886/Have a Holly Jolly AKANBE

Have a Holly Jolly AKANBE
Date of Scene:	15 December 2023
Location:	Four Clover Mall
Synopsis:	Lamya wrecks a mall with a holiday tree akanbe! Magical girls show up to save the day and, perhaps, start to crack the bitter shell of the dragoness.
Cast of Characters:	Mie Kitamura, Cho Konishi, Nanoha Takamachi, Niji Dasshu, Karin Miyoshi

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Mie Kitamura has posed:
Twas some weeks before Christmas and all through the mall
    All were out shopping and filling the halls

The tree was erected and donned with great care
    with baubles and lights and stars all aflare
    
The stores were abuzz with happiness and zeal
    after which to the food court! To each such a meal
    
But one creature, Lamia, views the scene with great malice
    Hovering near the roof, how could she be so callous?
    
"Bah Humbug!" she cries, "What's this? Why so happy?
    Never before have I seen things so sappy."
    
"Christmas is a sham! A thing to be derided!
    These people are all fools to be so misguided!"
    
"Can't they see all the stores just yearn for their Yen?
    Good cheer is a front! A ruse to draw them in."
    
"And the greed they display when they grab for their presents
    to tear open the package to pull out its contents."
    
"Only to forget to be grateful they move on to the next
    year after year it goes, it leaves me quite vexed."
    
"Well this year no more! I can take all that can be
    So I'll show them all, with this Akanbe!"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi was out and about, on a journey you see.
For this christmas would be as the girl she truly wished to be.

While generally she found the holidays a little melancholy and sad
This year she found even without her family it wasn't bad.

Because thanks to the work of a mermaid most fair,
some precures she'd joined and a monkey quite rare?

Young Cho had finally felt like this year she'd belong.
These thoughts alone allowed her to endure any holiday song!

So in a twist that seemed to mirror most years,
Cho walked out of a store alone but without fears.

Weighted down with some bags, mostly gifts for those who brought great joy to her life,
Cho paused as her precure senses sensed the start of strife.

Though she looked around, she saw now source of darkness or stress.
So the young precure merely made sure her packages were in order and wouldn't make any mess.

Unfortunately for her because of her haste?
She failed to look up and see the dragon embodying such style and grace.

For if she had heard the words coming from her with such talent?
Why, Cho would have likely surrendered, instead of soon becoming her combatant.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi is Christmas shopping. She's shopping for her family tonight. She's mostly looking into store windows, wondering what she might get her momma, poppa and brother and sister. She sighed a little as she looked at her paltry, nine-year old, working class budget. Mostly, it was probably gonna be silly trinkets again this year, rather than anything useful, but as her father would constantly say; it was the thought that counts!

So she was putting plenty of thought into what she was gonna get each of her family members. Nevermind how she constantly felt like a third wheel in her own family.

She was gonna put as much thought into it as she could. She hummed along to the Christmas song going on over the speakers in the mall.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Unfortunantly for this story, Niji won't rhyme.
    She appreciates the effort, but she doesn't have the time.

    Niji Dasshu was also out shopping, looking for the gifts for quite a few people. Even though she'd only met them recently, she had enough friends to leave a few gifts on doorsteps. Plus, her parents gave her an egregious amount of spending money for "gifts for friends" and well... she wasn't going to look that gift horse in the mouth.

    It became apparent how much more time she needed to spend with them, though, when she realized most of her gifts were... generic. Well, at least not Adora's? She carried the heavy bag out of the store, a little lopsided since the bags in her other hand were not quite so heavy.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    Lamya hovers there near the tree for a moment scowling. A hint of wistfulness passes her features, which she quickly buries down deep. "I've yet to have a good Christmas," she grumbles. "In all the time I've been alive not one present was given to me. So if I can't have a good Christmas, nobody will!"

    She raises her hand, squeezing the Black Paint of Darkness in her fist until the paint oozes out from between her fingers. "This world will be stained with the worst possible conclusion..." she cries. She then pulls out her Picture Book of Darkness and smears the paint over a blank page. "... a Bad End!"

