2780/Rally Gone Wrong!

Rally Gone Wrong!
Date of Scene:	11 October 2025
Location:	Midori-Ya Cafe
Synopsis:	Nanoha's Yearly Family Event, the Cake Rally Relay is besieged by an angry cake youma. Nanoha, Rashmi, Takuto and Niji show it it's place by exploding it. Also. What are 'Ferret things' anyways?
Cast of Characters:	Nanoha Takamachi, Rashmi Terios, Takuto Tsunashi, Niji Dasshu

---

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
The Takamachi's Yearly 'Cake Rally' is a local affair that has gained some somewhat outward traction in the last couple of years outside of the major neighborhood. People come to sponsor people who will walk a mile with a piece of cake balanced on their head without tipping it over. The cake is of course on a standard plate. Local businesses always experience a small, but good enough boost in business from the event that sponsors keep coming and growing every year.

Today Nanoha sits at a table, with members of her family at other tables. Nanoha's job is to take nametags, check against a list, and provide large slices of cakes on plates. So thusly, she is slicing and plating, checking names again handing contestants their cake slices, carefully. Should that cake hit dirt, it's over!

usually this event is ... uneventful in the terms of things gone wrong and really there isn't any other reason to think this Rally Day would be any different. She really didn't know why something felt off.

She eyed a little motion out of the corner of her eye occasionally. Like one of the cakes would wiggle. She'd look. It'd stop. She'd look away. It'd wiggle. It'd stop if she looked at it.

"...Must be one of the jelly cakes for the hardcore contestants..." she says carefully, starting to lower her knife towards it....

Rashmi Terios has posed:
One thing that mahou and local businesses have in common; you always support your own. And while Rashmi might not -- probably won't -- make it the full mile, with or without the cake on her head, even the horrifying specter of *wasted Midori-ya cake* cannot stand against Turning Out For Nanoha.

So as she joins one of the many lines for her number and plate, she leans over, waving cheerfully to her fellow Devicer.

Cake Rallies; what a fun, wholesome, silly little activity. What kind of utter monster would even care enough to defile something so innocent?

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Sometimes there are redheads (see: Rashmi.) Sometimes there are flatpoles with red tribbles at the top (see: Takuto.)

Sometimes there are both! Right now Takuto's standing in line and it's Almost His Turn, and he can see over the heads of the two people in front of him, but there's nothing weird about Nanoha's cake, right? Oh, he sees Rashmi and waves, then flexes jokingly. Maybe he thinks the cake is heavy.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Niji Dasshu is here not as a business owner or spectator, but as a contestant. It's a vaguely athletic thing, a contest, and cake is involved. Plus, how could the rainbow-haired girl not stand out? She's actually in the middle of signing up when she hears something about 'hardcore contestants' and shows why she makes good friends with Hinoiri by immediately turning back towards it.

    "Wait, is there a more hardcore choice?" she asks, eyes almost aglow. She looks towards the cake that probably didn't move. "If there's a more difficult choice I wanna take it!" she proclaims. And is probably somewhat disrupting the line, causing her to shirk a bit and rub the back of her neck. "Sorry, you can go around me..." she says to someone as she tries to make it back over towards Nanoha.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is about to touch the knife to the wiggling jelly cake when she stops just short and says to rainbow haired girl. "Yup! The jelly cake wiggles and makes it harder I've been told. Just look at it, it's ready!" she says. Wiggle. Wiggle.

Is that cake. Alive?

She smiles and waves to Rashmi and her flexing friend. Is he trying to flirt? Does Chrono get jealous? She wonders.

Still. She presses knife to jelly cake to slice Niji a slice finally when it sinks in.

"YEOUCH!" goes the cake. In bright angry red frosting on it's top, and also, SAYING IT LOUD. Cakes don't talk!?

"What was that for!? I'm going to make you all pay!" says the cake as it starts to glower with dark energy and start growing on the table, outgrowing the other, non-youma cakes to the ground in splatter as Nanoha shrieks! "THE CAKES!" she yells.

"RAISING HEART SET-UP!"

<< YES, MASTER! >> as Nanoha Takamachi shifts into her barrier jacket there on the spot. Because secret identities are smart and no one told the girl that early on!

"RASHMI-CHAN, BARRIER PLEASE." she sputtlers out. Yuuno isn't here. He's doing ferret things in the house. ;_;.

