So here is a fun fact about foxes! They are not natural sword geniuses! They're not even fighters, really. A fox more or less lives her entire life in a constant state of avoiding trouble in every way, shape, and form. And sword duels, while romantic, are dangerously close to manual labor. Which, eugh? Ew? Gross.

Although, there certainly are exceptions. There are a lot of foxgirls in the world, after all, and some of them are bound to fall in love with the blade. But foxes with 5 or more tails are quite a rarity for this crab bucket of a species, and it does take a fox with rather a lot of accumulated power and wealth before they start finding ways to become personally skilled at something without it coming too close to methods that offend their sensibilities. And even then they'd mostly rather be manipulators, advisors, and charmers.

Actia has all the power and poise to make an exception of herself. But she is not. She is, fortunately, something of a wizard though. And her chosen element (lightning) happens to be extra effective against Adam's chosen element (robots). The unfortunate downside is that it is also very effective against the element of space elevator, but part of being a wizard is knowing how to control herself. It just isn't very fun, and the music makes it worse.

Cyanis is the most typically typical (read: most specialest and bestful) fox who has ever foxed a fox. Even after participating in a war of ancient heroes for the fate of the planet she has never lifted a finger in her own name, nor has she experienced hardship beyond getting spanked after she got caught on a scheme slightly too big for her to swallow. She is supremely unbothered by the music of this particular battle because she cannot hear it at all underneath all of this excellent screaming she is doing. But it's a big sister's duty to help a little sister shine, which is why she is bravely hiding behind one Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits (Esquire).

Now, Kat? Kat is not a powerful foxgirl. Much has already been made of the fact that she is a failure among her kind, possibly owing to the unusual nature of her awakening and possibly owing to the unusual nature of her upbringing. Or both! Or neither. Maybe she's just kind of a loser? It's hard to say. But the plain fact of the matter is that she's the one who watched Yue across her own journey as a swordsmaiden, so she's been closer than any fox in history to both the first amateur slashes and the blade dance of a true master. It wasn't [i]entirely[/i] bad logic that made Actia send her up against that helicopter all the way back at the beginning of this story. Perhaps alone among foxes, Katherine doesn't really mind getting her hands dirty. Perhaps alone among foxes, she's happy to get sweaty in the pursuit of a goal. Especially if it means she'll get rewarded with spa time after. But the end result of it all is that she is, perhaps more than any foxgirl in history, suited to the role of melee combatant. She will never be praised for this. It will never earn her so much as a single extra tail. But it's still special, y'know?

There's a problem, though.

See, Yue did not gain her skills in a week. Or a month. Or a season. It took endless hours of hard, sweaty work and the help of many of the world's greatest martial artists to shape her into the woman Kat idolized and chased after. And it's not that Kat didn't train at all during this whole sunshard war thing! But this adventure hasn't taken the same kind of time that that other one did. And a lot of the equivalent time that Yue spent going over forms and sparring and running in the shape of a wolf, Kat spent playing video games. Her talent is all and only in raw determination, and the fact that she was (however briefly) kissed by Qiu's sunshard at the start of everything.

And the further up they travel, the less that helps. The longer this goes on, the more the fact that she's tired and hurty overtakes the technique that living with Berserker and a handful of life or death fights have drilled into her. She's dressed well and she's determined as all get out, but left to fend for herself for the first time in forever? It's all she can do to bravely dodge roll out of the way of lasers and hope her weapon doesn't go flying out of her hands. She's already lost three (3) katanas along the way, y'know. With Berserker needing her sword back (as sad as it is, you can't make castles out of space elevators), she's down to a flimsy little poker and it needs timing and a shining heart to make it work and she just! Can't! Stop! Getting! Juked! By! This! Stupid! Music!

"Yeah ok," says Elizabeth Bathory, who has been quietly watching a party of heroes do their uninspired best to defend themselves, "I've had enough of this."

This is lame. This is stupid. This is the most impossibly weak ass way to go out in the history of ever. What, all those centuries of fighting demons where nobody even showed up to her concerts just to get shot to death with lasers right after the costume change! And to [i]this[/i] backing track?! Nuh uh, no way! Rejected! Absolutely rejected.

Liz half stomps, half sways, and half dances her way over to a combat drone that is less than half a second away from putting a laser beam through the back of Actia's head and snatches it out of the air.

"This?" she trills, tracing a pink clawed finger around its camera port, "This is [i]mine.[/i]"

She presses her finger deep inside of it, and a curious thing happens. It does not shatter, or melt (though she does ruin the camera). It does not self destruct or turn on her and blast her into pieces. Instead, it... agrees? Despite having no domain over military equipment, no hacking experience, and really no technical expertise whatsoever, Elizabeth Bathory commandeers a sophisticated piece of death machinery and turns it into a pet. She repeats the process with five others, which float behind her like a little halo.

"Ok pets, now reprogram that sound system for me~"

I really must take the time to emphasize here that these are instruments of battle. They do not have multi-purpose programming and should, by rights, have zero ability to do what she has commanded them to. None of this makes any sense. It's like asking your refrigerator to disarm a bomb.

And, uh. And yet. Yeah. Yeah no, yeah. The music just changed. No yeah no, that's an instrumental lead up to a magical idol number. That's--

"That's my ringtone! That's my ringtone, guys!!!"

Sure. Ok. Thank you, Kat.

"Didn't I tell you not to disappoint me?" the Magical Hacker (?) Hero-Idol Elly says through a smirk, "What you losers need is [i]motivation.[/i] Not just any idiot gets to be my fanclub president, you know. Now get out there and earn it! If you make me regret shaming myself with covers I'll kill you myself★"

[i]Who said this is where it ends?
Only you can decide when this is over[/i]

There's two miracles happening here. The first is that this all sounds... nice? Not just as a break from the janky corpo nonsense noise, but really and actually beautiful. No bleeding ears, no sonic screeching, no weaponized high notes. Bereft of the, uh... enthusiasm? For her own original pieces, Liz croons sweetly and perfectly in key. I mean, of course she does! Did you really think she wouldn't be great at this? There's a fan on the line! And this time no cheaty stupid dumbface tail chormping [i]losers[/i] are going to eat them before she sells merch!

[i]Thrust ahead, blind to your weakness (If you run away)
From now on, becoming stronger is impossible
Whispers a presence from within[/i]

The other miracle? You guessed it already, you big genius you. The ability to fight was inside Katherine all along! Sunshard attunement and Mimic Techniques and blah blah blah blah blah. So what that she's not the best? So what if she hasn't practiced enough? So what if other foxes don't respect her? I do! You do! She's certainly learned enough to handle something like this!

Her sword might not be enough, and her grip is far from expert. She might be tired. Burned out. And about to destroy her weapon tearing through this swarm of evil death bots. But you know what? Once upon a time, she was a whole army! All by herself! The entire city of Ys trembled the day that she showed up!

And so, her beautiful battledress-spacesuit dances. She passes along the length of the elevator with a trail of shimmering blue like a river rapid with triangles and two fluffy green tails. Her little blade sings in time with her favoritest favorite song, and her heart lights up with the determination that only an idol can foster in a young girl's heart.

And by goshies? They are making it to space!