---

_{"We pray for our sorrows to end. And hope that our hearts will blend. We're magical girls, and we protect you from the Darkness.”
[ ♫ ]}

---

The nights in Miso City were always abnormally cold. Be it the high-strung spades of summer glade that up the region in storm, or the blatant winter currently hanging over the populace, Miso City’s nights were chilly. It was strange, to say the least; how could a place with such happy abundance and buzzing spirits always bring iced breaths when the sun set? For most of the citizens, it could be chalked up to just another one of Miso City’s strange charms. It was why many chose to stay living in the place, despite all the weird happenings.

But to those few others, those few gifted with magic, there was reasoning to this carefree madness. Magical Girls roamed Miso City like a flock to the herd, invisible to the public eye. Most had lived in the city for the entirety of their lives, barring a few exceptions. To defend their territory, to protect and uphold their duty…it was no doubt a sense of obligation that spurred them from the shadows. It had to be; certainly, it couldn’t be the upheld ideals they once followed.

Even now, the night air stirred with the stench of darkness. High, high upon the rooftops of Miso City, bounding shadows leapt from surface to surface, building to building. The lingering flakes of ice drooping from the crisp sky bristled as they flitted past, the people below ignorant as always. Nightmares. Creatures spawned from the dark, eating away at the positive emotions of ordinary people. And tonight brought forth a horde of them, all shifting among the rooftops like wriggling black maggots.

It was only by the soft rumblings of an animal that ceased their inhuman movements. As if one collective being, all of them swiveled this way and that until pointing their masked visages towards the farthest ledge. The rumbling was a purr, and the purr belonged to a rather odd-looking cat. Its tail curled gently around its dark paws, the Mascot regarded them with only a large :3 icon flashing across its screened face.

The lingering moment of confusion was to be the signal for whoever tagged along to get in the first shot. Because in Miso City, the days were bright, and the nights were cold. And those sworn to protect its inhabitants, those who were destined to become Magical Girls, were said to be colder than the Nightmares. Praying for their sorrows to end, hoping for their hearts to blend. That’s what it meant to be a Dark Magical Girl.

---

Hikari Twilight Knight

---

The sunlight stung. She never noticed it before. Her time spent in a rural town gave her a love of the light and its bounty. Fields of green all made possible by the daylight. When the sun dropped she rested. When its fiery head peeked back over the horizon she woke. It was nothing but bliss for her to eat breakfast made from the strong and tender hands of her care giver. She spent time outside frolicking in many literal and figurative ways across natural terrains. On rainy days she would stare at the sky and thunder storms were the worst.

She sat in her room alone. Her home was eerily quiet. Doors were open yet no one was inside. She kept her own door open, no privacy necessary. Her windows were open and the light of the moon held a steady stream over her as her tiny frame held a sheathed blade which was around her size. She looked tired. Her usual schedule being trampled by responsibilities. Her current care giver only showing up once in a while to drop off food. Sustaining her life was a necessity. Keeping her company or sane for that matter was a hassle...

Her crying eyes were dry leaving them low and sullen. They only looked up to meet the moonlight's gaze. Her crimson eyes and silver hair piercing in its light. A rumble of a phone, encased in what looked like a cute puppy dog, turned her gaze. She was being reminded via text of her duties. No longer was she a healer that avoided the nights and the fights. She was a Knight of Twilight, a Dark Magical Girl. The Detention club gave her mixed feelings. Joy and doubt and anxiety. She didn't like it much, not many would understand her particular pain she thought.

Tonight. She began to think. Her body taking her and her sheathe out her home. She could hardly look up as she walked. Her hair and white top flowed in the breeze as if weightless. She herself was stiff and full of anxiety. Tonight my partner will be Alexis The Fallen Prince.. She avoided walking by people, opting to cross the street instead. People looked on. Wondering why this girl was holding a toy like that at night alone. But the people of this city were not nosy. Leaving the young to do their deeds at night to keep them safe.

