A golden circle of fire traces itself into the air beside Juno, and there’s a rush of air pressure as the portal opens. From the far side you can hear gunfire.
The ground shudders as a second crescent of fire crashes against the towering blades of light, causing one to blink and disappear. Juno steps through her portal, which remains hanging in the air.
Trussed takes cover behind a hedgerow while you tag the tree and lamppost. 「Keep it from you? This job is hella dangerous, that would be… you were at the tactical meetings, right? You saw the PowerPoints? I’m going to need to change tanks early. Where did that b$+@@ get fire magic?」
A raven swoops down and lands on the lamppost.
With a flick, trussed_in_me discards his cigarette and begins adjusting hoses and dials on his tanks.「Just keep your head down, and I’ll draw all the fire. Nothin’ I haven’t done before.」
A boy in priest robes laced with opalescent circuitry steps forward holding a familiar book.「You should know Tenshi is within the gardens as well. She too would be trapped in this ‘net’.」
The man in the vest draws a pistol from the small of his back and pulls the action. A pair of bow limbs pop out of the sides of the weapon.「So’s your freaky sister.」
The boy sighs, 「I will admit to some personal motivation; however, there is also a new aries… Nakahara Kyou?」 He conjures a file folder from his tome and sends it floating forward. There is a picture of a young girl clipped to the folder. The man in the vest and the man in black armor both balk.
「What you say? Paper Tag’s sister? What joke is this?」The Delphic Knight stands in repose, his arm cannon still humming and glowing blue. He hasn’t raised the cannon, but he’s facing down the boy like he’d like to.
Tomoyo steps away, backing away from everyone. She maintains the draw on Kaguya’s bow.
「What the hell!?」 The man in the vest drops his phone. 「That was supposed to be the warden!」
Tiresias steps forward holding her book.「You should know Tenshi is within the gardens as well. She too would be trapped in this ‘net’. They won’t trap her too. The Knight is garnering a truce with her.」
Benji draws a pistol from the small of his back and pulls the action. A pair of bow limbs pop out of the sides of the weapon.「So’s your freaky sister.」
Tiresias sighs, 「I will admit to some personal motivation. Bianca’s life is precious to me. However, there is also a new aries… Nakahara Kyou? She is not the only one of her name who is there. I am surprised Pele could not sense Ninsar.」 She conjures a file folder from her tome and sends it floating forward. There is a picture of a young girl clipped to the folder. Benji and Lys both balk.
「What you say? Paper Tag’s sister? What joke is this?」 >This is going to make things very difficult. Can the seer even be trusted? Where was he last night?< Lysander stands in repose, his arm cannon still humming and glowing blue. He hasn’t raised the cannon, but he’s facing down Tiresias like he’d like to.
Tomoyo steps away, backing away from everyone. She maintains the draw on Kaguya’s bow.
「What the hell‽」 Benji drops his phone. 「That was supposed to be the warden!」A few of the cards attached to the planeswalker move to the discard pile.
A tangle of vines so thick in every direction that you can’t see the sky sags at your magic’s touch. The vines turn into velvet ropes. You can see a small home to your left, and a tiny greenhouse on your right. A deep-seated memory tells you this is the home of your mother’s friend. You haven’t been here since you were four.
As you watch, your magic turns the vine-wrapped greenhouse to a stained glass atrium, and the home begins to stretch and spread.
In front of you, there’s the sound of a gun again, and a hole opens in the tangle of vines and rope. Yuki stands on the other side. Her left leg is bleeding from hundreds of tiny puncture wounds, and a vine wrapped around her right arm is shredding the sleve of her button-up. She uses the serated and steaming barel of her gun to cut herself free before the remainder of the vines turn to rope and sag to the floor.
She barely gives you a glance. 「Kiyomi.」 Through the gold-weave dress and emerald accoutrements, she recognizes you. 「I lost the boy.」 She seems to be mostly angry at herself. 「Little grade-schooler? Black hair? A few too many sweet buns?」 She’s kneeling now, and from her messenger bag pulls one of the pots of salve your chef, Shuji, makes. She opens the wax-sealed pot with her teeth and begins rubbing it into her leg with one hand.
Around the two of you, the home has risen like a muffin to fill the tiny plot of land. You’re standing in front of a grandfather clock that houses your portal. There are stairs leading up and down, as well as a hallway that leads to and from the direction of the greenhouse. There is a tall set of double doors under the stairs. There is no sign of the boy, and no sign of the magical girl who created the vines.
Standing, Yuki does something to her gun that makes it pop open, ejecting three large bullet thingies that clatter against the marble floor. 「Could have done without the castle dracula treatment.」 She still can’t meet your eyes. She reloads her gun and spins it around her finger to close it. 「Any idea which way to go?」
The taller figure’s mouth quirks, and you can feel a darkness press in from all sides. The distance between yourself and your allies become gulfs of despair as you take in the depth of the danger you’re in. You can’t breath.
Suddenly, you see the girl beside your doom again as she lets out an unhinged peel of laughter. “And Tracy, and Hiro, and Fleur, Johanna, Alaina- You’ve lost allies before they even took the field.” She taps the jade charm at her neck. “I suppose I should thank you?” Her eyes remain emotionless as she giggles.
「You rebound my Sakura.」 The tall figure’s voice is like honey, low and melodic. White sparks jump from your skin as you feel a terrifying pressure close in around you. 「I hope you’ve no attachment to this filth, for you’ve brought her to her death.」
[music]
「There will be- No Rest For The Wicked!~」
The floor shifts under you, and thousands of hands push up out of the ground, churning the dirt and pushing up the woodwork of the gazebo. You feel hands grasp your ankles and calves, but you still cannot move your feet, or break from the willowy caster’s gaze.
Suddenly, there’s something in the way. The girl from 804 stands between you and your oppressor, arms crossed. From all sides, birds fill the air. A hail of tiny, chirping bodies.
You’re standing, ankle deep, in frozen dirt. Arms stick out at odd angles from the torn terrain. The other girl, the one who was laughing, is crouched in a potted tree beside the gazebo, hands giving off a frosty fog. The tall figure is nearly buried to their hips, frozen hands gripping their robed form, but concern seems the furthest from their mind. Emi stands a few feet away, biting her lip. The girl from 804 still stands in front of you, trembling.
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@Windy, Bubbles, Sparkles: Found-dryad-center-of-park. the mental voice calls out, words rushing in a blind panic that reaches out to your minds. Help-or-run. Dark-spores-bad. You feel an oppressive weight behind that panic.
Suddenly the gripping hands are sock puppets, the roots nothing more than flopping yarn tentacles, though how potent the change is is questionable. Fluffy yarn replaces the wooden floors, rolling out in rippling reams as everything seems to become flimsy, the grass being replaced by yarn even as it frosts over.
@804-chan: Don't breathe anything black. Don't let it touch you.
The draw of her dream world into reality seems to have helped to calm her down a bit for now, giving her back some of her false confidence.
