2361/I'm Just a Crosshair

I'm Just a Crosshair
Date of Scene:	27 February 2025
Location:	Shin Hoshi Shotengai
Synopsis:	CW: NPC death, profanity, wasting food. Mimete targets who she thinks is a handsome girl, but... well... no, it's Zoisite. She learns exactly what a mistake going after Zoisite is, and then she never learns anything again.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Hinoiri Kirara, Zoisite, Nephrite, Minako Aino, Jadeite, Amanda Faust, Kazuo Saitou

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a crowded time in the enclosed shopping street -- between four and five in the afternoon, maybe, with the late winter sun streaming through the glass roof from between buildings, and shadowed otherwise, the lights starting to come on near the roof.

It's so very crowded, with people doing grocery shopping or buying gifts or getting a bite to eat, and it's loud -- the boys know it would definitely be earplugs time for their Prince.

Mimete, perfectly innocent young lady in a red headscarf and big glasses and a really cute yellow frock-coat, has a suitcase in one hand and an instrument case of some sort in the other. It's a funny shape. She's watching. She fidgets. She lost a gun last time, she lost it to those aggravating mahoujin that thought they were so great-- even that really handsome girl???????? that she bald-face lied to. And Mistress 9 is awake! And needs more energy-- needs more pure heart crystals! So Mimete has decided to resort to handsome girls, and she's found one who, according to her research (somewhat shoddy) (very shoddy) she's a musician and doesn't like people. But everyone she asked giggled when she showed the picture and asked who the girl was...

No matter. She's watching. She saw her come into the shopping street.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was, for reasons she couldn't truly identify... kind of a people person. She LIKED people now. How did THAT happen? When did people go from 'Ugh, if I have to' to 'Ohhh, sweet?'

... Well, in reality she'd always kind of been that way, but she'd always struggled to find the RIGHT people. And, as such, today? She was sampling something new from one of the shopkeepers, the baker. Some delicious, chocolate cream filled milk breads. Not the best in the world, admittedly, but still really nice and she had a sweet tooth.

Avoiding going home? Nope. Totally not her. She definitely was NOT staying out late in a bid to avoid going into her dorm room or anything. Besides, she had other htings to focus on, like the fact her new buddy, the mermaid, had lost her memory and in a few days she'd be meeting a mermaid queen. Speaking of, she'd need to pick up some treats to give to said queen. It was customary to bring a gift, right?

Zoisite has posed:
"--anyway, I gave her the bottle of tea back and said she could text me when she was ready to come with me to pick out a bow. After that, I should be done with apologizing." Izou sighs, carrying a paper grocery bag with him full of lunch essentials he'd promised Nephrite he'd pick up for the two of them. "Well... maybe fully done. I have someone else I need to talk to after her."

Sighs, glancing over to Tamaki. "But that's what happened yesterday. She still hasn't texted me back. I'll give her some time." Looks forward then, adjusting the bag. "And cello practice went well. No one bothered me this time."

"What about you? Have you done any progress since the meeting?"

Nephwrong (280) has posed:
Nephrite's wandering the shopping street alone, intending to check out one of the stores he'd spotted the last time he was searching for a late night snack. It had had galaxy print notepads, and he's a predictable sort of man, who likes what he likes. High school is boring, but the stars know all - surely, if he's studying from materials embossed with their image, their wisdom will seep through him.

Look, he's going to have final exams soon, and he'll be damned if he fails. He will take up every opportunity to get success.

But because of that, he's not actually planning to meet with anyone, and is meandering in the opposite direction from Izou and Tamaki.

Minako Aino has posed:
'I don't share.' That phrase had been nagging at Minako since it was uttered to her so challengingly. What was a girl with a rival in love supposed to do other than fortify themselves with a good round of shopping therapy?

Totally oblivious to the fact that there was someone around that had darker thoughts on their mind, Minako happily window shops from one place to another plotting where to get something cute to let her go 'on the attack' against her rival. So far she'd only found a few suitable items which were tucked away safely in shopping bags hooked over her elbow.

Sunglasses are on her head pushed back up over her bangs in a fashista sort of way. There was a bow evident in her hair in spite of having one burnt off recently. And her attire was just casual-cute. A loose orange sweater that bunched around the neck, and red pants along with heels. It's a look she's admiring in the reflection of a shop window when she sees a gaggle of familiar boys go by behind her causing her to whip around and stare openly at them. Oh god now what?

Jadeite has posed:
"She was pretty avoidant with me when I told her to stop hitting on me," Tamaki tells Izou; he's carrying another bag of groceries to help refresh the group kitchen. "Not like, in a mean way, but I think she's still avoiding me a little? As far as I can tell, that's normal for her."

He breathes a sigh of relief. "If you want a club where no one's going to bother you, I heard Kendo's headed by a maniac. But like, in a no nonsense and good way?"

And as for teh progress. Uh. "...I'm pretty sure that the whole 'don't be a knight, be a real boy' thing was for me, but I'm trying! I go to fencing club, I do my homework, I write my parents like clockwork. What else am I supposed to do? I don't want to get too distracted, someone's trying to snipe our niece! I don't want to go get lazy and then someone takes someone's head off because I wasn't ready??"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy was on patrol, but has decided to de-henshin and maybe browse a bit -- she can stuff some things in her backpack and then henshin again, at least.

    Now in her school uniform, she too has found her eye drawn to shop windows with cute outfits and is looking at them and then seeing the advertised price and going to look at the next one...

