1301/Felonious Melonius Melons

Felonious Melonius Melons
Date of Scene:	17 March 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	A discouraged cabbage vendor is taken advantage of by a mysterious figure, creating a melon-based Youma! Cure Fortune and Guardian Shokupan take care of this melonious situation!
Cast of Characters:	Melona Mizu, Katsumi Cora, Iona Hikawa

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Melona Mizu has posed:
     For the longest time, Kyabe Sengiri's family had been sellers of cabbages. It was something that had been handed down between family members from generation to generation. Their cabbages were the shreds that were used in many a meal. A rare delicacy that few people could get ahold of, sold only from a cart!

Until recently that is.

There had been a spate of accidents, accidents caused by mysterious forces that he could only hazily remember at the end of the day. More than once, as well. So it was clearly a sign. It was time to try something different! Cabbages would always be his love, but he was sure that other things could be beloved just as much. And so he had sought out something different. Square watermelon. They were all the rage. So many times his sales were outdone by them. Maybe he could find a way to turn those profits to his side?

And so he came up with an idea. Maybe... he could make... square /honeydew melon/. They were another popular melon after all. Their succulent light skin, sweet and delicious, the only issue is that they had such little melon by comparison to something like a watermelon. But what if it was squared? Would people love that as much as square watermelons?

And so he had experimented. Days. Months. Failure after failure. Until someone had approached him, having apparently heard of his plight, and offered him some special seeds that would no doubt help him in his endeavors. He was skeptical at first, but after the latest failure, he just... had to try it.

It has been about a month since then. Sales had been great of these new melons. They grew at a suspiciously fast rate. He knew that they were too good to be true, and he'd been noticing changes in himself as well. He had more energy. He felt great... and also that he regularly kept finding himself waking up standing in the melon patch, bare feet dug into the ground.

But that didn't matter. Kyabe Sengiri was currently standing on a street corner in tokyo, calling out.

"Sweet Honeydew! Squared and with more meat than the round ones! Fewer seeds, less pulp! They're great for your skin and body too!"

Piled up around him were many square honeydew melons with pure white rind. To the average person, they just seemed wonderful and nice.

But to the passing mahou, it would be impossible to shake the fact that something was afoot, that man and his melons... they were just radiating dark energy. And the people lined up at his booth to buy the melons didn't seem quite entirely there.

Katsumi Cora has posed:
There are many bakery recipes that call for honeydew melons, and when Katsumi had heard of the square ones, he immediately wanted to check it out. That would be very helpful in his kitchen, where he needs things that don't roll off on him when he's preparing his breads, cakes and such.

So as he approaches the street corner, he's carrying a canvas bag in one hand. In the other, a cane that tak-tak-taks the ground in front of him, while next to him, Kobo, his guide dog, is making sure that he doesn't wander out into the street.

Approaching the vendor, something doesn't feel right though. Even from here, he can sense and 'see' the dark magic that is rising from the melons and entangling potential customers. "Oh no." he whispers, worry in his voice, as he stops himself short of his approach, not wanting to yet get in range of the melons. But what to do.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona had walking around the market, looking at the various stalls and comparing the plentiful offers of agricultural products. Because when going shopping, the golden rule is 1 and 1 only: always compare the prices and the quality. Only settle for the best bang for your bucks!

She has been running a little low on her own provisions for when she had the time to prepare her own lunch and dinner (because she found it the best way to make sure the food catered to her own nutritional balance).

That is when she feels that annoying pulse at her side, the unmistakable sign of dark energy at work, and her gaze fell on the the honeydew melons. "Glasan, be on your guard", the purple-haired girl whispers to the "plushie" popping out from her bag. They might have trouble on their hands soon.

Melona Mizu has posed:
     Kyabe himself didn't seem to be particularly malicious, at the very least. Just a man calling out cheerfully as he enjoys the fruits of his labors! "Thank you for your purchase!" He says cheerfully as he sells a couple to one of his customers, who walks off holding their melons tight to their chest, almost possessively. The approach of Katsumi isn't missed.