「You erased people. Memories. You worse than killed them. You made them into something less. Tundra-chan... I can fix you. I can take away what she's done to you with your help. But we have to defeat her, first.」
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Emi's face is writ with a concern that tears at your heart. She nods and turns... and you may not see her again.
The girl titters as she rocks, perched in the tree. 「-and I suppose you know aaall about erasing people.」
Delicate filigrees of frost dance between the frozen limbs. They build upward in spirals to form a carousel, a balcony, and a teetering dancer.
Above the ice, in a cloud of dream-vision, a lone traveler skirts a deserted firing line to come upon a buried storm of spent trauma, a wrecked basement, and a circle of salt.
「You couldn't begin to fathom the raw power it took to bring me back...」
The frost carousel bubbles and expands in growing branches of tentacles. The top half separates into a hanging moon of broken shards. The bottom collapses into a tiny figure.
Her mind trailed off as she shook her head, denying the possibility with the spreading yarn making everything a little more comfy, even her mindset. She huffs, regardless, trying to press the issue from her mind. At least Emi would live.
"Anastasia-dono?" she asks as she sees the dreaming world above the girl. 「I... I gave Anastasia's trinkets back to her in the mall. They'd hidden them away, taken them from her, sealed her away.
I... I saw what your'e remembering before. I walked through that nightmare. The grave with the two others, the stern man... I hav- Had her pendant. Did I wake you up?」 she asks, daring to hope. 「We weren't meant to be trapped like that. No one deserves that fate.」 she announces, reaffirming her former thoughts that she'd only thought to herself. 「Did you hear my song about the Cheshire Cat? I... didn't know what I was doing. I still hope it was the right thing.」
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Juno's heart skips a beat when she sees Yuki's condition. She runs over, fussing over her.
「It's all right, dear. I'm just glad you're safe.」 Juno hugs Yuki closely, lingering there for a bit until she receives a message from Tenshi. Words dripping with fear; she certainly needs aid.
「I have just received word that the dryad is at the park. I have to go back. Can you still fight?」 When those last words slip by Juno's lips she wishes they had not; the answer was clearly no, but that would not stop Yuki from taking the opportunity to say yes.
The tension eases out of Yuki as you embrace. 「I had him.」 The two of you take a moment to bandage her leg while you consider the news.
Yuki practically scoffs when you ask if she's battle-ready. 「I'm still breathing; still shooting, but I just saw the dryad, Kiyomi. She's got the kid. Are you sure the one at the gardens is real? Our Intel says that greenhouse was her altar. I think she might be projecting there from here with a dummy.」
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A severe-looking young man wrests the rearview mirror from Shuji’s grip, and passes a comb through his hair. “I know, man.”
“It’s in the girl’s best interest,” says the cook, mostly to himself.
Jack snaps his gum. “Look, man. We’ve been over this. Are you gonna follow through already? You’re the one they’ll take… Sober or not.”
Shuji mops his face with his apron and tucks it into his seat. He pulls a cigarette and a lighter out of his pocket, and drags himself out of the passenger seat of the sedan before lighting up.
The sky still looks grey. It hasn’t stopped raining since. Crews work day and night to clear the rubble. The cook’s gaze is drawn across the field of cranes to the crater. She’d had the Navy fill the thing with water, as if she could erase what she’d done. The way she did with sweet little Kiyomi. That, at least, would have to stop.
Shuji has spent his cigarette before he reaches the side door of the temple. A rusted out payphone pole has outlasted the old orphanage, but the two were dying breeds in Obusa. No place for lesser Gods in Shirakawa’s Obusa. Over the door is a plaster relief of two crossed arrows.
Just as the cook goes to knock, the door opens. A young man in green suspenders and sleeve garters adjusts his tie. “This will have been the Brothers Grimm: hunters of shadows, seekers of truth. The saint isn’t in, and hasn’t ever been, but word will come of the dryad, and with it-” The young man sniffs the air. “Vermouth.”
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Juno ponders this for a moment. 「That would make sense, actually...」 Juno had no reason to believe the dryad couldn't teleport, but she already knew the dryad was a master of illusions. Juno decides to trust Yuki's judgement.
@Tenshi, Naiad: The dryad Tenshi is facing may be a mere image. I am at her lair with Yuki; if we are correct, then we shall track down the real one here.
「Very well. Let us find her, together.」 Juno grabs Yuki's hand and gently ushers her along, taking a wild guess and heading downstairs.
Your comrade jukes in front of you, sliding in the fine gravel of the path, and letting loose a stream of foam, which you immediately plunge into.
You slip and tumble, skinning your palm and tearing the knee of your pants. The foam is thick and suffocating, but you’re able to wipe away enough to see and hear what happens next.
Shuji stands in a circle of scorched earth, stamping out the torn sleeve of his jacket. The gun attached to his tanks is hanging from the hose, unattended, while the chef frantically checks himself for more flames.
The demon pulls out of the dive a few meters in front of and above the two of you. At this distance you can see every scintillating inch of her. Glowering through inch-long serrated teeth, this woman’s skin looks like red, laquered candy. Her hair falls in bouncing waves of orange cotton candy, and she’s not wearing a stitch of clothing. Her arms and legs thicken toward their extremities, which end in wicked talons. 「Shuji, you vile lush! Allow me to tender your severance package!」 In a fountain of syrup-like blood, the demon jerks something out of her side, and all remaining semblance of sanity is torn away, as the moon behind her… begins to hatch.
Another beam sword blinks out as the demon pulls out of her dive in front of the trellaced entryway of the garden, and suddenly, you see the demon out of your recently acquired manga. A visage of wings and talons girding mature beauty.
Within the border of safety, the black armor’s helmet slides open. 「Forgive me. We should be more transparent in our goals here.」
The man with the hand crossbow stumbles, turning from the trainwreck that has everyone transfixed. “Uhm, uh, ixnay on the ecretssay. I can’t confirm everyone here is loyal.”
The knight grunts, but continues. 「That Brother is warding the garden for containment. This will suspend any magic inside, and preventing the witches from escape. The ward will be strong enough to contain nine full power witches.」
The kid with Tiresias’ book nods. 「I was aware of this. Aratani should be aware, but I have taken care to prevent the one you call the dryad from receiving word. My sister is posted inside to ensure she remains within the garden.」
Kazue nods. 「Good. Then we can talk about getting things put right.」
Their conversation is just more noise to you. Looking around, you see Tomoyo duck into Aratani’s limo.
From the west, a pair of figures run out from behind a tree and sprint across the path on the far side of the swords of revealing light. Kaguya snaps her whip, diving forward. The taller man slides to a stop, bringing to bear a long thin weapon covered in hoses. A jet of foam explodes from the weapon, but is met with an overwhelming wall of fire. The smaller figure tumbles to a stop, caught in the thick foam.
Another beam sword blinks out as redhot demon Kaguya pulls out of her dive in front of the trellaced entryway of the garden, full of blind rage.
Within the border of safety, Lysander’s helmet slides open. 「Forgive me. We should be more transparent in our goals here.」 >I should foster trust with the naiad and the seer.<
Benji stumbles, turning from the trainwreck that has everyone transfixed. “Uhm, uh, ixnay on the ecretssay. I can’t confirm everyone here is loyal.”
