Love And The Russian Winter, Act 3
[Lights]
Silent hallways, empty classrooms, stairwells washed in twilight. On the surface, it seemed like Higan Academy was falling asleep, but in truth, it was only the stage being set for the final battle.
Many students had spectated the skirmishes leading up to this point.
Fewer had expected it would all come to a head today.
None would witness the climax, save for the combatants themselves.
Their initial battlefield was the teacher's lounge. Rows of metal chairs stood out of place, lined with students who did not belong to this place at this time. Delinquents, slackers, the academically challenged.
There were no teachers to help with questions. In fact, the faculty had been paid off or pressured into the exact opposite, leaving only piles upon piles of papers stacked atop a desk. Answers to the coming exams, not the ones that these students needed, but the ones they wanted.
And the one with all the answers was Alyona Rodionova.
On the surface, she stood immaculate as always, golden hair perfectly framing her aristocratic features, her uniform gleaming under the lights as if the grime of the world dared not touch her.
However, anyone paying attention would spot the exhaustion corrupting her poise. A faint tremor in her right hand as she gripped the desk, a slight twitch in her eye. The battles waged earlier had damaged her pride and worn on her mind.
Beside her, those who noticed her exhaustion worked in her stead. Her closest confidants, her Tovarichi, her Census Club.
Archibald Florence, the muscle of the trio, stalked through the rows of students. He collected envelopes and slid exam sheets back, his eyes always alert to any threat.
Renka Cho, the brain to his brawn, loomed nearby. She gathered the envelopes once Archie made his rounds and extracted their contents, counting the bills with an easy rhythm.
Behind the Census Club's customers, the door slammed open, startling all. A flood of students entered, the black and green armbands over their uniform sleeves denouncing their status as adversaries. At their helm was Shu Jinko, devoid of his usual smile.
"Rodionova Alyona Tarasovna-san. Cease your activities immediately and accompany us to the principal's office," he declared, his voice carrying the weight of authority he did not want to wield. After all, as Student Council President, he had worked with the Census Club before. He believed they were kindred souls, fighting to make Higan Academy a sanctuary for every student. The sheer two-facedness of it it all dug deep into his innocent soul.
"A-Alyona-chan... no... it can't be..."
However, the stinging in his heart could not compare to the devastation felt by one Meliaya Mihama. She trembled behind him, tears welling up in her eyes, tracing silent paths down her cheeks even as Madoka Onguuchi rubbed comforting circles around her back.
"P-Please... please tell me this is not real..."
"Yaya-chan..." Alyona's composure fractured at her friend's plea. "It... it is all a misunderstanding," she tried softly. "This is all a charitable endeavor. I was only coordinating with some teachers to provide these... struggling students with sample exams. It's all for study purposes. The actual test contents will be completely different."
The doors of supply lockers and large storage closets flew open, revealing the remaining actors.
"Cut the bullshit, Rodionova!" Momofuku Chikata shouted, her Fujiwara Senki spreading out beside her. On one hand, she held her trusty bokken. On the other, a small recording device. "Your desk is full of dirty money, and we have your real deal with the teachers right here. It's over."
At the delinquents' appearances, the line of students had dissolved into a panicked, guilty huddle, which was soon herded into a corner by one Ren Nejima. While Archie and Renka stood perfectly still, awaiting their leader's commands, a blue-haired figure stepped forth from the Student Council.
"We not only have you on academic fraud, but also coercion and embezzlement," Kaoru Nagamine stated, adjusting her classes and flipping over a notebook stuffed with notes. "You've been using the Baseball Club as muscle to boss around the other sports clubs into unpaid menial labor. The Ceramics Club's budget was inflated to purchase luxury goods under the guise of equipment replacement. And the Calligraphy Club has been forging official documents that hid the story for the last few months."
As she finished reciting the facts, a suffocating silence fell over the lounge. On one side, the Census Club, looking like a trio of cornered animals. On the other, the ever rigtheous Student Council, ready to save their school's clubs once and for all. In between them, the Fujiwara Senki, the first spark that set off this chain reaction.
[Camera]
"... hah.." Kenji sighed, the sound loud in the quiet, air conditioned surveillance room.
He temporarily checked the other feeds, his fingers dancing across the keyboard. Hallways: empty. neighboring offices: dark. No one was coming to salvage this act except for him.
