2217/Loops: Emi

Loops: Emi
Date of Scene:	09 January 2025
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	Across all of the timelines, running into Emi was something that happened often, with a youma that, frankly, was horrifying... And one that Hinoiri had to eventually accept that it wasn't her duty to fix. Because what Emi needed was more than just a defeated youma... it was a link to the others who could help her when she needed it.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Emi Hoshino
Tinyplot:	Hinoiri's Endless Loop

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Early Loops:

Hinoiri was, admittedly, still enjoying this whole loop thing. It had only been a day or two and well... it wasn't so bad. She had so much time. She figured it would calm itself before long. Some weird magic thing, right? It wasn't like she'd just... end up trapped here for months, or years, or anyhting. Right? A time loop like this... Eh, it'd sort itself out.

So after a day of absolutely rocking it at school, (she had CRUSHED today's test, just, bam), she decided to go and get some studying done. Head to the library and...

And what in the world happened here? She arrived at the nearby library just in time to see... well... something... happened here...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
A shameful and tragic act of vandalism has occurred at this public library.

The police cruiser parked right outside the font door was already not a good sign, what, with the baseball bat placed on top of the hood of it.

Further in, one no longer needs to imagine what it was used for. Broken bookshelves, dumping their contents in a pile in front of them, books torn and rent asunded. Even some broken windows. Like a one-person wrecking crew went to town until someone caught them in the fact.

She can already see a police officer using a flash camera to take photos of the damage.

The other is talking to a very mussed young girl, dressed down, hair askew... with mismatched eyes.

Emi.

From the sounds of the conversation, it's a very *petulant* Emi who wobbles between a sanguine smile and and a set of entirely too vulgar words. Just the kind of thing you'd expect an incorrigible delinquent to say.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara froze when she saw the police there. Her mouth fell open and... oh. Oh wow. This? This was... terrible. Who would do this to a library? Eventually, she did manage to catch eye of Emi... why in the world would she...?

... Or was it another 'gas explosion'? Another youma? That was an issue with this town. It was always something magical. As much as she might have seen to make it seem like it was Emi's fault... well...

Even she knew better. That and like, her room had gotten blown up once. Alas, she wouldn't find out the truth until she got a chance to talk with her.

And it wasn't that loop. It wasn't until the next same day that she'd get a chance. And after classes... Emi would find Hinoiri in her way. "Heyyyy. Hoshino-chan, right?" she asked. "You know, I was thinking, I really haven't had much chance to get to know you...." she lied, but was smiling to her none the less...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It would be a question destined to remain unanswered...

... if someone wasn't engaged in timelooping shenanigans.

Finding Emi isn't that hard. They're neighbors, after all, and in the same grade. Emi's also fairly easy to catch in the sea of uniforms anyway, what, with her heterochromia and the dye in her hair and what not.

Hinoiri's appraoch, however, does seem to surprise her. Like she's sleepwalking, just about.

"...eh? What?"

She stares at her for a long moment, running her hand down over her own face to make herself waje up.

"Yeah, sure. 'Sup?" She says, hesitating in a display of awkward uncertainy.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave her a small grin. "Oh, not much. I figured, hey. There's that kid I barely know. Let's head out, get to know each other a bit. Maybe get shakes. You ever been to the karaoke crown? It's pretty awesome, I hear. Unless you have somewhere important to be? Or maybe we can head to the library, get a headstart on next weeks lessons? I hear they got a really good book book on astronomy. It's really... out of this world."

She may wear a leather jacket, ride a motorcycle and present an untouchable air of 'kicking your butt'... but... at her core?

Hinoiri was, and always would be... a dork.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
If this were an anime, Hinoiri's words would surely be accompanied by the 'plink plink' sounds of blinking coming from Emi right now. Eyebrows rise, slowly, as she parses what is being said to her, a slowly and increasingly bewildered look on her face. She's still surrpised by this evidentally despite the light detente they had achieved when Hinoiri caught her getting dressed down by Mister Sato.

"...uhhhh. Okay? I guess?" She definitely doesn't seem like she has plans to go and vandalize a library later, that's for sure.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, before giving a nod. "Good. Let's go out. I want to learn all about you. After all, you've been at this school for a while, but we've never really hung out, you know? So... where did you go to school before this? Are you a native resident of Japan, or somewhere else?"

