2977/Aoi's Very Bad, No Good Day

Aoi's Very Bad, No Good Day
Date of Scene:	15 March 2026
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Aoi is having a terrible day and her name is Misfortunata.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Mamoru Chiba, Rashmi Terios, Amanda Faust, Ikiko Hisakata, Miho Inada

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's a little after noon when everyone who gave Aoi their phone numbers has their phone start blowing up with texts from her.

((https://radiantheartmush.com/Texts:_Aoi7s_Very_Bad,_No_Good_Day))

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The prince of four guys and a locked door is filling out college paperwork and thinking wistfully of Casual Friday, sitting clumped in his usual corner with caffeine, sugar, fried dough... he looks up from where his hand's in his hair keeping his head up while his elbow's on the table and he writes. His phone is exploding with texts. He sighs and picks it up, then blinks.

"Aoi-chan...?" he murmurs, watching as the messages keep rolling in. He frowns.

Mamoru TXT: sounds like some kind of curse
Mamoru TXT: have you been to a shrine to get a charm? if not go to hikawa jinja, those actually work

Rashmi Terios has posed:
'Depressed goblin' is what really gets Rashmi, after the horrified scrolling fully catches her up on Aoi's Worst Day.

...Perhaps it's a trauma reaction, perhaps it's pattern recognition, but her *first thought* is 'I really hope Hawkmoth isn't looking to start something today' as she pelts out of her dorm room, still putting her *first* arm in her jacket. Dressing for the weather can be done on the go, it is now a *rescue mission.*

Good thing that emotional support supplies are just outside the Academy.

Between hitting the door to the dorm building, and the ten minutes it takes for her to gear up and head back, she's sent off a few texts;

Rashmi TXT: Aoi-chan that sounds *awful!* My day's been pretty quiet, but hold on I'm heading your way.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy is out with Miho! Her phone suddenly starts beeping repeatedly. Zordon and Alpha 5 must have something really urgent, or that's just Amy's text alert sound. Amy pulls out her phone to check if magical shenanigans are afoot.

    "It's Aoi-san. Um, the girl that got erased by a nightmare. She says she's having a really bad day."

Aoi TXT: so first the vending machine outside the station eats my yen.

    "Oh it might be magic stuff."

Amy TXT: Like with teeth or...?

Aoi TXT: no drink
Aoi TXT: no money back
Aoi TXT: just beep beep

    "Oh nevermind I guess just a normal bad day."

Amy TXT: Oh OK so just normal then. Sucks though :(

Aoi TXT: pretty sure it's laughing at me

    "Uhhhhh... Or maybe nooooot?"

Amy TXT: OK wait

Aoi TXT: so I'm like fine whatever I'll just go over to the konbini

    "Okay I think it's just normal." Amy continues her running explanation to Miho,

Amy TXT: Oh OK so not literally

...

Aoi TXT: and he goes "we had a shoplifter earlier" and starts giving me the real stink eye
Amy TXT: WTF?!

    "Wow rude!" Amy shows Miho the growing text chain.

...
Aoi TXT: AND you know its been raining lately so it splashes the puddle that was there all over me
Amy TXT: Oh NO
Aoi TXT: my phone was in my hand and I, well, you know, dropped it in the puddle
Amy TXT: Oh *NO!* ...Wait how are you texting us I guess I should let you finish
...
Aoi TXT: A block later A FLOWER POT FALLS FROM A BALCONY
Aoi TXT: like right next to me shatters
Amy TXT: Damn it's like your an anime character or something :(
Aoi TXT: if I was two steps over I would literally would be picking my isekai powers right now
Amy TXT: *not that kind of anime!!!
...
Aoi TXT: THE WRONG WAY
Amy TXT: *what*
...
Aoi TXT: everyone pls tell me your day is better than mine
Amy TXT: I saw a fox named Mr. Vice President
Amy TXT: I assumed he was magical and introduced myself because who has a pet fox???
Amy TXT: But it was just a regular fox <attached: picture of Mr. Vice President wrestling a stress ball on grass, with the corner of a blanket with notebooks spread out on it in the corner of the frame>
Amy TXT: Anyway afaik luck curses could be a real thing I'm not sure how we could get you checked out for that though

    "Okay, I think maybe it might be magical," Amy glances from the screen to Miho, "You happen to have heard of anyone who can do, or remove, that kinda stuff? I guess we know some shrine maidens..."

Amy TXT: Where are you now?
Amy TXT: Oh right the food court you said

    "D'you think we should maybe go over in case whatever it is tries to kill her again?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Different ages means different study groups (even if the group size is 1, in multiple cases), but Ikiko is likewise at the cat cafe to do some studying for her finals. The table she's at isn't too far away from Mamoru's, partially as a form of quiet moral support, but also in case rooftop stuff happens to come up.

So when Mamoru starts frowning at a cascade of incoming texts, it catches Ikiko's attention. "What's up?" she asks him queitly, trying to not draw any attention from the others in the cat cafe.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
For her part, Emi is at the cat cafe. She's been hewing a little closer to Mamoru in the last few days -- with good reason. It has to do with The Plan.

When AOi's texts start rolling through, she does not initially pay attention to it until Mamoru says 'Aoi-Chan?' and then she looks at her phone. Reads. Reads some more.

Emi TXT: stay there and don't move, I'm on my way.

Clearly, Emi does not like the sound of this one bit and she's already giving Mamoru a look of deep apology for what she's bound to ask next.