    A miasma of despair settles on the shoppers, causing them to drop to their knees and bemoan their fate. "Why am I even doing this? Nobody appreciates my gifts." "This is just a sham for the department stores to make more money." "I'm never going to get the Red Ryder BB gun"

    Lamya cackles as all the Bad Energy starts getting sucked up by the Picture Book. "The blank slate of your future will be clouded in darkness!" she cries. "With this Bad Energy we'll be one step closer to resurrecting Emperor Pierrot!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    If Niji was a little bit less lost in her own thoughts and concerns she might have heard the dragon's complaints - and maybe done something about it herself, since she's actually partly shoping for a girl who she's pretty sure hasn't had a proper Christmas. If she didn't know what sports were she couldn't have had Christmas.

    But instead, she catches on to the booming voice along with her necklace starting to glow, just at "sham for the department stores" and looks up to see a dragon being a... well, a real grinch! Niji ducks away to henshin, and when she comes back, gloriously multicolored and adorned with sparkles - she points an accusatory finger at Lamya. "You can't just take things that don't belong to you. Like energy, or BB guns. Christmas is a time for people to show others how much they care. Gifts don't have to be bought, they can be made!" says the girl with bags of bought gifts. What, she's not crafty.

    She puts the bags down and scoots them over before continuing. "Also, nobody who needs bad energy to be resurrected is a good Christmas gift for anybody! So I hope he got his recipt for you because you're getting returned!" Yeah. Nailed it.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi glanced up suddenly when someone... started trying to ruin christmas! How dare they! It.... wait. The dragon girl? Ohhhh! She remembered her! She quickly ran off, disappearing into a small side area... then, one henshin later, Cure Wukong appeared! Leaping up, she landed on a nearby fountain which, conveniently, was not turned on. She drew out her staff from behind her ear and grew it to its normal length.

She then pointed it at Lamya. "Christmas isn't a time for taking and hurting! This is a time for sharing and healing!"

She spun the staff before reaching up, pulling out some hairs and tossing them into the air. "Our gifts are just a device to show others we care, they're not something that should bring the giver despair!"

The hairs poofed into... wukongs. Except. They weren't normal Wukongs... All but one of them were... nutcracker monkey kings. The last one, which was just a normal Wukong? That one ran off, disappearing to appear later in this episode.

"... Okay then," Wukong said. "Where was I? Oh, right! So I hope on this evening you're prepared, dark general! Because by the end your pride will have bruises, even several!"

"OKAY! SERIOUSLY! WUWU why am I rhyming?! I know you're behind this! If I ever find out what you did I'm going to hit you AND NOT MISS!"

Karin Miyoshi has posed:
    Karin Miyoshi is not one for frivolous or extranneous activities. She has enough on her plate without wasting time on inefficient pursuits. Namely, the schedule from Taisha is totally off, and they are scrambling to find out why. Also, the current Yuusha need to be evaluated, Karin's supposed job as observer right now, and yet she hasn't been ordered to begin! What is she supposed to do with herself?

    Well, training is continuing a pace, and she has had plenty of time to diversify her selection of supplements, but really, she's going a bit stir crazy.

    So, she does something out of character for her, just to maintain her sanity, under the guise of 'scouting for potential threats'. Now she's at the mall, looking bewildered at the Christmas decorations, the hustle and bustle of people, and apparently a dragon attacking or something?

    Don't ask her, she has no idea.

    Some sort of confrontation is ongoing. Karin stays back for now, in the winter uniform for Radiant Heart Academy even though she has yet to make an appearance there. Also, a brown coat with furry cuffs and collar. Because it's cold.

    Maybe this is a Christmas play or something. She thinks she heard something about this. The Little Match Girl, right? With the magical girls? And the ancient dragon? And the 47 samurai? That one? She has heard rave reviews from the old folks' home, and she doesn't even pay attention to that sort of thing!

