In one of Mitakihara’s many alleyways, behind an inconspicuous facade, life is brewing like nowhere else in the city. While most shops have closed or moved their wares to one of the communal markets, Yui and Alice are in the middle of renovating the former’s gym, moving boxes about and trying their best to take care of the refurbishments one would normally leave to a professional, if it weren’t for the city-wide lockdown. As Alice is applying a second layer of yellow paint to one of the walls, Yui and Mei are circling around a girl venting some clearly long-suppressed anger onto a punching bag, observing her form like vultures eyeing prey.

Hotaru: Nnngh… Hhh… Ah… Take that!

Yui: (Yui sets down a stack of three large boxes, wiping her forehead on her arm as she turns to watch the sight. Her expression is blank, but she studies the girl’s movements. Her gaze slips to Mei on the other side, a knowing look in her eyes that Mei recognizes in a heartbeat, then nods before returning for another stack of boxes, this time headed for the basement. On top, a crate with bottles of water.)

Mei: There we go! Let all of it out! Remember, but don’t let it eat you! You’re in control now, not Tomatsu! (Mei, meanwhile, is transformed, and speaking into a muted megaphone, pink and white checkerboard pattern down the handle. The sound isn’t loud enough to cause damage, but enough to resonate in Hotaru’s very core.)

Hotaru: (the girl sighs, dropping down onto the mat and heaving in exhaustion) T-That… That’s all I’ve got in me.

Alice: (she puts down her paint roller and takes a swig from a bottle of water) More than I got.

Hotaru: (she winces) I-Is Aoi here? I-I think I need—

Alice: She can’t heal physical exhaustion. This can, though. (she tosses Hotaru the water bottle) Hope you’re not grossed out by me.

(Yui sets the fresh box stack down at the bottom of the stairs. Before, this was a simple basement, dusty and not very well kept. A rusty metal cage once sat in its center. Now, the room is not unlike an abode, half studio apartment and half clinic. Partitions have been raised to give the intended resident a semblance of privacy and a place to rest on her own. Before them, several beds and curtains are in view, six in total. All were hastily made, yet neat enough for an emergency patient on day one. She approaches the winged girl from behind, placing her right hand on her shoulder.) 

Yui: It ain’t the prettiest hack job I ever threw together on a wing and a prayer, but it’ll get the job done, eh? (She holds out her peace offering-slash first paycheck, a plain, labelless bottle of water.)

Aoi: (Aoi surveys the remodeled basement, a look of slight, almost undetectable sadness on her face. She had spent most of the days since the Walpurgis Night’s destruction sleeping, beset by headaches and a persistent mental fatigue from the Witch’s death while it shared her mind.) … You didn’t have to do all this. I’ve had worse than sleeping on the seated row. 

Yui: Well, yeah, but I kinda did. Ain’t much of a clinic if Puellae are meant to rest in office chairs. ‘Sides, this’s a better vibe than an old fightin’ cage, yeah? Speakin’ of, the greenhorn up there’s stretchin’ herself  a bit thin. Got a lotta shit to work through. I might toss her down here so ya can practice. …Okay, mostly so I can see what I built in action.

Aoi: (Aoi flinches) Hotaru… huh. Mm. That’s fine. These wings should still do the job, no matter what they look like. 

Yui: Great! S’why we hired ya in the first place. They’ll be down in a sec. But uh… you’re really good with all this, right? I mean, the alternative sucks, but y’know… I ain’t Anisa. This ain’t a prison, Aoi. I meant it when I said last month that I wanted to run a Puella clinic and training center here with ya. Do right by those girls that Ozymandias— sorry, Tomatsu fucked up. But properly.

Aoi: They’re still my fr–… well, I don’t know that any of them still think of me as a friend. But I still care for them. I’m not just going to let them Witch out. I’d be doing it even without you here.

Mei: (With Hotaru’s arm over her shoulder, the pair descend into Aoi’s basement/clinic, and Mei sets her into a sitting position upon the nearest bed.) Whew! All better. …Okay, about to be all better.

Yui: (A knowing hint of a smile lights Yui’s expression as she looks up and down Hotaru.) Form’s good. Got a lotta aggression in ya, which’s prob’ly why ya held on so long. But you burn through that energy too quick. If a Witch lasted too long, you’d burn up out there. First lesson for today’s control, Hotaru.

Hotaru: That’s assuming I can do any damage to it in the first place…

Yui: I taught Mei how to fight with a megaphone. Anythin’s possible, y’know.

