---

Akiko held onto Durgan's back tightly as Lorelai guided the beast through the city. She was still getting used to that feeling of being on the massive back of Durgan, that's for sure. Though, hopefully within time, this would get less and less troublesome, especially if Akiko kept Lorelai out more often. She did give off a solid protective vibe, and it made Akiko feel much safer, but... oh, whatever. That wasn't the point right now. She needed to keep her head in the game.

"Lorelai! Over there!" Akiko pointed towards a nearby bank. Getting money was a very solid idea for the future, whether it was buying things at Cait's bar or just having something to sell. At least, hopefully this was a bank that had physical money of some sort. If not then things would definitely be pretty slim... that is, unless the bar took currency of a digital variety, but if that's the case then Akiko probably needed to get back to Miso for around thirteen minutes, just to check her accounts. "I think we could use some money, wouldn't you say, Miss Luxonne?" The catgirl smiled, pulling out one of her other cards and attempting to try something.

"Hello, Monkey? Mind if a darling catgirl asks what your Serei card can do?" Akiko thought, looking at the Monkey card in her hand. She needed something, anything, to go off of for this, or else she might be throwing a card to the wayside again for no reason. She didn't even know if there would be any response, but she just had to try something.

Rose landed on the second airship as she transformed into her normal attire, immediately pulling out her rapier and the Chen card as she rolled to her feet. She sprung out of the roll into a little hop as she tossed Chen's card into the air, summoning him forth onto the deck of the ship as he quickly snapped to attention. "Alright Chen, here's the drill. We're taking over this baby, along with everything on board, this is our ship now, no, it was always our ship! The guys who built it just didn't know about that. So here's the deal, gonna need you to go around and take out whatever losers might already be on board, throw em off the ship, make em walk the plank, you know how it goes when you're a pirate. Then we gotta find the bridge, start working on getting this baby airborne and out of here fast, don't want the attention of the whole city on us, not yet. Hey Claire, sorry I'm late!" She interrupted her speech to wave at Clair on the other ship, leaning over the railing slightly as she smiled brightly.

Chen didn't bother waiting for the rest of Rose's instructions as he nodded taciturnly, turning and walking to a nearby door to start looking for the bridge. Cargo could be assessed at another juncture, for now what mattered was capturing the ship. Even if it had absolutely nothing of value on board, he was well aware of how valuable the ship itself was to his card's owner.

Lorelai had never considered robbing a bank, much less considered using one, but if Akiko thought it was a good idea she wasn't going to argue. Especially when both students and police alike seemed to have wised up and weren't going to stand still for her to bludgeon them. With a hand upon Durgan's mane she channeled her powers into his imposing frame and the lion shot forward, pulverizing the bank storefront into powdered masonry. The Serei sprung off her chosen partner and slammed her standard into the metal vault door beyond while the lion suitable menaced any foolish bank teller still working today.

"This door shall be the work of moments, Akiko!" Lorelai chirped, seeming quite happy to repeatedly slam herself into it, denting the foot thick slab of tempered metal with each blow.

---

What was an enclosed stairwell soon gained a skylight over Caprice and Kanbaru's heads, a hulking mass of demon launching straight through to hand upon the sky, borne aloft by a disc of turbulent flames. The Head Master's gaze swept upon a seen of pandamonioun in the streets. Now there were police in her city and students pillaging their own city instead of harassing Solar University like tradition and common sense demanded. No power ran wild through the halls as demons and warlocks strove for excellence, but tired lectures and pitiful prattle that would only see her students wallow in destitution. The sight of it sickened the vertically challenged woman and she snarled curses so profane the skein of reality quivered at their vocalization.

"No more. Not a moment longer shall I tolerate usurpers and charlatans in my academy! Umbra Academy exists to promote excellence in Evil."

Her tome left her hands, born aloft by ethereal currents spilling from the vellum bound text, pages fluttering open before splayed hands. If her vitriol alone could misalign the world, then her hatred given direction would reshape it. Power surged from the arcane tome and the Academy resonated in kind, buildings shaking as avenues hissed and boiled. One by one like stones upon water, the hole of the academy sank into the ground and stained it in the likeness of tar, a lake of featureless pitch marred only by a sphere of ice tumbling off its surface, a bluenette rather frantically getting clear of the sudden and violent change to the Academy.

The Head Mistress snatched the tome and slashed with it upwards, beckoning the lake to pull itself heavenward, stretching itself into a collosal shadow that elongated the farther it rose. Two segments pulled outwards into rippling arms of shadow, while a further pair unfurled from the back into imposing, leathery wings.

She alighted upon the shoulder of the horror she summoned and bellowed her words through its titanic mouth, "Come before me, you rakish scoundrel, and know your death shall only be a prelude to eternal suffering for your crimes! You and your damned Angel shall rue the day you locked me in a broom closet!"

Suddenly Suparna's zombie apocalypse didn't look so bad when a demon that cast half the city in its shadow now loomed over head, swirling currents of energy racing about it like the galloping of spectral calvary.

---

Clair had an amused look in her face as she watched her friends—nay, Rose—go around picking whatever wasn’t bolted to the ground, like a child in a candy shop.

"Hey, Boss, you might wanna try that one! It feels like it might be a much better catch if you wanna keep it for yourself," Clair pointed to an airship docked in an explicitly marked military zone. As expected, the vessel was not only armored as well as well-armed. A ship much more fitting for piracy jobs than a freight vessel.