Oh, Hinoiri was going to keep quite the eye on the girl, as close an eye as she could.... and keep her out until midnight, if she had to...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi is more than fine to go with her when the time comes. One thing becomes apparent: she's been keeping some late nights. She's tired. Shakes are lovely, though, and she goes along with all of it just fine. Keeps a good front up of not caring lessons. Occasionally complains of wanting to smoke a cigarette or two. Oh so delinquent.

She'll learn that she's from Kyoto, but once Hinoiri presses about anything regards to her family, she just clams straight up. She studiously avoids talking about it. At all. There's definitely some unhappy memories there.

Abd yet, just as everything seems to be going well enough for Hinoiri to let down her guard, Emi's suddenly gone.

Just ... /gone/. Quickly. Like she'd been waiting for just that moment.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara turned and... saw that Emi was gone. Just gone. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just... gone. Well. Fine then. She glanced at the time before she headed to the library and arrived to see... destruction. Fun.

The next loop:

Hinoiri wasn't taking chances. Sure, she could stalk Emi, but why chase Emi down, when she could be where she wanted to be? About thirty minutes before Emi had 'vanished' last time, Hinoiri was at the library. Waiting at the finish line, as it were. Reading an astronomy book... it really WAS fascinating. A world where there were OTHER planets AND the stars moved on their own. Incredible.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Unsurprisingly, it is quiet in the library... or perhaps surprisingly, given what she knows to occur. Having arrived well before Emi would have, she's a witness to various people leaing as the night wears on. The librarian, a young woman long, dyed red hair, passes by to let her know things will be closing soon before she dissapears onto one of the back offices.

And then ... nothing for a little while longer. It's quiet.

But then there's a shift in the air, a charge she is almost surely familiar with. All around her, the landscape seems to shift. The stacks grow taller, the shelves deeper in their recess, the title of those books becoming disorted and unreadable upon their spines. The scent of old paper and dust fills her nostrils and the lighting grows ever dinmer. In the distance, she hears a door click open and then shut.

...and then she hears the patter of feet on every direction. Multiple sets of them. Shapes hover in the corner of her eye, drawing just enough attention to cause anxiety but never enough to reveal. Like there's something lurking behind those shelves and behind those very stacks.

One more sound. Pen on paper, growing endlessly louder.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara paused when everything started to shift... then she sighed. "Ah. I was right. Youma. Wait, is this a witch?" she asked, before glancing back down towards her book. "Huh. So Hoshino is a puella, who would have thought?" She really wanted to keep reading the book... but she should prepare... really... but the book was gooooood. And so what if she got witched, it wouldn't stick or... guhhhh. "Chapter 7..." she mumbled, closing the book. Darn you, mars, it was such an interesting planet. She then, grudgingly, got to her feet and looked around, trying to find the source of the sound...

Oddly, she wasn't really that... scared. It wasn't because of the loop, though. She hadn't looped enough yet for the 'fear of death' to leave her. More...

Hinoiri wasn't the kind of girl who got scared of things like haunted houses and the likes. No, her fears were... far... far more 'real'. She'd conquered the fear of monsters long ago, back when she'd chased dragons and other monsters...

She feared failure. And nobody had been forced to face that fear more than her. So she sat on the table and watched for the approaching 'pen'. "Come on, witchy witch. I know how this plays out..."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's like the choice is made for her. The characters on the book seem to start bleeding away their ink, reshaping themselves right in front of her eyes. Something just on the edge of gibberish, bringing along with it the sense of inspiration right out of reach. If only one was to push a little harder, reach a little higher, maybe they could crack through and find the secret at its core? The sounds of the pen grow still faster, scribbling in a frenzy now. She'll notice that the changes to her environment haven't stopped, either.

The walls around her are now themselves composed of open books and daisy chains of inked paper bleeding into the ground in pools of thick, inky blackness or crimson. Rustling pages. The sound of books collapsing will draw her eye, next, as a gap in the wall seems to form and a figure passes onto it.

