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Hibiki Tachibana LAST TIME:

    The Elites met Starlit, a somewhat eccentric new researcher at S.O.N.G. that Hibiki had a chance meeting with before, and who seems to have a vested interest in her in return. To mend Hibiki's Symphogear, she intends to take advantage of a recent incident in which the cursed sword Relic Tsumukari Muramasa shattered into countless fragments during a failed test, only to be absorbed by Noise drawn to the event.

    Her working plan is a (theoretically) simple two-birds-one-stone; defeat these Noise and recover the shards of Tsumukari Muramasa. And with Hibiki's affinity to Relics created by Sengo Muramasa, use them as compatible repair materials for Gungnir.

    At least one group of the 'samurai Noise' birthed through this fusion are still located at the hilltop shrine that the test took place at, half-destroyed and evacuated - thus, they'll be the first opponents in this quest. On the sakura-strewn battlefield, the gathered warriors must overcome the curse of misfortune that these monsters seem to have inherited... or perhaps, came to personify.

    ...

NOW:

    One might wonder where the Noise are, but it's not hard to guess why they're not instantly noticeable on entering; as was said before, solid matter means nothing to them.

    Out from the earth, through walls, and even straight through the still-shut doors of the main building, looming black-and-crimson figures, bearing massive blades for arms and flared headcrests calling to mind the same ornamentation you'd find on kabuto helmets, slowly emerge upon detecting foes...

    Extradimensional in form and malleable in body, Noise take many shapes by default. Tadpole-esque beasts crawling on four legs, humanoids with strange appendages for limbs, sleek jet-like fliers, towering giants, and dozens more types besides... but the most succinct way to describe these ones compared to the norm might be 'jacked', with 7-foot tall and wide-shouldered silhouettes that honestly do invite comparisons to their namesake. The huge swords that extend from their forearms are viciously sharp, leaving no doubt to their lethality even discounting the Noise's ability to turn organic matter to carbon.

    "Here they are. It seems as if they were almost waiting for us to come to them."

    Starlit seems unperturbed, but being a non-combatant, stands back as the twenty-or-so-strong creatures lurch into the shrine courtyard, unnaturally not disturbing the fallen petals underfoot as they do so. "Such unusual behavior certainly lends to the theory of them embodying what they've absorbed."

    "...I still dunno how I feel about Noise that might be... 'testing' us, or anything close." Hibiki exhales, trying (and sort of failing) to get a handle on the sword that Sarracenia handed her, momentarily stabbing it into the ground as the Noise appearing predictably puts her on edge. "...They're just monsters."
Hibiki Tachibana     Pulling her pendant free from inside her jacket though, she hesitates for a moment, grimacing down at it in her palm. "...Can't take power greater than your own..." Murmuring an echo of Hiromi's words, her focus shifts to the Archwolf and then forward again, still somewhat pensive. At least until Starlit pats her on the shoulder.

    "Gungnir is damaged, yes - but it's not broken. One battle shouldn't do any serious harm, so don't make that face! Still, as much of a gallant figure you cut while fighting, try to take it easy. You have all of your friends here for a reason."
    "I... ...do. Yeah. I won't push it."
    "Good! Then I'll leave you to it-- and good luck~!"
    "...Right. Then... Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron--!"

    The explosion of golden light that covers Hibiki's body and then explodes outwards leaves her clad in her Symphogear, sighing into her scarf - and at the same time, the amassed Noise around them all briefly pause, brightening in color and contrast and immediately seeming more 'grounded'; like Starlit mentioned, the presence of a Symphogear seems to 'tune' them and limit their dimensional shenanigans. But their pause is indeed only brief. If anything, they take that as the official declaration to begin battle rather than simply forming up and menacing.

    The ones at the forefront cross their blade-arms in front of each other, buckling their knees and bracing before charging forth! They're quicker than their size implies, now sending the blossoms scattered across the ruined shrine courtyard flying as they rush to plainly run down the assembled Elites! It's a straightforward enough way of closing the distance, but...

    "Remember! Try to minimize body-to-body physical contact, unless it means landing a good hit! And watch out for anything going wrong!"

    Starlit's warning shouted from the back (with hands cupped around her mouth) is a good reminder; attempting to dodge will inexplicably end up with your feet knocking against themselves or another nearby ally, threatening to trip you. Something like sword-to-sword clashing will have your weapon at risk of being blown away from the impact, as if your grip was much looser than you thought it was.

    And someone like Petra might be better off forming a weapon out of morphmetal on the spot than retrieving from her mirror - or she might be at risk of somehow, annoyingly, pulling it out by the /edge/ rather than the hilt.

    In other words: if anything could possibly go amiss, expect it to. Anyone with the magical senses for it would be able to tell this place is /steeped/ in utterly rancid vibes. Fun!

    Fight!
Kukuru "It doesn't look like a lotta people got caught by these Noises." Kukuru comments, nodding slowly in agreement with Starlit's assessment about the Noise waiting for Hibiki and company to show up. "There's a whooole bunch of stuff lying around, but not a lot of..."

She snaps her fingers a few times to jar her memory. "... Ash. You and Petra said something about that before, riiight? Like everyone working here got out in a jiffy, or because the Noise let them go." She concludes, eyes darting from discarded brooms to dropped papers and open doors.  

Her gaze soon resettles on the jacked Noise, and then Kukuru's usual smile comes back. "Or maybe they're just kinda slow and didn't wanna chase them. That's fine, too... Aaanyway. If it's a test for Hibiki and everyone here-"

Kukuru steps forward as Hibiki's Symphogear appears on her, the flash of light contrasting with the purple cloud that appears in front of Kukuru briefly as she shoves her hands in and withdraws them for dramatic effect. Nothing about her appears to have changed, though, since she already had her claws on.

"-then let's make sure to do real good. Stay close if you're hurt, dears." Speaking more calmly than she usually does, Kukuru's clearly trying something new as her demeanor shifts to a more stern one. As the frontmost Noise charge forward, Kukuru raises her arms above and slightly behind her, perhaps looking somewhat silly as she looks like someone trying to intimidate a bear or something by looking as tall and large as possible.

The claws being the size of her torso might lend credence to that, too, but the real purpose of doing so becomes apparent as the first wave of Noise makes contact with the assembled Elites. Hearing Starlit's warning, Kukuru moves to intercept the charging blades with a massive downwards slam of her claws on the first ones to reach her. Whether she makes contact with the Noise or not, there's bound to be a small crater and explosion of dust in front of Kukuru once her claws hit the ground in front of her regardless of what's in their way.
Sarracenia      '...I still dunno how I feel about Noise that might be... 'testing' us, or anything close....They're just monsters.'

     Sarracenia eyes the incoming Noise as she pulls her still shattered hammer from her purse. It is basically an iron-bound staff now. "One should not assume the intelligence of a creature based on whether it is a 'monster'. I grew up with a 'monster' as my butler. And even if these are just monsters, it is always possible they are still being lead by something or someone."

     Sarra watches Hibiki struggling with the sword and sighs softly, though it seems to be at herself. "...if the sword is a hinderance rather than a help...feel free to discard it. I will pick it back up once we have won."

     Hibiki calls up her Symphogear, triggering the charge. Sarra charges right in to meet them, going into a graceful spin. Her black dress billows outward elegantly, and as it does Silver flows around her in the air. Some of it forms up on her broken hammer, making it temporarily whole. The rest forms a swirling storm of silver petals to match the cherry blossom petals. It doesn't keep Sarra from taking a hit from one of those swords, but it does promise razor-like petals of silver perforating the Noise that do get close to her, followed by a heavy hammer blow.
Tamiel Luxis     Tamiel was mostly in the back during the explanations, fidding with the shards of her own wings. She tuned her wings, listening for a prayer that could tell her about the noise, but all she heard was the crying of a cat who'd nearby who'd never been fed in a thousand thousand years. An afternoon, Tamiel corrected, shutting her thoughts.

    It didn't tell her anything about the Noise, but. At least S.O.N.G. was right. They were contained. Not hurting anyone. But with every step they drew closer, she felt...It. Like her wings were trailing through sewage. ""It's in the air...All this...Misfortune..."

    "I may have an idea to deal with that. I'll need a little bit of cover. The shrine's energies are meant to keep that at bay, I should be able to draw that out."

    "I'll help...I can try to keep it off of you while it works.."

    "Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron--!"

    Tamiel took a deep breath, shadow coiling in rivulets around--swallowing her whole. In contrast to Hibiki's twinned light, its the darkness retreating that revealed Tamiel's own outfit, with its own floating, iridescent scarf.

    Tamiel stayed near Audrey, her wing-shards quivering. She seized one from the air, planting it firmly into the ground at Audrey's feet. It shone a brilliant gold, pressing against the heavy weight of the curse. The glow coalesed into a small bubble, encompassing Tamiel, Audrey and anyone in their immediate vicinity.

    But Tamiel was breathing hard, already. There was so MUCH. She pulled her quarterstaff from its place on her back, hidden in her little shelter. "The curse is so...So heavy. Please work fast."
Audrey Basque     In retrospect, Audrey should have come dressed for combat. Thankfully, they're at a shrine! It's not huge, but it'll make up for it a bit. She just needs a little bit of time, and preferably a bit of cover.

    Of course, she has to stare and gawk a bit when Hibiki transforms. It's like a magical girl and a mecha, of course it's cool! The warning to minimize body contact does kind of mean she can't stare too long, though, and she's reminded grimly that she's wearing clothes she didn't thread.

    Noise is already rushing at them.

