1129/Maybe We're Myth-taken: The Mantican't

Maybe We're Myth-taken: The Mantican't
Date of Scene:	17 February 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	The Hero Club fight off a creature that looks like a strange, misshapen manticore. Zoisite and La Crima have a heated debate overhead about the benefits of dark magic! Ultimately, the life energy is restored to several civilians on Tokyo's streets, and the day is saved.
Cast of Characters:	Ren Morimoto, Norie Okana, Yuna Yuki, Itsuki Inubouzaki, Fu Inubouzaki, Togo, Zoisite

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Ren Morimoto has posed:
    Another late night in Tokyo sees the streets beginning to empty as the last stragglers out and about find their ways home. There's a light misting to the air, not quite rain yet, but the air is thick with the promise of more. A heavy bank of clouds sits overhead, tumultuous and dark. It blocks out the sight of the moon and the stars, leaving only the ambient lights of the city to see by.

    Though some streets seem to be lacking evn that, unusually. Streetlights dim, neon signs flicker and fade, and darkened shop fronts gather in shadows. Somewhere far away, an inhuman roar sounds that is more than capable of setting one's teeth on edge, should they be accustomed to the feel of what dark energy is like. Insidious, creeping and crawling its way in, sucking the light and heart and hope from those nearby.

    Already there are figures on the streets, slumped over or fully supine, alive still but only on a technicality. Those late-night wanderers who hadn't yet found home, or perhaps didn't have one to go back to.

    The clack of claws on pavement, the faint rustle of feathered wings, precedes the shadowed figure of a creature at the end of an alleyway, cutting between tall skyscrapers. Its too-long limbs are feline, its wings that of an eagle, its face misshapen but unmistakably human... or at least, some strange interpretation of human. It sets its beady eyes on the bright lights at the end of the alley, which begin to dim as it approaches towards the sounds of living beings.

    Someone cries out, a hand reaching around to their back as they drop to the ground. A dark energy spike protrudes from between their clutching fingers before it fizzles into nothing, its work done.

    The creature's tail lashes in the air, its spines glinting malevolently in the dark as it readies another volley.

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima stalks the alleyways, relying on draining these stragglers, herself, for energy. But tonight has been slim pickings. with the rain and people trying to race home before a misting turns into actual rain. She has a parasol, hopping light onto a trash can with a tiny 'ting' sound and spins herself gracefully on the handle before she stops and just holds her hand out in the rain.

"This is bad hunting weather. I should go home." she says softly. She gets ready to duskport away when there's a roar, the sense of dark energy flaring up...

"Ah..." she goes, jumping into the wall and turning into a puddle of black shadow, racing along the wall of the building and flows to the source of the feathery winged beast as she slides upwards to the top of a building, to try to get a better view.

She reforms at the top of the building as she taps her parasol against her shoulder.

"What manner of beast is this." she wonders. Curious, but she takes no action. She needs to observe.

She doesn't seem to particularly care for anyone else's safety.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    The Radiant Heart Academy Hero Club doesn't normally roam the streets late at night, in Tokyo or otherwise. But today is special! They were helping out the Astronomy Club with a meteorite-viewing. Now that the event has passed, amazing as it was, everyone is headed home. Yuna is helping to carry the equipment, which will be returned to the club building on Monday.

    "It was so cool!" she's still saying, of the meteorite shower. "It's too bad the clouds got in the way, and the city lights, but there were still so many of them!" She is initially oblivious to anything being wrong, but once she notices there's people lying around on the ground, she becomes immediately concerned. "It looks like some people have collapsed!"

    That a Creature might be responsible for said collapse, or a Vampire might be hunting the Creature, is not even close to entering her awareness.

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Itsuki is a very sleepy girl, trailing behind the rest of the group and blinking repeatedly to try to stay awake. She is carrying a telescope tripod, held close to her chest, and it takes her a moment to register what Yuna is saying. Once adrenaline starts flowing, however, she peers at the fallen individuals, gasps, and hurries to help them! The sound of hooves clicking on the pavement and speech coming from the nearby alleyway make her hesitate briefly as she crouches next to one of the unconscious individuals. "We should call emergency services...!" she whispers urgently as she looks back worriedly at her friends.

