Quote:
The Gargoyles (3) : Even when you thought you’d seen the last of them, it seems like you’re never really in the clear. A while back, there was an infestation of awful gargoyle creatures—and while every Star Festival had its fair share of oddities, this one seems to have introduced a permanent infestation upon the city. Maybe you see them perched on the roof, or hiding in the shadows, but not all of these grotesque creatures are satisfied with just escaping their interdimensional prison—some of them still have a bone to pick. They seem stony; some of them will watch with a penetrative gaze and never strike to attack, but some of them will dive down to target anyone who gets too close. The monsters come in an array of sizes and shapes, but they are no more than half the size of their target. Their goal is uncertain, but they will crumble into a pile of rocks and dust if struck hard enough.
Getting powered up into a magical boy in service of the Negaverse meant a lot of things that hadn’t quite been in the initial sales pitch.
Ilmari didn’t blame Haymitch for that, since most of the things in question seemed like things that nobody could have predicted. For instance, the whole mess that Waru, Aelius, and the silver-haired man Ilmari hadn’t known had all gotten into at the club on opening night. Asking anybody to anticipate something like that and warn about it in the terms and conditions sounded wholly unfair. The situation had been too much the result of fundamentally unpredictable forces like free will and people being strange.
Other unexpected aspects of the senshi life, though, were much more tangible than odd little intra-team social dramas. As soon as he’d powered up tonight, Ilmari had felt something off about……everything around him. Flitting through town, trying to drain enough energy to meet his own personal quota (which significantly exceeded the quotas he was actually required to meet) while remaining untroubled by Order interlopers, Ilmari’s nerves had mostly calmed down. Settled into accepting that not everything around him was amiss. Something specific felt like it was, but he couldn’t put his finger on what.
Strange shadows moving around the corners of his vision. Rustling noises that he could’ve sworn were real, but whenever he turned his head toward them, he didn’t see anything. A strange sensation like something was watching him.……or maybe someone?
Hard to say, but the whole business had him more on-edge than he’d ever felt while powered up. When he finally spotted someone he recognized out in North End Park, only the growing sense of urgency stopped Ilmari from sighing in relief. Instead, he made a quick beeline for her side, one of his team’s other senshi, with her lilac hair done in space-buns and long twintails.
“Mizuki,” Ilmari greeted her, somewhere between warmth for a team member (even one whom Ilmari didn’t know very well yet) and relief to just……be around somebody else. “How is the night treating you? You haven’t encountered anything…strange, have you?”
a-disgruntled-dragon