    Audrey seizes the space around her, compressing it into protective sphere. The Noise that comes charging at her charges-- and charges, and charges, and can't penetrate the layers of stacked distance. Audrey takes a step back regardless, an involuntary reflex to being attacked she still can't fully suppress. The ambient bad luck means she trips back, but thankfully her bubble will keep her from being reached all the same.

    Getting back up would be too slow. She refracts herself, passing through mirrored cracks and thumping down further ahead, closer to the center of the shrine. Gives her time to get back up, pretend that didn't just happen, and start tugging at the shrine's boundaries a bit.

    "Hmm... not neglect. The sword really was too cursed? Terrible, but... manageable. Yes, I think I can... I'll just need some cover!"

    To no one in particular, but she's already got multiple volunteers! Riku, a shield from Tamiel... it'll do. This is a terrible time for multitasking.

    She starts by pressing gravity down. The nearing Noise should feel themselves pulled down and crushed into the ground; it's simple, but it's easy to do. Buys a bit more time, too.
Petra Soroka "I think you might just be the kind of girl who needs to be watched over,"

    Petra smirks at Starlit, slipping her hand from her hip into her hoodie pocket. "You catch on *fast*, huh?"

    It doesn't escape her notice, though that Starlit's continual commenting on the ways she observes Hibiki to be or act are a level beyong just normal 'wanting to be friends'. She can't fault a researcher for wanting to study her in some way, and Petra is far from blameless when it comes to obsessiveness over Hibiki Tachibana's boundaries, but she's certainly *noticing* the trend with Starlit's behavior.

"Would you like to swap notes sometime?"

    Petra nods, considering pulling out a ratbot for a demonstration, but figuring time's ran a little short with the temple visible ahead of them. "Hell yeah. I actually don't know anything about how Symphogears work, like, technologically, since obviously Hibiki's got nothing to say about *that*. Feel free to hit me up on the radio whenever."

"...I still dunno how I feel about Noise that might be... 'testing' us, or anything close."

    "I don't know if it really changes anything. I mean, they *are* just monsters."

    Petra shrugs off the Eggpack, holding Angela's backpack by one strap so that she isn't lumbering around with it during fight. Rather than prepping for the battle in any sensible way, her unknowingly-final moments of competent dexterity and luck are spent carefully setting down Angela, screen facing out, in a decent position to spectate, on top of one of the concrete steps to the shrine.

    "I figure it's way more of a property of the *sword* that's testing us *through* them. Like they're embodying the will of Tsumukari Muramasa. Which doesn't actually change anything, but maybe you can be a little less weird about it."

    She spares a glance over to Hibiki hesitantly looking at her cracked pendant, and twists her lips in what could almost be sympathy. "Whether or not you're up to transforming, Hibiki, take it easy. You did already-- so let me take a little bit more of the effort on this one."

    She turns to Audrey while Hibiki transforms, spinning a plastic-looking black gun covered in tubes, with a canister sticking out of the bottom, around one finger. "Hey, do you wanna see something cool?"

    Petra raises the transteam gun above her head, pulls the trigger, and emphatically says "Vaporize."


    She stands there for a moment in that pose while absolutely nothing happens. Rapidly turning pink, she brings her hand down to hastily inspect the gun, waggling the trigger frantically. "C-come on-- I-I swear this never happens. Ever since the-- ever since the Union Busan, it's been... come on, just... stupid fucking...."

    And then, belatedly, the gun blares out SILVER in a gritty synthesized voice, abruptly spewing out sparkling black fog that engulfs Petra. It sounds out twice more with MIST MATCH! STING SILVER! before exploding off of her, leaving her clad in Kamen Rider armor. Sleek and black, with hexagon eyes on the mask and sickly-yellow glowing honeycomb patterns across the chest, the suit of armor has taloned gloves with a constant stream of morphmetal running off of its fingers from the rivulets dripping down its shoulders.

    Petra awkwardly clears her throat, slightly distorted by the mask. "Anyways. It *is* cool."

    Hoisted by her own petard, Petra's own theory on the Noise patiently testing the sword-strength of Tsumukari Muramasa's next prospective wielder forces her to do one particular thing. Silver slides down her arms and accumulates in the palms of each of her gauntlets, stretching out into two similar swords of different lengths-- a katana, and a wakizashi. Propulsors on her calves thrum with energy that launches her forwards with the two blades crossed in front of her, slicing through the first Noise she charges at.
Riku Asakura '...Can't take power greater than your own...'

"Standing around doing nothing won't get us anywhere!" he says, responding to Hibiki's doubt about her cracked locket.  "It's the way I do things," he says and flashes her a smile as Starlit gives her an overview of the situation and her encouragement.  

'...Right. Then... Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron--!'

Riku brings the Geed Riser to his chest and grabs one of the capsules.  "You go!" he says and produces one with a Blue Ultraman on it.  Beside him, a ghostly version of an Ultraman appears.  "I go!" he does this again, with a separate capsule, and a different blue Ultraman appears.  "Here we go!" he says and scans each capsule with the Fusion Riser.  "I'll show you something shocking!"

"GEEEEEEEEEEEEED!" he shouts out and pulls the trigger on the Fusion Riser and starts being covered in a blue fire.  

ULTRAMAN HIKARI
ULTRAMAN COSMOS

ULTRAMAN GEED - ARCO SMASHER!

When the blue fire clears, Geed stands there instead of Riku.  However, Geed is blue and silver instead of red and silver.  Normal sized he stands between Audrey and the Noise.  Tripped up by their first attack, he falls to the ground and is forced to flip back to his feet.  Shaking the strange sensation from their hit-off, he instead decides to stay back and fires a blast of blue energy at the line of Noise.  

The energy attempts to not only hurt them but break up their lines so they can't coordinate as well as they were trying to earlier.  
Hiromi     Hiromi isn't here to take on all of Hibiki's problem. In fact, she might be more interested in creating problems. In fact, she's definitely more interested in seeing magical fighting girls struggle than in defeating their villains.

    She is also, fortunately for most involved, here to fight, and any enemy that approaches to test her must be tested, in turn. Having heard that being touched by them tends to turn people to ash, that's the very first thing she tests -- by stomping in the direction of the nearest Noise and raising her hands. Things break when she walks, tripping hazards and slips abound, but she pushes through. The motion of her fingers is almost casual, when the sword comes from her, as if waving it off.

    The noise is that of a giant striking steel against stone. It is a terrible sound, for which few swordsmen would wish.

    She inspects the damage with silent, even interest, skin not cut by the blow that made contact, blackened, and falling away, revealing the raw flesh and blood beneath. She stretches her fingers, and it all regrows in a moment, only the blood below the injury proving that it had ever happened. The second strike cannot be far behind, but the black claws erupt from her skin, more like metal than bone, the moment before. The next impact is much like the first, by ear.

    "Not enough. Come. What drives you? What worth is tested? Can you bite? Will you drink?" Though her return strike comes with something that is, ostensibly, part of her own body, it shows none of the same damage when struck or striking. The staggering weight of each blow, none allowing for something like a blade lock, may have some little amount to do with that.

    Hiromi's attention is split, but more with her own ears. Hibiki still has her attention. Audrey, in calling for aid, with Tamiel answering, now do, too.
Petra Soroka "I grew up with a 'monster' as my butler."

    "Yeah, and look how you turned out."

    Sting Silver skids to a halt after strashing through a Noise, boots throwing up sparks. Because Petra is relentlessly impatient, and the Silver's warrior-spirit pseudoconsciousness facilitates this, she's already shifting styles. The wakizashi melts away and the resulting morphmetal coils around her torso, forming a sheathe on her belt for her to slide the katana into.

    Then she sighs. "Sorry. I shouldn't say that. Gregory's fine."

"It's in the air...All this...Misfortune..."

    In a notably tactically-unsound way, Petra immediately talks over Tamiel when she notices her. "Oh my god, Playbrick Cuck's here. Have you been here this whole time? I literally didn't notice."

    She was here this whole time! Petra just has selective vision to exclude wallflowers, except for people like Sophia, who she'll strongly defend for no particular reason.

"I'll just need some cover!"

    "On it!"

    Of course Petra isn't going to entrust Audrey's safety to Riku and *Tamiel*. She doesn't even consider them factors to consider, but when her boot catches in a crack in the stone right as she tries to propel herself upwards, she might not have any choice. She stumbles forwards forcefully, barely keeping herself from faceplanting by falling to one knee while the Noise start to congregate around her. "A-ah-- hold on a sec, actually."
Xion Last Time...

'I remember this scent, Hero.' Was spoken to Xion by an enormous dark-furred wolf, just short of contact between giant nose and the top of her head. Standing in place, in awe, Xion stands firm in receiving the gesture without a scrap of fear in her. She had touched the Archwolf's heart before and had not felt unwelcome in her presence, and so this time, it is like being welcomed back into that space.

Breathed in, Xion's small bangs fall down and settle about her face, a faint smile on her lips. "I'm glad. I definitely remember you too. You're completely unforgettable,"

The noirette Nobody looks up, and sees the moving jaw of the wolf and 'hears', and her hazy understanding lets her half-lidded decision feel right. This is normal! Really, she'd rather Hiromi stay around, affected by the weight of the Archwolf's presence near her.

A tremendous, weighty desire upon the world, rising with its weight. Xion certainly remembers Hiromi, exactly as she said.

This Time...

Xion snaps out of her wolf-thoughts with a hand clasped under her chin, resting against her collar. When she looks into the palm and finds Hiromi's bell-eared medallion in-hand, fully recharged, she smiles warmly down at that and then back up at the Archwolf, tucking the token into a pocket while Starlit talks to and guides Hibiki.

