I'm Trying to Be A Hero Here! (Mikona and Tooki)

"If Fumino Kimura can be famous here looking like that, anyone can." Bliss tore down a flyer for a bento box company featuring an actress. The flyer flew behind her three feet away from a trashcan. "Now, my flyer can get all the attention it deserves from everything Japan has to offer!"




"Stupid wind! What are you even good for!?" The bottom half of the flyer, the part with all the good things, flew down the crowded street. A stoic businessman fought past his expression of hatred for the flyer hitting him in the side of the head. His fit did not show any form of stoicism as it crumbled up in his hand and fell to the trashcan below. "I should have made copies."

"Excuse me." A young man stepped up to Bliss, offering a bow and handing her a business card. "Your offer is-"

"How do you know I speak English?" Bliss put her hands on her hip and dropped her brows.

"You do not carry yourself as a native-" The young man, no older than nineteen postured up. "And, you referred to that elderly man you pushed yourself in front of as someone who does something unspeakable to his mother in English. With great confidence. Also, you're Bliss Fukuyama."

"I can't disagree with any of that, but if you hear my side of the story, that old man really had it coming." The strap over Bliss' satchel contained a number of business cards with her new contact information on them. Some new organization was looking for new recruits, and even though no one invited Bliss to join, they did ask her to help them recruit. Mainly by sending information to Danny, which Bliss intercepted when she hacked Danny's Instagram account so she could spy on her former- you know what, you don't need to know what Bliss does when she hacks Instagram accounts. "So, do you have any-"

"I can turn myself into diamond." Sun shone off of his clenched fist as his form began to harden. It only ran up to his elbow, no reason to give away the whole thing on the first meeting. "I can also trap large amounts of solar energy in my diamond heart and unleash it as an energy blast."

"Have you ever-"

"I cannot cut my arm off and have it appraised."

"Are you also a mind reader, or do you just like interrupting people?"

"The second, but you are an American, so I just assumed it was polite in your culture."

"Polite? No. A custom? Yes."

Three blocks down the street, a woman reached her hand into the trashcan. She pulled out the crumbled piece of paper, looking it over with a small dangling of a bleach blonde hair casting a small shadow over it, then focused down the street. She gave a little laugh, snapped a picture of the flyer with her white gloved hand, then turned and walked away- at about a few hundred miles an hour.

"Good. Bliss is sticking out just as easily as we thought she would." A wall of television monitors kept a steady shot of Bliss at every angle displayed. A white haired Japanese man leaned forward with the glare of the television bouncing off his greasy forehead. His suit remained as pressed and creased as possible even with his posture not remaining pristine. "We can just follow her and pick off every hero she finds."

"We could give them a better deal. An offer they can't refuse." Dry black nails sank into the leather of the chair hosting the man. A pressed blazer and a business skirt clad woman with a tight brown bun took her place behind the man. "Then, we can deal with Ms. Fukuyama."

Rounding a corner, the sound of English and the shine of crystal suddenly flashed in her eyes, and Kaguya saw a super and a lady talking in clear daylight. She couldn't help but deadpan at them, really, given the circumstances; this was a fairly busy street during rush hour, and these two were running a boke-tsukkomi act?

Well, maybe not an act, they seemed pretty serious. They were just ridiculous, then. Kaguya squinted at them, shoving her hands into her pockets and activating her abilities just to check if there was anything weird going on, here. It was instinct, after how many ridiculous enemies she'd faced back in high school.

The world slowed around her. Sound warbled and lowered in tone. The flies stood still in midair, the people walked at the pace of a worm, and ---

Wait. Someone was walking at normal speeds. Kaguya tried to focus on the blonde woman with the gloves, watching her strut away casually even as the world was practically stopped around her. Super speed, then? She'd dealt with that before. Just took a well-placed trap to stop those kinds. However, she'd just stow away that information for now; not like she was causing trouble.

