Mahou Shoujo Troper Magica ~ Imaizumi City ~

Chien nods her respect, then turns and walks off in search of the Witch.

Natsumi took a deep breath before looking back at Akira.

"How are you doing? Is that thing on your neck still hurting you?"

"You're just going to leave us here? By ourselves?" Akira asked incredulously, not really expecting an answer from either of the mysterious girls vanishing into the mist. Sure enough, neither so much as spared her a glance before vanishing from her admittedly short line of sight. She sighed and leaned back against the railing; the magical bonds, sensing the slack, pulled in a little. "Erk."

"How are you doing?" Natsumi asked after a moment. "Is that thing on your neck still hurting you?"

Akira shook her head, taking deep breaths to try to get the bonds to loosen up a little. It squished her breasts uncomfortably, but she managed to regain a bit of breathing room, and let out a gusty breath. "No, I feel better now," she replied. "It just feels like a mosquito bite now... is it still there?" She turned her head, baring the side of her neck to let Natsumi see.

edited 28th Feb '11 7:02:31 PM by RedSavant

"It won't be gone until the witch is defeated. However it shouldn't be as active with the witch busy facing Chien and Yukino" Kyubey said, staying behind the two girls.

Meanwhile as Yukino and Chien ran in chase of the witch, they found a more elaborate part of the barrier. Eventually they came to an endless drop. Like an endless valley, the emptiness stretched in all directions with the bottom being a pit of pure darkness. Floating all around the valley there were a great amount of building sized red balloons, all floating slowly downwards towards the pit.

Furthermore they could see movement of something grey flying at great speeds through the empty skies of the witch space. The reaction of their Soul Gems to the witch signaled that she lay somewhere near the pit.

"That's good to hear." Natsumi finally relaxed a little. "I'll keep an eye on you until those girls get this sorted out. Just try to relax, alright? We'll be okay."

...I hope.

She put a hand on the Akira's shoulder. Hopefully the other girl would be reassured, and not realize that Natsumi was probably just as scared. But at least they weren't alone. That would have just been hellish.

Probably going to be my last post tonight. Feel free to switch to the M Gs fighting the witch now, unless Red Savant has something to add.

edited 28th Feb '11 7:31:57 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Akira jumped a little at the sudden contact, but after a second she relaxed. The weight of Natsumi's hand on her shoulder was solid and reassuring, and the warmth of her skin through Akira's school uniform was welcome. Akira drew her legs closer together. Was it just her, or was it getting cold?

Sounds good to me, JTeeth.

edited 28th Feb '11 7:38:52 PM by RedSavant

"Natsumi, Akira, be careful! Some familiars are coming closer" Kyubey said, turning suddenly towards the fog and seeing about five pairs of eyes coming closer and closer.

Meanwhile, on the valley of the witch a bunch of familiars became aware of the two Magical Girls on their realm. A couple of cloud-like beings shot themselves towards Chien and Yukino, the sound of their strange laughter becoming louder and louder as they approached.

edited 1st Mar '11 3:49:47 PM by daltar

Yukino immediately leapt away in order to put distance in between herself and the familiars. Summoning a set of knives between her fingers, she threw them at the familiars, watching as they weaved toward the targets.

Chien jumped backwards, looking at the things.

Experimentally, she cracked her whip at one.

The knives stuck right on target and the familiars lost control of their course once stuck, crashing against the ground and some falling into the darkness below. The one Chien struck with her whip meanwhile, split in two after which it lost it's consistence dissolving as it's excess air spread in all directions.

The location of the witch remained unchanged, lower into the drop and passing through the floating balloons.

Tsubasa was frowning at the school building. There seemed to be something... funny about it. Something odd going on. She felt like she really should dismiss it, it was just another one of those weird feelings. Was she suffering from some sort of weird moving-related version of jet lag? That would sure explain all this.

Even so, she couldn't just leave and ignore this. Tsubasa bit her lower lip. It could've been just her imagination, but... she thought she had seen someone trying to jump from the roof. So she had to stay until she would be absolutely convinced there was no one in danger up there, that there would be no need for police or ambulance.

"Crap!" Akira drew her legs up to her chest - either getting ready to kick or just pulling her feet away from the glowing spots in the darkness. Even she wasn't sure. "Haruna-san...!" And what was it that Natsumi was supposed to do? Defend the both of them from magical scissor-demons with a Bowie knife, especially with Akira immobilized and defenseless? She shot a glance up at the shorter girl; Natsumi's expression was composed, as far as Akira could tell, and she kept her gaze moving back and forth between the slowly approaching pairs of eyes.

Akira snorted. "What the hell am I doing?" she muttered. "Acting all defenseless maiden." She tapped the toes of her school shoes against each other, adjusting the fit, and chambered her legs again. "Come on, Haruna-san, we can take them!" she said, eyeing a crab that was skittering close to the edge of the clear space in the fog surrounding them. "We just have to hold out until Yukino-san kills the Witch."