"Ah hello young man! Don't miss out, the miraculous square honeydews! Flesh as white as snow and said to give a rush of energy after the first bite, grown only at the Cabbage Patch!" He calls out towards Katsumi, as another person approaches to buy one. "Thank you for your purchase, please return soon!"

Were some of those vines moving on their own? No, that rustling must just have been the wind, right?

Iona when she approaches is actually greeted in much the same manner as Katsumi, "Good evening young woman! don't worry, come closer, come closer! We have free samples for new customers!" He reaches to grab one of the square melons, a somewhat smaller one than the others, likely one of the 'duds', which he proceeds to grab a nice large knife and split in half, then cutting two slivers of melon off of them; almost skillfully paperthin, one half carefully covered and slipped into a small refridgerator under his cart. The other half fully cut up and two slices set on two paper plates on the cart, pushed towards the front. One for Iona and one for Katsumi.

"Come try it! I'm sure you're bound to love it!"

Meanwhile, the line is beginning to grow as more and more come to buy those square honeydews. As the line grew, the amount of melons was beginning to dwindle; and the crowd was beginning to grow slightly more disorderly. Perhaps they were all people who had tried it before?

Katsumi Cora has posed:
When the vendor is called out to him, Katsumi is left with a decision. And then, he settles his jaw, and smiles blankly, sightless eyes facing forward. "Oh, sure!" he offers cheerfully, as he starts to make his way forward, his cane tak'ing gently along the ground, apparently looking to get closer to the cart and the melons.

And wouldn't you know, just as he's getting close, Kobo nudges him. Clearly, the dog does not like the melons, at all. In fact, it's enough of a ruckus, that it interupts what Katsumi was doing.

And he fumbles slightly, with a stumble and falls foward, knocking the sample out of the hand and maybe a few of the melons as well. "Ack!" he yelps, a stumble as it appears that he's about to fall! "Watch out!"

Any melons in his small path may be doomed! Totally an accident. So terrible, poor blind kid falls into melons.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona watches with a very obvious scowl the paperthin slice of melon offered to her. Is he for real? She didn't mind him picking one of the smaller ones for them to try (it's exactly the ones people looking for quality tend to dismiss after all), but to offer something that could very well be called nonexistent? What was the point of offering anything at all?

"Sengiri-san, right?" Iona tells the man giving out the sample. "Do you call yourself an honest and sensible seller? This transparent slice you are offering is an affront to the selling and buying of clients and merchants alike!" Iona waves imperiously her finger at him, disregarding everyone else around her.

"You would have made a better impression not offering anything at all than making a spectacle out of your own stinginess giving something we can't even taste! Today you have disgraced the very meaning of samples and those who work hard establishing a positive environment of trust in their shop!"

Katsumi calling out for people to watch out is enough to distract Iona from her righteous lecture on propriety, and she turns around towards the falling boy. "Are you alright?" she asks, her tone completely different from earlier, the anger gone and replaced by worry.

Melona Mizu has posed:
Tak. Tak. Tak. As the man holds out the plate towards Katsumi and the boy approaches, he had no real worries about this fact, he was even getting ready to move around and approach Katsumi to directly offer him the melon. The guide dog was getting a bit antsy, which Kyabe gives a bit of a curious look towards. "If your guide dog is a bit antsy around this big of a group, I'll sell you one out of order just for his comfort." Kyabe smiles, a genuinely kind smile. He likely was unaware of the dark energy coming off of him and those melons.

Iona approaching and starting to talk to him of the affront to the selling! "Ah, no, you misunderstand young woman. It's not a matter of stinginess! It's more than enough to taste it, that's just the sheer quality and flavor of the melons! There are so many customers that if I did much more there would be nothing for anyone to taste by the end of the day. I'll offer you a discount for your offense, however." He gives her a smile, clearly not offended by her calling him out! "Besides, with the length of the sample, I'm sure you'll find it's quite a good--"

And then Katsumi stumbles into Kyabe, knocking that sample out of his hand and even knocking the older man himself back into the pile of melons. Followed by Katsumi. It had apparently happened often enough that it was habit.

"MY CABBAGES!!! ... I MEAN MELONS!!!!"

