1089/Rainbow Crystals: Crane Game Joe on the Loose

Rainbow Crystals: Crane Game Joe on the Loose
Date of Scene:	06 February 2024
Location:	Game Crown Arcade
Synopsis:	Crane Game Joe shows up the rock the crane games at Game Center Crown, ends up rocked instead when finding the Red Rainbow Crystal transforms him into Gesen, one of the Seven Great Youma! Except unfortunately for him, this arcade is full of mahou... welp, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Ahmya Karashima, Rashmi Terios, Hannah Steiner, Makoto Kino, Mamoru Chiba, Fu Inubouzaki, Pyrite, Amanda Faust
Tinyplot:	Rainbow Crystals

---

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Game Center Crown might not be the biggest arcade in all of Tokyo, or the most modern, but it's definitely one of the oldest and most established in Juuban. It's got a wide variety of some of the most popular arcade games, plus a few older, less popular but still much beloved cult classic options. The Sailor V game has proven plenty popular over the last eight months, and the various dance games are always a delight. One wall was entirely crane games of different sorts, each with different prizes based on the different games, and some with special top prizes - home gaming consoles or figurines, merchandise that hardly anyone ever won.

It being the afternoon of a school day, Game Center Crown is full of excitable students from all age demographics, half of whom are being herded back towards the snack tables by Motoki Furuhata, son of the owners and afternoon shift manager. Usually, food was only allowed upstairs, but with so many customers sneaking downstairs with their snacks, it had only seemed prudent to put some tables and boothes in...

"No, no, come on, back to the tables! If you're going to play games, you can leave your snacks behind! If you're worried about them getting thrown out, just finish them first!"

Motoki was a friendly guy, but he was also older than any student in the building, a college sophomore who frowned down with genuine disappointment at anyoen who tried to sneaks snacks to a game cabinet, be it fries, soda, or especially a parfait.

"Ah, they should quit now," Usagi Tsukino tells Mamoru Chiba, shaking her head at the sight of two people slinking back to their booths. "Motoki-kun is way too protective of these games to let anything happen to them!"

Usagi and Mamoru are sitting together at a booth, sharing a plate of fries (but not their parfaits - even love has limits!). The afternoon was something of a very loose and casually defned date - mostly because every time they hung out together ended up being something like a date.

"Though, I gotta admit, he's being waaaay more protective than usual... maybe somebody broke something expensive? But then again, is it just me, or is this whole place sparkling?"

It was not just her.

Game Center Crown was always clean and tidy, but today it was even more so, with every game polished to shining cleanliness, every table and booth neatly arranged, and even Motoki and the other employee's uniforms looking freshly ironed and sharp.

The reason for that was walking through the doors now - a tall young man in pale blue jeans and an orange jacket, a deep blue baseball cap on his head. Two men were following him, both holding cameras to catch different angles.

"And this is it, everyone! Juuban's own Game Center Crown. Wonder how much I'll clean this place out for today?"

To those In The Know regarding minor internet celebrities, the young man would be easily identifiable as Crane Game Joe, a Viewtube celebrity known for his amazing wins at Crane Games...

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Ahmya Karashima had actually not already been IN the Game Center Crown. In fact, she was just passing by after finishing off one of her club meetings (They had 'successfully' summoned a demon! The Occult Club President even flickered the lights to make it seem realistic!) when she heard those words from 'Crane Game Joe'. Clean this place out? That sounded malicious. And there were two cameramen with him.

There was a quiet peer from Ahmya at that, and she decided to slip into the doors after him, slipping past the camera men and into the main area. Somewhere convenient to keep an eye on him in case he was going to cause trouble. ...Not that she had a plan for if he DID cause trouble, but... ...

Well.

She's there! ... ... Maybe she'll just. Occupy one of the games nearby him so he can't just wipe EVERYTHING out? Pettiness go!

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi is generally terrible at video games. But you can be terrible at something and still have *fun,* as evidenced today by the fast that the redhead is occupying one of the full-cockpit racing games, practicing *not* overcorrecting on every turn, and *not* panicking when she does overcorrect and going too far the other way, and perhaps if she's lucky will spend exactly 0 seconds going the complete wrong way. Most importantly, practicing the drifting technique Molly had shown her.

Rashmi is terrible at video games.

When her zippy little yellow sportster gets caught on a tree and time runs out, she makes a disappointed noise and moves to tap her card in for another run... But then noise happens, at the front door. Noise that overpowers the general clamor that happens in an arcade, and she slips out of the cockpit, creeping around a Beatmania cabinet to get a better look at the hubbub.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah, for obvious reasons, isn't exactly a video game fiend despite owning the galaxy's best screen reader. But one video game that she adores and is quite skilled at? DDR. The many, many crane games are passed over, as the Belkan is currently making a mockery of Metallica's Creeping Death. It helps that she's actively cheating, her Device in one hand, ramming both feet and that cane to hit things that really shouldn't be possible. She skipped out on this particular trick with Hinoiri out of a sense of honor, but this? She's using her full skills.

She even styles several times, jumping with her Device, to spin, and slam both feet in time for the faster parts of the song. Her hair, let down for once, flutters and sways with the frantic pace of the song, and it's not helping she's headbanging to her favorite band's song!

Thus, even as Blauer Greif is prodding her in the back of the mind given the anomalous attitude of one respected herr Motoki? She's oblivious for once!

It's date night, after all. She's chosen a blue blouse and black skirt combo, simple yet elegant, and she's rocking short stub-heeled dress shoes.

"Come, mein faustian engel! Step up und lose yourself to the music!" Encourages Hannah with a delighted, happy grin! By the Sankt Kaiser she needed this.

Crane Game Joe's words are met with a brief scowl, but she chooses to not acknowledge such an ear-sore. For now!

Makoto Kino has posed:
As the fuss kicks up around the entrance, Makoto was just leaving one of the DDR machines, pleasantly flushed with mild exertion after defending her high score. She pauses for a moment to admire Hannah's moves on the next machine over - game recognizing game - but then the two guys with cameras snag her attention, and she moves to put her back to the side of a game cabinet where she won't be blocking anyone's walkway while she angles for a better look.

Viewtube celebrities are, to be honest, not really Mako's thing. Still, her curious gaze lingers on the tall guy in the baseball cap, the one the other two are filming. Kinda flashy, but... kinda cute? Maybe?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Poor Furu-chan," Mamoru says with a half-sympathetic laugh, twisting in his seat a little to watch Motoki. "He's good at it cat-herding, but to do so much of it when there's obviously something--"

Obviously something up. That something comes through the door with photographers, and Mamoru is not at all up on internet-famous personalities outside of educational clock app accounts.

He finishes his parfait quickly. "If it's going to get nuts in here, I'm not really..." he trails off a little anxiously. "Maybe I brought my earplugs."

The Prince of Earth starts patting down his pockets after stuffing another couple of fries in his mouth, then sleight-of-hands a top hat out of nowhere incredibly subtly and starts digging around in it. It doesn't at all go with his leather jacket, jeans, glasses and Unmask aLIVE punk band t-shirt, but it absolutely goes with his dress shoes.

Then he catches what the guy says, and his mouth turns down even while his hand's rooting around in his hat. "Whoever that guy is, I don't like him."

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Do you know what Game Center Crown has? Games, centers, and crowns.

    Do you know what it doesn't have? Udon.

    So it may be a bit surprising to see Fu Inubouzaki, half-udon half-woman half-sword, around here. Or maybe not, does anyone here even know her? Probably not.

    You know what else they don't know?

    Fu is MAD SKILLED at Soul Calibur. Which they don't have right now. BUT. She also has GIRL POWER, and she is a responsible big sister who wants to get her imouto a present for trying so hard at school, and also maybe because she still feels guilty for dragging her friends into this whole mess of fighting to save humanity. So she's gonna' crane game.

    Standing in line behind Crane Game Joe, the blonde girl announces, "I'm next after you flub it!" She is waving her hands back and forth above her head like she's signalling a rescue plane at sea, and staring directly into the cameras, even if she has to stand on tip toes to be seen over Joe's shoulder, making peace signs and giving a cheesey grin.

    The most responsiblest of big sisters.

    And so mature!

Pyrite has posed:
    An empty wheelchair rolls into Game Center Crown, the doors opening for it on their own.

    It slowly comes to a stop several meters from Mamoru and Usagi.

    This is probably normal and okay.

Amanda Faust has posed:
HANNAH IS FREE THIS AFTERNOON

    AND WANTS TO PLAY VIDEOGAMES!

    ...Wait a minute.

    Amy's excitement is given pause while she asks how that works when Hannah is blind, but once an explanation is given, it's off to the races!

    Well, it's not racing games she's going for. Hannah's got to be introduced to oldschool fighters, and Virtual On (Cybertroopers, Oratario Tangram, Force, it's all good! Amy's an Apharmd main, but local players are famously better at melee combat than those she played against back in America, so close-in fights while Amy's demonstrating the game against locals become almost a blur of robots dancing around eachother faster than the eye (or, during circle attacks in Cybertroopers, the camera) can follow!)

