826/Rise of the Tater Tot

Rise of the Tater Tot
Date of Scene:	30 November 2023
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	(CW: Graphic horror descriptions) Sunbreaker decides to youmafy a random kid at a local diner. Unfortunately, she was a ghost and now the world be trippin'. Hematite takes it as well as can be expected. Confusion, dark energy, angry rants and name calling shenanigans occur before they are, finally, able to break the two dark generals apart. Don't do dark energy, kids. Not even once.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Pyrite, Veronica Perenna, Chiyo Sakai, Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker was glorious. Was magnificent. Was...

Was trying to avoid being murdered again. Because, admittedly, maybe putting dark energy into one of the sparkle skirts who tried to murder her WAS A BAD IDEA.

So today... today she was going to try something small. Something safe. She was on a nearby rooftop, looking out over the city. There was a small diner, well known for its marvelous full cut fries. With bacon.

The monsters.

She'd seen a few students go there now and again, so she had smelled them once and nearly gagged. So where better to make a youma? Besides, it was stationed next to an arcade and a grocer that sold toasters. If ever there was a hotbed of kids, this was it. She peered down through the crowds, her familiar disappearing into the building and slinking down... waiting for her target. Someone... was going to get the dusk potato.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko is trying to be normal. Normal for the current era, not normal for the fragmented mess that her mother's ghost showed her from the century after her death, right up until there was nothing left of her to break. This is not the Sengoku Era. People are, allegedly, not in a constant death struggle. Her country of origin, at least, is more peaceful than many other places in the world. And there is a world that her country is part of. That was quite a thing to find out, after thinking the world began and end at the border of the temple grounds you are haunting for so long.
    What do normal people do?
    There are a lot of people going in and out of a diner. She still doesn't feel hunger. She still can't really taste anything or feel physical pain. She can 'digest' in a way, breaking things down and converting them into psychic energy to reinforce her psychoplasm body. It's more effort than just absorbing life energy or eating a monster's soul (or entire body, in some cases).
    Maybe acting like a human will let her become more human in turn.
    Maybe nobody will have to pay the price for a miracle just to give her a second chance.
    She crosses the street when the street light glows and the music chimes, and heads inside. She gets into line and stares at the menu. She doesn't recognize anything. There are words she doesn't understand, whether in Japanese or English. Even some Spanish. She only recognizes them from the international cook book she was trying to read.
    Once she gets to the front of the line, she mimics human nervousness very deliberately by licking her dry lips with a tongue just as dry and just as fake as the entire rest of her face and head and body. "Um. Uh."
    Pause.
    "Do you have... Potato?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica was walking down the streets, not doing anything in particular. She was just in the mood for a walk, and despite any common sense telling you a park would be a more charming sight (especially the Botanical Gardens, Veronica would tell you in agreement), but out of some flight of fancy, she is taking her walk here of all places.

The brunette isn't particularly hungry despite the long walk she has been on, but the diner is inviting, and nothing bad is going to happen if she goes in and orders something. The interior is a bit too loudly chatty for her tastes, but nonetheless she joins the queue with no fuss. Just a little bit of curiosity for the girl ahead that is trying to order a potato.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Sometimes you were just too tired to cook a proper meal. Chiyo had been rather worn out after trying to help out with various tasks, as well as school, and her work at the shop. Today she just wanted some good, old fashioned carbs. In this case... Potatoes. French fries, if you please. And she certainly did.

With the hood of her jacket pulled tight over her head to ward off the chill she makes her way toward the shop she'd been to at least once before. Maybe twice. Usually when tired, when even Korma Chameleon seemed like too much work.

She's not far in line behind Himeko so when she hears the younger girl speak to nervously ask for potato? It draws a smile and she just grins broadly. That was cute. So cute. Surely she was someone's adorable little sister.

Reaching into her pocket she feels the small stash of wrapped candies she had there. Maybe she'd slip one to the girl to encourage her attempt at ordering once she'd finished.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Across town, absolutely oblivious to the current iteration of the Quest for Potato, Mamoru Chiba is writing a term paper that's not due for another two weeks, because he's a nerd who does things ahead of time. Also, he doesn't want it to interfere with the careful extraction operation he's running across half a continent to get the energy-collecting equipment untangled from the call centers that connect victims with the helpdesk.

He's feeling pretty good, he got rid of a lot of dark energy in a fight against a Witch the other night, and he always feels better when there's less of it in his life.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is out of her usual path on the trail of some Witch or other. But she could go for some dinner, and... does she smell bacon? One de-henshin in an alleyway later, she sees... a toaster store? *What*? How does that even work, how do you have a store *just* for toasters? She'd ask, but she doesn't want to seem rude... oh wait, that's right, she looks like a kid who doesn't know better, maybe she *can* get away with asking. But first, food! Bacon, potatoes... oh, she hopes this doesn't pale in comparison to real American food...

    A red-haired red-eyed girl in a pink parka with faux white fur trim gets in line behind Chiyo. "Have you ever eaten here before? Is it good?"

    Wait, is that adorable little girl asking for potato Himeko? Can she eat food? ...Maybe that's what she's here to find out.

    In any case, if there is a financial issue, Amy offers to pay for the potato.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The front register lady smiled down at her. "Awwww, aren't you just precious?" she asked. "Are your parents here, little girl? Yes, we have potato. We--" Then she paused, blinking a few times. She got a small, confused look in her eyes, staring off past the girl... towards the back window. "What in the world was... that?" she asked.

The eel, however, was already gone. Moving through the floor like a shark through the tiles...

"Right, so a small order of fries? They use about one potato." The order placed, the woman turned away for a moment...

Then... without incident... the girl...

Was given potato. In a little bin. But oh, how could she know, as the first bite of delicous, starchy, moist and perfect potatoy goodness was going towards her mouth...