Mei: Hey! …Okay, yeah… 

Hotaru: D-Do we all have weapons? Because I don’t think I have one? It doesn’t just appear when I transform or anything. Is that how it usually goes?

Aoi: (Aoi speaks quietly, averting her eyes from Hotaru and Mei) … It’s probably because that bully forced you into a wish without any plans for you to fight. But a weapon might come to you later. … Or I was thinking you might just use the warping. Warp away a Witch’s arm and leave the rest behind. … Well, that was what I thought up for you. 

Yui: Nah, it’s a sound strategy. Won’t always work every time, but it’s solid. Our weapons come from our soul, based on who we are mixed with our wish. S’what gives us our form an’ power. Some don’t need a weapon at all, even if they got one. Some just have good magic, like your teleporting. Some get by on natural fighting ability. Some just adapt. Our world sucks, Hotaru. No gettin’ around it. It’s keepin’ your head above water that’s the hard part. But after that? You thrive, instead of survive. Plus, magic’s just cool when you get right down to it. Yo, Aoi. Wingy thing? She ain’t used magic or anything, but her soul could use a li’l pick-me-up.

Aoi: Mm… (Aoi transforms and reveals her wings, still sodden and twisted as they’ve been since her defeat. She winces, a hand to her head, but recovers in a moment) Okay. Here it goes. (Though it seems to pain her, Aoi straightens her wings and they glow, beginning the healing)

Yui: (Yui closes her eyes, simply feeling the room out.) There y’go. Alice might get mad, but really, this is good for everyone in the grand scheme of things—

As if on cue, a loud, sharp buzzer sound echoes through the basement, indicating a new customer coming in through the front entrance.

Hotaru: (she perks up) … Oh, that might be the other girls I invited over! Wasn’t sure they’d be able to find this place… You’ll be happy to see them again, Aoi—

Alice: (her voice echoes down the stairs amidst the sound of clattering painting equipment) Yui! Aoi! Get up here! Quickly!

Yui: Shit. That’s not a lover’s quarrel voice. (Yui sprints back upstairs, taking them two at a time and practically leaping out of the basement, back into the main room of the gym.)

A few steps from the front entrance, amidst the boxes in the training area, a young girl, likely around the age of Yui’s protégés, has slumped to her knees, covered in filth, sweat and tears. As Alice kneels down next to her to support her, the girl holds out her arm and shakily opens her palm, revealing a nearly pitch-black Soul Gem, malicious energy within it swirling and pulsating like violent waves crashing into a poorly constructed dam, about to break loose any second now.

Girl: H-Help me… Please!

Alice: Don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place. (she turns to Yui) Yui, go get Aoi. I’ll try to calm her down—

Before Yui can bolt off, however, a transformed Hotaru — wearing a yellow and white raincoat and shorts — suddenly appears on the other side of the girl, reaching out to take the corrupted Soul Gem.

Hotaru: I’ll take this to Aoi. Quicker that w—

Alice: Don’t touch it!

Hotaru: S-Sorry! I didn’t mean t—

An ear-splitting shriek. A mere split second after Hotaru withdraws her hand, the Gem bursts, flooding the room in a sickly yellow, brown, green mud that gushes from the trinket’s feeble remains at a speed no substance this viscous could realistically ever flow, filling the air with a putrid smell. Hotaru looks around, but all of the people she was with mere seconds ago have disappeared. 

Hotaru: Ugh! … Uh, h-hello?

So she casts her gaze upward, and sees the gym’s ceiling having disappeared into an endless void, from which drop down countless eyeballs dangling from strings, ascending and descending as if being pulled and let loose again by invisible hands. She is too late to stop them. From each eye erupts a blinding beam of energy, cutting through the scenery like spotlights on a stage. Amidst the heinous fog, Hotaru can hear an agonizing scream. She sees the silhouette of the girl who’d brought the corrupted Soul Gem in, now being sliced up by the brightly colored beams, like a rag doll tossed into a shredder. 

Hotaru: No…! Oh no. Oh shit. Shit shit shit!

Hotaru barely manages to dodge one of them herself, leaping and rolling behind a large curved piece of scrap metal sticking out of the ground. The metal groans and smokes as the corrosive beams tear into it, but still manages to hold off their immense force. Quite a feat, Hotaru thought, as the rays cut through just about anything else like butter.

Hotaru: M-Mei! Aoi! Arashi-senpai! A-A little help here, please?

