769/Turkey Time

From Radiant Heart MUSH

Turkey Time
Date of Scene: 15 November 2023
Location: Pikarigaoaka Ward
Synopsis: Scorn tries to steal turkeys. Pretty Cures and an Oni Princess stop her. At least one bird gets pardoned.
Cast of Characters: Scorn, Kureha Senkenzan, Aki Kurosawa, Cho Konishi, Hime Shirayuki, Iona Hikawa
Tinyplot: The Precure Hunter Attacks!? The Dreaded Precure Graveyard!


Scorn has posed:
Tomu Shichimencho is one of a few mom and pop importers of niche products. And one of those products was Turkeys. Frozen Turkeys. He's delivering a small order to a local grocery store that deals in 'exotics' and that's when there's a thud from the back of his van and suddenly the door is kicked open by...

A kindabad!? He has two turkeys under his arm, he jumps out and then there's more...and more and they're stealing the turkeys! OUT comes Tomu from hyis van as he chases down the kinda bads. "HEY GIVE THOSE TURKEYS BACK!" says Tomu. Out jumps more Kindabads with frozen turkeys. "THIS IS A NIGHTMARE...!" says Tomu.

"This is hardly a nightmare!" says the voice of Scorn as she hops from the back of the van. hands on her hips. "Oh, the nightmare has hardly begun for this awful upcoming American holiday! WELL, I'll tell you what I'm thankful for, one is Queen Mirage-samaaaaa! The other is misery and misfortune!"

"HEY WHAT'S YOUR DEAL!" says Tomu.

"LET THE FUTURE REFLECTED IN THE MIRROR BECOME TERRIBLE!" calls out Scorn as mirrors rotate around her and Tomu before it stops and Tomu is sealed into one of the coffin like mirrors!

"PLEASE COME OUT, COME OUT, MY TERRIBAD!" calls out Scorn as the mirror flashes out and in front of it, forms...a Turkey Terribad!? "GOBBLE!" goes the Terribad as it clucks. "Ahhahaha, amazing!" goes Scorn as she stares up at the amazing Terribad she just created. Corvus, on her shoulder- facepalms. "Why is it a giant turkey!?" he whispers.

Kindabads continue to steal frozen turkeys in the meantime.

(Kindabads are chumps, feel free to just blaze through/punch/take them out as you wish without waiting for a response from me!)

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Recently, Kureha Senkenzan has been interested in 'exotics', as it so happens. Her trip to Rashmi's family restaurant a while back had prompted a culinary awakening, and she has been trying hot foods and sauces from all over the world. Having no clue about any Thanksgiving tradition, she's just here - accompanied by Chisa, the most understanding of her three attendants - to pick up some hot sauces.

    And now there's some guys in black outfits stealing turkeys.

    For a moment, the scion of the Chikafuji is dumbfounded. Even Chisa looks utterly baffled. But it's not hard to figure out that something is going on that requires magical girl intervention, not when the lady is shouting some kind of evil mantra. A mantra that... turns someone into a turkey...?

    Kureha quietly turns to look at Chisa. "I... I believe I may need to deal with this..." The woman gives a knowing nod, and then turns to find somewhere safe to wait it out. Meanwhile, the magical oni is reaching for her magatama pendant; in half a heartbeat, she's engulfed in a swirling burst of flames.

    "Rekka Saisei!
        Youkai Musume... Onihime."

    The ogre princess doesn't even hesitate; she just starts charging straight into the Kindabads, swinging punches that will probably send them flying.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide comes screaming down from the sky, having walked past just before this chaos started as she looked behind herself, ran into an alley and now she's here, coming down with a driving kick as she skids along the ground, taking out a large line of kindabads with her descent.

Ugh. She should never had taught Haruna all those American Holidays. Still, she comes to a skidding stop and kicks a final kindabad in the face off into the side of a building.

"I'm thankful...I found you Scorn. But can we please stop this? Just...Just...let us help you... get out of this...this stuff." she pleads as she eyes that... is that a giant Turkey Terribad. That is kind of cool.

"Too bad I need to stuff that turkey." she says, slamming her fist into her palm.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong sighed and was already halfway out the door when Wuwu landed on her shoulder. She actually jumped a little, before glaring at him. "What?"

"Trouble," he said. "Time to bring out the king."

Cho sighed and went back into her room, closing the door and then, one quick henshin later, was heading towards the back door--

"Hey, you should bring the princess!" Wuwu said.

"The princess? Co-- OH! You mean Cure Princess?"

"Exactly," Wuwu said. "It'll be fun! Besides, she could use the experience. Trust me, she'll love it."

Cure Wukong sighed and then... "Fine, fine."



*Now, arriving on scene.*

Cure Wukong arrived, with a monkey on her back! More importantly, though, she had a princess in her arms! That's right, the Monkey King brought backup, in this case, a princess!

Which was very, very bad for the kindabad she landed on... then bounced off of. Then the second. The third. She managed to come to a complete stop on the third one, at least. Then stared forward at the kindbad with a turkey.

The kindabad stared back.

She stared.

It stared.

She leaned back and kicked the turkey out of its hands, sending it flying... at Corvus. Then she brought the foot down on the kindabad's head, before finally putting the princess down. "Hey! Scorn! Uhhh... bird who's name I forget! If you want to make bird friends, you need to save them BEFORE they're put in the super market! After they've been prepped for cooking they're food, not friends!" she yelled.