"She's definitely the type that needs someone watching out for her! Which is why--" Xion begins, in Hibiki's defense, before Starlit goes on to claim that Gungnir is still usable even in this scenario and that Hibiki should give it a go.

"Oh. We're just going to go for it? Maybe you really do understand Hibiki, huh, Starlit?" Xion asks, grinning. It's almost enough for her to smile happily through the background of Petra's Sting Silver transformation hitching on the greeble fumbling step. One doesn't casually judge someone else's rise! That's not cool! In fact, it's theatrically nonsensical! Only after they've completed at least one full failure cycle with pose and retry do you even get a chance to tap your foot, and then you should still allow a teary solo moment while your fumbling friend either forces their henshin or engages in some sort of beltless suicide charge! That's just how it's done! And so, warmly buzzed on the Archwolf's presence and stonefacedly ignoring her sister in suited violence's moment of lapse, Xion readies one medallion in hand - Petra's, mirrored silver. Raising up the object, an outpouring of silver flows over Xion's outfit, concentrating on upper chest and collar, shoulders, forearms, head, and boot. Glass and chrome and stylized like Sting Silver's transteam gun rigging without the undersuit, the chief bit is a stylized helmet over Xion's face as well, swooped back. . . and featuring two chrome wolf-ears, the whole outfit taking a vaguely lupine affect from Xion's current desire-headspace. Making a faint 'heheen' of self-assurance under the cover over her mask, the springing silver Xion can't fail to summon her own powers through fumbling, wading through the ill luck and sword swipes with dire certainty and an absolute precision in her timings and motions.

Feeling like it's a little funny to summon Starlight in front of Starlit, it's the first blade on her mind while she 'shwink!'-summons keyblade to hand, taking the Samurai with textbook parry-and-deflecting before sweeping around and sending a long Musou-cone lash of physical morphmetal from he edge of her keyblade as a long and hooking slash.
Hibiki Tachibana     "I'm fine," Hibiki shakes her head to Sarracenia, picking the sword back up from the ground. "If this has a chance of... playing into making Tsumukari Muramasa acknowledge us, or I'll give it a fair shot." Now that she's transformed, she has it much easier managing the weight, hefting the weapon up an then bringing it down in preparation. "...But Noise - ordinary Noise - are definitely nothing more than monsters. It's not like Gregory, or anything else. ...They only exist to kill people."

    For Hibiki Tachibana, the person who's normally all about giving out second (and third, and fourth, and seventh) chances and trying to make friends, she's awfully resolute about that much. It shows in the aggression she bursts forward with to meet one head-on-- where the initial clash ends up with Sarracenia's borrowed sword getting knocked out of the grip, arcing through the air. Hibiki grits her teeth, doubles back and leaps up to catch it - then comes down in a descending slash, that gets caught on crossed blades anyway.

    Sarracenia herself rushes in with her twirling hammer, meeting them head-on - and she finds that the storm of silver flechettes tear through their bodies well enough. While misfortune is the order of the day, a widespread enough attack like that will still rend several perforations through their strange bodies to injure them. It's when the follow-up hammer swing comes in that there's a problem--

    --in that one Noise slides in, weathering the blows to hook his blade right beneath the head of her broken weapon. With that leverage, it wrenches upwards to try and disarm her in the same way Hibiki just was - and then use its other blade to try and stab through her! Despite the speed, it's somehow aimed straight-on for her heart...!?

    Kukuru clashes with another...! But the heavy, ground-cratering strike she delivers fails to meet its mark as her target almost unnaturally slides its body out of the way. The dust dramatically covers the area around her for a moment... before the creature apparently takes a page out of her playbook, coming from an unexpected angle. It's not teleportation, but it is phasing!

    Specifically, in the commotion, it had phased through the ground - then rose back up behind her, intending to come down with a heavy slash to her back!

    Petra manages to find her mark, slicing through the Noise ahead and leaving two deep rends in its torso. It freezes up-- then lurches forward before standing tall once more and turning around. It almost seems to 'eye' her for a moment, despite not having eyes, before closing the distance again! With a companion; another of the Noise breaks off to flank her, intending to catch her from two different sides with a flurry of slashes!

    She has two blades, they have four. What will she possibly do now!?
Hibiki Tachibana     Riku's devastating Atmos Impact is, somehow, off the mark. /So/ off the mark that it goes right past the Noise and pummels into the far outer wall of the shrine, adding another smoking hole in it. The only way his luck could be worse is if he had to pay for the damages later. It /did/ however, accomplish its goal of breaking up their formation, if only because they've now wised up to not getting caught en masse by such an attack.

    Splitting apart from one another, a handful of samurai Noise move to run the Ultraman down, each with one blade outstretched to impale him through from multiple angles! Even grazing blows might be bad...

    Hiromi is possibly used to beings that show no fear, even in the face of her overwhelming presence. These Noise are included. Do they understand her queries? Do they understand her challenges? It's difficult to say; but they don't balk back. Not even upon the viciously powerful claws swinging their way, which one tries to block only to get blown off its feet.

    Another steps in to take its place, almost openly inviting testing itself again by raising both blade-arms and coming down in a hard overhead cut for the Archwolf.

    Xion is immune to bad luck!? When it comes to transforming. Even when it comes to movements. Well, skill counts for a lot in counteracting ill fortune. A classic catch-and-release saves her from an initial strike, but they have the increased misfortune of these Noise not only being unluck, but /also/ being traditionally skilled - leading to them clearing out of the path.

    The one she deflected catches itself, stomps a foot down, and shoves in for a shoulder check. An otherwise not so dangerous maneuver made deadly lethal thanks to the effect of contact with Noise - will she be able to move in time with it bearing down upon her!?

    Tamiel and Audrey have a barrier between them and the Noise, and it's effective - even as several of them slip past Riku while he's engaged to begin gouging gashes into the golden shield. To those senses, each individual Noise almost has a palpable aura of negativity and cursed energy wafting off of it... and with so many here, it comes together into a truly awful mass engulfing the entire area.

    If this isn't even all of them here, how bad was the whole blade? No wonder things ended up this way, if they were trying to return it to its full, original power.

    The unexpected gravity crush /slams/ them down, some taking a knee, and others wholesale floored. Just like with Sarracenia, 'unavoidable' or otherwise hard-to-defend-against attacks seem to be effective. Unfortunately, just like with Kukuru... several of them sink into the earth as if it weren't even there.

    Hopefully Tamiel had made that shield extend belowground, or else they're going to have visitors from below in short order. Even aboveground, the ones left begin shakily straining themselves back up... before aiming for intentional, deep stabs into the barrier. Is it... supposed to have chinks in it...?
Kukuru "...They're just monsters.
I grew up with a 'monster' as my butler.
I mean, they *are* just monsters.
...They only exist to kill people."

Kukuru breathes in slowly even as the dust comes up all around her, somewhat thankful for the visual cover. She's got some feelings about what she's hearing, but she doesn't have time to run through all that right now. She's here to help Hibiki, not go over the wounding power of words!

Plus, she's getting sliced across the back in a maneuever similar to what she'd normally use. It's certainly giving her some insights on how her own frequently-used strategy can be predictable, but reacting to it isn't quite as easy as others have made it look. Hissing as the blood spreads across her back and ruins her dress and cardigan, she dives forwards as an inky cloud appears in the ground in front of her to swallow her up not unlike the Noise disappearing into the ground from gravity suddenly intensifying around them.

Rather than coming from behind the Noise that just struck her, however, she comes back up out of the ground, claws outstretched again to try grappling with the one that happens to be her target instead. "Tell me... Can you understand me?" She speaks while trying to squeeze the armored Noise in her claws like an iron maiden. Despite her obviously violent actions, however, she tries to probe right into their heads with her own mental influence: We could be friends instead if you work with me. Wouldn't that be nicer than all this?
Tamiel Luxis     Tamiel's barrier wasn't meant to foresatall physical incursion--it was a ward against misfortune, against the creeping advance of misfortune. It was no wonder that the Noise had time to chip away at it. Stopping their advance properly wasn't ITS job.

    It was hers.

    Tamiel leapt from behind the barrier stabbing her quarterstaff forward in a hard thrust--stong enough to shatter concrete, it connected with her first target well enough, but something about her grip...slipped. It skipped from her hand, slamming into her shoulder, and flung behind her, clattering behind her somewhere admist the shrine. Another noise struck her then, a swift cut that would have burned her away to carbon dust if she'd been any unarmed human.

    But she wasn't human, and she wasn't unarmed. Though she clutched at her side, Tamiel still pushed to her feet, throwing out her hand, releasing a half-dozen shadowy lines that cut through the air, threatening to slice any of them in her way--

    --each and every single one of them skipped around the Noise. "Oh, come on..." She bit down on her lip, and raised her hand...

    ...And darkness rose out of her shadow like a tide, hoping to crushing the enroaching Noise under the. "Come on, here I am! I'm the threat..." She was favoring one side, but costumed as she was, it was difficult to see the damage. "You have to get through me..." She offered a glance back at Aubrey, eyes begging the stargazer to hurry.
Riku Asakura The samurai noise rush at Ultraman Geed, and as they do so he steps into a pile of rocks from the smashed scenery.  He's stuck there for a moment, as they rush him down.  He falls back, blades glancing against his body causing intense damage and sparks across his body.  They throw him to the ground, causing him to roll across it and land face-first in some mud.  

Groaning, he notices that Audrey and Tamiel are in danger of being impaled, and he rises to his feet again, putting a hand to his wrist, and calling forth a golden blade of light.  He dashes forward, gliding along the earth to try and intercept some of these noise aiming for the two of them.  He fears he might be too late, though!

