10th Recipe - The Freezer

[starofpleiades]

Characters: Kazumi and You!
Setting: Floor Sixty Kitchen, Floor One Hundred Memory, any other floors
Format: Either
Summary: Kazumi ends up exposed to the dark mist and loses it... violently.
Warnings: Violence, death

[It was... cold. She'd given up yelling an hour ago. Kazumi was confident though that someone would notice she was taking too long and come check on her. Then she'd be able to get their attention. But for now, she was alone, waiting inside of the walk-in freezer. After all she'd talked about keeping others safe, falling into it herself...

It was just her and... the voices.]

[Floor Sixty]

[Perhaps you came here looking for Kazumi, or by chance, or maybe you just smelled the food burning in the oven and boiling over on the stove. In any case, you're just in time: right as you enter the kitchen, there's a loud noise, followed by a flash of light as the door to the walk-in freezer goes flying off, crashing around the room violently propelled by a beam of pure energy.]

Limiti Esterni!

[As the dust settles, a small, slim figure comes walking out of the freezer: Kazumi in her magical girl outfit, staff upheld in one hand, the other adjusting the brim of her large pointed hat.]

I won't... fail this time.

[Floor One Hundred]

[The normally empty hall is already filled with someone's memories: a large, empty hall, cold and silent, lined with the bodies of tagged girls. In the center is a seal, dozens of dark and sullied soul gems sitting on top of it. And before that seal stands a lone figure.]

[Other]

[After the above two events, Kazumi can be seen rampaging around both in partial and full witch forms on various levels of the tower. Final rights go to eternallilly though.]

Comments

Floor Sixty, after one hour of being in normal floors.

[tohko_amano]

[Tohko, upon hearing what the fog did to people and promising to help Mihli rescue people, had been running up and down floors, trying to help pull people down. She had managed to ignore the voice in her head laughing about her dead world fairly well.

However, she couldn't ignore the smell of burning food coming from floor sixty. Rushing in, she saw Kazumi in-what Tohko assumed-was her magical girl uniform.]

Kazumi! I'm glad to see you're alright. Look, we have to get to the cafeteria. This fog affects people psychologically, and if we don't get back and rest, we're going to get hurt.

[starofpleiades]

I, I can't rest. Not now. I have to stop them...

[Kazumi looked in Tohko's direction, but it was clear she barely even saw the girl. She was well into her third hour already, and the voices of despair filled her ears]

[tohko_amano]

[Tohko sighed and held out her hand.]

Kazumi..you can't stop them alone..and it's necessary to take breaks when you're doing something important. We have to both get out of here and rest before we can keep helping people, or these floors are going to drive us insane!

[starofpleiades]

[The girl shook her head]

No, it's my responsibility. Because of me... Satomi, Kaoru... for all their sakes, I have to put an end to this.

[She starts to strides forwards, towards the stairs]

[tohko_amano]

Kazumi..how are you planning on putting an end to this fog? What are you going to do?

[Tohko followed Kazumi as she spoke. She wasn't going to let her friend just march off alone!]

[starofpleiades]

Fog?

[She wasn't even seeing the fog. No, she had to go back there... at that time, if she could have saved them...]

I have to stop them from fighting...

[tohko_amano]

Kazumi, right now, no one is fighting.

[starofpleiades]

Not yet but... it's going to happen. Saki will be here soon and then Satomi...

[Reaching the stairs, she starts to ascend]

I won't let this tragedy happen!

[tohko_amano]

[Tohko ran after Kazumi and tried to put a hand on her shoulder, both to hold her back and calm her down.]

Kazumi, please, calm down! The tragedy won't happen! Your friends are already here..but you can't help pull them out of the fog unless you calm down and rest!

[starofpleiades]

[The girl shrugged her off, violently, but when she turned to face her, there were tears in her eyes]

How do you know!? How can you say that!? Saki, Saki already... if I don't want that to happen again, if I don't want to fail them again... I have to move forwards!

let's go on and start this witch fight, sob. Floor 75 sound good for it?

[eternallily]

[Saki hadn't gotten there in time. That much was on her conscience. She'd thought Kazumi would be okay, that she'd be shielded. So that moment when she'd seen that witch, her heart felt like it stopped for a moment.

...there wasn't any time to think about it. There was only one thing to do. And so Saki ran after Kazumi, chasing the witch down to the biggest open area she could find.]

[starofpleiades]

[The witch's serpentine form flew from the stairs out into the open of that wide area, circling around the tower and coming back, hissing at Saki's approach and bringing her long, flowing arms.]

SssAaaAa kiiiI...

[eternallily]

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry...this is my fault. And there's only one thing I can do, because I can't bring you back from this.