    But when it's Hannah's turn to talk about her favorite game...

    Amy is reintroduced to the world of dance games she hasn't played in over a decade. Motions for certain arrow patterns come back to her like riding a bike. She can still play one particular song on Medium as it comes back to her, but she mostly has to stick to songs with a harder 'easy' setting or an easier 'medium' setting as she tries to re-learn.

    But this

    is

    Wonderful!

    She's moving a body she doesn't hate and with none of the limitations of approaching middle age! She is soaked with sweat and panting catching her breath between songs but she hasn't had so much fun moving her body in... well, ever. She wore her red sweatshirt and matching skirt again, and has had to remove the sweatshirt (a black T-shirt is underneath) and roll down long socks, and borrow a hair tie from somewhere to put her red hair in a ponytail. "Hannah, thank you so much for reminding me about these games! I'm having a blast..."

    At one point, she tries to walk back to the DDR machines with a drink and is told off by Motoki. She protests at first, then catches herself and apologizes, feeling bad for acting so immature.

    She's catching her breath after a game as someone people are treating as famous has showed up. "Who is that guy?" she asks someone, and cuts off their reply partway with "Oh, some viewtuber... I never got into those..." Still, she's mildly curious. She's never seen a viewtuber in real life! So she watches him for a bit.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
With such a busy game center, one man shouldn't really gain that much attention, but plenty of the young gamers are taking note of Crane Game Joe, especially once Motoki strides to the entrance with a welcoming smile and polite bow.

"Crane Game Joe-san, welcome to Game Center Crown! I'm Motoki Furuhata, manager - we spoke on the -"

Crane Game Joe held out a hand, tilting his head to look down at Motoki, the overhead lighting creating a shadowed effect behind his glasses, leaving them impossible to see beyond. "Let me cut you off there - I'm not really here to you know, deal with the staff. Giving you the heads up we were coming was just courtesy, you know? Me and my folks, we're just here for the games."

He turns his head, just enough to throw the cameras a devilish grin. "My followers are going to want to see me win, not to make friends. You understand, yeah?"

And then, he hears the remark from the girl behind him, and turns, leveling a disbelieving - and unimpressed - look her way. "Uh huh, sure you are girlie," he says, looking her up and down. "I've got tricks on the Crane Game you wouldn't believe. Why don't you go play one of the kiddie ones and take home a pencil cap?"

And then without another word to Fu or Motoki, he strides off, heading straight for the row of crane games.

"Uh... right," Motoki says weakly. "Um, sorry, miss, that was really rude of him..."

Usagi winces. "Poor Motoki-kun... if I'd known he was coming I'd have warned him! That guy's a total jerk!"

The top hat appearing from nowhere doesn't startle Usagi, but it does make her frown in sympathy, digging into her purse. "I brought some! Lemme just - nope those are earphones - nope those are sticky notes - nope that's a sticker set - oh hey that's where that USB went! - nope, that's a - oh wait, no, those are the earplugs!"

She pulls them out and hands them over with a giggly flourish - a set of red ear plugs, shaped like roses on one end. "Cute, huh!"

The commotion is such that she doesn't notice the spoopy wheelchair rolling around, focused too much on being a Good Girlfriend.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto's expression hardens, her eyes going sharp as she watches Joe's interaction with poor Motoki. Oh, her face says, visibly. He's an asshole. Not cute at all, then.

Since it seems a scene is being made one way or another, she pushes off the cabinet she'd backed up to and strolls with long-legged strides on an intercept course to put herself, not quite in Joe's path, but certainly in his vicinity among the crane games. "Do your followers also want to see you acting like a jerk?" she asks, pitching her voice loudly enough for the filming to pick up, arms folded casually over her chest. "'Cause if so, you're definitely one for one there."

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Various people were milling around doing one thing or another. Another person seemed to be keen on playing the crane games as well. Several people doing DDR... and... a... ... wheelchair just... wheeling itself in through the door. "...Hachi." Ahmya murmurs. Quietly, in one of the top corners of the room, the eye of Ahmya's partner, an eye-spider, turns the eye replacing its abdomen to Stare at the wheelchair, trying to get a read on it and what is going on with it through some basic magickal examinations.

Aaaand. Then. Crane Game Joe opens his mouth again, being rude to the owner. And then also to the girl who was interested in the crane games. A small smile crosses her lips as she quietly walks over to Motoki, leaning in. "...I feel like asking him to leave would be fair, sir." She murmurs quietly to him, before stepping away again.

Oh hey. Someone's going to go and directly confront him. Ahmya's one eye turns towards Makoto Kino, a mildly admiring look crossing her face at her. Okay. She's cool. Somewhat encouraged by Makoto's own bold approach, Ahmya sliiiides up and onto one of the crane games that Joe had been heading to, sliding a coin in immediately. Yeah, they're probably just giving him Content, but...

He's a jerk.

She can't not do something.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Peering around the cabinet, Rashmi gets an excellent angle from which to watch Crane Game Joe make an absolute jerk of himself. On camera, to the people *in* this arcade, and *dismissive of the staff?!* Puffing her cheeks out, she considers her plan of action for the moment... But upon seeing Makoto stride up to be Confronter #3, perhaps another tactic...

Idea!

Up to the second floor she goes, to get herself a shake and inquire as to what of the menu that Motoki likes best. After all, if he's as well-liked as he ought to be, the rest of the workers will look out for him in their quiet way, right?

Plus, as a retail daughter herself, solidarity is top priority.

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu over-dramatically turns away, hands clutched to her chest. "Oh, no! I've been fatally wounded! How will my heart ever recover from such an insult!?" She plays it up so much, lamenting her imminent demise because of mean words that his rudeness starts to seem comical. She winks at Motoki when she catches his eye, to show she isn't bothered.

    Eventually, she ends her theatrical production and calls out with her hands cupped on either side of her mouth, "Don't worry, I'll show you what I can do too! I'm used to dealing with huge tools!" The most maturest of them all.

    Then she settles down and turns back to Motoki. "Sorry for upsetting your... Guest. I just wanted to P H O T O B O M B someone who thought way too highly of himself. Call it therapy. You've done a great job of cleaning up the place, I have to say! I'll be sure to bring my friends here sometime!"

    Then Fu holds out her hand to shake. "Fu Inubouzaki, Radiant Heart Academy, grade nine."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Senses another gaze upon her, and of course makes sure to add an extra flourish and stamp of both cane and leg just far enough away to activate two arrows! All for that vague tug of /attention/ onto her person. A Steiner is magnanimous, and of course lives for such things!

Hannah is absolutely clapping and grinning towards Amy, though, more than happy to be dragged towards the other young woman's favorites! She only cheats mildly there, what with Lyra being there to vaguely help out, but frankly she's /abysmal/. Sometimes someone is a One Trick in the vidya realm, and that is Hannah, regardless of visibility.

As for the vague victory in DDR from her beloved? She nods firmly! "The great equalizer, et cetera, games of musical und movement skill I find! Acht, und good for the body too! We should do this more often mein liebling! However, I do believe we are overdue for a parf...by the Sankt, are all these 'viewtubers' voices so grating??? As a sharpened knife in mein ear canal!" Grumbles Hannah, equally annoyed as she can no longer just block out the man.

Oh. Oh then he does it. He insults both Makoto, though she doesn't yet know that one's voice, and also dismisses poor hard working Motoki out of hand! She might be, in her own way, an arrogant noble. But the Steiner House has always relied on their less highly placed servants, and even elevated many to full Peerage.

She doesn't disguise her anger in her voice, and with Makoto lashing out? She somehow feels empowered to raise her voice even moreso than the initial tongue lashing she was pondering. The wheelchair goes unnoticed for now.

"Have you no sense of Honor, herr!? Insulting a hard working, dutiful man that stands ever for the entertainment und comfort of so many all for your....your /karking Views/!!! Und insulting a brave young woman willing to take voice to your horrid actions in Tokyo of all cities!? Herr, I name you a Sanktkaiserless, gutless Heathen! You self-absorbed wretch, may She grant you the wisdom, mein freund..." Her tone on /freund/ is absolutely nothing of the sort, putting the full force into her Royal Disdain.

"To rethink how you consider people, be they Peer or Prole." Growls Hannah, her whole speech absolutely done in Oratory Diplomat Volume.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He loves -- LOVES -- Usagi. Mamoru really, really does. And he loves that he doesn't have to justify anything; he flips the hat over into nothingness again and takes the earplugs from Usagi with unbounded gratitude. A couple seconds later and they're in, and he relaxes some; the noise is already starting to get up there.

They're the good earplugs, too. They lower the decibels, but he can still hear.

"They're super cute," he agrees, "and I hope that guy steps on a lego barefoot." He eats another couple of fries, but is definitely leaving the last handful for Usagi -- it's only courteous!

