2803/The Fall of Kyoto: The Hollow Procession

The Fall of Kyoto: The Hollow Procession
Date of Scene:	21 October 2025
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Obsidian investigates the disappearance of two technicians in Kyoto and finds more than they were expecting.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Norie Okana, Keaka Hoshiko, Glimmer Brightmoon, Emi Hoshino

---

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Weird things happening in Kyoto. Kyoto wasn't really supposed to be a font of magic - the further you get from Tokyo proper, the Towers, the more rare magic was. Sure, sometimes you'd catch something migrating from somewhere else to Tokyo - a witch or unbound youma - but mostly it was pretty quiet.

    The voice on the log was plenty damn scary, though, and Riventon wanted to get information about what was happening - especially if it was killing or harvesting people on its own. Powerful untamed youma were a threat because they hurt people, but all they did was piss off sparkles and put them on alert, and Obsidian (specifically Riventon) didn't even get anything out of them.

    Plus Yuyami heard the report too and Riventon wasn't sure he could prevent her from going anyways.

    So he called up Norie as well (Dusk Zone Monster? Call the Dusk Creature Focused Researcher), Keaka (Weird Stuff? Seems like their jam, and he hadn't seen them in a while so he could probably make them do stuff) and Glimmer (because walking sucks). He played the tape for them all again, and looked at them. "So, Kyoto then?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana entered the lab dragging a large backpack looking... thing. It had dials and doohickeys and is that a jacobs ladder at the top? Anyways. She places it on the table and looks over to Takashi. "I found it in a closet. This thing must be from the later 90's or something. It's an energy scanner of some sort." she says dryly. "I'm going to bring it along. It has better focus than my 1980's luggabble." (The one she'd brought to Sayaka's duplicate witching out.)

She looks to Yuyami. "If this works well. You can have my old luggable scanner. I..if you want it." she offers. She looks over to Takashi. "I saw that report. We need to be cautious." she says quietly.

She nods and readies herself. "Are we... Duskporting that far?" she asks quietly. She looks to Yuyami. Can she even...?

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    Keaka listens, sometimes asking 'wait, what was that?' or 'play that part again?'. But at the end...
    "Yeah, that's probably not anything good to leave loose, especially on a planet where most of the heroes are concentrated in three cities and can't easily travel. Most of the really weird stuff doesn't talk--"

    "I talk, though!" observes Sarida, its crystal flickering grey.

    Keaka blinks and looks at it. "...Yes. And your opposite numbers are coded to say "When They return, together we'll end Them." on startup like it's a greeting."

    She stares into space for a moment thoughtfully. "I'm reminded of... like this is the sort of thing where you find either some Ancient Belkan genius told an AI to build paradise and it's reactivated and luring people in all 'come on in, we're waiting for you' or someone's found or made a portal into some realm that looks like some world's afterlife or spiritual plane or something and you're lucky if the agents who discovered it are ever seen again and whatever you find there is gonna be some creepy horrorshow."

    She tenses briefly at the memory of some hellish adventure, and takes a breath.

    "...Or maybe it's just a Lost Logia that sends creepy messages, but... something happened to them."

    She blinks, and looks from Norie to Takashi. "Did we crack reliable duskporting? I figured Obsidian would send us by car or plane or something. ...Can any of you drive? ...How far is Kyoto, is that on the same island?"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon had come when called! After a bit. Okay, it had taken a while for her to appear, but she DID come! She still wasn't using dark energy that much, if at all... but since the return of her sparkle powers, she'd definitely been... doing something. There'd been a lot more plants and strange things... growing in the room that was kind of her office. And her moonstone was glowing a lot. And every so often when she walked around, she had great, pink wings. So...

Something was definitely... different.

She looked a bit tired when she teleport into the room, little dark marks under her eyes, and coughed a bit after arriving, but she had come when summoned. "Right, sorry I'm late. So... investigating some weird magic thing, right? A few cities away?" she asked.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Money, power, and wealth have their perks -- like taking a helicopter ride to Kyoto on a moments notice. Easy enough to do. A landing pad is rented, and soon enough they're on their way.

The first logical step in any investigation of this sort is going to be scoping out the area where it happened, and while many high rises in Kyoto like the one you're going to have a helicopter landing spot, the Hana Tower doesn't. It is thankfully a short trip to the mundane office building, however, and then up to its roof proper.

Building security was easy to negate, too, like they barely noticed you were there in the first place. Must have been a long day.

The roof of the Hana Tower exposes one to the cool, still night air of Kyoto city and its sounds ands -- of course -- the antenna that sits there that recorded the unusual spikes that drew attention in the first place. Replaced twice already, it seems to be in working order and isn't detecting any unusual energies or patterns ...

