Furuzeki Warzone IC

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Salem joined their opposite in the windowsill, gazing inside. "Talking would be useless." Their voice was calm. "Their training has taken and the pattern is repeating itself. Soon this planet will be as useless to us as the others... The only anomaly..."

Their double pupiled eyes focused on Yuri.

"It is nothing... I do not know why your side holds an interest in her. Once Miaka disposes of her we can study what is left. She already has the scent."

Suddenly Miaka looked up, her utensils dropping to her plate, one bouncing off and falling to the floor. Her eyes widened as her heart raced.

"Soon you will have your full quota of ascendants and we will decide what we do with the witch. She has served well in driving the others to the point of ascension..."

Miaka was on her feet and sprinting towards Yuri's room, dashing inside she grabbed her crystal and her bag and threw open Yuri's window to jump outside, transforming before she hit the ground.
 
"The anomaly hash potential." Saru said. "It is only logical that wesh studied it while it ish still alive. A deadish anomaly ish useless. We should wait a few days before the Witch tries to slay her. It ish a good thing that the Aries are still around. They ish too strong for the Witch to take on by herself."

Before the mascot could continue its chat, Miaka had appeared.....

Hotaru looked idly at Yuri and Miaka. She eyed the older girl. Miaka still struck a strange nerve with Hotaru. Even if she was the daughter of a mobster, there was something unnatural about her. If she could compare her to anything, Hotaru would say that Miaka was a solitary wolf. Strong, but not powerful enough be to a major danger.

Then even before the trio would have a chance to chat again, Miaka bolted up the stairs. This left Hotaru even more confused.

"Pssst Yuri. Is it normal for your long time friend to be so flighty?" Hotaru asked. "Ehehe....Maybe we should try talking about this at a later time."
 
The money almost didn't finish its sentence before a hand fastened aorund its neck and it was fulled away from the window, hammer pulling back ready to crush it. "What are you doing here?" the witch's voice was cold, as if she were asking what a particularly nasty stain was. "I get why the other follows me but you don't, creamy... so what are you doing here?"

If it was here for Yuri... Miaka didn't care about the plan... or the rules... or anything.

"Witch... I advise against this course of action. You know the rules and the penalties for breaking them. It it only through my..."

"The rules mean nothing, in war they are the first casualty and you are making me fight your war so I am gathering intelligence."

Her grip tightened around the monkey's neck as here eyes bored into its eyes. As with everything she did her face was a blank mask.

"Witch... this action if carried out with escalate hostilities. Your hunting ground will become a full fledged warzone... we will become unable to prevent human society from noticing... they will retaliate..."
 
Yuri was surprised by Miaka's sudden flight, so much so, she sat there as Hotaru questioned her actions. "This, this is very..." Yuri's concern was written on her face as she stood up, bowed to Hotaru in an automatic action, then ran to the stairs. Yuri knew, even before she opened the door Miaka wouldn't be there. Somehow she just knew all that would greet her in the room was emptiness.

As she scanned the room, once the door was flung open she let out a distressed sound. She had known, but she had hoped. Had Miaka got spooked by a sound outside? Had she worried she stayed at the house too long? Just how much did her family control her? As Yuri went to the window her thoughts were on mundane dangers, but as she looked around outside a fury that was not her own boiled up.

The witch...
The Witch.
The WITCH!
WITCH!

It felt like a thousand voices were screaming in her skull, though there were not nearly so many hosted within her. Yuri put both hands to her head, trying to keep control. Impulsiveness would get them all killed....
 
Hotaru placed her hand on Yuri's shoulder. She had followed her comrade up the stairs. Something seemed off about both Yuri and Miaka. Hotaru was going to find out why. The magical girl glanced out the window. There stood the Witch. Hotaru's heart began to race. Her mouth went dry. At first she questioned if Miaka and the foe were one in the same.

"Of course. She was paranoid of me…All the weird behaviors….However; she wouldn't know me from boo." Hotaru thought. "I'm going to have to kill her….But I can't let Yuri watch…."

Then as Yuri turned around, Hotaru began to summon kinetic energy into her hands. She gave her new friend a downtrodden look. It was a silent apology for what she was going to do next. Hotaru gave Yuri a swift uppercut, causing the teen to fly back unconscious.

Hotaru slumped her shoulders. "I'm sorry….So terribly sorry."

She then closed her eyes and sighed.

"Durch die brennende Leidenschaft meiner Seele."

The room around her faded into a very dark blue light, Hotaru's transformation had begun. Her brown hair changed to a dark red and reformed itself into a ponytail. Her punk clothing changed into a long black shirt tunic and red skirt. She looked more like a villain than she did a traditional heroine of justice.

