Mumi Quest (A Silly PMAS Spinoff) [Not Actually a Quest]

[Nezganrif]

"I think that might be good," Sabrina decides finally. She grins at you, and you blush a little bit. "I'll release the channeling for now, and we'll set down and try that, yeah? Help me let Kazumi and the others know?"

You nod as Sabrina lets out her breath and begins to slow the griefplane. The jellyfish-tendrils of your ribbon net hang loosely over a far building, but that's fine for now. You sigh and nestle into Sabrina's side, the washing sensation of your soulhug with her threatening to completely overwhelm you; not that you find yourself really minding. Sabrina says something to Hijiri, but you're not paying much attention.

Then...

Sabrina squeezes your hand. "Act natural," she says. There's a slight chill down your back, and through your incredibly familiar link you can feel her slight edge of anticipation and the barest hints of worry. You cast your net wider, trying to pull yourself out of the drug-like haze the soulhug has you in.

"I think Anri might be nearby," Sabrina says, linking you into a group chat with Mikuni, Kazumi, and the Pleiades. "I think. It's more a guess than anything else."

That wakes you up. If Anri is nearby, she's trying to interrupt you and Sabrina being heroes... And the soulhug. Neither of which are what you want.

"-Are they even my family?" Hijiri is asking bitterly, scrubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hand. Was she crying?

"Sure they are," Sabrina says, and you nod along as Sabrina starts to drop her... What was it? Mobile Opression Fortress. "Family is blood, yes, and I don't doubt you share that, and hey. Family is also what you choose. I don't know 'em, but you tell me. You want to stay with them, right?"

"What?" Kazumi yells, all but right in your virtual ear. "Where?"

"It's just a guess,"Sabrina says urgently, not letting any of the internal conversation show on her face as you watch Hijiri grimace. "Just based on how Hijiri's acting. Don't spook her, if she's here."

"We have forewarning," You say cooly. "If she attacks us, we'll be fine - at least for a minute or two until you arrive." Which is true, if by 'we' you mean Anri and by fine you mean 'not deceased'. She's interrupting hug time. Nobody interrupts Mami Tomoes hug time.

"We'll get closer?" Miki asks. "So we can back you up if need be." You start to reply in the affirmative - Miki has been good to have around before - but then Mirai cuts you off.

"I'm moving in!" Mirai barks, ferocity lighting her normally demure voice.

"Mirai, no, hold off!" Kazumi snaps, her tone obviously lifted directly from your old scolding back when she was your Kohai. "Remember what Miss Oriko said!"

Since Kazumi and Sabrina have control, you decide to continue expanding your ribbon network. You trust the both of them. "I mean... look, I'm just guessing here," Sabrina says slowly as you finally set down. "But I'm pretty sure you don't want to play along with Niko. Your family is your family, but staying with them feels like it's exactly what she wants, right?"

You take a moment to squeeze her hand. "I'll start now, while you talk. We want to distract her, right?"

"We do," She agrees. The sound of her voice reminds you somehow of silk covering steel, which is fine by you. Admittedly, Sabrina has probably even more silk than you do; you have no idea how she manages to get along with Kyouko, who was all steel even back in your glory days.

You push out with your magic, weaving together the threads of your soul into a expanding web of tiny, nearly invisible golden vines. Between those go "decoys", which are large and visible, the most generic sort of ribbon you could think of and designed especially for fooling new girls into thinking that's the only kind of ribbon you can make.

Then come even thinner threads, tiny and so fragile that anything stronger than a slight breeze would break them. These are designed to notify you of someone passing through them while being thin and small enough to be invisible and effectively intangible.

The network continues to grow, out and out and out. You've never really pushed this far since Sabrina got here, or even quite before, since you were always worried about grief seeds. Your magic notifies you when you reach your limit, over a kilometer away.

"I'm ready," You say, and Sabrina looks at you like you're the only girl in the world.

