2368/Five Nightmares: Reiko Fujiwara

Five Nightmares: Reiko Fujiwara
Date of Scene:	01 March 2025
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	Emi asked the mahou to help find Reiko Fujiwara, a troubled young woman lost in the grasp of the most threatening nightmare yet: the Flicker Man.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Mamoru Chiba, Chiyo Sakai, Usagi Tsukino, Hinoiri Kirara, Amanda Faust

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
When Emi posted her original note, one of the people she asked to have a look out kept for was one Reiko Fujiwara, a troubled singer and musician who was last seen being bullied relentlessly buy some streaming chuckleheads over her frail mental condition. After the videos of this went viral and the following social media backlash ensued, the young men involved apologized, but Reiko has proven elusive since, a matter compounded by the funds raised by do-gooders to help her. So far, no one's been able to find her long enough to get someone who knows better to a place to tell her about it.



The good news is that there's finally been a sighting, an aborted performance at a local park where she tried to sing, as she has the license to do so only for her to suddenly stop and then hurry away instead. Even if it's not anything supernatural, helping a troubled young woman is just the kind of thing that might draw the mahou, and Emi sent out a request for help right afterwards. No way she can keep up with her, she's getting better but she's not one hundred percent yet. Those who answered the call, or know someone who did, arrived at a psrticular park fairly close to one another, and if there was any doubt about whether or not this might be something supernatural after all, that's erased by the presence of a single, shimmering and black musical note hanging in the air in the park, unnoticed by one and all.

All but the mahou, that is.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
There's a slightly off-key hum coming from the musical note, an A that's just a little out of tune. Beyond that, it does seem to be ... very real, if only visible to those present. For the musically inclined, it's probably grating.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Come on, note, A=440! Come on! But alas: it's not... it's not gonna happen. That one-note wobble over there continues to hum, despite Tuxedo Kamen staring at it all judgey.

"I'm gonna touch it," he says to Sailor Moon, starting forward.

Of course they came when Emi called, and of course they want to help Reiko. But Reiko fled and there's a note there-- and they don't know where she went.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
The request for help had gone out and someone that hadn't BEEN out in awhile answers along with some others. Chiyo, now Ginga Hanma, makes an appearance. It's the first time since the last fight she was in where her boyfriend was mind wiped and taken back into Queen Mirage's care.

Landing from her flight near the others she arrives just in time to hear Tuxedo Kamen talk about touching it. "At least use a pole or something!" She chides with a hint of actual worry to her tone. After all, lately she'd had bad interactions with people touching things they shouldn't.

"Sorry if I'm late. I thought maybe I could help."

Oh. Oh wait. Neither of them knew her in this form yet. The Star Driver flashes them both a smile as she lets them in on the secret with, "Hi, cousin."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Nope," Sailor Moon replies, and then hops up to snatch Tuxedo Kamen's hat off his head. "The hat can respawn!"

And then she throws the hat - that she just snatched off his head! - at the floating, lightly humming musical note.

"...I guess I could have thrown my tiara at it," she realizes, in the seconds after doing so. "Whoops?"

She's not that sorry, but she is a little, though the fact that she still has a weapon is a plus, if she ends up having to defend herself. Emi has never once not sent them to something terrifying beyond all measure, after all.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne had driven in again, for some reason nobody seemed interested in her offer of a ride. Weird, that. Either way, she came skidding in to her spot rather loudly. She got new tires, too. Just excellent grip. She was QUITE satisfied with her purchase. On top of that, Emi was doing the smart thing, asking for help.

Admittedly, Hinoiri had been pretty tired when she got the message. She'd... not been sleeping well. She didn't know why. She just hadn't. Maybe she should worry about it, but where was the time? She was probably just worried about a certain mermaid friend of hers, anyway.

The moment she saw the note, she... groaned. Okay, dip behind a wall annnnnd... One henshin later? She came swaggering out.

Just in time to hear Mamoru say he was going to touch it. She eyed him for a moment. You know, for a guy who had some weird empathy powers, he surrrrrre liked to touch weird things, didn't he?

And Sailor Moon stole his hat! And Cure La Licorne tried not to laugh, one hand covering her mouth to try and stifle it. She then gave a nod to Hanma. "Hello. I... don't think we-- OH! Oh, wow, I remember you." Right. Scary hammer. That was INCREDIBLY FAMILIAR. Oh. Yes. She VERY much remembered that. 'SuuuNNNNNBrreeeeeeeaaaaaKERRRRRRR.

... She never did find that familiar. Eh. Was probably fine.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy would accept the offer of a ride! But, she seems to have ended up here another way anyway.

    "Hey, Chiyo! How're the new powers going?" She walks up just after the others, staring at the note. She looks around, "It... looks like an item, right? Like we're supposed to find all one hundred of them hidden around the park to unlock something."

    Looking around she doesn't see any other notes, though, so she looks at the one. "...Does it look that way to anyone else?" She's approaching it as if drawn to it. Not close enough to touch it yet.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hey!" yelps Tuxedo Mask, his hands reaching for his stolen hat as it flies away, but you do not propose to the Ultimate Frisbee champion without knowing what you're getting into.

