277/Tutorial Endboss

Tutorial Endboss
Date of Scene:	22 August 2023
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	There's a new enemy in town, a dark witch called Noroima, who inherited the name and power of an unknown sorceress from a few centuries ago. At first, she just seems to want to see what the magical girls are made of. But the second Noroima isn't the only legacy of the first which has awakened ...
Cast of Characters:	Miho Aiuchi, Cho Konishi, Coco Kiumi, Amanda Faust, Greta Legend

---

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    She couldn't get around it, even if she thought it was weird.

    With her newfound power, she was undeniably on the side of Darkness, and with her newfound knowledge, she understood that this meant that inevitably, she'd be opposed by someone on the Light. She couldn't possibly hope that this could happen any other way; all she could do was run with it, and try to make sure matters didn't get out of hand. And in the name of making an attempt to ensure that things did not get out of hand, she could ... introduce herself.

    Now ... it's a brisk summer evening, and the sky is cast in various shades of orange. At the moment, Mitakihara is bustling, and people are constantly coming and going. To all appearances, it's just another ordinary evening.

    To anyone with any magical senses, however, there's a palpable sense of unease, perhaps with a tinge of darkness. On a particular relatively small street, something magical is happening, and it is unquestionably dangerous. Even those subject to the Veil seem to notice it; people are generally avoiding turning down this street, and the ones who do seem to be trying to leave as soon as they can.

    A shadowy figure sits on the roof of a nearby building, looking over the street. "Well, like ... no time like the present, kind of thing," she murmurs.

    In a sudden blur of movement, she's floating just above the sidewalk. It's a young woman in her late teens with the narrow face, close-set eyes, thin eyebrows, and high cheekbones which are traditionally called "fox-faced" in Japan. She's dressed in a black dress with jade highlights, a black witch's hat with a green bow resembling cat-ears, and black gloves. Ghostly green horns stick out of her forehead, clipping through her hair and hat, and a matching spaded demon-tail phases out through her dress.

    At a gesture, she unleashes a ripple of darkness producing a sensation of fear, danger, run away, which causes the few remaining bystanders to start fleeing the scene. And if that wasn't enough to attract the attention of others who could use magic ... the sorceress rises off the ground and begins doing a slow, rhythmic dance. Each sweep of her hands leaves a trail of dark power, likewise detectable from a distance, sending out little flecks of blackness here and there which fade out where they land. Except ... it doesn't actually seem to be doing anything?

    She has an expression of delight. Despite her carefully-hidden misgivings, she feels powerful.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi was, well... training. In this case, training was a vague term that meant Wuwu had stolen her wallet and was making her chase her up a tree, the annoying monkey brat. She was alllllmost up enough to get him, a hand reaching out when....

"Trouble," Wuwu said firmly.

Cho ignored him and grabbed his tail, making him yelp.

"Really?! I said trouble!"

"Give me back my wall-- eek!" He gave ehr back her wallet. By throwing it at her face. This. This was uncomfortable. Ow. And now she was falling out of the tree! QUICK! RAPID HENSHIN! Out came the device and the henshin and BOOM! SAFE! She hit the ground as a magical girl. Not a teenager. "Woo! I'm okay!"

"Again, trouble," Wuwu said. "We need to go."

"Right, right! Come on," Cure Wukong said, letting wuwu jump on her and.... "Stop stealing my wallet."

"One must always be ready for the challenges they face," Wuwu said in a haughty tone.

"You're this close to facing a challenge of no more bananas."

"Awwwww..."

But now, she had to go! Leaping through the air, it didn't take her long to find the source! Landing on one of the nearby roofs, she pointed a hand at her. "Stop, you... whoever you are! I am Cure Wukong! A thousand immortalities won't be enough to forgive this... this..." She trailed off and stared at the other woman. Slowly, her hands fell at her side. She glanced at the little fading flecks of darkness. "What... what are you doing, anyway? Are... are you trying to litter? Cause... I mean... as... as evil deeds go, I'm not sure this is really... in my wheel house?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco was getting a foreboding sense of danger, an unnerving feeling that something was happening to somebody she personally knew. Her pearl wasn't really shining bright like it would do with someone she is very close to, but it was twinkling, so maybe she should go out checking what's going on?

The mermaid princess turns off her pc, a remarkably inconclusive research about being possessed by two entities at once disappearing from the screen. 'I think it's better to be prepared for the worse', she says, activating right in her bedroom the power of her pearl. "Yellow Pearl Voice!" Her school uniform she still hadn't changed out of gets replaced by the usual kaleidoscope of colours, before that too turns into her yellow gloves, her yellow boots with flowy extensions and her yellow blouse with a yellow skirt, while her pearl expands into her trusty E-Pitch microphone, its blue shape settling comfily into her hand, the jewel nestled safely in the head's center.

The burns from yesterday were still present on the mermaid's body, only those on her bare arms and legs visible, and she grimaces a bit when she grasps her microphone. She had managed to conceal this from her roommate thanks to a combination of winter clothes and borrowing the trousers from the male uniform, but Coco had to jump through hoops to explain this change of apparel to her friend.

'I didn't really want to worry her', she justifies herself. 'Besides, my song will help me later with these', she remarks as she starts setting out how to get out. 'Yes, the window is good. One time was enough, I can't show Yellow Pearl Voice regularly going in and out of the dorms', she thinks gazing outside of the dorm.

