2326/Five Nightmares: One Star Service

Five Nightmares: One Star Service
Date of Scene:	15 February 2025
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Anyone who's been on the internet for long can tell you that online bullying is its own cruel sport. It exists in every form of social media, comments sections, and now a new nightmare has been born from the venomous energy of mean spirited user reviews. Rateyourhenshin isn't just a website, it's a living manifestation of dark energy drawn from digital vitriol, it's an entity forged from the collective cruelty of the legion of internet most malignant trolls who relish in tearing down others for applause, and it has decided that the Mahou are long overdue for their reviews. Can they survive its reviews and defeat it with their self-esteem in tact?
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Koji Silvia, Mamoru Chiba, Coco Kiumi, Amanda Faust, Sugata Shindo, Rashmi Terios
Tinyplot:	The Five Nightmares

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It has been two and a half weeks since Molly died. And while Rashmi has... mostly gotten back to her old routine, there are some days that are worse than others.

Like today, Rashmi did a desultory cleaning-out of her Device's inventory during lunch on the rooftop, and found... The Lord of the Rings, in English. Which was just enough of a punch in the gut that the rest of her lunch was lost to needing to have a good cry, which meant being late to her next class because you *do not* allow crying marks to sit without trying to alleviate them.

And it's impossible to hide them completely, so Rashmi spent the bulk of Trigonometry absolutely certain that half of the back-chatter among her classmates was about her, and how rough she looked.

And this was going to be the kind of day when the well-meaning soilicitation -- sorry your friend's gone missing, that has to be awful -- is going to be worse than being invisible. Rashmi could simply feel it in her bones.

It starts not long after Rashmi leaves Academy grounds.

Right there on the street she hears her phone sound off. A text message. These days one receives a great many of those but this one stands out amongst the others when she checks her lock screen.

'Molly-Chan'.

Upon seeing the name, Rashmi gasps, hand flying to her throat as she feels a knife made of ice slide into her guts. Who would... Who would *dare.*

<< Nicomachea, >> she thinks to her Device, << I want you to try and figure out where this came from, and who sent it. If it's an accident... well okay. If not... >>

With a mental chime of assent, the Device begins to work. In the meantime, Rashmi thumbs over to the message itself, frowns at the link... and only her confidence in her Device's supremacy over any Earth-based internet virus allows her to poke the site link.

It's the confidence that gets you, sometimes.

Immediately she hears the 'ding' an app being installed her phone, seemingly instantaneously. before her phone is completely commandeered from her, volume turned up. Way up.

Within seconds, everyone on Rashmi's contact list possessed of magic gets a text message.

"Hey there, Rashmi Tereos has sent you an invite link from Rate Your Henshin, the hottest new henshin rating app on the internet! . You've been hand-picked to join our exclusive club that turns magical reviews into power-ups!"
Tap here to install,
Don't miss out---your inner light deserves to shine!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
All around her, she hears more phones light up with that sound. Apps installed. People on the street stop moving, evidentally falling under some kind of thrall as they turn to look at her, eyes now filled with malignant *judgement* and then she will feel her phone vibrate. Vibrate *hard* enough to fly out of her hands where its screen is taken up by a smile made up of broken images and distorted streaming text, as if it were made entirely from harsh words. That smiles pulses with an aura of intensly cold indifference. As her phone lays there on the ground, it begins to speak directly to her.

"RateYourHenshin here, live and ready to dish out some digital truths! We're streaming live with one Rashmi Tereos, who already looks like she's ready to book it, since booking it is the best she can do when her friends need her! Chat, take a look at her profile, tell us what you think!"

Around her, people staring. Talking.

Mocking voices.

"... attacks are a morale boost -- for her enemies."

"Must suck to play second fiddle to ... everyone, actually."

"Well. At least she's nice, right? That has to count for something?"

"What a waste of magical power. Just hopeless."

There's more. More. *So* much more. The crowd is moving in, now, as her phone lays omn the ground a hand bursts up out of it as something *peels* its way out of her. A palpable sense of wrong fills the area, like the walls are closing in all around you, like a heartbeat pounding in your ears as the that smile becomes something more. A humanoid shape gaining momentum and strength with every harsh word spoken.

The smile gets bigger as it stares at her.

"It's okay to cry now. I'm sure Molly did."

Koji Silvia has posed:
He was just trying to return a phone to one of the members of the Gymnastics team, a small smartphone with a sunny-yellow case and flowers on the back of it. But Koji forgot that his kohai was in Miss Saotome's class.

He's ten minutes into her on a vicious tear about the speed dating meet-up she is going to be going to tomorrow night, about all the types of 'Those Guys' that show up, and on and on...

    "Miss Saotome-sama... Please... I'm just trying to find Junko Watanabe... she's part of your class."