Before Hotaru can even hear any potential responses, another inhumane, screeching cry halts the eyeballs’ relentless assault. Peeking out from behind her makeshift cover, she sees the eyes all turning towards her, peering, they come loose from their strings, disappearing into the goo as they land in it. Then, the dangling pieces of string start moving like snakes, tangling themselves together into thick ropes which reach into the sludge as Hotaru’s hiding place begins to shake as well. 

Hotaru: Oh… Oh shit!

Slowly, the piece of metal rises, emerging from the ground as it reveals itself to be the head of a massive, metallic golem, being pulled from the mud by ropes from the sky like a ship being dragged to shore. As she realizes what is about to happen, Hotaru stumbles, loses her footing and begins to slide off the golem’s head, failing to grab onto anything as it is roused from its slumber. She falls, tumbling from the air before gathering her energy and teleporting herself back to safe ground, a few feet away from the giant, who is now standing up straight, its armor strewn with eyes of varying sizes, nervously shifting from one direction to the other, and its limbs held up by heavy ropes, like a marionette the size of a god.

Hotaru: Fuck… Where is… everyone? I can’t—

She can’t finish her plea. The Witch has pulled a large halberd from the sludge and with blistering speed, its blade propels itself towards her. She closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, she is behind the Witch. It doesn’t matter. In one fluid motion, the golem kicks the blade of its halberd, spinning it into a horizontal sweeping attack and moving its body along with it to catch any target within range, no matter which direction it is coming from. This time, it’s too late. The tip of the halberd slices through her side before she can bite down the pain and teleport away.

Hotaru: Ghhh… aaagh… aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

How did it know she’d moved behind it? Hotaru collapses to her knees, scarlet blood gushing from her wound. If she hadn’t teleported in time, she would have been disemboweled. Now she has merely been grievously harmed. It hurts. It hurts like nothing has ever hurt before. She can feel the tears welling up as she tries to cover up the wound with her arms. She can taste the panic clawing its way up her throat. She can hear the Witch raising its weapon, ready to finish the job.

Yui: { It ain’t real! That wound! Lesson for later, but now, just fuckin’ RUN! }

Mei: (Waves of sound, visible as rings rippling through the air carry a separate scream of muted volume. Not enough to damage the golem, but enough to keep it off balance and prevent another attack. Mei, meanwhile, is hovering from behind Hotaru, transformed as the sound waves are coming from the megaphone in her hand.) Hotaru! You heard the Master! If you can sense her voice, teleport to it! I’ll hold it off for now, but get out of here!

Hotaru: H-How the hell am I supposed to “sense” someone’s voice? (she closes her eyes, wincing, trying to will the command Mei gave her into being. Suddenly, she feels a hand grabbing hers, pulling her to the ground. She opens her eyes to see a familiar face.)

Alice: (she squeezes Hotaru’s hand) Calm down, Yui’s right. It may hurt, but the wound will heal. As long as your Soul Gem’s intact, you will live.

Yui: (Transformed, Yui places her hand on Hotaru’s shoulder.) Breathe, kid. You can heal your wounds like Alice said. Uh… you’d be surprised what you can recover from, actually. Pain’s real ‘cause your mind says it is, but you can curb that too. Anyway… what’re the odds you can send just me to where Mei is?

Alice: That’s not how pain works, by the way.

Hotaru: It’s… hard to envision, seeing as everywhere here… k-kinda looks the same… (she winces again, trying to focus on Mei, rather than her exact location, as the pain continues to ravage her body) Nngh… (she opens her eyes again) … D-Did it work?

Alice: Looks like it.

Yui: (Cracking her knuckles, two golden staves appear hovering upright at her side as she faces the golem.) Been awhile since I could cut loose. Oi, Mei. Holdin’ up okay?

Mei: Y-Yeah. I’m fine. …Am I… backup?

Yui: Audience. Take notes. 

Yui launches herself forward, punching the golem square in its face. The creature recoils, but as if puppeteered by an invisible hand, quickly recovers in a bizarre storm of flailing limbs. Contorting its arm in a way no humanoid should be able to, it retaliates with a horizontal swing of its halberd, similar to the attack that took out Hotaru. The attack is met with a fierce clang, a golden staff flying from where Yui was to deflect the swing. The staff explodes into violet sparks upon contact, coursing up through the golem’s weapon. Yui, meanwhile, unleashes a barrage of punches and kicks at the golem’s head. 

