Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.
Shurikon was on fire.
That was the first thing Mibojin noticed when they rushed out of the museum and found themselves back on the convention floor.
Many of the booths and tents were on fire. Funghouls, infected mantis ninjas, and Shadowkhan were fighting ninjas or people dressed as ninjas everywhere.
The difference was easy to tell. The actual ninjas were holding their own.
The others weren't.
Hood was aghast as a ninja – or, more likely, someone cosplaying as one – was eviscerated by a corrupted mantis, only to rise up moments later as a Funghoul. "How… How did it get so bad, so quickly?"
"She has coordinated this attack very well indeed," Manti said gravely.
"Actually, a lot of the place was on fire already, some big fight broke out for some reason."
They both glanced up to see Parasitica's current host gloating at them from atop a nearby stand, the scroll clutched in one hand. "You didn't have something to do with that, did you?" Parasitica taunted, knowing full well that they had. "Because I have to say, it made things a lot easier for me."
"If you are attempting to guilt me, it's not working," Mibojin said. "Even if I have somewhat been forced to develop a modicum of empathy for others, I wasn't really fond of most of them anyway."
"Does that extend to your daughter?" Parasitica teased, causing Mibojin to tense. "She is in a great deal of danger, after all. Such a pity you were never able to convince her to join the Buzzing. You might've been able to warn her and help her avoid her fate."
"My daughter's choice is her own, and I must respect it, no matter how much I wish otherwise," Mibojin replied. "And anyway, she already knows what's going on. She may not be on the Buzzing, but her lovers are."
Parasitica shrugged. "Is that so? No matter. They will not be able to save her in the end. You realize I'm going to make her death a priority, aren't you?"
"What a coincidence. I was about to say the same to you," Mibojin replied.
"You… You burned my world. Killed my people. That body… You don't deserve to be wearing that body!" Hood snarled. "You're going to regret wearing it here! My family, my home… I will avenge them!"
As Parasitica laughed in amusement, Mibojin put her hand on her trembling apprentice. "Hood. Calm yourself. We will avenge your people, but do not give into anger. Anger makes you sloppy. We cannot afford any mistakes against an opponent of this caliber."
"I understand, sensei," Hood replied, her voice/thoughts thick with rage. "But looking at her… It's so hard."
"Remember, Hood, we are with you," Manti said gently. "You are not alone in this."
"I know. Thank you."
"You may feel free to fight me if you wish," Parasitica said dismissively, raising the scroll. "But first, I shall become invincible."
As she attempted to open the scroll tube, Mibojin quickly threw her Shuriken at Parasitica. One of the possessed mantis's blades flashed through the air, slicing her Shuriken in half, and in that split second Mibojin was right beside her, launching a kick at her face. Parasitica deflected it, but Mibojin grabbed her blades before they could hit the ground and launched into a flurry of frenzied attacks, which the mantis was able to parry all too easily.
In a puff of smoke, Hood appeared, swinging her club at the mantis's head. One of Parasitica's blades sliced through the air, reducing the club to splinters, and in that moment of distraction Mibojin attempted to thrust a blade at her opponent's eye. Parasitica caught the blade in her free hand and slashed at the ninja, only for her to disappear in a puff of smoke, leaving a straw doll behind.
Mibojin reappeared in another puff of smoke in the air, flinging a dozen smaller Shuriken at Parasitica. The evil queen deflected the Shuriken with a spin, only for them to embed themselves in the ground around her, flash, and explode, engulfing her in a cloud of smoke and fire.
The cloud didn't last long. Razor blades of wind sliced through the air, ripping it to pieces as well as shredding everything nearby, including Mibojin and Hood…
Who both vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving straw dolls.
A pit trap suddenly opened beneath Parasitica's feet. Having anticipated this, she backflipped out of the way, only to land on a second pit trap. She was already in motion as the ground collapsed beneath her feet, only for Hood to attempt to clothesline her at the same time as Mibojin swung her giant Shuriken at her midsection. Parasitica twisted through the air, managing to contort herself so that she passed between their attacks, lashing out with her blades as she went, flinging both of them back.
