid - when she was swinging Aotori-chan around when she was in a particularly shy mood and the situation was getting to her. It's the sort of thing only a twin might know.

Like she's genuinely distressed by this after all.

And then he says it...

With that sort of raw truth. "It doesn't work like th-..." Kozue expels, then her eyelids flicker like shutters for half a heart-beat, like she's trying to begin that again, "... Miki..."

There's a note of truth in that too. Like perhaps she might answer his feelings.

It's the same moment that Cassandra surfaces - in a sloshing mass - water pouring off of her all over. The creature flapping its wings furiously like it itself has been caught by the fish it's been fishing for.

And that blade is lifted like a Sword of Damocles. Cassandra thrashes - her neck turning backwards - rearing as if getting in position to inexpertly skewer the girl with its beak.

And something in Kozue freezes.

Jolted out of whatever might have happened by a singular thought.

If you're going to fight - you'll have to put what's most important to you on the line.

:Her life ending here and now.

The girl calls out only a single word with a shrill desperation. "-SAYAKA!"

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> I Don't Want to Change You - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYYdQ_Z-c6s
It feels like it's been a long time since his sister just... said his name, without a sardonic tone, without mocking him. Miki gently lowers the tip of his sword, still holding it between them, but with the point down. His face is tight. He gave in this far, but it doesn't mean he has much trust left. It took so much just to do that.

But maybe... just maybe...

...Kozue has a little left, too.

"Kozue?" Miki asks, softly, pleadingly. It's all he has in him, to make this easier for her.

Sayaka gasps as a great dome of water is lifted by Cassandra's back, then dumps off her rapidly. Red-faced and dripping, she freezes at the sound of her name, her eyes briefly locking with Kozue's. She hesitates, just a moment. Then, with a cry, she brings the sword down hard, dropping her weight with it.

This time, the blade punctures right through, driving a half-foot of steel into the great swan. "I have to save you!" Sayaka shouts back at Kozue, ripping her sword free violently. It tears a feather up, baring a less-armored section of 'skin.' "This THING!" she cries as she hacks down into that section, her balance pernicious, maintaining even as Cassandra bucks. "Ever since it came around, you've changed! It's hurting you!"

Cassandra finally manages to get her head around to peck Sayaka, and she manages to stab Sayaka's leg. Sayaka hauls back and cracks the flat of her blade against Cassandra's head as though she were hitting a home run, forcing the deadly beak away.

Miki body-checks Kozue, wrapping his arms around hers, forcing them to her side. "Sayaka! Wait!" he cries. "Kozue, don't hurt her--Sayaka, you... don't need to do this!"

Kozue can hear in Miki's voice the doubt, the indecision.

The sword stabs deep into Cassandra, so deep that this time Sayaka pulls and it won't come out. "If you won't protect her, I will! It's a monster!" Sayaka yells at him. "Things will never be the same!" Tearfully, she rips another sword into the air, hacking fiercely at the base of Cassandra's neck. "Until..." A beak slashes her shoulder, but with a choked sob of pain, Sayaka rips her sword savagely through the Child, back and forth. "It DIES!"

Bucking, Cassandra manages to drop Sayaka to her knees, but she clings desperately. Like a tick that won't let go. Like a girl in love. She lifts her blade again, and this time she reverses it. Cassandra will be in position to reach around and knock her loose in a few seconds, but the blade is already lifted, and Sayaka's muscles are already reversing direction.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> ibid

"No-!" The girl gasps, "No-!" Cass and her shared a bond. In a way - it's easy for Kozue to imagine that her Child understood her more than anyone else.

That she was not simply an extension of herself - but that she was... not a blood bond - but something else. Something deeper. Perhaps it's like what friendship is supposed to be like. Something pure.

:Which is why of course it'd kill her if she died.

In any other world - the girl might have been touched by Sayaka's feelings of wanting to save her. But in a world where those feelings would kill her Child in a misunderstanding...

"Cass-! Please! Sayaka if you do that- you won't save me- you'll-!"

Her Child is fighting for her life, and Kozue is about to run to her. Which is when Kozue tries to start towards her, even as Miki tackles her and pins her arms, "Miki let go! LET GO! CASS IS GOING TO-"

She shrieks as Sayaka sinks it deep, becoming incoherent for a few moments, a hysteria born out of desperate thought as she watches the girl and Child struggle in their bloody war for dominance. "-PLUH-PLEASE!"

Trying to wrench her arms up and wiggle free, she struggles against her Brother's grip and-

then there's one great moment of clarity that stills her blubbering.

This is going to happen. And there's nothing she can do.

:"... Miki... Miki..."

It's said in the same tone before, though now it sounds wretchedly sorrowful, like someone who's on the executioner's block, "... I'm sorry..." She whispers - and the boy is perhaps startled by the sight of tears in her eyes that are now looking at him. The first he's probably seen her cry openly in years. "... I'm /sorry/."

Even resigned, she's no less frightened, sounding like those times she was hiding below the stairs because strangers were coming to visit - or because a girl who was a family friend was showing up for the first time.

:"Goodbye."

The blade is glinting as it's held overhead - she should be watching - but she finds she does not want to watch Cass die - killed by a cruel misunderstanding by a well-meaning girl. Instead right now, knowing she's about to die. Her eyes are only for the brother she's known since before either of them were born.

<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Miki [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The blade drives down all the way to the hilt, this time, right through the base of Cassandra's neck. Cassandra is pacified immediately, falling limp on the surface of the water, turning as slow as the second hand on a clock. Sayaka holds her sword and slowly lifts her face.

"Kozue," she calls softly, hopefully. There's something so affectionate in her eyes that it sparkles her tears.

Miki keeps holding Kozue as she ceases struggling, but he can feel a chill in his chest. Something has been done that can't be undone. His sword clattering to the ground, he catches Kozue more gently, no longer trying to hold her back, just trying to... hold her. His eyes flick back and forth, as if trying to read hers like a book. He doesn't understand.

"Kozue," he bleats back softly, catching up her face with his hand clumsily. "It's all right... /I'm/ sorry. You..."

That goodbye catches up to him slow, but it catches up to him. He freezes for a moment, then looks over at Cassandra. She is slowly dissolving into green flame. Sayaka, somberly, lets the swan fade from beneath her, then gently touches the tip of one boot to the water beneath her. Still surrounded by ethereal green flame, she launches herself, just gently, enough to step onto the sidewalk with the other two.

Miki looks back to Kozue. He understands now. He's supposed to be the smart one, after all.

"No!" he urges her, squeezing his arm around her shoulders. "L-listen," he stammers. He wouldn't have been prepared for this moment seventy years from now, and he's certainly not prepared for it today. His eyes are frantic. "I love you. I love you!" He nods with a desperately unhappy smile.

"Kozue?" Sayaka whispers softly, in a voice that sounds younger than her own.

"Whatever else h-happened, there's two of us," Miki assures her. "Just two, right?"

"Kozue?" Sayaka whimpers, almost inaudible.

"Let's just--!"

Miki's words die on his lips, his hand still cupping Kozue's cheek. His eyes are looking up past her for a moment, then he lowers them, slowly. He does not know what he is feeling. But he /understands/ what he is feeling.

Every wild animal does.

"Let's go home," he whispers. Motes of light are pulsing all throughout his body, visible right through his clothing and flesh. They are more numerous by the moment. Tired, Miki starts to lower his forehead.
<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Ensei - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ntxaXHIWo

Kozue doesn't know the exact moment her Element fades, but it's no longer important that she is holding it. The only things that are important is that right now she's holding Miki. And that the three of them are here the moment they become two. Cass is dead now - and she knows it - and something wrenches inside her. Is this how she is supposed to die? With the feel of Miki's arms around her and the sound of Sayaka's boots as she lands.

"I'm listening..."

She whispers, surprised she has breath left, not even realizing the words that Miki had hoped her to say for so long.

"... I know." She echoes, "... I love you too."

Just the two of them? That no longer sounds quite right to her ears. She'd struggle to remember anything but fragments before there were three. And yet she'd felt that was true for so long, in her darkest moments. That the only relationship that can last is one bound by ties of blood.

"I..."

The back of her hand reaches up to touch Miki's hand, and then-

-her vision is flooded with light. And her eyes are just on Miki. And the moment he understands is the same moment she does.

"No... no... it's not..." She stops - starts, tasting bile, "-it's supposed to be...!"

And now it's her holding him up, the weight of him, her arms around him. "Not like this - I don't want to go home /like/ - /this/!"

And now it's Kozue that sounds younger too. Even feeling lighter, he's starting to sink down - so tired, and she sinks down with him, as she clutches him while kneeling on the ground clinging to him like her stuffed bluebird that she just did not want to give up. "Please - don't go. Don't go. I'll do whatever you want. I'll play the piano again with you... I promise!" She bargains with the boy who looks like he's falling asleep, he doesn't even seem like he's heard her.

Of course not. Right now such a thing that came between them, it feels so meaningless to her - compared to having her Brother.

"Onii-chan!" She cries out, as she holds him close to her, feeling a paternalistic hand taking her away from him again. "...onii-chan... onii-chan..."

There's so little of him left to cling to, he already looks half-asleep, like Kozue remembers him when he's just on the edge of sleep. Even like this... even at the end... "...onii-chan... onii-chan..."

... he still has time for just the faintest hint of a smile to show up, like he was freshly awakened from a pleasant dream.. "It's been years since you called me that..." Then even that smile is claimed, as parts of him rise like fireflies, and Kozue's grip just frantically tries to catch hold of one like a child in summer. If she can only catch one, perhaps she can keep him with her. It's a child's sort of logic. They slip through her fingers as if her fingers don't exist - rising unto the night.

The girl's shoulders shake for a few moments at her failure to preserve even the smallest piece of what made up Miki Kaoru before she screams unto the uncaring night, "ONII-CHA---N!"

The three of them - she'd thought earlier.

Now nothing feels right anymore.

2019-04-06 - TIMELINE X: Blood Trails

2019-04-07T07:45:51Z

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Title: Blood Trails'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''An examination of a decline over many timelines.''
|-
| '''Who:''' 
[[Eri Shimanouchi]], Many Others
|-
| '''Where:''' 
Many Places
|-
| '''OOC - IC Date:''' 
<April 6, 2019 - Many - many - different timelines.>
|-
|}

<SoundTracker> Blood Trails - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwGnW5L_Zrw

When it began

"Kyubey - why would you make a girl like this into a Puella Magi?"

Her quarry is hanging in a criss-cross web of so many transparent strings. Her trigger finger tightens almost imperceptibly. The girl who is facing down the point of her crossbow, she can see the fear in her eyes.

Which is the same moment a pink arrow strikes the ground beneath her feet. "No no-!" And brilliant ribbons slice free the bonds of the girl she had dead to rights. "Not right now!"

The girl topples to the ground, and she decides it's not worth fighting the three of them. "Don't come back if you know what's good for you." She warns, before her image ripples out of sight in a translucent blur. "Poacher."

-=-=-

Another Time

Its been months since she started her feud with this girl. Why was she so stupid to come back? To keep coming back.

The witch overhead telegraphs its warning with a flash of movement, and she leaps out of the way.

The same moment a vine snags her arm.

She has time enough to scream at the unfairness.

Her opponent steps out of the labyrinth what feels like years later, a haunted look in her green eyes.

"It was an accident." She says quietly to herself, as her eyes blink back tears. When pink sheathed arms envelop her not too long after, she is able to believe it might be true.

-=-=-

How many

Two girls disappear. Shinjuku is quietly claimed by a transfer student without fanfare. The new missing person's flier for one of them stays up for only a few months. The other for years to come.

-=-=-

times

A peculiar event occurs when a labyrinth of three witches forms creating a disaster which ravages Shinjuku. The magical girl community has to unite to stop it.

-=-=-

will 

The night air kisses her face. She hardly feels it.

"It was... an accident." She's uncertain who the lie is trying to convince.

A girl sheathed in violet gives her an expressionless stare. "If that is what you need to tell yourself."

What she does not find in Homura Akemi's eyes is found in Mikoto Minagi's arms, "Eri - its okay!" It almost feels like validation, until the other girl adds,

"She was an enemy."

-=-=-

it 

The girl takes her first steps on solid ground again, a husk where a girl once lived behind her. A Puella Magi in yellow has a grave expression, her question matter of fact. "It wasn't the witch. Was it?"

It takes her a few moments to realize she's there.

Her whispered reply is kept to a single word.

"No."

She limps away without any further acknowledgement.

-=-=-

 take

A small girl hightails it into the run around the corner, down an alleyway, one arm limp, only half of herself visible, like something liquid is dripping off of her.

She wears an expression of utter distaste. She was the one to walk out of that, but still...

Just before a gleaming spear pierces her - pinning the battle weary girl to the ground. "Interesting magic you've got there."

Kyouko Sakura casually conjures a shard of metal that punctures the kid's crossbow before it can be raised against her, "Nothing personal kid. Just thinning out the competition."

To her credit it's only half a lie.

-=-=-

before

"I don't know. I guess after what she did to me. It was easier to think of her as some demon or something." She says as she drops her hands into her lap, "A youma, ruling over Shinjuku."

There's something in her her lip that tries to smile and just fails to actually become that. "I thought I was seeing true evil. I thought..."

It's like she's struggling to find the words to articulate it, "She was something I couldn't understand. Couldn't even begin to take in her measure."

Her eyes slide over to who she's speaking to, "Felt like I'd have to lose something to even try..."

She sucks in a nasally breath, as she thinks back on those images. "I was wrong about everything else..."

And it's only then that her eyes begin to feel like they're leaking, "... but I was right about that."

Who is she speaking to?

Anyone who is willing to listen - perhaps.

-=-=-

it ends

OOC Note: If you want your character to be the one who she was speaking to her in the pose before the end - you can assume they were! Those feelings persist through many later timelines, and it is very repeatable.

Previously On Battle Fantasia

2019-02-18T09:35:00Z

Eri:

'''''Previously On Battle Fantasia is a special event that started on Battle Fantasia on 11/11/18.'''''

The five years of Battle Fantasia MUSH roleplay have established a miraculous and tragic [[Timeline|timeline]]...

...but it wasn't the first timeline.

__TOC__

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm2UHRMKtic Cue the music!]

[[File:Previously_on_Battle_Fantasia_labels.png|800px|center|link=Previously_On_Battle_Fantasia]]

===The Wayback Machine===

It is September 20, 2013.

The height of fall. Tokyo is golden and beautiful, afternoons still warm with the memory of summer; beginning to be crisp, in the early morning, with the promise of winter.

It is the second year of the Sister Schools program, which is still new enough to be exciting and also a little uncomfortable. Juuban Public School is about to host the joint sports festival, brushing up their fields. Infinity Institute and Ohtori Academy anticipate shoddiness, but are going to find sportsmanship instead.

But some students suddenly find themselves having to balance the challenge of finding the right partner for the three-legged race with a new life -- a double life -- a secret life.

That's because two weeks ago the demonic army of Dark Fall swept into the heart of the magic worlds, the Fairy Realms, and dislodged their masters. They possessed ancient artifacts and used them to explode fairy castles, and they sealed fairy queens away in teacups. They shattered souls, and remade worlds in their own dark image. And so the cries for help went out -- all of them, drawn by an unseen force, to the same blue ball in Space.

And so it is that today, on Earth, the consequences of centuries, millennia, of planning and battles have come to fruit, as Dark Fall and Ends of the World alike descend not as one, but at once. The greedy fingers of corporate masters tear the dreams out of children's chests in the hunt for the miracle-granting Embryo. A coterie of Belkan Knights root in the shadows for the Linker Cores of the innocent - leaving them half dead and bereft of magic. Orphans stir on Southern Cross Island, finding victims to feed on, as their master's mark blazes in the sky. Underground, the Order of the Glittering Crux seeks to release the seals that will allow them to summon their magitechnological wonders into the real world, and seize it for their own. Witches throng in the shadows, their attention called by the despair of those who see how bleak the world is, their Kiss drawing still more into that trap. Above, the Castle Where Eternity Dwells silently waits to see whose heart will next be savaged by the Duels it oversees. And in the North, Queen Beryl's empire rises again, to finally and absolutely conquer the Earth and therefore the crown jewel of the universe...

But the guardians of Earth are rising. Tokyo is where that battle will be fought; as Pretty Cures are found by the refugees of the Fairy Worlds, and HiME once more flock to the Land of Fuuka, now called Southern Cross Island, and the Silver Millennium's Sailor Senshi stir at last from their millennia-long slumber. The darkness is deep; but once, a great queen wished for a light to outshine any darkness.

She will not be disappointed.

She has you.

---

Welcome to 'PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA', our game's next major plot. Starting immediately, we're taking a trip back in time to our world as it was in September 2013: a more innocent time, with more innocent characters. New transfer students are new once again. Virtually everyone is a freshly recruited magical girl, taking their first steps into the world of fighting evil by moonlight -- youma are scary and their masters mysterious and unknown. Balancing normal and magical life is not old hat but an often-overwhelming act of frantic rushing around and the occasional guilty lie.

And beautiful friendships are about to be born.

===Frequently Asked Questions===

'''WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?'''

Frankly, the game has been in a very dark place for a very long time, and everyone needs a break. PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA will occasionally tackle some heavy truths, but overwhelmingly its tone is intended to be lighthearted and fun -- or at least not oppressively, inescapably awful. It is an opportunity for everyone to get a fresh take on their characters, exploring, in a backwards way, exactly how far they've come.

It is also, frankly, an opportunity for some fan service, and the staff is taking requests on 'alternate timeline' plot points you'd like to see worked into the story. Please email your ideas to battlefantasiastaff@gmail.com or join the brainstorming shared document [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TPfzE1C2d5w4waeg4u8qvS0409jtesO9i4FU8c3eimU/edit?usp=sharing here]!

'''IS EVERYTHING THE SAME?'''

No, and we will get into the differences between the first timeline and the final timeline (our regular game) [[#Timelines|below]].

Obviously, one major difference is that themes and characters that joined the game after September 2013 will have joined it earlier and younger: take a look at your 'school' entries, you'll see you've been sent back two grades! '''(If you are one of these characters, the staff wants to work out the details of your earlier arrival with you -- please contact Pink Moon Stick for a brainstorming session!)'''

Characters from later SEASONS of certain themes who weren't around at game start (here's looking at you, Chibi-Usa-chan) will not be present in September 2013, but can rejoin us as the timeline catches back up with them.

'''WAIT, TIMELINES PLURAL?'''

Yes. We are going to do several, one at a time, and in so doing tell a story, as a game, about the MANY ways things have changed from everyone's original destiny to their current one (not just the hairstyle of Homura Akemi). In each timeline we will be skipping around through the intervening year and a half between past and present to hit various highlight events from the old days that some of our players missed out on, and others would enjoy revisiting.

If you want to remind yourself and come up with a possible wishlist, http://battlefantasia.pinksugarheartattack.net/Timeline is hideously out of date, but it's the earlier stuff we're especially eager to do, so in that sense it's still a useful resource!

'''BUT I WANT TO KEEP DOING 2015 ROLEPLAY!'''

That's completely fine. All 'Previously On' logs are going to be labeled as such; you are welcome to roleplay in the 'current' timeline privately if you like, especially to give yourself a little denouement after certain major events, if you don't want to wait. We stopped at the end of the IC night of May 27, 2015, and will be picking back up on May 28, 2015 eventually; for various spooky plot reasons, please keep your roleplay within the next two days, May 28-29, 2015.

===Timelines===

For log titles, please label which timeline you're roleplaying in with the prefix: TIMELINE #:. So, a scene set in the first timeline might
have the title TIMELINE 1: Welcome To Tokyo!

Each timeline has a game-wide theme designed to help guide the overarching plot of Previously On Battle Fantasia across timelines. There is also a list of differences from the 'final' timeline (regular BF) to help people keep things straight and create prompts for interesting scene opportunities.

Please add to the bullet point list beneath the current timeline to document significant differences as they appear. We will be adding later timelines to this page gradually, along with their notable changes from the previous timeline required to get the roleplay a'rolling.

====Timeline One====
'''THEME: FRIENDSHIP.''' ''Everyone is meeting each other for the very first time. Friendships are born, and they are beautiful. Over the course of the first timeline, the innocence and passion of the magical girl community will be powerful enough to forge a grand alliance, in some respects the opposite of the final timeline. A good opportunity for bitter enemies to become dear friends. That doesn’t mean there is no tension among magical girls, but rivalries tend to be less painful and more hopeful.''

