Chevaleresse

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Yayama Yama

Location: Esaka's Low Tier - Banishing Flats
Status: Losing it
LV: 5, EXP: 10/50
Word Count: 1269 (+3)

Yayama rolled her eyes in response to Nadia's jab. It seemed innocuous enough, so she paid it little mind. Especially given that it was, in most cases, literally impossible to break up a fight in this World of Light, unless one was willing and able to beat every participant of said fight senseless at once. She'd noticed that people never seemed to quit until there was a clear winner, but it had always just sort of glanced over her mind until now. It wasn't normal, not at all; even though she knew it would have been impossible, her own inability to see that something was deeply, deeply wrong astounded her. It seemed like such a small thing, but it pointed toward the twisted nature of this bizarre mirror world that had replaced everything and everyone she cared for - not to mention Yayama herself - with pale copies.

Right, that happened.

She'd been distracting herself with the events in front of her, but now that there wasn't a clear problem to solve or objective to reach before her, that task had become significantly more difficult. Her thoughts swirled in a gloomy maelstrom, with a few common threads that kept resurfacing.

Where had they gone wrong? How had they missed this threat? They'd thrown back the Empire until it crumbled, prevented ancient Allagan superweapons from devastating the world, destroyed Ascians and their plots. The Scions and their allies had even defeated the Final Days, something that the godlike entities that had once walked the earth hadn't been able to accomplish. And yet, Galeem had swept it all away, annihilated each and every one of them in one fell swoop. Every trial, every tribulation, every triumph, gone. Each tear shed, each life snuffed out to save another, now meaningless. The peace she'd fought for, bled for, gone to the very edge and fractured her own mind for, vanished like fog under a midsummer sun.

Then there was Petra. The strongest warrior in Eorzea, possibly the entire world, bar none. They'd both had the curious mixture of a kind heart and a willingness to do anything necessary for victory that made for what people called heroes - when they won, anyway. What did this make them, then? It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. You know what's justified. Petra had been powerful, but with her strength came its own sort of weakness, one the foreign heiress had probably been predisposed to the entire time. It was a thing Yayama knew better than anyone, even more than Petra herself. Standing so far above everyone else meant there was nobody around for you to lean on - and a long, long fall when you slipped.

And now she was gone. There might be some poor copy of her out there somewhere, bereft of the one person that understood her the best, left to bear the weight of the world alone. Someone ought to suffer for wronging us so. It was twin blades piercing her heart; Petra was both dead and alive to be abandoned in her darkest hour. Not that she would even know. Yayama put her head down on the table for a moment, preferring to hide her face while she tried to rein in her rampant emotions. You don't have to do that. If you're a fake in a fake world, why not let loose a little?

"Shut up," she snapped, louder than she meant to (especially considering she hadn't meant that to come out of her mouth in the first place.) Yayama - and only she - could see Fray standing a short distance away, arms crossed. It had been a while since they'd spoken directly like this. Right now, the apparition was in the form she'd initially "met" her in: a tall Hyur, face hidden by the dark armor she wore. He? The actual Fray had been a man, but this one was not. "I need some air," Yayama muttered, before heading back outside. There, she made her way into an alleyway nearby, attempting to find some brief solitude. When the lalafell turned around, Fray was there again.

"I thought we were done with this, after the last incident. We finally mended the soul crystal." She crossed her own arms, mirroring the shade's pose. "You're supposed to be gone."

I told you a long time ago that I would always be there if you needed me. And you need me right now. Or, at least, that's what we remember. "We" never did any of that.

"Don't do that. Don't keep reminding me, I still don't know what in the hells I'm supposed to make of all this."

You know as well as I do, that's exactly the reason I keep doing it.

"Well, cut it out." To anyone observing, Yayama was apparently arguing with the air. Had they the right sort of senses to perceive it, they would see her aether roiling, straining like a wild beast fighting chains. "I don't need you, at least not the way you are now. Where's the one who helped me subdue Myste?"

Dead. But you knew that already. Yayama suddenly turned and punched the wall behind her, hard enough to crack a small part of the masonry with her gauntleted fist. I'm sure the boy will be around again, soon enough. But right now, it's my time.