Though the impact is obvious, cracks in the creature’s armor slowly causing it to crumble and fall, revealing nothing underneath, the Witch continues to quite literally bounce back from being hit, time after time again, like a punching bag. Whichever divine hand is in control of this puppet, it has no intention of letting go of its toy.

Yui: Tch… god damn, at least hit me back or something. (Yui conjures a staff in hand, tossing it at the Witch’s “head”, then another, and another until the witch is surrounded by floating golden staves.) Die to a punch, or die in the Soul Cage, I don’t really care which.

Ignoring the obvious trap being set for it, the Witch howls as the various eyes that remain on its armor start glowing, drawing energy from the environment to charge up a powerful eruption.

Mei: Uhhh… Master? Th-the strings?

Yui: Whuh? (Yui looks around, then sighs.) … God damn, I gotta stop missin’ the obvious. 

Yui throws her arms out wide, the Soul Cage expanding outwards rather than contracting inwards. Several of the staves come in contact with the strings holding the Witch up, and once they do, bolts of violet lightning strike from nowhere, sending sparks through both the Witch, and up along the strings to who-or-whatever is controlling it.. The creature shakes like a cartoon character hit by lightning, violently flailing its weapon round to little avail, until its strings snap entirely, sending the Witch plummeting into the mud in a pathetic pile of limbs. After they have slowly sunk into the sludge, the nauseating yellow matter begins to swirl, as if being flushed, being drawn back into the Grief Seed, now resting into what remains of the girl’s severed hand.

Mei: Uh… you got all that, Hotaru? (The whole time, Mei had been staring at Yui and the Witch with intense focus, telepathically conveying the imagery for Hotaru to “watch”.)

Hotaru: Y-Yeah… Now all I need to do is learn how to punch. And kick. And summon staves. And generate lightning.

As the girls find themselves back in the gym’s cluttered training area, the anonymous girl’s bloodied remains are strewn across the grey floor not far from the novelty doormat Yui had laid down in front of the main entrance not too long ago. Still being supported by Alice, Hotaru gags upon witnessing the gruesome scene.

Alice: (to Yui) Bucket. Bucket, now!

It’s too late. Averting her gaze, Alice gently pats the coughing Hotaru on the back, as if trying to comfort her.

Alice: Don’t worry. We’ll clean all of this up. We’ll—

As she talks Alice’s gaze turns to a pile of tatami mats in a corner of the room, distracted by what seems to be the sound of someone eating. Atop the pile, holding a large-sized paper cup and a plastic spoon, is perched an adolescent girl, her uncannily large, bright eyes peering at the survivors of the Witch’s attack as a smile creeps onto her face. She looks like a scarecrow at a rave, her hair, amateurishly cut and tied up into two braids, chestnut on the left  and bleached a garish blonde on the right, her face caked in sloppily applied eyeliner and far too much blush, and her clothes cascading layers of black mesh, white lace and lavender thrown together into a baggy dress. Most noticeable, however, are her legs, which appear to be entirely mechanical, coated in a matte black metal, but moving as if they were flesh and blood, as the girl swings them back and forth, enjoying her soup.

???: Mmh! (the girl shakes her spoon in front of her mouth as she loudly swallows a spoonful of hot soup, then wipes it with the back of her hand before opening her mouth) <You guys finish already? Génial! Yeah, I was hungry so I, like, went to grab something to eat while you guys were busy. All the good places are closed, though. All they had was, eh ben, soup. Didn’t even know you guys had, like, regular soup. Without the noodles, I mean.>

The scarecrow speaks English in an affected, sing-song tone of voice, like the host of a children’s entertainment show. Before anyone can meet her in reply, she downs the rest of the steaming cup of soup into a single swig, wiping the spoon on her sleeve and tossing it aside.

???: <Oh, do you guys even understand me? (she begins muttering to herself) Comment-dit on…? (tilting her head to the side, the girl raises an eyebrow) Konnichi wa? Mochi mochi? Parlez-vous anglais? Do you speak French?>

Yui: <It’s moshi moshi, kid. Better question though. Who the fuck are you?> (Yui replies in perfectly functional English, though her accent is still rather thick. She turns to face the “scarecrow” still transformed, a golden staff in her right hand held upright.)

???: Mais j’y crois pas! (she stifles a chuckle, with a mix of surprise and self-satisfaction) <It’s you, right? Yui Arashi, in the flesh!>

Barely able to contain her excitement, the girl jumps from her seat shaking her hair out of her face. Only now, it becomes clear that underneath her eyes are tattooed two minuscule crescent moons, facing in opposite directions.