    "OH don't get me started about CLASS. None of these guys have any real class, but how else is a woman of MY age and refinement supposed to find a man in this day and age? Social media is just a failure when it comes to hooking up and you can't depend on your friends for good advice... you need like a nice girl, you should learn now before life crushes you..."

That was the THIRD time. She had called him a girl.

    "Apologies, Miss Saotome-sama... I don't think she's here right now. I'll just go turn this in at the faculty room so she can find it in the morning."

Watching a teacher false-faint over her desk, sobbing DRAMATICALLY, Koji just manages to get out of the room as she howls out, "I MOURN FOR A LIFE OF LOVE! I PINE FOR IT! I-..."

    *Clack* The door shuts.

    "Huh. Now where is that one off to."

It's when he's out the hallways and down the stairs when the girl's phone he has in hand *pings* advising him an app has been downloaded. Taking out Hanzo, it's one swipe of one phone over the other to unlock the girl's mobile and to see something he's never seen before. And then the video pops up, the stream and the hazing comments that start to scroll past.

    << SET UP. >>

Into henshin and going up the stairs towards the roof, Koji in his form of Device Mage HANZO, says to the knife on his wrist, "Hanzo, locate Nicomachea, NOW."

To one side of his view, the images from the phone are still scrolling away, letting him see every awful word, and once on the roof, he throws out the strongest << BOOST SHIELD. >> he can to get on his way towards where the red-haired Mage is being assaulted... from all places and none.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It was, thank every last one of the gods down to the tiniest no-shrine kamis, a quiet night. Yeah like that'd last. It's a night the girls are at school, so, phone in one hand and pocket watch in the other, he says Earth Prism Power, Make Up! and jumps off the balcony.

The literal four seconds it takes for Mamoru to henshin, land, put a hand on the ground, then teleport directly to Rashmi--

He's *all teeth*. "Rashmi-chan!" he huffs, incensed, reaching out for her hand. He is absolutely the kind of person who, when sleepy and seeing a message from someone he doesn't expect but is pleased or terrified to hear from, totally opens it.

He pulls his glove off and re-reaches. "Hey hey hey, it's not for real. Let me buff you so you can buff everyone else, right? I won't look," he says urgently.

Everyone? This is Rashmi and everyone knows--

But that's how it starts, isn't it? But really though everyone does know what happened, so everyone who sees this is going to flood in.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Coco, can you do something with your phone? It's lighting up continuously", Hippo voices to her, looking at the small device with annoyance. That thing really know how to be eye-catching sometimes, and it was really incredible to him that the yellow mermaid was just ignoring it.

With due reason, considering that she was in middle of preparing a late meal for herself after she had been swallowed by a bunch of coral fairies from the North Pacific having mistaken her for Lucia. It took a while to get in contact with someone from their sea to get the fairies back home.

"Fine, fine, I will get to it", Coco puts the knife down, and grabs the phone. She had a pc in view with their usual messaging app open, so it can't have been an emergency. What was Hippo's deal?

Rate your henshin? Rashmi? Magical reviews? "Hippo, leave my meal alone. I need to deal with something." She knows his stomach too well to leave that unsaid.

"Yellow Pearl Voice!" she transforms in a flash, and then she opens the app, singing her purification to fend off any sudden dark energy burst. Which didn't happen. What does happen gets her to almost drop her phone.

What are all these things? Who is telling them to Rashmi? In a rush, she disappears from the Pearl Pier, ignoring the alarmed cries of the penguin behind her. He can get an explanation later. Finding Rashmi is too important.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Yeah no way is Amy installing that. She tries to text Rashmi, "What is going on?" but the stream is, somehow, playing inside a text. MAGIC. Also, she knows where that is that she sees Rashmi on the screen, and henshins and tries to shut off the phone and starts running that way.

    This is potentially going to suck. She's been on birdsite. She's been on forums. She knows who'd tune into a story like hers, and most of them--

    (Her fears may be a bit misaligned with how the app works...)

    Well, at least when they stop whatever's doing this, the veil will take care of the rest, right?

    Only after worrying about that does she realize that shutting down her phone would mean she can't text anyone else. Fudge! No time!

    She runs and leaps from high thing to high thing to her friend, "You leave her alone!"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Sugata had stepped off the campus grounds for the sole purpose of picking up taiyaki for Wako and Takuto (the rest kendo club could starve) - which means he's at ground zero as Rashmi becomes the subject of cyberbullying gone magical, his phone pinging almost as soon as hers is taken over.

Not that he notices, because he's striding over to Rashmi, subject to a veritable crowd of people issuing mocking words, his phone abandoned.

(Ah. No. His phone is being held in the hands of a miniscule robot, about a foot in height and suspended in a translucent blue bubble, which clicks the link promptly, solely because it seems it will irritate his mark bearer. Samekh keeps pace with Sugata, holding his phone aloft.)

