2118/Shadows of Justice: Shadows over Tokyo

Shadows of Justice: Shadows over Tokyo
Date of Scene:	12 November 2016
Location:	Tokyo Tower
Synopsis:	Tonight, Tokyo falls ... or Shadow Witch Shiniko does. And Sora might have fallen already, too far within Shiniko to be reached.
Cast of Characters:	Sora Hisakata, Ayana, Ikiko Hisakata, Jiaying Maki, Norie Okana, Kukai Souma, Kunzite

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Sora Hisakata has posed:
November fifth, the shadows have grown bold and dangerous. Dark energy has been seeping all through Tokyo, marked within the past few minutes by multiple outbursts scattered over Tokyo, easily noticed by those attuned to such, powerful and dangerous without any doubt, and yet...

The Darkness atop Tokyo Tower makes them feel weak and nonthreatening in comparison, a quickly growing sphere of pure darkness and malice, a sphere that seems primed to swallow Tokyo whole. Its magic, powerful and dark as it is, proves one thing. Whatever Shiniko has been up to, it's involved getting her hands on degrees of power that are beyond reasonable limits.

Any intrepid heroes that approach the sphere can easily intuit that while it's dangerous and powerful, it's also a border of another realm, and that whatever is powering it sits at the heart of darkness.

Ayana has posed:
For Ayana, dark energy seeping through Tokyo has been more agonizing than for most. For her, it has been a call to become what she once was; a difficult temptation to ignore. Being infused with the very power she's sought so hard to distance herself from is not helpful for the poor Fox's ability to resist her own darker nature.

After all, isn't she very much the things Sora once accused her of? Trickster, wild fox, liar, and thief. Despite her claims to the contrary, Ayana cannot fully disprove any of them. It's been a worrying trend, for her.

So when Shiniko's power manifests so obviously, the kitsune drops everything to rush towards it--not out of some need to stop Shiniko, like most heroes might have, but out of a need to understand herself. For if she cannot defeat Shiniko, in the midst of all that dark power, then what right does she have to claim she is a hero at all?

Bounding from building to building, the dark-clad kitsune embraces her inner turmoil, leaping towards destiny and closure.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Cute Wolf Tsukiko darts along the rooftops, heading for the Tower. When the first outburst occurred, she had henshined, but had waited -- this burst was showy and obvious, like it was supposed to be seen, and Ikiko knows her 'cousin well enough to know that Sora is more wily than that.

Sure enough, a second outburst occurred, followed by a third, and several more afterwards. Once there were outbursts all across Tokyo, the powerful one started, and that is what Tsukiko homed in on.

As she leaps across the rooftops of Tokyo, the wolfgirl reviews her options. If Sora is still there within Shiniko, then there might be a way to free her from the dark mockery she had become. If not... well, hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki has returned from home, rested (And had a stern talking to) and some much needed training. As well as a dressing down for her tactics recently. This means first and foremost, she's only shadowed by one ghost, but her robes, Chinese style and fowing behind her are lined with what look like protective charms. She's wearing a proper wooden mask as well. Whatever happened, it left an impact.

The familiar darkness, she's been watching for it for a while now, waiting to catch any wisp of it. When it comes out that big, she drops everything, literally since she had been holding her notebook and changed on her way out the window.

Bounding rooftop to rooftop, the other fox active in the area has her own doubts and worries.

Norie Okana has posed:
Jiaying went on ahead, following the shadowy glare of energy. It was obvious enough to Lacrima. She'd been exposed enough to that to know who was on the other side. Lacrima had to make a stop through the Dusk Zone, to an UMBRA lab to look at the crystal she'd been working on. It was a prototype- based off the Dark Kingdom's Crystal Magic she'd discovered with Jia-- but made from the ground up. Something new.

She gently touches it-- the crystal the size of a small cat, or similar animal, lifting into the air and hovering behind her as she took back off.

She'd eventually catch up with Jiaying- at some point- as she frowns just a bit.

"This looks very bad." she asides to Jiaying. "This is a lot of power being generated and thrown around here."- she offers deadpan as usual. She's hovering slightly after. No need for her to jump and leap so much.