The cake youma starts spluttering dark frosting-style mounds out of it's mouth at random people, so Rashmi may wanna stop mundane people from being dark energy drained by mounds of delicious frosting, ASAP.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Of course Takuto's flexing makes Rashmi giggle. He's silly and endearing, and she's about to whip out her phone to get a picture of it to send to Wako and Sugata, when Nanoha's cake... complains?!

Oh for--

"On it!" she calls, ducking and rolling under a table to break eye contact. One flash of golden light later, she lunges out in full Barrier Jacket, seal already spreading out under her feet.

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

Hopefully the only thing harmed by the time between Barrier request and activation is Nanoha's poor cakes...

    << TELEPATHY >>

<< Nano-chan I'm *so sorry about your cakes!* >> she moans into the newly set-up comms net. << Who else is around? We'll teach this creep a lesson about how you're *supposed* to waste food. >>

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Oh my god," Takuto says, staring for a split second, and then diving to start saving cakes--

Approximately five seconds later, a frosting-covered should-have-expected-that high school senior stands up from the mess of cakes on the ground, holds his fists down at his sides, and yells, "APPRIVOISER! Dashing Entrance: Ginga BiiiiiIIIISHOUNEN!"

Almost the entire henshin sequence happens, minus only the giant robot, and with a wink and a cock of his hip and then one hell of a complicated set of arm motions, the Ginga Bishounen is on the scene!

He's immediately in flight, ducking every which way to get people out of the way of giant chunks of splat being flung at people to drain them, at least until Rashmi's barrier takes care of them and he can exhale. <<I'm here!>>

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Niji is, very clearly, excited to be getting the more difficult cake. Until it makes noise and warps the frosting, and the geode that's on a string as a necklace glows bright blue. "Yeah, I noticed..." Niji says exhaustedly to the geode. "You're real late to the party."

    And the athletic, energetic, rainbow-haired girl is very clearly Not Excluded by the barrier that comes up. She's never been directly next to a youma before when one went up. She looks around. "Crap." she adds as Takuto Transforms. Is it even worth running off now when she's so clearly been sectioned off by the Barrier?

    Whatever her henshin phrase is, she mumbles it under her breath - but what isn't subtle is the shuddering almost violently bright blast of color that erupts from her geode. And then she's transformed as well - winged boots, starry leggings, super-long rainbow hair, blue skin, awesome literal wings - and with a shimmer of magic, a dented aluminum baseball bat.

    "Man, I was gonna carry one of those a mile and then eat some of the rest." she grouses, pointing her bat towards the youma like she's telling a crowd a home run is coming. "You messed up big time, cake-thing!"

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
The barrier goes up in time as Takuto saves a civilian from being splat and being encased in frosting hell just in the nick of it. The cake youma listens to the lamentations of the heroes, and Nanoha just stands there, looking at the cake on the ground and back up to the youma. "I worked really hard on some of those you know...!" she says.

"So now I'm going to make you pay, jerk!" she says as she starts splatting the cake with a barrel of low powered shot barrets at point blank. They splatter into the cake but seem to just piss it off. "HEY OW QUIT IT!" it yells.

Meanwhile.

Yuuno notices the barrier going up and peeks out a window, opening it a smidge and sliding out, and running across the courtyard after jumping down onto the roof and an awning.

Scamper scamper scamper.

<< I'm so mad! >> says Nanoha over the telepathy. << I don't care. Mess this thing up! >> she says to the group.

The cake youma has a bat pointed at it. "You messed up by TRYING TO CUT ME!"

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO CUT CAKE!" yells Nanoha.

"THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!" argues the cake back.

Nanoha continues with the barret storm out of anger before she gets SPLAT to the ground in retaliation suddenly finally. SPLAT. WITH FROSTING. "ARGH GROSS!" she yells.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"NO YOU DON'T *GET* TO BE MAD IF YOU CAN'T LOOK AROUND AND FIGURE *A THING OUT,*" Rashmi shouts, beyond indignant at the cake youma's complaints.

    << *BONG!* >> << FLIER FIN >>

As Nanoha gets splattered to the ground by Dark Frosting, Rashmi runs toward her fellow Devicer, insect-like wings already flickering to life at her shoulders. Pausing just long enough to make sure sh gets a good grip, she launches them both into the air. << You all right, Nano-chan? That frosting isn't burny or acidy or anything, I hope? >>

Looking down at the developing melee, she purses her lips for a moment. << Nicomachea: Beta Glace. >>

    << *BONG!* >> << BETA GLACE -- BOOST UP >>

A pair of golden wisps appear at her side, streaking down to give her other allies a very... interesting boost. A feeling of cool determination, as magical ice leaches into their mana; if unleashed, their next attack will not only be empowered by ice, but *create* ice that hobbles, if not entrapping this youma entirely.