Sugata shoulders his way through the crowd, a shimmering, sparkling light dragging down his frame as his school uniform is replaced with the military-esque blue-and-gold of his henshin.

"Mocking someone for their grief, that's the level we're at now?" Ginga Kingu demands irritably, and the nearest person to Rashmi is going to find themselves bruised in the tailbone later, as he bluntly shoves them away from her to make space. "Don't give them the satisfaction of a response."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
In one way, Rashmi was the perfect choice of first victim; she's been going through it in one way or another for a good long while, but losing Molly had completely shattered her. And while time has gotten her fairly well duct-taped together, there's still a part of her mind that has been chewing over this exact thing; if she were better, stronger, faster, smarter, would Molly have had to sacrifice herself to get them to safety?

In another way, Rashmi was one of the *worst* choices for first victim. Because she's no stranger to weird things. When a vending machine grows a pompadour and starts throwing cans of Pocari SWAT at your face... when a girl turns into a zombie pirate queen and summons a ghost ship to shoot a cannon through a Giant Enemy Crab... When your boyfriend is an alien and two of your -- surviving, but don't think on that too hard -- best friends are a Moon Princess and a Reformed-Villain Unicorn...

When all of those things are true, the idea of Cyberbullying Made Manifest Samara-ing out of your phone and trying to use all your worst feelings against you is... Well, it's unusual, but not *unprecedented.*

And in a third way, Rashmi was *absolutely the worst choice* of first victim. Because there's Tuxedo Mask *right there* giving her a counter-shot of good feelings, there's Hanzo swinging in from nearby, there's Amy coming in yelling her defense, Sugata's brusque soicism giving her a mental wall to collect herself against, and Nicomachea's tracking Coco coming in from the direction of the beach.

With this many people who clearly care about her, how *could* she give in to the hate?

Sugata tells her not to give them the satisfaction of a response, but as she scrapes the first shocked tears off her face and breathes deep, she finds that there really is only one possible response.

"Nicomachea? Set Up."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"More Henshins in ... dire need of review. Chat, look at them. Just WHAT do we think? L M A O, Trollface dot J Peg"

This manifestation of digital vitriol looks absolutely thrilled. Couldn't be happier. As the Mahou arrive one at a time to Rashmi's rescue, the flickering of its manifestation -- those images an cruel worlds that make it up, come even faster. On either side of it, 'Chat' is now live, scrolling' upwards on either side of it up in to the air as the crowd stares on, enraptured, unable to turn away, and why should they? Their silently judging eyes are now as much as part of this nightmare as anything else. Every which way one turns, there they are, twisted, mocking smiles on their faces. No one in the area is spared as they arrive.

Koji and Mamoru's arrival has them being first in the box, so to speak, and the chat scrolls back so fast, so many comments. So many cutting ones or just 'lols' or 'lmaos' or 'puking emojis' or 'zero stars!!!.

"Hey look everybody! It's the G-Gundam character that never got past concept art!"

"Look, a Mall Ninja!"

"I could buy a better costume at a party store, lmao"

"Can't his type level buildings? I hope they do -- with him inside."

"Oh no! It's like a Senntai character! ... an AMERICAN sentai character, lmao"

"lol now KISS"

It's laughing, now, before it lays its eyes on Koji, delivering its own judgment on him.

"Here he is to save the day! ... by making everyone else look better." It tilts its head, giving him a mockingly sympathetic look, as if it ask 'how must it feel to suck that much?'. It is a lie that 'words will never hurt me'. Nothing can hurt quite like words. Physical pain might ebb with time, but the pain from words can last a lifetime. These words *cut* right through. Even if they aren't true, they FEEL true in the moment, a moment powered by the nightmare that it is as it turns its gaze on Mamoru's arriving self as well. Chat has its own bones to pick with him.

"darien shields, really? Was dick grayson taken?"

"Keep offering to heal everybody, it's the only way anyone'll tolerate your ass"

"Hey man, isn't it great everything good in your life was assigned at birth so you never had to develop a personality."

"Get a load of this guy, thinks he's a big shot because he's got mommy and daddy's money. Newsflash kid, if you were broke you'd be as actually friendless as you are now!"

"Well," continues that abstraction of a human, "looks like they all find you a 'beryl' of laughs, don't they."

Cruel laughter chills to the bone, words as the sharpest weapon once more. And now more are arriving for it to turn its gaze on. "More one star reviews on the way! So many mahou, so many fanfic characters, isn't that right, D'arkness Dementia Raven Amy?" Chat fills with 'LOLs' and '1ups'.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Hanzo's right fist curls until clenching hard, almost shaking as it comes down on him... all of that locked-in mockery and derision, all of those words scrolling by, and by the end when that last one comes along... all he can do is close his eyes, as a tear rolls down one of his cheeks. But then comes one deep and long breath, and the hand relaxes as that tear falls and becomes a crystalline splash on the ground, a perfect little star-like pattern that settles into a circular puddle.