Fitting herself through the window with a bit of difficulty, she holds herself up with one hand right outside of it, instantly summoning the Live Stage before she was forced to let go.

'That's good, now to go to whatever is happening'. She floats around a bit before she finds her trail of breadcrumbs to follow. 'That's odd, the worrying kind of odd', she thinks looking at the dark spots clinging everywhere like someone had a giant leaky pen. What kind of trap was she floating into, going to meet whoever wanted to be found?

At the destination, she finds Cure Wukong and a foxy woman with witch apparel. "Cure Wukong, hi", she smiles nervously, all too conscious about her visible burns. "I see you saw that trail too." She turns to the person responsible, intending to ask what's her deal with that. "What's going on here?" she tells to the woman. "Why did you try to attract us here with this spectacle?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It's not the same as a witch, but some kind of dark power leads Amy here, and it's quite... active? Magic really needs some science done to it and some language figured out for the discussion of common concepts and phenomena.

    But, when Amy actually arrives on a nearby rooftop, there's no... villainy afoot? Just a witch (not Witch) throwing out seemingly harmless dark power. Stylish, too, the bow resembling cat-ears is a nice touch.

    Witch outfits are so cool. If she were a girl she'd love to dress like that...

                                      !!!                                      

    Well, now Amy's in an extra-good mood! "Hi there!" She waves with a smile. "I love the outfit!" And to demonstrate such, with a poof of pinkish smoke her clothes change into a palette-swapped copy, red and pink instead of black and green. She doesn't copy the horns and tail, that might be rude. "But uh, what are you doing?"

    She also smiles and waves to Wukong and Yellow. Good to see familiar faces!

Greta Legend has posed:
The drive through Mitakihara has been just a tiny bit slow, having to stop at a traffic light is alway a little annoying, and there were quite so many pedestrians in the crosswalk during the red light, and she's just quietly groaning in frustration as she watches the bustling about. This would be less of a drag, if she wasn't having to share the ride with the only person in the world that could make it frustrating.

Her father, Chester Legend, executive at the company he has been working at for years, and most of the time emotionally distant. Peak family.

Greta is having a bit of an argument with her father during the car ride when the gem on Greta's brooch begins to shine, as Greta hears her intelligent device interjecting

< Dark energy signature detected One hundred twenty meters North-East. Action must be taken, Little Red. >

The blonde teenager had felt the energy spiking, and then looks out the window again, feeling it in the distance. Greta grits her teeth, pushing her glasses up her nose and then suddenly opening the car door just as her father was instructing a change of direction for the driver AWAY from it.

"<I have to go...!>" Greta blurts out in her German to her English father, and suddenly opens the car door while its still at a standstill, and climbs out to start running towards the darkness, while her father bellows at her to get back in the car.

She was going to have to apologise to her father later, but for now she makes a sprint for the energy, and grips her brooch, "Dreiseelen! Barrier Jacket!"

< OKAY LET'S GO! >


ONE TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE LATER.

Now sporting a red mask along with the rest of her magical girl attire, Greta, the Sunshine Spark, was zooming across the town to close those hundred meters distance, and with her device in Axe form already.

And just as she arrives, she blinks and skids to a halt, seeing (a) Yellow Pearl Voice, as well as Cure Wukong, and also Amy Faust... Whoever they person was, and (b) that fox-faced oerson that was definitely the source of the dark energy.

"Bugger, is this going to keep being a thing where I keep running into people?" 'The Sunshine Spark' grumbles, not sunshiney at all. Before narrowing her eyesand turning her focus at the witch. "And more new people... Always perfect... So is this another 'Youma'?"

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    As the magical girls arrive, the sorceress comes to a stop and bows.

    She smirks faintly at Cure Wukong's increasingly-confused outburst, but doesn't respond to it at first. Nor does she answer to Greta's annoyance. And she ...

    Her smile pointedly does not start to fade at the sight of Amy or Yellow Pearl Voice.

    Oh crap. It's them. It's Yellow Pearl Voice and that other Amy Faust. Two of the ones who saved her life. She maintains the smile, while screaming internally. She's planning on fighting them!? Or, at least Yellow Pearl Voice? Amy seems more amiable. Wow, especially with that getup; she does allow herself to shift her expression into one of amusement. But no; the newfound knowledge suggests that this is once again inevitable, especially given the look on Cure Wukong and Yellow Pearl Voice's faces.

    She chuckles at Amy. "Delightful!" she says. "Which side are you going to be on, hmm?" She shakes her head at Greta. "No, I am not a youma, my friend but I have a talent for using them!" She uses the personal pronoun warawa, suggestive of an archaic noblewoman. "A pleasure to meet you all! I am Noroima, the Cat-Witch of Darkness. I am the inheritor of the knowledge, the power, the name, and the purpose of a dark sorceress from long ago. Although ..." Her grin widens. "... I'm unfortunately not the kind of Witch who gives you a grief seed when I'm defeated." She pauses, and then in a more casual tone, she says, "I really should get started on collecting them, though, just in case I face someone who needs one."

    She pauses, and regards Coco. Even she can't leave it aside. "... Those burns look rather sharp. Are you sure you should be showing up for something like this?"

