5483/Perfectly Symmetrical Violence

Perfectly Symmetrical Violence
Date of Scene:	13 September 2017
Location:	Ga-Rei Japan <GR>
Synopsis:	Yomi calls for help after encountering a youkai that can match her move for move.
Cast of Characters:	Yomi Isayama, 707, 1010, 1106, 342, Reina Kinney, Silica, 1132, Maya, Lexicon, Reiji Arisu

---

Yomi Isayama has posed:
A whisper is broadcast over multiversal frequencies, "This is Yomi Isayama. I hate to ask like this, but I know there are a few people not in the Paladins who know me, so... Anyway, we're spread a bit thin here, and the rest of the Agency is dealing with another threat. I can normally handle a Category B Specter alone, but... Let's say I really need a few hands. Anyone who can come, I apprecia--" The signal goes silent but isn't cut off immediately. Multiversal coordinates are set for a point downtown in Yomi's Tokyo, then cuts off after a few seconds.

Upon arrival, the city is relatively quiet, but not empty. It's extremely early, with local time reading a bit before six in the morning, and the sun is just starting to rise. Most people are still at home asleep in their beds, but there are a few lights on in nearby office buildings indicating those who wanted to get an early start... or perhaps never left work last night at all. A few early commuters and delivery trucks go by in the distance, but the streets in this part of town are mostly empty, with just a few parked cars here and there.

In fact, there is currently only one person on the street. Or, to be more precise, there are two. Yomi is there, sword drawn, blade clashing with.... Yomi?

What.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
When somebody has a distinct classification system for their supernatural entities, it usually means that there's something particularly worth knowing about them. And Xiaomu is STILL wondering what 'Category B' means when she comes tearing through the warpgate on her lightcycle.

Oh well, she's going to find out soon enough.

The lightcycle brakes to a halt and de-rezzes as the sage fox dismounts from her ride - but at the sight of Yomi fighting Yomi, she just comes to a halt. "Okay, which one is which here?" she wonders aloud, jogging again and moving closer - actually trying to get downwind of the pair. If there's anything significantly 'off' about either of them, *maybe* she can pick up on it.

At least she has a pretty good guess what a Category B Specter consists of, now.

Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010) has posed:
    Yes, Reinhardt's gonna fight ghosts with a hammer. That's how he is.

    He makes it to the city, jogging through the streets like a titanium gorilla as he tries to approach the young lady in the streets. He is very confused to see her fighting herself, but it may have something to do with the fact there's ghosts about. He may also be waking everyone up just by trotting down the street with how heavy his armor is, leaving footfalls that sound like metal thuds going off while the titanic German advances.

    He's still not sure if these ghosts can be felled by hammer blows, though the time for figuring that out is NOW!

    "INCOMING!" he announces himself loudly, charging toward the apparition to maybe catch it off guard. How he's gonna tell which is which is not certain, which is why Reinhardt isn't too good at...plans, sometimes.

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Early mornings are nice. Some of the spirits are getting ready to make their way off to who knows where... but Tamamo herself? The maid outfitted fox blinks at her Master's radio call. With a quick excuse from her job in the name of saving someone... and to prove she can be /somewhat/ good, she makes her way to the area located... only to be confused. "Mikon?" she questions, if it's a question at all. "Wh... why are there two of Yomi?" her question only gets more confused noises when Xiaomu makes her way in. "Oh... the other fox."

    And... that loud noise causes the fur on her tail to frizz up with Reinhardt charging right in, "H...hey! You're going to scare the customers... and the other citizens! Only I'm allowed to do that!"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    It's not the first time Nozomi's been here. It's not even the second. She's visited this Tokyo a few times now, so finding it isn't all that hard. And Taiga, of course, has no problems taking to the rooftops; if anything, he can move more freely, with most of the city asleep. So there's a swift, darting figure across the city's skyline, moving with all due haste until the moment it comes to a stop on an overlooking roof.

    From astride the robotic tiger, Nozomi stares down at the street, quickly growing alarmed. "Taiga, what... which one is... what's going on?" The TIGER rumbles uncertainly, ears and nose starting to work. "Unknown. I'm focusing all sensors on analyzing both."

Reina Kinney has posed:
Got a problem with ghosts? Who ya gonna call?

Well, Ghostbusters ain't available in the Multiverse, unfortunately. But GUARDIANS is, and they ain't afraid of no ghosts. Especially not Reina Kinney, one of the best of the best they got.

Near the spot of where Yomi is squaring off against the apparition that looks just like her, a light form appears briefly, then it materializes into the form of the red-haired huntress herself, Reina. Almost immediately, she does a double-take as she gets a good look at what's really going on.

"Am I seeing double?" She rubs her eyes a little before shaking her head. "Get with it! You're on duty, remember! Besides, one of those could very well be the apparition!"

Unlike Reinhardt, who's rushing in blindly and attempting to hazard a guess at which one is the ghost, Reina's attempting to formulate a plan in her mind. Unfortunately, the sight of Reinhardt charging in makes her go wide-eyed before she rushes towards Reinhardt. "Hold it, you idiot!" Reina yells. "You're gonna cause an unnecessary injury!" Even then, Reina knows Reinhardt is in a different faction than her and he's not likely to respond to her kindly. But Reina tends to think on her feet a little too much sometimes.

Silica has posed:
    Silica arrives flying overhead on her yellow pixie wings. She does a wing over, dips low and skims the ground, coming to a skidding stop and drawing her dagger as her wings evaporate. "Pina, Hibiki, Come!" she commands, a pair of pets emerging from her Inventory. A little feathered dragon, and a slinky winged Wind Serpent.

    Magenta eyes track between the two Yomi's, and her ears pin down when Reinhardt come charging in. She frowns, and begins preparing her defensive spell, chanting softly under her breath as Words of Power form in the air around her.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    It's Japan. There's a Japanese woman here. She's on a motorbike, one that looks pretty good considering some monster hit it with a lance and then some kid with a personal ghost fixed it for her. Overall, the end, resulting image of this succession events isn't too unusual against the background. Seeing a woman dress something like a TV detective may be at least slightly out of the ordinary, but less so than most things.
    Oh, and there's the thing she's probably here to find. She comes to a park WELL away from the fight, takes a few moments to look around at what else--and who else--is gathering in the area, and then starts to work. She's got a job to do, even if she wasn't asked. Even if she wasn't asked, she'll still send an invoice. The business bureau may complain, but it's still fair! That's her story, and she's sticking to it, even if she's not sticking her real name to it.
    "Anyhow, let's see what we're up against." Something like a set of displays start appearing all around her, holographs that are nevertheless not holographs at all, but mildly incandescent lines of aether, precisely arrayed. Something quite like a sonar pulse, followed by several more, radiates out from her, easily discernible by those with any kind of predisposition toward magic, if invisible otherwise. This is a high energy scan, reading the magic in the area, and at least picking up on any powerfully magical beings. It will also pick up on technology, thanks to the focus of Kyoko's magical training. In fact, it's significantly better at that than analyzing another world's magic.
    Aha, and there's a... giant robo-cat thing. And a powered suit? Wow, that's interesting enough that it's a lot harder to pay attention to the two girls fighting. In fact, it's immensely distracting, but Kyoko slides some elements of her displays around to refocus on the primary issue.