    Cupping her chin, Karin says, "Interesting. I didn't think they put this much effort into a volunteer production." :|9

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    Lamya reels back when a pair of magical girls challenge her. "I should have known," she growls. "This town is lousy with magical girls. But I came prepared! AKANBE!" She lobs a red ball at the giant Christmas tree that's sitting in the main hall of the mall, and suddenly it sprouts a clown face, arms and legs and hands and feet.

    "AKANBE!" It shouts, turning to Cho and Niji.

    "I'll take what I want," Lamya rebuts. "Nobody's ever given me the time of day, much less a present. So if I can't have one, nobody can! Akanbe! Attack them!"

    "AKANBE!" Out from within it's tree mass, it pulls out two exploding gilded ornaments which it throws at the magical girls!

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "Wait, nobody has ever given you a present?" Geode Girl Loyalty asks. "What, did you grow up in some sort of military school too?" she asks. Well, it makes sense if you know Adora, right?

    OH it's throwing stuff. That's bad. Loyalty gets moving a little late and while she doesn't get hit there's a lot of exploded ornament shards in the wall where she just was, so it was quite close. "Just because somebody didn't give you something doesn't give you the right to take!" she says. "Maybe it's because you're mean and take things that you don't get presents? Ever think of that?" she asks.

    Okay let's see if this thing drains energy on contact like the bird, she thinks. Loyalty keeps running, leaving a rainbow-colored aftertrail as she hops up onto enormous fake presents and then takes a flying leap towards the tree. She's just going to punch the tree. No special callouts, no mean strikes, just one good strike with a closed fist to see how the tree-akanbe-youma-monster-thing handles it. Also she's been shopping all day so frankly getting to punch something is pretty cathartic.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi yelped when suddenly EXPLOSIONS! She rolled off of the fountain, grabbed a clone and chucked it, bodily, at the ornament! "Ha! Missed me!"

The other clones just stared at her with wooden horror.

"What? You're HAIR!"

"And you're a monster."

Cure Wukong just stared at them for a moment...

A few seconds later little nutcracker wukongs were being chucked at the tree youma. She'd had enough grief from her clones today. They'd pop into hair if they connected or got hit.

Ohhhhh. That rainbow girl was here! Maybe she could use that! "Oh hey, I stopped rhyming. Finally."

Karin Miyoshi has posed:
    Even Karin is impressed. "This must be that CGI thing." she mutters, applauding for the dramatic turn of events. It's just like in anime. Good thing that's all fiction. Can you imagine if stuff like that happened in real life? Ridiculous.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    "Like I have any choice," Lamya sneers at Loyalty. "I am what I was made to be. Not that you care. Not that anybody cares! You don't know what it's like always having to be the monster!"

    Meanwhile the giant clown tree youma gets a face full of Loyalty and Wukong nutcrackers. It staggers back with an "Akanbeee!" tripping over a diorama of Santa and his helpers and landing on its butt.

    It doesn't take long for it to recover, however. It gets to its feet and pulls out a gift wrapped box, and when it opens the lid, a great vacuum threatens to suck the magical girls into certain doom inside!

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Loyalty looks up at her. "How can you say nobody cares? You've never come down to talk to anybody without trying to drain all of the bad energy to wake up some evil problem child or King I'm not really sure which to be honest." she says, tapping the side of her forehead. "And I don't think it matters. Maybe you should try talking to people instead of creating giant Christmas Tree monsters?"

    "But when you do this all I can do is sto-" and Loyalty's little speech is stopped by the present-vaccuum. "Hey! Hey!" she yells as she starts trying to outrun the suction, mostly resulting in her staying in place. "I'm not a gift! You can't afford me!" she shrieks. "Cure Wukong, is there anything we can use to plug this with?" she asks, while running, and perhaps while grabbing Wukong if they don't have a way to prevent going into whatever all consuming nothingness is in the box. "All you should have in your gifts right now is coal, certainly not me." she says, wishing she had some sort of blast. How did she not get laser eyes?!

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi glanced up at Lamya. "I mean, I was made to be something else too, and I stopped! You shouldn't have to be anything you dont want to be! I'm sorry if anybody makes you feel you have to, but those people are jerks and should be punched in the face!"

