For some reason, that Evil Eye already knew, Oros started chuckling as soon as she said "permeable by liquids." She didn’t stop until the golem pilot was done suggesting things Oros could do. "Sure!" She finally managed. "I think I’ve got something up my sleeve. Or rather, in my veins!"

The top of the golem’s body squeezed out a (comparatively) tiny red tendril. It lashed at its surroundings, but Oros was unable to enjoy the same external view Evil Eye did. Fortunately there were no other magical girls around that might have gotten wrapped up in it.

There were a lot of bird creatures, and it seemed like the bone golem could spawn them as fast as the detention club could destroy them. Technolight zigged and zagged through the creatures as the giant shadow plowed through the rest. The bile at the shadow golem’s feet burned, but Evil Eye didn’t plan on standing in it for long. While the great shadow was shorter than its bony opposition, that didn’t stop it from shoulder checking the abomination’s hip. Its pelvis swung back, and it threw its foot behind itself to stop from tumbling backwards. Spider line cracks ran up and down its leg, and pale dust was shaken out of its wounds. The ivory golem noticed another attack coming in, and raised its arm to brace for it. When Earthshaker made contact, a chunk of bone was fired out of the repulsive creature’s arm.

It howled, not in pain, but out of fury.

More cracks formed over its body. Ivory plugs of bone were fired out like wine corks, and more black bile was spewed forth. This time there was no sign it was going to let up. The bile formed an acidic mist that burned everything around it, if it wasn’t drenched outright. And along with the bile came even more birds. They scattered as soon as they were released. The Giga miseria was pouring forth all the anger of the damned now. The former pets of Hibusa town rallying against sins only they knew.

Five of the undead birds merged together into a single being. Gore wove its bones together and collapsed its beaks into a single silhouette. With a single roar came five different voices, and it soared towards Roche beak first.

More birds swarmed around Nyxia, coming closer, but never quite reaching her position. They spat bile and rope, but it didn’t reach her.

The ivory giant drove its fist into where the shadow’s head should have been. While this didn’t reach Evil Eye, it did reach Oros. Where there had been a single harmless tendril there were now rows of saw toothed tendrils, giving the shadow golem a blood red mohawk. As the ivory giant pulled its hand back, the black golem was picked up along with it. The shadowy fibers around Oros were starting to tear, and the massive shadow was sinking ever so slightly.

---

Black Gate winced and ducked behind the ape. "W-why are you so mad? Did you really-" There was a change in Black Gate’s desires. It was small, like a single bud on a sakura tree opening up. A few pink pedals in a sea of red hatred. "I want friends, but, but, but-"

"How?" Mr Banana’s voice was firm. His eye was looking directly at Hizuki through the empty frame of his sunglasses. "How could you expect us to trust you? How could you expect us to trust the club? How could you expect us to open up to anyone?!"

Hizuki’s boosters would have set the school ablaze if there was anything left of it. The ape’s feet, being as hand-like as they were, gripped the concrete foundation. The fabric started to tear across his abdomen. First it was just a few threads coming loose from the earlier locust attack, but as the tear grew, it tore faster, and finally the suit ripped in half. The upper half of Mr Banana was carried into the sky. But inside his torso, a hundred or so Michis held the inside of Mr Banana’s costume together. Their bodies stretched as Haruna carried the ape’s torso higher into the sky. Their pristine black dresses stretched, and the pale flesh of their hands and faces stretched along with it. Before long they looked like white and black ribbons tethering the ape’s two halves together. Hizuki could feel every single one of their desires crying out at once, like a swarm of locusts making the exact same sound as they beat their wings. When Mr Banana spoke, a hundred other voices joined him.

"Tell mom and dad it’s not their fault… Do you know what she was trying to tell us, paladin? Do you think anything we’re doing today is any reflection of you? Or are you humble enough to see…"

The Michi strands holding onto the ground snapped loose, and the lower half of the monkey suit went limp.

"...You’re just being an obstacle!"

All of the Michi strands shot upwards like they were rubber bands. The sudden jolt threw Mr Banana out of Hizuki’s grip, and far above her. Black Gate stumbled backwards, but before she could fall off of her friend, one of the Michi strands grabbed her and pulled her inside the cluster. She disappeared from sight.

Then all of the Michis started to stretch out again, wrapping around each other, forming a giant knot of self loathing and fear. Black Gate’s desires, still unclear, were swiftly buried under the desires of the other Michis. As they continued to twist and knot upon each other, they grew even bigger than Mr Banana, far bigger. As their knot grew tighter, they swelled into tubes and looked nothing like the girl they once represented. Their massive form flew in front of the sun, and Hibusa town was eclipsed.



Mr Banana, Black Gate, and a hundred or so Michis descended onto Hizumi. While her thrusters were keeping her aloft, it was clear she was being pushed closer to the ground.

---

---

The magical power Hizuki put out continued to ratchet up by the moment, as if her armor were a limiter on it rather than an amplifier. She couldn't stop pushing to consider the rather horrific spectacle before her; the fact remained that she needed to keep this thing away from the school as long as possible. Her time was starting to run out, though; the warmth inside the cockpit of her personal mech had grown to an uncomfortable heat, and she could feel the strain of maintaining this form on her very soul. This wasn't going to solve the problem, just delay it. Hopefully she could hold on long enough to let Tsubomi finish her work below, picking off the last of Michi's minions and evacuating the students before the vengeful wrath of a scorned child quite literally fell on them.