"Alright," She tells Hijiri, nodding. "Hijiri, I might be a bit distracted, but I'm still listening, alright?"

Sabrina's magic courses through your ribbons in full force. The sheer Sabrina being pressed into your mind makes you gasp slightly, the world seeming to fade out in favor of something more expressionist. Every color in the world seems like her, and like it represents her feelings for you. The deep purple of the grief around you is the color of affection, the yellows in Hijiri's hair looks like the gleam in Sabrina's eye when she looks at you. The blue of the sky through the windshield even aches in a romantic way.

The wind against your ribbons sings like pride as Sabrina's magic passes through them, and you have to fight from going under completely and falling asleep on her lap. That would be undignified, and dangerous, and also probably very comfortable. Your skin feels hypersensitive, but every brush feels like a slightly tenser-than-expected idea of friendship. You even imagine for a moment you can feel something approaching love in the swirls Sabrina's breath traces on the top of your head.

There.

Sabrina mumbles something to Hijiri as you tense slightly. Anri is snapping through the very edges of your ribbon network now, and judging from her movement patterns she's not yet noticed you know she's there.

Well that's fine for now. Let her get closer. You can play a damn good honeytrap, and you lack sympathy for anyone who attacks your Kohai's teammates.

"Cut it out," Hijiri says suddenly, voice quiet as her hands clench into white-knuckled fists. Her eyes crinkle slightly, and your connection magic whispers 'anger' into your ear. "You found her, didn't you?"

"Sabrina," You warn, preparing to...

Preparing to what?

[ ] Let Sabrina take lead again
-[ ] Make Sabrina official leader of Mitakihara
-[ ] Make Sabrina official concubine for the leader of Mitakihara

[ ] Hijiri
-[ ] Wreck house
-[ ] Ribbon Mummy the girl
-[ ] Let Sabrina handle this

[ ] Anri
-[ ] Let Sabrina handle this
-[ ] Tempt her in closer, and then Ribbon Mummy
-[ ] Ribbon Mummy now
-[ ] Ribbons are sharp. Invisible ribbons are sharper.

[ ] Write-in

SAN: -4 (Shaky)
This turn you gained +5 SAN

 

[Nezganrif]

"Hijiri, help me," Sabrina says urgently. And at the same time, you feel her pull her magic back. "Don't. We don't have to fight. Nobody has to lose."

You nearly slump over as the sensation dies away, but immediately start subtly entrapping Anri.

Hijiri and Sabrina stare each other down for a few moments.

"Hijiri, please," she says. "You can have your peaceful life. But as much as I want to, I can't give it to you, or to Anri or to the Pleiades."

Your ribbons start rubbing against one another, gathering charge. Changing their conductivity does little to change their appearance, although you'll have to hope Anri doesn't notice the slight fuzziness where the ribbons connect - otherwise you'd have to flood them with magic for charge, and that would sing to her like any large magical work.

Then again... Anri seems to be slowing down?

"You can't give me what I want," Hijiri says with a bitter smile - and dissolves into a blinding streak of lightning.

[ ] Get Anri RIGHT NOW

[ ] Focus on Hijiri, she's the mastermind

[ ] Why does Sabrina look so willing to just let her go?!

((I of course can't write these immediately after Firn posts, so any votecrafting above this post can also be assumed to happen after this in character, savvy?))

 

[Nezganrif]

Shit.

You have just enough time to think to quash the thought of trying to manufacture a huge layden jar and entrap Hijiri, and snap your little tracker ribbon before it becomes a conductor for a lightning shard directly into your wrist. And then-

Hijiri is gone.

"Dammit," Sabrina snarls viciously. You couldn't risk trying to capture lightning, and you bet she couldn't either. "Idiot girl."

That's no reason not to jump on her throat the minute she stops being electricity, though. "That way!"

"No- Anri first," Sabrina interrupts. "Unless you can get her by ribbons?"

"No. I can't tell where she is. Sorry."

"It's fine. Anri, now." Sabrina says, shaking her head.