That it was, in fact, enveloped in the dark magics of the sparkliest kind? That the moment she first bit into the snack, dark energy would erupt from within, drowning her in a sea of dark energy?!

... Or, rather, just the normal amount of dark energy. The eel just liked to be dramatic. It got it from its owner.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko Soryuu used to have a pipeline of Death pumping into her straight from Yomi. That pipeline is still firmly in place, but without Dark Energy to entice the Underworld to continue feeding its desired vessel, the flow seems to be rather sluggish. To the point where it might as well not be there at all. She says, "My older brother is my guardian," she says, instead of 'My parents are dead'. She has learned tact! "I can ask him here if you need to speak with him."
    Then she blinks when she hears a semi-familiar voice, and turns to lean to see who is behind her. Has she met Amanda outside of her henshin? The world may never know (without checking anyway). Her memory is rather spotty anyway, so she could have met the Legendary Devil Squid of the Himalayas and not remember it. She is also turning at the same time that the worker is directing her attention towards the back of the diner, so that could also be the explanation for why she turned.
    Either way, identity confirmed. Pale, ruby-red eyes, straight black hair. Though she appears to be wearing a light-pink shirt with navy blue corduroy cover-alls over it, and basic shoes fit for someone of her size, as opposed to any of the spookier outfits of encounters past.
    Then she faces forwards. "It was probably a cat." she proposes, as she consents to the small fry and deposits money on the counter she can barely see over. She has already learned that the ancient coinage she had on hand in the past is not generally accepted anyway other than an antique store or pawn shop. She tried with a solid gold bar to get an apartment in the city, which she obtained from Somewhere probably-not-legally, and was told, 'Does this look like a pawnshop?'
    So now she carries modern currency. And does not understand the values of the specific coins and bills at all.
    Don't ask where she got it, it's probably better not to know.
    The point of all this is to say that, after thanking the worker very politely and bowing her head, she vacates the line, and moves out of the way. Then she eats a frenchfry. She can't taste it. But the texture is nice at least. Dark Energy? She is used to that. So it takes a little bit longer than it should for the effects to be made clear.
    She gets one of those little paper cups for a condiment, and searches around. Do they have teriyaki? No, this is a Foreigner-style eatery... Ketchup it is then. She frowns a bit while trying to finagle the ketchup pump without levitating into the air. Eventually, she puts down her french fries carefully on a table, and takes a messily half-filled ketchup cup, and sits down, and keeps on frowning as she eats a few more.
    Hm. Something feels off.
    What is this feeling called?
    Ah! Is this what is known as 'nauseous'? Her plan was a success! She is becoming more human already! To celebrate she continues stuffing more Dark Energy-laced potat into her face happily, as that unpleasant feeling grows and grows inside.
    Something moves outside the diner.
    It staggers down the sidewalk, visible through the windows, withered, mummified flesh encased in ancient burial clothes. Himeko doesn't seem to notice. Nor does she notice the red fluid, so dark it looks black, that has begun to drip from the ceilingg above one of the tables where people are eating, to splotch below, viscuous and sticky if touched.
    Ohhhhhh boy.
    Someone picked one of the worst targets imaginable for this.
    All the fries are finished. Himeko sits and stares blankly.
    Something is burning.
    It might be her.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's something wrong. It starts with what certainly feels like a stomachache from nowhere, and it quickly blossoms into something wrong with his heart? His whole chest-- his head-- Mamoru's gotten up from his desk, eyes wide, chair tumbling down behind him with the swiftness of his movement, and for a split second as he's falling back he thinks Kazuo will be very upset when he comes over to work on homework...

It's Himeko. Something is wrong with Himeko. He thinks of the awful dream he had, he thinks of her awful mother, he thinks of--

--he's not thinking, it's just images. Fire and fury and tearing and ripping, holes ripped in the ocean, faceless things that crawl after and don't stop for anything, heat without warmth and light so merciless that the only release is death, the scraping sound of the repeating ghosts at the shrine, everyone leaves everyone leaves everyone leaves even the ghosts leave even Shiro left everyone will leave even if they don't mean to, leaving us behind they're all going to leave us behind and we'll be alone again, with no memory, with nothing left but what strangers tell us must be true, not even names--

So much time. Someone's hurting her. Someone found out how to hurt her and this isn't a dream, even if everything in it moves like one, so much time. So much effort to get the dark energy lessened and replaced and lessened, to make sure that purification wouldn't make her leave forever, to make sure she could-- to make sure-- it was so much time and effort and love, so much love, and someone's twisting it, and everything is on fire.

There's a bloom of the burning crawling feeling in his chest that shrieks through his nervous system to his fingertips like a heart attack, and the flames of burning buildings and burning people reflect in his red eyes, in the mad flows and patterns over the nighttime city of burning stone, over the strange-colored immense thing that hangs in the sky where a blue marble ought to be, and Mamoru Chiba, the supposed protector, cannot even protect his sister, and he watches things that aren't there as he tries to catch his breath.

His eyes have never been red.

Hematite teleports.

Sitting across the table from Himeko is a tall boy with longish black hair, wearing a grey military uniform with black trim and a black cape with a midnight blue lining, trousers tucked into black boots, eyes as red as Himeko's, and he expressionlessly takes one of his white gloves off and reaches across the table to hold out his hand, palm up. "Who did this?" he whispers. "Show me."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica waves at the girl in front when she recognises her. It's Himeko-chan! Veronica looks behind her when the employee calls attention to the outside, but she misses the "cat", so instead she focuses on the redhead paying for her potato.

"Hey, Himeko-chan, how are you doing?" the brunette smiles, giving up on her place in favour of talking to her. She wasn't that hungry anyway. "Do you like potatoes a lot?" she asks cheerfully, watching the other girl happily eat through her order.

