1505/Break a Leg

Break a Leg
Date of Scene:	09 May 2024
Location:	Yumegahama Ward
Synopsis:	Double Trouble goes out as Sunbreaker to try and make some enemies and get her in trouble so that she'll maybe pay more attention to the important things in life: them. They come across Ginga Kingu having just defeated a youma, and see the perfect opportunity, biting off more than they can chew. Their performance is a crushing success.
Cast of Characters:	Sugata Shindo, Double Trouble, Hinoiri Kirara, Takuto Tsunashi

---

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Yumegahama is probably the area of the four ward region that Sugata has explored the least - having grown up on an island, exploring a beach resort area just isn't nearly as interesting to him as it might be to those actually from the crowded, urban jungle that is the city. He'd grown up on a beach with a better view and cleaner sand, not to mention a better variety of shops, given that practically ever option he's seen thus far has been some variation on kitshy beach tourism. Dream Kingdom, on the other hand?

The mere fact that it's a theme park makes it an interesting locale. Definitely somewhere to bring Takuto and Wako - especially since, so far, he's not had to bring down King's Pillar on it. The place will still be open by the time he's done.

The monster he's fighting, a particularly disgusting cross between a cockroach and a scorpion, spits a stream of acid at him, and Sugata leaps aside. A bench with a shell-theme hisses as the metal warps and bubbles under the assault.

Well, it will probably still be open, anyway.

"I'm not paying for that one," Sugata mutters to no one, shifting his grip on Diamant, before darting forward. The monster screams, but being down three legs, it isn't fast enough to dodge as he impales it on the glowing white star sword. The exoskeleton shudders as the creature heaves, and he plants a foot against the chitinous skin to counterbalance as he withdraws the blade. Dark energy seeps into the sky as it dissipates.

It's only after the disgusting thing is gone that he realizes -

"I should have taken a picture!"

"Those wretched brats would have enjoyed that," Samekh grumbles from his floating bubble.

"They would have hated it. This thing was hideous," is the swift, almost mournful correction. It would have been hilarious.

Double Trouble has posed:
    Double Trouble was bored. Hinoiri was still obsessed with trying to best Ami and their attempt to persuade Ami to deliberately fail had run aground on the rocks of the bluenette's unflappable integrity. They really didn't get it. People usually crumbled to the power of the cute pleading eyes and wailing tears. All their girlfriend did was work and study. She hardly had any time to spend on the most important part of her life: Double Trouble. It seemed like the only way they got good quality time with her was when they were saving her life.
    Which is why they were out on the town wearing her face. They figured if they caused some mischief looking like Sunbreaker, then that trouble would come back on her and they could be there to rescue her. Again.
    They really didn't think this thru. Clearly, they were getting into the role.
    The sound of chaos beckoned them toward Dream Kingdom. Curious what trouble they could make, they headed into Dream Kingdom.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Hero-san! Hero-san! Can I have your autograph?!" "Me too! Me too! I want your autograph too!" "I've never seen this show before, how'd you do those effects?!" "Can I touch your sword? Please!"

It's a cacophony of sound and reactions, as the theme park visitors who had run screaming from the fight start filtering back, with the youngest visits leading the charge. Sugata... shouldn't be nearly as surprised by it as he is.

"You can have my autograph," he tells the pint-sized audience, a horde of elementary school-aged kids, "But you can't touch the sword. Diamant is dangerous."

The glowing energy sword - well, it just continues to glow, as if to tempt the children that it can't be that dangerous. Several tiny hands reach up anyway, and foreseeing the possibility of burns or worse, Ginga Kingu plunges the sword back into his chest, where it promptly vanishes.

This draws a new round of excited questions and compliments from the children, and there are even more of them now.

"Where are your parents?" He asks, hiding his exasperation. "There was an attack here - shouldn't they be hiding out with you?"

"We're on an excursion," one of the little kids says cheerfully, "Our tour guide is over there! She fainted!"