When he gets to the closest of the noise, he lets it rip with the golden blade of light, aiming to try and tear through the noise with the weapon with a few motions of the hand, before trying to get to the next, bringing the weapon around in a wide angle, and trying to slash through them cleanly.  
Hibiki Tachibana     Which doesn't actually change anything, but maybe you can be a little less weird about it.
    Whether or not you're up to transforming, Hibiki, take it easy. You did already-- so let me take a little bit more of the effort on this one.

    "I'm kind of weird about a lot of things..." Hibiki grunts back in belated reply to Petra, exhaling as she breaks off of another blade-to-blade clash and nearly loses her grip again. She adjusts it, shaking her head to refocus. "...I know. For once, I shouldn't push it. I just don't want to /not/ do anything, either... still, um."

    In the middle of fighting against both these blade-bearing Noise and also her own feet struggling to not trip over errant debris right as she's being attacked, she still finds the time to murmur, "...Thanks for coming. Again. You didn't have to-- I mean, I know you probably feel like you had to, but you-- ...er, I should probably just leave it at thanks. I mean it. And you too for the encouragement, Ultraman."

    Petra is pretty spot on that Starlit is kind of Weird about Hibiki. She just also happens to be Weird in general apparently, which is why she's now--

    The curse is so...So heavy. Please work fast.
    Hmm... not neglect. The sword really was too cursed? Terrible, but... manageable.

    "Stay strong now. Honestly, you two might be some real 'MVPs' for this one." Was she inside the curse-warding barrier when they erected it? Probably; it's just about the technically safest place on this battlefield, between said ward and being guarded by Tamiel and Riku. As Tamiel moves to get the Noise to focus on her, it's Starlit who's taken a knee to give Audrey a few pats on the shoulder - and an offer to help her up, since it'd be faster with assistance.

    Despite the words, her tone is serious - and she's narrowing her eyes ahead. "This is probably the wrong time to say I'd love a chat with you later too, wouldn't it? Do what you have to do; I'll distract a few of them myself if it comes down to it. Although, I wonder if they'll even come after non-combatants like me...?"

    Kukuru did notice the suspicious absence of ash piles around the grounds, after all...

    Maybe you really do understand Hibiki, huh, Starlit?

    "Well, maybe a little! Certainly not as much as any of you." Starlit manages back to Xion amid the chaos, too. "But I can tell she flounders more than a little on her own, eheh. Sometimes we all just need a good push to do what we have to do, don't we?"

    She sounds a little... downcast, saying that? It barely lasts any time at all. It could even be your imagination.
Audrey Basque     Cover! She has quite a bit of it. A shield, and Riku, and bless Petra's attempt despite her luck. She's alright! Don't worry. She'd have nothing but thankful words to say but she's VERY DISTRACTED so she'll remember to after, for sure.

    But in the chaos she'd forgotten Noise can phrase through the ground, and then... pushed them into the ground.

    This really is why you don't let the amateurs fight.

    Thankfully, Audrey's (personal) barrier effect does include underneath. Not so thankfully it means when a Noise erupts underneath her and clashes into it, she yelps as she's literally swept off her feet a second time and lands flat on her back. Or... almost her back. The barrier hits the ground, not her.

    At least the Noise didn't touch her.

    "Bad luck really is terrible..."

    But to Starlit, she asides, as she's helped up: "Y-Yes! Doing my best! I'd love to talk, of course!"

    All the more reason to start working faster.

    So, first step. Jumpstart the shrine. She can expand its pull afterwards, once it actually works.

    "Bishamon, one of the Seven Lucky Gods... haaaa, fitting. Well, let's see what you can do!" She reaches down, to place her hands against the ground. A tug. Just grab onto the place, what makes it sacred, what it's meant to DO, and then... force it.

    A spark of Good Fortune.

    She forces the shrine's power out, and the immediate area around her is alight with its purpose again. It's good luck! It's victory! It's the armor-clad god of war Bishamon's domain, and it'll at least apply to Tamiel, Riku, herself, and anyone else coming on over to be closer.

    But how effective it is... she might be jumping the gun a bit early.
Xion There's no sense of hesitation or paused breath when the silver-chrome lupine armored Xion brings up her blade to check the slash from the wheeled slash of the Noise-Samurai. The intense familiarity - the drilled precision of her every motion - comes from long experience and a touchsense of the very approach of the malicious entity.

There is barely a bit of difference between Heartless and Noise except on slight shifts of root substance, and, the different shapes each took. 'Heartless monster' was in the exact category of thing that Xion could strike down without even a considered glance to pity.

Running sideways, blade trailing and hand on hip, Xion meets the motion of Samurai-Noise with strike-clash of blades, clawed bootsteps digging into the ground, scrapes like nails upon glass scratching along her pivots. The art of it shifts, moving from blade-check to dangerous shoulder-shove, and the helmeted Xion reacts to the motion one moment--

Motion's flow stops but her thoughts keep going, evaluating the swung harm-object her way in frozen clinicality. Then, 'prescient', Xion reacts to the motion as if she had seen it coming from the moment she becomes aware of it; her perfection entirely generated by the raw ability to stop, realize what's going on, and adapt to the motion. This 'frame zero' reading was how she had kept up with Lilian, during their sword duels, and using such a technique on soulless harm-constructs was perhaps mildly overkill.

However, Xion had come to ensure Hibiki got what she needed to remain herself. The challenge of an unpresent swordmaster's ill-sounding malice didn't deserve the respect given to such fictions as a 'fair fight'.

Escaping bladelock by snap-teleporting backwards a half-dozen steps for spacing, the lunge becomes an overstep for the big Noise, and the armored Xion skips the motions to re-set her stance by re-appearing from implosive shift already rearranged. Moving directly into counter-thrust, the armored Nobody's veil claws up around her in a wave of further dangerous chrome, turning her keyblade-tip lunge into a stab-and-wake-claw wave that rips across air and Noise alike with sharp shards of glass as flechettes among slicing silver.

"Do you need a push," Xion forces out the last word like a kiop while the claws of silver and glass fade about her. "Too, Starlit?"
Hiromi     Strike and response. Again, and again, as quickly as necessary. What sword-like arms find her cause their intended effect, but can't penetrate deeply. Skin turns to ash and regrows just as quickly, the wellspring of the Archwolf's vitality something far deeper than can be threatened by the level of lethal force so far displayed. That something more be used to threaten her is explicitly encouraged. "Come. Harder. More."

    Hiromi had intended to crush one of the samurai and then examine the fragment of the sword left behind... but being blown away by her attack doesn't allow this. A hammer is that much less useful without an anvil. How much of this is attributable to curses is beyond her present senses. 'Misfortunate' isn't a word with that sort of connotation in combat, when she thinks of it... to the extent she thinks of words, at all.

    The way she communicates comes across as a sense of 'words' to most because that's what they're used to, but that's not what the thing she calls 'true speech' is. The notion that she needs to try some other means of getting her message across doesn't apply. Likewise, she doesn't need more than a moment to bark what can be instantly understood as--

    "Hibiki, <think and respond quickly>." One foot crunches through stone tiles and into the earth to stabilize herself, as her other leg strikes into the center of gravity of the Noise in front of her, launching it toward Hibiki. If her kick doesn't break it apart, then its destination must be the anvil, instead.

    Hiromi hears the mention of 'monsters,' but that word barely anything to her, just as there is no clear agreement on its meaning between others present. "What matters is <growth>." The senses of 'adaptation' and 'learning' overlays the primarily heard sense as a single, intrinsically tied concept. "Growth requires intent. Response. The form is lacking, and then, it grows. <What cannot grow is not a person.>" The last is growled, a single sound for a single idea.
Sarracenia      'Yeah, and look how you turned out.'

     Sarra is -instantly- incensed. She barely feels the carbonized slash in her side after hearing that. Her mouth opens, and...she only does not explode at Petra because Petra apologizes. Still frowning, Sarra lets out a 'hmph' at Petra. "...thank you. Gregory is much more than 'fine'. He has been my one dependable caretaker and companion since I was a baby. I would not tolerate him being disparaged."

     'If this has a chance of... playing into making Tsumukari Muramasa acknowledge us, I'll give it a fair shot.'

     Sarra smirks at that and nods. "Glad to hear it." she says.

     '...But Noise - ordinary Noise - are definitely nothing more than monsters. It's not like Gregory, or anything else. ...They only exist to kill people.'

     Sarra's smile fades. She has encountered this sort of thing before with magical girls. They do not want to hear things that go against their world's established paradigm. Sarra starts to argue the point, but is interrupted by the Noise!

     It is usually harder to disarm Sarra, but with her hammer's enchanted strength weakened the hammer is forced from her grip with a yelp from her. That second sword comes in, and Sarra is stabbed. Thankfully for her, not through the heart. She is instead stabbed just below. Through her belly. She cries out, and memories of the last time she was stabbed through that area come flooding back as ashen carbonization starts spreading from the spot.

     But, at least this time there is no time paralysis or aging. Sarra reaches into her purse quickly and pulls out a Metal Cap. She puts it on, and in a few moments her body is a solid rose gold statue in the princess's likeness. She curls up then kicks as hard as she can with both legs right at the Noise's face, stomping it into the ground and reclaiming her hammer before leaping upward off. She twirls her hammer a few times as she leaps higher than most houses and the storm of Silver petals redoubles as she hops onto the head of her hammer and rides it down, spiraling as she goes. She aims to land hammer head first on the Noise that attacked her, and her twirling sends out a wave of much thicker Silver fletchettes.

