World Tree MUSH

    The old mall had seen better days. Between the slow but steady growth of the arcologies in the San Franciso Bay and the competition from online retail, many malls were mere shells. This one had all the slick commercial glamour a new mall should have, but none of the life. The storefronts were shuttered but for a few lonely outposts within, and shoppers were a rare sight. 
    The message had said the inside of the abandoned Sears, which looks like it had moved on before the rest of the mall had. The night was settling in, the exterior and parking lot illuminated by the orange glare of the lights. It's likely that other interested parties had tracked Mephy to this locale. Aurelia looks around for security before surreptitiously using her magic to unlock the door, ushering allies inside.
    The interior is lit by fluorescent lights that are only half on, some kind of emergency light or night-time setting. The place is bare, liquidated professionally. What fixtures couldn't be sold stand where they were, creating an eerie look. The escalators aren't on, and one can assume any elevators are non-functional.

Well, at least the fact that was getting dark meaning that few would notice Benedicta. The al'miraj doesn't take any chances though and still has her purple hoodie up. Her horn suddenly glowing yellow doesn't help her cover though and she quickly ducks inside once Aurelia's taken care of the door. The stench of the decaying mall quickly fills her pink nose and it twitches a bit. She's still moving a bit stiffly but her neck brace is off at least. Finding a tiny monkey in a huge mall certainly isn't going to be easy.

Bryllu has four legs today, and a tail. In fact, everything beneath her waist looks like a mechanical rat, well if it weren't for the nasty looking blade at the end of that tail and the presence of a humanoid upper body where the head should be. She's got two arms, with hands that end in sharp looking claws.

She's keeping an eye on things with most of her sensors, including infrared, sonar and radar, and she skitters through the mall to the meeting point. "Hey."

>> SUMMARY[Bryllu Zibhu MLDVII] >> Behold the mechanical mall rattaur.

     Damian is here purely for Benedicta's sake, made obvious by how he's constantly hovering around her, paying far more attention to the rabbit girl than anything else in the mall. Well, except for when there's any sudden movement or noise, at which point he shifts his face into a skeletal snake and hisses in its general direction.

This does not do much to help Benedicta's attempts at inconspicuousness.

    And amongst the magical girl, a robotic (sort of) girl, a bunnygirl and the hovering Damian is... a perfectly normal japanese teenager.

    And here Shirou Emiya actually thought the suspicious tube-shaped pack he has slung to his back actually might look *suspicious* in some way. And here's all this instead. Gotta tell you, accepting cross-world jobs like this as the Helpful Handyman of Fuyuki sure results interesting crowds for the young man to mingle in.

    "Um... Argent-san?" The red-head murmurs quietly, making a bit of a point to step inside through the door opened by Aurelia so that he won't block up anyone else while he addresses her in a low whisper. "Remind me what we are looking for again...? The notice said something about an imp?"

    Aurelia was right to be worried. Someone had found where Mephy was, and was sitting pretty until she saw signs that this was the right spot from atop the building. She idly played with the black metal conductor's rod in her left hand, the tool silently swinging through the air to a sound only she can hear, her eyes closed to listen in on sounds happening within the Sears building through a convenient nearby ventilation duct. The beastly creature had all the patience in the world to wait for them to meet the target.

    Dolce smiles serenely to herself, as she is wont to do, because she knows tonight is going to be noisy.

    Inside the building, a tiny imp-like thing with a body of shadow, and wings made of distorted musical notes, hides in the corners and passages above their heads and out of sight, waiting for a chance to relay Mephy's location to its master. It floats through the insulation panels just overhead the empty structure, peering through gaps as it goes, an observant little music-based hellion. It has the mass of a dust bunny, makes no light, generates no heat, and has been given STRICT ORDERS not to giggle or make its discordant musical sounds that it's so fond of.

