"PERVY OLD MAN!" comes a shrill of anger from the direction of the Hikawa shrine. It's evening, and most of the city's petitioners have gone home. Poor Grandpa really hasn't done anything that bad (or has he?) yet the old man is being held up by his neck in the slender hands of what looks to be a girl in her early teens.
A haze of shadows surrounds the girl, heavy and thick with dark energy as she absorbs the energy from Grandpa. Upon closer inspection, a pair of foxlike ears are visible atop her head; laid back angrily. More importantly, a trio of black, fluffy tails stick out beneath her too-short dark dress and the spandex shorts she wears for modesty beneath.
The shadowy familiar does not seem particularly subtle, tonight, as she accosts grandpa for whatever wrong he may have done her (if anything). The poor old man is in for quite a bad evening. Probably a bad week. Possibly a bad end, if no one stops Ayana soon!
Mami is actually not out witch hunting, for once. It's a nice evening, and she's got a decent number of seeds, and a girl needs some time to relax or she's going to just lose her head!
And so she's in a different part of town, away from Mitakihara which is so plagued by Witches it seems like most roads remind her of one fight or another. That makes it hard to relax.
Unfortunantly, so does the scream of "PERVY OLD MAN!" that comes from the Hikawa shrine. Mami considers transforming there, but this is probably a civilan problem that can be handled by civilan means, so instead she's running up the stairs, her boots clacking loudly on the steps. What she sees is... not a civilian problem.
There's a bright flash of yellow, ribbons, and flowers, and Mami is standing there in her full henshin, walking slowly towards Ayana.
"Alright, PUT HIM DOWN." Mami says, commandingly, though she hasn't generated any weapons. There's a firm look on her face. The fox-girl might be forgiven for reacting to Grandpa Hino if she weren't so obviously draining energy, but Mami has no patience beyond one warning for such obvious evil.
Rei walks down the sidewalk, carrying a paper bag full of groceries in her arms, when she hears the shrill cry of indignation. A young girl's voice, yelling at a dirty old man. Oh geeze. It's not hard to figure out what probably happened. Turning to face the tall stairway to the shrine, Rei decides that she should probably hurry just in case she needs to deal with whatever it is that grandpa has done.
It isn't until she's walking up the steps that she notices a very strong feeling of dark energy. Wait... that's not attacking grandpa, is it? When she starts running up the stairs, groceries in her arms, she starts to wonder if that energy signature doesn't feel familiar...
Rei hops off the side of the stairs and into the bushes lining the path. Sailor Mars, sans groceries, hops back out, now freely leaping up the stairs. Standing on the gateway that marks the entrance, she points down at Ayana.
"Stop right there! I--- you---" ... Try as she might, she can't really think of any positive spin to put on whatever she imagines her grandpa's actions are. So she shouts, "Just--- stop picking on old men! Hey, haven't I set you on fire once before?"
Mami's presence is then noticed, a bit belatedly because Mars was a bit distracted by something else. Not someone she knows that well, but at least Mars wont be alone for this fight.
Ayana's ears perk back up at the sound of running boots, and she twists around, drawing Grandpa to her like a shield as the pair of girls draw near. By now she's already drained enough to knock the poor old man unconscious, and she doesn't seem inclined to stop.
Not even at the orders of Puella Magi Mami and Sailor Mars. One of these she knows, the other gets flat-out ignored as Ayana glares up at Mars. "You again!" she says. "Why are you always interrupting my fairly caught meals? Go away, magical girls! This old man deserves to be eaten!"
Mami nods at Sailor Mars, then turns to Ayana. "I'm not going to ask again." she says, firmly. And the draws a musket out of the front of her uniform, creating it out of the ribbon tied around her neck - but it looks like she's pulling it from another dimension. She levels it at Ayana and looks down the barrel.
"Put him down, and back away." she says, firmly. While she's doing this, though, a barely-visible little ribbon is snowly snaking its way along the ground towards the fox-girl, directed by Mami's other hand.
Mars eyetwitches at Ayana's words, shouting, "I don't care what you think he deserves! Put him down right now, or I'll give you what you deserve!"
Mars can't attack from the front with Grandpa being used as a shield, but her fire powers are very versatile... if a bit hard to control.
She extends one arm, and flames fire from her palm. A column of flame snakes around behind Ayana, trying to catch her tails on fire.
Ayana backs up just a little further, away from the pair of magical girls, using Grandpa still for a shield. The aura of gloom goes with her. Mami's ribbons begin to fray at the edges. The deeper into the gloom they go, the less lustrous yellow they appear. By the time a ribbon wraps around the kitsune's ankle, it has dulled to a brownish-grey in hue.