Well, in any case. Time continued, and the entire street began moving once more. Kaguya, in her police uniform, sauntered up to the two of them and did her patented red-eye glare, her eyes lazily shifting between the diamond boy, and then resting on the woman. As much as she'd like to watch the show, she was a police officer, when she wasn't a magical girl.

"Excuse me miss," Kaguya said in warbled English, speaking slowly so she got the words right, but pointedly enough to keep authority, "I understand you are a foreigner, but littering is not acceptable here. Please do not litter."

Then, Kaguya rounded her look to the boy, now speaking sharply in true Japanese. "Has this lady been causing trouble, or is she just messy?"

Bliss moved her eyes in a a slow saunter towards the woman interrupting her pitch and discover meeting with a man she still had yet to uncover the name of. The forced inclusion came from a magistrate, someone Bliss would need to show a little more respect for if she wanted to stay in the relative good graces she found herself allotted in Japan. "Sorry." Bliss demonstrated a bow of respect. "It must have slipped away."

"Yes." The young man to her side lowered himself as well. "My name is Hiroki Hisegawa if you are needing a statement. This is Bliss Fukuyama."

Both Bliss and Hiroki would posture themselves after their bows. "The flyer mus have fallen. This woman is no trouble at all."

Bliss flipped her satchel back around, tugging on the pink skirt hovering around her thighs. A pair of black boots and a graphic tank top filled out her slender, trouble inducing frame. "Yep. What he said. Now, if you don't mind, I'm looking for heroes with powers. Gotta keep the streets clean from all the big filth in the world. Hiroki here was about to give his tryout a go."

A ringing would emanate from the satchel around Bliss' back. She skittered her fingers across the strap to check one of the pockets. Her eyes remained on Kaguya as she pulled her cell phone from the bag. One of her fingers rose to gesture for a second reprieve. "This could be important." The ringtone played the opening theme Girl Alive! performed for an anime, the go to ring for Tyuki Gold. "Or, possibly world ending. Don't know yet."

"I'm getting profiled right now. I'm like four blocks from Tokyo Tower." Bliss cut the conversation short, slipping the phone back into her satchel. "So, are we done?"

"We can speed Bliss' little search up, right?" Resting back in his chair, the man with the protruding forehead reached over for his pair of glasses.

"Of course we can. These sewers are just ripe with villainy." The woman pulled a remote from her jacket pocket with three buttons and a dial attached to it. The turned the dial to point towards a '2' and pressed the third button with her thumb. "Ripe."

A rumbling would begin to shake the street. A green sludge began to overtake the sewer drain. Two manholes shot into the air as a pink and a purple sludge began to seep onto the street. With a vigor not normally seen in pond scum, the three different colored sludges began to shape into humanoid figures standing ten feet tall. While their bodies only contained vague human features, they all shared a similar face with a sharp nose and pointed chin with what could pass as sludge 'hair' all falling around their shoulders.

"Is this apart of the test?" Hiroki looked to Bliss as the streets began to clear in calamity.

"I'm not proctoring any test, so no." Bliss turned her head to Hiroki. "This is just-"

A line of pure sludge shot forth from the arm of the pink creature, pinning Bliss' arms to her side. "This is not a test." The sludge grew, invading Bliss' upper legs. "I repeat, this is not a test."

The green and purple creature began their attacks. The green sludge would try to pin Kaguya's arms and legs against the wall with sludge to remove the policewoman from the situation, while the purple creature began to cover Hiroki.

Hiroki scowled in anguish as the sludge began covering him. He needed strength. These creatures wanted nothing but harm and trouble for the people of this city. His city. No. It would not happen like this. A burst of energy flung itself from his body, sending sludge flying. Hiroki emerged free, his entire upper body covered in glittering diamonds.

Kaguya exhaled, giving the both of them another glare for good measure. Mind, she didn't exactly feel like dealing with the whole process of yelling at someone for littering, especially someone with a US passport, so she'd just consider this a success and move on. God knows she had enough bullshit to deal with on a daily basis.

