BrokenPromise

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Maybe I’m a pig...”

— Suki Oyama

Wake up, classes, lunch, more classes, dark magical girl activities, get some sleep.

Rinse, repeat.

It didn’t seem to matter how hard the individual Detention Club members tried. Regardless of how much Miseria they killed, they didn’t seem to get much stronger. Some may have even questioned if they were getting stronger. Even when they hunted Miseria outside of the nightly hunts Rei oversaw, they saw very little return on their invested time. It made the monotony that much worse when they didn’t see any improvement. It had only been a few weeks since Ashbringer showed up, but surely they should have noticed some improvement. A reward for their hard work eluded them.

There were still get togethers at the Detention Club, but it was clear that nobody really took the threat Ashbringer posed seriously. Rei had even asked for discussion about her to stop, assuring everyone that she could easily beat her if anything happened. But if what the pyromancer said was true, she was going to come back with friends. The Endless Ecstasy and Unstoppable Doom teams made it a point to meet up at least once a week to discuss methods to further their power. For most, this would mean entering the detention club the normal way, but Nyxia Torrentia always used the window to enter the room. Something a certain magical girl decided to take advantage of.

This time, when Nyx arrived to enter the Detention Club, Suki was standing by the window, or rather, Oros was. Typically Suki never used her magical girl form on campus, so this would be a surprise if Nyx considered such details important enough to remember. She wouldn’t have the option to just slide through the window either, as Oros stepped in front of it with a smile.

"Hey there, Violet! I see you’re looking as lovely as usual.” She chirped. "There’s this show playing at the kabuki theater, and I have tickets!” Her expression looked strangely pained. "I um, I don’t know what it’s about or anything, but I immediately thought of you! Does that sound like something you’d be interested in seeing?”

Symphony on High

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The gangs were thinning out, but the flames were replacing them. The overhead fans were turning slow, but the arcane flames didn’t need much wind to spread. Typically arcane flames would never last this long, but all the spilled alcohol made the place a fire hazard. Smoke and flames brushed against the sprinklers, but they didn’t fire.

The fleeing gang members were helpless before Ashley’s shots. They didn’t retaliate, and only hastened their retreat. Dante’s had become a death trap and none of them wanted to stay inside. If thirty of them can't take on the espers, then the ten that were retreating stood little chance. They weren’t even cooperating. They shoved one another as they fought their way to the exit.

Ashley called for reinforcements, but Violet was still deep in meditation. She was primarily here to help those that had succumbed to dream magic, and was the only reason the last school girl was standing. Some might say she should multitask, and she probably should have, but GEMINI was fortunate just to have someone who could access dreams on a whim. There likely wasn’t another esper in the world that could do that.

But the Pink Pounder had heard Ashley’s request. He stood up a bit straighter, his grip tightening on his blade. The hostiles were starting to come out of the front door, and they’d surely overwhelm Violet if left unchecked. At least, that must have been what he thought. Because he wasted no time in rushing the fleeing gangsters. His crooked sword cut through the first to come out in a single slice, while the next one was kicked back inside.

“LEAVE MAGICAL DREAM PRINCESS OUT OF THIS!”

On the upside, it didn’t seem like any of the gangsters were going to escape. On the downside, that wasn’t a viable escape route for the last remaining school girl.

Speaking of which, said school girl was currently sleep walking under the arm of one of the wizards. Two yellow beads looked out at Ashley from under his hood, and he placed his hand on his piece. He didn’t draw it, but he kept his hand on it as he circled around the counter and walked against the wall. The flames in his path seemed to go out on his approach.

Meanwhile, Estelle was playing five-dimensional chess with the three agitated wizard gangsters. It was true that they knew Estelle and the other espers were GEMINI, but that was largely because a dryad had called out the insignia when she spotted it. The fact of the matter was that most magus didn’t know that much about espers. Their magic operated entirely differently, and had different limitations. Sure, you could broadly classify a group of spells as having similar components, and they were aware that some espers could teleport short distances. But a lot of espers could also create huge explosions of light, gravity wells, eldritch creatures, and all manner of other absurdities that would not be very good in this particular situation. Regardless if Estelle was teleporting or creating a nuke inside their barrier, the best course of action was to move for cover while keeping an eye on what was going on. But did it really matter? They couldn’t leave the safety of their bubble without risk, and Estelle decided to fill it with arcane light. They had dove into the booths on either side when the melody went off. It was just potent enough to shatter the barrier and stun the three shadow wizards.

It was the perfect time to act.

Estell managed to get her hands on “Larry and Curly” before smashing their heads together. They went out like a light and sunk behind the backrest they were using for cover.. However, “Moe” had dove into the adjacent booth and wasn’t in head smashing distance from his peers. There Estelle stood, burned and ears ringing from the shots that nearly hit her head. But Moe just aimed his gun at her. His hands were trembling, the gold rings on his fingers looked like they were choking gloved sausages. They both seemed to understand that even if he fired, it wasn’t going to land.

”Yo…” His voice cracked.