Aoi TXT: midtown mall yeah

Aoi TXT: Maybe going to a shrine is a good idea but I think I am going to enjoy these fries first mr vice president sounds cool

Miho Inada has posed:
    Well, Miho is with Amy, mostly just enjoying the day with the other girl. She's been holding Amy's hand most of the time, until Amy starts getting texts. The girl lets go so Amy could give commentary. She giggles at the fox pictures, and shakes her head a little bit. "Well, I mean, I help my mom at the Shrine, but that's not the same as some of our other friends.", she points out.

    The girl listens in for several moments. She blinks a few more times. "Yeah, we better head over there.", she says. Miho gives Amy a kiss. "When Mahous go on dates, something has to happen. Its like the universe plots against mahou dating each other! I was hoping to relax before the finals, but well, yeah.", she says.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hasn't been on many dates! She doesn't really know how to do romance, but she does enjoy closeness, and the more comfortable she gets around someone who's expressed interest that she likes too, she starts to attempt flirting in her awkward geeky way.

    But that is a story for another day! Mahou dates do, it seems, tend to get interrupted.

    At Miho's giggles, Amy gives a slightly embarassed grin, "I just assumed he could talk!" She holds a hand to her head, "...Usagi got it on video, too... Maybe she'd like to see that."

    More texts go back and forth, but the one that sends a chill through Amy's spine is

Emi TXT: stay there and don't move, I'm on my way.

    Oh shit this is definitely serious then.

    Amy hugs Miho and holds the kiss for a second before stepping back, smiling but a bit worried for Aoi and resigned to the quirks of mahou life. "So it seems. I bet Usagi and Mamoru could tell us stories of all the crazy ways their dates have been interrupted."

    And so they head out!

    "Hey, we can still relax tomorrow, and maybe tonight after this. If this is more nightmare business we won't be fighting it until we're asleep."

    Once they arrive at the food court, Amy smiles and waves to Aoi, and pauses to look around the food court for any oncoming hazards before approaching.

    She's dressed comfy but slightly dressed up, with a cream cardigan over a red tank top and mottled grey skirt, and a cheap brass-colored necklace with ring decorations on it. Is that just a thin touch of eyeliner and mascara? Is that a normal amount of makeup for a date? Is it too little? Is it trying too hard?

    These are things that weighed on Amy's mind earlier, but now she's completely even forgotten she's wearing any.

    "Hey. How're you holding up?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru shows Ikiko, then nods to Emi. "Well," he says, "Let's rooftop it. It's faster than motorcycle at this time of day." He's getting up, and grinning to himself, his green-and-blue-tipped hair extra fluffy on top, freshly cut in back. "Sorry I just wanted to reference my motorcycle." At least he's honest about it.

One jewel-toned, black-and-red-ribboned henshin in the elevator later, and as they pass through Mamoru's apartment, Tuxedo Kamen's sticking his head in the door of Kazuo's server room to tell him what's going on, then--

Well. "I'd offer a teleport but I have no idea where I'd be landing. I don't know Aoi well enough to find her from here. So I'm afraid you'll have to make do with a princess carry," smiles the offensively tall and beautiful high school senior, two weeks from graduation and,, ,,

Of course he smells like mocha and roses and *boy* (but clean haha) and-- Sailor Moon would totally not Moon Spiral Heart Attack Emi over this, except maybe in dreams when Emi has a henshin...

Anyway... the three studious and/or paperworky mahoujin arrive nearby and have to like, jog like normal people the rest of the way. "I don't know where this food court is, I'm never at this mall," he explains apologetically, just as they come in unmistakeable sight of Amy's hair and also Miho and Aoi.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
While she's been getting out of the habit of casually using her Device for personal convenience, a quick conference with Nicomachea has them both agreeing that speed is of the essence. Luckily, she knows a *great* bakery between here and the mall, so as she henshins out of sight and lifts off, her initial vector is sliiiightly to the right of the Mall at first. Her own texts keep firing along the way.
Rashmi TXT: Related: Chocolate or fruit, which d'you like better?
Rashmi TXT: Also coffee, tea, or cocoa?
Rashmi TXT: Yes I'm doing a supply run don't worry you get first dibs and I *will* be enforcing that.
Rashmi TXT: Okay almost there!

Banking on the fact that half the places that sell fries at Clover Mall have fry baskets are only slightly less massy than those at Game Crown, Rashmi a bakery beloved for their light, cakey frosted cookies, an entire donut box of which she has in hand as she lands by the parking garage, hurries inside, and rushes toward the food court. A drinks carrier dangles from the box-holding hand by two fingers, and she has to pause to catch her breath as she comes up on Aoi's position. "Hey... Sorry... had to rush... cookies are fine... I checked... Sorry..."

The box is set in front of Aoi, and the drinks, and only *then* does she grab a chair to sit nearby, and better chase after her lost breath.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
One elevator ride, rooftop jaunt, and jog later (interspersed with swapping in and out of henshin, as needed), and Ikiko is arriving to the sight of some familiar faces, and one not-so-familiar face. She stands about half a step back, listening and occasionally glancing around for trouble, while those who know Aoi-chan check in on her.

Miho Inada has posed:
    So, Miho is along for the ride for a bit. She nods her head a bit as she had heard about the nightmare stuff more second hand then experiencing it. From what she heard, none of it is pleasant. When they go to the mall, there's a few times where Miho gets a little distracted though. You know, that new pair of jeans that will fight just tight enough. That shirt that's just a /little/ flirty...The music store with the new releases...A few normies who are close friends of Miho's trying to blow off some study fatigue by Mall-ing.