* '''IC Starting Date: September 2013'''
* '''Starting Plots: Sister Schools Athletics Festival, Hosted By Juuban Public School; Fusion'''
:* Madoka Kaname is a newly Contracted Puella Magi and Homura Akemi is a normal girl.
:* Themes/characters that joined at game start are rolled back to... game start.
:* Later themes/characters' integration deals will need to be explained here, please add them in brief after discussing your plan with the staff.
::* '''Miraculous Ladybug''' is pretty much the same except that Hawk Moth began his plot in September 2013 instead of later on. Everyone received their Miraculouses as normal, only they're a little bit younger and cuter.
::* '''Steven Universe''' arrived in Tokyo a little earlier and a little younger, with his powers almost completely unexplored and untested (eg, early season one), because Beach City decided to make their move in 2013 instead of 2015.
::* '''Kasagami Araki''' arrived much earlier and younger in this timeline, as a middle schooler in 9th grade. She notably lacks her cynicism about the world and people in general, being overall more positive and utterly new to her powers as a Duelist.
::* The New Transfer Student List, September 2013:
:::* Homura Akemi
:::* Kasagami Araki
:::* Utena Tenjou
:::* Mai Tokiha
:::* Mikoto Minagi
:::* Makoto Kino
:::* Lera Camry
:* After an eventful transfer to Ohtori - a ''car'' was cut in ''half'' on the boat ride over - Mai is bowled over by a strange girl who moves to attack her, only to run away instead. Mai finds her fainted in a hedge, and realising how hungry she is, brings her home to make some ramen. This is apparently the best thing which has ever or will ever happen, and the girl, Mikoto, attaches to her immediately.
:* 'Buki, amidst trying to get Ohtori students to join her Animal Care Club in the days before the festival, realises that a strange girl is trying to get at the birds in the greenhouse, and meets Mikoto and the cat she's trying to help get a snack. Luckily, she always comes prepared, and she has some canned food Mikoto can offer to her friend instead. Mikoto proceeds to... help... Inori try and get club members, and in the process volunteers herself to help out, instead.
:* Mikoto and Endo meet as the two last entrants to a broom racing contest, and despite the strange match-up, they sweep the competition.
:* After rampaging into the pool, Mikoto is taken to the sports festival's first aid tent, where she is restored by a caring civilian named Yumi Ohzora. She teaches her important facts about money and ownership.
:* Homura Akemi flees the sports festival that occurs on her second day of school, feeling depressed. Madoka, Mami and Eri (a Puella Magi trio, and already fast friends) go to look for her. They find her in a labyrinth, about to be taken by a Witch, and rescue her just in time.
:* Homura, Sayaka, and Hitomi are among the civilians given MIRACLE LIGHTS by the fairy mascots, in order to give the magical girls the power to defeat Fusion. Most of them don't remember this event clearly afterwards, though Homura does.
:* Eri and Mikoto separately come upon a stray cat and start to care for her. When she gives birth, their paths collide. They recruit Madoka, Nori and Homura to help take care of the kittens, which initially are hidden in the Garden Club shed at Ohtori, and eventually are moved to the Kaname household when everyone has to get on a train to go to Hokkaido.
* '''Winter 2013 Plot: Hokkaido and the Star Shards'''
* It is Sunday, December 22nd, the day after final exams -- and the second day of the school trip to Hokkaido (which began immediately after exams ended). As everyone has known for over an IC month, the Sister Schools have decided to pack everyone up and spend their Winter Break all together in the frozen paradise of Hokkaido! For most of an IC week, everyone will be staying at the Kubota Ski Resort (with occasional organized trips into Sapporo proper), skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating, and enjoying the rightfully famous all-you-can-eat crab buffets! While school trips are not /technically/ mandatory, they might as well be -- parents won't let their kids get out of it. It's all been paid for out of the joint Sister Schools Initiative fund, so money is no object.
* In the last three IC months, monster-of-the-day attacks have become all too commonplace (it's mostly been youma and the occasional evil lieutenant). Magical girls have gained a little more experience and comfort with their new powers, but, a few months into their double life, are beginning to really feel the wear and tear of all those little white lies, evenings spent fighting instead of studying, and so forth.
* Characters have had numerous opportunities to meet one another and become friends off the battlefield, allies on the battlefield, or both. People are encouraged to gently hash out progress in their relationships OOCly to make sure they're on the same page, since some fast forwarding is required.
* The major scuttlebutt in the magical community has to do with seven golden "star shards" which have fallen to Earth and nestled themselves in the hearts of seven humans -- if united, they are rumored to be able to grant one single wish. Six of them have emerged (and been fiercely contested by magical girls, men in black, and monsters), though no one is sure who currently has how many. The seventh shard has yet to appear.
:* After distracting a bear from Niramo when the two of them wander away from the lodge, Mikoto becomes worried about that bear not hibernating like all the students say bears are supposed to. Dismissive explanations lead her to investigate on her own, where she runs into Eas, instead. They briefly clash, and Eas immediately exploits the upper hand as she realises that Mikoto is holding back. Luckily, she's willing to talk, if only to make demands, and after Mikoto explains that she really just is out here to investigate the bears, Eas lets her go. Mysteriously, the bear problem is solved.
:* In December 2013, Steven Universe awakens his magical powers on Hokkaido, in the midst of a dire wish to end Christmas; filled with its spirit by his friends and classmates, he manifests his shield for the first time. The resonance of his first Rose Shield tears the wish apart, returning the world to normal.
:* The Moon Princess appears very early (compared to the original timeline), on Hokkaido, after the Maiden of Nightmares sends a lethal attack at Sailor Moon which is taken by Madoka Kaname instead. The Princess wields the Ginzuishou, and a miracle occurs on Christmas Eve.
:::* The Maiden is redeemed by the unlikely forgiveness of her assumed enemies.
* '''Spring 2014 Plot: White Day and Queen Beryl'''
* It is March 13, 2014, and tomorrow is White Day -- the distaff counterpart of Valentine's in Japan, the day that girls give chocolates to their friends and loved ones. It's a stressful time. Who can find enough hours in the day to sit their final exams, defeat the forces of evil, AND make (or even buy!!) chocolate for tomorrow -- and what will happen if this symbol of romance /isn't/ realized? Especially when the battles are reaching a feverish pitch. Most of the Jewel Seeds have been found, and possession over the last few will likely make or break the outcome. The Dueling Game is in full swing. Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoisite and Kunzite, the Four Heavenly Kings, have died in their pursuit of the Moon Princess and her Ginzuishou, as have innumerable youma. There have been countless clashes between Magical Girls, Orphans, and men in black, clashes which are starting to seem like they serve some greater, darker purpose. Last night Sailor Moon and her Court went to the Moon, then returned with the dual burdens of terrible knowledge and a cursed sword. Everyone else woke up this morning having just experienced the same dream about it (+bbread 12/110, 12/111). The very same dream. Winter is just now yielding to spring. The bite in the air has softened into promising warmth. Tiny leaves and other nascent greenery makes the treetops look like they're inhabited by ghosts. The plum trees have blossomed, but the sakura haven't quite yet.
* In the last three IC months, the fledgling bonds of the magical girls have strengthened immeasurably through both battle and time spent in their fledgling, normal lives. Profound relationships have formed. Large sleepovers and other magical girl gatherings have become normal (though, oof, so difficult to find time for). Their might is waxing, as they come into their true power -- the deeper, stranger, more wondrous power of the heart. But so is their danger, for the very same reason, as an open heart... is a vulnerable one.
:* Sailor Moon and friends go to the Moon on the night of March 12, while everyone else suffers a disturbing silvery nightmare, so Madoka calls for a sleepover on White Day, March 14 so they can face the night with the support of one another.
:* At the sleepover, Mami Tomoe coins the group name 'Covenant of Style', which catches on like wildfire.
:* On the morning of March 15, Beryl issues her challenge to the world: threatening all life on it and daring the magical girls to stop her. They disrupt her evil ritual and she is slain at the hands of the Outer Senshi, but not before she murders her much-hated Princess Serenity first. Usagi is revived by the Ginzuishou, which responds to the feelings of her friends, and afterwards they all defeat Queen Metallia together.
:* After the events of the North Pole, Mikoto reassures Homura by carrying her up a tree and showing her how nice high places are.
* '''Summer 2014 Plot: Orphans, and an orphan'''
* It is August 6, 2014. Cicadas whirr staccatos, forcing them through the oppressively heavy air. Nary a breeze stirs across Tokyo Bay; there is no respite from the concrete-gathered might of the sun as it absorbs and re-emits from every surface in the city. Sweat beads at temples, at necklines, at the bottom of the back. But it just makes the ice cream sweeter. The resumption of school is weeks away and the obligations of summer homework might as well be on another planet. It's a long, hot, lazy summer. What a great time to be alive.
* In the last five months: After defeating Queen Metallia and returning home, the magical girls resolved the Jewel Seed Incident (approximately per canon, with the apparent death of Precia and the redemption of Fate, and also per BF canon, with the full withdrawal of the TSAB from Earth and the stranding of Lindy). In terms of trouble on the /rise/, it mostly takes the form of increased Orphan attacks (HiME are busting out all over) and greater activity by Labyrinth -- Nakewameke out the ears, as they strive to fill their Fuko Gauge to the brim, harvesting the despair of Tokyo citizens. Also, everyone went up a grade, which means some middle schoolers are now in high school. Though school is not currently in session.
* Chibi-Usa and Sailor Pluto have arrived in Tokyo. (Black Moon won't be far behind, while the Death Busters were always here but have yet to start overt operations; similarly the Wolkenritter have been present but are just now starting to become truly desperate.) And so has Northa.
:* Mai finds an Orphan during her summer job as a lifeguard, and when the night falls she and Mikoto take care of it. Then Mikoto drags her off to the party which was distracting all the civilians, even though they didn't have an invitation.
:* An Orphan attacks Sensouji Temple, threatening to eat all the cold snacks, only to be brought down by a group of magical girls. It's believed to be a lion dance with very good effects in the aftermath, and the people involved in the battle are lauded as excellent actors.
:* Mikoto continues trying to get through to Eas, finding her after a Nakewameke attack. They share donuts and surprisingly friendly conversation, and Eas gives Mikoto advance warning about her next attack.
:* Kasagami hosts a fancy summer party on behalf of the School Council, featuring the impromptu D.J., Steven Universe.
:* Mikoto and Kasagami spar and no one gets stabbed for real.
:* Steven, Niramo, Ami and Mikoto band together to create THE ULTIMATE SANDCASTLE (plus one whale lord.)
:* Mikoto drags Endo out from his job at the convenience store to go watch fireworks instead.
:* Eas creates her ultimate Nakewameke, and sends out invitations to the magical girls of Tokyo to meet her at Tokyo Tower for a showdown. She nearly succeeds--but when she emerges from her command post to talk to the assembled magical girls, Klein activates his failsafe, and they're left to save themselves /and/ her; she stays on Earth, as a (relatively) ordinary girl.
:* Marinette is caught by her parents one night talking to Chat Noir and thinks they're going out. After a date night at Marinette's residence, the fiction becomes a reality.
* '''Timeline One: Walpurgisnacht'''
:* Walpurgisnacht comes to Tokyo. The magical girls rise to confront it en masse, but not without casualties. Among them are Eri Shimanouchi and Mami Tomoe, which leaves only Madoka Kaname to deal the final blow -- which, legend says, must be dealt by a Puella Magi. She sacrifices herself in order to save the city -- and her friends. And especially Homura Akemi, who hears her last words.
:* Homura makes a Contract with Kyuubey: ''I want to redo my meeting with Kaname-san. But this time, instead of her saving me... I want to be the one to save her!'' She becomes a Puella Magi, and the magic of her wish sends her back in time... ending Timeline One.

=====Timeline One Logs=====
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====Timeline Two====
'''THEME: DREAMS.''' ''Homura's dream has come true -- and that makes it easier for everyone else to pursue theirs, because the life of a magical girl is a whole lot safer when they have an ally who can stop time to keep them from harm. It's mostly a good thing, but there's nothing like peril to inspire rapid bonding, so although the magical girl community is still (relatively) unified, it is slightly more loosely knit than it was in Timeline One. And with a little less magical stress in their lives, people are able to focus more on their individual goals rather than joint ones -- pursuing their different, unique, beautiful dreams.''
* A few months have passed since the timeline began, along with a few major events:
:* Homura Akemi is a newly Contracted Puella Magi who has joined the Mami/Madoka/Eri konbi, and is still learning how to master her unusually difficult powers. Unable to keep the secret, Madoka spilled her guts to Sayaka about being a magical girl within the first forty-eight hours.
:* As with the original timeline, the Sports Festival was a big success, but it seems to have really inflamed competitive spirits and the rivalry between the Sister Schools is more pronounced than before.
:* Fusion was defeated without the girls being sucked inside his soul and freed by their friends and Miracle Lights; it was just a conventional (though the first physically gigantic, and still relatively dramatic) battle.
:* Believing the monster to have eaten her best friend, Puella Magi Madoka battled Dessert Witch Charlotte, alone and crippled by grief. But Sayaka Miki had just been lost in the Labyrinth, and contracted on the spot upon witnessing the battle. Madoka narrowly avoided losing her head as the two defeated their first Witch together.
:* On Hokkaido, the Maiden of Dreams was redeemed without her killing Madoka Kaname or awakening Princess Serenity (because of a timely Homura rescue). That means the identity of the Moon Princess is still a mystery, and the hunt is on. Zoisite and Kunzite are still alive and Queen Beryl has yet to enact her North Pole ritual.
:* Because the timeLOOP has begun, weird temporal effects are occurring, and one of them is that Sailor Pluto basically hit a weird patch of timenoise on her way over, and accidentally overshot her trip. She has arrived just now, in April 2014. (Chibi-Usa will still arrive post-Beryl.)
* There are other minor differences between the second and first timelines as well.
:* In haste, Sayaka wished for the first thing that came to mind. Now with each mystically assured victory the Ohtori Middle School Softball team achieves on its way to an inevitable championship, Sayaka feels less and less fulfilled...
:* Ye-jin Song arrives and is elected new captain of Ohtori Dance Club. Secretly, she's come to help hunt HiME...
:* Madoka has the unusual combination of confidence, time, and commitment to self-improvement to actually go out for sports for once. She joins the Archery Club where she studies diligently alongside Rei.
:* Natsuki and Mikoto's battle on the cruise liner was more serious this time around, and several floors were damaged, but the ship remained structurally intact. Mai's efforts have, once again, seen them going from enemies to friends.
:* Mikoto was introduced to the Puella Magi by Homura, this time, who was eager to meet her old friend again. Mikoto was initially shy, but soon warmed up to her, alongside Madoka, Eri, and the others.
:* Upon realising that Homura was trying to learn how to fight, Mikoto relented to Kasagami's attempts to get her to join Kendo club, so that she could figure out how to teach her.
:* Rather than unintentionally insulting Rei, Usagi instead pleaded for her help in the wake of the bus incidents outside Hikawa Shrine, prompting Rei to commit to protecting Usagi early.
* '''IC Starting Date: April 2014'''
* '''Starting Plots: Student Council Ball; The Jewel Seed Incident'''
* It is April 17, 2014, and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. It's the second week of the new school year. A transformative time, as students acclimate to their new classes, their new classmates, their new clubs (or incessant club recruiters, for the holdouts) -- and now, tonight, their new student councils. Elections are over, and the Sister Schools are celebrating with a shared social that really can only possibly be called a ball, because Ohtori Academy is hosting. Besides having the best venue, they also have the most surprising outcome: Kasagami Araki is the new Ohtori High School Student Council President, having won her victory by a single vote (secretly, Akio Ohtori's, because the Academy is not a democracy...).
* But life isn't just sparkling apple cider and roses. The Jewel Seeds -- called 'Lost Logia' by the offworlders pursuing them, but to any magical girl recognizable as magical jewels that contain the cross-section of terrible power and the potential to grant wishes -- have almost all been found. The dark mage Fate Testarossa, and her allies in Labyrinth, have claimed roughly half; the radiant newcomer, Nanoha Takamachi, and her friends, have the rest. Can Fate's heart be reached before something terrible happens?
:* At the 2014-2015 Sister Schools Student Council Inauguration Ball, Niramo and Takeo get in a fight with some boys who were harassing Suzuka Tsukimura and are disciplined by Kasagami in her role as the new Ohtori Student Council President. Rei and Usagi join the Dance Queen competition with predictable results. Utena encourages Anthy (a Dance Queen nominee) to attend and therefore does as well, wearing one of the dresses they were gifted by the dance committee in solidarity. Disaster strikes as Nanami (who arranged the nomination and the dresses) causes Anthy's dress to dissolve in the middle of the dance floor, but Utena comes to the rescue.
:* At a Dance Club recruitment drive held at Ohtori shortly after the Inaugurational Ball, Niramo receives some much needed confidence from both Ye-Jin and Fumiko. It's enough that Niramo actually reconsiders her choice in clubs, dropping her enrollment in the Anime Club and taking up Dance at Juuban instead.
:* Nanoha Takamachi leads the magical girls in confronting her rival Fate Testarossa; she proposes an all-out one on one duel for the Jewel Seeds, and Fate accepts. But Precia intervenes, ostensibly out of concern that Nanoha's friends will jump in and gang up on her enforcer, and forcibly duplicates Fate with magic, creating a wild battle. Despite her numbers advantage, Fate loses anyway; Precia seizes the Jewel Seeds before Nanoha can and leaves, but not before punishing Fate for her failure both physically and emotionally. Nanoha takes a broken Fate home.
::* Lindy Harlaown makes contact with Nanoha, as does Arf, who can give them the coordinates to the Garden of Time. Nanoha and her friends climb aboard the Arthra to confront Precia in her fortress before she fully activates all the Jewel Seeds and causes an existential threat to the foundations of the multiverse. Fate stays behind, but encouragement from Arf and (unexpectedly) Eas, as well as bearing witness to the support of her friends now fighting Precia in her name, allows her to regain her will to fight. She and Eas catch up and rescue the group at a crucial moment, and then everyone proceeds to confront Precia.
::* But reality is fragmenting quickly, and the group winds up having to pass through Precia's past in order to reach her in the present. A dialogue begins, but whether or not Precia's heart was moved will remain an eternal mystery, because at the moment of truth, she is murdered by Northa, Chief Executive of Labyrinth, who immediately orders Eas to join her in exterminating her allies. Eas tries to bargain with Northa for their lives, which Northa takes as disloyalty; she uses the Jewel Seeds to create doppelganger replacements for all the magical girls, INCLUDING Eas, to be her new, loyal, army. The magical girls must confront these dark reflections of themselves and defeat them before the Garden of Time collapses into less than nothingness; they manage to do so, together, and escape on the Arthra in the nick of time. In the battle, Eas is forced to destroy her Data Diamond to defeat her double, and she joins them without her powers on the ship.
::* As the Arthra returns to Earth, it is abruptly and unexpectedly destroyed by an enormous blast of Dark Energy that came from the North Pole. The magical girls (and the crew) are able to escape, teleporting back to Tokyo just in time to watch the contrails of the surprise attack fade from the sky. It's terrifying power... but now they know where they need to go to put an end to the threat of Queen Beryl.
:* Mami Tomoe and Sayaka Miki acknowledge their growing attraction to one another and begin to date. Homura Akemi and Madoka Kaname are inseparable, but not officially together.
* '''Summer 2014 Plot: North Pole'''
:* The sakura faded and the trees grew leaves -- soft breezes became oppressive heat -- and spring yielded into summer. In late June, school hasn't quite let out for vacation, but that hasn't stopped the Sailor Senshi from taking a trip to the Moon, in part hoping for a way to release the kidnapped Mamoru Chiba, now known as Dark Endymion, from Queen Beryl's brainwashing. The Midchildans, meanwhile, have finished running analyses of the blast that destroyed their spaceship, and are able to organize an operation to storm the pinpointed spot in the Arctic by surprise.
:* The magical girls get separated at the North Pole and begin fighting their way into the Dark Kingdom against the army that appears to defend it. The Inner Senshi die getting their Moon Princess into position to defeat Queen Beryl, but in the aftermath, Usagi is able to revive them. Everyone celebrates, then joins together to oppose the true dark power behind even Beryl's throne, the destructive entity Queen Metallia. The Maiden of Dreams, rescued on Hokkaido, reappears to help at this critical moment. Everyone's hearts join together, and the explosive power of their dreams defeat Queen Metallia. Overcome by their feelings and the transcendent moment, Sayaka and Mami share their first kiss.
:* However, Madoka Kaname uses up all of her magic, and collapses even as Queen Metallia is destroyed for good. Her Soul Gem becomes a Grief Seed, and she becomes a massive Witch, Kriemhild Gretchen. Her friends are forced to face this horror, but Homura Akemi turns away. Armed with the horrible truth of the Puella Magi, she jumps back to the past again to try to prevent this future from ever happening... ending Timeline Two.