And then there was Finn, poor confused Finn. It seemed like everyone wanted him to have an epic battle with Dante, but he was too busy darting around and keeping everyone out of the back of the diner. But this was something Finn took note of, and attempted to exploit it by running out back as fast as he could. There wasn’t a lot in his way. Yes, his body was burning up, and the single healing note he used wasn’t adequate to heal such widespread damage, but it was enough to keep him on his feet. His natural resistance to magic made the flames go out, and he dove over the counter to run for the back room.

”Stop right there!” Dante bellowed.

But Finn would not stop. The time kid did the opposite of stop. He was already swift, but his melody made him that much faster. It was a straight shot to where he had to go, all he had to do was run through the illusionary monster’s hand to get there.

He ran into it instead.

Dreams may be illusions, but they are real to the ones who experience them. At least, until they wake up. Whatever Dante’s sand may have done to Finn, the giant creature that was reaching for him was very much real. At least it felt like it. It raised him into the air and proceeded to squeeze him. The blade on his chainsword spun, and its grip loosened just enough to let him go. But by that point, Dante was back in front of the doorway to the back room, hammer in hand. He was panting hard, likely for all the maneuvering he had to do around the growing inferno.

There was no need for words.

The demon released a bellow only Finn could hear. Simultaneously, the demon swung its fist in a wild haymaker that would clear out the whole diner. Dante surged forward, becoming a giant bullet made of sand. How would Finn respond?

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

The light that Marrie shone in Lenore’s eye got her to wince, but she was far too determined to follow through with her attack for it to be interrupted. This created a brief window where Lenore couldn’t course correct, making her susceptible to Marrie’s reversal. Trapping an esper’s weapon inside a portal wasn’t a bad tactic. Had Lenore committed to her thrust, it might have even worked. But with her wide sweep incoming, it was going to be impossible to catch anything meaningful inside the portal on her small blade.

The blow was deflected, Lenore’s blade cut a crescent shape in the floor in front of Marrie. She was much closer now, possibly close enough to cut. But Lenore kept up her momentum and her shoulder crashed into Marrie. She stumbled backwards, but not without swinging her blade at Lenore’s face. Arcane steel clashed against arcane steel, and sparks flew. Marrie had her back up against the portal on the machine, but she couldn’t pass through it because of how small the portal on Apexer’s blade was. The glow in Lenore’s eye wore away, as did her smile. She didn’t say anything, and resumed advancing on Marrie. She could deflect Lenore’s next few blows, but she was going to need to put herself on the offensive if she didn’t want to get overrun.

"Remember Himiko, dying is gay!"

— Mika Fang

After dispatching the last of the guards on the balcony, Mika looked off the edge at the remaining two on the other side of the smoke screen. As it turned out, a blind and deaf Himiko wasn’t able to land her shots on two men armed with submachine guns. She prepared to launch herself off the balcony when a gray pillar of smoke shot out of the smoke and almost hit Mika, only for her to transform into a spirit and float out of the vicinity. The spot where she had been standing was engulfed in smoke, and moving in close would be risky.

"Crap…"

Mika was down to her last life line. She could escape from one more attack like that, and then she’d be on her own. Mika slinked backwards and hoped the gunmen couldn’t guess her position.

Though when she turned around, she saw Bobo, covered in napalm, Pointing her flamethrower in Mika’s direction. She could prepare a melody, but it wouldn’t come out faster than Bobo’s burning napalm. It looked like Mika was about to say goodbye to her last “get out of jail free” card, but her eyes darted towards something in the air. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no! It was Justin!

The protection Justin had placed on himself was keeping the napalm on his leg at bay, but that paired with the sudden impact shattered his protective blessing, and possibly Bobo’s back. With a “GAH!” The nun fell on her chest. However, the burning napalm that she had coated herself with was now also stuck on Justin, which was going to be a problem.

Or was it?

While Asher had intended to land his shield melody on Justin mid-flight, he needed extra time to really power it up. As such, his melody landed late, arriving just in time to prevent most of the damage he would have suffered.

Mika was about to assist with a follow up, but noticed that Himiko was dead. Well, not dead per say, but out of the fight. Obviously if Himiko had died, she would have detransformed to her normal self. But if she wasn’t moving, she was surely close to death. Mika looked between her companions and Himiko, and cursed under her breath. That stupid esper would make sure she never heard the end of this. She extended her hand, and a spectral cat lept out of her palm and floated over to Himiko’s side. It bound over her, spreading its enchanted magic over her body and preventing her condition from getting any worse.

”What a waste of perfectly good mana."

”I couldn’t agree more!” Bobo pulled the trigger on her flamethrower, and a stream of napalm rained down on Himiko’s body. Before the napalm landed on Himiko, she drove her elbow into Justin. While the blow itself hadn’t hurt, ithe arcane charge in her elbow shoved Justin off of her back. She hobbled to her feet and looked between the two espers on the balcony with her. ”You’re not done yet, are you!?” A surge of smoke surrounded Bobo’s body, and she seemed to grow healthier as a result. ”Come here you little bitch! I’m not done paying you back yet!” She ran at Justin with her mace held out to her side. Mika also let out a war cry and charged after her, but she wasn’t going to reach Bobo before she reached Justin. Unless…

And then there was Asher. He had successfully evaded the molotov, but the machine gun goons were still firing at everyone from behind the smoke screen. The spectral cat was starting to look a little sad, and might not stand up to much more fire. Even if Bobo felt Asher was below his notice, at least the construction workers still thought he was a threat. And then Nova was waiting in the smoke somewhere.