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu clues in quickly enough, and already has her phone out. Half for emergency services, and half because this might be another Incident like at the arcade... Time hasn't frozen, so it's probably not Vertex related. "I'm calling right now. Itsuki, please move away from there." she says in the calmest voice she can manage, to avoid frightening anyone. She has also noticed there is something going on in that alleyway, and she doesn't want her little sister anywhere near it. "Girls, we should probably get ready... Just in case." she says meaningfully as she raises her phone. Then the phone call connects, and she starts reporting their location, that people have collapsed, and they need medical assistance.

Togo has posed:
    It figures. Togo was having such a good time with everyone, watching lights fall from the sky, streaking down and leaving trails of silver in their wake. She was just enjoying seeing the excitement on the faces of the younger kids, and being with Yuna, even if on a cold night lik ethis. But she doesn't hesitate when she hear's Fu's warning. With a serious expression, the wheelchair-bound girl raises her own phone, and taps the flower symbol on the screen. In a flash of purple light, she transforms into her Yuusha form, and moves across the street, walking on prehensile ribbons, to get into position.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    The various people on the ground, mostly young adults who have been out partying, are breathing, all of their autonomous bodily functions doing just fine. Their eyes are glassy, though, as if their internal spirit has been dimmed, while the creature nearby pulses with absorbed energy. Its furred legs stomp forward and it lifts its oddly shaped maw to let out another breathtaking roar, this time flashing several rows of deadly sharp teeth in its mouth.

    And the strangest thing is that most people don't seem to react to it. At least of the few still remaining conscious on the street, beyond the members of RHA's Hero Club and the wandering shadow that reforms atop a nearby building, observing from a distance.

    A couple are walking hand-in-hand down the street, huddling beneath a too-small umbrella. They laugh, together, after something one of them has said, and then in unison they tumble to the ground as spikes shoot out from the beast's thrashing tail, impacting them in their backs. The umbrella rolls out into the street, forgotten.

    Those two going down seems to strengthen the creature, whose outline sizzles with magical intensity and seems to grow, becoming even larger. More massive than most street vehicles at least by this point, it prowls forward to stand proudly on the street.

    Its long, perhaps prehensile tail sways dangerously behind it, and then with a wave it shoots several spines towards the gathered students of the Hero Club!

Norie Okana has posed:
Hiding beneath her own umbrella-slash-parasol, La Crima eyes the attack and feeding from her vantage point---- and does nothing to stop it. She gently taps her fingers on her bottom lip as she takes in the feeling of the feeding. She is... jealous.

She can't feed from a distance. The girl lets her parasol overshadow her form and she skips across to another building, and another with grace and poise as she tries to get a little closer to the creature.

She doesn't try to attract too much attention, but she isn't moving in secret either. She knows sparklskirts will be here soon enough.

"You." she calls out.

"Are you sentient. Or Feral." she asks questiongly out towards the attacker.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    Yuna whips around when she hears two more people fall to the ground, eyes wide in shock and fear. Seeing that Togo has transformed, and Fu is indicating the rest of them should do so too, Yuna takes only a moment to duck into the shadows, since apparently people hide their identities (she didn't know! She has never been a mahou shoujo before she came to RHA!), and taps her own phone screen. Red light flashes, and Hero Yuna darts across the street, scooping up the fallen couple (and their umbrella, so it doesn't endanger any drivers) and then zooming back to set them down alongside the others.

    Civilian safety comes first, even if this isn't a Taisha matter!

    She gives a look to Togo, seeing her friend setting up, and then just nods to confirm she's clear to act.

