To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
So with Mami, we have some idea what we're up against. RIP Kirika's arm, by the way. And Sayaka's mental state as Emiko's death sinks in. I wish we could have done something differently, but everyone has 20/20 hindsight.
Keeping in mind that help is on the way, and given that Oriko, unless asleep, should have some idea of what's going on, I think that we should fight this adult magi as defensively as we can, buying time.
However, it would be nice to formulate some ideas for how to find someone who can shadow-travel. Perhaps predictive-musket fire? I like the idea of ribbon doppelgangers a la Rebellion, though it's just wishful thinking at this point in time. Maybe ribbon-based traps or barriers to slow down the magus' approach. Do we have a rundown on what Mami is capable of?
I'd rather not risk getting destroyed in close combat though. Mami's competent, but not necessarily on the same level of power or creativity. With this in mind, here's my stance:
[X] Go back inside.
-[X] Fight the magi. [DIFFICULTY 2] YOU ARE A CHILD.
-[ ] Try to head her off, use your knowledge of the apartment to defend Oriko.
-[ ] Keep her at range, fight to stall the magi until the others arrive.
I hope that there's enough to work with, I'll be revisiting this after some necessary sleep. We need as many mitigating factors as we can get to even out the odds.
Updated previous response with strikethrough. If the consensus is to head off the shadow mage, we should probably get to Oriko.
[X] Go back inside.
-[X] Try to reach Oriko. [Difficulty 1] You know this building better than this hostile magi.
I do agree with Interested Party, it's a good idea to get to Oriko. I was just having trouble deciding how we should do it. Head-on, or getting there first. Hopefully this works out, it's been nice to see spin-off characters in some form of spotlight.
You begin to run across the wall, the ribbon tight in your hand. You arc upwards, motioning towards the side as Kirika watches. She opens her mouth to speak. You leap around the bend, press your finger against your mouth, and let the ribbon dissolve.
You whip out a new ribbon, quickly swapping your blunderbuss from one hand to another before you reach a balcony. You stop, then break open the window. The lights are on inside the room; one in the bathroom, two by the bed, one in the kitchen. Oriko is already standing, one hand on her soul gem and the other gripping a solid silver sphere.
You glance between the light and the door, covered in its own mass of quivering silver spheres, then at her. 'You were awake?!'
'Kirika lied for me. My door is barricaded as well as it could be.' She glances between you and the door. 'The light'll keep Masaki at bay, but not for long. And if Iruka's around...'
'She is.' You hit the balcony. You quickly flex your fingers across the lock. 'I thought the two of you-'
'We're not. But this is convenient.' She huffs. 'She looks like the girl I love but she's not. You don't need to hear more.'
'I wasn't asking.' You pull up your blunderbuss. The weapon splits apart, each surface turning into its own barrel as a single strip ties them together. A magazine materializes overhead as a stand stretches down and clacks against the surface. You grab a crank as it forms at the side, then the handle at the rear.
'Toji?'
There's a pause. 'Uh, Mami? I heard the commotion outside.'
'Give my apology to Tatsuya.'
There's a thump on the door. Something leaks through the bottom lip as Oriko keeps the spheres at the end. She grips her hands tight, the silver glimmering in a warm yellow glow. The door thuds again, and you hear a few muffled words.
Oriko glances towards you. 'They're going to hit the transformer.' She inches across the floor. 'How long do you think we have?'
'There's a hole in the wall. I'll be surprised if Iruka...'
The building turns black as soon as the words leave your mind. Your eyes widen. The door hisses. The spheres are pushed aside as the room starts to flood with pitch-black smoke.
But you had already prepared. Your hand whips around the crank. And the room is flooded with a bright light and hundreds of rounds of magical lead.
[=]
Your name is Kyouko Miki-Sakura, and you arrive to the sound of thunderous gunfire and shattering glass. The rounds puncture through a room, tearing through the entire building and bathing the streets below in a sun-like yellow glow. Oriko leaps from the railing, bucket hat trailing behind her as she throws a barrage of spheres upwards.
The woman overhead slashes them in half with a twirl of her scythe as the darkness unfurls around her, revealing silver armor and a gleaming purple soul gem in the center of her chest. She winces, then throws the scythe at a nearby lamppost.
The light crashes into the ground, and as she descends into the alleyway she begins to melt into the nearby shadow.
"Shit." You've never liked magi that can 'port; they're always a pain in the ass to fight. Worse yet, it means Sayaka was right to tell you to focus on the other parts of town.
The magi attacking your kid was a distraction. Because of course they were. You spread six arms out, twirl them around your body, and split them into ten separate hands with ten separate spears. You stop yourself just overhead, careful not to slip over the edge of the building.
Your instincts say to jump in immediately.
Your experience tells you to wait.
Oriko slams into the ground, a spear immediately grinding into the road with the scream of metal and a flash of sparks against concrete. She moves the weapon slowly, eyes darting around as she hyperventilates.
"I know your skillset, Masaki!" She slowly stretches to her full height.
"And I, yours." The shadow speaks from all directions. "We do understand how you resisted the urge to give full information. I had suspected it, but the Lady insisted that we not punish you for your...lies."
"I simply omitted information."
"A lie by omission is still a lie."
You glance upwards to see Mami still by Kirika and Oriko's room, her gun smoking. She glances to you, then at Oriko on the ground.
You point below, gripping your left hands into a fist. 'Fire when I drop.'
She looks confused. Then her eyes widen. She whips her weapon downwards, pulls the magazine out of the top, and slams a brand new ribbon into the gatling gun.