They all watch the hat sail toward the note, and that cuttingly sharp A=450 wobbles and wavers like someone turned up the tremolo as the hat sails through the note, then falls quite normally to the ground.

"Okay well now I gotta," he says, sticking his tongue out at Usagi without realizing quite thoroughly enough that Chiyo and Amy and Hinoiri are watching them. And he runs over to touch it--

The sound reverberates uncomfortably for Mamoru, but there's something worse.

"F--" he looks behind him. Nobody with a swear jar. "--uck! Amy you're right. Yes this is dream energy, and yes there are more and we have to find them and I didn't see the next one until I..."

He puffs up his cheeks. "Touched it."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
As it is fully engaged with, the note flakes away into prismatic nothing before dissipating wholley.

More missing notes appear to show the way forward here, it's true, and many more seem to be present, both around the park at first and then elsewhere, as if they had escaped one's noticed before. Searching for them becomes the obvious next step and so that's what has to happen. One by one, the mahou identify more of them and 'gather' them successfully. Tracking them takes time and sharp ears and eyes and each one emits a slightly different hum. While it is unclear if they represent any particular composition, it seems probable that they do, some half-remembered tune that lingers, all fragmented in the back of one's mind.

It takes them away from the park, ultimately, back onto city streets. Through alleys and under stoops, into storefronts and then out their back doors. Finally, at last, it leads the mahou to a long set of stairs down into a darkened subway station.

A subway station that shouldn't be there at all.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Oh my god." Amy looks at the notes appearing around the park. "I was kid-- well okay I wasn't kidding, it sure did look like this sort of thing but I didn't think it was actually..."

    As they all start running in various directions for notes, she magically changes her outfit to Hat Kid's because like. Why not help get into the mood and all?

    In a very different timeline, she might be skating around the park doing tricks 'cuz it also kinda feels like this could be a Tony Hawk level.

    Shouts of "I see one in that tree!" or "By the fountain!" or "Inside the jungle gym, there!" or "On top of that shelf there" or "in that alley!" occasionally communicate locations when she sees one closer to where someone else is.

    As they find a subway that shouldn't be there, she stops a moment to consider it, folding her arms and tapping her chin. "I never actually did play the Nyakuza Metro level. Love the Rush Hour song though."

    "...I wonder if there'll be a loading screen and everything. Do you think we'll have to find more notes in the next level? Fight a boss? Maybe deal with grappling hook mechanics?"

    The sheer silliness of running around getting collectibles has got her in high spirits, at least!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"You didn't have your cane out," Usagi says in reply to that hey!, totally unrepentant - and then she registers that there's another magical girl walking up to them, purple hair, big hammer, kinda reminds her of Wako-chan, with the look, and -

"Chiyo-chan?!" A gasp and a bit of a squeal, as she runs forward to hug Chiyo. Sure, she knew she had powers again, but she hasn't seen them! Unfortunately, in doing so, she totally loses track of Mamoru, and turns just in time to see him touch the music note.

"Mamochan," she groans, not exactly chiding, but then it turns out that it does work, and she can't help but burst out, "Are we in someone's nightmare of being on a fetch quest?!"

Hinoiri and Amy are here too, and she offers them each a quick wave, before Mamoru smugly informs them that he was right about the touching, at least. They do end up running around, finding all the musical notes, and it's kind of like being on easy mode with henshin powers, because they can jump high and flip around and boost each other up easily to grab the out of the way music notes, that are leading them to -

"Oh there is not supposed to be a subway station here," Sailor Moon whimpers. "What if this turns into like, a bad game situation?! Maybe this is a nightmare about how the mechanics don't fit the genre!"

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Ginga Hanma laughs warmly when Sailor Moon comes over to hug her. It's returned warmly, glad for the moment to catch up with her in spite of the situation at hand. Whatever it actually was. "Yeah it's me," she agrees only to have her attention stolen back toward Touchy Kamen.

"Well. At least it's not explodey or warping us somewhere." Though it was apparently LEADING them somewhere. She follows along keeping an eye out for additional notes, but Amy seems far more skilled at this particular task than she was. Maybe she ought to play more video games. For science.

It's when they all arrive at the subway that she grimaces a bit. "Underground. This never turns out well."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne just.... jsut stared. "It's... a scavenger hunt?" she finally asked. And oh, she was going to tell Emi alllll about this one. 'And then we had to go on a scavenger hunt for NOTES!'

Ugh, it was like advanced music lessons all over again. Not like, this. But the teacher was scatter brained and often dropped their notes out the window. Not all the teachers were necessarily... great... at their jobs.

... Of course, she was struggling, very, very, very hard not to snicker and smile at Amy. Oh my gosh that was *adorable*.

She'd leap up, try to get a good vantage point to assist. She honestly DID like the being able to leap fifty feet into the air thing. The landing still felt weeeeeird though.

"Huh, a subway?" she asked. "So... how many games like... lead you into subways after fetch quests? Like... should I be expecting a big angry bear with a bear, or is this more like... an angry train? Or is it likely to turn into some kind of hor--" She stopped. And sloooooooowly her eyes panned to Sailor Moon.

