Lonewolf685

Grimoiric Heart

Roma Bhakti

As droll as it was to return to the scene of her crime there was a certain justice to be savored in having the only teacher she'd found respect for bringing her there. A flicker of righteousness rewarded for putting everything on the line to see an injustice righted. In a sense it was exactly the reaction she wanted, thus she had fallen upon her proverbial sword and cast herself upon the mercy of freshly bloodied and battered Magical Girls.

Never had Merrywell known such a blow and, if there was any goodness in the world, it would never again. Yet Roma's head was unbowed as she was brought in Valeria's grasp, a prisoner but an unrepentant one. Even as Olivia approached her and returned the golden rose, a soft shimmer of dream-like blue wafting from the petals as it found itself pressed between the layers of her vestaments. Tsubasa's expression was inscrutable, the stuff of carved marble that could not express the tremor of remorse that her actions where neccesitated in the first place.

"Where I to have met two souls as noble as yours when I first returned to this sunless land I may well have abandoned my plans entirely." The words met Olivia's back, the Magical Girl already departing to the embrace of her paramour and the other Magical Girls. But for all the wishes she may have held for things to have been simple and clean, there was no sanctuary to be found as a melody of calm poured across the courtyard.

"But the cause of my crimes now stands before us." Alas the venom she longed to convey never reached her tongue, voice still placid as a lake on a windless day whilst the target of all her enmity met her face to face. There was no flush of rage or mounting horror, meerly an imposed serenity as the black and white rabbit girl stored unblinking into the eyes of the Grand Minister. Their foreheads met in an almost fond embrace and had she the range of motion her ears would have wrung Lillian's neck like a sodden rag.

"My light has never wavered, merely revealed to me the absense of your own, Merlin the Charlatan. Merlin the Incubus. Merlin the Maker of Kings. The Witness to eternity's passing and the dust of dreams."

To be held so tenderly by the very pinnacle of injustice she fought against had a dark revulsion churn in her gut. The flicker of movement as the inevitable happened almost seemed a welcome end.

Suzuya Kuzunoha

The biggest surprise upon returning to Merrywell after her dead sprint across the rooftops was that the perpetrator was right there and no one seemed hostile. The spirit of her Grimoire had rather grim views of traitors, but Moonlight Tsubasa was already captured. Logically a prisoner was kept for ransom, information, or to await punishment, but this was still the heat of the moment and as she sailed over the walls of Merrywell, there was the expectation of greater hostility still persisting.

Oh, sometimes I hate to be right. Vixen and Grimoire were of mirrored thoughts as a fellow beastly Magical Girl broke ranks with a howl, bloodlust radiating from her in a corona of magic as she sprinted near horizontally to plunge her blade into the captive Celestial. How she hoped to achieve anything with both the Grand Minister and Valeria already holding Tsubasa eluded her but she would not stand idle and find out.

With a leap Suzuya closed the distance and rolled in the air, her tails bristling with steel before flinging the long poles of blazing yari into the ground. The tri bladed spears skewered the earth behind her in a line of imposing flame, a wall at her back as the fox barred her path with both hands open, palms raised to Lupin. When she spoke it was not with the voice of a frail wall flower, but the commanding tone of a warrior mother radiating disapproval at an unruly child. "You will lower your blade before you shame yourself any further!"

---

"I can't believe I said that!" A thoroughly mortified and untransformed Suzuya bleeted as she staggered into her dorm, exhausted emotionally and horrified with her actions. She clutched at her chest, feeling her heart race as she slumped against the door...and found the curious sight of Olivia fiddling with an open letter. Curious that anyone still wrote letters, but if she stopped to think about it there were probably still Magical Girls capable of working a telegraph line more comfortably then a cell phone.

"..." Curious enough to forget her own fatigue she ambled forward, hesitant like a skittish gazelle and read it from over Olivia's elbow. The contents where bizarrely mundane for such heavy events that had just transpired, but the sheltered girl that ached for such activities felt her interest unerringly pulled to it. "A sleepover? That sounds fun. Umm, I hope you all have a fun time...do you think there's room for one more?"

It was a little silly to be so hesitant in asking, as by now even Suzuya knew Olivia was as friendly as could be and wouldn't even consider a refusal, but it still felt like a big step forward in not relying on Tomoe Gozen's influence!

