1784/Restless Natives

Restless Natives
Date of Scene:	11 March 2015
Location:	Midnight Shrine Tokyo <MST>
Synopsis:	Miko, Zod, and Sakura head to Miko's hometown to deal with the possibility of a Monster threat at a popular restaurant.
Cast of Characters:	172, 524, 589

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Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Le Chef Pierre is a French cuisine restaurant in Tokyo. Due to it being exotic foreign food, of course the Japanese have flocked to it, because popular things become ULTRA-POPULAR in short order here. How they became popular to begin with, however, is often unclear. In this case, the answer may be less about Japanese cultural phenomena, and more about something insidious. Midnight Shrine Tokyo is infested with new openings of businesses, suddenly-popular people, places, accessories, food, and who knows what else, as well as many other methods that monsters use to gain whatever they're after from normal folk. The principle appears to be 'draw attention from the public with something mundane, and use it as cover for supernatural maleficence of some kind'.

    However, this also tends to draw magical girls, usually by seeming coincidence - such as their civilian identities actually FALLING for the advertisements and popularity. Veteran magical girls tend to be a bit more clever, to be able to recognize the signs or at least be on the look-out for subtle indicators, but even they can have some rather embarrassing blindspots. Princess Paladin is not quite a veteran magical girl, and is actually rather knew, but she has a certain degree of insight into how these things work due to her magic being Law based, and a knowledgeable advisor who offers her further information regarding the 'rules' of magic.

    So, a French cuisine restaurant that recently opened and is drawing patrons like whoah, as well as the fact that researching the supposedly famous chef who runs the place has turned up a suspicious lack of information, has Miko Fujimoto and a certain fairy venturing to Le Chef Pierre to sample the menu - and hopefully to find out if this is actually a plot by the various monsters that have Tokyo under siege.

    Invited along are two people. General Zod, who Miko has worked with on occasion before - though in the guise of Princess Paladin, is one of those two people. She is trying to get the Confederacy more involved in her world to help show the local magical girls it's a good idea to join them. She has also invited Sakura Kinomoto, because what better way for two new friends to bond than fighting evil monsters that might be hurting people, right?

    The restaurant itself looks pretty fancy from the outside, well-lit, and looks a bit like a giant chandelier. At night in particular it's especially impressive. The parking lot is filled to capacity and then some, and the reservation list is probably booked about three months in advance. The line to get in is very long. Miko shows up in a white dress with pleated skirts, and a red corsage on the chest, along with white heeled shoes. Some red lipstick and some eyeshadow completes her attire for the night. White Rose is dressed similarly, in an ankle-length white dress, but she is six inches tall and trying to remain out of sight, so appreciating the white-haired, red-eyed pixie's effort to pretty up is unlikely for bystanders.

    Miko has a plan to get herself, Zod, and Sakura in without a reservation, and without violence, so for now is just waiting for her companions to arrive before getting in line.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura actually arrived in the area over an hour ago - she's been hanging out in the Castle of Stars since then, getting ready and prettied up. Having a 'portable' castle is pretty convenient for this sort of stuff!

    A pink door materialises in a back alley near the restaurant, and out steps Sakura - wearing a pink dress with a cherry blossom motif, and... wedge sneakers? Well, she's still a teenager, so she can get away with those. They give the same 'make taller' effect as high heels, without being nearly as uncomfortable!

    She heads towards the line, with Kero perched on her shoulder. Her Familiar is currently pretending to be a stuffed toy.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod is wearing... not his armor. Instead the man is wearing a charcoal gray business suit, which Faora insisted on having tailored because it wouldn't do well for the General to look /shabby/ while visiting an upscale establishment. He fidgets with the navy blue tie, hating the thing for feeling constricting around his neck. This is the second time he's left the Black Zero without his armor or undersuit. He suspects he will have to get used to the naked feeling of being out of uniform at this rate.
    Zod says to Miko. "So this is the restaraunt that you've talked so much about. I hope it lives up to its reputation." He says, straightening his suit jacket.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Miko smiles at Zod a bit bashfully and says, "Yes. I hope so too." She is kind of out of her element here as well. She has been taught to be an elegant and proper Japanese lady, of course, because her mother was really strict about that sort of thing, but that doesn't mean she has been to a place like THIS before! Even though she suspects it's some kind of trap for gathering life force or heart gems or dream prisms or destiny mirrors or soul gears or WHATEVER, she's still kind of excited despite that. Hey, she's only eighteen. She's allowed to be a bit innocent still.

