320/Late Night Snack

Late Night Snack
Date of Scene:	28 August 2023
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	La Crima hunts in the aftermath of Scene 305! She meets Zephyr and Greta!
Cast of Characters:	Norie Okana, Zephyr Windstar, Greta Legend

---

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana fought a witch. Well she helped fight one. She was not prepared for the energy expenditure required of her first fight ever. She was experiencing basically 'dark energy sugar lows' of blacking out and managing to come to before draining someone in public---she had to hunt, and it had to happen now.

Tonight.

So thusly, shifting down into her La Crima persona, she was leaving a trail of dark energy surges across the city in small little spats, leaving a trail of desperate unconscious people in alleyways, behind restaurants or folks walking home alone from late-night work.

Eventually she could be caught up to, some sort of black tendril scooping up a yawning salaryman into the alley by the vampire, starting to drain the man. Another victim tonight as she looked worried in her expression.

"Sorry." she muttered under her breath. "...Sorry...." as looked around nervously. She knew now, these actions left signals and feelings.

She was drawing attention on a magical level and she knew that much now...

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr Windstar was walking home after a profitable day selling soda on the street. She's heading through Mitakihara Ward on the way back to the store over in Akihabara, a scenic route perhaps but she likes being outside.

    That's when she spots a slumped form and Tenraikaze chimes softly. < Chief. I'm picking up Dark Energy signatures. One on this civ and a bunch more. It's like a breadcrumb trail. >

    Zephyr frowns slightly, silently locking her cart up against a lightpole, then plucks the medal from its bracelet mount. "Lets check it out. Set up."

    The teen sets off at a jog, juking down alleyways to stay out of sight while her Barrier Jacket flashes into being as she runs. < Right! Set up! Barrier Jacket set. Shift Device to Gale Mode. >

    The Device expands into its battle axe-like base form. "Area Search, get me some eyes on what's doing this." < Area Search! > The crystal at the head of the axe spalls off a trio of purple 'wisps' that get sent off to follow the trail of drained victims and energy signals.

Greta Legend has posed:
< Barrier Jacket set! Let's go! Adlerflügel!>

A transformation as a Barrier Jacket takes form, changing the attire of Greta Legend, and her red cape taking on flight quality. The younger device mage had tasked herself with going on a late evening patrol. A bit late, and her father was going to be angry if he found out... But it was unlikely that he was going to find out since he never checked in.

"Bugger, bugger bugger...! There'd better not be more...!" She had run into her own set of slumped over bodies, and was now on the trail from a slightly different direction, but she was more focused on the dark magic that she was feeling. "Dreiseelen, find me that energy!"

"< Beginning Area search, Little Red! > Her own device shifting into a battle axe of its own, if a different style. The Gemstone in the head flickering as the it pings out for energy, and then reads back. < 300 meters, Bearing 311. >

"I don't have a compass!"

<< That way. > Before pinging the direction into her head.

"Oh sod off!"

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima would finish her draining from the confused, flailing man and then look down at her hands as she lowered the man carefully down to the ground, slumped against the wall of the alleyway. She balled her hands into fists and then yelled. "It...it's not enough!? Why!?" she called out as she quickly darted backwards into the alleyway, she had to find someone else more. H-how long could she keep sulking like this. In alleyways. Behind buildings. Soon enough. There'd be no one left.

Then what?

She'd make the mistake of melding into a wall and then sort of darting upwards as a shadow along the side, before reaching the building's top.

She'd jog across the top and peer down into the next alleyways. She could be visible to fliers up here. And she was still fairly close to her last location, but she was frantically searching, and clearly the dark energy signal that both device users have been tracking as she, as she frets..

"No one here..." she said quietly and moves to the right side of the building, facing the road....

Ah... another man. Walking home alone late at night... someone else to drain...

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr takes flight as she feels confident of the lack of civvies that could spot her. Purple fins appear around her ankles, as Tenraikaze pings, < Flier Fan! > The fins start to spin rapidly around the girls ankles as they launch her skyward. < Chief. Target located. Coordinates are specific. > Zephyr's head turns as she crests the rooftops... and spots La Crima skulking atop one, like a predatory bird about to dive on a prey item.

