---

---

The light girl watched in horror as, in response to their various reactions, Black Gate chose the most extreme reaction. All of her attempts at kindness, all of her efforts to befriend the girl, to stave off and resolve conflicts before they came to violence, and this, it seemed, was to be the result. The school in far worse shape than it had been in the dream, people possibly dying as she watched the scene unfold in what felt like slow motion in front of her, because she'd refrained from prying, because she'd trusted this girl who acted like her friend to tell her eventually why she felt the way she did.

A part of her wished that she'd been crushed just now. It'd probably hurt less.

Haruna held her weapon out to her side, perpendicular to the ground. Then, suddenly, she was airborne, the speed of her motion sending a wave of force from where she'd just stood. There was an instant where one could see her THUNDER CRACK armor forming about her, the bulky thrusters augmenting her already impressive speed, before she rammed Black Gate's conjured companion. "I won't let you do this," she said quietly as she channeled more power into trying to force herself forward, aiming to shove the colossal monkey off course and away from the school.

From what little Nyxia was able to understand of the scene unfolding around her, the rest of the club, aside from herself and Rei, had been placed in some form of shared dream by the new girl, Black Gate. By the sound of things, it had been far from a pleasant one. That alone was disturbing enough, but when the goat girl revealed that she knew the Neon Tempest’s true identity, she felt her skin crawl and her blood boil. However, before the increasingly furious tealette could say or do anything further, Roche transformed, shattered the clubroom window and called for her aid. Apparently, whatever this “Black Gate” did, it had resulted in a sizable quantity of Miseria manifesting at the school. In broad daylight. And the only other time that had happened, it had led to…

“Right behind ya!” Nyxia told her partner. The events of this day had been a confusing whirlwind, to be sure, but killing Miseria promised a stress-relieving normality she could very much get behind. Yet, before she joined the tribal girl atop the school roof, the Neon Tempest paused by the shattered window and turned to fix Black Gate with a withering glare. “I’ll deal with you later!” she told the goat-eared interloper. “And keep your fuckin’ shit monkeys the fuck away from me, ya got that?!”

After saying these parting words, Nyxia leapt out the window and flung herself onto the roof, where plenty of foes were hopefully waiting to be slaughtered. What she found, however, was not a Miseria. “Fuck this...” she snarled, before aiming her beloved death ray and unleashing a blinding lance of pure annihilation striaght at the giant disgusting monkey creature's heart.

---

Brick and mortar crumbled with negligent ease that oh so mirrored Roche's fragmented composure. None of them had been spared violation at the hands of Michi and there were others who had suffered far worse and far more pointed violations. There was a splinter of her that wished she'd stayed to check upon Shuuko. To see if Tsubomi would awaken. To join in the vitriol flowing towards Black Gate for her ruinous gift.

But if she'd stayed a moment longer her hands would have found a Magical Girl in anger, and it would be infinitely worse then her split with Suki.

Earthshaker snarled with a beast's lumbering posture, fingers curled with a desire to rend into a Miseria without the guilt that came from a substantial victim. From someone that mattered, that would see her judged. Someone who if she laid a hand upon in anger would see Roche stripped and left in the cold, made all the lesser for the instant bereft of composure.

Instead the school shook heavily, and the Rulekeeper was treated to the sight of a wing of the school pulverized under the advance of a colossal stuffed monkey. It was far better defined then the nightmare apes, but that hardly seemed of consequence.

The Giga Miseria had at least begun at the city's edge and it's lumbering steps had only shattered roads and the windows of storefronts. Yet so soon after Michi had robbed them of their deepest secrets and defiled their desires, she had in but a single stroke robbed them of their homes. Were the GEMS present they would have applauded the effort that they themselves had only obtained from for lack of time.

It was right there in front of her, arm plunged through the roof and scraping away the ceiling of the club with all the difficulty of an aged scab. Michi rose, nestled against it's cheeks and ordered it to crush the cafeteria.

Yes, the students were in the cafeteria, too asleep to run. Did that mean there were no teachers and students crushed simply by the wading of the ape? Did it matter?

Rei had threatened Roche with the certainty that murder would twist them into something nightmarish, but if Michi was acting so openly?

A weight fell from Earthshaker's shoulders. After all, whose to say they weren't still in a dream? Whose to say Rei hadn't lied to her to maintain control? Ashbringer and her Cabal were still coming. The GEMS were still circling them, waiting for a moment to strike. Everything was braying for the destruction of the Club, and now their very school was disintegrating beneath animated felt and cotton.

Hizuki and Nyxia were *fast*, but Roche had already been on the roof. She'd already transformed and was limbered for violence. They struck for center mass, a laser seeking to burn through while the heroine sought to stop it outright.

Earthshaker blasted off the crumbling ceiling and manifested her shield, holding it forward like the tip of a spear as she blurred towards Michi in the ape's hand.

Black Gate's response to Evil Eye's tirade seemed to bore her. Perhaps she was disappointed that the mask still hadn't come off. Or is there really nothing beneath? she wondered. Perhaps the mask is all that remains. Perhaps that truly is the key to the next stage. She looked around the room at the rest of the Club, her attempt to unify it against Black Gate amounting to very little. Tsubomi seemed to have decided that what happened to her had been a good thing after all, and that meant Suki was probably fine with this as well. She seemed to be considering the optics, at the very least, of going after Black Gate while a giga miseria rampaged outside, until the very moment the Club's ceiling was crashing down upon her. The floor then buckled and fell, too, and Evil Eye disappeared below while the fight began in earnest above her.

Through the ringing in her ears, she could vaguely hear a voice reminiscent of a mascot character. Why is everything this girl summons always so lame? she thought idly as she lay in the rubble. If I'm going to die, at least let me go in a blaze of glory. She only allowed a small part of her brain to entertain such feelings, however. The rest was contemplating strategy against their patchwork adversary, in spite of the fresh dose of apathy Black Gate had gifted to her heart. She pondered for as long as she was able, until Black Gate ordered her "friend" to flatten the cafeteria. "Hmph. So you'll destroy the school after all. I wonder, if this is the first time... Perhaps she's really a demon?" she wondered aloud to herself as she floated down the halls. That gave her an idea.

"Hahh... And if thy right eye offend thee..." She exhaled, and recited the mantra. The eye came out of her, along with all its blackness, and morphed its shape into that of a demon. At first glance, he appeared as a well-dressed gentleman, if the insides of his cape and coattails had not clearly been insect wings upon closer inspection. Bald, with grey skin sallow and sunken, his face looked nearly like a skull, if not for the single red eye peering back, mismatched with an entirely black one. "Madam Kuroki," he acknowledged with a graceful bow. "How may I be of service?"

"Get that goat-horned bitch out of this town," Evil Eye replied shortly.

"Ah... Do you intend indeed to cast out this devil by the power of Beelzebub?" There was a dangerous glint in his eye as he wrung his hairy and shriveled hands, producing something like a low chirping sound.

"Abaddon." She corrected him impatiently. "Put that wit to better use than giving me lip." Her remaining eye glanced sidelong at him as she turned toward the cafeteria.

He smiled, or at least something of the sort, showing his mandibles. "I haven't any lips, my dear, but I am ever at your service." With that, he flew out of the newly-formed hole in the roof to join the battle in the sky above.