"Horoscope reading minigame?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"~Sorry~! We are absolutely in someone's nightmare of a fetch quest, Usako~" calls back Mamoru, starting on the merry chase with the rest of them; he has almost as much fun as Amy!

--and then there's a subway where there's not supposed to be a subway, and Tuxedo Mask looks down at it, one arm crossed over his stomach and the other elbow resting on it, and he's got a fist in front of his mouth, a little dubious-looking.

He looks at Usagi. "You know we have to go down in there. But don't worry-- I brought a light."

He holds up a fist, then says "Tuxedo--" and opens it. It's like a torch that won't burn and he can throw it with the rest of the phrase if he wants. And down he goes into the station.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
As the mahou descend, every step seems louder than the one before, like the echo is carrying forward and reverberating in increasingly prodigious amounts. It's almost painful by the time they reach the bottom and then it's just ... gone.

Instead, they're in an entirely empty subway station that doesn't exist ... or are they?

When they turn around, there doesn't appear to be any exist, the stairs they came up having just vanished entirely and having been replaced with more subway station. At the center of it is instead the statue of an upside down, giant white rabbit with its face buried in the pavement. The walls are adorned in graffiti, endless, squirming and swirling art that seems quite alive along the walls. Tinny music plays over a louderspeaker, and a countdown to arrival has begun to play. The subway station seems oddly familiar. It should, especially to Mamoru.

Somehow, they appear to be in Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen Station, an abandoned subway station along the line to Ueno. It was in Emi's note, in fact.

The rumbling of a subway train is now audible, as are the *extremely* loud screeching of its breaks. Yet, along the screeching are ... whispers. Like they're speaking directly to you and maybe if you just walked closer to the line you could almost hear what they have to say,. That's right. Right onto the line.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Definitely on the way down, Mamoru had to slow to put his earplugs in, doing it one-handed. "Okay-- I was here once already. Nobody else was there. I don't see any ghosts so don't worry about that, Usa. But everybody -- I know I'm the one who went all 'I'm gonna touch it' but this is a real station and that's a live rail. So don't listen to the whispers. Don't go closer."

He reaches out and takes Sailor Moon's hand with his free one, and it's a lot easier to center himself all of a sudden. He falls quiet, and waits with his half an attack in his hand, watching the tunnel.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy makes a note to add a small flashlight to the gear she keeps ready for mahou work; Flares aren't always the best.

    And then the door is gone behind them. "Oh, great. Well, I guess it's no worse than entering a Labyrinth..."

    The graffiti... she's not sure if it's moving or not and it kind of annoys her trying to follow the pattern. There's the rumble of an approaching subway, "So, what happens if we get on a train in here?"

    Mamoru says he was here, and not to get on. "Wait, you were here? How?" She glances towards the tracks. "And, what, is this the subway version of Doomtrain here to take people to the afterlife?"

    Oh, he means it's a live rail. She nods.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
They go down the stairs, every step echoing, and Sailor Moon feels bad about the echoing of each step. Not bad as in guilty, but bad as in afraid.

When the stairs disappear, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"If... if there's anything even half as scary as an axe murderer down here, I'm going to scream," she warns the others, and it is absolutely a warning. Tuxedo Kamen is given a bit of a sour look for mentioning ghosts, but the fact that this is a live rail just means she shuffles closer to him, squeezing his hand - without her mahou superstrength.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne couldn't believe it. Tuxedo Kamen, you brilliant mahou! You planned for this! You knew your waifu! Alas, she did NOT have earplugs. She could summon glasses, but not earphones.

"... I'm totally going to have to punch a train, aren't I?" she mumbled softly. While cool, she was, admittedly... more worried about one specific thing.

Namely, the utterly deafening she was going to get when Usagi screamed. Oh. Oh no. They were in the underground train station. A tight, confined place with Usagi in what was quickly looking to be a horror situation. She quickly started going on just a liiiiiiittle bit ahead.

Then Sailor Moon warns them.

She hop, skips and jumps quite a bit further along. A good twenty, thirty feet ahead. She could deal with horror and monsters. But going deaf? Oh no. She did NOT want. And she'd heard Usagi scream before.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
And then the train ....arrives.

The station was closed years ago. In fact, the old station the mahou seem to be at is too small for modern subway trains to stop at comfortably. It's one of the reasons it is closed, in reality. Of course.... that doesn't predict anything about the moment. Smoke piles off it onto the platform, the doors open, and people begin to disembark. Lots of people.

Soon, the subway station is packed with them and they're each immediately recognizable in their own way.

Each of them is Reiko Fujiwara. Every last one.

Reiko in a sun dress, looking all smiles. Reiko as a teenager, ready for school. Reiko as a smaller child, holding her hand up like she's with an adult that's entirely absent. Reiko, sitting against the wall, begging for yen. Reiko hudding against a pillar, rocking back and forth and sobbing. Reiko with hraedphones, writing music in a notebook that doesn't appear to be present. Fragments of memory. Of a life. Of a person.

She's everywhere. And then a whisper, her voice. All around, they seem to have stopped, milling around aimlessly like they can't remember where it is they're supposed to be going. Something pierces it, though, in a more melodic whisper.