Then he finally sees the empty wheelchair out of the corner of his eye, the one that wasn't there before, and... he looks up above it, up to the ceiling, and frowns a little. "Himeko-chan, do you want fries? You came a little late for potat, but I can get new if you'll actually eat them."

Under the table, his feet briefly catch Usagi's foot between them; his ankles are warm. He lets go.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy nods emphatically at the suggestion they play this more often. "[Un!] I got a Red Nitrous pad at home, I guess I could look into how much it'd cost to ship here... and get a PC adapter for Stepmania... and a second pad... guh that stuff's all pretty expensive, but I'll look into it... Although I guess setting up a place to play would be problematic too... I guess the arcade is kind of convenient actually..."

    Anyway. So, this guy is a viewtuber who specializes in crane games. Okay. That makes sense. Amy's not sure if there's really much skill or tricks involved in crane games, but for a viewtuber, there doesn't have to be. He could just have a winning personality and great reactions--

    --Or not. "Wow, rude. How does that guy have any fans? Like, how hard would it have been for him to be all 'This is the manager here at Game Center Crown, our venue for today, please patronize his fine establishment if you live around here'?" She shrugs to Hannah at the bit about grating voices. "I dunno, I don't really watch them. I would think not though."

    She slumps at his treatment of Fu, and continues commenting out loud to Hannah. "What the f---. It's 2024 and guys are still saying girls are bad at videogames? You brat, you're not even old enough to remember videogames being marketed as a boy thing. Which it isn't."

    If it was anything but crane games, her pride as a gamer would demand she try to knock him down a peg, but 1. she doesn't know crane games, and 2. honestly, she's not THAT great at videogames, so she very might well end up losing and just feeding his ego more.

    ...HANNAH, however, is stepping up and telling him off! Amy watches, a little bit starry-eyed. It's so cool to see her standing up to a bully! Amy has complete and utter confidence that Hannah will kick this guy's ass, too, in any contest! ...Although it seems she's not actually challenging him just yet.

    Still, that was so cool! Amy can fight monsters, but telling people off just kinda blows up in her face.

    Hannah is so cool!

Pyrite has posed:
    There's nothing magical about the wheelchair or around it. But there's... Something... Beyond just the fact it rolled in here on its own, it's right at the periphery of perception, something that's there and normally ignored by the brain, but which is just off in some way that's hard to define but subtly disturbing becaus--
    The shadows are moving.
    The shadows under and around the wheelchair are swirling, swishing around, expanding and contracting, like some sort of amoeba, or writhing tentacled creature from the Fathomless Dark of the Ocean, where light-loving creatures are forbidden.
    Himeko, standing upside-down on the ceiling, unseen except by Mamoru for now, is facing away from him and Usagi. She has no body any more, and lacks the power to reveal herself to others. She is regressing back towards being a haunting spirit, without all of that Dark Energy that corrupted her fromthe good girl she is into the monster she was.
    And she bends her head backwards when Mamoru calls to her, all the way back, with grinding sounds of imaginary vetebrae as they pop and snap, until her head is right-side up... Even if the back of her head is resting against her spine.
    She stares briefly with her ruby-red eyes, and opens her mouth to speak, and shadows wisp out instead of words, and the shadows speak for her, like a billowing black speech bubble with scratchy white writing vibrating and re-sketching itself over and over inside of it.
    nO tHaNk YoU.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Ugh, what is it with this place and all the girls? First there was that obnoxious one with the pigtails, now there's this tall one, then there was one with a weird eye-wrap, and obnoxiously loud one with a cane and a dog?

Consider Crane Game Joe's eyes rolled.

"As a matter of fact, they do, yeah, Amazon Girl, and you're not my type, so why don't you and your posse of middle schoolers skedaddle, yeah?. Game Guy's got his cut of the check, so it ain't exactly like this is your business."

Motoki winces, and looks down when someone whispers that he could totally throw this guy out - but she's over in front of a crane game before he could explain that no, he had accepted a booking from this guy to come in and shoot his video and - yeah, he could give the money back but - he'd rather not - "Hey, Joe-san, I know you have a gimmick, but I'd appreciate if you-"

Unfortunartely for Motoki, Crame Game Joe would rather respond to Hannah, looking down his nose at her. "As for you, Foreign Girl, why don't you chill and hang out with Huge Tools over there? Bet she could teach you some tricks for handling that cane instead. So scoot, skedaddle, before the nice game guy in need of your protection loses out on his paycheck."

And then he walks right over to one of the empty crane games, camera guys following, and without waiting for a word or response from anyone, pops a quarter in. Not even thirty seconds later, he's won one of the rare Sailor Mercury doll prizes and a gator plush, both pulled up at the same time.

"Off to a golden start, boys! This is the only place in town with these knock off Sailor V chicks, so let's see if we can get a whole set before we win ourselves another Switch."

Usagi scowls over at the boy and the commotion. "Yeah, that guy's a jerk. I've seen a few of his Viewtube clips, and he just turns people who bug him into memes - I should probably go tell everyone to cool it..."

Eh? The wheelchair is Himeko?

Of course it's Himeko, who else would just kind of swish a thing in from nowhere all creepy like?

Standing from her spot in the booth, glances over at the crowd, and frowns. "Yeah, I'm gonna tell them to just leave it - be right back, okay?" A quick kiss to Mamoru's forehead, and the twin-tailed girl is heading off to the crowd.

"Mako-chan, Hannah-chan! You might as well leave that jerk alone, he'll just use this to fuel his clicks. He's always a total jerk. He paid you a bunch upfront, huh Motoki-kun?"

Motoki wilts a little. "Yeah, he did. How'd you know?"

"He always does that too. It's on a couple comment threads, how he always pays the arcades a bunch upfront so it's harder to throw him out..."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto scowls, an angry flush coloring her cheeks at being called 'Amazon Girl'. Her chin lifts, and for a moment it looks like she's going to press the confrontation anyway - but then there's Usagi. Looking away from Joe toward her friend, Makoto sighs and reluctantly retreats over towards Usagi.

At least several other girls also stood up for Motoki and the arcade. The knowledge soothes her indignation, if only slightly. "Thanks for speaking up," she says to Hannah. And then winces as she catches sight of Joe's win. "Who's a knockoff Sailor V chick?" she grumbles in an undertone, before shaking her head. "At least if he paid up front, that offsets any loss to the arcade, I guess..." She's still not happy about it, though.

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Hachi reports that frankly Ahmya probably doesn't want to mess with WHATEVER is on that wheelchair because frankly just. Nope. I saw and sensed things. That frankly, even the eye-spider, being technically a minor yokai itself, immediately was not wanting to be near. Just. Nope. Every instinct it had was uninterested in angering WHATEVER that was and it didn't seem to be particularly malicious. For now.

Also Ahmya was distracted trying to play the crane games. Unfortunately, her hindered depth perception makes the already-rigged games A LOT HARDER. For SOME REASON. She was doing her best. Using the usual tricks of looking at the side and such to help line it up, well. ... Yeah she doesn't get whatever she was going for. Not that she cares that much.

Okay. The fact he /immediately/ won was kind of neat though. Huh. ...But also he called them Sailor V Knockoffs? ...Huh. Oh well. That's beside the point, she was just innocently playing her own game, after all! Especially with the blonde-haired girl coming over to tell them to leave the jerk alone. The fact Motoki was paid a bunch up front though... that means probably he could easily restock the crane games afterwards anyway. After another loss, she steps away with a small nod towards Usagi. She dips into a polite bow towards Motoki and the others. "I apologize. I mildly lost my own temper, in my own quiet way." She says softly.

Makoto though, gets a bit of a Look. Also Hannah. "You two are cool." She states simply. "Clearly not on the side of the Dark Twilight Pact." She says with a simple nod. Yes. That's how you tell someone you think is cool that they're cool. Definitely.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"If you're sure," Mamoru says to the ceiling dubiously. Then Usagi's explaining Crane Game Joe a little more, and he scowls too. But then Usagi kisses his forehead and he smiles at her-- it's this >< close to an outright grin, she's saving her friends again.

Once she moves into the crowd, he takes out his phone immediately to find the guy and start mildly messing up his algorithm by scrolling through his videos without watching more than a second.

Set phone for viewtube factor four. Disengage!

Rashmi Terios has posed:
What an absolute *jerk.* Rashmi makes a mental note to put Crane Game Joe on the delivery block list for the moment. It was always fun to watch Papi tear into a rotten customer, but unless he tones down the obnoxious about 30-40%...

Hefting her milkshakes, she eases her way back down to the shop floor coming up behind Motoki and Fu, clearing her throat. "...Hey, Motoki-san? Here," she says, handing over his drink. "Just in case... your *real* customers have your back, y'know?"

At which point she lays eyes on the melee and... oh *wow* there are a lot of people she knows. Ordinarily this would be awesome, but given her luck... It probably means something awful is about to happen.

<< Nicomachea, >> she thinks to her Device. << If you find a Dark Energy flare-up in the immediate location? Barrier, please. Let's keep the damage to a minimum. >>

    << UNDERSTOOD, MASTER, >> the Device replies, equally telepathically, as Rashmi steps back to get out her phone, doing a quick count of familiar noses, then starting to text furiously.