"Yeah, her mouth got all foamy when she saw the monster, it was great!"

"You haven't given me an autograph yet!"

"Well, give me something to sign, and I'll do that," Sugata sighs, glancing at the direction the children are pointing in. Sure enough, there's a girl maybe a year or two older than him in a Dream Kingdom shirt and cap, passed out in a patch of grass. "And then, wake your tour guide up..."

The next few minutes are a blur of autographs, photos, and patiently answering questions. Truly the amount of ways drama club prepared him for the world cannot be underestimated.

Double Trouble has posed:
    Double Trouble gets closer and what they hear is kids screaming for autographs. Well, that's definitely something that makes them curious. So they follow the crowd, sticking to the periphery, trying not to get noticed. As if they weren't utterly conspicuous wearing Sunbreaker's face.
    Standing at the back of the crowd they watch with curiosity. They crane their head up high to try and get a good look at whomever it is they're all flocking around for autographs. There's so many mahou in this city, even they have trouble keeping track of all of them. Even the famous ones.
    They're really just people watching, but the way they're watching Ginga Kingu, it would be easy to think they knew what was going on. They almost look a little menacing. Or maybe that's just Sunbreaker's reputation.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
With a crowd of ten or twelve kids around, it doesn't take long to rustle up a Sharpie (no, Sugata isn't asking what they were planning on doing with it at a theme park. What is he, a cop?) and some paper for the autograph, even if a few kids insist on having their Dream Kingdom t-shirts signed.

Sugata obliges them. He's not their parents, it's not like it's his laundry on the line. Between autographs and questions, he texts with Takuto and Wako.

    Takuto Tsunashi texts: did you get a pic
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: or are you still fighting lmao
    Sugata Shindo texts: Unfortunately, no.
    Sugata Shindo texts: Unfortunately for me. You would have hated seeing it.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: why was it made of eyes or something
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: WAS IT SKELETONS

A snort, and several of the children start asking why he's laughing. "My friend asked if the monster was made of skeletons," he answers honestly, setting off a flurry of excited yells.

"Have you ever fought a skeleton?" "Knight-san, Knight-san, did you BREAK it's skeleton?" "Bugs don't have skeletons, stupid!" "Hey, don't call me stupid!"

    Sugata Shindo texts: No and no. It was a cockroach-scorpion fusion.
    Sugata Shindo texts: and it was huge, naturally.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: ... D: D: D: D: D: D:
    Sugata Shindo texts: I was going to text it to you out of nowhere.
    Sugata Shindo texts: It was going to be great.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: you are an awful human being.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: the WORST
    Wako Agemaki texts: Gross. I'm glad you missed getting a picture of that
    Sugata Shindo texts: I always have been.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: got me there
    Wako Agemaki texts: It's true

Texts done, he looks up... to see someone a fair bit taller than the crowd of children has joined.

A familiar someone, who had last showed up with a pair of monsters and an eagerness to 'throw down' as the wrestlers put it. Showing up after a monster. Well, way to make it easy on him.

"Alright, let's wake up your tour guide," he says calmly, staring Sunbreaker down. "You all want to ride the rollercoasters until you puke, or whatever it is children do at theme parks, don't you?"

"YEAH!"

Apparently that is what children do at theme parks.

He starts herding them towards the patch of grass - conveniently, away from the flaming girl.