She'll immediately recognize the overall shape of the librarian she saw earlier. The long, red hair gives that away, straight away, more than anything else. She's surrounded now by a nimbus of ... scribbly energy and pages of flickering characters and drawn figures in various , increasingly violent poses, savage dismemberments, brutal and bloody battle and violent torture. The stuff of nightmares, really.

She seems like she's going to pass by Hinoiri altogether, as another set of books collapse to create another opening for her, but then ger graceful, floating glide across the seeming hall comes to a stop. She turns her head, slowly.

In place of the kindly if tired face that Hinoiri would recognize from earlier, there is instead an open, flesh-toned book instead. Its pages flicker back and forth in a buzz before blood red ink forms on the surface. Hinoiri can read *these* characters with perfect even if don't look like 'right' somehow.

"Help."

"Me" over and over and over and over.

Nevertheless, the walking nightmare raises a delicate inkstained hand and makes a few quick brush strokes as a tornado of swirlng paper takes shape around her.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara took a small step back. Okay, you know what? Hinoiri wasn't one to be freaked out by monsters.

Body horror? Oh, yes, when she saw it? Up close? That was worth worrying about. But... someone... needing help?

"... How can I help you?" she finally asked, though a part of her wanted to run. To flee. But...

"You're... not... a witch, are you?" she asked. Was this a witch? Or something else? This screamed 'witch labyrinth'... but... it also screamed nightmare. Which, admittedly, witches basically were.

She took a slow, deep breath, before drawing out her henshin device... the cobbled thing it was... and henshined.

The gray figure standing there, before holding out her gloved hand towards the figure... Offering to help. However she could.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
That changes make it pause.

It's just a moment. The pages shift again to another pair of blank ones, which are soon filling again.

With little smiley faces. Blood red ink, drippoing in fat streaks smiley faces.

...and then tornado of paper comes straight at her. No doubt she'll do her best to avoid it, but should any of them touch her, she'll get the worst kind of injuries imaginable: paper cuts. Lots of tiny little paper cuts, the papers themselves seemingly sticking to her like some kind of nightmarish paper mache.

And that's before one can see the figures emerging from the pages on the walls and the puddles of ink. Scribbly images, like two dimensions suddenly bleeding into a third and growing into it. A variety of manga chibis in various states, all black and white and with the same scribbly nature as the aura of The Librarian.

She can hear a voice now, a whisper all around her. Rapid whispering.

"Cametolifeandbrokeherbrokeherbrokeher, failurefailure weak worth nothing never make it you'll never make it you have no talent for this you will never make it your words have no artistry your imagination dull no one will ever read a word of you, remember a drawing by you"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Equivalence held up both hands, letting the attack hit her. And then... then she was cut. She shrieked. Oh. OH. You bloody little... you nasty little... Papoercuts. As a student, no, as THE student... THOSE BUCKING HURT!

Yet, those words... Those were words she'd heard. Sure, not all of them...

No talent. A failure. No one will remember you. No one will care when you're done. Forgotten. Abandoned. Forsaken.

A fear that Hinoiri... had recently realized. "So what?" she asked, snapping at the voice. Unlikely to help, but when her own fears were mirrored back at her...

"So what if nobody remembers you? So what if nobody cares? So what if they think you're a failure, or worse? Who bucking cares? It's THEIR problem. If they don't notice you? Do it again. Do it again and again and again! Put your heart and soul into it! Create something they CAN'T ignore! And if they ignore it? If they fail to see it?"

"That's THEIR fault. THEY'RE the blind ones! You did your best, you can take pride in the fact you TRIED! You put in the effort! You stepped past the threshold even if everyone else said it was impossible, because they were too cowardly to! And if they forget you? Then you'll find people who WILL remember you! And they'll bucking be worth it because they'll have gotten their faces out of their flanks long enough to actually CARE! Rather than just being cowards who cut you down!"

COME ON EMI! WHERE WERE YOU?! What WAS this thing?! How long did she have to survive this assault?!

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It is fortunately not a *long* way from the dorms to here. Hinoiri's fervent desire for Emi to arrive is realized as the inky figures begin to reach towards her, to grab at her.

... when Emi bursts into area, crashing through a book-wall which she emerges from with a pained grunt, on her hands and knees and shaking them off.She's holding a ...baseball bat?