>> SUMMARY[Dolce] >> Dolce sits in wait on top of the Sears building roof; her minion, a 'Note,' watches from the shadows to report Mephy's location to its master

    Aurelia describes 'Mephy' to those who need a description. Imagine a monkey with short fur, a long orange-ish tail, and (despite sounding ridiculous) a magnificent white mustache. An actual Emperor Tamarin is only a foot or so long, Aurelia explains. Mephy is three feet and has a dapper fez. "Still, in a place like this, easy for him to hide..." She blinks confusedly at Bryllu's odd form. Not the oddest thing she's seen, but one of the odder outworlders definitely. "Wow, that's uh... and interesting shape you have."
    Those with extraordinary senses can hear something moving around on the second story. There's also somebody stealthing around on the roof (Dolce, being sneaky), though this is perhaps the faintest sound, being the most distant. Heat-wise, there's wires that are clearly a little warm, but something is also on the second story. There's also a scattering of minute heat sources. Damian can smell something faintly like rotting plants and composted dirt. Emiya senses a magical aura pervading the store and Benedicta's horn glows faintly from this presence as well.
    Aurelia peers. "Anyone else feel like they're being watched?"

"I figured if I was gonna be going to a mall it'd make sense to be a mall rat." Bryllu explains her decision to Aurelia. "I'm the 1475th Bryllu Zibhu." She introduces herself, "Human." Says the blatantly mechanical being. "I'm detecting warmth in wires, multiple heat signatures the most notable of which seems to be on the second floor, likely matching the auditory signature there. Also detecting a faint auditory signature on the roof." She rattles off quickly. "If you have any radio or EM-based communication systems, I can serve as a local communication hub."

Benedicta looks at Bryllu and Damian a bit oddly, "You know for a beast mahou you think I would be able to shift my body more. And mall rats usually aren't literally rats." Her head turns upwards towards the second floor, "I'm pretty sure we aren't alone but I think that's pretty clear already. In fact, I think there's more than one other person here. Crap, I hope we just didn't walk into an ambush..."

 Benedicta looks a bit uneasy before turning her attention back towards Damian. "I'm starting to wonder if Mephy is here to begin with. He wouldn't usually try to get our attention like this. Unless he doesn't know we're here, but that seems pretty unlikely." She's pretty certain that the monkey has a way of detecting her presence after all.

     Damian's ears twitch, his nose wrinkles, and he starts to dart off upstairs before reminding himself why he's here in the first place and returning to Benedicta's side. "Something smells like a compost heap left in the sun too long. It might even be whatever's moving around up on the second floor." he growls, his eyes watching the ceiling in case anything decides to drop down.

As Benedicta speaks to him though, the demon prince gives her a reassuring grin... with entirely too many teeth. "It'll be fiiiine, Benny. We got lots of friends here, including the best one: Me. I'll even try not to burn the place down." he says, before glancing toward Bryllu. "Not enough weed or comic books. 5/10 mallrat at best."

    The sound of something skittering around the second floor draws the Note's attention, the emphemeral creature darting through the panels and up through the walls to find a good spot to view where the noise is coming from. The creature feverishly scouts for the source of the disturbance.
    Dolce, on the roof, picks up her bottle of tea and opens it to take a sip, then picks up a book to flip through it while she waits, fidgeting on the cheap camping chair she brought up there. Without word back yet, she isn't going to be doing much.

    "This place would be a pretty easy place to hide in even in a busy hour, I'm sure," Shirou observes, while kind of just nervously tugging at the strap of the pack he has a sword hidden away in. "I can't imagine how many hiding places this... Mephys, would have here now."

    Shirou *visibly* winces at Bryllu's explanation for her form, too. But he wisely decides to not comment on it any more than Benedicta already has.

    "Watched...? I dunno about that, but..." His eyes lift up, and his grip on the tube-pack's strap tightens considerably. "I can feel... *something*. Mana in the air, I think...? My sense for this kind of thing is practically muted compared to magi where I come from, so whatever it's coming from, it has to be something *strong* for me to notice..."