    Thrusting her right hand forwards, a rhomboid spell seal appears in front of her palm. "Ribbon Bind!" she calls, announcing her presence as more spell seals appear around La Crima, then lash out with purple ribbons of magic to seize limbs and restrict movement. < Ribbon Bind! Restrict Lock! >

    "Disarm any Devices or other weapons, and cease all aggressive magic use. This is your only warning."

Greta Legend has posed:
If Greta wasn't so focused on the job, maybe she might have spotted Zephyr pathing in a similar direction. But she has not, so he doesn't yet realize that she has an assist, or is providing an assist.

She does, however, spy La Crima atop the roofs after a point, and reads that as the source of the dark energy, and quite possibly the fallen civilians.

Was that full monster? Or some sort of magical human enemy? Well, time to find out, "Time to put a stop to this. HRAAGH!"

Greta gives no such warnings to La Crima, and instead just dives from the air, aiming to slam into the villain with a dropkick!

Needless to say, it's probably not standard capture procedure.

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima is ready to shadow meld down the side of the building again as she'd gotten up here before her arm is caught in a bind quickly, giving her a warning as her body bends in un-nervingly non-human ways to avoid the rest of the binds----did her wrist just turn 360 degrees? It did.

She's about to say something when she gets dropkicked from the sky and this has the effect of breaking the bind as she's driven into the ground and leaves a rather large ichor trail in her wake... that seems to quickly follow after her as she brings her hands to her face as if to protect herself. She crawls up to her feet and frowns.

"...well..." she says quietly. "I guess there isn't anything for it now..." she says quietly as she draws up her hand quickly and fires off a quick blast of dark energy in an orb towards Greta, the girl in front of her currently. It's... not aimed very well. It could possibly miss all on it's own.

"J--just go away! Leave me alone... it..is isn't what it looks like...!"

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    < Chief. New contact incoming at high speed. > Announces Tenraikaze... as Greta just flies straight in and dropkicks La Crima.

    Zephyr blinks and tilts her head a little at that. In another universe, a little popup would appear in Greta's view: Zephyr Liked That.

    As it stands, she recovers from the surprise and grips her axe with both hands, bringing it around horizontal. "You've hurt a lot of people. It's looking pretty bad from where I'm stood." she replies, shifting her feet and pulsing forwards. She comes down with her axe swinging in a wide sweep, its blade glowing an ominous purple that seems to be boiling off the metal. < Mistral Cutter! > announces Tenraikaze. If she connects with something, even if it isn't La Crima herself, that blade detonates like a shaped charge, an attack designed to break through defenses and disrupt tough opponents.

Greta Legend has posed:
For what it's worth, Greta was rather pleased with her takedown, but Dreiseelen announces, < *khz*Little Red, we might have interrupted the enemy's capture by another Mage. Sensing Intelligent Device. >

Greta blinks and finally takes notice of Zephyr, "Bugger, -really-? Might not have needed to---"

Her train of thought is promptly derailed by sudden and unceremonious energy blast, which didn't need much aiming thanks to proximity, and Greta gets sent tumbled over due to her inattentiveness.

"Verdammt... Ow..." Greta picks herself back up, somewhat displeased at herself more than anything... "Oh, sure, let you take energy from people... Sure we can just do that..." While re-gripping her axe device.

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima peeks her eyes open as she sees she hit Greta and she blinks. That hit!? It hit! Well, is that a good thing. "S..sorry..." she says quietly. She frowns. "I..I need to drain energy. It's important. I don...I don't want to--but I need to." she says quietly still.

"Can't you just leave me alone? The people are fine. They just are tired after..." she says gently.

She then blinks when something clinks into the ground near her and detonates, sending her flying through the air and down into the rooftop's floor.

She winces and frowns, laying there a moment as she crawls back to her feet and grabs her arm. "All you're doing is making it harder for me so I have to drain even more people to heal!" she shouts. "S..so stop it!" she says angrily. "I..I don't want to fight... I don't want to do any of this." she says, firing another poorly aimed ball of dark energy towards Zephyr this time. "SO STOP!"

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    < Rampart Aegis! > announces Tenraikaze, an interlocked hemisphere of interlocked hexagonal plates appearing to intercept the ball... only for it to go wobbling away into the air.

    "Look, I get that but... you're hurting people, and I can't let that slide. If you could use any other type of energy for this, I'd have no problem with you."

    She aims the head of her axe at La Crima like one would a magic staff, the blades opening up to expose the crystal a bit more. "As it is... we can't reconcile this difference."