... until it does. A sudden spike in the ambient energies. And then another. And then another.

A steady rise and fall -- like breathing. w

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Yuyami is in her lab coat, a heavy thing with buckles and boots. A field lab coat, really. So is Riventon, but Riventon doesn't have a large, hand-sized compact with pink lights roaming around it that he's using to take measurements of the area. (He has Axion for that.) Both of them are in henshin now, though, taking readings. The noise is making the hairs on the back of Riventon's neck stand up and Yuyami shifts closer to him (and norie if both possible at the same time).

    "Well..." Riventon begins. "...Surprising nobody, I don't like this. Especially since I'm getting only fragments of several kinds of energy right now and it's hard to pin anything down."

    Yuyami puts her fists up, glowing purple energy encasing them. Riventon seems more calm. "Just a lot of unknowns right now. Keep your ears, eyes, anything elser open. We don't know if it drained our folks, ate them, or shunted them into a pocket dimension, but we do need to know. Anybody see any traces of them?"

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    At some point during the trip, Keaka snaps her fingers and holds out her pointer finger. "You know what else logs like this remind me of? There was this abandoned science base we found on a moon one time where they were doing teleportation experiments... Abandoned, right? No people, just these holograms that say the same things over and over again. And we find these logs and recordings warning about the hollow ones, and we're on guard for like, some dimensional breach with monsters coming out or magic zombies or something, because what got all the people, right?"..."

    One long anecdote later, "...and that's when we realized that there were no projectors anywhere, and it was the holo ones, they weren't holograms they were what was left of the scientists, and if they touched you..."

    And she concludes what sounds like it would make a great Doctor Who episode with "...and they had us cornered in the hangar but we were able to get their old ships running. Got their old timespace-jump drives and nav computers up and got out of there just as the holo ones started breaking through the barrier. Whew, that was a day. I actually still have--" She frowns. "Well, I still had the ship. It's now -- or was, or will be -- breaking apart in orbit."

    When the driver, or Riventon, announces that they're close, Keaka sits up straight. "Do it." She henshins, seeming to get more distant without moving, darkness shot through with falling stars pouring over her and leaving her in a fancier outfit. Sarida chimes, < POWERING STRIFE DRIVES. >

    Keaka moves like she's ready to jump and then, "Oh... oh right we're landing. That makes sense. You think whatever got them won't attack the chopper?" It's a good thing the pilot is a youma or that thought might be concerning. Also: They're not landing directly at the target.

    They're there soon enough. "So... is Obsidian monitoring everywhere for stray magic, or is Kyoto a place of special interest?" Keaka wonders, sciency questions coming to the front of her brain. "Axion, is there any pattern to the recorded incidents? Are we 'due' for another one?"

    She paces across the rooftop. "Is it one source moving in a regular pattern, or many sources moving past regularly?"

    She suddenly stops and whirls to face Riventon. "Did you say several kinds? With a common source? So either this one thing just naturally puts out many types of energy..."

    She turns, long black coat billowing dramatically in a breeze as she looks out over the sky. "Or something wants to be noticed."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon had brought a sampling of ingredients from her little... potions that she'd been making lately when they'd gone into the helicopter. Luckily, she hadn't tried to make anything IN the helicopter.

Instead, she'd listened to Keaka's story and, admittedly, had... not been able to follow it very well. The magic of her world was... strange, even to her. But it did sound interesting.

But once they touched down? She started trying to cobble together... something, mixing some plants and making a small symbol on the ground before infusing it with her pink magic.

Then, placing her palms together, forming an etherian circle, she'd then hold her hand out, weird, pink energy flashing over her eyes and forming a cone for her to see out from, as she scanned the area... And then making her cringe, fizzling out, and break down into a coughing fit, shaking her head. "Darn it..." she muttered.

"I... thought I saw... something? To the north?" Glimmer said. "But... it might have been nothing... or the spell going haywire... I'm still getting used to it," she admitted.

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana is in her researchers coat, which is a lighter lab thing and not field technically, but still. She's also wearing the large pack on her back as she uses a hand tool attached to it to scan the area as Yuyami uses a compact. Interestinnnng.... What is that?

She'll ask later.

For now. She looks at the scans on a small crt on the handheld. (CRTs, ugh, tiny Walkman TVs must have been in vogue at the time this thing was created.)

"The Antenna seems functional." she says as she returns over to Riventon. "As the report stated. So what it's reading is accurate. I think we're in the middle of some kind of supernatural ... energy storm? Is that possible?" she asks, rhetorically.

"I wonder if it let something big out." she says in monotone.

"Fascinating..."