It seems Rashmi has a very good idea of how she wants this mess to play out.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    You know what a magical baseball bat is good for? Returning most projectiles to sender. You know what isn't most projectiles? frosting.

    She swings her bat at it, but it just mostly results in her getting less frosting - not none - and her arm is wedged in there amongst all of the frosting. She gets the Beta Glace sadly just after this, and she is busy trying to wedge her hand back from the frosting now. She feels the tingling coolness in her grip as she has to release the grip to at least get her hand free. At least she's able to get her arm free of the frosting by shaking it rapdily, blur-speed movement. "Aw, man. My bat." she says, looking at the frosting like it's betrayed her. Which it hasn't, it was never on her side at the first place!

    "Agh, I really, really should have gotten laser eyes or something..." she bemoans. Can't exactly punch the thing, but that's more common with Dark Energy than she'd like, so she moves to an old standby - what's at hand.

    Denied a baseball bat, she just runs over, kicks the legs out from under a table, picks it up long a long slab of wood, and swings the whole thing into the side of the cake monster, ice crystals from Rashmi's buff flowing off the other end of it. "TABLE FOR ONE!" she can't help but yell. Do these sort of things just come with being a magical girl?

    (yes)

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Brr!" the red-and-yellow-haired Bishounen shivers, laughing, up in midair above the mess on the ground and briefly hugging his arms to himself. Then he nods to Rashmi firmly, starting to lift his hand to thump it into his chest and summon his swords, a wisp of blue-white energy--

And then there's Niji.

Still in midair, Takuto starts laughing himself sick at the table, but still manages to bring his fists together in front of him and gasp out, "TAU GALAXY BEAM!" to shoot forth a jaggedy homing laser at the cake youma.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi cries. << It's just gross! >> say complains telepathically. Indeed, it's gross being covered in frosting that's all overly sugared and not balanced at all! << This frosting is horrible, my family didn't make this! >> she continues to cry.

Yuuno finally appears. "Sorry Nanoha-chan! I was busy doing ferret things." he says, as if he doesn't need to elaborate what ferret things are. << Is everyone alright? >> Yuuno says over the telepathic link.

Yuuno helps Nanoha out of the frosting with a little flier fin help and then it's back to the youma.

Cakezilla takes a frozen table to the body and it sticks and starts to freeze that part of the cake! The same with the Tau Galaxy Beam, a homing laser jaggedly lancing through the air before smacking into it's 'face' (Which seems to be two giant strawberries for eyes, cherries for a mouth and a large dollop of frosting for a nose) and freezing. "No, you can't ice me out!" it yells.

Nanoha Takamachi fires a un-named lancing laser from Raising Heart's staff mode before shifting it to bombardment mode finally, freezing more of the cake.

"I wish I could say it was ice to meet you!" says Nanoha.

Is it working? Slower than maybe Rashmi would like, as it lancing out with some sort of sticky, chocolate innard tendrils. Dark Chocolate! Nanoha manages to avoid being smacked out of the air with Yuuno's help.

"Yuunoooo." cries Nanoha. "They ruined the rally. This isn't even something useful like a lost logia, the jerk. it's just a monster." she says.

<< Confirmed. >> agrees Raising Heart.

"Wow. What bad luck." says Yuuno. "I knoooow!" cries Nanoha. She's still sad about her cakes. Maybe beating up this monster more will help!

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Well it's *starting* to work, but the faster it works, the better; there might still be time to salvage the rally if they can just wrap this up quickly! And now that Yuuno's here to help Nanoha, Rashmi can get into the fight a little more directlWHOA.

Launching herself *upward* to avoid the evil and frankly unsettling Dark Chocolate Innards, she dials in her target.

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

A dozen Barrets materialize around Rashmi's waist, then with a screeching *CRACK* they all turn into jagged, golden chunks of ice. << I'll try and slow it down, >> she calls to her friends. << Don't let up for a second! >>

And the icy Barrets launch out, one after another after another, a new one resummoned the instant one is fired.