You nod sharply, resisting the urge to uselessly rise your feet. "You're sure?"

"Yeah," She says.

The two of you start roofhopping to the east, where there's a squat, brown building made of unadorned brickwork. An apartment, it looks like to you.

"Mami, do remember to stay back?"

"Dangerous information, yes. I'll support you at range." You say, trying to crush the slight hurt that roils up in your stomach, because Sabrina doesn't trust you with this information.

Part of you considers it revenge when you overtake her on the way to the Maybe-Apartment. But for the most part, it's for the people inside the building who are in danger.

Sabrina's voice calls out over the telepathy network, the familiar not-sensation of telepathy painted white in that familiar but indescribable way. "Anri found. Closing in on her right now."

"OK," Kazumi says. "Sabrina, get Anri. We're coming."

"She's here," You murmur, landing in a light crouch. Your network of conceptual ribbons zips past you, and with some twitches of your fingers you begin to maneuver it inside.

"Got her," Sabrina responds.

Apartment buildings indeed, densely packed and tall and just a little grimy. The street passes far below you. A terrible place for a fight if you want to keep things quiet and inconspicuous, but as long as nobody else gets hurt, everything else is Kyuubey's problem.

Sabrina senses her first, your ribbons coming into contact halfway through her advisement. "Fifteen floors down. Lure her out?"

"I don't think she's coming out," You say. "She's hiding here- for a reason?"

"Cut her off, then?" Sabrina says. "I'll go inside the building and drive her to the roof?"

Except... "No. You go inside, I'll scale the side of the building. I can't support you from up here."

Sabrina nods, then hugs you and cleanses your gem. You try to take as much support as you can from the brief contact, but you can't...

You grab her wrist as she withdraws, and send a golden ribbon flashing around her wrist (quietly attaching a cadre of conceptual ribbons to it) and smile sadly at her.

Sabrina grins at you like the world couldn't be brighter, and then jumps away. "If the fight gets drawn out, we'll try and pull her south?"

"Stay safe, Sabrina," You say. You can feel her hit the street as you start to rappel.

"You too." Sabrina sends, then she draws you into a group call. "Anri's gone to ground inside an apartment building. She's trapped."

"We're coming!" Niko responds, echoed by the rest of the Pleiades.

Your feet hit the side of the building, a golden thread connecting you to a small chimney your only anchor from a daring fall. The minute you hit though, you notice something off...

Screw it. You slide up the side of the building, But... Your fingers are starting to feel numb, and your head is getting a bit fuzzy...

Gas! You leap away from the building, getting some distance between yourself and the anesthetic.

"Mami?" you hear Sabrina hiss, slurring slightly.

You nearly miss latching onto the building. You make it, just, ribbons lashing out at the last second.

"Something making me drowsy," you gasp. "Gas?"

There's a brief moment where the pair of you are silent.

"I've got it," You say, taking deep breaths. "I can handle this. Our- our bodies, we don't need-"

"I'll go," Sabrina says, with steel in her voice. "I can handle it."

"Sabrina," You say, grinning predatorily. "I've got it. And people are in danger."

"Alright."

Knockout gas... except there's no such thing. There's carefully calculated doses of anesthesia calibrated to every person, yes. Anesthesiologists are one of the most highly paid medical professionals, and for good reason. Coma, death, permanent health damage...

You swing back to the poisoned building with your ribbons. Sabrina is headed up the stairs as well.

You force yourself to ignore anything you might be inhaling. It doesn't matter. You don't actually need your brain to think, nor your muscles to move, and you're closing in on Anri. Your conceptual ribbons are hard to keep track of, but they've finally reached Anri, who's headed up the stairwell.

Fine.

You rappel up to the top landing of the stairs and start to spool out a Tiro Finale. Either Sabrina catches her in the stairwell, or she's really unlucky, and is stopped by you. The Tiro Finale sits heavy in your hands, but you're content to wait now...

Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. "Hit the fire alarm," Sabrina calls. You can feel Anri startle from the noise - and then move with alacrity up the stairs. The opposite set of stairs from Sabrina, of course. She's well within her range though...

She's not alone.

You can feel the outline of another human with her. Male, older. He's hanging limp, dragged by Anri.

You're suddenly much less content with waiting. You bring in one of your conceptual ribbons to attach to the man you noticed. "She has someone with her," Sabrina barks. Looks like she saw him around the same time you did.

"A hostage?" You ask.

"I don't know, almost there!" Sabrina says breathlessly.

"Us too!" Mirai yells.

"Go, Sabrina," You say with what feel like ice replacing your blood. "I've got you covered."

Understatement.

You're able to hear the doors to the roof open, and you adjust your aim. You just need confirmation from Sabrina that taking the shot will be fine and then...

"Back off!" Anri shrieks, high and cracked. Looks like Sabrina made it then. Time to bring down another villain.

"Incoming," And then you pull the trigger.

The shot smashes open the door and the wall in front of you. The thunderclap of a shell slams full on into Anri and hurls her against the far wall with a crack of broken bone and golden ribbon bursting into a cocoon. Sabrina slaps Grief over her mouth as she slumps bonelessly to the ground. Just in case, though it feels almost redundant.

Sabrina glances back at you. You smile at her.

And then you feel something fast and large hurtling towards the building. On your side of the building. The entire building shudders with the impact, nearly as powerful as your shot - and then with a rumble of shattering stonework, a huge paw breaks through the wall to seize Anri, clawed fingers wrapping around her torso and hefting her up.

"Got her," Mirai snarls as you make out the balefully glowing eyes and fanged maw through the smoke-like cloud of dust, belonging to one of her war-teddies.

The fire alarm wails on.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Sanity: -10
Taking down a villain brought benefits, but losing Hijiri did more damage than that. Net loss this turn of 6 SAN.

 

[Nezganrif]

"Yeah, kicking her out when she specifically has a grudge against you isn't going to work," Sabrina says, rubbing at a headache.

"We need a jail, or... something," Kazumi says, scowling. "Mami, how did you deal with people like this?"

"I... never ran into someone who hated me personally," You admit, trying to hide your embarrassment at being unable to help. Shoddy Senpai. "It was enough to just scare people away."

Sabrina wraps an arm around your waist, a comforting, solid presence nestled next to you.

"A jail," Niko says. She grimaces, folding her arms and looking away. Her ribbon halo sprouts a few off-black ribbons of disgust at the sound of the idea, and you wince where Sabrina can't see it.

"Do you have an idea, Niko?" Kazumi asks, looking at her.

"No... not really," Niko says, shaking her head. "Maybe later."

"Well," Sabrina says, waving her hands uselessly. "I don't... I don't really want to just throw her in jail. I want to see if we... or someone else can't help her. I mean, she's a bit, um, off in the head, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve help, you know?"

"Mmm," Kazumi hums, sounding thoughtful, if preoccupied.

"Always try to be nice, but never, ever fail to be kind," Sabrina says. "That said... I'd like Oriko and Kirika to try talking to them. There's no point making a decision before that, right?" She makes a odd, fluttery motion with one hand.

"Why the Kures?" Kazumi asks.

"Miss Oriko is a seer, right?" Niko says, frowning. "I can... I could see that working."

"Mm. Plus, Anri doesn't know them. I, uh... She doesn't seem to like me very much. So, um. New faces might work." Sabrina agrees.

"Couldn't we leave Anri with Miss Mikuni?" You say telepathically to Sabrina.

"It's... an option, I guess," she thinks thoughtfully. "I thought about it, too, but I'm not sure it's really workable."

You sigh and nuzzle against her side. You're not much help here, are you?

"That seems reasonable," Kazumi says with a sigh. She folds her arms, glancing off the roof, to where the rest of the Pleiades are gathered, before shifting her gaze back to Anri.

