Scene #8593: Queen of Hatred

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Angela	Okiniobaeru Island has three hundred limestone caves and the cavern network there is the largest in Japan. It is within one of those caves that the Magical Girl of Love--or the Queen of Hatred if you prefer--has holed herself in. She didn't pick one of the caves where tour groups tend to go in either, rather she picked an isolated cavern, far from where any interloper was likely to visit. It's about a day trip to get there from Kagoshima (not counting superpowers). The Queen of Hatred has sent a message through her radio to Kayoko indicating that she had something of Meika's that she had forgotten to return. Probably her notebook! She has included in her message where she presently is lurking, approximately, though she isn't quite as capable to give her precise location so it might still involve some searching. The Queen of Hatred hasn't wanted to dirty The Notebook. It is presently clenched firmly in one of her claws. her body is a lot like that of a quetzacoatl, a serpentine body with feathery wings but those arms by the side of her head are definitely atypical even for a being like that, as are the heart shaped spines traveling down her back. And she's still wearing her ribbon across her chest, one of the few signs of who she was before. Black mascara covers her eyes and continuously driips as she hunches over. Odds are she hasn't even been able to even look at that notebook she's carrying. But that's how she's gonna be when the other Magical Girls find her... Lurking in a cave while the pools around her glow with a strange alien--yet not actually alien at all--light.
Kayoko Kirenai	The past couple weeks have been unbearably, gut-droppingly uneventful. The problems caused by a witnessed Elite fight with civilian deaths, in the middle of downtown Kagoshima, even without the church and local magical girls being revealed, are wildly out of scale for anything that the girls themselves would be consulted on. Conversations go so far over their head that they can only wait for results to eventually trickle down to them. It feels like hands on their shoulders firmly holding them in place, like they're ten years old and the adults arguing haven't even bothered to look at them for an hour. It feels like doing everything exactly as normal to prove it was a one time thing. But it's not really normal, when Kayoko goes out to fight Temptations a few times a week, while Meika doesn't. It's not really normal, when Sister Kurokawa has almost nothing to say to them, and can barely meet their eyes. It's not normal at all, when the last two names in their list are on the news, scrawling across the ticker on screen, photographs of the aftermath that aren't explained away. It feels like doing something that'd typically be far too risky for 'normal', just to vent some of the pressure off. In the aftermath of the battle, Cobalt made Justice vanish in a panic, and now the unshackled Magical Girl remains in their world without the knowledge of the Refulgence. The Chevaliers' Secret Magical Girl Hideout isn't clean, pretty, or magical. Buried in collapsed sewers and rendered inaccessible to anyone else, the concrete cavern is strung up with fairy lights and littered with old cigarettes submerged in a film of rotten-smelling water. But there's enough light to see, there's a minifridge that's been restocked, and they brought in a cot for Justice to sleep on. It's bigger than a containment cell, and kinder, if not more pleasant. Right now all three-- three of the four-- magical girls known to the world are gathered together in the secret base, and Cobalt is transformed already, as she always has been when she's around Justice. Her faintly glowing, pristine armor scrapes against the corroded black iron of the railing she sits on, legs crossed over each other, while she supports a textbook on a platform of dimmed light, reading through it without looking.
Kayoko Kirenai	"Just let us know if there's anything we can do for you, Justice. You won't have to hide for much longer. Once the Holy Refulgence figures everything out, and we've all proved that-- oh?" Kayoko's radio-- since Meika still doesn't have one, of course-- cuts her off with Love's voice. "Oh! She must be feeling a little better! We-- I--" Meika isn't transformed like Kayoko is, of course. "... We need to go talk to her. Come on, Vermillion." Transformed, Cobalt can lift Meika one handed without breaking a sweat. She only needs to lift her for a moment, though, to place her on the shimmering blue disc that forms beneath her feet and floats both of them into the air. Light blueshifts and flips inside-out around them, and they vanish, soaring invisibly above Kagoshima towards Okiniobaeru. It's similarly effortless for Kayoko to pinpoint Love's location. As long as she's within a few miles of Love, she'll be able to see her and angle the flying disc down to the entrance of the cavern, found even in the late evening darkness. Cobalt's armor glitters in the ghostly light as she walks into the cave where Love is, steps anxious but not afraid, like she's approaching a stray cat that needs help. "Love? Are you feeling better? Are you alright to go home with us?"