Chien looks into the pit.

She licks her lips. Would it be easier to climb down the side of the pit, or to attempt to descend via balloons?

She crawled backwards. Balloon descent looked to be her best shot.

Natsumi tightened her hold on the knife as the crabs drew closer. At least there were only a few this time. One of them was almost within striking distance....

I can do this, I can do this....

Natsumi swallowed, and raised the knife above her head, bringing the blade down as hard as she could on the head of the nearest crab. There was a bright flash, and some sort of weird runes hovered in the air before her eyes for a moment. The crab lay split in half at her feet for a moment before disintegrating into dark smoke.

Her hands stopped shaking.

"See, Akira? I told you we'd be okay."

Akira blinked over at Natsumi, and at the tiny sootlike stain on the concrete. "That... well done," she managed, after a second. The strange letters that had flashed in the smoke when Natsumi had stabbed the crab hung in her vision like an afterimage - like she didn't have enough trouble seeing more than five feet already - and they almost seemed to dance around, hanging just on the edge of understandability. It was infuriating, and Akira took out her sudden frustration on the next crab to come into range.

Yukino jumped onto one of the balloons, trying to see if she could get a good view of the witch before attacking.

More crabs eventually appeared from the mist, though due to their slow movements and few numbers they didn't seem like much of a threat to the girls.

From her position on the balloon Yukino could see the witch on the bottom of the pit. As far as witches went, this one wasn't too alien looking. It was rather cartoony looking actually. From the bottom of the pit it rose higher and higher now that it felt the presence of the Magic Girls so close to her. Hauled by two giant balloons and cruising on a sea of small clouds that followed it everywhere a giant caravel with a rooster wind vane in the mast surged into view. On it's deck hundreds of the little crab like familiars moved everywhere in a chaos... and behind the helm of the ship a big blue captain hat could be seen, held afloat by a mysterious black figure underneath it.

Chien to a deep breath, then ran at the side of the pit and jumped, just barely catching on to a balloon.

Standing carefully, she begins bouncing, then jumps to a lower balloon, carefully descending.

Better take out the small fry first... Yukino crossed her arms, summoning an immense storm of knives. Waving her arms towards the deck of the ship, she unleashed the torrent of blades upon the Witch's minions.

The flurry of knives flew straight at their targets, impaling a great amount of the little crabs onto the deck of the ship. However upon being attacked the balloons that carried the ship changed the direction on which they floated, making the ship spin in the air until it's side were lined up with the Magical Girl.

About a dozen tiny window like openings revealed themselves on the side of the ship, from the which the end of a dozen cannons were pushed. At once all cannons opened fire on Yukino and the balloon she stood on, assaulting her with a barrage of cannon balls, connected by a chain to the ship. Furhtermore, the chains and cannonballs, upon coming into contact with something, would discharge a strong electrical current.

Natsumi slouched down next to Akira. She didn't know how long she had been on her feet, swinging at crabs with her magical knife, but it seemed like an eternity. Where the heck did those magical girls go...? At least no more crabs seemed to be emerging.

"So..." She turned to Akira. "Did you leave class because of that witch thing.." She tried to sound as normal as possible. "..or did you just forget to study for the test?" She smiled awkwardly. Maybe if she were lucky she could have a conversation that was just a little bit normal. She needed something mundane to counteract all the weirdness.

Chien watched the Witch open fire on the other Girl.

Grimacing, Chien bounced onto a lower balloon, then laid in wait as the Witch approached her.

When it got close enough, she struck out. Her whip lashed out, the tip making a loud CRACK as it hit the Witch going faster than the speed of sound.

She immediately turned and started bouncing, then jumped to another balloon, hoping to stay ahead of the Witch.

Akira squinted a bit to bring Natsumi's face into focus. "I... well, I think it was a bit of both, really," she said, after a moment. "I didn't study, and I really didn't feel very good when I stood up, but somewhere between those two I started thinking that... well..." Down the hall, two rights, five flights of stairs, sheetmetal door.

"I started thinking that my mother would be embarrassed, and that this might be the test that held me back or kept me from getting a recommendation for college - things like that..." Akira shook her head, and her hair curtained across her face a few times. "My grades aren't even that bad! I take a few hits now and then because... well, because I don't strictly speaking generally pay attention in class, but..." She started in surprise. "Oh no! Half-Baked Wonderland! I just left it lying on the floor... what if the pages get bent, or the spine bends, or..." she trailed off, and went pale. "I lost Ayumu-niisan's place."

edited 2nd Mar '11 8:48:36 PM by RedSavant

"So you didn't study because you were up all night reading your sister's book?"

Natsumi sighed.

"I guess I shouldn't talk about that. I didn't study either because I was too busy writing. Although the test turned out to not be too bad."

"No," Akira replied, a little stung. "I know how to pace myself. I was just upset that I knocked his bookmark out of the book when I left the classroom." After a moment, something else Natsumi had said occurred to her. "Wait, you write?"