Kukai Souma has posed:
It wasn't what Kukai had in mind today. He had gone to track practice yesterday - he wasn't exactly on the team, but he was still as fast as anyone else running around in the gym - then made time to talk to some friends, tried to see Nagihiko, gotten waylaid by a youma, and ended up doing a late, late patrol. Sleep had been what was on Kukai's mind today.

Unfortunately, waking up to see a shadowy pallor falling over his apartment block, a magical chill of cold fear creeping over his heart, had meant sleep was out of the question. Sky Jack had rapidly dispelled the shadowy beasts (and might have clobbered the last one a few times more than necessary with his skateboard in a fit of pique), and now he was sailing across the rooftops on his board, sensing more than seeing (at this range) a gathering magical beings around the opaque, night-stained orb around the top of Tokyo Tower.

Jack sailed in behind the rest of them, staring at the orb of shadow. "....So I'm not going to assume about what's going on here, but if I had to guess, I would say this is Shiniko, right? Right. I'm going to give her a stern talking to about waking people up at crap'o'clock of the morning."

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite's perceptions are limited to the reach of his power, and these last months, that's far diminished from where it stood in the Dark Kingdom. That's a positive -- because Mamoru Chiba's awareness of these things stretches farther than his own ever did. And Kunzite can move faster than Mamoru can manage and still be a factor in a conflict.

The shadows that blur a rooftop nearby are not Shiniko's; ominous as they might seem on her own, beside hers, they're the comforting shade of a familiar tree on a blindingly hot summer day.

When the man those shadows leave behind sights Tsukiko, he doesn't risk the time and energy expenditure of another teleport to reach her; he crosses the distance on foot, leaping from roof to roof with the calm certainty of someone who knows that gravity is on his side, and also knows he has a spare trick in case darkness swallows the corner he'd intended to land on. He doesn't try to get too close. Doesn't concentrate targets more than necessary, or limit her choices of movement and action. Only close enough so that she can hear him when he calls, "Following your lead."

Sora Hisakata has posed:
The Darkness grows, and whether our intrepid heroes go in of their volition or end up swallowed after too much hesitation, the result is the same. Within, reality doesn't play by the same rules. Shadowy surfaces offer unstable footing, and it's hard to notice the difference between the solid shadows and the shadowy atmosphere that surrounds them, they absorb light so that doesn't really help.

It doesn't take much to find out, however, where the surface leads. Up to the heart of darkness, with no barriers, no adversaries, nothing to stop any intruders that seek to reach the core, aside from the very atmosphere itself of course. This place is hostile and draining, sucking energy from everything that enters it.

It's a good thing it hasn't reached the ground yet. People might die.

Shiniko giggles, her voice warping and weaving even more than usual, while she's at the center. "Thank you my friends, for coming to join me at my stage. Tonight, Tokyo falls~" Like always, she's confident about her own impending victory, and when she sends a wave of energy out, it's easy to tell why. That dark power was barely formed, barely shaped, and it's enough to kill an entire crowd on the spot.

Ayana has posed:
As she draws nearer to the center of the darkness, Ayana slows. There's no sense charging in; no sense abandoning everything that she's good at just because she's angry. So instead, she slips into the darkening shadows, easy to find as Shiniko calls on more and more dark energy. Those shadows deepen to conceal the kitsune even further from view, and soon she's on the roof of Tokyo tower; not far, but still not in range to take much action. Besides, there are others coming, and she might as well watch to see what they intend to do before getting personally involved.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Cute Wolf Tsukiko nods to Kunzite as they arrive within the realm of shadow, then looks around at the others that have arrived. Several familiar faces, including Lacrima and Jiaying, and is that Ayana lurking nearby? Good, this might make things a little easier... and possibly help a few others as well, even if it's just a little bit.

The wolfgirl braces against the wave of energy, focusing inward on her determination to help lessen the blow of the dark power. It hurts, but steadfastness calls for it, and that's one of the weapons in her arsenal today that might make a difference. When the wave passes, Tsukiko ungrits her teeth and takes a step forward, saying "It's time to come home, Sora-chan."