    She shrugs. "In any event ... it looks like we're on the opposite sides of the eternal conflict between Light and Darkness." (This is sounding like a terrible idea in her head, but she feels like it's too late to back out now.) "I know our goals will eventually be opposed, but y'know." She's shifting to a much less formal register, and the more cutesy and childish personal pronoun atai. "I just wanna try to start out with something more low-stakes, so we aren't jumping right into trying to tear each other apart!"

    And with a sweep of her hand, at the places where her dark flecks landed ... her youma rise out of the ground. They're black silhouettes with empty white eyes and glowing green highlights -- most shaped like catgirls, some like demon-girls, a few like fox-girls, all winged and all wearing simple dresses which fade into the silhouettes. They all look like they're just under four feet tall. "Norominis!" announces Noroima. Another gesture, and four more appear which are a little over six feet tall and have a few more glowing bits -- two demon-girls, one catgirl, one fox-girl. "Noromidis!" announces Noroima, and the four of them turn towards the magical girls.

    (... The Norominis are weak enough that each of the magical girls here could fight a whole crowd at once, i.e. this one happening right now, and the Noromidis are still individually relatively easy to defeat even with the crowd.)

    Noroima raises her hand, grinning wickedly. "Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves?" They lunge and fly up towards Cure Wukong, Yellow Pearl Voice, and Greta. And towards Amy, if she makes a move towards joining in the fight or doing anything to defend the others.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy cocks her head to one side a little. 'Side'? Uh-oh... She listens attentively to the introduction, until Noroima gets to the bit about collecting grief seeds. "No, don't!" She shouts in alarm. "Witches -- THAT kind -- are DANGEROUS!"

    Opposite sides of the eternal conflict? "You don't have to do this! What do you really want?!" We shouldn't be fighting just because of light and darkness, that's stupid!"

    And then the horde of nobbus -- err, the horde of heartless -- err, the horde of Norominis and Noromidis rise up and attack.

    Amy's rocket launcher is instantly in-hand as a single shot blows away a bunch of the norominis before they get the chance to spread out. "I'm... still deciding on a name, I guess call me 'Red' for now! And I can see you don't really hate us, if you're holding back like this... I mean it, what are you fighting for? We're magical girls, we *help* people. We can help you too! You don't have to be our enemy just because of light vs dark or whatever! ...Like c'mon, haven't you ever seen any stories where one of the heroes has the power of darkness too?"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong blinked a few times. She uhhhh... she really wasn't sure how to take this. "Eternal battle of... I... I guess? I mean... are.... you planning to attack people? Hurt people? Take their souls? Steal their energy? Cause like... unless you're a danger to people, I don't think we really need to fight. Uhhhhh..." Yeah, she was ten levels of confused.

Then, however, her eyes are brought to Yellow. Her eyes go wide and then she leaped back into the air to land on the stage. "Yellow Pearl? What happened? When did you get hurt? Was it the stove? Oh no, is this a.... you-know-what thing? It's not like, a side effect, is it? Is it an allergy? Who hurt you?" she asked, her voice borderline panicked. She KNEW she should have been trying harder to find a way to protect her friend. This was entirely her fault. Even if, logically, it wasn't. She stared down at her friend, then glanced back towards the assaulting youma. Shoot. She had to focus on them, too. "I... just... you and me. We need to talk later, okay? Try to avoid getting caught in any cross fire and if you have to, retreat."

Okay, so mayyyybe she was a little over protective. She'd then back flip off the stage to fly down towards the youma! Her staff pulled from behind her ear, it grew to its normal size and she started spinning through the air, thrashing and bouncing off the monsters as she went. "Not that I mind the like, warning and all! But ummm. Right. Cure Wukong, the Monkey King and all that! So, who exactly are you, what's your name, end goal, plans of attack and weaknesses? I'd share mine but I don't have any~. Well, that was a lie, I have a LOT of attacks. I got a stick!"

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta can't help but squint through her mask, shifting her stance to grip her device, the axe-head shifting and emitting energy in the form of the blade of the axe-head, as she responds in her fluent Japanes, though her european accent is strong, "Yeah, I have -no- idea what nonsense you're talking about. Light and dark? Bullocks. From the looks of things you're just here to make a mess of things and could hurt people... -None of that-"

She looks to the other girls, eyeing YPV in particular and her injuries. Did she get hurt from the other day in the fight around Hannah..? It's been a little bit, so perhaps not... Still, puts herself positioning as a bit of front liner, even as the Minions start appearing, "Ah bugger, she's got minions...!" And with that, she twists and spins Dreiseelen about, and then upwards, trying to cut the minion down by cutting upwards.

"NONE. OF. THAT!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"I was able to keep going even after the Witch I fought got me these burns. I wouldn't be here to tell you if that weren't the case", she replies pointedly to Noroima, wanting to transmit the impression of being way more formidable than she felt she was. "The Witches that drop Grief Seeds, since you are so well informed", she specifies.

"For my part, I am Yellow Pearl Voice, one of Aqua Regina's princesses tasked with defending peace everywhere", she replies in kind to Noroima, since she was polite enough to give out her name. "But that's all I have to do, I am not going to chase you just for existing, Noroima. If you say you feel compelled to do this because of a purpose you inherited, please rethink your position", she says, trying to trying to mediate the conflict with the witch whose heart doesn't seem to Coco to be fully in what she is doing.