     Her landing leaves a small crater, and she steps off the head of her hammer before twirling it upward and back into a ready stance. "Do not touch my hammer." she growls at the Noise, her one visible blue eye practically burning. Only then does she finally take a green mushroom and stuff it into her still metal mouth, nearly completely closing up the wound left by the Noise's blade.
Petra Soroka     Flanked by Noise, and forced into a kneel by her stumble, with her katana sheathed by her side, Petra would know what to do even without the Silver to guide her. It's so cleanly set up for her, to do a maneuver that she can so perfectly imagine that it's as if the line for her blade to follow is traced in the air around her; but the question remains, is she brave enough? Isn't this exactly what Tsumukari Muramasa would want from her? Isn't she *obligated* to do it, then? To maybe even go a little ham on it, for fun?

    While the pair of Noises' twin blades swing down on her from above, the slight rise and fall of Petra's shoulders seamlessly blends the qualities of a practiced combat breath, and a beleagured sigh.

    In one swift motion, Sting Silver whips out her katana and leaps to her feet simultaneously, sweeping it in a rising spiral that gouges across both Noises' chests, forcing them backwards. As the blade leaves it, the sheathe dissolves into a cloud of morphmetal flechettes that swirl around her in the shockwave aftermath of the motion, carried like cherry blossoms on the wind and lacerating the surrounding Noise even further. The petal-razors drift slower, and accumulate back in Petra's palm to reform her wakizashi, which she immediately snaps up beside her head to catch the Noise's sword inches away from hitting you.

    Holding that position for a moment, Petra mutters, "So *that's* where the misfortune aura *doesn't* hit me."

    She twists to the side, intending to drive the katana through the vulnerable chest of the Noise, and immediately slips on a rock, only saved from overextending and getting ganged up again by an intuitive awareness of the ways that situational irony loves to fuck with her. The propulsors on her armor fire, letting her leap back and reset her posture, just in time for the brief glimmer of good luck to wash out from Audrey's efforts. She glances over her shoulder at where the Noise are harrassing her from underground, briefly considers saying 'I specifically told you not to do that', and then decides it'd be a bad look after she's been magically compelled to spill her own spaghetti multiple times this fight.

"...er, I should probably just leave it at thanks. I mean it."

    Petra draws herself upright and angles the blades together in her grip, sizing up the formation of Noise as they regather across from her. "... Well. I just don't mind helping you, sometimes, too, Hibiki."

    Immediately contrary to that sort of solemn one liner, when Xion skates past her, Petra catches her eyes. With an emphatic gesture miming out the wolf ears that Xion has, and then pointing over at Hibiki, Petra's suit actor somehow perfectly conveys the experience of her mouthing 'You see what I mean??? Wouldn't wolf ears like that suit her *perfectly*?? Wouldn't they be adorable??' despite the fact that her mouth is covered by her mask.

"Well, maybe a little! Certainly not as much as any of you."

    In responding to Starlit's faint cloud of sadness, Petra takes a different tact from Xion. Rather than interest in Starlit in of herself, Petra's been fixated a bit on the way Starlit interacts with Hibiki, and so... "Do you want to? I mean... I don't know how much of a right *I* have to say it, but she can be a little admirable sometimes, if that's why you're curious about her."
Kukuru "I just don't want to /not/ do anything, either... still, um."
"There's... There's no need to rush things, Hibiki. That's why we're here, isn't it?" Kukuru gestures at Hibiki with her head, leaving her hands free to continue engaging in combat shenanigans. "I used to feel like that a long time ago, and... Mmn. Especially now, but that's why it's super important to be patient. We can handle this stuff now so you can focus on recovering, absorbing all that Relic stuff that you need from here, and then... You can make up for the lost time later, if you reeeally want to."

"Bishamon, one of the Seven Lucky Gods... haaaa, fitting. Well, let's see what you can do!"
"Bishamon? I thought we were looking for Muramasa's stuff here. Or... Did I miss something earlier?" Kukuru calls out to Audrey, glancing over at her while keeping those nanites flowing to mend up her back before starting to spread them out through the area to offset some of the lighter wounds going around. "Ah, do you need more coverage, Audrey? Or something moved to make that domain... Bigger? Smaller? Turned around?"
Audrey Basque     To Kukuru, Audrey asides:

    "This shrine is Bishamon's. I guess, they must have tried messing with the sword here because of that. The sword's misfortune was stronger than the shrine's good fortune, but I can direct it!"

    Does she need something moved, though?

    "No! Don't-- if you mess with the place while I'm trying to attune to it, it'll throw me off right now! I'm going to expand it in a second here...!"

    A second, or ten, depends on the Noise's cooperation!

    "I just need a bit more time to focus."
Hibiki Tachibana     Poor Kukuru's anguish about the monster talk aside, her target is apparently as equally unready for an unexpected angle of attack. The Noise is caught in her grapple for a moment - and the extended contact begins the process of attempting to reduce her claws into dust. It's not something her nanomachine healing can't counteract to a degree still, leaving her able to actually maintain it to a degree.

Fight.
Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight fight fightfightfightfightfight.

    Trying to touch their minds almost feels like not touching a 'mind' at all; it's touching a 'will', and rather than coming from the creature itself - it's coming from a tiny sliver of /something/ in the centerpiece of its body. Something that's not interested in talking, if it can even really understand her message at all.

    Especially not as it finally slips loose of her hold, immediately going to try and cut a diagonal cut along her body.

    Tamiel has to contend with the fact that these embodiments of a cursed sword are apparently at least savvy enough to catch on to her trying to shut away their effects and do something about it. But they also seem to take her openly challenging them, trying to act as a diversion or not, as exactly that. If she's putting herself forth, they will respond to the call.

    While her shadowy attack went wide, eyes /are/ on her. A pair of the blade-bearing Noise come at her together, one outright leaping upwards to descend from above while the other strikes low! And unfortunately for her, their swings are both from the side she's favoring. How unlucky can you get? Except...

    Riku is victim of a Sparks-Inducing Toku Beatdown, but like all heroes, it's when others in danger that he seems to shine the most. Rushing to aid Audrey and Tamiel, he cuts off any more from reaching the two of them-- and one of the ones assaulting Tamiel, he outright destroys in mid-air, eradicating its very body down to nothing in a slash of that golden blade.

    Another one coming to their aid as reinforcement, also, meets his slash. It brings its own swords forth to clash-- but after straining against it for several seconds, the beam blade sears through and continues onward to bisect the creature entirely. More are charging forth, but he'll be prepared now.

    Xion's 'frame zero' technique is appallingly effective; no matter how much an aura of misfortune exists here, blademanship is blademanship. If her reactions are flawless, if her read is perfect, there's a limit on how much it can affect her. And in this case-- it results in the Noise in front of her being shredded apart wholesale, reduced to black ash scattering among the cherry blossoms.

    And a finger-sized metal shard spirals through the air, glinting brightly in the sun, before falling at her feet. It visibly oozes a malevolent violet aura for a few seconds, then dims somewhat. Riku might also notice that two have hit the floor near him by this point, as well...
Hibiki Tachibana     Between that and Starlit's somewhat surprised glance in her direction, more Noise coming to avenge their fallen comrade with flashing swords at the ready, similar to what Riku is dealing with, might even be an afterthought. "Do I need it too...? Well..." No response comes on the spot.

    Petra-- cuts. Staggered. Sliced through, and even having a blade caught. Unable to defend itself in time, one finds its chest pierced clean through-- and it's vicious enough that its body begins disintegrating as it takes a knee, another piece of Tsumukari Muramasa clattering to the ground. As it vanishes, the warrior creature raises a sword towards her... before it falls limp, 'head' bending.

    One could practically hear the 'omigoto' on the wind, albeit its damaged ally is quick to come for vengeance. It 'sheathes' both of its own blades at its hips, arms crossed - and upon closing in, brings them upwards in a twin, X-shaped cut at high speed!

    "...I think I do," Starlit finally admits to Petra and Xion both, looking a bit embarrassed about it when she smiles. "I'm afraid I'm not very good at making friends. But I'd like to be! Watching Hibiki fight to help people without hesitating, seeing all of you helping her-- ahaha, I just can't help but want to get closer. Not even just to her, either! I think... it might help me with a back-and-forth I've been having too."

    Speaking of helping Hibiki, Hiromi belts a Noise at her so fast that reaction overtakes her ability to follow the conversation. Turning on her heel, eyes wide, the sword slips free of her hands-- just for her to meet it with her fist and pummel it into the ground hard enough to make a Noise-shaped indent. "Hah... hah... being tested on two angles, huh..."

    Closing her eyes, it's her fists that she finally goes back to as more are incoming. "...I know. I'm glad I have all of your help, Kukuru." She says that, even if she's certainly not balking down from fighting-- though Sarracenia has a leg up on her for once. She, to be blunt, /smashes/ it hard. Really, really hard. The one she flattens is annihilated on the spot - and the surrounding silver flechettes tear through more.

    "...Uh. Whoa." Apparently, she has catch-up to do. Even the Noise pause for a moment before rushing back in.

    Audrey does not get cooperation from the Noise-- but she does get it from the shrine. Bishamon, Bishamonten-- that divine power born of faith still lingering here gets intentionally drawn out, almost warm. The heavy aura of ill will dominating the space directly around her fades, easing up on Tamiel especially. Riku and friends likely have this, at least in part, to thank for things going better...

    ...and Audrey herself might be thanking it one that breaks the defensive line coming towards her and Starlit staggers and jolts, slowing up and left wide open-- its animating 'will' being partially suppressed. It's working!
Riku Asakura Reinforcement noise pile on the Ultraman like a horde of rats.  Sparks rain from his body from their caustic touch, threatening to drop him there and then.  He pushes back, however, launching them off of him and freeing his body from the rush of the noise, but it leaves him panting afterward.  The shrine's protection helps shield him from bad luck, thanks to Audrey.  