    Once Miko spots Sakura, she smiles more brightly and waves to the other girl. "I'm glad you could make it, Miss Kinomoto!" she offers in greeting. They may be friends, but she doesn't know if it's cool to address Sakura by her first name yet. She generally rules in favor of the culture of the person she's speaking to, when known, but even if it's just a cover to conceal their true connection, it's best to be polite! "That's a very cute dress!"

    Miko looks at the stuffed animal on Sakura's shoulder briefly, and the little fairy sitting on Miko's shoulder looks at Kero as well.

    White Rose realizes how much more noticeable she is relative to a stuffed animal, and says, "Oh, snap. I guess I should go immaterial for now, huh? Or, like, hide out somewhere. Uhhh..." She looks around, glances down at Miko's dress, then at Sakura's hair, then at Zod's tie.

    "We need you to remain physically present for your role in getting us in, remember?" Miko reminds quietly, as she moves to get into line. She only just stepped into place, and already the line is moving rather faster than one would expect.

    White Rose eventually decides to just fly down and hang out underneath the knee-length skirts of Miko's dress. That way when she comes out, she'll be near floor-level in a crowd of people, and unlikely to be spotted in the forest of legs.

    "We don't know for certain that this place is unusual yet, but there are indicators," she says quietly to the others. "Non-violence is best here, until we get confirmation of Nether Realm activity. Thankfully, -everyone- wants to get in here, so we don't need to worry about explaining our presence."

    Really, the line is moving pretty darn fast. They're already to the doors! It's less of a line and more of a procession. Once the trio (or quintet, counting Kero and White Rose) enter those doors, they find a man waiting by a very French-waiter-looking man standing by a desk, with a reservation book open in front of him, smiling and waiting for customers. All the people ahead of them seem to have been shown to their tables already, because there's no one else in the entry way.

    "Welcome!" the man says in French-accented Japanese, and asks, "By what name is your party registered, sir, and madams?"

    "Ah... Fujimoto, party of three?" Miko offers, before turning to Sakura and asking, "Or was it registered under your name?" She is trying to stall for time, while White Rose flies out from her concealment and tries to sneak quietly up on the book to use her Law Magic to rewrite the reservations to display their names. Language is based upon rules and laws, after all, and writing is the ultimate expression of language. Adding or changing words and letters should be easy peasy if she can just get the chance!

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "I wouldn't miss it for anything, Miss Fujimoto~" Sakura responds, before giggling. "Just call me Sakura. Or Petals! Actually Petals is probably best, there's a bunch of Sakuras around... For some reason." She smiles up at general Zod brightly - with that characteristic smile of ehrs. The one that seems almost enough to light up a room all by itself.

    Kero peers at White Rose a little bit.

    As the line quickly moves forward, Sakura attempts to clear her mind and reach out with her magical senses - to see if there's anything of note around them. As they enter the building, though, she snaps out of it. "Oh! Um. It -might- be under Kinomoto..."

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod looks distracted, mostly because he is watching the interior of the restaraunt with his enhanced visual senses. Looking for people who might cause trouble, like people who are armed, people who aren't what they appear to be, etc. He also looks for odd or out of place things, though that particular task is a bit more difficult as he is not terribly familiar with Earth's customs and culture. He catches Sakura's infectious smile and smiles slightly to the young sorceress.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    White Rose is hovering above the pages of the book, ready to touch it and change it, but then she narrows her eyes, her little white eyebrows coming down, and darts away as quickly and unobtrusively as she can. The doorman says, "Yes, yes! I have it right here!" Barely glancing at the book as he flips some pages, he announces, "Fujimoto, party of three. You will be shown to your table right away!"

    According to Sakura's magic sense, depending on how finely-tuned it is, this entire restaurant is covered in a layer of it, and the book on the desk is itself magical. Miko says, trying to conceal her surprise, "Thank you very much." Then there's a waiter stepping forth from around the corner, who leads the way into the restaurant proper. The magic intensifies here, as does the impressiveness of the place. The interior has seemingly countless tables and booths, and many of them are near windows. This place must be larger than it looks from the outside! Or, based upon the huge number of people seated around the restaurant, easily dozens of waiters darting this way and that to serve them, it might be that this place has far more room inside than the building is actually able to hold. The ring shaped room reaches all the way around a vast central pillar of some kind, covered in swinging doors, where the waiters vanish into and emerge from with various dishes seemingly constantly.

    Everyone seems quite pleased with the experience, quite pleased with the decor, quite pleased with the food, and just generally to be having a good time. All the dishes seem to be getting delivered at exactly the right time, no orders are gotten wrong... And the shining white-and-gold designs of everything makes the whole place rather dazzling.