She reaches out with a hand and she kind of starts doing a 'back and forth' motion with her body. Nothing up here. Lots of people in the tower (to feed on.) but... they don't feel like worthwhile targets. They're drained. Or too tired. Not just a few. But a lot.

"Everyone's tired..." she says quietly.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Yuyami's device stops making lights and noise at the same time Riventon stops moving. "It's gone." the two of them say in unison. And then look at each other.

    "It just stopped dead, it didn't fade out or anything..." Yuyami adds, poking her device with a slender gloved finger before looking to Norie. "And I didn't get any of it stored either." she says, a little dissapointed.

    "Yeah that's... natural magical signals wax and wane, they don't just STOP. That's more suspicious." Riventon continues, looking at the group. He moves to where Glimmer is and tries to see anything, or sense it, but shakes his head. "Nothing."

    Yuyami looks to Keaka. "Little bit of both. Like a sort of magic that changed and then pulsed. Like a LED that can emit different colors." she suggests. "No pattern I could discern. So, irregular."

    Riventon looks to Norie. "Yeah, the anteanna's functional - they fixed it before they skiddadled. Why don't we follow their path down and see what we find - or at least if we pick up the signal again? There's enough of us here I'm not super concerned about a fight." Plus him.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's the quiet.

Quiet on the rooftop, quiet all the way back down, quiet out onto the busy city streets ...

... or not busy, actually. As the door swings shut behind them and they try to retrace or imagine the flight of the frightened technicians, the streets seem ... empty. There's not even any cars, and definitely not any people. And now that they look around: when did it get so -dark-? Everyone is gone.

Everyone.

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana looks down at her scanner's handheld unit and smacks it. "...Did it. Run?" she says as she hangs the scanner off a pocket on her coat and travels with the group down and... where did. Everyone go?

"Oh. I don't like this at all." she says. "Something is wrong, I wonder if this is a cognitohazard like the handbooks warn about." she says sundry and monotone as she raises the scanner again.

She walks along the empty, dark street. "I..."

She suddenly stops and looks alarmed. That's a bad thing when Norie Okana displays emotion. Even if it's a bad feeling. "I don't sense any humans at all? None at all! Not in any of the buildings or alleys or streets!" she says as she backs up a step or two.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"That can't be right..." Glimmer mumbled as she looked around. "Hold on."

She then disappeared.

They'd hear a LOT of little pops and flashes and pops and sounds and then...

"Okay, there's NOBODY here! Where'd the city go? You can't just disappear a city full of people. I'd know! I had to deal with it plenty of times! There was always a reason for it!" she said.

And why was it so dark? Well... THAT, at least... she was the ideal person to deal with. She put her hands together... And then... "Cover your eyes," she warned them. Moments before there would be a very, very bright eruption of pink, glowing orb of light shooting out and up, illuminating the area.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "My preliminary hypothesis is that we are no longer IN Kyoto, but in a similar space. Much like the Dusk Zone. But it's not the Dusk Zone." Yuyami offers, as she walks up besides Riventon. She is obviously nervous too, eyes wide, flicking back and forth, and she's making up for it by trying to explain.

    "Well, the lack of people explains the sense of dread I'm feeling." Riventon adds. "But it's not the Dusk Zone, no. I feel safe there, comfortable there, and this is very much not that feeling." he says. "Great place to get ambushed, too." he continues.

    "Well, if it is like the Dusk Zone, we just need the exit." she suggests.

    "Or, we need to make one. But also, this is probably the lair of whatever got our guys, so on the other hand, we might be exactly where we want to be." Riventon notes. "Still..."

    <<Erste Stufe freigeschaltet.>> (First Stage Unlocked) notes Axion in a female Belkan voice as Riventon twists the housing of the gem that connects his Device's overall body to its core.

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    They make their way down and...

    It's dark. And quiet. Was it dark before?

    Keaka didn't resort to conceptual sight because she didn't want to blind herself, but if it's getting hard to see the normal way anyway.

    Okana's words are concerning. "Which handbooks? If it's a cognitohazard... We might be noticing the effects more than the thing itself."

    Norie doesn't sense any humans at all? That tears it. Keaka's hand, which she's been holding close to her chest since the trip down, reaches inside her -- magically, with a faint glow where the edges of her wrist meet her shirt -- and twists her concept, her sense of self -- previously misidentified as a heart, despite the effects different from the rifle -- a little askew.

    And with it disconnected, she can sense what she's missing, the... thing-ness of everything and everyone else around her like it's brighter than any light. People and animals with their realness and their themness shine to her, their intentions sparkling and glittering briefly down their bodies as they attempt actions, movements.