"You don't have to act like a bad person just out of some sense of purpose. We can talk, but if you don't want to, then please retreat at least for now and I will do the same", Coco tries to convince her, tending her a hand from the sphere of the Live Stage.

"No, it's nothing like that", she replies nervously to Cure Wukong as soon her friend leaps up onto the stage. "It's nothing about my secret, I was just fighting a witch and she caused a big explosion. I may be a bit hurt, but I'm fine!", she tries to reassure her roommate.

"Besides, you know how my powers work, it will all be ok, really!" she smiles to the Monkey King. She did it now: all the effort she went through not to make Cho worry and of course, she was going to show up to fight alongside her not even a day later. "I'm sorry about this, I just didn't want to you worry", she confesses, looking guiltily to Heaven's Equal. "There isn't much to talk about, but I can answer any question you have later", she confirms.

And then come the witch's minions, spread out between the four of them. Coco knew she would have had to be locked in an aerial battle eventually, but it still comes as a surprise to her when the youma actually fly up.

"Let's see how your wings work when I purify your dark energy. Beautiful Wish: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!" Coco starts singing and dancing, her melodious magic spreading everywhere as she moves around the Live Stage to dodge the demons' strikes, the magical notes painting a vision of crying hearts from which love can't be born.

The image shimmers like an illusion, the harmonious enchantment shifting it like an illusion with peace that sees the seven kingdoms and the lands shining together as a beacon of serenity: in it, people serving the darkness were living peacefully and happily, all the strife and the conflict now unneccessary.

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    And the Norominis and the one remaining Noromidi join the fight against "Red". She's a known factor, but ... for the sake of appearances, Noroima filters her current observations through the old Noroima's knowledge: she's a heavy hitter who uses a freaking rocket launcher. Dodge her attacks, and, oh fine, don't go too all-out against her. "Why shouldn't I hunt the other type of Witch?" asks Noroima mildly. "It's a thing that needs doing." She chuckles. "As for your other question ... when did I say I don't think of myself as a hero?"

    Cure Wukong: the 'Cure' title reminds her of legends of the Pretty Cure, which were known to be good at purification. Still, she mostly seems to be using just physical attacks, judging the way her Norominis are going down. Watch out for resemblances to the Monkey King, although she doesn't actually kow everything about that. Still, Cure Wukong also successfully takes down her Noromidi! "As I said, I am Noroima," Noroima says mildly. "And ..." She hesitates. "Yes. My actions likely will cause temporary harm to some people, and I understand that you and those like you will find that impossible to tolerate. But in the longer term, I --"

    She raises her eyebrows at the European girl with the ... energy-weapon? Energy-weapon. Wow. Reckless; shouldn't be too difficult to exploit that. However, her weapon is entirely unfamiliar, and she's handling the Norominis just as well as Cure Wukong. Treat with caution and be ready for anything. Noroima chuckles. "What is that ... machine of yours?" she asks. "Did Earth's technology jump while my back was turned?"

    Yellow Pearl Voice: a defensive specialist, but this time she has nobody to defend except allies who are demonstrating that they're more than capable of defending themselves. Don't worry about her. "It's not an obligation or an imposition," she says. "I chose this of my own free will." She grins unpleasantly, clenching her fist. "I intend nothing less than to change the world!"

    And then she recoils from Coco's singing. "Gah! ... Well, then!" She reassesses Yellow Pearl Voice's threat level. The purification doesn't just clip the Norominis' wings: it causes their forms to waver, moving slowly, and the ones closer to the stage start to disintegrate! The Noromidi attempts to tough it out, but it starts to disintegrate as well.

    ... The pall of darkness which has been hanging over the area starts to intensify. A dark vortex begins to form directly above the fight. Noroima does a double-take. "Wait, what the heck is that!?" she exclaims. "That's, like ... what!? I-I-I thought that was, I mean, I thought this was my power, kind of thing!"

    (... Miho loses her grip on channelling Noroima's personality, though her henshin and identity-hiding remain in place.)

Greta Legend has posed:
Whilst Greta is dispatching her opponent, she cannot help but glance over to the other girls again, and squints a bit at Amy's weapon of choice, "Okay, hold on... Since when do Magical Girls use -rocket launchers-?"

< Rocket Launcher is efficient for long range elimination of enemy groups. > Interjects her Intelligent device.

"NOBODY ASKED YOU!" Is her response.

When Noroima questions her about her weapon, Greta shifts her stance putting herself most in between the witch and the rest of the group. "-That- is none of your bloody business. I'm the Sunshine Spark, and I'm going to take you---"

Her attention is drawn away to the vortex above, and then snaps back to Noroima, "Wha, you're not doing that on PURPOSE?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods at Yellow's explanation, to reassure Cho. "Yeah! It was a bad day, but not indicative of anything 'weird'... well, more weird than our lives are regularly, anyway..."

> Since when to magical girls use rocket launchers?
    "I dunno, it's just what I got when I transformed!"

    Also, there's a vision of a happy ending for the people who now serve the Darkness. Amy thinks that's beautiful. Thanks, Coco!

    Red doesn't want to let those Heartless-looking things get close to her. She rocket-jumps away when they approach, then turns her launcher into a sort of rocket-pistol to shoot tiny rockets at the individual monsters, hoping to conserve energy.

> Why shouldn't I fight the Witches?
    "It's dangerous! You could DIE!"