"Ladies," Abaddon greeted them with a graceful bow and a flourish of his magician's baton as he emerged from the rubble of the school. "Be not afraid! Your Grand Armée has arrived." As he flicked his baton upward, a massive swarm of locusts with eerily human-like faces poured forth from the hole in the roof. They came at the patchwork monkey from all directions, seeking to devour the most vulnerable-looking stitches, where its limbs connected to the main body.

His arrival was well and good—probably—but where had Evil Eye gone?

---

She instinctively checked her pocket, only to remember that she was wearing her sleeping clothes and didn't have her phone on her. "If Rei manages to sleep through this one, the town's doomed," she remarked with a sigh. Evil Eye had no interest in being swatted out of the air like a fly, lacking all of the advantages an actual insect would have at dodging attacks. Rather than flying out of the school, she remained below, running through some miseria as they spawned with her Gladius. Black tears fell from her eye, becoming additional locusts, fueling the swarm above. Sparing my power for the battle with Ashbringer hardly matters now, anyway. That just leaves... this. She floated into the cafeteria, observing her surroundings. A large pile of sleeping students remained there. "Care" was an emotion that hardly belonged in the heart of a dark magical girl, she thought—but even if she looked at them from that perspective, the humans were juicy little bags of misery that served as the fuel to their fire. If they were Black Gate's target... "I guess that makes this my problem after all," she decided, activating the fire suppression system. She hoped the shock of water would wake the humans quickly.

After the dream Oros had, having a giant monkey tear the roof off the school and march away with Black Gate almost felt normal by comparison. Every step the giant ape took shook the school, and soon most of the remaining girls took off to fight it. Part of Oros wanted to join them. But leaving Tsubomi alone in a space teaming with miseria didn’t sit well with her. That, and Evil Eye had fallen to the lower floors.

"We leave no babe behind."

Oros scooped up Tsubomi into a bridal carry and bounded over to the hole in the floor. She was prepared to hop to the lower floors, only to be startled by a swiftly emerging entity. Once the shock of that passed, she prepared to hop down again, only for some human faced locust to rush past her. She hadn’t been able to suppress her scream, but once the last of the bugs had parted, she turned back to the hole. Oros pretended to jump down, only to hop backwards. After waiting a moment, she looked into the hole and squinted her eyes. Once she was sure there were no more insects, she hopped down and skated towards the cafeteria. It seemed a little risky to go to where the monkey was headed, but that was exactly why Oros expected to find Evil Eye there.

While maneuvering down the many halls of the school, the power suddenly went out. That or Oros had fallen on her face after a giant shockwave. When she looked up at the ceiling light, she realized that it was possible for both to be true. "Is your butt okay?" The only problem with bridal carrying anyone was that if you fell, you were going to fall forward, and they were going to land butt first. Unless you were the one doing the carrying. While it might have been nice to faceplant onto Tsubomi, she overshot and ended up smashing her nose into the floor. This was by far the tamest thing that had made her nose bleed.

A bit more skating and they were at the cafeteria. It was hard to see much as there was no natural light in the room. The windows had the blinds drawn, and all Oros could make out were several human and table shaped silhouettes. During night time miseria hunts there were enough street lamps to see by, but it was hard to see much of anything in total darkness. She wasn’t even aware that Evil Eye was to her left flipping the fire alarm lever. But that didn’t stop Oros from reaching to the right to flip the light switch.

Both clicked at the same time.

While both switch and lever were pulled at the same time, light was faster than water. The floor of the room was almost completely filled with sleeping bodies. There were a lot of students, but also some faculty members as well, and even people from the rest of town. There was almost no room to stand without touching someone. But the room wasn’t just filled with people, it was filled with those short apes too. The nightmares all looked up from the person they were standing on and locked eyes with the magical girls who had come so recently. A few seconds later, the sprinkler heads went off, dousing everyone in the room. The monkeys did not move from their spot, but didn’t look too happy to be soaked so thoroughly by the sprinklers. Their hair stuck to their bodies, making them look more like wet rats than primates.

"Heh!" Oros looked at Evil Eye. "I always wanted to do a wet t-shirt contest! And sprinkler water is…suitably…cold." The monkey’s eyes didn’t move from them even still. Oros flipped the light back off, but the ape’s eyes shined a vivid red, and the falling water was caught by the light as it fell down. "Okay, well, we can take them." She set down Tsubomi. Hopefully she would remain standing, but if she didn’t, she’d guide her to the ground and prop her up against the wall. "I’m gunna jump in there when I flip the light back on in three, two, one!" When Suki flipped the lights back on, the monkeys spread their wings and the ones closest to the magical girls attacked. "AAAAHHHHHH!" Suki lashed out as they pounced on her, but these apes were far stronger than Black Gate’s usual variety. Though Oros’s flailing tentacles still managed to batter them back, so they weren’t as impossibly strong as the ones in their dreams. An ape raked its nails across her face, and Oros countered by firing barbed tendrils out of the new wounds in her face. That ape lost all of his fingers before one of Oros’s main tendrils cracked him in the head and reduced him to dust and shadow.

People were waking up, but there were so many more asleep.



Earthshaker was on top of the roof, but it wasn’t like the ape creature was always there. A massive dreamcatcher opened upland the ape thing crawled out before smashing Black Gate out of there. He had also peeled back the roof to look into the club room, which removed one more obstacle between the girls still in the club and Black Gate’s friend. It was close, but Earthshaker would be beat out by both of her companions.

"It’s okay." Black gate locked her tired eyes on Hizuki. "I figured we’d end up fighting."

The ape looked over its shoulder as soon as Hizuki’s thrusters activated, and she slammed into his back. His face twisted in agony as he stumbled forwards. The intent might have been to throw the patchwork ape away from the school, but with it wading through Hibusa High that was not possible. The ape stumbled off course, pivoted on one of his feet, and swung his tail around. The tail sweep alone took out twenty classrooms, a gym, and at least two teacher’s quarters. But while it rained debris and smoke billowed up from the creature’s legs, there was no sign of human life. No blood or bodies to be found in all the destruction. Only shadows that turned into more miseria.

"Sonovah!" The ape caught Hizuki in his hand and curled his fingers around her torso. Her head was the only thing that stuck out of his fist. The giant had little difficulty maneuvering her heavily armored frame in front of his face. "Why you…" His eyebrows lifted. "Oh baby! Is that you, Hizuki?" The ape smiled. "It’s good to finally-" He grimaced as a laser attempted to borrow its way through his chest.

"Please focus, Mr Banana." The words came just in time for Mr Banana to pivot his wrist. Earthshaker slammed into the back of the giant ape’s hand as a strange shadowy figure showed up behind them.

"I think I need an exterminator, because somethin’s buggin’ me!" The quip possibly had something to do with the bugs trying to tear into his stitches. But Mr. Banana wasn’t a punching bag. With a swing of his arm, Earthshaker was flung from the back of his hand and straight at the floating vampire-like figure. Hizuki was thrown straight at Nyxia, and in such a way that she would momentarily block the laser fire. "Time to rock and roll!" With all the locusts nipping at him, he curled himself into a ball, keeping Black Gate safe, and rolled through the school like an old tire. The locusts that didn’t fly away in time were rushed under his weight, along with more of the school.

But in focusing on the giant ape, the miseria were allowed to coalesce and spread. Two miseria flew up and hovered over the edge of the roof. Even though they weren’t in a configuration they had seen before, the magical girls recognized them as the greater miseria from before. They both had the head of storks, with both having four wings from various large birds. One opened its mouth and latched an intestine around Nyxia’s baby, while the other soared towards her, black bile bubbling in its elongated mouth.

