>>1993791

She had opted on a decidedly more involved mani/pedi along with a rather frenetic shampoo and styling. The changes she went through beneath the shear were subtle, but it still looks great and adds illusory volume. You weren’t so interested in the excesses right now, though you did leave maybe a meter of hair on the floor.

“I needed that,” she drops her arms and sighs through a smile.

“Yeah, well you earned it,” you nod, having not really talked shop inside, and offer with a touch of irreverence, “Flying point after a dragon is tough work,”

Not bringing up again what wound up happening afterwards.

She hums at that, and smiles.

“Well, as tough as that was I think you needed something relaxing way more than I did,” she counters, issues of life and death unspoken over the briefest pause and fall of her face before she resumes her expected posture and facade as she turns to faux scold you with a tutting motion, “Now, just relax tonight. And we can worry about making our next move once we know exactly what they’re up to at the AIBA Tournament,”

“I don’t need instruction to relax,” you roll your eyes at that and huff a bit.

“It wasn’t instruction,” Keiko states as a matter of fact before she pulls her hands close and high before making spooky finger waggles and sounds, “WooooOoooooOoooo, relax, you are in my power,”

“Seriously,” you huff again at her earlier hypnotic fix to your panic attack then in progress, “Don’t joke about that,”

Keiko nods and drops stops her little joke as the two of you make your way back toward the the school and expected intersections. Club time is likely already done and most of your classmates are long on their ways back home or in the case of a few of your friends, other business.

“Alright, see you tomorrow Mikage,” Keiko breaks off, “I’ll check in with Midori later to see how things went,”

“Right,” you nod and turn toward the familiar path home...however maybe you aren’t quite ready to turn in for the night.

>Just head home, today was a bit draining between waking up late, Omura-san, and your near freak out with Keiko
>Head to the Crowne Arcade, to burn a bit of time and work out the stress the salon chair didn’t already melt
>You could go spend time in your secret base inside the Crowne Arcade to burn that time.
>It’s getting dark...you could go investigate that park and those shadows AWoL from the enemy…
>You could see if anyone is free to hang out or something. Who?
>Write in

How is everyone today?

>>1993793
>>You could go spend time in your secret base inside the Crowne Arcade to burn that time.
It's been a bit, but I feel like we needed to touch base with Artemis about something.
Something about old world technology?

>>It’s getting dark...you could go investigate that park and those shadows AWoL from the enemy…
Maybe later we can go shadow investigating. Maybe could play to the enemy like we didn't know about the loss of out main contact, but there's still the question of what they are and are up too. Seem to be keeping a low profile and stealing clothes, if I recall correctly.

>>1993872
Drowsy, but ok. Allergy meds and long hours, but doing much better now. Turns out the painful tiredness was more allergy related than work related, I just hadn't realized it until I could barely breathe.

And writing, guess we're a bit sparse to get started today. Maybe it'll uptick after lunch and I scamper out to hang out with coffee and free wifi.

>>1993983
Ugh, this year's fall allergies I fucking swear. Ragweed will be the death of me if not for modern medicine.

>>1993793
Seconding >>1993983

>>1993872
Happy to see a new thread.

>>1994117
All to happy to provide a new thread.

You mull over what you could be doing with you evening. Going home, not going home, being a bother to your friends...spending time with your friends? Actually...


What’s the point of having a secret base if you don’t spend some time there, being secret. Time to head to the Crowne Arcade, or rather your very own personal Karaoke lounge and secret base within the Crowne.

It doesn’t take long to get there, entering as the last embers of the day vanish above the distance of the city. A number of familiar and unfamiliar school uniforms fill the Crowne as you make your way through the sliding doors and toward the back. Between the last two bits of excitement you had to deal with in the cafe and arcade, it amuses you significantly that this place still seems like an emotional sanctuary for you.

The waitress who had been possessed is back to work, and there’s hardly a sign of any of the carnage that had previously been wrought.

“Good evening, Chiba-san,” greets the young man at the check in counter for the Karaoke lounges, “If you’re using your pass today, suite three is presently vacant.

“Thank you, Yeon-san,” you reply and then think a moment, “Is the owner in, I was hoping to have the chance to speak with him,”

He nods, and pulls the curtain aside for you to enter into the back hallway of Karaoke suites before breaking off to the office stairs.

“I’ll go check, and if he’s in I’ll let him know you’re looking for him,” he smiles and vanishes up the stairs while you make your way to the third door.

Even through these sound proofed walls you can hear the thrum of voices and strum of musical notes, muted, from those already in attendance. Its nice to see the place so active.

Sliding your card when you’re certain you are unobserved in the hallway, you quickly move through the shimmering portal and stand in the expansive lounge that serves you as a base of operations. Gliding down the short flight of stairs you set your school bag down on one of the couches and pull open your locker vanity. Fishing out a change of clothes from your school uniform, just something comfortable to wear in the afternoon, you stretch as a mewling yawn draws your attention back to your bag.

Diana stumbles out, and looks around, before shrugging and padding her way over toward the advanced Silver Millennium tech computer console at the far end of the room. Pawing at a gem on one of the support struts, a small bowl of dry food materializes in front of her. Yawning again, your small guardian almost falls face first into the dish.

While you wait to learn if Artemis is even here, you head over to the console as well.

“Sleep well?” you question the small pinkish gray kitten as you scratch her behind the ears.

“Yesh,” she crunches groggily and leans into the scritching before returning her attention to an apparently needed meal.