    She hears a familiar voice behind her and turns around, happy to see a familiar face! "Suikawa-san! How've you been?" She is trying to puzzle out having heard 'be a real boy' and 'clockwork' and what on earth is being talked about.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Every time she's actually approached someone to talk to them, things have gone wrong. Well, things also went wrong that time she shot that annoying archer, so maybe it's her--

Nah.

Either way, she can't mess around this time. She can't afford it, she has a feeling she's playing with her life here, now that Mistress 9 is around and... overseeing people in Tomoe's division, lately. Mimete's skin crawls just thinking about it. But this is what they wanted, right? This is things going well for the company, even if they're not going well for her personally.

Maybe she should quit and go work for Big Pharma somewhere else.

But that's when she sees the handsome 'girl' with the caramel-colored hair, waves and curls spilling here and there and bound by a cute green ribbon, aah. Perfect.

Mimete drops her suitcase to the ground and unzips her instrument case to pull out a big fake-looking cosplay-looking gun with a big star for a muzzle. With her free hand she reaches down and FLINGS her coat, glasses, and head scarf in the air and... and she doesn't even announce herself.

She unlocks the suitcase with her foot and kicks it into the crowd, and multiple people trip over it and yell and fall before there's a pink cloud of smoke that POOFs out, and an 8-foot-tall daimon with the body of a sexy keytar, pointed ears, sharp teeth, shaggy pink Jem hair, and a pair of those slim-line half-circle sets of 'glasses' that make like you have rainbow astigmatism--

--at any rate it's awful, and it laughs and yells, "Uki-taru! UKI-TARU!!! Taru taaaaru!"

At the same time as it's stepping into crowds of fleeing screaming civilians in an enclosed space, Mimete shoots Izou Saitou, heedless of groceries, and the beam of dark energy just keeps going and Mimete goes, "Hey what the--" and FINALLY the stupid heart crystal starts coming out, and Mimete DIVES for it, throwing the gun back over her shoulder.

Zoisite has posed:
Fencing. That would be a good club to join. His own sword of preference was a rapier, so it would be good practice regardless--even if he didn't have a proper combat sword at the moment. Eventually, perhaps. So he files away Kendo and Fencing clubs for later research.

As for the mentioning of Tamaki's efforts, there was a small glimpse of empathy crossing Izou's face as he actually understood where his brother in arms was coming from. As his mind once whispered in confession to Mamoru a couple of days ago, seconds were indeed very precious. Anything could happen in the blink of an eye... From Small Lady to Mamoru to Usagi or any of the Shitennou could be targeted. What were they to do if they were too late or slow on their feet and reactions?

...what if Kazuo was also targeted? There's a sharp pang in his heart, just thinking about it.

Lips parted to share some of his thoughts, but was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice. Looking back ahead, he sees Amy again. They were never properly introduced since the fight against Calaveras, and well... Mamoru did say to be kind. "Good evening uh... Faust-san? Amy Faust?" Was that her name? He hoped so. "Good to see you here. Also sh--"

Then, everything was a sudden chaos of something being thrown on the ground and people screaming. And it took him only a second to be able to look over before something caught his chest--HARD! Grocery bag dropped as his body was flung against the wall and kept there as the light pulled at every inch of his soul. And his body fought against it, desperately, stubbornly, screaming and not wanting to let go of what it was seeking.

Unfortunately, he was not prepared for any of it, and his heart crystal appeared, glimmering in the evening sunlight as everything else within him went dim of life and light. Green eyes only husks of what they were only instants before.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo was not shopping. Kazuo was practicing - ghosting silently along a ways behind Nephrite, tracking him, working patiently on not being visible in reflection off windows, not drawing enough attention for Nephrite to notice he was being tracked despite the tracker being that tall with that hair.

Which means he's at a distance from the entire incident.

Which means he can see the even taller daimon. And the face behind him, that he's seen before. And who she's aiming at --

There is absolutely no attempt at concealing himself. That would slow him down. "Earth Power, MAKE UP!" - and he might be moving even while the transformation is happening, even while the light from the late winter sun and the light bleeding out of the storefronts is glittering off his earrings, so bright, too bright to see when he loses the modern outfit and gains the cape. Not trying to get through the crowd; people are too panicky to part unconsciously and make way for his height. Vaulting over the crowd.

Ignoring the hell out of the demon. Diving, with a flare of reckless rage, for Mimete.

Minako Aino has posed:
Sailor Venus huffs out a breath quietly. Were they TALKING about her? Well of course they probably were, she was awesome, but STILL. A devilish little grin creeps over her and she starts to stride confidently toward the pair of chattering boys intending to try surprising them.

Like out of a movie someone comes in from the side dramatically though. Her head turns toward Mimete only for her eyes to widen as she recognizes the whole approach. A woman with a gun. She'd been told about this--warned by the others about the Heart Stealer Rifles and the redhead that was often seen with them. The arrival of a youma made it equally obvious what was happening.

And ZOISITE was the target? Hell no, nobody was taking him down but her!

Venus Power, Make Up!

The urge to shoot at Mimete is forgone in favor of sweeping her arm over toward the youma to fire off a beam of light. She wanted to jump in but Tamaki was *right there* and surely he could help his own comrade. The tactical part of her brain took over. Civilians protected first.

"Crescent Beam!"

Angry, she shoots a beam of light at the youma well ware there's a silver haired man diving for Zoisite. Later. Later. Fight now.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
So she'd get like... half a dozen of those, half a dozen of the blueberry cream ones and a single strawberry...

