Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures

[kandata]

By now everyone may be used to find themselves in bizarre locations, between going into palaces and visiting Nekyia. It might not come as a surprise that it has happened again.

What might come as a surprise, though...is how empty this place is.

All around you there's nothing more than a large, gray, featureless expanse. In the distance there seem to be bars, curving upwards to gather so, so high above you, possibly hundreds of miles above, so high it’s hard to distinguish.

It’s a cage. So unfathomably large. You could escape, were you to get to the edges of the cage, but...it would take forever. No matter how you look at it, you're trapped. The atmosphere is so...hopeless. Devoid of anything even remotely positive.

Not that you want to hang around for long, do you? After all, this is someone's palace. Not a place to stick around at. What to do, though?

It’s all so...empty. Silent. Featureless. A flat expanse of hard gray tiles.

Gather together, everyone. Gather and choose a direction. North, East, West, South. All directions look completely identical, but could it affect your time in this place, somehow? Probably not. But all treks start with the first step. Perhaps, if you get moving, you'll progress?

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[kandata]

[McGillis is taking Kirumi away. The sight of the machine moving away with Kirumi catches its attention, and it decides it's time to fry McGillis]

Now you're--

[Whatever the Ultimate Maid was about to say is interrupted by Kainé pretty much breaking Monokuma's voicebox. Oho, good! That's one bother less! Somehow, the voicebox was near the right side of the spider thread's torso -- very unintuitive spot for that. Monokuma really must have gotten blended with the humanoid shape! But she managed to do it, there's the crunch of metal, and Monokuma shuts up. Nice!

But shutting up doesn't stop the thing from attacking McGillis. With a (rolled 12), stomp of one of its feet, flames erupt underneath the Exisal, intending to heat it up! Fry McGillis like a shrimp!

The Ultimate Maid is struck by Fray's and Argenti's slicing attacks, the threads getting cut enough for half of the monster to collapse. It's losing the shape of Kirumi's uniform. The Ultimate Maid now is a shambling thing, that would be shouting with anger if Kainé hadn't broken its voicebox!

Yi Sang gets hit with his own Maeiha, and he's saved by Soujuurou, who gets dragged away. For a moment Soujuurou is suspended in front of the Ultimate Maid, the monster radiating smugness, before it slams Soujuurou against one of the podiums, with enough strength to bend the metal and wood object! Ouch!

Huge tooth-like cones erupt from the mess, and it lunges towards Fray...but Yoon gets in the way, and the thing bites onto Yoon, chomp! Around Yoon, the threads coalesce into a shape more reminiscent of the damn bear, using Yoon to support its own weight, glaring at everyone with evil intent. You can bet he intends to try to shield itself with Yoon!

While it's on Yoon, the damn bear opens its maw wide, a large blast of Megidolaon ready to hit. It misses everyone, since it impacts the floor, but Argenti, as the closest one to it, gets the brunt of the power that attack exudes (rolled 14). Almighty attacks are no joke!]

[moodwrecker]

[Ugh... shaking off the vestiges of fear and pain, just in time to see Yoon get nabbed.]

-! Let him go!

[While she does try to run up to help him out, she can't quite make it past those sharp cones to get to him (9)]

[strawsandals]

[ (1)

🧍‍♂️ ]

[bloodweapon]

Yoon!

[Oh my god child, do you know what a tank's job is?? It's to take (tank) damage for the party!!! Do not jump in the way of a tankbuster!!!!!

Fray isn't fast enough to defend Yoon, but he's certainly fast enough (and accurate enough) to swing that massive sword at the damn bear, aiming to hit it in the head but not hurt Yoon to hopefully get it to let go (15)!

Oh right, he's going to toss a Diarama Yoon's way as well, because I keep forgetting we can use heals and act.]

[prozaic]

[Shalem attempts to save Yoon, but it's completely useless, he just lunges for the kid and whiffs. (7)]

[moonshaded]

[It's bad. As good as it feels to dismantle this thing bit by annoying bit, three very bad things happen in succession: McGillis is torched, Soujuurou is flung, and Yoon is snatched.

The 7 means that Kainé's continued physical onslaught comes to an unceremonious end.]

Damn it.. Damn it!

[What can she do? She throws a Rakukaja at Yoon, making this the unexpected second time she uses any kind of utility spell on another person in this palace. If he gets hit, even if it takes some of the damage away from the damn bear...it could be enough to shield him.]

[imperiosity]

[sweet Aidios now there's two people trapped by the bear

Soujuurou will get a Rakukaja in case the monster decides to slam him again, he assumes someone else will have the healing and/or rescue attempt covered. Immediately after that, Aaron runs over to the other person who is trapped.]

Yoon!

[Too bad he's useless because he's not doing anything with that (6)!!]

[emptyself]

[ yeah, the hit is as bad as he braced himself for and probably a little more.

he crashes against the podium, unable to even scream as the wind is knocked out him. he’s sure there’s at least a few bones broken, because it’s so hard to pull himself up but…

he watches as monokuma picks up yoon and… oh… that’s not good at all. aware of how urgent the situation is, he tries to stand up to help, but—

he’s just can’t (1). ]

[vogelfrei]

[ Well. This is hot and not in the fun way. Metal heats up fast and McGillis has not only himself but also Kirumi to worry about... the latter of which he just kind of... gently tosses over the flames? Uh. It's. It's not elegant but it's definitely less violent than anything Monokuma had been doing to her before. He'll even toss a Dia afterwards.