>>1994339

Cycling through the console’s controls, you see what you can find regarding old world technology. Both mundane and magically enhanced. Given all of the things that have happened lately, you feel as though you should start on a crafts project for your more exposed friends.

And while you’re at it you also pull up some information about vehicles. If only to settle a niggling thought at the back of your mind that it might be useful to have something like a spaceship on call…

Especially after seeing that strange vehicle the enemy had in Paris.

You aren’t reading long, though long enough for Diana to finish her meal and hop up onto the console and curl up, before portal light fills the room. Shortly thereafter a shock white cat with moon crescent.

“You wanted to see me, Mikage?” questions the Moon cat, perhaps surprised that you’re coming in mostly alone.

“I wanted to ask you a few things,” you click again in the interface to pull up a full schematic of some old kind of stellar galleon, “About this stuff,”

Some time later, you leave the Crowne you think a bit more informed than you entered. Context acquired to your knowledge of magic and its use in the ancient past. A ship is a big project, apparently, and something which you need to build toward. However you do have some things to work on in the interim. Minor baubles and augmented things that you can tinker with in your spare time for the others.

Artemis had explained some of it as more art than science, which makes you inclined to think you might be able to conscript Ito-san into helping make the spaceship in the long term given her proclivity and decided career direction.

“What to do, what to do,” you muse to yourself while finding your stride.

It’s late, after dinner late.

“Well, what do you want to do?” questions the kitten on your shoulder.

You did want to check out that park...and the trains are totally still running. It is well time to investigate a mystery.

Taking stock during the ride over, you remember what the others had uncovered on this front. Minor thefts, sightings, and the general tenor of these missing monsters lying low.

Upon approach to the park…


Do this as you are? Or as one of your more benign guises
>Walk around the park openly as you are, just a normal girl out after dark\
>Look for people nearby and ask around about the disturbances, say it’s for a school project
>Wait somewhere until it seems like you’re alone, and attempt to call out any who might be watching
>Grab some street food to carry and set a trap
>write in


Or

Don a dangerous guise, either Eclipse or the Beast
>Sneak around the park and stake out a few vantage points
>Wait somewhere until it seems like you’re alone, and attempt to call out any who might be watching
>Write in

>>1994343
>Do this as you are? Or as one of your more benign guises
>Look for people nearby and ask around about the disturbances, say it’s for a school project
Let's go as our beret wearing guise. Low profile, but a face not our own.

>>1994343
>Walk around the park openly as you are, just a normal girl out after dark

>>1994343
>Walk around the park openly as you are, just a normal girl out after dark

Rolled 46 (1d100)

Alright, I've stepped out for a comfortable corporately monstrous coffee chain because I was too distracted at home, now that I'm settled and we have votes I can get to...

Counting votes and writing.

And...rolling.

>>1994639
>corporately monstrous
You did make sure it wasn’t a subsidiary of Ellis first, right?

>>1994696
Apparently I am still the anon of a thousand id’s.

>>1994696
I don't think so, but the mascot's got this whole striped knee socks above her head muse/siren thing going on.

>>1994714
Eh, sounds harmless enough.

File: newBlackLadyEye.jpg (250 KB, 699x480)

250 KB JPG

Upon approach to the park you don’t break stride. It’s after dark and if everything you’ve heard holds true then the best course of action of to offer a nice and enticing bit of bait that can bite back if need be. There doesn’t seem to be any activity in the park after sundown aside from a few commuters cutting through or across it on their ways home in the evening. Well, just to be safe you invoke the powers of your natural disguise field.

>No One of Consequence Active

There is a quiet here, given the madness of the recent past you imagine that some quiet would be nice. Though, it does err more on the side of eerie. You find it decidedly strange to be put off by eerie quiet or dark. Given your own history you know you are the most dangerous thing in the dark.

Yes. Even with the moon obscured by cloud cover you know the night to be your domain. Each step through the paths of this park are made with confidence and without fear. You stray in the shadows between streetlamps because quite honestly you feel a deeper sense of safety in that than the light.

Not that you want for safety.

Still, you muse after a moment that this might be a better way to attract a mundane creeper over some kind of-

There is a crash and a whoosh of motion behind you as a great spinning axe cuts a bench in half before embedding itself into the blacktop path. The lamp posts flicker and die.

A point of burning red appears in the darkness ahead of you as a thinly built woman dressed in very little steps forward in the gloom. You can see her more clearly than a normal person could in this light, she was probably expecting someone normal to make this intimidating. The glowing point on her forehead is a third eye burning and holding some kind of charge of energy.

You imagine to anyone else this would be quite the sight and experience, axe behind you and this near demonic person stepping out of the night. As you take her in, you realize there is a barely restrained intensity in her non burning eyes.

“Comfortable looking shoes,” she seems to struggle to compliment, or rather demand, “Lose ‘em,”

There is another figure behind you now, hands on the axe dug into the ground. She wears far more, armored, with long hair.

So, you actually have run into two of them tonight. At least you assume. And they’re mugging you for your shoes, just cheap basic shoes you wear to school everyday. A practically unbranded pair of flats.

>Aquise to these demands and say nothing you aren’t here to spook them, just to confirm.
>Engage Princess No protocol
>Feign helplessness and beg for your life
>Attempt a mundane escape
>Aquise to these demands, and try talking to them. What do you say?
>Start a mundane escape, then make it supernatural at your earliest convenience
>Supernatural Escape, which means?