Tower of Fable

Kanbaru Otoko

It was only once she'd stopped talking she realized the magnitude of what she'd just laid on the poor oxygen deprived young man, and that perhaps he wasn't too ready for it. His pink eyes didn't seem to fully grasp everything that was said and were quickly wandering off, passing over Kanbaru's shoulder in the direction she knew Harley to be.

The buzzing of a very happy bee pulled her from deciding if she should let Darwin's Law work itself out naturally or intervene to save him from Harley again, settling for the former in the face of a connection to her past already in her arms. Beaming openly without any sarcasm or avarice to poison it, Kanbaru felt herself relax in spite of the blaring Casino atmosphere as the familiar Dark Magical Girl was at her side.

"Yeah, it's been awhile. Who'd have thought you'd come here as well when you aren't even a Court Affiliate." At least, Kanbaru didn't feel any of that on the bee girl, and it was hard to hide that sort of energy when you'd been close enough to kiss. "Oh, and whose this little missy-"

In spite of Yui's innocent appearence Kanbaru had no warmth to share for her, expression frozen before she curled an arm around Apia and pulled her just a little bit away from the green haired child of nature. "I remember you, Yui. More specifically I remember you not being there for Touka. Leaving her alone in the dark, brooding and toiling and plotting to fill a hole in her heart that ached so bad she split herself into two people. Then when the Magic went and that loving, caring, outgoing other half just dies on us, Touka still didn't have a sister."

The whale wanted to lay into Yui, dredging up the bitter feelings she'd nursed towards the light magical girls, but it paled to her feelings for the one responsible for it all falling apart. She swallowed, eyes closing and chest feeling with a great breath to calm herself. As she settled her hair shifted to its natural blue and when her eyes opened they shined like the sea under a cloudless day. Reaching into her cloak she pulled a bag of clinking gold from her pillaging of Umbra Academy and held it out for the JSTR to materialize and accept. "Take this and go buy Riku off that stage before a bidding war starts. You can have first bite at her till I catch up."

Only when the friendly parasite had gone off to secure a shamed princess who was certainly not going to enjoy the nun's non-existant mercy did she fancy addressing the former Miso residents again. "You want to find Touka? So do I. When I get out of this place and the Tower, I'm going to have to find the deepest, darkest hole in the world, because that's where she went. It's where she always goes when there's no one left to hold her back."

Grimoiric Heart

Disappearing in a flash of light was both a genuine escape and a parlor trick. Tesni had already tasted the Reflection of the Moon's power to commute between reflective surfaces, and amidst the glass paned metropolis of London that in and of itself was enough to rapidly move without difficulty. But to escape the walled academy required a surface of their own already in place, far from the reach of pesky monkeys.

Tsubasa stood atop a disc of shimmering silver, the UFO gliding with ease along the london sky on a rare sunny day. She cast a look back at Merrywell, seeing where she stood through the myriad holes Dynasty Queen had made, though the spectacle of a striken Merrywell was eclipsed by the monstrous fire she saw at her mall hideout. "What a shame. I had been enjoying that art supply store."

The Light of the Moon perked it's head up, reaching into her sleeve and pulling free several tubes of oil pants she waved like a child presenting their haul of candybars. Her peers tittered, soft sounds of amusement filtering through the air while Tsubasa felt her tense muscles relax and settle in to enjoy a tranquil ride over the horizon before looking for a new hideout.

Her pleasant stop at the shop comes to a violent end when a large explosion is heard above. Below Tsubasa a smoldering hole appeared in her flying saucer, which was beginning to teeter off and drift into a building.

A crafted howitzer had fired from below, launching mortar and destroying any plans of a tranquil ride. A large tank crawled across the road like a beetle with rapid speed, large headlights glaring down the villainous Magical Girl as there was one force she had not yet been able to elude or outwit.

"Ze American is here!" Valeria hissed, on the top of her tank as she aimed down her golden revolver towards the girl. "By order of the Academy, I'm taking you in! Dead or alive, it's going to end here for me or you!"

Valeria knew how to make an introduction. She had spotted Tsubasa just as she had left Merrywell, her saucer not the easiest thing to hide as it trailed through the sky. The emboldened magical gunslinger armed with the protective spell Ozma had given to her took it upon herself to challenge the villain alone. The least she could do for the students she was not able to protect.