He switched back to the main event, watching with growing anxiety. When Rin, who had been tangentially involved in some of Alyona's smaller operations, had tipped him off about this brewing confrontation, he'd been thrilled. A gang leader versus a mob princess, with the school's golden boys caught in the crossfire? The potential was limitless. But this? This quick, tidy alliance between the delinquents and the council? Nine people against three? Where was the tension? The art behind every climax was in trying to trick the audience into thinking it wasn't a foregone conclusion.
Behind him, the door to the surveillance room hissed open.
Kenji didn't turn, his eyes glued to Alyona's unraveling. Her composure had finally shattered under the weight of evidence and Meliaya's weeping, and she fell back on self-serving excuses. The need for a power base, the necessity of protecting herself and other foreign students. He could have written a better monologue in his sleep.
"Kurosawa-san. Everything is set."
He nodded at Itsuro's words. It began subtly at first, but his director's eye for detail caught on immediately. A pen rolled off a desk. A stack of graded papers fluttered, then slid. Then, the students stumbled, grabbing onto desks and door frames as the wind picked up, howling through the sealed room.
Panic erupted on screen as Rin deployed her [Garganta] from the floor below. Shu was shouting orders, attempting to evacuate the un-Awakened before they got swallowed. Momofuku was already swinging her bokken at the air, the mundane camera likely failing to capture the enemies around her.
"I'm relaying Satou's words," Itsuro stated over the chaos. "We only have one take. It took most of her ritual components to crack Higan's mystical protections."
"It's fine," Kenji murmured, a smile now touching his lips. "You know it is, otherwise you wouldn't have agreed."
Itsuro didn't need to confirm. They would use Alyona to wage war on the Student Council, tipping the scales on her favor without revealing themselves.
None would witness the climax, save for the combatants themselves. He would not ever see the heroic stands, the desperate struggles, the moment the narrative shifted. He knew that, but he was fine with it. He would rather know a better story was unfolding than sit through the original, tedious one.
Kenji leaned forward, his disappointment forgotten as the students disappeared from the cameras.
And who knows? Perhaps one of the yokai on the other side would someday grace him with an account of the events.
[Action]
Momofuku lost her footing, then plummeted, the walls of the teacher's lounge dissolving into a nauseating whirl of darkness, before being replaced by an endless white. Icy needles of hail stung her face, and a cold so profound it felt solid slammed into her, driving the air from her lungs.
"S-[Simply Red]!"
A massive, warm hand hooked under her arm, the oni materializing beside her in a gust of defiantly warm wind. She grunted, planting her feet mid-air as if on solid ground, and a cyclone erupted beneath them, killing the momentum of their fall. They landed with a soft crunch on the deep snow.
"Hello?! Anyone?!" Momofuku bellowed, her voice struggling against the shrieking wind. "Madoka! Fumiko! Dawn! Itsuki! I'm here!"
No answer. Only the endless, mocking howl of the blizzard. A fresh, biting gust ripped through the thin fabric of her uniform, and she shivered violently, teeth chattering. Her [Idolon] soon swung her kanabo, buffeting the blizzard with her own winds, surrounding them in a shield of gales. But the damage to her internal temperature had already been done.
Unbidden, a memory flashed. Her and Granny, huddled in their drafty apartment during a brutal winter. The first christmas she spent without her parents.
"T-This is nothing..." she decided, her body remembering that helpless cold and steadying itself with long-forgotten strength. Crouching slightly against the wind, she shoved her hands under her uniform top and skirt, her fingers finding the specific points drilled into her that day. She applied firm pressure to the acupoint below her navel, then another below her right knee, stimulating the meridians to expel the invasive cold. The initial shock faded, replaced by a flicker of internal warmth.
Then, she began to move, her body falling into slow, deliberate forms that stoked her inner furnace, engaging as many large muscle groups with each step.
Minute after minute, she walked aimlessly, calling out for anyone who might hear. [Simply Red] was sent to the skies to try to locate any signs of life, but she failed every time, the blizzard proving too thick for her vision.
As the oni landed from her latest search, her head snapped to the side Momofuku followed her gaze, her red eyes narrowing at shapes forming beyond the storm. She fell into a ready stance behind her [Idolon], bokken held tight.
Several small, plane-like drones zipped into view. They ignored the duo, instead flying in precise patterns. Smoke trails, vivid purple against the white, streamed from their backs, etching perfect kanji into the air:
Peace. Follow, they said.