>>1994714
>>1994726
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DiZHWlZJM

>>1994798
>Start a mundane escape, then make it supernatural at your earliest convenience

>>1994798
>>Engage Princess No protocol
I want to see how they handle that. Good judge of their character.
If their threats sputter out, move to offering to get them their own shoes.

File: BQx1rYi.gif (910 KB, 375x273)

910 KB GIF

>>1994798
>Engage Princess No protocol

Writing, got bored of the coffee house and decided to skip back home. Thought I'd be there for two updates, but the day drags on.

Rolled 82 (1d100)

Impassively, not like she’ll quite remember your expression in it’s entirety, you stare back at the barely decent three eyed girl. She seems to vibrate with anticipation about what might be about to transpire. Is she expecting a fight? A chase? Just what is the goal here…

There is only one gauge you can think of, senses locking on to the girl ahead of you and ignoring the one behind you as she hefts the axe one handed and rests it across her shoulders.

“No,” you say the word, taboo it may be in polite society.

Though these are hardly polite circumstances.

She stares at you, suddenly still and her two normal eyes wide while the irises seem to become pinpicks. Uncertainty crosses her features as the trembling and barely contained excitement breaks to this new expression.

“No?” she echoes back in that same uncertainty.

You say nothing yet. Your face an impermeable stone.

Getting nothing from you, she looks toward the girl behind you. A beat passes in the quiet.

The girl behind you explodes in motion, loosing the axe from her shoulder to her side as she charges past the broken bench, leaping from one of it’s split sides away from you to the top of a nearby piece of playground equipment and off and away from you.

“Shit, wait up!” scrambles the sleight girl before you as the burning of her third eye winks out, “This wasn’t part of the plan!”

“Would you like a pair of shoes?” you call after her as she crests the top of the jungle gym slide in a half step.

She turns to look you over once more, quizzically. Third eye shut. She’s about to ask something when the girl with longer hair appears again to grab her around the waist before wordlessly vaulting again. The longer haired girl, the one with the axe, looked intensely worried and afraid when she briefly appeared there in your sight. It shows in impact from where she leapt, hard enough to dent the metal slide.

>Give open chase
>Give sneaky chase
>Time to go
>Wait around a bit longer
>Write in

>>1995367
>>Give sneaky chase
Appearing next to them when they stop should be fine.

File: Bathop.gif (35 KB, 500x400)

35 KB GIF

>>1995367
>Give sneaky chase
Bunny hop!
>cast jump

>>1995367
>Give sneaky chase

>>1995367
>Give sneaky chase

>>1995367
>Give sneaky chase

Whoa there, dozed off. Alright, gonna get my bearings and then writing.

Rolled 11, 5, 16, 5, 6, 18 = 61 (6d20)

Line of sight is broken as they clear the playground, but they are trying to be fast and not subtle. You are quite adept at being both. And you can make yourself better to boot.

>Jump Cat, no MP because of Moonchild
>Vanishing Move used

Vanishing with hardly any effort, and refreshing that invisibility state every few steps, you take off after them. Not directly behind where they had been, but parallel to their path. Through the parks sparse off path simulation of wilderness, which is still all level and flat, you give chase unseen.


Bounding lightly off of tree trunks you easily gain on them and their more frantic rush.

In their rush they make no effort against noticing anything but what is behind them immediately. After a few minutes of this, the more visibly armored of the two slows and stops the two of them behind a tree.

Her axe vanishes, as does her armor. Revealing a piecemeal of taken clothes. Catching her breath, she hastily pulls a foil wrapped pair of takoyaki out of an ill fitting jacket and hastily starts eating one after shoving the other into the three eyed girl’s hands.

“She said no,” worries the scarcely dressed girl as her scarcely there black clothing, which you note also resembles armor, fades for mismatched athletic clothes, “No one’s done that before,”

“I know,” huffs the long haired girl who had earlier held an axe.

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” snaps the other before slowly unwrapping the fish shaped bean pastry.

Both of those are probably stale.

“It was probably a trap,” muses the other, “Of course they’re still looking for us. We need to regroup with the others and lay low...lower for a bit,”

The thinner one kicks the tree trunk they hide behind.

“I hate this,” she whines, “Who does that girl think she is...saying no and...and I can’t remember a single other thing about her!”

“Trap,” nods the other girl as she finishes the pastry and licks her fingers, breath caught, “Come on, let’s go home and tell the others,”

They’re nervous. They’re nervous and are afraid. You recall that the shadows that came out of a few others left their incubating hosts comatose for a while until whatever was taken from them was restored with that shadow’s defeat. Then again you’ve also faced shadows that completely possess their host…

The two before you are different.

>Continue following them
>Appear before them, you just want to talk
>Wait until they’ve gone, you’ve got a few calls to make
>Write in

>>1995948
>Continue following them
I want to eavesdrop a bit more before we corner them to talk. Perhaps even see if they'll corner themselves for us—head back to a lair or something.

File: choices.jpg (120 KB, 575x500)

120 KB JPG

>>1995988
If we follow them back that far, we should go as Eclipse, unless we hear them being worried about that team too, then maybe the Beast? Or pop now and try talking them down as a "normal" girl.

>>1995948
I like
>Appear before them, you just want to talk
but I'd back >>1995988
if we get tied up.