Wuwu, at least, snorted before jumping off her back and scampering off and out of the fight... likely dragging Cure Princesses fairy with him.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Cure Princess was very nervous! She struggled in these fights, and this was one of the first times she'd be fighting alongside another PreCure! She NEEDED to impress her! As they soared through the air, her own fairy trailing behind, she clung with wide eyes, her huge pigtails trailing in the wind. After the bounces she tumbled to her feet and then struck a pose. "Cure Princess is on the scene!," she cried out, trying to act brave. She glanced about to take in the scene and took a deep breath, before dragging her fingers along her wrist device to prepare a move.

"Cure Princess Machine Gun!"

Several balls of pale blue energy manifested and she let out a YAAAAAAAH! as she flung them at the KindaBad's, sending several of them flying! Ha! You can do this!

She does a little fist-pump in victory, before she squeals as several of them rush her, and she turns to run behind a mailbox!

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona is walking on the sidewalk after her training at the dojo is over, which has proven to be fairly interesting all in all. She is heading back to her dorm room at RHA, Glasan resting still in the purple-headed girl's bag when she hear the noises of the Kindabads.

"Glasan, kindabads! And they are stealing turkeys.", Iona says as she hides in a convenient alley. "Eh, turkeys? The Phantom Empire trying to hold a thanksgiving for all the kindabads?" the fairy says, as she is shook out of her acting.

A brief stop in a nearby alley later, Cure Fortune runs out of it, the fairy in tow as she gazes down at the kindabads. "Stop right there, the Phantom Empire certainly has no thanks to give!" she yells, starting to punch out any kindabads she sees heading it to steal turkeys.

Scorn has posed:
Kindabads fly on to the pavement and sidewalks and nearby grass as they're kicked, skidded into, punched and Princess Machine Gunned! A turkey flies through the air graceful and Corvus 'catches it' in his wings but also the turkey is too fast he gets punted off Scorn's shoulder with a squawk!

Cure Wukong. She knows. She doesn't know that oni girl... Cure Princess... a name she's heard in passing from Oresky and his 'trio'. And... Cure. Tide. With that speaking again.. only makes her clench her hands. "I don't need your help!" she says as she unfurls her hand forward. "TERRIBAD! GO GIVE THEM A GOBBLE GOOD TIME?!" she yells.

"GOBBLE!" goes the terribad as it charges forward and with it's beak tries to peck hard into Cure Tide, who currently has the all of Scorn's Ire....

The others still have a few kindabads around, but they're thinning out, really at this point, no longer the numerous groups of them.

Oh Corvus? He's fine. He should just be fine. He's fine, right Corvus!?

Corvus is not fine as he rests under a frozen turkey with @.@ eyes.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Onihime swings and smashes, her fighting style not all that dissimilar from a Cure's - except that it's noticeably less aerobatic, more along the lines of graceful powerhousing. There's a quick side-glance as Wukong comes down with a passenger, and a flicker of recognition in those fiery eyes. "You. You were there at the museum, weren't you?" A pause. "I settled on 'Onihime.'" She glances at the Terribad, then back at Wukong. "How do we resolve this? I can smash things and I can burn things. That's about-"

    Cure Princess goes running.

    Kureha stares for a few seconds.

    But then she lets out a sigh, and begins moving to intervene; reaching over to grab a large trash bin, and hurling it straight at the pack of Kindabads. But as soon as she's thrown it, she goes charging right in behind it.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong actually paused for a moment. "Wait. MACHINE gun? You get a MACHINE gun? That's so cool!" Yes. So having a princess machine gun, even if it was really just... magic ranged punches. But, you know. Still cool.

Until she hid.

"... Uhhhh... Princess? You... okay? Over there?" she asked. She then turned towards Tide. "Cure Tide! You deal with Scorn! Leave the rest of them to us!" She, meanwhile, was getting ready to attack Corvus but uhh... Wow. The frozen turkey cook him out. Dang. What did they make those things with? Then the Oni! "Onihime? Cool! Okay, well... uhhhh. Please help Princess. Deal with the kindabads. Then we need to take out the other birds! Help Tide if she needs it! As for the turkey!" Her eyes glimmered. "THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM!" she yelled before running forward, drawing her staff out from behind her ear...

Then using it to polevault OVER the turkey, trying to snatch its hanging wattle, and slide onto its back.

That's right. Three bird youma, three weeks(ish). Three monkey rides. "Giddyup!" she yelled, spurring it on with a neck kick and trying to angle it towards a wall. "Wait no there's not a field of no property damage today is there?!"

...Crud.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide nrgs a little bit. She's preparing for pecks when... Cure Wukong tells her to worry about Scorn and saddles up on the giant turkey. (Presumably.) and leaves her free to tackle Scorn. She raises her arms up and gets into a fighting posture.

"SCORN!" she calls out. "You have to stop this, you know it's not right!" she says with concern. "Come home. Even as you are...it..it'll be hard but we can adjust.... I just...want you back...please?" she calls out before, running headlong towards the Crow Witch and trying to throw all her energy into a punch as her hand glows an ocean blue. "TIDE PUNCH!" she calls out as she tries to lug Scorn right in the chest.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
"Cure Fortune, look there! The Phantom Empire general!", Glasan warns Iona as she keeps punching through the thinning number of kindabads. "Ok, I will finish with these!", Iona says raising the arm with the Love PreBrace.

"Fortune Star Ring!", the Precure yells out, spinning the dial on the brace, stars that then become hula hoops being turned towards the remaining kindabads. Ok, these are done, now the general. Which is neither Oresky, Namakelder or Hosshiwa. How come has she never met her before? Is the Phantom Empire calling in reinforcements from elsewhere? "Glasan, do you recognise her?", she asks, expecting a negative response, which is what the fairy gives her. "No, she is completely new."

