Ranbu Escalation (PMMM/Gaim)

"Good Evening, Mitakihara City!" Declaring the man known as DJ Sagara, as the various phones and laptops in the area tuned to his channel. "Welcome to the late afternoon show! With the recent school term starting, the usual participants are busy before now, but the Beat Riders haven't ceased!"

"Look at this, Madoka." Sayaka pulled her friend to the side, holding her phone up. "Team Baron's already dancing in the prime areas!"

"Ah, that's..." Madoka began, as Sayaka held up the picture of the boys in their red and black jackets dancing.

"How are we supposed to compete with this?" Sayaka asked, before Madoka could comment on it. "I swear, I thought high schoolers were meant to get more homework, not less."

"A-Aren't we going to the docks anyway?." Madoka asked.

"I suppose." Sayaka sighed. "That's not a good place, though. Better than having to try and contest a stage, I guess."

"As long as we've got a stage, right?" Madoka asked. "I-I mean, we've only been dancing for a month, so-"

"It's all about the principle of things, Madoka." Sayaka shook her head, as the two walked. "We need an audience, or we may as well just be dancing in our rooms."

"I know that." Madoka frowned as she cut in. "Maybe we should have practiced a bit more before getting into the Inves Game-"

"And fall behind more?" Sayaka asked. "Madoka, it's not all about the dancing. I mean, it's fun and all, you me and Hitomi just putting on a show, but we need to get the name out to get people to show up."

"...I suppose so." Madoka noted. "So Hitomi is already at the docks, right?"

"Yeah, we should hurry." Sayaka replied. "You've got the music?"

"Both disks." Madoka replied. "M-Maybe we could try the..."

An image came to her in a flash, of herself trying to dance to the heavy metal she usually saved for private, and the audience laughing at the contrast between the death metal and her own, childish appearance.

"...Nevermind." She cut out. "We'll do the normal thing."

The two talked as they walked, and Sagara's show continued to drone on about the team scores.

"Still at the bottom..." Sayaka noted. "I mean, we haven't been involved in the competitive aspect of the Inves game yet, but it's still disappointing."

"There you are."

Madoka and Sayaka looked away from Sagara's show, as they reached the stage. Hitomi stood in the middle of it, looking at them.

"We really need to co-ordinate outfits for this one day." Hitomi noted. "All the best Beat Rider teams do it."

"Not yet." Sayaka replied. "We've been over this Hitomi, I can't just keep accepting your charity. You're already covering the Lockseeds, we can't-"

"I understand." Hitomi sighed. "Still, it's good to see you two. How's the homework?"

"Can we not talk about it now?" Sayaka asked. "I'm stressed enough, let's not drag it into this too."

"Should we get started?" Madoka asked. "This is as big a crowd as is likely to form before we start-"

"Don't bother."

The voice behind Madoka sounded almost unbearably smug, and Sayaka sighed as she turned around. Hitomi stepped down to stand next to Sayaka, and Madoka turned around a moment later.

Five older boys had gathered, standing in formation in front of the three girls. Three of them wore identical black jackets over varying shirts with yellow designs, and a fourth wore a similar jacket but with yellow sleeves. In the front, the fifth member of the team's jacket was open with a yellow outline through the opening and collar. His slicked-back hair curved down his neck, and he looked at the three girls with disdainful eyes.

"Hase." Hitomi noted, her voice level. "Do you have business here?"


Oh boy...

"What Beat Rider team are you again?" The high-school boy in the front asked. "Berry? Barry? Something like that?"

"You know what it is." Sayaka growled at him. "Hitomi, why are you even bothering to talk to this guy? Raid Wild's all here, you know why the full team would be at a stage."

Hitomi sighed. "Hase, this doesn't have to-"

"Clear out." He ordered. "Unless you think you can defend your stage?"

As he spoke, he pulled a hand out of his pocket, pulling out the padlock shaped Lockseed in the process.