=====Timeline Two Logs=====
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====Timeline Three====
'''THEME: TRUST.''' ''As in its complexities, its limitations, and its breakdown. Up until now, being a magical girl has included automatic membership in a sort of collective sisterhood -- the world has been divided into 'the magical girls' and 'the bad guys'. But a simple question changes everything: 'What if the fairy mascots and other sources of power don't actually have the magical girls' best interests at heart?' It's an unbelievable idea, but simply rejecting it means that, for some reason, Homura Akemi is trying to drive a wedge between magical girls and their mascots. In other words: not all magical girls can be trusted. Once planted, this seed of uncertainty can only continue to flower, and has done so spectacularly.''
* Numerous factors have further exacerbated the issue of trust between magical girls. Major examples include:
:* Competitions for limited magical resources, such as Star Shards, Jewel Seeds, and Grief Seeds, have all been far more intense than in previous timelines, with ugly consequences for would-be friendships.
:* Friendly fire is more of a narrative problem in this timeline than it has been (or will be) in others; even girls with the best of intentions might damage the trust of their allies by accidentally clipping them with one of their attacks, in a critical moment.
:* Magical girls are generally less willing to explain themselves and their actions to one another, since it's harder to know who to trust.
:* Secret identities are far more tightly protected than in Timelines One and Two. This means that sometimes people are friends as magical girls and, separately, friends as civilians, but that the crucial bond of trust that connects the two worlds is often missing. Sometimes, things are even more complicated, and magical girl rivals have no idea that their opposite number is their best friend at school.
* Although things are far from outright war, the magical girl community is under strain, and cracks are beginning to show. Rivalries are more heated and less friendly. 'Teams' can also sometimes be understood as 'schisms'. Conversely, true bonds of trust between individual girls are more precious and beautiful than ever. (And like all precious things -- they are vulnerable.)
* '''TIMELINE THREE IS SUBSTANTIALLY DARKER (OR, AT MINIMUM, MORE COMPLEX) THAN TIMELINES ONE AND TWO.''' It is not, however, an exercise in misery. The main 'tragedy' of the timeline, compared to the previous ones, is the environment of paranoia that has sprung up in the community. Even the most open-hearted magical girls have reasons to think more critically and carefully about their counterparts, and the ways of the world, than they normally would. (More reasons, in fact, than in the prime timeline, which did not have Homura Akemi sowing seeds of doubt from the start, nor such extreme competitions for the Star Shards and Jewel Seeds.)
* An entire year has passed since the beginning of this timeline; it is picking up several months after the last one ended, in fact (September; T2 ended in late June). All this is to say that quite a bit has happened, and happened differently, and happened in a way to put strain on trust between magical girls (while in turn forging some unbreakable bonds along the way):
:* The Fall 2013 Sports Festival, and Fusion's assault on Tokyo, occur essentially as they did in Timeline Two.
:* After spending enough time rebuilding her magical girl friendships that they'd have reason to trust her, Homura Akemi reveals the awful truth that Puella Magi are tricked by Kyuubey into accepting a fate where they will become Witches. It does not go over well, and creates a FIRESTORM of rumor and speculation that reaches all corners of the magical girl community. Everyone has heard about it. '''Nobody believes it (no exceptions!).''' Everyone has different opinions on why Homura would make such a claim, some more generous than others.
:* For a variety of reasons which certainly include heightened anxiety, magical girls' unanswered wishes are at the forefront of their minds when the Star Shards' existence becomes revealed, and the fight over them becomes (almost) as vicious between magical girls as it is between magical girls and Dark Fall demons/men in black from Ends of the World.
::*In the end, the star shards are never gathered in one place. Individual shards are painstakingly hidden by their current owners. The Maiden of Dreams remains a broken, nameless entity suffering endless torture within her seven golden prisons -- and nobody even knows that she exists.
:* The Jewel Seeds are hotly contested for basically the same reason. The Device-users of Earth do not line up neatly behind Nanoha Takamachi in her efforts to oppose Fate Testarossa; Endo Naoki especially wants to seize them for himself, which damages his relationship with Ren Aizawa.
::* Precia Testarossa does get her hands on all the Jewel Seeds eventually, after washing her hands of Fate. The magical girls are forced to unite to stop her from permanently sundering reality, and manage to do so, though not everyone participates in the operation. The Harlaowns are not involved; the Arthra is never allowed to come to Earth, due to rampant distrust between the TSAB and the Magic Association. Afterwards, Fate lives with the Takamachis.
:* Events surrounding the North Pole go more similarly to the PRIME timeline than either timelines one or two. In late summer 2014, once Usagi Tsukino is revealed as the Moon Princess, Mamoru Chiba is kidnapped and brainwashed into Dark Endymion, and the Four Heavenly Kings are dead, Queen Beryl issues her collective challenge to the magical girl community and dares them to stop her from making her dark wish.
::* Arriving in disorganized, separate groups, they fail. So, every magical girl in the world except for Sailor Moon and the Inner Senshi are banished to the Multidimensional Chaos World by the force of Beryl's wish. Adventures in bizarro spacetime ensue.
::* Back on Earth, the Inner Senshi die getting Sailor Moon past the DD Girls. She is forced to confront Beryl and Dark Endymion alone, and is narrowly able to do so. Afterwards, her wish for her friends revives the dead and recalls the missing, and everyone gathers together to put a permanent end to Queen Metallia.
::* The Maiden of Dreams is not present to help the girls gestalt their power, and so instead this battle is messy and dangerous. The magical girls triumph without anyone dying, but the aftertaste is a little bittersweet, tainted by injuries, plus the trauma of the uncontrolled dimension-hopping which resulted from Beryl's dark wish.
:* The World Tree roars onto everyone's radar when it's attacked by weird, sword-wielding shadows seemingly trying to disrupt a mysterious sparkly magical girl ritual, and by the end of summer everyone knows it exists, that it's a vitally important conduit of Earth's magical power, and that there's a more-and-less subtle battle being waged between men in black, Dark Fall demons and operatives (especially agents of Labyrinth such as Eas and Soular), Orphans, and the Magic Association, for control of the nexuses of magic that harness the World Tree's strength.
:* The Outer Senshi are present, active and renowned for their brutal determination to save the world by any means necessary without bothering to explain their methods -- in other words, they're the poster girls for how not all magical girls can be trusted.
:* The Wolkenritter are also getting active, creating rumors about magical girls who attack other magical girls in dark alleys -- and fear.
:* Drawn to investigate the source of the crazy rumor about Puella Magi and Witches, Kyouko Sakura and other Puella Magi close in on the Konbi's neighborhood. There aren't enough Grief Seeds to go around, and the question of hunting familiars becomes crucial. Tensions are rising.
:* Summer vacation happened. There was no trip to Okinawa. The return of school is something of a relief for kids stuck in the sweaty concrete prison of Tokyo.
:* Despite everything, magical girls also give each other reasons to trust one another as well. Every day is another act of kindness. Every friendship is its own miracle.
* There are other differences between the second and third timelines as well.
:* You are encouraged to add other differences between the second and third timelines to this list!
:* Please put your September 2013-September 2014 differences here, they're fun and interesting to imagine, especially as things have changed quite a bit between timelines two and three! Weird temporal effects continue to justify larger changes, such as when a character first came to Tokyo or first became a magical girl, as long as it happened after September 2013 (the beginning of Homura's time loops). Please run truly strange ideas by the staff first.
:* Mikoto Minagi and Natsuki Kuga's battle on the ship was once again more serious, with a large hole blown through several floors to expose the fight to the sky, but the ship managed to retain its structural integrity.
:* Mikoto spends a lot of her time searching for her brother, and so she has no time for clubs. Most of her associations are people she's met through Mai; on her own she is awkward and gruff, and does not generally reach out to make friends. Much of her involvement in early magical conflicts simply came down to the fact that Mai was there, rather than any urge of her own to get involved. What was seen as feline whimsy in the prime timeline now becomes much more suspicious: why does Mikoto so often go off on her own? Where was she when they needed help at the North Pole, or when Precia was threatening the world? And why does she keep herself shrouded in such mystery..?
:* The strain of the magical community means that Mikoto has had less exposure to kind life lessons, and so she is a much fiercer fighter. Mai has made what she doesn't approve of clear, and so Mikoto generally tries to avoid killing or doing severe injury to human opponents and will defend civilians, but she has no compunctions against hitting her opponents so hard that they don't want to get up again. She has a wild and unrestrained fighting style which makes it very easy for mistakes to happen and for allies to get hit.
:* Endo Naoki more than briefly considered using the Jewel Seeds to grant his own wish, leading to various squabbles with other Mages. He eventually came around to help stop Precia Testarossa, but harsh feelings may remain. With less sources of trusted support Endo tries to shoulder more of Tokyo's burdens, and listens more closely to the advice of his intelligent device, Fallen Stern.
:* Ye-jin Song is hunting HiME. . .
:* Shizuru Fujino is moving in secret towards the goals of Ends of the World. As the men in black continue to show up at various flashpoints of magical import, a woman in black with a strange red naginata often accompanies them. Her identity is unknown, but she has already shown a frightening ruthlessness that only adds to the cloud of suspicion in place.
:* Rei Hino was much more immediately suspicious of Luna's story of destiny, though she did eventually accept a place in the team. She is fiercely protective of her magical identity, and few people know outside of the Inner Senshi. She has come down especially hard on Usagi, viewing her crybaby idealism as unsuited to the strenuous climate of magical Tokyo. She's hard on the rest of the Senshi, too - and everyone else she comes to care at all about. She is unwilling to trust the rogue elements of the community, and even after a year, is slow to open her heart to her friends. She still carries the fear that if she comes to trust and rely on others, she will be betrayed and tossed aside.
:* Kasagami Araki joins at the end of summer vacation 2014 as the new Student Council Disciplinary Executive, despite being a transfer student and having only just entered the school. She is much more cynical this timeline, having worked for Ends of the World before coming to Ohtori. As DE, she has been put in charge of the civilian patrols for the 'vampires' on campus...and has enthusiastically been assisting in the hunt for HiME as well as the goals of Ends of the World.
:* Ladybug is incredibly secretive, being very formal in her interactions with other magical girls in order to preserve her secret identity. Even her ostensible partner, Chat Noir, gets to hear little more than business from her. Where exactly she's based is hard to tell, as she shows up for monster attacks across Tokyo - though she seems fastest to respond to attacks near Infinity, and takes the longest to appear when attacks happen near Juuban. Unbeknown to ''everyone'', this is because Marinette intentionally waits when there's an attack close to home - a devotion to secrecy that has even Tikki irritated.
:* Sourisi isn't known to be trusting of other magical girls and boys in this timeline, and the only magical entity able to be considered a friend is Takk. Seeing an opportunity in Takk's curiosity and fascination with technology, she has been putting much more effort in learning electric engineering. This has given rise to the placement of hidden mics and low-grade cameras places throughout Tokyo as Niramo tries to figure out who exactly she can and can't trust outside of her magical identity. Unsurprisingly, Ladybug, Chat Noir and Serpentina have the biggest files as she tries to crack their identities.
:* Eri Shimanouchi had a rocky start as a magical girl, feuding with another Puella Magi named Yaori which eventually resulted in the other girl's death. She claims it was an accident but was it really that simple? As a result, she's mildly distrusted by the Magical Girl Community of Tokyo. Since she runs with Mami Tomoe and Madoka Kaname now, it might be that she's been rehabilitated. Yet could it just be that some girls are simply bad apples through and through?
:* Cassandra is the magical girl alias used by the HiME Kozue Kaoru in this timeline. She has a reputation for a delinquent who doesn't get along with many magical girls, infuriating many with her reckless fighting style and sharp tongue. She rarely appears in most supernatural battles, picking and choosing only ones she has a personal stake in.
* '''IC Starting Date: September 2014'''
* '''Starting Plot: SEARRS Invasion'''
* It is September 10, 2014, and Southern Cross Island is apparently infested by vampires. Or maybe it's a stalker. At any rate, girls who go out alone at night are being found unconscious and, from the disarray of their possessions, have been searched for valuables. Magical girls suspect that this is really someone trying to identify them within the ordinary student population of Ohtori Academy. The school has implemented an extremely strict campus curfew enforced by Disciplinary Executive patrols, however, which makes it slightly more difficult to mount the kind of MAGICAL patrols needed to investigate and guard against the real threat. Those who've taken the risk anyway have discovered that the true perpetrators are Orphans -- the native demonic enemy that HiME were born to fight. But Orphans have always seemed mindless in their monstrosity. Could something -- or someone -- be directing their actions?
* From a more normal perspective, summer is finally over, Fall Semester is in session, and for 9th-graders especially, it also brings High School Entrance Exams into focus as a looming existential threat to their ordinary lives. It is harder than ever to find enough time for it all.
* The Fall 2014 Sports Festival is coming up soon. Juuban had it last year, and now it's Ohtori's turn to host, and despite the campus safety issues the plan seems to be moving forward. That makes it roughly the one-year anniversary of most magical girls' careers; a time for reflection. How have things changed since they discovered the world of magic? How have THEY changed?

=====Timeline Three Logs=====
{{#dpl: |category = logs
|titlematch = %TIMELINE 3:%
|notcategory = News Files
|notcategory = cutscenes
|ordermethod = title
|columns = 2
|rowcolformat=width=100%
|suppresserrors = yes
|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki for Timeline Three.
}}

[[Category:Special Events]]

2018-11-10 - Oktavia Menuett II

2018-11-12T15:01:22Z

Eri: Tinyurl is apparently repelled by the wiki.

{|class="toccolours" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Oktavia Menuett II'''
|-
|'''Summary''': 
''The attempt to save Sayaka fails in a deadly way. Oktavia cannot be reached. Kozue decides to follow true love into the dark.''
|-
|'''Who''': 
[[Sayaka Miki|Oktavia von Seckendorff]], [[Madoka Kaname]], [[Nori Ankou]], [[Setsuna Higashi]], [[Mikoto Minagi]], [[Kozue Kaoru]], [[Homura Akemi]]
|-
|'''Where:''' 
Haneda Airport, Oktavia's Labyrinth

|-
|'''OOC - IC Date:''' 
11/10/2018 - 05-27-15
|-
|}

[[2018-11-09 - Oktavia Menuett I|PREVIOUSLY ON BATTLE FANTASIA]]

<Pose Tracker> Oktavia von Seckendorff [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Song to the Moon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxi-sYUT9s

And in the silence that follows, it finally happens. Madoka and what's left of Sayaka are alone for a moment. The greathelm bends down, its dispassionate grille seething with an exhalation. Above her head, Madoka can see there is a sort of wrought-iron wrack holding decorative swords, spread behind Oktavia's neck. The sigil is not innocent, but it is very direct. It's a lot like...

As if summoned by thought, it hits the ground right at Madoka's feet, with a little tin click, bouncing a few times before clacking down onto its back. A Chevalier pin, with a cartoon knight on it.

Far, far above Madoka's head, at the very peak of the sky, the conductor's panel finally came off. There is absolutely nothing there, now that the pin fell.

The world groans as the Mermaid Witch rolls forward like a tide of metal, and with a rush like a clattering train, her palm collides with Madoka, engulfing her. She's flying suddenly, like when Papa used to toss her up in the air when she was even smaller. And when she lands, when gravity returns to, it is Oktavia's baleful face that fills her vision. In the wild aftermath of her momentum Madoka finds a Witch staring at her with wintery calm.

A few dozen Liviannas are looking down at Madoka as one, like glass-eyed bats.

Oktavia's thumb slips past her forefinger. Around Madoka's precious body, her fingers begin to crush in.

It's just firm at first, like when Madoka met Sayaka at the door and invited her in for that first big sleepover with magical girls. It grows tighter, cinching Madoka's chest the way Sayaka's arms did in a grim SEARRS cell. Then it is really squeezing her, the way Sayaka had when she told her how she felt about Kozue. And then, the gauntlet is crushing her like the hardest hug Sayaka ever gave her, that desperate embrace that wrapped all the way around Madoka's small torso to grasp her upper arms too, and mauled endless miserable love into her. It was after Sayaka had been cut to the ground repeatedly trying to protect Madoka from Kasagami Araki.

"I told you! You don't even have permission..." Sayaka shouted, swivelling her grip to seize her sword in both hands. "To look at her!"

It was after she emptied out what felt like half of Tokyo's magical girls to get her back.

Sayaka glanced over her shoulder at Madoka, casually pinching a wink at her. "Sorry you had to wait. Give me just a little longer. Ne?"

After a long sleep.

Carefully tucking one of Madoka's socked feet under a blanket, Sayaka left her on the living room couch.

After a short sprint.

Once freed from her blanket, Madoka's flight is swift and silent. Her arms wrap around Sayaka's chest, her head buries itself between her shoulder blades, nuzzling wordless sobs into her sweatshirt.

But no one is planting random kisses all over Madoka's pink hair. No one is here to make her feel like the greatest miracle the world has ever seen, just because she's okay. No one is washing soap spots off a glass.

Madoka's elbows are forced into her lower ribs, bending rib and joint painfully. A metal thumb is pressing into her lower back. Her nice new high school uniform's sleeves are pinched in the cracks of the gauntlet. Sayaka had never, would never hug Madoka this hard.

The blank, ridged disks set into Oktavia's helm stare. Once it had been easy to believe that cracking away this dark metal would reveal skin, blue eyes, blue hair. But the gauntlet, for all its weight, feels hollow to Madoka. The cold conveys to her skin even through the uniform she and Sayaka waited so long to wear. Yet armor like this must protect something, mustn't it?

Perhaps there is something inside that cannot be touched.

COMBAT: Setsuna Higashi transforms into Cure Passion!
COMBAT: Nori Ankou transforms into La Sirene de Diamant!

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

The path to Oktavia is created by Kyouko's body, in the end, battered straight through layer after layer of protective red diamonds like a ram, and Madoka's next scream, wordless, is all for her. For Kyouko, who would do anything -- and may have just given everything -- for Madoka's very last chance to save her very best friend. For Kyouko, folded on the ground in a puddle of her own blood-redhair.

Madoka's heart is in her throat, as she closes those last few steps to Oktavia's base. It pounds so fiercely, and crazily out of time with the notes of the piano, the unholy orchestra.

It keeps pounding even when the music stops.

Even when she is lifted, high, high into the air.

Even as one of her brown loafers is jarred off, and splashes into the puddle next to the Chevalier pin.

Even as those massive gauntleted fingers begin to constrict.

It pounds harder than ever.

She can't hear her own voice over the roar in her own ears -- the world outside is distant, and tinny, like the music through a single shared earbud on a park bench -- but the others can. The soft groan. The sharp hitch, as the girl realizes she only has a little bit of air left in her lungs, and swallows the noise almost before it started.

What about softball? she'd asked.

What about snacks?

What about everyone?

BGM: Reprise: Raindrops -- Regina Spektor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_oLCJIYOVU

"What about Kozue?" she squeaks out, and those are the last words that her vocal chords are able to buzz; after that there's too little air.

No one has ever seen Madoka's eyes so large. They look like they're about to pop right out of her head, until they narrow in agony, transformed into pink slits, like chasms of petals breaking up the snow-white landscape of her bloodless face. They don't, but tears do, squeezed right out of her. They glitter down towards Oktavia's fingers. Next to her, though, they're too small to really be seen.

Even narrowed, even filled with the sea, her eyes stare -- Madoka stares -- into the grill, achingly close and yet so far away. Her lips purse like her favorite fish impression, which she likes to make to make Tatsuya giggle... and Sayaka, too.

Also like a fish out of water her lungs burn, they flutter miserably inside her, desperate to, unable to, expand. She doesn't feel her own lungs, though. She just feels fire, fire like the droplets raining down on them in that it is a dozen dozen individual tiny fires, starting in random places throughout her and then sliding -- onwards -- inwards.