"Rising pieces can't chord with every down,".

Song lyrics. Nonsense. But song lyrics none the less.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is ready for whatever gostly horrors will step off that train. Well, she hopes she's ready. She's even summoned a pair of pink acoustic earmuffs for protection against screams!

    But instead of ghostly horrors, it's

    Reiko. And Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko and Reiko...

    She could see the objective being to like, find them and resolve their problems so they can combine or something if there were three of them, or five of them, or maybe even a dozen, but... they can't possibly collect all the Reikos! Amy looks a bit alarmed that they might be stuck here with a task that will take, well, hours and hours at least!

    Oh... collect the Reikos? Maybe that's it?

    She reaches out to touch the nearest one, just prod her on the shoulder, to see if she can 'collect' the Reiko like they did with the music notes.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne blinked a few times when... every person happened to be the same woman. Was... was this her own arrogance? If it had been a ton of faceless people, she might have believed this was a fear of being lost in the crowd, but... They were ALL her. Maybe an ego trip?

And it was a dream, so maybe not related at all gosh she hated dreams, this is why she stopped having them. Wait, no. she stopped having them because... it tended to be dangerous. For everyone else.

... Okay, so maybe she still had SOME trauma going on.

She then went back to her old bullying ways and went past he girl with headphones and just... swiped them. "I need them more than you," she said when the girl inevitably objected. Before glancing back to Sailor Moon and slid them on and... huh. Well. Weird. It made no sense. Buuuuuut...

Lets see the girl make her go deaf NOW.

".... Hey, guys?" she called out. "Is it possible that like... she's not the person, but instead she's the song?" It was garbled and confused, and if that didn't sum up being in a dream, what did?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's Reiko... everywhere. Reiko as a little girl, current Reiko sobbing, Reiko of not too long ago begging for yen, Reiko huddling against a pilalr, Reiko writing music, Reiko, Reiko, Reiko -

"This is... creepy," she mutters, and tentatively reaches out to take the hand of one of the small child Reiko's, that are holding hands with an invisible adult. Is there an invisible adult?

"What, like... the real person is the voice singing, and not all the people we're seeing?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask frowns as they're flooded with Reikos -- but at least he's taller than literally anyone in this station. "Maybe... where's her notebook?" he asks, only half listening. He crouches down to put a hand on the dirty floor, once more looking for a real person -- "She must be sleeping in here."

Then he lifts his fingers again, opening his eyes and straightening up, cape swirling around his ankles as he tosses his fluffy hair out of his face. "Well yeah. Yeah, that's a reasonable idea. So let's find the source of the song then."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Each Reiko is interacted with in turn. As Amy reaches out, that Reiko startles and turns to look in her direction, but not like she can see her. Rather, through her. Still, she does speak.

"quiet dark through I wander the"

Hinoiri can hear more on the headphones, and perhaps it only helps further.

"every star --like where thought a"

As Usagi takes hold of that hand, she is spoken to as well, "echoes -- scatered who..." "

These are definitely song lyrics. Out of order. Missing words. Garbled. Some kind of stanza. It takes a bit, more interaction with various Reikos, who seem so confused, so out of place... But at least you have it.

"In all our scattered echoes, where our thought fall like stars, I wander through quiet dark, gathering pieces of who we are."

Having the idea, now, the mahou are able to pluck more of the words from other Reikos, revealing more of this song running through her head, oh so loudly, and as they do it grows clearer. Reiko's voice becomes clearer, too, all around. Music starts to play over the intercom system where it wasn't before -- a melody to go with the lyrics, now, though it's harmony remains dubious at best.

"Each shattered shard glimmers softly, A hope born from the void of night, A gentle guide to mend the broken, my beacon burning ever bright."

"No, no," a voice plays over the intercom.

"No more, no more. You can't. No more! Stop! You can't make me think! No -- he's coming, he's coming in the words. The words, words, words, no more."

Darkness. Then light.

A stage, now, where Reiko is upon it. Playing. Singing, now.

"Here I stand, with pieces intertwined, finding solace in what I write, In every note I reclaim what's mine, a fragile hope, a dream of light."

You're the audience, now, somehow, in that dark. Once you put the pieces back together, things became clearer for her too.

"... no, I had to keep him out. I had to keep him away."

The cold, grasping dread that fills her voice. Hearing it feels one's veins with iec, like being on stage right next to her and forgetting every word to every song. The heart flutters. Panic. Her panic, pervasive and all consuming. Nightmares often are, in the moment.

"... the flicker man."

And then there is the sensation of someone being *beside* the mahou, each, an indistinct image of a man in top hat and coat, like something drawn from 'the Babbadook' or any other penny dreadful, all yellowed covers.

But he's here now to take it all away, and the speed with which he moves is impossible as the lights join in to add further, monumental confusion in a sudden and chaotic scene. Mamoru is lifted up into the air, swiftly and then *thrown* with such strength and alacrity he won't have time to react, not at all. Thrown directly at the sparking, living electricity of the train tracks ... all as the rumble starts all over again.