Double Trouble has posed:
    Double Trouble stood there and watched everybody flock around this boy, and they were jealous. They wanted that kind of adoration. They deserved it. They were a thespian of unparalleled range and talent. They deserved adoring fans. They needed adoring fans. But they knew they couldn't get any adoring fans today. They were wearing Sunbreaker. So all they could do was make enemies.
    That was what they came to do anyway.
    Hinoiri would have tried to clear the kids away too. She was terrible at being a villain, when you got down into the details of it. She cared too much. But she was who they were pretending to be so today they cared too.
    Sunbreaker locked eyes with Ginga Kingu when he stared her down, and put on a very serious face full of intent. Before the kids are completely clear, but after they were sure they'd be clear before anything happened, the unicorn let all hell break loose.
    She rose up off the ground, up into the air, like literally every other dark energy user always does. Double Trouble knew the tropes. They had this in the bag. Their hands held out wide. "Ha ha ha! You think you've won, but you only defeated my first youma! Fine, whatever. It wasn't even my best one. I was just softening you up!"
    An inky shadowy youma leapt out of the shadows directly below her seeming to rip the shadows off of everything around her, growing in size until it was a massive serpent, with it's head towering above Ginga Kingu's head.
    "Now it's time for the real fight!"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
It doesn't take long to get the children cloistered around their tour guide, especially not when Sugata says they can go ahead and right on her skin (except the face) if it will wake her up.

Again, he's not a cop. It's not his problem if they want to be brats, it's his problem if they get killed in a fight, with an arsonist.

And in the end, between that and him poking her with a stick, she does wake up, and after a few seconds of frantic looking around for bugs -

("But! But where - I saw - "

"I killed it."

"You killed-?!"

"It, yes. Maybe you should get these kids out of here?") before Sunbreaker starts doing... that. There's a grimace, as the laughing starts, the speech-making, and then - the shadow, that rises up to become a massive serpent. The kids start yelling, the tour guide starts screeching as she hurries them all away at a dead run, and Ginga Kingu's phone buzzes. Making direct eye contact with the floating Sunbreaker, he pulls it out to check his groupchat with Wako and Takuto.

    Takuto Tsunashi texts: anyway when are you coming home we're getting korma what do you want
    Sugata Shindo texts: soon. just need to swat a bug.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: what, another one? do you want help?
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: i could tau galaxy beam that mfer

"I'm busy today, so -"

And he lifts his hand, opening his palm.

"King's Pillar."

It's not a beam. It's not a blast. It's a wall of force, that crashes from the sky, near as powerful as Sugata can make it, because Sunbreaker is supposedly more powerful than Riventon, and he's fought her - she wasn't a weakling. Wider than a city street, nearly as wide as a suburban house, the pale white-blue attack is like an orbital strike, crushing down everything it contacts, a true AOE.

The remnannts of the melted bench are crushed to metallic waste. The trees in the way splinter into pulp. The pavement and stones crack, reduced to pebbles. Ginga Kingu hadn't held back - if this didn't kill Riventon, it shouldn't kill Sunbreaker.

Though, frankly? He wouldn't lose sleep over it, if it did.

    Sugata Shindo texts: The queen roach came to play. I've got it under control.

Double Trouble has posed:
    Double Trouble knew they were in trouble the second the words left Ginga Kingu's lips. They could feel the shift in air pressure as the entire column of air above them compressed under the force of their imminent death. It was only their lighting quick reflexes that gave them any chance of survival, pushing them from certain death to merely likely a goner.
    As soon as they felt the shift, their entire body collapsed into an inky shadowy blob that tried to zoom out of the path of destruction, but it was plummeting too fast and they could not get out of it's zone of impact. The force catching their inky blobby self and slamming it into the ground, right at the edge of it's area. They almost got out.
    In the aftermath of the attack it's not Sunbreaker on the ground, flattened from the chest down, gasping for air that they can't draw into their crushed lungs. No. It's Double Trouble, green and broken with blood in their yellow hair. The light of their life quickly fading from their eyes.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Sugata's phone blows up the second the attack is launched, as he knew it would. He doesn't bother to look, as the force comes down, knowing how long it will take for it to end, and guessing Sunbreaker will need at least a few minutes to pull herself back together and flee or launcgh a counter attack.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: YOU JUST
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: JDKGLSJG
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: WAKO
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: kings pillar is NOT under control WHAT DID YOU DO
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: where are you!!!!!
    Wako Agemaki texts: SUGATAKUN what's going on??
    Sugata Shindo texts: it's fine.
    Wako Agemaki texts: it's not fine!
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: it is absolutely not
    Sugata Shindo texts: I'm at Dream Kingdom in Yumegahama, and it was Sunbreaker. There are ten children and a tour guide here and she just summoned a second youma.
    Sugata Shindo texts: so it's fine.
    Wako Agemaki texts: CALL US TO HELP WHEN THAT HAPPENS
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: we could totally have waited on the korma oh my /god/
     Takuto Tsunashi texts: you KNOW how fast we could get there! hrrrrr
    Sugata Shindo texts: You're ordering the food. Why would I interrupt that?
    Wako Agemaki texts: so I can put up Zero Time before you blow up Dream Kingdom, that's why!
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: you think seeing kings pillar out the window didnt interrupt?? Sugata Shindo texts: but did you order the food? I didn't tell you my order, you probably didn't. Lamb vindaloo with extra rice.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: ofc i didnt order thef ood you KPd >:E fine
    Sugata Shindo texts: it's not that bad, it's cosmetic. a few trees need to be replaced. the bench had already been melted by acid.