>>1995948
>Continue following them

>>1995948
>Continue following them
Find out where they're based, then come up with a plan with everyone

Writing

And since we have some presence and volume again, how is everyone doing tonight?

Rolled 3, 7, 4, 17, 3, 5 = 39 (6d20)

>>1996137
I'm doing fairly well tonight.
>>1996054
Assuming we make it all the way to whatever sort of lair or base they've acquired, there's a chance marching in as Eclipse or the Beast to question them might end up more intimidating than is immediately useful. If we push too hard, we'll trigger their fight or flight response, and simply showing up in their "safe" space will be a pretty strong push on its own. Even if we appear as a super-forgetable "normal" girl. These two were panicking pretty hard already, and they haven't even seen us do anything yet! Still, the more we learn while eavesdropping, the easier it will be to predict their reaction. And the easier it will be to decide if backup is necessary.

For now, you continue to follow them. There is a curiosity about them and the way they interact. That rather than force or threaten more than they already had, at your blanket refusal they cut their losses and ran. Perhaps afraid themselves of someone who didn’t seem afraid of them.

Their path is winding. After a few minutes of this, the illumination of lampposts from the section of park you ran from returns.

“We didn’t get shoes,” laments the three eyed girl as she looks down at bandage wrapped feet.

“We’ll you’re the one who lost the last pair we were able to grab,” sighs the one with longer hair.

“I know...I know,”

“We’ll need to be more careful from now on,” she muses, “Maybe even leave the area,”

This gives you pause. If they go in the wind they’ll be harder to find. These girls are your in with the enemy...or…

The way they’re acting you’re racking your brain for a few ways to fake their defeat to the enemy’s satisfaction as the Beast…

“No...we can’t...I mean we shouldn’t,” laments the other as the girl with the longer hair sighs and nods.

“Because here we’re at least close to who we remember being?” she finishes the other’s thought with a note of bitterness, “Well we aren’t them, and they get to live their lives now. Free of us and whatever the hell we are,”

The one with three eyes pauses.

“Sis…”

They continue on in silence before coming to another playground in the park. This one obviously meant for smaller children and full of soft coated foam shapes and friendly animal patterns.

Together, they lift a manhole cover and descend. You manage to drop yourself down the whole as soon as it’s open and before they begin their own descent. Using your multitude of abilities in the dark to quiet your landing and await their own leaps.

The tunnels don’t start out tight, so you let them pass and then follow close behind. They aren’t very attentive at all and you’re practically one with the darkness.

After a short while they veer into a side passage, seemingly carved and glassed out of concrete plastic and metal. Its narrower than the other pathways and ends in a den around a space heater glowing red in the dark. There seems to be some kind of stolen and ramshackle fuse box and wires pulled from exposed piping in the ceiling. Here two more girls await in mismatched and mostly wrong sized clothes.

You don’t recognize one of them, the other is the spitting image of Momoko Nakajima. So that’s where these specific shadows came from…as you recall part of the fallout of your ghostly hunt and the momentary killing intent directed at your presence.

The shadow that is not Momoko Nakajima regards the other girls return, and their worried state.

>>1996420

“What happened?” she questions, concern evident in her voice.

“Someone wasn’t intimidated...and we can’t really remember anything about them other than that,” the one with long hair explains.

“That’s creepy stuff that people can’t normally do,” questions the one with three eyes as she sits down around the space heater, “That’s like, things like us right?”

“Or worse,” hums the fourth girl in thought.

They seem to all tense up. A current of fear runs through them.

“We need to stay down here a few days,” suggests the one with long hair, “We’re stocked up on food and if we wait this all out...well who knows what will happen if we wait this out but it’ll be safer than anything else,”

The shadow that came from Momoko that night on the playground nods, and bids the other girl sit with them around the heater. You listen a bit more to their conversations and get a genuine understanding of their idiosyncrasies and personalities. As well as a meter on their state.

Caught between being shadows and having fleeting memories of the people from whom they were born. Worry about the beast that haunts their nightmares and the masters they no longer serve.

You’ve heard quite enough as you back out of the cave and collect your thoughts.

They probably aren’t going anywhere for awhile, and you need to talk to the others about this. Talk to the others and get your own head on straight about what to do. These shadows, these girls, you have only the vaguest idea what to make of them…

Though you believe they aren’t monsters to be destroyed.

Eclipsed Moon Quest Episode 150
Thread Pause
Resume Sunday Night or Monday

Important Vote about Events that Happened Off Screen.

>Loyalty across eons
>Evenly Matched
>Wounded Rose
>Failing Machine

>>1996434
>>Loyalty across eons

>>1996434
>Wounded Rose

>>1996434
>Wounded Rose

>>1996434
>Wounded Rose

Alright, continuation definitely going to be tomorrow, as tonight I’m attending a fancy dinner with friends honoring a mayor I sometimes work with for local tv purposes.

Thread Resume

They probably aren’t going anywhere for awhile, and you need to talk to the others about this. Talk to the others and get your own head straight about what to do. These shadows, these girls, you have only the vaguest idea what to make of them…

Though you believe they aren’t monsters to be destroyed.

Returning down the paths you came, you come to the manhole cover in the park they used to descend into this makeshift lair. Rising the ladder and quietly pushing the disc out of your way before replacing it, you maintain your stealthy state until you are at least a block away from the park and then consider what you witnessed.