((TXT -- ...Wow hi everyone!))

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    After heartily shaking Motoki's hand, Fu plants both hands on her hips. The day is too young to age it prematurely dealing with Media Man, the lamest of all Dr. Wily's creations*, whose sole power is making everyone feel several years older from the strain of having to deal with his dumb butt. Instead, she decides to try to snag a prize at a different crane game, carefully paying no attention to Joe, except for if the cameras catch her in their recording field of view, at which point she gives a big cheesy grin again, and makes 'rabbit ears' with her fingers behind Joe's head. Other than that she's totally ignoring him, and simply trying to win something for her beloved little sister!

    She's not petty and vindictive at all, how dare you.

    But also Itsuki-chan is adorable, and deserves the best, and she would beat up a thousand Joes for her, or even the entire Taisha, but of course she'd have no reason to ever do the latter, hahaha.

    * Media Man is not actually one of Dr. Wily's creations. Dr. Wily is property of Capcom, all rights reserved.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Shrug! "I like the atmosphere, too. Something about all the sounds und the smell of /people/ und sweets in one place alongside the cabinets? This may not be the most 'cutting edge' of all arcades, but by mein coin, liebling, it is the one in this city with the most /heart/! Und while I firmly believe all things have a price, the price for a heart is often out of reach of even the Sankt Kaiser Herself." Comes the young woman warmly to Amy!

Ahhh, it really feels good to just be able to yell at someone in honest, righteous fury. She doesn't get to do enough of that. She is absolutely considering pulling out the Dueling Glove on this jerk, but has enough good political savvy to know -given his name- he'd choose the Crane Game as the choice of weapons.

And she's no good hand at such things, and has no doubt the man has earned his name properly despite how hard she wants to strangle him by his voice and actions.

...Alright, she's still losing at the innate Belkan desire to punch her problems, and really, would getting caught on camera hammering this guy's jaw be /so/ bad? She's underaged. What's one minor wrap sheet charge on an Unadministered World to a Great House member?

Even Usa-chan is telling her to not engage. Also she reveals that Motoki's been paid off to allow this dire desecration of such a lovely Arcade. ...Alright, maybe there's this tiny /speck/ of mercantile respect for the Viewtuber upon learning this. Which dies immediately as she realizes the corner it's backed poor Motoki into. It's not like he's the owner, it's not on him. Making a mental note to lodge a Belkan sized complaint with the owner, one can all but feel the elemental fury rising off of Hannah.

She starts walking /straight/ for the man. She pauses, exactly, twice. First, to bow to Makoto. "The good herr of the milkshake does not deserve this, no matter how /dishonorable/ the curator of this lovely Arcade!"

And then to, far more regretfully, bow to her dear Tsukino sister, oh-so-beloved.

She leans in close. "N E I N!" Comes Hannah, clearly in that special kind of /mood/ by now.

"Let them click und see their folly!" Oh yeah, she's on the warpath.

There's a little ruffle of the head, though, if allowed from Usagi with pure familial affection, and a nod to the dear Prince almost as much!

Ahmy, too, gets an appreciative nod at the sound of her voice.

"Hah! Tricks, hmm, oh dear Game Player? Congratulations upon mastering a mere children's - und oft balanced ill I might add - toy for your whole career! What skills shall it give you, hm? By the Sankt, you are not even charming. No true oratory skill, just outrage! What will it bring you too, when age creeps into your bones und leaves you with nothing but memories of faded glory!? When I am old und decrepid, at least I shall be useful even upon mein deathbed!"

Comes Hannah, absolutely letting her disdain and disgust openly seep into her voice. As a Belkan, she has exactly /zero/ of the cultural pulls towards politeness that many here have. And she's aiming for the man's throat, verbally speaking.

"You, however, shall have occomplished nothing und have lived for nothing." Comes the young woman oh-so-casually with a shrug of her shoulders, and a solid /whap/ of her cane onto the ground.

A small smile is aimed at Motoki apologetically for all the drama.

And then her phone's going off. ...Welp.

A text back.

((TXT -- I want to strangle this little Heathen. Also, guten aben mein freunds!!!))

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko just continues to stare with her head bent backwards. But she's looking around the arcade while she does so. Like she's looking for someone. Or something.
    The wheelchair rolls forwards another couple meters with no one around it. The shadows underneath it lag behind a second before moving to join it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy hears Usagi nearby. She steps closer to discuss. She's still pretty sure that Hannah can handle herself, but Usagi has a point about people getting turned into memes. "Come on though, this can't be right. We save the day so that people can act like this? People need protection from the human monsters, too."

    Beat.

    Amy's brain jumps ahead in the conversation. "...Oh, if an adult told you that bullies will stop if you don't give them a reaction: They lied. People who say that just want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend they said something wise. Adults don't always know what they're talking about. At least I tried to remember what it was like as a kid and never lied..."

    The subject of venues being prepaid comes up, and Usagi gets the manager's attention. "Okay, but the money doesn't mean he gets to act like a jerk. Actually, since you have the money already, you have all the power here. He can't even threaten to not pay you. Or is he actually rich enough to bury you under a frivolous lawsuit? ...Wait, this is Japan, do people even do that here--"

> N E I N !

    OOooh, Hannah's verbally ripping into him! Amy thinks digging at the crane game itself is a bad call, but otherwise it's all way better than she could improvise at the moment.

    Oof, though. Hannah's going to get edited into a meme. Heavily-accented foreigner telling the streamer off?

    But, maybe, she can help?

    Amy walks up to Hannah's side and puts an arm around her. She doesn't dare speak to Crane Game Joe and give him more fuel. She just sticks her tongue out for a moment, and then smirks, as if to say: The chick that just told you off has a girlfriend. Can you manage that?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"No, no, you were totally right to get mad at him," Usagi says, waving her hands at everyone. "He's a total jerk! It's just, his followers would just end up making memes out of you all and that'd be really annoying, you know? It wouldn't even hurt his viewer base. It's not like, ignoring a bully you know, it's just - not engaging. He's not going to learn a lesson or anything, and Motoki-kun doesn't want to kick him out and get tons of angry gamer guys all over the place, especially when he's like...

And she just rolls her eyes a little.

"He's got another gamer channel where he gets totally pissy about losing to girls in Call of Duty." Is she speaking of a personal experience? Maybe! Don't worry about it.

But then, hand ruffling her head, and Hannah is marching over on the warpath, just as Crane Game Joe adds to his winnings, this time pulling up a Sailor Mars doll.

One of the cameras focuses on Hannah, taking footage for editing later, while the other stays focused on Crane Game Joe's totally calm, collected face as he hones in on the game - he's given it multiple coins, and with each swing of the crane he wins a prize - a packaged Sailor V figurine, a model race car, a watch with a popular game logo...

Motoki sighs and then jumps when a milkshake is offered to him, blinking in surprise at the Peaces and Cream beverage in surprise before softening into a smile. "Thanks, Rashmi-chan. I appreciate all of you - I should have known better, when Unazuki said he wasn't worth having, but it seemed like fun, getting the arcade on ViewTube... guess I was totally wrong there."

Meanwhile, Fu is getting in shots every now and then, and Crane Game Joe notices in time to shoot her a dirty look, then pauses - "Hey, that prize isn't listed on the game. You stuffing the machines with secret prizes, dude?"

This, directed at Motoki, gets his attention, and he sputters on a mouthful of milkshake. "Wh- no, we don't put any secret prizes in the machines, what did you find?"

"Yeah? Then what's this jewel doing in here? It's pretty big too - this thing has got to be worth a lot of money."

There's a red jewel delicately balanced in the claw of the crane, not quite the color of a ruby, each facet brilliantly polished.

To those who can sense energy out of henshin - or those like Rashmi and Himeko, on the look out for it - there's a pulse of dark energy.

The crane swings, and the jewel drops - only to stop falling, for the briefest of seconds, as the crane clamps down around the unmoving, floating jewel and pulls it in.

Crane Game Joe whoops. "Yo! I got the ultra rare prize - now that is what's up, viewers!"

Before anyone can think to interfere, he's got the red jewel in his hand, tossing it up and down.

"Now this is pretty -" a pulse of energy moves through the room, unseen but distinctly felt by anyone with magic. It's the feeling of sun-warmed mulch, the creeping decay of what-was-once-life as it becomes new life, a hint of the earth beneath your feet giving as a sinkhole opens beneath you.

The earth, gone wrong. The warmth of life - gone wrong.

Crane Game Joe, gone wrong, eyes glowing golden as his fist clenches around the jewel. A voice much deeper roars out of his chest.

"For the power of our great ruler!"

Another pulse of energy - and this one is visible, red and crackling, the sick feel of dark energy - and a cyclone like burst of wind spirals around the annoying ViewTuber. When it disperses, there stands a youma, nearly seven feet tall, skin a deep red with green armored accents. A white helmet covers the head, with bright red eyeholes a deepset face. "Gesen is on the stage!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As the crystal is revealed, Rashmi merely attempts a bracing smile, pats Motoki's shoulder, and murmurs something encouraging, stepping back into the crowd.