Tsubomi. . .

That's it!

Four drones detached themselves from her wings, flying in formation under their own power. Their loss would technically speed up Michi's descent, but not enough to matter. Not if this idea worked, anyway. They flitted down, into what little remained of the school. It didn't take them long to find their objective; after all, there was only one conscious human being in the building. Three of them broke off to provide covering fire, small beams harrying the apes assailing Tsubomi, while the third split open to reveal a sort of projector.

"Tsubomi!" Hizuki's voice, echoing through a tinny speaker, called out to the dark girl. "There's still a part of Black Gate in there that wants friends. I felt it. If I can get you close, do you think you could use your powers to amplify that feeling?"

Up above, Hizuki fought with a renewed determination. That glimmer of a chance was all she'd needed to rally her resolve. "Black Gate!" she shouted. "I know you're lonely! You don't have to be!" She said this last through teeth gritted with effort, tripling her efforts to push the descending ball of doom away from its intended target. "I'll free you from this hate that's consumed you! You can trust me!"

---

As the primate pointed its wings at her, Acid Drop realized something: she was stuck in place. If she moved, those behind her would be injured or killed. If she stayed there, she might become too injured to fight.

---

"Tsubomi, I heard you got in a fight at school today. If that keeps happening, good grades won't be enough. You'll end up expelled."

Ah, yes. The school had told Mom and Dad about that.

"But dad, they were picking on ███████! f̶͕̭̙̏̓̀̆̍͠j̴̢̰̼͍̙̗͍̬̱̫͊̌͘n̶̗̗͚̱̘͍͕̩͉̗̔̅Ģ̴͈͕̥̦̝̪̰̘͛̎̍̉͆̓̚͘͠x̷͍̺͎͔̙̽͆̈́̑͐̂̿̂̊̕T̵̪̆̂E̸̡̘͖̻͔͈̎̆̀̐͑̉J̷̺͍̿͝V̸̧͓̭̋̈́̕r̶̘͒̑ ̶̡̮̖̫͕̱͍̥͕́̂̍̓͋̐Ẅ̷̨̺̪͍͚̹̩͈̭́͗̎͝Ẻ̵͍̘͍̖̉̇͛̈́ͅn̴̨̧̛̦͈͔̳̫͈͗̓̊̔͗͊́̑̾ͅg̴̫̘̘̮̘͐̉͝f̶̡͈͓̈́͌̔̚B̴̩̼̺̥̿͛̉b̵̧̧̯̼͔̔̀̈̔̔̕b̴͉̰͆̐̋̌̀̂́͐̈́͠͠ͅL̵̛̝̩̙͎̙̳̗̽̿̓̑̏̕͘͜͝i̵̞͖̦͓͔͛̑̇̄̎̈ ̶̧̛̜͚͍̭̠͔̠̾͗̌̍͛p̴͎̬͔̋͂̈́B̶̤̺͛͆̾̓̿͋̂̑͑̑ũ̶͙̱͔͎̬͛̈́͌̐g̷̛͔̀̋H̴̛͕͐̌͋͆͝ň̸̢͖̙̠̜̱͇̻̤̇̍͗̂͊̌͘T̸͓̫̮̙̬̼̅͗͆̀̓̔̈́̿̃̽ṏ̷̧̢̙͈̞̊̑̚k̴̥̠̙̙͉̮͍̜̏̈́͛̆͂̐̌̿̋̚O̵̙̮̰̫̿́̓͌̑̀ ̷͔̖̗̣͂́Q̵̢̨̢͎̪̠̘͙̈́̈́͘ͅò̶̥̞̻̼̮͕̬̖̒̈̃̐̍͒̓̚̚q̷̲̖̘̟͕̻̮̯͚̹̆́̐͗̆̂ş̸̩̗̭͇̺̗̠̘̦̎̀̀͠ͅb̶̧̤̭͙̤͓̏̕͜͠X̴̧̡͚̹͔̺̼͓͚͐̎͒͜R̶̜̠̬͈̦͈̺̻̠̈́̾͌͐̀͂̅̆̏͐̚͜C̴̡̘̞̰̖̫̲͗̀̀̀͂͒́̑͝͠t̵̝̉̅͛͒̊̎̐͑͌͑͘Z̵͉͇͇̼̤̤̭̗͎̖̆, ̵̡̞̟̩͑̇̊͑̇͑̾́̓̚͠a̸̳̟̱͓̻̞̘̭͑̀̓̾̑̅̽̅͘Ų̷̼̘̫̪͎̪͙͑̀̉͜ͅk̵̨͕̬̪͈͚̱͇̰̪͗̒̉̅͐̄͑̉̊G̶̛̘̲̰͚̪͖̀͋̏û̸̪̳̭̲͎͖̭̣͇͘͝T̷̛͔̩̉̉̏̈͌̀̅ģ̴̧̛̤̫̰̲̗̫͊̏̄̇̈́̓ǔ̸̱̖̩̹̲̥̆͊̏͊s̵̮̙̭̞̦̒͋̊͐̕͜ͅe̵̮̞̋̓̉̔!"