Getting his footing again, and with the golden energy sword at his side, he dashes at the remaining noise, aiming to tear through them with the blade at supersonic speeds.  He seems to glide along the ground now, rather than run across it like he's skating.  The blade flashes in seconds across the noise that tried to dogpile him.  

Once he was done with each slash, he ended the combo by stopping on the other side of them.  There is a delay, before an explosion erupts from each slash, aiming to try to finish off the noise he can hit.  
Tamiel Luxis     The Noise closing on Tamiel do so expertly, perhaps with a shadow of their forger's prowess. One comes from the front, its blade carving through the air in a vivid afterimage--

    --Tamiel's arms intercepted, crossed in an 'X' infront of her, sending her skidding back several feet, trailing dust behind her. She saw the shadow of something else flitting overhead, but she couldn't see completely see the Noise falling from behind, its blade expertly aimed at her exposed neck while she was distraicted--

    But the resonant blast of light, as the Ultraman reduced it to so much ash? That made what was happening clear. "Thanks, s...sir." She managed. Her wings perking up. I can feel it...Our luck...! Experimentally, Tamiel coaxed the shards of her wings to move--driving themselves through the shape of the Noise in front of her.

    If her luck wasn't perfect, at least, it was good enough. "You're doing it!" She said, half-laughing. "It's working!"

    She grabbed another of her wing-shards out of the air, and others followed. When she pointed her sword at the rest of the Noise, what could almost be described as a sword of floating shards seemed to lay in her hand. Her next slash was a line of serrated edges, carving through the bodies of the Noise, disintegrating around her. "If you want her, you have to go through me!" She challenged. It had worked before, hadn't it? Whether it was a swordsman's honor or a compulsion to fight the willing, it was the same to her. It worked. But...

    She turned to the Ultraman. "Riku...They got me...Can you cover my bad side...?"
Kukuru "The sword's misfortune was stronger than the shrine's good fortune, but I can direct it!"
"You know about AND can handle that kind of stuff, too? Wow... Is there anything you can't do, Audrey?" Kukuru praises more than asks, complete with a light chuckle that's going completely against her attempts to look stern and serious in the middle of this battle. "I really need to start working harder if I wanna catch up, then..."

That question is answered fairly quickly afterwards, though, as Audrey tells Kukuru specifically not to mess with the place. She holds in a slight noise as she glances back at the little crater she had left earlier, then nods slowly in return. "Gooot it... Okay. I'll be careful, dear, and I'll keep them off you!"

That's easier said than done, of course, as Kukuru is hit almost immediately afterwards with the barely even single-minded combative intent of the Noise before her. Although she's no mind reader, that momentary contact has her reeling slightly, and the Noise breaking free to slash across her torso draws another gush of blood that has Kukuru hissing in horrible pain and irritation alike. Her claws getting eaten by the Noise's physiology isn't helping matters much, and even releasing the Noise won't restore the dulled spikes at the end of the claws.

"How tricky... I wonder if we could ever learn how to fight like that...?" She comments/half-asks to nobody in particular, although her gaze does flit over to Hibiki and Starlit briefly as the designated knowers-of-local things here. Her fighting doesn't slow down, though, as she starts taking huge swings at the Noise with those stubby-ized claws, foregoing grappling or timing in favor of just trying to overwhelm it with consecutive open-palm slaps to batter it around. If she does find an opening to grab it by arm, leg, head, whatever, she does so with one of the claws while it still has working digits.

Where she grabs it doesn't really matter since she's just going to slam it all over the place several tiems before flinging it straight up into the air.

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at making friends. But I'd like to be!"

"Really...? Then you can start with aaall of us here, dear." Kukuru tries to reassure Starlit with that ever-gentle smile of hers, completely unfazed by the fact that her sundress and cardigan are both soaked in blood where she's been cut open twice already. "There's plenty of stuff we could talk about, and we already promised to chat earlier. I'll have snacks ready for when we do. Do you have anyyy dietary restrictions?"

She's not even trying to look or sound violently serious anymore. She still sounds pretty calm, at least.
Petra Soroka     Petra is easily two feet shorter than the muscular Noise here, even with the clunky snapped-heels of Sting Silver's boots elevating her. It's objectively a bad decision to try and match the Noise in swordfighting directly, even with the powerup of her suit, but, after so successfully dispatching one and wounding the other by doing a Cool Katana Trick, Petra is feeling completely validated in her choice to try and convince the cursed blade of her skill in fighting on its terms. This has nothing to do with enjoying doing the cool katana trick. It's because it *worked*, and therefore it's *tactically sound*.

    And so, when the Noise sheathes its swords, Petra, with the cracked stones of the shrine between them, does the same. They both hold still for a moment, and then Petra closes in at the same instant that the Noise does, drawing her katana to meet its twin blades in a flash at the centerpoint between their crossed paths. When the dust settles, Petra holds her morphmetal katana down to the side-- with the top half of the blade sheared off and buried in the chest of the Noise opposite her.

    When it explodes into carbon dust and the fragment of Tsumukari Muramasa clatters to the ground behind her, Petra re-sheathes the blunted hilt of her katana. The sheathe ripples and condenses, reforming the blade around the broken remnants as Petra mutters chuuni-ly to herself. "*I'm* the stronger cursed blade. Obviously."

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at making friends."

    "Well, Hibiki's terrible at it, so you should get along fine." Petra draws her sword again, gleaming good as new, and readies it at the next Noise crowding towards the barrier around the shrine. "You still feel that way after almost everyone answered that they felt complicated about coming to fight and help her? Is that the kind of friendship you're after?"
Audrey Basque     It's a close call, thanks to the good fortune-- the one that breaks through passes by Audrey and manages to nick her sweater, but not make full contact. She'd lost her focus on her barrier, while manipulating the shrine, though it did pay off! And with a little bit more push, she could probably expand it enough to make a dent.

    Though is there anything she can't do, Kukuru asks?

    "Fight, apparently!" she responds, matter-of-factly and somewhat rushed. It was kind of true, really, she couldn't, not in the way people think of when they say fight. She was overdue more lessons.

    Getting back onto her feet, she extends both hands out to seize the shrine's inner boundaries. This is the easy part, now that the power's flowing. Match the inner with the outer. Make the entire place as potent as the center point.

    "Heads up, this might flash!"

    It might, she's not sure.

    With a push, she forces the good fortune effect across the entire territory of the shrine. No diminution. Just one big domain of luck, overseen by a god of war.

    The effect on the Noise should, hopefully, be noticeable... and prevent any of them from taking a cheap shot while she's doing that.
Xion Xion wears a grin through her shoulders, the sprightly bounce of her glass-flashing and chrome-clicking boots and the agile sway of animated blade-tip all telling Petra and the knowing her mood. The wolf-eared armored Nobody is having fun of a certain kind, only made more ferocious by the wolf-feeling herself being present in the fight demanding more.

"Come on, *test* me," Xion urges, her powerful thrust shattering the Noise's guard and Fragments-based mirrors-and-morphmetal claw geysers through the Noise to rip it to whisking-away particles.

Landing from that and swinging out her sword all the way around to shoulder it and shrug in pose, Xion looks back to Petra with sleek helmet basically being all faceplate no face - just a reflection and the high points of wolf ears. Hibiki (and Starlit, and the gang) gets a moment of gloryshot with Sting Silver's suitactor going wild over how perfect wolf ears look on most everything but especially Xion and thus definitely Hibiki, and the rolling-sighed affirmation of:

"Yeah. I kind of want to keep them." Xion admits, before the zigzagging approach of Further Samurai-Noise in choreo taking their postures now two and three to a group!

"Fine, fine," Xion warmly accepts, putting on a groan-growl rumble that's all performance. "You can all try at once."

Mirror-chrome flowing down off-handed grip, a second Starlight in silver emerges into Xion's hand. Swinging both blue-guard'ed keyblade and chrome cross'ed cousin out in an X to intercept the twin-bladed press of two onrushing samurai, Xion is forced back. With her arms sawing-rowing up and back as she takes two blades and the full body of a Samurai Noise on each arm, she is threatened by a third from the front, and a fourth from behind!

Lurching backwards just to get her boot up higher, Xion's 'frame zero' lets her drive her whole foot down in the blade lunging towards her, catching the line of it with a quick turn of foot to get it into the arch of her foot and ensure it doesn't escape. Grounding the lunge deeply into the earth and really leaning into it, the rear attack gets. . .

Dangerously, unluckily close. But Xion was ready to take a blade-scrape for positioning. That was the minimum of sword-work, the practicing art of sword-'play': the accepting of being cut in turn.

Luck, however, returns to her just in time for the inevitable worse-to-come-to-pass to happen to her. Scraped across the back and high shoulder by the Noise's stab, Xion can still escape -- by moving forward!

Showered in sword-sparks as the rear thrust bounces across her mirror-silver chest piece, Xion continues her steps forward, turning her clashes up and over herself while she charges down the center thrust, by taking a step on the blade and lunging through while slashing across the Samurai Noise's chest and head!

Wheeling through, Xion pivots and hurls both keyblade and copy behind her to bisect the flankers, and meet as deadly buzzsaw boomerang blades on either side of the fourth!
Hiromi     Stepping forward and challenging, being as aggressively threatening as possible -- it was Hiromi's hope to see the full strength possible from the Noise, and assess whether they could learn by fighting her. She has yet to see evidence of it. Whether they respond to aggression, or merely to presence, still isn't clear. Hibiki's judgment of them holds, for now. She suspects, too, that whatever intent they may have would only be due to the broken blade. "Fragmentary spirits," she says, without elaborating.