"Just don't do it again. Besides, if you're looking for powers, try the high schools--"

The bluenette felt a touch of annoyance and a touch of "fuck you too, bitch" when the lady lifted a finger to shut her up, feeling it even more when she picked up what the woman was saying. God, were all Americans like this? Maybe just this one was a stuck up bitch; she'd worked with a few before, and honestly, they were pretty decent people--

Kaguya's ears picked up on something weird underneath her. She didn't have superpowers, so she couldn't tell exactly where it was, what it was, or what it was made out of, but it was there, she could feel it like an earthquake. And then, the manholes opened like the gates of Hell, and Kaguya cursed mentally as the world stopped around her once more, her eyes taking on a glowing red color.

Oh, okay, gross. This was a sewer monster if she'd ever seen one. Scratch that, three sewer monsters. Kaguya let out a groan as she cursed her goddamn luck, watching them drip, watching their sludge drops as they stood, almost suspended in the air mid-fall.

Okay, tactics. First, call the force. Second, transform. Sludge monsters were awful to deal with; probably impervious to bullets; and her usual blunt-force attacks wouldn't work. She'd need a fire extinguisher to freeze it and solidify it, or water to dissolve it, or anything to imbalance whatever chemicals made it up. Alternatively, fire; maybe diamond boy over there could redirect some sunlight?

She'd see. But for now -- time resumed.

Kaguya pressed her handheld transceiver with her left hand while fishing out her flip phone with her right, projecting her voice into the microphone as she backpedalled away.

"THERE'S BEEN A CODE 3, EAST OF AKIBANEBASHI STATION; ONE CIVILIAN, ONE SUPER--"

She was immediately cut off by the monster pinning down her left leg, left arm, and right leg, soaking the transceiver and the microphone and effectively destroying it. However... it didn't get her right hand fast enough.

Flip open phone-Bring to left-Swing.

"Malignant spirit! / The sacred night forsakes you! / You must die! HENSHIN!"

And then there was a hymn, almost a fading tune in the air, and magic completely covered Kaguya's body in an flash. The mass of her police uniform was converted into magical energy; all the sludge covering her body was converted, too. As a result, any slime covering her was completely gone, and what was left was...

The policewoman from before was now in some sort of anime cosplay gear, spinning a kine of burning moonlight in a perfect circle. Faith emanated from her hammer; it was the same sensation you'd get if you walked into the Vatican or the temples of Nepal for the first time.

"Alrights, fuckers, let's rock."

"This was easy." The sludge girl in purple looked over her claim. "We'll take them with us and try out the new weapon. I think it can sell for quite a-"

The sun reflecting through the diamonds averted the gaze of each of the sludge monsters. "You can sell your villainy in Hell you slutward!"

"Love the enthusiasm! We'll work on the words though!" Bliss tried getting her hand down to her nano wand in her bag.

"We still have two. We can take them back." A lasso appeared around the purple monster's arm. "We should torture the loud one."

Bliss looked at Kaguya. "She's barely said anything!"

While Bliss held her gaze on Kaguya, Kaguya pulled out a tiny flip phone. Bliss rolled her eyes in dismay while beginning to open her mouth to say something rude. Then, it got amazing.

"MIKO-7!" The green monster turned both arms into blades while conjuring a cannon in her chest. "What a tacky surprise."

"It's hard to believe she got even more awkward looking!" The purple monster laughed under her gross breath.

The pink one looked to Bliss as she struggled under the weight of the sludge. "We still have one captive. We'll just take her and-"

A blur of feathers, wings, and warnings of pain slammed into Bliss, pulling her out of the pink sludge. The barrelled and rolled into a barrel roll, and finally Tyuki spit Bliss out of her grapple. "Thanks Eclipse." Free from the sludge, Bliss reached for her wand, activated the flip, and let the nanobots go to work, readjusting her outfit until it turned into her black and silver knockoff magic girl outfit. It even came with a strobe light for a transformation effect.

It was lame.