She stepped into an apartment and pressed the highest floor of the elevator. Up she went. Head down. A low hum of the rising box and her feet vibrating beneath her. The high pitched beep from the machine alerted her she has arrived. Stepping out she watched the top of the parking lot's edge. Down below were more rooftops and up above were taller buildings. She allowed the moonlight to envelope her sight one last time before transforming. A peaceful expression on her face from the silver light that reminded her that she was not that far from the light.

She stepped onto the edge. Sword and shield in hand and her ponytail dancing behind her. The familiar glow of a Mascot caught her sight. Their heads were unmistakable and what they were here for was still not entirely known to her. But she knew an enemy was before it. She stepped off the rooftop and landed on another. Doing the same with this one until she was closer. "I'm ready.". Taking off the roof top she soared downwards toward the nightmare. Her blade sparkling with twilight. Before she reached it she unleashed a wave of twilight towards it.

She landed with a sparking skid, her boots defending her from the impact. She faced the creature alone with wide eagle like eyes that were a pure blue. The eyes of a fanatic. One that was not truly there in rationale. Exemplified by her singular defiance. Despite there being allies nearby. Her eyes met the moonlight, her armor and sword did as well. Piercing the reflection was as she lowered her head and raised her shield, her blade's edge pointed to the Nightmare.

"I am a blade no longer fit for the light. Face me damnit!"

Ami walked out of the donut store with a fairly content smile on her face, holding a donut with red frosting in one hand and a large box filled with other miscellaneous donuts in the other. Sweets were one of her few joys nowadays, so she made sure to indulge as often as possible. She had made some good money last night, a dollar store lost power. This meant their cameras were offline too, so Ami took full advantage of that. Cleaned out the whole store, made a good thousand dollars in the process. She had enough to pay rent and utilities for the month and splurge on sweets, so today was a good day.

As she walked back home she felt her phone buzz in her pocket, but her hands were full. Ami frowned as she pondered the conundrum she faced, before shrugging and sticking the whole donut in her mouth. Delicious. With her sticky fingers she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, failing to type in her code properly the first few times before finally succeeding on the third attempt. Her good mood suddenly plummeted as she saw the sender of the text. Looks like she wasn't going to be getting any rest tonight. Ami sighed deeply, and then proceeded to start choking as she accidentally breathed in some of her donut. She was good a few seconds later as she gasped for air, swallowing the rest of the donut dry so she didn't choke again.

Ami arrived back at her apartment around 5, tossing the half empty box of donuts on a table filled with clutter as she undressed. Clothes were thrown about everywhere as she tried to find a clean pair of clothes to wear for the night, eventually settling on something that didn't smell at the very least. She was gonna have to do laundry soon too, within the next few days at the least. After pulling on a cute black t-shirt and some similarly dark cargo pants, she threw on a pair of leather gloves and grabbed her box of donuts again. Time to head out. To a restaurant that is, she wasn't showing up at the meeting spot until she absolutely had to.

A few hours later and one dinner at a cafe later she was heading into a shady back alley to get changed again. The tattoo on her back burned as a black flame began to cover her body, armor forming over her as she drew her sword from thin air. Less than five seconds later she was battle ready as she leapt upwards kicking off the walls of the alley to ascend to the roofs. All the while holding her box of donuts, now nearly completely empty.

Ami chewed her donut thoroughly as she watched the mascot from above, sword stabbed into the rooftop as she swallowed her last bite and let out a content sigh as she tossed the box onto the streets below. It was particularly cold tonight thanks to the Nightmares they were hunting, not that it bothered Ami. She always stayed nice and toasty while she was transformed, an unintended but greatly appreciated benefit of her magic. Her partner was running late again, or maybe she was already here and she just didn't want to reveal herself. It didn't really matter, all that mattered was the prey that fast approached. Ami grabbed the handle of her blade and roughly yanked it out of the roof of the building they were standing on, gouging out a good amount of stone as she hefted the mighty sword over her shoulder.