    To Zod's gaze, he may be able to determine that aside from the customers, everyone - including the doorman at the entry way - was non-human. Not just non-human, but so wildly non-human they make Kryptonians look like Earth natives by comparison. It's likely to be difficult to distinguish any defining traits of their physiology. There may or may not be some skeletal structure, but it's incomplete, scattered around, and doesn't seem to be connected to or supporting anything. Identifiable organs are basically absent, and there isn't even any indication of a circulatory system or... Or ANYTHING. They're like someone took something disturbingly Wrong and overlayed the appearance of a human without changing anything under the surface.

    Those swift, sure, precise, smiling and polite waiters, who seem to cross distances quickly, to come and go almost instantly, whenever one isn't directly observing them... Are something Other.

    Miko can't sense magic, but has noticed the spatial distortions going on, and taken note of them. Soon enough, the 'party of three' are shown to a table, seated, and provided with menus, with the promise that their server will be with them as soon as they are ready.

    And that's when Miko asks quietly, out of the corner of her mouth, "You didn't change the reservation book, did you?"

    White Rose pops up over Miko's shoulder, keeping herself concealed as much as possible by her partner's hair, and confirms, "There was Chaos Magic all over that thing. If I so much as touched it, you'd have seen a lot more fireworks."

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura winces a little bit, putting one hand to her head as she's momentarily overwhelmed by the magic of the place. She shakes her head a little bit to clear it, and keeps on smiling warmly - while glancing around at the decor. "Woooow. This place is so... so..."

    As they're seated, she finishes her thought. "Completely -wrong-. There's no way there should be this much magic in a -restaurant-," she whispers to her current companions. She takes Kero off her shoulder, and sets him on the table in front of her.

    Her Key of Stars drops down from her right sleeve, dangling from her hand by its chain.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod's fists clench reflexively, sensing that this is a most disturbing pocket universe. He takes a seat, glances at the menu even though he's really trying to make sure he is aware of the nearest exit. Which is probably a window. At the mention of magic, the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Relax, relax, keep cool. No need to start making a big show... yet.
    Zod smiles politely. "Have you two noticed that ugly things hide under pleasant faces?" He says, sounding as casual as he can. "For example, cats. Cats are, by all accounts, cute and fuzzy and loved by many people." He makes his point by holding up a hand. "But at a moment's notice, the cat can unsheathe its claws and turn into a blur of claws, fur, and fangs." His way of letting the girls know that this place is extremely dangerous in his estimation.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    White Rose tsks. "I'm not at full strength yet, so I can only sense certain kinds of magic and only at close range. It's a good thing you're here, Sakura!-Oh, I'm White Rose by the way."

    Miko shakes her head at White Rose, though she agrees with her assessment. Sakura identifying that there's a large amount of magic here will greatly abbreviated the steps needed to confirm they need to take action - even if all the other factors didn't contribute as well. "We can introduce ourselves later. I'm not sure this is just some small-time operation. And if this is 'small-time' for the force behind it, they have enough raw power to throw around that I don't want to meet them." Miko glances around, trying to take a head count of the customers - or at least the ones she can see from here, given the warped nature of space and the fact the curve of that central structure blocks her from seeing what's on the other side of it at any given time. "Just from the number of people I can see, there are hundreds of customers, and depending on how much space is warped on the other side, we could be looking at upwards of a thousand people in this building who are quite probably in a lot of danger."

    It's not that Miko generally cares about protecting innocent civilians, but in this case she doesn't see a reason not to either. But it would be easy to assume the worry behind her concerned expression and tone is for the sake of others. In truth, she's more concerned by what kind of power or fuel might be gained by the enemy by draining all these people regularly, or whatever the Nether forces are up to. The restaurant has been open for a week or so now, and if it's been this packed every night...

    Miko picks up the menu to seem less suspicious and looks through it while thinking about if she knows any of the Nether-based groups that could be behind this. All around her, people are laughing, or talking quietly, or enjoying their meals. There are quite a few couples, and even a same-sex couple or two. Though she should be focusing on the matter at hand, especially when Zod reveals that the waiters are someThing other than what they appear to be, she can't help thinking that all these normal and mundane things she keeps searching for - happiness, love, friendship - the things she could have had in a magicless life, possibly, would have made her just another one of these ignorant victims, having the time of their lives - while those same lives are being stolen from them.