What was the reason for it? Something had happened, but the cause was too fuzzy to remember now.

"I know you want to protect everyone, and that's admirable. Keeping your friends safe is important. But you can't do things that will hurt yourself just to help someone else. Right now that's easy, you only have to tell a teacher about the bullying. But someday, you'll have to choose between saving someone else or saving yourself."

This was...

"No way! I'll save us both! You only have to choose one over the other if you've given up!"

That's right.

Yes, that's right, isn't it?

---

Acid Drop covered her eyes with her Devil Arm as the feathers rained upon her. She hadn't given up just yet, nor did she plan to just because some dumb ape could shoot at her.

As her body screamed at her brain from its new wounds, she remembered something else as well. All she had to do was get closer. If she couldn't get out of the way, she'd push through. And if she couldn't walk, she'd steal yet another thing from Tsubomi.

Suika's magic engulfed her body, not to boost it to its heightened performance, but to forcibly contract her muscles with a quick shock of energy. She was flung into the grown silverback, face-first. And when she collided with it, the force enough to move her but not her target, she grabbed it by the head with one hand and dug her weapon into its shoulder with the other.

Her blood was already mixing with its innards as it oozed from the dozen or so wounds its feathers had inflicted. C'mon, heart. Beat faster. Let's slow this monkey down to our level.

And beat it did, like the drum to an old song once beloved by its previous owner. But that wouldn't be enough, not quickly enough. Besides, if these chumps could do it, surely she could as well. And so...

Acid Drop bit down on the ape's neck as hard as she could.

As she did, she finally saw a duo of strange girls. One looked like the girl who had tried to catnap the Club's Mascot, and the other stuck out with her clothes more than anything. With the haze her mind had been in since learning that Tsubomi was the real 'her,' she didn't remember anything about the former. But if she had tried to capture their Mascot, chances were decent that she was a Magical Girl. As for the other... well, in for a yen, in for a thousand.

Those two suddenly found themselves feeling a mix of desperation and bravery. Maybe it wouldn't be enough to get them to fight, assuming they even could, but it would get them moving. If they were decent people, they might even start herding the others out of the danger zone.

That's when the apes, sans the one locked in place by Suika's arms, weapon, and teeth, found themselves under assault from... lasers?

"Tsubomi! There's still a part of Black Gate in there that wants friends. I felt it. If I can get you close, do you think you could use your powers to amplify that feeling?"

Acid Drop went to nod, only to find herself unable with the ape's neck still in her mouth. She reluctantly unclenched her jaw to speak, but decided to do something about the silverback first. With a quick pulse of magic, she spun Michi's familiar away just a few feet, just enough to get some space. She was breathing heavily at this point, but she still managed to say a few words in-between breaths.

"I think. I can do that."

Even as her baleful beam cleansed the skies of the avian abominations, more of the disgusting creatures spewed forth from the bone giant’s myriad orifices, only to be vaporized in turn. Of course, the Neon Tempest knew from the start that this was only going to be a delaying action. It was up to her allies to stem the tide by killing the creature causing it in the first place, and while they seemed to be making some headway towards that goal, their progress wasn’t nearly as fast as Nyxia would have liked. Where the fuck are the others?! she angrily wondered, even as she deployed her pair of hovering octahedral drones to dispatch any of the bird monsters that got too close. The pervert and voyeur were present, as was her partner, but apathy incarnate, the annoying cat bitch, and the strange girl with the giant claws were all nowhere to be seen. What was seen was a larger winged horror descending on a battered Earthshaker. They need to get their heads out of their fucking asses and join the fight! the tealette terror seethed, narrowing her glowing eyes and sending twin lances of incandescent annihilation darting from them towards the head of the Super Miseria that was poised to attack her partner.

The silverback was a durable fellow. While he was ultimately able to do nothing about Tsubomi’s desperate gambit, he wasn’t out of the fight yet. After the ape was kicked aside, he growled and spun around to face his attacker. The shower of lasers from Hizuki were a distraction, but not one the ape was going to get fooled by. He lifted his arm in front of his face and charged. His movements were clumsy due to the blood, but still looked strong.

"Oy!" Morganite intercepted the ape and shoved them back with her shield. "Ah got no idea wot er doin’ gurl, but ah don’t like it!" The pinkette didn’t take her eye off the ape. "But if Hizuki needs ya, you should get outa here!" The other girl shambled to her feet and looked around. She seemed torn, possibly between the natures she had been filled with. She adjusted her hat and turned around, only for another ape to jump at her. That ape was quickly intercepted by Morganite’s other shield. "Get da studs outa here!" Morganite pulled out a phone and held it up to the side of her head. Apparently it had been vibrating. "What are ya callin’ me for? Ah just woke up!" While Morganite protected everyone, the other girl got to work moving the students. She was picking them up one at a time and walking them over to a window, at which point she rolled them outside.

It looked like things were being handled, if only momentarily.

---

It was a savage music that elated Earthshaker’s heart to hear the shattering of bone that wasn’t just her own. Shards larger than city buses flew free from the impact and the Giga Miseria staggered under the joint efforts between herself and Kiyo…and Suki, if the bizarre mohawk wasn’t Kiyo’s addition.