"Who are you?" Cure Fortune asks the other girl. "The Phantom Empire too scared to leave those three by themselves?" A scowl flashes on Iona's face before she is distracted by the Princess Machine Gun.

"Cure Princess", the violet girl speaks coldly. "I see you can at least hit your enemies now. Don't think you starting to pull your weight changes anything."

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Cure Princess ducks behind the mailbox, panting a bit as chaos and combat roars around her. Her faity grabs at one of her long pigtails and yanks on it.

"Get out there! Come on!!" Cure Princess swats at her before peeking out over the mailbox. Cure Wukong's worry isn't noticed as she takes it all in. And then there's Cure Fortune, and her heart drops into her stomach. "I...I..!" Her Fairy whispers harshly at her, telling her to show that mean Cure up! It's what she needs to hear, it seems.

She cries out with a very unscary battle cry and leaps over the mailbox. She stares at the huge TerriBad, taking a deep breath.

"Princess Explosion Bomber!," she cries. She rotates the thing on her wrist, and two huge balls of light blue energy appear in her hands. She closes her eyes and screams, launching them at the TerriBad! Whether it hits or not the explosions are...large.

Scorn has posed:
Kindabads are now thinning out to basically nothing. There's no more remaining kindabads. They're gone. All that's left is the Turkey Terribad...

Speaking of which, it's very easy to mount the Terribad and drive it towaerd's a wall. It slams into the wall, probably leaving a path of hard destruction in it's wake as it "GOBBLES!" out in rapid succession, though it isn't down it starts to try to throw Wukong off, bucking in the aier. (Even though it isn't a chicken!?). Before it takes a strong hit from the sudden explosion to it's right, as the explosion is indeed large as it sends the Turkey Terribad flying a little. (Turkeys can fly!?).

Scorn throws up her arms in a cross to tank the hit, sending her skidding across the grass she's chosen to take up residence on, away from the street, She throws out her arms and unleashes a windy burst of dark energy towards Tide with no call out as she makes a sound. "NRAGH!" she goes.

"TIDE, YOU..." then there's questions.

"I'm Scorn, Court Witch of the Phantom Empire...!" she says dramatically. "-and I'm going to KILL this Precure...." she says, racing forward to try to throw a windy, strong punch upwards into Cure Tide's face.

Corvus is slowly coming to as he pushes the frozen turkey off him. "W..who got the number..on that truck..." he says.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Help Princess. Deal with the Kindabads. Take out the other birds. Help Tide.

    Simple instructions, which Onihime is fairly certain she can follow quite forcefully.

    Any Kindabad within arm's reach of the horned magical girl is having a bad day. She hits like a bus, she grabs like a vise, she swings like a carnival ride. Generic mooks are punched, slammed, swung as weapons, it's a bad time. But they very quickly run out, and Princess even comes out to open up on the Terribad. "...you seem to be doing fine," she observes with a raised eyebrow.

    So, time for the next target. Fiery eyes sweep the area, looking past discarded frozen turkeys, battered mooks, briefly lingering on the brawl between Scorn and Tide; but the latter doesn't seem to be in dire straits just yet. So she looks for her next target.

    As Corvus slowly comes around, he finds himself looking at the hem of a kimono patterned with fire. From above him, Onihime speaks. "Good evening. I have been asked to 'take you out', using their words. Vague enough that I am inclined to give you the opportunity to flee before I start swinging my fists. I shall leave the choice in your hands."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong shrieks as the turkey bucks, but she holds on! "I've got it, I've go--" Oh. Oh no. It was flying. She shrieked, holding on... and then... Huh. It got dark all of a su--

Splat. The bird landed on its back, Wukong disappearing beneath it. She was gone. No longer would they hear her battle cry. No longer--

Okay, not really. As the bird flailed around beneath it... suddenly there was a rumbling. Then, a moment later... Her great staff spread and rose off, launching the bird OFF her! She stood triumphant!

Actually, she laid there in a crater, putting on a startling display of Corvus at the moment. "O-owie... anybody... get the... license... plate...?"

Still, she couldn't move much. But she had a plan! Tearing off some hairs, she threw them into the air. And her clones appeared!

... All of them laying on the ground in their own little craters of 'ow'. Right. They semi-cloned her at the moment. B-but... maybe the bird brain wouldn't remember which one was which?

"I-I'm okay!"

"I'm not!"

...She hated her clones somedays.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide watches Scorn just shrug off her attack. But she is trying to 1v1 a Dark General of the Phantom Empire. Alone. She gets blasted by wind and thrown backwards to open her eyes to a short discussion before she's slugged in the face. Hard, and sent backwards, flying onto her back as she sees stars. She tries to get up, and crawls to her knees. Before staggering up. Argh it hurts to keep her eyes open.

"S..Scorn. Haruna. Please. W..what do I have to do. to stop you?" she mutters.

Shaking, she tried to using her wings to fly at the black blur she's pretty sure is Scorn and attempts a normal punch into her. She's not okay. But she's still trying after taking the excessive hits from the dark general.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
The Phantom Empire has a Court Witch. Not a general, but a witch. She hasn't actually tried to sling spells at them, though. Is there something she can do that the trio of generals can't?

And Ribbon calls her mean. "Ribbon, Cure Princess can't be trusted", Iona tells the fairy. "The least we have to deal with her the better."

The Terribad is flying a little upwards. If that explosion sent it flying, then she will use an explosion to reach it and knock it out of the sky. "The Terribad isn't getting anywhere!" Another spin of the dial and purple energy condenses around her fist.

"Fortune Star Burst!", she says, before the energy explodes in a fiery burst that sends Iona towards the Terribad. The explosive fist will probably hurt it a lot if it lands.