    Dolce's note alerts her as it spots a three foot monkey thing hiding in the drop ceiling of the second floor. The magical beast is looking very concerned about a carpet of maggots and worms writhing around towards it, whimpering quietly about how *they* found him.
    Aurelia takes a deep breath, taking in the information the others gave. "Or maybe there's magic spread out over a large area? Second story then. Let's keep our eyes open because, like Bene said, might be an ambush." She stomps off towards the non-moving escalators, going up the one marked for descent only. The minute heat sources are moving and gathering, like... worms. These seem likely to be the source of the smell if Damian and Bryllu compare notes. The second story is much like the first, strangely empty and eerie for it.
    A beastly looking humanoid, rather resembling a cross between a gecko and a bearded dragon, clambers up atop the abandoned Sears store. What skin is exposed quietly shifts colors as it puts a finger up to its lips, indicating quiet to Dolce. It makes some hand signal at Dolce, waiting for the correct counter signal to know Dolce is who it is supposed to meet. Which, the lizard mage is definitely Dolce's backup.

"If he's here he'll bail at the first sign of trouble though, which is why we need to beat the others to him." Benedicta knows Mephy will teleport at the first he gets. She runs past Aurelia on the other escalator she hates to rush into danger like this but if she doesn't they might lose their only lead. She can't help but to wonder if her other half already beat them here or if someone else they're dealing with.

    The Note spots the precise location of Mephy and... ah, a competitor? It must report this to the mistress! The ephemeral creature phases through the building and up onto the roof and orbits Dolce, whispering discordantly to her about Mephy's location as well as the presence of a number of interlopers, and even a potential rival organization after the monkey. Dolce idly twists the conductor rod in her hands, nodding slowly... only to wave the Note away to dispel it when she spots the lizard dude.
    Ah, she knows this one. She nods cordially to him, and then stands up from her seat and walks over to a skylight built into the second floor, and waits there, out of sight. She indicates with a gesture of the conductor's rod to her ally, and then makes the gestures for 'Interlopers' as well as 'Enemy Actor' without looking toward him. She gives him a pointed look and indicates 'Target,' and points toward Mephy's approximate location in the building.

    Then she begins emitting a sound dampening field around herself and her ally, conjuring the field with a rotation, and a mouthing of the phrase "Pianissimo", to minimize the possibility they'll be detected when they finally make their move.

     "Ugh, it better not be that Uncle Slug guy again. Smells a lot like him." Damian grumbles, when Benedicta takes off upstairs. Hurriedly, the jackal flies after her, already igniting a ball of fire in one hand to blast anything that might try to attack his rabbity friend.

    "Guess we'll just have to hope he won't think *we* are trouble either then," Shirou mutters. This consideration makes him hesitate to reach for the tube-pack now -- but ultimatley, with all the talk of potential ambush, he ends up deciding to unsling it, and draw a longsword and it's ornate scabbard out from within. Wait, normal teenagers aren't supposed to have something like that, right?!

    Be as it may, Shirou doesn't try to take the time to sling the sword to his belt quite now, opting to instead hurry after Aurelia along the escalators... all while throwing just a *quick* glance back to the way of Damian and Benedicta over the former's complaint. "...I'm sorry, Uncle *what*?"

"Picking up some weird ... I think it's communication on the rooftop. Not sure what they're talking about." Bryllu reports and she pokes Shirou in the shoulder, "If you want me to work on trying to figure out how to make an organic body so I can try your cooking, you could at least try to pretend my jokes are funny." She complains before moving on to the second floor, trying to head for the biggest heat source up there.