She moved quickly towards Yuri's window and slid it open. The magical girl then leapt from the roof of Yuri's home to a few meters away from where the Witch was standing. Hotaru gave the Witch a demonic smile.

"Heh…You can kill the monkey for all I care. He's a useless piece of crap. However, if there's one thing I can't stand is an even bigger bag of shit wandering my area of the city. I hate to act like a garbage man, but if I have to take out the trash. So be it."
 
That voice she knew it... the monkey was tossed aside and the witch turned, a ring of dark energy gathering beneath her feet and she summoner her power. Her heavy hammer saw whirled as if it was lighter than air before the head was brought down with a thump that sent cracks spreakign through the ground like frightened spiders.

A heeled shoe was placed on the head as the shaft was held like a microphone before her. While Miaka made demands freely the witch seldom spoke before battle, there was seldom need to. When she appeared everyone knew what it meant and they either fought or fled. Her now impassive face surveys Hotaru coldly before her foot was lifted and the hammer swung up to rest against her shoulder and without a work she turned her back on the girl and started walking slowly away. Then she stopped.

"Stay away from Yuri... or as I promised... I will kill you..."

She started walking again without looking back.
 
"Kill me? If you are trying to make me laugh, then I sorely don't get your sense of humor." Hotaru said.
"…It's my duty to protect her, not yours." She said under her breath.


She scanned the surroundings. This was a residential area, so no matter what they did someone or something would notice their fight. It was going to be best to make it look like a gas explosion.

Without warning, Hotaru attacked, hurling black smog balls from her hands. Miaka was in her direct line of sight and couldn't see the attack spells coming her way. The Witch was not as effective with speedy foes; it was the one thing Hotaru remembered after the death of Umi. She had her distraction set. Now it was time to set up an attack.

Like in her battle with Yuko, Hotaru began to alter the kinetic energy around and began to charge at full speed while Miaka was coughing from the vile smelling smog Hotaru had hurled at her. Now she was in striking range. With an strong thrust forward, her left hand nailed Miaka right in the face and sent the heavier magical girl flying backward….
 
She flew backwards , just after a somersault landed on her feet, pieces of asphalt skittering across the road as she quickly assessed the situation. Any fight would cause a lot of destruction and they were still right outside Yuri's house so they did the only logical thing, the leaped out of the way of Hotaru's next attack, her hammer glowing as it pulled her along and then vaulted over a garden fence, leading the other away.

As Hotaru followed though she would be met with an impassive face and a hammer already in motion to strike. It was her style to lead her oponents into a trap, disable them with a powerful strike, then finish them off.
 
"She expects me to follow her lead. No. She's a master of close range fighting. More like a tank than a magical girl. Smoke her out. I know that she'll start to strategize for the smog; however, she doesn't know what other things I've been training to do. Let's try baiting her out with some of Yuko's toys that I stole a while back."

She reached behind her back and pulled out what looked like pieces of candy. Using the kinetic forces she still had, she hurled them towards Miaka's location. As they reached the ground they exploded, causing thicker gas to drift over the residential area.

Instead of following Miaka directly over the fence, she leapt on to the roof of the house that Miaka was most likely trying to ambush from. Once again, she pulled out two more pieces of Yuko's 'candies.' These were a heavier kind. Hotaru tossed them from the roof, hoping that they might bait Miaka out. As they crashed into the ground, they made a heavy thud…
 
She knew it was a trap, it had to be, there was a heavy thud as the blow aimed for the pursuer that never came hit the wall of the house, and into this breach int he wall the witch disappeared. The mist would obscure everything, even for her foe so she had to be somewhere where she could see where the witch would emerge, Miaka doubted she was stupid enough to charge into the mist after her.

It came behind Hotaru, the splintering of timbers and shattering of tiles as hammer and girl came crashing up through the roof, by luck it was the same roof Hotaru had taken shelter on and with her in sight she aimed and spun before petting go, her weapon sinning through the air like a shot put.
 
As the hammer tore its way through the roof, splinters cut into Hotaru's skin. Realizing that her gig was up, Hotaru aimed for the roof of the next house over. This part of the city was built relatively close together and had very little yard space between.
Her landing was rough. Hotaru teared up a little as she landed on her bleeding leg. Having precious little time, she tore a piece of her cape off and made a crude bandage. She forced herself forward. A part of her was glad that being a magical girl meant that she could push herself harder than a human could.

She leapt to the next roof top. This house had a covered porch, so she kneeled on top of it for now. Hotaru then closed her eyes and summoned her own weapon. A katana then appeared in her hand. She wasn't sure if this tool was going to be enough to stop the witch; however, she had enough of a distance between herself and the witch to make use of her actual powers.
In their battle after the death of Umi, Hotaru had simply overwhelmed her with physical attacks. Now…She was going to use flame. Very few magical girls in this town ever had the powers of natural elements. Saru had said that it was very rare. Beams and energy blasts were considered the vogue and even Hotaru knew this.