... ... ... And then the man just sits there for a moment. And the dark energy spikes. A vine would relatively unceremoniously eject Katsumi from the pile of melons, as the man's skin darkens, turning green as the vines spread out and connect to the various square melons, which form together with him... a burst of energy later and he is... absolutely massive. twelve or 13 feet tall, made up of a series of square melons stacked together into a facsimile of a humanoid shape connected by vines.

"YOU SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL!" Booms out the voice of the now-youmatized man. "YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT FALL INTO A FELONIOUS MELON!" The remainder of the customers have melons launched at them. "HERE! MELONS FOR EVERYONE!" Melons are tossed out towards the remaining customers that haven't fled, those that looked particularly dazed. Any that weren't stopped... would have their heads replaced by those snowy-white melons, with a facsimile of a face carved in the place of their own face.

Iona and Katsumi would also have a melon aimed for them, as well! Hopefully this can be stopped!

Katsumi Cora has posed:
Melon disruption successful! Now noone will have bad dark melons! Katsumi was a little proud of himself, when he hears the voice of a worried girl. "Oh! Yes... just a little clumsy is all." he admits sheepishly, ready to reach for a hand to pull himself up.

And that's when things go south. As Kyabe suddenly goes through his transformation, there's a yelp from Kobo, and a hard tug on his lead to urge Katsumi back to his feet. Stumbling back into a standing position, the teenager turns as the melons are flung about, and somehow manages to trip over his own feet, the melon flying right over his head, and it seems that Kobo is going to drag the flailing boy to safety around the corner and away from the melons!

Once he's out of sight of the vendor and the others, he catches his breath. "Thanks, Kobo!" he says, before grabbing his henshin device. "Let's go help!"

And with a quick henshin shift 'Kat' Cora becomes Guardian Shokupan!

A few moments (and one fire escape later), he's standing above the fray. "How dare you introduce your feloniously rotten fruit to the salad of life!" he announces loudly. "I will have to stop your recipe for disaster and return the vigor of a wonderful meal to those that you have given your foul fruit too!"

Grabbing his peel, he spins it around to slam it into the roof, preparing to cast a spell.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
The schoolgirl isn't buying any of it, even as when he insist the length is enough, but before she can reply anything Katsumi accidentally triggers Kyabe's transformation into a youma and suddenly there is a melon flying her way!

"Iona watch out!" Glasan says, suddenly diving deep into Iona's bag with such a force that causes her to fall this time, the dark melon flying out above her missing its intended target. "Thanks, Glasan", Iona says as the fairy flies out of her bag floating next to her. "No, time to waste, Iona, most people either ran away or turned into youmas! We are surrounded by enemies."

Iona looks around and indeed, it's just like being surrounded by one Terribad and many Kindabads. Except these 'Kindabads' are civilians. At least the dark energy strengthening them means she doesn't have to worry about them being hurt, right?

The purple-haired girl is quick on her feet, taking out the Pretty Change Mirror and the Cure Fortune PreCards. With their insertion and the release of purple light, her clothes are replaced by the henshin, letting her turn into her Precure form. "The star of hope that glitters in the night sky! Cure Fortune!"

Standing proudly, she looks at the other magical warrior on the scene. "Let's fight together against this assault to all that is proper and just! For the sakes of honest shops everywhere!"

Melona Mizu has posed:
In spite of being the reason why the youma transformed, it doesn't seem to be doing a particularly good job of keeping track of him as he runs around a corner, in fact it mostly doesn't seem to be moving that much for the moment. Perhaps some part of Kyabe keeping it from going too wild at present or something? But then of course the call out, threatening his fruit.
     "ROTTEN?! ROTTEN!? THESE SWEET MELONS ARE DESIGNED TO APEEL TO ALL CUSTOMERS!" The youma calls out in response to the 'suddenly appearing' Guardian Shokupan! "ENERGIZING, WONDERFUL, AND BRINGING SMILES TO ALL! SEE?" As if in unison, all of the customers hit by the melon's carved on faces turn into overly perfect smiles. It honestly makes them look more evil than happy. There was no threat from them, no jagged teeth, nothing like that. Just a blank and over-exaggerated smile.