Wait, did someone just fling their clothes into the air? She glanced over in time to see... Mimete. With a gun.

"Oh bucking..."

And screaming. AND A MONSTER! WELP! She quickly ducked behind one of the stalls, pulling out her device and one henshin later, Cure La Licorne came running out from the shop, leaped into the air and--

She'd gone at Mimette, only for the gun the girl threw to slam into her face and throw off her game plan entirely. It didn't even really hurt, henshin and all. It was just kind of shocking to suddenly have gun in face. She stumbled back a few feet, shaking her head, in time to see... A lot of people going at Mimete. Welp! Okay then! She supposed she'd just focus on the bird. Turning about before leaping into the air and trying to spin kick the bird in the face! "Hey, bird brain! Your boss is kind of a jerk, you shouldn't shoot people with magic-- actually, you just shouldn't SHOOT people!" She'd learned that here! Guns were dangerous, not toys!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    TAmy nods as she's identified correctly as Amy Faust. Then...

    The sound of screams and something heavy sliding along the ground draw Amy's eye... a KEYtar monster?

    Also, since it's saying uki-taru, an opportunity was missed by not making it part monkey, some part of her thinks, before OH NO NOT THAT BEAM AGAIN! But it's... not working? Oh wait there it goes.

    AND THAT ONE WITCH IS TRYING TO TAKE WHATSISNAME'S SOUL!

    "HEY!" Amy... actually just tries to tackle her, transforming in mid leap, and it's not really an effective attack but she just sort of... reacted. "LET HIM GO! PUT HIM BACK!"

Jadeite has posed:
They're talking, they're complaining - it's been so long since the two of them had talked properly. Why had they stopped? Zoisite's such a bitch, and he thinks it in english, and in the fondest way possible. Words sharp as razors and sweet as candyfloss -

"Good evening, Miss Amy!" tamaki chirps, raising his free hand to greet her -

And then there's screams, and smoke, and a terribly familiar light -

(And Mamoru had fallen, and Izou is falling, and it's just like then, and there's the familiar glint of crystal.)

(Mamoru can heal Zoisite's body. The important thing was the crystal.)

"Earth Power, MAKE UP!" he yells, and he's already pulling his sword as his school uniform blossoms into Shitennou silver, lunging forward - if he cannot grab the crystal before the enemy catches it, he can try to pierce and slash the hand, make her drop it, that's Kazuo's boyfriend and Mamoru's knight and Jadeite's friend -

Nephwrong (280) has posed:
Nephrite absolutely has no idea that he's being stalked. He's thinking about the upcoming exams, about his upcoming eighteenth birthday, trying not to think about what it means in their world, to be eighteen. In general, he's really just not being observant at all.

But he isn't so unobservant that he fails to notice the fucking monster or the shout from behind him.

"Earth Power! Make Up!"

And there's a lot of people tackling some girl with a - is that a fucking gun she just threw?

But there's still a monster, so Nephrite, tall and built like a linebacker, goes barreling through the crowd, summoning the celestial power of the stars.

"Stellar Convergence!"

And that gathered energy goes flying at the keytar monster.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hey what the fuck," Mimete says when she grabs the heart crystal and sees it, and it's missing multiple SPOKES, and oh, oh, Amy is yelling 'him' oh oh the girl is a BOY and she didn't use a kissy daimon and the BOY is STILL ALIVE?

"STUPID GUN STUPID HEART BROKEN HEART CRYSTAL WHAT THE F--" she starts yelling, and then Kunzite -- knocking over a couple more screaming fleeing people on the way, slams into her, and the heart crystal goes skittering glidingly away, floating in its little glistening sphere of light, getting bounced around between civilian legs.

All of a sudden there's a staff in Mimete's hand -- a staff with a weakness, a staff that is literally duct-taped in the middle and she waves it around wildly and whacks Kunzite and Tamaki both a couple of times, and then she yells out, "CHARM BUSTER!!!" and a huge amounc of dark energy starts shooting erratically every which way. One shoots a civilian in the back, and they go down, one shoots Kunzite and clips Jadeite, and Jadeite's sword keeps COMING FOR HER and she hollers, "YOU'RE GONNA HUR--!" and then Jadeite is on them and he gets Mimete across the forearm and she starts bleeding everywhere, and Amy leap-tackles in also, and there's this pile of Shitennou and Witch and Puella.

Mimete knees whoever is actually easier for her to knee, hard.

"KIYAI!" Mimete screeches, bleeding, and there's more wrestling and shoes in faces and then she manages to wriggle out somehow while yelling because it hurts, and she goes running after the crystal again.

MEANWHILE, Uki-taru is laughing and repeating its name like a pokemon, and at least most of the civilians -- except the ones on the floor, who have had better days -- are gone by now, except for shopkeepers who have shut their gates hurriedly and peer out through the metal latticework. The gun that Mimete threw...

...when it konks Cure La Licorne in the face, it bounces on the ground and goes off again, accidentally shooting Nephrite in the foot and extracting bad smell and sock lint.

Uki-taru, in fact, gets zotted by Crescent Beam and YELLS, it having burned and smacked it pretty hard in the torso. NOT SOMEWHERE THAT PREVENTS MUSIC. The daimon starts shredding on the keytar somehow, long sharp fingers dancing on the keys and loud, dark-energy-laden music starts busting out of the circular speaker, attacking Venus directly.