But a single step back wasn’t a death rattle, and a splintered arm wasn’t inoperable either. It still raged at them, escalating just like that pirates had. Responding to the threat towards its existence that it now saw them as. It was determined to rob them of even the slightest progress, expelling its bile as a thick, repulsive fog that burned her skin fiercely. It was everyone upon the giant and she found the world growing darker for it.

Wait, no, that’s just the monkey pipe meteor blocking the sun. The Rule Keeper spared a look back at the calamity but dismissed it just as readily. For all that such a giant object falling onto the school was a threat, it was well in hand.

The blaze of Hizuki’s thrusters beneath it was a warmer light than the sun, even for girls as steeped in Darkness as the rest of the club.

Her focus turned to a fused Miseria, more complete than any of the prior carrion birds coming after them. Teeth stained pink met it with a roar and pushed off from the giant’s arm. With the hide shield in hand she charged at it blindly, bracing against the taut surface as she angled herself to take both the avian and Nyxia’s blasts, the anvil to break with fire and fury.

A collision she’d greedily take to fuel her into another explosive drop kick, past the battered arm towards its damaged chest. ”Rei isn’t here to give you a clean death this time. We’ll grind you back into the dirt ourselves.”

---

---

Hizuki briefly considered trying to clarify Tsubomi's focus to Saundra, but decided that splitting her efforts even further was going to be unproductive. "Alright, this might be a little uncomfortable!" The drones flew at Tsubomi in formation, pivoting and shifting themselves about until they formed an approximation of Hizuki's wings on the dark girl's back. Metal straps held them securely around Acid Drop's torso, if not terribly comfortably, especially when they immediately took off and dragged her skyward, out of the building and toward Daybreak and the falling Michi meteor.

As the distance between them collapsed - a bit faster than Hizuki would like given Black Gate's continued downward progress - the cannons on the light girl's back began to spin up and glow with a whine of restrained power. "Can you do it from out here? I can try to blast us further in, but it'll be risky." Her voice was still filtered through speakers, and sounded more strained by the moment; maintaining this mode at maximum output was taking everything she had and then some.

"Ugh! I'm telling you, if it throws up on us we're done for!" Evil Eye snapped. "Brace for impact!" she warned, not that there was much bracing Oros could do as the golem slammed into the beast. It vomited up its bile again, and Evil Eye moved so that they would not take a direct hit. The mist burned the outside layer, but it wouldn't make it all the way to the core where Oros and Evil Eye were.

A bigger problem was the new pool of bile on the ground, which was slowly eating away at the golem's feet. "Come on! I got a good one for ya!" As the beast reeled in the golem with its fist, Evil Eye targeted the leg that the beast had pulled back to stabilize itself, hoping to seize it and throw the hulking skeleton over her shoulder, down the side of the mountain head-first.

It was not the first time her feet impacted against the concrete of Hibusa Town, yet the disciple felt it more vividly than before. From the wind that blew past her face through the way her body moved to the feeling of magic in her soul, it felt real. As real as the pain that lingered from the dream and panged against her heart every moment she spent away from the battlefield. Fortunately, the Detention Club fought well. Earthshaker, Nyxia, Oros and Evil Eye made a great team. They kept besieging the Giga Miseria and culling the herd it disgorged onto the city, no doubt taking on wounds they should not have. Wounds that should have been the protector’s burden.

She had to pace herself. She had to preserve her magic for the upcoming fight. She had to stand side by side with the Detention Club. She sunk her teeth into her lips, drawing blood as she closed the distance at what seemed to be an agonizing pace. And to make matters worse, a second threat grew in the skies of Hibusa Town, above the school.

The disciple paused. She could feel, more than see, the blob of negative emotions that loomed over the school as though it were the sword of Damocles. It caught her neck between two equally sharp scissor blades, pressing against her windpipe, drawing blood as it demanded she make a choice between duty and friendship.

Hizuki remained alone. She fought against the great threat with no one by her side. The disciple’s heart tightened.

The Detention Club, even with so many of them arrayed against the enemy, could barely hold the line. The disciple's gauntlets folded into a fist.

She was a four-pronged spear broken thrice. She could have helped all of them, if only she were not lacking her greatest asset.

Duty won in the end. For no matter what, the disciple always moved according to the will of the heavens - even if that conflicted with the will of the gods. Still, she had lost crucial seconds; the giant had released a corrosive fog and a bird that was born from the fusion of five. Earthshaker swept it away; but it would have open access to her back.

The disciple disciple let out a nervous, yet cheerful laugh as she launched herself straight at the enemy. While the warrior may have lead with a devastating blow, such was not the disciple's way, as she grabbed hold of the creature’s wings and used its own momentum to spin it against one of the nearby buildings. Of course, the corrosive mist started to eat her flesh immediately, but she ignored that in favour of continuing her strike and catching a lesser bird monster.

She did not have to win here. This body… as bad as it sounded, it did not even need to survive. She only needed to distract enough of the birds to open an opportunity for Nyxia to truly quell their numbers and for Earthshaker, Evil Eye and Oros to keep striking at the giant.