It's a small thing, given how magic can subtly disguise the identity of henshined people from those that aren't aware of their dual nature, but the voice she used was very much Ikiko Hisakata instead of Cute Wolf Tsukiko. This is not a battle of a night guardian werewolf; this is a face-off between a pair of third cousins.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki makes her way from unstable footing to unstable footing, landing lightly. Smoothing her robes out, she pulls mist around her, the stuff glowing faintly aorund her, pulsing with her magic. Now a more solid green, compared to before. She's silent though, not taunting, not calling out, not even venting anger. Instead she pulls her mask free and slips it around so that the mask hangs between her shoulders instead.

Calling out to the familiar faces, "Be extremely careful. This is beyond what she's done before." The mist around her seems to cling to her before fading away entirely as she gets a serious look on her face.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite's own shadows swarm around him as he enters the darkness -- drain set against drain once again. It won't protect him entirely, particularly not from those lethal surges, but it will buy time; and in the bargain, it means that if the shadows trick him into setting foot on empty space, he won't fall. That kind of thing burns through energy still more quickly, granted. But outside Shiniko's realm, it's a long way down. Inside, it's longer.

He doesn't waste energy on speaking. He moves a little aside from Tsukiko, instead, pacing her -- a little behind, but on a path that converges with hers at the center of things. With Jiaying's, as well, and when the green glow of her mist draws his attention, the pale figure in the darkness turns his head toward her and bows it.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima willingly goes into the barrier. That crystal is following her, like an inert, inanimate puppy. It isn't glowing or putting out any sort of waves or energy. It's floating due to Lacrima's own infusion of energy. That's about it. She frowns as she purses her lips as she looks upwards towards Shiniko and floats upwards as she calls out. "Sora... Shiniko." she calls out.

"This is too much." she says. "If you stop this... maybe. These people can save you. But if you go through with this..."

"There's no going back." she says quietly.

"--if you kill these people."

"You don't want to listen to me. I know though." she says.

She moves the crystal in front of her as she frowns a bit.

"But I speak from some degree of experience."

Kukai Souma has posed:
Jack didn't exactly want to enter the orb, but he wasn't giving up any ground to it either. When he was drawn inside, he thanked his luck that his board kept him hovering in midair so he didn't need to worry about the ground. He slowly raised himself up towards Shiniko as she talked, but then - a wave of dark power, carelessly swung out towards the group, powerful and unfocused and hostile.

Jack's eyes opened as it flew towards the group. "Look out!" A pair of electrified soccer balls are punted out towards it towards the center, the light vanishing into the middle of the wave, bending it backwards for a moment but not stopping it, a few sparks and glimmers visible in it as it rushes forwards, enough to give the others and maybe Jack enough time to dodge above it or around it or shield themselves.

Thankful for flight once again, Jack just keeps the idea of running into a bar of solid shadow in his mind, and points at Shiniko, his words loud and angry. "Hey! All right Shiniko, time to end all this! Neither Tokyo or anyone else is falling today. In all the times I've fought you, I've held back, because I didn't really want to hurt you - but this isn't you, and I've got a LOT of payback to give to you, you gothy brat!"

He begins sliding around through the shadow realm towards one side of Shiniko, not quite starting his attack yet but moving into better position, threatening one side..

Sora Hisakata has posed:
"Sora is dead." Shinoko harshly answers Tsukiko, without even a moment's hesitation, "Sacrificed herself for an end to injustice, how noble~" Yes that is mockery, is she mocking herself or is there something more to this? Shiniko has always had a different way of approaching things from Sora, but then, there's been cases where Shiniko has acted exactly like Sora.

Lacrima's pleas get another giggle, "There hasn't been any going back for a long time, Lacrima-chan~ You've just not been willing to see that." And then it begins, her shadowy hands reach out and the entire realm starts to light on cold fire, instantly bringing it way below freezing, sucking all warmth out it can extract from the intruders while flames start swirling around.

"Sky Jack, Sky Jack, why would you think I would let you live?" There's an angry voice that follows, and this time, the voice isn't with that warping and weaving, and it's distinctly Sora's. Perhaps anger is the way she gets through, and hatred. "You broke my heart. I will break you."