And she isn't in anything remotely like a henshin at all. It's just Emi.

With a bat.

"Gin! Gin! You're not a --" She stops dead when she sees that she's not alone here. Stares at Equivalence for a moment, unable to recognize Hinoiri within for the obvious reason, and then her eyes turn back towards the floating form of the paper-cutting, narrative nightmare. Emi is already covered in ink-stains, her radiant heart uniform torn here and there and blood oozing down from lengthy paper cuts. Her bat too is splattered with it too. Rising to her feet somewhat unsteadily, she points her bat at 'Gin', a little tremble in her hand belying the fear she feels.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Equivalence blinked a few times. She opened her mouth. And oh. There was a moment. A moment as the bits clicked into place.

Good news! Emi was not going to be (physically) assaulted any more.

Bad news! The library was likely not going to be any better off for the ware. Because it seemed the girl wasn't in henshin. Was she fighting the youma, this youma, with a BAT?!

And then she dashed in and she just... kicked the library monster. Hard. With enough impact that the nearby books would rattle. Well, normally.

"Hoshino! Are you fighting a mosnter without a bucking HENSHIN?! Oh, when this is over you and I are going to have WORDS!" she yelled, her voice filled with more threats and violence than the worst of nightmares. In many ways, she WAS a nightmare right now. Flames sputtering off her uniform in ways it REALLY wasn't supposed to normally. "Do you bucking think you're INVINCIBLE?! Are you TRYING TO GET KILLED?! You just wait there because when I'm done with this youma I'm coming for *you*."

Honestly? The youma would have likely been a safer thing to fight...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Here lies Emi.

She came to fight a monster armed with only a baseball and courage but its the words spilling out of Equivalence's mouth that have slain her. Now, as a Gothm Emi typically has a healthy pallor from make up. She didn't have time to put on tonight, but the moment those threats reach her ears, she manages to complete the look anyway with all the color that drained from her face as she becomes utterly frozen in place.

r But it's also provided the monster a moment to recover from that powerful kick. It hadn't expected it, to be sure, and it flew back into a book-wall and crashed through it, leaving its componenst to bury it for but a moment.

... before she can hear it, hears narration once more in that frightened, angry whisper.

"Her blow was powerful and it dazed the creature but it was strong, stronger than she thought, and it was as if she kicked a wall of iron instead. The bones in her foot strained, cracked, /broke/."

As the words reach Equivalence's ears, she can feel them, feel the strain in her foot, feel the cracking, fracturing,m /breaking/ of all the bones in her foot. "And now fear will fill her. After all, we all know what happens to a workhorse with a broken leg. No good to anyone. No good at all."

And then Emi gains its attentoon too as it rises to its feet, the pages flickering gain as it draws kanji in the air with its brush, words matching its narration, alongside fleeting images of pain and horror, an x-ray of a broken foot, shattered into uselessness, say.

"And Eeeemi. So many pieces to you that don't add up. So broken inside. Like your arm. You can't even hold a bat anymore."

Emi squeals in agony and goes down, clutching her wrist.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Equivalence blinked a few times and then she shrieked. Crumbling, clutching her foot. And...

"And then... the stupid library bitch realized this 'work horse' was a bucking UNICORN and was going to wreck EVERY BIT OF HER STUPID FLANK! And that, next loop? The first thing she is going to break is your BUCKING JAW! Wait, no."

She still had one foot and, frankly? She'd... okay, no, she hadn't been through worse. But if EMI could beat this thing without a henshin, SHE COULD DO IT WITH ONE! EVEN ONE LIKE THIS!

She lunged forward on one foot. And there was a saying, 'as tired as a one-legged man at a butt kicking contest'. Equivalence only had one leg, and there was a butt to kick.

But you know what she had that the one-legged man didn't? Spite. Spite and rage. And it fueled her. And the things, the horrors she evoked on that youma. She only started with the jaw. Which, admittedly, was impressive. It was a book. It shouldn't have a jaw.

But perhaps by pure spite and rage, she certainly broke *something* akin to a jaw... alongside many, many other things in that library. By the time she finished? She was panting, hopping on one leg, tears in her eyes, fury in her heart, and the smell of burnt, charred books hanging in the air... "I didn't *say* we were done!" she yelled at the youma as she hopped after it.