Parasitica launched herself back into the air the moment she touched the ground, rapidly swinging her sickles before her and sending dozens of razor blades slashing through the air at the master and apprentice. Mibojin vanished, while Hood stood her ground, only grunting as the blades cut at her thick carapace and ninja uniform, roaring furiously as she swung a meteor hammer at the evil ninja.
Parasitica severed the chain with a flick of a blade, only to be startled when the hammer exploded in her face. Mibojin took advantage of that immediate distraction to reappear, diving for the air and dismembering the hand that had been holding the scroll, flinging it into the air. She quickly reached out to grab it…
Only for a chain sickle to snatch it out of the air and into the hands of a Shadowkhan.
As Mibojin's eyes widened in surprise, Parasitica hit her with a cross slash in the back, knocking her out of the air and into a waiting Hood's arms, nearly toppling her over. Several dozen Shadowkhan and half as many ninja Funghouls suddenly appeared around them as Parasitica regally landed on top of another booth, one Shadowkhan handing her the scroll while the other gave back her severed hand, which she quickly reattached. "Now," she gloated. "I do believe it's time for you to-"
Hood flipped through the air and landed hard on her rear, shaking the ground and flinging all the surrounding ninjas into the air as well as toppling the booth over, forcing Parasitica to jump off before she could fall. Mibojin, who had hopped just before her apprentice did her ground pound, spun her Shuriken, charging energy into it.
BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZING CHARGE!
She hurled the Shuriken, which spun around her in a spiral of death, eviscerating the briefly airborne opponents, ripping them into fragments of shadow and fungus. Catching the Shuriken as it flew back into her hand, Mibojin landed into Hood's waiting hands as her apprentice flung her in the direction of Parasitica…
Who spread her wings and flew straight up, Mibojin passing under her. "A nice try, but not good enough-"
"BONZAI!"
Her own wings fluttering, Hood launched herself at Parasitica. Grunting in annoyance, Parasitica flung a cross slash at her, only for Mibojin to fling her Shuriken at the energy blades, sparks flying as the two clashed against each other. Hood briefly alighted on the flat of the Shuriken and launched herself over the cross slash, producing a chain sickle which she swung over her head as she flew towards Parasitica.
The evil queen responded by flinging a massive energy blade at her, one which seemed to slice the massive cicada in half…
Only for her to vanish in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a bisected straw doll, as the real Hood rematerialized right besides Parasitica, trying to knock the scroll out of her hand with a spinning kick. Parasitica blocked her with a blade, drawing back the other to skewer her, only to quickly use it to deflect Mibojin's Shuriken, which had finally smashed through her cross slash and was about to impale her. She laughed. "A nice effort, but-"
Without warning, the Shuriken split in half, spun wildly around her, and then buried themselves in her front and back, causing her to gasp and her guard to slip, allowing Hood to complete her spin kick and strike the back of one of the embedded Shuriken, pushing it deeper into the possessed mantis's chest. "GAH!"
"I'll be taking that-" Hood began, reaching for the scroll, only for the furious Parasitica to retaliate with a slash which cut deeply into her chest and nearly severed one of her limbs. "Gah!"
"Fool! I'm using the body of one of the greatest ninjas my people has ever known, while you are nothing more than a fat oaf playing pretend!" Parasitica snarled, viciously slashing at her again and again, the cicada cringing as she shielded herself with all four arms, several very deep cuts forming in her limbs.
"I'm not fat!" Hood yelled.
"And she's not an oaf. Do you truly think I would've allowed her to become my apprentice if I didn't think she had potential?" Mibojin scoffed.
"I seem to remember you wanting nothing to do with her and only agreeing to train her if she could land a hit on you because you never actually believed she'd ever make it and would eventually give up and leave you alone," Manti recalled.