Momofuku blinked, the tension draining from her shoulders. An [Idolon], though not one she recognized.
With a grunt of acknowledgment, she fell into step as they drew the path ahead with smoke. Soon, a humanoid silhouette emerged from the swirling white.
"Momo-chan!"
It was Yaya's voice, but choppier, as if coming from a recording. Her cheerful self had been replaced by a blue-eyed, blond girl, with clear metallic parts jutting out from her hips and shoulders.
"You're not hurt! That's good," the girl fussed, robotic limbs stiff and jerky in the freezing air. [Simply Red] responded to Momofuku's intent, and another gale shield swirled around the girl, earning a thankful smile from her.
"Yaya," the sukeban grunted. "What the hell happened back then? I thought things from [Idea World] couldn't breach through the school."
"That portal was forced into our world by another [Idolon]. As to how..." she pursed her lips. "I'm not sure. Higan should also be shielded against that sort of interference."
Great. They got around to solving club extortion, only to stumble upon a student trying to kill them through magical winter.
"... why's it look like the ass-end of Hokkaido in here, anyway? Shouldn't this place reflect the real world?"
It was still spring, dammit!
Yaya's android form whirred, blue eyes flickering with data streams Momofuku couldn't make sense of.
"I have detected multiple winter-type [Yokai] signatures saturating this area. [Yuki-onna]. [Yukionba]. [Tsurara-onna]. [Yukinko]. Their collective presence is generating this environmental hazard. However, defeating enough of them should cause it to collapse."
"We should get the others first. If they're even here," Momofuku added with a grim note. She had been closer to her gang than any of the Student Council, but the portal hadn't seemed to care, scattering them about randomly.
Yaya gave her a jerky nod. "My drones have detected their signatures in the vicinity, save for Kaoru-chan, who was dragging some of the un-Awakened when the portal closed."
"Lead the way, then."
They pushed forward, [Simply Red]'s gales carving a path around them.
Quickly, their destination became visible over the horizon. A massive, improbably perfect igloo, a clear landmark in the formless white.
However, as they neared it, the howling wind became a chorus of tormented voices.
The falling snow became frozen ash.
Then, a solid wall of grey and white surrounded them with renewed fury, almost breaching through their own winds.
When the gust subsided, a woman stood before the girls.
She was unnervingly beautiful. Unblemished skin, pale as the snow on her feet. Long black hair, flowing down to her back. Eyes of the same color, dark pools that seemed to swallow everything around her, dragging their attention and leaving them unable to look away. She wore little more than tattered rags that did nothing to hide her curvaceous form, but her modesty was covered by the bundle of white cloth she carried. A low, gurgling coo emanated from it, a sound too bone-rattling to belong to any infant.
"Travelers..." the [Yuki-onna] spoke, her voice sweet as a wind chime.
"... please... my child is heavy. Won't you help me carry him?"
A story her grandma had whispered on that same cold night slammed into the forefront of Momofuku's mind. To hug the [Yukinko] was to accept a creeping death, the child growing heavier and colder until one collapsed onto the snow as a frozen statue. To refuse was to be shoved down a frozen valley.
Damned if you do, doomed if you don't.
For a single, furious moment, she considered the third option. To unleash [Simply Red] in a hurricane of violence and kill both. But deep in her soul, she knew she'd lost her chance the moment the question left the [Yokai]'s perfect, blue-tinged lips. The verbal pact was set. To attack would be to invite violence only on herself.
"Momo-chan... what should we..."
"Fine. I'll take your brat."
Momofuku stepped forward, the snow crunching like breaking bones under her feet.
"Thank you..."
But as the sukeban approached, she lifted her [Tsuzumi Masamune] and bit into it. The taste of lacquered wood reminded her of warmer days, when she would attempt to bring fictitious sword arts into reality.
Holding the wooden blade horizontally with her mouth, she reached out for the bundle, and the world narrowed. The [Yukinko]'s gurgle became a wet, sucking sound directly in her torso. A lead-like cold seeped through her clothes and into her marrow, almost bringing her to her knees. But as the crushing pressure and the soul-numbing chill began to intensify, she pressed the solid length of the bokken firmly on the [Yokai]'s head. A barrier, not of physical threat, but repeated folklore.
The [Yuki-onna]'s ethereal features split into a smile. She didn't fade so much as unravel into snow, swept away by the unforgiving winds.
