7th Protocol--[Action all over the place] ☢

[idkmybfforin]

[This wasn’t the first time someone precious to her had gone quiet. Orin had stopped talking right several days ago, but Okuu assumed she would come back to her senses soon.

But she didn’t.

She should have expected this; it happened to her master, her master’s sister…and now her best friend. For a brief, horrible moment, she felt like the only creature in all the world.

Then the yatagarasu had started whispering to her, and Utsuho knew she was not alone. The voice preached fire, unfettered burning destruction like a sun allowed too close to the earth. Normally, discipline kept the voice at bay—what little discipline could be forced into her head. It was easy to ignore the voice when one barely heard it.

…but this time, it was different. This time, that all sounded like a very, very good idea.

Utsuho shook out her wings and leapt into the air, heat shimmering at the edges of her feathers.]


[ACTIVE STUFF]

[The hell raven was moving fast this time; no lazy, mindless circling today. The heat gathering at her wings flickered into flames now, as if the air around her was catching light. More heat gathered into the octagonal cannon covering most of her arm until the light grew too bright to look at—and then tore free in a fiery beam that seared an ugly scar into the formerly pristine road below.

When Utsuho cast her other arm out, suns appeared at her fingertips—tiny, miniature suns that grew alarmingly and then sped away as if thrown, arcing out across the sky until they burned out the instant her focus went elsewhere. Some fell to the ground like stars and burn out in the grass there or hiss and spit clouds of steam when they sink into the pond; the hell raven wasn’t really paying attention. She wasn’t aiming at the ground for the most part, some small bit of her remaining conscience saying her master might be down there, her best friend, her master’s sister…most of her anger was directed at the sky, but engaging a challenge was not beyond her senses.

For all that could be said of Okuu’s lack of intelligence, there certainly wasn’t much remaining in her eyes now. She was angry, very angry, and wasn’t thinking and didn’t want to think.


It probably won’t be too long before she gets herself droned, but in the meantime.

For today’s forecast there is a chance of angry gods flying overhead. You know, the usual for Mayfield.]

Comments

[answerer_sword]

[Bazett was outside her house when what seemed to be an asteroid landed on her lawn. Looking up, she saw a humanoid figure floating in the sky, randomly shooting off the asteroids.]

[A regular human or even magus would have secluded themselves in the basement by now, but Bazett was an Enforcer. It was her job to deal with the eldritch abominations.]

[Reinforcing her throat, she calls out to the figure.]

You up there! I am Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Sealing Designation Enforcer of the Mage's Association! You will cease and desist your reckless and dangerous use of magic or suffer the consequences! This is your final warning!

[Even as she speaks, she is sketching out runes with her foot. The being does not appear to be able to listen to reason.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The heat haze surrounding her grows, and the cannon barrel begins to glow with flame again.]

Master is gone. Orin is gone. Where did they go?

[idkmybfforin]

Master is not here anymore. Burn it all to ashes.

[...it appears she does not care right now. Please call again later.

Utsuho stops to hover, a fireball growing from her fingertips to a familiar shape--like the ones she had just been throwing about. Yanno the ones with the absurdly tiny hitboxes.

This one's aimed more or less at Reimu, though.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho looks to where her name is called, determines that there is a target there--and brings her arm cannon up to fire again, heat glowing from inside the barrel.]

[spinningorange]

(Oh...that makes much more sense. A lot of sense. So much that Chen can even sympathize with Okuu. This must've been her going on one of those rampages. The neko tried having a rampage once, but she certainly didn't get this bad. Okuu's clearly better at this.

Chen calms herself down and even starts approaching Utsuho veeeeery slowly.

So Mayfield stole them from you...this town stole my master, too. They took away Ran-sama...

[paradisemiko]

(Oh god I hate those things

It's never easy trying to reason with a bird brain. Definitely not for Reimu, but at least she knows why this is happening in the first place...and this really bad. With no one to hold Okuu back, it'll be Subterranean Animism all over again, but worse!

You know those mazes that you have to tilt around to navigate those little iron balls? That's what Reimu looks like right now, running around every which way and trying not to get vaporized.)

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho heard the words, listened to them...for a few seconds. The name didn't register, and the rest flowed out through her mind like water through a sieve.

She turned around in midair to hover, flames still flickering away from her feathers as she did so. The pins in the end of the arm cannon loosened and jumped out like crooked reticules, with a ball of golden light swirling into existence at the end with an ominous charging sound.]

[idkmybfforin]

[COME AT ME BRO

The prospect of injury doesn't deter her in the slightest--if she even heard it at all to begin with.