Meika Kirenai	Three weeks. Breaks that long, from even barebones duty, don't exist- rather, haven't existed for Meika in four whole years. Dull purposelessness seeps into all of it, dragging on through the hours of school, of work, of meetings she'd rather do anything else than listen through, of sitting by in her room waiting for absolutely nothing, broken up by the scattered staccato moments of engagement that have come by, grabbed by ragged fingers, even when they shouldn't have. Midnight forays through warpgates, or just down familiar lamplit streets, a singular engagement with real, proper Elite business- and a hard metal lump beneath her mattress that's been uncomfortably on her mind. Cigarette butts tossed in gutters, shoplifted bottles tucked in her messenger bag. That the empty weeks are like a trial period for how she'll be the rest of her life, is far from even cold comfort. As hard as it is to find an excuse to be across town, secreted away in their shared hideout, it's plenty easy to be there unexcused and unexplained. She'll manage, and the mildew-scented air down there is easier to breathe than anything cleaner is elsewhere. Obviously, Meika isn't transformed, as she leans back against the lichen-clad walls. A lighter clicks faint sparks on the inside of her pocket, a useful thing to fidget with, even if it risks wearing it out. "Won't be much longer." A parroted phrase, not even in Justice's direction, with eyes on the ground, spoken listlessly. Her posture doesn't even shift, until her sister's radio crackles on- the first thing in the whole conversation, maybe the entire day, that it's clear Meika is really listening to. "O-oh." It had to be inevitable, that she'd turn up, or that they'd have to go and find the Magical Girl of Love, sometime sooner or later- but as days went by without any sign or clue, that certainty became less and less simple to picture. "She- I hope she is. I hope she can be. It's-" Did she figure it out, finally? Or is she still... Meika swallows, awkwardly. "If we help her, do you think-" Shut up. Don't be selfish. A shake of her head, and Meika pushes off the wall. "...Hey, I can get-" A moment of complaintive resistance, eyes tightly shut, in getting unceremoniously picked up by Cobalt and placed on the platform, but she balances on it after an unsteady moment. "...Y-yeah. Thanks. Let's go." Flying while invisible may be easy for Kayoko, but Meika gets to be rendered entirely blind. Without anything around but the faintly tangible echo of Kayoko, Meika's senses are dulled and useless, and there's nothing to do but trust her sister won't let her fall- a normal kid like her can't fly, after all, even if a magical girl can. Solid ground is welcomed on the other side of the trip, met with shaky limbs and weary eyes not able to quickly adjust to the return of vespertine light. At least the cave is dark enough to trust other senses, as echoes flesh its structure out, and Meika unconsciously stays close enough to the walls for a trailing hand to trace the stone. "...Love. Are you-" A breath hitch, and Meika rushes closer. "Oh, oh no. What happened to you? You haven't- you haven't been able to turn back, have you? That's-" The beginnings of a knot ties itself in Meika's throat. "...Have you been crying...?"
Angela	Justice had been compliant. For a person now free, she seems to be inclined to listen to the Kirenai sisters. Guilt and indeptitude are far stronger chains than something as flimsy as Fate. All Justice wanted for her comrade--her sister--Love to be treated with kindness and--occassionally--some snacks and company. She doesn't seem to get bored or mind long periods of isolation either, so she isn't particularly pushy about any of this. She speaks politely, graciously, and softly whenever the two Mahous pay a visit. Though she doesn't say so overtly, she might even see it as a step up from her life for the past 10 years (or the past 1,000 depending on how you look at it.) "You have already given us more than I could ask for. You broke the cycle at cost to yourself. Please do not put yourselves out any further for me," is the Knight's answer to this sort of question. Love doesn't tell the Magical Girls (yet) that Dysnomia convinced her to make contact. Well, that and the fact she accidentally stole a notebook and she's starting to feel bad about it. She can remember stuff like that now. Since she can't really disguise her own approach--and because Justice thinks meeting Love right now would undoubtedly start a fight--she didn't end up coming along! Or following!! "I'm sorry Meika-Chan." The dragon says. The voice isn't really like the Queen's anymore, it's low and guttural and as monstrous as she looks. "I flew off before I could give your notebook back..." The dragon turns and slithers forward. The Queen of Hatred's limbs don't really get down too low so she is only able to lower her hand a little bit by stretching the limb out for Meika to retrieve her notebook. ''...Have you been crying...?'' "This is normal Meika-Chan." Her head turns to Kayoko as she makes an offer. ''Are you alright to go home with us?'' There is a strange pause. Really, she should have expected these two to say something like that. "I killed too many people. I can't go home." She says. "This is the real me. I'm a monster. I chose to be like this willingly. ... But I'm glad I can say goodbye properly. I haven't been able to change back. It's alright, this has more space than what I'm used to."