"No. Never again, not like this. We work together or not at all."

You're shouting at the air in an alley. Do you think that's a sign that you're working? When Yayama looked up again, she saw her own face. You've done enough, haven't you? Bled for strangers that wouldn't so much as piss on you if you were on fire, slaughtered men by the dozen to protect a city that threw you out without so much as a single question. Unless you've somehow forgotten how we met? Fray leaned closer. You can't take this any more. You deserve to be free of these chains, much like the people you struggled so hard to liberate. Even now, you work to the benefit of total strangers, who've done naught but sneer at you or treat you like an ignorant child since you arrived.

"I said shut up!" Her greatsword was in her hands before she knew it, wreathed in darkness and slashing through Fray from shoulder to hip. The steel and magic slammed against the ground, tearing a rent in it like it was cloth. Yayama panted with exertion and the effort of restraining the virulent rage toward herself and everything around her. She held her pose for a moment, then drove one end of her blade into the earth, slumping against it. "Oh, blood and bloody flaming ashes, I'm not dealing with this at all, am I?" At least she could talk to herself in the way a normal person would. . . though Yayama couldn't help put get the faint impression of a knowing, smug smile at the thought. "Pull yourself together, woman. You've got a reputation to uphold and a world to save."

Her head turned down once again, resting against her gauntlets and, in turn, her sword. If her friends were still around, she could lean on them. Taking care of them had always helped keep her calm too It had given her a purpose to focus herself on in trying times, and something tangible she could do. It was strange; she'd always been one of the cooler heads, but now she was going insane on her own. She felt the pain of solitude far more than she ever had.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Oh, great. Can I get all my nails pulled out one by one instead?"

---

Yeah, that was about the response she expected. She didn't think that one conversation would get the GEMs as a whole to stop their crusade against dark girls, and it sounded like they had legitimate reasons to be after the Detention Club right now. Hizuki would have to ask them about this whole beach incident later. "Yeah. My number hasn't changed," she said as Morganite was herded away. She was glad she hadn't ended up having to fight the shield-wielder in the end. It might not have gone well, either; the GEM had more awareness of Hizuki's weaknesses than most.

She sighed, staring at the ground for a bit as the snarl of magical girls slowly untangled itself and dispersed. It seemed like she'd mostly made everything worse for everyone by showing up, in the end. Black Gate got hurt, Morganite was sad, and she couldn't even get close to Tsubomi, not to mention making Willow angry. The GEMs weren't any friendlier than before; if anything, it was the opposite. Her goal of talking this through was getting further away by the second. What's the point? Hizuki shook away the thought.

"I'll. . . go look for them." The Daybreak latched onto the excuse to leave the situation, at least for a moment, and took off, flitting between the rooftops between here and the school in the search for Suki's discarded bits.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"This could be avoided if you spoke to me for reasons other than harassment."

---

The cybernetic light girl heaved a sigh as Willow sulkily walked off. Of course Willow was going to be upset with her, as if she hadn't messed up Hizuki's plans about as badly as Hizuki had messed up hers. Willow did save her from getting knocked out by Suki, at least, but the light girl was much more concerned about a friend of hers being hurt than herself.

She turned to Pearl to respond to her and Morganite. "I don't know everything they've done in the past, and I don't really care that much. I just want to help them. They're not actually that bad. They're just. . . I don't know. Troubled? And scared of you. Because the GEMs do things like ambush them in the streets and try to kidnap them." Hizuki failed to keep the accusatory tone out of her voice with this last. "Nobody actually asks about whether we can help dark girls, we just chase them away whenever they show up. It's not right, so I'm changing that."

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

". . . I'm really just trying my best, you know?"

---

Hizuki looked between the two groups of magical girls. She'd been once again left with an unenviable choice, though at least it was in the aftermath of getting Tsubomi back. That's all she'd really cared about in this fight: stopping the GEMs from hurting Tsubomi. As much as she disliked the rival group of magical girls, though, there was only one course of action she could really consider at this point. "Morganite, no." she called out. "I'm not. . . It's a lie. There's no mind control, I just thought this was going to help get Acid Drop back and end the fighting sooner. Nobody needs to get kidnapped by anyone else today." She turned to glare at Willow for trying to take advantage of the situation before returning her focus to Morganite and the rest of the GEMs.

