Along with Nagoya's Expedition
Kyouko had long since decided that she didn't like boats. The salt, the wet… the rocking. The girl that Mami sent with her understood on pain of death she'd never tell anyone of this. Considering how you moved in combat you didn't really understand how you could get seasick, but apparently there's a difference between moving under your own power and the world moving around you.
Some of the other girls got seasick too though so you didn't feel so bad about it, apparently poisons don't work on magical girls normally but neither does Dramamine. Though they had some left if you wanted to try anyways.
The girls on the boat all seemed pretty close knit. Laughing and joking a bit when they picked you up. The one at the wheel was wearing a tricorn hat and an eyepatch. They had one of the veterans babysitting their supplies of charms at all times but other than that they mostly relaxed. There were a fair few boxes sitting around, including one of bright pink rubber balls for some reason.
You actually got to meet the girl that shot at you a few months ago. Yoko could apparently summon up some gun which just from the looks of it you could tell that forget trees, small buildings wouldn't be sufficient cover. She claimed that you got lucky and that her trying to disable rather than kill you made it much harder than it had to be. You actually kind of like her, even if she wears way too little clothes, though of course you don't agree with her assessment. You make your own luck after all. Uno made it very clear that there'd be no sparring on the boat though or you'd both be swimming home.
As you approached Tokyo though they got significantly more serious and quieter. As the ship loitered in Tokyo harbor waiting on their clairvoyants including Yoko to scout out a target there was a pre-battle tenseness.
There were a couple girls busily making teleport charms for the ship's current location when you asked what they were doing, though they also said you should know how to swim because their accuracy on a boat wouldn't be that high. A veteran put up an illusion you could feel around the ship, you weren't quite sure of what as you were on the inside, but you're guessing something so that people wouldn't see when your group was teleporting about but wouldn't run you over either.
The various elites started outfitting themselves, bandoliers across them filled with various charms, to which you offered yours with a demonstration of their safety at random.
When the teleporters finished distributing the charms to everyone they went over to the crate of balls and started vanishing them. Wait, no they were teleporting them.
"Drop zone Mercury clear," Yoko called. Probably for your benefit as most of the orders seemed to be going out telepathically.
Three groups of three each carrying a box ported out, probably two elites and a vet each though you couldn't be too sure. Uno gestured you to join her and another girl carrying a box and you went as well. Being a clone certainly made things much less paranoia inducing for you than your real body.
You appeared in a karaoke room it looked like, with a few other girls already there. Locals you guess, though less bedraggled than the ones that Mami dragged back from the forest had looked. The local atmosphere was pretty oppressive, kind of oily feeling. A magical girl could shrug it off but this was deeper than you'd felt safe in your territory way back.
Uno greeted them and the veteran she'd brought along opened the box to them. The fact that it contained grief cubes and money surprised you. The only two supplies a magical girl really needed to survive you guess.
"Don't suppose your requirements on immigration have changed?" one of them asked.
"Nope, you know the offer," Uno replied flatly. The girls seemed to accept it though.
They left shortly and so did you, you had to ask though: "What's the offer?"
"Obviously many of the girls in Tokyo would prefer to be somewhere else, and equally we can't afford to take them all, we simply don't have the resources. The offer is a compromise. We take them back but we separate their soul gem from their body and maintain the body in cold storage separately. It takes way less grief cubes to maintain them that way. If we ever have the resources to support them full time they'll be restored first-in first-out. Surprises me how many took the offer rather than fight for their homes.
"Elites are a bit different, if they were involved in what caused this in the first place we won't take them, they're the ones that should have avoided this mess in the first place. If they weren't involved we'll take them on board fully if they want."
You kind of approved really, very pragmatic, even if you doubt Mami would accept it. It also probably gave them more elites than you'd expect.
That sort of thing seemed to take up a fair bit of the time they spent there. Surveying an area and dropping off aid supplies. Not really something that interests you and it goes by in a bit of a blur. From what you gather they teleport those pink balls to the target with clairvoyants watching for them, if the balls make it then it's safe to port in for the drop.
With how careful they are about each landing it takes quite a while to finish. After they've depleted the boxes of aid supplies they start scoping out a target for an attack, which for you mostly amounts to boredom as the three clairvoyants they brought along stare off into space.
You try to start up a conversation with Uno, but she seems awfully martially focused. You manage to get a little out of her though. Her power seems to be some sort of space manipulation, but she's vague on the specifics.