And whew, the Akanbe was down! It--

OH GOSH NO VACUUM!

She jammed her staff into the ground, making it grow and form a barrier between the two and the sucking vacuum. "This sucks!" she yelled. Yes. She had to. She then looked to Loyalty, hming for a moment. Then her eyes lit up. "I know what to do. I'll distract it, can you run up while I do that and see if you can flip off the switch if my plan works?"

Assuming Loyalty was okay with this... she'd then leap out from behind the staff/windbreaker, racing against the winds... To one of the large christmas tree decorations! How did you stop a christmas tree that sucked?! With ANOTHER christmas tree! She'd, with a grunt (and a few dropped ornaments) pick up the tree... AND THROW IT at the other tree's vacuum, in an attempt to plug it up!

She loved being a precure.

Karin Miyoshi has posed:
    Karin notices she is also being suctioned by the intense vacuuming action. "Haha what?" is her reaction as she stands there, still smiling obliviously, and slowly sliding across the smooth, shiny mall floor towards certain doom. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, isn't this a bit too realistic? Slowly, it's starting to penetrate her awareness that this could actually be serious. This could be...

    ...An equipment malfunction in this live-action magical girl stage play! Which means it may be up to Karin to do something about it! She isn't supposed to transform yet. Not all of the Yuusha System data from the Hero Club testers has been analyzed, because of the huge gaps between Vertex attacks. But, well... This is technically a form of data gathering as well, isn't it?

    Backing up and heading somewhere without cameras, Karin gets well clear of the danger zone.

    There is a flare of red light dimly cast on the wall in one of those service access hallways behind all the stores.

    A katana comes flying in out of nowhere, aiming to pierce the tree monster in a vital location, with a ringing sound, and red petals falling from it.

    Standing on one of the upper-areas, looking down on the fight, there's a twin-tailed girl in a red, white, and black outfit totally unfamiliar to anyone here if they even think to look up and spot her. She is standing on the safety rail, clearly having just thrown the katana, though it appears she did so with the most casual of motions, considering it flew like a missile.

    "Oi. This is a bit much, isn't it?" she calls out, the sword in her other hand angled downwards so that she can bring it up to defend or attack as-needed.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    "When they see me all they see is a dragon!" snarls Lamya. She pitches her voice higher to mimic that of your average villager, "Oh, a dragon! Quick hide the sheep! No don't burn down our hovel! I'm sorry, but the Princess is in another castle!" Pitching her voice back normally, "I can't help what I am! I can't just stop being a dragon!"

    The Christmas Tree Akanbe swings it's present of suck to follow Cure Wukong only to find that it gets stuffed with another tree! "Akanbe!" it shouts in consternation. Dropping the present it points the star atop its head towards the offending Pretty Cure, and a beam made of starlight rips right towards her!

    However, out of nowhere, a katana trailing red petals pierces the star before the beam can catch up to Cure Wukong. "Akanbeee!" it wails in pain as it staggers backwards, clown hands trying to pull out the sword, but not having much luck.

    Lamya takes notice of the new girl, however. "Who're you? I know the others but you're a new one. No matter. You'll fall by my might just like the rest of them!"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    Loyalty has been running since the present opened and now that the present is stuffed, she races off into the distance before stopping and having to run back. "You know you could probably sell that as some sort of treadmill analogue. Well, I mean you could if we weren't about to turn the monster in question back into a normal Christmas tree." she says.

    She looks up at the big tree youma and tries to figure out what to do. She gives it a good hard consideration - for her, which is about half a second - before she remembers she can fly. She rockets into the air, pretty high, and does a loop, and now she's diving, foot outstretched, for that star and the katana within it. If the monster wants it out it can have it out, but it's gotta come out the other side. And maybe this will do enough damage nobody has to worry about the star laser beaming them. As she flies down in a steep dive to kick the katana through all she can think is 'great, the TREE MONSTER gets laser beams and I don't'.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong opened her mouth to object. But she had nothing. Really,. there wasn't anything she COULD say to that. Except... "Well... some dragons are cool! You don't have to be a mean one! There's entire mangas devoted to stories about people dating dragons! They've got scales and magic and stuff, that's cool! But stealing people's cheer ISN'T cool! Don't be a lame dragon, be a cool dragon!" Cure Wukong yelled to her.