Maya has posed:
Maya had helped before, and here she was once more to aid Yomi where she could. It iddn't take too long for hte blue haired junker to arrive. She aarrived a moment after ZIaomu did, but not on a light cycle, nope. She was hanging on to the back of the massive dog like robot she called Runner. She hops off dusts herself off and follows adfter Xiaomu as she too is confsued which Tomi is which?!

Lexicon has posed:
    "She's helped me out before," Lexicon reasoned on her way out, "So it only makes sense to return the favor." Raising a hand, she gestures, "Keep the twins busy. Hopefully this won't take too long."

    "Yes, Lady Silver Soul," Stylono bowed.

    That was a while ago, naturally.

    An early morning bus slows to a halt just a block away. When it moves on its way, it leaves behind the white-clad, hat-adorned brunette. A screen floats by her wrist while she consults a paper map, "This is reasonably close to the origin of her signal..." Clashing weapons is all she needs to confirm that. The map is tucked away, the screen 'closed', and she picks up to a brisk walk.

    Two Yomi. The DCC pauses. After a moment, she tilts her head, cradling her chin, "A mirror match... Ah, I bet the fake will try to confuse us into attacking the real one..." Her other hand extends down, surrounded in digitized light, and she holds a spear with a silver crystal on the opposite end. This is leaned on while she considers, eyes glancing amidst the various other parties responding to Yomi's call. Still rubbing her chin, she considers. This kind of setup could work for the climax of the manuscript she was working on...

    Think about that later. "Hey, Yomi." Lexicon's first going to see which one even reacts to being called out to while fighting.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Yomi was hoping that help would come. She didn't expect so much, but she certainly doesn't mind a disproportionate response. After all, this was a Category B. She's the only one in the Agency who has ever taken one on her own before, but some of them are harder to deal with than others.

Scans are... inconclusive. Visually, they're exactly the same. There's definitely something supernatural going on here, but there's enough interference that it's hard to pin down exactly what. And that interference grows more as Reinhardt's heavy footsteps charge down the street.

Both Yomi and Yomi look up at the noise, and both widen their eyes. The two swords pull apart, and both of them leap away from each other, and from the rushing human freight train. "Hey, be careful!" "Hey, be careful!" And Reinhardt's charging may be loud, but are those footsteps getting even louder?

Yes. The answer is yes. There is still a -lot- of interference, both for energy scans and supernatural scans, but now that Yomi and Yomi are separated, it's a bit easier to tell the origin of that interference. The image of one of the Yomis shimmers slightly as the sound of Reinhardt's footsteps gets louder and louder and louder.... and the windows of the buildings all around begin to vibrate for a few seconds before they shatter, glass raining down toward the street below, accompanied by a deafening roar of louder and louder footsteps.

"Ranguren!" As Yomi (the non-flickering one) flips backwards, she draws her sword, and the form of Ranguren appears hunched over her as she lands, shielding her body from the rain of glass. "...Hey, Lexicon. Hope you weren't planning to shoot anyone who didn't answer you in time."

Violet eyes flick over toward her double, still flickering for a moment before it begins to grow and change form. No longer looking like a teenage girl, it takes the shape of a tall figure in a black and white cloak and mask, with large black antlers, floating a few inches above the ground.

Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010) has posed:
    Reinhardt skids to a halt when Reina stops him, not to mention he nearly bowls over the fighters. "Oh, OH! My mistake!" He calls out, before suddenly glass shatters, and Reina's point is proven thus. Throwing up his shield, Reinhardt takes a defensive stance, taking note of the flickering double before it dons a more eldritch form suddenly. "What is this thing? It's not the specter you mentioned, is it?" He asks Yomi, moving to defend the squishier Elites present.

Silica has posed:
     "Oss. Vila, Pela, Mok, Vali, Dal, Svero!" incants the Cait Sith. Everyone in her 'Party', which is everyone here aside from the Spectre, gets themselves a little 'bubble' of hexagonal shields. "It won't stop an attack, but should help buffer against one." says Silica, moving to get behind the more tanky Elites. "Pina, Hibiki, Stun Needles!" Pina breathes out a stream of bubbles, which Hibiki skewers with little green needles made of wind magic. These lance towards the Spectre, trying to stun and injure, attempting to PIN it down.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    Uh-oh, this is going to be difficult. At least the enemy was identified, as it likely would have been anyway once separated from Yomi. Kyoko tightens her scan, putting aside the matter of all the off-world technology she's witnessing at the moment, trying to get a finer analysis of the spectre through the interference, and trying not to look at Ran-chan, which simply scares her, underneath the professional facade.
    If she can't get too close a read on the thing itself, maybe the area of aether around it will tell her something. Even the way in which things don't appear to be somewhere can tell you what's under the surface, and processing scant data into valuable inferences is a large part of what she does. Does the aether move when it does? Does the aether move when it /doesn't/? Is the interference uniformly directed, and uniform over time? So many questions. She's already looping the data off-site for processing, but sooner answers are better.
    The shield from Silica is appreciated, once she knows what it is, though chances are good that she'd be clobbered immediately if anything seriously came at her. Hopefully, with Reinhardt here, that won't happen.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Okay, so there IS a way to tell them apart, at least given an appropriate stimulus - which Reinhardt appears to have provided. And then the presumed specter shows what is probably its true form.

Xiaomu is initially too busy trying to find somewhere that ISN'T getting a rain fo shattered glass - you know, something like a safe place to stand - to really take a look at the specter. Staying out in the middle of the street is the best she can come up with; fortunately, it doesn't seem like there's all that much traffic coming through at the moment, so it's relatively safe in the middle of the street.

Now she has time to look over the specter's figure, and her eyes narrow a bit. The defensive buff from Silica prompts a quick wave and a call of "Thanks!" to the Cait Sith before Xiaomu's attention returns to the specter. "So what brought you into the city all of a sudden?" she calls out. "Making a lot of trouble here ..."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga rumbles softly, uttering a sound somewhere close to... irritation? "A great deal of interference is present. Attempting to adjust..." Further commentary is sidetracked by the thing taking its true form; and by the way Reinhardt's footsteps are amplified until they finally begin to shatter windows. Nozomi covers her ears, gritting her teeth fainly, while after a few moments of twitching ears, the robotiger broadcasts, "Mimicry. Sonic attacks. The hostile is a Yamabiko. It is a difficult suggestion to follow, but I recommend making as little noise as possible. Do not provide it with 'weapons'."