???: <Mèrde alors, it’s really you. Yui Arashi. Yui Arashi! Quelle bonne chance!> (the girl twirls, letting out a barely audible squeak, and with a dance-like spring in her step, she strides over to Yui) <You are the final boss, aren’t you? And here you are, right in front of me. Oh, you’re saving us so much trouble!>

Yui: Okaaaay… that’s a new one. <I’m Yui, yeah. Whoever sent you, though, they weren’t really accurate. I’m closer to the post-game superboss. Now start talking. Who are you?>

???: <Who… am I? Moi, je ne suis que moi, n’est-ce pas? But you… you are… the greatest of a generation. That organization, le sixième bureau, they had so much to say about you. And when they folded, all those tales of derring-do ended up on the wonderful World Wide Web for anyone to see. Eh ben, anyone who knows how to find it, at least. You are… as we would say, une vedette!>

Before Yui can react, the girl swirls towards Hotaru, squatting down to gently caress her wound with the back of her hand.

???: <Oh ma chère, we can’t have that. This is a tremendous occasion!> (she holds up a finger, getting back up and taking a few steps back) <T’inquiète pas, you know this stuff heals in like an hour, right—Oh, you guys are, like, up to date on the whole functionally immortal thing, right? I mean, you had the whole thing with the Soul Gem, like, five minutes ago, so I presume you know about, yeah. Yeah, that’s gonna save us a lot of trouble in the long run— Oh! That reminds me!> (she shakes her hands in excitement) <Alors, that Soul Gem, you know? The one that went Witch? The girl it used to belong to — ah, that’s not her, by the way. She’s just the, eh ben, bearer of bad news, I would say. Enfin, she was. She asked me for money so I promised I would give her some if she delivered that Soul Gem to you all. Guess she made it right on time!> (the girl produces a 10,000 yen bill from her pocket and awkwardly stuffs it into one of the severed hands on the floor) < Alors, go buy yourself something nice, oui?>

Mei: (Mei raises her megaphone with both hands, holding it like a pistol.) Master, can I kill it yet?

Yui: (Yui holds out her arm to restrain Mei.) Hold on. <But you haven’t answered my question yet. Aside fighting me, what is it you actually want? You’re crazy, that much is obvious. I have experience in that department, which helps. But you haven’t gotten to the fucking point yet.>

???: <Ah, oui. The point. Alors, the girl that Soul Gem belonged to, she, ah, elle avait des yeux merveilleux. She had these beautiful eyes. I… wanted those eyes. So I told her, “I want your eyes”. En fin de compete, they were going to grow back anyway, so why couldn’t have a pair, but she refused so I was like, “please” and she was like “no”, so in the end I had to shove her against a wall and like…> (she sticks out her thumbs and wiggles them) <I tried to, like, get between the socket and the eye and doucement—but she couldn’t stop screaming so, like, (she snickers) I went like… (she makes a exaggerated squishy sound, twisting hands) with my thumb, right into the eye and it went like, this slimy, cheesy stuff was just like, oozing out and it was — bof, you had to be there, you all would have thought it was hilarious! Enfin, so I go to the kitchen — cause I was at this girl’s house, right — to go grab, une cuillière, I guess? Like, a spoon? And by that time, the girl’s eyes had grown back, Dieu merci, so this time, I used the spoon to like… pop! And it worked! It came out in one piece! Enfin, I did after I had to run back to the kitchen to go fetch a pair of scissors? Like, to cut the stringy thingy that connected the eyeball to… the brain I guess? It was just dangling there, like going up and down like a… whoop-a-whoop! Like a yo-yo, yes? She was like “boo hoo hoo” (she waves her hands in front of her face, imitating tears running down her cheeks) and the eye was just hanging there, like, boing-oing-oing until I — snip! — right into a glass of water.> (she taps her finger against her temple) <Thinking ahead, n’est-ce pas? Enfin, that was not the hard part, you know, cause now I had to do the same thing with my own eye, so by the time I’d… (she imitates trying to gouge out her own eye with a spoon), which took like five minutes, the darn eye in the glass of water was gone! It had grown back! So I thought, d’accord, la troisième fois, c’est la bonne, I’m not taking any chances this time around, so back I go to the kitchen and I see this box full of, like, des bougies? Tea lights? That… That was exactly what I needed, so I take this tiny saucepan and I put it on the stove and throw in all the tea lights and I go back to her — she’s, like, still screaming at this point, like, mince, she doesn’t know when to quit, n’est-ce pas? So I do the thing with the spoon, I pour the hot wax into the cavity, put the eye in a glass of water, wait for the wax to harden, yada yada yada, and it works! The eye doesn’t grow back anymore! So, I pop out my own eye, put the girl’s eye in the socket and like, five goddamn seconds later, my eye grows back and it, like, squeeeeeezes the other eye out of my socket like— (she blows a raspberry, imitating the splattered eye splurging out of her socket) and, like, I’d really done it now, because now I wasn’t getting that eye back and having only one of her eyes would be a bit… farfelu, n’est-ce pas? So, anyway, (she shrugs) I ate the other one. Guessed I might as well have found out what it tastes like. It was… interesting. Not as cool as the Witch, though!>