"Der Brand." She then said in German.

Hotaru was ready for Miaka. If the witch came charging, she was going to be slashed in half by a wave of fire and steel.
 
She say Hotaru get ready to engage, but Miaka had a few tricks up her sleeve too. She did not rush after her, but instead summoned dark crystals around her, each pointed like a sword and aimed for Hotaru. Up until not the only sound from her had been the damage her hammer had been doing, but as she truck the back of each crystal it sounded like thunder, sending the deadly shards towards Hotaru before she took off, again not towards Hotaru but away from Yuri, leaping down from the rooftop and into another person's yard where she was hidden from view and dashed too, not even bothering to vault the wall this tome but crashing directly through it, hammer first. Hotaru's likening her to a tank was accurate indeed.
 
"....Shit. Something's not right....Looks like I am going to have waste a spell to play it safe..."

"Blaze....on" Hotaru muttered.

With that the roof top she sat upon turned into a bright light of flame. This was soon followed by a series of explosions caused by the crystals Miaka had summoned. With the added energy, suddenly Hotaru was being overwhelmed with extra power. She then slammed her fist into the roof.

"Goddamn it. Of course. She had to have something I didn't know about."

She then felt a rumble. This wasn't from Miaka. The fire she had started was starting to cause the house she was to burn as well. Fearing she might have put someone in danger, she quickly glanced down and saw that there was no car. As luck would have it, the person that owned this home was away at his office.

Hotaru once again bolted from the home onto other roofs. If one were to see her from the ground, it'd look like there was a figure flying through the night. She made sure she was enough of a distance away before scouting the scene again.

"Hmph. I'll have to dig up more about the Witch. Now that I have a name, I can maybe figure a thing or two about her. She doesn't know that Yuri has magical powers. I'm safe there. I'll have to fix this leg when I get home....Between this bullshit and Umi's sister beating the crap out of me last night....I need a break."

With that she depowered herself. Peering back and forth, Hotaru once again used her secondary powers to make herself look like a office woman on her way back home.
 
There was a knock on Hotaru's door. It was the afternoon the next day, and Yuri was outside, her knuckles rapping on the hollow metal.

When Yuri had awaken, there were firetrucks outside and a crowd looking at the fire that had started at her neighbors house. As Yuri gingerly went to the window she heard people's voices. There was talk of a gas leak. Even without the other voices telling her, she knew it wasn't anything of the sort. A battle had happened, a battle between her new team mate and the witch! Some wanted to try to track after the witch, but Yuri firmly put her foot down, squashing that plan. Too much time had passed and there was no telling where she was now.

What of Hotaru?

Yuri knew, without knowing how, that the other girl was alive. She wasn't sure if all magical girls now came to her or not, but was sure that at least her new friend was still among the living. Calling it a night, Yuri's dreams were full of memory nightmares from the ghosts that lived within her, and upon waking she felt worse for ware. Still she dress, ate, and went to school.

Now school was over and it was time to see how many pieces the witch put Hotaru in.
 
Much like Yuri's last visit to her home, Hotaru hadn't bothered to fix herself or the place up. She slowly stumbled her way to the door. She felt around for her glasses and found them on the stand that Umi had made in one of their art courses at their school. The brunette then opened the door and saw Yuri.

"Gah!" She shouted, not expecting her partner to have come to visit.

"I-I mean, hello there Yuri-chii....!" Hotaru said with a large fake grin plastered on to her face.

At this point, Hotaru was wearing a men's shirt that draped over her skinny body more like a flour sack than an article of clothing. It was long on her and almost covered the fact that she was wearing a bright pink pair of workout shorts under them. Both of her legs were wrapped with tan bandages that coiled around them like the puttees of a soldier from the World War.

"Ah. I know why you are here. You want to know what happened in the fight. Hurry up and come in. Back when this was the HQs for my old team, the jerk in charge used a lot of rare charms that should be able to make it hard for....Her to overhear anything we discuss. You'll want to be careful as possible. The Witch might have been your friend at one point, but she's already destroyed whatever life she once had. You are in danger...."
 
Yuri walked in as Hotaru made her explanation. She felt sorry for her partner, this life of half hiding. It wasn't fair, she should have been enjoying all that was fun about being a teenager. Then again, so should Yuri, but those days were nearly over she knew from the memories she held from all those with her. That she hadn't separated from her family yet was due most likely to not having transformed yet. Once she did, things would change completely.

