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Times like this made Haruna once again regret that she’d been unable to convince any other girls to follow her to Hibusa. One moment, she was eating a bit of curry she’d managed to prepare for herself (in a large batch, so she’d have leftovers for a few days) before her nightly patrol. In the next, the building was shaking, the power was out, and most importantly, miseria were seeping out of the ground left and right. Miseria which she was currently churning through in a back alley, her naginata flashing as she fended them off left and right. [i][color=yellow]I was expecting them to be scarier,[/color][/i] she thought, not for the first time since she’d gotten here. After piercing one last amorphous blob of negativity, the Daybreak flew into the air to repeat the process for. . . the fifth time? Sixth? She was already losing count.

Two dive-bombs into clearing the next area, she stopped in midair. [i][color=yellow]This isn’t working. They’re too spread out.[/color][/i] Going street by street just wasn’t going to work, not with the level of distress in the area - and that was without even mentioning the more rural area surrounding the town. [color=yellow]“Don’t let me down,”[/color] she said under her breath, glancing at an emergency vehicle speeding past below. The light girl would have to trust first responders to take care of the fearful desires she heard all around; she had a different threat to handle. 

[i][color=yellow]There’s gotta be a way to do this better.[/color][/i] She had armors better at handling crowds, but they wouldn’t address the core issue. Sighting a clump of miseria gathering around one of the few remaining streetlamps that functioned, an idea popped into her head. [color=yellow]”That’s it!”[/color] Hizuki said triumphantly. She fired a few lasers down to disperse the things, then set her sights on the center of town. [color=yellow]”Mode: THUNDER CRACK, engage!”[/color] A shimmering blue outline of a hexagon appeared in midair a few feet away, between her and her destination. The magical girl darted through it, and as she did so, armor coalesced around her in a flash.

The wings on her back slotted down into much broader, heavier wings of futuristic alloy as they folded out into a delta shape. Between them, on her back, two enormous jets appeared with a shimmer, then flared to life with a roar. A bulkier, more triangular visor fitted over her head, and her polearm grew to become something more adjacent to a jousting lance that jutted out ahead of what now resembled something similar to a twin-engine fighter jet with Hizuki in place of a cockpit. The extra power flung her across the city, letting out a sonic boom that somehow managed to leave the bystanders below unharmed and unbothered as she sped toward the middle of town. 

[color=yellow]“Mode: SKY FIRE, engage!”[/color] She shouted again as she neared her goal. The same blue gateway appeared again; flying through it removed her boosters and wings, and replaced them with a fan of stabilizing heatsinks attached to her back. Her lance shifted once again, into a large, futuristic cannon with an elaborate sight. A sci-fi lens fitted itself as an attachment to her helmet, slotting over in front of her right eye. She tilted backward and let herself fall to the ground, skidding to a halt as the weapon twice as long as she was tall began to glow with a golden light. [color=yellow]“SKY FIRE: SOLFLARE, fire!”[/color] Her stabilizers anchored themselves to the ground as she turned her weapon skyward. [i][color=yellow]Here’s hoping this isn’t a horrible mistake . . . ![/color][/i]

A massive pillar of light, easily visible to any magical girl in town, erupted into the sky, piercing a hole through the clouds of the evening. Its brilliance almost seemed to turn night into day, briefly. It lasted for about three seconds, before Daybreak ceased, cutting power to her weapon and letting her extra armor disappear into motes of light. She’d need one of her Modes if this actually worked, doubly so if the Detention Club or their mysterious leader took this as an act of aggression, but for now she needed to let them recharge. Hopefully, the massive surge of magic, light, and positive energy would draw the miseria together around her, and away from the vulnerable people of the town.