Ami took a few steps back and grinned, before running towards the edge of the roof at full speed. As she pushed off of the ledge a pillar of flame erupted beneath her feet, scorching the rooftop and catapulting her towards the swarm of Nightmares that were all looking directly at their friendly little mascot. Weird little shit, but it got the job done. She slammed on top of a Nightmare roughly, splattering it all over her as she crushed it beneath the weight of her armor and sword. Then she looked up at the rest of the horde with a manic smile. "These are my rooftops assholes!" She cried out as she swept her sword at the mask of a Nightmare, flames bursting forth to immolate the crowd that lay before her.

As soon as Hikari reached the rendezvous point with Alexis and provoked the nightmares into a fighting her, both girls would be able to notice something unusual. The creatures numbers were way higher than normal. Not only that but only those who were actively engaged by them decided to fight back. The remainder of the dark beasts went about on their chaotic routine, unaware of the magical girls' existence.

It was a night of revelry for the nightmares and chaos for everyone else as misfortune quickly spread through Miso city's streets. In fact, if they were to turn their gazes to the dark alleys below, they would see some of the creatures preying upon a few unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Whether they would let the big catch stray further way, or stop to help people they had no obligations towards was their choice.

---

Night was the right time for Wither- a chance to hunt, and this night, there was definitely no shortage of prey. She delicately leapt down from the little ledge she had been occupying, looking for her partner. Late again, as usual. She'd miss her own funeral... which might be sooner than she thinks if she keeps this up.

Still, there was work to be done. To her left, Alexis and Hikari were wreaking merry havoc among the nightmares, while Ami blazed like a comet, and Wither didn't want to be left out of the fray. She couldn't get in the middle of the mess, not without her partner- but that didn't mean she couldn't play sniper. Finding a dense tree to hide in, she went and started picking off nightmares with her sickness blasts, leaving them easy prey for the rest of the club. Hopefully, they'd reward her work by letting her get a few kills of her own later.

The breeze under the moonlight carried the screams of those trapped in the true darkness of Miso city. Such a charming landscape by day, it always became quite the haunt by night. The creatures of the night had a thousand bodies, claws and feet, and those fighting them were far and few between. That is how it had always been, the ebb and flow of the existences that could not be shown. The nameles heroes who fought until dawn for humanity and the common good.

The magical girls. Mari grimaced. Several years since her last outing, and the scars of her last grievous battle were still tender. She had chosen to transform in a quiet place, then make her way to the heights of the rooftops to survey the situation in detail. Trying to do so from the ground level, without any kind of backup, was the sort of thing only a naive newcomer would do. A fighter of Justice did not meant a foolish one, a hard learnt lesson by those few who survived the first outings. For all their brilliance, Magical Girls were forever consigned to launch themselves at the darkness.

A solo run, huh? The situation is indeed grim. The Hag thought to herself, as she grabbed her tattered clothes closer to her body, trying to avoid them flapping in the wind. Her visage once upon a time had smiled, but now was showing determination and self restraint, as the situation's information made itself clear before her. A gaggle of Fallen ones is right now hounding the Nightmares. I don't know if that is bad luck or good. She grimaced, as she knelt herself in a comfortable position, bringing forth her pristine white orb. She knew that even if they were dark and twisted, they weren't exactly in the same side as the abominations, and thus, she could assume they would take quite the heat of the fight from her while she focused on other tasks, such as rescuing and protecting innocents.

But one cannot rely on those lost to darkness, for they are whimsical and double edged blades. She added as she began chanting her magical energies. Shoots from advantadge points seemed to be the wiser approach in this case. She did not have enough backup to do a frontal and more direct confrontation with the Nightmares with a fair chance of success. Her Purifying beams flew from the orb with pinpoint precision, starting to strike targets deftly. She focused on those nightmarish beasts harassing victims, and stragglers that weren't rounded up by the dark ones. At least until some fortuitous movement of one of them almost made said Dark Magical Girl get a handful of her beams in her face. She missed narrowly, hitting the intended beast behind her.