Outside, a shadow familiar appears, looking exactly like Ayana's fox form, and landing next to Ayana. It smiles and looks up, then speaks. "I think the phrase is... Join me, and you will be more powerful than you could ever imagine?"

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki steps deeper into the shadow, a confident stride. Calling up to Shiniko, "Shiniko, your sense of humor is awful." She doesn't run, she doesn't jump, she just stops in clear view. Looking to the others, she makes her way closer once more, no aggression which is something far different than the last few times she's encountered Shiniko. "I know she's in there somewhere Shiniko, you're a poor liar." Yelling out, wondering if volume matters, "Come out Sora, stop sleeping through this!" What, the last few times she was encountered, she was out of it, sleepy or not all there! She's guessing.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"An end to injustice?" Tsukiko/Ikiko scoffs, fluffing up her fur and being really glad that huskies are no stranger to cold weather. "Given how much injustice you're trying to inflict, I'd say that you haven't sacrificed yourself at all, cousin."

She takes a few steps forward, with a pace that could be considered deliberate (and which may or may not be a product of refocusing with each step to make sure she doesn't falter). "You're a Hisakata, Sora-chan," the (wolf)girl calls out. "Remember your training! Remember how to resist the influence of curses!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "My friends say it's not too late. I need to believe that. Because they are my friends. I don't like to very much. I will admit." she says quietly. She throws energy into the crystal in front of her finally as she spins it on it's axis and then points it upwards at Shiniko. What is Lacrima doing? Won't her own dark energy just empower Shiniko? Like it has literarily every other dark being she's tried fighting?

What comes out is a concentrated beam of energy, pointed toward's Shiniko. Not dark. More like a magical blast-- with a bright violet aura. It's clear that the crystal's purpose is to let her be able to fight things like 'this' now. A converter of sorts- if you could call it that- but it's more like a dark energy powered magical beam emitter- than anything.

"Stop this." she says.

"Or don't."

"I'd lovvvve to test the limits of this thing in the field." she says with a deadpan.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite locks down harder on his own shields, keeping most of his own body heat from leaking outside them. This was a trick that worked better outside Shiniko's realm -- there's a certain amount of shadow that was by necessity included inside his shields, and that threatens to chill him quickly. He wraps his cape around himself as a further barrier, pacing Tsukiko, letting Jiaying have the lead uncontested. "Hearts," he says, "can heal. Choices can be remade. You can still come home."

And then Lacrima strikes more directly for Shiniko, and Kunzite -- does not lift his hands, does not draw them free. Not yet. Never mind that generally, when the fighting starts, he's quick to join --

It's as he said. He's following Tsukiko's lead.

Kukai Souma has posed:
"Sora?" It takes a minute for Jack to actually process all of that. See, all this time later, he'd never actually put two and two together. Call it the henshin magic field - knowing Sora and knowing Shiniko was the same person actually made a lot of sense to him. It explained a lot of events. It actually made him sort of happy for a moment, remembering the first time he'd met Sora.

Aaand then he remembers someone skewering him with a spear of dark energy when he was under another (friendly, admittedly) being's control, and trying to make him incapable of loving or caring for another.

You would think that Jack could control the shadows himself, the way the darkness swirled around him, that cold, dreadful drain trying to consume his almost boundless stamina. Completely still for now, hanging in midair, staring at Shiniko, trying to come up with the words.

Like every Guardian, however, his heart spoke louder than his words ever could, as a shape appears in his right hand, a long, flat paddle-like shape, metallic and crackling along the length, a sportier weapon for a more active time. "SHINIKO! YOU'VE STOLEN MY FRIEND FROM ME! You're the source of pain here! And I will not let you hurt anyone again! GIVE SORA BACK!"

Sora Hisakata has posed:
"It's far, far too late~" Shiniko singsongs at Ikiko and Lacrima, clearly not dissuaded, although a moment after Sora's voice comes through, less angry than a moment before, instead it's weak and frail, "Isn't it?" Then, Jiaying speaks up and there's another comment. "Sorry, Jiji..." And then, Shiniko is yelling, "No, no, no. You're gone! Dead! Finished! Stay dead!"