    Her face reddens slightly as she looks up and glances between Sakura and Zod, realizing she's allowing herself to worry about dumb NORMAL PEOPLE stuff instead of staying on-task and being the professional magical girl she's supposed to be. She actually sees some stuff that looks good, and considers an appetizer - not so much to eat it but to see if there's anything in it they can identify. "I suppose we had better watch our step around such tricksters then," she replies to Zod. Her own Artifact is stored in Otherspace and she can draw it as soon as she needs it. "But do we wish to obtain a -sample- of the cuisine here, or take a look around? The easiest way to do the latter is to just say we need to use the restroom, but-"

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    A waiter is suddenlt standing right behind Miko, smiling and saying, "Do you require an escort to the lady's room?"

    Miko jumps in her seat, and White Rose looks very nonplussed as she does her best to stay out of sight. Miko turns slightly and feigns a smile as she says, "A-ah, I think I can find it if you just point the way?"

    The waiter keeps smiling right back, bows, and gestures towards one of the doors. If they heard her say 'need to use the restroom', what else might they hear in this place? Do they already know what their group is up to? Is this a trap to separate them!?

    "Actually, perhaps we ALL need to use the rest room," Miko says suddenly as she turns to give a big smile to the other two and REALLY MEANINGFUL LOOKS. "So there are no interruptions when we get to the eating, you know?"

    The waiter does not protest or offer anything further, just turns his squinty-eyed smile on the other two to see what they have to say.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura smiles briefly at White Rose, then reaches over to her left arm, adjusting... something strapped to it, under her sleeve. It's slightly visible when she compacts her sleeve against it, but otherwise the sleeve is loose enough that it doesn't show...

    Sakura herself is definitely focused on saving innocent civilians. She's tempted to just... start the confrontation right now, on her own terms, but she's not sure what would happen to any innocents in the building in the process. So instead... play it cool, Sakura.

    "Ah... yeah, that's probably a good idea. I hate it when I have to go to the bathroom during a meal and miss, like, half the conversation by the time I get back!"

General Zod (524) has posed:
    The Kryptonian says, politely, because he wants to watch what the weird not-people are going to do when the girls go to the bathroom, "I went before I came, but thank you. Waiter, please bring us three glasses of water for when my young friends return." Zod is very very suspicious right now. And if he has to, he'll flip the table and make a scene to provide a distraction.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Well, Zod is super strong and stuff. He can probably handle himself just fine in a magical restaurant full of magic! Maybe he can just punch the magic away! He totally knows what he's doing, or else he wouldn't be a general, right? Right! So Miko nods to him, and rises from her seat, "We'll be back shortly then." Then she begins heading in the direction indicated by the waiter, feeling like his eyes are on her and Sakura the entire time, even if he's actually focused on Zod now.

    "Do you know what you wish to order now, sir?" the waiter asks in that same polite, pleasant, and perfectly calm manner. "It will be brought to you promptly once the order has been placed." It probably will be. But who knows what's actually IN it!?

    Meanwhile, Miko - likely accompanied by Sakura - make it to the restroom, only for Miko to duck off to the side and enter a different set of doors marked 'Staff Only'.

    Beyond the doors is a bustling kitchen, with lots of dishes being put onto plates, and the dishes being carried out of the kitchen on the hands of waiters. Of note, however, is that there is not a single cook anywhere to be seen. Somehow, the plates of food are just there, ready to be delivered. The SOUND of cooking is everywhere. The SMELL of meat sizzling, of rich chocolatey desserts being baked, of countless other delicious foods, is everywhere. But the ovens are cold and unused, the pans and pots empty, the knives and spoons and spatulas and ladels all lying clean and neat in their storage spaces.

    Before their very eyes, the food just seems to manifest out of thin air. Every time they aren't looking, a new plate with steaming food appears where there was once empty space. This is not to say that they are alone in here. The waiters keep coming in and out, and Miko has to duck down behind a counter to remain unseen, gesturing for Sakura to do the same. But this food is apparently being magicked into existence... Or something.

    But who is behind it? Who is actually RUNNING this operation.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura follows after Miko, ducking into the Staff Only door with her - darting a look back to make sure no one's looking before slipping inside and slowly, silently closing the door behind them. She moves with startling grace and precision, her footsteps not even audible to iko - who's right in front of her! She's practised this sort of thing a lot.

    As she ducks down beside Miko, she removes her shoes. After all, wedge sneakers are not the best for fighting in. She concentrates for a moment, then hisses out a command word - "Release!" - that transforms the Key into her wand.

    "I feel magic coming from further back," she whispers to Miko. "I can probably sneak through there no problem, but I don't want us to get separated. Maybe if I use Illusion..."