    He pauses, then turns his head slightly. "...Nozomi. You will be in danger." She bites her lip for a moment, before nodding faintly. And trembling, just a little.

            "Disengaging Independent Mode. Rerouting Gensou Engine            
                     power to motive and combat systems."                    
                           "Rampart Mode engaged."                            

    TIGER's voice suddenly rises, not in its normal cadence, but in the tone of a 'system message'. Mechanical, emotionless. 'Hibiki' will detect the shift in magical flow. Possibly the merging of two distinct entities into one, as well. But everyone can see when Nozomi steps back up to the edge of the roof, clad in black magitech armor that used to be a robotic tiger.

    Yellow eyes lock onto the Yamabiko. One black gauntlet is lifted, and several quick shots of energy are fired - from far enough away that there won't be much noise to work with, at least from the firing of the shots.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Stepping back, trying to avoid the possibility of being caught in rumbling by the human freight train, Reina is surprised to see Reinhardt come to a stop. "Hey, what do you know, he actually has a brain," She says sarcastically, before the glass starts raining down. "Oh Falz no!" She curses, her shield automatically activating against the glass shards which, thankfully, are to her shield like pebbles to a military tank. "What have I gotten myself into?"

When Reina looks again, she finds that the fake Yomi has made themself more apparent, and Reina can only stare with widened eyes as she says, "What in Falz's name?"

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon almost looks disappointed. Instead, it's that usual tired expression on her face when she raises the staff in her hands, then strikes it down between the slabs of the sidewalk, right into the expansion joint. The 'fangs' around the silver gem unfold and the gem begins to glow, rotating.

    "Well, I guess if it wants to do things the /easy/ way..." Pixellated light surrounds Lexicon in a column, then disperses. Her hair turns silver-white, her eyes red, and her clothes shifted to a white bodysuit. Reaching out, she produces an enormous mechanized rod from the same light, swinging it aside as it produces an axe blade of white light. Processors, armored metallic pieces, wink in around her shoulders, hips, legs, arms, and temples.

    "If you're gonna throw out the dramatic option, that's FINE!" While her voice was soft before, the DCC's rather harsh and aggressive now. The axe is lifted up, and Silver Soul points at the apparition with it, "I'll just beat the crap outta you until I feel better!"

    Wings of light, square-shaped, wink from behind her back and she takes to the sky. However, with everyone else already rushing it down, the Silver DCC waits for the right opening, her axe held back at the ready.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
                                   WAIT!                                    

    A voice cries out from high up above. There, a figure atop a building, silhouetted by a great, glowing neon sign that reads 'SIMSANG' in bright white and blue letters. "To be one's own self and stand on one's own legs, this is the right of all those who live. To usurp that ephemeral but irreplacable thing that we call individuality is the domain of charlatans and criminals. To stand against this vile duplicity, special qualities are needed. These things are called..."

                            Patience and Wisdom!                            

The figure vanishes. The air howls as /something/ descends into the battlefield, landing in the space between the faker and the genuine article. It's a man in a red jacket, carrying a rack full of weapons.

The cavalry waits until the moment is right to take to the field.

"Xiaomu," Reiji calls as Taiga and Nozomi straight up start blasting the perpetrator. "Sorry for being late. I wanted to wait until we could confirm the enemy." Reiji turns towards the creature and draws his lips into a tight line. He shifts, falling into a characteristic iaijutsu stance. His hand is hovering over a dark, tattered hilt.

A Yamabiko. An echo beast. Very well, he'll just have to wait for an opening. If it remains hostile, then he has the perfect, silent tool. If not... Then that's just fine too.

Maya has posed:
Yomi got a lot of help, a whole lot of it. She takes stock of everyone else, it looks like they have quiote a response here she looks to both of the Yomis and she is legitl at a loss of how to handle this. She ooks between them and has no legit idea about who may be the real one and who is the gake?

She then sees one flicker ad that's when she starts to move.

"I think that's the one?!"

She looks the Double changes and now she knows for certain, but the first thing Maya does is not attack but she starts to cast a spell ove the responders to ward them from damage and generally just boost howe strong they are over all in combat.

"I'll get into the fight in a moment."

Silicia pwn wpell covers the other end of things and between them the responders should be well buffed. 5R
"Good thinking Slicia."

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
"Yamabiko, huh?" the Caster Class Servant questions a bit openly... standing there curiously as everyone rushes in... and her Master transforms with her sentient robot cat. "Master?" comes the open question, something she hasn't seen before.... and now... there's the other 'Casters Master. ".... It's Reiji." she mutters, shaking her head, taking a few light steps forward. "Well, isn't this just a few parties all in one." The hexagonal bubble around the fox catches her next attention... and the voice who casted it.

    "Thank you~" she cheerfully calls out, only to turn back to the Yamabiko and... people rushing it. With her mirror appearing, she smiles and points the Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu right towards the echo beast and lets out a barrage of fireballs! "I can't let /everyone/ have fun~!" the maid-dressed fox smirks, before rushing herself in as well! "Master, be careful! You're not in the Regalia!"

Yomi Isayama has posed:
"Promise I'll show you a better time when we're not fighting a Category B, Lexicon." Yomi smiles at the DCC and sheaths her sword, now that there's no more falling glass. As she does, Ranguren disappears, both from view and from all scans.

The various shields seem to work, though, as the falling glass is just glass... it's an expensive mess, though, considering how many buildings just lost their windows.

"So what brought you into the city all of a sudden?" echoes back Xiaomu's voice.

"I'll just beat the crap outta you until I feel better!" echoes back Silver Soul's voice.

"Master, be careful! You're not in the Regalia!" echoes back Tamamo's voice, and the asphalt of the road begins to crack.

"WAIT!" echoes Reiji's voice.

    "WAIT!"

        "WAIT!"

            "WAIT!"

Louder and louder each time, the echoes grow, and the rumbling begins to sound almost like an earthquake as the entire area feels like it's shaking from the echoed sounds.

Yomi winces and covers her ears, trying to keep her eyes focused on the Yamabiko, but its form flickers with every echo and becomes more and more indistinct. It's flickering and vibrating so much that it's hard to tell if the energy blasts from TAIGA or the fireballs from Tamamo or the wind needle bubbles from Silica's adorable pets actually hit.... There are definitely explosions at impact, and smoke from the blast. For a moment, all is silent, and Yomi lets out a breath, lowering her hands. "That... may have been a bit overkill. But thanks." As the smoke clears, the yamabiko is nowhere to be seen, and it no longer shows up on any scans.