Surrounded by a terribad and many kindabads is ... not entirely that far off most likely, actually! Though honestly the 'kindabads' are probably LESS threatening, the people who got melon-headed mostly just standing around for the moment, though there was definitely an energy drain happening to them, the occasional particle of dark energy flowing from one of the innocent civilians towards the Felonious Melonious Melon! When Iona starts to transform he actually.

Just seems to wait patiently.

What? It's rude to attack someone while they're getting ready. He's a proper businessman!

The dig at his shop again gets another roared out, "IT IS A FAIR AND HONEST SHOP! A UNIQUE TASTE AND WONDERFUL TEXTUUUURE!"

And one of those samples is grabbed, and flung towards Cure Fortune as a sort of melon boomerang.

It definitely looks thicker than when it was handed towards Iona earlier.

As if the affronts couldn't get worse, once it was thrown it suddenly had a black rind and purple flesh. Also infused with dark energy that would make it much more efficient than just a standard boomerang!

Katsumi Cora has posed:
Standing on the rooftop, he can see Iona - now Cure Fortune - fortunately, Shokupan was on the fire escape with Iona transformed, so he has no idea that the dark-haired girl is the same one that offered him help earlier. All he knows is that now, she is the one that needs the help! And the best way he can try to do that is to thin the herd of terribads and melonheads that are trying to hem in the Pretty Cure.

Drawing a recipe card, he slips it around. "Time to bake! Cookie shards!" he calls out, slapping the card to the back of the peel. From the front of the peel, a summoning circle appears, and suddenly, dozens of star-shaped cookies launch into the crowd. While they may shatter against the human part of the transformed melons, the melons themselves may end up getting shredded, hoping to disorient the possessed, and hopefully giving Cure Fortune an opening.

"Be careful!" he calls out to her. "I will try to support you from here!" Because he does have other spells! And he's best in the support and crowd-control role.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona has got to hand it to Kyabe: he is quite well-mannered for someone that just got turned into (or revealed himself as? It's not clear to Iona which is true) a youma. It's thanks to it that when the Felonious Melonious Melon launches a melon towards her she is able to easily get out of the way.

"You are surprisingly well-mannered for a Felonious Melon, but it's not going to do you any favour unless you release all the people you are holding hostage!"

Honestly Iona isn't really holding hope Kyabe is going to do that, so it is helpful when Guardian Shokupan starts to disorient the enemies for her! "Thank you!", Cure Fortune exclaims to her unnamed ally as she can focus on the big one causing the problem.

And if the minions are being hit with stars, it's only fair the same happens to the Felonious Melon. "Fortune Shaking Star!", she shouts as she starts lighting the heart on the Fortune Tambourine that appears in her hand. Pointed at Kyabe, the star-shaped musical instrument starts throwing a flurry of stars at him!

Melona Mizu has posed:
     Shooting stars fly into the possessed crowd of humans! They're... actually... pretty easily shredded through, the melons popping! And returning the people to normal, following the standard previously-possessed practice of almost immediately passing out afterwards. It wasn't all of them, but several of them were actually already 'saved'. Likely because in spite of the fact they were facing a youma, the dark energy infusion had been... relatively minor thus far.

Possibly because Kyabe is legitimately not a bad person. Just one that had fallen on hard times and been taken advantage of.

"MY CUSTOMERS! HOW /DARE/ YOU!" The youma actually. Moves into a protective position between Guardian Shokupan and the melon-heads! One of his arms lifting as a vine at the end widens and opens into a tube. The other arm reaches for a melon and breaks it in half, eating it down quickly. Seeds and all. The tube end aimed towards Guardian Shokupan to shoot out dark energy-infused seeds towards him and his flying cookies! In fact, almost more aimed towards the cookies than towards Guardian Shokupan himself!

"Hostage?! HOSTAGE! No! THEY'RE LOYAL CUSTOMERS! I WON'T LET YOU HARM THEM!" Unfortunately for the Melonious Melon, taking a protective stance between them and the 'customers' would result in the youma having minimal options to dodge. Though it does quickly bring a massive rind up in between himself and Cure Fortune! ...it's not enough though, and even part of the melon youma is torn off! More melons are grabbed to replace it, but the seed barrage is temporarily ended.

