Mild or not, Tokiko's line had pricked sharply enough for Kagami to respond with a fucking laser beam.

She'd count that as a success, except for the fact that, well, there was a [i]fucking laser beam[/i] now coming right at her. She barely had time to cry out and throw herself to one side before it tore past the spot where she'd just been standing, close enough for her to feel the heat of it even after moving away. It hadn't been intended to hit her directly, but that could still have hit her if she'd moved the wrong way, if it had been off-target by just a slight amount. [i]And what about...[/i]

"Hikari-san!" She scrambled to her feet, eyes desperately searching for the other girl. "Hikari-san, are you all right?" There she was, picking herself up off the ground. A little rumpled, maybe bruised from the fall, but it could have been much worse. Tokiko let out a breath, fear being replaced by relief, even as a far colder feeling began to spread inside her.

[i]She attacked me. She attacked Hikari.[/i]

Her fists clenched. Never mind the consequences, this was a sin that could not be forgiven.

The exchange between Hikari and the Empress was interrupted by a laugh. Not a happy laugh, not a mocking laugh, not even an [i]oh-my-god-what-the-fuck[/i] kind of laugh, but something altogether stranger. Not a snicker, not a giggle, but a hoarse and broken cackling, so low one might have mistaken it for a sob were it not for the rictus smile that slashed across the speaker's face.

"Oh, but Kagami-chaaaan... you [i]are.[/i]"

Green lightning exploded out onto the street, buzzing and sparking, ionizing the air and causing the all the lights for several blocks around to momentarily flicker and flash. Silhouetted within, a looming coffin of twisted metal, and a figure contorting in maddened exuberance.

"A fool! A stooge! A pea-brained cretin! So blinded by your own hubris that you made the very worst mistake!" She cackled again. "Don't you realize what you've [b][i]done?![/i][/b]"

The lightning began to fade— but unlike before, it didn't disappear entirely. Rather, it coalesced, forming two sparking auras around the gloved hands of Honami Tokiko. Now dressed once more in her long white coat, she held a cigarette lighter in her right and a radio transmitter in her left, brandishing them like weapons as she pointed the latter at her assailant.

"You've made me want to get serious." Her pupils shrunk down to tiny dots, glowing with greenish light. "Hikari-san, forget what I said earlier. Let's [i]crush[/i] this piece of shit."

[@VitaVitaAR]