She is much less cheerful about it when she notices Himeko looking sick, and gets worried about the dripping liquid over. "Himeko-chan, what is going on? Are you not feeling well?" How does a ghost's health relate to these things? How do you even help a ghost that ate something that didn't agree with her.

Just as Hematite comes in, asking who the culprit is, Veronica looks up at him. "Do you know how to help her?" is the question she asks Himeko's big brother.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai glances to the redhead who speaks up asking if this place is good. She can only smile faintly at the question. "It's not bad. I'm just a bit too tired to get anything healthier right now. It's filling, and good with ketchup," she reasons.

As it seems more people in line know one another she falls silent again to glance down at her purse to pull out her own money preparing to order and pay. At least... That had been her intention.

The sudden chill in the air that had nothing to do with the season causes a shiver to race up her spine. Slowly her eyes lift to regard the bloody dripping from the walls with wide golden eyes. Slowly, every so slowly, she turns around intending to quietly depart. Even that intention freezes as much as the blood in her veins seeing the mummy shambling painfully closer to the building. A quick suck of air in between her teeth leaves her almost gagging from the *taste* of copper and yuck that seems to come to her right now.

The purse is dropped away left to swing at her side and she finishes her turn back toward the worried voices currently talking to that cute little girl. And Hematite who now sat there looking at her with just a much concern.

"Wh--what... is going..." Something was wrong. VERY wrong and right now she could feel it in the very core of her being as she's left just trembling there. Maybe she'd had too much interaction with dark energy lately trying to help heal and purify others. Or maybe she'd been around too many ghosts lately. Whatever the reason this was unnerving her significantly. Enough that she realizes her hand has already dug deep into the pocket of her jacket to grip around her Saibashi.

She bolts. Not out the door toward what might be coming in, but toward the bathroom in the small shop. It was good enough, empty enough, that she pulls out her Saibashi gripped tight in hand instead of elegantly as she usually did. "L-Let's cook!"

Flames ripple up and around her flooding the bathroom with flickering light that, thankfully, doesn't catch anything on fire. A moment later Guardian Daifuku returns to that abandoned line itself calling out, "What happened!?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh good, Himeko had money, and the cashier came up with a reasonable interpretation of the order. Amy smiles, but doesn't keep *watching* Himeko as she waits for her own turn in line.

    And then... something feels wrong.

    He has fucked up. Things are wrong, and it *must* be because Mallory fucked up. He doesn't remember, but he must have, because things are wrong, and they are coming.

    The ceiling is bleeding. A revenant is outside. Something *spooky* is coming. There's probably another exit through the back. He should go that way...

    The girl in front of him in line bolts. For the bathroom. He chases after, "Wait! You can't get out that way!" but stumbles to a halt just outside the door. He can't go in there! ...Wait a second, that's not right--

    --And then Amy hears people talking to Himeko, and Hematite is here... wait *another* second. Does that mean the spookiness has to do with *Himeko*? She should help!

    Amy hurries over to the table. Veronica is flagged as 'unknown ally' and that's identity enough for the moment. "What happened? Can... can we help? Himeko, are you okay?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker stared down at the...

...

She stared at the.

"What in tartarus?"

AND THEN HER FAMILIAR CAME ZOOMING OUT AND BACK TO HER SO FAST IT ALMOST KNOCKED HER OVER! "What has gotten into you? What is even going on down there?" she muttered, staring down at the... was that a mummy? "Okay, this definitely isn't my fault. Riventon? Is that you? Are you trying to punk me right now?"

But nope. He didn't pop up and...

Okay, seriously. What kind of two-bit, hackneyed illusionary tripe was going on down there? She leaped off the roof and, a few moments later... when the door opened... instead of a mummy, an annoyed looking Sunbreaker stood there. "Out of the way, wraps." Having thrown open the door and... "Okay, seriously. What in the world is going ON? If I wanted to make believe I was in a b-grade horror movie, I..." And then her eyes fell on Daifuku. She opened her mouth, paused, then jsut shook her head. "Aren't you supposed to be food related? What does any of THIS have to do with food?"

And it was then. FINALLY. That she noticed the kid. And Hematite. And... "Oh, great, you," she said with a sneer. "When did..." and then her eyes went to the fries. Well. The empty fry container. And she flicked her hand. Looking confused. Then... "Wait. She didn't... eat... ALL of them... did she?" Yeah. Those fries definitely had residue for the spell. But like... whoever got them was supposed to eat ONE. Why would ANYONE eat the whole carton?! And how had she not turned into a youma, yet?

"... Nah, that'd be ridiculous. HEMATITE! Why are YOU here? This is MY gig. You can't just butt into my stuff! You don't see me popping in whenever you do... I don't know... harass shampoo stores or whatever it is you do!"

