2538/Brutally Efficient

Brutally Efficient
Date of Scene:	28 April 2025
Location:	Crystal Tokyo
Synopsis:	Immediately following 2532/Claws Tail Teeth Hands, Tuxedo Kamen takes a stand against Prince Demande to give Sailor Moon time to catch up with Masquerade Lapine. On the plus side, he buys time. On the minus side... well, he's lost this round of Get Down Mr. President. CW: description of injury.
Cast of Characters:	Chibiusa Tsukino, Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba, 298
Tinyplot:	Black Moon Clan
Tinyplot2:	BMC: Dimension Future

---

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Masquerade Lapine ran.

    It was all she knew how to do.

    She was a coward, a failure, and unintentionally a traitor. She knew it, and now so did everyone else. Her teary red eyes looked back the Crystal Palace, and she gulped. She can't go back. Whatever she'd find back there, forgiveness was probably not high on the list.

    Yet even so, her fight wasn't over. She couldn't just let the enemy have the Silver Crystal. So as she notices her mana reserves reaching zero, she lands on the coastline and drops her henshin.

    Taking the necklace off, she looks down at three items she had no business having. Three things that did not belong to her. Luminous Titan, the Silver Crystal, and the Time Key. The only things that mattered about her were things that weren't even hers.

    "Luna-P..." sniffle. "... become a submarine!"

    Chibiusa's hairpin briefly poofs into a catball for a moment, and then again into a little toy sub. A hatch opens on the top, and Small Lady places her necklace inside. "Lumie... momma... Puu... I'm sorry."

    Then the hatch closes, and Chibiusa picks up the toy sub, spins in place and yeets Luna-P into the ocean. As the catball submerges, Chibiusa stares out at the waves. Now, she is really and truly alone.

    She turns and runs, away from the coast, away from the things she stole, and away from the Crystal Palace. Luna-P would know what to do with those things. It was evil, she knew. She didn't want to know, she was in denial, but she absolutely knew that the catball was never quite right inside.

    Yet she also knew it to be loyal. To her, above all others, and that meant she could trust it no matter what.

    Too bad she couldn't trust herself.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi leaves the fight, and her friends, behind her, regretting nothing at all but that she can't fly the way her daughter can, because her friends are strong, and have fought plenty of strong enemies without her. Chibiusa has not, and cannot.

Chibiusa is a little girl, one who made a mistake, and Usagi knows that her mother and father would forgive her, because she forgives her.

Now she just has to convince her of that, and it's a long, long chase as she tries to think of just how to do that. There's footsteps, at her heels, nearly as fast as her, the swish of Mamoru's cape, and she looks behind her only once, to meet Mamoru's eyes, and to take note of the enemy behind them.

Between the two of them, Mamoru's always been the tank.

"Hold him off," she urges, "While I get Chibiusa-chan away from here. She's not going to last long, and I - I know you can teleport, but if I can't purify him, I won't last as long."

She hates it, hates the mere idea of leaving Mamoru alone to face a monstrously strong enemy again, but it's the best choice.

Because Chibiusa could fly, and she's getting farther, and farther out ahead of them.

With Mamoru's agreement, she keeps running - onwards. Towards the coast.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He agrees so fast, even though he knows Usagi hates the idea. He figures she probably hates how fast he agreed, too. He knows he's for more than that, but his very name is Protect, is Defend, and he can't help being what he is. Everything about him these days has been exactly as it says on the tin--

He smiles as he turns to face an oncoming train, because Chibiusa's family name is Tsukino, not Chiba. His smile falters. Poor King Endymion, that he couldn't protect his moon bunnies; Mamoru can at least help.

Demande is styled a Prince, so, Mamoru will show him a real prince. If he's going to tank-tank, he'll have to sacrifice speed for strength and durability, but he can at least try to dodge-tank first. He throws his cape over his hand. "Tuxedo--" he starts as his hand begins to glow under the cape. "la Smoking..."

He stands there on the street with wrecked buildings to his left and right, collapsed buildings into the street behind him as the street gets closer to the impact site, and his hand glows brighter and brighter under that cape, and he holds the charge and his breath until he sees Demande. Then,

BOMBAAAA!"

KSHOOOOOOOOO

Demande (298) has posed:
Chasing after the Royal Family had been the obvious call, the only option. Not only were the Silver Crystals fleeing, but Neo Queen Serenity was fleeing, and Demande had come too far, slaughtered too many, to accept less than everything he wanted.