    Miho does get pulled along to keep up with Amy a bit as she holds Amy's arm. "I really need to go back, and get those camis later. Oh, gawd, those jeans would fit just right.", she says. "Oh, and the cds! I need to pick up a few of...wait...getting distract. Magic stuff happening.", she says. The girl shakes her head as she focuses on the task at hand. "Maybe we can buy some make up on the way...Distracted again....Sorry. Mall weak!", she says.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi gives Mamoru a look that screams 'you can not be serious', but a little while later it turns out that he was and they're at the Midtown Mall.

She makes her way up the escalators (which have a very confused maintenance crew examining one in particualr) and to the top level food court.

Aoi greets people as they arrive. She recognizes Amy, but not Miho, and Rashmi she knows as well. She blinks at the fact that she cam bearing gifts, a bit chagrinned perhaps that her complaints merited such a reaction. She bows her head towards Rashmi in thanks, politely refusing once (common courtesy to refuse!) before accepting them when Rashmi insists.

But it doesn't take very long for the magically inclined to notice something feels...

... off.

Yeah, there's dark energy present in the air here and while it's not quite centered on Aoi, it's -near-.

"Hey," says Aoi to Mamoru, sheepishly. She's glad to see him too. Emi gives her a -look-.

'Now what was that about my social life?" she mutters, covering her green eye with her left hand and staring at Aoi with her blue one.

"... not a nightmare," she says with some relief.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yo," Mamoru says amiably to Aoi, hooking his thumbs in his pockets and nodding to the others as they arrive, glancing back to make sure he knows where Ikiko is, then returning his attention to the unforgotten girl -- and Emi.

He steals a doughnut though. +_+

"That's so cool you can tell that way," he says to Emi, and then he says to Aoi but also everyone, "There's absolutely dark energy hanging out around here, and I wish I hadn't dropped my henshin. In fact--" In fact, restroom henshin.

Tuxedo Mask comes back, unapologetically henshined with a sick dye job, way way way overdressed for the mall. "Come out come out wherever you are."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Ooh, Miho's friends? "I'd love to meet you more when we're not in the middle of something!" She sounds positive and confident, but partly it's that with her mind on magic troubles she's not thinking anxiously of how weird she might seem to Miho's normie friends.

    She's happy to see Miho so excited, and she even knows what a cami is now! And has for almost a year! Look at her, teenage girl in a mall and she understands shopping talk, she's come so far!

    "People still buy CDs? I guess most music sites won't give you DRM-free, huh." she comments, thinking. Then smiles and shakes her head at Miho's apology. "You're fine! Uhh, note it down for future shopping trips, I'm bad at remembering to-do stuff."

    Hopefully she's familiar to Aoi by now! Although, maybe Amy came on a bit too strong earlier with offering to bond over building a new life with new friends after the world mostly forgets you.

    As she approaches the table Aoi's at, she smiles and waves to the other arriving mahou. But then she pauses briefly, at the feeling of dark energy.

    Then realizes how that might look to Aoi. "Oh, it's not you, just... I can feel something's off, yeah."

    Emi announces it's not a nightmare. Amy holds out her left hand, palm-up, as her soul gem changes from ring to its 'egg' form. A cloud of dark corruption fills the top tenth of the otherwise pure ruby-red gem. Amy concentrates for a moment, then relaxes slightly, the soul gem changing back to a ring on her finger and her hand dropping to her side. "Not a Witch, either."

    "Oh, and this is Miho-chan, she's magic too! Miho-chan, this is Mizuno Aoi-san."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko nods to the others at the sense of nearby Dark Energy. "I don't exactly have a specialization, so I can't offer any insight on what it is," she shrugs to the other mahoujin. Definitely time to prep for whatever it is, though.

She nonchalantly sits down at an unoccupied cluster of well-lit tables, then nonchalantly slides out of her chair and under the tables. One silvery gleam and several 'nobody saw that, right?' seconds later, Cute Wolf Tsukiko cautiously dodge-rolled back over to Aoi-chan's table before standing up.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"No no... They're yours," Rashmi pants, raking hair out of her eyes, and pulling a hairbrush from her book-bag to work on getting the flyaways back under control. "*You* had the bad day, *you* get first pick of comfort sna--"

Mamoru straight up yoinks a cookie, and for a moment, Rashmi's own +_+ eyes tell of a different impulse.

But it's *Mamoru,* so she settles for just wiggling the hairbrush threateningly, then gets back to work. Only for the charm around her neck to *ping!* almost exactly as Mamoru notes something's off, and Emi confirms it is at least not a Nightmare. "Well, darn," she sighs. "Hang on..."

As Mamoru wanders off to henshin in the restrooms, the Devicer simply chooses to slide under the little table. A golden light flashes and faces, and a Rashmi in some kind of armor-military-frilly-skirt *thing* rises up as Amy confirms it's not a Witch, which is *wonderful.* "...So usually how this goes," she murmurs to Aoi, "is something starts trying to steal energy or cause havoc, and if I'm here I do this thing where it stops being the normal world's problem, right before we pile just *amazing* amounts of violence on it. Stick close to me, and I'll keep you as safe as I possibly can."