They were shadows...just wrong. You think back to your meeting with Hiddenite, Kalunite, and Borealis and how they all but offered these four up to you. For working counter to their goals…

Four scared kids basically in hiding. Sure they’re strong, but they don’t necessarily want to be. They don’t want to be monsters. Probably don’t want anything to do with the enemy, and yet that is counter to the will of this resurgent elysium wreathed in Chaos.

What to do…you shouldn’t just go after this alone right now. And you probably have a few days with them hunkering down like this.

>Head home
>sneak back down there and try to talk to those shadow girls
>There’s somewhere else you need to go, where?
>Write in

&

>Write a mass message about this now and message the whole team
>Call someone to talk about this, and maybe their own stuff from tonight, who?
>Table this for lunch tomorrow.
>Write in

>>2002233
>Head home
>Table this for lunch tomorrow

>>2002233
Well, if anyone can relate to them, it is us.
Strange life of powers, shadows, and having a different "you" out there? Yeah.
Plus our shadowy feat my help them feel better.

The real question is what to do with them, what we can offer them.
We shouldn't leave them waiting in fear down there, need to come up with at least a temporary solution.
Let's mass message the troops and meet at home, have Artemis meet us there too, then we can touch base with the Moon cats and dad (dundundun) about where they might be able to stay out of sight of the Enemy.

Or try to reach dad, knights, and Luna to meet at the Arcade.

>>2002283
I agree, but I'd rather wait til tomorrow. Make sure everyone's had a good nights sleep and at the top of their game when talking about stuff this important.

>>2002283
Which I guess boils down to
>Head home
&
>Mass message team to gather to discuss
This feels like a good conversation to bring dad in on, which is sad given certain meta knowledge.

>>2002292
Ok, how about message with light details to have them start mulling it over for tomorrow (Saori's ideas should be hillarious) and chat with adults at home about it?

Reads discussion, notes agreement, go home, text light details to discuss tomorrow. Talk with dad and Luna at home.

Writing momentarily.

Composing the highlights of your discovery into a text message you send out via your compact to the others. You’ll talk to your immediately available knights and spymaster tomorrow about it, and the rest of the group after school to figure out an approach for this situation. There are a few replies quickly enough, but you’ll read them later while you make your way home.

Rather than roof hop, you take the train again. Keeping a degree of anonymity until you’re in your own neighborhood. The day manages to weigh on you as you do make it home, thinking this is the kind of circumstance to confide into one of the parents you still have access to.z

“I’m ho-” you’ve barely opened the door when you feel like something is wrong.

Through the kitchen you see glowing light emanating from the back garden and the sliding door wide open. Rushing forward on worry and instinct you find Koyomi, Luna, and your father.

He sits on the flagstones of the patio, back against the flat bench of the garden with bandages up and down his right shoulder and upper torso. Some of the gauze is stained red and has visibly bled through from a wound you cannot see. Your father is, save for the labored rise and fall of his breathing, limp and his eyes are closed.

Luna hovers over him applying and maintaining this dressing. Your sister kneels on the bench behind him, glowing slightly and in time with the light of the garden.

Her hands are on his shoulders, and when she glows you see strain and pain cross her face before whatever this is is leached off by the magic your mother invested into this place.

When this round of glowing fades there is a sharp crack, as a branch of the cherry tree at the back of the property snaps. Is Koyomi, aided by the garden, using that empathic healing trick?

>Push the Imouto aside for her own safety and heal with your superior and less risky prowess
>Go to help Luna in her tending of the wound
>Help your sister in the burden of healing, how abouts?
>Dad’s been hurt? Dad. Hurt? Panic.
>write in

&

>”What happened?!”
>”DAD!”
>”Who. Did. This?
>Say nothing.
>Write in

>>2002462
>Push the Imouto aside for her own safety and heal with your superior and less risky prowess
>”DAD!”

>>2002462
I'll support >>2002472

Writing

>>2002472
>>2002545
Concur

“DAD!” you cry out and throw yourself into the garden.

Your shout draws both Koyomi’s and Luna’s attention. As you approach the scene, your sister begins to glow anew at the use of her power to draw on the wounds of others to relieve injury and pain. She already appeared near her limit when you thrust an open palm into her shoulder.

What you witnessed before was likely not her first attempt at using this power, the pain she clearly has now, and she hasn’t taken on the main wound that threatens your father now. Even as she is seemingly bleeding this effect into the garden, it is too much for her.

The force you apply is for her own welfare, you can heal without costing your own health. And in such a quantity that whatever wound your father has suffered will be outright nullified.

“Mikage!” Luna shouts as you tip the already exhausted Koyomi into the grass.

Her eyes were already falling, a smile weakly spreading across her lips, when they meet yours. A thankfulness that you made it home. And acceptance that because you are here everything will be okay. She lands softly, arms spread with a flop, as you turn and thrust your hand to the red soaked bandages.

Expending the pure energy of your starseed, you invoke the spark within you. Planet Power rises in your soul and taps into the reaches of your power that have trespassed into the realm beyond humanity. This power is more a concept that an execution. It’s ideation afflicting the reality of the target with greater raw magical force than the comparatively nuanced and limited ability you have used to push back the shroud of death.

You heal.

There is a flash from that spark. That force of your magical exertion blows your hair back, tails whipping wildly at the exertion while Luna shields her eyes amid the fluttering of her own black mane. He sits up with a sharp intake of breath, momentary shock at his renewal and the binding of his wound.

Falling into him, hugging him tightly, you cry out again for your father.