The result? A rapid-fire, likely quite painful, build-up of clinging, 'sticky,' hobbling ice, that clings to the youma and itself to become a sheer drag on any attempt to move.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Right? I was gonna win this." Loyalty notes. Is the cake rally a thing you can win? Likely not. Is it worth having the argument with Niji right now? definitely not. "And then eat victory cake!" she growls. "But I guess it's still victory cake after I beat up a big dumb youma." she notes.

    Of course then she has to hit the deck to dodge a glob of Dark Dark Chocolate; but this, she's better at. Having given up at trying to return the projectiles to sender, she's very fast - a blur, in fact - and as long as she focuses on dodging she probably won't get hit. "You can't aim at all!" she yells at the youma, trying to distract it from the others. "Also, HAVE A SEAT." she says, when she stops dodging to grab a chair, fly up into the air, and throw it full force into the thing's face, followed by coming down with her foot to kick it harder in.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Aaaaand THAT's when Takuto decides to laser-lightshow rose-bride himself a couple of swords: he slams his right fist into his chest and yells out, "Star Swordo! EMERAUDE!" and pulls a big green crackling energy sword out, then repeats it with the left and a blue sword, "Star Swordo! SAPHIR!"

Then the Ginga Bishounen does a loop-de-loop through the air, skirt of his jacket flaring out as he spins into a swords-first dive-swoop directly at the willful cake from the side opposite Loyalty.

Then SWISH! SWASH! "GALACTIC CROSS SLASH!" he hollars out, flipping over the cake in an absolutely unnecessary display of flashy gymnastics and landing on Niji's side, on his feet, landing facing the youma.

Landing right in an unseen pie of frosting on the ground, squelch. "Noooo..." is his sad little protest.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi cries to her talking ferret over the cake a bit, which is a total normal thing to do while the fight continues, as she hangs in the air. We will forever wonder... what ferret things are.

(Smash cut to Yuuno stuck in a cardboard tube, making dook sounds, nibbling things he shouldn't. Tapping away at some sort of closet computer made of spare Mid-Chidian parts trying to scan for Lost Logia while wearing a tiny headset, those kinds of things.)

Rashmi fires an array of icy barret shots , quickening the icing over of the cake. The cake also takes a chair directly to the face again, messing up the gaze of the cake lopsided now as it "OW! QUIT IT!" it yells, speech slurred as it face distorts weirdly.

Ginga Bishounen's CROSS SLASH cuts into the cake, opposite of the chair to the face as frosting spluts all over the place as jelly filled, dark chocolate frosting and all sorts of delicious cake things spill out of it. It's kinda gross and disgusting but weirdly would be delicious if it wasn't also a dark energy monster.

"C--Cold!" it splutters out as it finishes finally icing over, stopping it's assault finally.

Nanoha hovers down and starts admonishing the cake. "Shut up! You ruined a rally for a good cause because you we're a delicious looking cake! And also she was maybe going to win?" she says pointing to Loyalty. "I dunno! WE'LL NEVER KNOW NOW!" she yells.

Yuuno pats Nanoha's back consolingly.

"Also there's a cool boy and Rashmi here and they we're contestants!? Also I hate you. And I don't hate anybody!"

The cake just looks ANGERED as it remains iced over. It doesn't feel bad at all!

Should probably end it's existence guys. This thing feels NO REMORSE.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< Nano-chan? >> Rashmi says gently over the comms. << This feels like a really good time to show him just how mad you *really* are. Maybe Buster-class mad? >>

Partly Rashmi wants Nanoha to have the final kill shot for the closure, but also? Ginga Bishounen really needs to see what *their* Kingu can do.

...*With* a little unnecessarily overwhelming help.

    << *BONG!* >> << BURST INDEX: TERA BLAZE -- BOOST UP >>

Rashmi slots a module into place over Nicomachea's 'pages,' and three wispy, oddly jittery balls of energy materialize into being before arrowing toward their targets. While the feel of the Blaze Boost might be familiar, a very Takuto-esque hot-blooded determination to succeed... it carries with it a feeling of something straining against bonds barely holding it in check; the Burst Index, meant to add an extra kinetic blast to an attack.

Rashmi has learned how to imbue <Explosion> element. Enjoy!

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Yeah, do you know how mad that makes me?" Loyalty asks, following Nanoha's lead. "You ruined a great thing for a lot of people - a group coming together to support each other and have fun!" She exclaims, her hands glowing. "Ugh, if only I had my bat, I'd solve you real good..." she says, especially as she feels Rashmi's literally explosive power coursing through her.