Pyrite has posed:
    Hematite appears in the seat across from her. It is perhaps understandable that Himeko is not very responsive to Veronica initially thanks to the novelty of nausea (or what she interprets a such) and the steady discombobulaiton of her senses as something she had purged from herself is reintroduced. Hematite takes her hand, and Himeko stares at him, and blinks slowly. "Hm?"
    Then to Veronica and Amy. Another slow blink. The mummy outside has gone off somewhere. Discorporated. Or maybe it went into the back.
    People frying up potatoes might start screaming around now as they realize they are frying up human fingers (or the haunting illusion of such, which, honestly, is pretty much inseperable from the real thing as long as one is being haunted). The drive-thru is occupied by giant roaches, that swarm over the vehicles in line, trying to get inside to the vulnerable, soft flesh waiting for them.
    Someone has finally noticed the blood dripping on their table and investigated it, but is disbelief as they look up, trying to figure out what happened... Did a raccoon die in a crawl space above the ceiling or something? The steady dripping turns into a drizzle. Then the ceiling tiles bulge and fall away, dumping a deluge of blood on the patrons too slow to get out of the way, and, needless to say, all of their food.
    A magical girl is here. Oh. That's good. Maybe she can do something about this. That's what they do, right? They clean things up so people don't get hurt. They... Remove the Dark Energy and...
    Blink.
    Didn't she get rid of all of her Dark Energy? Why is it rapidly growing inside of her, returning to energy pathways that had been purged of it, circulating throughout her temporary body. Something begins flipping tables at the back of the diner. Something invisible. Tables just get torn up, out of the floor if bolted down, and thrown aside on a steady path of something unseen. Anyone who hasn't made good on their escape already is probably finding the sudden desire to do so is much stronger than anything.
    Something is burning.
    Why is something burning? Did someone leave the stove on in back? She was taught never to leave appliances on unattended, because they could cause a--
    Himeko goes up in flames. She just sits there, burning, her skin drying and tightening, crackling like a potato skin. Molten tears like lava flows spread out across her blackened flesh, fake though it may be. From below, flames capillary-action themselves up from the floor, to meet the magma tributaries half-way.
    She slides off of her seat, and looks around. One of her eyes is darting around, searching independently of the other. When she catches sight of Sunbreaker, her eyes both turn full-red, bubbling pools, and her face splits from right to left. A wide, wide, too-wide smile, like someone tried to carve a mouth into a potato, but cut too deep, and pierced the boundary with Hell, and now the inside is molten, and her teeth are fire, and the rivulets of burning that flow out in place of saliva make her look hungry.
    "Sunbreaker-san." says a voice much, much deeper than Himeko's usual. If a volcano could talk, it would probably sound like her, and not the other way around. "Would you like... A potato?" The... things that start to grow and drop out of her charcoal flesh are, roughly, potato shaped. But most potatoes don't have quite that many eyes. Or insect legs. Or teeth. They begin scuttling across the floor in all directions, undiscriminating in their targets.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite's eyes are supposed to be blue, but dimly-glowing blood-red irises briefly greet Veronica instead. He just looks at her, then at Chiyo, then at Amy -- and he has no words for any of them. There's still no expression on his face, not until--

He hears Sunbreaker's voice, and the still, small voice screaming in the back of Hematite's head that no, their fight is over, their fight is over-- it keeps him at bay while she sputters in indignation and he stands up, face not changing, red eyes regarding her coolly.

Then she claims credit. This is her thing. This is something she did. Ah.

Distantly, he's aware of the tables flipping, aware of the blood pooling and then gushing from the ceiling, of the distress and dismay of the suddenly fleeing screaming citizens. Dimly, he's at peace with the shrieks and and probably not with the cockroaches but he can't see them so that's okay. None of that actually matters to him. He looks back at his sister, and his sister's on fire.

(Inside, he's on fire too, he's stepped into the flames to avoid the sword; his chest is full of sword, his lungs are full of dark energy, there's fire everywhere and his most loved and trusted friends-- his brothers-- have turned against him, have left him alone, they left him alone, they left--)

"I'm not leaving, don't worry," he reassures Himeko, and his bones hurt, and his skin hurts, and everything hurts, and Himeko is on fire, and

this

is

Sunbreaker's

FAULT.

Absolutely ignoring everyone and everything else going on, Hematite abruptly takes off, all twisted face and bared teeth and blazing fury in glowing eyes, the dark energy coming off him in waves. He rockets directly at Sunbreaker murder-first, fists out in front of him, does anybody care that there's a door? He doesn't care that there's a door. Probably the door isn't even there anymore anyway. Probably neither is the street. His voice is ripping out of his throat like some kind of animal, unhinged and raw. "HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU! MY SISTER! MINE!"

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"Sunbreaker! You complete *IDIOT*!" Usually Chiyo didn't raise her voice. She was very soft spoken. Guardian Daifuku however was a great way to channel all of her need to be loud, and annoyed, and outraged. "This isn't ME! It's...!"

It was her by her own admission.

The large hammer that she carries is swung around preparing to slam into Sunbreaker with a look of sheer disgust at her having picked *a child* to attack with such darkness. The rest, she wasn't sure what was going on, but it was clearly Sunbreaker's fault in spite of her attempts to state otherwise. There's no chance to attack.

Her gaze swings back toward Himeko watching with horror as she turns into some whithered, deformed, fire-burnt husk of what she was. Still she was moving. And things dripped off of her to attack any and all in their path.

Any help she might have expected or hoped from Hematite is quite clearly NOT going to happen as she watches his own eyes drip red. This was worse than the youkai parade. Hematite's cry of this being his sister turns her stomach further. No wonder it had effected him so much. She had to do something.

Instinctively she swings her hammer to lash out at the mini-potats that were attacking as she turns to drive her steps closer toward Himeko while Sunbreaker is taken outside quite literally. Fire. Fire she knew. Fire she could control... absorb. It's how she'd been tainted by darkness once before by reaching into fire to just take on that energy into herself. One last swing of the hammer comes clearing a path closer to Himeko as she cries out, "Get to safety!" To Amy, and Veronica. Then the hammer is discarded as she crashes to her knees to reach bare handed through the flames toward Himeko trying to just absorb the fire, the energy, the everything.

A child didn't deserve this. She could survive it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Sunbreaker is here, shocked that Himeko ate fries and saying that Hematite is interfering with something she did. Civilian Amy gives her a look. "YOU did this?!" Whatever 'this' is.

    Things are getting worse around them. Himeko is on fire. That's... probably fine in the long term, right? She's a ghost, is that even a real body? It ate the fries, though...

    and then MOUTH. Himeko has gone full horror movie monster, and Amy is distantly aware of *someone* screaming like a schoolgirl as she hops backwards, stumbles, lands on her ass, and then THE POTATOES WILL EAT HER IF SHE DOESN'T GET AWAY and she scrambles backwards only to scoot into a wall.