And with everything happening at the school, one would be forgiven for not noticing the shift in the distance. Some trees slid down the mountainside as something rose from its base. It was large and yellowed from age, and had no flesh to speak of. Just twisted bone and half a dozen eyes to look at the town with. It sat up abruptly, flinging the dirt in a crescent over its head. It rose slowly, erecting its legs, torso, and finally its heads. Its arms, if they could be called that, unfolded at its sides. Then with a yell that shook the mountainside, it announced its presence to everyone in the area. Then it took a step, and the earth trembled.

The giga miseria had returned.

---

As she felt the impact of Suki slamming into her, Suika's mind, Zassou's mind, Tsubomi's mind, their mind, was filled with memories. Her memories, the child Tsubomi's memories, the old Tsubomi's memories, their memories.

The taste of blood and medicine as her head was nearly smashed open by the Miseria. The sound of a gun firing to save her.

An echo of giddy happiness at acing her first middleschool level test. Depression draping itself across her shoulders as the proof of her achievement was thrown by the wind into the river.

The moment that the bullet pierced her head instead of Suki's. The feeling of blood flying through the air and onto her arm just as she awoke.

A red shadow of overwhelming rage as she saw the thing that had stolen her body and thrown her life away simply ignoring her body's well-being out of apathy. The burn of all-consuming hatred flowing through her mind as she saw it considering dying, as if it owned her life, to get away from her.

The radiance of joy as she realized that her body was slowly coming back under her control. Elation as her magic began to listen to her instead of it, like a dog returning home after running away months prior.

The memories passed in a blink, but she felt them. She knew them, as if they had happened moments prior. Was she devouring the old Tsubomi's memories? Treating her 'corpse' as fertilizer for her own purposes? She could only hope not, and that was the last thing she thought before hearing Michi's words.

"Tsubomi could have stopped selling drugs."

As if that would prevent violent acts.

"Her clients could have stopped buying them."

Blaming controlled use of magic for evil actions of unrelated people?

"The school could have stepped up security."

It should have regardless, that's not the fault of your sister.

"The students and I could have had a back bone."

Is that why you hate yourself?

"The people who came after her could have given her another chance."

Do you blame your sister for what happened to her, then?

"Our parents could have done more to comfort her."

You can't fix what you don't know is damaged.

"Norah could have chosen not to take her life."

There it is.

Like lightning racing a train with no wheels down the track, her mind responded to each word at a pace Suika hadn't felt since prior to her trip to the beach. But even with the incomparable speed, she didn't have enough time to wonder why that was, because Black Gate said something else from her place above the Club.

"Humans are selfish creatures, unable to do anything that doesn’t benefit them."

Then it was a damn unfortunate thing that if there was only a single thing Suika knew about herself, it was that she didn't quite qualify for that title.

Still sitting with her back against the wall, Suika closed her eyes. She had never felt her heart, Tsubomi's heart, their heart, beating so quickly. But the feeling faded as she opened her eyes to find herself back on the stage of Tsubomi's mind.

---

Zassou, Suika, stood on the stage, unalone for the first time she could remember, at least in the role of a character. Before her stood the young-minded Tsubomi, clearly distressed at the situation as she looked out at the crowd of Miseria sitting below them.

That's right. Schrade said Miseria are emotions given form. Is that why they're here?

But that thought died like a fallen leaf when the audience stood to match them, clapping and cheering at a greater level than Suika had ever seen. The noise seemed to startle the flower bud, but Suika simply placed a hand on the top of her head and forced another smile.

"It's okay. They're applauding for you; all we have to do is take a bow in response."

Unable to mutter even a single reply, Tsubomi simply lowered her trembling head, taking Suika's hand with it as she did. And Suika allowed her body to follow in kind, the invasive weed taking a deeper bow than the flower, as if mirroring its intentions to bring the bud to the sun instead of itself.

After a moment, the crowd went silent, still on their feet and cheering with excitement. At least, the two onstage stopped hearing them.

"Why... why are they clapping for me?" the flower asked as her wavering mimicked her namesake blowing in the light breeze.

"Mm. They're glad that you haven't given up."

As Suika raised her head and hand, and Tsubomi drew back to her full diminutive height as well, the curtain began to slowly, ever so slowly, close.

As if the actors on stage had been reset, the duo stood, one fully and one in a slouch, as their view of the audience slowly faded away. Once the curtain was fully closed, only then did either of the two look away from it.

Tsubomi turned slightly to look up at the girl she knew as Suika. "Is... is this all real?"

Suika's fake smile shrunk at the corners of her mouth. "Everything is real, but it's not reality."

The wiry weed crouched down to be eye to eye with the yet to bloom flower. "We're in your mind, I think. You... had a lot of bad things happen to you." Even now, with more of the past Tsubomi being consumed for nutrients by Suika's being, she still was reluctant to risk the younger one's well-being by telling her the details.

"I think that's why you don't remember much, or anything. It's a response to the trauma. PTSD, perhaps. It could also be a result of nervous system overload, possibly. It's hard to know, even in normal circumstances, and magic makes it harder."

The young girl's eyes went wide. "Magic? What do you mean?"

Once more Suika's smile widened at her command, trying to reassure Tsubomi with it. "Mm. That's right, you have magic. You made a wish to help people, and it was granted, giving you magic powers. But don't worry about that right now. You should rest, and try to relax. Maybe you'll remember something." She didn't know whether that would be a good or bad thing if she did.

In an instant, as if responding to the words of the one in control of the body and magic, the stage melted away into Tsubomi's bedroom. Everything was there; from the well made bed with its clean bright yellow sheets to the gentle blue wall with a picture of Tsubomi's old cat Peach hung on it.

The desk she would presumably work at with its brand new alarm clock (not that she'd need one) sitting on it. The old but well-kept MP3 player that was set on the chair, plugged into a charger that ran below the desk, though Suika wasn't sure if it would work, given where they were.

The door, closed to give the girl privacy, was painted in a muted lime green, and across from it sat a large and round beanbag chair.

Finally, near the wall next to the bed sat Pretty, the beautiful large cat plush with its immaculate pink fur and bright brown eyes. She supposed that if pets tended to mirror their owners, maybe the reverse would be true as well. She could only hope that Tsubomi and Pretty would keep each other happy with their company.

As the body's original owner inspected her new, and with luck temporary, home, Suika opened the door and gave a wave goodbye.

"I'll be back, okay? I've got to take care of something. Take a break and relax."

With her hand above her head, she turned to go through and shut the door.

---

When Tsubomi's eyes opened again, Suika was being set on her feet by Oros, and her butt stung slightly as if she had been dropped on it. That minor pain was pushed out by the realization of what she was seeing. Red eyes shone in the dark, and soon enough there was light to see by.

It seemed it was time to begin the next Act. Suika raised her palms to slap her face on both sides at once just as the first monkey began its flight.

---

---

But it was far too late. Suika had already burst open in a shower of color, revealing Acid Drop underneath. When the monkey that went for her reached her, it found its skull separated from its spine before it realized it had missed its target.

That wasn't right. Acid Drop wasn't sure how she had done that. She stared at the ground where the dusty remains had fallen, taking a moment to contemplate.

Ah, that had to be it. A controlled release, like a shot of steroids that was quickly burned through by the body. The vines growing from Tsubomi's corpse seemed to have mutated from the consumption of their victim. The old Tsubomi had left behind a more acute control of her magic for Suika to steal alongside everything else she'd taken from her.