Miho Inada has posed:
    Miho nods her head to Amy about adding it to a list on her phone. As they meet up, Miho holds her head a bit. Gah....Something is here alright. "Ow...Something is here...Also, nice to meet you.", she mutters, holding her head. The girl runs for the little girl's room next to where Mamo ran in. There's a bit of a cold fog that comes out from under the bathroom. Yukihime comes out of the bathroom. Yukihime shakes her left wrist, and two of the beads come off to form 2 wolves that walk next to Yukihime.

    "My apologies if my appearence startles you. I am a Yuki-onna.", she states carefully. At least Yukihime isn't a fully grown Yuki-onna yet. Yay! Either way, the ice mahou is looking around a bit as she stretches a little bit. "Should I send out a few friends to look around the area?", the girl asks.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Wait, what?" says Aoi as various indicators of it being not a nightmare and a not a witch are given, as mamoru calls it out when he returns and Rashmi assures her of her protection. "You people aren't joking???" she asks, "please tell me you're joking. Not -again-," she sinks into her chair, looking very much like a girl trying to be okay with suddenly having drawn the attention of something nasty a second time.

... but in this case, the nasty realizes that the mahou have caught on and makes arun for it!

... it's... a cat?

A ...black cat? "Oh hey," begins Aoi on seeing it, "it's that cat from the cafe!"

Mamoru would know it is not, but it looks close enough that Aoi can't be blamed for immediately thinking so.

And now it's running for one of the stores -- a fancy little wagashi and mochi place from the look of it, and it's going -straight- for the doorway. Better chase or its going to get away.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> You people aren't joking?
    Amy just looks confused, honestly.

> Please tell me you're joking. Not again...
    "Hey, in a way this is good, right? Means we can actually stop this from continuing to happen to you. ...Maybe you should talk to Usagi's friend Osaka-san, sometime."

    Rashmi henshins under the table, and Amy says "Good idea." And ducks down to do likewise... although instead of there being a flash of light, she hesitates. "Aoi-san, wanna see something cool? Look here." If Aoi declines, though, Amy doesn't ask again; either way, one henshin sequence later, Magical Rocket Girl Red is standing up again next to the table as the gathering increasingly looks like a group of cosplayers.

    Yukihime announces herself as a yuki-onna. "She's a nice one!" Amy reassures with a smile.

    Movement. Amy's head whirls. Just a cat. "Huh? It was at the cafe earlier?" Wait... the dark energy. She can feel it coming off that cat. "Don't worry, if it's a youma, we'll handle it." Amy conjures a gyrojet pistol and racks the slide in what she hopes is a reassuring gesture.

    She then turns and mahou-superleaps after the cat, not noticing that the toe of her boot stepped right on a little spot of sauce accidentally dropped by a previous patron, her foot sliding back as she awkwardly leaps not as high or far as she was expecting, knocking over a chair before she lands on all fours. "I'm fine!" She rubs her boot on the floor and then the sole is briefly covered in pink sparkles, cleaning it, and she runs off after the cat!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Why don't you preemptively open a barrier?" Tuxedo Kamen asks Rashmi, glancing at her curiously. "I mean, that would bring invisible dark energy whatevers--"

It manifests and books it, and the extremely well-dressed teenager looks so offended. "It's not a cat! Black cats aren't bad luck!" he yells. And he starts to chase after it, but gets literally half a step before he stops and plunks himself down in a chair next to Aoi.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you alone," he says, and does not steal another cookie. Instead, he sleight-of-hands his top hat out of nowhere and digs around in it, then comes up with two little bags of candy. "Do not share these with anybody but mahoujin, okay? The green ones give you resistance to poison and fatigue and also let you walk on water, and the red ones give you more power to a punch or a harder throw, and also let you do some sick parkour and trick shots."

They're hard candy. Which means that when they slip out of his hand and fall to the floor, they shatter inside the bags.

Mamoru looks down. "RIP."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I mean there is an upside," Rashmi says lamely as Aoi questions their seriousness. "At least this means we're gonna punch the *reason* for your bad day? *And* there's really something to blame. The vending machine might have been its own thing though, when they go evil they're *jerks.*"

With that, she does the first thing that comes to mind, and takes a step back to not blind Aoi.

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

--which is when her hip bumps the table behind her, and shortly after her foot lands not on flooring, but a half-eaten egg sando that its owner was *just about* to get back to.

Her foot flies out from under her at roof-hopping speeds, there's a moment of panicked flailing, and when the dust settles she's just... sort of hanging off a serenely floating Nicomachea, waiting for her feet to be ready to contact floor once again.

"...So this is gonna be fun..."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko glances in the direction that Aoi is looking, and notices the black cat(?) taking off. "You misfortunate troublemaker, get back here!" the wolfgirl yowled in Feline as she gave chase, trying hard not to think about the somewhat cliché nature of a canine chasing a cat.

Her focus on the cat means that her focus on obstacles is more cursory than usual, and Tsukiko misjudges the spread of the legs of one of the chairs, and stumbles a bit. Not too hazardous of a fall, and she doesn't fall completely to the ground, but trying to catch herself on nearby chairs results in more chairs falling over (to the accompaniment of creative invective in mostly non-human languages) before she can fully regain her footing, slowing down her pursuit in the process.

Miho Inada has posed:
    Yukihime takes a deep breath, and lifts her right hand. She blows out some snow off her right hand. The snow gathers a little bit. "Friends of the Forest....Snow Foxes to give chase to the unlucky cat!", she commands. Two little snow foxes appear. They run around in circles for a second before running off to chase the cat...before stopping near a chicken restaurant.

    "...No...NOOO! Don't you...Dammit!", she yells out.