"Drat". The Hag thought to herself. "Now they might think i'm sniping them." She added, while she changed places and continued trying to shelter the innocents from the chaos.

---

The night's of Miso city were rarely dull. Whether the instinctual anxiety of the unawares citizenry or the skulking of the monsters who seem fated to endlessly spawn from the dark crevasses of the concrete jungles and glutinously feast upon the society they are forever apart from, the air was forever charged and left one tense and leery. In such a state Kanbaru found it a wonder anyone could think that walking about so late in the evening was a good idea, but such was life that people were bound by either whim or obligation to present themselves to the cold night's embrace and chance an attack by the Nightmares.

An inhuman roar drew closer to the rooftop rumble, mechanical and rising in volume as the distance closed and a headlight snapped on to illuminate the mutilated creatures being torn into from every direction by both the Light and Dark. It was a motorcycle traversing the roofs with a surprisingly smooth ride, with every gap and bump bridged over by a sheet of blackened ice that didn't detract from it's rider's control in the least. After all, Kanbaru's magic was as likely to hinder her as Ami's fire was to burn her.

With her long coat billowing in her wake and the re-breather of her costume exhaling puffs of unnaturally cold air as she passed, she looked more wasteland raider then magical girl, but Kanbaru was rather fond of the practical aesthetic it offered, and she vainly thought she cut quiet a figure as her mechanical steed shot past the horde and swung around in a wide arc before them. In the wake of her tires rose an inwardly curved wall of ice that stretched across rooftops and seemed to grow in bursts of spikes at either edge in a gradually self sustaining expansion to keep the horde from blindly wandering off as they tried to.

"Sorry I'm late. Movie night was too good to skip out on." Kanbaru remarked coolly with her back to an ice wall and confronted by belligerent nightmares who neither asked nor cared for reasoning for her appearance. She simply was, and thus, they attacked.

The first one to get withing striking distance was met with a tire raised overhead, before the grunt of an engine slammed the motorcycle down upon what passed for a head and crushed it like a melon. And with one hand upon the throttle Fortuna now raised a machine pistol to the crowd and squeezed off sharp bursts, each one accented with blossoming and shattering of ice wherever it penetrated.

---

As expected of the Dark Magical Girls, none of them noticed the civilians of Miso City’s night life being attacked by the Nightmares. In the dark alleyways, many a youth were assaulted by an enemy they could not see. However, there was no pain or even physical determent in their plight, but rather a gradual acceptance to a new reality. For Nightmares did not maim their prey but feed delicately, and the collection of the dark creatures hovered over the citizen’s heads.

Slow streams of blue energy, invisible only to a magical eye, were being sucked out of the humans. And the more each Nightmare consumed, the more joy was robbed of their victim’s hearts, replacing positive emotions with negativity. Not that it had much of a tactical use anyway, as any Dark Magical Girl could attest to. While all of them remained focused on the swarmed horde high in the rooftops, there was one who would come to the night’s rescue.

Beams of potent light picked off Nightmares one by one, saving the civilians in the alleyways from any permanent damage to their hearts. But the stronger light was, the deeper its shadow was cast. Such was the case now, unfortunately. If the Dark Magical Girls didn’t notice the Hag before, they certainly would now. While those Nightmares engaged with their magical foes continued to fight, swiping with claws and slashing with tendrils, the horde itself slowly turned away.

They swerved, drawn in by the purity of a Magical Girl who still served the light. Jumping into each other like a mixing, melding wave of black, the rush of Nightmares not in combat soon surged right in the Hag’s direction. They splurged one way and then another, crawling along the side of buildings to reach her position. No doubt they would attract the fallen maidens fighting them too. Whatever happened next could only be decided by a Magical Girl.

---

Oh, great. Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes here is stealing my prey. Not tonight, sister. Wither's little wand extended into a grey sword three feet long, with an edge as wicked as its wielder. A grin came across her face. "Rosemary, take the right," she called to her partner. "I'll be left and point. We're going after that girl- she's drawing all that nightmares to her with her positivity. They must look at her like a damn all-you-can eat buffet. We take out as many as we can, get ourselves a power boost." The girl of decay easily slipped down from her perch with grace, starting to run towards her target. "Try to keep up."