But then Stellar Convergence is slamming into it and it gets knocked back against a wall, konking its head. It's a little dizzy, apparently, because it starts playing 'Stay' by BTS and wobbling a little. Then it sings -- to the tune of Stay -- "Ukitaru ukitaru ukitaaaru uki uki~~" and now it's a problem, because that voice has reverb and the reverb starts making the glass ceiling vibrate.

THAT is when Cure La Licorne's attack hits, saving the ceiling and everyone under it and also all those shop windows and sending the truly, truly outrageous sexy keytar's head spinning around. "Uki-taruuuuu D:" it calls as its head spins, voice going loud-quiet-loud-quiet like an audio pulsar. As it staggers back, as well, it flips a switch on its hip and there is vibrato. It plays angrily at Cure La Licorne, more dark energy sound waves slamming out!

Zoisite has posed:
It's like being under water, but there's no heart beat in his ears. And it all happens in slow motion in front of him as he watches his heart crystal linger in the air in front of him. From Tamaki's and Amy's reaction and sudden blisters of light following the realization of what was happening, to the fiery haired woman diving for his heart as the gun was thrown behind her--

How he wished he could dig his fingers into her eyes, tear into her face, but his mind was so slow now. Wanted to speak, but no voice of strength was enough to do so. Like in a dream. Exhaustion felt like tendrils clinging to wrists and ankles and throat. Izou wanted to transform, wanted to not--

Nephrite? When did he...

...Kunzite?

And behind all of them, a mockery of a daemon bellowed like a beast, a familiar beam flying towards it. More transformation lights scattered, another beam of starlight. Everything was becoming dark now as body slid down the wall.

"Kun--...zi--te..." Left his lips, eyes closing. I'm sorry. He did not witness the rest, nor heard it.

Jadeite has posed:
The four of them end up tangled together - but soon enough the enemy has wriggled loose like the banana peel she so looks like. Jadeite hisses an apology to Amy as he launches off her and Kunzite - but not after the banana woman. (He knows the look on Kunzite's face, knows that noise he's making, knows that to try and fight her would to get in between Kunzite and his prey.) Instead, he darts between fleeing civilians, sumersaulting to scoop the heart crystal from the pavement before it can be smashed and then rolling to his feet.

"VENUS, THINK FAST! GET IT TO ZOI!" he shouts and hurls the be-orbed crystal in the direction of Sailor Venus, then spins around. Now that he's ensured someone can put Zoisite back together, he's going to help Kunzite make sure this doesn't happen again. (WHen he, uh. Catches up with that slippery banana woman. Damn, she can go.)

Nephwrong (280) has posed:
Of course the keytar monster is playing a song now, Nephrite thinks, exasperatedly, but then there's a sound, a breath of a voice and he looks at the wrestling, screaming pile of limbs and recognizes far too many people on the ground.

Well, alright, he recognizes three people on the ground, but they're three of the most important people, so it feels like rather a lot. Kunzite cold and furious, Jadeite fighting for something glittering and gleaming, and Zoisite, on the ground, his hair on the ground, when he was as vain as Nephrite himself, his skin pallid, his eyes distant -

The keytar swings with a voice that makes the glass shake, and Nephrite drags his attention to it by force, eyes dark with anger. This isn't just one of the endless random attacks that plague Tokyo - this is a random attack targeting his friend, and this monster needs to die.

This time, when he gathers the energy of the stars - white and black and gleaming with endless points of light - he does not fire it off, but clenches it in his fist, and decks Ukitaru right in it's singing mouth.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
... there is a Puella on Kunzite. This is fine. This - and the extra push from Jadeite's bounce off - means that Kunzite can freely keep concentrating on trying to keep Mimete down.

Trying is, alas, the important word there, because the woman is an eel, and the blood is just making her more slippery - with a staff, also, ow.

And with dark energy and no convenient earrings to target, and Kunzite is too close in that pile to have armor up; he snarls as the false stars burn into him. At least. At least it was him. At least he was between her and the Puella --

And in the instant it takes him to recover, she's out.

This time the snarl is different. He brings up both hands, and a wall of blackness rises in front of Mimete. He doesn't try to rise, not yet; he'll do that after Amy's clear. Because the last thing he wants to do is set her off-balance if she's about to haul out the rocket launcher. And the thing he wants second-most to do is use that shield to reflect excess energy from anything she flings at Mimete back onto Mimete again.

Second-most.

Most will have to wait.

Minako Aino has posed:
Sailor Venus smirks with minor triumph when the Crescent Beam hits the keytaur youma. It was a start to defeating it. Nephrite's appearance helped, as well as any others jumping into the fray.

A fray quickly becoming VERY DANGEROUS as the Heart Stealer rifle bounces around firing off again randomly.

Without thinking she reaches down to snag the heart shaped belt around her waist yanking it off. As it unslings, it unfolds into a glowing length of hearts held in hand. Still her eyes dart around, trying to keep track of the rifle that was being kicked and skittering around the crowded floor with the intent to try and GRAB IT before it caused more issues.

That was the plan at least.

Dashing to the side to avoid some of the youma's attacks causes her to lose sight of the rifle. Instead she hears Jadeite's cry jerking her attention over toward him in time to see the fractured heart crystal encased in ice comes flying in her direction. Oh. Right. THAT was just as important as the rifle!

"LOVE ME CHAIN!"