    ...And then, spines of darkness come flying at them! Eyes widening, the now pink-haired and pink-eyed Yuusha darts into the path of the spines, keeping them from hitting Togo by punching and blocking them with her gauntlets. They don't feel great blocking. Like something is trying to eat away at her somehow with each contact. But it's better than letting them hit her best friend!

    "That Uma-san needs to be stopped! Itsuki-chan, hurry and get that person to safety!"

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Of course her big sister already has the medical help angle covered. Itsuki relaxes very slightly, and puts on her own determined face. This isn't what she was told they'd be fighting when she committed to using the Yuusha System, but it doesn't matter. Either way, she wants to protect people, and walk at her sister's side. She transforms with her phone as well, in a green flash, and raises her left arm, aiming the blossom-weapon at a roof top, and then sending out vine-like ribbons or wires to latch on and pull her up onto the building.

    From there, she gets a better look at what's happening in the alleyway. Some sort of... Horse? And a figure talking to it? She doesn't know what's going on, but it doesn't look like a normal horse! <<I'm going to go after the person in the alley... If they are normal, they are in danger, and if they are responsible for this, then they should be restrained!>> Itsuki texts to the others, but she really can't fathom a person being involved in such wickedness. All the enemies she has faced so far have been weird monsters of some kind! ...Except for the masked motorcyclist. She really wants to follow up on that and find out who that was who was tearing around the city abusing music to hurt people, but now is not the time...!

    That's made especially clear when darts of shadow or something start flying towards them. Itsuki barely ducks the one coming at her on the roof. "R-right, Yuna-senpai!" she calls out as she uses her henshin-granted superhuman physical abilities to leap up into the air, aim down at La Crima, and send out her wires to try to carefully grab her without hurting her and pull her up onto the roof of one of the buildings adjacent to the alleyway, around the same time that Itsuki lands from her own jump!

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Once she has passed along the information, Fu transforms as well, in a yellow flash. She reads the message from her little sister and smiles, proud of how much her timid imouto has grown. Itsuki can make her own decisions and plans, and act upon them without needing to be told. That's serious growth right there. At the same time that Itsuki jumps, Fu leaps as well, sailing over the dark shards by only a few centimeters, and landing on the street-facing wall of the opposite building. She runs up it until she can leap again, acrobatically moving through the air to try to land at the other end of the alleyway, to keep the Danger Horse from escaping.

    A very large sword appears in her hand in a spray of golden petals. "Uma-san! You may not be a Vertex, but you are a Jerktex, and I'm taking you in!" To where? The police station? She doesn't know, but she's not letting some crazy horse run wild in the streets! She charges forwards, two-handed sword held one-handed at her side so she can use it as a shield against more projectiles, trying to keep the evilcorn focused on her so that Togo can take her shot!

Togo has posed:
    One of Togo's fairies, an eggshell with glowing eyes peering out of a crack in the front, appears alongside the sniper rifle that manifests in the black-haired girl's hands. She takes aim, glad that Itsuki has tried to get the person out of the way, so she has a clear shot, but not sure if that's going to work or not. Through her telescopic sight, she easily notices the dark horse growing larger after it took down those two civilians. That's no good.

    Togo raises her phone to her ear, unable to type a response to Itsuki with one hand occupied with her rifle. She calls Fu, and says, "It seems to be feeding on the people it hurts somehow, Fu-senpai. It should be taken down before it's allowed to get any stronger." Horse or not, human life comes first.

    She doesn't shoot yet though.

    Mainly because Yuna has just run in front of her to shield her from projectile attacks. That's... Not a horse. It's some sort of... Unicorn? Or perhaps a youkai! Either way, she waits for her opportunity, aiming through Yuna as Togo's ribbons lay her down on the pavement. Once that person is out of the way...

Zoisite has posed:
    Standing on rooftops? Don't mind if I do! Obviously there's some nonsense going on. Izou Saitou can feel the Dark Energy easily. He's very familiar with it, as a former wielder of such forces. So he has made his way up onto a rooftop with his own superhuman jumps, and is now observing as a quartet of magical girls get into position. Excellent team work, he has to admit.