    Aurelia says "He'll recognize Benedicta and me." to Shirou before hustling faster. "Er... you don't wanna know." is the only comment she has on Uncle Slug.
    Damian and Benedicta see that the floor is covered in a gathering swarm of maggots and worms, the smell of earth and rotted meat noticeable even to people with normal senses of smell. Everyone can very plainly hear Mephy shouting in terror and the trembling of ceiling tiles as the imp tries to escape his impending capture by the mass of vermin in the ceiling. He is the biggest heat source on the floor, besides the others that came with Bryllu.
    "Get them off! Get them off!" Mephy crashes through a light fixture, covered in the vermin and clawing at them.

"He's still in jail, so it's not him. What the hell?" Benedicta twitches a bit at the sight of the maggots and worms as she sees Mephy. "Mendel isn't here is he?" She cringes as she removes the vermin from Mephy, she's going to need a nice long bath after this. "Don't even think about teleporting away, I have orders to bring you back to Beacon Society." Things were already bad enough without having to chase the monkey down again.

Bryllu rushes towards the imp, reaching out with her tail to try to wrap the limb around the creature, with the blade resting on his neck. "Hold still, I'm still learning how to control this tail, wouldn't want me to get twitchy would you?" She casually threatens.

     Damian follows after Benedicta, and the instant he sees the creepy crawlies he just... well. Technically he's not trying to burn down the store, just the worms, maggots, and assorted vermin as he transforms into a long, slender dragon and starts blasting fire at every wriggling little creature he can see. He's /mostly/ trying to keep them away from Benedicta (and Mephy by proxy), but the flames still get a little too close for comfort.

    For *some* reason just the sight of all the worms does result in a rather visceral reaction in Shirou, too. Beyond just the natural effect of seeing vermin like that in such a large amount. For some reason these ones just give him a particularly awful feeling. He hasn't seen something like this before, right? ...Right?

    "H-hey, be careful!!" Shirou calls after Benedicta and Bryllu both -- nevermind that he, too, is charging for the fallen-down imp, and probably trying to jump around masses of vermin on the floor here and there. "We don't know what those things could do, they might be fa- eh?" All the focus on trying to keep the two from vermin-related trouble is distracted by Damina turning into A FREAKING DRAGON?! And with a squeak the red-haired would-be-magus makes a leap right to the side, out of some instinctive fear that he ends up getting caught up in al lthe fire. Fire bad! And he doesn't know any magic that would help with burns that's for sure! He promptly falls flat on his belly on the floor at that... and probably right next to another mass of maggots right besides his face, prompting another little sound of surprise from him as he rolls over onto his side and away. "This-- this isn't normal, right?!"

    Well, the monkey is panicking, and she knows he's slippery. Time for Dolce to make her move.

    Without a single sound, the skylight is ripped open, a gust of cold air silently billowing down into the second floor of the abandoned store. Dolce steps into the skylight and gracefully drops down into plain view. Her strange, garish appearance like that of an anthropomorphic raptor in a black robe makes it clear she isn't a casual urban explorer. That brief glimpse is all the time they get before she casually flicks the conductor's rod, and emits a discordant sonic shockwave through the store that sends old shelves, debris, floor/ceilings tiles and dust around in a maelstrom of chaos. It's not enough to kill anyone, but she's clearly not here just to play games.
    "Fortissimo~!"

    She hopes her backup gets the idea that she's here to disrupt, so he can grab Mephy while everyone's dealing with her unscheduled concert.

"As I told our dear friend, still getting used to this tail, wouldn't want to get me twitchy while I have this tail to his neck. It might just slip." Bryllu yells loudly, to ensure she is loud enough to overcome Dolce's noise. "Would be terrible for everyone, surely, but alas this music is not helping me focus on keeping control of my tail." To emphasize her point, she digs the blade in just a little, not enough for serious injury, but enough to hurt.