She slowly raised her hand, still holding her Devil Arm, into her view. She didn't even feel the weight of it. Her eyes raised to look at another of the monkeys, but were quickly redirected towards the mountainside.

And then there was a roaring, and the ground shook. She could feel it, the mass of emotions that was dense enough to have its own gravity; it had to be a Giga Miseria. It had to be the Giga Miseria, the one that Schrade had defeated. It felt too familiar not to be. Which left her with few options.

But she'd decided already, since the moment her eyes closed in the club room.

Don't pretend to be sad for her. Pretend? That's right, she wasn't sad for Black Gate. She simply pitied her. 'Hey, don't do it, please!' Those were the words, right? They didn't matter. What mattered was getting Tsubomi to the sun.

... The sun? That's right, Miseria were weaker in the day. Why had the Giga Miseria awoken in the middle of the day? What an idiot. If that was the case, then...

"Oros." Suika's neck turned so she could face her partner, and she smiled. It was still a little uncanny, but she had certainly improved at it. "It's the middle of the day. Sleeping in is bad, right? So I'll wake these lazybones up, and you get the others to beat the laziness out of the bones of that guy the boss lady beat, okay?"

The words came from her mouth too quickly. It was like listening to another person entirely, like hearing the old Acid Drop from months earlier. But there was a softness to it, like a person who was talking to a cherished friend; something that had never been there in Acid Drop's voice. Yet even still, it held no emotion, only a new weight.

She looked back at the mass of sleeping bodies and the monkeys on them. She had an idea, an idea to drain the strength of the lesser Miseria she could now feel in the area, but now was a dangerous time to test that theory. She'd wait until nightfall. For now, though...

If the populace of the school slept through what was happening to them in the dream, she'd just have to find out how much they could sleep through. But she couldn't use negative emotions or she might summon a second Giga Miseria.

She felt her 'roots,' tendrils of her magic, spreading throughout the cafeteria, each bearing a different fruit. 'Joy,' 'anger,' 'sadness,' 'relief,' even 'lust.' Taking from each what she needed to feed to another. She'd envelope each person a different cocktail of emotions, as much of it as they could bear, until their bodies acted on their own to wake them.

And in the meantime, she'd slaughter a few winged primates.

---

---

The impact hurt; this armor wasn't actually meant for close combat. She could hear the conjured metal screeching even before the titanic primate closed a fist around her. It wasn't really possible to get a solid grip on something doing its best to be fighter jet-shaped without crushing it a little, and this hadn't exactly been a careful capture.

Still, she ignored it. Or maybe she felt like she deserved it. It didn't really matter.

As she was hurled at Nyxia, she dimly picked up a flare of desires from Tsubomi. That didn't really matter right now, either.

She let her crumpled armor fall away and dissipate. This particular suit wasn't very important for what had to happen next. The entire club couldn't defeat Michi and the approaching giga miseria at once. Their ability to deal with one or another was dubious, but she could contribute something useful to them, this time. If there wasn't enough firepower in one club to fight both threats, then Hizuki would simply have to add an entire club's worth of firepower.

Hizuki turned her tumble through the air into a controlled spin, something she then converted into a hover - a less clumsy one than the unsteady floating Evil Eye had seen when they first encountered one another in a shady club. "I'll take care of her," she called out toward the rest of the detention club. "Protect the students and the town." Without waiting for a response, she flew toward Black Gate and her one and only friend.

One of her blue, hexagonal gates shimmered into existence ahead of her. Then, another, and another, until six floated in her path. "Engage: ZERO!" Hizuki flew through all of them in sequence, shining like her self-given title with each one. As a streak of light, she slammed into the ground ahead of the dark girl who had declared the club her foes.

The silhouette that stood in the path of the gargantuan stuffed animal was easily twice the height of the girl that had gone in. Twin rotary cannons rose from its shoulders, with powerful mechanized arms terminating in robotic fists. One held an oversized version of Hizuki's Sweet Arm. Eight bladelike wings fanned out from its back, each with a sleek drone hovering just past the tip. Powerful legs supported a sturdy torso, each with its own set of jets that still glowed with barely-restrained energy. As the dust cleared, the spear folded itself up and retracted into the mech's arm, allowing it to take up a braced position not unlike a sumo wrestler preparing for their opponent.

"This ends now, one way or another." Hizuki's voice rang out from within the armor, a tinny note to it as it came through a speaker. She could only manage this for about five minutes, but during those five minutes, Hizuki the Daybreak was free of her own limits. All the strength, all the speed, and all the ferocity she could muster at any time, brought to bear all at once in the face of a foe that seemed overwhelming.

Evil Eye raised up her Gladius as one might set free a dove to flight, and it tore through the air, tracking the movement of her eye and shredding the apes who came close to her and Oros—who was acting like her usual self. Did the realization that the whole thing had been a dream mean that what happened was okay? Was she pretending to be fine? Likewise, Tsubomi seemed more lucid than before. Was everyone else just, fine? Or was it more accurate to say that she was the one who wasn't fine? Did any of it matter? Of course not. Just another unwelcome moment of weakness in a long list of failures.

Everywhere Evil Eye's gaze turned, minions and miseria alike perished, until her gaze turned finally to Tsubomi, where it simply hovered in a protective circle around her. What can two of us do against that one? The whole lot of us were unable to put a scratch on it until Rei showed up. She thought the words, but her mouth remained shut, as if the very fabric of reality depended on her ability to suppress the breath that would carry them. Just do your fucking job...

She floated to the exit and made her way outside. Releasing more black tears, they became like threads, wrapping and weaving themselves around her body, until she became engulfed in the same golem she had summoned the last time the same giga miseria and its bird-fiends had appeared. It grew larger than last time, large enough that its feet were nearly the size of the cars it was walking over as it marched toward the mountain, but there was still no comparing its size with its would-be opponent.

---

As Earthshaker approached him in the air, Abaddon moved just far enough to the side to not take a direct hit. The two spun in circles together in the air, almost like a pair of sky divers. The summoned devil had grabbed Earthshaker by the arms and was flapping his wings furiously to soften their landing. While it wasn't quite graceful—the two were still spinning when they had landed—enough damage had been averted that one could argue, in theory, he'd had a plan, and it went somewhat according to it. "Well! An explosive entrance, milady, though I was not expecting the honor of a dance so soon. I do apologize for having six left feet."

Although Nyxia’s neon tinged death ray had visibly caused the monkey abomination pain, it didn’t seem to have inflicted significant harm, and the same could also be said for the attacks the various other club members had made. Before the Neon Tempest could try to take another shot, Hizuki was flung at her. Quickly dropping into a crouch, with a leg swept out to one side, the teal-haired terror allowed the light girl to pass just overhead, even as she charged up the Omega Obliterator with even more destructive power. Although she had no great love for, or attachment to, Hibusa High, the monstrous monkey’s antics were causing Miseria to form in ever-increasing numbers.

And its face was annoying.

Unleashing another twisting, teal-colored tube of incandescent annihilation at the now ball-shaped monkey as it rolled away, Nyxia was soon forced to cut off her latest actinic assault when a corrupted intestine wrapped itself around her precious energy cannon. Her visage contorting into a look of utter revulsion, the Neon Tempest snapped her head towards the source of the disgusting attack. It was one of the overpowered bird Miseria from the night the last Giga Miseria showed up. And it had a friend. Nyxia glared at the nightmarish creature as it prepared its own vile attack, her body shaking with barely contained fury and her eyes glowing with baleful energy.