Clever mortal~ her voice chimed directly in Momofuku's skull. But your blade has not been tempered enough to shield your spirit. This is only a delay, not a denial.
"Your body temperature is drastically—" Yaya began, red warnings flashing across her eyes.
"... 'm fine," Momofuku gritted out, the words muffled by her blade. She adjusted her grip on the unnervingly still bundle, already feeling her arm muscles stiffening. Each breath was a little harder, her lungs turning to ice.
To save her wielder more words, [Simply Red] repeatedly pointed forward. Keep on moving.
Yaya reluctantly nodded, and the trio pressed on, every step now a battle.
The igloo loomed before them, pulsing with a faint light. Leaning against a wall by the entrance, a figure stood watch.
Yae, but transformed, her skin turned paler, her form shrouded in a dark trenchcoat a few sizes too large.
"Yaya, Momo," she greeted, tipping her peaked cap. "... [Simply Red]," she added at the pouting oni. "It's good to see you three unharmed."
She ushered the android inside with a flick of her sleeve. Momofuku followed, but that same sleeve blocked her path.
"Fuck's your problem?!" she snarled. She and [Simply Red] glared at the girl, itching to get inside so they could stop concentrating on keeping their gale shield.
Yae's gaze was on the bundle she carried, and the [Yukinko] chewing weakly on the fabric of her uniform, spreading a damp chill on her chest.
"There are un-Awakened students inside. Scared, frozen, and utterly defenseless. I cannot let you bring that thing near them." She gestured toward the endless white. "I'll form another shelter for us."
"It's alright, Yae-chan," said a gentle voice.
Madoka stepped through, and the air around Momofuku warmed a fraction from her presence. Her lilac eyes shone behind [Kukurihime]'s golden mask, settling on the [Yukinko].
"Its hunger is only for Momo. Let her in."
Yae gave a curt nod, wordlessly stepping aside, and Momofuku groaned against her bokken, finally dropping her shields.
Inside, the igloo was a cavern of blue-tinged ice, larger than it had any right to be. A handful of students huddled asleep on a corner, shivering and moaning from the cold. In the center there was a round table sculpted from snow, and with a gesture from Yae, more of the snow rose and compacted, forming pillar-like chairs for the newcomers. Momofuku sank into one with a grunt, the [Yukinko]'s growing weight sinking her seat several inches into the snow.
"Yaya, you're our best Scout," Yae began, all business. "What is the status of our allies and the location of our enemies?"
"Shu-kun is the closest. My drones have contacted him and he's coming this way, but he's been slowing down for the past minutes."
Her expression fell.
"Alyona-chan... she is the farthest. Her signature comes from the epicenter of this winter. As for our council members—"
Yaya whipped her head around, staring wide-eyed at some unseen threat.
"Alert! Two skirmishes outside our perimeter!"
Yae's head tilted. "Combatants?"
"First engagement: Ran-kun, Itsuki-kun, and Archie against a [Tsurara-onna]. Second engagement: Belladonna-san, Fumiko-chan, and Renka-chan against a [Yukionba]."
"Which one's closer?" Momofuku demanded, already pushing herself from her chair.
Yaya took a moment to decipher her muffled words. "... The first one."
That was all she needed to hear. As she strode to the door, Madoka, who had been standing beside her with her eyes closed and hands clasped, finally moved. A soft, silver light erupted from her, washing over Momofuku, and through her, the spectral form of [Simply Red] standing guard outside.
A surge of warmth and power flooded Momofuku's veins, her muscles thrumming with renewed energy. The oppressive weight of the Yukinko lessened, not gone, but manageable
"... thanks."
"Good luck, Momo," her friend said. "I must stay and maintain vigil around the un-Awakened."
Yae, who had already been glowing with the same blessings, looked between her allies. "Yaya, you remain here with Madoka. Momo and I will move out. We'll gather Prez first before engaging with the battle."
Momofuku's jaw tightened on her bokken. Her people were fighting at this very moment. Couldn't they split up instead of taking a detour together?
"Alert!" Yaya chirped up. "Shu-kun has broken formation from my drones!"
"... why?" Yae demanded, crossing her arms.
"I do not know! Perhaps he heard noises coming from the battle, but he is now located in a straight line between it and our location."
A shared, exasperated sigh passed between Yae and Momofuku. Of course he was. Annoyed but conceding the efficiency of his [Luck], they stepped back into the blizzard, [Simply Red] immediately enveloping them in her protective gale.