    The foxes run off into the kitchen of the chicken place. "You don't even eat food! Seriously!", she yells out. Yukihime then experiences something she never thought possible. She finds the only spilled soda in the whole mall, and slips in it! She falls to the ground before the foxes run out, and look at Yukihime. They give foxy little looks to Yukihime. Lick! Cat software does not seem to be working quite right at the moment...Needs an update...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Are you kidding me," says Emi as the cat darts off. She starts after it herself, but then realizes that there are people much better suited to chasing cats: like cute wolf Tsukiko!

The loud crashing makes her wince.

Aoi too, for that matter. She gives Mamoru a sheepish, uncertain look when he extends the candies but then they're on the floor and she just looks apologetic. And then RASHMI is on the floor.

"Are you okay?!" both her and Emi voice some version of.

Emi slowly goes to sit down, but in all the chaos, her chair got bumped from where she thinks it was and she winds up on her back herself.

"Ow?" she says.

Meanwhile, the cat is now on the tables in the Wagashi shop, causing chaos with a cute wolf in pursuit, and supposedly some foxes who seem otherwise distracted by chicken and ...

"Reow?" says a second black cat, which definitely is now weaving between Rashmi's legs when she goes to stand up. And definitely not trying to trip her.

A second cat.

Oozing malice and dark energy. Which suggests...

... that those two cats belong to -someone-.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
'Reow?'

"...I think I get Chrono a little better," Rashmi mutters as she lets go, and just... decides to lay on her back. One of the upsides to a Device, after all, is the lack of need of mystical gestures and dramatic poses. Instead, an intricate yellow seal just spreads out under her back, and the giant floating book chimes resonantly.

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

"Try to stop *that,*" she says in a low voice, as yellow-black staticky energy sweeps out to envelop most of the mall, and at least the first handful of stories of Clover Tower in general.

One of the problems with the Barrier world is, while *people* may not exist, *objects* do. Objects like, to take a random example, a paper cup half-full of soda that was left sitting at the edge of the table Rashmi had bumped. Which *now* chooses to tip over and fall directly on her face, unfortunately splattering flavored fizzy sugar-water all over her hair and glasses.

"...There is gonna be *so much violence.*"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
There's a cacophony inside the wagashi shop, accompanying a flurry of comedic chaos best represented by a montage of slowly panned stills (or sports overlay diagrams with a strong resemblance to spaghetti), complete with launched desserts, furniture malfunctions, inadvertently improvised caltrops, thrown items with improbable ricochets after a miss, and other such shenanigans.

    (Good thing Rashmi got the Barrier up before the wolfgirl entered the shop!)

The first cat finally scampers out of the wagashi shop, with Tsukiko staggering after it... looking more like the veteran of a thousand pie-toss wars. The wolfgirl wipes the frosting out of her eyes, then actually tries tasting it. "Hmm, not bad," she sighs with a half-smile. "Might have to see about visiting here again when things aren't like... this."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Sighing, Tuxedo Kamen drops the green candy bag back in his hat, considers everything, opens the red candy bag, eats a handful of shards which is like a bunch, and you know, some of those shards are sharp and Mamoru winces as he cuts his gums on one. And then--

The candy is his own power, it's stuff he can do already, so maybe -- his thinking is that maybe, if he layers a buff on top of his same power, instead of stacking it'll leave room for one to fail. Schroedinger's cat indeed:

One white-gloved hand flickers through the air, letting loose a magic-breaking rose directly at the waving end of the tail of the cat that was winding around Rashmi's feet as she did NOT get up-- except as he sends it his cape gets caught on his chair and it goes wide, headed for Rashmi instead, which means--

--a second rose gets sent directly for where that rose will be in a second, and it goes off without a hitch, the rose course-corrected and headed for the point in space where the cat's tail will be when it gets there,

but,,,,,,,

the second rose continues on its course and vanishes down the ramp into the parking garage and a second later a loud BANG can be heard as a tire gets stabbed...

Mamoru cringes.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "You--" Amy switches to telepathy so as not to startle the shoppers, << You can summon foxes?! They're adorable! ....do summoned animals get hungry? Does that mean you're hungry? >>

    She lands in front of the wagashi store! But how will she get in there and catch that cat without causing more problems for the customers?

    Luckily for Amy, the barrier goes up before she has to find an answer!

    Unluckily for Amy, someone walking out of another store on the floor above trips on a shoelace they didn't notice had come untied, their newly-purchased washbasin slipping from their hands, landing on the railing, and--

    << TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

    --falling right on Amy with a CLANG.

    She's a mahou, she's fine, but "OW! SERIOUSLY?!" Amy grabs the washbasin in one hand and glares angrily up at no one. "What is this, a cartoon?!" She mutters, "Y'got the wrong one, anyway..." and looks at the cat now in a store empty but for Tsukiko.

    Can costume magic give her an animal control officer outfit with a cat carrier? ...feels like a no. How is she gonna catch that damn cat?

    She looks at the washbasin.

    She looks back at the CAT COMING RIGHT OUT OF THE SHOP! "GOTCHA!" She tries to slam the washbasin, upside-down, overtop it.

    With Tsukiko charging right at her. What could possibly go wrong?

Miho Inada has posed:
    Yukihime squeaks, and dismisses the foxes. "...Friends of the forest, my icicle.", she says. Yukihime stands up, and slips on the soda again! Wait! WHAT?! Seriously! How does the spirit of snow and ice have a hard time standing up?! She mutters a bit as she finally finds her balance. "Ok...I think I'm fine now.", she says, before one of her wolves get a little too close, and bumps her knee. And there she goes again!?!