The fact that he would be free to brutalize the object of his affection's partner... is a bonus.

Which is why, when Tuxedo Kamen twists to face him, Demande snarls hatefully, and flies right through the blast. It does some measure of damage, bracing, but flying right through it, ignoring the bruising that will speckle his form under his clothing, means that Demande can crush right through to Tuxedo Kamen, grab him by the collar of his stuffy tuxedo, and put every ounce of momentum into piledriving him into the ground.

Rubeus once did something very similar, to Zoisite. This, at least, doesn't fracture Tuxedo Kamen's spine on impact.

"Ah, the trophy husband seeking to help his glorious wife," he snarls, "I look forward to breaking your bones."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He hasn't hit yet. He hasn't hit yet. Demande is grabbing his shirtfront until that shirtfront is armor.

Then Prince Endymion is pile-driven into the ground, wind more than knocked out of him, the pain hasn't even set in yet before Mamoru is mouthing something with a look of pity on his face. He's in the dirt. He's touching the dirt.

He is ~Dirt Boy~, Usagi said so.

What is he mouthing as he tries to get air?

"Tuxedo la Smoking Crater!"

Demande (298) has posed:
The Prince of Earth, the Prince who rules earth, but Demande is the Prince of the Planet of Death, the longest-lasting survivor, and he is not allowing this sheltered pretty boy to win.

The ground explodes around them in golden light and spikes of earth, and Demande's hands darken as blasts of dark energy erupt forth.

Tuxedo Kamen is blasted away from Demande. Demande is blasted away from Tuxedo Kamen. A cloud of dust and shattered stone envelops the area, blinding them both.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    From the depths of the sea rises an ancient horror.

    Maybe not quite as offensive as the creeper prince, but still harboring dark intentions. As the battle between princes rages, a tiny catball's ears, and then eyes, and then unchanging smile, emerges from the nearby waves.

    Yes, this will do nicely. Mamoru would be an acceptable recipient. Small Lady's instructions may have been mostly unspoken, but to Luna-P they were very clear.

    As the ground becomes a Smoking Crater, and as Demande fires hs own blasts of darkness, the catball sees her chance. With a puff of pink smoke, she launches herself from the ocean, turning slowly as she careens from the air, coming in from behind Demande so that Mamoru will see her first. As she passes by the white-clad Prince, she turns into a cloud of pink smoke and vanishes.

    ... but the necklace hidden within her did not vanish, and it conserved its momentum, meaning that it's headed right for Endymion, the Once and Future King, in this brief moment where Demande is blinded.

    A moment later, Luna-P has reformed. It's smiling at Demande, expecting to get smacked, but whether retaliation comes or not the catball will be happily bouncing away.

    ... in the same direction that Chibiusa just disappeared into.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Blasted back, not having to see Demande's miserable face for a moment-- starting to catch his breath and then holding it again so his gasping doesn't give him away-- Endymion yoinks the necklace out of the air, and his fingers see what it is long before his eyes do, and he shoves it into his sleight-of-hand space (most people call it a top hat, but princes don't wear top hats) and

teleports

about fifteen meters away, hand coming up again. "Tuxedo la Smoking Bomber! What the fuck man, what even is your problem! I thought you hated her???"

Demande (298) has posed:
Pink smoke mixes with the rest of the dust, and Prince Demande wafts his cape, disrupting the smoke, seeing -

well, mostly just seeing the shadows of teleportation. He's gone, out of place, and Demande isn't waiting for the next attack to strike, he's putting his hands together and blasting outwards -

"Dark Dome!" -

And darkness expands just as Mamoru's Smoking Bomber does, the two detonating on contact. Following the path the Bomber came from, Demande lunges again, this time blasting a wave of darkness ahead of him.

"I do."

And then, closing in on Mamoru, he grabs him by the ankle, and swings him around, aiming to slam the armored prince - against a wall, this time, instead of the earth itself. He can learn.

"But hatred isn't an exclusionary emotion! Once I'm done with you, I won't even have to chase her - she'll come straight to me, to rescue you!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Whoops, well... whoops. The wave of darkness that slams into Mamoru after the Smoking Bomber cut a hole in the Dark Dome is a surprise, knocking him over, and he's almost on his feet again when Demande grabs his ankle and swings him up, and around, and Mamoru turtles, deciding that the risk of breaking his head is a worse thing than the risk of breaking an arm--

--and whoops, there goes his elbow, and there's an Endymion-shaped indentation in the wall. He bounces off and goes rolling, trying to keep from making his elbow first with some judicious self-hugging, then flips his cape back with his other arm and explodes an array of roses at Demande, popping paffs of magic-breaking glitter explosions with the sweetest scent. "Oh yikes, you're just a fucking incel, wow, I thought you'd be more compelling--" he says, sounding a splendid mix of disappointed and disgusted.

