1583/Taking the stage

Taking the stage
Date of Scene:	25 May 2024
Location:	Yumegahama Ward
Synopsis:	Hinoiri has set her eyes on the local musical sensation, Yellow Pearl Voice! What follows is a flaming ambush, leaving the mermaid not just wounded, but trapped in her natural form. Will this spell disaster for the young mermaid?
Cast of Characters:	Coco Kiumi, Hinoiri Kirara
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora

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Coco Kiumi has posed:
There are plenty of ways anybody magical could notice the fight currently going on in an alley of the Yumegahama Ward, either following the trail of magical energy both Coco and the youma, a four-armed canister contaminating the air with gas, were releasing, or hearing The Sound of the Bell of Hope ~Love Goes On~ sung by the mermaid idol.

Song which purifies the youma and returns it to its original form of a can abandon amidst the junk, the people rendered unconscious by the toxic fumes showing a much better complexion in the now normal air. It probably won't take more than half an hour for them to wake up as if nothing happened. "And that one is done", Coco says with a sigh of relief, before glancing at the civilians. "Maybe just an extra song to be really sure they are alright", she comments, focusing her attention on the unconscious group.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora had felt it before she heard it. That magic. That song. Heh. It was ironic, she supposed.... she'd managed to avoid running into anyone who used such things in battle, music. Not that she was intending to, it had just happened. Not many singers, she supposed.

But oh, she knew this song well. And what was it they said? A good song never died... It just got stuck in your head. Forever.

There had been countless hours with that song in her head, unable to get it out. The obnoxious, purifying magic. Frustrating. Incensing.

So she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the idea of getting a little... payback wasn't the right word. Recompense.

So as Yellow Pearl Voice went to help the civilians, there was a flash of fire in front of her. And then Hinoiri appeared.

"Long time no see... Yellow Pearl Voice." She glanced around and... "I'll give you one chance, like I did the others. Surrender to me and this will only hurt a little... or fight, and I will drag your power from you forcefully." She held out her hand, that cruel grin ever present on her lips.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco's steps slow down and stop when there is that sudden pressure in the air that just one second before was completely calm. A bad feeling washing over Coco, a Live Stage is quickly summoned, collecting the victims of the youma and bringing them further away from her position.

And then there is the one responsible for that sense of foreboding descending in front of her, a gluttonous fire that didn't have qualms eating far more. "Sunbreaker?" she looks uncertaintly at the girl suddenly in front of her. She... didn't look good at all.

"I am not sure what has happened to you, but you know I just can't get along with your proposal. I have a duty to these people, and frankly, you don't look like yourself, so prepare for a repeat performance, just for you. The Sound of the Bell of Hope ~Love Goes On~: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!" Staring at Hinoiri, Coco has a joyous smile on her face despite the situation, no, because of it, putting all of herself into that song.

You were just having the wrong dream...
The whereabouts of your love and the mystery of your memories
Were pierced by cold loneliness,
And you were suffering."

"Hidden in your blue eyes
Was a beautiful heart that seemed it was about to break."

"In the broken sky are the tears you've cried.
You don't have to hide all of your sadness."

"Let's end this wrong dream...
Forget everything and sleep pure.

When a new dreams dwells inside of you,

You can become free."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora shook her head. "No. I am no longer Sunbreaker. That name was the mask I hid behind. Now you see my true form! I am Hinoiri Kirara, the Sunset of Sora!" she yelled, before she struck.

As the song began, Hinoiri lunged forward. Spinning around, her tail flipped out and pierced down, striking the stage that Coco was on. As it struck it, Coco would feel this sensation. This foul, dark sensation as the magic seemed to be sucked out of her from it. A moment later it would shatter, while Hinoiri's left hand swiped, intending to slam into the girl once she lost her stage.

"No more SONGS FOR YOU, LITTLE MERMAID!" she yelled, her voice cold and vicious, the flames erupting from her hands as she swiped, to explode in the mermaids face and send her slamming to the ground below and possibly break that headset of hers. Barely even giving her a chance to get a line of her song out.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Hinoiri?", Coco repeats once the fire girl reveals her true identity. Hadn't she heard that name once, a long while ago... That was the girl she met at the zoo with Chiyo! They had actually met so little compared to their magical guises. "Why the new name?" Not like she knows who Sora is.

However Coco doesn't have time to reflect on that or anything else, as Sunbreaker's tail crashes the Stage like fragile glass, and that hideous sensation of energy drain accompanies it.

Her song silenced, she can only barely move out of the way when Hinoiri tries to burn her face, but she isn't quick enough to actually dodge that attack, instead getting hit in the side, a cry of pain escaping her mouth as the ardent fire inflicts a pretty nasty burn on her, sending her crashing to the ground.

Disoriented and confused by the collision between her head and the ground, the mermaid tries to gets her bearings as she looks silently at the Sunset of Sora, an expression both grimacing and tenacious still.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora crashed down, making the ground shake slightly when she did so. "Why? Because I have decided to stop messing around. I have decided to stop playing *games*," Hinoiri yelled. "I decided to stop caring about keeping myself in check. In making sure I don't go too far. I decided to stop caring about crossing, or not crossing, some stupid lines. Because you know who cares if I go too far?" she asked, walking towards Coco, towering over her.

Her tail would then move out, coiling around the mermaid's right arm, using it to lift her up into the air. "Nobody. Nobody cares. There's no sunlight. There's no sovereign. I'm meaningless. Everything I've done, everything I was... it's meaningless... so I'm done trying to pretend I'm something I can never be, and instead becoming who I am capable of."

And then she put burning hands to the mermaid's side... and began to drain.

It was cruel, vicious, painful, but as targets went? Coco was getting off... relatively light. Why it hurt, having her power torn out of her in such a vicious manner, and those hands were burning. The tail? Not so much. And it would leave her with rather sizeable burns, in the end... but at least they didn't cover her whole body.

... But as her magic was torn from her, and her form would revert? That... at least... was likely nowhere near as okay as it was for the other girls. Once Hinoiri was done, she'd let the girl drop to the ground, and then turn.

A dingy alleyway was... likely not the best place for her to be left in this condition, either... And yet, Hinoiri didn't offer any help. Instead, just evaporating in a flurry of flames, having stolen the song of the ocean.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
That doesn't really solve the matter of who Sora even is, or why she wants to be her sunset, but as Hinoiri's answers Coco's question in her own way, the princess is left to frown at the unicorn's motivations.

"I don't know who told you these things, but that is not what things could be like", Coco forces those words out as she is effortlessly lifted. "Change your perspective instead. Surrounding yourself of the people at Obsidian isn't the way to see the light, just more darkness."

Her defiant expression only changed by an emotion of pity, the blonde girl further says "Let people help you, even Aqua Regina would offer you her support. The fact you recovered the Sealing Key... You could have left it where it was, ignored what debt you had towards Sailor Moon. We would welcome you, so stop this!", she exclaims, almost as a command.

But then comes that burning touch, that invasive drain that drags the very essence of her being out of her, as her singing starts to lose its magic, the brilliant shine of her pearl becoming a dim yellow as the E-Pitch headset reverts into the precious jewel that then goes back to the shell locket, and the transformation comes undone, not to a human but to a mermaid, her real form.

And despite her appeal to Hinoiri's latent goodness, she is uncerimoniously dropped to the ground, coughing and trying to ignore the burns, no longer able to walk anywhere.