Mei: Yyyyeah I’ve heard enough. (Ducking under Yui’s arm, Mei launches herself forward, stopping right in front of the intruder’s face. Raising her megaphone, she shouts into it, though the noise is localized to the space in front of the girl.)

???: (The girl remains completely immobile, though the wind produced by the noise does throw her hair into disarray. She raises an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side.) <C’est quoi ça? Un mégaphone? Are you a cheerleader? Didn’t know they had those in Japan— Oh! Can I try? I know a killer joke!> (she playfully grabs onto Mei’s arm, trying to pry the megaphone from her hand)

Mei: What the— Let go you fuckin’ freak! (Mei struggles to try and pull her hand away, pulling the “trigger” on her weapon to send more blasts of air and noise into the girl’s face) Are you fucking deaf or something?!

???: <Je t’entends parfaitement. You sound really cool! Tough girl voice, like “I’ll blow your friggin’ ears out, you mother-lovin’ nutjob!” Is that cool?> (she turns to Hotaru) <C’est chouette, non? That’s totally something this girl would say.>

Hotaru: (she recoils in fear) A-Ah… N-no… (she stammers some words in broken English as the girl casually walks away from Mei and approaches her)

Alice: (she steps between Hotaru and the mysterious girl) <Stop clowning around. Are you here to pick a fight? Then fight.>

???: (she answers flatly and immediately) <Okay.> (like a bullet from a gun, the girl spins around, kicking Alice’s right shoulder with one of her armoured legs and sending her flying into the pile of tatami mats) <Wheeeeeeee! Oof!> (she laughs as Alice slumps to the ground) 

Alice: Aargh! (she clenches her teeth to keep herself from screaming, clutching her shoulder)

???: <Perfect landing! Félicitations!> (she turns to the others) <I love it when they do that! Alors, qui est la prochaine?>

Yui: <You’re gonna love me, then.> (Mirroring the motion and speed, Yui launches forward, catching the girl square in the cheek.)

???: (with a sickening crunch, the girl’s jaw shatters as her entire body spins from the impact of the punch and she puts a few steps back, before she quickly springs back, her twisted neck snapping back into its right position) <…Wow! You could punch a dent in a block of marble!> (she spits out half a dozen teeth, before flashing Yui a grin, albeit with quite a few teeth missing) <Could make a lovely necklace out of these.> (as she speaks, she takes on a fighting stance, her legs beginning to hum and whirr, as if booting up)

Yui: (In a flash, three staves linked together by violet sparks point at the girl, aimed right between her eyes.) <You’re either the type to enjoy pain, or you can’t feel it. Neither kind of crazy apply to your soul, though. You’ve done your homework, I’ll give you that. So you know what I can do. And what comes next. Right?>

???: <Save the best for last, Yui! Can’t have dessert if you won’t have your supper first!>

Yui: <Nah. Fuck that. If you wanted foreplay, you should’ve left my girlfriend alone.> (Sparks blast from the tip of Yui’s combined staves) 

???: (in a flash, the girl disappears, reappearing a split second later a few feet away from her earlier position as she slides along the floor to a — literal — screeching halt, before briefly touching the ground, then blasting back off into action, straight at her opponent)

Yui: (She doesn’t make a sound, but she feels her wrist shatter as she flies back from the assailant’s attack. Bouncing and rolling back to her feet as she hits the wall, she kicks off of it, flying with a punch aimed at her once-shattered jaw, sparks coming from her fist.)