> I think of myself as a hero.
    Red just stares for a moment. Not in disbelief, not in shock exactly... maybe close to shock? The idea certainly hit something, anyway. "Hey, wait! No, that was important! What are you doing this for?? You're the first... well, second one who'll *talk* to us instead of being all 'raaar, I am here to spread misery and despair'!

> I intend nothing less than to change the world!
    Amy lands from her rocket jump, but just sort of stares into space, thinking. Making such hard decisions is a hero's duty, isn't it? And even if she doesn't have the stomach for it, can she really say Noroima is wrong...?

> Noroima is putting even Eggman to shame with the speed at which she can call up and then lose control of dark powers
    Amy leaps her way to the rooftop-corner nearest the vortex. "Alright. What exactly did you do?! What powers are you using, and what do you know about them?"

    Her tone sounds a bit like someone trying to resolve a family member's computer problem while shouting over a storm.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong had her own answer for Greta's question. "Since they were AWESOME!" she yelled. She then landed on the ground, done bouncing for the moment... and turned to glance towards Yellow Pearl. "You and I are going to have a talk about this later, you know!"

She then focused back on Noroima! Her minions weren't holding out very well, but... she wasn't surprised. She had a feeling the other girl's heart wasn't in it. Fighting when you don't want to fight was never easy. "In the longer term, what? We can't just let you hurt a bunch of people, you know! Especially if you don't tell us WHY," she yelled at her. "change the world HOW?" she asked.

However, the realization, a moment later... that... the other girl's power was, apparently, not obeying her, mayyyyybe filled Cure Wukong with a bit of dread. Okay. A lot of dread.

"Ummmmm. If you're not doing that on purpose, what exactly is it going to do in a few minutes?" she asked. "Huh. I wonder how bad it is... Scounting Wukong!" she said, before pulling out a piece of hair... she threw it up! And it became a clone of Cure Wukong!

Who she promptly grabbed by the leg, twirled and then THREW up into the black abyss devouring hole thing. "YOU JERRRRRRRRRK!" her clone yelled as she flew.

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    "So could you!" Noroima counters to Amy's comment that she could die. As Greta approaches, Noroima looks at her as if she doesn't think she's in the slightest amount of danger from the axe ... but now they have bigger concerns. "I'm not 'doing it' at all!" she snaps back at the group. "It feels like, like ... the same power as mine, but ... it's not, it's not coming from me ... which means ... oh ... for ... oh no."

    The vortex expands until it's as wide as the street, and there's a palpable sense of DARKNESS. A gigantic fox's muzzle made out of black jade pokes out, wreathed in black flames, and large enough to eat a whole person in one gulp. Which it then does, to Cure Wukong's clone. A pause, and then it spits out the hair that originally formed the clone.

    Noroima smacks her forehead. "Oh no oh no oh for CRYING OUT LOUD!" she exclaims. Speaking rapidly, she says, "We, look, I (boku) -- I (watashi) didn't expect this, this is Curse Devil Akunoroi, a leftover from the first Noroima, can we call a truce and stuff for a minute?"

    One by one, the surviving Norominis' and Noromidis' eyes start turning jade green. As one, they all turn around to face Noroima, hovering with their hands at her sides. "Mine," says the booming voice of the fox, which sounds a lot like Noroima's. Shards of glowing jade materialize above the group, suffused with Dark Energy.

    Noroima adds her other hand to the facepalm. "... Oh, of course," she says flatly, right before the Norominis and Noromidis attack, and the shards begin to rain down on the group!

Amanda Faust has posed:
> You could die to a Witch too!
    "Yeah, but I *have* to fight them or I'll--" Wait, she probably shouldn't let a possibly-enemy know about that weakness. "...It's my JOB as the specific type of Magical Girl I am! Also I heard that bad things will happen if anyone else tries to take grief seeds -- besides us, I mean, not just me in particular."

> So yeah the evil fox thing is sticking its head out of a hole in space.
    "You SERIOUSLY pulled an EGGMAN?!"

    Amy sighs, and her rocket launcher reforms as a wide tube with straps bracing it to her arm. "You owe me for this. Keep your ex-minions off me... and if your powers work on it, hit it HARD when I get its attention, okay? --Ah, fudge!" Amy has to leap aside as shards of falling jade hit the roof where she was standing. She looks up at the fox-head. "And it just tried to EAT one of us?! SERIOUSLY?! What IS it with some of these youma?!"

    She holds her arm up, and pours a significant chunk of magic into her Special Attack:

                                 "AURA PILLAR!"                                

    The rocket fired is barely in the air before it splits into a whole bunch of smaller ones, which fly towards the fox-head in a swarm and then detonate just before impact, instead becoming lances of light that try to pierce a bunch of deep little holes in it, like the deadliest pinpricks of magic-conjured physics!

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta goes wide eyed at the giant sized enemy, trying to process Noroima's explanation, "-First- Noroima? What does -that- mean?" She really didn't like a lot of that implication.

< Dark energy signature growing exponentially, Little Red. Recommend: Evasive maneuvers. >

Then Greta sees what her Intelligent Device had already picked up in the form of the raining shards, "Bugger! Take Cover!" She calls out, before diving out of the way of crashing shards, splinters shredding into her barrier jacket and causing her a modicum of pain.

Shaking her head, the blonde ringlets girl turns her head back up, and says, "Bloody... Dreiseelen, let's fly!