He sniffs once, and then opens his eyes once more, and says softly, "That all you've got?

The same hand comes up, and he just SNAPS his fingers, whispering, "Phantom..."

    << PHANTOM ZONE - PROJECT. >>

Above him, screens appear with his face, and his voice is projected over the surrounding crowd... suddenly appearing in close on the App image and interrupting the camera view.

    "Most of you have been bullied. So I get it. Most of you know the shame of someone else laughing at something you've done or said, made themselves feel better at your expense. Most of you have sat alone, in the dark, hiding from the shame of it, because who is going to believe you? Who is going to help you?"

    "Hope is a precious commodity in a weary world. We're beaten on. We're worn down. We're forced into a mold we never wanted, and sometimes the only way it feels like we can break free is if we make someone else feel just as bad about what was done to us."

    "But here's the thing..."

There's something almost... bright in his voice, even as he sniffs, and wipes at his nose, despite the face-mask...

"Right now, there's people watching who want to hit 5-stars. Or even 3. People who want to say 'But I like it'. And they're just afraid of being attacked by the rest of you, being..."

"Drowned out."

He sweeps his hand, and shouts out...

    "HIT THAT 5-STARS! And keep hitting it! Tell them how awesome they look! How brave they are! How it's great to see SOMEONE stand up and say 'Not tonight!'. Because once one of you says it, someone else can. Then someone else... and it just keeps going... and then you'll see... that the more lights you shine. The more stars in the sky? The less dark and alone we -ALL- Feel."

    "Everyone can be a 5-star. And they don't need a henshin to do it."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The downside to so many people arriving is, there is so much more vitriol to mire in. And while the comments to her cut to the bone, the one to others... Seem petty. Callous. Said by people who don't *know* the heroic souls that she has seen every day for the last two years. As the bubble of golden light shatters to reveal Rashmi's Barrier Jacket, her eyes also harden behind her glasses, and the massive armored book floating at her shoulder chimes with a deep, ringing tone, intricate alien text flickering through the great red cabochon in its center..

    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

<< ...Okay listening to it try and take all of *you* on, >> she says into the mental communications net, << this jerk is gonna go down *hard.* >>

She starts to say more, but is brought up short at Koji's first assault being not to the the troll-faced creature, but the audience. And it occurs to her, if they can cut it off from its *true* food source -- not despair, but *attention* -- then it'll be that much weaker...

But first, she lets Koji cook. And right before he's about to ask the audience to ring that bell, she makes her own move. An intricate seal spreads out from the ground, revolving and counter-revolving, as the book opens above one outstretched hand.

    << *BONG!* >> << TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

A bubble of staticky, green-black energy forms over the pages of the book, then *explodes* outwards, forming a bubble that takes up a respectable single-digit fraction of the Academy complex's grounds. Everything magical within the bounds of the bubble finds itself... shifted, dimensionally, half a step over. To a place that is devoid of mundane life, but otherwise exactly like the world around them. To a place where there are no bystanders. No judges.

And most importantly, no one to be hurt when swarms of rockets start flying.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The name he picked when he was thirteen? It's giving him a hard time for-- well, admittedly, oh. Oh. It wasn't just a dig at the name. It's his real life, he's not a fictional wealthy crimefighting orphan, his life is not tropes and tired conventions...

But then it goes after his, his need to make sure people don't hurt, and it takes him by surprise, and he frowns. "It's not like that. I don't care-- what Amy-chan said, or Melon-san, or Kyouko-san-- or Yuuhi-sensei-- it's not like that! And-- that's not true. None of this is true!"

Tuxedo Kamen looks at Hanzo. "Well, okay, that's true. But none of this--" he gestures widely, hand glowing to leave a luminous, brief, attention-getting trail behind, and it encompasses what they're standing in, "is really truly-- it's a nightmare, right? It's a bad dream with a lot of dark energy in it. It can hurt you. It's spilled out into the waking world! It's easier to kick it's ass if we can find the dreamer and destroy their fidget toy--"

And then-- oh bless Rashmi and her family anyway but now also all her ancestors-- a barrier!! And Mamoru reels back like five, six steps, and laughs with a reckless sound to it, and flings out his glowing hand.

"Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
There are moments Coco is actually not sure what is making her go faster, if just the base magic of her henshin, or the indignation she feels for the insanities that thing is spouting. Knowing how magic works, she can't really exclude the latter.

Fact is, she gets there much faster than she expected herself to, just in time for that virtual world to come alive around them, with those sneers and mockeries. "What kind of demon is this?" she frowns, gripping tightly her E-Pitch microphone.

"You are no more than an illusion lacking substance" she calmly and sternly declares, the glow of the Live Stage intensifying.

These are great friends, all one could ask for, and they all try so hard because they have a pure heart. These marionettes really know nothing, hiding away from the stage they push others onto. That's the only way they can feel good, trying and dragging other down to their levels.