He doesn't need words to tell you that she belongs to him.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy has to pull out a notepad and pen to start taking down the snatches of song lyrics, tearing the pages into strips so they can try to order them.

    And then it all comes together...!

    And then it all comes together.

    "The heck is the flicker man?" Amy tries to look at him, but it's a dream, she can't see him clearly--

    And then there's no time to think, Mamoru is being thrown on the tracks. First, she's firing explosives at the track in the direction of the train, trying to break the third rail apart, break the circuit...!

    Hopefully, a mahou can survive the shock for a short time. "Get him! Before the train comes!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
They start on with their second fetch quest, and Usagi is - significantly more concerned about it, as they interact with the pieces of Reiko. She tries to be gentle about it, speaking quietly, trying to comfort each fragment, but the more words they collect, the more Reiko starts to seem afraid.

And the more she worries that they're doing the wrong thing.

And then they're the audience, as Reiko stands upon a stage shining with light, and the grasping dread closes in, the feeling of someone there, the feeling of something closing in, of -

The flicker man.

Of someone being right there. Too close. Too close, too tall, indistinct and vague and there and Sailor Moon screams without meaning to, screams in the kind of impulsive, innocent terror that drives one to bolt awake from nightmares, and the sound starts to echo - hits the ears of everyone near her, a high-pitched wail -

And then her throat is still working but the sound is wisping away, pulled from her throat, air rushing, rushing, rushing up from her lungs until they scream for air, and she gasps and -

The flicker man screams in her face, with her scream, hellishly pitched and louder than any vibrato could ever manage, strong enough to shake the walls of the subway - all focused on her.

To say she goes flying back is an understatement. She goes rolling, until she strikes a bench and lays there a moment, insensate, ears ringing.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's the feeling of someone behind him, next to him, too close to him, and then abruptly Mamoru's hurtling through the air directly at the live rail while Usagi is starting to scream and it goes away and the lights are flickering and Mamoru feels like he's underwater and hitting the tracks in slow motion.

There's something he can do, he's sure there's, he has to remember what to do, he has to. He can get out of--

It takes too long to teleport, he's not Hematite anymore, he can't teleport at no notice, he needs a full three seconds and Tuxedo Kamen smashes down onto the rails and the only reason he is not dead, now, is because he is in henshin. There's a bright light and a KZAKKT from down there just as Amy's blowing up the tracks (he does not think: someone report the damage or a real train will derail here; he does not think at all in this moment.)

And the train thunders closer and Mamoru's head is ringing and he's not sure he remembers how to move.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne frowned when the song started to come together and, more and more, she was catching on. Yup. So the song wasn't her, but it was the... hints of her? The pieces of her? And something was besides her and her right hand just went OUT, instinctively, to clothes line it. She'd really never found that kind of stuff scary... granted, that was probably because her first instinct was to light things on fire that tried to spook her.

Alas, it was already gone. She spun in place in time to see... Tuxedo Mask? HA. Oh, that bitch just dug his own grave. She couldn't help it, not in the slightest. She *laughed*. And her hands went up, over the earphones and tightened them cause here it comes!

There was a reason she'd kept her distance from Sailor Moon. And, come on, it was a man in a top coat and a coat. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Huh. So he stole her scream? That was convenient... But less convenient with Sailor Moon knocked over and the train coming... Could she get there in time?

... Maybe not. Maybe so. It was a dream, right? It all was made and shifted... based on the girl. So why not change the venue? She'd leap onto the stage and, well... Put a hand on the girl's shoulders. "Trust me. THAT guy ain't scary. There's only one person here who's able to look even the slightest bit intimidating in a top hat and coat. Frankly, this whole station is getting kind of old, don't you think? Why don't we brighten it up?" she asked, holding out her hand for the microphone. Before putting two fingers to her mouth to give a shrill whistle. "HEY! REJECT-ITE! You want music? Then I'll give you music."

She'd been on this planet long enough, now, she'd learned a few. Time for a bit of her OWN magic. As, of course, kirakirafantastica magic started to kick in and she started.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hit the lights tonight
It's my night flight

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hit the lights tonight
It's my night flight
Let me out, leave them now, it's a deadline
I gotta get out of here

Nemophila, Night Flight.

However, after a few moments, she realized... her words were being stolen. Oh .

And her microphone erupted into flame. Oh. It. Was. ON. Her eyes blazed with that competitive spirit. You think you can steal the music out of a kirakirafantastica unicorn?! You think you can BEAT HER by STEALING SOME WORDS?! BRING! IT! ON!

Crush your face tonigh t
It's the right fight
Break her out, trap you here, can't steal my line
You're gonna be beaten over there

Hopefully... the others could use this to their advantage. She couldn't be much more distracting than she was now. At least, she didn't think she could. Good thing about dreams, or maybe it was the KKF music, but the background beats had at least changed?

Close your mouth now
Run away from us
Until you see?
I won't stand you anymore

She was waiting, though, for that man to come close enough. Because she was BLAZING, now.

There's everything more we can do
We'll smash this game tonight!