"I'm sorry for lying, even if it wasn't my idea. I was just trying to make things better." Her cybernetic wings drooped as she looked down. She didn't know how the rest of the gathered Detention Club would react to her refusal to play into Willow's scheme, but it felt an awful lot like she was just failing them again. "I'm sorry for being a bad club member, too, but I just can't go along with this."

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"Is there something about being a dark girl that requires you to be as vague and confusing as possible?"

---

Once more, the situation got more complicated. Willow, for some reason known only to her, decided to hold onto her when she started to move, resulting in her motion toward her chosen opponent being less of a soar and more of an ungainly lurch through the air. It might have been related to her, predictably, being angry about Hizuki freeing her captive, or it might have been that Willow had absolutely zero god damn common sense and yet still expected everyone else to be able to predict what she wanted and how she was going to go about getting it. She prepared to follow through on Willow's plan, only for that ominous presence to reveal itself in full, and a hand to rest on her shoulder.

Hizuki wrenched herself backward, taking her spear with her and stumbling out of Morganite's grasp. She didn't have to play at being confused, her head whipping between the GEM, Willow, and the new stranger as she floated a foot or two into the air with her remaining momentum. "I was going to help Willow as a member of the club," she said, her condition once again removing the need to act at sounding like the combination of Willow and Morganite's words was messing with her. Hizuki did her best to appear as though she was looking to Willow for direction as she asked "Should I be flying Tsubomi away instead?"

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Yayama Yama

Location: Esaka's Low Tier
Status: Still a little concerned
LV: 5, EXP: 5/50
Word Count: 534

It turned out that her efforts to assuage the crowd's doubts were all for naught. They got riled up again almost immediately after she managed to pacify them a bit (or at least turn their agitation inwards), and importantly were angling toward a point that Yayama herself was getting very curious about, making it harder for her to think of plausible ways to deflect their suspicion. Furthermore, in the midst of considering a solution to this difficulty, the man currently having a breakdown continued to do so until he was fed up with the jeering mass and treated them to another display of power. At the very least, he stopped to thank her for her efforts, which was always nice. "Just trying to calm things down a bit. Seemed like the right thing to do." She watched him walk off, keeping in mind what he'd said about where to find him later. "Good luck." She wasn't entirely certain what she was wishing him luck for, but it felt appropriate. He clearly had something important to deal with.

She followed the group of fighters out, for reasons that were in equal parts intent and coincidence. Then one of them - Sakura, evidently - introduced herself, and asked a question she never quite knew how to answer. "I am Yayama Yama of the Stalwart Sword, ex-Scion of the Seventh Dawn. Nowadays I'm just an adventurer, but I suppose a lot of people would call me a hero." It wasn't that she didn't think of herself as a hero, per se - it was just that the term felt like an oversimplification. Her journey was long, complex, and far from shining brilliantly the whole way through, with despair and hope in near-equal amounts to be found along the way. "Hero" also seemed to fit more uncomfortably as of late, for reasons she hadn't quite been able to put her finger on. "Mostly I try to lend a hand where I'm needed, and I've never been one to back down from a challenge. It seemed like your group had plenty to deal with internally," she said, vaguely nodding in the direction Terry had gone, "and the crowd was getting agitated enough to be an actual danger, so I decided to step in. Worst comes to worst, they focus on the foreigner who came here to meddle in their ancient customs and barged into a perfectly normal fight unprompted and unwanted."

The last bit wasn't entirely inaccurate. She had no intention of interfering with Esaka's culture overall - there was nothing wrong with martial practice as long as it didn't result in a decision that their less-combative neighbors didn't deserve their lands or treasures if they couldn't keep up with their standards - but the idea of a sanctioned martial arts tournament where death was not only common, but expected was an outlier she wasn't willing to simply sit by and tolerate. "I was hoping to wait a bit longer before I agitated the locals, but I suppose it was going to happen eventually. How are you holding up? That fight looked pretty intense, even if you do know one another, and the big guy seems like he's got a storm raging inside him."

