Iko throws Kasai and Yuki's unconscious bodies onto the dojo floor. Klara immediately gets to tying them up.
"Let's see." Daisuko counts the bodies. One unconscious Kasai. One unconscious Yuki. One unconscious Kirika. One unconscious Oe.
Oka walks over with her limbs just barely hanging onto her body. "Did we do it?"
"I think we did it." Daisuko ventures.
"Let's not be too hasty. It is at the precipice of victory that we are most vulnerable." Iko's expression remains grim. "Do you smell that?"
Everyone takes in a whiff of the air. They smell it. The all-too familiar scent of magic tinted with phosphor fills their nostrils, overwhelms their senses, invades their minds. Whatever is exuding this is not normal.
"They are hundreds." A shiver travels up and down Oka's spine.
"No. She is just one." Klara freezes up. "She's here. The Lady of Tokyo."
"How could one person emit a smell this strong?" Daisuko resorts to covering her nose.
"She's not a person. Not anymore." Klara slowly starts to walk outside. The others follow her in short order. The cawing of crows mingles with the sound of rain. Up above, in the eye of the swirling clouds, stands a lone figure looking down on all creation. They draw their weapons. There's no telling how effective they're going to be against her but it's all that they have. The figure begins to descend.
"I take it you are The Lady of Osaka's proxies?" Her voice is quiet, and yet, booming. Her words silently echo inside their thoughts.
"What's it to ya'?" Daisuko boldly steps forward. "We beat your goons fair and square. The Ozawa City gate belongs to The Lady of Osaka."
"I'm afraid that circumstances have changed. From now on, I will be my own proxy."
"That doesn't sound fair."
"From the very beginning, there was no rule that disallowed us from stepping in ourselves. If you have any problem with that, ask your master to step in."
"..."
"True, she's probably on her way here right now, on account of me breaking the unspoken contract keeping us out of the city." The Lady of Tokyo adjusts her glasses. "But the fact remains, she couldn't care less about any of you. What did she promise you? Bringing back a loved one? Or at least, some facsimile of a loved one?"
"..."
The Lady of Osaka continues her dissection. "To be frank, such a feat is resource intensive, even for a third-level magical girl. Mathematically speaking, if she were to give all of you what she promised, she'd have to use up about… twenty year's worth of her saved up prana. In other words, the more of you die, the less prana she has to spend. So no. Help is not coming."
Daisuko steps backwards. She's making too much sense for comfort. Is this really it? Four girls versus a god? Is this all they have to work with? She almost laughs at the sheer unfairness of the situation.
Ah, screw it. Daisuko steps forward. No matter how she slices it, she has to fight. Even if she can't win, she has to at least try. It's not about the results, it's about the sheer goddamn determination to reunite Shosuko with her parents. It's about redemption. She knows it's a selfish thing, but it's a step forward from the woman she used to be. No matter what, Daisuko won't back down. She plants her feet on the ground.
"I don't mind this place being our grave." Oka, her head still woozy from blood loss, wounds only half-healed, and with only half of a pair of eyes. And yet, sheer grim determination to make up for her sins translates into a facsimile of bravery.
"It's your call." Klara raises her arm to the side, placing her fist on top of Iko's heart. "It's not too late to run away."
"This is as good a place as any to die." Iko raises her fist and places it on Klara's chest. "Besides, this woman irritates me."
Klara nods her head silently.
Four women, all half-dead, stand in rigid defiance.
The Lady of Tokyo holds her hand out in front of her. Swirling strands of mist coalesce into a sphere of subdued greens and smoky blue in her palm. Little by little, the sphere magnifies its detail. Vague blues turning into oceans and greens turning into landmass until it becomes a miniature Earth. "「Inverse Fuinjutsu - The World」"
The others silently step forward at Daisuko's sides.
"Do you have a plan?" Oka asks
"I dunno, I'm making this up as I go." Daisuko twirls her handguns in an attempt to hide her anxiety. She nearly drops them. "Let's do this, ladies!"
Like bullets, they cut through the air with their bodies. Daisuko surges forwards, the others following in the slipstream she leaves behind. They fan out, trying to get a flank on the enemy. But their efforts are in vain.
The Lady of Tokyo raises The World in front of her and blows gently onto its surface. Up above, the clouds part as the sky crashes down onto the land below. As though gravity was magnified a hundredfold. The dojo is splintered under the weight of the winds. All four magical girls suddenly find themselves crushed against the ground. The untold weight of the entire sky placed on their spines.
Daisuko peels her body from the ground, feeling half-broken bones strain from her weight. There's a sizable divot in the ground that's the shape of her body. Looking around her, it seems that her compatriots have suffered similar fates. She's the only one still conscious.
"Ugh…" She tries to rise back to her feet but only makes it as far as a kneeling position before she feels a scythe's tip placed at her nape.
"Tsk. I'm rusty." The Lady of Tokyo looks around her, seeing the destruction she's wrought. The swathes of leveled bamboo trees. If there were any animals in the forest before, there aren't any anymore. Thankfully, the blast zone mostly avoided Ozawa City. Only a few buildings have been destroyed, from what she can see. Still, she figures she should start holding back. "It's not too late to surrender. Lay down your arms and go in peace."
Daisuko spits on The Lady of Tokyo's shoes.
"..." The Lady of Tokyo tilts her head, curious what could inspire such idiotic stubbornness. Still, she respects her decision. "There are many fates worse than death. Rest, knowing that I will spare you from them."
She raises her scythe blade. Strange. Daisuko thought she'd have less regrets. She wants to scream. She wants to rage. She wants to fight. She's not done yet. Shosuko's not reunited with her parents yet. And still, she was crushed instantly. Is she really so powerless? So pathetic?