A sigh released from the pink monster. "Now we have zero of them."

"Sludge monster?" Ice formed around Bliss' hand. "Let's see how you like this!" A bolt of ice shot out of Bliss' hand, missing her target's head with her skillful dodge. Another one shot out with the same miss as before. A sludge fist flung towards her head, but Bliss could dodge too. Running and shooting would only work for so long, but it would work better if only Bliss could move.

A pool of ice began to spread up the leg of the pink sludge beast. Bliss snared her target and readied another bolt. "This one is on the money!" Her bolt hit the monster square in the chest. Bliss snapped her finger, unleashed a telekinetic blast, and spread the pink monster across the street. Bliss looked over to see a piece on her shoulder. Another piece on her waist. Even Tyuki had some of the sludge on her. "I'll take care of the cleaning bill. Even though you owe me."

The little sludge on Bliss began to move. And grow. Same with Tyuki. Before Bliss could even react, the sludge wrapped her up. "After that shot. I owe you!" Pink sludge continued to crawl towards Bliss, bringing Tyuki towards Bliss too.


"This is interesting." The tight haired woman leaned towards the monitor. "MIKO-7. I thought she died or something."

"Does it matter?" A pair of fingers created a pyramid in front of the man's chest.

"No. The neutralizer can remove her power just as well as it can Bliss and Tyuki's. It might even be fun to test it on Miko-7." The woman pivoted and walked back towards a giant ray nestled on a trailer in the back of the warehouse. "She's the reason I got into villainy in the first place."

Kaguya raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what they were on about. Had she seen them before? Maybe it was the other way around -- the monster knew her. With how often they showed up, and how they were basically like cockroaches, she wouldn't be surprised. Though...

"Fuck you guys, honestly." Kaguya spat bitterly. She actually seemed kind of downcast at their comments, since it reached a particularly sore spot for her. She was never respectable or anything with how her costume worked, and it haunted her to think she'd have to wear this fucking dress until she was old. She'd just... eternally be childish.

Before her self-loathing grew to the point of distracting her, a falling angel freed the civilian, Fukuyama -- wait, no, that was just a superhuman. Then, the civilian pulled out a wand, and Kaguya immediately activated Infrared Eyes out of sheer instinct.

Watching nanobots in slow motion was... astounding. She couldn't believe technology had come this far. Looked like it just layered over Fukuyama's clothes and pressed them into place, too -- didn't convert matter or anything. God, she'd kill for that. The tiny, tiny whistles and the sounds of movement between mechanized parts rang clearly in Kaguya's enhanced ears, and watching that transformation was like watching something satisfying that pushed her self-hatred into the back of her mind until later.

Time resumed, and as the litterer threw out bolts of ice, Kaguya started on her own projectiles, forming a second mallet out of pure light before activating Infrared Eyes, taking about an entire minute in her time to aim, throwing both of them like an axe at the green slime with perfect precision, the blunt part of the hammer aimed to wedge itself in the cannon. All the while, she still had the mind to talk.

"Hisegawa-san, got anything for this?" The first mallet flew.

"I can channel solar energy into my core and fire it as an energy blast!" The second mallet flew.

A pleased grin grew on Kaguya's face. "Oh, good. Tell me when you're at capacity."

And then Kaguya put both her hands on Hisegawa and tried her damn best to summon two mallets inside of him, one in each hand.

Her kine were made of moonlight. Pure, unadulterated moonlight, only given the form and color of a mallet. She could summon an unlimited amount of them, and given their properties, they were considered as holy as Artemis's heart, or Tsukuyomi's arm, or Chang'e's leg, or what-have-you.

Point being, she's charging him up with indirect sunlight, to the point where he's filled to the brim.

"Officer, it hurts--!" Kaguya's Infrared Eyes activated, and in her peripherals, she saw the silhouettes of both the other superhuman women being dragged along by the pink sludge. Not her original target, but-- Kaguya yanked the boy into position, even aiming his chest right at the pink sludge's main blob of mass.