    Finally, her hopes are granted. They come at her in earnest, in greater number, and attempt to overwhelm her. Her limbs aren't great enough in number, nor is her speed, to contend with every blow. And yet, her wounds are all shallow, not even reaching bone, and only bleeding her by means of their disintegrating effect. "I've seen enough... of that." She invites a strike without deflecting, grasps the blade-arm even as it eats through her palm, and pulls the Noise into a chest-impaling claw strike avoidable by little other than cutting off its own trapped limb.

    Those that do not learn can be defeated in the same fashion, every time. The sacrifice of flesh is trivial, to her, and her planted feet, taking solid control of the earth beneath her, prevents the random happenstance of lost purchase.

    Whether the Noise might choose to break themselves to escape and attack, or else to attack in desperation while trapped, would be interesting, at least -- though not as interesting as those fragments. Hiromi looks to the nearest, searching for some sense of the cursed or the divine in it. Hers is not high magecraft, and her sense for these things is limited by how far outside her own nature they fall.

    Far more important, as she finds time through the violence, is to spare her attention for the others fighting.
Sarracenia      '...Uh. Whoa.'

     Sarra lets out a haughty 'hmph' as the Noise she landed on disintegrates, then smirks and gives her silver hair a toss as she hears Hibiki. "What can I say? This sort of surrounded by monsters fight is my forte, I think." she says.

     Her smirk grows and she laughs a bit as the Noise hesitate. "It is not so fun being killed with little thought, is it? Perhaps you should all reconsider this business of being the bad kind of monster, if you can indeed consider at all!" she says as they group around her. The princess isn't so strong on defense even while made of metal. The metal coating fades a few hits into the onslaught leaving both her dress and herself slashed and carbonized further. The princess drops to a knee, leaning on her hammer after that then pulls another mushroom to fight off the worst of it. "While I do enjoy a good melee, I am starting to wonder if there is an end to these things!"

     Sarra blinks in surprise as a Noise comes flying at Hibiki after being thrown. She looks toward Hiromi with a questioning look. "...tested by an ally in the middle of a battle...?" she says to Hibiki, then shakes her head before getting back to her feet.

     'I'm afraid I'm not very good at making friends. But I'd like to be!'

     Sarra huffs softly as she hears Starlit. "If you happen to discover the secret...do tell me, please?" she says as she pulls out a power-up. A boomerang brother suit. In a puff of smoke Sarracenia is clad in a set of yellow tights, with a helmet-like shell on her head, another shell on her back, and a boomerang as tall as herself in hand. Her Silver flows over it as the razor-like petals continue to swirl around her, forming it into what almost looks like a V-shaped sword. She throws it in a wide arc, trying to catch as many of the Noise in it as she can. Then, in a puff another one forms in her hand. It is similarly covered and thrown and the pair of sword boomerangs are caught and thrown repeatedly, threatening to cut Noise in two as they travel their arcs around the room and back to Sarra.
Hiromi     To Ultraman, "Can you trust your footing, moving swiftly?"

    Toward Audrey, "You've guarded him against misfortunes, I see." Yet, the first question stands.

    Hiromi looks to Tamiel's wings, then to the defensive stand, but the question forming isn't yet voiced. Her look toward Petra is in consideration of the morphmetal, but she isn't as curious about power origins, today.

    Instead, Hiromi answers to the conversation between Petra and Starlit, "'Complicated,' no." Not to her, at any rate. "I seek those who grow. Ones to <guide>." To lead, to teach, and, to a lesser overlap of meaning, to command. "She came to me, before. Now, this once, I come to her."

    'I'm afraid I'm not very good at making friends.'

    "Play together. Fight together. Share food. Share warmth. Do you see?" She says it like it's the easiest, simplest thing in the world. "Listen carefully. Seek what's lost." That part might be less simple.

    Xion's fighting, carefully considered over enough time to take in the flow of movement to movement, adds a second point of curiosity concerning silvery armor, but this still isn't the day Hiromi will ask about that. Instead, there is a feeling, in her rumbling earth-tones, that is as tangibly understood as if Xion had a side-popup reading: Hiromi Approves +8

    Sarracenia's metal coating may have some similarity, but the Metal Cap immediately strikes her as distinct. To the question asked, "All battle-testing is battle. All battle is battle-testing, almost."
Hibiki Tachibana     Brightly shining blades of light...
    Swords of glass that turn what they slice through into ribbons...
    Relentless slams that even an ability to phase through matter don't seem to save them from...
    Decisively and dramatically beating them at their own iai-slash game...
    Bisected apart by Keyblades, carving a swath of (PG-13) carnage through their ranks...
    Bisected even /more/ by no less lethal swordrangs, unable to be deflected in time...
    Taken apart by the unfiltered power of the Archwolf, choosing self-sacrifice against an undefeatable opponent over retreat...

    ...and an almost gentle, golden glow erupting outwards to briefly and brilliantly engulf the shrine grounds, hundreds on hundreds of years of prayer and worship towards Bishamon lingering here intentionally drawn upon - drowning out even the scattering cherry blossoms and jet-black ash that the destroyed Noise have been reduced to, as motes of radiance slowly descend down to earth and fade out. Among them...

    ...as many shards of glinting steel as there were Noise, all of which bear that malicious aura of foul energy around them as they do so. But unlike when they first fell, where being separated from the Noise only reduced their effect-- in the presence of Audrey calling on one of the Seven Lucky Gods, and perhaps because of the victory won here today...

    ...they all settle down completely, visually becoming little more than ordinary metal slivers. Hiromi, turning her attention to one of them, can still feel that energy inside of it though; craving battle, challenge, and bloodshed. Worthy foes, and tests of skill. Suppressed and docile, under control, but far from gone.

    You still feel that way after almost everyone answered that they felt complicated about coming to fight and help her? Is that the kind of friendship you're after?

    "Of course," Starlit replies to Petra with a subdued chuckle, lifting her head up to watch the metaphorical fireworks. "Someone honest who has trouble being honest. Who has complicated relationships, yet will still help and be helped in turn. Who's been through so much, but can still sing so purely. I think friendship is worth it."

    "...Plus, she's so fun to tease! I'll never get tired of it." She adds on lighter, bopping the side of her head and sticking out her tongue. Tehepero.

    "...I'm right here, you know." Hibiki exhales, having taken a knee. "And I know /I/ said I was terrible at making friends too, but that doesn't mean you have to say it, too... seriously, what was with all those motions, too...?" She missed almost all the context about wolf ears.

    "Still-- ...you don't have to do anything weird to be friends with me. I think. I'd be happy to. I mean, you made this whole plan up for my sake in the first place, and I wanted to see you again even before that..."
Hibiki Tachibana     Starlit doesn't even have a cheeky response to that, just letting her shoulders un-tense as she smiles. "...Thank you. ...Well!"

    She bends over to carefully pick up one of the Muramasa pieces from the floor, holding it up to the light. "...I'd call this a resounding success, thanks to all of you! You and Tamiel really did something amazing too, Audrey. I think these pieces will be nice and docile, after having a good fight and getting a stern talking to from a certain god of war."

    "This won't be all of them - but it's an important start. So I hope you all won't mind if we rely on your help a teensy bit more in the coming days. I'll almost definitely get to you with news and more... buuuut, maybe you won't mind if I just call once in a while to chat, too?" There's that smile again. "Since we're all on the road to friendship now. Kukuru said so! And hopefully there'll be a lot of 'playing together', 'fighting together', and 'food and warmth sharing'!"

    After cheerily saying so, her expression goes thoughtful at Hiromi's words, eyes on the ground but mind clearly elsewhere-- before she plays it off as brushing down her coat and meandering over to give Sarracenia a 'you're not excluded' wink and a warm grin. Then she moves on a bit further leans over a bit, showing the nearby Hibiki the shard she's picked up.

    Who takes it, after a long wordless moment between the two of them. She looks at it in a not-dissimilar way to how she was looking at Gungnir earlier. "Pieces of 'Muramasa' helping to make me whole again... it's really something, now that I think about it."

    "...Uh, we should collect all these before they become too hard to find..."
Audrey Basque     "A-Ah?" Audrey turns to look at Hiromi, a bit put on the spot. Her presence is always a bit-- well, it's just hard to ignore. Obviously. "W-Well, everyone, I suppose, but yes. I thought restoring the shrine's domain to its full power might help us."

    Well, not just might, it did.

    Audrey allows herself to slump onto the ground, letting off a deep satisfied sigh at the sight of the purified sword shards, and the lack of remaining Noise. That was... stressful, for a moment or three.

    Starlit praises her, and she smiles, nodding.

    "I'd like to claim full credit for that, but if the shrine had been inert that wouldn't have amounted to very much. It's lucky worship and gods are as real here as they are back home."

    She looks down, to bemoan the fate of her sweater, a big gash across her chest. That was one of the only ones with a high collar, too. . .

    "I hope the next ones aren't as tricky, though."
Sarracenia      Sarra catches one swordrang, sending her into a spin, then the other before spinning to a stop with both. The silver flows up and into the metal lotus in her hair, then the boomerangs poof away. With her dress much worse for wear, the princess stays in the boomerang outfit for now.

     'All battle-testing is battle. All battle is battle-testing, almost.'

     Sarra nods. "Certainly, but...throwing an unexpected test at someone in the middle of a completely unrelated test when we are all here to help Hibiki..." Sarra starts, then pauses and sighs. "...I do not pretend to understand the rules of the pack or of joining the pack, but...that seems..." Sarra can't really think of the right word to finish the though so she just leaves it hanging with a shrug.

     '...Plus, she's so fun to tease! I'll never get tired of it.'