If Asher was going to do something cool, this was the time to do it.

Symphony on High

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The number of threats dwindled, but not the danger.

His size betrayed his speed, but Dante’s hammer was still a hefty weapon that needed proper time to swing. He roared like a lion,preparing to hoist the weapon over his head just as Ashley empowered her shield. She held her own against a mob of cowboys, but it wasn’t clear if this would be enough to stop the bartender. His hammer even put people to sleep, which made it difficult to guess what sort of enchantment she should give herself.

He stopped mid swing when Finn used the tried and true GEMINI tactic of shouting your strategy. As he anticipated, he was preparing to move, which was when Finn would lean in with a strike. Also anticipated, his attack did hardly anything. The electricity arced through his sword, but most of the “damage” was done by his chain blade sawing the sand out of him. Possible oversight, Dante spun on his heel and redirected his swing at Finn. But this was just a feint. He blew sand into the boy’s eyes, and his blade could do little to keep the sand from entering his eyes. It stung a little bit, but otherwise didn’t have any immediate effects. Dante did use the opportunity to slip back behind the counter, and then into the back room.

But what about the fireball?

Estelle’s holy bolt was swallowed up by the fireball. The white hot flames turned orange. It had cooled a bit, but there was still a significant amount of thermal energy in that thing. It needed to be directed somewhere. Her team made a suggestion, but Estelle hadn’t been making a point of taking their advice, and she wasn’t going to start now. She shoved the fireball right back at the mage’s shield. The barrier’s surface made the mages look like they were on an old surveillance monitor. But that changed when the fireball was poked right back at them.

It didn’t have far to travel

The fireball turned into a fire pillar, and then a fire wall. The rolling flames came in all directions. Cowboys and dryads screamed together as the room was bathed in a bright orange light. If Estelle was worried about the dark wizard money gang burning their own members, she might be relieved to know that they made much smaller barriers for themselves as the flames came rolling in. It only took a second for the flames to reach the furthest corners of the diner. But while the explosion only lasted a moment, the arcane flames lasted a bit longer. The tables, wall hangings, and any spilled alcohol was now a roaring flame.

While Ashley had been stabbed by a beer bottle, she was prone when the flames had first come for her. A nearby table offered her just enough shelter that she wasn’t set ablaze. Finn was less fortunate. While he was partially shielded by a nearby table, he was standing, and was set on fire by the fireball’s explosion. And Estelle…

Good thing she had such good arcane resistance. She didn’t have time to get her katana back in front of her, and was struck with the full brunt of the fireball. She was lit up, and the blast itself rolled her over one of the many overturned chairs that littered the place. She’d need to do something before she started to melt like a candle.

But what about the girl?

The mage by the counter was standing up. He had one arm wrapped around the dreaming school girl’s waist while the other was holding up his arcane shield. It was cracked and burning at the edges, but both of them were fine.

”Dayum, glad they went with a level three fireball.” he looked at the girl in his arm. ”Did ya pass out?”

”Coffeeeeeeeeee…”

Dante stepped back into the room. His eyes scanned his surroundings. His teeth were clenched, and his grip on his hammer tightened. ”You stupid boy…” He phased through the counter again, but this time he was moving in arcs, zigging and sagging between the flames as he approached the GEMINI agents. But there were still a lot of fleeing bikers in his way that were about to run them all down. In addition to the stampede, Finn, and only Finn, noticed a giant horned demon rise up from the flames. He could have been Chernobog’s brother, only bigger, with horns that acted like smoke stacks. It reached its hand towards the boy, clearly intending to crush him in its grasp.

Estelle couldn’t catch a break either. The trio of mages looked at each other. ”This a win for the SWMB?”

”Could be.”

”Just gotta mop up the rest of them and then we’re home free.”

”I can’t do that no more, I’m outta juice.”

”You know what they say.” One of them drew a pistol. ”Ya might be outta spells, but ya ain’t outta shells!”

”Aw yee!”

Estelle looked like smoldering refuse from where they were standing, but they needed to make sure the freaky sword bitch was in her place. Two of the mages pulled out their pieces and started to fire at her while the last one lobbed fireballs at anything that moved.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Anyone who valued money knew that gambling was only worthwhile when you understood the risks. You needed to know your odds of winning, what was at stake, etc. Sovereign was waging her life against the lives of the gunmen on the other side. She had a good strategy, and figured she might as well risk it to win big. She could take a few bullets. The only issue was that her strategy relied on sight, and the flashbang took care of that. She wasn’t going to see anything come out of the smoke.

The bullets ripped through the smoke and landed in Himiko. Her right shoulder got nailed, as did her her left leg. A few more bullets struck her torso. She managed to get a few shots off before she collapsed, but it wasn’t clear if she hit anything. On the upside, Himiko had made herself such an easy target that Asher was more or less ignored. Between dropping prone and hiding beside the spirit cat, there wasn’t much for them to shoot at. No one even paid attention to Justin as he fell like a comet.