“FUCK OFF!!!” Nyxia screamed, her mouth disgorging a massive blast of destructive force, while twin lances of ruinous power shot forth from her eyes to converge on the unfortunate Miseria before it could vomit forth its own attack, the black bile being instantly vaporized by the baleful beams. Meanwhile, her twin octahedral drones had manifested above her and were employing their own beams to incinerate the intestinal tendril still wrapped around the Omega Obliterator. Once freed, she turned the massive weapon on the second bird Miseria, its writhing, lighting fringed beam slamming into the abominable avian like a pressure hose of star-hot plasma. Unfortunately, no sooner had she dealt with these annoyances, than a far greater threat made itself known.

”Fuck…” Nyxia hissed as she saw the skeletal Giga Miseria’s towering form rise up into the vibrant blue sky.

She’d wanted to fight it again, of course, wanted quite badly to be the one to kill it, but not like this. This wasn’t a controlled environment like the beach. Even then, they’d been hard pressed to keep the panicking civilians safe. Here, now, in the middle of the day, the giant looming in the distance could kill hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. And despite all the training she’d engaged in, all the power she’d gained, Nyxia was highly doubtful that she was currently anywhere close to being strong enough to face the skeletal titan, and she was pretty sure the same could be said for her fellow club mates as well. Even so, when Hizuki said that she’d take care of the giant monkey, while the rest of the club took on the Miseria, Nyxia nodded in affirmation.

“Right!” the Neon Tempest shouted back, before leaping off towards the towering terror in the far distance, snapping off a supercharged shot of condensed devastation at any lesser Miseria that stood in her way. “Come on, ‘Shaker!” she called to her partner, a fierce grin spreading across her face. “Let’s grind that fucker’s bones into paste!”

It didn’t seem like the room was going to be much of a problem. Even if Oros was having a hard time keeping them all at bay, Evil Eye and Acid Drop weren’t struggling too much. Tsubomi decapitated one practically with a thought and their numbers meant little against Evil Eye’s spinning blade. It was so effective that Oros stopped flailing and just watched Evil Eye’s minion work. It did seem like the apes were a lot weaker outside the dream world, and the miseria that showed up were weaker than their nighttime counterparts.

"Since when could you do that?" There would be no answer to Oros’s question, as Evil Eye excused herself from the room without a word. She looked back at Acid Drop and sighed. "Uh..." In truth, Oros didn’t feel too confident about leaving Acid Drop by herself. This would be the fourth time she had done so. The first time Rei had to rescue her, the second time she got hurt, and the third time she was nearly abducted. On the flip side, she did seem to be doing a lot better today. Everyone else? Not so much. It was also what Acid Drop wanted. "Right, I’ll do that I guess."

The surge of emotions didn't wake anyone up. The monkeys sitting on the hostages seemed to be keeping them well and truly asleep. Yet the surge of positive and negative emotions caused the apes to grow at different rates. The more positive emotions stunted their growth, while one grew into a silverback ape with wings big enough to block the windows. The apes continued to close in, the hostages continued to wake up. About ten percent of the room had woken up and was stumbling around.



The bird miseria died much more easily this time around, with Nyxia being able to slay two of them without any assistance. The club was starting to scatter, with some headed for the mountains. It was unclear if everyone was going to heed Hizuki’s request, but at least some of them were. For the moment at least, it appeared that it would just be Hizuki engaging Black Gate and her friend.

Mr Banana had flattened about a quarter of the school with all of his flailing, and would likely destroy more if something wasn’t done about him. Hizuki positioned herself in the way and braced for him. When he finally made contact with her palms, the force was strong enough to shove Hizuki through the roof and onto the next floor. That too gave out, dropping her to the floor below that. Eventually the floor couldn’t give way anymore, and the concrete foundation under the building cracked apart like peanut brittle. It bunched up under Hizuki’s heels until the rolling primate came to a stop.

He rolled backwards onto his feet. He was supporting his weight between his back legs and one of his front arms, while the other sheltered Black Gate beneath his chest. Black Gate sat upright and hugged one of Mr Banana’s fingers. "You’re strong, paladin." She pressed her forehead against the monkey’s fingertip. "I wish I could be as strong as you. Then I wouldn’t be afraid anymore. But dark magical girls can only get stronger by partaking in great tragedies." Mr Banana swiped his hand across the ground, casting a slew of debris into the air. Broken blocks of concrete, steel beams, among a few truck fulls of dirt. They’d fall down all over the school, including the cafeteria. Meanwhile, Mr Banana was preparing to charge forwards again. "You know there’s no one in the cafeteria worth saving. They’re all horrible people. The world would be better without them."

---

Oros got outside just in time to see the black golem begin to stitch itself together. She inhaled deeply and ran up to the golem, skating up its leg as it assembled itself. Then with a hop, she performed half of a mid-air flip before the golem sealed itself closed around her. She was suspended upside down, plastered inside layers of black string.

"I thought it was going to be roomier." A miscalculation on her part. At least there was enough room to move her jaw, even if the rest of her was wound too tightly to move. At least, without damaging the golem. "It’s also really dark. How do you see in here?"

The bone giant parted from the mountain. Some trees were still rooted into dirt around his shoulders, but it did nothing to impede its movement. Each step it took shook the earth, and it was getting faster with each step.

The giant did not pause, but it did turn its many hollowed eyes onto those that approached. Each of its jaws swung open and a cloud of black mist floated into the air. As the mist dispersed it became apparent that it was actually many, many greater miseria. Misshapen birds that should not fly, corpses that live when they should not. Their howls rolled over the city as they closed in to attack. It wouldn’t be long before they made contact.

---

---

The cannons on Hizuki's shoulders swung around without the light girl so much as glancing backward. They blazed to life, a fusillade of beams blasting the falling rubble (and vehicles) to pieces. Those were, in turn, blown apart by the eight drones which had left their idle positions in the meantime. It wouldn't make the falling debris completely harmless - she'd basically converted the trucks into shrapnel instead - but it would avoid smashing apart the building with students inside.

"You don't need to be strong!" she shouted. Her spear reappeared, folding out from a compartment in her mech's arm once again. She grasped the weapon in both hands and lowered it at Mr. Banana. "You have friends!" Hizuki's declaration held a slight quaver of sorrow. "You don't need to protect yourself from your friends!" The irony of the statement didn't pass her by as her wings began to glow, preparing to launch her point-first. "And I'll protect everyone from everyone else, until we find new ways to grow."

The whine of thrusters heralded Hizuki's own charge, using her superior speed to preempt a further assault and crashing into the gigantic simian. "And that includes Kouki, who helped me with my trigonometry homework." She pulled back, spinning in place to score a number of slashes with her wings. "And Emika, so she can take care of her sick cat." The spear shifted into a blade that would have been oversized on someone not currently in a ten foot tall mech suit. "And Saki, and Akito, and Kousei!" She finished off her blistering assault with a trio of sword strikes, each name punctuating a hit. She could feel her magic burning off by the second, but Hizuki still had a few minutes of full power. Hopefully, she could end this before that ran out. If not. . .

Pathetic.

It was the only word good enough to describe Hotaru. The body she inhabited rebelled every step of the way, its coordination completely shot. It almost felt as though it were trying to stitch itself together from hundreds upon hundreds of pieces. Muscles twitched incoherently, responding to signals all too late or by doing the opposite of what she intended. Even the fury that should have been in her voice came across as begging Michi to undo what she did. And worst of all, Hotaru could not even dodge the fist in time.