"Splash Dream: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!" She sings of a Splash Dream, a desire to aim for a paradise, kicking the waves barefoot and leaving the tears to the sea, and in their place, a big wave of love swallows the sadness, with a song that resounds eternally.

The tale of messages drawn in stardust move through the transparent love that surround the seven seas, and the meaning of life is offered right in your hands, living and loving each other.

The loud song tries to overtake those sneers, and the purification that accompanies it aims at the malice, to be washed away with the same intent.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
So, Sugata's never actually dealt with internet trolls because he doesn't actually spend much time on the internet, and doesn't particularly care about comments. So this is all fairly new to him, and mostly he's just thinking -

"Is this really all you have to do with your lives?"

And yes, this is directly at the streamers watching them, at the crowd, at the audience. This vitriol aimed at perfect strangers, tearing apart names, styles, abilities -

"That's almost sad. I hope he -" a gesture towards Koji - "is right, because honestly, your existence is pretty pathetic right now."

With the negative energy - and the effect of the nightmare - aimed at other people, it's easy to keep his confidence up, and to draw a shining energy sword from his chest.

"Star Swordo - Diamante!"

As soon as the barrier goes up and innocent civilians are out of the way, he does just start very calmly smacking the hell out of the remaining nightmare crowd with the flat side of the energy sword. Does it even matter if it's the flat side, when it's an energy sword? They aren't getting sliced apart, at any rate, just bashed around.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Hey! There's nothing wrong with being a sentai character! Toku heroes and magical girls are like sides of the same coin! Like... sometimes the skirt might be the only difference!" She dismisses hers with a pink sparkly effect, and indeed, without the skirt she could be a tokusatsu ally of justice! She quickly resummons it, though.

    And they pick on Mamoru? Mamoru?! Accusing him of such things meant to hurt... Amy balls one fist and points at the review bomber, "You don't know anything about him! You... you monster!"

    Okay, her counter trash-talk leaves something to be desired.

    Fortunately, Hanzo has it covered. "Yeah! Anybody can be a five-star! SSR!" Amy transforms to her super-mode and imitates Sailor Moon's pose with a smile.

    And then they come for her... sort of? She just looks confused. "You're comparing me to... My Immortal? Come on, dudes, a mary sue, really? We've seen those stories and they've got no staying power! You can fill like, one caption, one page, and then you've got nowhere to go!"

    Uh...

    Amy holds her hand to her chest, "I've had trials to overcome and I can't fix everything!" She points at the nightmare again, "Literally right now I'm having to deal with fighting bullies, I dunno how to do that! Besides I'm clearly way more 2000s webcomic character than I am fanfic character..."

    Um...

    She frowns and holds her hand to her chin, "Wait... I guess we have been getting a lot of manga like this over the past several years... uh..."

    AMY YOU'RE NOT HELPING

    KINDA GOT DISTRACTED THERE

Emi Hoshino has posed:
As Koji speaks, he can see the reaction spread through it and the others: a full bodied cringe that washes over the digital, streaming representation and the flash mob of hate it has assembled.

"EUGH," it says, recoiling, How ... *cringe*," it replies, "Don't you know we live in a post-sincerity world? Sit your moral lesson of the day ass down and let the adults talk..." It's clearly been rattled, as if hurt by the words spoken in turn. Sincerity. Earnestness. These things are kryptonite to trolling some days, aren't they?

But then it recovers.

"Speaking of adults, Obaa-san, I called you that because you are also the sole person in the room who would recognize it. Chat, what do we think?"

"Wishes to be magical girl, still can't come up with decent costume"
"Gets everything she wants in a wish, still can't make her family love her."
"Fan-fic character, still can't get a girlfriend or a decent costume"
And it goes on like that, rapidly scrolling up all around it. "Makes a wish to become a magical girl, still can't make her family love her."

Cruel laughter from all sides.

And then the purification blast from Coco hits it and it staggers back. Normally, one would expect that to work better, but it's clearly resistant to it somehow, and then Ginga is on it. It's now wielding words as its weaapon -- literally. Deflecting the blade with each fresh insult made from the cruelest of words.
"Hey, good thing you were born with that mark, right? You'll never need to ask if family hates you for who you are or what you represent."
"nice costume, it fits your 'npc with five seconds of screen time' vibe perfectly."
"is there ANYTHING you've ever done that your boyfriend didn't do better and first?"
Still, it may be starting to wear. There's just so many. Together.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji looks left, looks right, and then he snaps his fingers, and his Barrier Jacket shifts, being covered in illusion and taking on the suit and tie he wore when fighting in the last battle he was in. One of the great things about magical clothes is... no holes or bloodstains. He adjusts the illusion-glasses perfectly as he looks at it all, and the screens vanish from above.