Momofuku buckled a second later, back bending over as the [Yukinko] her arms squirmed. Its form shifted and grew beyond the swaddled bundle from newborn to clinging toddler. Limbs like iron bars wrapped tightly around her torso, their increased weight driving the air out her lungs. The gurgling coos turned into a low, hungry gnawing, tiny malformed teeth nipping at her skin through her clothes.
There was a lapse in judgment. Madoka's blessing had strengthened her, only to turn her into a heartier meal for this disgusting creature.
Yae, who had been using her power to flatten the snow ahead into a clear path, turned at the sounds. Her eyes, shadowed by her cap, widened slightly at the sight of larger, more aggressive [Yokai].
"What the... Momo, isn't it better to let Simply Red take the burden?"
And lose all her combat strength? As if!
The weight on her back lessened as the red oni tugged at her uniform from behind, hauling her back to her feet. She gave Momofuku's back a firm pat, then turned to Yae and flashed a sharp-toothed grin.
Gritting her teeth against her bokken, the sukeban met the detective's gaze and nodded.
We can handle it.
Yae let out a quiet puff of mist in the frigid air before turning and gesturing for them to follow. "Try to keep up, then."
Their path was cut off by a vast, frozen lake, its surface a sheet of treacherous black ice groaning ominously under their feet. [Simply Red], sensing the danger, floated upward on a small, personal cyclone, removing the issue of her muscular weight. Momofuku, not wanting the [Yukinko]'s cold spreading to her [Idolon], was forced to pace slowly alongside Yae, the [Yokai]'s weight making every step a potential plunge into the freezing water.
In the distance, a figure in orange and black approached them. Shujinko, transformed into his undead-themed, tokusatsu [Idolon].
"Yae! Momo! Over here!"
He waved cheerfully, his voice carrying across the lake.
Before they could greet him back, he came sprinting towards them.
The three girls cringed, bracing for the sound of shattering ice. But it never came. He ran with the oblivious grace of a cartoon character, his feet somehow finding the only perfectly supported points on the entire frozen surface.
He skidded to a halt before them, slightly out of breath. Up close, they could see why. Tucked securely in the crook of one arm, wrapped in the trailing end of his own costume's scarf, was his own [Yukinko]. It was still a swaddled newborn, not having grown like Momofuku's, but a vicious, glittering frost had crawled up his arm and across one side of his torso, restricting his movement.
Well, better that than having to rescue him from a deep, frozen valley. Good on him for figuring out the legend and...
No, wait. That idiot probably just saw a baby in need of help and picked it up without a second thought.
Shujinko's masked eyes widened as he noticed Momofuku's own burden.
"Whoa! Was it already that big when you found it?"
he asked, his voice full of genuine, baffling wonder.
"Nope," Yae replied for her. "She just took such good care of it that it grew up big and strong."
That ridiculous explanation earned her a glare from Momofuku and admiration from the idiot.
"That's so kind of you, even to an enemy!"
Alright, that was enough. She turned and started shuffling past them, focusing all her energy on moving forward and finding her gang. Behind her, Yae delivered a dry summary of the situation so far, quickly sobering up Shujinko.
"... I should head back and help Madoka with healing the un-Awakened—"
"She can hold her own," the detective interrupted. "Turtling behind a base will only harm them more in the long-term. Disabling the source of this hellish blizzard is the priority."
"..."
Momofuku took his silence as acceptance. Then, his heavy footsteps quickly caught up to her struggling ones.
"Hey," he said, his voice softer now. "Ran and Itsuki-senpai... they won't lose so easily. We'll get to them in time, so don't go rushing off on your own."
Of course they were strong, and of course she trusted them! But was it so wrong to want to be there, helping in battle instead of being stuck in this icy hell?!
Still, his words left her ruminating for the rest of the trek. It was not her fault she couldn't be there. The portal had scattered everyone equally. Beating up herself up about it wouldn't make up for the time she spent no beating up their enemies.
Renewing her resolve, she continued to carve a path through the blizzard, Shujinko's luck allowing them to run instead of walk. They didn't find the battle so much as it found them, the sounds of shattering ice and explosive impacts guiding them through the storm. Eventually, they pushed through a final, thick veil of swirling snow and emerged into a sight that stole Momofuku's breath.