Taking care of amateurs was funny and all, but Clair had bigger concerns in mind at the moment. She was more interested in exploring the kind of tech, magic, or both, that powered these ships. Stealing something just for the sake of stealing wasn’t Clair’s style. She had to get some benefit from it.

After reaching the engine room, Clair finally found what she was looking for. A mysterious glowing device, energizing the whole airship.

Alas, as Clair worked on a way to remove the device without breaking it, she would be none the wiser to the fact that another mysterious third-party was observing both Rose and her from very nearby.

What could be their intention?

---

In no time, the Umbral Games became the spitting image of chaos unrestraint and anarchy run rampant. Perhaps that was the point as the world burned all around and the city shook with the horrors that infested it. “Kanbaru” for one, was having fun with the situation, shooting up students and cops and buildings alike with bullets that bent the air and punctured reality slightly with each shot. The roar of engines echoed in the city and, very soon, were coupled with the stuttering groans of zombie-like creatures whose minds were eaten away, literally.

Yes, for the streets now shuffled rather than ran with the presence of students whose minds were rendered into the control of a carrion-carrying knight. The robotic cops were affected only minutely though some of Suparna’s maggots managed to chew just the right wiring in their swarm to make them malfunction and go haywire. Evidently, such machinery was nowhere near as advanced as the Machina, and thus many were simply scrapped on the spot instead of becoming infected entirely. Indeed, the wave of slowly growing troops, as effective as they might have been, would have shambled their way to the buildings in doing Suparna’s will, looting whatever they could for the glory of the Pirate Queen.

A good chunk of them blindly stumbled towards the greatest epicenter of wealth in the city, the bank that stood before Akiko and her knight. But even these waves of braindead students and sparking robots paled in comparison to the escalating situation up high. A great booming voice echoed throughout the city and with it, the imagery of a demon that scaled to the highest clouds of darkest night in this villainous floor. The voice called out the ones who wrestled control of Umbral Academy from its rightly deserved, the entire floor shaking beneath the power of its “final boss”. All would be witness to its dark form, as its reach and size could be seen from the bank to the skies as it all but encompassed the view of the airships Rose and Claire resided on.

“Ahahahahaha! Amazing, amazing!” “Kanbaru” didn’t even flinch as the world was turning into a literal hell on earth, some fires even breaking out to join in the painting of madness. This was the most fun she’d seen in a while and to add more to the chaos, she revved her engines up and shot her bike out until it was running right off the side of a building and launched like a missile straight for the bank building. Of course, she was still riding it to witness the calamity she could cause firsthand. Such jovial nature was what blinded her, and probably everyone else, to the small dot that was backdropped to the massive demon in the background.

Called by its rageful summons, the “Student Council President” manifested like a ghost. The same caring smile drawn to his face, he stood upon one of the dark clouds summoned by the Head Mistress; apparently it had some solid qualities to it that were buoyant enough. “You called? Oh, you escaped from your broom closet. I knew you could do it with the right motivation,” said the “Student Council President”. Then he noticed Kanbaru and Caprice, even among the hellish wreckage of the buildings beneath them. Still smiling, he casually waved at both. “Hello again delinquents.”

---

"My my, this has become quite a bit more exciting than one's average act of schoolyard vandalism. Well done." Caprice tipped her mask to Kanbaru, somehow managing to maintain her upper body's poise and composure, as her lower body pranced atop Kanbaru's sphere of ice, riding it like it was some sort of circus act to amuse children. As they came clear of immediate danger, Caprice hopped off.

"Hello." Caprice had a rather terse, uninterested reply to the Student Council President, waving a hand half-heartedly while not meeting his eyes. Her gaze and interest was focused instead on the Headmistress. She had no intention of fighting the Headmistress' battle for her, if judging by Caprice's lackadaisical pose. Despite the chaos around her, she had nabbed herself an armchair from the ruined buildings, set it atop a jumbled pile of smashed timbers to get a good view, and was calmly perched upon it watching the scene.

"Well, I'd say 'I hope this show is worth all the effort', but I think Kanbaru did all the actual work. Popcorn?" Caprice offered the nearby Kanbaru Ice Sphere her jumbo sized movie popcorn, sizzling with butter. "I'm not sure it counts as therapy for whatever invisible nun-related trauma you've suffered, but I'm afraid it's all I have to offer at the moment.."

---

Clair abandoned the first airship, after stealing what she was looking for all this time. "Timber!" She yelled as the thing went crashing down the the ground after its source of power was taken away.

"Now then, what should I—" Just as Clair was about to go look for something else entertaining to do—probably anything that had to do with checking on Itsuko and ensuring the other girl wasn't ahead of her in the score—she noticed a vision from Hell raising over the city as if it was an embodiment of the chaos below.

"Hey, what'cha wanna do about that? I bet that kicking a bonafide demon's ass would get us quite a few some big bad points," she asked to Rose as she jumped aboard the self-proclaimed pirate's ship. Not waiting too long for an answer, Clair continued on her way, ascending through the airships and skyscrapers until she reached as far as she could possibly go.

"Ok, I hope this works. If you are going to come, now is the time," Clair said to Rose once more as she commandeered the military gunship she mentioned before and pointed its cannons to the demon. "If no one else wants to have fun, then I'll," she said to herself as she opened fire.