Oh crud beam no! She lifted her arms up in an X, to shield herself... except... nothing... happened? She lowered them and looked up. Had... Had Lamya seen the light? NO! It was a new girl! She gasped! "Who... who are you?" she called out.

However, she then saw Loyalty's move! Quick, she needed... a distraction! Her stick was a bit away, so instead she grabbed... An ornament! One of those cheap orbs that broke to dust. And just CHUCKED it right at the akanbe tree's nose!

Karin Miyoshi has posed:
    With no idea what started all this, or who these people are, and gradually coming to the realization that these are other types of Heroes that she had no idea about, Karin just kind of squints. "What's wrong with being a dragon?" the new girl asks. Perturbed that one of her swords is being kicked, and tempted to banish it to summon a new one, she just leaves it and summons a new one anyway, so that she is dual-wielding once again. In addition to all the points that have been raised, Karin has her own to make, with her words as well as with her swords.

    Crossing the blades in front of her face, Karin says, "I am a Yuusha." Then she leaps from the hand rail, up into the air, flipping repeatedly, and hurls a huge X-Slash made of red light and fire that becomes trails of bright-red flower petals instead of embers, down at the Akanbe thing. "And I think dragons are super cool!" she yells out, blushing at having admitted it. "N-not that I've thought about them much or anything!" she adds on, flusteredly, while she tries to land on the other side of the plaza area, on a different safety rail, delicately as a faerie or a flower blossom.

    "So... You know... You probably don't need to do all this sort of thing. You might be more popular than you think." she adds on, folding her arms and looking away.

    A samurai-looking doll-like creature appears in the air by Karin and says, "All things must ennnnd!"

    Karin sweatdrops.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    ".... What's a manga? Is that some kind of fruit?" Lamya asks, blinking at Cure Wukong's words. "And people date dragons?" There's maybe a hint of hope there. She suddenly shakes herself out of it. "No matter! I'm not a cool dragon. I'm a hot dragon! No dragon worth their salt would ever be cool."

    With all three magical girls attacking it, the Akanbe doesn't stand a chance. The sword kicked through the star *shatters* it, throwing harmless stardust all around. The X-slash from Yuusha is almost enough to slash the nose of the Akanbe apart, but it's the single normal little ornament thrown by Cure Wukong that does the trick. There's a little *plink* sound as the ornament hits the nose and the Akanbe disappears into nothingness, leaving a regular tree in its wake.

    "Tch," Lamya tsks. "These things are never good enough. Why doesn't Joke come up with something better?"

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    "I don't think that's how she means cool..." Niji protests, roughly at the same time as the Akanbe's nose is destroyed and the tree is now there again, albeit slightly moved from its original position. "You know. Cool like me. Awesome. Radical. That's how she means it. It's not a temperature thing, Dragon-chan." Well, she doesn't know her name, and Dragon-san sounded too respectful. Dragon-chan could sound playful or rude. Which meant Niji went with that.

    "Why are you out here smashing stuff up, though? Every time I see one of you you're always causing trouble, so of course people don't like you, but you could turn that around. You could help us. Be an awesome dragon. Sometimes knights fight dragons but sometimes dragons were like, loyal companions, right?" she offers. Niji may have read more fantasy books than she'd cop to. "So why do you have to be the stuff-smashing kind if you want to be dated, or liked, or given gifts to?"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong blinked a few times. She... she got the kill? I mean, sure, it was with a little tiny ornament, but she got the kill! "You can be hot AND cool! And apparently spicy! I'm... still not entirely sure what that one means. OH! That's where it went!"

That would likely not make much sense... until Lamya felt a tap tap on her shoulder. And one of the Wukongs were there. With a wrapped box. She held it out. "Merry christmas! For you," she said. "Because everyone should get at least one."