Regarding the demons they fight she cautions you to not underestimate them. They aren't human and they don't act like it but they aren't mindless automatons following simple directives either. She tends to think of them as like killer whales or maybe like dogs or somewhere in between. They can tell if they're heavily outmatched and will try to withdraw to get help. She's fairly sure they have some way to signal the others beyond just the others seeing it by clairvoyance, the equivalent of a dog barking.
A lone one tends to be aggressive if cornered but withdraw if it can. They've had a hard time pinning down any of the teleporters. When they group up they're a lot braver. They don't spend much of their time grouped though. There's a bunch focused on the edges keeping the magical girls inside from fleeing easily, while others rotate through the center to feed.
When it finally comes time to fight it's actually a relief from the boredom. Though having no real threat of dying probably skews your perceptions.
You're teleported to the outside of the miasma as a group with about a quarter of the group left behind to guard the boat, you assume veterans not useful to the fight.
Entering the miasma is as troublesome as last time: an oppressive weight to it that tries to call up your worst emotions.
The demon this time is some sort of winged frog dripping with slime that sizzles on the ground. You've long since given up on wondering about what drives what demons look like, even if those nerds love tossing theories.
They engage the moment they enter rushing forward at maximum speed. You hang back a bit to get a feel for how they fight so as not to get in the way.
There's an elegance to how they fight together that even you can't deny; a level of coordination that you might once have had with Mami. For all that they have ranged attackers firing with glowing arrows, bullets, rocks, and energy blasts into the midst of others leaping into the air to try to box it in and drive it down as it flies about wildly, there's no friendly fire. Skill or magic it's hard to say. They all show signs of training and experience beyond your own, though you'd never admit that, but lying to yourself wouldn't do you much good.
You dodge as it fires a wad of spit at you and decide to engage it yourself, it doesn't seem like you have to worry much about interfering with them. Fighting something that can fly when you can only jump proves rather more difficult than you'd like though. You can jump awfully high, but you can't really adjust your course much in midair while it can. You block a splatter of sweat and it sizzles against your shield corroding even the magically strengthened steel. You try to pull it to the ground with chains but they corrode too fast to accomplish much.
It fires off multiple tongues trying to grab at the girls jumping through the air, but their movements stutter oddly, not teleporting, but something similar maybe. Uno is always in its face attracting attention but wielding some sort of shield bigger than she is in place of a weapon.
You push off the ground again and try to clip it's wing but get batted aside by a leg with far too great a range of movement, the ground is further away than it should be though and you right yourself with time to spare. You idly notice that your costume is burning away where it took the blow and curse yourself for the mistake. A light appears about you and shuts down the effect, as the ranged fire gradually becomes more accurate to the erratic aerial movements of the demon. Damage against it begins to stack up.
The miasma thickens. Memories of your family real and imagined impinge on you for a moment before you manage to refocus. You use your spear as a bludgeon batting at a skeletal tiger the size of a car with force that would probably roll a car over. It flinches aside and you use the recoil force of your blow to gain some distance.
Uno appears in front of you in a blur of motion and shield smashes it in the face. Everyone else redoubles their attacks on the original demon and you take your cue from that. It's slowing down heavily as damage on it adds up. It can no longer manage to block you as you slice into it.
Uno flies across the field of battle in a trajectory that makes no sense whatsoever before coming to a halt and flickering to reengage the undead tiger mixing up with the ranged group.
The frog at least has had it finally as it loses a wing and crashes into the ground already evaporating. One of the girls scoops up the grief cubes haphazardly with a bag, getting the majority but not taking the level of care you're used to.
The other girls start teleporting out as you hear a belated shout that it's time to leave and you activating your own charm, appearing just above the freezing cold ocean and splashing down. The water is a shock and you come up sputtering and gasping from the sudden difference from pitched battle to freezing ocean.
After everyone was on the boat and accounted for they withdrew from the harbor to wait outside for the night to start again on another hunt another day.
They didn't take any casualties on the trip you were on. From what you've heard casualties are actually pretty rare these days, though they were more common in earlier expeditions. They're really more cautious than you were expecting. They're willing to risk their lives, but they don't throw them away.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Not complete obviously, but contains most of the information you guys wanted so I figured I'd post it before you all go crazy from the wait. I'll finish eventually... basically just need to write some fight scenes which I'm terrible at.
I'll edit this post and say in the thread when I get around to finishing this.