---

Rose nodded as Claire pointed out the much better armed airship, likely to have its own unique treasures on board as well as serving as a much better vessel for her sky pirate needs. But at the same time, there was a certain charm in taking a humble trading freighter and slowly building it up into a mighty warship that would rival even the greatest military vessels. But she wasn't entirely sure she had the patience for such an endeavor, especially when there was clearly a vessel right there ripe for the taking. And she could also improve on that one too, so it might become even greater than the theoretical ship she was imagining in her mind. But did it even have the same-

Oh, and now there's a giant demon in the sky. World boss? Final boss? Whatever, she would just have to beat it up and make it drop it's sick loot regardless. That's how this kind of stuff usually worked anyways. Rose turned to face the military airship to comandeer it, only to see that Clair was way ahead of her on that note and was already pointing the cannons at the demon. "Alright then Claire! You keep it's focus on you and I'll ram it in the side of the head! It'll be a one two punch!" Rose mimicked a boxing stance as Chen already got to work on piloting the ship, clearly used to the eccentricities of people like her. "Alright Chen, take the wheel- oh you've already got it. Not bad." Rose mumbled as the ship began to rise into the air, taking a discreet curving path into some cloud cover to avoid the demon's attention.

---

"Well, you can summon little old me for starters. Or you can use my power of transformation! I can transform body and soul from one thing to another."

"... I've gotta be honest, that would've been much nicer to have before I absorbed Smitten Kitten for just these cat ears and tail..." Akiko pondered in her mind for but a moment, instead snapping back to reality as she saw the motorcycle piloted once by a "Kanbaru" flying its way towards the bank and, coincidentally, the duo of Akiko and Lorelai. She didn't have much time to think before Akiko flung herself towards Lorelai, pushing the knight to the side and out of the way of the hurtled motorcycle. Compared to all the work that Lorelai and Durgan did on the door moments before, the motorcycle was the last piece of the puzzle that broke down the door, tipping it right into the next wall. From there, the bank vault was almost open. All the two needed now was to br-

... the explosion caused by the wrecked motorcycle was just enough to crack open the wall. Sweet.

"... augh... sorry, didn't want you getting pegged by that bike." The catgirl rolled off of Lorelai and stood back on her feet, looking inside the bank and feeling proud at the sight of the open vault. "C'mon, we've still gotta keep moving, especially with the hordes behind us."

Assuming that Lorelai followed in, and Durgan being left to keep the hordes at bay, Akiko ran into the vault and pulled out the small shortsword she had for safekeeping. Sure, it wasn't really much, but it managed to pry open a few deposit boxes so she could gain access to them... though, interestingly, the money that she kept grabbing dissipated on contact with the bard's hands. At first, it was a little confusing, but placing a hand on her hip revealed that there was yet another card attached to it. Looking at it revealed that Akiko was actually obtaining the money she was touching, however it was being stored in some sort of way on this card, and reading it revealed that she had grabbed 3,000 Bees... wait, bees? She was sure that she had grabbed around 30,000 dollars so far from this heist (since the dollars did evaporate when she touched them), but why did they convert to bees of all things? Ah, no matter. It still seemed to work, as Akiko kept placing her hands on whatever money she could and the number on her currency card kept rising higher and higher. She managed to make it up to... 15,030 Bees on her card before she decided that the duo had to split.

"We've got everything we needed, I think. 150 grand should be able to cover us for a while. Hopefully, what with the bar's prices still kind of in the dark." The catgirl leapt up to the back of Durgan once again, holding out her hand to summon the Red Relic into it. Once she felt it's familiar power, she sent her hand forth and snapped, a small amount of zombies fidgeting and squirming before they began to fall into a pile of viscera and gore, melted from the heat of their own blood. Akiko, admittedly, felt a little dirty about it, but if they were mindless anyway... well... maybe it was fine? In any case, there was now a path for Lorelai and Akiko to leave with, and thankfully there seemed to be an airship directly above the road they were on.

Akiko looked back to the vault to see if she had missed anything, but all she saw was that a few feet away was the rider of the motorcycle. She looked... awfully a lot like Kanbaru, but... well, she wasn't sure if she was. She didn't have that feeling that was Kanbaru's anyway, at least not exactly. Still, Akiko shook her head and leaned over off Durgan to offer a hand for the motorcyclist.

"Hop on, we gotta get out of this horde so we don't lose these games."

Caprice's capacity to rub salt in the wound was something of a power in and of itself, Kanbaru thought sourly as her ice sphere rolled outside her control courtesy of the magician's acrobatics. Really was it too much to ask for a moment of dignity in this school? Perhaps this was karmic justice for actually being interested in lessons they would now never receive courtesy of a nightmarish demon having eaten the school.

The moment they were clear upon solid ground the sphere shattering, Kanbaru shakily landing upon her feet being more a matter of luck then any display of skill like Caprice. Somehow by the time she turned about the girl had sequestered a chair and popcorn, still sizzling from the butter dripped upon the hot kernels. She met this offer with a glower and turned aside, unwilling to look at Caprice as her hand shot out and came away with a handful of greased perfection.

"I'm not a delinquent!" The bluenette barked reflexively, not even realizing who she was shouting at till she saw the Student President standing atop a cloud, perfectly at ease in spite of being close enough to feel the breath of the demon pull upon his scarf with each rise and fall of its chest. That nonchalance roused a scream of frustration from the Head Mistress that had the Final Boss of the floor swing a fist of such size that the friction upon the air wreathed it in ghostly flames.