It had been Oros who rescued her. The girl obsessed with romance, girls and boys.

Hotaru flailed as though she were a ragdoll, her limbs refusing to obey. She grit her teeth, about the only thing she could do properly as she came to a halt on the floor, limbs spread out. Scattered. Incoherent. And worst of all, forced to listen to Michi prattle on about people making a difference.

Had she truly made one? Even when she was born to take the burden off Chiaki’s shoulders, there was precious little she could do.

A swarm of Miseria headed straight for her. Hotaru clapped her hands and a wave of explosive force blasted forward, blowing away some of her opponents. Yet as always, there was little harm. Even the weakest of the wretches barely had any scratches on the surface of its skin and trying to use her actual magic on them would have been useless. She nevertheless smiled, welcoming the challenge… but only at until she realised she would have to take them apart with her bare hands.

This body could not move even when the room collapsed around her and Michi’s patchwork monkey tore the roof apart. Likewise, the Detention Club fractured into countless pieces, not only physically but also metaphorically. Everyone chased after their own goals.

Hotaru hit the floor with an angry thunk. It hurt worse than it had any right to.

”Was I really wrong?” She could barely hear her own voice. ”Damnit, Sylvia, what happened to you?! Why did you say you hated me?!” Another thunk. It felt like her fingers started to break. ”And why won’t this red-haired- fuck!”

A piece of debris had interrupted her. It sunk into the floorboard right next to the warrior’s head, pelting her with flakes of plaster and paint. Black Gate kept talking and ordered her creature to flatten the cafeteria, while small, pathetic Hotaru could do nothing. She was forced to watch on. To be nothing more than an observer.

A blast of force smashed some Miseria into each other. Some tumbled into walls while the rest were blown away, but it was still a tremendous improvement. If she continued like this, then those girls could never say a single bad word about Chiaki agai-

Miseria. In her face.

She screamed.

The Miseria giggled in delight and left deep grooves in her skin.

The others were fighting and Hotaru would have loved nothing more than to join them. Yet her useless body… this damned thing she inherited from Chiaki…! Ember with her arrogance! Sylvia with her distrust! The Miseria around her that just kept on forming and forming! Black Gate escaping! The whole world arrayed itself against Hotaru. An army formed itself against the warrior, line by line, spear by spear. What could she do against it?

No matter how hard she tried, there was always something. She failed to account for one of the Miseria. She did not use her powers well enough. She ran out of magic. Her hands started to bleed from using them too much. In the end, the warrior had to call for help, then she had to listen to the poisoned barbs beneath the pretend concern while looking at faces which only pretended to be worried about Chiaki.

The whole school started to fall apart. At some point even the sprinklers came online, but the ones in the clubroom had been broken or rendered dysfunctional; Hotaru could only tell that because she heard the shrill noise of the fire alarm sounding in the distance, blending into a bone-shattering screech that could only herald one thing. Giga Miseria.

---

The resistance was tremendous. It was as though Sylvia’s very being resisted every attempt of Ember to help her, or rather, the schemer had no idea what she was doing… and yet she knew she had the best chance out of all of them. After all, she was the one who had discovered the process to create and shape the Oss and Khir, their far-reaching eyes and hands. Still, sweat poured down from her forehead in thick rivers.

”Please live…” she whispered as she tried to reach out towards another piece of the protector, only to be met with refusal. ”Please. Sylvia, you barely started to walk! You can’t shatter into pieces on me, please…” As if anyone would hear these words. The schemer clung onto them nevertheless, because she wanted for Sylvia to have a better life. To smile again. Perhaps even to hug Earthshaker again.

Their shared space shook as the Giga Miseria’s scream reached even here, infiltrating through Hotaru’s perception. Ember did not care. Even if it resulted in a body being destroyed once again, the warrior had to learn a harsh lesson. She had to focus on Sylvia.

---

Nightmares could hold blessings in disguise. Even the worst of dreams offered an insight into the future or perhaps into the movements of the heavens, for such was the creed of the high priestess. This in turn would be adopted by her disciple who knew the exalted, yet still humble woman well. She knew that sometimes, even the best of the best stumbled on the road they wished to walk.

But that did not mean failure did not hurt.

The disciple felt the familiar pang in her whole body, as though she were being pulled into countless different directions. Then, when her tendons finished stretching out, a knife was placed between her ribs with enough care to make breathing difficult and not have her bleed out. Seconds turned into painful hours and yet the disciple held firm.

Because the high priestess never slept. Not even when the protector was on the verge of being shattered, or when the schemer was trying her best to do something her role was not suited for, or when the warrior’s instruments failed her in the crucial moment. Even now, fate showed her an opportunity she could use.

”I really don’t want to… but if the secular world wishes to gaze upon this humble high priestess, then she has no choice except to reveal herself.”

As soon as she said it, one of the many Shuuko bodies scattered through the city stood up, the Emblem of Takae Shuuko flashing into existence on its form. Seizing one-fourth of the whole’s magic, it took off towards the Giga Miseria with blinding speed, leaving behind street after street along with a trail of silvery blue magic. Of course, the High Priestess knew she was no match for the monstrosity closing in on the city, but at least she could aim for the countless Miseria it disgorged.

---

Having every expectation of meeting yielding flesh, Roche instead struck the pliable but stubbornly durable exterior of the ape’s hand. She struck, body folding over a yellow wrist before it swung her right back with renewed vigor. The wind tore hellishly against her and her arms swung about, only for boney fingers to clasp her by the wrists and turn an uncontrolled tumble into a passably coordinated spin.

Before they’d even come to a halt she’d focused her vision on her savior, only to regret it almost immediately at the death’s head locust staring back at her. He spoke like an affable gentleman and there had certainly been weirder being summoned both in and out of their merry club, but a lack of foreknowledge made the sudden proximity to a very large bug shocking.

”Good catch!” She blurted out for lack of anything else to say, not riddled with profanity, her bloody-minded wrath blunted by the rapid deterioration of events. Oh she didn’t want to feel even the faintest inkling of clarity, but when the bones rattle from the roar of a rising Giga Miseria in broad daylight, a swarm of Locusts were trying to blot the sky, and Evil Eye had decided to spawn the Yellow Devil, it took a special kind of crazy not to take notice.

Hizuki had taken the liberty to stake a claim on Michi, and for the life of Roche, she couldn’t deny she had the best claim to it. That she broke out a hereto-unseen armor just for the ape and its charge left her feeling somewhat assured as she turned her back to the school’s continued pulverization towards the towering giant of bone and bile spewing its spawn into the air.

”I’ll meet you there, Nyxia.” Earthshaker met Nyxia’s shout with her own, bounding past the vaporized muck of a vile avian as she left off the roof and came down upon the shoulder of Evil Eye’s impressive construct. She clapped what passed for its head with one hand as her shield appeared in the other. ”Hey, mind giving me a good punch towards that bastard? Put some heat on it.”

Waiting for what she hoped was an affirmative Roche took one last leap, planting the shield against her feat as she crouched upon it, ready to absorb the impact and rocket into the heart of that swarm.

Her hands clasped together, palms flush and fingers. Instantly her muscles tensed, lips taut as her teeth ground together under a fresh hell of her own invention. Shivers and shudders wracked her body yet she remained hunched upon the ballistic shield as her markings began to brighten all their own to the tune of muted wumps ringing between her white-knuckled grasp.

Impact!