    "Seriously! And yeah, I can make any type of mountain animal as long as its small.", she says. The ice mahou crawls away from the soda, to stand up. And manages to crash into a tray that was half sitting on a mall table. Which flies up, and drenches her in Icee. Yukihime just gives this look, as the blue raspberry ice slowly drips down her face.

    "I swear...the level of violence I wish to invoke shall be mythical...", she glares. The mahou wishes she knew some sort of freezing technique. Just to stop the cats from...wait...

    "Wolves of the Capital, Capture!", she calls out 4 beads. The 4 beads turn into wolves who go chasing after the cats. They don't try to harm the cats. The wolves do what wolves do best! They move as a pack to try corner the other cat using pack tactics to keep it from running away!

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Cat #1 skitters to a halt just as the washbasin starts to come down and then ...

And then Tsukiko can't quite stop in time and collides with Amy and they go end over and while the cat stops to lick its paws casually for a moment in the background before turning and running towards the chicken store.

In the meantime, a rose connects with the other cat's backside and it YELPS, yowls, and leaps away from Rashmi, its magic momentarily disrupted.

But that's when something else starts.

It begins with elongated 'aaaa' sound followed by 'HA HA HA HA HA HA'.

It is, in fact, a 'delightful' ojousama laugh. Unmistakable in its tenor and length and sheer delight.

You see, out of a perfume shop emerges a gothically clad woman of indeterminate age. On each of her shoulders is a magpie, observing the food court with barely constrained greed. Her long black hair is bundled up. Over her face is a classic comedy drama mask. Her dress is resplendent, gothic, black, and vintage. Very vintage. Surrounding her are a nimbus of flickering symbols: tarot, it becomes clear, aftar a moment.

""Guigne! Maléfice!" she calls, and the cats abruptly stop and come running towards her.

"How -DELIGHTFUL-," she begins in her accented Japanese, "Here I was, trying on new perfume, and what should good fortune deliver unto me but a bundle of magical girls? I haven't seen the like in oh it feels like DECADES!"

A low, sweeping bow.

"I am many things to many people but you may call me Misfortunata.

Her eyes lock on the now wide-eyed form of Aoi who has sunk into her chair at the chaos.

"WELL," she begins, "ON WITH THE SHOW! "Guigne! Maléfice! Montrez-leur la malchance!"

The two cats beside her are immediately infused with dark energy rippling from her.

... and grow very large indeed.

-Now- its the violence. Good thing there are wolves. Plural.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Meanwhile, outside the barrier:
    The blonde American who was next to the railing talking to her dark-haired enbyfriend grabs the washbasin before it finishes tilting over the railing. "Phew, that was close!"

    "Thank you both." says the middle-aged man who tripped, setting the washbasin aside and kneeling to tie his shoe.

    The dark-haired one who was standing a few feet away looked over immediately, but was slightly slower moving their hand to stabilize the basin from the other side. "I didn't think stuff like this really happened. It almost fell on that cosplayer like something out of a comedy anime."

    "You're welcome. Be careful--" The American girl starts to respond to the man, and then looks out over the railing eagerly. "What cosplayer?! ...And in what comedy anime do washbasins just randomly fall on people? Doesn't sound very funny. Sounds like a bunch of personal injury lawsuits."

Inside:

*WHAM!*

    Amy and Tsukiko tumble away from the cat. "Are you kidding me?!" Amy groans. "How powerful can bad luck powers be?! Even if they're just annoying me..."

    There's an ojou laugh. "Oh WHAT NOW?!" Amy groans again, and looks over in that direction.

> ON WITH THE SHOW! And then there were mega nekos.
    "WHERE DO YOU PEOPLE COME FROM?!" Amy shouts, and, rising to one knee, conjures her launcher on her shoulder.

    She glances behind her, and waits for Ikiko to step out of the backblast area before announcing, "Backblast clear!" And looking forward with a smile. Ha! Bad luck avoided!

    In the last split-second aiming, the launch tube clips against the branch of a nearby indoor plant just as Amy's pulling the trigger, and the shot explodes a china shop across the way.

    At least there's a barrier.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko groans from the floor, sprawled uncomfortably atop the washbasin. She blinks owlishly at Misfortunata's monologue, regathering her bearings and piecing together what's being said.

When realization sets in, the wolfgirl's eyes widen. "Well, I'll be flea-bitten," she breathes. "This is in my specialty. An actual being of Curses."

No time to dwell on that, though; there's large, vicious curse-cats to contend with, and laying sprawled on the ground isn't helpful for surviving a fight. So Tsukiko tries scrambling to her feet, barks her shins on the washbasin instead, finally gets to her feet, darts away from one of the cats, skids through an attempted turn due to the frosting on the sole of her shoes, plows through several chairs, then flips over a table before managing to regain her balance.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...no, you know what?" Tuxedo Mask says, dropping the rest of the candy in his hat and flipping his hat back out of his dimensional pocket or whatever sleight of hand he actually does with it. He reaches for Aoi's hand as he gets up, and he says, "We're out." He calls out, "I'm taking Aoi home you guys!"