As she finished that line, her other hand not holding the microphone reached out towards the girl... offering the palm up. Come on, girl. It's not so scary. He's just some loser in a top hat. Sing heavy metal with me. Bring them somewhere else. Imagine somewhere else. Not this gloomy, lousy station where he has the advantage. Somewhere wild. Somewhere loud. Somewhere even Sailor Moon won't be scared.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Well, Amy *tries* to tell someone to grab Mamoru off the tracks, but what she actually says is:

    "Get him! Before the train comes!"

    The sensation of speaking and her words being stolen away is strange, making her think:

    Uhh, wait. WHAT?!

    How can I-- she starts to think, but it's not, working...

    Thingproducingthiseffect/enemy where? She looks around for the flicker man, looks over when she hears Usagi's scream muffled by her earmuffs and HE's screaming and Usagi is thrown WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

    Her thoughts, taken. Frightening and angering and extra angering because in contexts only she thinks in, there is an implication this was wanted, an implication it reflects badly on and corrupts her wish and a core part of her identity--

    And maybe even more angering that that is that it forced this on Reiko and on her friends and her loathing of mental corruption and forced mental alterations runs deeper than words, her loathing for the cruelty done to Reiko does not need words, but it forms into them anyway, and she screams:

    "YOU are the thought that should be stolen! Become nothing but a memory! DIE!"

    And she points at him, glaring, and makes a fingergun gesture: "BANG."

    He can steal the sound of the explosion. But can he dodge a little jet of superheated, hypersonic metal, launched by the explosion? Can he tell why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?! Wait no, he is another meme. Anyway, that's the fastest thing she can think of to shoot him with.

    Her hope that it works must remain wordless.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Things are looking a little bleak. Amy's attack was ... mildly ineffective. Sometimes, a train is just a train. There's nothing to be done but get out of the way, and all the efforts in the world can't stoo it from running down what's in its way which, in this case, is an electrocuted Tuxedo Mask, with a Sailor Moon possibly regaining her senses in time to realize that there's no way she can reach him in time, that the train is going to ... not be there anymore.

The venue has changed, darkened. Widened. There's a crowd of people all around, staring up at a stage which Hinori has forcefully called into being. When the game is rigged, turn over the table, right? She just did, and she will absolutely feel t he weight of the effort that was needed to do that later. For right now, though, there's a song, and the Flickerman stops. Stops just long enough to wrestle with her. He steals her words, threatens her ability to understand the world, to understand herself, but the magic of KiraKiraFantastica and, in particular, Hinoiri holds fast against the powerful nightmare's efforts.

As Reiko joins her on the stage, accepting the invitation to sing a duet, it hesitates further still. It can feel its grasp on her slipping just enough that she can find her own mind more fully again, find enough of herself to bring back her own song, one which Hinori will find she knows the words too now, too.

Find a song to mend these shattered parts,
Let every note lift me higher.
In the fragments of my darkest hours,
I won't let my light expire.
One to guide me through my night.

Here I stand, pieces intertwined,
Finding solace in the songs I write
In every chord, I reclaim my mind---
emerging back into light.

As she continues, things become more real, like you're .. no longer in the realm the Flickerman built out of her fragmented psyche and in the here and now once more. You're really are in the abandoned subway station, that's for sure, now and how you got here is not entirely clear at the moment, but what matters more is that the Flickerman is right here, and his advantage gets taken right out initially by Amy, forced back and blasted. It's able to protect itself, somewhat, but it buys valuable time for the others and draws all its initial ire right on her as pain suffuses its being, as the most immediate threat to him that isn't Hinoiri.

He's still fast. Still dangerous. His fist cracks into her armored breastplate, denting it and sending her hurtling into a wall with a crash that sends a shower of rubble down around her before darting towards Sailor Moon's recovering self between the blinks of an eye to raise a foot and bring it down towards her skull. Of course... he's not *quite* as fast as he used to be, and she's ready for him now, as is Mamor... and Hinoiri. Reiko can carry her own tune now.
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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sprawled on the ground, grateful for the armor of her henshin, Sailor Moon feels her senses start to trickle back to her in the aftermath of that sonic outburst, her own scream turned against her. Her ears didn't burst, but there's so little sound reaching her, as though it were all being stolen away, and there was something -

"MAMORU!"

The scream is swallowed up, and she tries to pull herself up, tries to get to her feet, to scramble to reach him, knowing she won't make it -

And the world shifts around them all over again - but it's not to another nightmare. It's not the cloying panic of another's mind, but the solidity of concrete beneath her, the chill funk of old air, like stepping into a room that's been locked too long, and that's when Sailor Moon feels it - the chilling dread of presence, and her eyes track up to see the Flickerman a terrible specter looming over her, foot lifting, ready to crush her.

It's not even a decision, to act. It's her body moving, swifter than thought, swifter than words, reaching for the tiara on her forehead and lashing up recklessly, the metal starting to glow in her hand -

"MOON TIARA BRASS KNUCKLES!"

The words are swallowed. The gleaming iridescent energy, white and gold and pink and purple and green and yellow and all the colors of the cosmos, of the stars - that isn't swallowed, by anything other than the Flickerman's foot, as she slams that explosive energy right into his body. The blow - and the riot of energy - are enough to send him flying back towards her allies, and she scrabbles herself up, panting, furious, terrified. "Mamochan!"