    Bryllu's tail snags the magical beast, who yelps, then whimpers as befits his ultimately cowardly nature. He's very still as the blade is held against this throat, eyes widening in fear as she digs it into his throat just enough to make a point.
    "No! It's not normal!" Aurelia shouts over the racket being made by crackling flames and Dolce's impromptu symphonic cacophony.
    In a strange firestorm, the maggots and worms whirl together, being pulled from all manner of crevices in the store to recongeal into a rather unassuming man in a lab coat. He shoots Dolce a withering look, then explodes into a swarm of flies and swarms out towards the broken skylight. There's only small pieces of the carpet smoldering and burning, fortunately.
    Bryllu's sensor suite picks up the lizard man creeping towards the captive imp, nearly invisible to the unaided eye, but making soft sounds and an obvious heat source. It's unlikely he'll get the drop on the augmented woman, but he's clearly going to try and whack her tail with a large dagger.

Bryllu makes a point of staring right at the invisible lizard man. "Twitchy tail applies to you too. And really, is that the best your invisibility can do?" She asks, shifting herself and the imp such that her body is between the imp and the lizard man, digging the blade just a touch deeper to make her point, while she points, "This fellow here thinks he's being sneaky, maybe he could use some dragonfire?"

"I know you were trying to help Damian, but overkill a bit much?" Now there's a new problem to deal with as the mall is now on fire. Of course things get even more complicated when Dolce emerges. "The raptor chick? She was the one behind all of this?" It's been a while since Benedicta's seen her. She doesn't have a chance to do much else as the music suddenly stars to play. She stops removing the vermin from Mephy and places her hands over ears at the deafening noise. This was during into a rather rough night for her.

    Dolce gives a sarcastic little wave to the bug-o-mancer that flees in a sudden surge out the roof. Then... She points her conductor's rod toward Bryllu. "Please unhand that monkey," she says, her voice warbling unnaturally, like a bad cartoon character, "That's a very bad monkey that needs to go back in its cage."

    "Or don't."

    As if to emphasize that she doesn't particularly care how they respond, she prepares to fire another sonic wave... until she realizes that her backup has been spotted. Shoot. Competency. She can't very well explain why her backup got immolated to death, so she tilts the conductor rod, and projects a wall of sound that surrounds the 'lizard man' to try and head off any offensive attempts against him... like from that dragon dude.

    "Just put down the monkey," she boredly demands.

    "Oh, hell--" Shirou groans out, clamping one hand (and one forearm) to his ears to shield himself from the LOUD music for a moment. "What is *that* then?!" 'That' being Dolce, in this particular instance -- and he only spares a quick glance to Aurelia, as if hoping that she might be able to, somehow, provide a *quick* answer to that particular question. The question might very well extend to the man all the maggots gathered together to form, too, but since that one is making headway to 'anywhere but here', Shirou's own focus is squarely on her now. Especially since *he* can't pick out the sneaky lizardman.

    Shirou briefly considers drawing his sword... but could he really do anything with just *that* in this situation? The strange raptorial creature is directing some kind of sound magic, so he's not sure Reinforcement of his level alone could help get through that barrier...

    So he makes a quick decision. He'll just do the best someone like him could hope to in this situation. Especially since Dolce's attention seems to be primarily on Bryllu and the mon-...er, imp.

    He *runs*. But no, he isn't running away. He might not be a good mage, or even a phenomenal physical fighter -- but he does have a reasonable measure of physicality on his side, at least, and damned if he can't sprint real fast when he puts his mind to it.

    And he barrels right for Dolce. "Where are you--"

    And he leaps right in for a flying tackle! "--looking?!"

    Well, not that that would hold her for very long even if he doesn't manage to land himself on her to the point that he could bring her to the floor. Hell, this is in *no* way or form a safe plan for him. But he's at least hoping he can disrupt/distract their sudden adversary long enough for... uh. Someone else to do something.

    He really should have thought this through.

     Damian gives Benedicta an apologetic look, before suddenly Dolce makes her move and he's forced to cover his ears and brace himself as that cacophony flings stuff around, even pushing him back a bit. Unfortunately, he doesn't hear Bryllu over the ringing in his ears, but he does /smell/ the invisible lizard, and Dolce helps confirm the mage's position with her barrier trick.