As he bounces it in his hand, she ducks into another full-cockpit game, as the sunburst charm around her neck begins to glow.

When Gesen makes his debut, he is answered by a very visible, robotic voice;

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

Rashmi *did* say 'the moment,' after all, and as soo as she felt the vibes radiating from the crystal...

A bubble of grey-green static expands rapidly, washing over the arcade and most of the surrounding city block, as golden light flares up from the game Rashmi had climbed into.

"O-KAY," Rashmi shouts, climbing back out in full henshin, and drawing in a deep breath. "I GUESS WE'RE DOING THIS NOW."

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT AWAIT >>

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     ((TXT -- Oh hi Rashmi! You're here too? ... Do you have any idea about that wheelchair? Hachi is terrified of it. Also the crane dude is a jerk. ))

Also the girl speaking in a heavy accent was basically radiating danger at this point which was. Something. And more than a little concerning. But she seemed reasonably ... ... not ... evil at least. On the /other/ hand. Himeko's wheelchair starting to roll around immediately has Hachi relocating, the eye-spider yokai deciding it's prudent to skitter to a different corner. Just in case. It doesn't know /what/ it is.

Ahmya opts to just kind of watch the 'show' at this point because frankly it was going to go one of two ways and neither one she was feeling particularly keen on getting into the middle of at the moment. It would possibly give her family's shrine a bad name to be seen acting out like that on viewtube. Unfortunately.

... Is that cowardly? Ahmya frowns a moment as she's looking at her phone, waiting for Rashmi's response. Hm. Let's see. Who all does she recognize here. Looks like... she squints around, looking over the various different faces. ... Just Rashmi, really. Hm. As Usagi continues to talk though, she's listening, even if she's focused on the phone for now.

Though she does move her hand subtly, the golden ring on her finger glowing briefly as she shoots out a tiny golden thread. With a simple aim. To hit the power button and turn off the camera facing at Hannah. Aaand then there's talk of a prize that doesn't belong in the game?

And... Hachi pings her. Something feels Wrong. "..." Ahmya quietly moves over towards a wall. ... No. No pulling the fire alarm would cause different problems, a lot of damage to a lot of expensive hardware.

The transformation. The energy. And...

Ahmya doesn't hesitate. She doesn't care who's watching, she lifts her hands up in front of her, the golden rings on her fingers moving in a wide circle, golden circle tracing in their wake. "Upon this evening hour, the darkness of the Dark Twilight Pact shall be dispersed by the golden threads of hope." She murmurs, the golden circle quickly forming a spiderweb inside of it, which then materializes into a hat that Ahmya flips in front of her, the brief obfuscation enough to replace her with her henshined form. "I, Goldenweb Yorotsuchi, shall not allow this."

Luckily before she transformed, most of the nonmagical folks were already being excluded by Rashmi's own magic. "Alright, time to make sure everyone gets... ou...t..." Yorotsuchi pauses, looking around. "...Where did almost everyone go?" Yeah. It was her first time encountering the Barrier.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Thanks," Makoto replies to Ahmya with a rueful smile... one that turns a bit puzzled at 'Dark Twilight Pact'. "...I think?" A beat; still a little bewildered, she nods. "No, really, thanks."

She returns Hannah's bow, but unlike the indomitable Belkan, Makoto just sighs again and resigns herself to the better part of valor. "All right," she says, "I'm not gonna stick around to watch a jerk be a jerk." This situation definitely calls for some ice cream. With a nod to Usagi and the other girls nearby, Makoto starts for the stairs up.

She's only made it a few steps up when all hell starts breaking loose.

"Seriously?" Makoto yelps as energy pulses through the arcade and the youma emerges. Without a moment's hesitation, she thrusts her hand into her pocket and comes up with her Jupiter pen. "Jupiter Power - Make Up!"

A burst of electricity flares from the direction of the stairs up to the cafe, and a moment later Sailor Jupiter comes sprinting across the arcade, headed straight for Gesen. "Hey!"

As justice speeches go, it's... not. But what's the need for a justice speech when you can open with a running haymaker aimed for center mass?

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Sankt bless her Girlfriend. Never before has one Hannah of Great House Steiner been more proud of her liebling than when Amy seizes the moment, has an arm around her at /exactly/ when it matters. And so, she leans in just as close, theatrically so! She knows the power of a moment in diplomacy, and wields it defly enough despite her young age. And by now absolutely knowing there's cameras and phones involved? She leans in to steal a brief, warm kiss, holding it juuuust enough to banish any 'they were room mates' bs. A pause. Her sightless eyes for a second are /only/ for Amy, and they sear behind dark lenses with sheer affection. That part she's not even playing up, this is just the unvarnished truth.

Her attention, with a slow, almost /pained/ reluctance, then works itself along with her head towards the vile Viewtuber that's so neatly earned her ire.

Her free hand is already navigating towards a pocket. A very special pocket. One she's yet to find the reason to open, but this man is driving her directly to doing so.

Sometimes its' a curse to have good hearing, and while Motoki is vocalizing his regrets and being /accused/ of dishonorably stuffing their games!? ((She totally didn't mean it Amy, she was just reaching for an insult in the moment!!!))

Despite perhaps, irony of all ironies, Usagi likely having the most level headed advice being dolled out here?

Hannah doesn't even bother posing for the camera this time. Which may just make things better, or worse, the young Belkan doesn't really care right now.

Out comes a certain glove. It's...it's chainmail. Actual chainmail. her hand is reaching back, even as the man wins that Very Special Prize.

"Herr Crane-Heretic!? I, Hannah Emilia-Lina Araki-Steiner the Fourteenth do hereby chal..." The wideup is /right there/!!!!!

And then she's hammered by that pulse, sending the young woman skittering across the room as /Gesen/ arrives!

Her head swimming, she is a lump on the ground as Rashmi does the more sensible thing. Of course, unlike Motoki, she doesn't fade away.

She finally decides to forgo formalities, pocket her precious Dueling Glove from home, and just activate her Device.

One slightly wobbly Ancient Belkan triangle later under her, and the armored for of Trager-chan is pointing her blade at Gesen!

No, she's done enough showboating, she'll leave the justice speeches to her compatriots, new and old.

<Schwerkraftwurf> Comes her Device, plotting a course right towards Gesen's chest, delayed just enough to sweep in right after Sailor Jupiter's fist!

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Uhhhhh. What?

    Fu had just won a Shinju-sama plush (who even put that in there??? She thought Taisha and the Shinju-sama were seen as a fringe religion or weird cult on the mainland!), when the commotion with the crystal started. Jerk being a jerk to poor Motoki, and thennnn...

    Fu has no capacity to sense magic or dark energy, as far as she's aware. Her phone isn't giving any warnings from it eithe--

    *Chiming ringing*

    No, wait, there it goes. Fu backs up and runs away to hide behind a row of machines out of sight before digging her phone out of her skirt pocket. It will continue to ring until she attends to it. The screen is strange. Not the usual message at all.

    SPACE-TIME ANOMALY DETECTED.
        DEPLOY TO PROTECT HUMANITY.

    !?!

    Well, first Fu sends out a message on the Yuusha System's chat app to let her friends know where she is and what's going on. Then she peeks around the corner at the madness unfolding, unsure what's going on, or where all these other Yuusha came from, or what that THING is that Joe turned into... Because she's at least 72.8 percent certain it's not a Vertex.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Kuso," curses Mamoru for real this time, jamming his being-texted-by-Rashmi phone in his pocket and pulling out his pocketwatch-- and as the Barrier goes up, his expression turns into a grin that's all teeth. He slides out of the booth and holds up the gold six-pointed star-shaped watch and just...

"Earth Prism Power, MAKE UP!" he calls out, and that's how every last one of the mahoujin in the place -- and one youma -- knows for damn sure that Mamoru Chiba isn't Hematite anymore. Because his light show is a light show, and it leaves behind it...

Tuxedo Mask!!
He leaps up and across to stand on top of one of the bigger game machines-- probably a full booth game yes-- and flings a rose with gusto at the Youmafied Jerkwad's foot, making to pin him to the floor where he stands, so as to make a better target for everyone else to punch.

"Youma Gesen! The home of the innocent fun of youth engaged in gambling is no place for a Call of Duty blopper who cries on Twitch over how girl gamers ruined everything! Or for youmas! I, Tuxedo Kamen, shall be your jewel thief!"

A beat. "I mean your opponent!!"