Lysander grunts, but continues. 「That Brother is warding the garden for containment. This will suspend any magic inside, and preventing the witches from escape. The ward will be strong enough to contain nine full power witches.」
Tiresias nods. 「I was aware of this. Aratani should be aware, she was outright informed by you, but I have taken care to prevent the one you call the dryad from receiving word. Enough to gain her trust, not so much that she’s outside my purview. My sister is posted inside to ensure she remains within the garden. Perhaps the ward will break Anastasia’s hold...」
Kazue nods. 「Good. Then we can talk about getting things put right. The fewer of us who have to die the better.」
On your battle disc, the discarded fire attacks are burned out of the graveyard, as well as the cards stacked under the “Cat and the Fiddle”. A fusion card appears: “Mad Loa Kalfu”. Your gaze darts to the moon, and you watch the cracks widen, and something horrible slides out.
After the fourth basement floor, you can see the molding and floor runners grow indistinct and knotted like thick roots. Peering over the banister, the whole of the architecture is affected further down, and a glowing blue mist obscures the furthest floors. You can also see, on the next floor down, a meaty plant hanging from the ceiling on the next flight down. The flesh of the plant is mottled and red, and a string of viscous fluid hangs from the bottom of the bulbous mass.
「This might be a stupid question, but have you got another gun I could use? I don’t think I’ll have much time to reload. She’s… fast. Big Iron packs a punch, but I can’t get him past six rounds without throwing off the balance and causing jamming issues.」
You feel your pulse quicken, and feel tears begin to stream down your face, but you aren’t upset. If anything, you’re filled with energy. Something moves within your stomach. Your ring begins to emit a soft red light.
Anastasia gets uncomfortably close to the new girl. 「She thinks she brought me back. It’s so awful I could puke. -but it’s not her fault. Nothing ever seems to be anyone’s fault. Even the soldier who wanted my family murdered were only following orders from men who didn’t see us as human.」
With her talisman in both hands, Anastasia’s breath steams and curls around the girl’s fingers, pressed tight around her talisman. 「S-stop hurting people!」
「Oh, poor girl. She doesn’t realize yet. Should I tell her? -tell her how you’ve tricked her into selling her soul? -because I know where this ends. -for both of you. -for all of us. Did you believe in a God before? Reincarnation? Heaven? When the fractured remains of my human soul tore apart my phantom, I didn’t go anywhere. No eyes to see, no ears to hear, nothing, not even an end.」 Her smile twitches erratically. 「Ninsar brought me back with the trinkets of seven fallen girls, and the Ki of a thousand innocent lives.」 She taps the magatama. 「That’s what these are. Solid Ki, gathered over cen-」
Ninsar speaks up. 「Anastasia, my child, lets not play with this vermin. You are better than this. The mad god cometh.」
The sky begins to darken. The halted moon shifts and pulses as the sun continues to progress in the sky.
@All: Target Magatama; don't destroy. Jade talismans made from souls and magical girls. Dryad name is Ninsar.
「Just because you've had a bad teacher doesn't mean that there are no other solutions. Too much is too much. Don't make all of your trinkets and you can go on being happy and healthy. And besides. Do you really believe that 'killing a bunch of people' is how you bring someone back to life? That just sounds like nonsense to me. I mean, who even comes up with that, how do you test it? Then you've got me who comes along and found you, for all intents and purposes alone in the dark, and you really don't believe that something you didn't know was possible could have helped? Could have saved you? You'd rather go on believing that the only answers are more sacrifice?」
She made a mental note that she didn't expressly say that she remembered the song, which was good as she scribbled away with her pastels out of view on the yarn-hands from her grounded position.
@Kyou-chan: If things get bad, I want you to run. Don't let them get you. Don't take a hit for me. I'll be okay, alright?
「You're right about one thing, child. Your participation in The Ritual was critical.」 Anastasia looks shocked at Ninsar's offhand revelation. 「However, no one would have died last night without the misguided intervention of your allies. Humans are a wellspring of unharnessed ki. A few days of rest, and they would have returned to their normal lives.」
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Juno stops for a moment as she takes in the feeling. She wipes away the tears and makes a "well that was weird" face before responding to Yuki.
「I can try to acquire one.」 Juno's summoned weaponry did not seem to last long, though she supposed that if she focused on making something permanent she could do so. She holds her hand out to the air, and a small portal appears, dropping a golden revolver studded with diamonds into her palm. She keeps her finger far from the trigger as she carefully hands it over to Yuki. 「Will this do?」
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「But... how could you predict what I was going to do? I could have taken the trinkets away instead of giving them to her. I... I pretty much just guessed.」 Tenshi stammers as she's also met with a sudden wall of information that hadn't occurred to her - that she was still a pawn.
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「Come on now, darling, this is hardly so difficult a decision. Due to recent developments outside of my control, I find myself in need of an associate. Your quick wit and dry humor are just what I am looking for. Just think about it, darling, one little poem and you will have powers beyond your wildest imaginings.」 The woman sat in her high-backed office chair, wreathed in her city’s skyline. Perdita heard this woman had built this city from the ground up. She was the wealthiest woman in Obusa, and from her floor-to-ceiling windowed corner office, to her Christian Louboutin shoes, she was everything Perdita hoped to be: successful, beautiful, and in charge. She just hoped she was not also crazy.
Perdita wondered, briefly, if this was how most internships worked. Without much of a support structure here in Japan, she didn’t know anyone who had undertaken one. She had only responded to the flier because it had come in the form of a cypher. She was really very good with puzzles. Not sure how else to respond to what was either a metaphor she wasn’t catching on to, or a psychotic break, Perdita forced a nervous laugh. 「Perdona mi, Miss Shirakawa-」
「Mizz, please. I have a daughter.」 The councilwoman taps a hairpin against her glass desk. Was she growing impatient?
Perdita adjusts her glasses, draws back her bangs, smooths her skirt, then re-adjusts her glasses for good measure. 「Eh, Shirakawa-dono. I beg your pardon, but I do not understand.」
Ms. Shirakawa sighs. Perdita wasn’t sure what she had said to upset her. 「Ayatori?」 A giant black bird appears on the woman’s desk, which she promptly taps with the hairpin. It turns into a black cat. 「Ta-da!」
You know I hate cats, the crow says in what Perdita hears as perfect Spanish.
「Ay dios mio! That was the coolest thing I have ever seen!」 Perdita reaches out to touch the cat, who hopps across the desk to avoid her.
Are you sure about this one, Mistress? She’s an Oushiza for sure, but I don’t know if Hebitsukaiza would approve. It seems a bit manipulative to take advantage-
「I’m not interested in what she might have to say on the matter. She’s made it very clear how little she cares for my opinion.」
「I’ll do it.」 Perdita nods. She wasn’t really listening to what the councilwoman and the bird were saying. She had been lost in thought and speculating about magic.