    She glances over to Greta, "You good to go?" she asks. "Lets finish this off quick."

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta nods slowly as she regroups, and shifts her stance, her axe shifting in her hands...

But something doesn't quite sit right with her in this moment, and her eyes flick to Zephyr, "Hold up.. Isn't it weird that a youma is apologizing for her actions?" Up until now she had only taken on unapologetic monsters and creatures that were clearly not human.

Except that one other time fighting Noroima.

"Define 'Finish off'?" She was all for destroying monsters, but La Crima seemed too human...

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima blinks when her shot goes flying off into the sky and she tenses her hand. "Please..."

"There's no lasting harm to those people. Th...they're all just sleeping..." she says. She keeps her hand raised and starts gathering more energy into her palm as she winces.

"...don't wanna fight..." she insists as she listens to that term, 'finish off' before she calls out. "Explosión!", Spanish accent and all as a beam of purple energy erupts from her hand, and fires off towards the two... aiming towards an endpoint between the two as it erupts into a sizeable dark energy blast trying to graze the two.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she manages to stutter out, afterwards. "YOU'RE MAKING THINGS WORSE!"

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr is about to answer Greta, when La Crima's explosion comes lancing out. Tenraikaze autocasts another Barrier spell to absorb the blast, but she gets sent tumbling through the air from the sheer impact. She rights after a moment, landing on a rhomboid platform of a spell seal with a grunt.

    "Fine... then explain yourself." she says... and dismisses her Device to its standby form, which she clips into her right bracer. "Get us to understand why you're doing this."

Greta Legend has posed:
< Blitzbarriere! > Dreiseelen likewise casts as well, the lesson learned from the the initial attack that caught Greta by surprise (she was distracted, in fairness), but the explosion does the tick of shocking the girl back into the moment, and splitting her from Zephyr.

Of course, now that the more aggressive action has been taken after Greta had tried to suggest to the other girl to hear La Crima out, causes Greta to groan, "Scheiße! You're not helping your case by trying to blow us up!" Her axe grip tightening instead mostly out of annoyance.

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima closes her eyes tightly and lowers her hand. "Nrg... it doesn't matter. When you hear anyways. Or decide I can't be fixed you'll hurt me anyways!" she says as she shakes her hand a bit, frowning a little.

She tries anyways. "I..I'm an energy vampire. I need to feed. I didn't ask to be this way. Okay!? I..normally it's only t..two people but... but I didn't know fighting --s--some sort of strange creature killing people would make me so hungry or I wouldn't had bothered!" she says angrily.

"So--so just leave me alone. I need to keep going tonight... I need to. N. E. E. D." she repeats.

"So just...go away!" she says, keeping her eyes closed.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr listens. She's encountered parasitic monsters, Lost Logia that suck peoples life right out of them. But none of them were sapient, let alone sentient. She glances at Greta to make sure the other Mage isn't going to do anything just yet and floats slowly down to land on the rooftop not far from La Crima. "Could you absorb from a Mage? Or does it have to be non-magic users?" she asks as her boots click firmly against the rooftop concrete. < Chief? >

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta for her part shows a bit of patience. She tends to be aggressive in encounters, but up until now she hasn't run into too many situations where the monsters could be reasoned with. "You're suggesting that she takes energy from us?"

< Little Red, such a course of action is ill ad-ad-ad-ad*ksht*very bad idea. >

Greta glances to her device, noting its distorting voices, and glitching, before saying, "It's okay, Dreiseelen... I'm supposed to help people, right?"

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima peeks her eyes open. "Nrg. This again." she says, sulking and going a bit slack. "Ugh. Riven-senpai said I should just take energy if offered so... I guess you're offering energy. Yeah. I can take it. No. I can't promise it'll be enough." she says softly.

"It'll sting for a moment." she says. "I'm told." she says as she sighs.

"So just... when you're ready. I guess." she says. Unsure sounding about this, but willing.

"I'm making no promises. Beyond on that." she says quietly.

"Alright?"

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "Fair enough." replies Zephyr, looking back up at Greta. "You don't need to do this too... this is my decision, feel free to make your own call."

    Zephyr then holds her arms out to the sides. "What do I need to do?" she asks La Crima, while silently telling her Device to calm down.

Greta Legend has posed:
"What? Wouldn't going halfsies be safer?" Greta interjects. If this turns out bad and the older girl ends up going out for the count, and the energy vampire made the go at Greta afterwards, they could at least have each other's back, for what that was worth.