It's skyscraper of an arm still managed to miss the 'Student' before it cleanly, the blow thrown astray by an airship fusillade pummeling it all of the sudden. Neither summoner nor demon expected interference from a party beside the two content to watch from the ground, but the Head Mistress wasn't of the mind to forgive fools picking fights beyond their means and raised a finger to the approaching vessel. The Demon mirrored her motion, and a pinprick of eldritch light formed at the tip of its claw, ominously pulsing as it charged for a few seconds before firing off a roaring gout of flame in their direction.



Pummeling steel didn't have the same appeal as crushing enemies of flesh and blood, but Lorelai faithfully took the vault door to task with every blow. It wasn't the work of mere moments, more minutes if she were to be honest, but she had faith that with time it would yield to Akiko its riches in full. Yet Akiko seemed to have another method in mind as she bodily slammed into Lorelai, throwing them both clear of the vault...and the flaming motorcycle that had blown the battered barrier clear off its hinges into the vault proper.

The knight blinked, astonished briefly by the visual and auditory assault it made on her senses before reaching back to pat Akiko's head lightly. "Your instincts are worthy of the ears upon your head. Well done, indeed."

She followed Akiko inside, mindful to stand guard while Durgan amused himself with the sudden mass of looters shambling into the bank to pilfer their own well earned gains. It was truly curious why they thought to try and fight a monster of his size with only teeth and nails, but if they wanted to be smashed under his paws then far be it from Lorelai to dissuade them. It struck her odd they were already so rotted that maggots crawled upon them, but it only took a roar from the great beast's maw to pop them like balloons, minuscule organs pulverized and dropping several of the looters as well.

When Akiko had her fill of....Bees, they returned to Durgan and Akiko took to his back with an ease that had the knight smiling a she joined her. It wouldn't have taken much effort on Durgan's part to blast them out of there, but she bayed him to remain still as Akiko drew forth the Crimson Relic. It was a matter of import that Akiko grow comfortable in using her power, as Lorelai had doubts that her might alone would carry Akiko through every trial.

Words of praise would have meant little to the feline girl for her act of violence, so she settled for wrapping an arm around Akiko's stomach in a partial hug, reassuring her through contact. A language the knight was fluent in, if no other but her mother's tongue. So when she stiffened in alarm at her summoner offering the imposter 'Kanbaru' a ride upon Durgan, she easily conveyed her thoughts on the matter. That a carved stone a vibrant shade of Violet appeared in her other hand, gleaming with unspoken menace would tell 'Kanbaru' the blood price for striking Akiko was more than she could ever hope to afford.

As demons and dragons made their power known, and gunships unleashed their volleys, Caprice was rather taken by a different scene, leaning forward in interest at Kanbaru, even as an enormous flaming fist passed too close for most sane folk's comfort. "Really? You're not a delinquent? When I saw you vandalizing school property, I thought you were pulling one of those 'pretend to go along with the bad guy then backstab them' things." Caprice then chewed a few popcorns herself, swallowing before continuing.

"Did you really think he'd look kindly on you destroying his property? That he'd buy into the wordplay gag that the biggest crime for crime night would be to destroy his things? Or, well, I suppose he still could, maybe he's excited to have another round with the Headmistress." Caprice looked at Kanbaru with incredulity at first, but then shrugged.

"Perhaps he calls you a delinquent because you're not fighting the final boss. Go on, I'm sure you can still be a good bad girl for him by fighting the Headmistress. Maybe if you steal her away from the big demon and put her down for her bedtime you'll get extra credit." Caprice now reclined backwards, tossing her popcorn one at a time into her mouth with a large showy arc.

---

"I'm already—Eh!?" Clair answered without thinking her words through only to realize what Rose asked half-way through her reply. "Why do I have to be the bait? I'm like the squishiest one around here," she said as they approached the demonic figure little by little.

From here, Clair could see the actions of her other companions clearly, but there wasn't much she could do to interfere with the chaos going on in the streets or the bank robbery. Instead of that, she turned her attention back to the demonic goliath, right in time to notice its counterattack.

"I don't know about you. But I have a bad feeling about this," Clair said at the sight of the energy gathering at the creature's fingertips. "Yep! Very bad feeling," she said as the flames came roaring in their direction.

"Ok, Aria, don't fail me on this one or we're both gonna become toast," Clair spoke to herself, or rather to the foxy paladin she was temporarily combined with before thrusting her arm forward with an open palm and—"Aias!" Calling forth a shield, made of several layers of protective wind, hoping it would be enough to stave off the attack.

And, as she did so, a brilliant flash of silver light—bright enough to blind anyone—burst in front of the ship. If anyone could see it, they would notice a second shield, layering itself over Clair's defenses. This one was made of what looked to be solid starlight, no doubt a wall that wouldn't be breached by a mere demon's attack.

The question was, why did "she" do this?

---

The roar of metal and engines cleaved through the bank doors, literally, as “Kanbaru” launched herself right at her targets like a missile. Well, almost. Admittedly, she hadn’t counted on either Akiko or her knight to actually move out the way, but it wasn’t an unwelcome play either. Indeed, they’d have seen a manic face on the imposter moments as she careened into the building’s doors and letting loose the way for pillaging and looting galore. Unfortunately, even the Serei couldn’t sustain too much damage on impact, her body sent flying from the crash somewhere deep into the vault while her bike smashed completely.