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod handwaves. "I will wait for my friends to return, it is rude to order before others at the table." Rest assured, he is watching where Sakura and Miko go in case of trouble. This suit, he is certain, is going to be ruined by the end of the night.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Miko thinks about it. So far they've gotten away with not being noticed, but it's possible the waiters are dumb minions of some kind. Using magic outright might alert other forces, though given that Miko was willing to have White Rose use magic on a reservations book, she isn't above taking that risk. She thinks and then nods to Sakura. "I'll be right behind you." Whatever is back there has to be the source of all this!

    And however it is that they make it to the back room, the feeling that they are advancing into a very bad place to be grows exponentially almost immediately. There's a long dark corridor, with cement walls, and a partially-open, rusted door at the end of it. That's where the magic is coming from. There's a certain... Earthy smell, and a sickly-sweet scent that taints the delicious food smells coming from the kitchen. More and more, if they proceed, the food smells stop smelling so great. Like a delicious sandwich with just enough mold on the bread that you can tell it doesn't taste right, even if you didn't see the mold there originally. You just know it's not what it's supposed to be like.

    Whatever they're about to discover is probably bad.

    But it's also probably important to stopping all this.

    White Rose trying to identify the magic she can feel, but she's still not quite at a close enough range. If only the Sacred Scepter were a bit more awake, she'd be stronger...

    Meanwhile, with Zod, the waiter says, "Of course, sir." and then heads away from the table. If he isn't watched the entire time, he just vanishes the moment he's out of sight - even if it's just due to blinking. Many more waiters come and go, and all around Zod, people who have eaten are seemingly becoming sluggish and tired. Yawning, stretching, slumping in their chairs slowly, leaning on each other. The cuddling of some couples might be cute or sweet if not for the fact that basically everyone is starting to lose energy. Some are already asleep, though the newer customers seem to still be full of vigor - even if oblivious to what's going on around them.

    No new customers have entered the building following their group. The windows, Zod may notice, given that he was looking for an exit earlier, seem to display silhouettes similar to what the outside looked like. But they're just silhouettes. If he looks more closely, the cars in the parking lot, the bushes, the trees, adjacent buildings, are more like card board cut outs, or just shadows without any matter attached to them. Theres's no changes in lighting, nothing and nobody moving out there... It's completely lifeless. And with his hearing, he may detect a metal clicking in the area of the front door, as the doorman locks the restaurant entrance.

    Something is going down soon. And soon.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura taps her wand against the card in her hand. "Illusion!" she hisses. The two are surrounded by an eye-searing pattern of stars and stripes in all the colours of the rainbow, for just a moment, before... well. Nothing seems to happen from their point of view.

    But Sakura just steps out from their hiding place. They're invisible to everyone -other- than themselves!

    Sakura cringes a little bit as they sneak further into the bowels of the restaurant. "Ugh, what is that -smell-..." she complains under her breath. "It smells like something's rotting back here, or..."

    And then, of course, Sakura sees it. As she walks into a room that looks like it should be a walk-in freezer of some sort - although it's not currently powered - she stops dead in her tracks. -Coffins-. She's almost scared to approach them at first, but then peers into one of them, before jumping back. "Th-there are... bodies in here!" she gasps out, then chokes, coughing and covering her mouth. She's looking rather queezy.

    "B..Bubbles..!" she gasps out, summoning one of her Card spirits - a small mermaid! - which swoops in the air around Sakura and Miko, cleansing the air into a more breathable state for the moment. "Haa... There's... magic flowing from this room... I think... I think something very bad is being put into the food here..."

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod squints about, on edge. He's checking to see if the slumping people are still people, or if they're those put together caricatures of people. And apparently they are. Hmm... Time for a shot of adrenaline, he thinks.
Zod stands up suddenly, flipping the table over with a crash of silverware and glasses and condiments spilling upon the floor. "What on earth have you put in the food? All these people are falling asleep! Do you intend to rob us while we sleep? I demand to see management!" He roars.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Miko finds the illusion magic very interesting, since it's not something she can use herself. She isn't sure how protected they are, but tries to minimize the sounds she makes at least as she follows after Sakura. After her experience at the Caverns of Death, Miko can not say she hasn't been exposed to some truly putrid odors. But that was only one time, and she had a breath filter. The cloying stench in this room makes her gag and heave until Sakura takes steps to get them some breathable air. White Rose doesn't seem bothered by the smell, so much as the magic. Now that she's close enough, she can identify it.

    "Death Magic," the fairy states. "I don't know the enemy responsible, but unless we eliminate whoever is controlling this, the spell isn't going to stop."