Pyrite has posed:
    *SNAP*
    Himeko whips her head towards the sudden flare of Dark Energy when the crystal is seized. Himeko's head goes back to fitting where it belongs, and her entire body stretches in a ghostly manner instead. After hovering over Joe or whoever he is now, arched for a moment, she lunges at the newly awakened youma. Unseen. Unheard. Unnoticed aside from by her big brother, and the side-effects of her presence picked up by others. The wheelchair suddenly shoots forwards like it was fired from a catapult, aimed to hit Joe from behind, dropping his butt right on the seat if successful.
    Shadows are triggered to spread up around the chair, and attempt to seize whatever is in range of their grasp. If the youma is too fast, and nobody else is fool enough to stand in its path, then that would be... Nothing but air.
    Himeko's face, deformed into that of a giant cat, but in the most monstrous, not-cute way, as if in slow motion, attempts to slam her teeth down on Joe's neck whether he's restrained or evaded.
    The chair is just a distraction after all.
    She intends to feed on that withered, lifeless, Wrong energy she followed to get here, the way that youma feed upon humans.
    There are monsters hidden out there in the bones of world, having already stripped the life from every part of Earth's fertile soil within their reach, who now prey on other, smaller monsters.
    Himeko Soryuu, ghost of centuries past, is one of those.
    She was never put back after being taken out of her prison, because she was no longer the type of monster who preyed on innocent lives.
    So now she does what monsters like her do.
    She preys on other monsters.
    To those who can't see ghosts, it looks like the wheelchair attacked Joe, tried to tie him down with black ropes shaped like arms, and then a giant invisible beast, perhaps a cat, started trying to break the youma's neck by violently shaking whatever it could get a hold of. If anything.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> He's got another gamer channel where he gets totally pissy about losing to girls in Call of Duty.
    Amy quirks an eyebrow at Usagi. "He posts his Ls? Seriously?" That's how kids say it nowadays, right???

    BUT THEN THINGS HAPPEN

    AND THEN MORE THINGS HAPPEN. LIKE, MAGICAL THINGS.

    HANNAH KISSED HER

    IN FRONT OF VIEWTUBE!

    Her face goes bright red and she looks happily shocked for a split second before closing her eyes and starting to embrace Hannah just as her girlfriend breaks off. Well, now if they become a meme it will definitely be one of those couple ones... like the next umbrella couple meme or something...

    Any is way too flustered to even notice anything else going on until there is a floating gem -- definitely magic -- and HANNAH HAS A CHAINMAIL GLOVE WHERE DID SHE GET THAT and as HANNAH CHALLENGES HIM TO A DUEL and the claw grabs the gem, Amy opens her mouth to say something, but she's not sure what she should say -- and then he's a youma thanks to the cursed(???) gem(?) -- and before she can decide where to run to to henshin, one of those barriers goes up and suddenly all the civilians are gone.

    Welp.

    Amy sighs at the interruption of an unexpected tender moment, holds her left hand in front of her, and touches her soul gem, currently in ring form...

    An ovoid of flame-colored light growing from her gem to surround her, enveloping her, lifting into the air with her unclothed silhouette curled up inside, long hair floating as if she's under water (the hair tie vanished with her clothes, apparently) before the light cracks and shatters and Amy, now covered in flames as if from an explosion, snaps back, and the flames fade to leave her new outfit in place.

    The viewers, were this an anime, would see a long, extended sequence highlighting each step of the transformation, and the flames disappearing from each part of her body in turn to leave that part of her magical girl outfit -- red chestplate, red circle skirt with a black belt with a pair of pouches, armored red kneepads and armored white boots with red trim, a white bodysuit from the neck down under it all, white gloves with red trim, and finally a white hooded cloak--

    --but for any observers here, it's all over in a flash, ending with the red-themed Puella landing back on her feet as the last of the flames dissipate from her outfit.R
    Yes, Youma Joe, if you've played the classics, the first part of this girl's henshin sequence was the Crystal Flash. Clearly that means the Hunter's facing you with full energy tanks and missile supply! Do you think you've got better odds than a horde of Space Pirates?

> Where did almost everyone go?
    "Some kinda barrier." Amy asides. "Some of us can do that."

    She steps forward and points at Gesen. "I am Magical Rocket Girl Red!" She moves her hands closer to her body so the weapon that appears in her hands is pointed at the ceiling, "So, I hear you lose to girls a lot in Call of Duty?" It's a gyrojet carbine, though non-gun-otaku would probably say it looks like some kind of assault rifle.

    She starts to point it at him, but hesitates. "Wait, is it okay to shoot this kind of monster? It hasn't done anything yet..."

    And then she can't help but burst out laughing as Tuxedo Mask calls him a blopper. "N-no it's... the game is Black Ops, so people humorously call it cod blops... wait isn't that game like a decade old at this point...?"

    Anyway, she levels her weapon at Gemma, though her finger is still off the trigger. "So, what's the game gonna be, Gesen?"

'Usagi Tsukino has posed:
For a moment Crane Game Joe looked genuinely afraid, before that jewel transformed him. Why? Because he's facing an honest to god chainmail glove.

And then he's a youm,a and a chain mail glove is the least of his concern.

Usagi Tsukino will be complaining to management of the universe that bad guys need to stop showing up to her dates.

Like, HELLO? How many dates is a youma going to ruin! This isn't a call to the universe to ruin a good time! It's bad enough Crane Game Joe showed up at all, did he have to be a youma too?!

These are the thoughts which run through one Usagi Tsukino's head as she's knocked backwards into a game cabinet by the pulse of dark energy. By the time she's on her feet...

A lot is happening.

Poor Gesen was not expecting to get absolutely bodied the second he appeared. First, there's Sailor Jupiter (DISCOUNT SAILOR V, IS SHE?) rocketing across the arcade to deliver a sound punch to the face that has one of the Seven Great Youma rocking back. Then, there's a wheelchair ramming into him from the back, knocking butt to seat as invisible teeth sink into his neck -

Well, they try anyway. His neck is protected by parts of his helmet and armor, but the feeling of something trying to eat him?

Has this great youma LUNGING to his feet, just in time to get a rose directly to the foot.

The justice speech is just an insult to the injury, at this point.

Has any youma ever been so thoroughly disrespected on sight?

"By our Great Leader, you dare?! You dare?!" The armored piece covering his hand glows with white light, and an orange spiked hammer bursts into existence, on a long white handle. Gesen jerks his arm and the flexible handle bends back as he slams the hammer into the ground in the center of group of magical warriors. The ground caves beneath the force of the hammer, and he reels the hammer back, swinging it to strike at Fu's unguarded and untransformed body.

"The game? The destruction of your world! Glory to the Dark Kingdom! Glory to Our Great Ruler! Now DIE!"

"Moon Tiara Action!"

And a glowing disc of energy knocks the hammer off course, launched from Sailor Moon! For the viewers at home: of-course she transformed off screen!

"Put a sock in it jerk, and pick a fight with those ready to meet you blow for blow! Like my boyfriend said - this house of fun and games is no place for a creep like you! Repent and donate your winnings!"

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Hachi is now VERY glad that it's hiding now. Hachi didn't want to be anywhere near that wheelchair. Hachi is definitely over there shivering in the highest corner the furthest away from Himeko now. That was a predator. Hachi was just a mascot yokai. They are not the same. And Hachi was glad there was better prey in the area.

Meanwhile. ...ALL OF THE COOL PEOPLE WERE MAGICAL PEOPLE TOO?! Goldenweb Yorotsuchi might be quietly fangirling for a moment at the fact that they're really cool. Also she wasn't quite sure what to do at the moment, since there were multiple people in close range with the youma and she didn't want to accidentally do friendly fire with her webbing. Hmm.

"Oh. I see. That would explain it. Some kind of barrier. Got it!" Responds Yorotsuchi to Rocket Girl Red. She glances at her sword, but opts to leave it hanging along her back for now rather than draw it; the area was fairly compact, not a good spot for a giant katana.

AND THEN THERE'S A GIANT HAMMER. Being swung at someone who /was not transformed/. Yorotsuchi's attention shifted immediately from the youma to something more important: A person in danger. Yorotsuchi immediately leaps into action, one hand aiming to shoot a blast of webbing towards the hammer, attempting to imbue the Hammer with a rune of 'Light', to reduce its weight and make its damage temporarily weaker -- hopefully -- to make it safer as she dives for Fu to get her out of the way of the oncoming attack, using a second shooting of webbing to pull the both of them away from the attack, hopefully unscathed, or at least minimally scathed.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Good job, Goldenweb!" Rashmi cheers, wings of light flickering into existence at her ankles, and carrying her back and away from the oncoming impact. "Maybe you can anchor that weapon to something, so he can't swing it?"

As she speaks, she flits to the side to find a better angle, as a half-dozen glowing golden spheres materialize around her. Once she has what she thinks is a clear line of fire?

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BARRAGE >>

Seems Rashmi has learned how to program an autofire mode, as Barrets are launched and resummoned over and over and over again, angled to deny Gesen the ability to escape *all* the attacks coming his way.

Take your punches, buddy, you earned it.

"Let's finish this quick, everyone!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
THAT'S ME, Tuxedo Kamen does not shout, because he's pretty sure everyone knows that he is Sailor Moon's boyfriend. But he kind of wants to.