One of those melons is tossed towards Cure Fortune, bouncing towards her as it pulsed larger and smaller, as if about to burst! Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-bump! Cracks are starting to form.

Best take care of that soon, Cure Fortune!

Katsumi Cora has posed:
At first, Shokupan is wanting to help Cure Fortune, because it seems like she's about to be in danger. But Shokupan has his own problems as he's drawn the attention of the vendor. Well, in the good news, at least he's firing at the Culinary Guardian instead of the Pretty Cure?

So, for now, he needs to pay attention to his own safety, and hopefully Iona can take care of things! With the cookie shards spent for now, it's time to switch from offense to defense. Grabbing another card from his sleep, he twists it about with a flourish. "Tiramisu... SHIELDWALL!" he calls out, slamming the card into place. Above him, a giant tiramisu forms out of nowhere, with layers of ladyfingers, chcolate, cream, coffee, it's nearly eight feet tall and ten feet wide as it drops into place, drooping down.

The seeds slam into the wall, absorbin the energy and disappating them as the shieldwall works as intended, which Katsumi is quietly thankful for, because it's the first time he's actually used that spell!

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Not hostages but costumers? Well, this youma has pretty weird definitions of the word, but again, they are youmas, so probably not the best people to use as reference for definitions. Though he is proving more honourable than one would expect with his effort to protect the people he turned into youmas.

But then Iona discovers that the protection doesn't extend to the rest of the marketplace with that big melonbomb thrown her way. She only has a split second to decide what to do before it's going to start being too late choosing any of the options available to her.

She could punch it into the wall created by Shokupan, potentially defanging it, but also putting him at risk, or she could carry it off to the sky, avoiding dangers for everybody else, but also, putting her at the center of the blast radius.

With her back ribbon expanding into wings, she grabs the melonbomb and floats into the sky. When it will explode, she will get thrown back to the ground, standing despite the damage. "You really... should pay more... attention to what... your attacks do if you... care about... your costumers' safety", Iona gets the words out.

Melona Mizu has posed:
     A giant, delicious-looking shield stops the worst of those dark energy seeds! Others mostly only harmlessly sticking into the walls below Katsumi before dissipating into the dark energy that they were composed of. The youma continued to work on rebuilding itself since Guardian Shokupan doesn't seem to be attacking for the moment at the very least!

Cure Fortune's luck unfortunately does not prove to be good, as she makes a decision to fly into the sky with the melon bomb, which continues to pulse even as she flies. Cracking more.

Ba-bump.

She clears the worst of the marketplace.

Ba-bump.

Pop!

A burst of dark energy indeed, as melon flesh and seeds were sent flying everywhere,

Frankly, it was ... likely weaker than Cure Fortune had expected it to be with how it was pulsing.

Once she falls to the ground, those 'kindabads' begin to walk towards her, to surround her. Each one holding another melon, their voices coming out high pitched and distorted.

"It's delicious!"
"You should try it!"
"Have some!"
"It makes you feel so great!"
"A rush of energy more natural than an energy drink!"

All the time they're trying to force slices of the dark energy melon towards her face, trying to get her to eat, trying to simply shove it into her.

Any melon coming in contact would begin to do an energy drain on her.

Meanwhile the youma is reforming that tube to start launching melons towards the Tiramisu!

"MORE FREE SAMPLES ON THE HOUSE! EAT YOUR FRUITS, THEY'RE HEALTHY AND A GREAT SOURCE OF VITAMIN C!"

He seems to just be stuck in sales pitch mode now, possibly whatever good will he had being subsumed by the gradually increasing dark energy.

Katsumi Cora has posed:
As the shieldwall is attack, Katsumi's attention is turned to the sky, where Cure Fortune just exploded and is falling towards the ground. Oh no! The shieldwall is dismissed, switching spells as he grabs a new card and quickly calls out, "SOUFFLE SLIDE!" When he does, the ground explodes upwards as a large, super-fluffy pancake appears, topped with butter and syrup. Iona may get butter and syrup on her, but it's much better than slamming into the ground, at least in Shokupan's opinion!