    Even objects. Walls shine in their wall-ness, chair shine with how chair-y they are to her senses that can barely feel her Keaka-ness. Even through objects and all around her body, she's not actually sensing with her eyes.

    So, hopefully if there are any hidden people or entities of note around a corner or in nearby buildings -- or further things that are just so intense and significant they can't be missed, maybe she can sense them.

    < It's not the dusk zone, but... > Sarida starts, crystal 'eye' flickering between colors. < It feels... like we unshifted, but also kind of not? I don't know what this is. Some kind of closed space or highly unusual barrier is a possibility. >

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Kak.

Kak kak.

It's quiet, yes, until...

Kakakakak.

That sound -- each of them has heard it on the call log, when they heard it played. All of them are familiar with the sounds of the hyoshigi. Just faint, the first time. Barely audible. Enough to get one's attention. Then a little louder, more of them. Then ... louder still.

And now that they can hear it, think about it, have seen the patterns and have those lovely energy scanners... now they can see and hear these things together, the beginning of each pattern of spikes is tied to the spike in energy levels.

And they're getting -louder-.

-Closer-.

Distant lights, now. The only lights. Lanterns. It has to be.

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana can hear clapping. Like on the report call.

"Ah...it's the clapping. And there are lights. You annoying little gnats, you won't escape me." she says, suddenly her resolve returning to monotone. "We will contain you and study you and see if you are useful or eradicate your threat." she says.

She starts walking towards the lights. She still doesn't feel people. But that's okay.

It's almost comforting in a way!

"So a pocket dimension! I don't think you can trust anything here then." she says bluntly. She looks at Keaka.

"Am I the only one that read the employee handbooks through more than once? They explain all sorts of hazards one might encounter in the field. But most people just need to worry about random youma." she says dryly.

"This feels different."

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    Kak.

    There.

    She's not using her eyes, but she turns her head towards it reflexively. Running through options in her mind to destroy the threat.

    Some parts of her really do fit in in Obsidian.

    But she's not sure what its nature is yet. Is it even a physical target? She may have to defend first while finding more esoteric means of attack--

    And it's while thinking that that she remembers the missing technicians were non-mages. Far from conclusive proof of anything, but it's possible .

    "Then we don't trust it. ...I read the handbook. But I don't remember anything notable about cognitohazards I hadn't already heard. Used to know someone who was immune to them and specialized in exterminating them. She was one of few I could trust to handle things I couldn't."

    Keaka takes a breath. "If you suspect mental alterations, speak. Explaining your rationale for actions may allow us to spot distortions. Trapping the entities for study sounds good to me. Sarida, Beast Tandem?"

    < I don't know what those are! I have no idea if it will work! Even if it does work, you'll have to get me closer. >

    Keaka hovers several feet in the air with a flight spell, and floats after Norie.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Upon hearing the clapping, Riventon tenses again. So does Yuyami, but her form of tensing is to somewhat hide behind Norie, as Riventon floats up, and Yuyami doesn't actually levitate herself yet. "Just keep yourselves on guard. There's plenty of us to watch in all directions, and we've got a lot of sensory awareness on top of everything else." he notes. "And it's important, because I think it's time to stop playing games with the Click Clack Meance here." he continues.

    "Well, maybe that big light will draw attention to ourselves. Maybe get the thing to come here. Or get sight of it." he suggests. Then, after a moment... "you know on that note... no people, huh? Lets see if the material properties of these buildings are any different, hmm?" He says, as a Mid-childan magic circle erupts underneath him and a small ball of ink-like black energy collects in his hand. At the next 'kek' sound...

    <SCHATTENSCHLAG.> calls Axion as Riventon unleashes a blast of Dark Energy with such massive power it seems to sap some of the light from around it when it streaks past, leaving the air dim for a moment as it streaks towards a building in that direction.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon blinked and snapped her fingers. Still pink and sparkling. "Well, I can still touch my runestone, so not too bad, at least," Glimmer said. The clack clack clack, however, was making her a bit nervous. She'd... never really understood why they had those all the time. It was kind of soothing, admittedly.

Or had been. Before. But now? In this? Not so much. NOW it felt pretty creepy, hearing it click and clack and knowing these things were coming at them. The orb hovering overhead kept following with them, illuminating the area around them.

"I read the handbook, but it was sooooooo boring," Glimmer whined. "But I did read it. I even remember some of it. It suuuuuuuuuucked. It was almost as bad as some of this homework," Glimmer said. "Wait, are we supposed to read it more than once? Why do we have to do that to ourselves?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
So inviting, warm and friendly. A procession of smiling, familiar faces. Calling to you. Each of you. You see friends amongst them, perhaps old ones that you haven't seen in so long. And the closer the procession gets, or you get to it, the warmer it feels. Inviting.