Marrie was correct. Lenore had once trained espers for melee combat, so her swordsmanship was good. Not that she would know that just by looking at Lenore. Regardless of skill level, it often wasn’t a good idea to give your opponent initiative in anything. One of the reasons why spears were preferred over swords on a large battlefield was because the spearmen could strike first. But such tactics didn’t take effects like magic into account. Marrie was planning something that might give her the edge.

Lenore also decided to take a cautious approach, not being too quick to attack the young esper. She blinked, and her one eye glowed like a demon’s. The corners of her lips curled a bit before she went for a thrust. Only this was a feint, just before Lenore went for a sweep.

"Are… Are we gunna lose this one?"

— Mika Fang

She couldn’t worry about the freelancers now. While she had told Sovereign that she would handle Lenore, it was clear that she couldn’t be defeated alone. Not with Mika’s current skills, and not with so much backup. But if the freelancers could keep everyone busy down below, then she could take care of the remaining gunmen on the balcony.

She checked over her shoulder to make sure Bobo wasn’t following her, but it looked like she was staring at something else, likely a freelancer. Then she looked ahead. The two construction workers had turned their guns on her. This was it.

She launched a spirit snake, which coiled around one of the men’s arms. He wasn’t able to fire, and the one behind him didn’t have enough room to fire on Mika. A smile crossed her face as she pounced on them, staining the balcony with their blood.

Bobo continued to lock eyes with Asher, but she didn’t stare for very long. She reached into her robes and pulled out a bottle with a rag hanging out of the side of it. She lit the rag with her cigarette, which caused black smoke to billow off the end of it. With the molotov lit, she tossed it straight at Asher before turning her flamethrower on herself. Burning napalm poured over the bunny nun, but it didn’t burn her. Would Asher be as fortunate with that molotov incoming?

Symphony on High

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The school girls were almost evacuated, the threats were dwindling.

Ashley was asked to clear the way, and she obliged with a crack of neon green energy. It took a moment to wind up, but it was nothing the drunken cowboys were going to see coming anyway. It flew over one’s shoulder and landed in a cluster of them before detonating. The release of energy was enough to sear the flesh. They hollered and hooted, tumbling out of the ball of green light as smoke rose up from their bodies. Some weren’t moving, some writhed in pain. The way was clear.

Naturally, the highschoolers could barely fathom what was going on around them. Had that weird cosplayer just thrown a molotov? Was that kid holding a chainsaw? Why were those furries trying to tie up the business woman? Would their friend survive being struck in the side of the head with a hammer? There was almost too much to process, to the point that they barely reacted when Finn swooped to their side and ushered them through the group of smoldering cowboys.

”Omigosh! I think he touched me!” But she didn’t stop moving. Even if they couldn’t understand the situation, they knew it was one they didn’t belong in the middle of.

The diner seemed like it was starting to calm down. The Cowboys were down to seven or eight scattered members and must have realized they were way out of their fucking element. The two that remained near Ashley had taken a step back and looked like they might be considering the door. There were an equal number of the more powerful dryads, but some of their members had become quite exhausted from having their mana burned. Surely between their backup and with most of the teenagers being out of there soon, they wouldn’t be hard to deal with. This just left the shadow wizard money gang, who were in the middle of casting a spell.

While Ashley had called for having the wizards neutralized Estelle decided on a more diplomatic approach. It was impossible to see what was going on under those dark hoods of theirs, as only a pair of glowing yellow eyes were visible. What was visible was the growing fireball, and the shield they were erecting to protect themselves from its detonation. But was this a surprise? Ashley had just called to have them taken out, there was a chainsaw wielding emo among them, and someone was shooting spells through the windows. Even the dryads beside Estelle stopped attacking when they realized they were all going to be incinerated. This gave Estelle enough time to call out to the remaining girl, who was stubbornly looking at Dante.

”I know Amanda’s back there!” She pointed behind him. ”What are you doing with her?”

”I don’t have time for you.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. He swung his hammer at the side of her head, and she stumbled into the wall. Sand poured out of her face before she sunk to the ground. ”Where was I?” In a flash, he charged towards Finn and sifted through everything in his way. Countertops, overturned tables. None of it stopped him before he arrived at the boy’s position. Finn was able to get his sword up just in time to deflect it, but he stumbled backwards from the attack. While he was reeling, Dante stomped his foot into the floor, and it came out from under Ashley, kicking one of her feet out from under her. He then yanked his foot out of the tile floor and swung his massive hammer at her. It looked like he was going for a very wide swing.

Violet kneeled on the ground and placed her staff across her lap. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as if deep in meditation. Then nothing happened. Though the school girl that was beside the counter started to stand back up again. Her eyes were closed, but she was grumbling something.

”Amanda…Is in the caffeine… The coffee shop… I’m coming.” Using the countertop for support, she started to walk towards the exit.

But she wasn’t going to make it out before that fireball went off.