    Then the light from the kitchen behind them is blocked out as a dark shape fills the hall. Miko whips around to find the first and only chef they've seen so far. A man dressed as a French chef, with the hat, and everything, as well as wiry black hair, a long moustache that is bent at the tips, corpse-blue skin, and glowing red eyes.

    "Little girls," he hisses. "You don't belong here." Then he raises a bloody cleaver and starts to advance until he is fully blocking the only exit out of the room.

    Miko already has her gohei in hand, and in a flash of pink light, the terrified young woman who is Miko Fujimoto is physically transformed and altered into holy magical girl, Princess Paladin. Her prayer rod becomes a long scepter with a jeweled ball on the end, and her demeanor becomes confident, collected, and combat-ready. "You don't belong in this world at all, monster," Paladin responds to the undead chef.

    He just bares his dripping teeth into a wider, mirthless, slasher-smile, lets out something like a cross between a growl and a zombie's moan in the back of his throat and readies himself for battle.

    Meanwhile, as Zod flips the table, in that moment where the table obscured his sight of part of the dining area on the other side of it, dozens of waiters have appeared, all throughout the ring-shaped room - on the sides and behind him as well.

    "Sir," one of them says calmly, and professionally. "Please settle down." But the other customers are being pulled from their oblivious state by the commotion - though not responding quite as one might expect. They seem confused, unsure of what's going on, but not to be acting to do anything in particular. Some of them rub their eyes and yawn. Even those who haven't eaten yet.

    What if the food itself isn't responsible for the weakness and tiredness? What if it's just BEING here?

    Surrounded as he is, Zod has plenty of enemies to deal with if combat begins-

    One just leaps towards his back, never changing his calm, pleasant, polite expression, and attempts to hang onto the taller man with his arms around the Kryptonian's neck from behind. Of course, he lacks the strength that Zod has, so good luck with that. But at least it seems the time has come to act!

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Kero is flung off the table as Zod flips it. "Hey, watch it!" He shouts in annoyance as he rights himself in the air. Then he sweatdrops. "...Well. Guess my cover's blown." A magic circle appears on the floor beneath him - a sun and crescent moon made of yellow energy, surrounded by a ring, with eight of the twelve zodiac symbols spaced around the rim. It's not the same as Sakura's magic circle...

    His wings grow large, and then wrap around him into a human-sized caccoon. Soon, then fold back - revealing his true form. A yellow winged lion.

    Keroberos roars, and pounces at the waiter hanging off Zod's back.

    Meanwhile, Sakura produces another card. She's good at slight of hand! "DASH!" And, with a blur of speed... she attempts to get behind the chef. Her arm raises, there's a 'snickt' sound... and a blade just slightly longer than her palm shoots out from her left sleeve, her hand motion bringing it up to stab into his neck.

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod grabs the flipped table even as Kero takes care of the waiter on his back, and swats the waiters with it before hurling the now battered wooden furniture at the doorman in an attempt to bisect the UnPerson and knock the doors open. He suspects, however, that the doors will not exactly be useful in this case, if the trick with the windows and the interior of this place is any indication.
    He assumes that Kero is an ally, given Kero ripped one of the UnPersons off his back. "Make towards the kitchen!" He roars as he decks a waiter with a punch meant to take its head off.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Sakura succeeds in moving so fast that she slips right over the undead chef's head, takes his back, and stabs him in the neck. Out of the wound spills dirt, and then little gross insects that crawl across his blue skin, and possibly Sakura as well. He doesn't seem to experience pain, though the injury is plainly still there, and still damaging him. His skin even seems to crumble around the injury, indicating his physical integrity may be somewhat less than it appears to be. But even so, he doesn't make any sound of anger, or agony, or of distress. He just turns his thick neck, even if it means causing more damage from the knife tearing through him as he turns, and his head rotates with a series of sickening cracks and snaps until it faces Sakura.

    Then the chef growls and starts reaching over his shoulders to try to grab her. Paladin lunges forward and strikes him in the back of the head with the Sacred Scepter, the holy artifact making a smoking hole in his skull that spills even more dirt and gross bugs. Unable to face two opponents at once, especially one he can't see because he broke his own neck, he just slashes blindly with the cleaver in his right hand, while continuing to try to grab Sakura with the other, and possibly even try to bite her if she doesn't stay out of range of his red-drenched maw.

    White Rose flutters this way and that, trying to see an opening, or a weakness, or SOMETHING she can point out to the other two. Then she spots it. A throbbing red crystal buried inside all the dirt and bugs inside the dead man's skull. "Ah! Petals, go for his head! Paladin, try to take out his legs!"

