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My name is Shoutan Himei. I'm sixteen years old, and I'm very tired.
Take a basic Magical Girl template, influenced most of all by Sailor Moon (note the title). Infuse some Neon Genesis Evangelion, mix in the tone and atmosphere of Animorphs, and add some of the self-awareness of Scream on top. What do you get? The scariest mahou shoujo story this side of Elfen Lied. A Web Original written by Twoflower.
Unlike most stories in the genre, it doesn't begin with the heroine's origin story. In fact, as the story opens, Himei has already spent five years as Sailor Salvation, and acquired a lifetime's worth of horrific memories fighting as the sole grunt soldier in a futile war against the Yamiko. Having initially Jumped At The Call, she sees it as cause for celebration when her boss and Mysterious Protector, Magnificent Kamen (nicknamed " Magnificent Bastard" by Himei and her Talking Animal sidekick Dusty, and a completely unlikable character despite the trope-y name), finally gets fed up with her complaints and fits of Unstoppable Rage and fires her. After all, more even than most, she just wants to be normal.
There's Just one problem: she can't be. Kamen cut her off, but she still has her powers, and still gets the unbearable splitting headaches that signal the birth of a new Yamiko. There's no escape, except one option. And that option is looking more attractive every day...
Written in 2000 and 2001, it thus predates some of the more famous subversive takes on the genre, such as Futari Wa Pretty Cure and Mai-HiME. Available via this link .
This story contains examples of:
- A Darker Me — The Yamiko are the physical manifestation of this. They're just like regular people, but with absolutely no inhibitions or moral concerns.
- All Of The Other Reindeer — A standard High School trope
- Allergic To Evil — Himei detects the birth of a Yamiko via nearly debilitating headaches.
- Americanitis — Inverted. The setting is basically American with just enough Japanese cultural references added to fake taking place in Tokyo.
- Anachronic Order — Chapters 8 and 9, the former being "stream of consciousness" and the latter much more orderly, both venturing into Mind Screw.
- And Your Little Dog Too — If Himei almost losing her friends and boyfriend were enough to trigger a Heroic BSOD, you just knew the guy who kidnapped her cat was going down.
- And I Must Scream — Ami. Oh god, Ami...
- Anti Villain — Dark General Cobalt.
- The Atoner
- Battle Aura
- Be Careful What You Wish For
- Big Fancy House — Seiki's, to some degree.
- Black Eyes Of Evil
- Broken Bird — Himei without a doubt.
- Calling Your Attacks
- Card Carrying Villain — Deconstructed, as being pure evil makes the Yamiko incapable of plotting and scheming.
- Catch Phrase — "This should not be happening"; Himei also grimly quips that "I'm very tired" wouldn't sell any action figures. However, she gains a new one later: "I want to live."
- Child Soldiers — The sailors.
- Clark Kenting — In chapter 4, Shin explicitly draws the comparison with Superman, noting, "The magic even extends to MPEG."
- Collapsing Lair — The entire Yami-Gaia
- Complete Monster — Most of the Yamiko, especially Dark General Radon.
- Curb Stomp Battle — Very, very few Yamiko can stand against even a normal-power Sailor. None can withstand their Unstoppable Rage except the Dark Queen.
- Darker And Edgier
- Dark Magical Girl
- Death Seeker — Argon.
- Deconstruction — ...of heroes and villains both, and Magical Girl stories in general.
- Defector From Decadence — Dark General Cobalt
- Despair Event Horizon — Himei being on the edge of this pretty much sets the tone of the entire story.
- Distant Finale
- The Dragon — Argon
- Driven To Suicide
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Emotionless Girl — Sailor Nothing
- Enemy Without — Happens multiple times, each with significant plot effects.
- Aki: ruins her reputation and tries to kill her. Alerts her to both the existence of the war (including Himei's involvement in it) and her own repressed feelings about her life.
- Kotashi: tries to rape Shin, forever changing their relationship, and brings her a few steps closer to the Truth.
- Himei: One of the most powerful Yamiko in existence, and possibly the most powerful newborn Yamiko in history. Actually tries to mercy-kill her and her friends (along with Dark General Cobalt), who barely make it out alive.
- Seiki: successfully rapes Himei, which finally cracks her much-worn psyche and leads her to lock herself in the bathroom and slash open as many arteries as she can, in graphic detail.
- Shin: subverts the pattern, as it was actually a ploy to take out a Dark General. It works, but then backfires as the Yamiko knocks out the real Shin and tries to murder her rapist uncle, intending to frame her for it.
- Enigmatic Minion — Cobalt and Argon.
- Evil Overlord
- Evil Tower Of Ominousness
- Evil Twin
- Fate Worse Than Death — Take your pick.
- Five Man Band
- Five Bad Band — Although it's tough to say which roles Neon and Xenon fill, exactly.
- Flashback Nightmare
- For The Evulz — The motivation of pretty much all the Yamiko except for Cobalt and Radon. Justified in that they're largely incapable of even having a more complex motivation.
- Four Is Death
- Genre Savvy
- Giant Mook — The insane, nigh-unstoppable, Sailor-killing Super Yamiko.
- Girl Posse — The fashion club.
- Hannibal Lecture — Aki's Yamiko to Aki.
- The Heartless
- Heroic BSOD
- Heroic Sacrifice — Ohta.
- Heroic Willpower
- He Who Fights Monsters — The whole reason the story isn't over in the first chapter.