She goes running towards the train tracks, which shouldn't have any power, which don't have any train, to look for him -

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She doesn't see him move. She's knocked back and he's there and it hurts and she can't breathe--

    But she doesn't need to.

    Her loathing goes beyond words and beyond life -- even as a Witch she'd hate him, hate things that do what he does.

    Not that she's dead yet, far from it. But the damage to her body isn't enough to matter to a Puella Magi -- at least not to her, her mind warped in so many ways, at least one of them is helpful.

    Hearing the duet sing 'I reclaim my mind' brings a smile to her face and buoys her heart. She stands up, covered in dust, bits of broken concrete disturbed by her standing, and she gestures at him like an officer telling someone to fire. One after another, light antitank rockets appear in the air around her, already launching towards him, airbursting to hit him again -- or at least keep him dodging. The flicker man can easily move out of the way as soon as he sees a missile appear pointed towards him.

    After a few shots of this, they start swerving around him instead, only to abruptly turn towards him and airburst -- again, though, he can learn to dodge by reacting as soon as they start those sudden turns. The only place he's not safe, at least from Amy, is within a certain distance of her, and even then as long as he  f l i c k e r s  through the space he'll be fine.

    Still, that's extra pressure. Constantly dodge Amy means less focusing on others. Focusing on others means he might fail to dodge Amy, especially if he gets close.

    Well, until he thinks of just pulling a Nothing Personnel, Kid *teleports behind u*

    She gets her face slammed into the concrete, her nose and mouth are bleeding, but she lifts her head, and can still magic from the ground, and if he teleports behind her again to kick her, that's opening himself up to others, isn't it?

    Amy can barely think, and in this moment she can only trust someone will handle the concerns other than the flicker man -- Amy keeps her focus on him, and keeps the pressure up.

    Let him steal only a single, focused human thought from her:

    Die.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Saved by the power of Kirakirafantastica and Cure La Licorne! When the venue changes, where is Tuxedo Mask? Invisible, vanished into the crowd (how he hates crowds). Then it changes again, and there he is, unsteadily picking himself up off the tracks, and he hears the sounds of violence but no words, and...

It's terrible, what a nightmare can do once it's old enough, embedded deeply enough, taking advantage of a mind of bright brilliant shards like this. It's terrible to be able to imagine what this has been like for her, and worse still to have been her in the first place.

Mamoru takes a breath and then hauls himself up over the edge of the platform, and the fight's going on, right? And then he's there and Usagi can run right into him, as long as he gets away from the edge first -- but there's no time for love, Doctor Jones. He sees the Flickerman fighting Amy, and he grips Usagi's hand for a second before ripping off his gloves and NYOOMing himself at him in that opening provided by the Puella.

Directly at Flickerman, the strength of an unthrown and charging finisher in his glowing fists, so each hit is a miniature explosion of force, and he fights dirty. This is a kid who grew up protecting Takashi Agera from bigger kids in an orphanage. Oh my god does he fight dirty.

And in the back of his mind there's the stinging ferocious pain of having been goddamn electrocuted probably less than thirty minutes ago, but Tuxedo Mask is honestly surprisingly vicious about this. There's no hate, only adrenaline and righteous indignation, but he does know what he's doing with his fists. And his fingers.

And his empathy, with his bare hands.

Every time Tuxedo Mask's knuckles or fingers impact or grab or claw at the Flickerman, he shoves the memory of immense pain at him. The pain of being opened up and doused in saltwater, over and over again, the pain of having your magic sucked out of your body while being burned and burned and burned, the pain of loss, the pain of grief, the pain of never knowing if you have the right words--

--and the smug over knowing how to deal with nonverbal days.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne felt a rush of excitement as, oh. Oh wow. She'd DONE IT!

Holy buck. She wasn't entirely sure that'd work. But it did. And she grinned at the girl, trying to exude the confidence, the commitment she thought the girl needed.

And frankly... understanding herself wasn't something she'd had until recently. And it was only thanks to the people here, and others like them, that she could now. And Reject-ite couldn't take that from her.

And as Reiko takes over, she smiles and steps back, out of the light.

And he eats a sailor moon brass knuckles! HA! SUCK IT! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!

Also, an excessive amount of firepower from Amy. Holy buck.

And then... Tuxedo Mask with the flurry of kicks and, well, there was only one thing to do here. She leaped off the stage, got in the way and when Tuxedo Mask's punches drove them here... she'd kick out with a flaming foot, to catch the monster in the back, to trap him between flaming foot and glowing, magic fist!

And, unlike Tuxedo Mask?

She totally has a bit of hate in hers. Sure, righteous indignation is her tagline, but this bucker trapped this girl, tried to take HER song and hurt her friends! Also, made her endure a Usagi scream. He could buck. Right. OFF!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's Mamoru. There's Cure La Licorne. There's Amy, bloodied and firing.