“Mikage?” he questions, confused of his surroundings for a moment before recognition strikes him and you both realize something else.

“Koyomi!” you both say in unison, disentangling and vaulting alongside one another over the bench to check on your baby sister.

She snores, to your simultaneous relief. Releasing a breath you didn’t know you were holding, you look over to your father.

>Say nothing yet, let everyone just process what happened
>”What happened?” ask calmy
>”What happened!” ask, not calmly
>Write in

>>2002727
>”What happened!” ask, not calmly
We'll be calm. Eventually.

>>2002727
>”What happened!?” ask, concernedly.
Let not get away from ourselves, but this isn't something to be calm about either.

Writing

“What happened!” you ask in near to shrill voice, before finding some sliver of composure and dignity before saying again with decided concern over frenetic energy, “What happened?”

His hand, not the one he had propped your sister’s head up with, pulls the bandages free from his chest and shoulder to Luna’s momentary exasperation. He glances over to the transformed moon cat, after a silent beat they both turn toward you while he stands. Koyomi’s exhausted and sleeping form in his arms.

“After what Kalunite did,” he says with a grim certainty, “And everything we know, I went after Dr. Chau and wound up in a protracted fight,”

“A fight! With Dr. Chau?” you question amid uncertainty and his own disheveled faculties.

“No, he was protected,” he explains as he sits on the bench and props Koyomi up, “by Hiddenite,”

He explains his initial meeting with the renowned humanitarian, how he seemed certain to almost expect his arrival and the immediate mention of Hiddenite by name before he himself appeared from shadows. They fought through an empty office building, few words passing between them but sword and cane crossing.

“It seemed like hours, but we pressed against each other,” he sighs, “The longer we fought, and the harder I pushed his limits the more he seemed to be wreathed in fell power to match me,”

Removing his hand from the place the wound had been, your father looks up into the night sky with uncertainty.

“It kept going through dawn, and became a game of cat and mouse across the top of the city,” he explains.

“A ninja and a thief trading parting blows and skirmishes. At your age you shouldn’t put yourself through such endurance matches,” Luna scolds as she gathers up the ruined bandages and then regards you, “He landed in the backyard less than a minute before you got home, Koyomi and I set about as quickly as we could. Though I’m sure it would have been more touch and go if not for your return,”

You glance over at Koyomi.

“What was she even doing?” you question as you take stock of the sleepy bunny.

“She tapped into the garden, used your mother’s magic to channel your,” she jabs a finger into your father’s shoulder, “wounds through you and into it to keep you stable,”

Nodding, you take these events in. Dad, who you’ve always known to be level headed and above everything, went off against the enemy directly because of what happened. Because Koyomi died. Your dad, who you’d always thought of as invincible, could have died here.

>>2003190


“Before I lost him, one of his blows landed a bleeding wound,” your father remembers, “I took as round about a way as I could to get here, Doubled back over the course of an hour with no sign of him,”

Your power undid what Kalunite had done to Koyomi and Keiko, before it subsequently destroyed him. Is this cascade of events on you? How could dad do something so reckless and risk being taken away from you?

>You’re angry, very angry
>You’re just glad he’s okay
>You don’t understand how he could do this alone
>You’re going to tend to Kyomi right now, this is a lot to process
>Write in

&

>Anything specific you want to say?

>>2003197
>You understand how he could do this alone
&
>He should know better

Hell, even after we've learned to value and trust our team, we'll still lone wolf it.
And his reasoning is probably the same as our old one about not wanting to drag others in.
But he should know better even more than we do.
There are people that rely on him and he has people he can rely on in turn.

>>2003197
>You’re going to tend to Koyomi right now, this is a lot to process
But:
>You’re just glad he’s okay

>>2003197
>You don’t understand how he could do this alone
>>He should know better

>>2003197
>You’re angry, very angry
&
>Explain your thoughts about cascading events, and ask how much of this is your fault.
Mikage is very conflicted! Every vote is attempting to react a different way.

>>2003197
>You’re angry, very angry
>You’re just glad he’s okay
>You understand how he could do this alone
>He should know better
>You’re going to tend to Kyomi right now, this is a lot to process

Okay...so what I'm getting is that this is a very difficult all the things moment full of conflict for Mikage. Yes?

I just want to make sure of that. Because we are very much a bit all over.

>>2003470
Sounds about right. Though I don’t think anyone will object to checking on Koyomi at least.

>>2003470
Sounds about right.

>>2003498
Certainly not. Just working on finishing chargen for an upcoming Shadowrun game and I'll be writing.

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>>2003197
>>2003228
Feels like Terry scolding Bruce.

>>2003428
>>2003470
Fair enough. As long as we get a self aware scolding in, and the more serious we got work to do.

Mikage's grown pretty skilled at remaining calm and focused when she's in danger. When her family's in danger? Not so much.

Writing

>>2003541
It’s a common trait of badasses everywhere to be calm when it’s their life on the line, but not when their loved ones are the ones in danger.
Just imagine how Mikage would talk to someone who tried to kill her.
Now imagine that same someone had hurt Koyomi.

>>2003814
>Just imagine how Mikage would talk to someone who tried to kill her.
I suppose that would look like a calm and collected infiltration plot
>Now imagine that same someone had hurt Koyomi.
I suppose that would look like shaking dust out of their uniform.

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You are a flurry of certainties and uncertainties. Looking at your father with simultaneous relief, contempt, understanding, and frustration.