And maybe the fox-girl would sneer at the weakened ribbon and kick it away, if it weren't for the fact that her tails are suddenly on fire.
Ayana lets out a loud, "YELP!" of pain and surprise as the fire catches along her furry fluff. Mami's ribbon tightens around her ankle, and she is tugged bodily away. The fox-girl drops Grandpa towards the ground as she is lifted into the air.
And then she gets angry.
"STILL NIGHT!"
"Vorbereit. Aktivieren."
The gem gleaming from Ayana's choker transforms, growing until it is a sturdy hammer, head shaped like a fox's face and ears.
Ayana swipes the hammerhead at the ribbon, shattering the weakened strand, and drops to the ground. "How dare you interrupt my meal! FOXFIRE!" she yells, and sends a burning blaze of black-purple haze streaking towards each of them.
The incoming foxfire elicits a loud "WHOA" from Mami as she reflexively uses a ribbon as a grapple to get away from the haze, landing on top of Hikawa Shrine's roof. "Okay, now you're gonna have to be taught a lesson!" she says - as though the whole 'tails on fire' thing isn't doing some teaching.
But Mami also knows this is a shrine and she doesn't want to ruin it, so she improvises something, quickly. When she generates a ring of guns this time, they're loaded with a different type of round. She has to get in close to do any real damage - but hopefully this magical equivilent of rock salt rounds will get the fox's attention. She swings back in, firing away.
The moment Mars sees that Grandpa has been dropped to the ground, she leaps from her perch upon the gateway and runs straight for him. When firefire starts coming at her, Mars holds up her arm and swings it down before bringing it forward, flames starting at her wrists and spreading to her elbow and upper arm as she moves. The gathered Marsfire is flung at the foxfire, meeting it in midair and exploding into an inferno that both falls to the ground and rages upwards, creating a defensive wall of fire. Which Mars then runs through.
She dips down as she reaches Grandpa Hino, arms moving to scoop him up, Mars not really caring if she loses a bit of energy from being too close to Ayana. Pushing herself physically and magically against the drain, she super-leaps over the shrine's walls with her grandpa in tow.
On the other side of the wall, she takes a moment to adjust Grandpa to make sure he's alright, if very much asleep, before standing up again. Her hands become fists. She is infuriated. That fox girl is so getting chastised.
Grandpa is fine. He's going to be a little tired for a day or two, but he'll recover, especially if Rei brings her friends over to dote upon him and hug him and wish him well.
Foxfire doesn't stand a chance next to marsfire. Rei's powerful wall simply destroys Ayana's incoming attack, and blinds the fox-girl from her actions. Unfortunately, Mami is not out of her sight.
Ayana bounds up to a tree, up to a gateway, and then leaps across to meet Mami mid-swing. The rock-salt rounds tear at her skin, and Ayana yelps in pain and anguish, but she tackles Mami into a grapple, consuming the Puella in her gloom.
"Gloom Blade!" the kitsune calls out, and all of the energy she's drained from Grandpa, Rei, and Mami coalesce into a cloud of razor-sharp knives all slashing at Mami from a terrifyingly close range.
Mami lets out a cry of anguish as the unwelcome blades dig into her, the pain distracting her for a moment - but Mami grits her teeth even as the blades slash through her - because she doesn't feel pain like a real person would.
Now that the Fox is in so close, Mami's not throwing away the opprotunity, and ribbons snake from her outfits, up her wrists, aiming to hold her tight. Why would Mami want to be in close like this?
Because if she's held like that, there's no way Ayana can dodge, either, and the fox-girl is held between Mami and Sailor Mars. And though the blades are cutting into her and she's dangerously in the gloom, she angrily manages to shout out. "BURN HER!"
When Mars jumps back over the wall, she sees Ayana getting dangerously close to Mami. Fire covers her hands, and she internally regrets being forced to leave Mami to deal with the foxgirl alone even for a moment... but now that she's here and Grandpa isn't she's a lot more free to act openly.
Mars puts her hands together, making a fingergun that acts as a focal point for all of her gathering flames. The flames compress and solidify into a single magical point, a tight ball of burning eneryg. She shouts, "Fire... SOUL!" and unleashes the spell.
The tightly packed fireball flies in a corkscrew pattern towards Ayana's back, exploiting the fact that Mami probably has her pinned to get a more direct shot at Ayana's back. Upon impact, the fireball explodes, raging flames trying to cover Ayana from behind.
Ayana doesn't quite realize her predicament. She gladly continues pouring energy into those blades, even as Mami begins wrapping her in ribbons. It's not until Mami calls to Sailor Mars her plan that Ayana realizes the trouble she is in, but by then it's too late.