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"This is seriously starting to suck."

---

Willow had been the last person she expected to come to her rescue. Something that almost vaguely resembled a positive emotion began to form in Hizuki's chest as the unreliable-looking magical girl saved her from, at the very least, sudden unconsciousness. That emotion was promptly quashed and replaced with a more familiar frustration as Hizuki realized that her partner had also taken it upon herself to beat the tar out of a girl the Daybreak had been attempting to set up a peaceful parley with. "I swear I didn't know she was going to do this, Mal- Miss Black."

To demonstrate that her word was reliable, she pointed her lance at the rope. The blade on the end briefly became a bar of light that swept over Black Gate, bisecting the bindings and freeing the captured magical girl without so much as singing her clothing. "Get out of here, we'll talk later!" The rest of her ruined THUNDER CRACK fell off her body as she rolled off Willow's unicorn, then rose into the air under her own power. The thought occurred to her that Black Gate might be more or less her counterpart, a dark girl working with a group of light girls, but that only made her think there might be some way to end the fighting. That, however, would have to come later.

The entire situation had, frankly, gone to utter shit, and she was going to have to do something fast. Kaeru had intercepted Topaz before she did something drastic to Tsubomi, and it was probably going to buy enough time for Shatterscape's very clear and rapidly approaching desire to rescue the emotionless girl to be fulfilled. She could feel two impending sources of magic, one of which she recognized from a few moments ago. Impending, but not here yet. Hizuki couldn't fight the GEMs, grab Tsubomi, and ensure Black Gate's escape all at once, so she picked the thing she could most obviously help with - namely, stopping the Detention Club from getting perforated with lasers.

Despite her condition, she gathered her magic and blasted forward toward Pearl. "You bullies aren't getting away with this!" she yelled, charging with her spear in a (much) lesser version of the maneuver she'd planned to unleash on Diamond. She hoped that her speed was enough to prevent Pearl from getting a proper bead on her, but just in case, she flew in an arc, angling to strike the other light girl directly and force her toward an alley where her powers would be less of a problem for the others.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Yayama Yama

Location: Esaka's Low Tier
Status: Curious, concerned for entirely different reasons
LV: 5, EXP: 4/50
Word Count: 619

Yayama watched the duo's battle with interest. Nadia was a much more dangerous opponent than she'd let on, as Yayama had surmised already. Whatever manner of being she was, she clearly knew what she was doing with her abilities. The dark knight had to admit that she'd likely have a difficult time keeping up with the sheer speed of the self-dismembering catgirl, especially combined with her apparent talent for misdirection. Strategies ran through her head as Asher took blow after blow, Yayama thinking about what she would do in the same situation. Other than, of course, not assuming that her opponent was as harmless as she'd made herself out to be. Asher was a decent stand-in for her own capabilities, so watching where she fumbled would help Yayama avoid doing the same - as she suspected this wasn't going to be the last time she saw Nadia.

Her impromptu analysis was interrupted, however, by something she was unfortunately very familiar with. Namely, someone nearby possessed of great power going through some kind of emotional crisis. From personal experience, she knew that these often tended to. . . leak, for lack of a better term, in sometimes spectacular fashion. The emotions that suddenly crashed over her in waves were the main warning she got before being unceremoniously hurled away by the aforementioned leak. After she rolled to a halt, she grumbled something about "keeping Arm's Length" under her breath as she stood up. She reflexively held her greatsword before her in a block as the dome abruptly burst into a sky-piercing pillar of light, though the lack of ensuing impact told her that she hadn't had much to concern herself with in that regard.

The former Flame Captain shouldered her way through the increasingly irate crowd now surrounding the group, which had refused to disperse despite the threat of being tossed about by some aetherial explosion. Civilians never know when to give anyone space, do they? And they only ever run in directions you don't want them to. Technically speaking, she herself was a civilian now, but Yayama Yama wasn't exactly your average merchant. Ignoring any protests, she forced her way toward the front of the crowd. It might not be her place to interfere, but she'd made a career and a name for herself in the business of sticking her nose where it didn't belong, and for the most part it'd worked out in the end.