"Then FIRE!"

And within a flash, a giant energy blast of blue energy completely impaled the pink sludge's being, grazing off a rooftop and disintegrating the top bit, before flying into the sky and space above.

Kamehamehas? In Japan?

Kaguya would almost snort at herself for how stereotypical that was.

"We can exchange pleasantries later." Bliss flipped a switch on her wand, sending the nanobots to take care of the sludge around her outfit. Ice began to form around her hand while the sludge grew to twenty feet. "I'm going to make a giant popsicle."

A pink and purple swirl of a giant, evil sludge monster began throwing projectiles of crud and hatred towards each of the heroes only to be intercepted by Tyuki's tendrils. A massive swirl of sludge grew from the creatures chest. It lifted into the air, hanging menacingly over MIKO-7. Once it reached its apex, it would drop down right on top of the magic girl.

Bliss lunged forward, sliding under the sludge monster, installing a massive ice block around the torso of the creature. Once the ice hardened, Bliss began to to freeze over the sides of the buildings. The walls looked chilly. Now, she needed a roof. As a dome began to assist with sealing in the monster, a tendril of sludge shot towards Bliss. A quick dodge kept Bliss without sludge, but it did force her to take a spill into the frozen chamber. "No time but now." Bliss sent out the telekinetic blast, bursting the creature from within. While the sludge began to spill out, Bliss encased herself in ice.

It did the trick. Now, Bliss just needed to make an escape. While the sludges tried to reform, Bliss shattered the ice around her. A pillar of ice formed in the middle of the room, lowering the temperature of the room even more. "Not moving so fast are you?" With a little laugh, Bliss shot a blast to punch a hole in the side of the wall, letting her step out, and then reseal it with the sludge trapped inside. "That should work, but where's the green one?"

"She went..." Hiroki said from the ground. "Down the street. She was heading for the high school." His breathing remained heavy, his diamond armor fading back into a normal skin. The sun he once sent to destroy took his toll. He did not feel any pain, but the power spent his energy, leaving him completely exhausted.

"Well." Bliss cracked her fingers. "Looks like we got one left." Bliss took off down the street. She would catch that green bugger before it could make an escape.


"They're on their way." A blonde with a hoodie and over her head and outfit kept a watchful eye from the corner of the street. "If you have the ray ready, they'll be done for."


"You heard her." The woman in the business suit moved to the back of the room, taking a control out of her pocket. The drone controlling the cart began to move the ray towards the main hallway of the school. "Zero. Cinder. Let's get moving. We'll have company soon."

Kaguya would have made a sarcastic comment about the whole Super Saiyan thing and how stupid it was and how stupid the "giant popsicle" tagline sounded, the latter only because this Bliss person seemed like a real asshole, and Kaguya was admittedly one vindictive bitch, but she was too busy tending to the fading kid in her arms.

Red eyes looked him over and she heard his heartbeat in the air, clear as day. She was fairly certain she didn't kill him, since he was breathing and functioning normally, but she may or may not have taken a toll on his powers. Fuck. He could have been useful later. But then, her ears picked up on the sound of slime forming and smacking together and coalescing and it was above her, and--

Kaguya used every fiber of her being to yank both herself and Hisegawa out of the descending slime's path, making a jump for it, the debris of broken concrete and dust picking up and scattering all over her back as she and the boy fell on the ground with a yelp.

The ice-based superhuman proceeded to trap and freeze the giant slime monster as Kaguya regained her bearings, getting on her feet as she propped the guy up against a wall, checking his vitals a second time before deeming him still healthy.

To her absolute annoyance, the green one got away. Even worse, it was going to the high school -- judging by the direction it left off in, Tokyo Joshi Gakuen -- and to top it all off, her transceiver was not only broken, but it was part of her dress now.

Kaguya really, really hated her transformation.