Down below, the two continue to circle each other. The shadow flickers with a faint purple shimmer.
"So what do you think I know? What do you think I left out? I gave you what you wanted. Enough to grease the wheels of history."
"To have us fail in our mission? Is that your wish?"
"It's no wish," Oriko says. "I believed whole-heartedly in our cause when I was among The Glow." The sparks are getting fainter. She moves her hands just enough to shift the grinding spheres. "But I knew that Lady Rin's plan was not going to end with us living on."
"Of course not. We knew that from-"
"Let me finish." Oriko smiles. "Lady Rin's plan, were it to succeed, would not usher in a new age as she so hoped. She would not be in control. It would end the world. The fool would cause our extinc-"
She's not allowed to finish when she makes the mistake of moving the sphere to a smoothed-over path of concrete. Her eyes widen as a hand suddenly lurches from the shadow. It grips her by the face, hard enough to dislocate her jaw, then slams her into the brick wall of the apartment complex.
And that's your cue to drop. You descend at high speed as Mami immediately opens fire. The alleyway lights up, ruining Masaki's shadowy cover as you hit the alleyway hard enough to ripple the ground. Ten spears impale the earth in a perfect circle before your hands slide across the ground in a spiral pattern.
"Hey, bitch." You raise five spears. "Leave that kid alone."
Her hand grips Oriko's head tighter. "I would rather not."
Mami's gunfire continues to hail behind you. You don't have a lot of time left before she either has to reload her weapon or she gets attacked by the other magi in the building.
You snort. "Well, then we're at an impasse. Let me put it this way." You narrow your eyes. "Let that kid go or I'm gonna slice your arm to ribbons. We clear?"
She slowly turns your way. "That teenager upstairs cannot susta-"
She doesn't get to finish, as five of your spears immediately tear her arm apart. Blood splatters across the wall as Oriko stumbles backwards.
Everything happens at once. Mami's gunfire ceases, the woman slinks back into the shadows, and Oriko slams into the ground. You turn into a whirlwind of spears and blood-red light as your ten arms slash the alleyway apart. Overhead, you hear a scream and another crash.
Mami must be fighting the other magi.
[] Assist Mami. [ACCURACY 1] But this lets the shadow magi get away.
[] Find where Masaki went. [DIFFICULTY 2] She's tricky to find after she slips away.
[] Concoct a plan. If you think you can do better, write something up.
"Let me finish." Oriko smiles. "Lady Rin's plan, were it to succeed, would not usher in a new age as she so hoped. She would not be in control. It would end the world. The fool would cause our extinc-"
Wait. I thought Miss TERF was just making an expansionist power grab, probably planning to yank Wailuigi's seed as well. Which, I can understand how messing with Walmart Night can result in humanity's extinction. But Oriko's implying something else.
Wait. I thought Miss TERF was just making an expansionist power grab, probably planning to yank Wailuigi's seed as well. Which, I can understand how messing with Walmart Night can result in humanity's extinction. But Oriko's implying something else.
Eh. I thought it was already telegraphed that Rin has some pretty big plans for the Walpurgisnacht's Seed. For one, she's a cult leader, who believes in her own rhetoric according to her interlude. Of course she won't stop after Austria Mitakihara.
Use the cloning thing, one Kyouko to help Mami, the other to try and track Masaki. Try being the operative word. This is not without danger, as Masaki could then ambush Kyouko, which hurts both Kyoukos.
Though if that were to happen, maybe Oriko could precog it?
My money is on supercharging her abilities with the Walmart Seed and attempting to provide Hope to all the Earth's population/destroy all Witches with her own two hands.
But seriously, submerging all the people in the Glow sounds believable from what we've seen about her so far.
[X] Assist Mami. [ACCURACY 1] But this lets the shadow magi get away.
I'm going to suggest we help Mami because we're really not looking to take out enemy combatants here, but rather surviving this attack without casualties. Just getting through this assault is a victory, so let's not get too hung up on fighting it out.
If we could set everything on fire then there would be no more shadows...
Until I figure out how to convert that into an actual plan.
[X] Assist Mami. [ACCURACY 1] But this lets the shadow magi get away.
Sayaka doesn't like Homura. Homura doesn't like Sayaka. Not a buddy-buddy "goddamn, Wilson, stop acting like a loose cannon, I'm only thirty years away from retirement" dislike, they genuinely can't stand each others' guts. So, to sum it up, inviting a Bohemian lesbian away from her sometimes-girlfriend to the PTSD town to help the woman she heavily dislikes, sounds like a very hilarious idea. If Sayaka invites her, she will come, and it will end in fire. Just picture Homu flying on her saucer gear shield upside down, raining death and destruction on the hapless Megucas from her Murderhobo Arsenal of Death Mk. 107. And then Homura was Walpurgisnacht.
Of course, the question may be moot and in fact she will simply flip Sayaka off if she asks for help.
Okay, so, a thing to remember: Kyuubi just straight up lied to Rin about what happens when Walmart opens. Which is where I think this might be going? Everyone knows it destroys the local environment, but if you're a dip, you think that eventually it will pass naturally on its own, that it's some sort of natural process that Sayaka et all are selfishly preventing, like a cleansing forest fire/etc.
If Rin witches out a bunch of incredibly powerful people and herself and others and maybe even does something with the eternal Grief Seed, she could create a world-ending Walpurgis catastrophe all while being sure she's just restoring balance to the system as if Kyuubs ever gave a shit about any of that.
...that's my guess, but I might be missing things.
