When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end
The goddess descends from the sky
Wings of light and dark spread afar
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting

Reclining in a lounge chair, Shiori takes a swig of a can of cheap, off-the-shelf margarita and, much to her disappointment, realizes it is empty. She crushes the can in her hand and hurls it towards the motionless man hanging from a rope off the glass sunroom ceiling a few meters away from her. She misses him by a hair, causing the two bikini-clad girls cuddling with her to giggle.

Shiori: Ugh, fuck me. (as if on command, the two girls sit up, turning to face her with seductive smiles on their faces) N-no, I wasn’t talking to you two… for now, at least. (she flashes the girls a smarmy grin before taking off her pink, heart-shaped sunglasses and calling out to a huddle of teens standing across the pool, cheering on a boy as he, blindfolded, swings a large pole around, trying to hit the man hanging above the pool like a pinata) To the left! To the left!

Heeding her advice, the boy swings to the left, and in one fluid swipe, cuts the rope the man is hanging from, sending him plummeting into the pool with a scream. Exhilarated, Shiori and the teens cheer as the hostage resurfaces, struggling to keep himself afloat with her hands and feet tied.

Shiori: And we have a winner! That is one million yen for the positively sumptuous young man in the yellow swimming trunks! Well then, what are we waiting for? Someone get that guy his fucking money!

Panicking, the man continues to flail about in the pool, screaming for help in between gasps for air. His gaze catches a young man standing in the back of the room. Their eyes meet, but Luca’s gaze is wholly unsympathetic.

Shiori: (her raucous cheering suddenly turns into a scream) Oi! Shut the fuck up, you mewling fat cunt! You been swimming in money your entire life, how hard can it be to haul your ass out of a pool?

Girl #1: (giggling, one of the girls brings her mouth up to Shiori’s ear, cooing) Maybe he’s just nervous cause he can’t swim~

Girl #2: (she chuckles) Or maybe he’s just pissed himself!

Shiori: (she raises her voice) No shame, dude. We’ve been pissing in that pool for days! (beat) … Probably should have mentioned that earlier. Whoops. (as Shiori and her followers break out into laughter over the struggling man’s misfortune, she raises her arm at one of them, standing next to a cooler box) Oi, dickweed. Toss me another one, would ya?

Luca: (He simply sighs, watching as the man’s struggles slow, and then finally cease altogether) My pool… 

With a beaming smile, the boy Shiori addressed and ordered complies, but as the can flies through the air, an arm reaches out and catches it before it can reach Shiori. Raising an eyebrow and lowering her sunglasses, Shiori looks up to see Punisher standing next to her chair, with the Incubator on her shoulder.

Punisher: <You are a disgrace.>

Shiori: (she sighs, dismissing her “friends” with a wave of her hand. Some of them giggling, some of them scared, they leave the pool area almost immediately, without any consideration for the motionless body floating in the pool) <And you’re a stuck-up, preachy little nun in dire need of some solid dick. My God.>

Luca: …One, two, three, not it.

Punisher: <I ordered you to move the hostages. Where are they?>

Shiori: <Don’t bite my fucking nose off, okay? They’re in a warehouse down at the port. I’ve got like fifty dudes guarding them. Like hell I was gonna make that place our new base, though. So I had another idea. Whaddaya think?>

Shiori spreads her arms, inviting her colleagues to have a look at their new base of operations. Unfortunately, the Troubadour’s penthouse in the center of the city had seen far better days, its floor riddled with empty cans and cups, clothes being left to dry on the designer furniture, graffiti covering whatever art was still on the walls, and the indoor pool filled with a myriad of substances, a majority of which were certainly not water.

Punisher: <This place is a dump.>

Shiori: <Well, since you got our last dump blown the fuck up, we now have to make do with whatever I happened to have lying around in my big girl real estate portfolio.> (she reaches for the can that Punisher is still holding, causing Punisher to move it somewhere out of reach, like a parent denying their child a toy)

Punisher: <You are not taking this seriously in the slightest, are you? We were attacked. We are lucky I was able to take the necessary precautions, especially since you decided you had better things to do.>

Shiori: <Hey, I sprinkled on some illusions before I left, right? Thanks for the magic wand, by the way. It was real useful. Not. That’ll teach me to rely on a cheap Chinese ripoff, huh?>

Punisher: <Shut your mouth, biǎo​zi. If you had stayed at our headquarters as had been the plan, those two birds wouldn’t have flown with the knowledge they needed. But instead, you—>

Kyubey: <I’d implore both of you to hold your tongues, Punisher. Firestarter. If you ask me, neither of you stuck to the plan. I must say, I’m plenty disappointed. We vastly overpower our enemies and yet our efficiency in balancing this city leaves much to be desired. So why are you acting like petulant children?>

Luca: (Holding the Imposter’s Masque in his left hand, Luca kicks his foot against the back wall, finally making his way into both remaining Balancers’ vision.) <Kyubey is right. Pointing fingers does not mend wounds.> (His gaze falls first upon Punisher’s torn and bandaged shoulder, then her waist. A minor amount of blood continues to ooze from one claw mark or another) <Punisher, you chose to fight, rather than take a tactical position. You were far too sure of your power in the face of an unknown.> And you… (His gaze then turns to Shiori, sporting several burn marks and bruises lining her body, one of which gives off a violet spark) 

Shiori: Like what you see, big boy?