    Princess Paladin doesn't waste time acknowledging, and just yells out, "CRUSADER'S CRESCENT!" As she slashes with her Scepter and unleashes a spinning buzzsaw of magical girl death in the form of a crescent-moon-shaped holy blade, aimed at the chef's legs. It cuts him off at the knees, reducing his mobility and sending him lurching off-balance to the floor. A perfect position to drive a knife down into his head!

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Meanwhile, Keroberos has little trouble eliminating the waiter. He scatters underneath the powerful blows of the guardian, just like the ones that Zod strikes do likewise. They just fly apart. As the disguise is no longer aiding them, the illusion fades away, and all color leeches from the restaurant. The very appearance of the place shifts, with gold and white becoming black and grey, plaster and tile becoming cold marble, and dirty gravel. The table that struck the monsters to pieces is thrown at the doors, and it shatters against them as though the wooden barriers were steel.

    The table fragments change into shattered stone, and other tables all throughout the dining area take on the same - though intact - form.

    Caskets.

    This restaurant... Isn't a restaurant at all. Iron-handled drawers large enough to hold a human body line the walls all around the ring-shaped corridor, in long rows and high columns.

    This place is a mausoleum or some sort of catacombs - and possibly existing in some kind of pocket dimension or alternate space. Those windows that once looked out onto a simulation of scenery now look out onto a pitch black emptiness, with hooded figures standing on the other side, all with masks made out of the skulls of large birds on their faces to conceal their features. Rank after rank after rank of these mysterious watchers, stretching back into infinity.

    The people scattered around are flopping around, trying to get their bodies to react, or else already asleep. Some glowing force seems to be draining from them, and some people have begun to vomit up dust and dirt.

    The kitchens are easy to find. They're the ones behind the rusted, red-dripping metal doors that lie part-way open, with the light of some kind of moon blade shining forth from the otherside for a moment.

    The waiters are now masses of dirt, with pieces of bone scattered throughout them. Hunched over, bending to the side, walking on all fours, there is no mistaking them for people anymore. They are constructs, or perhaps mere fragments of people who used to exist, brought back in a mockery of their original selves. A long tongue of toxic-green slime oozes forth from one of those with a more intact skull, as it begins loping after Zod at a dead run on hands and feet. With that, the dozens of other monsters follow as well.

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "Don't tell me what to do!" shouts Keroberos... as he makes a run for the kitchen anyway, swiping at or breathing fire at any 'waiters' that try to get in his way. "Damnit I shouldn't have let her out of my sight... Sakura, I'm coming!"
    Meanwhile, in the back rooms, Sakura darts back as the monstrous chef tries to grab at her, wincing at his breaks his own neck. Her body is surrounded by a soft turquoise aura as she moves superhumanly quickly out of range. As White Rose instruct her, she flips a card out of her... pocket? Where is she keeping these anyway? Wherever it came from, she taps her wand against it. "POWER!"

    A pink aura envelops her, ebfore condensing down to just surrounding her left arm. She darts in, and thrusts her hand out, palm open, blade extended, right for that glowing red gem...

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod growls, "I was telling you where she is!"
    The Kryptonian kicks a coffin hard through his pursuers to scatter the dirt and bones about. If that doesn't work, he burns the animated bits and bobs with twin beams of white-hot fire from his eyes. Then he makes a dash for the bloody rusted door, throwing his shoulder into it to force it open (he suspects it may be difficult to open or locked...). It would not do to be separated, no. Especially since magical effects have, in the past, not done him any good.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    Zod and Kero succeed in making it to the kitchen, heat vision and any other attacks levelled having a significant effect on the bad guys - but those bad guys seemingly reforming from their own remains gradually. The kitchen has also transformed from its former appearance into its true nature. A circular room of stone blocks, inscribed everywhere in glowing symbols. There is a pit in the floor, from which an unearthly blue light radiates. It's a crystallized sphere of pure magical energy about 20 feet across, with what appear to be... People... Or things... Crawling or flowing underneath the crystal's surface. Some kind of energy field surrounds it, but in a few moments, that shield shatters, leaving the crystal open to attack!

    What made the field vanish? Sakura stabbing through the chef's head with her sword, and into the crystal heart that was animating him. The throbbing red stone starts beating rapidly when it is pierced, before suddenly cracking open and releasing a blood-red mist that briefly takes on the form of a bird skull, before vanishing. The chef's remains crumble away into dust and dirt. But the spell hasn't ended. They're still trapped in this place.