The epicenter of this snowstorm... was not Kageoka.
The city she knew was gone, replaced by a massive, utterly unfamiliar stone fortress, its angular bastions and towering spire somehow sticking out yet blending with the frozen horizon.
"Saint Petersburg," Yae identified. "The Peter and Paul Fortress."
Before Momofuku could process that, her eyes were drawn upward. Beyond the formidable walls, giant stalagmites of ice rose into the sky. Impaled upon several of them, a white-haired young man, His [Idolon]'s twelve wings torn and tattered by the bloodied spears.
"ITSUKI!"
The raw shout of alarm tearing from Momofuku shocked her companions. Her mouth protection forgotten, she charged forward, and they followed, a single thought uniting them.
BOOM!
A deafening sound from even higher above cut their charge short. The black cannonball, wreathed in frozen mist, screamed toward them.
"ORA!"
[Simply Red] was faster. She launched herself into the projectile's path, her kanabo swinging in a mighty arc. The weapon connected with the iron ball in a cataclysmic explosion of sound and shrapnel. A heartbeat later, a concussive blast of wind scattered the fireball and any shrapnel away from them.
As the smoke cleared, Momofuku's eyes rose to meet the attack's culprit. Standing above the highest point in the fortress was the blond brat that had been driving her mad for the past few days, clad in a magical girl outfit hugging curves she didn't have before.
"RODIONOVA!!!" she roared, the sound echoing throughout the [Russian Winter] thanks to another burst of [Simply Red]'s winds. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"
"..."
Alyona turned her nose up, completely ignoring her. She reached for the cannon beside her, and the ancient weapon groaned, swiveling toward them for another shot.
"Move!" Yae commanded. Her hands swept out, and the snow around them surged upward, molding itself into thick, towering walls, blocking Alyona's line of sight. As they darted toward one of the fortress' archways, the second cannonball slammed into their makeshift protection with a ground-shaking thud.
The ice did not hold a third shot, but they were already inside the courtyard as it crumbled behind them. Every muscle in Momofuku's body screamed in protest as she forced herself to keep up with her allies, the [Yukinko] on her chest a solid block of iron threatening to fall down and take her ribcage with it.
Inside, they met pure chaos. Itsuki had managed to wrench himself from the ice spears, his form flickering between [Idolon] and human. Stalking him, a [Tsurara-onna] with crystal-blue skin raised sharper obstacles in his path.
To his right, Ran, a whirlwind of disciplined fury in his red and blue [Idolon] form, traded earth-shattering blows with a hulking, pig-like ogre.
"That all you got?!" his opponent taunted, voice unmistakably Archie's.
The pieces clicked with infuriating clarity. The Census Club wasn't engaged in battle with the [Yokai] as Yaya read from her sensors. They weren't trying to escape this frozen hell. They were using it!
Letting enemies soften up her gang and the student council, so they could swoop in later and have them at their mercy!
"Rodionova...!" she snarled as another cannon blast boomed from high in the air, aimed to tip the scales between Ran and Archie.
"[Simply Red]!"
There was no wind-up, no battle cry. The oni blurred from her position beside her, disappearing and re-appearing in front of a wide-eyed Alyona and tackling her off the tower. They fell from view, a tangled comet of red and white plummeting toward the courtyard on the other side.
The moment her [Idolon] vanished, Momofuku felt like one of her lungs got ripped out. Without the oni's spiritual support beside her, she collapsed onto her knees, a wheezing gasp torn from her throat as the full, crushing weight of the [Yukinko] slammed back into her. The cold clawed at her bones, freezing the air in her lungs.
Around her, the battle raged, a chaotic symphony of clashing powers. Shujinko was a blur of orange and black, his hands glowing as he pressed them against Itsuki's wounds, frostbitten tears sealing shut before pristine skin got covered in a protective barrier.
Yae moved with detached precision, a flick of her wrist speeding up Ran's movements into a blur while the snow beneath Archie's ogre-form churned and liquefied, trapping him in a pit of freezing quicksand, then leaving him open for a punishing volley of blows from the empowered Ran.
But Momofuku saw none of it clearly. Her world had narrowed to the freezing agony in her chest and the spot where her [Idolon] fought.
Gritting her teeth, she shoved her hands under her uniform again, fingers jabbing viciously at the acupoints on her abdomen and leg. She pushed her life force, her very [Fighting Spirit] into her muscles, ignoring their screaming protest. Her blood boiled desperately, the furnace of her body stoked to its absolute limit, but she could move again, and that was all that mattered!