It dances in front of her eyes in blinding white spots and every one of them could be a glimmer deep within that armor.

There's a little air left. Just a little.

Enough for a whisper.

Even now, she hasn't given up.

"What about me?" implores Madoka.

She is such a savant when it comes to hugging Sayaka that it does not require her to try to fit perfectly into the curves of her shape; they snap together like magnets.

A tear finds another and the two of them collide, then flow rapidly together down and off the tip of her nose.

Madoka hysterically bawls Sayaka's name, over and over, into her friend's arm and shoulder and ear and hair. Into her skin and into her shadows.

Her leg spasms; it has nowhere to go. Even her second shoe cannot escape. It winds up half on and half off, its lip jammed into her ankle.

She flinched from Kyouko's cruel truths and Eri's dark ones, from Homura's anger and frustration and control.

She can't feel her fingertips anymore, only the hissing, fizzing flame.

But not from Sayaka. Not ever.

"Please, Sayaka-chhhhhhh--"

The fire overwhelms her throat, and her vision, and Madoka says no more.

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

There are two Chevaliers unaccounted for in this moment.

One is small; and he would be a liability. He has never entered a Witch's Labyrinth, though he has seen their near occasion. Batiste remains in Shibuya, and he prays; he prays by writing in tiny copperplate script upon a roll of paper. His prayers will reach someone, though nobody here.

The other is of more moderate size, and this Chevalier, la Sirene de Diamant, has been having the devil's own time.

She had lingered in the back, so that there would be a way to move - and because there is the risk that they will not find Oktavia, find SAYAKA, where or how they expect. She makes bright lights (well, 'lights') and is tough. It is a good place for her to be, though the vanguard would have been better; yet that might have harmed the speed they might require.

La Sirene has also been glad to not have people seeing her face, because terror and grief have wracked her. Doubt, too. Can they do this? Is it even possible? It must be - but there is no way for them to be sure. They can beseech her, but la Sirene knows, too, that you may have to call out a thousand times to be heard once.

They may not have a thousand times. They might barely have one!

And there are no more wishes to be had.

So it is that the Siren of Diamonds has been racing through thick, through thin, and through nothing-and-everything-at-all to try to catch up. And not, it seems, a moment too soon:

For la Sirene enters the great dome at the heart of things in time to see Oktavia's thumb press down against Madoka. She had been running full tilt and she does not, exactly, stop, but she does come up momentarily short, the diamonds on the soles of her boots throwing sparks as she stares.

Thoughts fly through her mind like a flock of birds taking flight.

sayaka!

it's enormous.

she has madoka!

where is sayaka in there?

can she hear?

madoka's being crushed!

i can't fight this

it's like a tank!

madoka's getting squashed!!

it's like a brick of

madoka's going to die

and she swings one leg around and leans forwards.

She is not notorious for her speed, most times, but after a stagger-skip of one step she leans forwards. Her eyes wet with tears and the tears sparkle a pink-purple. The same hue flickered through the unlight that limns her in the past, but now it has a much clearer origin, a stronger primary hue: the little slip of pink in that great steel fist.

As she runs, Nori feels the same stuttering, jerking-film-in-a-rusted-projector sense she had before. The way she felt when she saw Mami die, so far away yet so agonizingly close. She feels as if she is splitting, as if parts of her are screaming. Some of them are saying in a chorus that she can't, she can't possibly; her lips move because they can't do anything else as she runs.

"Ma"

If I get this wrong, la Sirene thinks as she accelerates, then nothing else matters. It will be a failure through and through. There will be nothing but the grim skeleton of putting paid to whatever scheme Akemi is up to.

As she thinks this her left hand's fingers contort. Index and pinky extend; thumb presses down harshly against the ring and middle fingers. As she passes the discarded pin, one gorgeous black-leather boot sparkling with immaculate design stands next to a forgotten brown loafer. La Sirene leaps upwards:

"do-"

As she flies, the trailing wisps of ethereal black radiance behind her come up like the tide going out. The leap is impossible enough on its own, but here, now, the impossible is the only hope. Nori thinks to herself: come on, just a little more. Her right leg extends in hope, in anticipation.

"ka--"

It is a matter of about three centimeters, but three centimeters in her favor. The first diamond gets traction and has enough behind it for la Sirene to mount upon the armored limb of the witch. She wheels about, her right hand raising as she screams words that are hardly, in and of themselves, reassurance.

"Les Mysteres, COME!"

There is nothing leisurely about the charm, here. The tiny myocardial tension before her final syllable, la Sirene sighted into the joint of the Mermaid Witch's armor. Inside there is nothing, perhaps, and so it is that the silver-and-black-and-hope flash had no resistance to sliding inside. There is a brief burst -

No sound, other than the defiant scream on silver chords, the 'afterblast' of shape and color evaporating in the environs of the labyrinth. Except that the hand separates from the wrist - the silver light spreading outwards in triumph - and la Sirene's left hand spirals upwards. It might be victory, a moment of glory, if she did not know who she fought.

What la Sirene says next is: "Someone--!!!"

<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Where Cure Passion hit the wall and fell, there is silence; she can't be seen. A moment's distraction was all it took. ...And the Witch looks down to Madoka, and the world groans. So many eyes, on Madoka, precious Madoka, so dear to the girl that this Witch was. ...Is? Is she, still?

One pair of eyes is not on her, at first. Not in the first moment, not as Madoka is crushed. With a heavy breath, instead, a girl in red drags herself up with one hand onto a platform, her arm full of unconscious mage. Carefully, Cure Passion sets Lera down, looks at her for an instant in worry, and up to the familiars. ...And there--There, she sees it.

The Witch, so close to Madoka, so far from her. The girl who is their hope here is so, so small in the hands of the great armored fortress before them. ...Seeing a person clutched in giant hands gives Passion a flash of memory; of many times. ...Of her own actions. And yet, like then, someone comes. La Sirene is running, running. And Passion looks to the girl she chose to work with, to a leader, and sets her eyes. "...I'll come back for you," she promises to the girl she sets on the ground, and turns. From a sprinter's crouch, she darts forward like a bullet, too fast to be seen almost as soon as she starts.

As La Sirene calls forth Les Mysteres, Cure Passion is a blur of flashing red, brilliant crimson in defiance of the gloom of the Labyrinth. A cluster of Aglae begin to converge on not where she is, but where she will be, and she shifts her shoulder forward, impacting and crashing straight on through like an americal football player, or a speeding car barrelling down the street.

'Someone--!!!'

Passion hears, bends at the knee mid motion, and ''leaps'' into the hazy air. Leaps, towards the girl in the falling clutch of a monster. Towards someone who is ''everything'' to someone.

She leaps into silver light, and extends her arms; only there does she slow enough to be seen. As a titanic hand looses its grip, Pretty Cure takes gentle hold of Madoka Kaname and twists, shielding her with her body as she sails up, up, past the Witch--

"I've got you," Setsuna murmurs, for just a shining instant, red light still sparkling around both of them.

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

'No matter what, I can't give up... 'cause I swore my life.'

'I did it so that she wouldn't have to.'

Their devotion is the same. Perhaps Mikoto does not know Kyouko well - but Eri is hers, and her worth is immense.

It is not a complicated input. Kyouko is on one side of the barrier, with the monster who was Sayaka. Mikoto is on the other. She throws herself against it; it holds. She howls protest and warning; she goes unheard. Force will not allow her to reach Kyouko, and she can think of no other way, because she is not thinking at all.

This close to the barrier, the wheels do not menace her. She is free to watch without seeing the way Kyouko is battered, until everything

shatters.

And Madoka screams, and screams, and screams, and there are words to her war-cry but they are not so different at all. And rain drip-drips down as Madoka steps forward, step over deliberate step, past Kyouko's fallen form towards the monster who was Sayaka.

Echoing, a directive.

'Be careful. ...Make sure everybody comes back alive, Mikoto-chan. Everybody you can bring out.'

Echoing, a promise.

'Please take care of me.'

'I will.'

Echoing, a lesson.

'She was its prey. The only way to really help her is to kill our enemy, but I bought us some time.'

Time.

There is no time to run to Kyouko, to press fingers up against the joining of neck and jaw to find the beat there, to search out the gem which is her true self and ascertain her status. Everybody, Yumi said.

"MIROKU!" Mikoto howls, a word still afforded to her even in the depths of berserkergang, as she brings her blade about in full revolution. She plunges the obsidian length into its dark portal, as white light arcs out and casts strange shadows over the orchestra. It is an even more unnerving thing, here.

About the red - is it her reams of hair, pooling around her like a standard left to drape over the tortured ground of a battlefield lost? - erupt obsidian spires, thick and tall, and they crash over Kyouko in a cage of black. The tips, pointing up towards the orchestral pit, are not so unlike spears in their deadly acantha.

A fitting marker. Tomb or bulwark, she cannot stop to say.

There is movement, at the corner of her eyes, smaller than the great and slowly shifting Witch above. Bullet-swift Cure Passion runs, and behind her lays a girl.

Everybody, Yumi said.

Perhaps it is alarming when obsidian erupts about the place Cure Passion left Lera, but it is just another cage, thick volcanic glass which abjures the wheels which have not been lost to distraction.

They are things which remain as Mikoto draws her sword; she maintains them. They are huge things, designed to destroy titans. They will weather familiars well enough. They will protect Kyouko and Lera from the Aglaé, because she cannot stay to defend them.

The only way to really help her is to kill their enemy.

Her, in this instance, is a versatile pronoun. Kyouko, Lera, and...

There is someone else who needs help, after all. And every inch of Madoka is being squeezed away, like a giant moth captured in curious hand. Will it make noise, if it's clenched a little harder? Will she make noise?

It takes long seconds, to draw Miroku around, to tear the magic from the depths of darkness. Time spent on one is time lost to another; Mikoto's assistance is a zero-sum game. But in long seconds la Sirene de Diamant has surged forward, sprung upwards. Mikoto cannot remember her ever leaping so swiftly.

And 'tearing' is a good adjective for magic, right now. It is unlight which floods the sphere which is the world, now, and it rips gauntlet from wrist.

What a pure-hearted cry - for someone, anyone.

If Mikoto had the sense to feel anything but fury, it would be nostalgic.

But as Madoka falls, there is no help a girl like Mikoto can offer her, hands occupied at the hilt of a blade. But as the moments snapshot around her, there is Cure Passion, the intent of her charge now revealed at its apex. That's all they are - moments, divorced in time.

Flashes of the world.

Divorced in time, there was a lesson. And Mikoto had tried so hard to reassure them that she was still here, that she was still focused on their vain hope. She tried and tried until she was pushed under, and now there is no room to think about whether the monster which was Sayaka can hear them, because she does not think at all.

She hears their voices and she sees their movements and she is moving, too.

The monster which was Sayaka has a fish for a tail, and Mikoto knows how to butcher a fish. She can catch them, and gut them, and lay them out to be cooked. There is a midpoint, right about the belly. Carve in and through. It's simple.

Simple things are not always easy.

Everything in a Labyrinth is a matter of life and death. Make sure everybody comes back alive. Take care of her. Echoes over echoes, layering each other and creating a course.

If the Witch is killed, they will be safe.

Mikoto leaps, and Mikoto brings her blade down between massive scales in powerful overhead swing. Fish are fish are fish.

... they don't make noise, either.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

Once upon a time, Kozue Kaoru received a letter from a boy. 'I love your piano playing.' It had said. Kozue had told her twin it was from a boy. And she told everyone else that her brother always covered for her. Is that really how it was though?

The witch world makes a mockery of her lie with the truth that is Sayaka Miki's ear. The beauty of her piano playing made manifest through the twisted beauty of the ideal that is the girl in the window. Odeta might compose the music, play it. Yet it all came from the mind of Sayaka Miki. It is no accident. It cannot be faked.

And there was no boy.

There was only a girl, a grubby tomboy she was forced to spend time with by their parents. The only link they had is that the tomboy loved music. She loved their music. She loved ''her'' music.

From her high vantage point there is the gruesome visage of the baroque helm. Yet Kozue can only see a girl throughout the stages that she'd known her. How did it come to be that first she couldn't be rid of her quickly enough, then later she desired nothing more than to be around her as they grew up together?

The others fight, the others call, and Kozue tries to gather herself up atop Cassandra. Her Child is not inactive. More water is dripping, pooling, gathering. Swelling and intensifying in how swiftly it comes within the center of the labyrinth around the center of Oktavia. Madoka tries to give her a hug.

When she lifts up Madoka, Kozue almost loses her nerve when she realizes this is not an act of tender affection - a protective gesture. "Stop-" Kozue says almost breathlessly. As the pin drops, as the grip starts to increase. "-Sayaka-" She cannot get any volume, as she watches Sayaka start to crush to death a girl she loves so much. A girl that offered Kozue a miracle. "-please."

For all the ways she wanted Sayaka Miki to change. This was never one of them. In her wildest imagination this is not something she ever could have wanted for her.

Yet as she's rescued, Kozue regains her ability to breathe, casting La Sirene, AkaMira, a grateful look to her and Cure Passion as she catches her. "Just in time." Part of her wants to say something else to La Sirene. Something more to her. She knows if she did, if she tried to explain, to La Sirene or to Madoka - or to thank them - she might lose her nerve. So she doesn't. "Keep Madoka safe - please." Junko Kaname would never forgive her if her performance for her daughter ended now. What a strange feeling, to actually care for what a parent thinks of their child.

It is ultimately a step on this emotional journey as readies herself with the knowledge that she has to be brave. The idea that she cannot turn away from this simply to bury her and move on. The idea that she can't let go in that way and doesn't want to. It's fundamental to where the two of them are now - and where they'll be.

It occurs to her that perhaps Sayaka cannot understand, is beyond understanding how they feel. Beyond words.

The idea that she can tell her how the words she has wanted to all along and not be understood because that girl has grown into something trapped within that armor that is too scared, too angry, or too isolated... it's almost too much for her to bear. Even as Mikoto tries to scale Oktavia like a fish - Kozue yells to try to get through to her even in her berserker rage. "MIKOTO - MIKOTO STOP! FALL BACK!"

She yells because it occurs to her - there's a way she can touch her even within her armor. "Everyone. There's something I need to do - something I need to tell her. I know a way. Even if she can't under..." She pauses and suddenly that idea doesn't seem to matter, "No. Even if she can't I'd need to tell her anyway. No matter what." Kozue does not look at them when she says, "I'll be relying on all of you. Don't let anything stop us."

Kozue puts a hand on Cassandra's neck and strokes it affectionately as she murmurs, "You ready Cass? It's time." -and the Child reacts by reaching her neck past her to rub her head against her HiME's cheek. Something in her eyes glimmers as she whispers to her, "I knew I could count on you to understand." She holds her hand against the metal of the Child's neck for a moment, takes another deep breath, finds that she isn't nervous or frightened at all, and smiles as she announces, "Here we go."

The Child immediately surges forth, riding a wave of her ensorcelled waters, barreling towards Oktavia Von Seckendorff like an avian battering ram. Yet it is not her aim to knock her off her platform, it is such an uneven contest of mass after all. The momentary impact jars the Avian Child back down to the stage, where she gets up - remaining in point blank range as she lifts her wings.

The HiME jumps off just before impact, One hand grasping the sickle of her Element. The other - the chain, holding it out as a loop.

She lands right behind the familiar in white. The loop of chain is wrapped around the girl in the window, immediately interrupting her song, before Kozue thrusts her sickle's blade under the chain, binding her forearms in improvised shackles of metal. Pulling her off her seat, she simply lets her impact the floor and lets go, immediately taking her seat.

All the while the Child batters Oktavia over and over at point blank range. Metal shrieking as its wings and beak pound into her. Yet it is simply a distraction for the truth. Water rises up like a living thing, surrounding the center of the labyrinth in an enormous hollow sphere. A shimmering aquamarine mass of rippling water that feels as ephemeral as water itself - neither denying entry or passage through it.

Its purpose is not to be a barrier after all.

Her fingers are on the keys, she needs no time to ready herself. She's not a little girl anymore, nervous about playing solo. This is a stage she could never imagine running from.

BGM Change: Decretum - Piano - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvy_MTGaRtI

Both of Kozue's hands move in synch in a middle octave. Both even in tempo. Then asynchronously so. Her right flies across the keys while the touches of the left becomes heavier. The melody from the HiME causes the Child to react with her assault. Ten lines of water divided into two sets of five cut the circumference of the sphere from both sides joining at the middle, boring into the center with a relentless pressure upon the Mermaid witch.

More powerful streams joins perpendicular to these watery staves, each of these lasting only as long as a key press as they drive into her precisely like a fountain show. The music is put on display by Child even as the HiME gives the melody for her to follow.

The melody weaves a portrait of stubborn ideals. A decision made. A desperate stand in defense of that.

Can any warrior - no, knight stand in defense of reality eroding that away? The witch that stands before them seems to answer the question. Yet the music defies the answer by subsuming it in the romance of the act.

The sweet richness of the melody standing in to convey through the feelings she wishes to convey when words or actions cannot move her. It tries to convey the feeling of the essence of Sayaka Miki.

It is more than a one sided tribute. The composer's feelings always participate in any work of art. And thus it conveys the many myriad moments and feelings that tied them together...

It is love and admiration for the girl who came for her when no one else would.

It is the painfully shy look she gave her when she spoke those words of love.

It is holding her hand as they decide together to jump to her death.

It is the feel of her lips against hers when she's giving her breath...

...and taking it away.

It is triumph, desire, admiration.

It is pain, despair, loss.

And all the feelings in-between which cannot be conveyed with words.

It is everything that encapsulates the love the two share.

Even besides the feelings in the music there is something comforting and familiar in the smell in the normally stagnant air of the witch world, which emboldens her to play with a virtuoso confidence, a scent carried in the spray that drifts over her as the water Cassandra uses recycles itself.

The keys are becoming slippery, yet still she plays, matches that lack of friction upon them, uses it to pick up the tempo faster and faster. She cannot know that by some kindness of coincidence, or by some unexpected miracle of an ordinarily cruel world...

...that the water Cassandra has brought forth carries the subtle chlorinated scent of pool water.

<Pose Tracker> Oktavia von Seckendorff [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Farewell - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7cxspAgzOg

Just as the iron grip threatened to cave in Madoka's ribs, La Sirene de Diamant's heels clank down on a broad metal forearm. Swift as an axe, the unlight drops through the weak point in the Mermaid Witch's gauntlet, severing it neatly at the wrist. The lost hand drops, loosening enough to fall separately from Madoka after a few yards, and belatedly, a jet of black liquid issues from the wound, as the walls of the room quake with a sonorous bellow. Perhaps it is not a liquid, however, but smoke instead; it seems a mix of both, and dissolves away into the air rather than raining down. When the gauntlet hits the ground next to Cure Passion, it doesn't even bounce, such is its weight. Slow tendrils of liquid-smoke start to rise from it.

The Witch's cry hits many notes at once as it vibrates her mouth-grille, striking a dissonant chord. The Elvies that have barred the door unlatch as one, all of their jaws opening at the same time to create a crossed grid of plastic bars and square gaps. Then they start raining down onto the floor, landing on their sides instead of their "feet" this time. Rushing to the Witch's aid, they start chomping their way forward like sharks, the pinch and spread of their jaws scootching them faster and faster.

A disk that recalls Sayaka's old musical rings spreads across the wounded wrist. This one, however, is black instead of white, and the lines of it are jagged like barbed wire. Lifting her sword, Oktavia smashes it down on the obsidian cage protecting Kyouko, which manages to hold for now. The impact is greeted with a unified swipe of bows across strings, as the Livianna orchestra resumes playing its haunting song. Odeta joins swiftly to lead them, her pale hands dancing on the keys. The other cage is tested soon after, as an Aglaé bursts right next to it, wooden shards blunting themselves as they strike the much harder material.

Mikoto is not going to wait around until her cages fail, either. Oktavia's sword swings down at Cure Passion like a hammer, sending chunks of black-painted stage flooring upward into the air, right before Miroku sinks up between the scales of her tail. Kozue urging Mikoto to fall back turns out to be unnecessary, because that tail is a lot more lively than it looks, instantly lashing up into Mikoto and catapulting her back near where Kyouko's 'tomb' is.