Kayoko Kirenai	"Ah..." She's not okay to go home with them, because she hasn't managed to work on controlling her form at all, this whole time. Kayoko presses her lips together and clenches her fist, metal glittering in joint articulation. "Love... this isn't normal. This can't be normal. You-- you won't be happy, like this, forever." The noise of the Queen of Hatred's scales rasping against the ground makes Kayoko flinch and avert her eyes, like she's caught staring at something obscene. "You-- you know you're not supposed to look like that. You were happier when you didn't, right? When you could be with us? That's-- you're not a monster. You can't stay a monster. Isn't it worth trying to put yourself back together, the way you're supposed to be?" "You can't just give up. This isn't goodbye, Love!" Kayoko's raised voice echoes hollowly off the cavern walls, and she makes half a motion to grab her camera, still hanging around her neck. "I don't know what your past was like! But you helped people while you were here fighting with me! You haven't hurt anyone since I've known you, so I know you can be good when you try. You just have to want to try!" Now she does lay a gauntlet on her camera, gripping the strap between her fingers. She looks up at the Queen of Hatred with her eyes slightly narrowed, struggling to maintain her stare. "Pushing us away for something like this is what makes it impossible to come home. Let us help you. We know how. You didn't choose to be like this-- you're just scared to try to be the harder thing, because you need our help. But it's okay, because we'll be here for you."
Meika Kirenai	Meika's hands wrap tightly around the notebook, pulling it back until it's hugged against her chest. The cover bends inwards, from the mass of pages that've been ripped from it over the years. She doesn't open it up, to look within- she knows most of the contents by heart, at least, and the only thing scrawled across the pages in another's hand is the image mirroring closely the Magical Girl of Love standing in front of her. "...I- I'm- I'm sorry. I shouldn't have given it to you. I didn't- I didn't mean for this. You know I didn't. I was trying to..." Fingers drum against the mottled composition notebook's cardstock binding, and Meika's eyes do all they can to face anywhere but the mascara-stained ones of the Queen of Hatred. "I thought it'd help you stop something like this from happening. That's- that's what it's for. I thought that's... why you were..." Meika's face puts out the motion of sniffling, but there's a moment of complete silence masking over it. 'This is normal Meika-Chan.' "None of this is!" It's sudden how quickly her tone shifts, frustrated anger shooting up. "It's not supposed to be! You know what's normal, you know what's right! W-why are you so- so eager to give up!" Meika's throat tightens more. 'This is the real me. I'm a monster.' Ever-distant, like roiling stormclouds far off the island shores, or cars ambling across bridges hundreds of meters away, faint rumblings mingle with the echoing splash of water from cavern ceiling to the glittering pools below. Meika's hands clench even tighter around the notebook, the only thing in range to squeeze. Eyes glaze over. "You- you were trying, weren't you? To not be. Changing your mind now, giving up, you're just... Easier isn't better, Love. It- it almost never is. But it's- you... have it in you, to try, right? You have to. It's got to be possible. You're not stuck, even if it's- even if it feels like you are. It's scary. But that doesn't mean..." Her mouth keeps moving for a split second, not really forming words, but whatever sounds there were are washed over and silent. "You weren't just pretending before. You can't have been. Don't... lie like that." Sharpness and anger have faded from Meika's voice, replaced with a resigned pleading tone. It has to matter.