    Trapped.

    Trapped!

    Wait, she's a magical girl!

    One quick explosion-of-flames henshin later, she's leaping on top of a table and vaporizing potatoes with small rockets from a gun-like launcher. "What did she *do*?! How do we stop it?!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker stared at Himeko. At this weird girl she had, honestly, never met before. Really? Why was she--

Oh. Ohhhh wow. That was definitely NOT supposed to be what happened. Her mouth fell open and a hand reached up to cover her mouth. "Ew, ew ew ew. Ew. Okay, what in the world? This? This isn't my fault. What in the world did you lot do? I--"

And here came Hematite. She, at least, was ready. The moment he lifted a hand she was halfway through a counter spell.

By the time he collided with her she was ENVELOPED in a flaming shield so thick his roses wouldn't have made it even halfway through before they disolved. Yes, she did make a shielding spell SPECIFICALLY for him. Well. For his roses. He left an impression.

But she hadn't been expecting him to TACKLE HER. One moment they were there. The next moment there was a burning hole in the side of the building... and the road had a big gouge carved into it... and there was an orb of fire across the room with a furious Hematite having charged into it.

Then... finally... The flames exploded out. Sheering in all directions. Sunbreaker was standing there, her hands out, panting lightly... but unharmed. "What. The tartarus. Is wrong with you? She's your sister? Well, why weren't you keeping a better eye on her? It's not like there's a sign up that says 'hey, don't dark energy this kid, apparently she turns into whatever THIS is!'" Sunbreaker yelled, motioning towards the horror show. "Seriously! What is even going on here?"

The most impressive part was the fact she was STILL STANDING. Perhaps, when he was in a more stable mind, he might realize that with a bit of horror. Because when last they fought? That tackle? Would have one hit her. They'd be picking her off the ground right now.

Now she just looked a little winded.

"You know the fun thing, though?" Sunbreaker asked. "The book says I'm not allowed to hit you... except in self defense."

Normally she went for fire. Normally she liked to burn her targets. Normally.

But she was taking him personally. He'd know this, because a moment later, rather than being fireballed to the face?

A minivan gripped in telekinesis and then tried to SLAM it into him. "It must be a horror show, though. Because it's time for you to be Van HELSINGED!"

... The only thing worse than what she did to Himeko was what she did to that wordplay.

Pyrite has posed:
    The Tiny Tots are made into mashed potatoes, thanks to Puella Red and Guardian Daifuku. The flames drawn off are nasty, to say the least. Dry, withering heat, that robs air and flesh alike of moisture, but it is not truly fire or heat, it is just a manifestation. The thing that was on Himeko's mind when she was youmafied, expressed through the lens of how someone quite insane sees the world around her. Every day is a nightmare when you're Himeko Soryuu.
    Still, her crackling, burning skin, and the rivulets of lava, and the flame rising from her feet, and the lengths of soot that waft on the heat that used to be hair, and the 320 degrees of mouth, and the boiling eyes, and all the rest start to get siphoned away.
    For her part, Himeko just stands there. She doesn't seem to be directly trying to hurt anyone, unlike most youma. Maybe because she's used to it? Maybe because she feels no hostility towards anyone? Maybe she's just still feeling naseous and is enjoying the novelty.
    But her appearance regresses more and more, until...
    The Tater Tot barfs out the Dark Energy-laced fries all over the floor. The more insane haunting effects are gone the next time people look, the next time they open their eyes when the screaming has stopped, the next time they stop trying to smash insects that are no longer there and look around the insides of their cars to realize there's no sign of them...
    It's not like it just wavers and fades like a cartoon mirage or something. For the length of time a haunting takes place, especially when the ghost is very strong, there is no meaningful difference between the world as a ghost sees it and the world as the living do.
    It's just that the cage of madness has been stuffed full again and locked up, even if black ichor continues to drip between the bars, connected to another soul, who is slowly becoming engulfed in the pool of Dark Energy that, for him, is rising from his feet, spiralling within his chest, clotting in his skull.
    "Perhaps I should not eat potato anymore until I have a living body again," Himeko says, searching for a napkin to wipe off her mouth. Because those are the two major concerns here.
    Then she blinks at Puella Red and Guardian Daifuku and Veronica, and asks, "Can you tell me what is going on? There is a rather large hole in the side of the building that I do not believe was there when I came in. Also, my brother is fighting Sunbreaker-san, and I do not think that was happening either. Hm. Most peculiar."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Guardian Daifuku feels the heat even if it's simply spiritual flame. False flame? It didn't matter. It hurt. Moreso because as she reaches through it to grasp hold of Himeko, some part of her at least, she's *pulling* that energy into her. Her eyes slip out of focus to simply concentrate on breathing.

It hurt. It hurt. It stung her eyes, dried her lungs, and that horrible sinking spinning feeling inside her was turning the tips of her fingers black. Then the fingers themselves. Her hands... Her wrists. The darkness just started to seep into her veins.

It was more than she'd taken on before and the first time she'd taken it on willingly. Last time it was involuntary and unintentional. This time she was *trying* to pull the darkness into herself and it was happening so much quicker.

Quick enough that thankfully it seems Himeko is able to discharge the rest of that Evil Potato, and Daifuku pulls away to hunker down on the floor herself breathing in quick sharp gasps.

Okay even if there wasn't stomach acid along with the Puked Potat the mental image wasn't exactly helping her own desire to throw up.