Roaring in atop a platform of water, Cassandra gives Oktavia her first taste of an enemy in her own weight class. Oktavia is considerably larger yet, but Cassandra can contend with her monster-to-monster, giant-to-giant. Beak and wing shriek against the armored Witch, drawing gleaming silver scratches in corroded-dark metal. Cassandra manages to wedge herself into the Mermaid Witch's swordarm, pushing it back constantly as the mermaid-tail below lashes up chlorinated spray. Smokeblood dribbles between the scales from Miroku's bite, outlining a small section of their pattern.

Odeta does not resist the conquest of her piano bench, seeming to accept her bonds philosphically as she's dumped overboard. The Liviannas halt along with their pianist, their glassy eyes 'lifting' again to look down at the floor. Their gaze distorts in ripples as the sphere of water rises, and when the first key is pressed, a jet of water disturbs the sphere enough that they can barely be seen at all.

The sphere of water is large enough that everyone except the unconscious Lera is inside it, though some had to be soaked first by its expansion. Oktavia seems confused by the music change, trying to look over Cassandra's shoulder. Then the notes start pelting her with more violent bursts of water, rocking her back and forth, spraying off her armor as its impacts make clumsy clanking noises.

But this is an unequal contest. Oktavia has hooked her sword against the back of Cassandra's neck, and though the metallic Child is resilient enough to bear it for now, it has her pinned. Using her recently handless forearm, the Mermaid Witch begins beating Cassandra's head and avian neck, simply clubbing the elegant swan until it falters. The moment that happens, Oktavia manages to wedge the sword between them and start forcing Cassandra away. The test of strength is rapidly being lost by Cassandra, especially when the dismembered wrist plants against her wing as well. With a hard shove, Oktavia forces Cassandra out to slashing distance, and raises her sword high.

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> Mona Lisa Overdrive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqenL2A9co

Madoka Kaname isn't at home... isn't anywhere she's supposed to be.

Kozue Kaoru is not at the Kaname residence, nor does she haunt a dead girl's bedroom together with another dead girl's body. Wherever Homura Akemi searches, she locates absences instead of mahou. The Chevaliers, the Shepherds, the unaffiliated but intimately involved -- none of them are where they should be when the puella makes her sneaking check-up rounds in the night.

Madoka, Madoka is nowhere to be found, and Homura suffers a sickling echo of rib-creaking sobs. This time, at least, horrible certainty is hers. She need not hunt the mists. She doesn't let shame slow her, though it fills her tip to toes to think of what a crumpled pathetic heap she was when Madoka last saw her. Homura's shame matters as much as the rest of her, balanced against the sanctity of a pink soul: which is to say, it matters not at all.

If everyone is gone, there is only one place they can be.

Her flawed dead heart contracts into a twist of cardiac dread, and she balls a pale fist over her chest with a grimace before reaching for her shield. There is no time -- but Homura Akemi exists to cheat time, and the devil.

-=-=-=-

Tokyo at night smears past, spilled ink running on neon and chrome at the periphery of Homura's vision. She pays it no heed. Her tenacious mind commits every iota of concentration to the pavement screaming beneath the Ducati 996 between her skinny knees -- and to the treacherous snarl of vehicles ahead, coming up so fast they might as well be standing still in comparison.

She's a fluttering slip of a girl in black-white-grey-and-violet astride the sleek machine, like a dainty goth handkerchief tied to a speeding bullet. Leaning low over the motorcycle, she slips between lanes and box-trucks at 120 km/h and squints -- a herd of cars stacks at the coming toll junction and beyond. No good.

There: an unloaded car-delivery semi, its twin tire-track trailer rising up over traffic. Homura downshifts, and the Ducati roars and surges. She freezes time to cut across the nose of a packed station wagon, resuming on the other side with the family of four inside none the wiser to how near disaster passed them, and opens the throttle wide.

Madoka needs her.

The Ducati rears up on its back tire and attacks the trailer -- a teeth-rattling ride up the railing's crosshatched metal -- and the girl and the bike scream into open space. Over cars and trucks and tollbooths, angling across the center divider...

...landing with a shock-killing crunch in the headlong zing of oncoming highway traffic, headed the wrong way into the underground corkscrew of one of Tokyo's massive subterranean junctions. Homura immediately wrenches the bike low and left, and one handlebar rips sparks from the road as she narrowly avoids pancaking on a tanker truck grill.

The orderly bustle of Japan traffic shatters, and some especially polite drivers find themselves hitting their car horns for the first time in their lives. The tunnel reverberates with honks and tortured-metal shrieks, cars colliding with walls and each other in a massive chain reaction. Violent death whizzes by Homura with centimeters of clearance, close enough that the wrong-way whip of her hair in the tunnel turbulence could spell a broken neck if it catches on a passing car's mirror.

Madoka needs her!

Spiraling down between a dozen carcrash dooms, Homura leaves human wreckage in her wake. They don't matter, either, though the girl she loves would not agree. She shoots out of the tunnel exit and onto the Haneda accessway, threading wrong-way between shocked drivers before they can even hit their brakes.

A landing airplane rumbles overhead, racing Homura there. She wins.

-=-=-=-

<Pose Tracker> Homura Akemi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

MADOKA!!

It's a scream, even if it never escapes Homura's throat.

Some things do not get easier with repetition and the passage of time. However many times she sees Madoka in mortal peril, it never fails to drive a spike of terror through her. That Witchly gauntlet might as well clench around Homura's neck.

'Everything you do makes her suffer more,' she'd told Sayaka Miki. Homura doesn't feel vindicated, or sad, or even angry beneath the fear. She was right; she's often right, but... It has yet to make a difference. It has yet to save Madoka's soul.

There's something awful and fitting about how the thing that was Sayaka clutches deathly-hard around Madoka, to Homura. That girl can never let go of things, she thinks. Not even when she's gone, herself.

Cherished pink eyes widen, then go to pained slits -- it's all Homura can focus on from the chamber's entrance, that dead heart lodged up near her esophagus somewhere and choking her. Madoka's leg spasms and Homura runs, runs forward, pelting headlong and uncaring of bounding Aglae just as she was heedless of onrushing traffic, dodging them without really even seeing them. She darts past Mikoto's obsidian cage and its razor-edged protection, past the fallen spearmaiden in her crimson puddle, registers their presence but surrenders wholly to her singular focus.

She does see la Sirene's impossible leap, the arc of salvation writ in silver and black and a touch of a certain shade of pink that cannot help but draw a violet eye. The gauntlet severs; it falls. The center of Homura's world, she falls with it, and so does Homura's stomach.

Cure Passion crashes through a cluster of familiars and catches both of these latter things, though she may only hold Madoka in her arms. Just like that Homura diverts -- to anyone tracking the racing puella and her silent, stone-faced entrance, she simply disappears and then reappears across the room, directly beneath the Pretty Cure and her precious cargo.

Piano music falls note by note, aqueous droplets of melody suffusing the air. Homura ducks between them, letting the beautiful music skim off her like she's a particularly cold duck's back. She launches with all the inhuman strength in her legs to join the two girls above. Like dancers they meet, midair. Homura's hand clamps Passion's upper arm, pale and small and stronger than it looks. They hang upon the apogee of their leaps with Madoka between them, precious and vulnerable.

A giant's sword cleaves downward, seeming slow for its size -- but it simply travels a great distance very, very quickly, and its edge comes for them.

"I'll keep her safe," she shouts through Oktavia's scream-chorus, and whatever other lies and secrets this cold-eyed girl is responsible for -- this is true, desperately true, as true a thing as Homura has ever said.

And cradles with all care, one arm under Madoka's precious knees and the other gathering rounded shoulders to her chest like a bouquet, as if this precious girl could shatter in her arms. And shivers, seared through clothing and skin and bone, though her arms stay strong. Her every nerve is raw with shame, and the familiar gentle weight of Madoka sets each one screaming -- all of Homura knows how unworthy she is of the girl in her arms.

They land and she hears the crash of Oktavia's sword behind, and she does not know whether Cure Passion got out of the way -- but that doesn't matter. Only one thing matters.

"I'll keep you safe," she says, never quite meeting pink eyes, but this time it sounds more like a plea. Please, please let me keep you safe, Madoka.

<Pose Tracker> Cure Passion [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

'I'll keep her safe.'

None of the rest of Passion's fall matters. In the instants before, she sails up, up, barely evading the falling gauntlet that lands precisely where she ought to have been. ...The smoke rises, though; it harries at her back, and the red Cure does not want to know what will happen if she lets it touch her. So, in music playing, Passion's arm is touched--and she hears those words.

'I'll keep her safe.'

Red eyes snap towards Homura's. Less than an instant may feel much, ''much'' longer for the Puella Magi; when last she looked into these eyes, they were darker, duller. Passion remembers well what she'd thought Homura had done, the time they'd clashed in an empty city-world, dark except for the flashes of gunfire and explosives. In that instant, Cure Passion makes a judgement, and Homura can ''see'' it in bright red eyes, expressionless in a way unlike Homura's coldness like night and day. Cure Passion says nothing.

...But she twists towards Homura and passes over the brave girl in her arms. Pink hair is whipped around by the wind even soaked through from the shell of water that erupted out, and Passion keeps turning. It seems slow, so slow, those moments, as if her heartbeats have slowed to a stop.

The sword is coming down. With impossible force, the gigantic weapon swings into her space, and there is a shift, a ''movement'' just before the pieces of black stage erupt all around. Again, there is dust, there is no way to see...

But Passion is standing, battered, one arm hanging at her side instead of obeying her, waterlogged and bruised but staring upward at the Witch again. ...The sound of beautiful music, something she would never think to hear in an Other world like this, echoes in her ears. ...The call of Cassandra, too, struggling.

Passion forces herself to stay standing, and nods sharply once, the acrid scent of chlorine stinging her nose and throat, focrcing her into awareness. Kozue had asked. Kozue, who was strange, who was unpredictable... Who was her friend, despite everything, had helped her.

"Haaaaah--!"

Pretty Cure ''leaps'' upward, singular but never alone as she rears back her good arm, her course taking her directly towards the armored Mermaid, her battlecry just the start of a gathering force of crimson light gathered about her fist. The aura brightens, makes her almost impossible to look at all the way as it radiates from her in all directions.

It is not about worth, for Cure Passion. It's not guilt that drives her upward, that takes her on a course to slip beside Cassandra and towards the inside of Oktavia's guard. And as soon as she gets close, Passion swings forward with incredible force, one giant-scale haymaker from a girl nowhere near the Witch's size.

It is something else, and she cannot put it into words, just the wordless call that goes with her strike.

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

Cure Passion has her. Madoka Kaname isn't dead. It is a victory of a sorts, but la Sirene has no real time to feel more than a momentary twinge of relief. Miroku is summoned forth and la Sirene *does* - by training and inclination - have the fraction of an instant to feel relief at the arrival of the thing, despite the irony. How time makes fools of them all.

Meanwhile, Oktavia - Sayaka - either way; Nori has taken her hand, she knows. She feels guilt in an obscure way but there is not time enough to develop it. Surely she can regrow it - and even if not, surely she would prefer that to -

Either way. La Sirene cannot stay here. After a moment to look at that horrid black inversion, she vaults from the arm of the Witch towards the ground. Her hair trails behind her and she sees the coming of the Elvies. Her arms come together, pointing forwards - she is able to wedge space to land that does not consist entirely of screaming consumption -

Ground. After a fashion. Her head snaps up at she hears the voice of Kozue.

'Don't let anything stop us,' Kozue concludes.

When Kozue begins to play, la Sirene understands.

There is a brief cramp inside of her. A frustration that this is where her hope lies. Exhaling with orce, she twists her hands around to spread them apart, the shadow-light sweeping Familiars away. In vain? Who knows, but it protects Kozue's flank.

La Sirene looks round. There is Mikoto and her weapon; there is Cure Passion, there is Homura lifting Madoka; over there is where Kyouko Sakura and Lera are sheltering. La Sirene nods to herself and raises a hand upwards, the light round her pouring out as her Pharos twinkles with renewed force, the energy flowing outwards, aiming to rise in polyform tendrils around

La Sirene blinks once.

Her head snaps to look towards Homura Akemi but before she can shriek her accusations, her indignities, Oktavia and Cassandra clash. The titans of steel and iron smash against each other with industrial noise, the afterechoes devouring swaths of what la Sirene shouts.

"What are"

"know what you"

"illed him! You mi"

"away from"

And then la Sirene attention snaps back to the Witch and its contention with the Child, and for a horrid heart-stopping moment la Sirene thinks: Did I almost let Kozue's creature get killed --

Slithering, the light doubles and redoubles (halves and rehalves?) - trying to flow against the tide, to coruscate through the chlorinated water in the air. The smell is dizzying, surreal. The scent of a public swimming pool - here, in such desperate straits -

But the goal is to grasp Oktavia's sword-arm, to pull on it. To weaken, to restrain. To stall! To buy time! Time for a quarter-note, a chord, a phrase, a bar.

Or time enough for a single decisive blow from the incoming Pretty Cure.

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

How

'No, don't! We can't...if we fight her here, it'll only make things worse!'

many

'Mikoto-chan! We're leaving!'

times

'MI-KO-TOOOOOOOO!!!'

has

'No! Mikoto-chan, don't!'

she

'Get away from her!'

heard

'Minagi. Mikoto Minagi. Let's get out of here. This is more trouble than she's worth.'

them

'MIKOTO - MIKOTO STOP! FALL BACK!'

scream?

Mikoto has heard them reach out to her in the depths of berserkergang so many times. And some grope blindly and catch at nothing, and others manage to latch onto the reins which have been etched into her soul, and how difficult it is to tell which will be which.

There is a garden locked and flooded and it is every happy memory, every moment spent working together, every rescue, every defence, every piece of advice.

There is a garden locked and flooded, and all the tears are leaking out into the world.

Here is the sad truth: Mikoto does not stop, when Kozue calls. Mikoto does not arrest her charge as she leaps up to strike at the monster which was Sayaka. She is in motion; Kozue knows full well how intent her momentum can be.

Here is the sad truth: Mikoto does not charge in total abandon, either. There is something to the cry which makes her flinch, makes her hesitate for just a moment. Miroku digs into Witch-flesh and Mikoto does not lay sensible Ohtori flats against the scales and kick off immediately; for one, vulnerable moment, she swings. Fall back, Kozue said. It's not an acceptable directive because it is issued by an enemy. Fall back, Kozue said.

Here is the sad truth: Mikoto knows so well the penalty for hesitation. It is higher still when she is sustaining her dark magic, as Aglaé and sword crash down into Miroku's spires. Miroku is stronger than Mikoto, but they share an obsidian heart, and even Mikoto Minagi has limits. They are not all limits of magic. Some are binding promises about her soul. None are broken, because the spires do not break, the thing below does not break, and she does not break.

It is a close thing.

Because all the monster which was Sayaka needs is a split-second to catch Mikoto, striking up from below to wrench her from her like an errant fishhook and send her crashing away. When she fights Witches she knows what it is like to be victim to a freight train instead of its driver, unerring and effortless strength which swats her away as casually as an insect. This is not the first time it has happened. It never gets easier.

She hits the ground - once, twice, three times. Somehow, she manages to avoid carving herself open on her own blade, though it never leaves her hand. Partly this is luck; partly rote training.

Distantly, there is music.

But she does not break, because she carries her love in her heart. Perhaps it is foolish to suggest the love of the notes which play resonates with that affection, as Mikoto summons the strength to push herself standing again. After all, Kozue is her enemy.

Ah, but the foibles of 'perhaps' are well-known.

Cassandra floods the world, and Mikoto notes distantly that this time it smells like chlorine instead of salt. The wave passes, hollow inside the sphere. The music keeps going. It is faster, now.

Kozue asked them not to let the monster which was Sayaka stop her, but it would in fact be foolish to assume Mikoto heard that much, struck down as she was. It is not her request which makes those too-bright eyes fall on the Witch. Perhaps it is the music, quick of tempo and filled with emotion. It is known, as well, the effects of music on savage beasts.

'Miroku', she'd said. She said the word. Her image did not mirror; her shadow did, cast in harsh white light. And the question must be asked, with Cassandra striving against its fellow giant: where is Miroku? Kozue said the word - and there it was. Mikoto said the word, and...

Well, it's an interesting mystery, isn't it.

Because Miroku is Element, and Miroku is Child. It is a fascinating duality unique to Mikoto Minagi.

And sometimes she says the word, and her sword returns to her.

And sometimes she says the word, and...

Her sword did not disappear from the world, did not reappear by her side. And so, the question must be asked: where is Miroku?

Mikoto knows.

"Miroku!" She calls, again - and this time it is the ground beneath Oktavia which begins to shudder and slough away. With a great rumbling of something which is not quite earth, something far too large erupts from the floor of the sphere. At first, it is too massive to discern its form - it is just a mass of steel, emerging from behind the monster which was Sayaka. Spikes along its curve, each larger than a girl.

And then it wrenches itself free and it is clear that it is a club, held in a massive gauntlet. It is stories tall. Perhaps, to la Sirene and Madoka and Homura, it is familiar. They have seen it once before.

The creature it is attached to remains unseen, below the earth. It must be a colossus. It does not care to make a proper appearance. But Mikoto is angry enough, deep enough, that she is able to call out, able to coax it to lean just slightly out of the shadows for just a moment.

It is ill portent.

It is Mikoto's Child - Miroku.

La Sirene's unlight wends about the Witch's sword-arm, and with ferocity which belies her size Cure Passion leaps up to strike with light blaring crimson and true. One causes shadows to cast from the titanic cudgel which swings up from below; perhaps they are fuel for the other. The earth grinds in protest at the movement of something so large courses through it. Cassandra struggles at the Witch's front, and from below, that massive club comes up to impact the monster which was Sayaka's back.

Perhaps it's bitter irony.

Homura taught her how to break her peace-bonds to strike where Sayaka was weakest.

And now, she pours her full force into a blow from behind.

Then again, Mikoto Minagi never had a chance of defeating Sayaka Miki in a fair fight.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.

So pinned by Oktavia Von Seckendorff, Cassandra is taking blow after blow. Her ability to match her HiME falters with each one. And yet she picks up immediately, renewing her effort after each wound.

Armor plating is rocked by the first blow as she's clubbed over and over. A wing is crushed beyond her ability to move it. An eye loses its light. The beautiful magnificence of a swan loses more and more of her elegant construction with each blow that causes a sparking shriek of metal. Each time she squawks in pain but continues its own assault.

Kozue doesn't call her off. It is not that she is uncaring for her plight. It is simply that she has made her own decision. The stage trembles, she is soaked further and further by the spray. And yet she keeps playing.

And then she speaks.

BGM Change: In Deepest Blue - Joshua Hyslop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzyOUDhc1qo

"I need to tell you something Sayaka. Not just with your song."

Something about her seems uncommonly beautiful in this moment. In this idea of vulnerability, in this idea of embracing vulnerability when before it was something she was terrified of. Something she would reject, consider a failing.

"With words too. I've hurt you in so many ways, more ways than most people could possibly bear. And I can't say I'm sorry for that. I just can't. Because it brought us together - because without all that pain - there would be no... us."

Most people could not talk while playing at such speed, under such conditions. On her best day before she could not have played under such conditions. Yet still she plays. She plays as Cassandra's leg buckles beneath her.

"There was one way I never wanted to hurt you though. And that was saying how I feel before I knew it was something true. Something lasting. You deserved better than a 'maybe' and a half-hearted answer wasn't good enough. And... I was scared, that maybe I was wrong about that feeling - or that it would go away. And I'd never feel that way about you again."

She's waited until the song reaches a part where there's a faint lull in the tempo. A subtle succor, like granting rest to a tired warrior by offering their head a place on her lap. Cassandra's neck seems twisted at an almost unnatural angle from the next blow.

"I love you. I love you so much. You're the only one who has ever made me feel this way. And that isn't going to change. I know that now. I want to grow up with you. I want to be there for you every step of the way. I want to kiss you all the time, and for you to know every time I do how alive it makes me feel to have you in my life."

Her finger touches are becoming lighter, and lighter. It's a sweet and soft accompaniment to the words now. Cassandra writhes in Oktavia's grip, almost pathetically. Not to break free - just struggling to keep up the song.

"And right now it hurts. It hurts that right now I finally can say it and maybe you can't understand. Can't comprehend how much it would mean to me to kiss you right now. It hurts that I can't know how you feel right now. It hurts to think that we didn't have longer. But if it ends now, if this is our final day..."

