Yui had been listening with attention at Margaret's story, just like her friends had. She gave a worried look at Tama once the story had been heard, but mostly remained silent.
It was only when Miss Tamashi spoke up, after their little Team Spirit display, that Yui could be heard muttering something seemingly out of a reflex;
"...could there be multiple 'demons'?..." realizing she'd probably have been heard, she spoke louder.
"I wanted to tell Tama and Honoka something before we came here. Miss Tamashi, you mentioned the word Demon. I don't exactly know what it means or what it is, but it's the second time I'm hearing it mentioned today..." she marked a pause, thinking. Then, realizing she was doing a poor job at reassuring Margaret, the usual Yui smile came back to her lips.
"Oh!...B-but, whatever it is we'll bring your emblem back for sure! Just like Honoka and Miss Tamashi said. Keep Hope, for it is the brightest of any lights - and fiercest at banishing darkness." If indeed this man was a Demon, then maybe he could provide on some information about the other Demon Yui had heard about - Aegis sister. If she was the source of the Darkness which fell over Miso City...she might have a
lot to answer for.
"Oh?" Miss Tamashi did not miss the mention of demons among Yui's mutterings. Not when the scent of deep magic and chaos was in the night air. Even so, the conversation was brought back to order once Yui focused on the task at hand. Miss Tamashi made sure to meet the younger girl's gaze and smile with a nod; a sign that they had much to discuss later about these demons. But first, they needed to help out Margaret now didn't they?
"Alright girls, no time to sweat! We've got a Demon to wrangle in before the New Year approaches! Please, put on your coats and huddle close to me..." The area was about to get chilly in just a few moments. As soon as every girl had come close to the teacher, there would be a surge of magical power thrust upon them. It was a gentle push but one forceful all the same with the cold buffeting wind of outside slapping against their faces. "Here we are! I've tracked down the Demon's signature to this place-brrr!" Miss Tamashi wrapped her arms around herself, having using some kind of magic to teleport all of them to the foot of Miso Tower Central.
The highest skyscraper in the city.
At the sudden sting of winter air, Tama shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
"Brrr... Well th-that's a quick and easy way to t-travel at least," she commented. Just how powerful was Miss Tamashii? Not only had the teacher seemed to read her thoughts, she'd transported them all right to where they needed to be. Was this proof that magical girls really could become strong enough to make a difference? Tama could only hope so.
She stared up at the tower that reached high into the sky.
"A demon, huh?" Somehow, the revelation that demons existed came as no surprise at all. Her experiences had told her pretty much anything was possible - in particular the things she didn't want to be possible.
"Explains the weird atmosphere over the city. Especially if there really are more than one running around. I would say what next, but that'd just be tempting fate."Honoka, meanwhile, didn't know what she was reeling the most from, the talk of demons or the teleportation spell. She'd thought their only enemies were Nightmares and dark magical girls, but yet again, it turned out there was more to this world than she'd known. Despite her bewilderment and ever-growing self doubt in the face of this unknown threat, she turned and beamed at her friends.
"Whatever it is next, I'm sure we'll be able to take on it just fine!" she reassured Tama.
"Just like we can take on this. Now, let's go kick some demon butt! Uh..." She glanced at Miss Tamashii.
"I take it you've done that before, right? Fought demons?"As Honoka's attention rested on the teacher, so did Tama's.
"If you have," the crystal user said,
"is there anything we should know about them beforehand?"Any further conversation would be immediately halted by a massive crash as a sword impaled the ground in front of them, cratering the concrete and sending dust flying into the air.
"So you approach me willingly? I, Henry Avaritia, the Silver King, Archdemon Conqueror of the Nexus? Very well then, let our battle be one that shall rock this pitiful world to it's-" The grandiose speech was suddenly cut off by a horrid cough as Henry wandered out of the dust cloud, covering his mouth with one of his sleeves as he tried to catch his breath. His eyes were squeezed shut, his other arm rubbing them furiously as his cough died down.