< Adlerflug > The distorted voice of the device utters, and Greta's cap starts to flap like wings, with which she takes to the air, and soars in the direction of the disembodied fox-muzzel, spinning her axe as she tries to whirl and slice into it.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong just blinked and stared at the fox. Welp. You ever just.... watch someone do something really dumb, and then karma hit them in the face for it? It was kind of like that. And she was trying not to enjoy it it. Failing, by the way. "What's an eggman?" she called after Amy.

She... should help, right? It was the heroic thing to do. It was... okay. It was kiiiind of funny. And she was, maybe, possibly, being a butt right now. But she was Cure Wukong. She couldn't not enjoy this a little bit. So her stick got a bit smaller and she leaned forward, resting her hands on it, then laying her chin on her hands. "A truuuuuce? I don't knooooow. It--"

However, she was then hit with a moment of reality. Coco was here. Amy was here, and Amy was one of the puellas. Her using her magic was, well... "Wait, Red! DON'T! Stop, don't expend too much of your power!" she yelled. "I'll deal with this!" she yelled after her. Damn it. This just got a lot less funny.

She leaped into the air, tossing out hair as she went. Within moments, a dozen of her were flying at the fox. She grabbed one of their hands and the wukong threw her, and then she bounced off the others, leaping at it, her staff growing and...

Tried to slam it DOWN on the foxes snoot. "BAD DOGGY! SIT!" she yelled.

Yes, she knew it wasn't a doggy. But it was a youma. Ish. That meant you were rude to them. It was the rules.

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    Noroima shakes her head, dodging the shards and firing dark blasts of energy at her ex-minions. They're much more powerful than what her youma had actually been doing. "It, it was meant to be her new body, she d-didn't summon it!" she calls back to Amy.

    She flashsteps a few feet to the side to avoid a grab from a group of Norominis, and summons a few large spikes of jade to stab at them, piercing multiple at once. Back in her more formal tone, she says, "Of all the things to waste the supreme power of the Shadow Jades on ..." Despite the fact that she's obviously lost control of the situation, she has clear control over her movements, and she strikes back at the Norominis around her with grace and a power. Nowhere near that of Akunoroi, of course.

    She narrows her eyes at Sunshine Spark. "I did say I'd inherited the name and power from a sorceress from long agGAH!" She jumps back to avoid a grab from a Noromidi, and dispatches it with a kick that glows jade-green. "Eggman is a video game villain, Cure Goku!" she calls out, grabbing a pair of Norominis, her hands glowing green, and using them to knock around the other Norominis around her. "Also, I don't suppose you have any purification tricks up your sleeve?" Were the legends about Precure wrong? That would just figure, wouldn't it ...

    The fox flinches a bit from the attacks -- yes, even Greta's -- and they even leave a few scratches! The muzzle withdraws ever so slightly, before it starts firing green lasers which cut through the pavement, unleashing another barrage of jade shards from above.

    After another moment, four glowing green beams that seem solid begin to spiral out from around the vortex. It happens to touch the arm of the final larger Noromidi, and it starts sliding up the beam, seemingly uncontrollably, before pushing itself off and floating back towards Noroima in time to get lanced by another jade-spike. The beams come to a stop before landing on anything else, and the entire thing -- portal, muzzle, and all -- begins moving slowly through the sky, inching towards Noroima ...

Amanda Faust has posed:
> No, Amy, don't! You have limited magic!
    "What else am I gonna do?! Just stand here?? At least it's a big, stationary target, perfect for rockets!"

> This isn't my fault, the last Noroima wanted to become a giant fox monster and made it!
    "Ohhhh, so *past* you -- I mean, the previous Noroima -- pulled an Eggman *first*, and then *you* got her power somehow and did it *again*. I guess that's some kind of impressive..." Amy comments, nodding as Noroima answers Wukong's question. "Yeah, he has a tendency to mess with dark powers he doesn't have full control over and then they end up getting loose and Sonic has to fight him AND them." Amy dodges shards and lasers as she explains.

    She fires a few more rockets at the fox, but then stops as she realizes that if blowing through her magic power didn't help, what are regular shots going to do? She dismisses the rocket launcher and focuses on dodging attacks, leaping between the roofs and the rails. "Okay look, even *magic rockets* didn't work, you gotta tell us more about what this thing is and how to defeat it, Eggma'am!"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong blinked, her stick not doing as much as she'd hoped. It wasn't... oh. OH! Purifying it! "Ohhhhh! Sonic, that's the... uhhhh... fast blue one, right?" she called out. "I think I heard about a movie with it. Never played the games, though!" she yelled at her. "And if you need purification, THAT I can do!" she yelled before throwing her staff down!

As it flew, it greww longer and thicke,r jamming into the ground to form a massive tree-like platform that kept her on even level with the fox. She then turned towards the fox. "Seventy-two earthly transformations purification!" she called, taking the elemental poses, gathering the elemental energy... before thrusting it forward at the fox, purifying light gathering into a pink beam of purifying magic to try and envelop the fox, boosted even further thanks to Yellow's purifying song.

Did... did that do it? Did that work? She held both her hands out, palms at the fox, nervously gulping. Then... "Oh. Speaking of. Um. Witch girl! Am I going to have to purify you, too? Because I have lots more of those to go around!" Actually, she really didn't. Because, frankly, those big blasts? Were kind of tiring. But she wasn't going to tell the bad guy that.