Her good arm dangles limp, broken arm crossed over her chest in the grasp of the Bear. Her twintails, dust-coated and filthy from the fight, are long enough to scrape the floor. Well, not much of a fight, after you got there.

Her broken arm, though... that you'll have to heal.

Sabrina looks like she's thinking the same thing.

"Kazumi, could I have a word?" she asks suddenly. "Privately?"

"Uhh..." Kazumi's flick to Niko for a split second. "Sure?"

"No, I mean - privately," Sabrina shifts to bring you into a tighter hug. "And, um, could I trouble you to set up the privacy sphere? Your copy has the advantage of not reading as Witch to everyone in the vicinity."

"Sure," Kazumi says, nodding with a little more surety. She claps her hands together. "Niko, go meet up with the others?"

"Y-yeah," Niko agrees, shaking herself. It's a full body motion, a shiver from head to toe as she almost seems to come awake, and then slump in on herself. "Yeah."

She makes her way over to the edge of the rooftop, hopping the gap to the next building where she's immediately pulled into a group hug. Kazumi, meanwhile, focuses on building the privacy sphere, tongue poking out from between her lips as she concentrates on the process. The Bear remains, stolid and unmoving.

"Will you be OK?" Sabrina murmurs. Then she kisses you on the cheek.

It's only a very light kiss, hardly romantic at all. But you can't help but blush and shrink a bit with giddy happiness. It's nice to be open about this - nice to be involved in this at all. "I will,"

"And, um, I'll need to have a private conversation with Oriko and Kirika after this, too."

"This is about... whatever it is that Anri might know, right?" You ask. "I understand, Sabrina."

"Yoooo-hoo!" Kirika calls, and Sabrina turns her head. You feel her entering your range a slight while later - moving fast. And ballistic. You twist around to spot her sailing through the air, launched on the longest jump you've ever seen, sleeves and skirt fluttering behind her. The rising sun all but glints off her grin, it's so wide.

When she grins like that, she actually kind of resembles Sabrina. In demeanor, at least; You're not a fan of the shaggy, scruffy look. Still, you can understand that if Oriko has slightly different... tastes... than you do, why the pair are so attached to each other.

She scrapes to a halt on your roof, kicking up a cloud of dust you wave away. "Yo!"

"Yo," Sabrina says, taking the lead as usual. "Where's Oriko?"

"Coming~" Kirika says. "Just wanted to try this. Stretch my legs, you know?"

"I gotcha!" And then right on cue, you sense Oriko, moving at a much more sedate pace over the rooftops. Sabrina grins at Kirika. "So, right. I'll be having a word with Kazumi, then I need to talk to you and Oriko, and then I'll leave Anri to the two of you?"

"Yep, yep," Kirika says, bouncing on her toes. She stalks over to the Bear, giving it a thoughtful look. She raises her arm, flicking it so that her claws slide into existence from her sleeve, and gives the Bear's talons a long, considering inspection.

She nods, satisfied.

"Done," Kazumi says, waving at you and Sabrina. And, just so: she has a void-black sphere, large enough for a few people. Sabrina gives you one last longing smile, and ventures into the black orb.

And once again, you are alone.

Oriko lands nearby, elegant dress fluttering around her ankles.

"Good Morning, Mikuni." You say politely, smiling away the building sense of cold.

"And to you, Miss Tomoe." Oriko pauses, glancing at the privacy sphere and back to you. "Dare I ask?"

You shake your head. "I'm not sure either; it had to do with one of her 'infohazards', to which I'm not a party." Something about Mikuni Oriko simply oozes polite company and elegant wording, to the point you find your speech changing and you feel as if if you attempted to make a ribbon right now it would turn out more like a doily.

You still resent her having blown off Sabrina's leg, but it's difficult to bring much vitrol to the hate. Everything about Oriko is far too... Well, Oujou.