"At first! I changed my mind!" Mibojin said quickly. "In any event, while you may be wearing the body of a master ninja, Parasitica… I'm the only one of us which is one!"
She snapped her fingers, and the Shuriken fragments in Parasitica exploded.
As the evil queen shrieked in surprise, the scroll went flying, Hood snatching it out of the air. "I got it! This time, for sure, sensei-"
She cried out in surprise as the scroll suddenly dissolved into a mass of centipedes which wriggled up her arm. "Ah! Get em' off! Get emm' off!" She shrieked, frantically flailing her limb to try and dislodge the arthropods.
"A decoy!" Mibojin realized instantly.
"That's right!" Parasitica cackled, holding what was (probably) the real scroll. "And now, no more distractions! The power of the Oonemuri Touch will be mine!"
"No!" Mibojin, Manti, Hood, and pretty much the entirety of the Buzzing cried as Parasitica twisted the top of the scroll case…
And it didn't budge.
"Ahem. I said, the power of the Oonemuri Touch will be mine," Parasitica announced, twisting it again.
It didn't budge.
"ThepoweroftheOonemuritouchwillbemine!"
It still didn't budge.
"Oh for the love of… Why won't this thing open?!" She snarled, angrily shaking the scroll. "What is this, a puzzle lock?"
"That," Mibojin said, shoulders slumping in relief. "Or the case is simply stuck after being shut for untold ages."
"Dammit… And I can't concentrate on opening this thing while fighting both of you," Parasitica growled in frustration. "You would never give me a moment's peace!"
"Correct," Mibojin agreed, summoning a new Shuriken.
"No matter… I know an easy way to buy myself some time," Parasitica said with a shrug as half a dozen mantis Funghouls appeared in the air around her. In a puff of smoke, all the Funghouls turned into exact copies of herself, all holding what appeared to be the scroll case. They then danced around each other at high speeds, moving so rapidly they were almost impossible for the naked eye to see, before finally coming to a stop, all in the exact same positions they had been before…
Or were they?
"How about a little shell game?" Parasitica said from all the mantises at once. "Each of my puppets will split up and head to different corners of the convention hall. Only one of us is holding the real scroll. If you want to stop me from opening it, you must guess which of us is the real one, and choose carefully, because you won't get a second chance."
She grinned. "Oh, and to make things even harder… All my minions are converging on the arena where your daughter is supposed to be fighting. You can either try and stop me or try to save her. There's no time for both. So, what's it going to be, hero?"
Laughing, the ninjas dispersed.
"Sensei, what do we do?" Hood asked anxiously.
"Not to worry. I already know which of them has the real scroll, I was paying very close attention," Mibojin assured her.
"Oh, of course! I shouldn't expect anything less from you," Hood said in relief. "What about Kagami? Should I go and help her? I'd probably only slow you down anyway-"
"No. You stay with me," Mibojin ordered. "Parasitica knows you're my apprentice, the moment you leave my side she will target you as well. Your safest place is with me."
"Oh. But… But what about Kagami?" Hood asked in alarm. "You can't just abandon her!"
"Hood, I have trained my daughter well, and she has her girlfriends looking out for her. That should be enough to protect her long enough for us to retrieve the scroll. Once we have it, then we can focus on rescuing her. If she were here, she would tell me the same thing," Mibojin said confidently.
"I… I guess," Hood admitted. "It just feels kinda wrong, you know?"
"I know. But this is what it means to be a ninja. The mission must always come first. Even before your own heart," Mibojin told her. "Despite Parasitica's taunts this and my current affiliation with the Bugrangers, I am not and never have been a hero. I do not have the luxury of wasting time searching for a third option, especially since I know there often isn't one. If Parasitica reads the scroll, everyone dies. The best way we can protect Kagami, protect everyone, is to prevent that from happening."
"… I understand," Hood said, nodding in determination. "And… If you're too late? If we get the scroll, but Kagami…"
"I will mourn her. And I will move on," Mibojin said, her voice cracking slightly, much to her irritation. "That is our way."