    And then she almost slaps her forehead. She can. Summon. Her bad. She worked so hard with Hinoiri to learn how to do that. Which means she can summon it from the frosting. "UGH YOU RUINED SUCH A GREAT DAY FOR ME AND SO MANY OTHERS!" she growls because forgetting fror that period of time makes her feel worse. But with a shimmer of rainbow energy her bat returns to her hand. "You know what you just need to GET OUTTA HERE." she says as she collects the mixture of her own energy and Rashmi's boost into a ball in her hand, which she tosses up in the air.

    LOYALTY... Exploding Homerun Special! she calls as the ball rises and falls and she strikes the rainbow colored ball with a ferocious swing, sending the condensed purifying and explody energy in a long rainbow-trailed arc into the youma.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Rashmi-chan get a picture of this one for Sugata-kun and Wako-chan!! Please!!" Takuto calls over the din toward the sunshine-gold Devicer, and he pushes off (dripping glops of icing) the ground and beams at the monster who's about to get whatever a buster-class mad is'd in the face from Nanoha. He is brightly interested in that, but in the meantime he does have his own shot to shoot, and there's more Rashmi explosion in it, and oh this is fun fun fun, and Takuto winds up to pitch Star Swordo Saphir?!

"TAU EXPLODING BOYFRIEND SWORD!"

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
So the iced over cake, well. ICEed, Iced cake, because cakes are already iced in frosting, get it? Anyways, starts taking smacks and the first thing to hit is Nanoha just screaming "DIVING BUSTER!" from the sky as as a bombardment laser the size of a large truck smacks into the cake and starts exploding around it. To add insult to injury, the purifying blast of the HOMERUN SPECIAL is doing even more terrible damage into the dark energy monster on that fact alone, but it's also explosively so! And then a exploding Sword Smacks into the cake finally and all this explosive power is having quite an effect.

"Wait are you sure that's a good id---" says Yuuno as suddenly the cake monster. Explodes.

Not in an explosion. just. Frosting. Everywhere. Covering everything. Covering Nanoha in white and chocolate frosting and Yuuno in it too. Leaving just two blinking eyes as Nanoha goes. "Arrgggggh not again!" she yells.

Maybe exploding a giant cake monster wasn't thought out too well. At least the frosting is just 'gross' and 'overly sweet' and not horribly energy draining on it's own. It's pretty gross, yea.

"At least the barrier is up. So I won't need to clean this mess. Just the sad regular cake mess." laments Nanoha from her frosting cocoon. She starts wiping herself off. Maybe others can avoid being covered in horrible frosting at least if they thought better than Nanoha did her angered state.

"Thanks for helping guys. I think that cake's problem was it sucked." she considers. "Let's go with that."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
So Rashmi *figured* that was a really good idea. And I mean, explosion + angry mahou = quickly defeated youma, yes? Well, yes, but that ignores all the splattery, goopy, frosting-y attacks it's been throwing around. Which up to now, Rashmi has been managing to dodge!

'Wait are you sure that's a good id--'

When the cake monster explodes, Rashmi is just straight swatted out of the air by a glob of bakery shrapnel, splattered and held against a building across the street with absolute @_@ face for the moment.

<< Y... ya.... yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy...? >>

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"GACGKGHPHTH--" is more or less a reasonable approximation of the sound Takuto makes as he takes an exploding cake to the face. But you know what, frosting is so much better than exploding youma guts, say. Or acidic ichor. Or-- the point is, Takuto lands in defeated surprise, squelching all over again, and sighs. He starts to pick himself up, slips, falls in the frosting again, and SIGHS.

Then tentatively licks his finger.

"It's not horrible," he calls out in Rashmi's direction. "You can probably eat yourself free!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Eggggh." is the closest approximation in text to the noise Loyalty makes as she's hit byu a glob of frosting. But at least the thing is dead. Gone. Explodinated. Still, yuck.

    "There's no way you should be eating monster cake frosting, you could youmafy your spleen!" Loyalty calls as she basically shakes her whole body and sends frosting away from herself (a bit like a dog. or a pony. or a pegasus). "Plus. The *calories*. there's no way this stuff is in any way healthy." she complains.

    "...I have to get out of this outfit before the Barrier comes down. I can't be standing in the street like uh. this." she says.