    So what will fix it? Probably blasting that crystallized energy! White Rose even says as much as she flies into the 'kitchen' and starts to yell, "Hey, that crystal is holding this space together, better smash i-AAAAHHH! CAT MONSTER!" She 'skids to a halt' in the air as she sees Kero's new form, and then yells, "AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" again, with more emphasis, when she sees the doors that Zod smashed down are doing a really bad job of keeping out the wall of dirt-and-bones monsters that are surging towards them RIGHT NOW.

    Paladin is blocked from getting into the kitchen by the dusty remains + the narrow hallway + Sakura + everyone else in the kitchen, so she just takes shots at the monsters heading towards them and leaves the core to her companions. "HEADS DOWN! PENANCE BEAM!" she calls out before pointing the Sacred Scepter and unleashing a pink beam that drills right through the dirt monsters, and those behind them, buying some time. The ones struck by holy magic don't seem to be reforming, but there's still a lot of them out there, and people in danger from life-force draining!

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    "Ew ew ew bugs ew," Sakura frets once the undead monster is actually delt with, shuddering and brushing any of those insects that got onto her... off of her!

    And then... back to the kitchen! She frowns a ltitle bit as she sees the crystal, hand going up to her head. Her Hidden Blade is still visible for a moment before she retracts it - Zod may recognise it as a weapon used by the Assassin Brotherhood, if he's run into any of them. How odd.

    "..Hold on." She pulls out a card, closing her eyes and holding it in front of her face. Her magic circle appears, as she exhales slowly.

    "Shrink the crystal's magic...! LITTLE!" she cries out. A tiny little mote of light appears from the card, rockets up to the ceiling, then darts right down into the pit. Zod will be able to tell it's a VERY TINY girl - about the size of a flea!

    The Little reaches out, coming to a stop just in front of the crystal. She pokes it. The magic within dims...

    "Okay, blast it!"

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod expects this is going to hurt. Explosions usually do. Well, the suit was ruined anyway. He opens up with the heat vision into the crystal thing, doing his best to simply slag it. He supposes that it is a good thing that he was never one for physical vanity.

Miko Fujimoto (589) has posed:
    The magic diminishes - or shrinks at least - retreating from the surface and leaving the crystal much darker. Zod blasting it is far less explosive than expected. The surface shatters, and a flood of energy pours forth in a column, outlines of people - in whole and in part - flying back towards the 'dining area', and returning to the original owners of the energies. The crystal fragments float upwards, spinning in the air slowly before splitting apart into even smaller fragments, over and over, until the pit is empty.

    The whole time, the surroundings are changing, the gravedirt monsters are falling apart, and space is contracting in a very disorienting manner. All those masked figures in the windows keep watching, right up to the end, when the glass becomes caked in dirt and then shatters, leaving Paladin, Zod, Sakura, Kero, and White Rose in an abandoned diner, with nearly a thousand other people lying around, in various states of consciousness, all weakened and disoriented.

    There's no sign of the fabulous restaurant that used to be here, and it's only now that the magic has worn off that Paladin makes the realization. "There was never a restaurant built here. The illusion magic on this place was so strong that it even made people forget this building burned down months ago and that no reconstruction occurred." Even Miko was influenced.

    Paladin looks around, and then says, "We should depart this place and make a call to emergency services when we are distant."

    White Rose says, "Yeah, and then Petals needs to introduce me to her friend. That's the first girl I've seen smaller than me! Finally, someone to bond with!" Apparently Kero doesn't count.

    Paladin sighs. At least the job is done. Though it was a rather disturbing one. Who are these powerful Death Magic-users? What do they need all that life force for? What is the mechanism being used for their plans? Crystals, yes, but what is the true nature of these crystals, and how are these fiends able to come up with so much magic energy that they can drag nearly a thousand people into a pocket dimension every single day for more than a week?

    Many questions. Hopefully there will be more answers. And hopefully they can all go home and take baths to get any remaining bugs or corpse-dust off of themselves.

    Ugh!

Sakura Kinomoto (172) has posed:
    Sakura covers her face, expecting an explosion as well... but, well, none comes! She peers around herself, blinking once, stunned. "So... wow, that was some space distortion if all this happened in a tiny diner like this..."

    Keroberos returns to his tiny form again, and alights on Sakura's shoulder. "...Yeah, let's.. Let's get out of here. I need to change. And take a bath. And possibly scrub all my skin off."

General Zod (524) has posed:
    Zod mutters under his breath about magic being a very strange and bewildering thing.