Yeah, Emi may have help with one nightmare, but there was a whole new one, now.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's fast, brutal, and very library damaging to watch.

Emi stares after them, slowly rising to her feet once again, grabbing the bat again and lunging herself ater them.

By the time Equivalence has dazed it from her infuriated, powerful onslaught, Emi is right there. She's pale, sweating, and terrified of Equivalence in a way she absolutely wasn't when she got here armed with just her bat. So much she doesn't understand except...

...bucking. Now she KNOWS she's heard someone use that term before in that way. It'll start dawning on her at some point. Probably.

"Don't hurt my friend," she tells Equivalence. Surely, she doesn't mean Gin, does she? Perhaps she does.

."KenKen, it's up to you now,".. or maybe it's the small, prismatically colored spider that's rolling down her arm and hopping onto the prone, battered form of the Librarian.

It drops upon her face and then ... bites *down*. One can feel the change in the energy of the room almost immediately as the spider begins absorbing it, and as it does, the pain of their narrated injuries begins to diminish as it does so, the phantasmal changes to the landscape beginning to flake away in colored, shimmering shards, leaving only a very vandalized looking library in its place.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Equivalence turned towards Emi. "WHAT?!" she snapped. Then blinked. "Uhhh... sure. Whatever."

Of course... Then... Kenken came out. A spider.

Hinoiri wasn't scared of spiders. But her eyes twitched. And twitched more, the more she watched. And then... her feet stopped hurting, as everything started to calm and... oh.

Oh, even more began to dawn on her. "You done?" she asked the spider. In a tone that very much said 'we're going to have words after you're done'. And oh, there were words. When she picked up the spider. And Emi, under one arm. And soon, both would find themselves on a nearby rooftop. Emi dropped. The spider? Not so much.

"--the buck is wrong with you?! Making that girl parade around with a bucking bat--"

"--Could have been killed, or worse! Not to mention the trashed library--"

"--Enough magical girls in this city that you could start a float for every day of the week--"

"--Lucky I don't punt you up and down the street like kyubey you--"

"--What do EITHER of you have to say for yourselves?!" she asked, after... wow.

Apparently she had opinions about Emi engaging youma without a henshin and just a baseball bat... in a city filled with magical girls. And she was holding the spider at least partially responsible, which would then be tossed to Emi, her gaze, furious as it was, focused on both of them. And there was no nightmare here to purify. Just an angry mare.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Gin, incidentally, was fine, but passed out and already starting to stir by the time they're gone, the energy holding her having been absorbed, purified, and returned whence it came.

Emi is gawking at her as KenKen -- not to mention herself -- is lectured at length and she truly has nothing to say for a long moment when its complete. KenKen simply takes the lecture, unchanging eyes fixed on them. Pedipalps twitch in an uncertain answer, but its still an acknowledgement at least, before it's caught by a wide eyed Emi and then it crawls up swiftly to sit on her shoulder. For a spider, KenKen is pretty big, after all, but she's still a spider.

"... I don't know who you are," she begins, even thought something about that is aching in the back of her mind and just can't break through, "And I don't have any idea what you're on about. That wasn't just some kind of monster, it was a Nightmare. Gin's nightmare. I thought it was under control," she says, glancing down to KenKen on her shoulder, "But somehow it made it out of her nightmare to here. I mean, I knew it was possible but I'd never seen it before until now --"

She pauses. Stares at Equivalence. She's clearly at a loss for words for a moment.

"... thanks?" She manages to stutter after a moment.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Equivalence put her hands together and then sighed. "Well... hopefully? This is the last time it happens. More importantly, this is likely what was causing the loop. Ugh. We're getting you some friends. What is wrong with you? The school is *filled* to the brim with magical people. You should NOT be fighting things like that alone. I'm an expert at this stuff and even I know to have some backup under most circumstances."

Oh, if Rashmi could hear her now, she'd be furious...

"Just... get some rest. And... I'll get you in touch with some people. The Korma. Rashmi. She's lil miss goody good. She'll help you sort this out. And get you people you can call when these things get out. So no, you shouldn't be going out with a bat." She turned to walk off... only to pause. Come back. And pick her up, princess carry style. "I'll take you back to the school... bucking idiot..." she grumbled, annoyed... but... well... helpful? Ish?