"Kill the support first!" he growls out, another stream of fire erupting from his mouth not at the lizard, but at Dolce herself. First rule of party tactics.

    Shirou launches at Dolce like a rugby player, which would've been a good idea if he was dealing with someone less powerful than she is. She doesn't even look at him, she instead tries not to be combusted, stepping back in a launching step that moves her much farther than it should. Shirou, though?

    She flicks out her off hand with the force of an annoyed strongman to slap her knuckles into his chest and terminate his trajectory pretty rudely. If he can't stop himself, he might fold over her strike like a paper doll, and she'd promptly swing her arm to launch him... away from the fire? And toward an open space where he'd be less harmed than expected.

    Dolce is known in some circles for being a less-than-lethal combatant, if she can absolutely help it. Damian's fire shenanigans are clearly keeping her distracted.

    Oh. She's on fire. "... aaaaaAAAAAA--" And she emits a pulse of sound that immediately snuffs the flame, air blasting downward, but her tail is very cooked. "Ow!"

    The lizard man becomes visible, close to Bryllu. It looks at her, looks at Mephy, gives Dolce a quick hand signal. Then there's an explosion of light like a flash grenade, attempting to snatch Mephy from the tail in the ensuing confusion. 
    Aurelia is not prepared for the blinding light or the noise and stumbles, falling backwards with her eyes covered.
    Whenever the spots clear from eyes, there's shadows kind of burnt into places behind people...

Bryllu reaches out with both her clawed hands towards the the lizard man, one trying to dig into its neck, the other going for the hand holding the knife, she twists the blade on Mephy's neck a little, still taking care not to cause any serious injury but making her point. "Your magic would probably work really well on organics, but my sensors are quite robust."

"Yes, we know but we need his help with something. Did he make you a magical girl and transform you as well?" Benedicta can't help but to wonder now if Dolce is another one of Mephy's victims. "We can help you too, if you need it." Benedicta's hoping this is just a simple misunderstanding but she's not sure how the other girl will take her offer after a fight has already broken out. That and she can't exactly force the others to back down. Of course the blinding light doesn't help either and she's forced to cover her eyes as she's overwhelmed.

     Damian takes a deep breath in preparation for another blast of fire, but the flash of light from the lizard man startles him back to his normal jackaly self, choking on his own flames. Puffs of smoke emerge from his mouth with every cough and wheeze, until he hoarsely says aloud, "I'm okay! I think..."

    "Ghaaaagfh--?!"

    That's the sound of Shirou getting casually backhanded by Dolce. And indeed, with his velocity, his body more or less helplessly folds over her outstretched arm as spittle is out of his mouth - and possibly gastric juices from his stomach - from the blow sinking right into his midsection. The pain from all that overwhelms him long enough that he can't do anything whatsoever to stop the fling that follows -- sending the poor, red-haired magus flying across the hall like a limp ragdoll, bouncing several times off the floor before finally slumping down with several pained coughs.

    Well, he have inadvertantly avoided getting set on fire, thanks to Dolce's choice to not let him get *completely* annihilated. But he probably has a few broken ribs now, so that's nice.

    Despite the overwhelming pain, he does still try to force himself up to one knee, so he might try... he's not even sure what. *Something*. He has to be able to help somehow, right?

    That thought unfortunately goes right out the window with the bright flash of light. Yup. He's organic, alright. And there comes another groan of pain from the bright light assaulting his retinas, and he just slumps right back down in the midst of it.

    "Huh? Nah," Dolce distractedly responds to Benedicta, utterly dismissive of the idea of her help. The raptor-like then takes her opening... and launches for Bryllu, and reaches out for the mechanical tail at the base with frightening speed and force. She grins with far too many teeth, and tries to just... twist the bladed tail right off of Bryllu's armature with a merciless pull, therefore releasing Mephy for her ally to attempt to grab him. At the very least damage the appendage with her superhuman strength!

