"Oh? Is that what you believe?" asked the Magical Empress, cocking her head to one side as she spoke, "Very well. Believe what you will about me, it means nothing in the end. You'll still be crushed under my foot when I claim victory in the Hex Night."

That sharp grin never left her face, even as Hikari tried to just pass her up. But everything about her, that superior attitude, the fact she called herself 'Magical Empress', there wasn't a single thing that didn't piss Hikari off about her. Where did she get off calling other magical girls 'junk' anyway?! What kind of person would even do that? One of her hands had already clenched into a fist, even as she tried to pass up the purple-haired magical girl alongside Tokiko. This anger was nothing like the frustrating she'd felt about the Tokiko earlier, for that matter. Everything about Kagami was simply infuriating.

"It's probably wise that you don't fight with me immediately, of course," continued Kagami, even as they left, "You can have the illusion of potential victory to yourself, a little longer. But an illusion is merely a trick of the light, and as such there is no-one more suited to destroying it than I, [i]junk[/i]."

Even through her anger, Hikari almost felt as if Kagami sounded ever-so-slightly disappointed. Had she been hoping for a fight...?

[@Anza]

[hr]

Indeed, the building came apart under Naoko's feet. While the horned magical girl didn't seem all that bothered, she did immediately lunge for the senseless Tsukimi and scoop her into her arms, before disappearing into the debris cloud below. Indeed, both of the enemy magical girls simply vanished from sight, impossible to see.

Indeed, it looked as if the move might have worked.

For a moment.

Suddenly, one chunk of debris came careening through the air, hurtling right towards Sonya!

[@TheFake]

[hr]

Perhaps one of the girls would notice.

Or perhaps they wouldn't.

Either way, they were not alone.

Nearby, a figure clad in a fine black suit, their body androgynous enough to look neither male or female beneath it, was standing and watching them. Their face was obscured, by a detailed, unnervingly realistic mask in the form of the face of a white rabbit.

They had done little, aside from watch.

[@LuckyBlackCat][@A Lowly Wretch]