As his Device slides out into one gloved hand he just flips it in the air a few times, "Now... funny thing about how you chose to hit us... see... when he's not this..."

Koji dances the Kunai-form of Hanzo perfectly over his knuckles and then with a flip, catches it with a back-hand, "He's my phone. Which means I have that stupid little link and all that wonderful magical code you whipped out across the wifi at everyone."

    "Well, friend?"

    << MAGIC ANALYSIS... >>

    << COMPLETE. COUNTERMEASURES READY. >>

    "You picked on my friends you limited learning Moron. So I guess it's okay, just this once... to cyberbully a little back..."

    << DISRUPTOR - DEGRADE. >>

     << DISRUPTOR - SLOW. >>

    << DISRUPTOR - DISORIENT. >>

The magic circles appear, but nothing seems to happen for a moment, and then all of a sudden, one by one, the digital mob begins to show cracking lines of blue in their 'code' as the very packet that was used to invade devices is turned back against them, bolstered by magically-enhanced junk code, worming into them and starting to tear them apart from the inside...

    "Now... my friends here are going to kick your teeth in. Try not to cry too much on the way out.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I think I get it," Rashmi says, her voice hard as the troll recoils from the sincerity, and starts to go for blood. "Tuxedo-kun, you said this is a Nightmare? Someone so... internet-poisoned and miserable, that all they can do is try to bring the whole world down to the mud with it?"

Rashmi might not admit it, but she's still rattled by the Nightmare's use of *Molly* to attack her, as well as her feelings of weakness, of powerlessness.

But then this fool had to go after Amy, and *Sugata,* use Mamoru's own orphan-ness against him? Try to make Koji feel small? That it doesn't have a defense against Yellow Pearl Voice seems... fitting, at least. Because all it can do is out-shout her song, and being honest, Coco's message is a hell of a lot easier to dance to.

    << *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

Golden dragonfly-like wings unfurl from Rashmi's ankles, and she takes to the skies, watching the ebb and flow of the battle. "Maybe one day you'll see," she calls down from the troll, as another seal spreads out underneath her. "Maybe one day soon, you'll wake up and realize we always have a choice; we could see how awful the world is, and be miserable and lonely and mired in that awfulness for the rest of our lives.

<< *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE >>

Half a dozen orbs of golden light blip into being around Rashmi, and begin to rapid-fire down at the Nightmare, a new one summoned right behind one fired, creating a machinegun of sunny light aimed down at the troll-faced walking toxic soup.

"Or we can see how awful the world is, and *push back* until there's room to let the light in!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Your mom's FACE lives in a post-sincerity world!" calls Tuxedo Kamen gaily, starting with the nuclear option of the bit, embracing the juvenile cringe of being seventeen and going there unironically. "Hanzo-kun, you're okay, right? I was going to come check on you too, but I got distracted by Petz being on campus? Anyway I know now's not the time but you never answer your texts!" He starts walking around the periphery, then crouches and puts a hand on the concrete, spreading his awareness into the ground and centering himself, pulling up energy.

His eyes glitter blue behind his mask. "I do own dressing for attention," he says evenly, standing up with a fistful of energy and then grinning. "Listen, though. You can't go after us like this and not expect our friends, who love us, to have our backs. You'll never have a friend like Hanzo over here, who can get origin IPs-- you'll never have a friend like Rashmi, who'll go to war at your side and give up everything to, to make sure we won-- or like Yellow Pearl Voice, who believed in me even when I was Hematite and quite unpleasant-- Red-chan who reasonably won't have your back if you're a cop but is otherwise ride or die, Shindo-san who is the funniest man alive..!"

Finally, he waves that hand again, then clenches it to his chest, where the power grows, and grows, and grows-- "Anyone want to help me fill up Chibiusa-chan's swear jar?" A beat.

"&*#*()]@*&#*()]*@&$#^&@)]&#*!!! Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber!!!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"You can't be yourself to anyone, can you? You really are pitiful", Coco sighs when the wave of negativity admits its weak points. "That won't do at all. Stop this and turn back. There can still be meaning for you if you just dare to reach out and grasp it. What you are obtaining with this is just reinforcing a cycle of negativity."

The soundtrack of the Live Stage becomes richer and switches to a different harmony. "When you are done, you will need to hurt even more people. Maybe sometimes the people you have known all your life, that you have called family won't love you, but there are many others who can. Can you find yours? They are there, you just have to reach out. Let me offer you an encore, from the ever brilliant sea I love that connects me to the shore. Ever Blue: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!"

Coco sings softly of the feeling she gets when someone is crying, squeezing her heart and causing her loneliness. The stars light up a path, however, towards the destiny of the ever blue sparkle of the ocean she loves calling to her and letting her gather the power to protect the future in her hands.