"I didn't expect such a big response, but I think it's taken care of." Yomi puts one hand on her hip and glances around, nodding once.

"....but i think it's taken care of"    "but I think it's taken care of."    "BUT I THINK IT'S TAKEN CARE OF"
    "But I think it's taken care of"
        "..taken care of"    "care of"    "care of"

    "care of"    "care of"    "care of"    "care of"
"care of"    "care of"    "care of"    "care of"

Yomi's eyes go wide as a ring of over a dozen identical Yamabikos appear scattered around them, each of them flickering briefly before turning into an exact duplicate of whoever is closest.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Even way up there where she stands, the cacophony of voices is loud enough to draw a wince from the otherwise cold expression on Nozomi's face. The TIGER protects her from the worst of it, but it still leaves her ears ringing. And then... it's gone?

    No, that was way too easy. Nozomi's grip on the EM Zanbatou tenses-

    And there they are. A dozen of them, surrounding the street-level forces... including Caster.

    Wordlessly, Nozomi steps off the building. The armored girl falls silently, not a controlled descent but a true freefall, keeping her feet oriented downward and drawing the EM Zanbatou over her head. Only at the last second, only at the very last possible instant, do the thrusters on her armor kick in - in the exact instant she swings her sword. A blade infused with an energy equal parts 'particle' and 'magical', a weapon designed to carve apart monster and spirit alike. And she's bringing it down through the Yamabiko that has assumed Tamamo's form.

    And landing in such a way that she stands /between/ Tamamo and the Yamabiko.

    The blacktop cracks with the force of her landing.

Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010) has posed:
    Reinhardt is pretty glad to have DOUBLE SHIELD as Silica buffs the party. "Thank you!" He nods to her, before he begins to charge the Yamabiko with a swing of his hammer, just the thing goes up.

    "HAMMER DO-Awww..." Sigh. He looks almost disappointed, as he's more or less robbed of a chance to smash today. He even came out at the wee hours of the morning too! Of course, that doesn't last, as suddenly MORE ghosts show up. They don appearances mimicking each of the party, with Reinhardt takes note of the lookalike of himself. "This...this might be a problem." He remarks, before he begins to make his way towards Kyoko directs him her way, knowing she can support him and TAIGA fine.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Yamabiko. *That* was what Xiaomu was trying to sort out - exactly what sort of youkai this was. The pieces all fit ...

And as glad as she is to see Reiji, when the yamabiko's echoes start amplifying the sound of that yell, Xiaomu cringes and tries to cover her ears in a hurry. It's not until after the noise subsides that Xiaomu comments on the radio that she's glad Reiji could join the group.

And then they have bigger problems. Problems such as being outnumbered by clones of a monster who can duplicate any one of them.

That's actually not such an insurmountable problem, though; if they can shuffle the pairs so that the actual fighters are going after copies of the people they know best, that *should* play to the good guys' advantage. And with that suggestion shared over the radio, Xiaomu immediately hurtles towards the copy of Reiji.

She and Reiji have been partners for over a decade; she taught him the vast majority of what he knows about fighting youkai, and they work together seamlessly when fighting as a pair. On the flip side, Xiaomu knows Reiji's moves better than anyone - and if anyone here has a good chance at exploiting the patterns and forms she's seen him using, it's the sage fox herself. (And the opposite applies as well - Xiaomu trusts Reiji to neutralize her own duplicate without much trouble.)

Xiaomu hasn't gotten into melee range yet when she opens fire on the duplicate Reiji - and she's SURE it's the duplicate, she knew where Reiji was standing before the yamabiko went all Clone Wars. Rather than going for likely kill shots, she's aiming for his arms and legs, reading and anticipating the shifts in the duplicate's stance which will give away reaching to draw a weapon - and trying to disrupt any such attempt to bring a copied weapon to bear on her.

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo covers her ears from the super loud echoing of voices, cringing at the feel of even her own voice being amplified who knows how many times. "Nngh!" she cries out a bit in pain, after all, the fox ears pick up a lot!

    "Mikon!?!" comes a surprised shout from the Caster-Class servant as the sudden copy of Tamamo is there. "There can only be one Tamamo! You aren't the one!" Tamamo lifts up her mirror once more to fireball this copy, but the sudden sword going into her copy and her Husband... TAIGA... umm... combination... landing hard in front of her, it elicits another "MIKON!?!" shout, louder at the sudden entrance. "M...master?" she questions to the mechanical armored Nozomi.

    Wait, if there's one of her... she looks around to see the copies of everyone else... then turns and fires off a few fireballs towards the NozoTAIGA combo! "How dare you imitate my lovely, wonderful husband! You cannot imitate that perfection!"

Reina Kinney has posed:
By the time Reina's gotten close to her allies (and those who aren't exactly allies but fighting for the same cause) she comes to see that the ghost problem has gotten worse already. Not only has the ghost split into multiples, but it appears that it's playing a game of Doppelganger (if you want to call it a game.) And even Reina herself isn't immune from this.

When Reina gets a look at her doppelganger, she snaps her fingers and her pistols materialize in her hands. Whether or not her doppelganger does the same is irrelevant, because Reina's used to many different fighting challenges, and this is just one of many.

"I can't think of a good one liner for this one," Reina says as she attempts to fire a pair of shots at her doppelganger, aiming for the legs in hopes of rendering the doppelganger incapacitated for the time being.

Silica has posed:
    Silica's eyes go wide. Ears pinning down to her head as the echos amplify. Eyes squeeze shut at that point, and only open after the dopplegangers have all arrived. "They're... everywhere." She looks at the one imitating her, ears pinning down and tail poofing out in aggitation and distress. She reaches for her dagger and points her pets at her own copy. They take the cue to 'Release' without being spoken to.