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta is initially pleasantly surprised that they seem to actually be pushing the monster-fox back, at least up until the point where it proceeds to blast the area with jade shards and LASERS, and due to her proximity she's unable to fully dodge, taking a good portion of shards which impact and shred into her Barrier jacket, one of which smashes into her mask to partially reveal her face, and eventually the force of it all sends her crashing back down to earth.

"Scheiße...!" Her English just slipping away and apparently giving way to German swears. "Das tat verdammt weh, au mein Rücken..." She blurts out as she puts herself slowly back on her feet, the remains of her mask falling off, her face may ping a bit of recognition in Noroima. "Okay... Sod this..."

And with that, she takes back to the air, raising her device up, and calls out, "Dreiseelen! Do your thing!"

< Limiters disengaged. > The device acknowledges as it begins to shift in form, and emitters pointing outward, in a blaster like fashion... Except the body remains more like an axe haft... So where's the head?

Greta growls and poitns the device up, raising it with intent for a major attack, "HIMMELSPALTEN!"

< HIMMELSPALTEN >

The device drawing from her magical power as she roars, the devices blasting upward into a massive energy axe, which she then yells, "EAT THIS!!"

Swinging it downwards and aiming for the youma trying to consume Noroima.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco looks up when she feels the pressure of the vortex that is forming. She would think Noroima has decided to take the gloves off if it wasn't clear by her panicked reaction she has no idea what's going on. "Noroima, you shouldn't have tried to use something you can't control", she yells shocked to the witch.

That's all the break she is taking from singing trying to arginate the dark vortex picking up steam fast. 'This is all sorts of bad', she panics inside as Noroima announces She looks at her allies with worry, wondering if they are faring any better. They are, of course. They are really reliable after all.

'Why is something like this a leftover!?' she wants to yell at the witch if she weren't too busy keeping herself out of the converted minions' reach. I need extra power here", she thinks, glancing down at the bracelet on her wrist. A white light is released from it as Coco releases its magic, a yellow halo forming above her head and descending downwards, gifting her clothes extra decorations. "The Tale of the Seven Seas ~Pearls of Mermaid~: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!" She sings of her paradise, shimmering at the seven seas where miracles are going to appear.

A sweet lullaby from her hometown is surfacing in her memories, and everyone is protected under the veil of love, the magical notes declare, attacking the darkness of Akunoroi's minions.

An overflowing rain of happiness is the treasure that awaits them, the mermaid pearls that shines in their heart its most precious form, affirming their bonds even in the middle of a storm. The melodious voice reinvigorates everyone, nullifying the fatigue that they may feel in their bodies.

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    Noroima shakes her head as she dodges through the falling shards. She really wants to deny the Eggmannitude to Amy. "For the record," she says to Amy and Yellow Pearl Voice, in a tone that suggests that she concedes, she still just wants to split hairs now, "the first Noroima never actually lost control, it was just a terrible plan in principle, which I didn't know still existed!" She narrows her eyes at Amy. "Hmm ... it was supposed to be invincible, but ... if just this is scratching it ... then yes, purification should be the best, but powerful attacks in general!"

    She stops when she sees the Sunshine Spark take a hit. She boosts through the air to try to catch her in her fall ... and stops when Greta rights herself, and part of her mask falls away.

    ... Oh.

    Noroima stands there in midair, staring for a few seconds, and she has to flashstep to the side to avoid another jade shard.

    First, Cure Wukong goes all-out. A layer gets blasted off of Akunoroi's face, revealing that it's just a solid statue underneath. Then Greta smashes a freaking giant axe axe into it, shattering it from the other side. Yellow Pearl Voice's new song causes another whole layer to come off, and disintegrates the remaining Norominis; as it reaches Noroima, however, she --

    (A memory surfaces inside Noroima's mind: a blue-haired witch girl in white and jade-green, casting a powerful spell of purification, as the first Noroima looks down on her from a perspective that can only be that of Akunoroi itself. There's a feeling of impending death, an instant of pain just like what she's feeling right now, and then ...)

    -- lets out a scream. There's a momentary ripple over her costume, the colors lightening in the pattern of the sound waves. She boosts down the street at super speeds, away from the battle.

    Akunoroi lets out a roar. "Retreating," says the voice that sounds like Noroima. "Will ... return." It starts to withdraw.

    Noroima pauses where she is. "What!?" she shouts over to it. "You're on your ... what's the English phrase. 'On your last legs'!"

    "Leg," says Akunoroi, and it slips back through the portal, which immediately closes and vanishes.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I'm hearing you messed with powers you didn't understand!" Amy calls back. "You still haven't told us what it was all *for*, what you want to *achieve!*"

    They barely scratched it before, btu *now* attacks seriously hurt it! Okay, lesson learned, next time something like this shows up, let people purify it first, THEN hit it with rockets.

    ...Oh no, it's retreating? It'll just regenerate all the way and she'll have used her magic for nothing! "Oh no you don't!" She fires another rocket, but the portal disappears just before the rocket sails past, into the sky. "Aww man... You KNOW it's gonna come back all regenerated if not *more* powerful! I wasted my magic..." She sighs.