She'd kick herself for fighting for the Academy, but she'd tell herself she's doing it for Ozma.

The four passengers jolted upwards and the Attendants clung to each other, pantomiming desperate prayer as they felt the saucer teeter down to the earth with increasing speed. Given Roma's lacadasical reaction to sudden artillery fire they weren't begrudged their theater and she peered down at a Magical Teacher who seemed just as destructive as Dynasty Queen. "At least she admits it."

"You three can enjoy a rest while I deal with this. Consider this your vacation." The Celestial Rabbit gave them a nod before stepping off the side of the plummeting craft as it hobbled on towards the Thames. In free fall, a streak of color robes flapping in the breeze as she angled towards the tank and the revolver toting Magical Girl, her fan snapping out to the side and opening. The fin caught the wind and began to spin, accelerating into a drill that came crashing down till the precise moment she snapped the fan closed and choped down directly onto the barrel of Val's tank.

"As the only teacher who has deigned to try and stop me, I accept this challenge."

All the while as Tsubasa approached down to confront the teacher she is being fired on by a machine gun placement on the rim of the tank's hatch. Her fan turned drill saw cracked off the end of the gun but Valeria had plenty of explosives toys to bring to bear against her dangerous opponent.

Several bursts of shotgun fire launched off to the magical girl's chest as the German refused to hold back. Her arms working themselves up a hot steam as she simply salvages metal from the tank to be compressed into guns and ammo. Explosive shells cast forward and Valeria jumped off the hull to continue her pursuit.

"This is for all the girls you've terrorized!" Another shot. "This one is for calling me an American!" She'd empty the magazine and discharge the last canister.

The ceaseless firing in the truest American spirit was a hinderance that had the Eel's tense, body moving constantly as she tracked the trajectories of of the many barrels and found even with presience there was precious little to be done with so many vectors and further spreads of shotgun pellets. The racket of shot pinging off her splayed fan was defeaning, guarding her head while her body felt tenderized beneath her robes.

"I may have terrorized them but I've killed far fewer then you lot ever shall." The rabbit let her gifts fall upon Val, and unlike Dynasty Queen there are ample opening that did not due well when being blocked with golden obstructions. Jamming barrels and sticking pins in the exposed joints of Val's limbs, Tsubasa chose to endure the pummeling till she knew the guns would draw silent and rush in to introduce her fan to Val's face.

Valeria doesn't go unscathed. She'd take Tsubasa's cheeky assault and even as her weapon fell from a jammed left arm, she wouldn't stop using her own body as a weapon. Jettisoning forward with rocket powered boots she'd slam into Tsubasa, a free right arm crushing her fan with powerful metal hands that shred the fabric. There is no need for guns where rocket powered fists that pummel into the Light of the Moon.

"Enough tricks and bullshit!" Valeria said, face to face with the villain. "I've not killed a single girl! I've held myself back! I know full damn well what magical girls can be capable of and what myself as a German is capable of! I'll never stoop to that low, I'll never force violence upon others or make them do something against their will! I'm not a psycho like you are!"

With that said, the girl attempted to pin the witch against the pavement. All the while her tank still rolling forward on its treads without a pilot and threatening to crush them both underneath...

"You surrender now. I'm not budging. We'll go together, I'll make sure of it..." The girl snarled in a bitter tongue, prepared to go as far as needed to fullfill her promise.

Tackled to the pavement in the most brutish of fashions, Tsubasa considered the resolve of the girl astride her and didn't find it wanting. The rain of gold obstructions ceased and hear ears quirked curiously as she settled beneath the teacher.

"Hmm, perhaps you are one of the better ones. Though abandoning your duties just to kill little old me may say otherwise, I will assume you are incensed by my slanderous remarks to your nationality." The rabbit deflated, admiting defeat with grace and far too much ease. But it wasn't like Val knew what she had kept up her robe and she saw no great loss in yielding one worth at least a modicum of respect.

"I yield, Krieger."

Valeria stared down her prey. The fire in her eyes and that inflamed her heart still burning, demanding for a bloody catharsis. Reason finally cooled her off, and with her remaining arm she'd have the tank dissassembled and returned to her living grimoire before it could crush the pair. Quick metal cuffs are latched around Tsubasa's wrists and ankles to prevent an immediate escape. She'd force the villain to her feet while shaking out the golden bits in her arm to restore its functionality.