"It's fine now," the voices say, "we were just waiting for you. Come and walk with us. It's time."

Familiar faces, memories of warmth burbling up to the surface. -Friends-.

It might almost work.

Until a light shines over them from Glimmer -- and you can see that there are no actual parade goers. Floating wooding clappers and lanterns and a seemingly endless procession of empty masks, all stopped, all looking at them, now stopped dead in place.

Fortunately, none were truly lulled in by such trickery, magical or not.

Yuyami, then, speaks, her voice distant, her gaze far away. "It's fine now. It's fine. They were just waiting for us." She turns towards the other members of the expedition, her gaze still far away but her face hidden behind a red Oni mask.

"Come and walk with us," she says, starting to stride towards the procession.

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana watches the blast fire off from Riventon in the distance but soon THEY are here and she doesn't even see the effects. Where there even effects? She doesn't know. But they've been waiting for them? She looks down to her scanner and she raises it and---

---she looks up and suddenly...

...
....

.....

".......Dad?"

She drops the scanner and it sort of swings off the side of the device on her back, as she starts walking towards the group. Yeah that's bad. Maybe something will wake her up in a moment. Maybe.

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    It's fine now.

    Words that the agent a Lost Logia made Keaka from, had wanted to hear for so long. A place of rest and safety and acceptance after all this time. Where it will be okay to rest, where she doesn't have to keep up this front anymore, of preparing for everything and gathering strength and being ready for almost everyone she meets to betray her -- because anyone could.

    But Keaka is that front, brought to life by a Lost Logia, and she knows, she knows because she kept her original safe for all those years:

                                                            
                 T H E Y   C A N ' T   B E   T R U S T E D .
                                                            

    And she's right, of course, just like she knew she would be.

    And even though she knew it was a lie, she's pissed to have the possibility it wasn't dangled in front of her. There's a pulse of dark energy from her and she screams in wordless frustration and starts throwing bolts of dark energy and dark lightning at the masks.

    And the others are falling for it?! Damn it... "Hey! Hey! Get back here! Don't listen, can't you see, it's a trap! Sarida, give me something!" < Uhh, I don't know! You're not a green-chromarchetype User, this is kind of out of our wheelhouse! I suggest looking at it as a puzzle and finding a tool to solve it. Or just start deleting things! >

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon, of course, would never be fooled by such nonsense. Ghosts waiting for him, trickery. He's just concerned about Yuyami. "Damnit, girl." he says out loud as he moves closer.

    Until he gets close enough to hear them - and what Riventon hears... the sound that tries to draw him in to the procession?
#-1 ARGUMENT OUT OF RANGE    "Thank you."

    "You Saved us."

    "You Were Right."

    And that is what overrides his judgement for the moment, for just a few seconds, and instead of trying to pull Yuyami away he's moving like he's going to join too.

    <<EMERGENCY OVERRIDE.>> calls Riventon's device suddenly in a Mid-Childan male voice. <<BUSTERKLOAK>> it adds in its Belkan Female voice, forcibly casting the spell from Riventon's own mana and creating a sudden ward of anti-magic static around him. Normally intended for disrupting a certain enforcer's Binds, now, it disrupts the siren's call. And for a moment, Riventon feels very stupid. Very vulnerable. Very lame. He does not like this.

    "Oh now you've PISSED ME OFF." Riventon says, and it isn't at Axion. "Axion... All safeties off. Activate it."

     <PROTOTYPE DRIVE. AKTIVIEREN. <FRAMTIDA-KARNA.>

    He grabs Yuyami and pulls her back before he launches an attack at the first source of remotely not-his-own not-civlian-energy he can sense. <LYSANDE KVASARSTRALE.> his device shouts in neither Belkan nor Midhildan as the blast of energy is blinding brilliant blue, leaving in its wake sparkling red stars of Dark Energy that explode themselves momentarily after appearing.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon blinked a few times when she saw all of those figures and... uhhhhh. Dad? Why was he... Why were all the princesses... Why were...

"Oh, yeah... not falling for this kind of trick..." Glimmer said, her right hand glowing with pink light. "I don't think any of us aaaaand I stand corrected," she said, her eyes on Yuyami. Well, at least Riventon--

"SERIOUSLY?!" she asked.

Well, in their defense, SHE'D dealt with this kind of mind control magic before. Shadowweaver, Horde Prime. She'd had her mind tampered with a handful of times as it was... So when they started blasting? She was... not going in there with them.

Instead, she snapped her fingers and made a new, second orb of a light further back.