By the time “Kanbaru” was more than aware of her surroundings with the world no longer dark and spinning, the smell of leaking gasoline and fire filled her senses. Blinking awake, she noted the complete and total wreck of her bike as it were, burning about some of the leftover money Akiko hadn’t yet discovered from her stealing spree. Everything hurt, but pain was nothing new or uncommon for “Kanbaru” and she stumbled to shaky feet, delirious and blindly following the sound of voices before she eventually came upon Akiko and her knight again.

“Hehehehe….” Well now wasn’t this funny? She was pretty sure her disguise was entirely flimsy, and no one would actually buy it. But here Akiko was, offering a hand to escape the burning vault. She almost drew her gun instantly to put a hole between her eyes. Almost. The presence of Lorelai, disapproving as it was, did lend some weight to it as a threat. That, and her only ride was just totaled out of commission so…. “Sure, why the hell not,” “Kanbaru” said before taking Akiko’s hand greedily and sliding onto the beast of a monster that was her mount. Durgan they called it?

All were approaching a single point simultaneously, converging at the great demon that blacked out the sky. The Student President seemed the calmest among them on his perch. He waved at Caprice’s greeting though she seemed more concerned with Kanbaru so he shrugged and looked back at the Head Mistress-no, wait, the Head Mistress’ fist. A great and shadowy mass filled his view as it was sent to collide right with his body. Only at the last second did the attack “graze” him, shimmering through as if hitting air before it was directed elsewhere, rocking the world.

For now, the Head Mistress seemed hellbent on destroying the feckless movements of another party at play, striking with immense power at Claire and Rose’s airship. A flash of light cast itself over the sky, temporarily lighting up the darkness as the Head Mistress’ demonic golem had its attacked blocked and held back by almost invisible layers that shined with the stars. “Interesting,” commented the Student President, fine enough watching than influencing right now.

---

With all the focus on Claire as she held back the giant boss monster's immense attack, Rose and Chen were scrambling to get everything ready for the opening strike against the giant boss monster demon. Rose held the course steady at the wheel of the ship as she weaved in and out of the clouds, always a second or two away from collision with a giant flaming fist. Seems her position as Warrior had given her some good experience with piloting though, knew that class swap from Mage was worth it in the end.

Chen on the other hand was working his ass off to get the ship ready for the opening salvo as he dashed all around the ship, creating cannons of blue and armor of green, his Relic on overtime as he fully outfitted what should be a merchant's vessel into something resembling a military class ship. Closer and closer they came, the crew worked in perfect tandem and fought for every damn yalm closer to the massive monstrosity. Rose would dodge every beam of fire and sulfur, what she couldn't dodge Claire would block against with all her might.

And just like that, it was time. "Open fire!" Rose shouted up at Chen, eyes closed as he focused on every single armament he had created in what little time he had. And then his eyes snapped open as dozens of harpoons of ice and bark shot out of the cannons all over the ship, peppering the demon's face and going straight for the eyes to blind and batter him. It was an annoying assault to be sure, but there was no way it would outright kill the demon. Chen was strong, but this thing was a veritable behemoth of hell, it was going to take more than a couple dozen harpoons to kill this thing.

---

She smirked as she looked down at the rampant chaos and violence of this floor, mayhem reigned supreme here as every student fought tooth and nail to "graduate" from the Umbra Academy. Yeah, this was her kind of place alright. Too bad a giant demon had to come out of nowhere to ruin the fun, really stole her thunder before she even had a chance to shine. And now we've got these other wannabe explorers riding in with an airship, shooting at the big dumb idiot with their tiny little guns. Like that was gonna do anything.

"Well, now's as good a time as any to make an entrance I guess. Who knows, maybe they'll think I'm so cool they'll immediately ask me to be their leader!"

And so she stood up and cracked her neck, hefting her sword off her shoulder and glaring directly at the demon's neck.

"TAKE THIS YOU COCKSUCKEEEEEEEER!" A burst of flame heralded her arrival as she descended from the blimp she had been sitting atop, carving through the demon's neck with her blackened sword of flame and malice like a cleaver through a fresh cut of pork. She landed on the skyscraper opposite Kanbaru and turned to the bluenette with swagger and style. "Sup Kanbaru-chan? Ya miss me?"

The hero had arrived.

That 'Kanbaru' joined them without incident didn't lessen the Serei's concern, but she turned her focus to the airship about to pass them by and the scintillating light show that came from eldritch fire being deflected by the very stuff that stars were made of. "Bah. My cat can do better. Now then, we rise, Durgan."

Lorelai raised the Violet Relic to the sky and heralded a great vacuum, siphoning the space between them and airship till a funnel of pure void remained. Her other hand pressed to the beast they sat astride and poured explosive force behind it's leap, propelling them with startling ease. Hardly a hair shifted on their heads when there was no air to ruffle them, but it made the act of alighting upon the energetic deck simple as could.

The grace of which was swiftly lost as Durgan dispelled himself with a chuff, displeased to be away from solid ground. Lorelai had the good graces to cushion Akiko but 'Kanbaru' would serve as a cushion to their fall.