Utsuho thrashes furiously, the temperature around her spiking and her wings arcing up from the ground to begin beating again and fire beginning to gather at her hands once more.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin grits his teeth, continuing to shove back down on Utsuho with his boots and the muzzle of his shotgun as she attempts to get back up. It isn't until he notices the heat, though, that he reacts.]

Wrong answer.

[Balin pulls the trigger. Youkai flesh, meet lead shot.]

[In a failure of cosmic irony, Balin is not actually using birdshot in his shotgun.]

[answerer_sword]

[By this time, Bazett has finished sketching her runes. If the being fires its cannon, she will activate her barrier. However, she wonders if a barrier created through runic magic will be enough to protect her.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho's not listening much anymore--if she ever was. The arm cannon comes up, almost fully charged--and the beam tears off into the sky, where Chen might have been if she hadn't moved.]

[jumpsinline]

[ Yoshika was out and about, just minding her own business, when she noticed her eyes were a little drier. It wasn't uncomfortable, but she had to blink more and squint more and damn this living body thing is still confusing as hell. ]

What's going on? Why is it so bright? [ And that's when she looks straight up. ]

[idkmybfforin]

[The beam fires, crackling and spitting sparks as it lances down to the ground at that target that seemed so small.

BRACE FOR IMPACT or press Shift for focused movement]

[idkmybfforin]

[YAY PINBALL

The stars follow Reimu--but they are imprecise, scorching into the ground well behind her or to either side more than they almost grazed her head. Okuu was already forgetting what she was doing, mind lost in flame again.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The flesh and tendon and bone part almost instantly at such point-blank range, severing the hell raven's arm and showering them both with a spray near-black and near-boiling blood. Utsuho shrieks furiously, but as her arm comes off so does a burst of strength enough to toss Balin off of his feet--or at the very least off of her.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Oh, fancy that. The sun's setting already!

...in the general direction of Yoshika's face.]

[jumpsinline]

[ She puts up a hand to shield her eyes. ] I don't think it should be doing that...

[spinningorange]

(Ooooh, lasers...Chen can't do lasers. She is so very thankful she wasn't in its way; she's a fragile little cat and could be killed in only a few hits. She's still trying to reason with her, though.)

It's scary when this town just takes away those who mean the most to you. You probably want to break everything to help you feel better; you'd probably blow up all of Mayfield if it meant being able to get her back, but do you think your master would be happy to see you like this?

[walking_nuke]

[It all happens too fast for Balin to react—he's thrown to the ground by Utsuho's newfound rage, several feet away from her. He was too busy processing the fact that Utsuho's blood is black—and scalding, from the sensation of what bits splattered on to him in the midst of getting thrown off.]

—Fffffuckin'!—

[The shotgun fell out of his hands in the midst of all that, but it's still strapped to that sling, so it isn't far from his reach. He's already trying to scramble to his feet while picking it up with one hand, as adrenaline starts coursing into his body.]

[paradisemiko]

(Because this miko is so very lazy and almost never does anything physical, she's getting pretty tired and is slowing down.There wasn't much Reimu could hide behind that could actually protect her against suns made into projectiles, but she ducks down behind a fence to try and catch her breath.)

This makes me feel bad. IT'S LIKE KICKING A PUPPY D8

[idkmybfforin]

[Probably not. And there probably shouldn't be several others fireballs like it streaking around the sky and falling to earth at speed.]

[idkmybfforin]

[The hell raven rises to her feet, raises her wings, and takes off again--but low, sweeping very, very close to Balin.

She leaves the arm cannon--and the still twitching arm inside--behind.]

[idkmybfforin]

[Not the insurmountable 3-foot fence!

Target now seemingly lost, Utsuho made one more pass of the area where she saw the shrine maiden last--though she wasn't searching terribly hard.

Unsurprisingly, she doesn't find her.

The hell raven sails away over the next rooftop, fire trailing in her wake.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin's just getting to his feet to see the hell raving coming right at him. Losing her arm hasn't slowed her down at all. These youkai must have a lot of willpower to be capable of feeling pain yet still fully function ...]

[Balin pumps the shotgun and starts running perpendicular to Utsuho's flight path, looking to duck behind another parked vehicle on the street. He might not get out of the way in time, though—and knowing this, he turns and fires another shotgun shell at her.]

[answerer_sword]

[The beam hits right on her forcefield. It holds for a couple seconds before shattering. Bazett is thrown to the ground by the impact.]

[It takes a few seconds for her to get up, shaking her head to clear it. The intense heat had burned through her jacket sleeves, which had been reinforced to the consistency of metal.]

...Is it this powerful?

[She knows now that she can no longer block. Instead, she needs to dodge while finding a way to strike back at the thing. However, the problem is that she has no long distance attacks.]