"Be careful, Cure Wukong. Remember you are trying to break away from your master's purely offensive style", Cure Fortune admonishes Cho lightly. Her training has just started, but at least it would pay off to avoid the easily dangerous actions.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Ribbon frowns and flies to Cure Fortune as Princess works on the Terribad. "That's not true, Cure Fortune! She made a mistake! She wasn't being malicious! I don't think she CAN be malicious! ...Just really spoiled and dumb!"

Thankfully, Cure Princess is focused and doesn't hear this exchange. She takes a deep breath and cries out, leaping into the air and closing the distance with the TerriBad. She swings her little fists again and again, hitting the Turkey with surprising strength, again and again!

"HYAAAAA! I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"

And then a random swings sends her flying and slamming into a wall with an OOF!

Scorn has posed:
The Terribad..doesn't mean to hit Cure Princess after it gets hit and pounded on as it gets up, sending a random wing towards her and sending her flying like that. It looks down at numerous Wukongs however. And starts pecking the clones quickly, trying to find out which one is which is as it gobbles into the air incessantly.

Then Cure Fortune comes down into a Starburst into the side of the Terribad, sending it skidding across the way, through a chainlink fence and into a wall on the otherside of the street there. That...sure was a mighty force of energy there. It should be good for purifying soon, if not now...

Corvus is confronted. He finally gets his bearings. The tiny Crow flaps up to Onihime's face and lets out a raspberry. "Excuse me, I have a witch to fricken save when this garbage backfires!." he flaps away from Onihime like she wasn't there.

Cure Tide get grabbed by the arm and tugged in close. "That's easy. Let yourself be defeated, you... you...!" she tenses her grip...

Cure Tide is clearly on the last leg. So why can't she do what needs to be done right now. She's hesitating, as she has a strong grip on Cure Tide.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Onihime's face remains completely, totally impassive when the bird blows a raspberry in her face. Not even so much as an eyebrow twitch. As Corvus whirls around to fly away, she replies with a simple, deadpan, "The violent method, then."

    She calmly reaches down, picking up the frozen turkey he'd been clonked by once already. She holds it up, hefting it once or twice, gauging its weight. Then, calmly, the oni hauls the icy poultry back, one-armed.

    When she throws it, she puts the same amount of strength behind the throw that she might for throwing a car. There might just be a bow shock on the front of the poultry projectile.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong is going to die. Is sooooo going to die. Is going to--

Oh. Hey. Gobble pecking stopped. She looked up and... Oh. Oh that was a LOT of blasting. Way to go Fortune! She jumped to her feet, tossing her staff into the air and snagging it with her tail. Onihime was... hopefully dealing with Corvus. The terribad was down. That was two turkeys down, effectively. Tide was grabbing Scorn and...

And opening. "Onehime, hold that bird!" she yelled. Then she began doing the katas, quickly going through the five, before unleashing a blast of purifying pink light!

Not at the terribad.

Not at Corvus.

But directly at Scorn. This was an opening unlike any other, she had to at least try.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona says nothing to Ribbon at that point. What, should she just be expected to forgive Hime, when she is responsible for all the loss and damage caused by the Phantom Empire?

The Precure focuses on the Terribad who is now in pretty bad conditions. She could probably try to purify it now, but she doesn't think it's quite there yet. But it's not much longer, soon it will be enough to save the person in the mirror surely...!

"Cure Fortune, about what Ribbon said..." The Precure stops Glasan before she can continue. "Not now, Glasan! We have a Terribad here, like we have always had till that day!"

Iona raises the arm with the Love PreBrace once more, this time violet light emitting from it, saying "Light of the stars, turn into sacred power! Love PreBrace!" Spinning the dial, Iona starts gathering energy around her hands before raising it above her head it the form of a star. "Precure Stardust Shoot. Stars, return to the Heavens!" she finishes reciting as her attack hits the Terribad.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Cure Princess groans as she sits up from where she's slumped. She slowly pushes herself to her feet and turns to survey the scene. She swallows, her head spinning and hurting. Her bravado is absolutely shaken. She just took that hit in front of Cure Fortune, of all people. She takes a few breaths, the PreCure hyperventilating a bit as she covers her face.

For the moment the girl is absolutely useless.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide places a hand on Scorn's shoulder. "S..Stop..please..." she begs weakly. "If I can't get through to you then what!? What if Queen Mirage has enough of you!? What if..if you do something you can't take back!?" she saus as she pushes away from Scorn quickly, 0ut of her grasp as she slides across the floor shakily getting to her footing as she grows a determined look. "Nrgk!"

"JOY, BECOME A SACRED POWER!" she calls out, calling up an orb of blue energy, before spinning her Prebrace. "Love Prebrace...." she calls out as she throws the wavy ball of water energy towards Scorn, aiming to hit her....

She won't hit her.

But maybe. With the rest of her energy.

She can save someone else.

Scorn has posed:
The Terribad, weak but getting back onto it's feet, quickly spies CURE PRINCESS and starts to run after hee, before Cure Fortune Stardust shoots it, causing it to be encased into a giant bubble and floating upwards and says..."GooooOBBLE!..." which can be translated as ("Soooo Relaxing!") before it and the dark energy vaporizes away and the van driver is freed from his mirror, blinking rapidly. "My Turkeys...!" he says dramatically as he falls to his knees. Dread! ;_;

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! ;_;

Still, Scorn and Tide fight and Tide pushes away from her. Before Scorn is smacked with the purifying light...causing her to let loose some sort of unearthly screech as dark energy wisps off her, causing her to fall to her knees..... she can feel Tide's purifying energy coming in. Is this it.. is this done?... d..did a turkey just fly over her head?