---

Meanwhile the Head Mistress was far less lackadaisical in her bearing, all but screaming her fury as forces beyond their realm interceded in battle. That such an airship could not only take such an attack, but emerge unscathed and outmaneuver further volleys was mind boggling. "Children with power beyond their ken. I may meddle with demons but these fools have damned themselves even further!"

The Demon heaved, knuckles bristling as it moved to meet attempted ramming of the vessel, yet it's side bristled with armaments no craft should bear in this city and exploded outwards with a storm of ice and flora. Brown and blue piercing a skein of nightmares, painting it in the colors of Chen's magic and having the beast real as what passed for eyes crusted with ice. It reeled back, more from the force of the concentrated blow then a sign it possessed the capacity to feel pain, and it was in this staggered state a mighty blow came impossible from the cloudy sky above to take to task its broad neck.

It was like a trench had been carved across a field of blasted earth, yet to such a being that amounted to but thin line from which emerald flames licked the air from a gaping seam. Yet while it was no decapitating strike, it staggered the Demon forward with a sudden jolt.

Jolt enough to topple the summoner from her perch, her coat marred with frost and a length of wood having skewered her shoulder socket to make one arm a limp noodle against the wind. A fall from that height wouldn't even leave a corpse to be scraped from the stones, more a smear befitting a hose, compelling her to raise her book and chant a spell of levitation to turn her fall into a gentle float. One from which she could create a platform of clouds to float upon. In saving herself, the Demon quickly lost cohesion as she could no longer concentrate upon maintaining it's form. It raged as buildings and debris dripped from its skin, raindrops of masonry falling through it, depriving it of mass with each piece lost.

The drive to avenge itself superseded all reasoning and commands from the Head Mistress, both arms snapping out wide before cleaving the air with open palms, clouds being pulled behind it as it tried to crush the passing airship like a gnat.



The spectacle of cosmic powers occurring above Kanbaru went ignored. The sudden and, frankly, alarming reunion with a Detention Club member ellicited a mild, "Oh, hey."

One hand clenched tightly, open air displaced by her blade as Kanbaru stomped forward. Normally she responded to things with teasing warmth or an ice chill, but looking at Caprice only made her see red. Incandescent red, a rage that she let run wild till her body tilted and she had Quick Run directly in front of Caprice's chair, her empty hand cocked back before hurtling forward to take the magician by the cheek. It was a sloppy punch and her hand ached, but the visceral feeling of vindication was intoxicating.

"I tried being reasonable. But right now, the only one I want to beat till their heart gives out is you."

Caprice's eyes watched the path of the incoming attack, but no other movement graced her body, save that to simply swallow her popcorn and clear her mouth.

The blow sent Caprice's teetering tower backwards and the bucket of popcorn skyward. Yet, as the chair and ruble toppled, somehow Caprice turned it into a backflip, each foot landing precisely on a summoned pole of candy cane of around the side of a bamboo shoot. The popcorn bucket came down first, and Caprice's hand reached skyward to catch it. She twirled once with it in hand to let the arc of flying popcorn land back home safe and sound, extra candy canes rising and falling as needed for her precise footwork.

"Mmm... Reasonable?" Caprice tossed a single popcorn into her mouth, ruminating on both the flavor and the word simultaneously. "I suppose my words must have been as harsh as violence to you." Caprice came to her conclusion with a half-hearted wave the hand.

"Very well, let us see whether you find satisfaction in defeating me. If I spend too much time on the sidelines all this might go to my thighs." Caprice's "this" seemed to be the popcorn, which she held forth now at Kanbaru as if it were some sort of weapon.

Caprice's words served to ellicit a more violent reprisal from the enraged bluenette, her fist opening to wreath the ground in frost to better slide forward and close the distance. Weather or not the other girl truly intended to fight with a bag of popcorn did not dissuade her from lashing out with her blade, it's heavy head coming down towards her ribs as she swung it back handed.

Caprice simply tossed the bucket of popcorn at Kanbaru's face, like a fistful of thrown dirt. Kanbaru's blade would easily slice it asunder, but the popcorn would still go everywhere. Caprice continued her steps backwards on rising and falling candy canes, even as Kanbaru created a path of frost to approach on. Their battleground was between the buildings and above the streets, possible only by their powers.

Caprice sought to stay out of the reach of the powerful blade, rather than face it head on. When Kanbaru finally reached her, Caprice leaped off her candy canes to gain just the extra burst of speed she needed to evade the strike. Raising a hand to another building, a licorice whip met her so that she could swing away. Letting go at the apex of her movement, Caprice twirled once the air like a figure skater, and when she came back to facing Kanbaru, she was sending forth three tightly bound balls of pastry, each streaming a differently colored tail like a comet, before catching another licorice whip to continue traversing between the buildings in this aerial duel.

Popcorn being as large and puffy as it was made it a poor substitute for actual pocket sand, the buttery kernals spilling past her as she charged through only for her foe to leap away atop candy canes and ropes of foul smelling candy. Caprice seemed intent on staying out of her reach, and Kanbaru was just as driven to deny her such luxury. In the face of oncoming pastry barrage, she thickened the ice beneath her feet before raising a geyser from the asphalt. The ground ruptured, launching her platform over the attack and sending her sailing over the swinging Caprice.

Her boot slammed down, propelling the platform into a discus of heavy ice to strike the next anchor point of her licorice whip while Kanbaru fell with a roar of fury to bludgeon her up close.