As the melody expresses her feelings of cherishment towards her friends and the mysterious blueness of the ocean, prettier than heaven, she sings for the purification of darkness and the disappearance of evil.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Post-sincerity?!" Amy echoes. And then shivers at getting ma'amed. She expected internet meannies would call her a guy, braced herself for that, instead they hit anything else!

    Her costume?! "H-hey... I didn't..." She changes to a more typical magical girl costume, like she was wearing after Gretchen's Labyrinth, but the damage is done.

    Her family?! She hadn't thought about them... Because they didn't think about her. And really, they never did. Not even in, like, a gender issues way, they saw a bright young prodigy she was held to the standard of, an imagined 'potential' that the child they actually had could never live up to...

    That gives her pause, and then they hit her with forever alone and her body language changes -- echoing the anxiety and discomfort that Sugata saw her act for the haunted house, but now it's real, vulnerability unexpectedly bared for the crowd, exactly what they want.

    If she had a girlfriend, they'd be the one better able to fight bullies, but she doesn't, does she.

    They laugh at her, and she feels so small and just wants to run, but there's nowhere to run, the crowd is all around her, jeering:

    Christmas cake, unworthy of love by girlfriend or parents, only a magical girl because of a wish and still not doing it right!

    Coco diverts their attention. Koji shouts about friends.

    "That's right..." Amy stands up straight and raises a fist. "None of us is perfect... and no one has to be, because we have friends. And while you tear us apart out of fear the others will turn on you... our friendship is real."

    She points at the nightmare. "You cringe at people expressing how they really feel! On the screen or on the page! I do enjoy dumb stories, so what?! Because in them I can see how the author really feels," She makes dismissive horizontal sweep with her hand, "each page worth a thousand of your empty comments! No... no amount of your vacuous vitriol could equal one panel of real feeling!"

    The red-themed magical girl smirks. "I guess that's your 'thing' huh? Putting others down to feel powerful? Well, it won't be enough power to save you!"

    A pillar of fire changes her outfit back to super/flight mode and she conjures her launcher, holding it like a club, then changes her mind, opting for the rocket-hammer she used outside the Cat Cafe. 'I guess that works...' she mutters, glancing at it.

    "BRAKE RELEASE!"

    The thrusters in her armor and hammer turn on, not enough to move her at first, then they really kick in and she goes flying into the air above the nightmare, raising the hammer overhead.

    "GRAND..."

    And then her outfit's thrusters stop and the hammer's burn even brighter as she rockets down with the oversized rocket-hammer, the spike on the front of its head crashing straight down towards the nightmare's head!

          "...BLAZER!

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Koji's speech was sincere - and the impact it has, in the recoil, the cringe, is obvious. Much more effective than the response to Sugata's own assault; his every blow is parried with insults that do, actually, kind of hurt.

More than they should, from meaningless, literally faceless strangers - these are words pulled from some of his deepest insecurities, punching at issues that range from sore spouts to gauges in confidence. He stumbles back, as insults about his costume mix with insults about his family and insults about Takuto and:

That was the mistake. If there's one thing Sugata has had to gain confidence in, it's his relationship with his partners. Gritting his teeth at the realization that he's going to have to be as sincere and emotionally honest as Koji - someone who's clearly a master of the craft - he watches as the coding flickers with Koji's disruptor attack, and accepts his fate.

"I'm proud to walk Takuto's path," he declares, "My boyfriend is the Ginga Bishounen, the hero who makes a dashing entrance, and if he did it first, then I'll do it second."

If Wawna is offering any blessings today, this stream won't be recorded.

And he hefts Diamante, and sends it hurtling up into the air - and then crashing towards the enemy, propelled by a burst of blue-white energy.

"Star Crash!"

"You're wasting your time trying to tear down good people, because all you have is misery. But Rashmi is a level-headed tactician, who keeps it together under pressure. Tuxedo Kamen is Mahou MSF, the most reasonable man on both sides, and yes, his power is useful - because he is a man who chose to be of service to others."

He gestures at the group.

"I may not know everyone here well, but Red is a courageous young woman, with more faith than anyone of good sense should have. The young songstress here is willing to give even you good faith... and Hanzo is the sincere heart to his group."

"Now, in the immortal words of your kind: Fuck off and die. Sincerely."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Rattling Amy so badly is something that it seems to feed on, something that lets this nightmare weather the dangerous (to it) mix of sincerity. empathy, and of course violence that is particularly dangerous to it. It is made of words, and these words cleave through it, again and again leaving it battered. It turns on Coco seeking fresh sustenance.

"Chat, let me know what you think about the mermaid?"
"Takes Four Year Nap, Surprised Time Passes Without Her"
"Managed any tight spaces lately?"
"Is Mermaid princess, gets defeated by rainy days."
"Losing All Her Friends Is Her Victory Condition"
"And how IS Sara doing these days?" it says with its smile -- but it's just not enough. Blow after blow sends it reeling before it can really weigh in again and harvest what it's wrought. The people under its command are standing there, looking ... less angry than before. More confused.