Hood nodded solemnly, making no comment of the deep sense of pain and remorse Mibojin had expressed in those words. It wouldn't change anything. "That is our way."
They quickly headed off after Parasitica.
If they had lingered a moment longer, they might've encountered the monster which emerged from what was left of the museum, a purple Hitotsuki with spider legs growing from his shoulders, which resembled ladybug elytra, chest armor made of clustered glowing honeycombs, a cloak resembling butterfly wings, a mantis blade growing from one arm and a scorpion stinger from the other, and a giant ant for a head with grasshopper legs instead of antenna and the upside down face of Minoru Ono in its mouth.
It was also covered in Hive script pleading for help and for someone, anyone, to put an end to its suffering.
"The scroll… Is mine," Konchūki snarled, bounding after the ninja.
A hideous, misshapen monster in the guise of a ninja lurched at Kagami, eyes wide with hatred, blood-flecked saliva dripping from its jaws. With a flick of her blade, she severed its throat and it collapsed, choking on its own fluids.
"Nice job! You just killed zombie Supah Ninja!" Mira said approvingly as she took out half a dozen Funghouls with precise head shots using a standard-issue Buzz Blaster, a less powerful version of her father's gun used by the rank-and-file of the Hive military. Every single bullet made its mark. She was her father's daughter, after all.
"He was a zombie?" Kagami asked in surprise.
"Ha! I get that reference!" Scarabella laughed, flinging her bugball into the crowd of undead monsters attacking the stadium. It ping-ponged through the throng of the dead, crushing skulls, breaking off limbs, and smashing holes through torsos, taking out over three dozen before returning to her hands. "Yes! Good job, buddy!" She gushed, stroking the ball, which uncurled to reveal a cybernetically augmented giant pill bug, which cooed happily.
"What reference?" A bewildered Kagami asked, flinging Shuriken into the chest of a Funghoul charging at Scarabella. The throwing stars flashed and then exploded, ripping apart.
Kari rolled her eyes, ducking the sword of a zombified ninja and firing half a dozen shots into its chin, obliterating its head and upper body. "Oh nevermind."
The trio continued killing zombie after zombie. Kagami was quite proud that the three of them were in perfect sync, even if she weren't psychically linked the way her other two girlfriends were. She did not need the crutch of the Buzzing to work as a team with her loves-
All of a sudden, every Funghoul in the arena stopped what they were doing, much to the surprise of the ninjas they had been fighting.
And then all of them turned their attention towards the three of them, dozens, hundreds of Shadowkhan rising from the shadows.
"… Why are they looking at us?" Kagami asked in concern.
"They aren't looking at us," Mira said, tensing.
"They're looking at you," Scarabella emphasized, her ball squeaking and curling up in fright.
Oh, right. Not being tuned into the network did have its downsides sometimes, she was always the last to know when something was going on.
"That's right," Parasitica's voice rose from every one of her thralls, which everyone could agree made for a pretty unnerving effect. "Kagami, daughter of Mibojin. Your mother has become quite a nuisance, that obese Nimrod she's been humoring slightly less of one. So, I'm going to send every last Funghoul and Shadowkhan in this convention hall to kill you to make her suffer."
All the undead grinned. "And wouldn't you know it, she's abandoning you to continue her pursuit of me and the scroll I've stolen. How does it feel, knowing your mother cares less about you than a moldy old text?"
"It feels good," Kagami replied, startling quite a few people. "Because it means she has her priorities straight."
Parasitica seemed taken aback by that, as were most of the other ninjas. "What?"
"If she had come here, I would've been disappointed in her for giving into such sentiment. My mother loves me, and I love her, but we both know the mission comes first," Kagami said. "My life is not worth the world, or the universe, which will certainly be destroyed if you are allowed to have your way. Were our positions reversed, I would do the same as her."
"But… She's abandoning you to die!" Parasitica protested.