And this time he lunges, broken arm and all, for Demande's skin. Face, hand, neck, whatever. Whatever!

Because if he can make contact, he can shove the acute and agonizing sense memory of what Hinoiri did to him into Demande's head.

Demande (298) has posed:
There goes Endymion-lite's elbow, the sound of cracking bone ringing through the air. Demande is already following him, intent on breaking the would be king down until he's a compliant stack of broken limbs for Sailor Moon to recover.

An array of roses strike first, exploding into glittery explosions, filling the air with light and a sweet scent and shattering the dark energy he had gathered in his hands, and Demande snarls.

"I hate the twenty-first century," he snarls, and closes the distance between them. "None of your insipid slang makes any sense -"

And then Prince Endymion's hand is on his face, and he is on fire, burning, agony sharp across his skin, face, arm, hand, shoulder, igniting, and his very life is draining from him, weakening him, senses dimming, going -

"No," Demande snarls, and kicks Endymion in the shin. The soles of his boots are heavy with steel. The bone snaps in half. "You think you can trick me with pain?! I WAS RAISED ON NEMESIS!"

The killing planet, the hateful scourge, the place the Neo Queen sent them to die in agony as children, bereft of her mercy, and Prince Endymion thinks he can stop him with trickery and pain?

"Let me give you a taste of what that was like," he snarls, and punches Endymion dead in the face, one, twice, three times, until he's down, and then -

The beating is a grotesquely physical one, magic involved in so far as it strengthens Demande's limbs, tightens his frame, as he strikes, again, and again, stomping on the elbow that that had broken, the shin that had split, crushing and pulverizing bone until armor splits like the fragile shell of an egg and leaves fabric behind, Tuxedo Kamen instead of Prince Endymion.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When it's done, there's wet wheezing, a battered and bruising face with blood from a broken nose, a split lip, abrasions, already a black eye; a smashed leg, a ground-in broken elbow, broken ribs, high impact bruises forming everywhere.

He kept fighting, though -- If Koan breaking his shoulder while he was healing Junichi didn't stop him, a broken elbow and leg and a fucked up face and blood in his eyes weren't going to stop him either.

He kept his armor on until he couldn't; he stood through the pain until his leg actually gave out and his head was spinning, and then he was on the ground, and it kept coming, and he's left in a tuxedo instead of a tin can--

--as Demande curbstomped him he had his hands in the dirt, and he has them in the dirt now, and there's glowing again, he's on the ground and he's a broken boy and still he's defying Demande. His hands are glowing, he starts glowing, the ground beneath them both starts glowing--

"It means you can't get any and you're butthurt about it, loser," he wheezes. "TuxedoLaSmokingCr--"

Demande (298) has posed:
Through the merciless beatdown, Demande notes the glowing, the light, the hands, the ground, and he has zero interest in experiencing another of those explosions. He hasn't taken nearly as much damage as he's given, but it had irked him, and he has no doubt that given the opportunity, Tuxedo Kamen will make every attempt to heal himself.

So Demande does the brutally efficient, viciously practical thing.

He stomps on Tuxedo Kamen's glowing hands, and grinds his heels into them as he feels bones snap and then splinter. The glow dies.

"Get some of what," Demande mutters to himself irritably, lifts one foot, and stomps it down again, just to be sure both hands are out of commission.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask doesn't scream. He doesn't scream. His face goes a horrible ashen color but he doesn't scream--

"Sex, moron," he says as everything goes black.

Demande (298) has posed:
"You think I can't get any-" and he's unconscious. Damnable would be king, daring to get the last word. Demande kicks him in the ribs, well aware it's the act of a petulant child, equally aware that Rubeus would have urged him on anyway.

It's only when Tuxedo Kamen fails to respond, having thoroughly fallen into unconsciousness, that he lets himself hiss out a slow exhalation, pain audible.

"Nemesis below, do I hate fighting Senshi."

He'll gather the would have been king in a moment. He's earned a spot of rest, after that. A moment to breathe, and then - to Nemesis. The Rabbit, and her wretched mother (and those eyes, burning with hate, merciless -) will come to him, now.