"Yeah and maybe there's something still good inside of that wicked heart of yours. We'll find out about both of us won't we?"

Valeria would make sure none of her attendants interferred as she kept a weapon trained on the villain's back, forcing her to march back into the tank to be returned to the academy she had just ransacked.

Grimoiric Heart

And thus the short battle ends and everyone can return to Campus.

Grimoiric Heart

Roma Bhakti

Between the clashing of an oversized pipe and the legendary measuring stick of the oceans, Tsubasa's attentions flickered to a new presence that was simply impossible to ignore. The eldritch nightmare that was Olivia's paramour was rather eye catching, but in truth, it was the purity of Olivia herself that the rabbit eared Magical Girl could never ignore. Utterly unguarded in her bearings and words, she highly doubted the girl had ever once seen reason to fib over even something as minor as a second helping of dessert. Before Tsubasa's eyes was a being of love almost but not quite to the point of irrationality, and were there only more of her she'd have never needed to resort to her plan in the first place.

Her plea wrenched at Roma's soul yet her face was locked in a visage of stone, unmoving even in the most turbulent of moments. To know the wrongness of one's own actions even if they were deemed a neccesity didn't not lessen the weight of her sins, and so innocent a cry for mercy seemed to double that burden on her shoulders. Tsubasa exhaled, sparing a glance around herself and determining that she had done enough for now and that she was unlikely to Revise anymore Grimoires before reinforcements arrived.

A rose of scultped gold and lacking any thorns, it's petals open as though frozen at the moment they should fall from the stem, fell into Olivia's hands with non of the menace of what was falling upon Dynasty Queen. It was not worth that which Roma had taken that day but it made a flicker of warmth bloom in her chest to use that power as it was always intended.

Then her Celestial Eyes fell back onto Dynasty Queen after the girl had finished her internal scheming and Tsubasa tensed with horror at the recklessness of the Monkey King. Her intentions were painted with crystal clarity, muscles and movements betrayed even at their most random to one with eyes beyond mortal comprehension, and she needn't turn away to remind herself of who still laid fallen, whimpering and thrashing upon the ground as the Revision put them through pain without comparison.

"You utter fool." Oh how Tsubasa wished to instill the venom she felt into her voice, but it rose not an octave above her flat monotone. She was angry enough to consider serious retalliation but there wasn't the time any longer to play about. Appearing at her side was the Celestial Attendent clad in purple, her green hair already blurring as she moved at the speed of light to answer the reason for her summons. Nary an after image left behind as she scooped up the fallen Magical Girl in Tesni's war path and carried her out to wary the girls already recovered waited in fear outside the shattered cafeteria walls.

The Light of the Mooon was a rather difficult foe to face in a race, of that Tsubasa knew with certainty. Without the fear of a victim behind she fell back, letting both staff and kick sail clean over head as she flattened herself to the ground. A position lacking dignity but affording Dynasty Queen the respect she thought due. Which was to say very little.

"The time for battle draws to an end and it has left as poor a taste as Merrywell's defenses have. Had I not the intent to take everyone alive then I would have robbed you all of an entire generation of Magical Girls in the blink of an eye."

All at once her attendents were at her side, a trio of masked figures helping her to her feet and brushing off the debris stubbornly clinging to her robes. The Reflection of the Moon flashed with moonlight slipping from beneath her mask and Roma stilled, soaking in the atmosphere of Merrywell before her departure. The Pageless broke from their battles even at the cost of their lives, flowing like ink upon a river to clamor upon Tsubasa, a tide of darkness rushing under her robes and swelling her presence with an aura of darkness tinged with forlorn sadness.

"I can never be forgiven for my actions today, and when peace comes upon our unified I will submit to whatever judgement you all may carry out, but from this point forward, the only crimes shall be your own. Choose well."

In a flash of light the raid upon Merrywell ended with the sole aggressor vanishing without a trace and the crash of Dynasty Queen's staff ruining yet another wall.

Grimoiric Heart

Never mind. I’ve reconsidered and done the edit now.