Kagami shrugged. "If I die, I die. I am a ninja. I have no fear of death. If this is the day I meet my end, so be it, but I refuse to be used to dissuade my mother from thwarting you. I would do the deed myself if I believed my death would benefit her and the world. Is there anyone you could say the same of? Even your own daughter?"
"… I am truly beginning to despise your family," Parasitica snarled.
"Good," Kagami said, brandishing her blades. "The feeling is mutual. Now… You can kill me if you try, but I have no intention of making it easy on you."
A gunshot rang out, and the nearest Funghoul fell.
"Neither are we," said Mira, eyes steely.
"If you want to kill her, you'll have to go through us too," Scarabella said, dribbling her ball.
All the zombies grinned. "I was rather hoping you would say that."
And an ocean of darkness surged forwards to drown the trio.
Before everyone's eyes, Beverly transformed into a red Hitotsuki with a heavily armored torso with camouflage gear colors, twisted renditions of military medals and bars, and COVERED in cannons, her head mostly covered by a tac helmet with a visor resembling a Cyclopean eye and a headset with the mic positioned over a skeletal mouth. A cross held by an eagle was emblazoned on her helmet, a huge V was on her chest, and a cape resembling the American flag billowed down her back, with more eagles holding crosses on her shoulders and painted on the sides of her gun barrels.
"Yes… With this power, I have become a soldier of God!" Katsuoshiki shouted rapturously. "Now, I can make everything the way it should be… The American, Christian way!"
"… I hate everything that just came out of her mouth," a revolted Shin said.
"Wait, why is she a soldier? Didn't she say she hated soldiers?" A confused Antares pointed out.
"She's a colossal hypocrite," Goro replied.
"Ah, of course."
"Well, she just made a huge mistake, transforming in a lecture hall full of some of the strongest heroes in Japan, including my parents-" Ariel said smugly as all the actual heroes in the audience got up, ready to transform.
"Everyone, down. NOW!" Aranea shouted, quickly grabbing everyone in her webs and yanking them under the table.
"Aranea, what-" Nushi stammered.
"Ariel! Your strongest barrier! Hurry!" Aranea cried desperately.
Ariel didn't hesitate or ask questions. "Jinga Majuna!"
The seven of them were immediately covered under a shimmering force field, which Aranea promptly reinforced with layer after layer of webbing until all light from the outside had been completely cut off.
"Aranea, what's going on? Did you… Did you see something?" The horrified Nushi realized.
Aranea nodded once and suddenly the entire force bubble trembled, the seven of them, already in fairly tight quarters already, crying out as they were rather painfully banged against each other.
There was a triumphant cackle, and then silence.
Goro opened his mouth, only for Aranea to hold up a finger.
Everyone went quiet.
A few moments passed, and Aranea nodded, dissolving her webbing. Ariel dispelled her force field, and they peeked up over the table to see…
Everyone in the lecture hall – the heroes, the civilians, their friends and families in attendance – were all alive.
Almost all of them were Caucasian, blonde and blue-eyed.
Just about everyone who was quite visibly nonhuman was now human, but black, Hispanic, Asian, and a gamut of other ethnicities.
All of them were wearing their Sunday finest with blatant Christian and American iconography and they had vapid smiles and glazed looks on their faces. (And the Caucasians had much better clothing than the rest because of course they did.)
"Yes!" Katsuoshiki cheered triumphantly. "Everything is right now! Everyone is the right color, the right species, the right religion, and of course, the right sexuality! Thank Jesus!"
"Thank Jesus!" All of her victims cried.
"What the fuck," Shin said eloquently.
"I do not understand. Why did she make most of them humans of one color, but not others?" A puzzled Antares whispered.
"Because she's a turbo-racist," Ariel hissed, shaking with rage.
"… Kari's out there," a horrified Goro realized. "She's turned her… She's turned everyone-"
"My son," Shin gasped.
"My family! I'm going to-" Ariel started.