Ms. Shirakawa smiles. 「There, see? She’s on board. Simple as that.」
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Surprised by your interruption, Kaguya lurches back, caught off balance as the black blade clears her hip. The arc of the blade goes wide, taking out another of the pillars of light behind you. At your touch, the pool of syrup on the ground begins to glow, the light slowly spreading.
「Yare yare daze!」 The proclamation comes from behind Kaguya, a lithe figure in crow feathers approaches alongside a thick older girl in an oogie boogie kigurumi. They laugh, 「You’ve had a yokai trinket this whole time! I can’t even be mad about it. -but Miyako may have a word or two for you.」
The kid’s face twists into a mask of rage. 「」 The cane the kid was holding connects with the side of Kaguya’s head and explodes with sparks and black feathers. The crook of the cane circles around Kaguya’s neck and she’s tumbling across the garden grounds behind the kid, kicking up clods of dirt.
The corvid crusader returns to more placid tones, addressing the thikk mistress as if the world weren’t vomiting insanities around you. 「She was down that way, the last I saw. Keep in touch! I know I’ll be keeping an eye on you.」
Shuji recovers his propulsion nozzle and gives the young lady a stern look. 「Not such a short cut, now was it? I’m glad you’re safe, now get out of the circle.」
She mimes a talking puppet with one hand and pulls down one eyelid with the other, sticking out her tongue as she passes.
Shuji scoffs and looks over to you. 「Quit ogling my niece and get back to work. It looks like I’ve got some backup. Don’t take so long that we have to put her down.」
Another burst of feathers interrupts the exchange, and in the next moment, a tall, ominous figure with avian features and a blood-red mask has crossed weapons with the kid. Kaguya is getting to her feet unsteadily, one of her wings hanging at an odd angle. Soon, she’ll be ready to confront her assailant.
Yuki is part-way through an eye-roll when the weight of the weapon reaches her hand. She stops mid-step to look at the gun, spinning it, popping it open, and admiring parts you don’t recognize. It’s much smaller than her gun, you hope it’s good enough.
Yuki looks back to you for a moment, then back to the gun. 「You have no idea what this is, do you? This is a colt .45 with gold inlay and a diamond-studded grip, engraved with the Lady of Guadalupe- this is a cartel gun. This is Pablo Escabar’s gun!」 She sees in your eyes that you have no idea what any of those words mean. 「This is exactly the kind of gun I can do some real damage with. It’s not, like, a tree-killing gun, but short of that, it’s perfect.」
She proceeds with you down the stairs for a moment before continuing, voice bristling with reticence. 「Look, I know... I know things haven’t been exactly storybook between us, and there seems to be a lot of outside pressure pushing us together, but I’m glad you came. -and it’s not just the gun. That’s probably just your mentor spirit flirting with mine, and it’s cute, but… Well, it wouldn’t be right, us facing almost certain death, without me saying I love you.」 She shakes her head. 「That’s not right. I keep doing that.」 She stops you both and cups your chin to make eye contact. 「I love you, Kiyomi Shirakawa. I don’t think too far ahead, but I don’t plan on going anywhere without you.」 Then, she kisses you.
「I could have that creature out of you, Juno’s rules be damned.」 A soft voice, like velvet over leather cuts into your precious moment. At the foot of the steps, one floor above what appears to be the bottom, a tall boyish figure in a robe stands with arms crossed. 「There are a number of other things I could offer, but I would never break such a delicate love.」
Yuki draws her own gun, leveling both weapons at the dryad, and taking a half step back to widen her stance.
「I wouldn’t waste your bullets, child, this is just a messenger. I wanted to talk to you before you desecrate my cloister further.」 The dryad lifts both hands, showing they are empty. 「See? No child. No trinket. Just me.」
A black arc of shadow takes out a third blade of light before Kaguya is struck with a ball of lightning. The fight is hard to see from here, but the ward is holding, and Kaguya is still inside the garden. The Delphic Knight is still waiting to talk. He’s moved to where the blades of light prevent his passing, and is alternating between watching the fight taking place, and the sun progressing toward noon. As the sun moves behind the moon, the lesser body is cast in shadows. The cracks along its surface glow a hateful red. You can’t be sure, but they may be spreading.
「You flatter me.」 Moving for the first time, Ninsar delicately peels back the sock-puppet hands and steps up onto the ground. The barely-contained rage is gone, as if this were a completely different person.
Anastasia maintains a respectful silence, returning to her perch on the sculpted pottery around the entrance to the gazebo.
「Making plans around so much magic is a futile effort. If time has taught me anything, it is patience. This is purely a random conflation of favorable conditions of which I seek to take advantage... Some conditions are less favorable than others, admittedly. You’re within your rights to call my methods into question, but I’m afraid you don’t stand much chance of changing my mind, and--as you may have guessed--Anastasia’s is a bit too far gone for a plea to ethos. Now, this child.」 She indicates the girl from 804, who maintains her defensive stance, seemingly for fear it’s all that’s keeping the two of you alive. 「Did you know you would be reincarnating Miku Sakura by having her heart unlocked?」 Without waiting for an answer, she presses in. You can feel the pressure grip your chest again. 「Were you aware I had designs for Sakura, even after her passing? Did you even try to use the poppet to bring her back, or has no one shown you one of the most fundamental aspects of Godhood? Tenshi-」Her scowl presses into an apologetic smile, and the pressure releases again. 「Sora… I may not be someone you see as a role model, and I can see your perspective will need to mature before you could understand my motivations--I do not fault you for that, even if it ends me--but you need someone who will take the time to explain this heightened state you find yourself in. I don’t condone Ara-chan’s coercive methods of recruitment, and I truly regret the circumstances that led to your pact. Perdita was an unexpected casualty. After Kazue came with her accusations and her infernal trinkets, I had to do what I could to defend myself. She came to my home. I do not expect you to see it that way. So, where do we go from here? Are we to fight to your death under the mad God’s moon? Fill this place with more arcane radicals?」
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@804-chan: ::I've got you. Don't worry. You should get out soon, though, I'll make a diversion for you.::
Tenshi was honestly mostly listening to the woman as two things played through her head: Emotions, of course: Anger and frustration at the forefront, but a quote, just behind.
If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.
「The doll is not a toy.」 Tenshi responds, tersely. 「She isn't just some trinket. I almost made that same mistake today. I was going to 'fix her'. But she isn't broken. She isn't a toy. She's a human being, with feelings, and emotions, and she doesn't deserve to be erased to save her twin. She doesn't deserve to just be used. None of them do. Not Bubbles, or Shiny, or Windy. Not spooky or Kazue. Not Svebzik, not Perdita, not Sakura, not Anastasia... And neither do I. I'm done being a pawn.」 Tenshi says as she finishes the last zigzag in her drawing.
She juts the pastel in her hand towards the priestess in an almost accusatory manner as it grows into its combat form. Like the rest of what belonged to Tenshi, it was all form and no function, but in the dream world, form was function. And this was only a feint, anyway. The chalk rapidly elongates into a spear. The shaft and blade are riminiscent of Kazue's spear in all the ways that an Escher painting were riminiscent of a house. It was pitch black, with too many angles and edges. The vorpal knight's spear, if it had come from a nightmare. The spear lunged towards the priestess - obviously too slow for the untrained young woman, but a distraction nonetheless.