Grimoiric Heart

I’ll edit the post tonight

Grimoiric Heart

Roma Bhakti

Roma's blow to Merrywell had been struck, and though the shortsighted may balk at wasting such a golden opportunity only to isolate it to the cafeteria was folly, Roma had no intention to do more that day. Even as girls fled or were carried off, Dozens did so the ichor of Pageless staining their books. Too many and too publically for this to be swept under the rug and buried beneath the insidious weight of history. As space opened around her and the pageless numbers thinned, either being struck down or having siphoned themselves fully into Grimoires, it gave her a rare opportunity to find herself mono a mono with a Magical Girl of some considerable power.

The smoke of Tsubasa's pipe wafted around Dynasty Queen, and for a moment she saw a lust for battle threaten to overwhelm and send the ape-themed girl into a frenzy that would have been worthy of Ozaru, but the circlet upon her crown constricted the errant rampage in the cradle and left cool eyes facing enraged but still controlled mirrors to her own.

"You say those words and you do believe them, but I would have them proven first." Came her airy reply to a Magical Girl's claim to division from their story, a distinction some held and some wished they had. But words were so petty, flimsy and flickering like embers from a candle, and could hold no more weight then air that carried them without the strength of arms to back them.

The Monkey King lunged. All feral grace and slashing nails but her muscles betrayed her intentions, the intention of her landing conveyed as clear as film to Moonlight Tsubasa's Eyes. The statuesque Magical Girl whirled to the side, hands passing harmlessly through her hair as she snapped her fan out and held the fullness of it between herself and the raised finger gun. At Tsubasa's side appeared the eldest of her Celestial Hosts, called from the trap at the mall with a thought and laying one hand upon the back of a metal fan.

Smooth gold shined brilliantly, a mirrored surface that flashed Tesni's face at her before the surface changed. The view changed in an instant as the mighty measuring stick shot forward and disappaered through the fan, only to emerge through one of the few relatively intact windows in the cafeteria.

The pillar went clean over everyone's heads, smashing into an opposite wall like a rafter was installed far too low in the lofty room.

"You have a fondness for trying to give me the most generous of gifts, but I can not accept your staff. Please, accept these tokens of my esteem as an apology." Leaving the fan to her Host to hold she launched herself atop the pillar then sprang forward, her pipe coming in a downward side slash at the crouched Dynasty Queen just as the first of her gifts came. Gold rained unseen and unasked for, hair clips running through her auburn locks as pins stabbed though lapels and crisp white fabric. Dynasty Queen's feet were prickled, toothpicks carved in loving detail to emulate her spear struck between boot and toe to comprimise her footing.

"My generosity knows neither distance nor obstruction."

---

Tower of Fable

Kanbaru Otoko

Whether by fortune, whimsy, or some hereto unseen plot of Harley's, Thomas was spared from grisly retribution and Kanbaru further relieved from being covered in his guts, as she held little doubt being buried against her breast would keep the offended party from taking out her ire in an immediate fashion. With her powers getting the blood out would be a cinch, but the smell has a tendency to permeate if the meat pinata erupts this close to oneself.

"Oh, so you calmed down, huh?" The JSTR host chirped, feeling how Thomas had forcibly quieted his struggles and now asked for release in a sensible manner showing he was actively containing himself. Which was good for all parties involved, even if Harley and Akiko had walked off leaving the two by their embarrassing lonesome among the throngs of casino goers.

"To answer some of those earlier questions, we are in Harley's Casino. It isn't part of the Tower, in fact, it's the complete opposite of the Tower. Entirely opposed faction to it, and not the kindest to those unaligned. Fortunately you sort of are in a roundabout sense. What with Marianne and all....by the way, when did you become the meat puppet for death itself? Eh, never mind. You can tell us about your love life later."

She waved aside concerns of possession, as the hypocrisy of calling him out on it would have chocked her to death on the spot. Though Kanbaru was reasonably certain no one had a parasite as adorable and agreeable as hers! With a nod to herself she beamed at Thomas, hands moving to smooth out his wrinkled lapels and tug his sleeves into place. "It's owned by that woman you were getting snippy with, and we seem to have gotten here when the entire Abyss floor collapsed and we got shunted out of the Tower. Think of this place like an embassy of sorts, unwanted by the Tower, but tolerated without retaliation. And we just fell across the fence."