”Please don’t care about me and destroy them!” she called out with a tone and cadence unfamiliar to everyone on the battlefield.

Even as the acid ate away at the detention club, none of them relented. Oros held firm on the skeleton’s arm while Evil Eye attempted to throw the giant. It was a massive amount of weight, but one that got lighter with every blow Earthshaker delivered to the creature. And the undead birds were no match for the combined might of Nyxia and the newly arrived.

It opened all of its mouths, likely to spew more bile, but Earthshaker struck first. She vaporized the disgusting bird creature and struck the giant straight in the chest. It cracked wide open, and a geyser of black bile erupted.

Oros and Evil eye combined were able to fling the creature. It’s ruined torso folded in half, which made it much easier to throw the creature off the mountainside. It didn’t roll far, but it didn’t have to. It flattened twenty trees before coming to rest at the foot of the mountain. Its body was shattered, and there was no more bile for it to leak out.

Nyxia and the stranger had taken care of all the filthy birds. They didn’t have time to retreat or die on their own. Her laser sawed through the last one’s neck, and it’s beak corkscrewed through the air before landing on the gore of its allies. The acidic bile, along with the remains of the miseria, sunk into the earth. But not its dark emotions. The dark girls could feel that power surging into themselves. Any soreness they had felt moments ago had lessened. They had grown stronger.

But they hadn’t won, not yet.

The sun was up in the sky, but the moon was falling out of the sky. They could rush back as fast as they could, but in their hearts they knew it would be too late to do anything. Only Oros was oblivious to this.

"That last hit was pretty hard. Are spleens important?"

---

The ball of Michis were not content to merely be an obstacle. Some of them continued to stretch and wind around Hizuki, even as she kept the bulk of them up. Their voices cried out in unison.

"You are not one of them, and they know it. The Detention Club, school, you will always be an outsider wherever you go. The only people who could have ever loved you are dead."

Acid Drop wasn’t spared either, though she was further away and the ribboned Michis would have to reach for her.

"A weed is a parasite. It is incapable of benefiting its host. You rob others of their joy merely so that you can live a hollow existance."

---

Suika didn't care that the makeshift jetpack didn't have any cushioning; it was no more or less a bother than anything else she experienced for most of her existence. She soon found herself staring at what Hizuki had been battling on her own, but she had a similar response to it as she did the drones.

"A weed is a parasite. It is incapable of benefiting its host. You rob others of their joy merely so that you can live a hollow existance."

As the Michis reached out, Acid Drop mirrored them, reaching out her own hand to meet them.

"Mm. You're right."

The first of the Michi strands made contact, wrapping around her wrist.

"And it's because I'm hollow that I can hold the feelings you can't handle."

More of the strands wrapped around her hand, upwards along Suika's arm as if they were trying to rip it off her body.

"On Tsubomi's behalf, I'll tell you something. You couldn't have stopped it. You never had a chance, or a choice."

Suddenly, it was as if Suika had been replaced by something else. To the outside world, there simply was Acid Drop, wearing upon her face the most natural of smiles.

"You've done well. You can rest."

Having chosen what might be her last words, Acid Drop's hand clamped down on one of the Michi strands. She didn't want to hurt her any more than she had already been hurt. She could only do one thing, regardless. The entirety of the emotional buildup inside the rainbow haired Dark Girl was poured into Michi, an overwhelming deluge of emotions of all kinds.

At first, there was no direction, no planning. If she had simply done as Hizuki asked, maybe it would have worked. Maybe it wouldn't have worked. But regardless, she believed one thing for certain: forcing Michi to want to be friends right now was not a long term solution. She'd rather take her chances with overwhelming her.

But as the magic flowed through the Michi strands like a poison, Acid Drop heard a knock.

Mm. Tsubomi?

...

Ah, yes. She still had to take care of Tsubomi. Most of her reserves had already been sent through the wiring of darkness that Mr. Banana sat upon. But with her newfound mental capacity, Suika had enough time to change the last of the emotional payload into something more... peaceful.

It wasn't apathy, nor was it happiness. It was simply... a cocktail of contentment, of satisfaction borne by various simpler emotions.

It would have to be enough.

Evil Eye wasn't content to merely throw the giga miseria off a cliff. Before it reached the bottom, she charged after it, intent on delivering one more good shoulder drop to its pelvis before she would be satisfied that it wasn't getting up again. More of the golem's fibers dissolved, and the mass began to slowly loosen and flatten out like a plate of spaghetti. "It... recycles iron, I think." Dazed, she instinctively just answered Oros's question without giving much thought to why. "But if the liver can do that too, is it really necessary..? Probably not..."

"Madam Kuroki!" Abaddon's voice called down into the mass of threads. "Black Gate is—" he began, but was silenced as the golem's left arm reached lazily up and absorbed him into itself. A single, half-lidded, glowing red eye became visible to Oros in the darkness. "Sounds like the sky is falling outside. At least we got to scratch 'blanket fort' off the bucket list before shit hit the fan." Was Evil Eye allowing herself to be a bit sentimental? No, her gaze still wandered the dark space as she crunched the numbers in her mind. "No, I think we'll be safer in the air. Let's grab everyone."