It did, because the Turkey misses Corvus as he flies directly in front of Scorn and tanks the purifying smash from Cure Tide.. Encased in a glowing light as dark energy wicks and wisps away from him, the same deep yell coming from the throws of purifying light into the much smaller Crow.

But what falls down from the mess isn't a Crow! It's...

A Seagull? An unconscious, currently still Seagull.

"C..Corvus..no..!" cries Scorn who tries to dash forward to grab onto the seagull desperately, even in her now horrid, weakened state. Purple hair, streaked with strange blonde color.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    Oh. The turkey missed. Darn. She'll have to work on her ai-

    Kureha finally realizes just exactly what she's in the middle of. A lot of purifying, and more importantly a lot of deep, fraught emotional ties. She pauses, awkwardly, drawing her arm back and standing up in a more reserved posture, trying to parse the goings-on. It's enough for her eternal poker face to break, just slightly; a faint furrow of the brow.

    Finally, she concludes that it's deeply interpersonal between these people. And she's bad at interpersonal matters even when they involve her. She'll keep her nose out of this particular moment.

    But she can at least stand by, in case things get violent again.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong stared at the... at Scorn. She'd... hit her. With her purifying beam. And Tide was following it up! And... And then CORVUS! DAMN IT! That bird always--

Wait. He... was... a seagull? Ohhhh. That explained why he was so annoying! She leaped forward and... face planted, skidding a bit. Right. Purifying. Always a bit tiring. Just needed to... "Keep them apart! Onihime!" Wukong yelled. "We need to purify SCORN! Don't let her get that bird and try to stop her if you can!" she yelled. Ow. Just need a moment. They were close. They were so close. She glanced to Tide.

Was this... their chance? It had been so long since she'd heard about what happened. But now it felt like they might, finally, be able to fix it. "Princess! Fortune! We need you!"

Iona Hikawa has posed:
The Terribad gets purified and it's to Iona's relief when she finally sees the mirror-coffin dissolve, leaving its prisoner free. While she can do nothing but try to gather the fallen turkeys to help with the seller's dread, she hopes that will help just a little bit.

Except, there is an emergency going on somewhere, so she can't even do that. "Sorry!" she says before turning her attention to where Wukong is calling her.

They need to stop her from moving, right? Well she got what it takes! The ring on her hand lights up, causing a star-shaped instrument to appear in Iona's hand and she lights up the heart on it. Cure Fortune hits one time, causing it to emit a slight percussive sound.

"Light of the stars, turn into sacred power! Fortune Tambourine Ring!" A hollow star appear in front of her and with the tambourine, Cure Fortune launches it towards Scorn, causing it to constrict around her.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide's eyes go wide when the bird gets in the way of her purification throw... but she still keeps it going and when it's all done, when she's all spent... her eyes go even wider as she suddenly yells. "GULLY!?" she sputters hard. T..that makes sense now. Now that she thinks about it...

Gully vanished with Haruna so...

Wait. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" she yells as she suddenly leaps forward with all her remaining strength and scoops the poor seagull into her arms and then just ... curls around him. Protecting him from Scorn. She has to...to keep him away...

"Go...go away, Scorn...please. Another time...!" she begs. Pleads.

Scorn has posed:
Turkeys, frozen, and not youma, litter the ground. This is... is someone elses problem maybe.

Poor, Poor Tomu.

But still, Scorn, partially purified, and not in her right mind tries to grab at Corvus but before she can, Tide takes him and curls around him!? Why would she do that!? Why did he look like a seagull like...

Why does she remember that name, for that bird suddenly.

Before she can ponder more about things that screw with her partially purified mind, she gets constricted with a ring that stops her completely as she stands up weakly. She nrrrrrgss...

"FIRST YOU RUIN MY THANKSGIVING AND NOW YOU'RE TAKING MY BIRD!?" she sputters. "YOU WON'T LIVE THE NEXT TIME I SEE ANY OF YOU! HOW CAN I BE THE CROW WITCH WITHOUT... WITHOUT A CROW! ARGHHHHHHHH!" she yells as she duskports away in a little sudden fade effect.

She's gone and the fight is over.

For now.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    As much as Kureha might hesitate to get involved in personal matters, she's decided to listen to Wukong on this one. And at the very least, once the oni has direction, she takes it without hesitating.

    When Cho calls out to keep them apart, Kureha breaks into a dead run. She's aiming for a diving roll, aiming to snag the seagull before the partially-purified girl can get hold of it. The problem with this is that, while Onihime might be impressively fast compared to the average human, she's on the slow side as far as magical girls go. As a result, Cure Tide manages to get there and succeed before she can. But that's all fine and good; mission accomplished is mission accomplished.

    The problem with this is that, while Onihime might be on the slow side as far as magical girls go, she's impressively fast compared to the average human. That's a lot of momentum to stop, and not a lot of agility.

    As Scorn shrieks in emotionally-confused fury, a sound that actually tugs at Kureha's heart for the sheer anguish... she's also trying to stop very suddenly. With all the speed she's built up, this ends up resulting in a deep, gouging furrow of concrete and blacktop kicking up, a pair of geta-square trenches dug up by the oni's feet before she finally manages to stop.

    And the last dregs of her momentum cause her to go off-balance and tilt forward into a face-flop. "Gyafun-!"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong stared at Scorn. Or, rather, the air that once held her. She then just... laid there. Panting. She rolled onto her back and kicked the last clone to survive the assault because she had to kick something. She then pointed a finger towards Tide.

"Uhhhh... Tide can explain... what all that was about. Or, well, maybe. I'll be good in a moment. That bird rolling me over was a bit of a... fowl hit."