"They... the... he was.. fighting for you..." Is about all she can get out before she clutches her arms around herself trying not to dry heave on her own.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Blood starts dripping up from the ground around Hematite, and he just. He just absorbs the fire, the dark energy-- he just eats the dark energy, and there's even more of it in him now-- everything is making him angrier, he's so angry, he's so furious, the fire is in his eyes and his cape is singed and his uniform is charred and there's the smell of something burning

something is burning and it's Himeko on fire

it's everything

and both of his gloves are off now and he starts stalking across the street towards Sunbreaker, towering huge with the presence of a volcano if not its voice-- every step has the feel of a tectonic shift and every heartbeat clenches around live steel in the heart of his mind. His bare hands are in white-knuckled fists, and he stops in the middle of the rapidly-clearing street and watches as the minivan comes at him.

At the last second, he lifts his cape up above his head, and there's the horrible sound of shrieking metal as the minivan crashes into him and around him and on top of him--

For a moment there's only the screaming and the fire and the haunting. (Oh god the haunting.)

Then a pool of black liquid starts spreading out from beneath the wreckage, thick and viscous like spent motor oil; maybe that's all it is. Maybe. Except it starts dripping up, too, like reverse rain, and pushing away the wreckage and (they left they left they all left turned their backs walked away attacked attacked attacked) peeling it back, and the shrieking of metal is dulled by the enveloping liquid as Hematite's hands peel back pieces of twisted minivan.

"I thought," he says conversationally as he steps out of the wrecked vehicle and it starts to lift back up from the ground, slowly becoming eaten by the black liquid, "that the little crystals you made were annoying at first. But they're so useful. They have everyone chasing after them. I thought," he says, his tone sharply sweetly hateful, "it was you trying to make things right. I thought we were good. I thought that the gods-damned SeNsItiViTy TrAiNiNg was you getting even and that that was that."

And he starts stalking forward again, the viscous black liquid spreading across the street in front of him, preceding him, like a carpet unrolling in front of him. It drips in rivulets through the cracks in the pavement and Hematite's not bothering to walk on its surface. It starts creeping up lampposts. It starts creeping up Sunbreaker's shield. It's dark energy, and there's steam coming off of it, and it's freezing cold.

"Did you know my sister is..."

He hurls the pieces of that poor tortured minivan back at Sunbreaker, and his eyes blaze red, and the ice cold liquid dark energy surges in an ocean wave up off the pavement toward her, "AN EMPLOYEE TOO?!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It's... over? Ish?

    Puella Amy approaches Himeko. "Are you alright? Do you need a hug?" Her face falls when Himeko considers swearing off potato. "No! That was not normal! Sunbreaker *did* something! You can, you can try eating other food!"

    And like, Sunbreaker and Hematite are a *concern*, but... they both seem like they can handle themselves? Daifuku though, he's never seen before, and she just absorbed all that fire... "What about you? Are you okay? You just... absorbed a lot of fire and creepiness? Do you need like, a bucket of water to spit it out into, or...?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica scowls since Sunbreaker has revealed herself to be responsible. She is about to do something when she recognises the same feelings that plague her about biweekly. Her head starts spinning, and she tries to grab for a nearby table, but she misses. Of all the days for this to happen, and of all the days to forget her protein bars. Fallen onto the ground, she barely drags herself under a table. It's ok, she is probably going to be fine. Like it's some sort of super resistant table of plot armour, conveniently there to make up for anything.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker is not aware that her simple youma of the evening was not going to spec. Why? Because she had BIGGER PROBLEMS. How did she manage to go from 'Don't youma-fy a sparkle skirt' to 'Now I'm fighting a coworker?!'

At least the van seems to have... ummmm... van-oosed the problem?

... She didn't know vehicle puns, okay?! She rode a bike!

Wait, no, he was getting up. And... "Wait. The fake crystals are USEFUL?! They're not supposed to be useful!" she snapped, stomping a foot like a spoiled child. "They're supposed to be ANNOYING! You arrogant, self righteous, dragonifying, griffon-sharing TWAT!" Sunbreaker yelled at him. "Why would you think I'm good?! I'm INCAPABLE OF BEING GOOD EVEN WHEN I WANT TO BE! What would EVER make you think I was good?! We're both COWORKERS! You should know we're the bad guys! The sensitivity training WAS me getting even! What is wrong with you?!" she asked, the fires rising around her.

The darkness started... oozing out of her... and crawling up the barrier she made and... oh... That. That wasn't good. That wasn't good at alllll. She started to fly up, slowly, carefully, readying to--

CAR! CAR CRUD! Her full barrier sprung up a moment later and, this time? She slammed back into the building...

Leaving a crater in it. After a few moments, she came back out. This time? She had some bruises on her. Okay, this wasn't going at all the way she planned. She'd been intending to get some energy, not this. But like HELL she was going to just turn tail. She whispered a few lines, a finger stroking the air.

"Honestly? No. If I had known I wouldn't have ATTACKED her! Because there's such a thing as not ATTACKING your coworkers! Do you think I haven't been attacked in my civilian form? I have! Plenty of times! but that's why I don't tell people who I am! If you want to NOT get attacked, then plaster her stupid face all over the building! Because, as much as this might surprise you? I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY!" She started swinging her arms like she was throwing something, moments before spears of fire began to rain down at him. Ah, there was the fire.

"Get OVER yourself! I don't CARE about your family because if I was going to target you I'd target YOU! I don't care about your stupid girlfriend, I don't care about your sister, I don't care about your parents or brother if you have one! I just hate YOU! Because you are an IDIOT who ATTACKED me like a COWARD! Because you ASSAULTED ME WHEN I WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU! And I can't even ATTACK you like I WANT TO because unlike YOU I have RULES and those RULES are the only thing keeping ANY OF YOU STUPID PEOPLE ON THIS BACKWATER, PATHETIC WORLD SAFE!"