Cassandra takes such a terrible blow, one that nearly flattens her as it throws her aside and Kozue flinches like this is it, botching a measure of the song, before she reclaims the song again.

"... I have no regrets." Then she corrects herself, "No regrets except two."

The shadow of the sword raises, the shadow of it dwarfing Cassandra and Kozue both. The Child does not move. It cannot even lift its head. It makes no attempt to defend itself in the twisted pile where it lay. For a moment she cannot continue following her HiME's song, and the assault falters. Kozue doesn't move either.

When that blow falls, she knows that's it for Cassandra - and that means that's it for her.

She does not resent Sayaka this after all the ways she's hurt her. If she wants to lash out at her for this final act. She feels that's only fair. She just wishes that it could have been her alone taking this beating. That Cassandra did not have to suffer for her love. For her choice. Her decision. Even knowing she's about to die. She feels a profound sense of loss just knowing that. Even as much as she hurts the people she loves - she can never forgive anyone who hurts them. And that includes herself for making this choice.

"... that Cass has to suffer this beating instead of me... and..."

She'd rather it have been her alone that paid the price. That she did not have to sacrifice her. At least she knows - they'll pay for it together. That is the price for accepting a Child. Putting her life on the line.

Her eyes widen with the energy blast she knows came from La Sirene, and the shadow of Mikoto's mysteriously until now absent Child. If not for them - this might have already been over - and she might have been cut off. And who knows how it would end then? It would no longer be her decision. She feels a profound sense of gratitude at least for that. No matter how tumultuous her relationship had been with both of them.

Calmly she shutters her eyes so she does not lose her nerve, feeling the sting of the tears beneath them. With eyes shut the scent of the chlorine is even stronger. The scent which says so much for her even if she doesn't know it. She cannot know that to Sayaka the scent is...

...Kozue's hands holding onto hers - reassuring her as she learns to swim.

...that intangible feeling in the air that made a decision so easy.

...that smell in the air as her lips touch hers. Shivering - weak - and yet triumphant.

It is telling Sayaka she doesn't need to be scared anymore as the other girl drowns. Not of this. Of what comes even at the end of life. Of what comes next for them both - because she's here.

She's holding her hands. And she won't let go. Even if it means they drown together.

It's strange but with eyes closed she isn't thinking about what happens next. The chlorine scent is too strong. Ever had it been a force in her life - as the pool had been her sanctuary from the world. That security was nearly stolen from her.

Yet they failed to steal it away entirely, because right now that scent brings to mind the happiest moment of her life. It is the moment when she started falling in love with Sayaka Miki, even if she didn't know it until now.

[[https://imgur.com/6kcrw3n |Happiness in Blue]]

"... that I can't send us off with a kiss."

With words now said and with eyes closed the HiME holds down the keys and holds down hard on the pedal with her foot to sustain that final triumphant note. A shiver runs through Cassandra before she turns her head just enough for her remaining good eye to look upon her death. Or rather - look through it. The Child's final act commanding the top of the sphere starts to churn at a fantastic rate, swirling to incredible rotational speed.

It is not an attempt to stop her.

No indeed she can already feel the air shifting from the mass of the blade falling. Nothing could stop that from colliding into Cassandra.

The water sphere collapses from top down, the narrow end of a terrible waterspout she'd conjured before descending upon the witch's antique helm as fast as a lightning bolt - drilling into her like a natural disaster.

As natural as gravity - as love. It cannot be stopped either.

<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

Cure Passion holds Madoka and feels, somewhere, that the Fuko Gauge is rising; La Sirene can clearly see that she's continuing to silently cry. Pain -- she's in pain. Being freed from the Witch's grasp has not saved her from that. Some is simple physical reality; her body is one large bruise. But more is something else.

She coughs, weakly, when drenched in pool water, and then flinches, tensing into a rictus board of a girl, at the aftershock of suffering that causes her bruised body. It's the first sound she made upon her arrival in Pretty Cure's arms, though she was too alive, too agonized, to be mistaken for anything else. And once she's soaked to the skin, at least her tears aren't visible anymore.

Her eyes are raw, stung by far worse than chlorine, as they blink up at Setsuna.

"Thank you," she rasps, at the one who's got her.

Then her gaze slides past her, to the Witch and the magical girls converging there. It's hard to focus on any singular detail; all of it is hard to see, both literally and metaphorically. It's easier to listen, and eventually her eyes close, close so that her ears can better comprehend Kozue's piano through the chaos.

She is passed from girl to girl to the sound of music.

She is passed from girl to girl to the sound of love.

More words fall onto her ears like lead, and her eyes blink open, gaze up at the face of someone who loves her, instead.

Homura will keep her safe.

"I know," she sighs, and that exhalation, onto sore ribs, contains a whole world of feelings. It is too complex to understand easily, which is unlike Madoka, really.

A few snapshots: her eyes are gentle. Her words are surprisingly firm -- acknowledgement and affirmation and acceptance. Then why does it feel so... strange?

And then she starts to wriggle, one inflamed joint at a time, out of Homura's grasp. Little miserable hitches of breath accompany each movement, which comes at a cost.

"I'm getting down," she explains, unnecessarily, in a croak, but it isn't phrased as a question. "Because... I need to be here. Until the end."

Madoka probably needs to go to the hospital, but bones and muscles, flesh and blood, aren't really why she's in pain.

She knows the truth.

She knows this isn't goodbye, because goodbye already happened, here in the airport on that fateful night.

It would be easy to say that she's always known, and there's even a fragment of truth to it, but it's inadequate to the moment, because Madoka -- for Kozue, for Mikoto, for everyone, for herself -- dared to ''believe''.

It is an easy thing to kill a fairy with spiteful words. The opposite is not as simple as saying a sentence out loud and clapping your hands. It only counts -- it only works -- if you engrave it on your whole heart, drill it into your soul, leave no room for doubt, none at all.

Maybe she didn't believe enough for it to work, given the outcome.

But she definitely believed enough for it to hurt.

Her arms fold across her chest as though she's hoping to hold in her heart, and she stands there, among the buckling Labyrinth, quaking from so many energies from so many people. She stands there safe. She knows that Homura will protect her from death.

But nothing can protect her from this.

Even then, as the grief pours through her harder and colder than the artificial pool ever could, as she shivers and shakes and somehow through some act of terrible bravery or terrible self-destruction or perhaps both keeps her chin high, stares right at it all -- she isn't ready, when the music changes.

Her head snaps around hard enough to send her soggy twintails slapping across her cheeks.

"No," she gasps, this inhalation the exact inverse of the sigh Homura received. It isn't complex; it is desperately simple in its horrified realization -- acknowledgement, but not affirmation and definitely not acceptance.

And then it turns out that she has the voice left in her for one more scream, after all. It explodes out of her like a shattering star.

No, that's pretty words creating a false distance from reality, and this is a moment for Madoka's truth. It explodes out of her like a breaking heart, because that's what it is.

"KOZUE!" she shrieks in dissonant descant, high above steel string and steel swan and steel sword.

This is a coda of despair. One part is a falling blade, unknowable except in its suffering. One part is falling water, directed with terribly knowing finality.

One part of it is Madoka.

"NO!!"

<Pose Tracker> Oktavia von Seckendorff [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
<SoundTracker> This Silence is Mine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQrQEmClpWc

Descending with lethal force, Oktavia's sword arrests suddenly, her arm snagged by a web-like grid of split light beams. As steam rises from her water-soaked armor from the contact, she wrenches at La Sirene's bonds hard, trying to rip through to defend against Cure Passion. And so it tears, leaving a pale pattern on the armor, but too late. Passion slips past and hammers her glowing fist right across the grille on Oktavia's faceplate. The impact tolls through her towering helm, leaving a quarter of the mouth area caved in.

As Oktavia lists to the side, the floorboards splinter upwards, black paint baring pale yellowish wood. A split second later, a great obsidian bludgeon smashes into Oktavia's back like a battering ram. The armor there is particular strong, but it cannot withstand this. Beneath one shoulderblade, the obsidian drives in, too dull to penetrate, but wedged there tightly, forcing Oktavia to remain upright. Smokeblood drools from the injury, and a fine dust of it chuffs out of the mouth-grille.

Spared execution, Cassandra has not been idle. Above the groaning Mermaid Witch, a lake is gathering... or perhaps a pool. But she has now spent the time that was bought for her.

Oktavia's sword seems unable to cut Cassandra's metal feathers, but it remains a heavy iron bar. The beating resumes, and worse than before, as Cassandra is no longer able to keep the sword away. Its blunt-seeming edge slams down into her shoulders and wings over and over. It is not long before parts of the ethereal swan seem loose and jointless. Cassandra, that prickly and disobedient bird, had always had nothing but gentleness towards Sayaka, and risked death more than once to protect her at all costs. But it has not bought her mercy tonight, as the sword crunches down into an increasingly helpless Cassandra. The Mermaid Witch does not even hesitate to break and break a creature that cared for Sayaya Miki like her own egg.

Kozue's confession filters over the cries of Cassandra, and between the punctuation of hammering strikes. It is a soft voice amidst iron. It is a scent through a grate. It is written in pencil on an oil painting. It is small. But it is not lost.

But sometimes I do things just because it doesn't match the picture and I want it to.

This time when she's hit, Cassandra doesn't move.

And I guess in my picture

With a sound like bending rebar, Oktavia lifts her sword up and reverses it.

we were friends.

The sword drives through Cassandra's back, pinning her to the ground. The last note plays. Cassandra hears it, and she answers it. The water above her impaled body starts to invert, as if it would turn into an upside down teardrop. Her head drops.

And she is gone.

A single, whistling note blasts from the damaged grille on Oktavia's helm. Her armor rattles, and her shoulders lurch back and forth roughly. She yanks at her sword to try and free it from Cassandra's corpse, but the task seems to frustrate her.

Lying still by the legs of the piano bench, Odeta seems to Kozue to be looking at the battle. But the hollowness of her eyes and mouth are completely gone, leaving a completely smooth white face.

A corkscrewing pillar of water hits the Mermaid Witch in the back of the neck, a ragged pyramid of spray blasting down and off her armored shoulders. Lurching down, she supports herself with the sword, shaking with the constant pounding force she's forced to carry. She manages to push herself up, chin pressed down into her breastplate by the withering pressure, waterfalls pouring down her armored chest. But the dent on her helm gives, forcing her head to drop much lower. Dropping, she catches herself with the stub of one gauntlet, that arm's joint starting to bend already. A whale-like cry is draining from her helm.

"It... it's okay," Sayaka said at last. "We still have time."

The prone form of Cassandra, resting beneath a great cross of iron, has dissolved away almost entirely into motes of pale blue light. With a heavy of her burdensome shoulders and a lash of her tattered cape, Oktavia rips her sword free admidst a beautiful arc of glittering light. The plates on her back are caving in on each other. Every vast motion quakes. But she lifts the weapon, until its shadow bisects the white piano.

That sunbeam smile isn't coming back today. Maybe Kozue will never feel it. But the corner of her lip is tilted up, and her sad eyes are reassuring.

The motes of light have expended their momentum, and hang in the air, knowing nothing of gravity. The sword hangs in that amber instant, too. Pieces of Cassandra cast tiny glows here and there on the hideous Witch's visage. The shadow across the piano is as thin as it will ever be again.

As the iron passes back downward, it disturbs the motes, dragging them down as well. The shadow spreads across the piano, and diagonally across Kozue's body, swallowing her lap, her shoulders. It claims key after key, spreading from middle C.

"We'll always have time."

Oktavia's breastplate ruptures utterly, water tearing apart every seam.

<Pose Tracker> Kozue Kaoru [None] has posed.
<SoundTracker> The Greatest Bastard - Damien Rice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBmWVrAI9r0

There is the sound of Madoka's 'NO!!' in her ears. That denial. She can understand her shock, anyone's shock in this moment. She wishes she didn't have to see it - to bear witness - to hold this memory of it. And yet...

There's something that feels so right about it. So poetic. That for all the enemies she's made, for how she could have died at any moment that one decided to end her, that she ends here.

Like this. At the hands of the girl she'd hurt more than anyone. The girl she loves so much. For hurting her so badly that she'll die too - for sacrificing her beloved Child for that to happen.

There's a certain rightness - a certain justice - in everyone seeing it happen. Like a public execution she'd submitted herself to for every cruelty she'd inflicted upon even so many of her onlookers.

Kozue's eyes are shut when she hears Cassandra die and her whole form flinches as she hears her death screech. "I'm sorry g-" She's interrupted by a wall of steel overtaking her. There's no Element in hand. All of her magic had faded her and she didn't even know it. She's just a normal girl sitting at a piano for a recital.

She never stood a chance.

All of her senses feel so sharp as to be overwhelming. The pain enough to make her feel like her whole body is overloaded. Like a live wire.

Then all of her senses are so dull. She feels pain certainly, the feeling of water on her skin, and the hardness of the surface she lays upon. She doesn't know what she's laying upon though. She smells an even fainter chlorine upon her skin. What she hears, she's not certain.

What do her eyes see though when they languorously - painfully - open?

There is beauty in the green motes floating off of Cassandra's fading corpse past the visage of Oktavia Von Seckendorff. Like fireflies on the night of a summer festival. Ordinarily it would be just a pretty sight that would in no way comfort someone dying.

However there's another sense she has too. Something deeper beyond the superficial. Something she feels as Cassandra dies - as Sayaka fades - like something invisible running throughout herself and Sayaka that she never knew existed. Never could feel until now. For however blue the two might be - there is indeed a red string attached.

My life is a whole lot of sameness usually. People come - people go.

All of her life she was looking for a connection with someone else, that she thought she could only find in the ties of blood. Believing that is the only thing that could keep her together with someone. Yet she realizes this in this one supreme moment of clarity from this feeling. Sold a false bill of goods - she can't even resent that.

Everyone wants something from me. I give and take more from them in exchange. They use me and I use them.

Because the truth showed her that that connection had been formed from someone else. Madoka Kaname had offered her a miracle. What she does not realize is that she'd given Kozue one. The opportunity to experience this. If she hadn't come tonight - believed it was impossible - that there was nothing of Sayaka left - she never would have felt this.

Then they're gone - almost noone ever wants to stick around for long - and even if they do. I don't want them to.

"Oh..." It's such a pathetic sound from her lips, it could be mistaken for the agonal gasp of a dying person rather than an actual word.

It is evidence no matter how much she hurt Sayaka, no matter what she became in the end, no matter who is to blame for that. No matter how much the deck was stacked against her for finding something real, something tangible with someone else.

They found each other. They forged this together. It was real, their feelings for each other. That connection - that bond. It existed. The knowledge that it existed cannot be taken away from her - even in death.

That knowledge from that feeling is such a comfort to a dying, unsentimental girl who had lived her life as such a cynic. Who had hurt others casually for her own greater good, living unhappily in the pursuit of power. Who had only found true romance in the end. To know there actually is beauty in this cruel and wretched world.

Things with you are different.

And that beauty is the two of them.

And I don't know what that means.

".... its so beautiful." She croaks, her lips tugging into the shadow of a smile her muscles can't quite work to form fully. All of her senses start to fail her. Her sense of taste starts to fade, then touch, then hearing... she holds onto the sight of Cassandra and Sayaka's fading form for as long as she can. When it fails her there is only scent - that faint fading pool scent. And when that too is gone she only has a singular moment for thought left.

It's the most wonderful final thought she could have ever had.

And then she's gone.

<Pose Tracker> Oktavia von Seckendorff [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.

It doesn't take very long at all, in the end.

Stately as they fall, the instruments of the orchestra drop like a curtain, filling more and more of the air. Between them are the limp forms of dozens of Liviannas.

The gramophone needle, which had been softly clicking against the spokes of its rotating wheel-record, finally snaps against the spoke, dropping the arm into them and halting the rotation. The severed stub of Oktavia's arm is pointed towards the device, but without a hand it is not long enough to reach.

The skinny Elvies sharking their way across the bridge flop onto their sides, until the last one freezes up and tilts with a rattle of plastic. As the far end of the bridge begins to fall into the abyss, the now inert pairs of scissors skitter down loosely, dropping one by one into the darkness.

With the kusarigama around her wrists somehow evaporated, Odeta could stand up, but she just lies there with her back to the shattered piano, as if it were an estranged lover.

For a moment, light plays across the scales of Oktavia's long mer-tail. As dull and grimy as they are, there is a rainbow of dark color there. It blurs together as though the viewer's eyes had suddenly started to water, a thousand glints dancing. Her grim helm lies in a puddle of pool-scented water, diagonally sunken, much deeper than it looks like it should be able to sink.

And then the walls peel away, as if they were just cloth the whole time, and their other side, glittering red velvet.

The girls who came here tonight in hope now stand--or lie--scattered in an abandoned wing of Haneda airport, with blue moonlight streaming through the broken skylight above. The artful metal-and-glass elevator now stands where Oktavia once had. Madoka is near the elevator's open doorway, with the others fanned out behind her. But there is no sign of Kozue Kaoru at all.

In the exact center of the elevator, there are two objects. A spindly bulb of dull lead and gleaming black, standing impossibly on a single needlepoint. And, somehow, the smudged, well-scratched Chevaliers pin that Sayaka had put on so long ago.

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

There are promises - old promises - half-forgotten things which pin Mikoto's movements as surely as a butterfly against a board. When a Puella Magi becomes a magical girl, she gains a wish in exchange for her life. Mikoto never managed to tell Eri, in the end...

... HiME don't get a wish.

They make a vow.

There is a reason Miroku has revealed itself but once to the world. There is a reason it dwells beneath the earth. A Child is the seat of a HiME's strength - the locus of her magic. It is a thing of great and terrible power... but HiME are mortal creatures, mortal blood in mortal veins.

Miroku is Mikoto's weapon.

It is a mistake to think that this means Miroku defends Mikoto.

No - it is Mikoto's sworn duty to defend Miroku.

But they share an obsidian heart, and Mikoto must defend herself to defend her Child. This is the way of the world. HiME and Child are twinned together, inseparable forces. One cannot survive without the other. There is no Mikoto without Miroku.

She knows this much is true, though she cannot remember why.

And because this is true, it must mean...

As surely as a butterfly against a board, Miroku's club slams into Oktavia, tethering her in a mockery of posture. It begins to grind into the armor, there, pushing inch by painful inch. It is inexorable force against immovable object.

Perhaps if it had pulled back, swung again instead of seeking a mermaid's tears, things would have been different. But the ineffable nature of a thing cannot be changed, after all. Isn't that what they've learned, coming here..?

Oh, the things she could learn, if not for the way she thinks of her experience as so typical to the world.

Because Oktavia slams down, again and again and again, and Cassandra is mortal, after all.

All at once the chill of being soaked hits Mikoto, cold ice lancing through her heart. The shock jars her into emotion - into thought - into fear. Distantly, she realises she has stopped snarling, because her mouth has fallen agape. Her breath is ragged.

All at once the cudgel which held Oktavia straight is consumed by its own lattice of black glass, and it shatters, and there is nothing there at all. All at once, the obsidian cages about Kyouko and Lera fade into nothingness, leaving only the ground they have disturbed.

In Kozue's final moment - Mikoto must see to her vows.

She cannot save her.

She cannot even try.

Assessing the danger she places his assets in was ever one of her duties, after all.

Helplessly she watches as the sword descends, even as her swan-song drives in, tears the monster which was Sayaka to pieces. Her lips shape a word and the word is 'Kozue' and there is no air behind it, no air at all. In the end, Kozue exhibited that same unstoppable momentum.

She finds that she is trembling.

She finds that she is overcome. Lachrymose. Afraid.

They are unpleasant intrusions on a mind which was so blank with fury just moments ago.

She finds herself, and her breath hitches in her throat as it ends, though she knows she should not feel that way. Yes, her eyes have started to water. It is hard to see the details through a misty veil.

And then it is over, and the world smells right again.

Mikoto shakes her head, hands grasping tightly about the hilt of her blade. "... Kozue promised, too," she says, to herself, and the words are thin with grief.

They are so, so mortal.

There is nothing left of Kozue, after a strike like that. She moves to Kyouko, instead. She would look for life signs in a normal girl. With a Puella Magi - she looks for her Soul Gem, instead. It is all right. She is all right. Bruised and bloodied and alive, so gloriously, thankfully alive. She sheathes Miroku, and sees to her fellow Shepherd. Picks her up, with hands now free, and straightens.

