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

[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]

[eternallily]

[Saki's fast, but she's just distracted enough trying to avoid those claws that when the witch's tail lashes out, it catches her right up. She lets out a scream as they hit the tower together, but she's not going to try and get out.

If this is how it ends, she thinks as she musters all her strength to bring lightning down onto both of them, at least Saki knows they'll come back together.]

[starofpleiades]

[The witch shrieks and hisses, squeezing Saki tightly between her coils, reaching down with clawed fingers to tear at her]

SssaaKIIii...

[And then her cries turn to a shriek of pain as that pillar of lightning comes crashing down on them both, the intense magic ripping through the witch's body, tearing it apart with electricity and time]

Saakii... everyoNe..

[eternallily]

It's...it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay.

[Saki just keeps repeating that, even as she lets that lightning crash down, lets the time speed up even further. It hurts, yes. But it's better this way, she thinks, reaching out to the witch's core, crushing it in her hand as the magic tears her own body apart. If she has to sacrifice herself to stop a witch? Here, where she knows they come back? It's not a hard choice.]

[starofpleiades]

[Those shrieks twist, turn, soften, becoming cries, not of a monster, but of a hurt, confused girl, a few last tears as that lightning tears apart its body, opening her up, exposing that core. And then, one final spasm and burst of movement as that core is crushed and finally her struggles cease as her body is washed away in light and lightning]