Her arm lashes out and with it flies the string of chained hearts to lash out, and wrap around the coveted heart crystal. It's yoinked back toawrd her to reach up snagging it out of the air. She even resists the urge to say 'Get over here!' in a mock Scorpion voice (but she IS tempted to do so.) "GOT IT!"

Sailor Venus is left holding a heart crystal belonging to her rival-in-love. For one dangerous moment it seems she might just dash off with it! How DARE he have a heart crystal and... oh it was kind of sad and broken. Dammit. Now she felt bad for him. It eats that little hesitation she had completely, and she takes off running toward the felled Zoisite while Kunzite tries to murder Mimete.

There were too many people clustered around him to make this easy. Rather than risk getting hit by friendly fire she throws her weight back to baseball slide over the floor right up to Izou. Her free hand grabs his side to stop her slide, leaving her on the floor in front of him. The perfect angle to bring her hand up to SMACK the crystal into his chest solidly.

"Get better or I am not letting you live it down!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne put her hands over her ears as, well... OW! The vibration enveloping made her shudder, the music so loud it sent her entire body through vibrations. She at least had her jaw loose, so it didn't make her teeth vibrate against each other. But OW!

And then, Nephrite with the distraction! Hopefully that works because... "Ambitous blazer!"

Fire would erupt across Cure La Licorne's body and then she'd leap into the air in order to come crashing down with both feet ON the keytar, directly, intending to knock out a few keys of her own! "Your music is terrible and SO ARE YOU!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy gets kneed, that's what she gets for not having any armor between knees and bust, apparently! "Owggh..." She pulls uselessly at Mimete's clothes as her grip slips off. "S'fine..." she answers Jadeite, he surely knows what he's doing!

    Prone in the street, she holds out her hand as a gyrojet pistol appears in it -- she hesitates, seeing that bystanders have fled before putting her finger on the trigger and trying to shoot Mimete in the back with a couple of what are essentially high-caliber bullets that are rocket-accellerated up to speed rather than flung by an instant explosion.

    (The uki-tar is a problem but one less immediate than getting that soul gem back

    Although that, too, becomes chaos as it's grabbed and tossed and then darkness goes up to trap the witch.

    Amy keeps the 'gun' trained on her as she stands. "Why do you think we'll let you get away with killing people?! You should've listened when we told you to quit! ...not like Obsidian didn't give you savings..."

    If Mimete actually stops to talk, Amy is hesitant to shoot her in the face, but she'll resume attacking if Mimette moves.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Izou's heart crystal is impossibly light in Jadeite's hand, and it's quietly beautiful in the way that only magical hearts can be. It feels like Zoisite, his friend, his brother in arms. And the protection offered by the bubbling also gives it enough weight to actually pitch it to Sailor Venus, and the shielding means that not a single spoke is broken or shoved out of place in the grip of the Love-Me Chain.

When Venus slides in to slap Zoi's crystal into his chest, there's a second where it might go wrong that is so violent, Venus but it's fine, it works, it's fine. Everything is fine, and Zoisite's color slowly returns--

Meanwhile Ukitaru is not having a good time at all, either. It yowls with... vibrato, still... oh dear, and spits out teeth, and its face cracks weirdly, and it starts slapping its keyboard just making awful Casiotone-in-need sounds that whomp out dark energy discordantly when Nephrite practically makes its head pop off wth his punch.

Then Cure La Licorne's firey henshin Pretty Cure superkick not only crushes the speaker on the keytar, but it starts fusing the keys together, and Ukitaru yells in a panic, starting to run away toward Mimete, "UKITARU! UKI-TARUUUU--"

At the same time as all of this, Mimete, Level 40 Witch, has been running for 1.2 seconds when Kunzite's dark wall slams down in front of her. She thinks it is Dark Energy. It is not, and she SLAMS into it face-first at top speed, almost dropping her staff. Almost. Her hand's white-knuckled around it as her arm bleeds and her nose starts to, and then Amy's bullets hit her in the back and the shoulder, and Mimete's stiffened and regretting all the cutouts in her bodice, and she starts her duskport, heart in her throat.

She whips around, face acutely frightened, and her eyes flicker over Amy and her rocket launcher and land on Kunzite.

Oh no.

Thirst.

He's so pretty. O.O

Zoisite has posed:
All is still in the dark, where there is nothing, not even the concept of time. Thoughts and breath halted until a sudden blip of light was shoved back into his soul. Everything just floods back into his mind as there's a sudden gasp of air, the once slow minded desperation now able to catch up with the full hearted urgency--

"Kunzite!" Izou bolted up, eyes wide and once again full of life. The chaos was still happening but he had no idea what all passed by. Only that there was now horrific music playing in the background, the groceries he bought--along with Tamaki's--were now all over the ground and trashed, and there was a weight over his legs. A quick glance down to bare thighs of Sailor Venus, who's hands were still on his chest.

What. The. Fuck.

He blinks.

No.

GODS no.

"Do you mind, Aino-san? I need to transform..." To join the rest of the Shitennou, if not to show that he was alright. When she slid off him, he was on his feet in a second. "Earth Power, MAKE UP!!" Burning petals and fire swirl around him like fireflies, stitching together his uniform of silver grey outlined by spring green.

He turns to Sailor Venus then, frowning as cherry blossom petals burn like embers to ash around him, before offering his gloved hand to help her up from the ground. Gives her a nod, one that recognized what she has done even if there was a hardened edge of burning coals around it. Then leaves her behind to go after Kunzite and the hideous witch that decided to make this whole shopping experience a horrific affair.