She cannot quite bring herself to look at any of them as she leaves, to take Kyouko to a safer place. She cannot quite make herself speak in the wake of the terrible reality. But her eyes - her eyes are so sad.

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

Once again, it happens so quickly.

La Sirene's tendrils have weight, have strength, but perhaps she underestimated the Witch. But then, Oktavia was operating with the emphasis and the momentum of a dark fate. Such thoughts elude La Sirene as she hears Madoka shriek for Kozue and Nori sees everything. Water crushes without remorse even as Cassandra is slain; even as Oktavia cries out like a dying cachalot...

A dying one. Cassandra perishes in a constellation of glamour and magic. Inexplicably, almost, Oktavia throws off the great cudgel of Mikoto's demon, whose name la Sirene has not yet learned. Will she rally? On some miniscule level la Sirene hopes so: for surely if she has such endurance then Sayaka is still--

'It's so beautiful,' La Sirene hears Kozue say -- And just like that it all wraps up.

La Sirene is reminded of Sayaka, the Sayaka *she* knew, or felt she knew, for the first time when she sees how quickly everything wraps up. How the orchestra lays down its instruments. How the light plays over the tail of Oktavia, the first moment of something near to beauty that even la Sirene had seen in this bag of shards from the pulverized soul of her friend! And of course, a moment later, the curtains rise. Red leaves, and the moonlight is blue, and it's

It's Haneda Airport.

La Sirene de Diamant stands there, glowing quietly. The elevator is open. Sitting on the floor is what remains.

All that's left.

La Sirene feels the wind blow through her. 'La Sirene', maybe, is the wrong word. In this stark moment there is nothing there. For long moments she feels the sound of wind over the ocean. Eternal. Empty. There isn't anyone there to hear.

How long does it last? La Sirene doesn't know.

She hears Mikoto speak even if it was to herself, and it is enough of a crystallation point that la Sirene, Nori, AkaMira, whoever she is, comes back, like a snowflake forming out of a formless potentia. She manages little more than to break her looking-towards the elevator in order to put her attention upon Mikoto, who is moving. Mikoto checks Kyouko and bears her away. La Sirene has no words, but she manages a nod.

Her eyes meet Mikoto's for a moment, but then Mikoto departs, and la Sirene begins a very long walk.

At each step it is as if she strode a mile. There is no strength in her legs. Her boots feel like lead - no; lead would be easier. She shuffles more than she steps. She drags those vaunted gems that have saved herself and others across the carpet, and the precious jewels of another star scuff up already-damaged terminal carpet.

After another eternity she reaches the elevator door. Kneeling down is easier. La Sirene considers the grief seed for a moment, or at least, looks at it; but it is a brief thing, for what she reaches for is that small badge. She reaches down and cups her hands over it, as if it were a wounded baby bird. She raises it, the scuffs and the smudges and the scratches shining like the microengravings of a holographic film. She looks at it and she sees Sayaka...

Her hand tightens...

And it is then that the lead weight of duty and determination slide off her shoulders, and she finds somehow that she CAN talk, that she can, in fact, SCREAM.

"SAYAKA!!" La Sirene wails, smashing her fist into the side of the elevator door once, twice, four times, six times. She accomplishes nothing but bloodying her hand and leaving dents in the process. She kicks at the floor, she rolls onto her back, she kicks at the glass and she shrieks Sayaka's name six more times before the words can come back.

Rolling onto her side she runs her bloodied hand through her hair, staring into nothing. "Wh-why-- why didn't you hear us - wu, we did everything we c-could - why-y-y-y---" Another kick, this time at a piece of metal that gains another set of scuff marks.

Thrashing, she rolls onto her back again, burying her face in her knuckles as she sobs out, "All any of you WANTED w-was to live and, and to - to - to help PEOPLE aa-and and and kuh-kozue whyyyy, what am I supposed to do now, n, nghk -"

Another rolling, now onto her forearms and knees. "What am I supposed to do without you there, you idiot?! You fool, you kept getting INTO all of this, if I'd been the one doing the same you'd have told me I was being an idiot child, you would have clucked your tongue and - and done that little sigh thing and you would have said 'Nori-chan stop trying to get involved in fighting witches' and NOW YOU --"

Nori's arms and legs slide forwards as she kicks at the ground again, sobbing as she does. "Now what are we going to do?! All of us! Why did you have to take Sayaka with you!? Why why WHY WHY WHY WHY - wh - whaahh -" And from there she runs out of words to say, grinding her face into the carpet and smelling nothing but the mindless sterile sanity of a chlorinated pool.

Eventually even that runs out. Laying there, la Sirene moans, "why did - did you have to GO - even when I HATED you - I - naaagh -"

'''OOC: Watch this space for final poses from other plot participants!'''

[[Category:Logs]]

Food

2018-09-29T20:09:14Z

Eri: /* Least Favorite Foods */

Japanese cuisine is highly seasonal, with many dishes using ingredients only available at the right time. Modern technology has eased this burden, but it is still traditional to eat certain foods at certain times of year.

''Special thanks to Kuniko Saito's player for contributing the Winter entry of this guide!''

__TOC__

==Autumn==
Some in Japan call autumn the 'season for eating.' Coming off the heat of summer, there's a trend towards savory dishes that celebrate the bountiful harvest, and nice warm comfort food to eat as the weather turns colder.

'''Sanma''' (literal translation 'autumn knife fish'), or Pacific Saury, are sleekly silver fish that rise fat and juicy for fishermen in the fall, considered an iconic centerpiece of autumn cuisine. They are typically served whole (even as sushi!), and when cooked, sanma are seasoned with salt and grilled over a charcoal fire. The crispy skin is a much-beloved part of the experience, often garnished with soy sauce. In early September, Tokyo's Meguro district holds a festival where many thousands of charcoal-grilled sanma are given away for free tasting!

'''Satsumaimo''', or Japanese sweet potatoes, are purple on the outside, bright yellow on the inside, and are drier in texture, but sweeter and creamier in taste, than yams. Traditionally, they are roasted whole, on hot stones outside (lending themselves well to the centerpiece of a scene where characters tend, then consume, their roasting sweet potatoes while raking leaves or otherwise enjoying the season; they are also sold, steaming hot, out of the open backs of minivans, by men who attract their customers by singing an iconic lamenting song). Satsumaimo are also popular fried, mashed, or boiled. The stereotypical consequence of overeating satsumaimo is a popular source of fart jokes among the young (and sometimes the old).

'''Kabocha''' are essentially Japanese pumpkins. On the outside they're green rather than orange, and on the inside they're somewhat sweeter than the Western squash, with a rich, butternut flavor. In the fall, they're made into soups, barbecued, battered and fried as tempura (alongside maple leaves, '''Momiji Tempura''', an unusual autumn treat!), and, yes, even used in Western-style pies.
* The most classic comfort food preparation of kabocha, however, is as a filling for breaded and fried croquettes, locally called '''korokke''' -- kabocha (also, satsumaimo) korokke are an often-homemade autumn snack. Watch out for the hot oil when it pops! Independent of season, korokke made with regular potatoes, or sometimes with ground meat, are popular throughout the year, and are sold at delightfully hot temperatures for pocket change prices at the konbini.

'''Matsutake''' pine mushrooms are the most prominent of the fungi that, nurtured by summer's high humidity, pop up for harvesting in the fall. Impossible to cultivate, they're highly prized and very expensive, starting at a hundred thousand yen per pound for the premium grade, and occupy a similar position of honor in Japanese cuisine as truffles do to the French. To make a few matsutake mushrooms stretch a long way, they are popularly featured in a seafood broth soup called '''Matsutake Dobin Mushi''', which is served in a clay teapot. When eaten whole, their delicate, smoky flavor is best preserved by grilling them on an open flame, and they are sometimes sprinkled over rice. Cheaper mushrooms are also popular in autumn, with hearty mushroom broth sometimes replacing the standard cup of miso soup served alongside a meal.

'''Kaki''', or Japanese persimmons, are ubiquitous in the fall, a sweet and tangy fruit found ripening on trees all over the country. Making a day out of a kaki picking trip is a common weekend treat. Besides eating them straight off the tree, they are often served chilled, or dusted with sugar and dried (a treat called '''hoshigaki''').

'''Kuri''', also commonly called by their French name '''maron''', are Japanese chestnuts (with a similar omnipresence to kaki, seen on trees everywhere, but an entirely different taste -- creamy, sweet and rich). They're usually sold uncooked so that they can be prepared at home, but you can get bags of roasted kuri at your supermarket or konbini for a good sidewalk snack. Roasting your own at the end of a trip to a kuri picking farm makes for a good finale to a September day!
* '''Shinmai''', or "new rice," comprises the first harvests of rice in autumn. Shinmai is said to be moister, sweeter, and more beautiful than ordinary rice, and starting in late September one of the best ways to prepare it is with kuri boiled alongside rice in the pot, creating a hearty sticky rice dish ('''kuri-gohan''') with a tiny dose of sweetness. Gingko nuts are also a popular shinmai topping, because of their subtle flavor, which allows the rice's unique qualities to shine through.
* Boxes of '''kuri-kinton''', or candied chestnuts, are popular gifts for friends and family in autumn -- in this treat, kuri are steamed, mashed, combined with sugar, then twisted into a bun shape. The snack is popularly enjoyed with a cup of hot tea. Kuri are also used in many other Japanese sweets, including '''kuri-manju''' cakes.

==Winter==
The prototypical dish for winter cuisine in Japan is the '''hot pot''', also known as ''nabemono''. Ingredients are combined in a pot and boiled, forming a rich broth; it is typically shared, with individual diners plucking out their favored morsels, and the broth typically mixed with rice at the end and consumed as a final course. Eating nabemono with your friends would be an excellent reason for a social scene; gather together, stick your legs underneath the kotatsu, and enjoy the warmth of friendship and flavor.

Nabemono is very versatile. Indeed, the name can be translated as "cooking pot stuff." Here are some common styles of nabemono; all of them can be considered to have vegetables such as bok choy and daikon involved, as well as varieties of mushroom.

* '''Sukiyaki:''' Thinly sliced beef (sometimes pork) simmered with vegetables and a soy sauce/sugar/sweet rice wine sauce. Before eating, the hot ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw beaten egg. Common at year-end parties and suitable for all ages.
* '''Shabu-shabu:''' Thin sliced beef is boiled in water or broth and eaten with dipping sauces. This dish may be considered similar to the "fondue" style meals available in America. It is quite suitable for service with fine ingredients, particularly wagyu beef and other marks of conspicuous consumption.
* '''Yosenabe:''' A combination style of nabemono which combines all sorts of things and cooks them well together: meat, seafood, tofu, egg, and vegetables. A common "homestyle" meal, often with a thicker sauce than is typical for nabemono.
* '''Yudofu:''' Nabemono prepared in a kombu stock and featuring tofu as the primary protein, with citrus and spicy sauces. Socially considered as vegetarian, though small amounts of fish are typically involved.
* '''Chankonabe:''' A nabemono dish that is a common restaurant meal, it was originally a heavy dish eaten by sumo wrestlers to put on weight efficiently. Very high in protein, often with chicken, fish, beef and various vegetables, chankonabe is a good meal for growing young'ns when served in less heroic proportions.
* '''Ishikari-nabe:''' A Hokkaido specialty, this hot pot features salmon and potato as well as butter.

'''Oden''' is another characteristic winter dish, prepared in a manner similar to hot pot but made available as its own individual dish in many venues. Featuring boiled eggs, daikon, fishcakes and a soy/dashi broth, most convenience stores have a bubbling pot of oden to sell by the cup during the winter months.

'''Tori zosui''' is another winter favorite; a thick rice soup with chicken, often prepared with leftover rice and served with sliced scallions on top. It's an excellent and popular way to warm up after a bitterly cold day.

====Winter Holidays====
There are also some specifically traditional holiday dishes, associated with an individual day or days. Your character is likely to eat them, and may well help prepare them!

* '''Christmas Cake:''' These cakes are typically a simple sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream and decorated with strawberries plus a chocolate plate that says "Merry Christmas!" Something of a more structured strawberry shortcake. It is eaten on Christmas Eve, which is, in Japan, typically celebrated as a romantic holiday a la Western Valentine's Day, and is thus perhaps the hardest night of the year to get a table at a nice restaurant. Yule Log cakes are also popular.
* '''KFC:''' There is a tradition of obtaining Kentucky Fried Chicken meals as a Christmas dish, in part because turkey is an absolute unknown in Japan. A 1974 advertising campaign started a tradition, and now a bucket of KFC "Christmas Chicken" (with salad and a cake) is typical fare on Christmas, often ordered months in advance to beat the lines.
* '''Osechi ryori:''' An umbrella term for food prepared specially for the New Year's period, these dishes come in a huge range of ingredients that are meant to encourage good luck and fortune for the upcoming year. They are typically sweet, sour, dried or otherwise preserved, as they come from a time before refrigeration was common, and when many markets would be closed for some time. Traditionally, nothing should be cooked on New Year's Day, so the preparation of osechi is finished before New Year's Eve. Osechi ryori is arguably the most important meal of the year, with each dish serving as a symbol or wish for the coming year. The food is even eaten in a special way by using chopsticks that are rounded on both ends; one side for the humans to use, one side for the gods. There are so many varieties that space would prohibit easy discussion. A more detailed discussion is present at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osechi Wikipedia] including a plan for a three-tiered "jubako" box.
* '''Toshikoshi soba:''' This is eaten at night on New Year's Eve. A simple meal with buckwheat soba with toppings such as seaweed, fried tofu, or vegetables. The long noodles are said to symbolize a long life, their consumption representing "crossing over from one year to the next," the meaning of ''toshi-koshi''. Another theory is that it is very simple to make - a relief after preparing several days' worth of osechi for the upcoming celebrations! It is often considered bad luck to leave any of your toshikoshi soba uneaten.
* '''O-zoni:''' A soup eaten during on the morning of New Year's Day, considered very lucky, featuring local ingredients and lots of mochi. While many areas have their own specialties, the typical Kanto-area meal uses a soy sauce/dashi broth, squared and grilled mochi, and meat and vegetables to preference.
* '''Nanakusu gayu:''' Eaten on January 7th, this is a collection of seven wild edible herbs eaten with rice in order to ease the stomach after all of the things listed above, which have been eaten over the course of several weeks.

==Spring==
Spring cuisine is all about appreciating the beginning of the growing season, as shoots and ferns unfurl from the ground, and petals blossom on fruit trees. These events are cause for major public celebrations, and, in turn, the fruits and vegetables in question are heavily featured in a variety of dishes.

Besides the bounty of the rich brown earth, there are naturally seasonal selections from the deep blue sea:
* '''Tai''', or Red Sea Bream, are rich-tasting fish that are in season in spring, and famously symbolize good luck in Japan. Besides eating them as sashimi or grilled with salt, '''Tai-chasuke''' is a dish where tai is served on rice with dashi fish stock poured on top.
:* For people who can't abide the fish, but still want their good luck, there is also '''Taiyaki''', a traditional Japanese sweet named after and shaped like tai. They're filled with '''anko''' (sweet red azuki bean paste), and often served at cherry blossom viewing parties (called hanami).
* '''Ika''' (Squid) is available good and fresh throughout the year, they're sweetest in the spring. '''Hotaru-Ika''' (firefly squid) are particularly popular served as a snack accompanying drinks, prepared in a variety of ways, including as sashimi, sauted, or boiled in soy sauce.
* '''Magaki''' (Pacific Oysters) are in season from late winter to spring, where they become bigger and sweeter. They're often served in an all-you-can-eat format, grilled, steamed, or even fried.

'''Sansai''' are much-beloved Japanese mountain vegetables that sprout in spring and are enthusiastically consumed. Many are picked from the wild; indeed, most are difficult to cultivate on a mass scale, and they're often quite bitter and tough until boiled or otherwise processed to consume. Besides serving them raw in salads, seared on the grill, or battered and fried as tempura, there are numerous specific dishes unique to a given mountain vegetable.
* '''Nanohana''' are the young spring shoots of rapeseed plants; though they're available in plain green at supermarkets for most of the year (and are closely related to broccoli -- the florets, stems and leaves are all edible), in spring they are prized for their bright yellow flower buds, which arrive in late March, in between the plum and cherry blossoms. Wandering through yellow fields of nanohana is a much-beloved practice, and fields outside of Tokyo are planted and sculpted into mazes, not unlike corn mazes in North America during Halloween. Unlike many sansai, nanohana isn't bitter or tough, so no pretreatment is required to enjoy it. Flowering nanohana is traditionally used as a side dish called '''ohitashi''', where it is briefly boiled until tender, and served with soy sance, dashi, bonito flakes and/or toasted sesame seeds. '''Karashiae''' is a similar dish, but the soy sauce is seasoned with spicy mustard.
* '''Takenoko''' (literally "child of bamboo") is a bamboo shoot, which can only be picked in a very tight window of the correct size and tenderness. Even then, takenoko must be boiled in rice bran water (with a couple of hot chili peppers added to, paradoxically, increase the bamboo's sweetness) for over an hour, to soften the flesh and reduce its bitterness. '''Takenoko-gohan''', or bamboo shoot rice, involves steaming precooked takenoko in rice (sometimes with fried tofu and shiitake mushrooms), flavored with soy sauce, dashi, mirin (sweet rice wine) sake and sugar. As a solo entree, larger pieces of bamboo cooked in a similar seasoning blend are served as '''takenoko no nimono''' ("simmered bamboo shoots"). Takenoko is also featured prominently in stir fry, in the spring.
* Other sansai, essentially all of which require advance parboiling, include '''Fuki''' (Butterbur), in which both the stalks and buds are used; spiraling, curled '''Kogomi''' (Ostrich Ferns) which are blanched and simmered; '''Shungiku''' (Spring Chrysanthemum) which are often served with a sesame dressing, or added to soups and hot pots; '''Tara no Me''' (the fresh shoots of the Angelica tree, sometimes called the "king" of sansai) which are particularly popular as tempura; '''Wasabina''' (Wasabi Mustard Greens) often used in salads; and '''Yama Udo''' (Mountain Asparagus) which is typically thinly sliced and pickled in miso, vinegar and sugar, or, if served fresh, can be grilled or sauteed.

'''Ichigo''' (strawberries) are in season in Japan from December to March, making them the go-to fruit for early spring. They're much beloved for their ability to brighten up this dreary time of year, and appear everywhere, in everything. Particularly fancy breeds of premium berry are marketed as high class gifts in department stores, but anyone can buy normal strawberries -- including going out to greenhouses to pick them, a spring activity known as '''ichigo kari'''.
* '''Daifuku''' are a very popular traditional Japanese sweet, comprised of a glutinous rice ball filled with sweet white or red anko, but in spring, they're sold with an entire strawberry inside, and called '''ichigo daifuku'''. These are hawked from the food stall to the konbini and back again, and are best enjoyed with a cup of green tea.
* Strawberry shortcakes in Japan are sponge cake and whipped cream layer cakes with fresh strawberries between the layers and on top (Christmas cakes are usually strawberry shortcakes), which is a little different from the cake with the same name in the West.

'''Ume''', the Japanese plum, is the first major tree to blossom in spring, and its flowering is avidly anticipated by the populace (though without quite the intensity of the excitement surrounding sakura blossoms, see below). Accompanying all this hype are uses of its fruit flavor. Since ume is often pickled as unbelivably sour, salty '''umeboshi''', it's available year-round, but when the weather starts to warm and spring is around the corner, ume-flavored chips (which are sort of like fruity salt and vinegar chips) and other snacks and sweets, appear on the shelves of the supermarkets and konbini.

'''Sakura''' blossoms are the main event for the celebration of the arrival of spring (even though ume come first and are also celebrated separately). In Tokyo, they begin to bloom in April, and as the public eagerly follows the cherry blossom front (as forecasted by the weather bureau, as it moves from South to North) to find out exactly when the blossoms will pop, you'll find sakura-flavored (or at least sakura-colored) everything; there's Sakura Kit Kats, Starbooks lattes, donuts, tarts, roll cakes, ice cream, taiyaki, mochi, and more. Sakura fever turns the shelves of the supermarket bright pink.
* '''Sakura-mochi''' is the iconic traditional sweet associated with hanami (as well as Hinamatsuri, the Girls' Festival, celebrated on March 3rd); it is the sweet, pink mochi of spring, wrapped around anko and topped with an edible leaf from a sakura tree (which is the only part of the sweet, actually, that involves actual sakura).