Slooooowly she crawled to her feet and started making her way towards them, only to pause... and then walk to Princess instead. "Heyyyy... Princess? You okay? Wakey upy... we won. Sorta. Well. We... kinda won. Partial victory? I think? We got a bird. Next time we can hopefully get a girl!" ... She really needs to think more before she speaks.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
The Fortune Tambourine Ring gets constricted around Scorn, accomplishing what Cure Wukong wanted. Both Cure Tide and that gull are safe. "Scorn", Cure Fortune starts heading up to her. "Where does the Precure Hunter take his victims?" Except that before she can answer, the Witch teleports away, leaving the ring to clatter to the ground and dissolve. Duskporting is unfair!

Iona she clears her throat before heading to Cure Wukong. "Leave Cure Princess alone, Wukong. She will be fine, and she is not deserving of sympathy or trust." Cure Tide's explanation can wait. The others need to know being around Hime is not safe.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
She's gone. Scorn's gone. That's bittersweet. She can't be stopped unless she's here. Cure Tide carefully unfurls from her hovering "G..Gully-chan?" asks down to the bird. She shakes at the bird a little, trying to wake him up, but maybe he just needs a rest. Or maybe. He'll wake up in a moment. She looks to Cure Wukong, and with a dumb smile, Tide says. "It's Gully! Mine and Haruna-chan's....mascot!" she says. "He..he vanished the same day Haruna did..." She looks down to the bird and whimpers. "I Hope...he's okay....wake up, Gully-chan!" she whimpers now. "Please..." she begs. She then blinks.

She looks over to Onihim as she sputters. "Are you okay...?" she says.

She manages to stand and cradles the bird against her arm as she frowns at that. "H-hey... she helped me too...tonight. Didn't she?" she asks to Cure Wukong.

Kureha Senkenzan has posed:
    A heartbeat after her head-first flop, Onihime is pulling herself up to her feet, hastily brushing herself off. In just moments, she is the absolute picture of poise and grace, standing there as if she wasn't right next to a crater she made with her face. "I am quite fine," she replies to Cure Tide.

    There's a pause, before she adds, "...but it is perhaps best if I don't know the details. This is a complicated situation, and I..." She pauses, fishing for the diplomatic words. "I am not inclined to get entangled in the personal conflicts of others." Yet another pause, then, awkwardly, "However, it, ah... it is good that you've recovered your mascot."

    Surprisingly enough, though, it's Cure Fortune that the youkai musume keeps looking at. Just brief little glances; it's not her place to comment, but Fortune's words remind her eerily of her own thoughts and choices, if a bit more forceful. And seeing it from outside, it's unsettling.

    "...I should be going. I have my own matters to attend to."

Scorn has posed:
Scorn is gone before she even bothers to take in Fortune's questions...

Shake. Shake. Shake.

"S..stop that." begs the seagull as it talks. Because of course it does. "You're making me sicker...uggggh who got the number. Of that truck." is asked again for the third time tonight (and once again by the same bird as earlier.).

"Tide-chan?..." he squints weakly. "I don't feel very well. What happened?" he asks.

He peeks around. This...place isn't familiar. He looks up at Tide again. "What happened. Who are these people. What time is it!?" he suddenly asks, as if he realizes something is dreadfully wrong. As if some vauge memory is smacking him....

There was a fight against some red-haired jerk with Haruna-chan and then there was...

Now...? He tries to get up in Tide's hands, but just falls down to his feathery butt.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Looks to Onihime. "Um. Wait. What was your name!? Um...t.thanks for. Helping..." she says to Onihime as she leaves. She'll...remember that girl. Even if she doesn't get a name. She looks over to Gully and 'shhhhhhsss' him and pets him carefully. "You need rest. No flying. I'll take you back to the dorm tonight." she says. But this worries her. "You..."

"You don't remember all that?... oh, you poor poor bird.." she says as she brings the bird up to her to nuzzle. "I missed you so much. I'll tell you everything soon. Just. Just rest for now." she says as she looks around at the others. "He doesn't remember. All... that." she motions around to where Scorn was moments ago.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong froze for a moment, her mouth falling open. Her head whipped around to look at Cure Fortune. "Precure Hunter? Who's that?" she asked. But then she was told to leave Cure Princess alone. She was about to comment that she wasn't trying to upset her... then those words. Not... deserving of sympathy or trust?

"Everyone deserves sympathy," Cure Wukong snapped. "And she's pretty sweet. And kind. And kind of fun to be around. And she can do a princes MACHINE gun! That's awesome! And... and don't be mean to her just because she made some mistakes! I mess up all the time! It doesn't mean I don't deserve pity!" ... She really had to learn to phrase that better.

She then glanced to Onihime and gave a small nod. "Thanks! For ummm, all your help! Onihime! I hope we can work again sometime!" she called out before glancing to Tide and... "Hey! We did it, then! We're like, halfway there! I told you, no matter what, we'd succeed!" Not... exactly what she said. But eh, she'd take credit for it anyway. It had been long enough she could just claim she 'misremembered'.

She then glanced back to the bird. "Your uhhh... your mascot is cute. Heh. Oh... wow. Wait, does that mean..." She glanced back towards Wuwu.

"Do you REALLY want me to go evil?" Wuwu asked with a grin.

"Actually, I was curious if I could purify you," Cure Wukong said. And, for once, earned a glare from him.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona's heart squeezes when Cure Tide talks of what happens. So, Haruna and Scorn... "Was that your sister?" Her too, and this time they didn't just capture her, they turned her against her own family. "Did Phantom do it?" she asks, her expression angered and hurt at once.