"I see." Oriko says shortly. "Well, Miss Tomoe, if being without your beau is too much for you, you may join myself and Kirika. I'd be pleased to have the company of someone refined."

Ooh, it may be hard to bring vitrol, but the hate is definitely there. "She's not- I'm not- We're-" You're stuttering. You tell yourself it's you disliking Oriko, but deep down, where you can't lie to yourself, you know it's because you're still embarrassed to be caught out like this.

Oriko is already gliding away. Reluctantly, you trail along; after all, she's completely right about you feeling lonely without your beau- Without Sabrina.
There's nothing certain yet. It's not certain until she says yes. Remind yourself of that, before you scare her away.

As it turns out, Kirika quite enjoys teddy bears. And, not to your surprise, claws. So her discovering a large teddy bear with equally large claws is... explosive.

"It's really pretty, isn't it, Oriko?"

"Yes, dear."

"It just looks so fluffy! So fluffy I wanna die!"

"Yes, dear."

"It even comes with a punching bag!"

"No, dear, that's not a punching bag. That's an ex-punching bag." Oriko says primly, her tone not matching the sparkle in her heavily lidded eyes.

Kirika blinks, and then nods in understanding. "I see, I see." She doesn't see at all!

Oriko reaches around and places her hand on the small of Kirika's back. "Please don't make a mess."

Kirika pouts. "Aww, come on. Just a little snip." Is she?

"No, dear."

"Kure-san? Are you intending to hurt our prisoner?" You have to ask. As much as you dislike her, you can't allow Kirika to just hurt the poor, unconscious girl.

"Eeeh~?"

"No, Miss Tomoe, rather I was trying to stop her from - Kirika."

"Uhoh." Says Kirika, quickly shoving something in her pocket.

Oriko looks miffed, which you don't need magic to know means she's likely livid. "Kirika, I told you not to cut anything off the bear."

"But it was so fluffy!"

"That is not an excuse!"

You spend some time with Oriko and Kirika. Kirika tries (and eventually succeeds) to convince Oriko to allow her to keep the small string of "fluff" she had clipped off the teddy bear. Meanwhile, you stand in the background, sometimes offering input, but more often just allowing the cool loneliness slowly drain out of your body. Kirika reminds you of Sabrina, but without an off switch on her weirder half, and a scruffy look, in some ways like a tomcat that's getting used to a new home. Oriko continues to exude her aura of pure class, and that's something that you're familiar with.

Rather than remind you of Sabrina, Oriko actually ends up reminding you more of your Mother. Mother wasn't as nihilistic or sad as Oriko was, but it's clear from the way they spoke that Mother came from almost the exact same place Oriko came from. If things had been different... You wonder what your Mother would say if she could see you now. Or if you had made a different wish, and she was here. After all, Sabrina had proven wishes could do anything.

It doesn't take long for Kazumi to exit the privacy sphere. There is some odd expression on her though - not odd due to the situation, but rather odd because of the fact that it had almost no relation to the halo around her. The lime ribbons of stress creep and crawl their way everywhere, but Kazumi's face is smiling as if nothing is wrong.

It's disconcerting, and you actually forget to warn Oriko of her approach. The verdette subtly shoots you a look when Kazumi taps her on the shoulder, making her jump slightly.

"Miss Mikuni? Sabrina wants to have a private conversation with you too. We're done in there."

"Thank you, Kazumi. Kirika, dear, could you bring the bags?"

Kirika hoists up the shopping bags and dutifully trots away, following her Oujou to the very end.

You wave at the sphere, hoping Sabrina is watching. The grief in the air coalesces and pushes against your shoulders, wrapping you in a strange, telekinetic hug. You grin at the sign.
Looks like she loves you yet.
You turn to Kazumi, but she's already clapped her hands together in apology.

"Sorry, Mami. I actually want to go talk to Niko for a bit. Later?"

"...Yeah. Later."

Kazumi doesn't bother to hide the twinge of concern at your lackluster reply, but takes it anyway and bounds off to the next rooftop, where the rest of her team is waiting, alongside Sayaka.