    "Eye for an eye!" she gleefully barks, while the wound on her own tail visibly and rapidly regenerates, with a sickeningly wet noise.

Bryllu sees Dolce approach and the tail twitches and just slices into the imp's neck, deep enough that this should be a lethal injury if they were dealing with human anatomy, then lets go of the imp right before Dolce just rips the tail straight out of her body, sparks flying briefly before power to the tail is disabled. "I did try to warn you." She doesn't sound the least bit concerned about losing the tail.

    There's a spurt of blood on Dolce's face. She glances briefly. Her smile disappears.

    Then, she lifts her conductor's rod like a mace, and drops it down at Bryllu with the force of Thor Himself. There's a bass *BOOM* as she tries to blast Bryllu through the floor, and then the foundation of the building, with a concentrated blast of sonic magic that's enough to blow out every window near the Sears building and sends every speck of dust and debris out in a circle. There's no more music, just noise dampening all speech, music, anything that could be heard.

    Angry, angry noise.

    She's already winding back for another blow of magic after the first one, her face a cold picture of fury.

    Now might be a good time to run.

Bryllu's body is more or less destroyed by Dolce's rage, it's being used to shield the head from the brunt of Dolce's attack, which comes loose. She immediately texts Shirou's cell phone, >> Please help. Lost all my limbs. Can fix myself if you take me to my ship. << While waiting for that rescue, she plays dead.

    Aurelia gets on her feet and scrambles, snagging Mephy just as Dolce takes out the floor. The lizard mage flails as he's thrown somewhere deeper into the store and buried under ceiling tiles.
    Afterwards, Aurelia shakes off the dust and debris, the golden armor having materialized around her in the fall. She's got Mephy's limp form cradled under one arm, and pushes herself up with her free arm. Aurelia will do her best to get away at that point, helping any allies near her as best she can.

So much for the friendly approach and Benedicta can only gasp as Bryllu is blasted through the floor. She leaps down through the floor to try and help the android but the noise sends her flying down further. She manages to grow a pair of wings and land before she hits the ground but at this point she's left trying to outrun the soundwave instead of being able to help the others.

     Damian is still reeling from that last sound blast and choking on his own fire, and then there's /more/ sound blasts. "Fffffuck this, I'm out." he says through gritted teeth, his ears simply melting into his skull before he poofs away in a cloud of red smoke smelling of brimstone. A moment later, he reappears by Benedicta, grabbing onto her arm. "And I'm taking you with me."

    It takes a few seconds for Shirou's vision to clear, between the magical flashbang and... well, the broken ribs. Perhaps it's a good thing that he had to take such a long moment, too-- for he missed the choice Bryllu ended up making.

    But on the other hand, when his eyes do open with some measure of vision, he's greeted by the sight of Bryllu's body getting annihilated.

    "...Ah?"

    The sonic boom from the immeasurably powerful strike comes with enough force to bowl the young man over all over again, even if he does manage to roll along to his knees right after this time around. Nearly deafened form the sound, he can't even hear his own despair-laden scream of the robot-girl's name -- much less the sound of his phone beeping with a text message. His hand manages to blindly grab onto the still-sheathed sword dropped on the floor, and he damn near brings himself to charging in again in a desperate ploy to stop Dolce from completely destroying Bryllu--

    But then he sees it. That awful, disturbing sight of a severed head rolling across the floor. Oh, that damn near makes him gag, sure, but even in his haze of mixed rage and sorrow, something does occur to him--

    She's not organic.

    And so, even without having actually checked his phone for the message she'd sent, he leaps for the severed head like a rugby player grabbing the ball before the opposing team can sweep in, and just goes *running* to... well, anywhere but here, all while trying to do his damned best to ignore his fractured ribs yelling at him to stop moving around so much.