Then in a flash of pink light, she was at Yuyami's side, grabbing her and teleporting her further away. "Sorry, gonna get you away from creepy mask guys," she said, holding her DIRECTLY under the light. A moment later, she was at Norie's side, grabbing her as well, wrapping a hand around her waist and... "Sorry, I know you won't like this!" Teleporting her directly under the light as well. She didn't have the mask, so hopefully it wouldn't be as bad for her. But the light seemed to have an effect on them already, so she hoped making another orb and getting the two under it would help clear their heads.

"It's not real, it's just mind tricks, like Horde Prime liked to do! They're *lies!*"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
With Glimmer on 'rescue duty', Riventon's blasts alongside Keaka's lay absolute waste to the street and the procession, raising a cloud of ... multi... colored ... dust that expands in all directions before dissipating to reveal the street is ... completely fine, actually, like none of that energy -did- anything. That's not possible, of course, but it sure *looks* like what happened -- but at least it disintegrated the lanterns, masks, and clappers... right?

One paper machet masks flutters down to the street from above, hitting the ground and laying there for a moment before soon others begin to drift to the earth in little flutters. And then more of them. And more. They begin to swirl together in place, dancing on wind that isn't present -- more of them, circling and spirallinng together before there is a single -clack- from between them and an eruption of force expelled otuwards from them that enough to pick one up and throw them into the buildings, to leave a crater at the center of the street where the parade masks dance, where the lanterns swing in a circle around them in turn. Empty eye sockets seem to burrow holes into the Obsidian employees.

"It's time now," their many voices says, "come walk with us."

And that's when the lanterns start spitting black fire.

Norie Okana has posed:
Two things happen. Norie Okana wakes up from her reverie and she's immediately angry. She raises her hands and then....

Is flung backwards into a building by a tremendous clamor. The scanner on her back smashes to pieces and falls to the floor. She squishes into black inky substance against the building.

The shadow splat she is suddenly oozes down the wall and reforms. LaCrima rises from the puddle on the ground reforming.

"You made me believe my father was alive. You broke my new-to-me scanner. You have to pay for that." she says angrily, rising into the air, before she throws a massive blast of dark energy towards the mass of... masks, before she starts dodging lantern fire, zag zagging in the air a little, hovering.

"I'll end your suffering...!" she screams angrily at them and it.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Oh, they're more than lies!" Riventon growls, standing in the area cleared by his blast, those small red-and-blue stars winking into existence and popping all around near him while his labcoat takes on a sort of setllar appearance, dark energy flowing across it in nebulae-like shapes. "THEY'RE PERSONAL."

    When the masks ask to walk with them, it's not Riventon who replies directly. It's his device. <<BEGARAN AVSLADD>> (Request Denied) it says in both voices at the same time.

    "Okay you might want to stand clear of this pile of trash." he warns. But then he has to put up a barrier because the lanters are trying to spray fire at him and finally he picks up on a familiar energy signature. From behind his triangular belkan shield, flaring with energy, he calls out to the others. "I think it's a nightmare! I think that's what this is. Not the sleeping kind, the spooky monster kind. Capital N Nightmare! Haven't walked into one of these in a wh-" and he's cut off because Yuyami has not broken free from her trance. "Join us. Be appreciated. Be loved. Get what you deserve..." she says in spooky trance voice - but also she's tugging his hand. Towards her, and away from being able to interpose.

    "Yuyami what the hell get a gr-" and she pulls hard, with her hands flaring with energy - and it's just enough to pull his hand away in time for a blast of lantern fire to collide into his jacket. "Oh I'M GONNA BREAK SO MANY MASKS!" he says in pained anger.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon let out a startled shriek as she was suddenly sent hurtling back at the buildings and--Then disappeared?

One advantage of teleporting is momentum dispersal, so you could NOT hit things by teleporting into another direction that DIDN'T have things to hit! vVery useful!

In this case, straight up! She flipped a few times, ping wings of light forming on her back as she twirled and then came to a stop, shaking her head. "Okay, this is getting annoying," Glimmer said. Norie was good, perfect.

Riventon, also good. And... Oh boy.

She disappeared again, and then appeared behind Yuyami, grabbing her around the waist and YANK! "Okay, off the director, come on. Let's go! It's! Not! Real! They're just USING you! Snap out of it! GAHHH! She's spindly!"

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
( This was something that provoked such a strong reaction from her Concept that even misaligned, she was able to act normally, apparently. )

    That's right, she was never someone who could get anywhere with talking, even when it was for good, even when it was to help people. Deleting whatever's holding her back is really tempting, but she needs to conceptualize what that is before she can target--

    "Oh good, you have backups." When Riventon announces 'All safeties off. Activate it.' -- and she can see Glimmer's already retrieved Norie -- Keaka flies over Riventon to get behind him and not be in the same direction as the masks. "Nice. Note to self, figure out how to power up Death Blossom Cannon like that..."