And then Cho asks who the Precure Hunter is. "The Precure Hunter Phantom...!" Iona says, her voice unsettled. "He is the top executor of the Phantom Empire, even above the generals. He is incredibly strong, and has struck victims everywhere, imprisoning all Precures who fought him into coffins. Even Maria..."

Cure Fortune shakes her head. "Nobody has fought him and come back. And the worst thing is who knows where he is taking them. I tried so much to find where that may be, but to avail."

She looks at Hime with vitriol. "And this is all her fault. She is the reason the Phantom Empire has been able to do so much evil. If it weren't for her, everyone would still be safe. If she had never opened the Box of Axia that kept them captive..." Fortune clenches her fist.

"It's all because of her. She has brought this misfortune on her own kingdom and our lives. She is not an ally, or someone to be trusted with anything", she adds, looking at Cure Princess.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Cure Princess has been standing there, trembling, as the fight concludes. Her little heart is racing in her chest, and her hands are clammy. She froze up and panicked and looked like a total fool doing so. She swallows and takes a small step back as Cure Wukong approaches to check on her.

"I...I'm..."

And then Cure Fortune is speaking, and Cure Princess takes another shakey step back.

"No! No, that's...that's not...-entirely- true..." The pretty, blue PreCure looks like she's about to burst into tears as she glances amongst the others, which is when Ribbon, her fairy, swoops down and puts herself between her and Cure Fortune.

The fairy balls up her tiny fists and flails them, yelling in her squeaky little voice. "You're such a bully! You need to quit it! All you're doing is making the Phantom Empire stronger by making the PreCure's divided!"

Cure Princess flinches at that, and tries to speak up again. "I...should...I should go..."

Scorn has posed:
The name 'Precure Hunter Phantom' gives Gully a headache and he holds his head. "Ye...yeah I think we did? Red Hair? White coat? Kind of a jerk?" he asks with a frown. He rubs the side of his head and ughs as he falls flat in Tide's hands as he just relaxes now. He feels. Different.

"Sorry. That is. What I literary remember last. Is. That fight? Before right now and... something...flashy in between. I don't remember.. anything...like.." he just trails off, looking confusedly at the discussion going around.

"Hey. I am super handsome and cute." he insists. There are no bishy sparkles here. Only seagull fluff.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Cure Tide listens about the Precure Hunter. "Huh? There's... someone like that?..." she looks to Gully as he explains with a headache and she carefully places him on her shoulder. "Scorn...? Scorn is..is my sister. Yes. The Phantom Empire did that to her! If this...this Precure Hunter has anything to do with it....!" she looks angry now.

Before she blinks and Fortune starts digging into Cure Princess and she runs hard and dives between Fortune and Cure Princess. "N..Now hey...I...I appreciate you all..for...for helping me try to rescue my sister and...and rescuing my Gully-chan...! But... but you can't just go leaning into people like that. She helped me too, you know!" says Tide, a little softly.

She lets her transformation fade here, turning back into Aki Kurosawa and then turns to face Cure Princess. "I..I'm Cure Tide...Aki Kurosawa. If you're Wukong's friend, you're one of mine too.." she says.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong blinked a few times before glancing between Fortune and Tide. Then... "Oh. Ohhhhh. I get it! So you both are like... you're both trying to save someone you care about! Well, that just means we have to all work together! And... and... what... what?" she asked, looking to Cure Fortune. Then back to Cure Princess. Then back to Cure Fortune. Then... She turned, walked over to Cure Princess and just... gripped her by the shoulders. Hard.

Leaned in close, her eyes narrowed before... "Huh."

Then just let her go? She then stormed away, gripping Fortune's shoulders and leaning in reallllll quick. For a moment, she seemed to just... glare. Then, finally, she let go. She crossed her arms, her tail flickering back and forth a few times. "Hmmm... No," she finally said. "I refuse to believe that. I've met Cure Princess before. And she doesn't have evil eyes. And eyes are the window to the heart. Or soul. Or something. Now, I don't know what you mean by she 'caused' this. But she's like. Tiny. And weak. And soft. And--"

Wuwu coughed. For once.

"There's no way she's the leader of the Phantom Empire. Which I think can only mean that she messed up somewhere. Well. That's the good thing," she said, pumping a fist into the air. "Today, we got Gully back! Tomorrow, or sometime, we'll get Scorn back! And then we'll get your sister back! And we'll get EVERYONE back! I don't care WHO this precure hunter is! If he's mirrored a bunch of people we care about then fine! We'll just punch him again and again and AGAIN until, eventually, all of the mirrors and the people we care about come out!"

"Because we are magical girls! We don't just stand there and take it! We punch reality until it does what it should have done from the START! We don't care about things like big monsters or threats or endless hordes of enemies or physics! We do it because we don't know any better! If I can lift up a stick and turn it into a mountain and you can shoot magical blasts of destruction and a seagull can turn into a crow then we can beat up ANY hunter of us and we'll just hunt HIM instead! Because the moment he mirrors any of us that's SEVEN HUNDRED years bad luck for him!"

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona doesn't undo her transformation when Aki does it. "Don't you understand? If Cure Princess had never opened that box, you could still have your sister with you. Everything the Phantom Empire did would have never happened."

"What do you want!?" is Iona's startled reaction when Cho grips at her shoulders. "And what does that have to do with any of what I said? She is not leading them, but she gave them their freedom from the Box of Axia Blue had trapped them in, caused all the atrocities the Phantom Empire went on to commit. I don't want to work with someone who is just as much of a liability as my enemy."