    There's just one problem.

    He recognizes La Crima, and doesn't think she's going to take being 'rescued' lightly.

    He moves quickly from one building to the next, until he can call down to the sniper girl and pinkie. "It's no good. La Crima isn't your ally. Even if she's not responsible for that Notta'corn, she's still sympathetic to it. People are in danger as long as she's on the loose." Pause. "Oh, I'm Zoisite by the way. I'm here to help."

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    The creature lets loose with another ferocious roar, so loud the windows of nearby store fronts rattle with the intensity of it. It gnashes its sharp, sharp teeth, and its attention is caught and kept by first one voice calling out to it, and then another, its eyes like dark pits turning from La Crima to Hero Fu. But there is no response, no answering voice, only another roar.

    Which is perhaps, in and of itself, an answer.

    Its victims are limp in Yuna's arms, nothing more than (not-quite-yet) dead weight. But they seem to curve towards each other once they're set back down out of danger, almost as if magnetized to one another's presence. Even unconscious.

    There are no other stragglers on this street to steal energy from though, but for now the beast seems flush with its ill-gotten goods. Another volley of dark energy spines shoots out from its fur-tipped tail, this time aimed towards Fu as her voice calls out to it. Though as Hero Yuna's gauntleted punches demonstrated, they're delicate things, easily smashed or, in Itsuki and Fu's cases, dodged.

    When it's charged by Fu, the beast snaps its jaws at the sword protecting the Hero from harm, and then it spins in a circle, trying to slam its spine-covered tail right into her! But it seems pressed by the attempt, dancing on its paws delicately, nervous.

    Another roar, this one somehow even more agitated, from the creature. Its awkwardly bent limbs seem to collapse in on themselves, but as it turns out that's only it crouching down in preparation for a jump. Furry paws spread out, claws scratching the ground, and then it leaps up towards where La Crima was when she called down to it! Though it seems it's going to fall short, as such a beast is much too heavy for that kind of air time...

    ...Except then its feathered wings stretch out and flap, giving it that needed extra boost to alight on the rooftop!

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima is curious, indeed, 'sympathetic' to the beast, and tries to reach out for the beast when a wire grasps around her arm, then a leg and she's pulled away. Her eyes go wide when she feels herself yanked from her rooftop to another as she scowls angrily. "You....! What are you doing!?" she says angrily.

She scoffs and then sees how everyone is dressed and she seems to limp. "Oh."

"SpAklEsKiRts.."

she says dryly in the most sarcastic tone she can say when she lands gracefully, though still tied as she tries to pull away from the wires, trying to break them or get them to release as she snaps. Zoisite.

"YOU SHUT UP, TRAITOR." she yells. "When I bring you back to Queen Beryl, she's going to be so mad at you." she yells as she flails about trying to get free of the wires.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    "Eh!? Is it a unicorn or a youkai!?" Yuna asks in alarm as she turns to look back at Togo. She doesn't want to punch out a unicorn! The growling and sound of paws makes it sound less and less like a horse OR unicorn. Did they assume wrongly, just because it was four-legged, tall as a person, and has a bushy tail to wag around?

    This monster fighting stuff is harder than it looks in anime!

    Yuna looks up in even more alarm when someone starts speaking from above. "...Aa! Nice to meet you, Zoisite-san... I'm Yuna. We appreciate the help!" Then she turns to face towards La Crima and the now flying monster as its wings unfurl.

    Notta'corn indeed!

    Yuna rapidly punches away more spines of darkness, then uses the high physical parameters granted by the Yuusha System to blur forwards and up, trying to keep the... Whatever it is from escaping! "Hero..." she intones as she pulls back one gauntleted fist as she closes in on the target in mid-air... Provided it doesn't evade her! Unlike the beast, Yuna cannot fly. Then with pink light engulfing her fist and a trail of 'fire' made out of pink petals and light, Yuna finishes her attack name as she strikes! "...PUNCH!"

