Kyoko latches onto your hold eagerly. Like all the rest, she can see and hear what happens, even though her self is held static. Her determination burns brightly as she rides your current into that shackled reality.
The flaring flames part to admit a crimson blur. It smashes into the ground near Yuki, throwing up a cloud of dust. Gleaming chains slice it apart moments later, revealing Kyoko in her red and pink robe, a fanged grin on display.
"Yo," she greets, "need a hand?"
Yuki can not help but smile.
"I'd like that very much. Keep your distance from the acid, and don't get hit."
"So Witch-hunting 101? Sure thing, I can do that."
Wrath roars and charges, cutting off their banter. The magical girls scatter, but not fast enough; her right hammer smashes into the ground between them, the shockwave catching both.
Thrown a metre into the air, Kyoko stabs her spear into the ground to stabilise. Once she is back on the ground, she quickly takes stock of the situation.
There is a metres-wide crater where the Servant of Wrath hit the earth. A hissing and gurgling pool of acid fills it nearly to the brim. Flecks of that same acidic green follow Wrath's path as she follows Yuki with single-minded determination. She keeps screaming at the magical girl, tries to reduce her to paste, but Yuki is too nimble to hit in flight.
With their opponent distracted, Kyoko dares close her eyes for a moment. The force of another, more distant blow still rattles her bones.
"This one's for you, Mami," she murmurs, aware her friend can hear her. A fond smile graces her features at the thought, even if it is embarassing.
"Rosso Fantasma!"
Yuki's first sign of change is the arrival of not one but four Kyokos. They throw themselves into melee with wild abandon, slashing at Wrath's resistant hide. Their spears split apart into miniature twisters of steel, biting into her body.
Although the quartet can dance around the beast's swings, the acid she flings everywhere still bites into their flesh. The sheer force behind each blow rattles them. Yet their confidence never wavers, even when one stumbles and is crushed beneath Wrath's hammer. She merely dissolves into motes of light.
Yuki watches the remaining three, her mallet at the ready. She is waiting for an opening.
Kyoko gives it to her.
One of the redhead's illusionary clones leaps straight at Wrath, yelling at the top of her lungs. She rams her spear into the Servant's chest, Wrath's massive eye closing in the last moment. The sharp steel pierces through the tough membrane, but not deep enough to cut the eye.
In turn, Wrath unhinges her jaw to swallow her head whole, then tears it off with a hard tug. She spits out motes of red light when the chains of two spears wrap around her arms.
The remaining pair of clones brace themselves as they restrain the Servant. She strains against their bindings, making them buckle in moments under her sheer strength.
But those moments are enough. Yuki pushes off the ground and flies, accelerating as fast as she can. Rearing back her arm, she puts all the strength in her body and all her speed into that one strike.
Her mallet connects with the back of Wrath's head, just as Wrath finally breaks the stalemate.
Yuki can feel and hear the bone crack. She can see the Servant's head dent inward, bruising in an instant.
But her opponent is too angry to fold and die.
Wrath whirls around and lashes out, swinging her hammer in a wide arc. She smashes through one of the two Kyokos without slowing, then clips Yuki's leg and tears it off. Blood fountains from the jagged stump, accompanied by a horrible, burning pain.
Yuki grunts, almost biting her tongue, and realigns in mid-air. She flexes the muscles in her thigh until they cut off her blood-flow.
"I'm not done yet," she shouts back at Wrath, who is stomping down viciously on the final clone. "I won't let you stop me from being more than I am! I'll finally embrace others with faith in my heart!"
Her opponent roars back, all feeling rather than concious thought.
And in that moment of distraction, the real Kyoko appears from the underbrush. Her spear penetrates the weakened flesh on the back of her head, sliding into a chink of cracked bone. Kyoko vaults up and levers it apart, hurting Wrath further and prying her skull open. Pink flesh tears, rivulets of acidic blood hissing as they flow free.
Kyoko completes her vault over the Servant, coming to stand next to Yuki without a trace of acid on her.
"How's it feel losing half a leg? Sucks, doesn't it?"
"Fuck off."
The redhead chuckles, clapping her friend's shoulder. There is an understanding between them despite the coarse words; they both know they are not good people, and they both want to be better.
"Let's fight together," Kyoko says, readying her spear.
Wrath is still screaming at the world, muscles tensing further and further as she prepares to charge again.
"Let's," Yuki agrees, mallet rising. "I block her, you kill her."
They lower themselves and rush out to meet Wrath's charge. Yuki's mallet clangs against the larger hammer, the clash of equal forces sending a shockwave through the area. Yuki's clothes and hair flutter, acid splatters every which way.
And while they are at a standstill, Kyoko aligns in mid-air above them. She rears back as she begins to fall, using gravity to add more power to her attack.
Wrath is too focussed on overpowering Yuki. She never sees the spear coming for her already injured head.
But it never reaches.
Another chain snaps out from nowhere, winding around Kyoko's waist and arresting her momentum. She can only utter a surprised noise before being yanked away.
"I don't think so," the Hermit says.
The sound of her voice makes Wrath redouble her efforts. With a furious shriek, she overpowers Yuki and slams her through a nearby tree.
With all air pushed from her lungs, Yuki can barely escape the follow-up. Her back is bruised, her clothes begin to melt, and Wrath pursues relentlessly. Her incessant roaring fills the air, drowning out Yuki's thoughts.
But she will not give up that hope.
And neither will you. Kyoko may be out, but the others still wait for their turn.
[] Kirika, The Longing Quiet
[] Yuma, She Who Yet Lives
[] Homura, The Burning Heart
[] Ai, Midnight Of Purple
[] Kyoko, Hope In Her Heart
[] Mami, Of Unwavering Devotion
[] Nagisa, Herald Of Halcyon Days
[] Madoka, The One Reborn
-Kyoko's disposition changes to "Friend"
The Servant of Wrath
-Threat Rating:
WAW
-Threat Assessment: No strategy, all brute force. Wrath will stop at nothing to reduce her enemies to a bloody smear on the ground. The force of her blows can shake the earth and throw out devastating shockwaves. She constantly spreads highly potent acid around herself with each attack and motion, turning the area hazardous.
Yuki is highly resistant to her acid.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ8rhSx9HTo[/URL]
"I knew you'd see it my way. You're still so young, full of ambition and wishes. But in this heartless world, nobody will just hand you what you want. You need to grasp it of your own power."
"Yes."
"If you agree, then why do you resist becoming your most true self? You can actualise everything, follow any path you want, but you restrain yourself so. You peer into the future along countless timelines' like roots, yet have never stopped to look up the tree you began to climb. Why use only your hands, when you can also use your legs?"
"I'm starting to see it. We have the same view on the world, even if it isn't the same world. Human nature remains the same across those boundaries. But I disagree with your conclusion."
"I already am my most true self. Anything else is no longer me."