???: <Nuh uh!> (she kicks her leg up high to parry the punch, deflecting it, and the one throwing it, to the side, though the sheer force of the counter causes her to lose balance)

Yui: (Yui flies to the side, but the staff she conjured remained, lightning colliding through the ceiling and hitting the golden marker, sparks bursting around it and the girl)

???: (she smirks, spreading her arms wide) <I could do this all day! Make me look fabuleuse!> (she starts laughing — an innocent, childlike laugh — as the sparks course through her body, though they dissipate quickly, and the girl emerges, her skin burnt and smoking. Surprisingly, however, despite the sorry state of her body, she smirks, snatching the staff and breaking it over her knee, wielding the two halves as makeshift weapons) <Allons-y, les filles.>

Yui: …What the fuck is with this guy? (She conjures several more staves around the girl, a makeshift mini Soul Cage and detonates it, bolts emanating around and firing at the girl’s chest.)

This time, the girl doesn’t just let Yui’s attack hit her. She leaps up into the air and somersaults into an axe kick, the armor on the kicking leg shifting, extending it like a telescopic baton so it covers nearly the entire room, before bringing it down with massive force. Yui rolls to the side just in the nick of time, kicking back to her feet and swinging a staff freshly summoned in her hands upwards like a baseball bat, aimed at the girl’s chin. The assailant catches it with her twin staves before it can hit, however, moving her arms in a circular motion to parry the attack before following up with a kick.

Yui: Tch…! (Yui flies back, but flips back to her feet once more.) <Got an evil speech in you, lady? Y’know, gimme a chance to catch my breath while you tell me all about your evil plan?>

???: <Nope!> (the girl seamlessly transitions into sprinter’s starting position, her legs revving up, before charging headfirst at her opponent)

Yui: <Worth a shot.> (She drops down, letting the girl run right over her, and brings her legs up against the girl’s stomach, launching her into the air. At the same time, two violet bolts strike the two halves of Yui’s broken staff at the same time, sending sparks all through her body)

???: Haha! Whoo! (the girl cheers as the electricity courses through her body, though that doesn’t stop her from crashing into the roof and dropping the staves as she limply falls back to the ground, smoldering like an ember and rolling onto her back as she lies, motionlessly.)

Mei: So much for not killing people… jeez, is she dead, Master? (Mei makes her way to where Alice is and kneels down to try and help her up)

Yui: …No. Not even close. But whether she felt that or not, it did some damage. It bleeds, so to speak.

???: <Vraiment? I’m feeling just peachy!> (the girl kicks her legs up, and they extend, eventually pushing against the nearest wall, causing her to flip backwards, landing into a handstand. From this position, takes a few “steps” to position herself, then launches herself backwards to catch Yui’s neck between her legs, using their massive strength to wrestle Yui to the ground, pinning her to the floor) <Better make this quick. Nighty night!>

Mei: (Another flash in the room, and a second later, two voices in unison shriek out as a spear is aimed right at the girl’s throat, Mei’s secondary transformation in full view.)

???: <Wow! Better watch out!> (the girl rolls over, holding on tight, so that she is on the ground and Yui is on top of her, to use her as a human shield)

Mei: (Mei doesn’t hesitate, driving the spear down through both Yui’s neck and her attacker’s thigh.)

???: (she coughs up some blood) I’m trying… to fight the final boss here, cheerleader! Do what cheerleaders are supposed to do and stand… (she flexes her leg, breaking off the tip of the spear and tossing it, along with Yui, to the side) … aside! (sweeping one leg behind her, she gets back into a starting position and takes off, charging towards Mei and tackling her through the large front window, onto the streets, against the graffitied wall opposing the gym’s facade)

Mei: (As Mei is tackled, another spear appears in her right hand, and she tries to drive it into the girl’s side. In her left hand, her megaphone, raised with its “trigger” pulled.) GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

Yui: (Golden staves, meanwhile, surround the pair in a proper Soul Cage as their momentum brings them to a halt against the opposite wall, outside the gym. Yui herself emerges, stepping through the broken glass with blood pouring down the open wound in her neck.)