A small part of Kanbaru acknowledged she hardly knew Thomas at all, but it was nostalgic to be laying down information for less informed juniors, drawing up images of the good ol' days. If she squinted she could almost see a familiar face. Then...a familiar voice. Once she opened her eyes a vague resemblence turned into a clear face.

Surprise. Disbelief. Her face went through a lot before setting on an outpouring of joy at seeing a fellow from the Detention Club standing before her, and before Apia had a chance to move two arms had enveloped her waist and hoisted her airborne, spinning her around the jubilant whale who had for once not buried someone in her cleavage.

"It's really you, Apia! Not data but the real Apia! This is wonderful!" Her cheers may have made her warnings to Thomas ring hollow, but a little hypocrisy could surely be forgiven in her excitement.

Grimoiric Heart

Roma Bhakti

Moonlight Tsubasa stood, an island of calm in a seen of madness. Her eyes were open, taking in the sight of Magical Girls acting out their age old conflict in microcosm. There were were, even an impressive gathering of Magical Girls looking dwarfed before the horde of Pageless. Some fought on, ready at a moment's notice, never truly knowing what it was to have one's guard down and reaping the benefit. Then there were the new, the slow, and the simply unfortunate who had their hearts gripped with the certainty they would die that very day as they were swept over in a wave of thrashing darkness.

Only to experience something far more painful as Grimoire's manifested. When claws and tendrils and teeth met page and turned to ink that stained stories in new lights. Roma watched with a quiver in her chest as the shrieks of defilement rose around her, standing alone among the tragic birth of her people. Shame weighed upon her unflinching brow, for she could no more guide them then she could have given them the choice. A contemptable method of revolution, but one she had considered a neccesity for the Revolution to be sparked.

The damage was done with the opening strike, and now it was merely a matter of seeing how far it would proliferate before the Magical Girl's stole back the momentum of her surprise attack. Gingerly waltzing around the prone bodies of Magical Girls thrashing on the floor she turned to the greatest point of resistence. A familiar pillar that some may call a staff sweeping aside her Pageless, an almost careless disregard for this being a cafeteria on display.

"An all out assault when there are injured and fallen all around you? Are you truly Wukong or are you one of the quarelsome children of Ghengis Khan?" Her cutting words came with a plate thrown not at Dynasty Queen, but Lilac's sword hand. A sharp sting and nothing more, merely drawing her attention away from own attack to meet the rabbit-eared Celestial. "And you, so ruled by insecurity and fear that you would fall in line at the first suggestion someone desired your aid. Have a spine before the monkey smashes it in a drunken stupor."

She pulled a pipe as long as her arm from a sleeve that certainly couldn't have held it, a flicker of burning ash at its head as she raised it to her lips and exhaled. A great puff of smoke spread outwards, fragrant and scentless all at once. It did only a passing job at obscuring sight through a thin haze, but to those in the Cafeteria that it touched, they would be gripped with an overwhelming feeling of longing.

The desire to save. The desire to fight. The desire to cower. The desire to flee. All of them spiked, driving girls to frantic action heedless of coordination or care for others. Tables flipped as girls once biding their time ran without a thought and left others cowering in petrified balls before the Pageless. Others fought in a frenzy to kill the monsters in their home and destroyed more of it in the process, while those noble souls wanting to protect at all cost through themselves book and all into the monstrous embrace of Pageless just to buy seconds more.

"You two would be better served ceasing your hostility, but I know well how pointless that is to ask of a certain monkey. So I will have to see how long the faculty will leave you to your fate as they so love to do." Brandishing her pipe like a blade she advanced, an island of calm in a firestorm of pandamonium.

---

Back at the mall escape was on the minds of many there, the absence of their foe seen as a clear sign it was a distraction alone and that there focus should instead turn to the barrier holding them in. Already mirror images of a faculty member Roma had never met worked to pummel the dome, and given time or help would achieve it.

A chill of dread washed over all that remained in the mall, their magical senses picking up on a presence most foul. The weight of potency dripped from it, pressing upon them like the Greater Pageless fought in the skies or the amalgamation in the construction yard. Were dots to be connected one might assume the Attendents had hiden away with the Pageless to make such an Amalgamation again, and the feeling growing stronger by the second as it gestated in the dark.