    At least the threat is now goh no.

                                   -clack-                                    

    <<FORCE FIELD>> Sarida is quick on the draw, protecting their User with a shield spell faster than she can dodge.

    They still go flying, rebounding off the building with a CRACK! from the shield and a grunt from Keaka before the field hits the street and rolls, like a hamster ball that's been kicked and Keaka is a very unhappy hamster for a half-second before flight magic arrests her movement. She rights herself, and the cracked shield flashes as black fire grazes it.

    "Gnhh... We'll destroy you, and you'll never hurt anyone again!"

    She takes to the air again, darting and weaving the way only flight magic can in three dimensions to avoid the flames. << Barret Burst Fire. >> The shield vanishes as she holds out both hands, her left conjuring a magic circle and flinging 3-barret bursts at high speed at the lanters, while her right hurls blasts of dark energy at the masks.

    Oh how she's missed moments like this. Fighting alongside allies and focusing her all on tracking and avoiding incoming attacks and chasing the next objective... She can honestly enjoy this sort of fight, even if she's too focused on the fight itself to really feel it.

    "You think I've never fought danmaku spells before?! You're ten years too late to beat me! No... twenty! A child could dodge this!"

    Sarida's voice asks in that tinny reverb, sounding so much like a Device: << What is danmaku?! >>

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Oh, those blasts hurt when they strike. Pure pain, of course. That's not surprising. Of course, they're also a distraction for the paper mache masks that are fluttering down from above, trying to sneak closer, trying to place htemselves on you. They whisper, promise sweet things, all the lies and then some more. Fortunately, even as they get close, all are far too enraged and keyed in to fall easily victim to them a second time -- but it doesn't stop it from trying, and the last thing anyone wants is one of those masks securing themselves to their face.

And it endures.

It endures what no creature outside of Tokyo should be able to endure, that deprived of magic that sustains a thing like that. It endures and fights back, the masks fly and dance faster, the lanterns spin ever quicker, and the rythmic clacking gets louder and louder, tying to the rhythm of its frenzied attacks, pulsing like a ...

... a -heartbeat-. The hyoshigi are the key, it's obvious to all now, they're the heart of the thing and given the way its pulse has quickened, its straining. The voices are edged with tension, demanding now. Frustrated.

But why isn't -dead- yet? This isn't Tokyo.

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    "Oh no you don't!" Keaka flings darkness at any mask that gets close. "Shut up, shut up!" The others seem to be able to handle themselves. Except Yuyami, but... she's not fighting against them, and hopefully once they kill the monster its control over her will be broken.

    "Tch... why isn't it dead yet?"

    And why is using all this dark energy only making her even more annoyed?

    "What do you do, Riventon?! When you see heroes, time and time again, somehow do the impossible with determination, beating foes that outmatch them time and time again, and you fight for every scrap of power and it's never enough to match them? I was never able to figure it out, in all my years. Does this crazy planet have an answer?"

    "Not that we're anywhere near the limits of our power yet! Limits..."

    << Force Field. >> She lands in front of Riventon, shielding him and instructing: "Your spells make better use of this energy than mine, so I'm gonna remove any limit on how much power you can use as best I can. Got that?"

    "Sarida, Inscribe Shift!" << Affirmative. Commencing Inscribe Shift. >> The gauntlet makes a whine as if charging up, and glowing lines ike circuit traces extend across its User's body.

    "Get ready..." Keaka flies behind him, drops the shield, and places Sarida on his shoulder. "Do it!"

    << Powering Void Drives. >> The crystal's voice sounds a bit strained with the effort, and

    through it, Riventon can suddenly draw a lot more power. As much as it thinks it and its user can bear without seriously injuring themselves, at any rate!

Norie Okana has posed:
Sometimes Lacrima calls her attacks. They are named something. The object forms of dark energy and she fires it or swings it or whatever. But sometimes you just get so angry you scream something new just to see what can happen and this is one of those nights!

""Gran Láser Maldito!" she screams out!

That's when a giant purple orb forms in front of her, and from it, a laser, a big, freaking laser, starts sweeping out across the ground, raking lanterns, raking masks and figures and raking nightmarish ceremonial instruments as it's rubbing things out across the ground, continuing.

She mutters and watches Glimmer try to grab Yuyami. Hold on Yuyami. This thing is almost dead hopefully.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It's not dead yet because it's probably not even alive." Takashi remarks. "We don't need to kill it. We need to UTTERLY, COMPLETELY, ABSOLUTELY destroy it." he says. That seems to be, at least, what Keaka is thinking. But first he has to reply.