"...Very well, then." Hitomi sighed, pulling a similar Lockseed out of her pocket and passing it to Sayaka. "You two deal with this."

She was keeping her composure well, but Madoka was not, as much. As Hitomi stepped to the side, and Sayaka and Hase both stepped onto the stage, the pink-haired girl took a moment to look at the two holding Lockseeds.

Both were the basic kind of Lockseed, the Sunflower type. As far as that result went, they were evenly matched. And Sayaka was the best at this aspect of the Inves game, but Hase had more experience than her in this regard.

"The usual wager." Hase drawled, as he got into position. "The winner gets the stage, and both Lockseeds."

"You're on." Sayaka barked back, holding her Lockseed up. The sensors in the stage activated, and out of the floor, the hologram of the boxing ring formed.

"And what have we here, folks?" Sagara's show was speaking up again. "An Inves Game, already! On the left, we have Hase of Team Raid Wild. On the right, Miki of Team Berry. Hase has had a mixed record recently, his victory over Red Hot upset by his loss at the hands of Baron and Danza. On the other hand, Miki has never won a competitive match-"

Sayaka, overhearing the commentary, began to grit her teeth.

That wasn't good, Madoka noted. Sayaka was already losing her temper. If she lost focus on holding the Lockseed...

"-But could this change here, folks?"

In unison, Hase and Sayaka's Lockseeds popped. In front of them, in the middle of the holographic ring, two rips in space opened, showing a forest in them for a half second. In that half second, something stirred, and the Inves leapt free.

There was one on each side, the two small, vaguely humanoid things. They creeped Madoka out, somewhat, with their...

Well, she didn't like to think about it, so she wouldn't.

The one in front of Sayaka leaped into action first, rounding it's fist into it's opponents head. Hase's Inves took the hit, then grabbed the arm of the one Sayaka was controller, and pulled it back.

"Predictable." Hase noted. "To be expected, of a child like you."

"Who are you calling a child?" Sayaka demanded, as her Inves started smacking the other one. "Why I oughta-"

With a small roar, Hase's Inves yanked harder, ripping the arm off of Sayaka's. Then, it spun, and slammed the limb into the Inves' back.

Sayaka's Inves fell back, and faded away.

The blue-haired girl blinked. "...Eh?"

As if by some magnetic force, the Lockseed in her hands ripped free, and flew at Hase, who caught it with his free hand. Then, sealing his own Lockseed again, he watched the Inves jump back into it's portal, which closed like a zipper behind it.

"Too easy." He noted. "Now leave."

The rest of Team Raid Wild joined him on the stage a moment later, laughing and jeering at the younger girl. Sayaka stared at them for a moment, before turning around.

"...Damn it." She muttered, under her breath. As she stepped off the stage, Madoka and Hitomi rushed to her side.

"You did your best, Sayaka." Madoka tried. "I-I mean, it's better than what I could've done, anyway."

"Me too." Hitomi replied, with a sigh. "...Still, this is somewhat unfair. I don't think there are any other free stages, and that was our last Lockseed."

"Jeez, and we can't even practice now." Sayaka noted. "Maybe we should have waited until your allowance let you save up enough to get a second."

"It's going to take a month, now." Hitomi sighed. "Maybe if we get lucky, we can run to a stage before anyone else gets there and just dance until another Beat Rider team comes to contest us, but..."

On the stage, the music started to play. A generic pop jingle, which Madoka could have sworn was something out of the new sentai show that had started airing recently. Raid Wild was still laughing, and as Madoka's eyes drifted to the source of the sound, she saw Hase on the stage, giving her a mocking salute.

"...Let's get away from here." Madoka sighed.

"I dunno." Sayaka replied. "I could try punching the smug git."

"And then fight off the other four?" Hitomi asked. "No, Madoka's right. Let's just go."

The two of them turned away from the stage, and ignored the crowd forming for Team Raid Wild in the process.

"Now what?" Sayaka asked. "...We can't just not dance for a month, and we can't keep letting the other teams just push us around."