Angela	''You--you won't be happy, like this, forever.'' "I shouldn't be happy, I've killed people." The Queen of Hatred says. "Some were bad, sure, but plenty of them were people just trying to live their lives. I killed them again and again in that facility, not even just in story. I killed Carol's friends, I tore Rose's face off, I made Nikki who she is today. I betrayed their feelings because ...this is how I was made. I was made to kill, to forget, to help, to despair, to choose hatred, to kill, to forget... An endless cycle. You freed me from that cycle..." "But I still killed them." Hatred says morosely. "That's unforgivable isn't it?" Kayoko asks her to not give up and asks her to try. Not giving up is the Queen of Hatred's Middle Name! (Actually, her middle name is 'Of') But she can't argue that she didn't help people while she was here. She doesn't know how to answer that. She doesn't really want to push them away either but she doesn't understand why they're still willing to help her even after the whole revelation of being a killer because she can remember that that's something villains do. "It was very kind of you to give it to me. It's not your fault. I felt our friendship was growing stronger. It wasn't the book's fault." She thought it'd help her stop something like this from happening? "Is that what the book does for you?" Love asks. Meika insists that it isn't normal. "Well, being Abnormal is normal for me. I guess." She's asked again why she's so eager to give up and she says, "I'm not a good girl anymore. I haven't been for a long time. I killed people." She does seem a bit fixated on the murders. Whatever reason turned her into the dragon in the first place, it is likely evident enough that now what's keeping her in this form is the guilt of murder for her own needs. But also-- --she still needs to fight and have meaning in fighting. That hasn't changed at all. Tamamo's magic didn't change that. "Even if I go back to being human-shaped, I think I'd still be abnormal. I'm not...like a magical girl from a story anymore. I touched reality--No, I was born in reality so I couldn't be." But she can at least admit, "I don't want to lose you but..." Was she really pretending? was it all just a lie? "I just felt like I deceived you." She manages. She doesn't seem hostile, however. This might just be a conversation in the end.
Kayoko Kirenai	"... You killed them. And that's not okay." In contrast to Love, Kayoko seems oddly quick to pass over the murders. She shudders and shakes her head when the Queen of Hatred goes into detail about the ways she maimed and murdered agents, drawing back a tiny bit. "It's not. At all. But that's why you have to face it, isn't it? You can't be forgiven by running away. If you stay like this you'll be a monster forever, and you'll always be-- be undeserving of anything better." "But you don't have to be! You're free from your cycle, so you can make the choice to repent and be good. Even if you did horrible things before. Breaking the cycle, what Tamamo no mae did for you, lets you finally take responsibility for the things you did. That's the whole point." Kayoko isn't managing to look at the Queen of Hatred directly anymore, again. She looks over at a pool of water instead, angling her upper body slightly away from the Queen of Hatred. "... Being good is something you earn. By constantly working. It's not-- not a part of you like that. You can choose to be good, and you can choose to be normal, and even if they take work, you still need to do them anyways. It's because they're hard that they're worth doing. You get that, right?" Kayoko's eyes widen, and she twitches like she's going to move towards the Queen, but doesn't. "If it's too easy, it's purposeless. And running away is the easiest thing to do." "Even if I go back to being human-shaped, I think I'd still be abnormal." The light radiating from the pools flickers into black un-light for a brief moment when Kayoko flinches, bathing the interior of the cavern with red-black watery caustics. "That's-- that's not an okay way to think about it. You're not human shaped. You're just human. It takes work for magical girls, but-- but we can still exist in reality. We'll figure out a way." Kayoko still passively avoids touching the Queen of Hatred in any way, edging slightly away from her body or claws whenever she moves. Her voice is lower, a mixture of sullen and consoling. "You didn't deceive us. You didn't even know, before Tamamo helped you, and when you did know you tried to prevent yourself from hurting us at all. That's good. But now it's time to come home."
Meika Kirenai	"There's blood on- on my-" Meika's words cut out before she can complete the sentence. "...Unforgivable is... is no excuse to stop trying." She can't disguise the instinctive, worried glance Kayoko's way, as she says those words, close enough to a wince. "...You can do something about it now. That's... what the freedom is for, right? The chance to choose the right thing, not to just give up, and leave it at that. I-" A shallow swallow. "I think you're... strong enough to face that. I can't think that you aren't." Despite everything, and her tentative flinch, Meika steps a hair closer to her sister, and a full step back away from Love. She whispers for a moment, lips moving visibly, but sound only reaching Kayoko. {"I'm scared, Kayoko. What are we going to do if she won't? I think I could try and, you know. Make it easier, but..."} Meika's hands squeeze once more around the notebook, flexing its material. 'And running away is the easiest thing to do.' Another flinch. Meika knows it's not quite at her, but a part of her still wants to protest- but the words don't come, and it's not the time for that, anyways. Her posture just shrinks, ever so slightly, eyes that are already downcast have their lids close a hair more. 'Is that what the book does for you?' Meika takes a long breath. "Yeah. It's... what works, for me. Or- well, um. The... the drawings, all the... things I wanted to be, they make it easier. You saw them, they're all... childish and cheesy, but..." A nervous little laugh escapes her. "Um. That's- that's... where Chevalier Vermillion comes from, a little, because it's not like I can afford to... not, do at least that part right. That's-" The notebook feels like a thousand ton weight in her hands, and yet far far lighter than it should be. "...Cobalt's right that it's- it's... hard, Love. But it's- it's got to be possible to exist out there." It doesn't feel like it is. "You'll- you won't, if you give up. That's just... how it is." One hand crosses over the notebook, so her other can relax its grip, anxiously scratching against her jacket-covered forearm with band-aid wrapped knuckles. "You can- you can still get out there and... and do good. You can work, and try, and- and make up, even just a little, and- and it's- it's not fair to anyone for a magical girl to just hide away, all useless and scared." Meika's eyes unfocus as liquid fills into them, barely realizing what she's said, obvious projection, until it's too late to close her mouth- but she doesn't even try to take her words back, and just lets her voice echo around the cavern.