====Bento====
'''Hanami''' (literally, "flower viewing") is the traditional Japanese custom of throwing a party under flowering trees (especially sakura trees) in order to properly appreciate the blossoms in the brief time that they're around -- only a week or two a year! People gather in huge numbers, play or listen to music, and hold elaborate feasts on picnic blankets. Although there are often food stalls in larger parks, preparing and packing your own food is common, making this a great place to discuss '''bento''', the Japanese boxed lunch.
* Making yourself a great lunchbox is satisfying, but the true importance of bento comes from the feelings you put into preparing them for other people. It's a chance to imbue love into every bite -- parents make bento for their children if they can, and giving a specially prepared bento to a friend (or crush!) is a great demonstration of affection.
* Bento boxes (which can, themselves, vary greatly, ranging from elegant to cute to steadfastly functional to straight-up disposable -- and the same is all true of the chopsticks packed with them) are usually designed with a few subdivisions, to separate small portions of multiple dishes, such as rice, meat, and pickled or cooked vegetables. Everything tends to be served in bite-sized pieces, for convenience, and it's not uncommon for individual pieces of food to be cut into whimsical shapes, such as apple-rabbits, hot dog-octopi, and so forth.
* Taking the decorative element one step further, '''kyaraben''' ("character bento," as in anime/manga character) and '''okekakiben''' ("picture bento") arrange all of the elements of a bento into a recognizable image. Such meals require snapping a picture on your cell phone to immortalize your beautiful lunch before eating it!
* Not all bento are made by a loved one; anyone can buy bento from convenience stores or supermarkets, and some restaurants specialize in takeout bento. You can even purchase bento at railway stations ('''ekiben'''), which is a surprisingly old tradition with a huge variety of offerings, where local specialties compete for the appetites of travelers. Purchasing a box lunch at a station shop -- or while on a train, for longer trips -- remains one of the special treats of Japanese railway travel.

==Summer==
Executive summary about the themes of summer cuisine in Japan.

Savory:
* Somen
::* Nagashi somen
::* Zaru somen
* A non-somen cold noodle way to beat the heat is with '''Hiyashi Chuka''' (literally, 'Chilled Chinese'), a cold pasta salad composed of ramen noodles, arranged artfully (and VERY colorfully) with vegetable (and sometimes meat) garnish. Thinly sliced carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes are popular toppings, and ham and shrimp are not unheard of. Some chilled sour soup broth is drizzled on top. Konbini serve prepackaged Hiyashi Chuka with a hardboiled egg.
* '''Hiyayakko''' (sometimes called hiyakko or yakko-dofu) is chilled tofu, served with various toppings; its name refers to the servants of samurai in the Edo period. Chopped green onion, dried tuna flakes, and soy sauce are one common combination of toppings, but you can also find hiyayakko topped with shiso, yuzu rind, daikon, ginger, plum paste, or even mustard.
* '''Rei shabu''' is a pork dish, related to the popular wintertime shabu-shabu (a hot pot) - though rei shabu is more akin to a cold pork salad. Unlike regular shabu-shabu, the vegetables of rei shabu - things like daikon, cucumbers, tomatos, green beans and carrots - are raw, and the thinly-sliced pork, once boiled, is dipped in ice water to cool it down. Rei shabu is served with a variety of cold sauces, like miso or sesame sauce, and is sometimes served with somen noodles.
* '''Unagi''' or freshwater eel is a common ingredient in Japanese cooking, although it's also so highly prized that there's a day in midsummer when one is ''expected'' to eat unagi (specifically ''doyou no ushi no hi,'' the midsummer day of the Ox from the Chinese zodiac cycle; it may fall anywhere between mid-July to early August). Since eating raw eel poses a high risk of food poisoning, unagi is ''always'' cooked, frequently grilled. In particular, the cooking style known as ''kabayaki'' involves splitting the eel along either the back or the belly, gutting and boning it, cutting it into square filets, skewering, and dipping in a sweet soy sauce-based sauce prior to broiling on the grill. Once unagi has been cooked, it may be served donburi-style over rice (which includes the dish known as ''unaju''), or torn up and mixed with the rice to make ''hitsumabushi'', which is especially popular in the Nagoya area.

Sweet:
* '''Watermelons''' are considered a luxury in Japan, and are grown accordingly by farmers as a gut-pleasing treat. The rind is thinner and the flesh around the seeds are sweeter as compared to their Western counterparts. As such you can find them in many unusual shapes(cube, face, Godzilla egg!?) which can make them ornamental and expensive. The Densuke watermelon of Hokkaido considered to be the ferrari of these tasty treats with prices ranging up to 400,000 yen. However their luxurious nature makes them the perfect gift to offer your favorite senpai during the hotter months of the year! Summer gatherings and festivals aren't complete without a round of Suikawari(Watermelon Splitting).
:*Suikawari: A game between friends where a person is handed a wooden stick or bokken, blindfolded, spun three times then told to have at it. ’Official’ Rules for Suikawari:
::#Players placed between 5-7m away from the watermelon.
::#Blindfold tested with large yen bills.(May not apply to the 'Ohtori' rich.)
::#Time Limit of 3 minutes.
::#Scoring determined on how clean a break was made.
::#Melon collectively devoured after break is made for bonding between friends.
* '''Kakigori''' is shaved ice covered in flavored syrup like strawberry, lemon, melon, bubblegum, or a variety of other festive flavors, along with actual toppings like mochi, sweetened red beans, fruit slices, or even ice cream. Unlike a snow cone Kakigori is soft, cloud-like, and without much texture. Kakigori is a popular dessert when on the go, and many summer festival food stalls can be found shaving gigantic blocks of ice into this cool, fluffy treat.
* Garigari-kun

Drinks:
* '''Mugicha''' (barley tea) is just the thing to cool a person down on a hot summer's day, or even a hot summer's night, since it's caffeine-free. Plain mugicha is a mellow brown color and has a savory, roasted taste with a touch of bitterness; sometimes it's sweetened with sugar. It can be purchased at any konbini or made at home using roasted barley teabags.
* Ramune -- Lera Camry
* '''Umeshu''' is an aromatic liqueur made by steeping unripened ume fruits (Japanese plums) in alcohol (typically shouchu, also called white liqueur, but also sake, brandy, whisky, or other liqueurs) and sugar, with a refreshingly sweet, tangy taste. Its alcohol content varies with the drink used: usually around 10-15% ALC, about the same as wine or mead, or, at its strongest, diluted sake, but sometimes as low as 5% (similar to many beers) or as high as 25% (like undiluted sake, or fortified wine). It is believed that umeshu has many health benefits; it's said to relieve exhaustion, promote digestive health, and stimulate the appetite. The legal drinking age in Japan is 20, but due to lax enforcement, it's relatively easy to gain access to alcohol for enterprising students, largely through convenience stores or umeshu brewed at home (which is quite easy!), or sometimes through vending machines, though these are becoming less common. The umeshu-tasting festivals do reportedly check identification at entry! Of course, there's always nonalcoholic umeshu - though some brands are reported not to taste much like umeshu at all.

====Festival Food====
Summer is the season of festivals so let's do a food stall feature!
* '''Yakitori''' -- literally grilled chicken, but not necessarily chicken! The important part is it's bite-sized food on skewers, grilled over charcoal. It's a regular festival and event food, and also popular to have while drinking! It's pretty ubiquitous. Generally it's going to be meat charred on sticks, often (maybe even mostly) with vegetables as well. It might go with salt, but with tend to have sauce; 'tare' sauce is one option, a mix of sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar, but the idea is something sweet and savory. The particular cut of meat isn't all that important--while the most traditional is chicken, as mentioned it might have beef, octopus, or sausage just as a start.
:* Fish on a stick! That's not just an exclamation, it's also sweetfish, or '''Ayu''' - a freshwater fish with a light texture. Often seen at fireworks displays, it's a popular festival snack associated with summertime. Grilled or barbequed, it's topped with salt, and its crispy outer flesh hides a distinctive sweet taste. Some people even say it tastes similar to a watermelon! It's served whole, and it is artfully placed on a stick in a wavelike swimming shape, to give an impression of swimming up against a current.
* '''Karaage''' -- While the Curse of the Colonel is infamous amongst baseball fans in Japan, don’t mistake Western fried chicken for Karaage. Karaage is fried chicken where flavors like sake, soy sauce, garlic or ginger are added to the chicken before the flour is added rather than simply into the flour itself. This process adds a juiciness to the meat that Kentucky Fried Chicken simply lacks! While this frying style was originally from China, it’s been adapted into something uniquely Japanese that they can be proud of. Each region of Japan has it’s own regional twist on this delicious treat such as Nagoya’s spicy version or Gifu’s karaage that’s black due to a type of algae mixed in.
* '''Takoyaki''' is a crispy savoury snack made of diced boiled octopus legs covered in a wheat flour-based batter, shaped into balls. While octopus is the operative ingredient - it's right there in the name! - takoyaki can also contain things like seasonal vegetables, tempura scraps (or tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. It's typically served with okonomi sauce - a sweeter and less salty cousin of Worcestershire sauce - and mayonnaise, but can also be served with goma-dare (sesame and vinegar sauce) or ponzu (soy sauce, with dashi and citrus vinegar), amongst other variations. It originated in Osaka, but is now popular throughout Japan. Takoyaki is typically eaten by stabbing the ball with a toothpick, and served in paper dishes which resemble boats. It's also served piping hot, so be careful not to eat too quickly!
* Ikayaki -- Pluto
* Hotate Butter Yaki
* '''Okonomiyaki''' is a pancake or omelette-like dish served, much like their comparisons, with a variety of toppings and fillings. There are two main ways this savory dish is served! the Osaka-style has the extra chosen toppings mixed in to the batter and cooked together and pan-fried, served much like a stuffed griddle cake. The Hiroshima-style version serves it much like a layered cake, with the chosen extra toppings stacked on top of the batter cake one after another. Cabbage, green onion and pork seem to be the most common ingredients, but locations that serve the dish have many different ingredients on request, such as vegetables, seafood (such as octopus, shrimp, and squid) beef, and cheeses. Certain locations offer more unique varieties such as with fried noodles or chicken!
* '''Yakisoba''' is stir-fried noodles, plain and simple. While sometimes made with buckwheat soba noodles, most servings are prepared with thinner ramen-style noodles, making it quick and easy to prepare. The dark sweet-and-savoury sauce gives the fried dish a tang, and diced vegetables and meat are usually thrown in - ranging from chicken to pork to hot dogs to Spam, depending on the locality. While an actual dish is sometimes used, the festival food is commonly served on a humble paper plate - or in a bun, for a meal on the go.
* '''Yakitomorokoshi''' is just corn on the cob (on a stick), except that it isn't 'just' anything. Rather than being boiled, buttered and salted, its preparation is uniquely Japanese. After a brief boil to soften it up, chefs throw their corn on a charcoal grill and brush the corn's surface with some combination of soy sauce, mirin and sugar, which forms a glaze. The smell is amazing, somehow nutty, salty and sweet at the same time, and many a customer is led to this stall by simply following their nose.
* Tai is a spring fish but '''taiyaki''' is as valid an entry at any summer festival as it is at hanami viewing. These traditional Japanese pastries are shaped like the fish they're named after, and are somewhere between a waffle and a cake, stuffed with sweet azuki red bean paste (or, more recently, custard, chocolate, or even cheese or meat). Part of the fun of taiyaki at festivals is that you get to see them made in specially molded griddles, right there in the stall -- and the art of flipping over a half-baked 'fish' with a chopstick without getting batter and filling everywhere is fine, indeed...
* '''Crepes''' - A popular street food that can be sweet or savory, although the sweet variety is more popular in Japan. They are often served as a cone and filled with cream or custard and a kind of fruit such as banana, strawberry, blueberry, peach, kiwi or apple. They can also be filled with ice cream, chestnuts or almonds,or if someone if filling very decadent a cake topping such as cheesecake, brownie or chocolate cake. A sauce is drizzled among the inner folds and over the top of the crepe such as strawberry jam, chocolate, caramel, nutella or kuromitsu. The more savory kind of crepe, often just called 'snack crepes' often include tuna, egg, bacon, cheese, sausage, ham, spinach or chicken as their filling and then topped off with a sauce such as Japanese mayonnaise, curry sauce, pizza sauce, teriyaki sauce or even salsa.
* '''Dango''' -- Dumplings made of rice flour called Mochiko and served on sticks with many regional varieties of the sweet treat(or savory in Gifu where they’re served with soy sauce!). The Japanese have been eating dango since the Jomon period and how they’re served has evolved over time. Offerings of dango are made during special festivals to the kami for purification purposes before taking them home and eating them for good luck. It’s referenced in the odango hairstyle(o- is honorific) which in Japan can be conflated with any variety of bun. Just watch out calling anyone sporting this kind of hairstyle odango-atama(bun-head or dumpling-head) unless you’re charming enough to get away with it.
* '''Jaga bata''' means butter potato, and it's pretty much exactly that -- potatoes, steamed in wood ovens, and stuffed with butter, salt, and soy sauce. It's especially popular to use the smaller 'reject' potatoes for this purpose, turning them into a nearly bite-sized street food, but the paper boats they come in sometimes just have one big potato instead.
* Karumeyaki
* '''Castella''' (or kasutera) is a fairly simple sponge cake, made with sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup. Their creation dates back to Portugese merchants in the 16th century, and the modern Japanese castella cake is a specialty of Nagasaki owing to this connection. Full-sized castella can be bought year-round, but the bite-sized '''baby castella''' (bebi kasutera) is a popular festival snack. Besides the plain recipe, there are varieties made with powdered green tea, brown sugar, honey, etc.
* '''Wata-ame''' or watagashi is cotton candy, usually very similar to the Western version, also known as fairy floss or candy floss in various parts of the world. Sugar which has been melted into a liquid state, and flavorings and/or colorings added, is spun into tiny strands, and gathered on a stick to serve, sometimes covered with a decorative plastic bag (usually adorned with anime or other artwork) for protection until it's eaten. Wata-ame dissolves quickly in contact with water and readily melts again in high heat, so it's not something to save for ''much'' later!
* Ringo Ame
::* Ichigo Ame
::* Mikan Ame
::* Ume Ame
* '''Choco bananas''' are frozen banana treats, covered in chocolate. While the chocolate is traditionally milk chocolate, there are also varieties made with white chocolate, strawberry chocolate, or other varieties - which can make for a dazzling rainbow of snacks. They're often topped with sprinkles, nuts, coconut flakes, or other sweets. Don't worry about getting your hands dirty, because they're served on sticks, just like toffee apples. Choco bananas are staples of Summer festivals, and they're a common sight in stalls.

==Favorite Foods==
Everybody has a favorite food -- and often it isn't just the food, but the story of why they like it, who they like it prepared by, and where and when they most like to eat it.

* Add your character's favorite food to this bullet list -- one long paragraph recommended. Please include your character's name and both a cultural summary of the food and its particular significance and specifics for the character. It's okay if your food was mentioned already elsewhere in the guide -- no two bowls of ramen are alike, after all.
* [[Fuu Hououji|Fuu Hououji's]] favorite food is '''tessa''', fugu sashimi which has been sliced so thinly that it's almost transparent. Only specially trained and licensed sushi chefs are even allowed to prepare tessa, due to the potential danger of pufferfish poisoning; as such, it's an expensive luxury dish, not something that even the Hououji family goes out for very often - but that rarity is part of why Fuu enjoys it so much, when she has the opportunity. (In an interesting bit of irony, the Emperor of Japan is forbidden by law from ever eating fugu out of concern for his health, making Fuu's favorite dish something that the Emperor himself can never eat.)
* [[Mikoto Minagi|Mikoto Minagi's]] favourite food is Mai Tokiha's '''ramen noodles'''! Ramen is a common Japanese dish - wheat noodles, served in broth which is typically meat- or fish-based, with a variety of toppings. Many regions of Japan have their own variation of ramen: Tokyo's own spin on the recipe involves curly noodles and chicken broth with a little dashi, though perhaps Mai's own tendency to use chicken in her ramen is also because chicken is cheaper than some of the other meats in the market. Mai's ramen noodles were Mikoto's introduction to the fact that food could taste /good/ instead of just being plain sustenance, and she is forever grateful to her friend for revealing that there were wonders of taste she had never before experienced. She'll never be able to forget the wonders of that very first meal. Though Mai can make many other more complicated dishes which exhibit her skills as a cook, Mikoto's first choice for dinner is always Mai's ramen. It's never quite the same thing twice - there are always different ingredients on sale, after all!
* [[Westar|Westar's]] favourite Earth food is '''donuts'''. These sweet treats are made of dough, cut into rings and deep-fried to a crispy puffy perfection. There are a thousand and one variants on the simple donut, with as many flavours to try as one might imagine. Common additions to the dough are spices, fruit, or chocolate. Many donuts, after frying, are subsequently dipped into glaze, coated with icing, or dusted with sugar. Amid all these choices, though, Westar's preference is for simple and familiar. An uncoated plain donut, whose ring contains a heart shape as its hole, the hallmark of Kaoru-chan's stand.
* [[Adrien Agreste|Adrien's]] is '''pizza with his favorite toppings being cheese, mushrooms, pepperoni and sausage'''. Due to his carefully watch model diet, he doesn't get to have it often, but it's a delightful treat for him when it does. It especially becomes an even more favorite when his friends invite him to go and share a pizza with them. It's just how it's like from the shows he watched on tv!
* [[Marinette Dupain-Cheng|Marinette]] is particularly fond of '''macarons'''. A French cookie delicately formed from meringue and almond flour, these delicate treats come in a wide variety of flavours and colours. Marinette is admittedly biased in the source, as her family's bakery makes them frequently. In addition to being light, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious, macarons lend themselves well to an artistic flair. The batter is very easy to colour, and the little puffs can easily be adorned with bits of icing. Just picture a cute little kitty-cat, or a deceitful hamburger, or a ridiculously elaborate replica of the Discworld - the sky is as ever the limit.
* [[Steven Universe|Steven Universe's]] favorite food will of course always be '''hot dogs'''! A packaged meat in a tubular shape, generally pork, beef or turkey with seasonings, is grilled until plump, then served on a bun with an assortment of condiments and toppings such as diced onions, chili, cheeses, peppers and pickles. They hold great significance besides great flavor, such as fond memories, or recalling the times of Beach City. They even help use alien technology*! Whenever he bites in to one, it all comes back to him in the best way possible.
* [[Eri Shimanouchi|Eri Shimanouchi's]] favorite foods are '''Okonomiyaki''' and '''Modanyaki'''. Although she's been a vegetarian since starting middle school, her love of these varieties of Osakan soulfood hasn't changed, as it reminds her of happier times during her youth. Instead she's just sworn off red meat varieties and substitutes seafood instead. It is extremely rare for her to eat it in front of friends though because she's embarrassed about how messily she eats it. Her favorite location for it is a small grill in Ogikubo Tokyo, which was within walking distance from her former territory in Shinjuku.
* [[Kozue Kaoru|Kozue Kaoru’s]] favorite foods are the '''Milk Shake''' and '''Cake'''. She will never admit it though, because she likens those things to this nostalgic sweetness invoked by the memories of the most important people in her life. Part of growing up she feels is pretending she doesn’t like these childhood treats. All the same, whenever her twin Miki invites her out to a small bakery on Southern Cross Island, it’s rare that she refuses outright. Instead she complains the whole trip.

==Least Favorite Foods==
Everybody has at least one food they despise, too, and often an interesting reason why!

* Add your character's least favorite food to this bullet list -- one long paragraph recommended. Please include your character's name and both a cultural summary of the food and its particular significance and specifics for the character. It's okay if your food was mentioned already elsewhere in the guide -- no two bowls of ramen are alike, after all.
* [[Usagi Tsukino|Usagi Tsukino’s]] least favorite food are '''carrots'''. Usagi in Japanese means bunny or rabbit and as such one might think this is the result of one too many jokes or puns being thrown her way. That’d only be half-right. The rest of the truth is that Usagi has a palate that's still a little like a child's and just doesn’t like the taste or the texture of carrots, going so far as to not request them in her curry dishes. So you read it here first, the bunny on the moon just does not like carrots.

For more information, please see: [[Holidays and Events]], [[Culture]]

[[Category:Theme]][[Category:Culture]]