"Fuck, I thought I would be able to do that in one take. Practiced for like an hour, didn't think about dust at all. Deva damnit, I knew I was forgetting something." His arms came away from his face, his eyes watery as he rapidly blinked, his eyes fluttering from that of a normal man to something straight from the void for a brief moment.
Henry shook his head and straightened out his jacket, several strange
blade like devices emerging from his coat and floating around him. They eventually settled behind him, each one pointing their faces towards Miss Tamashi as Henry finally focused on the group.
"Hey wait a minute... those things on you are..." He trailed off as he began muttering to himself, tapping away at several screens only he could see as he completely ignored the Magical Girls.
"Well this is a major downer. I can't believe I didn't notice those earlier, I was all geared up for the best fight of my life and everything." A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head, holding one hand to his forehead as muttered to himself about meddlesome angels.
"Did you need something or what? If you're gonna ask about a place to stay then I'm afraid the hotel is booked, already got someone- why did you bring your kids?" Henry blinked in confusion as he finally noticed the Light Girls, the blades pointing towards them now as he looked them over.
Yui still had a hard time understanding where exactly she was to put Miss Tamashi in all of the paranormal truths she was told and uncovered lately. On top of magic, that is. Her following act didn’t help Yui make up her mind, neither. Suddenly, cold air arose and the whole group was transported, or so it seemed, to another location. The green haired magical girl’s first reaction was to look around for Margaret, but she was nowhere to be found. She turned to Tama, stating;
“I’m fairly sure there are mo--” but was cut off.
The entrance of the great Silver King, Archdemon Conqueror of the...something did not come in a subtile manner. While his entrance was silly, Yui remained on guard. Her eyes traveled from the apparent ‘Demon’ to Miss Tamashi - obviously she was way more than she let on, and Yui suspected she was the strongest of their group. Her reaction in face of the newcomer would tell her how to react. Not being prompt to violence, Yui first spoke up.
“A-are you the person who stole our friend’s emblem? We came to take it back. As well as as some questions.”"Oh dear...you're one of those Nexus bullies, aren't you. I thought that project was scrapped a long time ago," Miss Tamashi said; though it might have been hard to pick up with the sword crashing into the ground. She looked up at the buffeted Demon up high with a sigh and a shake of her head, answering both Tama and Honoka at once.
"Demons, at least most of them, are tricky creatures who often value pride above all else. They also like to monolouge alot but that's neither here nor there...as one can imagine, light is their weakness. Among others things, especially concerning this one." Miss Tamashi smiled once Henry addressed her.
"Goodness me! Do I really look that old? Well, I suppose in a way, these three are my children." She reached out to pat Yui on the head.
"Just as she said, we'd like to ask you a few questions Mr. Silver Demon. Just a few, no more than that. See, my daughter, tragic as it is she can't be with us right now, has lost something most precious to her. Have you seen a shiny object of magical power? Something like, say...the ones I see you eyeing on my girls now," Miss Tamashi said, poking at one of the hovered blades before them.
The moment the blade crashed into concrete, red and blue light flared through the dust. Both Honoka and Tama, or rather Allegra and Angelite, stood their ground as a white-haired man made his dramatic introduction. An introduction cut short by a coughing fit.
Allegra suppressed a chuckle. Even if their enemy wasn't quite as intimidating as she'd expected, laughing at him seemed like a bad idea. The daggers that floated from his coat were proof enough of this, each black blade pointing towards Miss Tamashii.
"L-Leave her alone!" Allegra stepped closer to the teacher, gripping her guitar in preparation for Henry's next move. She trusted Miss Tamashii was more than capable of standing up to the demon, but she couldn't let anyone who'd gotten involved get hurt. Even if, compared to the others, there was little she could do.
"Honoka..." Angelite placed her hand on the musician's shoulder, a gesture for her to step back, while listening to the teacher.
"Monologuing?" Her gaze became a pointed glare as it shifted to the archdemon.