Instead he jumps lightly across the room to vulture the situation -- literally all his attention zeroes in on watching Gesen, instead of fighting Gesen. The fighting is absolutely taken care of. He crouches like he's Batman with his silk cape all flowing off the top of the game booth, ready to pounce.

So, so ready to pounce. The second he sees a red sparkle of any kind on or near Gesen or Crane Game Joe, he will lunge.

Right now, he says, "Your 'Great Leader' took an L as big as your ego, friend." He doesn't sound friendly. "Maybe you should start calling that demon your Great Embarrassment."

Amanda Faust has posed:
> Now DIE!
    *BOOM!*

    Amy is propelled towards the hammer by an explosion, having switched back to her main weapon and used it to launch herself by firing an explosion instead of a rocket.

    And then Moon's tiara knocks the hammer aside first and Amy just flies past and crashes into (the Barrier doubles of) some arcade machines. "[Owww...]"

    She stands up and turns towards him, holding a pistol, then the carbine again... But, shooting him still feels off. That's a killing weapon. Beating him up seems OK though?

    So she propels herself back towards him with another explosion, swinging the rocket launcher like a club...

    And then cancels into a--Yes, that's a thing she can do in real life, because she can push off the launcher to arrest her momentum and dismiss it--upward smash, landing in a crouch on the floor just in front of him with the launcher facing the floor and tilted towards him so that the next explosion launches it right into his gut or chest!

    "YEAH!"

    She's smiling, pleased with herself for coming up with that fake-out maneuver, and only afterward does she realize she could've let it hit him before she unsummoned it. Some future youma will get to experience *that*!

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu Inubouzaki is just debating whether to transform here. This isn't a Yuusha matter... Is it really justified to use the Shinju-sama's blessing, regardless of what her phone's warning says? She flashes back to that time at the hospital, with the monster on the stage, and the crazy doctor who wanted to cut off Togo-san's legs, and how she had this same internal debate over whether to activate the Yuusha System, and risk dragging her friends and only remaining family into a war that they might not have to fight.

    After all, there are Hero candidates all over. A different team could have been 'it'.

    But they WERE 'it'. And they're all involved now.

    It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle. But is it too late to let the other Heroes here handle this, and not risk further exposing the Hero Club to danger--

    There's been yelling, impacts, bright lights, a creepy wheelchair, super heroes and magical girls and who knows what else, and then there was a single loud crash and everything between her and a hammer flying in her direction was suddenly gone.

    She didn't even have the time to look surprised as she saw it coming.

    Then she was scooped up and carried off, as a bright light that didn't hurt her eyes for some reason, only made her anxiety decrease and let her feel a little bit better, deflected the projectile. She has to blink a few times, and puts her phone away, as she is then swung to safety.

    "Ah... Arigatou, Spider-Girl!" she says earnestly.

    She won't have to fight after all.

    This time.

Makoto Kino has posed:
In retrospect, it's not exactly a SURPRISE that a youma popping up in the middle of the arcade has been immediately answered by mahous coming out of the woodwork. There are some places that there's simply no percentage in the forces of darkness trying to mess with. Especially when Joe compounded the crime by being a jerk to Motoki 'golden retriever' Furuhata before he got youma-fied.

Sailor Jupiter knows pretty well to clear the line of fire as soon as she's landed her punch, is what we're saying here.

The senshi of Thunder and Courage leaps back onto the top of a barrier-copied Sailor V game station for a better vantage, as Sailor Moon's tiara flashes through the air to deflect the youma's hammer. "This barrier thing--" she says, "it means I'm not gonna fry the whole arcade's wiring if I go all out, right?"

Right??

Right!

A short, determined nod, and Jupiter rises to her full height, electricity already crackling around her hands and sparking along the golden arc of her tiara. "Gesen!" she calls out to the youma. "Get wrecked!" And then she pulls lightning from the air, gathering it between her hands and her crossed arms and unleashing it in a torrent of raw, sizzling energy. "--SUPREME THUNDER!"

It's a lot of *BOOM* for an indoor space, even with the barrier.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah tucks Mamoru's magical identity into her mental back pocket, her pride stinging at being robbed of her first properly Heckin'd about it Duel here on earth by this /wretched Cranetuber/, and associated Dark Energy bust interrupting Good and Proper etiquette.

She also takes a moment to give a firm nod towards the sound of Tux-kun, Prince of Earth's voice! Okay she's not sure what a 'blopper' is, but she's not from Canopis and gambling laws are reasonable back home!

"I do believe, dear Herr Tuxedo Kamen, the proper term is 'rightful battlefield salvage'!!!" Comes the young woman, both affirmingly and very aggressively!

She's never before been so happy for a civilian to get youma-ized, or maybe having been a youma beforehand. Really she doesn't care right about now.

Also, BG and Lyra both inform her of that wheelchair 'attacking' Crane Game Joe. Hannah herself isn't going to question it when it's a tactical advantage.

Lyra, however, being on that odd plane of mostly-feral intelligent animalia used to Belkan magic? Her feathery skull tips /directly/ towards the semi-instinctual feeling of Himeko right on the warpath, just as her Herrin is.

She lets out a /hiss/, the warm one of encouragement of another more domesticated Razorhounds are prone to, fierce yet the kind of thing with intent behind it.

'You are my ally', in murder lizard parlance, such as it goes. She does it twice, because, hey it's Earth and not her home world.

Also her girlfriend is in henshin and pointing a gun towards Gesen, which the Knight of Merchantilism utterly appreciates. She basks in it, deprived of Date Night and a proper Duel all at once!

Trager-chan also takes in a moment to just...drink in how, amidst all the chaos and the youma-ized Viewtuber's words? In comes the light of a Moon Tiara Action, and she happily lets the light of that attack glint off her golden glasses. Sure, she knows Usagi more than well by now, but it's always a hopeful thing to fight alongside Sailor Moon.

Flecks of the smashed ground from that hammer of the youma's crash against first her barrier jacket, then the bigger ones fall upon a <Turmschild> with her free hand, the young woman dancing back away from the blow he tried to smash them all with! She skids back slightly, but she flicks away the defensive spell contemptuously.

This new mahou does an /excellent/ job with that odd light rune, and she makes a mental note to remember frau Goldenweb for the future! For now though, she happily takes up Rashmi's encouragement. Suddenly, she is up in the air, gravity flowing about her, not even giving Gesen the good grace of 'looking' at him. A hand raises, her Device's blade on high, and quickly several overlapping, dangerously unstable opposing gravity wells wrap upon her sword, turning it into a lance of furious gravitics. Really, it's too good for him. But sometimes one must make an /example/, and in this? Well, she's too angry to even consider optics.

Thankfully it's all mahous around with various levels of similar sentiment. She, and said gravity lance, crash to terra firma with all the fury of a Knight of the Sankt Church incarnate. Worst of all? As her weapon she once wielded against good Mamoru Chiba is slashed away?

<Alpha Streik>

It's too good for Crane Game Joe. She smashes down, makes that crater /worse/ by halves, and simply tries to annihilate him alongside the others with the backsplash of such elemental forces being employed.

Also, she's gonna try to smack the youma with her Gauntlet as insult to injury, just before darting away from her girlfriend's rocket-jump based violence with a quick gravity well to drag her in.

For some reason, she hears her Guidance Counselor's voice in the back of her head. Huh.

She hears Jupiter's question amidst the /torrent/ of Supreme Thunder, but is gathering her breath from her spiteful attack. A vague wave of her blade towards Rashmi! Time to let a certain beloved freund explain! Also her ears kind of hurt now. There's this /nod/ of pure warrior's res

Pyrite has posed:
    The Himeko-cat continues to bend and chase the youma after being rebuffed by its formidable hide. Waiting, looking for her chance.
    Then, as Gessen is being pummeled, the opening appears.
    Himeko snaps her whole body like a rubber band, appearing as just herself again, right behind Gessen, arms raised, as if in mid-leap, white night gown fluttering around her.
    When her bare feet touch him, they attach like roots. Then her hands over his face, even if he can see right through them.
    And then energy starts flowing from one of the Seven Great Youma, the First of Seven Shadows, that unhealthy, Wrong energy of the Earth twisted, that is then fed into a vortex of teeth that is Himeko's appetite.
    The ghost starts to become visible to everyone present, with her red eyes gleaming. A little bit at a time. Like she's made of fog and only where the fog is densest can she be seen.
    But seen she is, at least until she has to throw herself away, foot-roots retracting, to avoid the attacks coming to destroy Gessen.
    Disappointing.
    She's still hungry.
    The ghost girl fades away again as she floats backwards, like she was never there at all.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
There's this /nod/ of pure warrior's respect to Sailor Jupiter!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Gesen's hammer is - lighter? What the heck?! The next swing goes wonky, with the weigh off-balance, and the youma growls, the hammer disappearing in a burst of light as instead the youma goes for it's alternate fire weapon - a crane launched at highspeed at -

Nothing, because Rashmi rains a hell of autofire bullets down that pummel crane and youma alike. Then there's Magical Rocket Girl Red, planting an explosive blast in his abdomen, followed by the terrifying Alpha Streik that SMASHES HIM INTO A CRATER, WHY, GREAT LEADER, WHY -

And then the horrendous invisible enemy is back, and Gesen yells out, voice cracking embarrassingly as he has his energy drained.