Water dripped from the Yukinko, its form melting against her feverish body, soaking her uniform in otherworldly slush. With a final, guttural cry, she shoved herself back to her feet and charged, a lone figure hell-bent on reaching her enemy.
She stumbled into a pocket of the courtyard where the wind was fiercest. [Simply Red] had become a living tornado relentlessly advancing toward Alyona. A dozen spectral firearms orbited the blond, barking bullets upon the oni. Yet they simply vanished into the churning mass of wind, swallowed without a trace of impact.
"[Simply Red]!" Momofuku ordered, and the tornado exploded.
"ORA!"
Her [Idolon] materialized upon her enemy again, shoulder slamming into her chest with the force of a freight train, followed instantly by a brutal swing of her kanabo. The blows sent the Russian flying backward, crashing into a fortress wall in a burst of stone.
Momofuku stood panting, the world tilting around her.
Before she could bark another order, Alyona rose from the rubble, coughing, a trickle of blood marring her pale chin. Far from defeated, a cruel smile twisted her lips as she locked her gaze not on the hulking oni, but her wielder.
Her guns swiveled as one.
"[S—"
Her [Idolon] would not make it in time.
THOOOOOOOOOMM!
TICKTOCKTICKTOCKticktocktick...
And yet... Momofuku could see the bullets coming. How...?
She blinked—
...tockticktockTICKTOCKTICKTOCK—
And the world snapped back into focus. She saw Alyona from a completely different angle, twenty feet further from before and as confused as her. Then, a familiar gauntlet fell upon her shoulder.
"Sorry, Boss," Dawn said, standing protectively beside her. "We were... delayed by a formidable opponent."
On cue, a shadow fell over them. With a roar of straining hydraulics, Fumiko landed atop the fortress wall, sitting atop [Brute Cannon]'s head.
Answering their arrival, a figure floated down to stand beside Alyona. She was encased in jagged, white armor, with a crown of sharp, golden spikes above her head, and vicious claws of the same metal adorning her hands. The [Idolon] could only belong to the last Census Club member, Renka.
The battle was set again. Across the courtyard, [Simply Red] was a relentless engine of destruction, her kanabo carving arcs through the air as she charged her opponents. [Brute Cannon], perched high above, assisted the oni with thunderous barrages from its shoulder cannons, raining explosive shells that churned the snowy earth. Alyona danced through the firestorm, her own magical blasts meeting Fumiko's artillery in mid-air while she maintained a frantic, evasive distance from the oni's reach. Renka took the heat off her, flowing around [Simply Red]'s assault. Her clawed hands weaved as she manipulated the very fortress around them, raising sudden walls of snow and stone to block the oni's path or sending sharpened spears of ice slicing from the ground.
Momofuku allowed herself a single, feverish breath, sagging against Dawn's form. A worried frown graced her knight's features as she touched the [Yokai] still clinging to her chest.
"Don't..." Momofuku growled. "If you hurt it, I'll get shoved into a frozen valley. I just have to... tough it out until it freezes itself and cracks."
Dawn nodded with a resolve that matched hers, focusing a faint light gathered on her scabbard.
Then, the battle shifted again.
With a crash that shook the courtyard, Archie's ogre-form landed on his back, skidding through the snow as Ran and Yae pursued him. Itsuki strode into the clearing, his angelic form flickering but resolute, the crystalline head of the [Tsurara-onna] dangling from his fist. Shujinko landed gracefully on a nearby rooftop, his light pouring out and covering all of them, healing their scrapes.
Alyona's eyes darted around, seeing her forces routed, sensing the noose tightening around her neck.
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAAAA!!" [Simply Red] drove the kanabo deeper into her wound, finally getting past Renka's defenses and landing a furious rush of blows.
In a moment of panic, Alyona stopped firing and rushed to her fallen underling's side, clutching her armored arm.
"Renka, please!" she begged, gone the condescension in her tone. "You can't fall now! I need you to bring us victory!"
The crowned girl turned her head, placing a golden claw atop Alyona's hand. "Your dream... is my command."
Slowly, the Fujiwara Senki and Student Council circled the Census Club, all ready to deliver the final blow. Renka only wiped the blood from her lips, smiling thinly at them.
It was over—
Absolute light swallowed everything.