"Yeah, don't they just."She folded her arms, facing the new threat. While she didn't attack, the crystals that made up her wings bristled in case things turned ugly, which they almost certainly would sooner or later.
"Just what do you want with emblems anyway?" she asked, her tone steadier than Honoka's, yet sharp-edged.
"And what's this Nexus project?"From the way Miss Tamashii had spoken of the subject, it sounded to have something to do with this.
A few questions got thrown his way, each one met with a different reaction. Did you steal our friend's emblem? A bored look as Henry buffed his nails on his shirt and checked them for leftover dust. Have you seen a shiny object of magical power like the things you're looking at now? A yawn, followed by a so so gesture. Just what do you want with emblems anyways? A small grin, Henry loved talking about his latest projects. What is the Nexus Project? For only a second, a look of pain combined with fear.
"Alright alright alright kids, let's take it from the top. Didn't think we would be having a lightning round, let me gather my thoughts. Now then, have I seen shiny objects of magical power? Yeah, seen plenty. Some on those other girls I've seen around town, some on you. If I had a nickel for every Emblem I've seen, I would have 15 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it is a strangely large amount considering the topic." A thoughtful look crossed his face as he tapped away on another screen, one of the blades returning to him and rotating several times before returning to look at Miss Tamashii.
"What do I want with Emblems? Well I think they're really fascinating artifacts, this is all high level stuff that's gonna go over your head, but I'm currently doing a lot of investigation into the various aspects. Paradoxum, Eyes, Soul, Heart, Will, it's all fascinating stuff that I could spend hours going over. But I won't, because that's hours I could be spending on decoding the mysteries of the universe and/or killing... wait no, don't kill anymore. That's a bad, people don't come back to life in most universes. Next question!" He clapped, bringing all his blades back together as they assembled into a thin screen.
"The Nexus Project was an attempt to make the perfect army via constant war between three factions. Demons, which I am one of as you can guess thanks to your weird bondage mom. Machina, which were humans up until the point their toasters learned humans sucked and took over the war for them. I ended up joining those dudes because as it turns out, Demons are kind of assholes. Big shocker. And Angels, which are a bunch of losers with sticks so far up their holy asses that it's a wonder they could even walk, let alone fight. Well, there was one good Angel. No idea what ever happened to her, she was cool though." The screen split up into three segments, one showcasing a massive demon with a laser cannon for an arm sitting at a tea table way too small for him, the next showing off
a young woman adorned in all sorts of electronics several dozen wires connected to her from the shadows, and the final showing off an Angel wearing glasses messing around with a large pile of scrap. She appears to be laughing in the photo, which was quite strange considering how the background appears to be a room straight out of Hell, with a massive throne covered in blood and jagged metal off to the side.
"I was a product of the Nexus, one of the greatest killers it had ever produced. Unfortunately everyone else there was a bunch of failures aside from like, one or two other people, so they blew up the Nexus to try again from scratch. I barely managed to escape thanks to my teacher, pretty sure I'm the only one who lived. Sucks to be those guys. Now then, final question! Did I steal your friend's emblem..." Henry made a circular motion with his hands, the screens splitting up into blades once more and producing a drumroll sound effect. As it reached it's crescendo, Henry took a deep breath and said...
"Yeah. I took the emblem." A small portal appeared in midair, a purple pentagram surrounded by several arcane symbols and what appeared to be incredibly long strings of code looping and constantly changing. A small green necklace fell out of the portal, directly into Henry's hand as he presented it to the group.
"I've been working on producing a source of unlimited energy so I can make a Paradoxum at no cost to myself, this seemed like a good start." No shame was present on his face, in fact his face was filled with no small amount of pride. It was like he couldn't even grasp the basic concept that stealing was bad.
"Now unless you have any further questions, I really need to get back to my research. I also need to ask my guest to fight me to the death. Wait no, death is bad in this universe. Keep forgetting about that. Can the child of a Vassal even die? Don't answer that, you don't know."
Member
Savo