Luca: Not particularly. I’ve felt enough of Yui’s punches already. …Let’s put it this way… you fucked around, and you found out. Honestly… poking the bear that is Yui Arashi instead of going for the kill. <Am I the only one capable of cleaning up after you two anymore? Chiemi Takahata’s soul was destroyed in the Dreamscape. Three guesses as to who pulled that off.>

Shiori: Big fucking whoop. You want a medal for pissing on a corpse?

Kyubey: (the creature sighs) What matters here is that several other souls did survive. Souls far more dangerous to our plight. Your efficiency didn’t match the confidence you are now exuding either, Worldeater.

Luca: (He gives the Incubator a sidelong glance) <Hey, at least I tried. Who could have foreseen Yui actually splitting her attention, trusting her Witch enough to maintain her awoken consciousness in such a short timespan to fight off Firestarter, while she herself made that rescue play on her pupil? Besides, there’s no proof the Bird’s soul even survived to roam my realm. According to our notes, her entire being disintegrated when she finally gave up the ghost. So that’s one kill for me, none for Firestarter, and maybe one for Punisher out of that ambush. I have earned an iota of confidence, Incubator. Or are you so results driven that you only dole out commendations upon total annihilation?>

Shiori: <Wah wah wah, whatever, man. Acting like a fucking baby isn’t gonna make me let you suck my tit—>

Kyubey: <If I may interject, Firestarter. I’m afraid both of you elected to completely neglect what we’re here to do. It’s not about “total annihilation”, Worldeater! We are here to make sure these Puellae Magi who have been evading their destiny for too long do face it in the end, and that destiny is — if I am to remind you — to generate the energy we need to combat the heat death of the universe. They can only serve that purpose if the Soul Gems become Grief Seeds. A destroyed or burnt-out Soul Gem is of as much value to us as a perfectly functional one. If we follow that logic, none of you have achieved anything at all… in spite of the destruction you’ve left in your wake.>

Punisher: <I took care of that girl in the forest as you requested—>

Kyubey: <Indeed you did, Fei. And I cannot for the life of me figure out why you didn’t also dispose of your two latest victims in a similar fashion. Do forgive me, then, for trying to sharpen my blade before it completely loses its edge.>

Punisher: <…Of course.>

Kyubey: <You let your emotions get the better of you and lashed out! That is understandable, of course. It’s in your nature. That’s why your kind make such excellent vessels! But don’t forget your purpose. Your ability to control your emotions is exactly why you’re being spared the same fate as the girls you’re hunting, wouldn’t you agree, Fei?>

Punisher: <… Yes.>

Kyubey: <Then again…> (the creature turns to Worldeater) <I suppose gender isn’t as much of a prerequisite for emotional instability as I had envisioned. Perhaps I should consider giving Backspacer what he wants after all…>

Luca: (He scoffs) Hmph. <The allegedly pubescent boy-scout? I had heard you liked them on the younger side. You save the older contractors for your experiments, then call in us erasers to clean up afterwards. Your goals are noble, Incubator, but your ambitions are anything but. Someday, I will get you to admit that your true aim is to see how far you can twist our malleable human souls. Considering your kind lack any to play with under your proverbial cosmic microscope.>

Kyubey: <You are free to think whatever you please, Worldeater. In the end, it’s entirely irrelevant!>

Shiori: <Truer words have never been spoken, rat. You’re right, this is all irrelevant. If Arashi hadn’t fucking branded me, I would’ve been out there turning all of her little compatriots into Witches left and right.>

Punisher: <Awfully confident for someone who hasn’t achieved much of anything.>

Shiori: <Awfully confident from someone who’s never even achieved an org—>

Kyubey: <Enough! I believe I managed to get my message across. But that’s not why I called for a emergency meeting.>

Shiori: <Don’t worry about it, I know you were just helping our theater kid friend here find an excuse to come gawk at all the hunks I’ve got hanging around the pool.>

Kyubey: <I wish. But the truth is that something I truly could not have seen coming has, in fact, occurred.>

Punisher: …

Kyubey: <…Moonlover is dead.>

Shiori: <Damn! I liked her. She was cute. (beat) Anyways—>

Kyubey: <This is no laughing matter, Firestarter. Moonlover may have been fickle and unpredictable, she was an immensely powerful combatant with very few glaring weaknesses, not to mention a mastery of Magia some of you have yet to match. The fact that our enemies were able to overcome her is not a scenario I’ve accounted for.>

Shiori: <I even fixed her a chopper!>

Luca: <If Moonlover has fallen, then our situation is even more dire than I imagined. …And further proof of our need to stick to Kyubey’s plan. Moonlover acted on her own, and she lost her life over it. …I’ll have to contact the spy we placed among them and get the details later.>