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    The massive roar (two times!) hurts Itsuki's ears, but she focuses on reeling up the person she is super sure is just an innocent bystander. "Eeeeehhh!?" Itsuki lets out as the person she thought she was saving starts yelling and flailing around. She releases them, simply out of shock, when told to. She hasn't heard the warning from Zoisite, so she's still uncertain of La Crima's place in this whole scenario. When the lady starts yelling at a 'traitor' across the street on a different rooftop, however, the situation starts to become clear.

    "I won't let you get hurt by that thing, and I won't let you hurt anyone either! Please just... Calm down!" She is very flustered as she retracts her wires and then takes aim on the flying monster, assuming, probably wrongly, that La Crima won't interfere. One of the spines hits Itsuki in the opposite shoulder from the one her weapon is on, making her wince and start favoring that arm as she tries much less steadily to take aim at the suddenly very mobile beast!

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu meets the spines head-on, moving her sword to block them as they come, and then preparing to thrust the blade forwards to drive the monster towards Togo! But the creature bites down on her sword instead. "Hey!" she yells indignantly. Then she is swung by her sword, and slammed into the wall of the alley. Her fairy, a floating blue-green dog spirit appears to produce a barrier that tanks most of the damage, but she's still momentarily staggered.

    By the time the blonde Yuusha gets her bearings again, the monster has taken off into the air! With wings! "...Wait, that's no horse! That's a... A... I don't know what that is, but it's not good!" she yells as she starts wall jumping back and forth to get up to where the fighting is happening. Yuna just jumped into the path of Togo's shot.

    "Yuna, get out of the way!" Fu yells as she swings her sword overhead two-handed, like she's going to just swat the mythological creature out of the sky and back to earth!

Togo has posed:
    !?

    There's a lot happening at once. The person being saved is not happy about it, the beast is not a unicorn at all, but instead some other kind of creature. She doesn't recognize it personally, but she can only assume it's a youkai of some sort. (More likely a chimera or manticore, but those aren't Japanese monsters, so how would she know that)

    She is distracted by Zoisite's appearance, calling down to her, and just hesitates for a moment, hearing the violent nut up on the opposite roofs yelling that Zoisite is a traitor, and coming to the conclusion that, at least for right now, aiding 'La Crima' isn't a good idea.

    But the people who have been injured and drained come first. So she takes aim on the aerial foe, just as Yuna leaps into the way. Togo doesn't adjust her aim, even when Fu also jumps up there. Her accuracy is unbelievably precise. So she fires a powerful laser blast, which just narrowly passed through the space between Yuna's arm and side, as the pink Yuusha prepares to punch.

    She's much more comfortable shooting monstrous things than things that look like people anyway.

Zoisite has posed:
    "Okay, first of all," Zoisite calls back. "I seem to remember you literally stabbing Nephrite in the back in the middle of an important fight, so I wouldn't be hurling around the 'traitor' epithet mildly! Second, Beryl betrayed us first by brainwashing us into serving her, so... Take that!" He makes a show of dusting himself off, as though the devastation of his wit was such that bits of La Crima now stain his uniform.

    Then he leaps up and across to land on the same rooftop as Itsuki and his former ally, sword in hand. "By the way, you should probably get out while you can, but I don't expect you will. Your heads too deep in the darkness to hear and understand what I'm telling you." he says calmly, no smile or anger on his face. None of the usual expressions. Just a placid, ready look, as he advances, prepared to make sure La Crima doesn't hurt anyone else ever again if he has to.

    Zoisite has no qualms about shooting or stabbing things that look like people.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    That it is currently being pursued does not seem to escape the creature's notice. In fact that seems to spur it on, making its movements jittery and uncertain. Less like a predator and more like prey, caught in a snare.

    Or about to be caught, as the case may be.

    The manticore-like beast, yes indeed, shall henceforth be called... the mantican't. And it is trying to run, but it seems those wings can only give it a double-jump of sorts, not propel it into full flight. So it has to land to get its bearings, and it's on the rebound leap that follows where everything seems to go wrong for the mantican't.