She does however hold back, resting her device on her shoulder still in axe form.

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima sighs and sort of slides forward a bit across the rooftop towards Zephyr, but stops dead when she's in reach. She sighs. "Like I said. This stings." she says as she reaches out to touch Zephyr on the shoulder and then there's a crackle of dark energy, a sharp pain and it lasts for a few seconds, only but somehow feels longer than that, and then she draws her hand away. She's not aiming to drain to unconsciousness here right now.

"I'm also assuming you don't want to spend the night on a roof." she says deadpan. "Asleep." she says as she sighs and looks to Greta.

"Well am I leaving now. Or is it your turn?" she asks to Greta.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    It hurts, so very badly. She felt certain she could brace against it, but the sheer intensity caught her off guard.

    She lets out a yelp of pain, then drops to a knee with a grunt. < Chief!? Linker Core pressure reading... 63%. > Zephyr waves off the Device, "I'm fine. You weren't joking about it stinging."

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta goes wide eyed and moves in to check on Zephyr, eyes flicking back to La Crima for a moment of reflexive hostility, but then Dreiseelen chimes in, < Ally's condition is nominal. Recommend retreat.>

Greta grits her teeth before looking back to La Crima, "That kinda bloody depends, doesn't it? Do you need more juice?"

< Little Red, egging potential enemy on is ill advised >

Norie Okana has posed:
La Crima frowns. "S-sorry....." she says. "S..sorry..." she says more quietly.

She then is taken aback by Greta's general sudden demeanor. She side eyes a little in a different direction. "S..sorry..." is all she can say again. "Y...yes but...don't worry about it. I should be fine. for tonight now. Um."

"Thank you..." she says to Zephyr. "I hope we don't meet again." a pause. "I mean. Do you really want to?" she snorts before she'll shadow meld into the rooftop's floor and try to skeedaddle away into the alleyway to go off into the shadows, and away into a duskport from there, not wanting to do so openly- at the moment.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "..." Zephyr doesn't say anything to La Crima as she retreats. She does place her hand over her own chest and stands up, wincing a little. "I hope she finds an alternative way of getting energy..." she remarks softly, then looks over at Greta. "So... uh... Hi?" she begins awkwardly.

    "Name's Zephyr. Zephyr Windstar... Windstar is my family name, so Zephyr's my first name." she adds in a way that feels practiced to head off misunderstandings. "I'm... starving, y'wanna go see if there's anywhere open at this hour?"

Greta Legend has posed:
The younger mage sighs as her device shifts into stand-by mode, before looking back to Zephyr, "Are you sure you're okay? That looked bloody painful... Considering how many people she must have gone through up until that point, I hope that you capped her off."

And then the awkward post-encounter silence, she ums a little before actually processing Zephyr mentally, and squints at the name, "Zephyr Windstar? ... Bugger, that's a better hero name than 'Sunshine Spark'..." Clearly referring to herself, before catching the key words, "Wait, what do you mean 'family name'? That's not a hero codename?"

At the mention of food, she looks around the roof, and hmms.. "Looks like we're in Mitakihara... There's got to be a couple of good ramen stalls on the street."

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "It's... my name" replies Zephyr. "I'm not from around here." she implies, "This is Tenraikaze. It means 'Divine Wind'." her Device chimes happily. "And yeah, I'm fine... it hurt, sure but nothing worse than I've been through before..." she looks toward where La Crima left to. "I don't think she actually wants to hurt anyone... she could have drained me dry if she'd wanted, but she only took enough to... I dunno, take the edge off?"

    She sighs, then moves to the edge of the roof, turns around and falls backwards off of it. She sticks the landing at the bottom, then dismisses her Barrier Jacket while waiting for the other Mage to join her.

    "Lets go see about one of those stalls then."

Greta Legend has posed:
The blonde ringlet haired girl nods slowly, "Um... Okay... I'm Greta Legend... Legend being my surname..." If Zephyr was a fellow mage fighting the bad guys, may as well drop the veil, which is a concept she's stepp trying to process. "And this is Dreiseelen."

The device chrips in acknowledgment, but it's quite evident that the device is not in prestine condition just from its audio.