And then the sound of rattling breaths and wheezing reaches his ears, and he looks up, frowning, not reaching for another King's Pillar, but considering grasping for Diamant -

Only he doesn't see Sunbreaker in the center. Or the outskirts. What he sees is a someone... else.

Green, long hair, absolutely flattened by King's Pillar, bones certainly crushed, blood in their hair and on their lips.

In a move probably unthinkable to his partners, he texts them.

    Sugata Shindo texts: ...alright, there was a mild problem.
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: WHAT
    Wako Agemaki texts: Say so sooner!!
    Wako Agemaki texts: What's happened?

Well, they aren't going to take this well at all.

    Sugata Shindo texts: wasn't actually Sunbreaker. Some kind of shapeshifter. May have killed them. Be back soon.
    Wako Agemaki text: SUGATAKUN
    Takuto Tsunashi texts: THEFUCK

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker had been, ironically... studying at the time of the attack. Which would probably grow to torment her later. Here she was, studying away, entirely unaware that her partner was out doing something incredibly stupid. That was usually her job.

However, unbeknowest to her, her girlfriend was doing just that.

And then it went off. She'd likely been overly cautious. Double Trouble Might have even laughed at it. When Sunbreaker had given her the gem to wear, just in case. If it broke? Sunbreaker would know. And she'd come save them. She'd been mostly concerned about Beryl hurting the person she loved, though...

Her head jerked up...

And then the heavens themselves descended on Sugata. It was very, very telling (or at least it would be to Double Trouble if they were like... awake, right now). Sunbreaker just appeared and just let loose. The moment she saw who was there, and saw Double Trouble on the ground? She just let loose. Fireballs rained down on the boy and... frankly? She expected them to be reflected. She'd fought this boy. She knew he had a big reflective barrier...

And she was ready for it. Because while the first assault was the kind of thing that would leave the ground a crater about ten feet deep? The moment that barrier showed up, three gems would appear around her. When the attack was reflected? They'd shatter and all of the magic would be gathered into the palm of her hand. "Begone," she said.

A beam of black magic, like a thousand piercing swords, would flow from her hand. Tearing her own reflected attack away and then following up by attempting to penetrate whatever barrier he could erect in response. While it wasn't a fatal attack even if it hit, it was the kind of attack designed to leave its target a wreck and, worse, pierced to the ground. It was only her 'rules' that would stop the attack from being an attempted fatal one but it came damn close.

The combination of burning the energy, her own gathered power over the months and the raw, primal fury of him *daring* to hurt Double Trouble had... quite an... interesting effect on her capabilities, it seemed. Namely in just how threatening she could be.