As she struck out, she willed her magic into her drawing. Tiny little cats with oversized, jagged grins, some with spots, some with stripes, and all completely full of mischief. Toothy grins appear in the air from all around the quartet of women, like tears in the world as huge smiling sharp teeth fill the emptiness. Eyes of all the colors of the rainbow pop open above them, pupils slitting in the newly acquired light. Each set of eyes looked around curiously for a moment before Tenshi called out, still pointing the spear at the Magatama she'd not quite glanced with the not-vorpal spear. 「Get her necklace!」
And then everything descended into all the chaos that a world made of yarn filled with half-invisible quasi-real cats could.
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The moon can't break. If it does, then everything on Earth will pretty much die, especially if it explodes like it looks like it is trying to do. But what if...
Are you going to sit there and ponder how truly and monumentally screwed we are until we all die or DO something about it? I swear, you're worse than some pen-pushing bureaucrat in DC -- your brain, your words, not mine!
「GOT IT! HANG ON, ZEEK!」
At this point, the amount of magic being flung around is intense and flooding the environment, so why not do the magically logical thing?
Naiad reaches out to the water, the energy from the tsunami earlier that was dissipated.
Water is solid as stone and as fluid as air. Cold and shapeless, but beholden to one thing... the tidal influences of the Moon. If the Moon wants the tides so much, then we'll GIVE it to the Moon.
Naiad opens themselves up to the rhythym of the waves, then attempts to accelerate them to cool the widening cracks -- hey, it works for underwater volcanoes, right?
"Hang on folks, it's gonna get a bit steamy!"
Whereas what Naiad was trying to do earlier was the nigh-implausible task of stopping or slowing the Moon in the orbit with a precisely aimed slingshot effect, this is more of a 'water shot-gun' blast...
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Juno does not understand any of the words coming out of Yuki's mouth, but in summary it seems she did well. She smiles like a dog about to be rewarded with a treat, only to receive much better; the touch of Yuki's lips lingers softly on Juno's for a moment, before the two are rudely interrupted.
Juno breaks away from the kiss regretfully to respond to the messenger. 「I have not the slightest idea what you could say that would be worth the effort, but you may feel free to try.」 Feeling a bit put out by the interruption, she still does not fail to register the dryad's boast. 「No, she lies. No reason to give her an opening to tell more.」
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_ __ _ _
| |/ / __ _ __ __ __ _ (_)(_)
| ' / / _` |\ \ / \ / / / _` | | | | |
| . \ | (_| | \ V V / | (_| | | | | |
|_|\_\\__,_| \_/\_/ \__,_| |_||_|
____ _ _
/ ___| __ _ | |_ __ _ ___ | | _ _ ___ _ __ ___
| | / _` || __|/ _` | / __| | || | | |/ __| | '_ ` _ \
| |___| (_| || |_ | (_| || (__ | || |_| |\__ \ | | | | | |
\____|\__,_| \__|\__,_| \___| |_| \__, ||___/|_| |_| |_|
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//001: Table of Contents
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Note to self: add Table of Contents
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//002: Introduction
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
You know those games you get on the Steam Summer Sale
that are half-finished, railroading pieces of garbage
that you can clear in one sitting? This is not one of
those. This is, and I feel I am qualified to say this,
the Dark Souls of dating sims. Everything in this game
matters, not just your choices.
Forget to cut down the bus pole on Day 1? Sakura dies
before she makes her pact. There is a scene, in Night 2,
where you have to sit at a decision and click nothing
for ten minutes, real time, to make sure Emi stays in
her bus and arrives on stage late. I had thirty two “bad”
endings, each well (enough) written and satisfying, before
I even saw a “neutral” ending. Maxing out the characters
means nothing if the world ends in the meantime.
That’s another thing. Most games with a customizable
character would, at most, determine the prospective
courtship paths on a gender option, or assume everyone is
bi. Here, the availability of a character as a romance
option is determined by the features you define in
character creation. I didn’t get this at first, and the
only characters that showed the heart indicator on my
first run were Junpei and Kazue. (More about Junpei, and
how to unlock text-to-speech in “004: Don’t Even Bother
Playing Until You Max Out Junpei”)
Overall, I give Kawaii Cataclysm an 8/10, but definitely
recommend you download one of the save files that has the
Gift of Gab unlocked. The game is much more fun with
speech-to-text.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//003: Day 1-A: You Suck at Your Job
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The game lampshades your ability to save scum and replay
as an ability to see the future, and offering your skills
as a quack soothsayer is the main focus of the plot. Your
achievements are permanent, though, and you have to play
the game’s three days at least six times to get the
quickest “good” ending. On your first playthrough, though,
you don’t actually know what’s going to happen, and you’ll
be lucky if you survive to Day 3 without a walkthrough.
Your goal on day 1 is to set up a ton of seemingly random
flags to ensure the main characters survive night one, so
you can unlock the secret character Junpei on Day 2. You
need to:
Take everything off your desk.
Sit in front of Paper Tag (Third row, third seat).
Open your laptop, and choose: <Watch C3 Stream>
When asked to report, Choose:
“Twilight’s song, sisters sundered [...]”.
Take the torch from the left pocket of trussed_in_me.
Use the torch to cut the bus terminal sign.
When Kusaka stops you, Choose:
“A black mark on he who returns on the morrow [...]”
You’ll reach a pretty brutal scene where two witches fought.
Whatever choices it gives you at this point, don’t mention
the mall, or a train. Unfortunately that’s the best you can
do at this point.
Rational thought flees Iris's mind as the...the moon thing emerges, sending cracks running along the celestial body.
「What-what the-what the hell is-」
Her body shakes. She contemplates another mask, before discarding that idea, terrified of how much it would take from her if she tried to suppress something on this scale.
WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO?! WE DON'T HAVE THE MAGIC FOR THIS! WE'D JUST HATCH THE THING OR BLOW UP THE MOON OR SOMETHING!
Dammit, dammit...TRINKETS! Aratani's trinkets! Wasn't her whole thing moon stuff?
...yes, yes! We were going to grab that mirror anyway to de-crazy Aratani! And didn't Tomoyo have her bow?
Yeah, yeah she- WHERE'S TOMOYO. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO LOOK AFTER TOMOYO.
Oh god, we were. How are we supposed to find her?!
They look down at the duel disk on their wrist, eyes drawn to the massive pileup of spells under the planeswalker.
...one of these has to help. It has to. Get the spell's benefits, those so, SO many benefits, find Tomoyo, fix the moon, stop Aratani being crazy and FIX. EVERYTHING. IT NEEDS FIXING.
Pulling on the claymore to enhance her facilities, Iris surrounds herself with more holographic layers, filled with details and shiny buttons and sliders and all sorts of displays. Card after card builds up a framework, creating isolated instances of each of the multitude of components that make up the spell, every copied component picked apart and analysed to see how they fit together with the rest. Rapidly manipulating the added components of her new displays, she filters out and separates off all the stray elements she accidentally mixed in when she hastily duplicated the pieces of the spell, determined to make sure what she was building was the same as the blueprint on the duel disk.