You plop down next to Anri and sigh, trying to ignore the cold. You start healing, but your mind is elsewhere. Friends...

You're surrounded by friends, these days. Back home, you have Sayaka as a Kouhai, Sabrina as... well, if not a beau than a prospective beau, and one that seems to at least somewhat return your feelings, even if you and her are way to nervous to actually say anything to one another. And Homura, who's a friend in spite of how cold and mechanical she is. All three are wonderful companions, and to be honest it feels like living inside a storybook with the way all three fall neatly into such colorful and important roles.

And then now you're reconnecting with Kazumi, and meeting her team. In a way, it hurts to see Kazumi leading around a pack of other girls, acting as the senpai to someone else, and not needing your help. But it's actually kind of a good pain; she's grown up. You're forced to sniff a little bit, but you can't help but grin. Kazumi is the leader now. Your equal, even if she still thinks of you as her senpai.

Then on top of that, Sabrina has a mysterious plan to put you back in touch with Kyouko, and you can't explain why that would be a terrible idea without revealing a lot of things you'd rather not. But even so it kind of makes you happy. You have tenuous but real alliances with the girls around your territory, who are slowly getting warmer around you. Even Nadia... Well, was Nadia, but still. It's a warm feeling.

You lost Kyuubey as a 'friend'. That's true. But he was manipulating you, using you as a tool to help him extract girls souls, and worse if Sabrina's hidden knowledge is like the way you think it is. You try not to think about that, usually, but this time...

You don't need Kyuubey. You don't need him around, you don't need him to be your friend, and you don't need him to even eat used seeds any more. And good riddance. You do not need Kyuubey.

You let out a deep breath and stand up, just as Sabrina leaves the privacy sphere, holding Kirika's bags and a slightly chagrined expression.

she hurries over to where you're standing by the Bear, setting aside the Kure's shopping and pulling you into a hug, which you relax into.

"Hey," Sabrina murmurs into your ear.

"I've healed her up a bit," You say, struggling to get closer to Sabrina without burying your head somewhere embarassing. "I... thought you would want to."

Smiles at you like you just told her you saved a puppy. "Yes, I was thinking just that," she says brightly. "Thanks, Mami. We... I guess we don't need her shoulder fully healed, but pain-free, at least. How is she?"

You glance at Anri, noting that you seem to have managed the worst of it. The bone is set, certainly.

"Ah... if we just want her pain-free, then this is almost sufficient," you say diffidently.

"Best Mami," Sabrina says, making your heart skip a beat. "Thank you."

She glances over at the Pleiades, all huddled up on the next roof over and talking intently. They seem to be occupied with that, not even sparing you a look, and so you work with her instead - both of you reach out and press your hands to Anri's shoulder, mending bone and nerve and muscle.

"Hey," Sabrina says quietly. "Do you think you could make some chairs for the sphere? Out of ribbons? They'll stay, right?"

Probably. You don't think your ribbons need much magic to maintain form, so they'll stick around for a short while. "I... think I can do that."

"Cool." Says Sabrina. You turn to work on the furniture as Sabrina peacefully leans into you and keeps stitching together Anri.

"I believe carbon monoxide poisoning will be a suitable cover story," a telepathic voice states, sickly sweet.

Peace thoroughly ruined.

"Figures you'd be here," Sabrina growls, giving the alien a glare. You feel yourself stiffen involuntarily. For a moment, you can almost feel his fur on the inside of your arm, where you'd carry him sometimes.

It's not a good feeling.

"For an incident like this? Of course I am," Kyuubey notes. "As are you."

Sabrina growls, but Kyuubey ignores her. It scampers up the Bear's body to perch on its shoulder, tail lashing slowly.

The Pleiades don't seem to have noticed yet.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Sanity: -7
Increase of +3 from last update. Would've been bigger, but Kyuubey rolled a natural 100 on "being a huge douche"