     Sarra nods in agreement with Starlit through much of what Starlit says, and giggles a bit at that last thing. "She is quite fun to tease." Sarra says, looking at Hibiki. She smiles at the Symphogear user, then pulls out a green mushroom and...rather than handing it to Hibiki like usual she places it atop Hibiki's head like a cute little mushroom hat.

     'Since we're all on the road to friendship now. Kukuru said so! And hopefully there'll be a lot of 'playing together', 'fighting together', and 'food and warmth sharing'!'

     Sarra is hoping she is included, so when Starlit makes sure to give her a wink and warm grin Sarra blinks in surprise before smiling! She is in a pretty good mood after relieving some stress just unleashing on some mooks.

     'Pieces of 'Muramasa' helping to make me whole again... it's really something, now that I think about it...Uh, we should collect all these before they become too hard to find...'

     Sarra nods and starts helping gather shards, but pauses a moment later. "...so...what sort of artifacts are needed to help with a Symphogear? My hammer was broken you know, and I am not even sure it can be repaired. Using it to repair a Symphogear might be the best use of it if such a thing is possible.

     Noticing Audrey's dismay at her damaged sweater, Sarra looks over. "If you would like, I know a very good tailor. I get dresses torn up in situations like this all the time and she has not yet failed to repair it. I am sure she could repair your sweater."
Xion In the moment, four-on-one, even taking a sparking hit across armor Xion feels the rush of adrenaline, of triumph crashing through her as soon as she feels the slam-vibrations of her foot on the blade, the blade on the earth, the earth she can sense the weight of. In her high ears of suited silver, down the back of her skull to pool in her neck, the signal bounces from her heel up back, and down ears to pool like a sauna of sensation she reclines in. Starlight and its mirror-clone she feels, as well, through her fingers, across her heart and crackling up her chest -- but she feels it most in the leading edges of her fingers sympathetically. Like dragging fingernails across ribboning paper, or closing fingertips around the sides, neck of the fourth to pull them free and apart. To just focus on the feeling, every frame of it, until...

The fragment-bearing Samurai Noise disperse, and no more of the beings appear in the geomantic righting Audrey has accomplished. Lazily catching Starlight, which manages to return even without the momentum to carry it by an unlikely bounce back into Xion's hand where the mirror twin simply shatters into glass dust and silver speckles, the Nobody shoulders her weapon as the chrome silver and glass armor gloops and turns limp liquid on the noirette. Sludging and evaporating while the power finally gives out, Xion is left with two prominent lupine ears - black with soft white tufts - nestled atop her head where the blank-mask helmet had stylized over them to exaggerate their proportions, freed they are livingly expressive and animated as conversations occur and Xion ramps down her feelings from fighting over a long 'shuuu' of an exhale.

Alerting like she heard a particular noise she's sensitive to with the rumble of Hiromi's approval -- sensitive to it, pressed upon by it like a fond nudge from afar, Xion flushes from more than mere exertion and turns her head to look over at the Archwolf. . .

Her ears loll, presence-drunk eyes considering something - reminded of her honest thought about 'keeping' the ears for liking them. Then, Hibiki (who is also terrible at lying and dissembling) opens her mouth and tries to get out and away from things.

'seriously, what was with all those motions, too...?'

Turning around, nose down, looking out of the tops of her eyes, a still-flushed Xion smiles just a little bit and all for herself, and then slides into frame next to Hibiki to explain to her friend. "Huh?" Earflick. "You didn't get it? Petra was signing about how cool these are and how good I looked with them. And you're just *shouting* about it too, aren't you? Come on, be honest."

Seized by an arm about the shoulder, Bikki could escape... but would it test poor Gungnir to the breaking point?!

Xion leans in, close, conspiratorial with Hibiki's low ear and asks: "I don't know why you're playing dumb, Hibiki. Is it..?" She asks, more serious than teasing, reading her poor liar of a friend like a book, and skipping ahead while her eyes shift off of the Symphogear's neckk to the target of her eyes: the shard in her hand.

"Do you think he left an unreasonable blade like this around for a case like yours, Hibiki? Is... 'cursed power' really what you want to chase?" Xion asks, and remembers a deep hole and words shared with the ShinRa heir. And what Hibiki did, just after. The shift of her eyes back towards Hiromi after, almost urging Hibiki to follow, is more somber and less brazenly daring.

'Do you think she'd be better help?' is considered and discarded. She feels like she knows the answer, but her regret had been asking Hibiki difficult things.
Hibiki Tachibana     "I'd like to claim full credit for that, but if the shrine had been inert that wouldn't have amounted to very much. It's lucky worship and gods are as real here as they are back home."

    "Belief has power," Starlit says decisively. "Especially long-held beliefs. Remind me to tell you all about 'Philosophical Armaments' when we get time to chat! They operate almost entirely off belief!" She gives an apologetic chuckle at the poor state of Audrey's sweater, leaving that particular issue to Sarracenia.

    "I'm afraid they're probably going to be just as tricky, or even trickier... sorry to be the bearer of bad news."

    ...so...what sort of artifacts are needed to help with a Symphogear? My hammer was broken you know, and I am not even sure it can be repaired. Using it to repair a Symphogear might be the best use of it if such a thing is possible.

    Speaking of - Hibiki, having pushed herself up to shard-hunt and is in the middle of leaning over to take hold of another one, now has a mushroom atop her head. "...Hm...?" This is such a running bit between the two of them, that she just sort of laughs quietly and reaches up to tuck it beneath her arm. "Well, it's not like I'm the expert, but... from what Starlit said, you can't use just anything to fix a Symphogear."

    With her other hand, she lifts one of those blade portions up, turning it to and fro in the light. "...I... Muramasa-- Shirou... was important to me. I dunno if it was that, or maybe the fact we literally had a bond... but that's the reason that these are compatible enough with me to work for the repairs. I don't think any just other Relic or material would do..."

    "Besides, I'm sure your hammer isn't /impossible/ to fix. We'll figure something out--bweh...?"
Kukuru "Fight, apparently!"

"Really? You did pretty okay the couple of times I've seen you fighting, I think..." Kukuru tries to encourage Audrey even as her gaze remains fixed on the Noise being engulfed in all that golden light. "And this thing you did looks pretty helpful, too... Ah. What is it, anyway?"

As she finishes saying that, the steel slivers appear, and Kukuru picks one up off the floor without a second thought. "Oh... These are the things we're supposed to be collecting, right? Looks like we got them, then~"

Humming softly as approaches Hibiki and Starlit, Kukuru takes her claws off and scoops up any more of those shards she spots with only a minor amount of wincing from doing so with her bare hands, and not too carefully at that. "And there's a few mooore... Oh? I guess it's not thaat weird that a bunch of these got lost somewhere else, mhm. With the way the Noise were coming out of all sorts of places..."

Kukuru's gaze drifts back over to the ground, like she's half-expecting some more Noise to come out of the ground. "Well, we can worry about collecting more when they show up. Mhm, just don't forget to call, okaay?" She chimes in playfully to Starlit and Hibiki, although her smile has that distinct energy of 'don't forget' behind it.

"I'll make sure to bring something to snack on next time, too. Aaand... Tape? Because picking all these up off the floor's gonna be a pain..."
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki Tachibana, who would indeed look very good with wolf ears, is called out by Xion, who also looks good with wolf ears. Hibiki Tachibana is indeed very bad at lying, and when duo-attacked by a shoulder grab and an even more direct assault of 'be honest', she verbally stumbles for several seconds.

    "I-- well..." Her eyes indeed follow suit to go over to Xion, and the shift in mood towards the somber clearly hits her too. Even if it's not said out loud, she probably picked up on what Xion thought about asking. She closes her eyes and sighs.

    "...Gungnir is... important to me. I can't leave it in a condition where I might push it too hard and break it for real. 'He' was important to, too. It's not about-- cursed power or not. Even if it's not the 'same' Muramasa, I don't... ...using these feels complicated, but not in a bad way, I guess..." Her eyes scrunch harder for a moment, before they loosen and her shoulders sag, apparently very aware that she's doing a poor job of wording her feelings. When she focuses again, it's once again eying Hiromi.

    "Hiromi is... I guess that's complicated too. I fought her a lot... and then I came to really respect her. Wanted to-- ...live up to her challenges. Learn from her. Even if we were always on opposite sides, I didn't hate her at all. And when I really needed it, when I was lost and was still trying to stand back up again... there was the offer to be part of her 'pack'." Thoughtlessly, her hand comes up to brush at her own hair, at the same spot where one of Xion's own ears are currently poking out. Because I've offered you a boon, and because I like you, Hibiki, rings through her mind.

    "...I meant everything I said to her back then. I still do. I'm still 'of her blood'. It's just... so much has happened since then, and I haven't gotten to see her a lot since." For the first time, her whisper sounds conspiratorially low as well. "It's like-- this has to be how people feel, right? When they meet, like-- someone they were super close to, but it's been years since they last talked? And they don't know how to break the ice again...?" The unsure tone she takes implies she's... probably never actually been in that situation herself. She doesn't talk much about her family or anything of the sort.

    Another heavy sigh leaves her, tone returning to normal and eyes drifting to the side. "She's going to 'come for me soon'... so I really gotta shape up and get how I feel in order, don't I? But... I mean--" Mumble, mumble. "I'm not deaf, you're not, there was all the talk about the 'one I cannot leave' on the way up here... I really don't want to get Miku dragged into this somehow... ...and if she ever got the impression she had to stop Hiromi from taking me away or something, she'd do that in a heartbeat..."

    Seriously?

    "Er-- but also... I don't think this and getting help from Hiromi are exclusive or anything..."