The pastries landed harmlessly against pavement, sending their colorful contents exploding in every direction like chalk bombs. Caprice found herself falling as Kanbaru spun her way into the building that Caprice was currently swinging off of. This sent Caprice tumbling through the air, until she landed on some spongey food she summoned underneath herself that bounced her back up to a standing pose on the ground, no worse for wear but with a violent chunk of ice hurtling her way.

With a sigh, Caprice dusted herself off, before reading her weapon of choice for the melee to ensue. She appeared to have chosen a creme pie, favored weapon of clowns. All that was left was the clash.

Her enemy was no longer running, bringing a sneer to the bluenette's face that was so warped with malice. Then they pursed before she spat, the glob of saliva zipping forward as a splinter of ice. It aimed for Caprice's legs, a herald to offset her footing while Kanbaru twisted herself into an icy dervish, turning herself into a blur of edges to crash upon the charlatan.

The tiny splinter of ice passed beneath Caprice's notice and into her leg, a tiny splatter of red added to her garment as Caprice stumbled and fell. She launched her pie with what little effort she could muster while falling. While being down on the ground might have spared her from the path of Kanbaru's spinning blade, the spinning platform of thick ice would find Caprice's legs an easy target to splinter and break if it passed over them.

If the creme pie, Caprice's last gambit, had landed home, Kanbaru would find herself covered in.. ordinary creme.

The crash into the ground lacked a meaty splat, ice shattering against concrete and leaving Kanbaru on her hands and knees, both hands against her blade as she released ragged breathes. Her chest was sticky and slick with cream, the weapon little more then a gag that soiled her clothes. "Even now...you can't take anything seriously."

She rose, conjuring a puff of steam to wash the mess from her as she shuffled towards Caprice. Her chest heaved, anger still swimming in her gaze yet tempered by palpable disappointment. "You know, there are things that will fucking chew us up and spit us out as shells of ourselves...and you laugh it off. You're either well adjusted, or a madwoman."

"I spit and you fall. God, I feel so silly to get worked up over this." Kanbaru groused, pausing beside Caprice and raising her blade. It fell, stabbing through the cobblestones beside her head at an angle that pressured the charlatan's throat. "Next time, I won't leave any loose ends."

Growling in disdain, Kanbaru began shuffling back up the road to the ruined academy, losing herself in the rising plumes of dust that came from falling buildings.

"Gah-geh-heh-hahaa!" Caprice's pained laughter certainly didn't cast any doubts on the 'madwoman' theory. "Well, it seems my gamble paid off." Caprice smiled as best she could through the pain, raising a glove covered in blood from holding her injured leg to examine the price paid for her gamble, even as a blade was against her neck. "If you're wondering why I wouldn't raise a weapon against you, it's quite simple. I don't have any reason to wish you harm other than my own preservation. And despite the fact that I find you a repugnant brute, that's no reason why I should value my life above yours."

She leaned back now, no longer rising to try and take stock of herself. "Ahaha.. Remember, a wise man once said, before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you're a mile away and you have his shoes. The perfect crime! Ahahaha!" Laying on the asphalt, Caprice laughing at her own joke, this was what Kanbaru would hear as she walked away.

---

A second passed as 'Kanbaru' stepped up onto Durgan's back to escape with Akiko's group, but Akiko herself kept an eye on the newcomer. Somehow, the light of a broken light post nearby gave way into a gleam of crimson in Akiko's own eye, though the bard didn't say much on that matter initially, instead looking up towards the airship in thought. "That's not Kanbaru... oh well, we've gotta keep mov-"

"Shit!" Akiko swore out of surprise as she instinctively grabbed hold of Lorelai, scared from Durgan's sudden leap into the sky. She glanced up at Lorelai's hand to see she was wielding the Violet Relic, something that Akiko raised an eyebrow at. She had heard something about what it could do when she gazed through Eleonor, but seeing that Lorelai had it herself was incredible. That, plus technically that meant Akiko had both the Red and Violet relics. Good to know for the future, but not immediately now. She had a plan for what to do when the group got up top.

As Durgan was dismissed, disappearing... somewhere, Akiko kept holding onto Lorelai as the two landed upon Rose's Airship deck. Fakebaru could figure out how to land herself. She glanced up at the helm and, sure enough to her suspicions, Rose was piloting the airship for the moment. In the gaze towards Rose, another glint in her eyes gave Akiko enough info to figure things out, and she hugged Lorelai tightly before she broke free.

"Stay here, Lorelai, and help Chen with that demon there. I'm heading up to relieve Rose of her duties." Akiko smiled at her knight one last time before she darted over to Rose's side and spoke. "You're better with combat than I am. I'll take the wheel, you get in there and take that thing down!"

While she was waiting for Rose to move from the wheel (or refuse, if she wanted), Akiko returned to thinking about her Monkey card. "If I had to absorb you permanently, would you be alright with that? Like, willing to let me shapeshift freely and everything?"

"Sure thing! The me from one day to the next isn't that important. Most people are so caught up in who they are right now that they can't see how they've changed from ten years past and how much they will change ten years hence. It just kind of happens on autopilot, and then at the end, when they finally having nothing left but to look back, sometimes they're horrified at what they let themselves become in clinging to the now. I'm just glad that I fell into the hands of someone who's willing to chart their own course on who they want to be. Use me as you see fit."

"Thank you, Monkey." Cool, another Serei to absorb and merge into yourself.