Angela	''There's blood on-on my-'' The Queen of Hatred can't ignore it. "Is there?" She asks. "I'm sorry, Meika-Chan. I didn't know." That does sort of make her wonder if she's being a bit silly. If Meika has also done murder (admittedly, there's ways to take that beyond murder, but the Queen is going to assume otherwise!), and Meika-Chan is great then... Kayoko is also weirdly quick to pass over the murders in her own way but not by admitting to it. She says she can finally take responsibility and that's the whole point. Staying as a monster isn't going to help with that. But the people she owes responsibility to-- --well, that's Lobotomy Corp--specifically the agents of Lobotomy Corp. The company itself may not be so innocent but those girls were noble in the Queen's eyes. Friends even, at one point. She doesn't think she's normal. If anything, she's less normal now than she was before, isn't she? But at the same time, what IS normal? The Queen doesn't know, really, but she doesn't feel it. ''It takes work for magical girls'' "Have you ever...been ''not'' normal?" The Queen asks softly. Apparently it takes effort on the magical girls' side of things. Even here. ''But now it's the time to come home'' Home. She knows that her dreams of a magical kingdom that fell to ruin are essentially just a backstory that never happened--but the home of Kayoko and Meika is real--however stifling it may be for them. As The Queen considers this Meika claims her drawings are childish and cheesy. "I don't think they are childish or cheesy at all..." That need for battle is still within her, she can't just banish it. No, it's more a need to be defined, to feel something makes her real, that her purpose has ''purpose''. The mascara drips lightly from her eyes as she looks between the two. She does recall distantly those fake memories of a people she used to fight for and how that gave her purpose and helped her feel human and real. She recognizes, for a moment, that if she stays like this--it will hurt them. This is as much something they need for themselves as it is something they wish to convince her of. The realization hits the Queen of Hatred like a brick and she's stunned for a moment. Ah, she has been at this for years and years even without the TT2 Engine. It wouldn't be so bad to give them a bit of hope now would it? Even if you don't entirely feel it yourself yet, it's hard to say no to those faces. ''It's not fair to anyone for a magical girl to just hide away, all useless and scared'' The Queen approaches the two of them and those two horrible arms from the creature reach forward and pat the two sisters on the head. "Well..." She says after a moment. "You're right that... I should at least try to be better. I don't know if I can be normal, but I can try to be better." She takes a breath and adds, "And you're right that it isn't fair that I let you two fight alone after I promised I'd help... I'll try... it might...not be quite right but I'll try. Even if I'm not--"
Angela	She pulls her hands back and closes her eyes in concentration, interrupting what she was going to say as she focuses herself-- --the form shift happens quickly as the dark pulses out and away from her, a shimmering heart sketching out in sparkles behind her before twisting into the upright position. Once it fades, the Magical Girl of Love has returned and quickly throws herself into an embrace of the other two Magical Girls. "I changed back on my own...! Haha...thank you!" Well, so she thinks in the moment but in actuality, those wings are still behind her, folded back behind her even if the rest of her has turned back to normal. She hasn't quiiite entirely managed to fix it--because she doesn't feel entirely 'fixed' in her own mind either. She hugs them tightly all the same even though she never finished telling them that she wasn't the real magical girl. All four are based on one's dreams. And that girl will still be trapped for some time yet.