A large portion of the golem's mass made its way back to Evil Eye, liquefying and retracting rapidly back into her eye socket, while the rest continued to dissolve in the giga miseria's bile. She took Oros by the hand and lifted her up into the air, Oros's tendrils easily untangling themselves from the dissolving threads. She drifted the disciple's way first, not suspecting that she was in any way different from the Shuuko she knew. She could see through her minions' eyes, but not hear through their ears—not that they had ears to speak of.

---

---

How did she know that? The light girl hadn't opened up to anyone about the real reason she'd left home, the impetus behind Haruna's decision to uproot her life and move to a strange town and help a group of people she didn't know and (as she'd thought at the time) had a fifty-fifty shot of trying to kill her on sight.

". . . I see I'm not the only one peeking inside people's heads," Hizuki said quietly. "And you know what? I don't care." She glared up into the writhing mass through her visor, ignoring the pain in her body and in her heart. "I don't care if I'm alone. I don't care if nobody loves me," she said, more loudly. "I just know what makes me happy, and that's bringing happiness to other people. They don't have to thank me, they don't have to reward me, they don't have to accept or even like me. As long as I'm a positive influence on their lives, that's all I need."

With a deep breath, she did her best to focus. Push away all the emotional turmoil, disregard the burning feelings of overusing her magic, lock up the sense of shock and betrayal that this was happening. Hizuki the Daybreak didn't matter right now. Maeda Haruna didn't matter right now. She could have her time when there wasn't a crisis, when people's lives weren't in danger. She focused all of her attention on two things: keeping her armor together enough to continue resisting the descent of the sullen planetoid threatening to crush the school, and searching for the tiny thread in the mass of despair that belonged to the true Black Gate.

What do you actually want? Please.

"Blanket forts." Oros wondered out loud. "Next time, you should try incorporating a kotatsu into your design. I’m, actually, starting to feel a little cold."

She was only half listening to everything else, and the reason why became apparent as soon as the golem vanished. While the bone giant was defeated with relative ease compared to their last encounter, it still hit like a truck. Suki’s back had been opened up and the blood mohawk that the golem had been rocking was now coursing up and down Suki’s back. Despite being bludgeoned, the attack was strong enough to tear open her skin. She was slouched, which was either to make room for all the tentacles on her back or because her spine had been wrecked. It wasn’t until Evil Eye took her hand that she seemed to regain her focus.

"Uh, sis?" Oros tapped the back of Evil Eye’s hand with her thumb. "You uh, sure you wanna be holding me like this?" In truth, her geas acted slowly enough that Evil Eye would have plenty of time to return to Hibusa town before things got weird. Though it usually wasn’t something most wanted to risk. The bone giant and its minions were already dissipating, and her blood skates would keep her high enough off the ground that she wouldn't be at risk of getting burned.

Though the current arrangement wasn’t something she objected to.

---

The Michis were no longer taking hold of Hizuki. The paladin was hovering in the air, but the dark mass of despair still descended. Maybe she was being assimilated, or maybe she was trying to find the beast's heart. Not to rip it out and destroy it, but to see what it yearned for. But her vision grew darker as she slipped deeper inside the Michi swarm, with their desire to destroy everything surrounding her.

Suika’s plan of attack was set. When the Michis came for her, she reached back. After some consideration, she used most of her remaining power to surge something into the ball of despair. She did not choose to force some idea onto Black Gate, but instead chose to make her content, eventually.

It was hard to overwhelm so many entities. At first it seemed like all Acid Drop was able to do was make the entity swell more. Such a confused array of emotions had a similar effect on the Michis as it did the apes from earlier. But if they reacted strongly to strong emotions, what would happen when they were introduced to something more subtle?

Hizuki was buried, completely shrouded in darkness. Then ribbons of light appeared around her. First one, then two. Then all at once the walls of Hizuki’s tomb lit up. In the center of the mass was a void that containedBlack Gate, curled up like a fetus. She held the plush with one hand and sucked her thumb on the other.

The ribbons of light were Michis that had been infected by Acid Drop’s magic. Without their deep resentment, they lit up and burned away. But with Acid Drop’s stockpile depleting, and Hizuki’s armor running out of power, there was only one thing to do in this situation. To rescue whatever it was that still remained of Black Gate.

Hizuki wrapped her arms around the goat woman and, with a sharp tug, was able to tear her free from whatever Mr Bana had turned into. The back lit up and burned away, and Hizuki was able to make a second daring escape today, this time in the real world.

Mr Banana and what remained of the Michis collapsed on themselves, swirling into nothingness. Like an appeased ghost, there was no reason to haunt the world anymore. What remained of the school was safe, for now.

Hizuki could not land gracefully. Her armor had depleted most of her mana and was falling off of her body. Her arms gave way and Michi tumbled across the ruined school grounds. Acid drop began to lose altitude as well.

Black Gate didn’t move from her spot on the floor. She remained in the fetal position, hugging her plush cat against her chest. Typically Haruna would be able to sense what Black Gate wanted, or at least get an idea. But Black Gate wasn’t giving off anything. It was as if she was truly content, and wanted nothing in this moment.