???: (though both of Mei’s attacks hit, the girl appears unphased, instead taking her victim into a stranglehold and turning to face Yui through the bars of the Soul Cage) I told you I’m not deaf, y’know. Why are you always being so loud? Maybe you should have your ears looked at! (she bites down into Mei’s ear, attempting to tear it off)

Yui: (Yui’s wound slowly closes as she approaches the cage.) Only got one more option, really. Hope this one works…

???: (she replies in a singsong tone of voice, still nibbling on Mei’s ear) <It won’t!> (she plants her feet firmly onto the ground, though not without a hint of hesitation and some blood trickling down the wound in her side, down her leg — until suddenly, she looks to the side, as if in a stupor, letting go of Mei) <Hey! Where are you going? Hey! You wanna turn this into a race?> (as if chasing an invisible prey, the girl launches herself out of the incomplete Soul Cage, leaping a few feet into the air and darting off towards the main street)

Mei: (Panting heavily, Mei dismisses her form completely, limping over to Yui.) Geez… that hurt. Master, a little help?

Yui: (Pulling a knife from her pocket, she taps it against one of the remaining staves, sparks heating the blade. She swings it down through Mei’s damaged ear, cauterizing the wound at the same time. She coughs out the last bit of blood from her wound, then clears her throat a few times before speaking in a raspy voice.) Glad that sunk in. Trained ya well, Mei. But we’re even, s’far as wounds go.

Mei: (Despite Yui’s care to make a clean cut, Mei still yelps and shrieks in pain, holding the spot over her lost ear before it regrows.) MotherFUCKER! Did it hurt that bad getting impaled like that, Master?!

Yui: No, not really. But I told you, I fuckin’ hate being called Master. Bad look in front of the rookie. Now let’s go. We got no time to lose here. Oi! Hotaru!

Hotaru: (she stumbles out of the gym, supporting Alice, who is holding up the Chairman’s Baton with her good arm) I… W-Wh… what was that… What was she talking about? I…

Alice: Sit down. (she gently wriggles out of Hotaru’s support, urging her to sit down as Hotaru begins to hyperventilate) Easy. Easy. Someone, go grab her a plastic bag—Ngh… S-Shit. I think she broke my shoulder.

Yui: (She rushes to Alice’s side, Mei kneeling down in front of Hotaru.) …Shit, probably. Aoi can help mend that. Might be shitty memory workin’ against me, but I think she’s trained for physical injuries too? God, I fuckin’ hope she is. Y’gonna be okay here, babe?

Mei: Heh… sorry for throwing you into the deep end. I dunno what that all was about, but sometimes, a Puella’s life can just get that crazy. Think you can still fight, Hotaru? We need to go after that girl.

Alice: (she shakes her head) I… I can’t feel my arm anymore… I… I need to go to the hospital, Yui. I’m sorry. (she casts her gaze downward, choking on her words) I… The baton needs to stay here… I can hide the gym from view, like I did with Hanako th… that one time… I’m sorry, Yui…

Hotaru: A-Are you crazy? Go after her? She… She’s going to kill us!

Mei: We have no choice! Besides, you can just teleport us back here if things go south, Hotaru! Or teleport her into the ocean or something!

Yui: The hospital’s runnin’ at half capacity at best. Field medic’s gonna be more reliable. Besides, that bitch attacked the gym lookin’ for me. Lightning don’t strike twice. We go after her, you’re safer here with Aoi. …Trust me, Alice.

Alice: … R-Right (her face falls). No, I’ll… I’ll stay here. (she wipes a tear from her eye with her good arm) Aoi and I will make sure this place is safe.

Yui: (She leans in, a reassuring smile on her face and speaks softly, yet without even a hint of condescention in her voice.) It’ll be fine. Even if this gets complicated, I’ll be in touch. If my phone breaks, we got the usual method. That basement’s half bomb shelter at this point, and that scarecrow didn’t get a look down there. You two’ll be safe as kittens down there, okay?

Alice: (she nods, and without a word, retreats into the gym, producing the baton from her sleeve again to trace the building’s various walls, with the occasional pained sob)

Yui: (Yui shuts her eyes tight for a moment, clenching her fist before standing up.) Mei. Hotaru. We’re going. Right now. I’m gonna make that kid feel something by the time I’m done with her.

Mei: (She stands up straight, almost at attention.) R-Right, Mas— Y-Yui! Hotaru, you ready?

Hotaru: N-Not really…

Yui: I know this is dangerous. We just got our asses kicked, and you’re not really combat savvy. But Mei’s right. We’re chasing her down, and we might need an escape route. You keep this place in mind, this is our exit point. Focus on either Alice or Aoi if you need a person to anchor your power to. But I’m not gonna ask you to throw down on our behalf. Stay in range of your power, and safe, if you want. …How ‘bout that? You ready now?

Hotaru: M-More than I was just now… At least. (she straightens her back, her wound having closed back up)

Yui: A’ight then. Let’s head out.