For every bit of the puzzle her mind figures out, one final display reveals a new portion of a holographic blueprint, the deciphered fragments of the spell translated into visual form that served as a record of her progress. Further magic recreates each part of the blueprint she'd reverse-engineered, each bit represented as a more solid, shimmering addition to the blueprint display. As it's all put together, silver coils run between each little part on the display, threading together the parts so that they come together as the blueprint demands, the seams between parts seeming to shed and vanish as they meet.
Pushing herself, she copies the grand spell of unknown origins. Whatever it did, she would have its abilities as her own...and it seemed to do so, so much. It was a struggle to work with something so complex...but a little strain was nothing compared to being able to help everyone else.
You’re clear of the fight, which you can hear continue behind you, and you’re on your own. The next points are a trash can, and a water fountain not far past it.
Your phone buzzes with a notification. Your sister has finally responded to your text: Can't talk, busy saving the world.
There is a bang, and one of the dryad’s legs turns to splinters below the knee. 「Not hearing anything that justifies the kidnapping,」 Yuki says.
The tall girl’s lips purse plaintively. 「Excuse me if I’m not ready to submit a child to the care of a gun-toting lunatic. His presence here does afford me some protection, but beyond this, I pose no threat to his life or well-being. This is- or was… his home, and I am the caretaker of this property, if not his legal guardian. I should say that if one of us is the kidnapper, it is you.」
Yuki clicks her gun threateningly. 「Always behind everything, making sure the cards fall in your favor. Of course you look blameless. You have everyone else do your dirty deeds, and post them up as a scapegoat whenever things get out of hand. They’re going to roast Aratani tonight, and you’ve pawned it off as a calculated loss. She’s got her signature on the Shakti orders, the catering bills, Emi’s paychecks- as long as you keep to the shadows, everything you’ve done will be neatly swept under the rug.」
The dryad’s messenger raises her arms in a shrug. 「Saito Emi was begging for power, as were her accomplices. If I didn’t facilitate it, she would have gone elsewhere, or worse, stabbed blindly into the night. Because of my planning, the powergrab occurred in a controlled setting. I stood to benefit, yes. For her part, Aratani is irresponsible and outlandish with her magic. She will need to be put down before she causes more senseless destruction. If that can happen in a way that benefits me- and might I add, you… I would call that efficiency.」
A thick jet of water shoots out toward the moon, just as something small launches off of it, trailing something thin and shining. The dot meets with your jet of water, and jerks to a stop. The massive plates of broken moon shudder, crisscrossed by shining silver threads. The water continues on to meet with the the moon, creating a cloud of steam that quickly covers the surface. Something snaps, and the small black dot descends through the column of water like a falling star. Zeek lands and shakes a handful of white rabbits off his mane of precious coral. The animals scamper off into the bushes as Zeek drops a short length of silver chain at Naiad’s feet.
Khutulun pats the stone dog’s honch. 「Good dog.」
Junpei’s preparations trigger, and Benji falls to his knees wailing. The Knight and Khutulun go to the strange man’s side.
The dancer tries to get everyone’s attention with a gentle clearing of her throat. 「Our barrier is almost down. Will this ward be up in time? Aratani is only getting angrier.」
「It should hold. The ward is scalable, and should take enough effect soon to hold them back… if we are right about who is in there.」 The Delphic Knight nods, turning back to face the others. 「Thank you for dealing with the moon. It was not looking good.」
The boy- girl… the one claiming to be Tiresias shakes their head. 「I would not be so quick to congratulate them. I’ve only known magic to escalate a situation.」
A young lady in an Oogie Boogie kigurumi staggers to the edge of the wall of luminous blades. 「I need to talk to Tomoyo!」
<Achievement: Turning an Eye Blind>
A detailed still of the cracked moon. A jet of water meets a thin silver line leading from the surface. The cracks are wide, and something glowing red with many tendrils is pulling at the edges of the cracks.
<Vertical Wipe>
Svibzik is droping a bit of silver chain at a surprised Naiad’s feet. Over his shoulder, the moon is crisscrossed with silver chain, and the water is pooling in the cracks. The moon glows a pale blue.
<Enter Benji, left>
Benji(screaming): Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh!
<Enter Pele, right, blue heart>
Pele(concerned): Our barrier is almost down. Will this ward be up in time? Aratani is only getting angrier.
<Exit Pele>
<Enter Lysander, left, purple heart>
Lysander(armor, steadfast):It should hold. The ward is scalable, and should take enough effect soon to hold them back… if we are right about who is in there.
Lysander(armor, genuine smile): Thank you for dealing with the moon. It was not looking good.
iPod: The longer the eclipse takes, the better.
<Enter Tiresias, right, pink heart>
Tiresias(doubtful): I would not be so quick to congratulate them. I’ve only known magic to escalate a situation.
<Exit Tiresias>
<Enter Emi, right, empty heart>
Emi(Oogie Boogie, bruised): I need to talk to Tomoyo!
>Check on Benji with Tiresias
>Help Emi find Tomoyo
>Talk to Pele and Kazue
The cats are everywhere at once, and even as Anastasia moves to intercede, the girl from 408 bolsters you with her own magic. Something she does snaps the kittens into reality, and breaks them free from the frost Anastasia has curling around them. Even still, the fight looks desperate until something tumbles out of the void your spear occupies.
The tiny object tumbles across the felt ground and into the mass of kittens. Suddenly, the mass swells, the cats surge forward, and the dryad is overrun. She backs into the gazebo, stumbling and scrambling into the dark.
There are a few more bursts of chilling frost magic, and then the scene clears. The cats scatter into the shadows. Looking around, the girl from 408 and the dryad are nowhere to be seen, and Anastasia is wrapped, head to toe, in colorful yarn.
One of the cats remains, a forked tail lashing in self-satisfaction as she lays the two magatami at your feet.
Senshiro's phone receives a call.
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An older Napalese boy snaps his cellphone shut. 「F&*$ing vultures!」
The girl an the desk nearby shifts uncomfortably in her chair, scribbling furiously in her notebook.
The boy sets his phone down and struggles to get out of his chair. He’s having trouble getting a grip on his elbow crutch, and he’s wiping at his eyes because he’s not crying. 「G~~+@~n heartless- s*$~!」 The crutch clatters to the floor.
The room is mostly empty. The boy and girl sit a desk apart in the back of the classroom. The teacher is dozing off under an old leather-bound book.
The girl stops writing and gets up to help the boy with his crutch.
「Don’t you f!$+ing dare.」 The boy’s knees waver as he stoops, clutching the back of his chair for support. 「I’m not going to be silenced by your pity. My life is pain and anguish and piss and s@$@, and I don’t care if I’m disrupting your f@$&ing study time.」
The girl stops, adjusts her glasses, smooths her skirt, and straightens her top. She watches patiently while the boy collects his crutch and straightens. 「Your Japanese is very good.」
The boy laughs spitefully.