Yayama stepped to a point halfway between the four people down in the crater and the crowd, then spun around to face the latter. "Calm down already. Look, the big guy's clearly down for the count after that, unless that looks like prime fighting shape to you," she said, gesturing toward Terry's tear-stained face. "No offense," she added, glancing over her shoulder briefly at the four strangers. "If the fight stopped, that means someone lost, and it's clearly not the wolf or her friend. Right?" Yayama hoped she wasn't pushing her luck too far with the crowd. She knew Nadia had tried to turn them against her earlier, and wasn't sure how they would respond to another provocation. "The owner wants us all out, too, so you're pressing your luck with her." The Lalafell jerked her head toward Madam Bo.

She also hoped this group wouldn't find her sudden defense of them to be too suspicious. Truthfully, she didn't have a strong reason to do so. It mostly put her at risk of embittering Esaka's underground toward her for little tangible benefit, other than perhaps the gratitude of four strangers. Her intuition was telling her to pay attention to these people if she wanted to move forward, though, and said intuition was almost never wrong.

Almost.

Kurai Majokko: Tsundere Gekido

"No good deed. . ."

---

Confusion, then startlement. Something around her boosters. Fear, then pain. Metal screeched and plates buckled as the bulky form of her armor hit the pavement. Parts tore themselves free, other components were crushed out of existence, the lonely girl's barrier against the rest of the world spraying out in all directions in jagged steel and torn wiring. Another spike of all the previous emotions when she was airborne again, the inside of her visor displaying a cascade of warnings she was too bewildered to read.

It took a fair amount of focus to wind up her thrusters like this. For lack of a better term, it wasn't very natural. Her spirit, and thus her magic, longed to be free to soar through the skies. With that focus broken, and the armor now letting its mechanical guts fly around the street, the energy had to go somewhere. What remained of the oversized jets on her legs ripped themselves apart in staccato, energy rushing irregularly and uncontrollably out wherever it found - or made - a path. Yet another blast of shrapnel ripped into the pavement as the detonation flung Hizuki forward - or up, or left, she couldn't tell - straight toward a wall. She barely had an instant to feel the sting of failure and betrayal both before the unforgiving concrete rushed up to meet her.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Esaka’s Low Tier - Tea House Tussle

Lvl 5 Yayama (2/50) and Lvl 15 Ms Fortune (143/150 )
Word Count: 1158

When Nadia’s latest wordplay-infused one-liner failed to rile her opponent up, and Asher merely looked past her quizzically, the curious feral naturally turned to see what she was looking at. If this had been the classic what’s-that-over-there trick, Nadia would have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, but as it happened Asher wasn’t trying to pull a fast one; she was taken aback by the irate stranger marching officiously onto the scene. After Nadia spotted the newcomer as well, Asher threw a questioning glance at her opponent as if to ask if this newbie was with her. Nadia shook her head, denying everything.

Yayama proceeded to involve herself with an indignant announcement of her intentions, eliciting an impatient groan from Nadia as she slapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh, brother,” she muttered. It looked like she’d ruffled the feathers of the wrong person. With how much the catgirl liked little dogs, she was well aware that the smallest ones tended to be the most eager to bark and bite. Or did wounding one’s pride count as an attack that triggered Galeem’s influence…? Either way, she couldn’t exactly throw in the towel now, not with so much money hanging in the balance. Sure, she could just steal what she needed, but after letting Asher kick her butt she was too invested. Plus, the redhead actually couldn’t stop herself now, not with that sunset-red gleam in her eyes, and she seemed about as intimidated by Yayama’s threats as Nadia herself (i.e., not at all). Well…if neither combatant could be talked out their duel, maybe the newcomer could be convinced she was the one in the wrong?”

“Aw, no need to get rough, miss…Yayama, you said?” Nadia tried to be civil this time, though she couldn’t quite get the mocking edge out of her voice. “Maybe we got off in the wrong foot. Introductions are a great idea! They call me Ms Fortune the Pun-relenting, and hey, I get where you’re comin’ from. So just hear meowt!