And with that, Shiniko is hit in the face by Lacrima's beam, she's thrown back, and winces. Then she returns the favour, sending orbs of darkness at everyone, but most importantly Lacrima and Kukai for daring to bring force against her. Kukai in particular gets another comment, "Die already, Sky Jack."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"It wasn't too late for great-grandpa Yuuki when he fought the werewolf all those generations ago," Ikiko counters, pausing for a slight crouch before leaping over the oncoming orb of darkness, then continuing her striding forward. "He put away the Lycan Locket because he didn't want to let the wolf have a chance to grow. I almost put it back when I realized what I had. But you know why I kept it?"

She flashes a not-quite-fanged smile at her shadow-infested cousin. "I found that I had made things better. Without intending to, I had brought comfort to someone. So I kept with it, protecting others and doing what I can to encourage happiness."

Tsukiko gives Shiniko a derisive snort as the wolfgirl continues to close the distance. "Your intentions were good, Sora-chan, but your heart was focused on punishment, not protection," Ikiko says softly with a gentle smile. "Change what you fight for, and dance in the moonlight with me, cousin."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima watches as dark energy washes over the area- applied directly, it rakes at her. It doesn't hurt her as much as it shoulder- or Shiniko probably intended-- darkness doesn't fight darkness very well. It's just the nature of the universe. Darkness that fights darkness finds other means. Controlling people. Grasping for objects of power it can use.

Not to say it doesn't wear her down. No. It's damaging. Of course it is.

She frowns and spins the crystal a little more. Like a dynamo- she feeds it more of it's power- but it also takes in some of the ambient darkness of this realm and she charges the power in a spinning, crackling bolt of violet energy that lunges across the field towards Shiniko-- this one a stronger strike than before. The crystal makes a creaking sound as it does this. It's a prototype--- technically Lacrima's first 'useful' product of her studies with this 'Dark Kingdom' Crystal magic.

She frowns a little at this. It seems it didn't like that severe amount of energy being channeled through it. Tsk. Shoddy first time workmanship she chides herself as she huffs a little under her breath.

She /glares/ at Kukai. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! IF YOU WEREN'T KISSING E-----" she manages to bite her lip at /some point/ during this... as it catches her than 'now is not a good time to be arguing this point.'

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and dashes forward, a lurching move that leaves what almost looks like an after image, but when it fades, it fades away into green tinted mist before swirling away entirely. Leaping up at Shiniko (After taking a roundabout path so she doesn't jump into someone's attack!) she has her hands up above her head, the magically assisted jump leaving wisps of pale green energy swirling against the shadowed ground.

Reaching into her sleeves, a charm is pulled free and the spell is burned in place leaving behind the scent of burnt paper. She attempts to stick the purification charm to Shiniko on her way by, "Sorry Sora, this might hurt." is all she offers on the way by. There's no anger there, just sadness that she even has to do that. Any grace or dignity goes out the window as she lands and after a skidding stop, manages to tumble forward. At least she recovered.

Kunzite has posed:
Large crystals are always trouble. It's so hard to find ones with relatively few flaws, so easy to miss minute irregularities that generate uneven results. One of the reasons most of Beryl's generals used them more as direct weapons than as focuses for channelling. But Nephrite and Beryl and Melanite all proved their potential usefulness there...

None of which is anything Kunzite has time to think about right now. He sidesteps the orb aimed at him -- it catches his shield and his cape, leaving a layer of frost on both -- and then returns the favor, lifting his hands into the cold, lifting them up.

Shiniko's darkness abruptly acquires a temporary sky, of sorts. A geometric pattern: patches of concentric circles, sometimes interlinked, and further linked to each other by straight lines and perfect angles, all glowing a dark, pure pink.

A moment later, the rest of the gift Madoka gave him months ago manifests. A bolt of brilliant fire streaks upward toward the pattern, which acquires sudden elegant, spiraling curls as it absorbs the bolt, then diffracts it --

Streaks of light shower through the darkness, crisscrossing trails. Every one of them a separate fragment of the borrowed attack.

