[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/skDWlQF.png[/img][/center]

It smelled like rot. Decayed, dead things. But it was comfortable enough, and it was getting better, and everything was going to be just fine. Sunny hummed to herself as she swept. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJYKBJMsPHQ][i]But I’m Different[/i].[/url] A battery powered lantern filled her sewer nook with soft yellow light. She had a bed and a couch; some shelving, plants, books, a table. It looked almost clean. It was almost homey, even. 

She stopped and frowned. Gently, she knelt down to the floor. She picked up the rat trap. It was a tube; it was supposed to be neat and humane. The rat entered the enclosure, it tripped the spring, and the door shut behind it. It had air holes. She could’ve released it and let it go on its way.

The rat inside was face up, dead.

[color=ffda03][i]Were you sick? Did I do something wrong? Poor thing. I’m sorry. This must’ve been your home once too.[/i][/color] The sigh on her breath was ragged and uneven. Gently again, she put it back down. The string lights she got didn’t even work, they had nothing to plug into. She walked to her couch and flopped heavily onto it. She felt sort of tired. It was too early to be up anyways. 

[i]Bzzt. Bzzt.[/i]

She grabbed her phone. 12%. Would be another coffee shop run to recharge it today. There was nothing to do, except… [i]Torii Gate Appears In Tokyo Bay; Youkai March on City[/i].

Yep, it was time to go.

[hr]
The air was overly cold. If there was anything positive to say about living in the sewers, it was that it was warm. Sunny sucked in a breath, wrapping herself in her jacket. She was hungry. She should have toast – that was on genre, right? She entertained the thought with a smirk. As it was, she was running toastless. Luckily, or unluckily depending on perspective, her corner of the world was right on the bay. She’d studied the zoning maps for Tokyo’s sewers religiously since she set her sights on her new home; she’d come out just almost at the water. Just a corner to turn, and…

Morning light broke across the bay. Rays refracted into wave; soft white light dispersed. It didn’t match the scene around it. People ran madly. There was no shortage of those things; with backs of turtles, faces of dogs, plenty more things that Sunny did not have the vocabulary to describe, they rampaged across the street. A ship sailed into the bay. A stage dominated the street, with a boy sitting on a throne. Others like her were here to fight. The torii gate jutted into the sky above the bay, breaking through the ice.

She couldn’t just keep staring.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkWfFXnLpYg][center][color=ffda03]“Ut supra, sic Infra”[/color][/center][/url]

The pentagram on her neck burned; for a moment, always, it was too much. It was consumed by flame tipped with blue. It spread, catching her clothes, her hair, her arms, engulfing her. A bystander looked and saw a woman on fire. He recoiled. She looked like a nice girl – so young, and now casualty to the youkai. 

Or so it had appeared. 

Her clothing burned away. That which replaced it was forged in fire; as the flames cleared, a woman who did not look like Sunny Day emerged. Not so nice. Long leather boots; immodest clothing; overly individualistic makeup; a big sword. The only thing that truly could mark her as the woman she was before was her large grin. Still, she felt more like a girl in a costume than a hero.

But there was work to do. She pitched her heels into the street below, stabbing Joyeuse through the pavement, black ephemera wilting off of the sword onto the ground. Her hands pulled and her feet pushed, and all at once the kinetic energy came to head and she flung herself forward. She soared forward with magical speed, wind whooshing in her ears. The bystander that saw her transform watched in abject confusion as she flew right over his head. He whipped around to follow her movement; Sunny didn’t go much further, instead implanting her sword into the head of an inugami that had very nearly snuck up on the man. Stab and cut. She’d been practicing – it was not a natural motion, but the sword was perfectly balanced in her hand, supernatural strength helping her along. She cleaved down, splitting the demonic dog into two pieces.

[color=ffda03]“Sorry sir – excuse me, please keep running,”[/color] she said to the bystander. He did. She had to keep moving; onto the next – or, no. She repeated the maneuver she did before, flinging herself into the air again. This time, she went further. She closed the distance to the bay, and then hopped again onto the ship. As she suspected, there were other magical... people here. 

She grinned at the others assembled, giving a short wave and her best [color=ffda03]“Howdy,"[/color] in exaggerated English. 

Was that guy naked?