Punisher: <I am not surprised. If sheer power had been enough to win this fight, Moonlover could have dealt with our opponents on her own. Fu Hua Zhe is correct. We will need discipline if we are to carry out our duties.>

Kyubey: <I appreciate you bringing that up, Fei, in spite of everything. But yes, I agree. Our opponents are generally feeble-minded and psychologically unstable. Some of them so much so, they can already even harness the powers they will have when they eventually turn into Witches! That is, after all, the reason why I selected them to become Puellae Magi in the first place. We still have all the means to use this to our advantage, and break their spirits.>

Shiori: <Break their spirits, huh? Kinky.>

Luca: (Luca pointedly takes a step away from Shiori)

Punisher: <It is due to this strategy that we have achieved what we already have. If Moonlover hadn’t made an example of the sniper’s friend, she and the birds would not have attempted their foolish suicide mission… which allowed me to take them out as well.>

Shiori: (she scoffs) <Way to turn “I got jumped with my pants down” into a bragging right, Chun-Li.>

Punisher: (she glares at Shiori) <What I mean to say is… I may have failed at disposing of the sniper and the bird using the proper methods, but the fact remains that they are dead; and we can use that to our advantage.>

Shiori: <Damn, Sherlock. People are sad when their friends get killed? Stunning observation.>

Luca: <Those of us who still have emotions, yes. Though, I doubt any of us remember what that feels like.>

Kyubey: <Perhaps we should dedicate our time to consider our strategy going forward, instead of bickering like middle schoolers, no?>

Shiori: <I suggest we take a break. It’s not like they can afford to plot a counterattack with Arashi’s little training facility in ruins. They’ll be spending the next couple of days gathering whatever’s left of whoever was inside, and I’ll be spending my next couple of days recovering.>

Luca: <Perhaps one of my kinds of parties is in order after all—>

Punisher: <You call this debauchery recovering?>

Shiori: <Yes I do, comrade. Recovering like the bourgeois little slut I am.>

Kyubey: <Perhaps Firestarter is right, Fei. Maybe you ought to take a couple of days off as well, now that we have the advantage of a new base our enemies are unaware of.>

Punisher: (she narrows her eyes at hearing the Incubator call her by her real name once more) <… My name is Punisher.>

Kyubey: <Is it? Perhaps you should act like a Punisher, then.>

Luca: <Now now, Kyubey. Did you not just say that bickering like children would get us nowhere?>

Kyubey: <I suppose you are right, Worldeater.> (it turns to the girls) <The truth of the matter is, however, that you are of no use to me in your current condition. I suggest you retreat to the Dreamscape for a swift recovery.>

Shiori: <I am already living the dream, man!>

Luca: <My parties are much more grandiose. All of us can do “whatever the fuck we want” down there. …With pools that have significantly less, er, impurities. In seriousness, Kyubey is right. …Firestarter, I know well enough why your wounds have not healed. Yui, um… she really packs a punch. I’m feeling my dream-self’s wounds even now. But Punisher… I have to ask, since it has been bothering me. But why is it your injuries have not mended yet?>

Punisher: <…. I don’t know.>

Kyubey: <The Soul’s ability to heal its vessel is entirely dependent on its own strength. People say “the will is strong, but the flesh is weak”, don’t they?>

Punisher: <You are imagining things..>

Luca: <If Punisher has a weak soul, she’s in serious trouble when it comes time to fight Yui…>

Shiori: <Oi! How about you shut your smug fucking piehole, Gatsby! If it weren’t for Punisher making you that stupid fucking mask, you wouldn’t even be here… so leave her the fuck alone. I don’t wanna hear some fop who jacks off to his own selfies call out a girl who can kill like fifty dudes with her bare hands for having a “weak soul”. Fuck you.>

Punisher: …

Luca: <My, someone became smitten in a hurry, didn’t she? For someone who was at her throat not five seconds ago. Then again, that might be your flavor of the hour. …She won’t fuck you though, Firestarter. I’m sorry.> (He mutters in Italian) <Someone’s projecting, isn’t she…?> (He clears his throat before continuing in Chinese) <In any case, it falls to me to continue our efforts for the next few days.>

Worldeater: (Luca slips the Imposter’s Masque over his face and gives a dismissive wave) <I’ll continue the work on my side. Just kick back, relax, and let little old me handle the breaking of spirits. …You continue mistaking my father’s pool for the lavatories, or whatever it is you’ll get off to in about twenty minutes.> Ta. (Worldeater leaves the room, making for a bedroom he sectioned off for himself.)

Punisher: <…I don’t need you to defend me.>

Shiori: <Don’t get cute. I just wanted a reason to swear at him before he started whining about how his parties are so much cooler than mine again. You can all go fuck yourselves, for all I care.>

Kyubey: <…Well, in any case, I believe this was quite the constructive meeting! … Wouldn’t you agree?>