“You should know better,” you bark at him while leaning into Koyomi and hugging your sister, face hot with sudden tears, “I’m the fuckup who goes off half cocked. Not you!”

You don’t understand how he could just do this on his own...except you do. It is exactly the kind of thing you would do to protect all of them, your family. That’s where you get it from, this drive and reckless self abandon, your father.

“Mikage, you-” he begins but your cut him off angrily, very angrily.

“NO! You can’t just run off on your own like that! I need you, she needs you!” you almost roar, leaning Koyomi’s head into the crook of your neck, “I’m happy you’re okay...but”

Scrunching your face, biting your lip, you lance out your other arm and just pull him into a hug across the bench.

“I couldn’t protect Koyomi and you got hurt...all of this is because I didn’t finish things back then,” you accuse yourself as your vision starts to tunnel.

Screwing your eyes shut, you shake out that frustration and pulling sense of panic. Being pulled in too many direction at once you need something to focus on. So you settle on your sister. Pulling away from your father, and leaning your sister against you as you drape one of her arms over your shoulder, you rise.

He reaches and arm out for your other shoulder. Stopping your immediate retreat.

“Mikage this wasn’t your fault,” he says evenly, “It was mine for acting out of anger,”

You sniffle, but keep your eyes shut a moment longer before opening them to look back at him.

“Can we talk about this later? I...I need to see to Koyomi now,” you offer.

He nods, solemnly. Guiltily even, as Luna sidles up beside him with a rather displeased expression. In a blink she is a cat on his shoulder with one paw raised and a close set of red abrasions on his cheek as you leader your baby sister back into the house. The beginnings of her own level scolding beginning as you hurriedly take to the stairs.

Setting her down on her bed, she seems so serene.

Okay, you’re focusing on taking care of her right now. That’s what matters.

>she’s a Sailor Guardian, it may do well just to make sure she’s comfortable and let her sleep
>If she’s just passed out, some basic magic healing should do to revitalize her.
>It’s late and you’re probably going to bed, you’ve already used your strongest magic, maybe go down a tier
>Write in

>>2003845
>If she’s just passed out, some basic magic healing should do to revitalize her.

>>2003845
>>she’s a Sailor Guardian, it may do well just to make sure she’s comfortable and let her sleep
>>If she’s just passed out, some basic magic healing should do to revitalize her.
Lesser Restoration should help, but she's likely to keep resting even after a bit of refreshing.
Next up, let's focus on tasks.
See if he learned anything useful, tell him about the girls, and consider actions for both fronts.

>>2003845
>If she’s just passed out, some basic magic healing should do to revitalize her.
As I'm reading it, if the third option is healing magic a tier down from our highest, the second option is another tier or two down from that more moderate level. Correct?

>>2003905
Cure Critical as opposed to breath of life.

>>2003845
>she’s a Sailor Guardian, it may do well just to make sure she’s comfortable and let her sleep
Even if she was injured, she'd shurg it off with some rest thanks to mythic senshi powers. Besides, she likes sleep.

Alright.

2 votes basic

1 vote sleeping things off

1 vote for cure basic and then letting her sleep things off.

It was already in the queue of action to talk to dad about the shadow girls, so lets get that ball rolling.

Writing.

As she lay there, you take stock of things. It’s already late. After dinner late. You could just let Koyomi sleep things off, and she will once you’re sure she’s okay and capable of being conscious. Laying a hand on her forehead, you take a steadying breath and let your magic do its work.

You aren’t digging deep into your starseed this time, just the magics that are just beneath the surface of yourself. This glowing touch courses through her, and as it fades her eyes flutter open with a yawn.

At first, she is confused. When her own memories catch up to her, she sits bolt upright, you catch her.

“Is dad-” she rattles out quickly as you shush her.

“He’s fine. He’s fine, I got to him in time,” you hold her shoulders a second, “You did good keeping him up as long as you did,”

“Mikage-nee, have you been crying?” she takes you in and questions after a moment’s pause to bask in your praise.

“...yeah,” you mumble, “I don’t wanna go into it,”

She nods, before pulling you into a tight hug.

“What happened to dad? Did he say?” she asks carefully.

“He said it was Hiddenite,” you explain, “Just, don’t dwell on it right now. Okay? You need to get some sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow,”

She nods, a bit mutely and kicks her legs over the edge of the bed as she releases you.

“It’s happening, isn’t it,” she asks softly, “Everything is coming to a head,”

That gives you pause.

“Maybe,” you offer, “We’ll know soon enough,”

She scrunches her fists up as she squares her shoulders.

“Right,” she nods firmly before meeting your gaze head on, “I’ll be ready, Mikage-nee. I need to get changed, can’t really sleep in this,”

You crack a smile through tear stained cheeks.

“Liar,” you offer as you reach up to pinch her’s, before you relax your grip and just hug her again, “You can sleep anywhere,”

“Just, tell me everything in the morning,” she asks, “About those girls too, promise?”

“Promise,” you nod and lean back and away from her and pause in the door frame, “Good night, Koyomi,”

“Goodnight, Mikage-nee,” she yawns somberly, glancing over to her desk and dresser.

As you close her door and head back for the stairs, you feel...alone. Looking down at your hand, you miss the weight of the Shintennou and the guidance they were able to provide you for a time. Even if it was a drain on your stability, their counsel and just their presence more than made up for it…

Now. Now they are present in those you trust. They aren’t here, but in a way they are exactly where you truly need them.