Her mind begins to wander to the people she's going to leave behind. Her girlfriend, who Daisuko is pretty sure would move on after a week. Oka, no, she's pretty sure she's going to follow her into the afterlife in short order, actually. Shosuko, who she's pretty sure never wants to see her again anyway. Really, the only person left to grieve for her is her mother. "Sorry… mama…" She mutters, not really expecting an answer. But she gets one anyway.
"You get your hands off of my daughters!" Kiara's voice is far off, but what isn't is the thunderous explosion that seems to rock the very Earth. The Lady of Tokyo barely manages to raise one of her metal wings in time to shield herself from the blast. Though it doesn't surprise her, it at least does interest her. There's been no shortage of people picking fights with her today. With a great flap of her wings, she rises back into the sky.
"Why have you come, ladies of Ozawa?" Her voice is barely above a whisper and yet it reaches across the acre-long gap between her and Kiara.
「Kiara Kuze - Kuze Clan Head」
"We're here to negotiate." Kiara calls out, a relaxed sense of authority backing her up. She's been the ruler of Ozawa for years, she isn't about to let herself be upstaged now, not even by a god. She stretches her shoulders. She hasn't been in her magical girl outfit in such a long time. Leather forearm-length gloves cover her arms. Her thumbs are bandaged in white, as if expecting a scrap. The back of her hands have silver skull emblems placed upon them. There was once a time when she'd have been fine openly donning solely her outfit, but such days are behind her. Though she hasn't aged physically, she's an old lady with a certain dignity now.
「Emu Awano - Awano Family Head」
"Because Minaminagi was booooring." Emu lazily hovers along next to Kiara. She lays down on an invisible recliner. Her magical girl outfit is just as outrageously designed as her normal fashion wear. Pure white makeup coats her face, with flares of purple and red around her lips and eyelashes respectively, creating a clownly complexion. A feathered headdress sits atop her pink hair. An erratic flux of colors and patterns decorate the robes tightly draped on her body. "I came to make my bombastic return to the crime world!"
「 Sumire Shirayuki - Shirayuki Association Head」
"We know what you intend to do." Sumire wears a red and white navy admiral outfit that compliments her red-orange hair. Her outfit is adorned with gold buttons, chains, and shoulder pads. A luxurious white cape, completely unblemished, hangs from her shoulders and flows along behind her. Two double-barreled flintlock pistols rest in her palms and on a bandolier strapped over her torso. "I won't let you ruin my life's work. What good is an entertainer without an audience?"
「 Amaru Hikome - ICMG Renegade」
「 Amanda Kameko - ICMG Renegade」
「 Isaka Kaymi - ICMG Renegade」
「 Ryukko Saoka - ICMG Renegade」
「 Tami Momoe - ICMG Renegade」
Tami levels an oversized flintlock cannon at The Lady of Tokyo. "The Prana in the Ozawa Gate, it's not enough, is it? How many people do you intend to sacrifice? A hundred? A thousand?"
"More." The Lady of Tokyo speaks without remorse.
"Do you intend to create a repeat of thirty years ago?" Tami stares her in the eye. Though she's only an imperfect magical girl, she's the closest among them to matching her power.
"All things considered, the casualties could be worse. You've seen how the Americas were wiped clean when they attempted ascension with the Ley Lines. Compared to that, the lives lost today will only be a drop in the bucket."
"You can have the Ozawa Gate, but we implore you, please wait another thousand years. No one has to die."
"I am running out of time. The homunculus will be here any minute. If you let me ascend, I have a chance at stopping her before she can destroy Ozawa. I implore you to trust me. Otherwise, untold lives will be lost."
"We'll take our chances."
"Very well." The Lady of Tokyo bows her head solemnly before pointing her scythe at them. "Then I will deal with you all in short order."
Kiara cracks her knuckles. "We figured you were going to say that." She produces a baseball from her suit jacket before pitching it at The Lady of Tokyo. The sheer force behind the throw causes the baseball to break the sound barrier. On cue, Emu, Tami, Amanda, Sumire, and Amaru, open fire with bolts of lightning, musket balls, magic arrows, lightning-imbued shots, and squalls of bullets.
"The World…" Shadowy strings manifest from The Lady of Tokyo's fingers and wrap themselves around the sphere in The Lady of Tokyo's hands. Slowly, its rotation begins to slow down. "...Grinds to a halt."
Right as she finishes her sentence, the baseball connects with her wings and explodes in an Earth-shattering blast. It's not nearly as powerful as the explosion earlier, this is much much stronger. Warped metal feathers spray out as her wings are shattered and her form is completely engulfed by smoke. Her defenses down, she's left open to the barrage of ranged attacks.
"Keep firing! Keep firing!" The girls don't dare let up the pressure for even a second so they continue to devastate the skies.
"Where are you all aiming?" A voice comes from behind. All eyes widen as they whirl around to see The Lady of Tokyo, wingless but alive. They try to pivot around to train their weapons on her but the former I-C's freeze. No sooner do the others notice that something's wrong that the former I-C's suddenly train their weapons on them. They're caught in a deadlock.
"Tami?" Kiara stares incredulously at the blonde girl holding a musket to her head.
"Th–this isn't me." Tami seems just as confused as Kiara.
"I never thought the day would come when I would have to use this failsafe but here we are."
"What did you do to us?" Amaru grits her teeth, trying to wrench her arm back under her control but it's just not working. It's as though it's fixed in space.
"Don't forget who built you. Your bodies are my property." The Lady of Tokyo states it matter-of-factly, like it's only natural to have absolute control over another's will. "If any of you so much as twitch, you are dead. Now if you excuse me, I must now claim the gate for myself–"
A wave of nausea suddenly overtakes her. This scent, she remembers it well. She's too late. The Lady of Ozawa has been born.