「My name is Perdita. I am from Cuba.」
「Do you-」 The boy sucks air through his teeth in a hiss. 「Do you know anything beyond unit 1 Japanese?」 Easing back upright, his hand falls on his phone.
「I learned some Japanese before I moved here, and I have taken four years of Japanese, three years of English, and a year of German.」 Perdita’s eyes stay glued to the floor where the boy’s crutch had been.
The boy glances at the teacher, who is still gently snoring into her book. 「O-okay then.」 The boy picks up his phone.
「Who are the vultures?」
It takes a second for the boy to register the question. 「Oh, at the hospital. They’re withholding my medical supplies.」
「Wow, what are vultures doing at the hospital?」 Perdita adjusts her glasses.
The boy does a double-take. 「What? No, not really vultures, just people acting like them. I’m sick, and I won’t be getting better, but I have a new doctor, and he’s going to second-guess every f*~%ing script my old doctor wrote. Healthcare here is great, but they’ve got some serious hangups about drugs.」
Perdita looks over at the teacher, then back at the boy’s shoes. 「Oh, so they are circling you, waiting for you to die? Okay, I get it.」 She nods.
「You’re… not normal.」
Perdita rocks, slightly, from heel to toe. 「No. People say I take things too literally, and they yell at me because I don’t look them in the eyes when they talk, or brush my hair every day, or talk for too long, or draw too much. That’s why I’m always here after school.」
「That sounds like autism. -I’m hoping to become a psychologist.」 He pauses, looking down and furrowing his brow. 「Sorry. I’ve got Huntington's disease.」 He offers the reciprocal diagnosis as a kind of apology. 「I’m sorry, let me start over.」
「Okay.」
「I’m Paresh Dhital. I’m kind of a mess of personal problems, and I can be an ass sometimes. -not like a donkey, just-」
「No, I get that one.」
Paresh chuckles. 「Sorry...」
「You don’t have to apologise, Dhital-san. I think I can help. Well, if I do it it won’t last very long, but maybe Shirakawa-dono can help. We can do magic. She said boys can do it too.」
「Aaaall right, so not autism, but maybe dementia.」
「Oh, no. You were right the first time. Very perceptive. Yay you!」 Perdita’s laughter is genuine and warm. 「I did not believe in magic either, but it is very much real, and not at all fake. Here.」 She holds out her hand...
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The moment she sees that Achievement, Airi knows something's wrong. The fact she's seeing through a UI solidifies that there's something up.
Oh, and Benji screaming. That...she probably did that.
Wait...did that mean all this magic came from Benji?
...he did say some odd stuff earlier. He was on about scenes, runs...Sora called him the Dream Prophet, but it sounds more like he's seen all this stuff before several times. Hell, when he said I usually get on well with Aratani when I take out the trash. Usually, like not always. Prophetic stuff tends to sound more...certain. I'd think so, anyway.
We should stop thinking about this. Stop thinking about it NOW. Better to talk to Benji later, before we freak out again and get an achievement for getting everyone killed too! Just forget about it. NOW.
Alright! Geez.
...when did I start arguing with myself?
Not important. Love to check on Benji, but with everyone here, he should hopefully be fine. Bad idea to talk about this in front of Tiresias anyway. Just have to hope the whisper spell works like this. And since it's probably a bad time to talk...Tomoyo. Gotta help Tomoyo. Don't know where she is now, but hopefully I'll be guided to her.
Iris(determined): I'll help you find her. I told her I'd keep her safe, and I'm not going back on that.
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<Achievement: It's the Most Important Setting>
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Tenshi was overwhelmed to the point of nearly losing track of everything. But she held her ground, holding up her armistice effect even as the Cheshire Kittens began to abscond. Her hummingbird heart had returned, even though she was in the wrong form. She pulls herself out of the yarn while the fighting breaks to a crescendo. She didn't have time to think, now that she'd sent everything cascading over the edge.
@Shiny, Windy, Bubbles: May have gone overboard with cats, turned dryad into scratching post. They're fleeing. I'm... gonna follow. she decides at the last moment, as she glances to the yarnified kuudere.
Her eyes fall on the Cheshire kitten at her feet looking pleased with itself. She offers it the payment of a scratch beneath the chin. 「I didn't expect for the magatama to still be here when all of you were done. Good kitty. Can you... hide them for me? Where only one of us could find them? I... need to help her. And then all of them.」 she says, looking down to the crystallized souls of her comrades. Fourteen dead magical girls. Would she be able to untangle that? Would she be able to restore them somehow? No time for worrying about that sort of stuff.
No one had responded to her call to action, which meant they'd likely fled or... were tied up. Her eyes went back to Anastasia. 「I'll let my friends know you're here, Anastasia-dono.」 she shares. But then waffles on who to let know. She takes a step forward, then another, then rushes into the darkness after her neighbor.
@804-chan: I'm coming.
Windy seemed to be neckdeep in everything... and seemed to be the first to answer when she needed someone on her side. That left Shiny and Bubbles out of the loop, but she didn't fully know where the pair stood. Bubbles seemed... good and reliable as well. But she needed to keep Anastasia safe from the watchers until she could get things sorted. So she could only trust one. And everyone was likely mired in their own things.
@Bubbles: Anastasia-dono is tied up near the gazebo. If the watchers find her, bad things may happen to her. Please hurry or send someone you can trust to collect her. Let me know if you can't do anything.
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The cat dips their head in acknowledgement, then collects the charms and slides into the ground like liquid shadow.
You head into the gazebo, and see a flash of something green disappear up a set of stairs on the left side. Up through the center of the building, you can see the sun passing behind the moon which is riddled with a spiderweb of rivers and glowing a gentle blue.
When you reach the banister, you hear a scream, and the splintering of wood.
Across the line, you can hear Kyou running. She has you on speaker phone. Probably because she left her headphones at home again. Oh my goodness, oniisama, we live with superheroes, and one just took me with her to fight- like- some kind of tree person and a Russian girl with ice powers--Is that racist?--and it was terrifying, but so cool, and I shot birds and cats out of your charm, and I have the cutest little cowgirl outfit ever, but the moon is exploding, and the sirens are on, and it’s like the end of the world, but it. Has been. Awesome. I’m chasing the tree lady right now. I think we’re going to have a standoff in- like- a bell tower or something. Do pagodas have bells? I’ve never been in one except when I was really little. You should definitely go outside and get off of your phone, it’s like the animes out here. Stay safe though. Are you okay? I hear a lot of noise in the background. Oniichan, do I need to save you? I’ll summon, like a tiger and come save you after- oh, no. A giant crane. You hear a scream and the splintering of wood.
The moon overhead shifts from red to blue, cracks filling with rivulets of water. It’s getting dark, as the sun passes behind the now-cerulean moon, and you’re jogging to a trash can. About twenty meters away is the fountain, a shallow pool, roughly eight meters across with a giant stone dragon coiled in the center. The creature’s talon is outstretched, and a built-in water feature spins a large jade sphere. A black cat perches at the edge of the pool, contemplating the water. There are only two points left before you’ve completed the circle. The fountain, and the shed, which you can see in the distance.