[Saki's already transformed. No sense putting that off. All she can do now is attack, even if she calls out the name with a shaky voice:]

Pietra di Tuono!

[There comes her lightning yo-yos. Whatever hesitation was in her voice translates to her initial attack. It's hesitant, leaving her a little more open than she should be.

[starofpleiades]

[The witch twists and easily dodges between those strikes, lunging towards Saki. At the last second though, she shoots upwards, striking with her tail instead to send the girl flying]

[eternallily]

[It works to send her flying, and Saki hits the ground hard after. But that also seems to knock the truth into her: she can't be hesitant here. Otherwise, she dies and a lot more people die with her.

When she gets back on her feet, the lightning strikes she sends out are in a zigzag pattern, never quite in the same place twice, and are a lot less tentative than before.

She can apologize later. Now, there's only one path.]

[starofpleiades]

[The witch hisses and twists, almost like she was dancing with the lightning. She can't be quite as swift as it though, and its jagged edges score across her skin, sizzling burns and a shriek of pain, distorted an unreal but disturbingly human underneath.]

[eternallily]

Kazumi--!

[No. No. That's not Kazumi, Saki has to remind herself, as she sends out a second batch of those lightning bolts. It used to be her. But it's not now.

She speeds up now, letting her hair down a little bit. It's better to make this quicker.]

Pietra di Tuono!

[No hesitance this time as those stronger lightning yo-yos come out, looking to strike immediately after.]

[starofpleiades]

[The witch twists about, batting away the lightning, hissing in pain as it makes contact. As those balls of lightning come flying at it, its fanged mouth opens wide a beam of destructive magic blasts forth from it, blasting one away entirely before the other strikes its body, sending it writhing back with another shriek of pain]

[eternallily]

[That beam of magic knocks Saki back and to the ground again when it hits her lightning, but she grits her teeth and shakes it off. She needs to make this quicker, she tells herself, speeding up even more.

This time, she runs forward, trying to pin the witch against the center tower with her lightning. She sends a bolt down her riding crop, aiming for the witch's center of gravity.]

[starofpleiades]

[Fast, so fast. The witch is starting to have trouble keeping up now as it twists and turns, trying to reach out and swipe out at Saki with its claws. It cries out as that lightning hits it dead on, sending it flying back to hit the tower, but its tail lashes out at the same time, reaching to try to ensnare Saki or at least hit her]

Floor 100

[beknightedheroine]

Sayaka hadn't stepped a toe out of line into the hundredth floor, not before now - that hazy, lingering-last false memory she had of the tower before and five years from now rang warning bells: no, Sayaka, don't go here. The fact that it's substantially less empty today is the bells' second ring, but -

But she can feel ice ebbing down from her shoulders and making spidery cold crystals in her veins, and it's all due to one idle glimpse. When she sees the unmistakable form of soul gems - tens, dozens, more soul gems than she's sure there's Puella Magi she's met - Sayaka abandons her station on the staircase and invades the eerie hallway, bent on reaching the middle. It doesn't take a genius to figure out these unconscious girls are the owners of the gems. Why is this here now? What is it?! The person that might be able to answer is just right over there, so--

"Hey! What the hell is this?"

[starofpleiades]

The figure in the center turned; it was Kazumi, in her normal clothes, but far from her normal mood. There was a gloom, a darkness about her, something unshakably broken. Not only the look in her eyes, but the creeping, swirling vines of darkness that crawled across her skin, up her neck, along her cheek.

"So, you came," she said, her voice distant and haunted. "Welcome to my barrier."

As she said those words, arcane circles appeared in the air, along the walls, behind Sayaka, shimmering in the dim light.

"Welcome to The Freezer."

Floor One Hundred

[onhigh]

[Madoka spots the dark glow of the Soul Gems from the stairway, and the sight forces her to abandon her caution and run full-force towards the figure standing before them.]

Kazumi-chan!?

[She doesn't even spot the bodies until she's within a few feet of Kazumi herself, she's so focused on those gems. Not here, no, this can't happen here, I have to stop it are running through her head. She's only been wandering around for an hour, so she hasn't lost her senses quite yet, but it's enough to make her forget for a moment what this floor is supposed to do.]

You have to move away from those, Kazumi-chan!

[starofpleiades]

[Kazumi turned, looking over at Madoka with a haunted gaze, and slowly shook her head.]

Stop. If you come any closer, I'll break the barrier on them and they'll all become witches.

[onhigh]

[Madoka stops where she is, glancing slowly between the gems and Kazumi.]

...Why would you do that, Kazumi-chan? What's going on?

[This is wrong. She doesn't know why or how, but something about this is entirely not the way it should be.]