It's a good sign, and the figure is all but on its knees.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"That's *enough* out of you!" Rashmi shouts, as it *finally* seems to find something to claw at Coco over. Her barrage lets up, but only for a moment, as another spell is brought out, a variant to feed her accumulator.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE -- GLACE SHIFT >>

Another ring of Barrets is summoned, and with a wave of her hand and a screeching *CRACK* they become golden chunks of crystal-like ice, hanging in the air before her. This time, when the fury rains down, each Barret *sticks,* holding the Nightmare in place and weighing it under with more and more and more binding, restraining magic.

"You think you get to *hurt us* because you *can?* You think you get to *make us small* when all you have is stupid snotty internet bullying?! Do you *know* how small you really are?! We've watched the *world start to end* and all any of us could ever think to do is say 'fuck you, world, you don't *get* to end!' And *what do you have that can match that?!"

A tiny *ping* sounds, and she stops attacking, stops shouting, to catch her breath. "Verbal Command," she mutters quietly, "Accumulator Purge."

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE. PURGE CHANNELS GREEN. ALTERNATE GRIMOIRE LOADED. AWAITING COMMAND. >>

Rallying, the redhead raises both hands to point at the Nightmare. "And *you keep Molly-chan's name OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!* SOLAR BUSTER!"

    << SOLAR BUSTER >>

As finishers go, it'll never be *extremely* impressive; a beam as wide as a coffeecup, coruscating golden light that drills down, and through, the weakened Nightmare. But behind it, is all of Rashmi's righteous indignation, that *this mfer right here* would come to *her phone* and bully *her friends.*

You don't *do* that.

What *might* be impressive, is the fact that for reasons unexplainable by science or magic, the beam *explodes* after its energy has run out, digging a handy crater for the Rateyourhenshin monster to lie in.

Which is where internet bullies belong; facedown in the muck they want everyone to join them in.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco smiles proudly at her friends, for the splendor they are showing this nightmare. She might not know everyone here as well as she would like, but she can feel the genuinity of their words, the shining sincerity of their souls completely on display, and they haven't been torn down by anything this nightmare has thrown at them.

And then the creature aims at her, reaching into her deepest recesses and bringing it all out into the open, fears about past, present and future all mixed together. She has lost a lot in those 4 years she had been Gaito's captive, and sometimes she is not sure she has ever really recovered.

Time in which she was left behind by her own body, time she was punished with losing because her best friend is still suffering, and sometimes she can't help but think back to her imprisonment anyway. And the hostility of the weather reminds her she doesn't belong here, and she will have to go back home, where her duties claim her.

"Yes, I can't deny that, there are a lot of things that I struggle with, and I have not helped Sara not all, and I will have to be separated from the friends I have anyway. But even so, I don't regret my time here. Because even if I may not ever see them again, this is something I carry in my heart fondly, and even if my duties and the Veil will end up separating us, they will always stay with me. Nothing can take that away. It's why I came here today, because you were hurting one of them. Now, be purified and know peace."

Bathed in that white-golden glow where the flames all around and the Live Stage meet, rhythmic pulses of light that give a warm embrace to the pain, the despair and the affliction that make up this space.

"The Sound of the Bell of Hope ~Love Goes On~:Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Finale", the mermaid princess smiles gently, knowing that it's time to put an end to this wrong dream.

The seven-colored wind, the seven-colored sky
Overflow with hope to the world.
Your pure white wings, let them rest, and gently fall to sleep.
The sound of the bell of hope becomes the final song now...
This isn't a world made up of just strong people, so
Listen to my love in this song...

At the apex of the song, purifying hearts fly out in all directions, the reach of a big circle of love that won't end. "Fine Heart Pitch!", she concludes the performance with a serene smile.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It dissipates. Just gone. Broken into shards of code and sizzling smoke and letters fading into nothing.

There is a moment where a trace of purified energy remains, an answer to the negativity generated by the strength and sincerity on display.

"Even when faced with mean words and harsh criticism, your true magic comes from inside. When the heroes battled RateYourHenshin, they learned that by believing in themselves and working together, they could turn hurtful words into strength. Remember: don't let anyone dull your sparkle ----shine bright no matter what!"

It would be a great lesson for one Emi Hoshino. Too bad she's busy playing Hades and swearing loudly at her screen. Thanks a lot, Mamoru.

Elsewhere...

Somewhere in the city, a phone alarm goes off and a teenage boy sits up in bed. He blinks his eyes, yawns and stretches, then reaches for the bottle of soda on his nightstand and has a drink. HE cracks his knuckles and rolls out of bed and sits at his computer and signs into discord.

"WHAT'S UP BITCHES, WHOSE TODAYS LOLCOW"

He misses the smile that appears on his phone display screen.