    Now, problem with a sound-using monster... she /has/ to speak the Words of Power to cast anything, so she's stuck using her dagger and swordskills.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    Well, that was dramatic. Kyoko's not so sure that a loud speech is the best thing to do in front of a monster crafted from superstitions over echoes. An apparently real monster, even. "Aren't those supposed to look like dogs? Well, whatever. All the more reason to not get close."
    TIGER transforms, but Kyoko isn't focusing her attention that way, anymore, and they're far enough apart that she only gets a vague sense of what's happening afterward. It's not until she finds herself face-to-face with her mirror image--or her echo, supposedly--that she returns her connection to the more robotic (or robo-suited) members of the party. In fact, she's all but ignoring the youkai taking her form. What's it going to do, slap her? She's an office lady. She doesn't even carry a taser.
    What she can do, moving toward the congregation of chaos, is send out a feeler for the connection to TIGER and Reinhardt's tactical read-outs. While her connection starts out a magical one, it's not different from so much EM by the time it reaches them. The displays before her, floating along as she walks, shift rapidly, her eyes flicking from one to another, handling the customary handshaking protocols, reading through the information sent back, dumping it into a converter that forms a floating, non-physical component in the machine she's constructing out of her will magically impressed upon the world. All of that done, she sets to work.
    The high-energy scanning resumes, rapid pings that take in both apparent figures of TIGER and of Reinhardt, finding far finer detail than she could of purely magical phenomena. Power distribution predicts immediate motion. Mechanical detail allows the instant construction of movement models. A ready-made database provides some cross-referencing for martial techniques based on body type. The end result is a predictive algorithm that can, when at its best, inform her allies what the scanned subjects will do before they've even made the decision to move, all sent to whoever here has the equipment to take the data.

Lexicon has posed:
    Lexicon pauses when she hears her own words parroted back at her, red eyes skimming the street, "I think that'll have to wait." When the youkai erupt and start changing their appearances, she shields her face, "--Grh..!" Arm lowering, red eyes dart from creature to creature, a tense frown on her face, "Oh damnit... Whack a mole, except when I miss I clobber a friend instead."

    At least nobody down there looks like her. At least not that she's noticed, since she was airborne when they started duplicating whoever was close enough to reflect. With a frown, she floats sideways, 'dragging' her axe behind her as she maneuvers, trying to gauge the situation before she commits to an action. She doesn't want to do something she'll regret pretty much immediately.

    Then again, focused on the street below, she's not paying much attention to the air around her. These things don't copy powers too, right?

Maya has posed:
Now things start getting nuts as Silver Soul words are heard. she sees it mimicing people and she now moves in even as Yomi covers her hears? Maya's forced to do the same, she does't have the ear plugs she used in a similar situation so very long ago. She covers her ears. She holds back and is trying to take a moment to deal witht the sonic attack. It keeps comming over as more of the thigns appears.

Maya soon finds she has a couple of clones staring right at her looking just like her sounding like her.

"What kind of trick is this!"

she calls otu as he pulls her hands off her ears and she now has no real way to tell who is friend and foe in this /mess/. Which was which? Maya now attempt to try something else. She'll move to try and flying tackle the cloest one all she can do without risk is target her own doppleganger.

"I WILL NOT BE COPIED!"

The other Maya shouts the same.

"I WILL NOT BE COPPIED!"

"YOU TRAMP! I AM MAYA!"

"YOU TRAMP I AM MAYA!"

It just goes on as the two fight it out. She could use a little bit of help here.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Well, this certainly escalated quickly.

Certainly not an insurmountable one, though. Reiji wouldn't be a very good swordsman if he couldn't defeat himself in single combat. Though this is the first time in recent memory that he can remember being attacked by a perfect clone of himself.

Strange, in the multiverse, you'd think that evil twins would be an almost biweekly threat.

Still, Xiaomu seems to have taken the strategy right out of Reiji's mouth. The exorcist's lips remained sealed as he leaps backwards as Xiaomu vaults overtop of him. He pivots on the last step, turning and drawing in an... utterly invisible blade in a single, soundless strike. He anticipates the retaliation, darting back out of the way of his dance partner's counterstrike before scything in for another exchange.

He knows Xiaomu's style better than any other. He's fought with her and against her countless times before, this is just another notch on that wall. The only difference is that this thing probably lacks her wit.

Which is probably to his advantage, to be quite honest.

Yomi Isayama has posed:
There is one problem with mixing it up: the Yamabiko seem to know who is attacking them.

As soon as Nozomi dives toward the fake Tamamo, it flickers and changes to become her, bringing up an identical sword and meeting it in an exact mirror image. It slashes through, just as Nozomi did, and lands with an identical crack in the road, with its sword striking Nozomi and Taiga in exactly the same place it was hit.

It seems to even work at range, as the Reiji copy shifts into Xiaomu, drawing the same guns and shooting with such an exact copy of movements that the bullets strike each other midair. Likewise, the Xiaomu one becomes a copy or Reiji as soon as it's attacked, and an identical blade meets halfway in between before it makes the same evasive action back away.

"You cannot imitate that perfection!" yells another Yamabiko as it shifts from Nozomi to Tamamo, launching fireballs that streak past the incoming ones to fly straight toward Tamamo, even as the fox's blasts explode around it.

"I can't think of a good one liner for this one," says the Reina copy, firing back at its originals legs. It falls to the ground as its hit, flickering slightly, but doesn't change form back.

"They're... everywhere," says the copy of Silica, its tail poofing in the same way as it draws its dagger and executes an identical swordskill.

Maya's copy leaps at her, colliding in midair. It's a mirror-image grapple, as it yells the exact same words back, making the exact same grabs.

Those not attacking aren't left alone, either, though the copies don't attack directly. The copies of Reinhardt and Kyoko slowly move toward their originals, not even reaching out, just attempting to walk at them... or float, rather, as their footsteps make no sound. Even being in the air is not safe, as one of them floats upward, becoming a copy of Silver Soul, and makes that exact same frown right back at her.

Kyoka's scan seems more effective on the Yamabiko not currently fighting, being able to easily track their movements. The ones that are engaged in combat have readings that flicker rapidly, changing in an instant as whoever is fighting them acts. It seems they operate much less on tactics and more on exact duplication of whatever is coming their way.

"Don't let them touch you!" "Don't let them touch you!" Yomi's voice calls out in duplicate as she draws her sword, meeting her copy's blade exactly. "There's no way back if they possess you!" "There's no way back if they possess you!"

A soft sigh comes from around the corner as a young woman steps out of an alleyway. She's dressed in a pink kimono, a white lily in her long silver hair, and holding a naginata. "Do not try to fight them singly. You will lose." "Do not try to fight them singly. You will lose." Even as a Yamabiko flickers into a copy of her, she speaks matter-of-factly, "It can only become one thing at a time. Team up on them!" As if to illustrate, she ignores her own duplicate and dashes for Yomi's, striking out with her naginata while it's still locked with Yomi's sword and skewering it through.

"Mei!" Yomi's serious expression fades to a genuine smile as she sees the silver-haired woman, and she turns to slash at the duplicate following close behind. A second duplicate of Mei appears, and Yomi swings for it. As it begins to flicker forms, she calls out for her spirit guardian, "Ranguren!" Midway between shifting from Mei to Yomi, the Yamabiko is crushed beneath the giant paw of the Nue.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    There is a moment, just a brief moment, where Nozomi turns to look at Caster.