---

"Woah, what the—!?" Clair was caught off guard by the suddenness of all that happened in a mere second. She looked around bewildered for a moment, trying to process it all, but eventually, her instincts kicked in when she realized that the demon was quickly breaking apart, falling down as literal rain of bricks.

"Ok, I guess it's time to bail out," she said as she ran through the deck of the airship she had been in, avoiding any debris, in time to leap of, before the monster's main body hit her ride and brought it down to the ground. "Comin' through!" Clair shouted in a lively voice as she landed on Rose's ship and continued her mad dash, leaping off the second ship before it could be crushed as well. However, she had to stop when Akiko suddenly boarded Rose's ship, getting in her way.

"Hey, I know it's nice to be together again, but is there any chance any of you can do something about that before we become mashed potatoes?" She pointed at the attack coming right at them. "Fighting against power-type enemies isn't my strong point, y'know?"

---

Rose frowned as some new girl just showed up and cleaved the boss, hands on hips as she was completely shown up in one fell strike. Like sure she kinda just saved their asses, was very impressive, very heroic, blah blah. But she totally had that under control! Didn't need that help at all! Nobody asked her to do that! It just made Rose look subpar in comparison, it was really quite annoying! But hey, nothing could be done about it now unless she wanted to look like a jackass and challenge their savior to a duel or something silly. The voices of Clair and Akiko snapped her out of her funk as they landed on her ship, as well as the incoming last hurrah of the dying demon. Her smile picked back up immediately, looks like she was getting her chance to show off after all. Akiko ran to the wheel to try and take control while Rose fucked up the demon one last time, but no way in hell was she taking sloppy seconds from another woman!

"No can do Akiko, I'm the captain and the captain is always at the wheel!" Rose said to Akiko as she refused to budge, already working on just how they were gonna pull this off while simultaneously deciding what the perfect words to kick this off. "Alright ladies and gent, looks like we're gonna be going through a little bit of turbulence as I absolutely style on this loser, so hang on tight!" Rose yelled as she worked the control panel of the ship in a flash, killing the power to all systems and sending the ship plummeting to the earth within moments. The clap missed em by a mile as they dropped like a stone, Rose anchoring herself to the deck of the ship with nothing but sheer willpower as she cackled like a madwoman, only to be drowned out by the explosive boom of the clap above.

"Alright, let's kick it into high gear!" Out of the fire and into the frying pan, one danger replaced for another as gravity worked it's magic. Rose restarted the engine quickly as she began adjusting knobs and pulling levers on instinct, dials and meters going wild as the altitude of the ship continued to fall. The engine was started, now all that was left was to reverse their downward momentum and bring em back into the air before they splattered all over the concrete below like a messy wooden pancake. Sure hope nobody on board was seasick, because this next part was gonna super suck. "Swing baby!"

It was a miracle and a half that Chen was able to hear their crazed captain as he got to work once more, the other half of the miracle being that he still had enough energy to keep producing so much fucking ice and greenery even after that concentrated barrage. But such was the power of the Green Relic, an eternal battery that would keep it's user supplied so long as they had the will to press forwards. Vines and ivy shot forth from all around the ship to latch onto the buildings around, ripping out the concrete and glass they latched onto while only slowing their momentum slightly. But the vines never stopped, more and more erupting from the wood of the ship and continuing to grab onto the skyscrapers, snapping and growing more and more, shifting their momentum ever so slightly. And then all at once, that momentum shifted, from straight down, to forwards. And then up.

The ship was launched back into the sky like one of those pirate ship rides you would see at a carnival, you know the ones where it's basically just a giant swing. Yeah this was basically that, but instead of stopping and going backwards Rose and Chen just launched themselves back into the sky at ludicrous speeds. "Chen you are the fucking best and don't let anyone tell you different! Fuck yeah!" Rose cheered as she stumbled out of the captain's cabin, grabbing Akiko and dragging her onto the main deck while Chen rushed in past her so somebody could take the wheel while she did a fucking victory lap. "Alright gang, let's check out our haul below deck! Best first robbery ever!" Rose stood in the middle of the deck, posing victoriously as she looked back and forth at Akiko and Clair.



Ami visibly deflated as her cool and dramatic entrance was met by a simple "Oh, hey" followed by Kanbaru taking the time to absolutely beat the shit out of this other girl dressed in some weird pointy toed shoes. The rest of her outfit was fairly normal by magical girl standards, but the pointy toed shoes? Major fashion faux paux, whichever Mascot had seen fit to dress her like that needed a major lesson in what was acceptable to wear. Soon enough the beatdown was over, she didn't kill her at the end which was quite surprising, and Ami decided now was a good time to walk up to Kanbaru. Sure she might have been in a bad mood, but that's never stopped anyone from approaching Ami! And she could get into a downright nasty mood when she wanted.

"'Wow Ami, I can't believe you showed up in the magical floating tower too! Such a small world huh, I'm so glad to fucking see you!' Oh thanks Kanbaru-chan, you know how it goes, sometimes shit just happens!" Ami remarked in an annoyed manner, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting at Kanbaru viciously, before taking a deep breath and letting it go in a sigh. "Whatever, it's cool. You obviously had shit on your plate. Bad timing. Whatever." Ami shrugged and took another deep breath, before letting it go and smiling. "But seriously, it's great to see you. It's been way too long."