"Wait!" Aranea hissed, pulling everyone down again just as Katsuoshiki glanced their way. The Hitotsuki frowned, took a step in their direction…
And suddenly a holographic door appeared and spat out Inu Brother and Kiji Brother.
ARF YOU READY?
TORICKY!
"GIVE MIHO-CHAN BACK TO ME!" Kiji Brother screamed furiously, wildly firing his DonBlaster at Inu Brother, not caring that he came dangerously close to hitting several of the seated victims, who didn't even react to the gunfire.
"She came to me of her own volition! And her name is Natsumi!" Inu Brother shouted as he dodged the gunshots, not seeming to care whether or not anyone else might get hit by them, flinging his giant Shuriken at his teammate.
"That's what I said! Give Natsumi back!" Kiji Brother yelled, dodging the Shuriken and continuing to fire.
Inu Brother drew his DonBlaster as well and started exchanging fire. "It is not what you said! She's terrified of you! You keep calling her Miho, trying to force her to dress the way the Crane you married did, act like her, get the same job, the same haircut… You don't care about her at all, you're just trying to fit her into the mold left by that Beastial! Who, might I add, never loved you in the first place!"
"Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up! You already have Sononi! You don't need another girlfriend! She's mine! She picked me! ME! I'M THE ONLY ONE SHE NEEDS!" A furious Kiji Brother screamed, rushing over and trying to stomp on the much smaller dog with his oversized feet.
Naturally, that's when the big black Shuriken spun back around and struck him in the legs, causing him to topple over. He looked up, only to find Inu Brother pointing his gun in his face, shaking with rage. "You should never have been one of us," he snarled. "Once you're dead, she'll finally be safe-"
"Stop it! Stop fighting!" Katsuoshiki shouted, two of her cannons firing energy blasts at the feuding DonBrothers. Both of them flashed with light and transformed, Kiji Brother turning into a handsome blonde blue-eyed Caucasian man in a fine suit looking almost identical to all the other Caucasian men in the room, while Inu Brother was a literal black dog on a leash.
"Oh!" The former pheasant said blankly. "I seem to have stepped into the wrong room. Come, Spot, let's go home to my loving wife!"
The dog barked obediently and trotted after his owner as they left the room.
"Wonderful! They shall both live much happier lives now!" Katsutoshiki declared enthusiastically. "Though… I'm not sure why that one turned into an actual dog… Weird. Still, another success!"
As the concealed Bugrangers and Arachrangers gaped in horror, the Hitotsuki addressed her new congregation. "Everyone, I go now to turn the rest of this terrible country into an extension of the greatest nation on earth, America! Stay here and pray to God for thanks for sending me to deliver you into the arms of Jesus! God bless America, and nowhere else!"
"God bless America, and nowhere else!" All her victims echoed.
Katsutoshiki, looking pleased with herself, left the hall.
Once she was gone, the seven cautiously came out from behind the table. "Okay. Wow. That's… This may be one of the most horrifying monsters we've ever faced, but-" Nushi started, only for the rest of her teammates to immediately rush into the seated throng. "Guys, wait-"
"KARI! Kari, where are you?!" Goro shouted frantically, searching the faces of the transmogrified guests, most of whom didn't seem to even notice him, murmuring prayers under their breath. "Come on, come on, this is, this is where she was sitting, right, she has to be here, she has to be-"
"Husband!"
Face lighting up, Goro whirled around…
And stared at the completely unfamiliar rather frumpy, plain Latina woman smiling placidly at him. "Who… Who are you?"
The woman laughed. It was very loud and very obnoxious. "Husband! It is me, your wife!" The stranger said in a horrible Hispanic accent. "Do you not recognize me?"
Goro stared at her, face ashen. "No. No, I don't."
"Son! Inago! I'm here! Where are you?" Shin asked desperately, jumping around the room to try and get a better look at everyone. "Dammit, I can't find them, nobody looks right anymore, where were they sitting-"
"Partner! I think that's them!" Caelifer shouted, indicating a rather scrawny and underfed Pakistani boy and a very ugly Indian woman.