Activating Infrared Eyes, Kaguya took the slow, slow time to figure out what to do next. Fukuyama decided that the best thing to do was apparently run off to the high school without reinforcements, because that was smart. Were foreign heroes always like this? How annoying. More or less, Code 3 required a perimeter be set around the last known area, and-- fuck. God, it got even worse; the SAT were going to be late, at best. Ugh.

Mentally putting her head in her hands and wanting nothing but the sweet silence of death, Kaguya's world begun spinning normally again as she called out to the angelic newcomer, a certain look on her face that conveyed exactly what she was feeling. "I'm legally obligated to follow her. Come on, let's go. ...And call me MIKO-7, when I'm on the clock."

With that, Kaguya just started running. Not sprinting, but just... running. She looked like a cosplay cafe maid who was late.

Fuck her superpowers. Fuck not being able to fly, fuck not having super speed, fuck not having a super-mobile or some shit. Instead, she just rounded a corner, and with a groan, all she had was--

Oh, she was being carried. Alright.

Running was not one of Bliss' super powers. You can check her sheet. It could almost go down as a weakness given the poor shoes she chose. She should pick better boots the next time so she can- wait. Bliss looked down to her boots, then grabbed her wand. Nanobots came to life, and began shifting her heeled boots into a flat with more comfort towards the sole of her foot. "Better. Now I can-woah!"

It came as no surprise when Bliss saw Tyuki and Kaguya next to her, but she could never be too picking with the number of sludge monsters she encountered today. "She's Eclipse. I'm Bliss. I like your mallet." Bliss pulled her legs up, ready to hit the ground as soon as Tyuki dropped her. "We need to take that monster down. These sludge monsters can hide anywhere and then just pop out and spread their filth. Piling on to Tyuki's joke, for the same reason."

A pink blur shot by the trio.

The sludge monster picked up some speed. Way too much speed for how it traveled before.

The tendrils dropped Bliss and Kaguya off early, while Tyuki went for her nose dive. "Tyuki, you're not going to make it!" Bliss looked over to Tyuki's conviction. It looked pretty vindicating. "Tyuki! Tyuki!"

The green sludge would make it in to the high school in more than enough time with the aid of something pushing her. If Tyuki kept going at full speed, it would not turn out great for her, but at the same time, it was Tyuki. What was the worst thing that could happen? Brain damage? Years of bong residue got there way before a one hundred mile an hour nose dive did.

Bliss kept running though. Now with more comfortable shoes! Her telekinetic blast shot the doors right off the hinges, hoping to knock anyone or any trap hiding behind them back. Once the doors flew off, the main hallway of the school opened up. Two stairwells flanked the far left and right side of the massive corridor, while three hallways ran off straight from the doors and two ran off in a perpendicular fashion.

Of course the major draw in the middle of the corridor came from the giant green sludge monster with its appendage latched on the drinking fountain. Liter by liter, the sludge monster grew until it blocked the entirety of the hall. "MIKO, something moved this thing in here, so be careful."

Bliss ignored her own advice and began moving forward, beginning the ice the halls. Seeing how it worked last time, Bliss decided not to mess with success. More ice would continue to form around the corridor pushing further down the halls, but Bliss could not see beyond the green sludge monster.

As more ice filled the chamber, the green sludge monster unleashed what it truly wanted. A massive appendage flung out from its body, appearing to want to strike Bliss and MIKO. But, as Bliss moved to dodge, the creature unleashed a wave of water from its arm, seeking to douse both Bliss and MIKO in freezing water. The sheer girth of water continued to pour upon the two in a frozen sludge deluge until Bliss finally had no choice but to detonate her ice walls with her own telekinesis.

"Not so great is it?!" The green monster launched an appendage to grab Bliss, wrapping her up in its grasp, and pulling her back towards her smaller form. "Puny heroes. Is this all you have?"

Squirming in the clutches of the creature, Bliss finally turned her head to see down the back hallway. A motorized ray began to make its way down, facing the door. A familiar face held a remote control next to a blonde Korean girl wearing a pink magic girl outfit stood with her arms crossed. "It's-" Before Bliss could issue out a warning, the sludge arm covered her mouth.