Estelle hadn’t seen a lot of fireballs, and couldn’t correctly guess how much stronger a level four fireball was when compared to a level three. But this one was as tall as a man and looked like a small scale sun. The heat was drying out her skin just standing next to it. The three mages had closed themselves in a shield just as the fireball was launched. There was no way to tell exactly how destructive it was, but that didn’t matter. Even if there was no good place to direct the fireball, she could try to minimize the damage. But what was the best thing to do with it?

While Dante seemed unbothered by the ball of fire, the other bikers were scrambling. Some ran to take cover behind overturned tables or to flee out the front door.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Regardless of what was trying to bring Justin down, he decided he needed to go up. Just up. Not left, not right, but up.
Up above the danger, up above the chaos. If the ground was going to get sliced up by some unseen swordsperson, he was going to fly up above. He’d worry about getting down later. His legs weren’t going to take any of Sovereign's bullets, but he might get a fracture or two if he didn’t have a plan for the landing. At least some of the gunmen had lifted their barrels at the suddenly airborne target. Well, that was more fortunate for the people down below. For Justin, this wasn’t looking too good. Getting down safely was starting to look a bit more difficult.

Marrie also needed to escape a dangerous situation, but she decided to go about things in an entirely different manner. For one, she was going to remain on the ground, and two, she was going to change the trajectory of the threat rather than the target.

After shaking off her minor panic attack, she threw a melody into the smoke. The idea was to clear out the smoke, but it didn’t really have that effect. Magic was bullshit, and that was just as true for enemy espers as it was for her. The smoke screen lightly dispersed in the path of her melody, but the rolling fumes were quick to return to their shape moments later. It was no more effective than fanning the air with a pingpong paddle. Even when the melody activated, the swirling winds weren’t quite strong enough to disperse the smoke. It thinned them a bit, but it was still difficult to see the nun hiding within. However, when the nun fired a bolt of smoke at Marrie while she retreated, it veered off course and missed its target. At the very least, aiming would be a bit more difficult. Marrie made her way to the giant engine where she could take cover.

”Ahhh… Fuckin’ brat.” Nova huffed her cigarette before pulling back into the smoke.

Meanwhile, Asher was making an effort to kill some of these ugly assholes. Like many (freelance) espers, he had assumed that just because his opponents were numerous that they were merely fodder to be killed in stylish fashion. But one does not risk melee combat with a guy called “dead head” unless he has a few moves up his sleeve. The fact that he had fucking cathode raytubes for eyes should have tipped off everyone that he wasn’t entirely human. Bui Asher didn’t care how human he was, he cared about how stylish he could look frying this turd. His technique was equally excessive both in how violent it would be and how much mana he would dump into the attack. Whatever didn’t get instantly incinerated was melted like cheese. His target didn’t even scream. He even had a little left over in the tank to finish off the wounded guy from earlier. Usually the GM is the enemy of fun and runs a tight ship to make sure rules don’t get abused. Using a beam to hit two targets without the channel or other such note would usually be a no-go, but sometimes you gotta let the wookie win, and what would Asher be but Han Solo’s best friend?

And Himiko talked some more. She also fired her guns a few times and managed to get two of the construction workers on the upper levels. The others were either hidden behind a smokescreen or were at too obtuse an angle to be fired upon properly.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

— Mika Fang

At this stage, Mika found it easier to just let the weird golden gun lady talk. That didn’t mean she had to listen to any of it though. It was just background noise. What she had to do was stay focused on her target and make sure no other hostels got her. Lenore had just used a melody, so she didn’t have to worry about her using another one right away. Meanwhile, Mika did have a melody up her sleeve. She should have the advantage in this situation. In fact, she was already preparing it while she engaged.

Lenore was a good swordsman. She had her back against a wall and would lose this fight as soon as Mika got in close, but she was very good at keeping Mika just out of reach. She’d swing her sword in an arc, and then use her momentum to comb back around before she could advance. Lenore had likely fought espers for years compared to the few weeks of preliminary bootcamp Mika had. She knew she wasn’t going to beat her in straight up melee. Which was why…

There!

Mid swing, Mika had managed to fire a root at one of her arms, pinning it to the wall. That look on her face, she was panicking! Mika didn’t waste any time. With her opponent momentarily vulnerable, she lunge forward and-

A wave of gunfire ripped through the smoke.

They might not have been able to see the gunmen, but the gunmen clearly had a way to see through the smoke screen. The bullets ripped through the smoke and hit where her body was, only for her to vanish and reappear up on the balcony.

"Crap!" She growled before charging towards the other men on the balcony.

Mika wasn’t the only one that had been fired on. The two distant gunmen on the ground floor had fired upon Asher and Himiko. While Asher was partially covered by the cat spirit, Himiko was standing out in the open. Fortunately, she hadn’t used a melody yet and might be able to defend herself before taking too much damage. As for Justin, the balcony construction workers hadn’t fired many shots before Mika charged their position. Bobo on the other hand… The end of her gun caught fire.

”Let’s make up for last time.”

Liquid flame spewed out of the end of her gun, coating Justin’s leg.