In instances, his placing his hands on Kunzite's back, pressing his forehead against the uniform as he freely feeds the older Shitennou all of his energy. "Finish her, Kunzite." Fingers grip the uniform, the lets go.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Venus has presumably been briefed on heart crystals -- Amy daren't take her eyes off Mimete.

    Duskporting is probably the smartest move Mimete could make. Not only does it mean she'll be out of danger soon, it's also unexpected, making Amy's brain lose a critical split second processing it rather than sending the signal to pull the trigger.

    She's not getting a killshot here. She's tried on fleeing enemies, once spending a tremendous amount of energy on Count Otto in a failed attempt to finish the job.

    But, she can take petty revenge and make things unpleasant for the witch: She's suddenly holding a grenade launcher, firing one that explodes into burning powder that is going to be just awful--

    And then a half-second later she decides to just go ahead and add more injury to injury and fire an anti-tank shell at her just to see what happens (as far as most can see, there's just an explosion, but there might be a tiny hole in Kunzite's barrier afterward).

    Conveniently, the loud explosive CRACK! echoing through the shopping street and the bright light of the backblast in the air over Zoicite might serve to help wake him up!

    "Yeah, you better run!"

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite, for all that he feels icy rage flowing through his veins, doen'st have much in the way of offensive moves to attack Mimette. He can fight plenty of little monsters, but not much on a big one. Especially when she's halfway to duskporting already.

But then he sees her face. It's a face he's seen on many others. He and Kunzite never felt like THAT about each other, as far as he can remember, (not that Kazuo is not a handsome man or anything! They just had never clicked) but there was something about the very human beauty Kunzite wore.

So Jadeite puts his hand on Kunzite's shoulder, pouring energy into him. "Show her what us butlers can do," he says.

Nephwrong (280) has posed:
Nephrite is... not expecting the youma to run away from him. Honestly, they don't usually seem smart enough for that. His own certainly had never been smart enough to have a sense of self preservation.

It's almost worth letting it live, but the ungodly think is a nightmare to behold and worse to imagine. Glancing at the flaming warrior at his side, he suggests -

"So... do you want to finish that thing off? The fire seemed a bit... useful."

Not that his own attack wasn't - his knuckles are pleasantly sore with the aftermath of a great punch - but he can recognize that the flames that melt plastic are solidly more effective than the heatless-power of the stars themselves in all their ancient wisdom.

And besides - there's Zoisite, manifesting in flame and petals, and a tense-tightness in his chest loosening at the sight of him, whole and intact.

"Had enough sleeping on the job?" he offers to Zoisite, teasing and generous, and then he snaps his fingers out in a finger guns gesture, and calls,

"Celestial Shot!"

And a burst of a solar energy absolutely does 'fire' from his cocked finger gun gesture.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The youma was looking beat to crud, so there was one thing to do. One final thing. And Nephwrong even asked her. She nodded. Then she braced herself. There was no escaping it. No matter what she did. She held out her hand and her heart rouge rod appeared in her hand. "Scorching ray piercer!"

She applied the lipstick. The sunrays above turned to swords of scorching rays, impaling the youma with purifying magic, and...

"Victory!" Cure La Licorne said with a cocky smirk, crossing her arms and a pair of sunglasses appeared on her head as she posed in a 'too cool for cure' moment... Before giving a light chuckle and making a heart with her hands.

And she wanted to curl up into a ball of shaaaame. WHY?! WHY DID SHE HAVE TO DO THE VICTORY DANCE EVERY TIIIIIME?! IT WAS SO CRINGE! SHE WAS SUCH CRINGE! WHYYYYYY?!

On the upside, nobody here likely cared enough to judge, too busy murdering Mimete and... huh. Why was she... Huh?

... Okay, no, why in the world was Mimete just standing there? She used to work with the girl and a part of her wanted to yell 'Bitch, run!' ... This was a hotness thing, wasn't it? Oh, and she was so going to die to a fingergun...

Minako Aino has posed:
Sailor Venus keeps her hand on Zoisite's chest just to ensure that crystal isn't going to pop out again. Sure it may have been roughly shoved back, but they were kind of pressed for time being in the middle of a fight! Plus, just how does someone gauge the pressure needed to put a *heart* back in someone?

At least he stirs and seems to become aware allowing her to breathe a single sigh of relief. Just a small one that she hopes he doesn't notice given the awkward positioning this entire endeavor meant. As soon as he mentions moving, she sweeps her legs off to the side to flop down to the floor fully seated and about to get up.

About to, but he transforms and offers a hand which she reluctantly takes with a firm nod. They would not talk about this. At least not anytime soon. Maybe if he upset her again.

"Get her," she urges as she regains her feet and turns her attention away from the Shittenou currently amasing their power together to defeat Mimete. Away from that touching sight of Zoisite pressing his forehead to the back of Kunzite's jacket and augh god they looked pretty together!

At least while the others are disposing of the youma she's free to lash her whip out toward the heart stealer rifle that had been kicked around ensuring IT doesn't get back into the wrong hands. Grump. Could have used to smash something though.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Zoisite's voice. Zoisite's energy.

And a moment later, Tamaki's.

Which means Kunzite can gather in what they give him, and wind it through and around his own energy. And bring his hands up, and bring them together at right angles --

"PURE GLORY OF THE FLAME!"