    In that moment, Caster will get to see Nozomi's face wearing a look that Nozomi's face should not wear. There is no gentleness. No timidity, no shyness. No borderline-sullen, 'I get nervous just having people look at me' quiet nature. There is only a cold, hard stare, the look of an anti-magical weapon without hesitation or remorse. Even Taiga doesn't get this deep into "eliminate the enemy" territory.

    But there's only that brief heartbeat. Because Nozomi has more important matters to attend to. Matters like a replica of her own massive blade, slamming into the TIGER unit's shoulder, emitting a shower of yellow sparks as it bites in. Merciless yellow eyes meet their duplicates, flicking away only briefly when the newcomer gives them advice.

    She promptly chooses to discard the advice.

    There are things this creature can't replicate. Things that make the TIGER what it is. A constant suffusion of magic, empowering defensive enchantments, holding back that duplicate Zanbatou far better than simple armor. Infusing the sword, allowing it to cut through defenses both natural and supernatural. And sheer, brute strength, empowered by a core that no longer has to support Taiga's cognitive functions. It - SHE - is a weapon designed to fight exactly the kind of thing in front of her. And if all it can do is replicate her appearance and try to turn her sounds back around on her, it's in for a rude awakening.

    One black-armored gauntlet comes up. Nozomi grabs the fake EM Zanbatou by the blade, holding it back, adding her gauntlet's armor and her own strength to the armor on her shoulder. The other hand tenses on the true Zanbatou... and begins to push down, with all her might. After a half-second, the jets on the weapon kick on, adding force to her swing far beyond even the TIGER's inhuman might. She's going to come out of this injured - hell, she's already injured. But she's banking on her armor and blade's anti-supernatural traits to guarantee that her fake will fold and be cleaved apart, long before she will.

Silica has posed:
    Silica grunts softly as her sword skill strikes against the dopplegangers. She falls into a blade lock with the youkai... but it works to her advantage, as Pina and Hibiki descend on the fake, spraying it with high pressure bursts of water and compressed wind-elemental needles from the pair respectively. Magenta eyes bore into the copy's own, and she finally shoves back to break the lock, and skids back a few feet.

    One of her ears pans back to listen to the new arrival, and she turns to flee, moving to help Kyoko and Reinhardt with their dopplegangers. Pina and Hibiki rejoining her after they finish their attack animations. Silica leaps, and charges her signature Glacier Slash sword skill, ice crystals following her blade as she aims to jam it into the back of the Fake Reinhardt.... at least she hopes it's the fake.

Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010) has posed:
    Reinhardt squares up as his doppleganger approaches himself and Kyoko, "GET BEHIND ME!" He roars loudly, as he narrows his eye and charges with hammer in hands. "RAAAAGH! COME AT ME...ME!" He slams onto his fake self like a linebacker, his hammer swinging wide to slam the other him away with meteoric force. Long as he can keep the other him on the ropes, that'll mean much, much less collateral damage present. That poor train full of innocents would be such a bad target to hit.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu *was* admittedly wondering if the yamabiko might do something like that ... but it was worth a try, and the way they shoot down each other's bullets is actually pretty impressive.

Rather than busting out the bigger guns, though (or rather, grenades), Xiaomu leaps back to where Reiji is fighting Reiji, forming up by her partner's side - after making sure which of them is the right one, of course. "That's no fair, they even *smell* the same," she grumbles as she puts an initial bullet into the duplicate. She's pretty sure she's shooting the duplicate, anyway.

That niggling little doubt is why she makes her first shot one that won't necessarily be debilitating. But you don't live and fight alongside somebody for ten years and NOT develop some kind of attunement that even a yamabiko can't copy. "Thanks for waiting, you ready to do this?" she asks, as chipper as ever.

She is *not* planning on a full-tilt Shinra Bansho, they may need their trump card for the original. But if Reiji's ready, Xiaomu takes the lead by drawing Suiren from her staff and executing an ice-laden slash at the yamabiko.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    "Dammit." So much for that. Kyoko gives a sigh, keeping away from the spirit as instructed, but not really able to do anything about it. But if it's just a totally unthinking, instant duplication of whatever comes at it, that makes the real solution here so simple it's painful.
    "No, really, this is going to be painful just to watch. I never liked splatter films."
    Somewhere on the ground, she'll find a few rocks. She picks them up as she keeps moving, and tosses one each at the fighting robots, as hard as she can. Reinhardt's the closest to her, but she'll get TIGER if she can, too.

Lexicon has posed:
    "Oh, damnit," Silver Soul remarks when one of the creatures notices and then starts imitating her.

    "Oh, damnit," the duplicate Silver Soul replies.

    She hefts her axe, floating backwards while evaluating how to deal with this problem. If it really is copying all of her abilities and actions, though... "That's it." Manipulating the pursuit, Silver Soul backs herself up against a building while giving Yamabiko Silver Soul nothing but open space to maneuver through... and then grabs on to a windowsill. In a flash of pixellated light, dispersing, she dismisses her transformed state. Which, if she's calculating it right, should leave the opposing Duplicate Lexicon in the same state.

    With nothing to hold on to.

    And no longer having an ability to fly.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Fortunately, Reina was expecting to be shot at, and as her doppelganger falls to the ground, she jumps out of the way to avoid being hit by her own shots... or something like that?

"I've heard of talking to yourself, but fighting with yourself?" Reina says as she doesn't wait for her doppelganger to get back up. Instead, she fires another pair of shots, hoping to keep her clone on the ground.

Namely because she can't stand people who copy her.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Well, that's an unfortunate little quirk.

Reiji doesn't reply to his partner with words, but with a nod of the head. It makes sense- these things can't deal with two attackers simultaneously. Almost like an interference pattern in the waveform, but that may be overthinking it. More to the point, while these things might be able to copy their moves perfectly, it can't copy positioning or camaraderie. Or, more importantly, two things at once.

Xiaomu strikes at his copy and he joins her assault. If she strikes with Suiren, then his copy is almost sure to deflect with Chirai. If it turns into her, then it would deflect with Suiren. In both cases, the solution is a shotgun. Wood splits Earth and is fed by Water.

Simultaneously, he turns to fight the copy that almost assuredly came to pursue his partner. This time, he counters with a katana, its blade burning brilliantly. Flame might meet flame, or lightning, or anything else. But no matter what it strikes, Xiaomu can follow up on it.

This... is the power of the <Twin Unit>

Maya has posed:
Maya slams into her own compuy hard she falls ot the ground dazed shaking her head as she tries to get up. Her clone does the same, rises in the same way looing to be in the same amount of pain. She hears the wanting to not get up close again. She also heas to team up and calls out.