    Hero Yuna's punch strikes it just below the jaw, which snaps the human-like head up painfully hard. Its motion follows the momentum of the jump but now the actual direction is uncontrolled, an aerial upwards launch rather than an arc. But the beast is not down and out yet, so it tries to right itself... only to realize, moments late, that Togo's laser blast has almost completely destroyed its left wing!

    Now it is truly plummeting to the ground, trailing pale puffs of light energy from its mangled wing and dangling, open mouth. It's already begun its descent when Itsuki's wires slice through its furry flank, releasing more of that captured energy. By the time it bounces off a building that seems almost strategically placed between where La Crima and Zoisite are facing off one another, it seems considerably lessened. Definitely smaller than an SUV, now.

    And then Fu's driving strike with her sword slams into it, indeed swatting it straight out of the air and slamming it down into the ground, cracking the street with the force of the impact! The roar that emits from its mouth afterwards is almost pitiful, but it rolls onto its side and, limpingly, stands up. All it can do from that vantage point, injured as it is, is wildly thrash its tail in the air, sending dozens upon dozens of dark energy spines towards everyone. No one is safe!

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima skoffs! "He wanted to mess with the countless creatures in the Dusk Zone, en masse and his idea was dumb. Dumb ideas get you stabbed in the back." she scowls at Zoisite as she feels the wires release and she calls out. "Falcata!", a dark energy sword, forming in her hand as she calls out out again, another sword forming in her hand as she crosses them, and rakes one against the other, dark energy sparks flowing out to the ground as she continues to scowl.

"You all are just going to kill this beast before I can even figure out if I can make it leave peacefully! Of course I'm getting involved." she says as she lifts one of those swords and with a flick, throws it through the air towards Itsuki.

The other blade comes flying for Zoisite, adding to the chaos of the fight.

"All you sparkleskirts care about is defeating the monster."

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite tilts his head to the side, a small frown appearing on his lips when La Crima summons her swords. "Did you talk to Nephrite about your concerns? Dark Energy gets in the way of things like that, doesn't it? Not being a hypocrite, I mean--" He brings up his own sword, alerted after the sparks shower the rooftop, and trying to parry the blade that is thrown at him, while dashing forwards.

    "Judgment Flame!" he calls out as he uses his free hand to launch a fireball at La Crima, only to then be pinned down by dark spines pelting everything and everyone. He is forced to go on the defensive here. If only he could still teleport. And fly. Sigh. Oh well. Needs must, and all.

    Dodge dodge dodge parry parry dodge dodge dodge don't get stabbed by the scary Mantican't needles, that's probably bad, back away back away, and dodgde dodge dodge...!

    He does run his mouth a bit more though, because he's Zoisite, and it's what he does. "Hey, speaking of dumb ideas, you life drained some of the people who were already hit, didn't you? I can feel how low their energy is. So trying to play victim here really isn't going to work out for you--!" He has to shut up for a second to duck another barrage of spines.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    Hit successful! It doesn't... Feel great punching an animal. Even a monstrous one. And this one has a human-like face...!? She lands from her jump, looking over towards La Crima as she condemns the heroes, and then looking down at the injured Mantican't. She's troubled and uncertain now. "...Maybe we should just tie it up for now or something..." she suggests, and then has to start furiously blocking and punching the spines as they rain down on her!

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Capture? That's Itsuki's specialty! She stops trying to attack the Mantican't, and tries instead to wrap it up in her wires, but with her right arm still recovering from the weakness that flooded it, she doesn't have her full strength to bring to bear. Sure, the wires are doing the heavy lifting, but she still has to exert some force on her own.

    Then she cries out in surprise as La Crima throws a sword at her! Who throws a sword!? Some kind of crazy person no doubt! (Just wait until she meets Karin.)

    She has to cancel her capture attempts to try to snare the sword. If she even can. That sword doesn't look like it's made entirely out of... Uh... Sword!