Madoka's magic is, at the core of it, a magic of hope. None of those fragments should hurt any of the people come this close to Sora's aid (except, perhaps, Lacrima, and since Kunzite doesn't have to keep concentration on the attack itself, he's free to put a hand out toward her, and shield her at a comfortable range, his own darkness reabsorbing the energies before they can strike her or her crystal). But it might do some damage to Shiniko's shadows --

-- and if it doesn't actually hurt the ongoing drain around them, if the drain absorbs it instead ... he's willing to bet that Shiniko will regret what she's just eaten.

And that Sora might not.

Kukai Souma has posed:
There's an incoherent cry from Sky Jack as he lunges at Shiniko's orb of energy. Both hands go onto the hilt of the cricket bat, and the edge whistles around through the air, impacting onto the solid blackness. A flash of lightning, bright and loud and powerful, arcs through the darkness to slam into the shadowy shield around Shiniko, a crack of thunder echoing through the shadow realm, bringing yellow, sizzling, electric light to it.

Jack rears the cricket bat back for another hammerblow, just in time to see the orb of shadow energy Shiniko threw barreling at him. With a cry he dives to one side, swinging his bat at the orb and deflecting it off and up to one side. In a way, it may be a good thing that he dove out of the way, as the Shiniko-orb is engulfed in fire and frost and energy from the rest of the group.

Jack gets to his feet, readying the bat again, and then glares over at Lacrima. "NOW IS NOT THE TIME! We need to get Sora out and on her feet again! Focus on Sora!"

Sora Hisakata has posed:
Lacrima's blast throws Shiniko back a little, just in time for her to start draining the attack Kunzite is throwing out. Which causes her face to twist and contort as she reels from the hope, and that's when Tsukiko's and Jiaying's words hit home, and there's another weak sentiment, Sora's voice again. "I can't stop her. Not alone... if you're willing to give me a second chance... give me everything you--" Her voice cuts off as the darkness reasserts itself.

And the ground disappears, whatever footing people had provided by Shiniko, it's gone. And the way down is long and harsh, and Shiniko is throwing out cold fire and shadows to people, trying to hurt them, to prevent them from purifying her.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima is floating in the air. The lack of floor or ground means nothing to her. More darkness rakes forward. She frowns a bit and gives that crystal a final spin. It won't survive this fight, sadly, anyways-- even if it does. It's broken.

So she mutters a few words of Spanish...

"Echar por tierra."

'Shatter.'

The crystal spins with a great force as it suddenly rockets straight through the air in a straight line- fast enough that it looks more like she launched a beam of energy instead-- as the crystal comes to a full stop directly in front Shiniko before exploding forward in a dazzling away of energetic crystals.

She shields her eyes a bit as bright and pink hope fills the shadowy realm- and it's only Kunzite's shield that stops it from washing over her. She does not need to feel the prickliness of purification at this moment. She's thankful, for the moment, for that bit of help.

HOWEVER- She mutters just a single word in Kukai's direction.

"Estupido!".

You probably do not need that one translated.

Kunzite has posed:
For all that Kunzite's seldom-used formal title references purity -- it's the wrong kind to help, here. Madoka's magic was the closest he came, and that, too, could at best strengthen Sora, not banish Shiniko. It's done that. So he's free to ... well. To get chewed out by Mamoru for frostbite again, if he's lucky. He can hover. That means he's a standing target for Shiniko's cold fire, and for all that his shields provide some defense, it's not a good defense, not against that.

But he's not the only one he can shield.

Lacrima's used wings. He trusts her and her magic to be able to hold at least for a moment, and reclaims the sphere of darkness that had embraced her, leaving her free to move again. Leaving the way free for her crystal to move, in the process. Then he casts that bubble of shadow down toward Tsukiko, to catch her --

He'd intended it to stay a shield around her, to give her a secure base to work from. Whether Tsukiko is about to use it that way or for something else entirely is an entirely different question.