Lenore pulled a steel cylinder out of her pocket and chucked it in Marrie’s direction. It flew closer and closer to her, until it suddenly became Lenore. Meanwhile, back where Lenore had been standing, a flash bang went off that blinded any of the espers on the first floor that were thinking about returning fire. She pointed at her own eyes, then Marrie, before holding her blade in front of herself.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

”Is friendly fire turned off?"

— Isra Mahmud

So the monster still lived?

So there were actually a lot of magical girls waiting in the wings?

But did it change anything?

Osiris was still hanging onto her prey. She had some close calls, as a giant coffin and an energy lance hit pretty close to her position. Though more jarring was when the creature spontaniously caught fire. Though it seemed that the flames had an invigorating effect on her rather than a harmful one. Was her immunity to the flames the wise scientist’s doing? The temptation was to say yes, but she doubted it. Surely if it was the case, she would have taken the opportunity to gloat about how invincible her new form was. If anything, the wise scientist had been far more quiet than usual. Though Osiris wasn’t familiar enough with the doctor to know if that was normal or not.

She briefly glanced in the pink magical girl’s direction. It didn’t seem like she had thrown one attack yet, but moreover, she looked like she was upset. That would certainly make her employer happy, who had made a request to make the girl cry. Why this was important eluded Osiris, as did most of the wise scientist’s requests. All she could do was satisfy them as they came.

But in looking at the pink magical girl, she had noticed the first of the two pyromancers (herein referred to as the pyromaniac) had started shouting for everyone to “hit it with the artillery”. While this would have made sense in a flashy magical girl anime, it made a lot less sense to expend extra energy on a mostly dead monster. But more pressing was that she was still hanging onto said monster and would be in the way of any big flashy attacks. But thinking about it logically, if they killed her, then that meant less competition for the heart stone. It wasn't like she knew anyone here, and who would miss a visitor to New York? As soon as she realized this was a challenge, she couldn’t help but smile at her aggressor’s thinly veiled call to violence.

If there were a bunch of incoming attacks, there was no point in waiting for the fireworks show to hit her in the back. She just needed to survive and be close enough to the monster to nab the heart stone when it appeared. Osiris swung herself on top of the hippo where she could observe her “allies” attacks and take proper evasive maneuvers. Just because she had that up her sleeve didn’t mean she wanted to waist it to avoid some “friendly fire.” The thermal lance struck the hippo, and Osiris held on to avoid getting thrown off. Time would tell if the other magical girls heeded the pyromaniac's call or not.

Symphony on High

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The gemini agents were surrounded, they needed a way out.

Anyone who practiced chess would tell you that you always needed to put some pressure on your opponent. Being too defensive allowed your opponent to spread out and surround you, promising a difficult, if not impossible, end game. Ashley may have opened the window to allow her backup a shot inside, but by this point the cowboys had figured her out. The moment she attacked, she was vulnerable for the briefest of moments. When she stretched out her arm to fire, one of the cowboys grabbed her arm and pulled her off balance. Another cowboy grabbed her shield while she stumbled. Ashley wouldn’t relinquish her shield so easily, but with her arms pulled out to either side, there wasn’t much she could do to protect herself. One of them gouged her shoulder with a beer bottle, another delivered a straight punch directly into her kidney. Then her melody went off to shield her from the next few blows. A punch to the stomach, having a bottle broken over her head, hopefully her backup would fire soon.

The situation around Estelle was plenty chaotic. But regardless of what the other agents were saying over coms or what sort of chaos was erupting around the bar, her objective remained consistent. She had to get those teenagers out of here. Everything else was a distraction. Estelle kept her goal in her mind and moved.

Estelle’s Dai-Katana was a potent tool for defense, and one that could make for some fairly absurd situations. But when the ward and chair collided, it didn’t quite have the effect that Estelle desired. The ward operated by taking an incoming force and redirecting it with an equal and opposite force, at least when it was physically struck. The drunk biker wasn’t a monster, and wasn’t swinging with nearly enough force to lift his own body high enough to get swatted by fan blades. The stool flew out of his drunken hands and pierced the particle board ceiling. Dante hadn’t been keeping up with maintenance, so the stool was more than enough to bring down the rotted truss that the fan was attached to. Spinning blades fell, the bikers stumbled backwards, Estelle slid forward as the entire mess crashed down behind her. It wasn’t as “fun” as what she had envisioned, but the end result was the same: The teenagers had a clear shot.

After Estelle relayed her orders, she set off to distract the goons left at the bar. She knocked over a table, prepared a melody, swung her fist… and something wrapped around her neck.

The dryads had indeed not rooted her legs a second time. Instead, the shapeless fey creatures decided to reach across the room to coil their tendril-like vines around her. One snagged her neck and tugged her backwards over the table she knocked over moments before. The fan that had fallen earlier may have been a threat to the bikers, but it wasn’t much to a group of monsters. But before she was sling-shotted backwards, she managed to reach out a finger and touch the Mage’s shoulder. The resulting mana-burning field caught the dryad sitting next to him.