Her shield did as it was meant to, absorbing the force of the Eye Devil and a second sun was born, dimming a scant few lumens as she blasted off the shield with uncoiled legs and vanished in a crack of displaced air, hands held in vicious prayer before her.

Evil Eye was startled to hear a voice so close to her ear. "I don't," she answered plainly, her usual clever quips failing her for surprise. "Why are you—what was your plan, exactly?" The golem scratched its 'head' in confusion, as if looking for a foot to pull Oros out by. It turned somewhat toward Earthshaker, and there wasn't any particular sign that it had comprehended her request at all, but Evil Eye must have seen her go sailing through the air with her shield enough times to catch on, and direct it from wherever she was to punch at it with full force.

Seeing through the eyes of her servants, Evil Eye watched as Abaddon directed the swarm of locusts to intercept the bird-monsters on their way to the golem. Last time, they had ganged up on the golem and ripped it apart, but in their weakened state and without the advantage of numbers, perhaps there was a chance her summons could do some work this time. It was certainly a rare occasion that Evil Eye pulled out all the stops like this—usually, she saved her energy for emergencies, or whatever her "experiments" entailed, no matter how much Earthshaker tried to admonish her to train more.

---

Acid Drop's head tilted to the side, the weed's trademark response to unexpected situations. It took only a moment to notice the pattern, but by then there was a King Kong to deal with.

"Mm. I see." Even at her words' newfound velocity, that was all she could say before the silverback lunged at her with its arm tensed to swipe against her skull.

Acting entirely on instinct, her body moved well before her mind understood what had happened. As it did, it also realized what had happened on another level. "How very 'human' of me." The words carried the same emptiness hers had always had, as if they could implode upon themselves at any moment.

As the final word left her lips, Suika's eyes trailed upwards to the underside of the ape's jaw. Her body, Tsubomi's body, and magic had registered the intent of the primate and ducked back before it could backhand her, then forward once more to hold it at bay with her own before the ape could pull it back to try again.

Suika idly wondered if Tsubomi would be this much stronger than Zassou had been until now if she hadn't fallen to darkness. With the girl still holding the silverback's right arm with her left, it reared back its left to smash the interloper like an empty tin can.

It never made it, its reach cut too short to reach, its balance thrown too far off. The negative emotions it had been fed were forced to be vomited back up by the weed, new and brighter ones shoved down its throat to replace them. It didn't send the ape back to its unevolved form but it was enough to send a shock through its 'muscles.'

For an instant, Acid Drop wondered if this was right. Tsubomi had always tried to be honorable, even in her illicit activities. She always wanted to be a hero, one who could reach out to those who had been discarded and bring them light. She had given her all passionately in everything she did, even when it might kill her.

There was no honor here. No hero to save the day. No rush of passion found from putting one's life on the line.

No, this was only a cleansing. Of bad thoughts and dark dreams. Of harsh emotions and deep fears. Of monkeys and their human typewriters. And most importantly, it was a cleansing of past and present grudges, though perhaps only one-sidedly.

Devil Arm swirling against her palm, Acid Drop pushed off with her hand that held the ape's arm and drove the now still blade under its jaw. A perfect performance, though she didn't know it, which mirrored Black Gate's own acting with Tsubomi once the stage had been vacated by the other actors.

As she pulled the weapon away from its newest victim, she ceased her feeding of the unconscious student body completely. She didn't know how much time she had, but the possibility before her was too tempting. In a single selfish act, she did what may have been the best option anyway, to prevent the school's populace from questioning these events.

Starting with those near Acid Drop's feet, everyone in the cafeteria was slowly engulfed in a wave of apathy, their emotions being stolen from them. She didn't have the storage space, but she refused to open the floodgates to what she already had. If she could be as precise as earlier on instinct, then she reasoned that she could do even better with effort.

Like a gas-burner... Use just the excess.

Acid Drop took a deep breath. She was at risk of wasting everything she took from the unconscious ones around her, but she pushed through the thought of failure.

This amount of effort wasn't enough to break her limits, but she already knew that. Besides, it would be enough, as long as she could simply bend them. In a blink, she found herself several meters further into the cafeteria, a large swath of monkeys defeated.

It wasn't enough. She'd only cleared just under eight percent of the remainder. As the rest turned and continued their push towards her, she began to doubt if her request to Oros and Evil Eye was wise.

No. It was too late, her hands had already been stained by hope. The encroaching troop couldn't take that away.

One-hundred eight. A waste.

A dozen more primates fell.

One-hundred four. Yet more wasted strength.

Another handful of monkeys, another few human trees picked clean of their bounty.

Ninety-eight. That was enough to refill, right?

One-hundred two. Too much.

Eighty-six. Too little.

Ninety-three. It would do.

The deluge of emotional fruit born from the sleeping humans had run dry. Even in her attempt to not waste any of her stockpile, she'd burned through enough to make room for more. She wouldn't be at a full tank if she needed it, but it would have to be enough.

As she glanced around the room to count the remainder, something felt off. The abnormal heat in her, their chest burned so brightly that it threatened to turn Acid Drop to ash. This was 'fun,' wasn't it?

"Oh so you can hear me!" This seemed to please Oros. "Well, you know, Acid Drop sent me away, so I figured it was important to stick by you. I thought there was going to be a little more room in here." She tried to turn her hand, but it was stuck in place. It reminded her of a few dojins she had read, but she knew she was in reality. Nothing interesting ever happens in real life unless you are Rei. "I’m not sure if there’s a whole lot I can do against a giant monkey or bone thing anyway. But I figured I could help you if something happens to get in here." She giggled.

The bird miseria and locusts clashed. One miseria opened its mouth and sprayed black bile over a swarm of insects. Another fell out of the sky, but wouldn’t hit the ground before the human-faced bugs had devoured every last piece of the bird. For a moment, it looked like the swarms may have been evenly matched, but then the bone giant’s maws cracked open again. More of the blasted undead birds joined their comrades and reinforced their numbers.

But then there was a distraction. Earth Shaker came in fast, and the undead creatures redirected to fight the approaching projectile. They were consumed in a bright expanding orb that swallowed everything it touched. The giga miseria continued to saunter forward, undeterred by the show of force. The orb of annihilation managed to swallow the bone giant’s heads and chest before collapsing back down. Its surface darkened and chipped by the attack, but not destroyed.

It could be harmed. It could be killed.

Then, something no one had seen the last golem do. The air was filled with a bubbling sound, like molasses trying to come to a rolling boil. Black bile oozed out of the seams of the giant, and then a waterfall of black acid fell from its many mouths like a waterfall. It sprayed its acid into the air, and it rained down on everything before it. The bile even had more undead bird miseria in it. They twitched to life and took off to begin fighting anew.

The giant wasn’t far from town now, but neither was the detention club from it.

---

Acid Drop’s choice to withdraw everyone’s emotions into herself was having an effect on the remaining nightmares. While the apes did not weaken, they weren’t getting any stronger. The smaller chimp-like nightmares were easy to dispatch, while the large gorilla-like nightmares were trickier to vanquish. The largest of them was so like a gorilla that he even had a silver back. Twice he attempted to attack Acid Drop and twice he was repelled.

After doing a head count, Acid Drop discovered that she had cleared out all but 25% of the apes. Though the ones that remained were far stronger, even if they had been wounded. Though the waking humans did not move. Without emotions, they had no desire to leave, and just looked at the ceiling. Among them were a few strange individuals. They did not look like local girls from Habusa Town. Had they been carried here? One of them was a familiar girl with pink hair and the other was unfamiliar girl who’s outfit was outrageous enough it could have belonged to a magical girl Though it also could have belonged to a delinquent fashionista.