"Now, come at me with everything you have heroes." The green monster stepped to cover the hallway containing the ray. "Or, I'll crush your little friend!"

Kaguya was suddenly dropped, and given she didn't have the choice to wear super-technological running shoes, and, in fact, wasn't wearing footwear in any way, she was left to stumble over her feet, skid for several meters on the fucking ground, and have her dress tear, her skin sustain splinters and carpet burns, and be left quite the distance away from the door which Bliss just ran to and blasted open.

Why didn't she just fly at a higher altitude? In fact, they could have dropped down and sneaked in through the roof, if she had done that. What was the point? Was Eclipse incapable of lifting the both of them; did the wings require physical assertion? God, why did she have to become a magical girl? Why didn't she get shoes...? Why did she ever take this fucking job? Why was she stuck with it for the rest of her life? Oh, right.

Because she wanted to read during detention in her first year of high school.

Kaguya just laid on the ground, in too much pain to get up. Physically, she could, but mentally, she really couldn't. The blue-haired woman closed her eyes and choked back a sob, the imagery of her, in a dress, waylaid on the ground really emphasizing how much of a fucking joke her life was. God, she doesn't know why she wakes up, sometimes. The money? The people? She's never really met anyone outside of her own squad in years, for fuck's sake.

She picked herself up and jogged to the broken door. There wasn't any reason for it. There wasn't a beautiful, well-written self-acceptance speech, there wasn't a voice calling out to her, hell, the call of duty as a police officer didn't even appeal to her right now. She just mindlessly got up and went to the doors, because that's what she's supposed to do. Like going to the groceries, or brushing your teeth, or eating three meals a day.

Kaguya clocked in, beaten and bruised and completely exhausted.

She didn't even have the time to register what was around her, she was succumbing to a mental tunnel vision which stated 'do now, get done, go home'. The type of mindset where sure, she'd get her job done, but it would be out of sheer spite, and she hated this anyways. A hose of water was suddenly shot at her, and Kaguya just had a dead look in her eyes as she materialized a mallet and completely deflected it by twirling the mallet in both hands, redirecting the water in a spiral around her before something blew up and it ended.

Then, the other super was taken, and it was a hostage situation. The magical girl had no words for the monster, or for Bliss. She just stared in complete depression, almost like she wanted to rub the tiredness out of her face, but she legally couldn't. She had a slight wobble to her step, like a drunkard coming home in the deepest night, and her face was sunken and sallow. She looked like a teenager attempting to stay awake during a test, or a part-time worker in their third hour of overtime. She felt like one, at least.

Kaguya's ears picked up on something big and mechanical behind the sludge monster, as well as footsteps next to the big, mechanical thing. Oh. It was working with an evil mastermind who would set their giant death machine on her while she fought the monster. Kaguya frowned silently in disappointment, knowing the whole song and dance. She'd done that job at least once a month, back in high school. Three years, and this plotline would show up every full moon or so, could you imagine?

Still, she couldn't do anything about it. It was a hostage situation, and as per procedure, she needed to take down the hostage holder first. If her squad were here, the mastermind would have their brains splattered by a sniper rifle and the monster would have a big incendiary grenade in it's back, now. But they're not here, so.

Kaguya gave a tired sigh, her voice crackling with defeat.

"How about you crush me, instead? Or better, the giant death ray behind you does the job, and less painfully? God, I don't know why I even bother."

With that, Kaguya charged halfassedly at the monster, barely raising her mallet, as a look of fiery "not this shit again" combined with raw "I'm too tired for this shit" was plastered all over her heroic face, ever so determined to free the foreign superhero who was a bitch to her. And when she reached the slime monster, she raised her hammer, holding it with both hands, and sliced it down on the monster's head in a clean vertical cut, the afterimage of moonlight really accentuating her expression of "why do you give me such a hard time" irritation mixed with "please, for the love of god, die quickly" desperation.