He's almost grateful to be hit by Supreme Thunder.

Almost. Kind of. Not really.

One could argue that Supreme Thunder didn't have to be so supreme. When the aftereffects of the light and thunder crash have cleared from everyone's ears, they'll see the burnt crumpled heap that is Gesen, twitching in true anime fashion. He reaches up, slow and unsteady, the bright red light in his eyes slowly going out.

"Me - tallia - sama -"

And then his arm drops, and he's still and motionless in front of them, in a crater on the ground.

Sailor Moon shifts worriedly on her heels.

"Um. We didn't kill that guy, righ-"

A loud ker-plink! cuts through the air, and the red jewel that had been grasped by Crane Game Joe pops up with the force of rings being expelled from Sonic the Hedgehog, quickly caught by the one and only Tuxedo Mask, who used his action to prep for exactly this moment.

Gesen turns back into Crane Game Joe, who twitches on the ground, then disappears, shunted out of the barrier by virtue of being a mundane.

Victory!

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Okay, others were attacking with seemingly no real hesitation or issues. And she seems to have successfully saved Fu! For now. "You're welcome." She says simply towards Fu, carefully setting her back down on her feet. Don't mind the spider strength. It's fine. She takes a moment to gently dust off and straighten Fu's clothing, before turning back away from her towards the tall youma, drawing her odachi in front of her and holding it defensively.

She is fully ready to follow Rashmi's suggestion, to shoot another burst of web towards that hammer and towards a ceiling, though... at this point, as she watches the ... various.. heavy attacks impacting the youma, she was beginning to suspect it wasn't needed. There was a LOT. And also that... whatever... with the wheelchair also still seemingly attacking it. I guess it's not an enemy? Also there was lightning. And missiles. And gravity well based sword slashes. "...Yeah I think I'm good not leaping into the middle of that."

Hachi, meanwhile, is still watching that presence like a hawk until it's gone. Nope. NOPE. ...It's also staying out of Lyra's way but that one is less utterly terrifying.

Wait what was that about salvage? Is there going to be salvage from this? ...Also what's happening t o the people who got 'excluded' from this like are they still recording and freaking out over like 10 people suddenly disappearing? Hm.

Either way, it looks like things were fine...ish... now. "I'll keep that in mind for next time, senpai!" Yorotsuchi calls out towards Rashmi. "...Seems like it wasn't really needed in the end here!" She pauses, looking towards Fu. "You're alright, right? I was probably not as gentle as I could have been, uh...considering."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Oh yeah i--"

Rashmi pauses her explanation because, really, who could even *hear* her over the roar of so much violent insanity happening to one single youma?

Then, the terrible, awful noise gives way to a terrible, awful silence.

*plink*

Victory!

"Woooo!" she cheers, thrusting a fist in the air. "...So yeah basically I moved everyone with magic, like, half a dimension over. Everything in the Barrier isn't *technically* real, or it's a reality that has buildings and stuff but no *people,* which is actually worse if you stop to think about it, which is why I usually don't. Ghosts are a new thing though, should I be worried?"

Pause. Head shake.

"...Sorry all that adrenalin's going to my mouth now I guess. Anyway! Good job Goldenweb! That's Goldenweb," she repeats to those who probably haven't met Ahmya. "She does super good work actually! So uh... I'm gonna drop this in about five minutes, we'll all want to get somewhere out of the way and changed back just so we don't cause a scene, okay?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"One second! Everyone--" calls Tuxedo Kamen, holding the gem in his hand for a second before sleight-of-handing it away, "--this was one of seven. There are six more, other colors. I completely forgot about them until now, sorry! The Dark Kingdom really wants them but they really can't have them, because if you put them together they form a key to the lock on the ancient kingdom in the magical heart of the Earth. More or less. The other six also have youmas in them. Sorry again!"

He leaps down off the game booth, cape billowing behind him then fluttering down around him. "Also the ghost is my sister, but don't be afraid of her, be afraid for her, she's eating monsters again and that can't be good for her digestion."

A beat. "That's all! Thank you! Hello Goldenweb! Let's do like the Page Mage says and--"

--he drops his henshin and goes to sit at the dusty booth where the last few fries sit dustily under debris from floor-crunching--

"Be less obvious."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Everyone combos him and Gesen is CRATERED. And mentions a Metall Lia-sama. "Who?"

    And then he turns back into Joe, the sight of whom lying in a crater in a perfect Yamcha meme is too much for Amy not to whip out her phone and snap a picture of before he disappears.

    There's probably a quick victory hug and kiss with Hannah!

    But, there's also something else to attend to: The multiple civilians inside the barrier! She turns to Fu and Hachi. "Um... you okay?" Amy rubs the back of her head. "Uhh... I guess you saw me transform, huh? Wait a minute," She looks over Fu, "aren't you a Magical Girl too? Yuna said you were all..."

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu waves off Yorotsuchi. "No, no! You were great! Thank you! I mean, even if you had been rough, it's not like I could complain, right? The alternative was getting crushed! So don't worry, you have plenty of GIRL POWER to go around!" Fu gives a thumbsup, and then looks for a good place to stand and pretend she was there all along, because she is smarter than she acts, and she at least grasps the concept of all of... This. She was already operating on the concept of reality that included alternate planes of existence and other dimensions after all.

    "Oh, you know Yuna-chan? Haha... Yeah... I wasn't going to say anything, but if we're revealing our secret identities... I'm a Yuusha working for Taisha. The Hero Club fights a different kind of enemy, but..." Her phone DID have a directive to fight in this situation. And she didn't follow it.

    "Well, no big deal. Let's all not be obvious!"

    Sure. She's just a normal girl, doing normal things, like looting Joe's stuff before he can regain consciousness as soon as they've all popped back to reality. Possibly with another peace sign thrown to any cameras, and a big cheesy grin, before escaping to tell her sister about all the sweet stuff she won for her!

    Master of subtlety.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Whoo! He's not dead!"

Sailor Moon pumps her fist as she cries out that cheer, looking around at everyone. Look at this team! They're going to be -

"There are six more?! Well - at least we know exactly how many more."

Sailor Moon drops her henshin - she once revealed herself in front of like, thirty people, she's over it now, identity games are for keeping away from villains, not fellow heroes! And that one random civilian who's probably either a hero in disguise or like Naru-chan, with all the potential and none of the henshin just yet.

"We did great, everyone! Page Mage, thanks for putting up the barrier! Goldenweb, that was really cool when you rescued that girl! Everyone - if you find another... really pretty jewel, please give it to Mamochan, they totally belong to him if they're for the Earth!"

Wake up the princess in a girl and she just becomes totally about claiming all the planet for her boyfriend, huh?

"Also, Jupiter-chan, that was so cool, you practically vaporized him!"

She flops down in the seat next to Mamoru, and then, shame of shames, absolutely eats the dusty fries.

She whispers at Mamoru, "Hey, Mamochan, what's a Yuusha and a Taisha?"

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     "Hachi seemed terrified, so uh. P...probably yes? Also wait so we're in like... some... alternate... dimension barrier? ...That's so cool oh my gosh." Says the one-eyed girl towards Rashmi. The talk of her doing super good work gets her quietly looking away, is she blushing? No definitely not she's too refined and prim and proper! Totally! She ahems softly, dipping into a polite bow towards the other gathered magical people. "It's a pleasure to meet you; as Rashmi said, I am Goldenweb Yorotsuchi, blessed by the Jyrougumo." She straightens back up and smiles politely. Mamoru explains the crystal things.

... And how bad it was. ...Huh. A magical kingdom at the heart of earth? Huuuuuh.

Okay. Fu seems to be doing well. She gives her a smile and dips her head towards her. "I'm glad you're alright, then. Uh. If there's any, y'know, webbing on you, it should just disintegrate on its own before Rashmi drops her barrier." She pauses, looking around a bit, then back towards Usagi. She doesn't directly respond to her, just blushing a bit again. Huff! "...Anyway. I should probably go back to my errands, I just heard that ... rude... person... and just. Couldn't, y'know. Ignore it. He sounded just awful." Yes. Run. Run before people realize how goofy you are instead of a cool spidergirl!

Ahmya Karashima has posed:
     Meanwhile, Hachi skitters out after Yorotsuchi, doing its best to keep out of sight the whole way. If Red actually /did/ address it, the spider would give a little wave towards her before leaving, though.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
When the barrier drops, the arcade is undamaged - everything is the same, except that Crane Game Joe is now on the ground, unconscious, and that one girl (Fu) is running off with some of his prizes. The outraged camera men record this with Appalled Shock.

Motoki sips his milkshake.

"Wow. How awful."

Well, he's walked away real fast now.