- Ho Yay — Ohta and Cobalt.
- Hurting Hero — Himei
- I Did What I Had To Do
- I Just Want To Be Normal — Very.
- Infinite Canvas — Used in a few places, especially chapter 7.
- In The Name Of The Moon
- Its Not You Its My Enemies
- I Want My Beloved To Be Happy
- I Wished You Were Dead — Shin to Ami
- Jerk Ass — Magnificent Kamen, Ami
- Jumped At The Call — ...and regretted it. Later, though, others actually "Call" themselves.
- Kick The Dog — Magnificent Kamen kicks it harder and harder as the story goes on.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch — Ami. Even wishing her dead turns into this.
- Kuudere — Himei
- Laser Guided Tykebomb — Revealed to be the purpose of the Sailors.
- Last Kiss — Himei and Seiki — three times
- Late For School
- The Libby: Ami
- Lonely Rich Kid — Seiki
- Loners Are Evil — Cobalt concludes The Quiet One will spawn the darkest, most powerful Yamiko ever.
- This is actually a subversion, as it is stated in the first chapter that the purer the individual, the more evil the Yamiko.
- Love Makes You Evil
- Lyrical Dissonance — One character runs right into it when he is told what the meaning of an American song he's enjoyed listening to while trying to cope with his parents' death. To little surprise, it's a song by They Might Be Giants.
- To be more specific, it's "Everything Right Is Wrong Again", which is quite possibly the worst thing to have been listening to in that situation...
- Mad Artist — Argon
- Magical Girl
- Magic Warrior
- Meaningful Name — In Japanese, Shoutan means "crying in pain". Himei is "scream" or "shriek".
- Mind Rape — Thankfully, the victim tends to block the memory out. Probably closer to "Spirit Rape" anyway.
- Mind Screw — Justified: the chapter where this happens is narrated from Himei after being raped by Shadow Seiki, and her mind is currently not sure of how "cause and effect" is supposed to occur.
- Minion Shipping — As observed elsewhere, Cobalt and Ohta have a definite Burns/Smithers vibe.
- Mysterious Protector — Magnificent Kamen in the backstory, though also a total jerk.
- High Octane Nightmare Fuel — The six-year-old girl's Yamiko. The Super Yamiko. The fate of Ami.
- That six-year-old with a pencil.
"All I ever wanted was someone to play with, and they never would. Now you're trying to hurt me, too, and I have to hurt you back..."
- Non Action Guy — Kotashi
- Parental Abandonment — Minor forms. Seiki lives alone, which he can barely stand, and Himei's parents just don't notice her injuries.
"I told mom it was a fashionable thing at school now to tape your left hand."
- Far worse was the behavior of Shin's parents in her backstory: although not the classical form of abandonment, leaving your daughter with a known child molester as babysitter has got to be one of the most negligent acts of parenting ever.
- It gets worse when you realize that he did it to others in the family, too.
- Personality Powers: Himei's favored attack is called "Nothingness", Aki's is "Amazing Grace", Shin's is "Rude Awakening".
- The Power Of Friendship — Darker than usual, but used as straight as possible.
- Power Trio
- Pure Is Not Good
- Psycho For Hire — All Yamiko, especially Neon and Xenon.
- Rape As Backstory — Pretty much describes Shin's backstory, but not so much Himei in a later chapter, whose experience is explored in more detail.
- Rape As Drama — Several times, including Shin and Himei.
- Rape Is Love — Subverted. Himei knows, deep down and through long experience, that Yamiko-Seiki's actions have nothing to do with Seiki himself, and loves the latter.
- The Reveal — Kamen's, the Queen's, and Argon's true identities.
- Save The Villain: Shin stopping her Evil Twin from killing her rapist uncle.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians — Eventually subverted as Aki realizes that while she does love Himei dearly, it's not that kind of love. Double Subversion in the epilogue, when it's mentioned that she has a girlfriend, Keiko.
- School Newspaper Newshound — Shin; explicitly, she wants to unearth the truth wherever she can.
- Shadowland — Even once using the phrase "shadow realm"
- Shell Shocked Senior — Himei...while still in high school.
- Shut Up Kiss — Himei's and Seiki's first Last Kiss
- Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism — Thrown way out of whack.
- Social Services Does Not Exist
- Suicide By Cop — Inverted: The "cop" knowingly walks into an unwinnable fight.
- Dark General Argon plays it straight later.
- Superpowered Evil Side — The Yamiko, especially Himei (and how!)
- Surrounded By Idiots — Cobalt
- Note: that is both during and AFTER his tenure as a Dark General. After the end of the Yami-Gaia, however, it's mere human stupidity bringing him down. Thankfully, Ohta's available to again bail his ass out, or the poor sucker might just get Driven To Suicide after the dog and pony show had already ended.
- Taking The Bullet — Subverted in the final chapter as Aki is merely wounded, not killed, in the process.
- Theme Naming — The fashion club and the Dark Generals.
- There Are No Therapists — There are therapists, but they never do anyone any good.
- Triple Shifter
- Unstoppable Rage
- The Woobie — Poor Himei. Poor, poor Himei.
- Wakeup Go To School Save The World
- White Haired Pretty Boy — The Dark Generals
- Who Wants To Live Forever — The unnamed priestess who started this whole mess.
- Word Of God — Right on our It Just Bugs Me page.
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