The beam that erupts is focused so very tightly. Aimed so very precisely. His own energy, almost disconcertingly pink - drawn from his reserves; drawn from his own life force, this once - twining with Zoisite's fire, both reflected and refracted and focused in by Jadeite's flowers of ice, petals freezing and gleaming blindingly and melting and freezing again - some of them are sakura petals, too, defying their own brevity in the crystalline rebirth -

The thin line of searing light and ice and fire stabs out at Mimete's eyes. As if to make her regret looking at him like that -- when she had done this.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Boy, that daimon. Poor thing. First off, being a keytar. Second off, what a way to go. "UKITARUUUUUUUuuuuuuu--*" And then it shatters and turns to ash and dust, dropping a little white egg that cracks in half and lets out a wisp of black smoke and dark energy, actual pink-purple keytar clattering to the floor.

At least it's more cringe than Hinoiri?

Nephrite's fingergun blast hits Mimete's staff and breaks it in two, and the bottom half of it hangs from the duct tape as Mimete stops being able to use it to shield herself.

The CRACK and miniature explosion of dark energy are her wakeup call, and she goes looking at Kunzite one last time--

She can't see what he's doing, she can't hear them saying anything, there's everything so bright and loud and explosive from Amy, and then the burning powder stings and slams into her, and there's a shell launched at her and it's hard to actually see what it does because there's so much bright light--

Mimete can't see what he's doing but she hears a long-ass attack name, and then she can't see anything at all and then-- someone is screaming somewhere--

There's more ash and dust on the floor.

And Sailor Venus has a very interesting gun to put in the Shed and tell Rashmi and maybe Entrapta about. They could come up with something to shield people, with two different guns they can examine and reverse engineer...

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A dusk portal opens and shuts silently behind the pile of ash.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne had only a moment to realize that... oh. Oh no.

She thought Mimete would be okay.

She hadn't expected them to just... flat out... murder her... in front of them. And... was this... She almost opened her mouth to say something, before glancing towards Zoisite and the others.

Yeah, it was one of... her other ex-workers. And... those guns... were murdery, weren't they? But... she'd worked with those people. She'd known Mimete. It still felt... weird. Wrong. The girl was dumb. But she wasn't...

But it wasn't like she'd be able to do much here, or say anything.

... But she still had concerns... She'd... need to talk about it later. She just wasn't entirely sure who with.

... But yeah, she supposed when someone tried to kill someone else... their friends killing them in response was probably fair.

Zoisite has posed:
White, heat flowing through the air as the mixture of all three powers converged into one mighty blast where, even shielded by Kunzite's towering figure, almost blinded Zoisite. Squinting, lowering his head as the violence of it erupted for a split moment--and finally, the quiet of it all.

Green eyes blinked, quickly looking about. The nothingness that was that horrific daemon with La Licorne looming near where it once stood. Nephrite also stood nearby with Sailor Venus picking up the gun from the ground behind all of them. The forgotten device that tore his heart crystal from his chest...

A blink, and Zoisite quickly walked about Kunzite to look at what remained of the witch, expecting a hobbling wreck of a creature on the floor, soon to beg mercy, yet nothing was there but a pile of ashes and a staff in pieces. So powerful was the blast, not even the scent of burning flesh lingered in the air. Only scorch marks on the ground. Lifting his head, noting Amy Faust with a nod, then Jadeite--with a familiarity of boys that grew up alongside one another.

Head turned to Kunzite then, hand carefully lifting to touch the Shitennou's arm. "Kunzite?" He whispers, hoping to catch those eyes looking at him again. Yeah, the four of them might get in trouble, but for a moment he felt something comforting.

It was there that he stood at the tips of his toes and placed a kiss on Kunzite's cheek.

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite looks at the pile of ashes.

...Somehow he'd expected to be more satisfied than he was now. But as the rage drains from him and his body begins to feel heat again, properly, he just feels hollow.

He'd do it again in a heartbeat. She had shot Zoisite completely at random, potentially stealing his soul - and she was one of those clowns from the fight a few days ago, wasn't she? The ones who were working with Mistress Nine. That's one more enemy down.

"That gunplay was excellent work," he tells Amy - nods to that Cure he doesn't know respectfully - and then he turns to see Zoisite and Kunzite embracing and hugs them both tightly. There's tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "Zoisite, if you ever die for real, I'm gonna kill you," he says, his chest tight.

Nephwrong (280) has posed:
And just like that, she's dead. They'd been coworkers, once, though Nephrite had certainly never actually worked with or liked any of the Witches 5, and now that she's gone...

No, he still has no regrets. Death comes to those who earn it. For Mimete, that was at Kunzite's hands, just as once, it had been at Princess Jupiter's hands for Nephrite himself.

You can only go so far in attacking others, before it brings your doom.

Still, the mood's kind of heavy, so Nephrite swans over to Zoisite to say something mocking to hide his concern - and stops short when Zoisite actually kisses Kunzite's cheek. Well damn, did Zoisite take that maidenless behavior dig from their prince as a sign to get his act together and make a move?

Good for him, if so.

He probably shouldn't interrupt the moment - oh never mind, there's Jadeite with the tears and the hugging and the and worrying, and Nephrite sighs and decides fuck it man, let's ruin the moment.

Kunzite's taller, but Nephrite's broader, so it's pretty easy for him to throw his arms around the lot of them in a group hug and then, with a grunt of effort, lift all three of his fellow Shitennou off the ground in a horrible, affectionate bear hug.

"Glad you're alright, Zoi, but like, what were you lot doing here anyway? Weird coincidence all four of us are here."