There's Sailor Moon, standing like an avenging angel, her clenched fist glowing, where she still grips her tiara, and with her loved ones in the way she doesn't dare to throw the tiara, so -

It's thrown up into the air, the light gleaming, glowing, bright as the full moon, leaving no shadows to hide in, as she spins and claims from nothing the Spiral Heart Moon Rod.

The words are going to be stolen. She'll say them anyway.

"Moon-"

And she carves the circle in the air, taller than her body, arm fully extended.

"Healing-"

And the silver light floods the circle, fills it utterly, as she presses all her love, all her fury, all her determination into it.

"Escalation!"

And the silver light floods forth, not in individual beams, but a single, solid, blaze of light, that does not stop burning with purifying energy for a full minute.

Taste the rainbow, Flickerman.

For her friends, it's like being soothed, a gentle touch, a cool drink, a safe place to lay your head. To the Flickerman, it is the undying fire of the universe, burning away all that is wrong, to leave nothing but that which is right, and true, and as it should be.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's over.

Silence falls over the (now badly damaged by the fight) abandoned station. What a mess. It's hard to say exactly how long they've been fighting, or how they even got here,. The sound of a train can be heard in the distance as the Ueno line that passes by the station here is still active. As for the flickerman, there's truly nothing left of them, Usagi having thoroughly burnt it away this time. And finally, as for Reiko, she's just right there, behind a pillar, huddled in a sleeping bag. She's been sleeping here, it seems, sneaking in and hiding in the night to rest. No doubt her choice of locale had something to do with the Flickermnan, but the presence is gone now all the same. She looks at peace, at least, her expression having smoothed and her breathing deepened. She's reclaimed what belongs to her -- her voice -- and she'll never let fear steal it again. Every note she sings from now on will be a spark of joy that lifts others up that no nightmare can silence.

This would be a fantastic lesson for one Emi Hoshino, were she hear to see it. Instead, she sits on a beach of black sand beneath a starless yet shimmering night sky, watching the faces of the multicolored reefs that guard the way out of her dreams as they play out a particular memory before her eyes again and again.

When she failed when it mattered most.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Staggering over to deposit himself on the floor tiles near the sleeping-bagged figure, Tuxedo Mask puts his hands on the dirty and charred surface, and they begin to glow. "Self-heal. Then whoever."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne couldn't help but grin wide when they did it. Yeah, that was how rthey rolled! Just crush that big, ugly, terrible pain in the butt! She couldn't wait to go tell Emi and...

Oh... oh she didn't feel so...

She wobbled a bit before sitting down. "G-guys? I ummm... I think... I might have... I'm gonna... lay down a moment... kaaaaay? I think... I think dream... stuff isn't..."

And then she just plopped back and de-henshioned, eyes swirls.

Venue swaps. Not easy on unicorns, it seemed. Rude.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sailor Moon bathes the arena in purifying light.

    Amy's soul gem, not that anyone is looking that closely, answers: when Amy is filled with despair, the red visibly darkens, but when Amy is filled with her friends' hopes (magically), the corruption visibly lightens, as if seen through glass reflecting red light, giving her just a tiny bit of extra energy to spend. It helps, today, as for the first time she uses her basic attack constantly for long enough to have visibly spent energy by the end of the fight. She didn't know that could happen!

    "We did it?" Amy asks, then smiles, "I can talk! We did it! Ohhhhh words, voice, yesssss..." And my thoughts are back too!

    She sighs in relief and gets to her feet, bruised and beaten but not defeated, breastplate cracked and dented (she switched back from Hat Kid cosplay to the default once they actually entered the subway). And she walks over to Tuxedo Mask, not forgetting Reiko, but, it needs to be said: "I hate to ask for healing tonight after you got thrown on a third rail, but..." She gestures vaguely at herself. "You didn't want me to spend energy if we can avoid it. ...But no rush."

    A wash of pink sparkles, and her outfit is pristine, the blood running down her chin gone. "I'm stable, I think."

    She does look over at Reiko with concern, but... what can she say?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The Flickerman dies, melted away, leaving behind nothing more than a memory, and the woman who was his victim and warden both. Sailor Moon breathes easier when he's gone, and she runs both hands down Mamoru's arms and chest, making sure he feels in tact, before she turns, to observe the woman in the sleeping bag.

Resting peacefully, and probably for the first time in years, she feels - bad, almost, about waking her up. One of the reasons she'd wanted to be here was because, well - years ago, as a little girl, she'd liked Reiko Fujiwara, and had wanted the best for her. This isn't that, but there's a start just waiting for her.

Sailor Moon walks with Tuxedo Kamen, helping hold him up until he staggers to the ground, and then crouches down beside the sleeping bag, not so close as to loom, and calls, "Fujiwara-san, I'm sorry to wake you up, but can we talk? The Flickering Man is gone now."

When the young woman wakes, Sailor Moon, with her shining tiara and odango caps and star-and-moon earrings, her bright red bow and navy sailor collar and skirt, will tell Reiko about the monster they defeated thank to her, and the people who saw her struggles.

She'll tell her about being the people who cared, and the people who raised money, and that there is a world out there, that still knows her name, and that wants to help her get back on her feet.

And she'll offer a hand, to lead her from the station, and into that new future.