    But seems to remain overall upbeat. She leaps over to near where Noroima is, and the rocket launcher disappears into sparkles as she crosses her arms, tapping her feet, *still* dressed in the palette-swapped copy witch outfit. "Alright, spill it Eggma'am. You said you want to *change the world*. How so? What's the 'grand vision' that's worth all this?"

    She waggles her finger at the witch. "You owe me more than just this explanation, but it's a start. I used up magic fighting that thing."

Greta Legend has posed:
< Primary threat retreating, Little Red. >

"You really... Need to stop calling me that." Greta hangs in the air after her big strike, the beam axe dissipating, and allowing the device to shift again, releasing a burst of steam from the vents from the energy used in that attack. The blonde is still catching her breath, even with Yellow Pearl Voice's rejuvinating song in the air. This being the third time she's fought an enemy alongside YPW, she's starting to appreciate the songs for their effects, even if she felt it was a little silly.

Once she drops back to the ground, she turns her focus to the others, "That thing will probably think twice before having another go, so that's one thing resolved... That just leaves us with..." Her focus returns to Noroima, "You... Are you going to be going back to where you came from then?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Noroima seems weirdly dreamy for a moment there as Akunoroi is being damaged, Coco notices. She doesn't think much of it until the witch cries down in pain and speeds down the street. 'What's wrong?' she thinks, taken aback from that unexpected reaction.

She will have to deal with that later, though, as Akunoroi is still here. She keeps singing of the seven seas before the monster starts doing something she doesn't expect: retreating. 'It's over', she thinks. Sure, the monster is going to regenerate, but now they know it exists, and next time they know what they are dealing with. "How are you, Cure Wukong?", she checks out on her roommate, not really sure how having one of her clones eaten like that is going to impact her. She stays with her friend for a few minutes, before dealing with their next issue: Noroima herself.

She hovers down the street in the direction of the witch, and she notices Amy and Scarlet is already there too. "How are you, Red and Sunshine Spark?", she asks the other magical heroines, before turning towards Noroima with a ever so slightly colder 'What happened to you? You worried me with that scream back then", she tells the witch.

Looking at her with a mix of worry and irritation, Yellow Pearl Voice adds "Can you tell us everything you know about Akunoroi? Regardless of your feelings on the matter or what your stupid grand plan for the world is, I think we should team up to deal with that thing. You don't have to be dark just because your power is, what I said earlier still stands".

Yes, Coco is very annoyed at this novice that clearly has no idea of what power she got, but she still wants her to be on their side, since she seems just misguided.

Miho Aiuchi has posed:
    Noroima flies back over. "I'll ... find a Grief Seed," she answers Amy. As if that helped. As if that was enough. She looks around at the ruined street, and sighs irritably. "What a godawful mess," she mutters bitterly. "This? This is not part of the future I wanted to create! Just another thing I'll have to fix." Clearly arrogant enough to think she can change the entire world, and that it's hers to change. She shrugs. "As for what I do want to create ... You'll see, in the end, that it will be worth my own actions, at least ..."

    Her voice trails off; she's obviously disheartened, lending credence to Coco's theory. "The first Noroima gathered the legendary Shadow Jades, and used their unimaginable dark power to create that." She points skyward, at where the portal had been. "Her nemesis, a magical girl named Jade Witch Wonder, interrupted the process ..." She has a faint smile, and a nostalgic tone of voice, which suggest that she wasn't just a nemesis. "For some reason, I can't remember what happened next, but I surmise that Wonder-chan sealed away Noroima's spirit, and Akunoroi's body must have ended up ... somewhere else. Perhaps ..."

    She looks thoughtfully at Yellow Pearl Voice. "This is just a guess and a wild hope," she adds, "but it was said that if the Shadow Jades were all purified at once, they would lose all their power forever. Perhaps that would take away much of what Curse Devil Akunoroi has, as well."

    She regards Cure Wukong, looking like she's seriously considering the earlier offer of purification; Miho is certainly tempted. But then she shakes her head. "I'd become powerless, if I lost my darkness," she lies. "I'll have to decline your offer."

    ... Miho wants to disagree, here and now. She certainly has a backup plan. But Noroima has already said no.

    She grimaces at Greta. "As you like it," she says flatly. "Next time, however ..." She shrugs. "I'm sure we'll meet either at the edge of a Witch's Labyrinth ... or as enemies." Without another word, she Duskports away, vanishing as if flashstepping through a brief dark green haze.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Well, TBF, a grief seed is several times over the magic she spent today, so that'd be pretty great if no one dies in the process of obtaining it!

    Still, Amy sighs. "Yes, yes, I appreciate your ambition but why can't you just TELL us what it is? Like seriously, if you're trying to make a new world where everyone's immortal and has a chance at happiness or something, I'm not gonna call you crazy, I'm gonna *listen*, and oh god damn it she's gone." Amy sighs. "Damn it... I have a bad feeling... I worry about her. There was a time when I totally got how she's talking, but now, trying to think that way... like, I recoil away from it. Is it because I'm a magical girl now? Does it mean thinking that way... hurts people, somehow?"

    Amy shakes her head and sighs. "Well, how are you two doing? Co-- Yellow, you still look pretty burned from earlier..."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"I'm fine", Yellow smiles at Red, addressing her burns with nonchalance. "They have already improved a lot, and everytime I sing, I get even better". She waves at everyone else. "I will get going now, see you around", she says, hovering away on her Live Stage.