Then she was enveloped in flames, appearing by Double Trouble's side. "No no no no no. Double Trouble? Speak to me. Come on, baby. Please. Y-you have to be okay. I'm here," Sunbreaker said, reaching out to grab them, gently picking them up. "Come on, come on, speak to me. Please. Please please please. Say something. He's gone now, he can't hurt you. Just say something. PLEASE!" Sunbreaker pleaded, her hands shaking as she lifted the girl into her lap.

Her phone hovered to her side and she started texting Mamoru.

Sunbreaker texted Mamoru: You, healer boy, where are you? Right now? I need EXACT COORDINATES right now.

Her mind was racing, trying to find something... the nurse? Was the nurse at the school? Could she do ANYTHING for this? She was just a mundane nurse, right? No, don't panic, don't panic. "It's going to be okay, I swear. It'll be okay. I swear it'll be okay or I'll kill *every last one of them* I swear..." Sunbreaker said, struggling desperately to control her burning rage.

Double Trouble has posed:
    Double Trouble's eyes went wide at the sight of the raining fireballs black magic and swords. They hadn't seen any of this before. Sunbreaker was pulling out all the stops for them. Tears welled up in their dying eyes. It was so poetic. Dramatic.
    It was perfect.
    And then Sunbreaker had them in her arms. And was begging them to say something. Anything. And they wanted to. They desperately wanted to. They gasped trying to draw air into their collapsed lungs to force it back out to say a word, and all they could manage was groaning a single word, "Applause."
    And then the curtains fell and their eyes closed.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
There's a shift in the air, barely notable, but Sugata has trained his entire life to fight, and turns out, and it only takes a split-second to pull power into the air, King's Counter deflecting away a series of raining fireballs that blaze with heat.

So this is the real Sunbreaker, and she's on the warpath. Must have been someone close to her, the idiot on the ground with blood in their mouth and bones shattered across their body. You're not meant to speak ill of the dead, but what about when they've brought it on the themselves?

A split second thought, before the word is spoken -

And he considers bringing down King's Pillar again. Considers it for the split second before instead he thrusts his fist to his chest and whips out Star Swordo Diamant, aiming to deflect -

The blow doesn't deflect. The Star Sword doesn't break, but it warps around the beam, the force great, and he throws it and himself to the side as the blast rips into his hip, just above the bone, narrowly avoiding the organs. There's pain, and there's blood, and there's Sugata, down on one knee in henshin, hissing, sword still in hand.

He can't help the short, bitten off cry of pain, but he's not willing to stay down, not if Sunbreaker has that kind of force. Another King's Pillar would kill the first one, the fake, but it probably wouldn't kill Sunbreaker, and she'd be out for blood. She's distracted now. He might be able to get her in the back, but Takuto and Wako would be furious with him if he killed two people when the last time he'd texted them he said he'd killed one -

And the pain is pretty bad. He holds Diamant, waiting, and of course that's when the fake speaks.

Applause.

Any regret disappears in an instant. When his phone buzzes, he digs for it, breathing deep.

    Takuto Tsunashi texts: omw you ass
    Sugata Shindo texts: I only regret that they survived.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker blinked a few times...

She received a message from Mamoru. He was in his room and his company just left. She sent him a message bag, he was on his way.

Sugata was on his feet. Texting someone? Could she finish him off...

Yes. It wouldn't be hard. She'd seen what he could do. She'd destroy him...

Was the applause Double Trouble's way of saying she was giving an applause? Or that she wanted an applause for whatever led to this?

It was them, so it could be either or.

But when the choices came vengeance or... No. She would not lose them. That boy was insignificant. But if Double Trouble perished... if she lost... No...

NO! She refused. That was not something that would, could, happen. She scooped up the dying reptile and erupted with fire. Exploding fire in all directions in her wake, one final 'SCREW YOU!' to Sugata before she was gone. A moment later appearing in Mamoru Chiba's dorm room. "Fix them!" she all but YELLED! The panic flooding her voice. "Fix them fix them FIX THEM or I SWEAR I will burn this damn world to the GROUND!" she yelled.