The mage up until this point had remained seated. He was just keeping his head down pretending not to be there while these other bikers beat the snot out of each other. The Shadow Wizard Money Gang didn’t have that many members after the Shadow Government switched over to recruiting espers only. Now all they had were their bikes and their spells. ”Hey man!” The wizard pointed at Estelle with a finger that had no less than three rings on it. ”Keep me outta that shit!” Otherwise, he made no other motion towards the esper that was getting dragged backwards towards a mob of angry drunk bikers. The dryads sitting next to him were not as merciful, and rushed towards Estelle even as the bikers took turns trying to kick her, with a few making a move for the sword she was holding.

At least the girls were moving now. All but one had taken the opportunity to retreat with their unconscious friend. While the stubborn one remained by the jukebox, the other three carried their unconscious friend towards the front of the diner. The last obstacle in their way was all the bikers near the front door.

And then there was Finn. Bound, choking, and about to get the beating of his life. Despite his age, he could see what was going on around here better than everyone. Everything was turning to shit, and someone had to do something about it. They couldn’t play nice anymore. It was kill or be killed.

Fuck it.

His body erupted with a melody, sending arcs of lightning into anything and everything nearby. The cash register went on the fritz, the lights blew out, but most importantly, the vines around his body loosened up. The dryads screeched out animalistic sounds, but they had been paralyzed by the attack. How fitting that the first thing Finn cut would be made of wood? Their vines, their bodies, Atropos sawed through them in seconds. The dryads howled their last as Finn was sprayed with sap and blood. He’d do it this time. He’d save everyone.

With a “Nyah!” a bolt of violet energy flew through the window and landed next to some of the cowboys. It exploded into a chromatic display of hearts, clouds, and horses, and managed to put four of the cowboys to sleep. It would take Violet a bit to neutralize the entire bar, but at least now Ashley could use one of her arms again. The cowboy holding her wand was fast asleep.

The wizards were far less amused with this display.

”Holy shit! That boy ain’t fuckin’ around!” One of the three at the back of the diner pointed out.

”That bitch attacked my boy by the counter too. If we wait too long, we’ll be next.”

”Know what I’m thinkin’?”

”Level four fireball?”

”Fuck yea!”

The three wizards stepped out of their cubicle. One of them grew a fireball in the palm of his hand while the other two traced symbols in the air.

---

@Vertigo

The nerd continued to stare in disbelief as the “oni girl” left his room. It wasn’t clear if he didn’t hear her, or was in such a state of shock that he couldn’t physically react. Upon leaving the room, “Viper” had a similar reaction. They gave Ciri a thousand mile stare as she told them to to stay out of her way, more or less.

”Hmm…”

Ciri sent off her gorilla to find a hiding place, and then she looked down the stairs while asking her friend for a time. But before she got a response, she could hear the familiar “boom” of a shotgun being fired. Ciri turned just in time to see her minion fall onto its back with a giant hole in its chest. Moments later, the gorilla’s body melted into a puddle of inky darkness and dissipated.

The SPAS-12 was a famous gun, largely due to its appearance in movies and videogames. But it was made at an interesting time when the french police force wanted a gun that could do everything. Part of that everything was the specific use case of being fired with one hand while driving a squad car. It’s not difficult to see why they eventually moved on to more specialized guns that were lighter and easier to maintain. But for an esper, being able to hold a shotgun in one hand and another weapon in the other was a rather nifty trait to have. There was no time to cast a melody, and the barrel was already being swung in Ciri’s direction. She had to take cover.

She dove back into the nerd’s room. He must have been thinking of watching her down the hall, because he was in the doorway when she decided to dive back in. The shotgun went off again, and Ciri fell on top of the nerd, pinning him to the ground.

”Uh…” He remained very still as his eyes examined everything in his immediate surroundings.

Then Ciri got a message back from her friend. He couldn’t actually speak, but the sounds she got back let her know he was saying something along the lines of “He’s slippery.” She could hear another wall break down as the dragon dove back outside, this time lunging out of the hotel and falling into the street. He grabbed onto the adjacent building with his fingers, but this was less to get a hand hold and more to slow his descent. As soon as he was on the ground, he started running out of the alley.

Ciri might be able to try and settle the score with the esper here, but her friend wouldn’t be able to stop the fleeing dragon all by themselves. She didn’t have long before the mysterious esper came through the door.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Justin threw his melody towards the window frame. The glowing ball of electricity might not have struck as fast as a lightning bolt, but it was much faster to get out there, which was what he needed to not become a human torch. However, that slower speed allowed Bobo to react to it. Her eyebrows went up as she stepped away from the window, just as Justin’s projectile bounced to its final resting place. Before he was doused in liquid napalm, he had appeared on the balcony with everyone else. But he wasn’t behind Bobo, he was in front of her.

”Glad you could finally join us.” she grumbled. And with that, all of the espers were inside St Bianchi Church.

Marrie had too many monkeys on her back, so she went intangible, briefly turning into a cloud of fog to get Nova off of her. The nun fell onto her feet, and Marrie attempted to wrap the chain of Apexer around Nova while also poking Lenore with the melody charged tip of her knife. But that was a little counterintuitive, wasn’t it? Apexer had great reach, but with the chain wrapped around Nova, she could only ever get eight or so feet away from her. Nova dug her heels into the ground and took hold of the chain weapon. And pressed her back against the chain. Marrie might have been able to stab Lenore, but she was already running after Mika and Sovereign. She looked over her shoulder and winked as she further distanced herself. Apexer blasted mist out of the edge of its blade as the melody dissipated.