Pyrite has posed:
    Well, this is unexpected! "Ah, I will deal with the Dark Energy... I am very sorry." She also hurries to catch Veronica, but the brunette has already fallen and is crawling under a table. Himeko starts to crouch down to check on her, but... "I cannot help her right now. I do not know how." Then she regards Puella Red with a significant look, entrusting her with the protection of the people here, Veronica included. "I shall take this information about potato under advisement. Perhaps next time will be better."
    Then she steps over to Guardian Daifuku, and gives her a light hug. And re-absorbs the Dark Energy like her entire body is a singularity into which only Dark Energy flows. Then she moves to step away. "Come. I must stop Nii-chan and Sunbreaker-san." She idly thinks about the fact that she is now able to identify Hematite as her brother openly, since he did it first. One of her fetters, those old, dusty things put on her like shackles back when she was more wild and untamed, lingering on even after it was no longer useful, breaks.
    She strides with purpose through the diner, and out the burning hole in the building, and out onto the street where two titans are engaged in battle.
    Just in time to hear about how Sunbreaker doesn't care about her, or Usagi-san, or their dead parents, and she hates Hematite, and she seems very, very upset and hurt. Himeko pauses. She is no stranger to rejection. She has come to expect abandonment.
    She hadn't expected it quite this soon after having Dark Energy reintroduced into her soul.
    It hurts the same every time.
    She procedes towards the crater, and the yelling, and the fire spears raining from above, without fear of being hit herself. "Sunbreaker-san," she calls out, her voice no longer a volcano speaking to the island natives it is about to bury in ash and fire and poison. It's just Himeko's voice again. "Hello, again! It is me, Himeko. When we first met I was Pyrite, I think. In a suit? A scar on my left cheek? It has been a while since then, so I am not certain." She stops at a certain distance, between the two combatants, but closer to her family than the co-worker, and looks to Hematite, then back to Sunbreaker.
     "You can make magic crystals, yes, Sunbreaker-san? Unless I misheard? It would be very beneficial, I think, if you make a really good, strong magic crystal, so that I can put all of this unpleasant Dark Energy into it, and then nobody has to fight or be angry or hurt anyone anymore." She holds out one hand towards Sunbreaker, as though expecting the sorceress to just go, 'okay' and make the crystal and hand it over without question. Like she has faith in Sunbreaker to do the responsible, reasonable, correct thing. Her other arm is gesturing for Hematite to come over to her. "Nii-chan. Over here. I will hug the Dark Energy from you. It is not good to fight like this, and let it control you, and get hurt, or hurt others. We should be getting rid of the Dark Energy, so that we can live normal lives, with Girlfriend-san, and the Shitennou-senpai, and everyone else."
    She makes a 'come here' with her fingers if Hematite is slow to move. "It's important to be reminded," she says solemnly. "So that we do not forget who we are."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"ALL YOU DO IS WHINE! You're SO BORING!" yells Hematite in frustration as the fire starts raining down on him, his tattered uniform doing nothing for his dignity but wonders for his shoulders. "Everything ABOUT you is either boring or COMPLETELY LAME! I HATE you! Do you know WHY you were quote-unquote HELPING? Because Riventon--"

Himeko comes out of the diner, and speaks like a reasonable person.

Tssss tsss tssss is the sound the fire spears make as they hit the icy cold embodiment of dark energy viscosity. He's holding his cape up over his head like he's actually in the rain, and he's getting burned where it doesn't cover, and he's seriously going to regret that later. The spears that hit his cape bounce off and tsssss into the dark energy on the ground to either side of him. He smells a little like burnt hair at the moment. He and Usagi can start a 'my hair got singed by Sunbreaker' club and other people can totally join.

Everything hurts. His heart hurts. His skin hurts, his bones hurt, his lungs hurt, and the street is a wreck, and it's all Sunbreaker's fault. "I hate her, though," he says, almost pleading. And then he looks to Sunbreaker again. "I guess that's not boring. I don't hate anybody else..."

He sees Himeko properly, finally; his eyes fade to their own reflective blue, the color of the oceans when you look at them from the moon. He sees her pink shirt and overalls, and his face makes a complicated expression. "Let's just go," he suggests instead, then adds, "there are sirens."

Tsss tsssss tss.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Guardian Daifuku turns toward Himeko when she approaches. The gold in her eyes has almost entirely leached away leaving them silvery instead. Cold, icy. The darkness had crept up her neck like a purplish bruise that was squeezing her chest making it difficult to breath.

"No you... shouldn't..." The argument that the younger girl shouldn't take that on herself falls silent when she's hugged. When the dark energy is drained away allowing her to suck in some deep breaths of fresh air. By the time she lets go she feels.. Normal again. Sore. Aching. But not actively hurting.

Reaching out she grasps for her hammer that she'd let fall to the floor earlier, using it to push herself to her feet. Her gaze sweeps over to Red Puella giving the other girl a small nod of silent thanks for her own involvement. Then she starts for the door, her feet dragging just a bit.

She's just behind Himeko leaning heavily on the staff of her hammer looking like *she* was the one that had been sick not Himeko. It gives her a great view of the fight that Himeko interrupts to suggest that she take on the dark energy from Hematite too.

When he suggests they go she blurts out, "Get out of here before they show up. We all should. ... You so owe me," she adds though there's not really a lot of oomph behind it. Just. Tired.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker actually did... likely the thing she was least expected to do when Himeko came out.

While she had no qualms about launching spears at Hematite, any that came near Himeko veered off. Why?

Because it was one thing to dark energy someone into youma-fication. It was another thing to attack someone with actual attacking magic when they weren't attacking you.

"I have grievences!" she yelled at Hematite. "Would you rather I just start trying to kill people?! Or maybe attack them when their backs are turned? And you know what? I HATE YOU TOO!" Even though she already said that.