Minako Aino has posed:
Yoink! Venus grasps the heartstealer rifle gingerly so as to not risk accidentally setting it off. Business end toward the floor. If the floor wanted to give up a Heart Crystal that was... Some pretty unsettling flooring. With a flick of her wrist she deposits it into the little spacial pocket she keeps the Holy Sword in so that it won't cause issue at all. Better than carrying it around for now, around those that had felt it's sting.

With that done she glances around at the utter chaos left over in the area. Nephrite, Amy and Cure La Licorne over by the youma, Jadeite, Zoisite and Kunzite by the pile of ash that had once been Mimete.

Oddly this last bit is the least unsettling to Venus. Turning to ash or dust is pretty much what she was used to seeing happen to those she fought.

With a single deep breath she jogs the short distance over to the trio. "Are you all okay?" She starts to say before the words die unsaid on her lips as she watches Zoisite tiptoe up to kiss Kunzite.

Awkwardly she swallows down the lump in her throat only to push forward resolutely. No this was. This was business. Forced cheeriness comes as she chirps out, "Glad to see you're okay! You should probably head home or to the Shed though, things are probably going to get difficult here soon."

She knew how the police liked to sweep in on things and chattering away seemed a good idea right now since the guys were getting all touchy feely. Of course, she would too, if it was one of the senshi that had gone through such an experience. "You all head off, we can take it over from here."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite holds on to his transformation ... not quite entirely by sheer will, but almost. Almost. He makes himself be still, and breathes, and breathes again. Starts to straighten -

- is intercepted.

"Zoisite." An actual word, with actual inflection. With a low, quiet warmth. He takes back his arm, but only so he can fold it around Zoisite, cradling him against his side. "How do you feel?" he asks, head bent, gray eyes looking him over carefully. It was the lesser of the guns.

She hadn't meant it to be the lesser.

He draws another breath ... and then Jadeite is a moment's warning before the breath is crushed back out of him by Nephrite.

"Oh," he manages to croak casually to Neph, despite the wounds that the false stars made hurting under the pressure. "I was following you."

The moment that he can get a word out edgewise around Nephrite's reaction to that, and with actual air in his lungs again, he calls, "Venus - are you all right? Amy? ... girl on fire? Anyone hurt? There was another shot - did it catch anyone, do we need to find another heart crystal?"

It's not a protest against Venus's instructions. It's a quick, quick check on status so that they can go. He'd ... very much like to be able to go. Even if Mamoru might kill him himself.

His arm is still around Zoisite, as long as he can get away with it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Celestial Shot! Amy will have to consider using a finger-gun gesture with attacks in the future. Especially as Sailor Chalcopyrite.

    Glory of flames indeed, there is so very much fire, and then all that's left is ash.

    "...Holy shit, did we get her?" Amy breathes, staring at the little pile of ashes and stepping towards it before turning to look over the others.

    She's not going to lose sleep over the loss of someone who was trying to take heart crystals.

    Zoisite gives her a nod and she returns it without thinking. "Uh... everybody okay? Damn, you're on your feet quick for someone who got taken out of his body and put back in again..." And he's kissing Kunzite! D'aww! Amy smiles at people being a cute couple and loving to eachother!

    At Jadeite's compliment she smiles, blowing smoke off the launcher's muzzle and spinning it over her head before lowering it to her back and dismissing it.

    Kunzite asks if she's alright and she nods, "Yeah, I'm good. Wait, another heart crystal?" She looks around in alarm. "Did you say someone's on fire...?"

Jadeite has posed:
"Zoisite and I were shopping and Kunzite was shadowing us. Dunno how you got here," Jadeite says, squished into the hug by Nephrite. He's not letting go for the world.

"....If anyone's on fire, I can put them out?" he offers, doing a quick scan to see if anyone's actually aflame. "I saw a couple people get hit with the darkness attacks, but I don't know where the second shot went."

Zoisite has posed:
He wanted to reply back properly, but his face was pink as his arms are around Kunzite and feeling the weight of the hugs around him. Under everything, Zoisite's smile reached his eyes.

"Yeah, I think I'll be alright."

Minako Aino has posed:
Sailor Venus flashes a quick smile in reassurance. "I'm fine, get going before there's more regrets to deal with." Her own. Go before she decides not to be nice.

Amy's remarks earn a look of sheer confusion from the Senshi of Love as she states, quite bluntly, "Well, yeah, that's usually how they die when you kill them," as if it were the most normal thing in the world that people *turn to dust* when confronted with lots of firepower. She steals one last glance toward Zoisite and the others only to turn and saunter off.

Nephwrong (280) has posed:
"Not everything is about you two," Nephrite says obstinately, putting them down and releasing them. "Kunzite said he was stalking me."

A beat.

"Which, we're gonna talk about that later. Tamaki, one who's on fire finished off the youma, I think she's just build different."

He looks around at the mess, and nods to himself. "Yeah, come on, we should get out of here before Mamoru starts freaking."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The guys all start getting Mamoru Is Texting notifications the second they de-henshin. Group text, in fact.

    Mamoru TXT: wtf just happened is zoi ok

    Mamoru TXT: wtf WTF

    Mamoru TXT: guess you can't answer

    Mamoru TXT: pls be ok

    Mamoru TXT: im with SL you hve 2 be ok

    Mamoru TXT: WHY IS EVERYONE THERE

    Mamoru TXT: guys ;___;

    Mamoru TXT: nobody else is around im not calling Catra