She follows Zephyr to the edge and weatches her just fall backward to the ground and huhs. "Making this whole mage business look fancy..." She speaks in German so as to avoid her mumbles being understood, before following suit, and making a three point landing, before dismissing her own Barrier Jacket.

With the mask off and glasses on, the age difference becomes quite evident. "Plenty of stalls to find." While she doesn't know the best off hand, she spies one not terribly far ahead and points to it.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr nods to Greta, then looks at the Device briefly. "You might want to find a Meister to look at your Device, it's not exactly sounding too great... proper maintenance is essential if you want your partner to be able to keep up with you." she says, as if lecturing a lower-classman or something.

    It becomes more and more clear that while she's speaking something that sounds like Japanese, it's not... quite. Like some words just sound, off, but are understandable as their normal counterparts.

    "How long've you been doing this, anyway?" she asks, shifting to vaguer questions and hoping Greta can answer with equally vague (to those not in the know at least) answers.

Greta Legend has posed:
"Meister?" The German word just sticks out to Greta from the rest of the apparent Japanese. IS it Japanese? Why did it seem off? Given the effort it took her to learn the language, these quirks were going to drive her up the wall. At least it wasn't as irritating as the fourth language she was working on learning.

FRENCH.

"A little bit over a month. I've had them for years... A gift from my mother before she..." She shakes her head, "Anyway... Didn't know at all he could do this until they woke up and saved me from a monster."

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "Yeah, they're specialists in designing and building Devices. My Dad's a Meister... but I can't get in touch with him anymore." replies Zephyr with a sigh. "That... sounds a lot like someone else I know... they've been at this for, less time, but knew about it for a lot longer." She looks at the menu on the ramen cart, and places her order. "Oh, I work at Jan Ken Pop, that soda place in Akihabara Mall. I run their mobile cart." she adds as a weird subject change.

Greta Legend has posed:
"Okay, good to know... Haven't really been to Akihabara since I got here, but I'll get around to it.." Greta comments before making her own order, before pulling her brooch that her device takes the form of when inactive, "Is he really in that bad a condition?"

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "I'm not qualified to say definitively, but just from the audio output alone." replies Zephyr with a shrug. "Better safe than sorry, I'd say." She starts eating, her right hand using the spoon, while her left works the chopsticks like a practiced veteren. "Do you go to the academy? What was it called... Radiant Heart?"

Greta Legend has posed:
"That's right. 7th year... Transferred between semesters because of my father's work. Best school in the area, he says, and it probably is.." Greta just sort of shrugs as she gets to her own Ramen, also sporting the chopsticks, while in her free hand she pulls out her phone and starts tapping. "Bugger, I didn't think it would get this late..." Surprised, but not in a panic about it.

"I'll have to get home as soon as I'm done..." Before she begins to eat the ramen, and her phone starts tapping at taking notes of something.

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    "I take it your father isn't exactly the most... uh, present of parents?" asks Zephyr awkwardly, glancing sidelong at Greta with one of her mismatched eyes. "I could walk you part of the way, I kinda need to go get my cart again, I left it locked up nearby when I... came to check on those people."

Greta Legend has posed:
"Being a boss in some big company tends to make him nearly always busy... Except when he checks in on me personally, and that's when he says its all going to be worth it..." Greta proceeds to trail off in a stream of German, "Er benimmt sich hochmütig und mächtig, als wüsste er wirklich, was gut für mich ist, wenn er nie in der Nähe ist!"

That's when she catches herself, and shakes her head, "Sorry... He just... Makes me angry sometimes...

At the mention of walking, she nods. "Sounds like a plan... I was going to just fly it, but I guess it wouldn't hurt."

Zephyr Windstar has posed:
    Zephyr listens. She doesn't understand any of what's being said, but the emotion carries well enough. "Don't worry... I feel the same way about my mom sometimes too. When your parent is in a position like that... it just feels really bad that you seem to take second place sometimes."

    She finishes her food, sets the bowl down and bows politely to the stall owner. She turns to leave, heading back to her cart at a slower pace. "I will tell you though. He is probably doing this from the direction of love. He wants you to have the best life he can give you... but that just means he's losing out on part of it now."

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta nods and sighs, "I... I know... It's just ever since mama... I..." She sniffles a bit before shaking her head and drying her eyes that had begun to tear up. "Verdammnt, nicht in der Öffentlichkeit..." She mumbles, before taking a breath and finishing her ramen.

"It's fine... Let's just go..."