Fire engulfs the fox from head to toe. Ears, hair, back, tails, and legs are all consumed by flame, and the foxgirl yelps in profound anguish.
And then she vanishes. Mami's ribbons go slack, and then fall back atop her, slowly burning to crisps. Rei's fire dissipates.
And there's no sign of the evil fox-girl.
Twenty meters to the side, a black-furred fox emerges running full tilt into the woods, tails and back and ears all still glowing with embers from the painful fire. They'll be put out soon by the wind and her latent ability to draw energy, but so badly suffering, the kitsune makes her retreat.
Mami's singed ribbons vanish into the air as the one she was holding is gone. At the very least, Mami is unaware that anything happened other than immolation of her opponent, and she steps back and sighs. "Another youma."
Then she wipes her brow - not from just tiredness but from being so close to Rei's fire - even with Ayana in the way and it just being that brief moment it felt like sticking her head in an oven!
She walks over and thrusts out her hand at Sailor Mars. "Thank you for the help." After all, she doesn't know that was Rei's grandfather!
Once Ayana runs away, Mars frowns at the empty space she once occupied. "... I've seen that girl before." She isn't sure what it is she just saw, but something makes her think that might not be the end of it.
She doesn't notice the little fox scurying away, but she does notice a few ravens flying up and out of the fox's path. She turns to see the animal, but she doesn't make the connection. To her it's just another animal scared away by the flames.
Without Mars's energy to sustain them, the magical flames begin to die down and disappate. She smiles as Mami reaches out with her hand. Mars accepts it and gives it a shake, bowing slightly to Mami as she says, "And thank you! I'm not sure where-- that poor old man would be if you weren't here. I guess we both showed up at the right time!"
Mami nods and shakes her hand. Bowing back, even. "I am Mami Tomoe." she says, nodding as they break the shake-bow. She looks down at her magical uniform - which looks like it was run through a paper shredder nearlty - sighs, and de-henshins, leaving her in a pink sweater, black skirt, and high boots with stockings.
"You don't have to drop your henshin - I know how it is with you girls. Mine just was barely protecting my modesty after that youma! I would just like to know a name I can call you, if that's alright?"
Mars blinks at Mami's dropped henshin, and then looks at her civillian uniform. "Ah... haha, I suppose not everyone cares about that. I still kindof have to keep mine a secret, though." Really, as bad as Mami's henshin was, Mars can't really blame her for not wanting to say like that.
Mars's name is asked, and she responds with, "Sailor Mars. I'm one of the Sailor Senshi. Could I have a name for you, too? A nickname is fine."
After all, even if Mars can see what she looks like out of henshin, the other girl might still have something to protect.
Mami giggles a little bit. "I don't really keep a secret ID. I've got nobody to protect." she says, and there's a moment of sadness she stuffs down deep beneath her 'senpai' image. "So you can just call me Tomoe-san. Everybody does. Well, either that or Tomoe-senpai."
"Mars-san. It's good to meet one of the Sailor Senshi." she adds. "That was pretty impressive. I've been hearing a little bit about what's going on - word travels in Virtue."
Mars, intuitive as she is... picks up on something that maybe Mami didn't intend to betray. She frowns thoughtfully at the other girl, but she doesn't ask or call her out on it. That wouldn't be very nice.
"Oh, you're with Virtue?" Mars nods. "I think I recall a Tomoe-san in Virtue. That must be you, right?" The fire senshi looks her over, wondering. Is she really a 'senpai'? She looks a little older than Mars, true. Maybe a year at best. 'Senpai' certainly fits.
Rei considers, for a moment, breaking off with Mami and going back to her business, but... something about the other girl seems a bit... lonely. Mars glances towards the place where she left her grandpa, and then glances towards the place where she left her groceries. When she turns back to Mami, she laughs a bit awkwardly.
"This is kindof strange to admit..." Is it really okay to trust this girl? She's with Virtue after all... "Um... I actually live here. Would you... like to come in for tea, or something?"
Mami nods a bit. "Yeah, I've been quite busy until recently... but it's good to be back in Tokyo." she says.
"Oh, you do?" Mami says in response to Mars admitting her place of residence. "Well, that makes me extra glad I didn't shoot holes in the pavement!" she says. "I didn't want to damage a shrine, but it would've been even more rude to do it to your home!" she adds, emphatically. Then she looks to where Rei's eyes wander.
"So then you know him..." she says, nodding to the unconscious old man "...I guess?" Then she looks over at the glance and sees the groceries and the story all adds up. And then there's tea.
"Well, I won't ever deny hospitality." she says. She's trying to hide how excited she is. She might be doing a good enough job, if she wasn't trying to hide it from Sailor Mars.