Jiaying Maki has posed:
Jiaying Maki scrambles to her feet and was about to try again! Though without the purification tag this time, since splitting her focus isn't doing her any favors. Instead of trying to attack her directly, not right away at least, she instead attempts to grab Shiniko! Because she's trying to save her and give her a hug! (Also because she can't fly at all. She wont' admit that last one though.)

Clinging there to the flying witch, she says, "Sora, everyone here will forgive you." She would poke the girl for emphasis, but she's in a precarious position, so for now she says, "I've told you this before." There's a few moments where she looks down, trying to figure out how she wants to drop in case it comes down to it. Instead she just tries to tighten the hug-grip.

"Come on, you're still in there, help us save you!" There's something more she adds, though it's in a whisper to the girl instead. She doesn't seem too concerned about the other attacks. It won't be the first time she's been hurt after all. It's worth it, right?

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Acrobatics can get a person through a lot of rough terrain, but it does require a certain amount of terrain in order to be used. Tsukiko's eyes widen as the ground vanishes and leaves her to plummet. She crouches, trying to brace against the inevitable impact at the bottom of the long fall--

--only to be cushioned by a bubble of comfortable shadow. She gives Kunzite a thankful look, then launches herself upwards. But it's not the lunge of an acceleration to attack; Tsukiko is not going to use her Silver Wolf Tackle on Shiniko. No; it's the cheerful bounding of a younger relative leaping to give an older relative a hug of greeting.

"Sora-chaaaaan~!" Ikiko calls as she closes in, glomping her cousin from the side not hugged by Jiaying. Before the Shadow Witch can react, the wolfgirl takes a deep breath...

...and starts to howl.

She wordlessly sings of all of the fun times they had together growing up, of learning the family's lore. Tsukiko's song tells of how Sora is loved, and how she is stronger than she thinks she is, and how she can fight off the darkness that tries to consume her.

Of course, sound does have a tendency to carry; this means that everyone else can hear this as well. To most, this howl is encouraging, but brings no specific emotions; for Ayana, there's enough there to remind her of the love Ikiko has for her. And for Lacrima... well, the parts involving shared history are probably unrelated enough to dampen the purifying effects of the Soulful Howl, and the encouragement to the person within will just mean more strength for Norie, which shouldn't be painful for Lacrima, right?

Kukai Souma has posed:
There's a lot to be said for being on a skateboard that hovers under its own power when the world starts falling away underneath you. Jack takes a hurried moment to look around at the rest of the group to see if they're plummeting to their doom in endless shadow and if he needs to rescue them - no, they're all safe.

Before he can continue his assault on Shiniko, though, there are two people glommed onto each side of her, so it's time to attack something different. Jack slides around to in front of Shiniko and raises the cricket bat above his head, flat side facing her.

Jack bows his head, praying to himself, muttering under his breath. "I can't purify anybody. I don't have that in me. I'm not exactly pure myself. But I am one thing. I am BRIGHT." Another blast of lightning, pure, bright, flashing through the darkness, strikes the tip of the cricket bat, illuminating everything about the shadowy realm for a moment. Then another, and another, the constant brightness warring with the opaqueness, trying to drive the shadow back, to give Jiaying and Ikiko a minute to get through past Shiniko to Sora. "This is the roar of the crowd! This is the beating heart of victory! This is the energy inherent in competition! Don't let the darkness prevent you from remembering what you love, Sora! FIGHT SHINIKO OFF!"

Sora Hisakata has posed:
Lacrima's crystal sends Shiniko reeling back, dropping the book she's holding. She's still unstable when she finds a fox-girl hug her, not able to push her away as those sweet words are spoken, and unable to push away the wolf-girl that follows it up. Right when she tries, Sky Jack hits her hard, and then that soulfull howl happens.

And soon enough the shadows fade away, this magical realm disappears, leaving all above Tokyo Tower. A moment later, Shiniko's shadows vanish from Sora, leaving an exhausted Sora, who looks like she hasn't slept in weeks, and has been ill the entire time at that. She smiles faintly at the people holding her before closing her eyes and collapsing under her own weight.

She's still breathing, she's just unconscious.

As for the book, it rests on the ground, still an obviously powerful item, still an obviously evil piece of work.