"What else can we do?" Madoka asked. "I could ask mother for some more money, but she's busy as it is, I don't want to burden her like that."

"Just leave the Lockseeds to me." Hitomi insisted. "I can get it the easiest without causing any problems. It'll just... Take a while."

"Maybe we could figure out something else." Sayaka noted. "The Lockseed dealer has high prices, but he's got to have a life, right? Maybe we could do him a few favours."

"I'd prefer not to..." Hitomi sighed. "He's... A bit sketchy as it is, isn't he? It's hard enough doing business with him, I feel like whatever favour he'd ask for in exchange for a discount would be... Troublesome."

"It's a shame Team Danza's so close lipped." Madoka took her turn to sigh. "Maybe if their leader shared her secre-"

"As if that'd ever happen." Sayaka snorted. "Magical Girls are secretive at the best of times, d'you think one'll give away their secrets over a dance competition? To a competitor, at that?"

"I know..." Madoka sighed. "It's... It'd be nice, though."

"At this rate, we're going to end up like Severe Beat." Hitomi sighed.

"I dunno, that seems a little too lucky for us." Sayaka replied. "If a hot guy could come out of nowhere, rebrand us and lead us to greatness, that'd be great."

Hitomi raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Sayaka, what would Kyousuke think?"

"K-Kamijou would know I'm kidding!" Sayaka yelled back, flustered. "I just... Hey, maybe we could try recruiting him? I mean, after he gets out of hospital, I mean..."

She trailed off, jumping from embarrassment to sadness in a blink of an eye. Hitomi watched her, and seemed to regret bringing up his name at an already stressful point.

Madoka watched for a moment, before she spoke up.

"M-Maybe we could go to another stage?" Madoka asked. "Not to dance, I mean. Maybe we can watch another team for a bit. They are pretty good, and if there's any more Inves battles, maybe we could figure something out by watching them?"

"That's an idea, I suppose." Sayaka muttered. "Who're you thinking? Baron? Gaim?"

"Maybe Danza..." Hitomi noted. "They're not the highest rated, but they do have a certain charm to them that the other's don't have..."

"You're just saying that because Danza's the only team with an average age lower than ours." Sayaka noted. "...They are pretty good, though."

"Do you have a preference, Madoka?" Hitomi asked.

"Not really." Madoka replied. "...Though if we can't decide, we could just go home. Do a bit more studying."

"Already?" Sayaka asked. "School just started!"

"I suppose we could try that..." Hitomi mused. "We were having a test in a month, weren't we? Perhaps if I do well enough, I could convince my parents to double my usual allowance, and see if we could get a Lockseed earlier-"

"Can we just stop talking about Lockseeds and stuff for a bit?" Sayaka asked. "It's... Agh, it's frustrating. Raid Wild isn't even one of the good teams!"

"Maybe we should go out for ice-cream and see if that cheers you up?" Madoka asked.

"Oh, we could try Charmont!" Hitomi asked, a glimmer in her eyes suddenly. "They do the most delicious cakes. Trust me, Madoka, Sayaka, it's like taking a bite out of heaven itself."

"...Some Charmont cake does sound pretty tempting." Sayaka admitted. "But could you even afford that?"

"If we got one of the cheaper cakes." Hitomi replied. "...Though perhaps it would be more cost-effective to just watch another Beat Rider dance."

"Hm..." Sayaka thought about it for a moment. "...On one hand, I don't wanna feel bad about using your money again. On the other hand, Charmont."

She mused the two options over in her head for a moment, before turning towards Madoka.

"What'd'you think?" Sayaka asked. "I'm torn. Gimme a tiebreaker."

Madoka frowned, and took a moment to think about it herself.

[X] "...Let's go see a dance."
-[X] Baron.
-[X] Gaim.
-[X] Danza.
[X] "If it isn't too much of a hassle, Hitomi? Charmont is nice."
[X] "...Maybe we should just go home for today."