Inside... was a little toy princess dress set thing. Nothing fancy or expensive, just one of the princess figures with like. A dozen different clip on dresses and outfits. It was the thought that counted, right? "Until next we kick your butt," the clone said before poofing into a few strands of pink hair.

Karin Miyoshi has posed:
    Someone even more clueless about pop culture than Karin? Unpossible! Sensing she isn't exactly equipped for dealing with whatever this situation is, the Yuusha allows all weapons currently lying around to vanish in a burst of magic flower petals (they'll disappear too, don't worry), and decides to just get going while there's no attention on her. She did her good deed. She got involved. She has combat data to report. She has no further obligation to help.

    The best thing she can do right now is go find somewhere secluded to revert to civilian form, and get her bicycle, and get OUT of this place before something else crazy happens.

    ...Also, she should probabyl email Taisha to ask if they knew there were other types of Heroes out there.

    Vamoose! Vanish! Gone! Yoshiteru also goes with her, because where else would he go.

    Really. Magical Girls and Dragons. As if Vertexes aren't enough!

Mie Kitamura has posed:
    "Because that's just how things are," snarls Lamya in frustration. "You wake up, find a princess to kidnap or a lake to infest, and you wait for a knight or a prince to come along and slay you. Then you wake up and repeat the same thing! Everybody has a role to play and mine is that of the monster."

    "I exist to be an obstacle! A challenge! Something to be overcome!" she shouts, her tail thrashing in agitation. "You have the role to play, too, you know. You're the heroes, so come! Challenge me! Defeat me if you--"

    She's stopped mid monologue when a Cure Wukong hands her a gift. All the anger and frustration just gets knocked out of her by this gesture. "For-- for me? I don't..." she just stares at the box in her hands. "I don't know what to do. Thank you? I think that's what's next."

    She studies the box for a moment before using her claws to rip it open, and when she finds the princess set stares at it in wonder. "P-princess?"

    "Whatever," she says, throwing back her hair, as she tries to gather herself. "I don't need any gifts from you." Despite the fact that she's clutching the gift tightly to her chest. Despite the fact that her eyes just may be a little wet.

    "Just--" She doesn't even finish when she flees to the Bad End Kingdom, disappearing in a blur. When she leaves, all the people start to pick themselves off the floor, murmuring to themselves, confused about what just happened. They soon shrug it off and forget about it, returning to their shopping and holiday activities.

Niji Dasshu has posed:
    There's quickly just... two of them. The girl with the katana - who was quite helpful - is gone before proper thanks can be rendered. The dragon-general is given a gift and this seems to almost cause her to undergo a forced reboot, and she's gone too.

    That just leaves Cure Wuking and GGLoyalty. "Good job, monkey-girl." Loyalty says, flashing a thumbs-up at them. "Both with the fighting and with the gift." She says, looking up at where Lamya was recently. "Do you think they're all like that? Just bitter about things until they turn into monsters?" she asks. "I'm pretty sure we had to beat up the big tree thing, but I'm kinda hoping we can avoid needing to beat her up."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong smiled when the general left. She... was happy. That was nice. Everyone should be happy during the holidays. And nobody should have to feel unwanted or alone. After all, she was lucky this year, why shouldn't other people be lucky too?

"I don't know. I hope. I mean... I've been pretty bitter at times, too. I doubt I'd ever be end the world bitter. Buuuuut... I can see how someone might get there. I mean, if she's a dragon and all... and the only things she knows about are the stories about people fighting dragons and killing them? Well... I'd be bitter too."

"... But if she's really a dragon I hope one day I can ride her. That would be so awesome. Did you know Wukong got his staff from a dragon king? Ohhhhh. I should mention that..." Then glanced at it. "Or... maybe not. Magic stuff is weird. The fact she's a dragon might mean she can take it from me and actually use it and that'd be... bad..." She then glanced towards Loyalty. "Wanna go get snacks or something? My treat... if we leave now before anyone comes and tries to make us pay for the damage to the mall."

Niji Dasshu has posed:
     "...yeah that sounds good, let's go grab a bite and talk." she says, looking around. "I am all about not being held responsible for this mess." she says.