Some Miseria started to come through the window, and were immediately attacked by the silverback. It effortlessly tore the bird creatures in half, and absorbed their energies. Miseria were just dark emotions, and dark magical girls were fueled by dark emotions. It made sense that their minions could drink their power and regain their strength, or at least, it made sense for Black Gate. The girl was so frail that all of her power had to be going to her nightmares. After the silverback feasted, it spread its wings. They almost stretched to the sides of the cafeteria. With a primal roar, The silverback pointed its wings at Acid Drop and started fired off its feathers. They soared through the air like hundreds of little daggers.



Mr Banana did his best to deflect the blows. His hands were nearly indestructible, or at least not as indestructible as the rest of his body. Hizuki’s pointed spear was blocked by his palm, but stopped his charge in his tracks. He tried to grab her spear, but Hizuki spun, and her wings came for him. The first cut into his arm and face and dislodged a lens from his sunglasses, but he batted the follow up strike away from his head. Then she came for Mr Banana with her sword. Her first strike cut across his stomach, the second struck his shoulder, but the third found itself in his palm, and his fingers coiled around the blade and her hands before she could pull away. Something dark and inky could be seen through some of the openings in the patchwork ape, but it was still unclear what he was filled with. It was just apparent it wasn’t stuffing.

"Friends, that word means something different to everyone, doesn't it?" Mr Banana grinned.

"It does." Black gate hopped out of the monkey’s paw and onto his shoulder, and he extended his arms. Then he spun like a cyclone while Black gate held onto the back of his head. She still had the plush cat in her arms. "When I was a light girl, I had many friends. But now I see it’s just a title you give people you find useful. A lot of people find you useful, I imagine. But my original parents didn’t even want me."

The tropical fruit cyclone drifted into the school, and its demolition continued. It didn't matter if it was his fist or Hizuki that struck first, what was once a place for learning was quickly being stomped out. The cafiteria wasn't too far away now either. A dust plume had settled at the ground level, and between Mr Banana's spinning and earthquakes, the dust didn't have time to settle. "You spin me right round baby!" What was left of the school was dwindling with Hizumi's remaining time, but so was Mr Banana's costume.

---

---

"You idiot!" Her armor once more blazed lika a minature sun, as every jet on it activated at once. The twin cannons on her shoulders opened up, blasting their way further into Mr. Banana's hands - but rather than shooting her way free, Hizuki was boosting her way further and further in, making it harder to disengage with her. "I didn't call you a friend because you were useful! You're a huge pain in my ass!" The reason for her forward pressure became apparent quickly; her push was angled upward, trying to lift them both into the air while she still had the horsepower to attempt such a maneuver. "I don't care who wanted or didn't want you, I wanted to get to know you better! I liked hanging out with you! So stop spewing bullshit! If you want to be my enemy, just say so! And if not, then give up on this stupid stunt!" This last was shouted as she put even more focus into getting them both into the air, her boosters scorching the ground beneath Hizuki.

Stopping on a rooftop midway to the bone giant, Nyxia’s eyes widened, while her face contorted in disgust as she watched the Gigia Miseria spew forth not only clouds of the avian abominations, but torrents of viscus, bubbling bile, filled with even more of the winged horrors. If something wasn’t done fast, she and the rest of the club would be swiftly overwhelmed.

Gathering her power, she channeled it all into her beloved death ray. In a surge of motion, the giant weapon grew even larger, a plethora of supplementary barrels emerging like the blossoming petals of some bizarre technomantic flower. These were joined by an array of additional protrusions, their crackling, tesla coil-esque forms far smaller than the first set, but far more numerous as well. Glowing ever brighter as a high-pitched whine grew ever louder, the myriad, lighting-wrapped prongs expelled an array of baleful beams, twisting arcs of deleterious energy, which coalesced into a single pulsating sphere of untold devastation. After but a moment, it vomited forth the terrifying totality of its pent up power in a mighty tube of utter ruination, one which the Neon Tempest proceeded to sweep across the midday sky in wide arcs, vaporizing the clouds of abominable avians that marred it like a pressure hose cleaning a stain on the sidewalk.

“I’ll handle these flying fuckers!” Nyxia shouted to her club mates. “You go fuck up that damn shithole giant!”

---

Transit by Air Evil Eye was faster than Earthshaker would have expected, the wind sheer alone ripping the moisture from her skin as it glowed with a terrible power. She’d tried to fight a Giga Miseria alone once already, and found a similar skeleton’s dense bones a ready match for having its own force thrown back at it.

Caustic bile was useless to her, depriving the Rule Keeper of her greatest strength; An enemy to build her power from and strike back with overwhelming force, but having faced it once she’d put some thought towards how she’d handle it differently. Unlike the mysteries of Ashbringer or the emotional minefield that was her interactions with the club, it proved a simpler matter. Super easy, barely an inconvenience when she was already throwing hours of her night at her conspiracy board.

Michi’s charade only reinforced her conclusion; No Miseria could hurt a Magical Girl as much as they hurt themselves. Why did Roche need to let them strike her when she could do it herself?

Light and force radiated from her impact with the Giga Miseria, arms crossed before her driving into bone as skulls ceased to exist. Twisted avians proved as susceptible to overwhelming force, a glance at her wake revealing a clean disc punched through the unleashed swarm.

It was a pleasing sight but the satisfaction it brought was short-lived, tarnished by the agony of pulling her limbs from the crater of bone, darkly tanned skin stripped away to bare pink and red swathes of flayed extremity. Her fingers curled and refused to straighten, the barest twinge of muscles inflaming the anguish of hairline fractures she’d battered into every bone.

A little pain is worth it. Earth Shaker’s eyes gleamed as she looked up, seeing the remaining skulls belch out more of the corrosive bile amidst a fresh spawning of its minions. She’d struck a greater blow but it was not decisive, and it appeared as though she’d repeat her previous encounter at the mercy of pecking beaks and burning puke.

Fortunately she had a partner whose mounting rage complimented her own quite nicely, the glint of lasers burning the black clouds threatening to blot the sun. ”Come on. Come on. Come on!”

Manifesting her shield upon her back she kicked off the crater she’d formed, rising up with the bile plummeting past her like rain from an umbrella. The sizzling of rawhide buffeted her nostrils and she dispelled the Devil Arm as she broke through to open air, arms stretching wide before she slammed her palms together. Force shook between her palms, charging her as a crack was felt more than heard. But she was too caught up in the rekindled blaze of power erupting from her skin as she rocketed down, extended leg angled to strike the Giga Miseria once more in the chest.

"Well, sorry I didn't bring out the futon. I wasn't expecting a visitor." Evil Eye's focus was on the approaching swarm, and using Abaddon to direct her locusts to intercept them. The most she could probably hope for was to slow them down, or they might devour some of those annoying intestine appendages. "If anything makes it inside, we probably just lose." As if on cue, the monster sprayed liquid evil into the air, and she considered taking cover from the shower until Nyxia suddenly intervened with her death ray. "Hm. I guess we have a shot."

The golem charged at the swarm to punch through with a shoulder tackle and meet the giga miseria. "This one's flesh can regenerate, but the fibers are permeable by liquids," Evil Eye explained, as if imagining that Oros could see outside and that her words had context. "Actually, as long as you're wedged in there, you might be able to help him grow extra arms," she thought out loud. "Or cactus spines... something to keep the birds off of us."