"Wait, what did you say?" Yuri asked as she was about to sit on Hotaru's chair. "What was that about the witch?" The Witch, THE WITCH, beware the witch! If she catches you off guard.... Yuri pushed the voices into the back corner of her mind. "I wanted to know why you hit me to be honest!" Yuri was confused enough before she got to the apartment.
 
"You want to know the truth?" Hotaru said icily. Hotaru's face then seemed to become long and sad. It hurt her to say this next line.

"Your friend, Miaka, is my antagonist....She killed the dearest person to me. I mean outside of what little family I had in my old life. I threw my life away to become someone else. Well, I certainly have. To the rest of the world, I don't exist. Now that I think about it, I am surprised that my aunt even recognized me a few days ago. The longer you stay a magical girl, the more and more reality just becomes a surreal thing, ya see? I don't even talk like a normal teenager, anymore. Does war make you lose yourself?"

She avoided trying to say why she punched Yuri out the previous night.

"....I wanted to keep you safe. I don't want you to ever have to use your powers. Miaka is the Witch...And it is my duty to stop her, by any means possible. I let myself get carried away...Uhh, I didn't give you too much of a headache right?"
 
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Would they all just shut up? Hotaru's words ignited a dozen different stories and so many feelings Yuri couldn't even feel her own. Where was it, not the ones about families, nor lost reality, not the ones about the Witch. There, that was her, the one worried about Miaka. Miaka her oldest and dearest friend. The one that was much gentler than anyone believed.

Yuri was silent for a long time, her head down, but her gaze was completely internal. Miaka was all alone. Miaka was in danger. Miaka was...

THE WITCH!

Yuri, who had been looking a bit pale, flushed and looked ready to be sick. How could she mesh the image of what happen to all those girls, to what she knew of Miaka. They were not lies, those memories that were like scars in her mind the itched all the time.

Finally Yuri looked at Hotaru, her eyes glassy with tears that wanted to let loose. "You hit hard, but I'm tough. Don't worry about it. I... I understand." She might have understood Hotaru's intention, but nothing else, none of this made any sense to her. "A-and you don't have to stop her... We have to stop her." That's why she became a magical girl, right?
 
"A-Ah, sorry about that. I forget that I'm stronger than even an adult now. Sucks, because I have to act more like one now. I'm in over my head, I think...." Hotaru apologized and then bowed her head.

The magical girl then put on her glasses and raised an eyebrow, for a brief moment looking like her former self.

"You are going to help me?" Hotaru paused. "Well....That damned monkey did say you were my partner. Ugh. I told myself that I would never accept someone new on the team. Though, there's only three of us left. Right. Alright. If you want to help me, there are a few more things that you should know. No...I already told you about my former teammates being opponents. Yeah, I did."

Hotaru was rambling at this point. It seemed that all of her persuasions of trying to keep Yuri out of this life were going to have to be discarded. She scratched at her chin, thinking about what to say. In the end, she just sighed.

"Okay....Do you know what your powers might be? Normally, a magical girl's powers are based upon whatever their wish was. Mine was to be bold and different. I guess, even hot headed. So my main power is fire, while my non-combat magic is concealment. Weird concepts like that, you know? Right...You probably don't. Ahh. Since you didn't make a wish...Hmm, I've never heard of it happening before...But maybe the few times you met the Witch, I mean....Miaka. God, she actually has a name...So weird. Ah...Sorry. Maybe some of her magic influenced your body. Uhh, like she was a cup that was overflowing and therefore, spilled into you. You know, just disregard that. You know yourself better than I would. What do you feel coursing inside of you?"
 
No, she had not gotten her powers from a wish, and while she knew she needed to help Miaka We must destroy the Witch!, she had a feeling her powers did not come from being her friend. Not directly at least. Her powers! She collected ghosts. Could she tell Hotaru that. Should she when her friend was riding in there too. The shock might be more than you learning your friend is the Witch. No, she couldn't tell Hotaru yet. Once the grief wasn't as raw perhaps. Once she knew she could rely on Yuri.

Yuri was sitting in the chair at this point and brushed a lock of hair behind her ears. "I guess you could say my powers are going to be like a roulette wheel." Yuri's smile was weak. She wasn't giving Hotaru much hope with that sort of explanation. "Sorry, that was a bad explanation. It's just it's going to very and it might seem the power has more control that I do, but that's only because it's going to be easier that way. Does that make sense?" It was not exactly a lie, the ghost would be controlling her body for the most part so she didn't have to learn how to control their powers. If she really thought about it, that meant housed within her was a lot of power. Too bad it wasn't like she could use it all at once on her own. Very angry, emotionally traumatized teen girls, who were also dead, were individually in control.
 
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