The sorrow, the fear, the anger, all of it swirling in her movements, her voice, in the very flames that surrounded her and Double Trouble, who she'd lightly place down... Before pulling back. Mamoru might even notice that while Double Trouble wouldn't have any burns... Sunbreaker? Did.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
There's a streak across the sky, blue and white, and just as Sunbreaker's fiery explosion of SCREW YOU erupts, the streak resolves into Takuto Tsunashi, the Ginga Bishounen, with hair very very like Sunbreaker's but a cooler coat. He lands hard and scrambles across the wrecked pebble-ful ground and stops with a crunchy clack, face writ large with wide-eyed worry. "Sugatakun!"

He's not sure what to do with his hands, he's not sure what to do-- he looks back and there are, unsurprisingly, zero civilians around. There are also, unsurprisingly, sirens in the distance, on the approach. "Let's get you out of here. Fastest if I carry you. Will it hurt too much?"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
The fiery burst of SCREW YOU deflects off a Ginga Kingu Bouncy Backu- no, no, he named it King's Counter, he did not give the attack Takuto and Wako's dumb name suggestion, but the fact that he's thinking of it means that he's definitely hurting more than he thought he was...

And there's Takuto, crying out his name, landing hard and scrambling, and sirens in the distance, and at least those kids are gone -

"Doesn't matter. Carry me, back to the house if you can. Jaguar and Tiger will know what to do with the first aid kit."

He's gritting out the sentences, and gritting out the words, and the stripe of pain in his side is among the worst he's felt, but he's willing and able to push through, if needed.

But Takuto is here, and he doesn't think it's going to be needed.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
There it is, there, yes, "Okay, put Diamant away. Tauburn! Please text Wako while I carry Sugata," says Takuto, firm now that he has a direction to yeet himself in. "House it is. She'll meet us back there."

And he carefully-- so carefully! picks Sugata up in a princess carry, injury on the outside. So what if they leave a trail of drips of blood! They'll be too far apart to track! "I think it cauterized partly. Gross."

And then they're up in the air, surrounded by Takuto's blue-white nimbus of power, and Takuto flies fast again. Not quite as fast, given he has a passenger, but fast enough -- infinitely better than an uber. Or an ambulance. "Tiger and Jaguar really know what to do for an injury that bad?" he calls over the wind. "Nevermind, of course they do!"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Diamant is shoved away, sunk back into his chest, where the Star Swords disappear when they aren't needed, and then Sugata is being lifted into a princess carry, which would be mildly embarrassing and mildly attractive, if not for the way it pulls at his wound, to be moved, and he inhales sharply before gritting his teeth. "That makes sense, given all the fire. It should heal easier, at least...

"Maybe not exactly magical slightly flaming laser wounds, but burns, and basic stitches? Yes. If it needs more than that, we'll figure somethign else out, but for now?"

Takuto's power is familiar and comforting, even if travel this way isn't. It's better than an ambulance by far. The pain doesn't get better. It doesn't get worse. It's just easier to tune out, the longer this takes.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Tauburn appears in his little bubble and texts Wawna to tell Wako they're going back to the house, and that Sugata is injured, and that Tiger and Jaguar will need the first aid kit, and that in Takuto's opinion Wako should get first shot at actually yelling at Sugata. After all, Tauburn's listening.

"For now," agrees the redhead.

As for Takuto, there is regret that Sugata's in pain, but only regret, given that Sugata has hit Takuto with the edge of a King's Pillar while Takuto was not apprivoised, aaaaand given how many times Sugata has dragged him out of bed on a Sunday morning to beat each other with sticks and continues to do so, aaaaand how many times Takuto's been injured something like that while apprivoised--

It isn't really that far, at that speed, before Takuto and Sugata are landing right in front of the open doors and Takuto carries him inside.

And kisses his stupid blue head.