Emi Hoshino has posed:
the word loop is just one more in a series that are just confusing her. Emi puts a hand to the back of her head, which Hinoiri will now see are already bandaged around their palms. In their disarray, she can already see that her hands are a little ... hamburgery already, like someone came to a stop on rough asphalt and dragged along it for a little bit.

"Oh, don't worry about me. With a little rest I'll be right as rain. Aw, man! I left my bat back there!" She makes a face.

She's about to say more, really, about to explain or offer another thought, but then she is PICKED UP like she's a PRINCESS and then her mismatched eyes are all wide and confused. Did this actually happen? She squeaks with indignity and finds herself being carried home.

She's got SO many questions and she's way too scared to ask them right now.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Mid Loops: The first fight had been rough... the next few? Nearly as rough, but not as bad. Hinoiri practiced with every loop. Equivalence got more dangerous.

Luckily for Emi? She seemed less upset and angry with each loop. Less lectures. More focused on the youma. It wasn't too long before Emi would be arriving in time to see the youma already defeated, on the ground...

And after that first encounter? Oh, Equivalence tried to find every possible way to make sure that 'talking' afterwards was not a possibility for the youma...

And Emi was just another distraction before long. Dropped off at a nearby roof, with a curt 'I'll be talking to you and your spider tomorrow'.

Each loop getting faster and faster as she got more efficient...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
With each loop, the youma twirls and it spins and draws, it brings its imagination to terrible, vicious life in its scribbles, it narrates terrible fates ... until its increasingly disallowed to. Eventually, Hinoiri will be able to lock onto the importance of its brush, by which it invokes much of its power, and simply shattering that or removing it from it makes matters ... not easy, but more straightforward. No more can it shift the landscape or create a wave of minions, though the danger of narration initially remains until it is simply never given the opportunity.

Initially, Emi is fairly battered by the time she arrives. Occasionally, she's stuck to the wall with paper, or beset by minions but these things simply fade as Equivlance 'improves'.

And with each loop, Emi arrives progressively less ink splattered and battered. Sure, sometimes, she winds up stuck to the wall with paper by the youma when she stmbles into the scene, but aside from that, she is increasingly slack-jawed and wide eyed at the violent efficiency of Hinoiri's magical girl self. At least she doesn't get stars in her eyes. Most of all, though, she is guarded and uncertain and confused. Very, *very* confused.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Perfect Loop:

Finally, the perfect loop. Equivalence just... shut the youma down. When Emi arrived, there was basically nothing left for her to do. The library... was likely barely damaged, even. She'd been almost precognitive. Dashing in, finishing the youma, actually dropping the youma at Emi's feet. "Spider, do it."

Then grabbing her, princess carrying her away, dropping her off near the school. "Tomorrow, we're talking."

And then she was gone. What had taken... a while before? Was practically over before Emi even knew what was happening. A problem that was solved before it could truly begin...

If only all of Emi's fights could be solved that easily. Alas, reality said 'no'.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Reality says a lot of things to Emi, 'no' chief amongst them.

Breathless, calling Gin's name, Emi arrives at this, this perfect loop, to find everything already resolved. Mostly.

"... how did ... who ..."

Then she closes her mouth, gets closer, and simply kneels on the ground to deploy her colorful spider-friend and lets them do their thing. This Library is Clear.

"... Who even ARE you?" she asks, realizing that she is unlikely to get any kind of answer before tomorrow, it seems, her bat having clunked on the ground beside her. Absent something to hold, her bandaged hands simply curl into fists.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
True loop:

It took time. But... well... if there was one thing that Hinoiri had now? It was time. And so, when the morning came, when she knew that Emi was going to need it...

Equivalence didn't come.

Instead, a time and place was texted to Mamoru. A message. 'Hey. Mamoru? At XX:XX, the public library. There's going to be a weird librarian youma. Try to not let it speak, whatever it narrates happens. There's going to be a girl, Emi Hoshino. She has a bat, a normal, non-magic bat. She needs help, friends. She has a spider thing that will purify it once it's done. Help her out, okay? I can share more tomorrow.

Hopefully... he could do more than she could.