Shotguns were traditionally loaded with standard buckshot, but Asher’s Hatred was only ever loaded with slugs and hellfire. They weren’t particularly accurate, especially when fired on the run, but at this range Asher would have to be a stormtrooper to miss with both shots. One of the shells punched a hole through a construction worker’s chest, right while he was stumbling towards some cover. He finally collapsed near Marrie, wounded but alive. But it was at this distance that she could see why they had such strange head gear. They weren’t wearing goggles, their eyes had been replaced with cathode ray tubes. Her memories of her first operation in Pax surfaced.

Meanwhile, Asher engaged the other gunman in some guntana. He kept his firearm in his hands, but used it to block the incoming blow before kicking Asher in the chest. Though this did more to push himself backwards than it did push Asher away. He’d bought Asher some time to act, but he looked like he was arming his underbarrel grenade launcher.

"I feel like I’ve been taking crazy pills!"

— Mika Fang

For everything that was going on, Sovereign seemed pretty chill with it. Even now, she was cracking jokes and moving like a lunatic with a sword wasn’t trying to end them. That would have been a surprise, but she chose to work for Oros after she cut off her arm. Maybe this level of insanity was necessary for espers. At the very least, being helped to her feet was one of the more pleasant experiences she had when it came to an esper touching her. With a groan, she forced Angelie out of her head. I really wish there was a way I could write that without inviting more puns

Suddenly, and without warning, the balcony where Justin was standing suddenly collapsed. It was as if an invisible swordsman had cut through the wooden structure beneath him. No sooner had Justin made his way in did the floor give way beneath him. There was barely time for a quip at Bobo. As he fell, Lenore extended her hand, and a bean of blacklight hit him. As soon as Sovereign started firing, Lenore and Justin switched places, and she was now firing on someone who owed her a comic.

"Okay." Mika sighed. "I’ll take Lenore, you get the gunmen." Mika growled before charging towards the sadistic nun, who only smiled back at her, black sword in hand.

Nova took a pull of her cigarette, and suddenly the area around her became very smokey. Marrie could feel her chain come loose, as it was no longer around the smoking nun. Though now she couldn’t see anything, and the smoke was only making her weaker.

Bobo pointed off the balcony. ”You still have ammo, don’t you? Keep shooting!”

It wouldn’t be long before they started firing again. This time they had men on every level, leaving few places to hide.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

...*COUGH*

— Suki Oyama

Suki was use to getting hurt. Her blood power necessitated getting hurt to grow stronger. Her pain threshold was high, and being a magical girl made a lot of stuff hurt a lot less than it should have. She had been smashed by magical war hammers, bombarded by frogs, and run across pink flames as cute as their caster. She had no shortage of experiences to draw upon, but couldn't tell you what the worst type of pain she had ever felt was.

Until today.

It was just a jet of fire, but it hit with some force. The shock wave reverberated in her chest like an echo in a cave. Before Suki could even scream, her body was set aflame ash she tumbled backwards through the air. Bouncing across the ground hurt, but it was difficult to pick a single thing to focus on. Her insides had been ruptured, and her outsides were on fire. With the flames all around her body she couldn't even see. Suki was usually at her strongest when she had been beaten this badly, but this was different. The flames cauterized her wounds while burning to the deeper layers of her flesh. She didn't have many options here.

She coughed up blood, lots of it. Suki's blood formed a large tendril that extended out of her mouth. It peeled open like a banana and enveloped her own body. Usually magical flames stopped burning as soon as you got off of them, but it seemed like Ash Bringer's flames could bypass magical defenses. From the outside, it looked like Suki was in a red cocoon. The tendrils released her moments later, and white smoke rose off of her body. It seemed that starving the flames of oxygen was enough to stop them from burning. She wasn't ready to fight anymore, but fortunately, it seemed like the dragon girl had flown off.

I can't believe none of the reports I heard mentioned her ahoge...

It was much longer before the rest of the Detention club arrived. There were a variety of different reactions, from whispers of how beat up everyone looked to surprise that a fucking building got leveled. Though their leader, Schrade, seemed disinterested in the scene. She looked at the magical girls, the wounded, the collateral on the town, and then at the sky. Her minions raced to help (or mock) the injured while she looked up at the sky where Ash Bringer was seconds ago. Then she grinned and said the most Schrade thing possible.

"Interesting."

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

@shagranoz What my character wants isn't necessarily what I want. I'm just playing my character fam.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

I was going to wait for everyone else to post again, but then I decided the RP needed more activity.

Mahou Shoujo No 30 Dai- a spoof rp!

@shagranoz Aw dayum, between crushing its body and severing its head I thought for sure that Osiris might have destroyed its void. Or is the issue that a void is a negative space that gets bigger as it takes damage? I hope Coffin Fortress brought some concrete fill for this one.

Anyway, I didn't really narrate the monster dying, since I feel it's the GMs job to decide that to prevent power gaming and stuff. I was more narrating Osiris's certainty that this thing wasn't going to be alive much longer.