    "I rest assured they'll never defeat me, Hoshiko-san." he says, with absolute honesty, as the energy flows into him. As the Dark Energy continues to grow, as condensed Dark Energy literally leaks off his fingers, the tips of his hair. "Because I know the truth. I have more determination than they do combined. Because the real hero of this world is me. They're just fakes, disruptions. All they can do is provide me more data. More experiements. But each one is a step forward. They can delay the inevitable. But that's the thing about inevitiability. Eventually... it arrives." he says with a smirk. "MUCH LIKE THIS THING'S END."

    Now he's collecting energy into both hands, and the 'stars' of energy around him grow in intensity, flaring into existence and detonating as an actual molten star, with flares and roaring magmatic surface shapes, but in dark black, is between his hands. But unlike when he had Beryl's gem, the star doesn't continue to grow - instead, it ruptures, collapses, and looks for all the world like a black hole with a pinprick entrance to the Dusk Zone in it.

    <<GRAVITATIONELL KRISVAG.>> (Gravitational Crisis Wave) his device declares in both voices as the shuddering wave of energy rips forward towards the damned youma, the thing that made him feel such FALSE JOY. It rips through the air carving a massive line in the ground, and upon connecting with the creature, it detonates into a vortex of Dark Energy that also looks a great deal like a black hole, pulling everything in towards the center before exploding outwards with what scientists call 'a vigorous reaction'.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon was certain of one thing in her current squad...

That, for the most part? They were all able to handle themselves. All but this new girl. Yuyami. She was new, she was inexperienced. And you know what happens to new soldiers in situations like this when all the blasts start flying? They get people hurt. Like she got Riventon hurt.

But since almost all of them could hold their own, Glimmer was devoting almost the entirety of her efforts to keeping the newbie of their squad out of danger. As they fought, she was behind them, wrestling with Yuyami, holding her back from doing anything too dangerous, too reckless, arms around her... And eventually, even her wings wrapping around her to shield her from that blast, as she turned her back to it and a pink barrier formed behind her back to form another layer of protection. Just in case.

Because protect the rookie. And as long as nobody had to worry about the new kid getting hurt, then nobody had to hold back.

... Wait, was this what it felt like for everyone when she first started fighting? Nah. SHE was competent. And she didn it by herself, with just Bow. So it was entirely different. By the time she joined them, she was better trained than a lot of the soldiers who were actually fighting...

Having very powerful magic powers, though, helped a lot with that.

And once that blast finished...

She reached up and tried to tear that blasted oni mask off Yuyami.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
As the blasts strike the buildings around them crack and distort, flaking off in prismatic chunks, like the landscape itself is part of it all -- but if it is ... where actually -are- you-?

It's a question they get the answer to in a moment -- but right now, the blasts do their work, exploding and absolutely annihilating the heart of the monster. The infernal clacking stops, smoke rises, and the world around them seems to ... shatter.

And then they realize that they're very much perilously on the ledge of the Hana tower, as if it was guiding them all along into stepping towards that edge, as fine dust dust dissipates around them. Almost.

But they won, didn't they? They destroyed the Nightmare that took their employees.

--Meanwhile--

Elsewhere. Nowhere. A shape stirs in the dark of Nightmare. From within this void, a shape falls forward with a singular 'KAK'. It clatters at the feet of something vast and terrible. A pause, and then...

"We were ... unmade," comes a faint whispy voice of a Nightmare returned, confused and ucnertain.

The darkness around it seemed to fold in on itself and it felt to the Hollow Procession as if a terrible eye had come to rest to on it.

"What was unmade can be remade, should I so desire it to be so. Now, tell me, o lowly nightmare reborn: What was it that unmade you so? I would like to lay my eye upon them, for the time of separation soon ends and all that is shall inevitably collapse into a single shape. -My- shape."

Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
    We don't have to kill it, we have to destroy it. "That's what I meant!" She calls back.

    And then they team up, and she's left to ponder his words as she and Sarida serve as a conduit to help him channel as much extra energy as they can stand.

    Through her, bleak, dark power helps Riventon unmake the nightmare, and as Axion declares his attack name she's moved by genre conventions to intone at the same time, "WORLD-BREAKER'S HAND!"

    And then it is done. Nightmare unmade. Yuyami freed. Did they really almost walk off the edge? That was all real, it can't have been an illusion, right? And most of them can fly...

    Although perhaps not well. Keaka's bumping into things if she's not very careful, after using that sight, and after channeling so much dark energy she's irritable... but, at least for the trip back to the helicopter, she can take satisfaction in knowing: They won.