To Aoi he says, "We can sort out the rest later. Got your bag and everything? Okay let's go--"

And then the two of them vanish behind the swirling of his cape.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
    << *BONG!* >> << TELEPATHY >>

<< Thaaaaaanks, Kamen-san, >> Rashmi mentally sighs as the cat and its magic are disrupted, allowing her to get to get feet, manifest wings, and rise a bit off the ground. "Aoi-cha--" but Tuxedo Kamen rather neatly solves that problem for her, giving them only *one* less-than-active magical-girl to worry about. << ...*Emi*-chan, >> she says instead, over the telepathic net that she, at least, has some experience with. << I'm gonna drop you under a Shield. It *ought* to keep you safe, but who knows what kind of quackery stupid bad luck can do-- >>

Cue the exploding of a Puella in a china shop.

<< My point exactly, >> Rashmi finishes, dryly. Heaving a teenager's so-over-this-already sigh, she rises about level with the second-floor balcony, rapidly considering what possible tactics she could use that might be immune to, or at least unhindered by, legendarily poor fortune...

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

As she ponders, a bubble of golden light forms around Emi, resolving into a thick, spiked ice shell with a screeching *CRACK* akin to flash-frozen metal. If anything pierces it, she will, at least, know first-- ah! An idea forms!

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

Three wispy balls of foxfire resolve into being, streaking out to home in on her allies and infuse their attacks with clinging, binding ice.

But broken porcelain can be sharp, and shrapnel from the explosion lances out, impacting against the cabling holding an art-piece chandelier in place. Only one of the cables gives way, but that much weight combined with that much momentum sets the low-hanging installation on a collision course with--

"...Oh," sighs Rashmi, as proximity alerts sound, too late. "Shi--"

*CRASH!*

Miho Inada has posed:
    And the wolves look up at the megacats. They look at each other, and yeah, back into beads, and fly back to Yukihime. She blinks a few times as she looks at the beads. "...How does that work out?!", she asks the beads, shaking a few times. "The magic is supposed to act like wolves! Not chickens!", she says.

    Yukihime tries to blow out some snow again. "Friends of the forest! Snow Monkeys!", she calls out. And then the snow forms into...snow chickens...

    "...Ummm, WHAT?!", she yells out. Yukihime is confused as to how she got...chickens?! Those aren't even mountain animals!

    Yukihime goes to gather the snow birds up, before one soundlessly bawks, and lays a ice egg. Which Yukihime steps on, and falls over! She just lays there. "....Is there a I quit button around? I'm a ice mahou, and I just slipped...ON ICE!", she yells out...She mutters a few times as she just lays there, looking at the girl who seems to be the owner of the cats. "What do you want?!", she asks. "Anything to get rid of this luck!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"H-hey! How dare you!" shouts Misfortunata after her target is stolen from her. There's a lot of cursing in french thereafter, but she has bigger problems.

Bad luck offers only so much protection, after all, and as foxfire comes straight for her, it knocks her back into a ...

...sofa in the waiting room of a shop?

Apparently, she gets the good luck while everyone else gets the bad luck.

Of -course- that's how it works.

Still, she's briefly dazed as her magpie companions yell at her to wake up in her ears and she springs to her feet. "Oof! Have the girls gotten stronger since the last time I was present? Clearly! 'Tis no matter! OOOOOOH HO HO HO HO HO! Trèfle Funeste!"

A spinning, black four leaf clover appears over Rashmi and begins to descend on her...

... after the chandelier. Its crackling with dark energy so its likely going to explode or something.

Amy's blasts missed, but they earned a wide eyed look from Misfortunata, as if to say 'Wait, what? No fair!'.

"Sel du Malheur!!"

Amy has ... a wave of ...salt coming straight for her eyes. -Salt-. Dark energy infused salt, sure, but salt!

The cats are busy fighting the wolves. There's a lot of yowling, crashing, things going flying in all directions, but the cats are just plain outnumbered. Luck is helping them, but only so much.

Yukihime's actual question, however, gets an 'OOOH HO HO HO' from Misfortunata who says, "Annnnything, hm?" Her previous outrage at Aoi being stolen briefly forgotten.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi just sort of hunkers down under the shield, eyeing Misfortunata and the ongoing conflict.

"...I hate that she is styles goals," she mutters.

Miho Inada has posed:
    An idea floats in Yukihime's head as she sends out the rest of her beads out to help the wolves that are out. So its 10 wolves versus 2 megacats. The mahou gets up, and stretches a little bit. "Let's...make a deal.", she smiles. Yukihime extends her hand a bit, offering a shake. Just what is going on here?

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The *only* bit of good fortune was that the chandelier was largely thin steel and wire, made to *catch* light in interesting ways. Thus, not a *devastating* blow for an active mahou to tank, but certainly embarrassing and *definitely* inconvenient. She's still trying to untangle herself from the tinkling art-piece, when she looks up to stare, wide-eyed, at the slowly lowering, probably explosive Dark Clover.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR FLASH >>

When your only thought is 'get away from *that!*' and you trigger a spell designed to move you a double-handful of dozens of meters in an instant... if you're not paying attention, your choice of vector can be A Problem.

Witness Rashmi, suddenly across the food court, crashing into the sign above a yakiniku restaurant. Half-buried in drywall.

Oh the *amount of violence* she is about to unleash...

Pulling herself out, she turns to orient on Misfortunata, eyes blazing.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR STINGER >>

Half a dozen balls of glowing golden energy resolve around her body, arcing out to target the literal architect of their misfortune. And while Rashmi is not the *strongest* Device Mage to ever fire a Barret? Each one is not only packed with the power of a mahou-class punch... and built with *endurance,* to loop back around and *keep punching.*

And there are *six* of them.