But now that that's done, the little Culinary Guardian turns his attention to the masses, and the shopkeeper. "Kobo!" he calls out to his guardian spirit, the little flame creature showing up. "Are you...?"

"Yes!" Katsumi responds, "It's time for them to taste something really delicious!" Spinning the peel about, he pulls out a card, and with his guardian spirit calls out, "KITCHEN GOD MODE!"

Suddenly, the area around him is transformed into a kitchen. Today's recipe, MELON PAN.

From his kitchen, he assembles the ingredients for the melon bread, and starts to slice, chop, mix, stir, measure, all the while, a large oven opens up behind him.

Once the melon pan is layed out and latticed, he throws it into the oven, and a few seconds later, the freshly baked cookies arrive! "Try these!" he calls out, starting to served up the baked goods, flinging the pans at the mouths of the terribads, hoping that they eat them and will be purified with his delicious cooking!

However, after he is done with that, he is completely spent - but hopefully, it gives Cure Fortune the opening she needs!

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Well, Iona certainly isn't letting them touch her with an energy-draining melon. Good thing that between the relatively minor explosion of the melonbomb, the time it took the 'kindabads' to reach her, her wings already being out and Guardian Shokupan catching her in a souffle Pancake instead of the hard ground, she has recovered enough to get herself out of range before the melon slices could touch her, bits of butter and syrup falling off of her in the meanwhile.

She is very grateful she got that slide instead of falling to the ground, and she will actually thank Katsumi once this is over. But even so, she needs a shower now, doesn't she? She will be grateful for that one too.

Though she is now a bit far from the Melonious Melon, so she will need to waste time getting there or... she can try to purify him from afar. Good thing that's something her best attack can do. "Precure Stardust Shoot!" Cure Fortune exclaims, spinning the dial on the Love PreBrace on her wrist. A great deal of energy manifests on her fists and as she swirls it by rotating her hand, the energy manifests as a star, which then Iona throws out, the attack going to hit with a purifying force.

Melona Mizu has posed:
    A pancake pandemonium! Rather lovely and sweet! Fluffy and soft!

Kitchen God Mode!

"Try this!"
"It's delicious!"
Today's recipe, Melonpan!

Try these!

The melon-headed civilians are fed melonpan!

They continue their attempts to feed people.

"This is amazing!"
"Try this!"
"So nostalgic!"

They're trying to feed each other (And Cure Fortune a few times!) the melonpan now.

"So... DELICIOUUUUS!"

And the melonheads fall from their heads, leaving only relatively normal 'square' honeydew melons on the ground, along with some passed out civilians that are otherwise not particularly injured.

The Melon youma honestly kind of looks jealous of the civilians for a moment.

That looked really good!

It's enough of a distraction that as Cure Fortune starts to move back, the melon isn't fast enough to change targets from Guardian Shokupan as that star is generated.

And the Stardust Shoot blasts the melon youma! The star encapsulating it, as smaller stars ring around it, beginning to glow as the youma is lifted into the air!

"Ah... I shouldn't have given up on cabbages..."

"So... relaxing!"

And the star bursts, leaving behind only an unconscious, and now not infused with dark energy cabbage vendor.

Katsumi Cora has posed:
*pant pant pant* "Whew." With people returning to normal, Guardian Shopukan is /tired/. Kitchen God Mode zaps him. But, after making sure everyone is okay, he glances towards Cure Fortune, while he can still see her. "Thanks for the help!" he calls out to her, before he looks chagrined a little. "Sorry, don't know how to make it without the syrup yet." he admits with a blush. "I'm sure it will wash right out!"

Anyway, it's probably time for him to go. "I'll be seeing you around!" An inside joke, because he's blind outside henshin, haha.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona lands back on the ground once she sees that their attacks worked. Gradually this time around, there is no need of trying to crash into the ground now. "Fortune!", Glasan approaches Iona. "Great job, you showed it to him!"

Iona smiles at her fairy mascot, but then adds. "I had an ally, let's go greet him." And as she starts walking towards him, she says "Thank you a lot for your help, it was extremely useful against such a versatile youma. See you around!" She will have to get his name another time. Meanwhile, she should find a place to go back to normal and finish her shopping.