---

---

The burning had reached an agonizing level, but it didn't matter. Black Gate was in her arms. . . and then she wasn't. With a groan and a shriek of metal strained past its limits, the internal mechanisms of her armor gave way, cracking and fragmenting. The suit crashed into the ground in a spray of rubble and scrap, shedding armor plates. Michi tumbled from her grasp, flying out ahead of her.

It was all okay, though. That maelstrom of anguish was gone.

The last of her strength left her. The glow of the armor flickered once, twice, then sputtered out entirely. As she slid to a halt, the shoulder cannons tore themselves free, followed by her wings. The head of the mech split apart and fragmented, the shards rolling off the top onto the ground as the suit came to rest. Hizuki slumped inside what remained of the cockpit. "Everyone's. . . okay." She cast about with what little power remained to her to confirm.

The light girl herself flickered, then winked out, replaced with the mundane Haruna. The schoolgirl, still clad in yesterday's shirt and the shorts she'd worn to bed, slumped in the debris left behind by her magical alter ego. She started to lift herself out of the ruined cockpit, only for her physical strength to fail her too. The exhaustion and hurt she'd been pushing back had finally caught up to her, and so she slumped, hanging partway out of the ruins of her armor, sleeping as if it were the comfortable bed of her childhood.

Nyxia’s annoyance was slightly diminished at the sight of Gauntlet Girl racing into battle, but it returned in full force when she noticed that the girl was focusing on the lesser, minion Miseria she herself was dealing with capably enough. The Neon Tempest was about to shout at the girl to target the bone giant instead, when, to her considerable surprise, the towering Giga Misera began to crumble apart, its shattered remains tumbling down the mountainside even as the last of the abominable avians were vaporized. Against all expectations, it seemed that Earthshaker’s concussive blows, coupled with those of The Voyeur’s shadowy golem, had been sufficient to destroy the titanic monstrosity. Nyxia almost couldn’t believe such a victory could even be possible, based on how much the entire club had struggled against this foe the first time they’d faced it, but the immensely satisfying surge of power flowing though the teal-haired terror was more than enough to convince her that the skeletal titan had indeed been slain.

Huh. Guess it was just weaker in the sunlight… Nyxia mused. However, further ruminations would have to wait until later, as a quick look over her shoulder revealed that what she had thought was a cloud momentarily blocking out the sun was, in fact, a giant, dark, lumpy sphere, composed of countless tangled tubes. And it was falling towards Hibusa High, with only the blazing rocket thrusters of Hizuki’s mech to slow it down. “Fuck…” the Neon Tempest hissed. At first, she aimed the Omega Obliterator at the ominous orb and prepared to charge up a focused death ray of exceptional potency, but even as she did this, the tealette terror saw Hizuki be subsumed by the knotted mass, making any attack against it risky in the extreme. “Shit!” Nyxia swore as she powered down her beloved energy cannon. “Ya said you could handle this, Hizuki,” she muttered. “I really hope you’re right…”

As it happened, Nyxia wouldn’t have to wait long to find out. In a burst of color, the tangled sphere began to dissolve, revealing what was left of Hizuki’s mech holding the dark girl responsible for this whole shitstorm. Miss Apathy was probably there, too, hopefully after having been saved by some helpful soul more suited to the task than Nyxia. Probably. It seemed the battle was finally over, but Nyxia wasn’t about to let her guard down. Leaping over to a nearby rooftop which overlooked what remained of the school, the Neon Tempest pointed her oversized weapon at Black Gate, ready for any sign of renewed aggression or trickery.

Evil Eye still couldn't seem to grasp how capable Oros could be, even when her body was half-destroyed. She grimaced at the sight of it, and seemed to be weighing other options in her mind of how to carry her. "Doesn't that hurt?" she replied, somewhat absurdly. Evil Eye had some rather nasty bruises of her own, but nothing seemed to be broken. "Anyway, I can't just leave you on the ground. When that thing falls, the shockwave will flatten the town," she declared matter-of-factly.

But that was not what happened. Instead, Evil Eye beheld the light that vanquished Michi's darkness. She could not avert her eyes from it, not until the moment the ball of malice had touched the ground and retreated into nothingness. "Real light..." she murmured, still carrying Oros along with her, floating towards the impact site as if drawn like a moth to a flame. Her eyes were two wide-open portals of intense but unidentifiable emotions.

After an amount of time that was long enough to be awkward, but not quite long enough for Oros' geas to shake Evil Eye's focus from whatever she'd fixated on, they touched down. She held Oros' hand until she'd found either stable footing or a place to rest, then began assessing the damage. First, her eyes were drawn to the conspicuous remains of Hizuki's mech, where she found Haruna. With a shaking hand—fear, rage or adrenaline?—she confirmed that she was sleeping. Carefully, she extracted her from the debris, moving her to a place where she'd be more easily spotted by the first responders. She looked up, as if to check for unstable structures that might fall on her. Finding only a clear blue sky, she glared at it, as if accusing it of something.