But, the closer that Himeko got to him, the more the assault slowed. The more it began to stop. Then she turned to Daifuku. Once again, she looked conflicted. The other girl helped Sayaka... and... She drifted down to the ground. "Fine. You want my help? Then he goes over there. Where I can see him. And I am ONLY doing this because unlike HIM I don't ATTACK my coworkers intentionally," she snapped.

"And yes, I make amazing crystals," she said, before flicking a hand up, forming a crystal inbetween her fingers... Before walking to Himeko...

"But I don't need them for this."

Her hand was out, gripping the kid by the front of her shirt. And then she just... drained the dark energy out. Absorbing it into herself. It might have been mildly... odd feeling for Himeko. But it was *incredibly* uncomfortable for Sunbreaker. Because while she could do energy drains, this was a more targetted, precise type of energy drain. This was only draining the dark energy. And she was intending to draw all of it out... Or at least what she could. Her eyes having gone solid black for a moment.

Once done, though... she'd let Himeko's shirt go and stumble back... Looking like she might retch herself, color returning back to her eyes. "Oh... that's... ugh. The dark energy. Is my domain. I. Chose it. This is power. I. Can wield. I'm not *like* you. Hema. Tite. You're weak. You're a *coward*. This? All. Of this? Is *beyond* you. You say all I do is whine? I 'whine' because. I have enough control. Because I understand. How to do what. Must. Be done. Regardless of what must. Be done. In summation. You are pathetic. Fuck you."

And then you could almost *hear* the looney tunes music as a car fell on him from above. And then a second. Then a third...

... Then a little red rose.

"Kid, wear a jacket or something with Obsidian on it. At least when I whine it's for VALID reasons. You don't even LOOK like Pyrite," Sunbreaker snapped before sticking her tongue out at Hematite and quickly dusk porting away. Hopefully before Hematite dug himself out of the wreckage.

Pyrite has posed:
    In reaction to Hematite's deflection and suggestion of leaving instead of resolving things now, once and for all, Himeko has a complicated expression of her own. She understands. She will not insist. Then she turns towards Sunbreaker. Even with Dark Energy inside of her again, Himeko is not made out of an enormous amount of it like she used to be. It is just... There. Inside of her. Growing, but contained for now.
    She is about to speak to the mage when Sunbreaker comes closer. The ten-year old girl who is so, so, so much older than she looks, and at the same time so much younger, smiles up at Sunbreaker. Hopeful.
    There's probably another timeline where Sunbreaker uses this moment to do something terrible to Himeko, out of spite, and hatred of Hematite. This is not that timeline. And she is not that Sunbreaker. And she might be glad for that, or she might wish otherwise, but this Sunbreaker had the chance to do something horrible and used it to make a gesture of good will. A first step. Even if it involved grabbing Himeko by the shirt rather roughly, and trying to drop cars on her brother.
    If anyone thinks it was easy for Himeko to say and do these things, just because she made them look so easy, then they truly don't understand the little ghost girl.
    Fighting the cycle of repetition, the hell of being unable to deviate from a set pattern, no more than a clown on a bicycle riding in circles, while an audience laughs, and on the clowns face is just wide eyes of fear and despair, like he's trying to say, 'I want to get off!' but he can't, he just has to keep performing forever and ever and ever, while nobody understands and no one tries to help... That is what being Himeko Soryuu is. That is what being dead is, when you get stuck instead of moving on.
    She is working against her nature, the nature of ghosts themselves, the nature set down by cosmic laws or some lame wizard who thought it was a good idea to torture those who have already suffered enough by playing such a cruel trick on them, or whatever it is. The very fact she can do that shows that she is already not entirely a ghost. 'Ghost', now, is just a sliver of who and what she is. A tiny piece of something much greater.
    If even a ghost can achieve that... Well...
    There is no conflict among the living that cannot be resolved before their own ends.
    Himeko truly believes that.
    The dark fluid that has been raining upwards, coiling and spreading and absorbing fire... Himeko isn't sure what to make of it. But she isn't terribly bothered, whether it stays or goes. She tries to pull the cars away or at least clear a path, with all the strength of a not-especially-athletic ten-year old girl. Mostly she just winds up crawling through the wreckage trying to find her brother, and then holding out a hand to him when she does. All he has to do is touch her hand, and he'll know where a clear space to teleport to is. And maybe he might feel healed a bit too. Like a golden light is shining on them both.
    Either way, once she and brother alike are safe and sound, Himeko turns around, folds her hands together, and bows deeply to Daifuku, and Red, and the poor Miss who fell down, and all the people who were just enjoying their meals, or cooking to make others happy, or those who will have to fix all of this that is broken out here. "Thank you." is all she has to say. Then she rises, and moves to Hematite's side. "We can leave together." She reaches out a hand to tug at what's left of his uniform. Pinching a sleeve or edge of cape between thumb and forefinger. A tiny, childish, needy gesture of 'I'm relying on you to protect me' and also, 'I'm with you'. In this case, one can probably add on, 'And I will protect you as well.'
    What a ruinous pair they make.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Daifuku is Concerned about Himeko absorbing dark energy *intentionally*. Amy reassures her, "It's fine, don't worry. She knows what she's doing. ...Probably..."

    And then there are sirens, and leaving would be a good idea, but... hold on, what's going on outside? Amy can give it a few seconds before running.

    So, on the one hand, Sunbreaker ABSORBS ALL THAT DARKNESS and teleports away.

    And on the other hand, cars fall on Hematite like a goddamned Looney Toon.

    Evil he may be, but he's Usagi's boyfriend and Himeko's brother, and right now, he didn't come here to start trouble.

    As Himeko struggles with the cars, she's joined by the strength of a Puella Magi, helping her find a path to Hematite.

    Once he's out of the wreckage, and feels ready to leave, she'll just nod, and say to Himeko, "I'm sorry that trying food went this way. It really doesn't, normally." before leaping onto a rooftop and fleeing the scene.