    Also more spines!?

    Now her fairy appears, because she is at risk from the combo of weapons. A barrier starts tanking the hits from sword and spines alike, while a little green puffball with a sprout on its head covers Itsuki without prompting. "Onee-chan!" she calls out. "What do we do now?" She is at a loss!

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu lands after her attack is successful. Oops. Didn't meant to break the street. She looks towards Itsuki, under attack, and then has to plant her sword in the roof in front of her so she can hunker down behind it to avoid the spines. "Itsuki! Leave her for now! There's people down below! We need to protect them from getting any more hurt!"

    Raising her sword up once again, Fu determines that while she'll feel bad about the creature later, right now she has to preserve human life. She runs and jumps down from the roof, raising her sword overhead two-handed. "Sorry, but it's time for you to sleep!" she yells out as her sword transforms into an Even More Gargantuan Sword, which she swings down, hoping she doens't, like, cleave a building in half or something. The Taisha doesn't pay her enough to repair that kind of property damage.

Togo has posed:
    The monster hits the street in front of Togo, and her ribbons lift her up from the sidewalk so that she can move away from it. She looks at its sorry state with a determined expression. She doesn't want to hurt Yuna by ending this thing's life in front of her, but... Her sniper rifle disappears, to be exchanged for a pistol, alongside her fairy swapping out for a blue flame spirit. Her ribbons send her leaping up and away to avoid the spray of spines, and she takes aim, but Togo hesitates.

    She'd do anything for Yuna. While her instincts tell her to put the monster out of its misery and make sure human life is preserved, the way Fu said to, Togo isn't sure any more. Instead, she leaves it to their leader and covers Fu's back, just in case.

    "Yuna-chan, what do you think we can do for this creature if we don't destroy it?" she asks. Maybe Yuna has a plan. Or the girl yelling about saving it.

Ren Morimoto has posed:
    For what it's worth, the Mantican't is still trying its best. Unfortunately its best is now little more than a trickle of spines, less impressive than even the light shower of rain drops still hazily falling from the sky. Most of them don't even make it all the way to their targets, instead embedding themselves in the sides of buildings or into the ground, before shattering into little dark energy shards that dissipate into nothingness. Itsuki's initial attempts to capture it seem successful, sending the beast stumbling, but it recovers after she withdraws. But it seems even further weakened from the struggle.

    Still, when Fu tries to rush it with that now-even-gianter sword, it lashes its tail out at her, feebly. But it missed by a wide margin, and then down the sword comes, Fu's attack slashing the creature right in two!

    As the two sides of the creature fall away from each other, it is revealed to have been nothing more than a hollow shell of dark energy. A bright white light suffuses the area for a moment or two, bringing a sense of warmth and serenity, before little beams of it begin to shoot off left and right. They impact the fallen civilians who have been laid out on the ground, some even trailing off into the night to return to victims waylaid further away.

    Meanwhile, the dark shell melts into nothing more than mostly formless energy, before it too shatters, just as the soul-sapping spines had. Itsuki's energy returns to her as a burst of light that strikes her in her injured arm.

    Any questions about saving the creature are for naught, it seems. The shattered pieces of the creature drift away on a heavy breeze that sweeps down through the streets of Tokyo as, above, the clouds part to reveal the moon, its white light chasing away any last shadowed vestiges of what was once there.

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima sees the spark of flame and eyes go wide as she draws up a big splotch of dark energy in front of herself to eat it, as she 'nrrggs', forced back a good foot by the impact as she growls.

"That's a bald face lie. I have nothing to do with the downed people. It was that beast and I was trying to---to stop it from dying. Bring it back home...but...youuuuuuuuuu..."

"Youuuuuu..." she seethes at Itsuki ponting. "Had to stop me!? WHY!? ALL YOU DO IS DESTROY." she said as she jumped into the air and floated there a moment.