"I could use a little help here!" "I could use a little help here!"

Maya looks to Xiamou and Reiji amd figures why not mke it. Runner is lost dealing with their own clones. The Shinja Agents would find Maya turning around with her rifle and joining the attack follow up the combo tech with a hail of gunfire the second she's got an opening though this leave her open to her own clone whose likely sneaking up on her.

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo's look at Rampart Nozomi... allows the fake Tamamo's own fireballs to crash right down on top of her, sending her flying into the air! That was a look she wasn't ever going to forget, that cold... kill everything magical stare. If there was a feeling that Tamamo felt from seeing that, it would be easy to describe it.

    It scared Tamamo.

    With the mouse doing her thing... and her ears picking up on the tip, Tamamo recovers from her mid air ponderings to face the fake Rampart Nozomi... "You... will not live." she comments... kissing her ring... activating her own transformation into the Moon Crux form... and raining down icicles onto the Rampart Nozomi!

Yomi Isayama has posed:
Perhaps the least satisfying thing about destroying the Yamabiko is that they don't yell or cry out or make any expressions as they're attacked, only mirroring the face of the person in front of them. As each is destroyed, it simply... dissipates away into smoke. At least there's no blood.

The Yamabiko fighting Silica is alone, therefore has no adorable pet helpers. Even as it remains locked blade to blade with the cait sith, the combination of Hibiki and Pina are able to fill it with enough holes to destroy it.

Reinhardy's copy springs into action at the same moment as he does. "RAAAGH! COME AT ME...ME!" Hammers clash with amazing force, sending a shockwave out in every direction. But it does keep the massive copy locked in place as Kyoko's rocks impact against its armor, drawing its attention. The yamabiko's form flickers, shifting partly to Kyoko before reverting back to Reinhardt... but even that moment is enough for the overbearing force from the large knight to smash it backwards before it can recover, just as Silica's ice blade skewers it through.

The copy of Silver Soul follows after, keeping its axe similarly on its shoulder, and pauses as she does, staring straight back. When Silver Soul reverts to Lexicon, it stares at her for a split second... before it even realizes it's already falling. No cartoon physics here! While the Yamabiko can fly on its own, it's still in Lexicon's form as it plummets, flickering shape to change, but not fast enough before it impacts the ground with a heavy thump.

With Reiji and Xiaomu fighting side by side, their respective yamabikos are hit by the opposite attack. Maya's approach casues them to flicker as well, and all three of the yamabiko fall to a variety of crossfire.

The yamabiko copying Nozomi clashes blades,,, or, well... tries. While it's copying Nozomi's movements exactly, it's unable to match the pure force of something that was made specifically to destroy youkai. Its copy of the sword shatters, unable to match euivalent power, and as it begins to flicker back to its base form, the yamabiko seems to be missing an arm and an antler. It flickers again, beginning to change, when Tamamo's shower of icicles skewers it.

Reina's duplicate matches her own quick recovery, jumping back... though being hit by the first series of shots seems to have slowed its reaction time. Several more bullets catch it, and, despite its spirit form, it seems to have several holes in it as it flickers back to its natural shape. It's not yet dead, but it drags itself, rather than floating, as it tries to regroup with the one Kyoko clone left. The two reach out for each other... and the Kyoka Yamabiko slashes its hand through the injured one, ripping it apart and absorbing the wisps through its hands. It slowly lifts its head, and...

Well, one Yamabiko against twelve opponents (plus several support creatures) has no chance at all. Its shape flickers rapidly, image changing from one to another with less than the blink of an eye in between each transformation. The color drains out of it, and it rushes toward Kyoko, the closest person, shifting back to its base form as it finds itself unable to focus on any one echo.

Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010) has posed:
    Reinhardt does a little wrestle with himself, basically. They exchange blows, mostly tackling each other as they grapple and punch and hammer each other, delivering damage to each other that lingers still. Reinhardt knocks the dopple away, and SIlica finishes the rest. "Nice one!" He gives her a friendly thumbs up before he looks to see the other Yamabikos fall one by one, until the last one makes a move for Kyoko.

    He knows Kyoko isn't much of a fighter by comparison, which is enough for him to get into protective mode quickly, his rockets propelling him towards the Yamabiko with the force of a semi-truck. "INCOMINNNNNNNNNNG!" He bellows.

Kyoko Takada (1132) has posed:
    Well, that works, as far as it went. Kyoko backs off again, trying to not get caught... but she's not even all that athletic, so if a normal person can't keep away from it at a jog, this isn't going to end well. Fortunately, Reinhardt is right there. The OL pretty much just stumbles a bit and backs off. "I'll be leaving it to you, Mr. Power-Armor."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Her duplicate proves... unworthy. Nozomi pushes her blade into her opponent as hard as she can - until a blast of ice from Tamamo erases it entirely. She takes a step back, shifting the EM Zanbatou up onto her right shoulder, and giving her left an experimental roll, only to wince faintly in pain. She may have been the stronger, but she didn't get out of a brute-force contest like that unscathed.

    But it's not enough to hinder her at the moment. So, instead, the armored girl turns, with a heavy clunk of armored bootfalls. She turns, to look at Tamamo, with those cold, golden eyes. No words are spoken, and her expression remains as hard as stone, but looking at the Servant, Nozomi's eyes aren't... hostile. There's no killing intent there. And indeed, after a second or two, there's just the barest, faintest hint of concern; she takes a step or two forward, looking Caster over for any visible signs of injury. Frown.

    At least she still seems to recognize her allies. Even if she looks at them with eyes that could stare a hole in a concrete block.

Lexicon has posed:
    Hanging from a windowsill, Lexicon watches her duplicate plummet to the street. Lifting her free hand, holding her hammer, she tips her brow with a finger, "Better practice your landings, pal." Blue eyes wander to the remaining activity, as various Yamabiko have already been contended with. "Cyber Knight!" Yeah she never caught his name, "Shield up!"

    She'd seen him project that energy shield earlier, and now she intends to use it to defeat the youkai. Releasing the windowsill, she swings her hammer behind herself with both hands as she drops, "Haaah!"

    She'd timed her release to reach the monster the same time as Reinhardt, and as she approaches she throws her entire body into the swing, bringing her hammer around in an arc in the opposite direction that the burly German is charging, "EIN SCHLAG!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu glances around briefly after the three yamabiko coming after her, Reiji, and Maya have all been disposed of. One is going after Kyoko ... but Reinhardt interposes himself with authority, and Xiaomu's too far away to do THAT much to help him out. She could probably squeeze off a shot or two, but she doesn't want to risk hitting an ally by accident -

And even as she's thinking that, Lexicon (who was closer to start with) is already bringing her hammer to bear, with Reinhardt as the anvil and the yamabiko as little more than red-hot steel to be bent into new, interesting, and physically improbable shapes between the two of them.