On the other hand, you can see the top of a gazebo sticking out above the treeline.
<horizontal wipe>
The street is full of abandoned cars, one of which is cut in half and smouldering. The sky looks like sunset, and in the distance, a wave can be seen over the roofs of the houses.
<enter Emi, right, facing off-stage, empty heart>
Emi(thoughtful): You’re sure? That’s pretty rude.
iPod: I just met the guy, could I at least open with something less personal?
<Emi turns center stage>
Emi(snobby): Sakura says some pretty mean things about your brother-
iPod: She said he dresses like a girl, that you're a bad daddy, and that you'd never be able to protect anyone the way you act.
<Emi turns offstage>
Emi(shocked): No, I won't tell him. He’s just trying to help.
<Emi turns center stage>
Emi(Rolling eyes): She’s just upset you lost track of Tomoyo. She says there are ribbons leading to the Shirakawa limo. I don't know what she means, but she took off.
<horizontal wipe>
This is the interior of the Shirakawa limo. Plush monogram seats on your left, and a driver’s partition on the right. The window frames the sun as it’s eclipsed by the moon.
<Enter Emi, right, empty heart>
Emi(cautious): Tomoyo?
<Enter Tomoyo, left, no heart>
Tomoyo(trying to draw bow): Get out!
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"Arigato!" Tenshi calls to the cat as she heads into the darkness which seems to stretch on with cloying shadows all around. The inside was larger than she'd expected.
Her eyes linger on the moon, as she tries to stay quiet, before she remembers not to look at an incomplete eclipse... did it count if the incomplete eclipse was filled with glowy-blue? Then the green light dances across her periphery, causing her to look in that direction. She decides to follow the light, but too late, she hears the scream.
Tenshi grips the wind-and-fire wheel tight in her hand as she throws herself over the stairs, taking them two at a time and letting her footfalls become dull whumpfs.
At the top of the stairs, you see the new girl, shrouded in the alabaster wings of a giant crane. Standing on one leg, the bird has the dryad pinned to the wall. At least, you're pretty sure it's the dryad. What you see is an older woman with round glasses.
「Baba!? No. This is some kind of illusion. You're trying to trick me.」 The girl from 804 looks surprised, but unshaken.
The old woman coughs. 「Kyou-chan, my dear child. You must finish this. It will return soon, and it will be furious. It has held me captive for so long. Please,」 she sobs.
Tenshi brooks the top of the stairs and stumbles to a halt. She'd expected the situation to be reversed, perhaps. Not that there was any real risk of... Kyou... having been injured, thanks to her accidental blood pact. That hadn't triggered in Tenshi's lizard-brain that ran into danger to protect a friend. But she hadn't been prepared for the scene she stumbled upon, regardless. Her wind and fire wheel bends downwards slightly as she points it at the pinned old woman, the window to her soul illuminating the darkness and painting who she really is on the ceiling above them. The image is elongated and distorted slightly by the angle, and perhaps even occluded somewhat by the crane's wing, but Tenshi needed to know who this woman was, if she wasn't the monster that had done all of these terrible things. She needed to know if she was telling the truth.
The crane stretches out one sail of a wing to catch the image. Unlike most of the magical girls you have observed, this image is cast in muted colors. A young shrine maid sits in the overwhelming shadow of a thick-trunked tree whose branches fill the top of the image, and whose roots spiral and twist in intricate patterns. The perfect circles of her glasses shine a pale blue. The maiden is dwarfed by the tree, but she is clearly the subject.
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「That's your grandmother.」 Tenshi says, quietly. 「But you don't have to do this. There's always another answer. The... the watchers can remove the magical fiend from her if we can keep her contained. She'll never be able to do magic again, but..」 she chews on her lip. Was she really advocating for something she'd railed against several times in the last few days? 「I don't know if it's right to do that. But... there's at least one other way. And I'll help you find another if we have time. She can't do it on her own, but I know we can do it together.」
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Kyou pets the crane's leg, and the giant bird gently gathers up the old woman, tucking her up in his down. 「Well, I like any plan where Baba lives.」 She looks up at the crane, which turns his long neck to look back at her. 「I've got Guiermo until it's his turn on Junior. Where do we need to take her? We should do it quick.」
Sakura...that's the girl that- The iPod text comes on screen, and while Iris has no idea what Emi is seeing, the way the words cut deep, she wouldn't be surprised if she'd visually shown some sign that she knew what Emi had been told.
I...why say that? What does she even-
Emi...Emi already told us. We can't worry about Sakura, alright? Or the things she comes out with. We've done our best, and we always will.
Come on. We've got dialogue options now. The first...explains a few things, actually. Fourth is out, and the third is...it's just stupid. Really stupid.
...two it is...
---> Option 2
Iris(subdued): We can work on first impressions later...
================
It's weird, seeing things like this...I guess Emi's in the limo? Trying to get in? And we're outside of it?
Yeah. And it's not working out well for Emi. We need to try and de-escalate this before we do anything else...not that we get much choice in what we're doing anyway.
So...try to talk first, then, and hope we don't get any blatantly stupid dialogue options...or a bad end. There's no saves in real life...
...considering the situation, we might want to check that. But yeah. Talk before messing with the limo.
---> Option 3
Iris: She's here to help. She can talk to Sakura.
Dammit...know I need to check if there's a save menu, but is there a menu for the whisper spell? My phone? What about the magical girl network? Need to figure out the interface if we're going to deal with this.
Just don't access the phone display if there is one. We might actually pull it out. Not exactly appropriate right now.
「I... my magical girl locked someone away a long time ago. I might be able to do that again. As far as I know it takes someone like me to get them back out. I... don't want to do that. I pulled Anastasia-dono out of a place like that already. But what the watchers do is also... not good. But if your grandmother is really a slave to her magic, then she needs help. Help that would take a lot of time for me to give. I'll still try, but I can't watch her and do it at the same time. And... I think they can help us.」 she decides.
「My watcher is somewhere nearby. Emi's is, too. Likely, there are more around the building.」
@Windy, Bubbles, Shiny, Kazue, Spooky: Do you know where the Dream Prophet or Chef are?
「We don't have a lot of time, I agree. I've messaged some of our friends, we'll find them. And I think we can trust them. They helped me with Emi-chan.」
@Mod: Capricorn has rejoined the network. Type /who for a listing of active members. and /help for a list of commands.
@Capricorn, Pisces, Taurus, Cancer, Leo: Do you know where the Dream Prophet or Chef are?
<Achievment: A Whisper on the Wind>
Load...? I...I'm not sure I want to push that...what would happen?
...dammit. Benji. We need to talk to Benji. This...this has something to do with him. Hell, I wish we could see what the latest save is...
If we even want to have a chance at that, we have to focus on figuring out chat. Dream Prophet...Sora? That's probably Sora. But...Capricorn? Pisces? Taurus? The Mod line means that I'm Capricorn, but who's everybody else? Dammit. There isn't even an identifier on that command to tell me who Sora is. Agh...one thing to do, I guess.
They think hard about it, and...
/who
/help