Sparks flew through the air, momentarily lighting the pitch-black night as another duo of magical girls crossed blades over the hanging heights of a crane loaded with steel beams, at a construction site not very far from where most of the others were gathered..."Huh, them? Why should I care about sticks-in-the-mud when I have an all-you-can-eat buffet right here?" A dark-haired girl who the other dark magical girls would know to be one of their own, a mysterious girl known as Black Shot, said to her adversary before unleashing another volley of black, dagger-like projectiles with a spin of her spear.

"How can you say that, are they not supposed to be your friends?" The other one, an untainted magical girl known as Getsuga, replied before deflecting the attack with her swords.

"If you think that any of them care about this kind of thing, you're even more naive than I thought, newbie. Actually, shouldn't you be the one trying to help that thrift shop mannequin over there? I don't think she's gonna last that much on her own." Black Shot's lips curled into a vicious grin as she took advantage of the momentary distraction created by her previous attack. Falling into a stance not unlike that of sprinter before bursting forth with incredible speed, intent on impaling the other girl.

"Wait, you mean she's not one of you guys? How come?" Getsuga said as her body reacted on instinct to her opponent's attack, parrying, stepping and then following with a counter of her own.

Sadly for her, Black Shot already anticipated that move, parrying Getsuga's blade and directing it towards the cables supporting the crane's load. With one out of four cables missing, the load's stability was compromised beyond repair, causing the whole crane to swerve violently. The moment from such a movement caused the crane's tower to bend and buckle under its own weight, a massive mechanical failure that only took the blink of an eye to happen.

The whole structure would come down without warning, launching the beams into the air as well as causing part of the half-constructed building to collapse. Destruction spread everywhere in a couple blocks radius, filling the streets with dust and bent steel. However, even this didn't make Getsuga and Black Shot's battle come to a halt.

In fact, a good eye would reveal the same sparks from before still flashing within the dust cloud as the two of them kicked and parried, using the very own falling beams as both stepping stones and weapons in a battle that would last until the final of the beams that Getsuga set her feet on, landed rather violently, slamming its way into the same roof where Mari stood.

No sign of the two was visible for a moment, Getsuga appeared behind Mari's back practically out of the blue, parrying another of Black Shot's vicious stabs as the two of them continued locked in an ever more heated up skirmish, exchanging blows against one another, while killing any Nightmares that were foolish enough to come within striking range of either girl.

---

@Rai@Polaris North@KoL

As it seemed, the night had only just begun. She had hoped for a quiet, orderly wrap up operation, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, specially if you throw a few volatile unknown elements in the middle. Mari Yamato, the Hag, just eyed with detachment the arm that was aiming at her, almost as if she had witnessed the same sort of scene so many times she had grown apathetic. Still, emotions rustled within when he recognized the Prince. One of her juniors. Now turned fallen and in a mockery of herself. It was always like this. Most Magical Girls either died or fell to darkness... But she never got truly used to the sight of former comrades being twisted versions of themselves.

"This was never a game." She eventually answered back, solemn and without the barest hint of inflection as she greeted the other dark magical girl with the minimum affordable courtesy. "Likewise."

However, when more and more creatures and girls seemed to rush her position, Mari had long decided that she needed a change of plans, and a change of scenario as well. Apparently a couple of Magical Girls were dueling really close to her. Yes, yes, you are strong and you're having one hell of a fight, but could this wait until we clear the Nightmares? She thought to herself as she concentrated, her orb glowing ominously.

And then she hurled herself down the building into the street bellow, on top of the Nightmares. It was then when the barrier deployed, and with a sickening crunch, smashed a path through the creatures. Most magical girls who had been endowed with barrier powers usually failed to realize the offensive applications of them, just like many people failed to realize shields could also be used as bashing weapons. Breathing deep, she began to run away from the residential area, acting as bait.