Now she wishes she had some fried tofu. She didn't have time to grab any snacks when that clal for help came through.

Reina Kinney has posed:
No more Clone Reina? Good, that's all Reina needs to know.

Still, she's got her pistols on the ready just in case something goes wrong with Lexicon and Reinhardt's plans to finish that final yamabiko off. "Next time I want someone to look just like me is if they're my stunt double." She hmmphs. "Not that I plan on making any movies anytime soon..."

Reiji Arisu has posed:
"Hm." Reiji finally makes a sound, but only now after not one but three doppelgangers have been fatally extinguished. "Xiaomu," he says, "You sure we shouldn't apprehend that thing?"

Well. It's probably too late now.

He shrugs and digs around in his jacket before finally extracting...

A pack of cigarettes?

No! He thinks it is, but it's not. It's instead... A pack of fried tofu.

"..." Reiji stares at Xiaomu for a very long moment.

Damnit, Fox.

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo lands right behind NOzomi after her ice blast... her Moon Crux staying as she looks over the metal armored Nozomi before her, the wince is noticed and she makes a step forward only for the armored girl to turn around, the Caster backing up slightly as she looks at that hard expression, those eyes... at least there's no hostility there. That she can see. The caster does look injured but, nothing she can't handle...

    There's a small step back as Rampart Nozomi steps forward, giving the Castera light pout... "Nozomi...?" she whispers, "Husband? A... are you in there?", though she sees the concern upon the face, it's small but it's there. There's a frown, a pout... then her face trembles. "Master...?" she flings herself into her armored arms, "Please tell me you're all there!" burying her face into the armored mouse's neck, her own Moon Crux dissapearing, the Mirror dissapears... "This... this form is scary, my dear husband. Please, speak to me..."

Maya has posed:
Maya with help from Reiji and Xiaomu her clone also perished in the storm of attacks. With the Nega Maya gone she looks around for a moment to see that her twin has winked out. It looks like others gone save one. Thankfully Reinhardt is there like a Underlost slamming into it or about to. She shakes her head a bit now and sees that LExicon is getting into finishing off the last one. She also looks to Reiji and Xiaomu.

"I think our friends have that handled..."

Yomi Isayama has posed:
It's a sad state of affairs that the base form Yamabiko echoes Reinhardt's yell of 'INCOMING!' and Lexicon's 'EIN SCHLAG!' exactly before it gets smashed in between the charging energy shield and the oversized hammer, dissipating into nothingness. Any further scans will show that there don't seem to be any more of the youkai left in the area.

"Good job," says the silver-haired woman softly as she lowers her naginata, stepping closer to Yomi. "Some of you have promise as hunters, and I can tell that a few are experienced." She glances briefly toward Kyoko, inclining her head in acknowledgement. "And your plan was sound for someone not able to fight." Her glance falls briefly on Nozomi, regarding the armored girl curiously.

"Thank you all for coming to help. A single Yamabiko isn't much of a threat when confronted as a group," explains Yomi, looking at where the last one used to be.

"...which is why they never travel alone. You should have known that, Yomi. Even so..." Mei's voice is soft, but stern. She reaches a hand toward Ranguren, lightly petting his mane. "Between you and Ranguren, you should have been able to handle them all without help, and with less damage to the area." Mei looks away from Yomi, focusing on the Nue. "The sacred beast passed down the Isayama family line... His great power, used by an exorcist without flawless focus... is wasted." She focuses back on Yomi, locking eyes. "Just because you were adopted into the main family does not mean you are qualified to inherit it." As Mei turns away, she flicks her naginata to the side. The blade retracts, and a parasol unfolds from the end. "Thank you all for taking care of Yomi. Good day to you."

As Mei walks off, Yomi can only hang her head. She slowly sheathes her sword, and Ranguren fades back out of existance. There is nothing she can argue against that. "Ah... as Mei said. Thank you all for coming to help me."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu grins lazily at her partner as he discovers the fried tofu she swapped for his cigarettes.

"If you don't want any of it, I could stand a snack ... ah, Tamamo, you hungry or .... okay, disrtacted, that's okay too."

She doesn't seem aggrieved about Tamamo's presence, which may be a relief given their previous encounters. She's also not going to barge in on a lovebird moment.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Nozomi's yellow eyes meet Mei's gaze. Where Caster at least received the barest, faintest hints of concern, a show of recognition, all the silver-haired woman receives is a cold, hard stare.

    Her attention does return to Tamamo, though, when the fox clings to her - there's a hint of wide-eyed surprise, followed by her left hand coming up to gently, carefully urge Tamamo to stand back a pace or two. It does, at least come with a simple nod of acknowledgement, though. A wordless 'I hear you.'

    However, she gave herself an arm's length of distance from Caster for a reason, and that reason quickly becomes apparent. The TIGER announces in that cold, machine tone again, "Disengaging Rampart Mode. Rerouting Gensou Engine power to cognitive functionality. Independent Mode engaged." And then the armor seems to... blossom. It unfolds, opens outward, allowing Nozomi to step out. The black undersuit dissolves away, leaving behind her street clothes, while the black color in her hair fades away to the girl's usual brown. It's only when that yellow fades from her eyes, though, that 'Nozomi Houken' reasserts herself.

    The change is noticeable. Her expression goes from 'hardened' to 'quietly disturbed' in an instant, the girl dropping to both knees and shivering. Then there's a hiss of pain - her shoulder is still injured, and her left hand didn't get out of that clash unscathed either. There's a big welt across the palm. "Nnh... C-caster, are... are you... alright...?"

Tamamo no Mae (1106) has posed:
    Tamamo's ears perk up to Xiaomu's comment, but with everything she has in front of her... it goes at least recognized. The motion to push Caster away, though, has her let go with a sulking face... "Husband?" then the nod and she brightens up slightly. She watches, listening to TIGER... "Rampart... mode?"

    There's many words that are spouted by TIGER that just enter one fluffy ear and leave the other, just watching the armor blossom and then let her Husband go... to which once the expression comes back to being disturbed... and the knee drop, Caster is immediately there upon her Husband, kissing that cheek rapidly, "You worried me, Master! Y.. .you wouldn't speak to me... or acknowledge me... I was afraid I lost you to that sentient robo cat..."

    There's a small tear that drops from eye to hand... before she hoists Nozomi up... and swipes her hand to open that rice paper door that suddenly appears... She turns to Yomi... "Tell my boss I'm going on vacation. I need to tend to my Master." and with that, she moves inside, the door shutting and soon, it poofs.