Descending the stairs, you can hear the sounds of conversation and scolding.

“A cane to a protracted sword fight, really?” Luna scolds as she paces on four paws across the kitchen island.

>>2004371

“Had I gone full armor and sword, it would have slowed me down,” your father explains defensively, “He was all about speed,”

“And I suppose you wasted your breath trying to convince him he was one the path of villainy or some such,” sighs the cat as you course through the living room.

Your father raises both hands in defense to her as you enter into the kitchen. Pausing mid breath and then pressing the bridge of his nose and deflating in admission.

“Yes,” he snaps up, “Though he’s a zealot through and through, claiming I didn’t understand what was at stake,”

“Did he recognize you as Endymion?” you force your way into the conversation, and then pause to consider, “Koyomi’s fine. She’s going to sleep but wants to know about what happened in the morning,”

Your father and Luna nod at that.

“He did not,” he reasons and then frowns, “No telling how he would have reacted to that,”

You nod...from what you’ve gathered Hiddenite has been alive a very long time. Those prosthetics, that circuitry burned into his skin. How he reacted to your eyes when you first came against him to save Keiko…

“Well, getting away from that man...I have news,” you explain and take a seat at the kitchen table after closing the door to the back yard.

“What about?” questions Luna as your father nods and offers his attention.

“As part of my plan to infiltrate the enemy,” you begin, knowing Luna knew of that and must have passed it on at some point, “I was tasked with finding and dispatching four awol shadows. I found them tonight,”

“And,” your father questions at your somber expression.

“Their former hosts aren’t comatose or possessed,” you explain, “And, they’re different. Afraid,”

They both glance toward one another and nod.

“What do you intend?” your father presses.

“I want to save them,” you say firmly, “I just don’t know how. I’m going to talk it over with everyone tomorrow,”

You father considers it a moment.

“The Silver Crystal,” your father reasons.

“Well, a certainty in Usagi’s hands or Usa’s,” Luna nods, “Can Mikage muster that strength?”

She and your father glance over to a baby monitor on the counter, and then back to you. The memory of purifying Kalyke fresh in your memory.

“I think we know she can with the right push,” your father says, “but you said they were afraid?”

“Yeah,” you sigh, “And I don’t want to freak them out in a corner. I know they’ll fight if pressed,”

“Well, if you want to know what I’d do in that situation,” your father begins before you grant him a scathing glare.

“I almost did what you did. Approaching them alone,” he recoils at the poignant burn, “Don’t you forget I’m still mad at you! Relief at your safety only bought you so much civility tonight!”

He pouts at that.

“Okay, okay,” he sighs, “How much would a late dinner buy?”

…

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>>2004376

“Like, takeout or home cooked,” you question warily.

“Home cooked,” he offers.

“Well, we’ll see,” you glance away and out the window.

“One minute she’s as stubborn and reckless as you,” Luna sighs with a soft laugh and pads out of the room as Diana leaps across her back and flops there, “The next she’s her mother,”

“That was a dig at both of us, wasn’t it?” you ask across the kitchen to your father.

“Yeah,” he nods, “Well if you’d rather not know how I’d do it, how about how your mother would?”

“Sure,” you shrug as he fishes out a pan and ingredients.

“As a person, with a hand extended or arms open,” he offers succinctly and with a proud fondness, “Even if it meant she left herself open to harm or certain death,”

That, yeah that sounds just like mom.

It isn’t long before your dad dishes out a belated dinner of Omurice. After a bit more conversation and light scolding from you, and praise from your father for having better sense than him to leave well enough alone earlier tonight, you head upstairs for the night.

After making sure your father went to bed first, you opted to do the dishes by yourself. Or at least alone save for the occasional burble from the monitor on the counter.

When you finally land on your bed, with an exhaustive yawn, you lean back and drift into your dreams with a certain degree of apprehension about the coming days. Between these girls and the Aiba tournament. Everyone together can win this, right? Doing all of this might also give you the final in to learn where the enemy is based and have a better beat on who they are.

Though for now, you’ll sleep. It is needed, and tonight well deserved.

Unaware of what observes you while you sleep...

Eclipsed Moon Quest Episode 150
End

>>2004404
Is that Kalyke? I have a hard time telling, that pic's really dark.

>>2004420
You will learn next thread.

>>2004433
>>2004420

...

Well, yeah. Lowered the brightness and raised the contrast on a pic of Chibi Chibi because I could find anything else appropriate.
But yeah, that is Kalyke watching you in the dark.

Anyhow, as always. Thank you /qst/ for a good thread. I hope you all had fun. And I hope it feels like things happened, were accomplished, and are moving apace.

>>2004444
Thanks for the thread, Art.

>>2004444
Nah, thank you man. Looking forward to the next thread.

>>2004404
Thanks for the run!

>>2004628
As always the when of the next thread will be on this quest's twitter @artemis_qm

Though this weekend is not looking hot on account of varying factors.

>>2005654
Forgot my trip, using a work computer.

>>2004444
Thank you, man- err- cat!

>>2004404
>>2004420
>>2004433
>>2004438
Holy burbling baby-monitors, Batman!

>????????
The secret is bunnies.

>>2007019
spooky bunnies

How is Naru's family getting along?
Hadn't heard anything on that front for a bit.

>>2012863
They’re doing alright. Adjusting, though a number of reveals are still fresh.