Relieved, Shin landed right in front of the pair. "Oh thank the Queen, I found you-"
The two of them screamed and nearly knocked their seats over as they tried to get away from him. "Monster! MONSTER!" The boy who would once been Shiin screamed.
"Stay away! Get away from us!" The woman who had once been Inago wailed, making the sign of the cross.
"He's so ugly!"
"Something that hideous shouldn't exist!"
"Go away! Die! LEAVE US ALONE!"
Shin just… stood there, an utterly blank look on his face, ignoring the increasingly alarmed Caelifer's entreaties to say or do something.
"No, no, no this isn't right, this isn't right!" Ariel moaned, having located her family, most of whom were now Caucasian, though her aunts Vancuria and Sphinx were black and below average in looks, and Uncle Cerberus and the twins were literal dogs now. "Don't worry, I can fix this, there has to be a spell-" she said, pulling out her wand, only to flinch back in shock as her entire family started shouting at her.
"No! Magic is the devil's work! We want no part of it!" Her uncle Kai shouted.
"Get thee gone, harlot! Go back to your satanic master!" Her grandmother sneered, a look of absolute hatred on her face.
"Give up this heathen worship of false gods and accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart before it's too late, and your soul burns forever!" Her aunt Lunagel screamed.
"It's already too late for her. Just look at the way she dresses! The company she keeps! Hell is where she belongs!" Her aunt Houka cried.
"After all, as the good book says, we must not suffer a witch to live!" Her grandfather agreed.
Ariel cowered, staring at her family in disbelief, her usual confident, ebullient nature nowhere to be found. "What? What… What are you talking about? Magic is what binds us together. What makes us a family-"
"You're no family of ours!" Her uncle Makito yelled.
"But… Mom, dad, surely you of all people-" Ariel stammered.
"Don't you talk to us!" Hikaru snapped. "We're not your parents!"
Urara nodded coldly. "As if we'd ever have a disgusting freakish whore like yourself as a child! If we ever did, we'd strangle it at birth!"
"After letting it be born, of course, since abortion is a sin," Vancuria said quickly.
Ariel stared at them in non-comprehension, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I don't… Understand. Why are you… Why are you treating me like this? I'm… I'm Ariel Ozu. You're… You're my family. We're a family."
"You're a disgusting ungodly demi-human pretending to be an angel who tries to teach children that magic is wonderful and not a one-way ticket to hell, and what's worse, you've had lots of sex with multiple men and women out of wedlock," Urara hissed. "You should never have been born."
"Burn the witch! Burn the witch! Burn the witch!" Everyone started chanting as Ariel finally broke down and started sobbing inconsolably.
And Nushi just… Stared, the grief and sorrow and heartbreak from her friends, from her Ariel, coursing through the Buzzing, overwhelming her mind, drowning her in their loss and despair.
The rational part of herself, of the Buzzing, tried to keep calm by pointing out that all this could easily be undone by defeating the Hitotsuki, and even then, Ariel and Aranea in conjunction could surely come up with a magical solution. While this was absolutely horrific, it was by no means permanent.
The rest of her, of the Buzzing, screamed she made Ariel cry.
(Oh, and the others too.)
Coccinella gasped, a horribly familiar feeling washing over her. "Nushi, it… It's happening again."
Nushi looked down at her partner impassively as Coccinella's colors inverted, her circuits crackled with red and black energy, her eyes turned purple, ominous looking magical sigils formed on her body, and her microprocessor turned red.
"Aranea," Nushi said, without any emotion. "You knew this would happen."
"I had a vision only moments before she attacked. I… There was nothing we could do to stop this," the spider Princess said with resignation. "There was barely enough time for us to save ourselves." She shuddered. "There… There was no outcome that didn't lead to us either getting transformed like everyone else, or… This."
"Was this inevitable, then? That once again, I give into the darkness?" Nushi inquired.