Then, she found Michi, lying peacefully with her plushie—the plushie she and Haruna had made. Her left eye twitched. Knuckles whitened, and her index finger tapped impatiently against the palm of her balled-up fist. Rei will decide what to do with you, was what she told herself. If the desire to kill could disturb Haruna's rest, she would certainly feel it. "The rule... must be kept," she muttered, shaking with what was now certainly rage. It wasn't about the school. The Club could exist without it. The upheaval of the lives of Hibusa Town's citizens was surely a tertiary concern of hers, at best. The Sisterhood had been hurt, and Michi had used her words to salt the open wounds. Rei was now the only threat hanging over her head, keeping her in check. Until she arrived, what remained of hers and Roche's resolve would have to keep both themselves and the others in check. She lingered, but cast her eyes about.

Tsubomi. Where was Tsubomi?

---

There was no describing the visceral relief that came with crashing down against the immovable object and feeling it break beneath her heel. It was undeniably a team effort, Roche having once already tasted the bitter drought of inadequacy in trying to fight it alone, but all the same the Giga Miseria fell

Bone ground to powder and splinters under her foot, and the Rule Keeper rode the beast down to the blighted earth amidst convulsions and lurches on a titanic scale. Unlike Kiyo who had at least some measure of protection amidst her golem, Roche was rather lacking in such layers as the caustic sludge burbled up. The soles of her feet sizzled before the Rule Keeper blasted away, feeling layers of skin lost in the moment of departure. A lesser pain compared to the abuse she’d put her ribs and arms through, and it was a small mercy she wouldn’t have to worry about the fractures once she reverted to the Track Captain yet again.

Her shield formed beneath her, riding it over hills and rubble alike without a care for the world below. It was hard when the great ball of Michi was so close to crushing the already ruined school.

”And just in the nick of time. Sailor Moon would be proud.” The Rule Keeper’s laugh was a hoarse thing, expression twisting as bone prodded meat that wasn’t meant to be poked, but she buried the pain alongside everything else. More pressure for the cooker, and it was a tight fit given the nap they’d all had. Kicking the shield into her grasp she ambled on, red prints trailing in her wake as she came to the site of Michi’s downfall.

Hizuki was sprawled out, the heroine taking her beauty rest so the extras could clean up the nitty gritty details. It was simply a shame that she’d gone so above and beyond that Michi herself was still there, sleeping like a babe with her thumb in her mouth. Ignorant to the Omega Obliterator aimed at her before Earthshaker flopped her hand dismissively.

”Don’t worry, Nyxia. Haven’t you seen a Magical Girl show? She’s going to be as tame as a kitten when she wakes up. Well, if, she does.” Her gaze slid to Kiyo, knowing that if she had refrained from her one opportunity to break from Rei’s rules before eyes fell upon her, then there wasn’t going to be retaliation. ”Hizuki here just bagged herself a stray cat, and all it cost us was our school, our secrets, and any peace of mind we had. A good trade, isn’t it?”

Oros wasn’t sure if a slow moving mass of darkness enveloping King Kong was going to make all that big a shockwave. And if he did, maybe she would have gotten hit by such a shockwave and there would be a cute nurse to help fix her up. But in this reality,
She was content to go along with whatever Evil Eye wanted. Her thumb brushed the back of her hand as they soared through the sky.

After some time, Oros was set back on the ground again. Her eyes immediately moved to her hand, which was no longer holding Evil Eye’s. She couldn’t remember the last time she had held someone’s hand that long. She had carried Tsubomi around a few times, but that felt less intimate than holding hands. Hands were so soft and warm, and- Oh, Acid Drop! Where was she?

She scanned the ruined landscape. Aside from the corner of the school where the cafeteria was, everything else was demolished. Broken timber, concrete chunks, and twisted rebar littered the ground. She thought of inspecting the cafeteria, but a sudden chunk of Hizuki’s mecha fell a few inches in front of Oros’s nose. The delinquent looked up to the sky and saw Acid Drop suspended in the air.

"Rainbow!"

She reached out her arms, and the bloody tendrils on her back made a giant trampoline for her to fall on. And Acid drop kept falling, slowly, a few feet per second, as the wings crumbled and guided her to the trampoline. Metal plates bounced harmlessly off of Oros’s trampoline before the wings gently laid Acid drop on top of Oros’s position. With a sigh, Oros folded up her blood trampoline and dumped Acid drop into her arms, and was then placed on the ground.

"Wew! That was a close one…"

It looked like Acid Drop was okay, if a bit burnt out.

Black Gate remained where she laid without moving a muscle. Only her eyes moved, between Nyxia aiming her cannon at her, to Evil Eye who was giving her the evil eye. Their eyes remained locked, but Evil Eye looked away first. Black Gate continued to stare.

Then something would catch Evil Eye’s attention. Some rubble slid off the remaining corner of the school. An impossibly tall human silhouette wandered out of a ruined hallway. Though in time that silhouette stepped into the light and was revealed to be a familiar face. The tentacles that made up her legs, the diving gear she wore above that, it was all in full view.

Nyxia wasn’t too concerned when Sink Queen made her appearance. The aquatic dark magical girl had never been antagonistic before, and had even provided useful advice. Thus, the Neon Tempest saw no reason to be hostile towards her, or to refuse her request.

“That’s fine by me,” Nyxia told the new arrival as she lowered the Omega Obliterator’s crackling barrel. “I’d be happy if I never saw that bitch again for the rest of my life.”