"I'll remember this!" she said accusingly at the group, before dissipating into a duskport, grumpily with a huffy "HRMPH!" upon the wind in the moonlight.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    The barrage finally stops. Before she can say or do anything else to help anyone or anything, or even respond to Togo's question, the huge sword comes crashing down. Yuna flinches for a moment. Then she sees the Mantican't is just like the Vertexes after all. Just a shell. She feels relief. So they didn't kill any sort of person. She's aware that they've killed multiple Vertexes now, but those are monsters bent on ending the world. They can't even be compared to living organisms.

    Yuna turns her attention on La Crima, the weakened Itsuki, and the ally(???) named Zoisite. She hopes she'll never become so accustomed to killing monsters that she stops checking to make sure that's what they are. "Hold it! I want to ask you some quest--" Oh, she disappeared.

    Uh. Hm. Okay. She'll... She'll ask Zoisite some questions then! ...After she makes sure everyone is okay! "Itsuki-chan!" she calls out as she jogs over. "Is your arm okay?" Then she turns to look at Zoisite over her shoulder and smiles gratefully (and nervously) at him. He did seem to be helping them, but... There's so much the Hero Club doesn't know still. Maybe she should go find Madoka-chan and Usagi-chan. They might have answers.

Togo has posed:
    Togo feels disappointed that she wasn't able to do what Yuna asked of her, but at least her best friend's smile has been restored. Even so, she ribbon-walks over to Fu and says quietly, "Thank you. For being decisive." She understands, somehow, what comes with being a leader. The responsibilities, the burdens that nobody warns you about beforehand. She doesn't know how she understands that, but she does. She was ready to back off and potentially let more people get hurt, because Yuna asked her to.

    Fu did what she had to do. Togo makes a note to herself that she should do whatever she has to in the future too.

    Even if it makes Yuna lose her smile.

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Itsuki hesitates when she sees her sister go Big Sword Mode and cleave the monster in twain, but once the spine barrage stops, her fairy disappears too, along with her barrier. She has to focus on La Crima and Zoisite, as they battle. La Crima avoids the fireball and escapes capture by disappearing somehow, and Itsuki is left feeling very conflicted. "It's feeling better, Yuna-senpai... I think the monster was taking my strength away somehow. Like the others." Focusing on Zoisite, Itsuki bows her head briefly in thanks. "Eeto... Zoisite-san... I wouldn't have realized that person was an enemy right away if you hadn't warned us. Thank you."

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite could tell they were life drained, but he had no idea if La Crima had any part of that. It wasn't La Crima who was swollen with stolen energy after all. He looks after his former ally as she disappears, and mutters under his breath. "Of course I lied. It's the only thing I'm good at." Then he turns around, smile returned, and says, "Of course, of course... I don't think I've met any of you before. I'm a friend of Sailor Moon's if you've met her before. And now I'm a friend of going home because it's late. Take care of yourselves! Tah tah!" He wiggles his fingers in a small wave and then goes leaping away at high speed. If he ever regains the ability to teleport, it won't be too soon.

    He isn't going to hang around and answer questions right now. He wants to consult his Prince about what to do with La Crima, and report that he may have found the person responsible for that break-in at Nephrite's mansion last year. The one who can make complex Dark Energy constructs.

    It's logical he would come to that conclusion.

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu stands up as her sword shrinks down to normal size. The damage to the street... Doesn't make her happy. But it was necessary. Even if she's resented for it. She sighs a bit morosely, before leeting her sword disappear entirely in a spray of golden petals, and turning to look at Togo. She nods, and smiles. "Of course! Now let's go back to our normal forms before emergency services arrive. Oh, I know! We can have udon to celebrate our victory!" she says, forcing the cheer where she doesn't feel it. Trying to make positivity by being positive.

    She has to prioritize human life, and she will, every time.

    Zoisite's disappearing act is convenient, because they need to get out of here, not stand around talking. And the mention of Sailor Moon? Yeah, she knows who Sailor Moon is. Maybe she'll go looking for answers too.

    But only after udon.