Iona looks at Cure Princess. "Ribbon can say whatever she wants about me and Cure Wukong is free to ignore me, but let's hear it from you, Himelda Window Cure Queen of the Blue Sky", she says, looking at Hime straight in the eyes. "Have you opened the Box of Axia? Have you freed the Phantom Empire? Is it your fault so many people are lost to it, including your very kingdom?" - "I want to hear it from her, Ribbon, not you", she lastly turns towards the fairy.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Cure Princess' eyes widen like saucers when Cure Wukong grips her slender shoulders and looks into them. Once released she blinks a few times, trying to snap back to reality. She takes in all of Cure Wukong's words and takes a deep breath, before her own transformation shimmers with blue glitter, and the demure form of Hime is left in it's wake. She smooths down her pretty dress and turns her full attention to Cure Fortune. Bolstered by her new friend's words, she straightens her back.

"I did! I did open the box, and if Blue understands and forgives me, it's insane to me that you're so stubborn that you can't!" She takes a deep breath. While she's acting brave, a keen eye can catch her fingertips trembling.

"There was a voice. A soft, desperate voice in pain. She begged me for help. She said she was scared. Broken. Hurt. I cannot and will not turn away from a person in need when I can help them." Sure, she struggled a lot with helping people once she first gained her PreCure abilities, but she's trying. "I was tricked. I didn't do it because I was selfish or ambitious. I was worried. And I don't care what you say, Cure Fortune. I am sorry for what happened to your sister, and what the Phantom Empire has done, but I am not sorry for trying to help someone."

Once those words are out she sags a bit, as if she used up all her bravery in one go.

Scorn has posed:
Gully gets shouldered and holds onto the side of Aki's neck for support as he is made it walk along with her.

"Hey." he says angrily "What's this argument about, Pretty Cures shouldn't be fighting! We need to support one another, right!?" he says as he holds his head with his other wing. "She opened a whoistxia?" he asks suddenly. He then narrows his eyes.

"Hey Purple Girl. Not cool." he says. Even though he was an evil crow like an hour ago doing jerkass things.

Aki Kurosawa has posed:
Aki Kurosawa frowns. "Look. I just saw this girl risk her life for me and my sister and we got my mascot back." she says. "So, I'm not believing what you said. So I'm out of here. Hey. Princess. Come find me at my dorm sometimes. Room <number here>.

"Hey Wukong. Thanks. Thanks a lot." she says with a dumb smile.

Gully also waves weakly back at the others as he leaves with Aki, still holding onto Aki for support.

"Got my damn seagull back!" she yells from somewhere further away. "Woo!" goes Gully.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong looked between them. What... what was... "She... she did... what?" she asked softly. She looked to Princess, and well... for a moment... she actually wondered. Had... Princess done this. Had she...

Her fists clenched. She stared at Princess. Then, after a moment, her belief was rewarded. She ended her henshin... and nodded. "Well... then you messed up," Cho said to Hime. "The Phantom Empire tricked you." And it looked, almost, like Cho was actually siding against her. "And I don't think *any* magical girl worth her sparkling skirt would have not fallen for it. We don't become this by ignoring the pain others are suffering through. IF we did, we wouldn't be us."

She then glanced to Aki and nodded. "I'll see you around! Next time we're gonna get your sister, too! The Phantom Empire doesn't have anything on us!" she yelled. Then back to fortune.

"And you don't have to forgive Hime-chan. You're hurt. And it's okay that you're hurting. But... it's not going to change anything." She turned and walked back to Hime's side. She reached out and patted her on the shoulders. "You're Cure Princess. So I can only take that to mean you intend to make up for everything opening the box did. And that just means we're going to have to save Fortune's sister now, too. So I'm going to be counting on you a lot and we're both going to have to get a LOT stronger. But don't worry. Wuwu is a *horrible* teacher."

"I am an AMAZING teacher!" Wuwu objected.

"No, you're amazing," Cho said. "But an awful teacher."

"... I am pretty awesome..."

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona just can't believe Aki. She heard Hime's admission of opening the Box straight from her mouth. What else does she want? A video of Hime opening the box?

Does she not realise her account of hearing that voice would make no sense if Hime actually hadn't opened the Box?

And then there is Cho, who believes Hime actually did that, but sides with her anyway. "I just can't deal with this." She is hurting, like what, that's supposed to cloud her judgement of Hime? She sighs, shaking her head. "At least you understood what happened, Cho-san. But I can't forgive her. Whatever that voice said, she should have realised her own Kingdom would have never hurt innocent people, and so that voice would have been a trap."

The bow on her back shines, extending into winds. "I am going, and I am never cooperating with Hime, ever. Come, Glasan", she says austerely, taking to the sky away from the duo, the fairy with sunglasses uncertaintly following her.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Hime smiles thankfully at Cure Wukong, making it clear to her that it meant a lot. "T-thank you..."

But then Cure Fortone is talking again, and she takes a small step away from her. She opens her mouth and then closes it again. Her hands open and close at her side, before the pretty little princess turns and hurries away. It isn't a full-on sprint, but the kid is getting away from this situation as swiftly as she can, her eyes wet.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong blinked a few times... She opened her mouth to object, then sighed. Fortune was fleeing. But... Hime was, too. They both were running. She sighed and then looked down at Wuwu. "I was... perky, right? I... I was trying to..."

"You did what you could, kid," Wuwu said with a shrug. "Sometimes it takes more than one punch to break a mountain. But I have good news."

"... You do?"

"Yeah. You know where both of them live. So it's not like they can run forever."

Cho blinked a few times. "I... should go make some muffins. Friendship muffins."

"Exactly," Wuwu said with a nod to his perky disciple. Soon. Both of them would experience... *comforting.* Dun dun duuuuun...