Let's see, I need a place with lots of open spaces and perches for ranged attacks. The industrial area shall be fit for my purposes.

Ami continued her fiery rampage, smashing, cutting, and burning any Nightmares she saw as she cut a swathe through the black horde. When Kanbaru arrived Ami shouted something about inviting her to movie knight next time, but it was likely unheard over the sound of roaring flames and explosions as Ami fed off the energy of the fallen. It was only when the Hag showed up that Ami finally got distracted and earned her first wound of the night, a cut under her right eye from a lucky Nightmare. It wasn't so lucky after Ami grabbed it and smashed it into the ground several times with a roar of rage. "Hey bitch! Stop stealing my food!" She roared as she formed a spear of fire in her hand, getting ready to lob it at the Hag and scare her off. God damn purists, think they're so high and mighty.

A few of the other dark magical girls joined the Hag and Ami snarled, sorely tempted to throw her fire spear at her regardless. Alas her hesitation cost her as the Hag jumped away towards the industrial area, taking with her all of the Nightmares Ami had just been slaughtering. "HEY! GET BACK HERE GOD DAMNIT! YOU'RE TAKING ALL THE NIGHTMARES YOU BITCH!" Ami jumped after her, slamming onto the rooftop the Hag had just occupied and crushing a few Nightmares during her landing. A few Nightmares broke off to engage with Ami, but they were quickly dispatched as she cut all of them in half with one swing of her sword. God damn purists. Not only do they steal kills, they don't even get anything out of it. Fucking bullshit.

Wither's blade connected with a nightmare, ripping it to shreds in a whirl of mystic metal. She drank deeply of the creature's power, feeling her reserves of magic recharge and her muscles recover. That's the stuff. Wither didn't really give a damn about the mind she'd saved- the power was the only thing that mattered.

The other magical girl, the one who was with the light and probably still had the whole "love and friendship" thing going on, bolted for the industrial section of town. There weren't that many nightmares there, owing to the fact that there were fewer people, but she was dragging a small horde behind her like the tail of a kite. Wither followed in hot pursuit. Seems like she's a powerful source of positivity, to attract so many- and her magic is probably strong as well. Best be careful with her.

---

The conflict of Nightmares was disturbed ever slightly by a clash of magical power. Two Magical Girls, one of light and one of shadow, exchanged blows with each other without a regard for anyone or anything else. But their battle had very real consequences for either side. The building they fought upon practically shattered into little more than raining piles of rubble, miniature meteors that were about to slam into the night life populace below.

Not that any Dark Magical Girl would care, but frankly it was hard to hide dropping a building in the middle of Miso City. That was why quick shots of ice were blasted out, each one of them catching the remains of the building and holding them firm like a bridge. A few almost made it to their mark here and there, but no causalities were had thanks to a not so happy ice-wielder. No doubt Kanbaru would have some hot words for her partner when this was over…

The main event however, had taken an interesting twist. The flow of Nightmares, once clamoring atop of themselves to get at Mari, now pulsed with confusion as she came to them instead. A good chunk were destroyed by her heavy landing, dissipating into nothing, before the rest of the swarm reacted in kind. Like a wave of black, they clawed and scratched greedily behind Mari, eager to consume her light and destroy her. It left their backs wide open for the other Magical Girl.

By now what was left of the horde was a few far and below. Between those Nightmares who broke off to engage the other Magical Girls, those following Mari had reduced to a number that any one of them could manage. And with the other girls slaying their prey quickly and without remorse, it was only a matter of time before this night’s hunt would come to an end. Yes, the sensation of approaching power was probably buzzing in all of the Dark Magical Girls.

But with the Nightmares being picked off one by one, it would eventually leave Mari alone with them. Whether or not they were cruel enough to fight her for her ideals or let her scour off for the night depended on the teamwork and negotiation exuded by those following the shadows. As the Nightmares vanished one by one, slain or purified, it was as if Miso City itself held its breath on this chilly night…

---