There's only so much good luck one can benefit from, in the face of a swarm of angry punch-bees.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Ha!" Amy shouts in what triumph they can find, as the villain is finally--

    --inconvenienced into a comfy chair.

    "Oh COME ON!"

> Trèfle Funeste!
    "Oh no you don't!" Amy conjures a couple of minimissiles that fly up at the tref...quatrefoil? of misfortune? and explode. Bad luck only goes so far, sooner or later she'll get not-unlucky!

    Although, she didn't see the chandelier in time.

    Amy holds up a missile that's suddenly in her hand. << You know what to do when you can't roll for shit: Make them roll reflex saves! Give me a boost! >>

    "I cast firebffgggagghhg!"

    Amy looks back at Misfortunata just in time to get eyes full of salt. The missile launches, zips just past the dark general by a few inches, and there's a series of crashing sounds as it flies through stores but, notably, does not explode yet!

    Amy, for her part, is trying to figure out how to get the salt out of her eyes. "[Fuck you!]"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko pauses for a moment after accidentally knocking a table over onto the tail of one of the cats. "If a curse can come from a malformed blessing..." she mutters to herself, an inkling of an idea coming to her mind.

The wolfgirl grabs a chair and darts forward, fully intending to drag it to the other side of the food court, along a path that goes by the cats. Sure enough, the attempt runs into a problem -- namely, the shoulder of one of the cats. The impact jars Tsukiko's shoulder, but it's also a decent hit on the cat, and gives the freshly-arriving snow wolves an extra opening to work with.

Noticing this attack, the other cat takes a swipe at the wolfgirl, and while the ice magic on the forearms helps with blocking the strike, the ice magic on her feet means the kinetic force sends her sliding into a mass of chairs and tables like a cut-rate bowling alley.

"...ow," she finally remarks. "Rhetorically speaking, are there any chairs I haven't hit yet?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
As Yukihime talks to her, Misfortunata is back on her feet, even if she's a bit battered and singed. She adjusts her mask.

"Well, aren't -you- just delightful. Let's talk about this, darling, I can make you a LOVELY offer if --"

Boom! goes the clover in a blast of dark energy right over Rashmi when Amy's rocket connects with it. That would likely have hurt.

"Oh, drat, I --" and then Amy's -second- missile goes off right next to her and she's sent flying by the impact directly into Yukihime with a 'wahhh!!!'.

"Griffes de Mauvaise Fortune," she yelps, as her cats grow larger still, now with additional spectral claws. They and the wolves are ... engaging in -so much violence-.

Just as she's about to pull away from Yukihime, she sees the six balls of energy coming straight for her -- and its unlikely she can pull away from the girl before she's hit all six times, which sends her flying (with her magpies squawking and fluttering after her) out a window with a loud crash.

"...OOOOH HO HO HO HO HO," comes the laughter from down below. Wanna bet she landed in something soft? But by the time they can get a look at her, Mifortunata has mde her escape -- and her cats vanish with her.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Watching Misfortunata enlarge the cats *yet again,* and outfit them with extra-spicy murder mittens was... concerning, to be sure. But it paled in comparison to the *satisfaction* watching her get launched around by a good old Tokyo Dark Unretirement Party. Perhaps that's lingering Dark Energy from all the bad luck flying around?

Definitely. Probably. Absolutely a maybe.

<< ...Note to self, >> Rashmi says, brushing drywall dust from her hair as the magpies fly after their mistress. << We should all get checked out by a purifier before we go to bed. ...Wow that was worse than I expected, but better than it could have been. Everyone okay? >>

Miho Inada has posed:
    Yukihime gets crashed into by surprise. She doesn't have the time to think about the plan she had in her head before Misfortunata takes off after getting hit by Rashmi's attack. She shakes her head a little bit as she calls back her beads to her. Its a few seconds later that the others might notice Yukihime struggling to stand up, and dehenshins on the spot.

    Miho falls to a knee, and is using a table to hold herself up. A loud growl comes from her. Rather...not from her mouth, but well..."I'm feeling super dizzy at the moment. Anyone got any snacks?", she asks. Miho looks like she's about to just fall over at this point. "Is the Wolf Girl doing ok?", she asks. "I think it was Bowling with Wolf girl night at the mall..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy can't see, but she can hear what soudns like the villain retreating, and the sounds of fighting are done.

    <<...Did we do it? Did we uncurse Aoi? >>

    Her hands keep rubbing at her face. << Which way is the bathroom, I need to wash my eyes. >>

    Once there, she dehenshins and tries to rinse out her eyes. And she is startled in the mirror by just how much of a mess it makes because of her makeup, but... her mascara is running and combined with having won the day again, she's feeling pretty positive!

    After washing the makeup off her face completely, she comes back out to check on the others, and pats Yukihime's shoulder with a smile. "See? Fight over, we still get to relax before exams after all! And Rashmi brought snacks! Post-battle snacktime!"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko very carefully walks around the chairs and tables to a clear space near the others. "Hi, purifier here," she grins weakly. "Although we should probably have some throat lozenges on hand, plus making sure there's no errant dust about."

That last is said with an apologetic shrug to Rashmi. "Soulful Howl does require a deep breath before I start 'singing', after all. And given what the unluck did earlier... well, sometimes cautious paranoia is the correct course of action."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"... the HELL was that?" is all Emi can say. She's been in hiding for a while.

"Also, someone steal her wardrobe for me."