"No. You don't have to do this, Nushi," Aranea told her. "You can choose not to."
Nushi nodded. "I thought so. But… We already know what I've chosen, don't we?"
"Yes," Aranea said sadly. "We do."
Nushi allowed the emotions of her friends, her love, the entirety of the Buzzing flow through her.
She felt none of it.
"HENSHIN!"
"BuG oUt!"
And once again, she let the darkness in.
"The dolls… Where are they? I know they're here… I can smell them…" Gokamiki rambled, surrounded by packaged heroes and cosplayers as he roamed the aisles of the artist alley in search of the girls and the prizes they had "stolen" from him.
Just a few feet away, sweating as she, Fuuka, and Aki strained to keep a cloaking spell up, Selene said, through gritted teeth, "I don't think we can keep this up for much longer. Are you done yet?"
"Yeah, this is getting really scary!" Aki said anxiously as Gokamiki paused, only inches away from her face, before turning away again to continue prowling.
"Yes, have you found anything yet? What's happening to Veila?!" Neycombe demanded as B2 scanned Veila's package while Philia examined the readings on her phone.
"Okay… The good news is she is alive. All of them are," Philia said, nodding at the packaged Don Momotaro and Don Dragoku as well.
"I don't care about those two incompetents! Why is Veila… Looking like that?" The Fangire said vaguely, gesturing at Veila, whose body had hardened and taken on a bit of a waxy sheen. "Is she turning to plastic? Can it be reversed?!"
"No, it can't be reversed…"
Neycombe gasped in horror, along with most of their friends.
"Because there's nothing wrong with her, aside from the whole being turned into a life-sized toy thing. She is undergoing a metamorphosis," Philia responded.
"A metamorphosis?" A confused Cutaros said.
"Well, she is a bug," Shitsuki said.
"Didn't she already go through metamorphosis? From a Salis Worm to… Whatever kind she is?" Mei asked vaguely.
"Pamphilus," her brother said.
"Right, that."
"While it's true that most Worms molt to become fully mature adults at some point, Veila molted rather early in her life, which is why she's based off of a leaf-rolling pupa rather than a sawfly or something else," Galacta explained. "Under the right circumstances, she can undergo a second metamorphosis to obtain her more mature final form. I believe that the trauma of being turned into a toy has triggered the second metamorphosis, possibly prematurely, but I don't think she's in any danger."
"Then… She may be able to molt out of her toy form like she did her earlier shell?" Neycombe asked hopefully.
"That's what the data seems to indicate," Philia confirmed. "As such, I highly recommend we not do anything to disturb her package, because it might ruin her metamorphosis and cause a serious health risk. So put the chainsaw down, Shitsuki."
Shitsuki pouted. "Can't Shitsuki use it on the other two?"
"I'm not sure it's a good idea," Philia admitted. "I'm not certain what will happen. I mean, usually when a Hitotsuki or similar monster of the week is defeated, that fixes everything they did, but Hitotsuki are supposed to only be able to be defeated by a DonBrother, and the only DonBrothers we've got have fallen victim as well, so either we try to find more DonBrothers or…" She shrugged uncertainly. "I… Guess we could give it a go? I mean, if we did beat him, we might actually kill him since we're not DonBrothers, and is that something we really want on our conscience? Put your hand down, Shitsuki."
Shitsuki pouted.
"Surely Aunt Ariel has to know some spell that might help," Fuuka suggested.
"Maybe-" Philia stiffened, as did Galacta and the kittens. "Oh. Oh no."
"What? What is it?" Cutaros demanded.
"I…" Tearing up, Philia gave Fuuka a sorrowful look. "Fuuka, I… Your family, they… They've been…"
"What? What happened? What about my family?!" Fuuka demanded, spinning around…
And accidentally losing her focus, causing the cloaking spell to fail, exposing them completely.
Gokamiki spun about, a triumphant look on his face. "There you are!"
The children screamed.