She gestured around at the elegant building, inside which the other Seekers’ two-on-two tag match was still ongoing. “Maybe you weren’t aware, but Fengjian Teahouse is an arena! And it’s a purr-ivate establishment, to boot. You’d know if you were, well, in the know.” Nadia shrugged innocently, as if to say that Yayama’s ignorance couldn’t be helped. So far she’d kept her voice loud enough that the second-floor spectators could hear her, intending to play the crowd. Yayama had let slip a couple choice words, after all, that were bound to turn her precious ‘public’ against her. “I mean, who can blame you. After all, why would a tourist know anythin’ about Esaka customs?”

Irritated whispers began to intensify among the onlookers. Luckily for her, Nadia hadn’t completely zoned out during Investigator Azuma’s introduction at the city gates. In Esaka, ‘tourist’ was something of a loaded word, referring to ignorant outsiders who barged into the city’s somewhat insular community, then try to change time-honored traditions to suit themselves instead of putting in the time and effort to become a skilled fighter. At the same time, the few Teahouse patrons who didn’t scowl at Yayama for her conspicuous self-admission probably suspected her to be a cop or something similar, here to put a stop to their unsanctioned gambling.

Gaining momentum, Nadia treated the Lalafell to a somewhat condescending smile as she bowed, gesturing back toward the hole in the wall. Opposite her, Asher stood with her arms crossed, itching to finish the fight. “So, uh, if you don’t mind, why doncha head on your merry way and let us consentin’ adults do our business?”

“Well, I’d be happy to, if you hadn’t nearly gotten your giblets all over my freshly polished armor. Or nearly taken my head off careening through that wall.” That smug grin was already starting to annoy her. “Honestly, your puns are almost worse than the potential physical injury,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes, not particularly caring whether Nadia heard the words or not.

The feral cracked a grin. “It’s called pun-ishment for a reason! And hey, sorry my dismembered corpse almost bled on you. Promise I won’t do it again!”

Yayama turned her focus toward the redhead. “Don’t think I’m forgetting about you, either. I’m all for beating the daylights out of one another in an organized and voluntary fashion, mind you, but can you at least do so without the part where you endanger random passers-by? I’ve made my annoyance quite clear, but the one thing I cannot abide is putting innocents at risk, customs or no.”

The lalafell then leaned back slightly, casting her voice upward as well. “And for those wondering, I haven’t been any sort of law enforcement for years.” Technically, enforcement had never been a strict duty of hers, but her old Grand Company may as well have been officers of the law as well as soldiers. “I’m not planning on takin’ anything but your coin in bets, don’t you worry.”

Up above, the crowd didn’t seem wholly convinced, but they weren’t on edge any more, at least. Asher stared down at Yayama for a few moments, unimpressed, before scratching her neck idly. “Yeah, yeah. Got a little carried away, I guess.” She yawned and stretched. “We’ll wrap it up nice and easy, ‘kay?”

“And if you’re just itchin’ to knock some heads yourself, you could always put dibs on the winner,” Nadia added. If this gal turned out to be a better sport than she thought, maybe she’d be willing to join in the fun.

“Well. I thought that'd be harder.” Yayama dropped her stance, settling her greatsword on one shoulder and taking a few steps back to give the two brawlers room. “I was expecting you two to resist more, maybe both turn on me.” She didn't seem fazed by the prospect.

Yayama turned and strolled over to a seat, at which point she spoiled her image somewhat by needing to climb onto the seat before she could lazily plop herself down. She gestured vaguely forward between the redhead and Nadia. “Well, go on, then.”

Snickering, Nadia tossed her a salute, then turned back toward her opponent. “Now, where were we?” Her nails hardened into claws as she bounced back and forth, ready to scrap.

Asher slammed her airborne shields together with a resounding clang, then span them off to her sides as she put up her dukes. “Let’s finish this.”

She’s got to be hiding something. The Miqo’te is too confident, and the read I’m getting on her doesn’t feel like someone who’s just here to fight. There was a simple answer, of course, one that went along with her attitude and the shady nature of the establishment. Yayama didn’t have the context to know why, or who else might be involved, but one thing was starting to seem obvious. I’ll need to mind myself.

She’s holding back.