With Kirumi out of reach of the fire, it's time to think of himself instead. The flames are licking up at the Exisal and it might just be a matter of time before they find the fuel source. McGillis doesn't intend to stay and find out when they do.

So he uses the cockpit's eject mechanism.... but it doesn't go fast enough and he lands in the fire himself (9). McGillis is now also slightly on fire! IT'S GOING GREAT!! Give him a second to roll over the floor so he can put out the bits of his clothes that were just starting to burn up, uh?? ]

[beautifulknight]

[ Okay, first of all, there is a lot going on here. Since he's getting hit by Megidolaon, he'll have to deal with the consequences of that first, though Argenti isn't inclined to make much ado about it considering Yoon's in trouble, even if it does hurt. There are also others having a difficult time to contend with.

Argenti casts Media on Yoon, McGillis, and Soujuurou.

Then, he also runs into a mad dash towards the creature. But he will suddenly make a feint before dancing around the enemy, only so that he is able to aim very low to strike at the back of its feet, trying to unbalance the creature with all that he has (12)! Hoping to also put efforts into making it let go of Yoon! }

[idealitas]

[ He'll give a Diarama to Soujuurou and does a proper slash at the Ultimate Maid (14). This is a little frustrating... ]

[finalmix]

I've had enough of this stupid bear thing.

[ such an annoying mascot, really; and it got itself onto Joshua's shit list even more when the thing that is monokuma-but-maybe-kirumi-or-not grabs hold onto Yoon. ]

Yoon!

[ so joshua is going in with a kouga spell (15), aiming to slash yoon free but also hopefully deal some more damage to the damn thing. ]

[kandata]

[In the span of a moment, things are turning pretty bad. McGillis is kind of burning up over there, and Yoon is in the clutches of an almost destroyed Monokuma, and those who aren't currently trying to get Yoon out of there are in pain. Ouch.

Yoon has his defense upped quite a bit, though! Nice! Sure helps when Monokuma bites onto Yoon more, getting anchored. The grin, twisted like Monokuma is, indicates this bear is very, very satisfied with how badly they're all doing...

...until Fray, Yi Sang, and Argenti intervene. From the bottom, Argenti attacks, unbalancing Monokuma, Yi Sang slashes the middle, breaking a lot of the fabric holding Monokuma together, and Fray hits the head. Monokuma's many teeth sink into Yoon for a moment longer, before his jaws are sliced open by blessed magic from Joshua.

For a moment Monokuma doesn't move...until finally, the bear slumps over: a bunch of fabric and cotton, lying there...

What would Monokuma say if he could speak now? Probably some taunt. Even on the verge of defeat, he would laugh, and insult, and try to turn the tables verbally. Now it couldn't do that much, thanks to Kainé. Nobody must miss his voice, really.

But Monokuma wasn't going to just let this end without a last word.

Hear it!

Since the roll was 11, the speed is not high. You have time to protect yourselves, one way or another, but better hurry up -- it won't be a small one!]

[prozaic]

THAT'S A BOMB!

[Now Shalem is actually yelling, because bombs are no joke.

Grabbing Yoon and getting out of dodge-- (18)]

[strawsandals]

T...thank you...!

[ He is so sore but he'll Diarama himself while Shalem has him covered. ]

[moodwrecker]

Crap!

[She has the sense to buff her defense for all it will do, because she is not running very quickly when trying to escape (4)]

[imperiosity]

[no one told him they were playing bombs today

In any case, he's definitely moving away now!! But does anyone remember that he still has the stripper pole strapped onto his back? Because he sure does, and he just yeets it at Monokuma in a half-assed attempt to disable the bomb????

This is going to cost him by getting a little blown up because avrae graced me with a 9.]

[emptyself]

[ soujuurou doesn’t seem fazed at first at the beeping. it’s annoying, but so is the alarm clock on his phone.

however, when shalem warns for the bomb, that sense of danger finally lights up in soujuurou. his experience with explosives is only when aoko blew up the house of mirrors, and he doesn’t know how much damage this can cause. but any damage is too much. he struggles to get himself off the floor and break into the best run that his broken body can do (7). ]

[finalmix]

[ joshua is a noodle but he is grabbing soujuurou and supporting him on the way out, and also casting a media on him for good measure just in case, even if Fray already hit him with a diarama. ]

Stay sharp, darling. Wouldn't want to lose you so near the end, hm?

[bloodweapon]

[Fray definitely knows what a bomb is and that sound is never a good one. At least it's not the weewoo of Garlean sirens? No, this is really not any better. He's casting Diarama on Soujuurou as he tries to get the fuck out of the way (10).]

[moonshaded]

["Oh crap," Kainé would say, but her expression actually says it all.

Remember those smashed-up podiums from when everyone refused to vote? She'll throw the debris from one of those up as cover, in the same direction as where McGillis carried the unconscious owner of this palace. But the materials used to build these things do look pretty thin, and her speed can only get her so far. With a 10, she will almost definitely at least be getting thrown back into a wall or another body or something.]

[beautifulknight]

[ Well, first of all, Yoon being freed and the same for Soujuurou means there's only one person still in distress (besides all of them on account of a bomb being about to go off)

So, Argenti is getting really concerned about McGillis being on fire over there! So he throws another Dia on McGillis so he doesn't die or something! But doesn't have anything in his repertoire to put the flames out at the moment. Especially since there's also a bomb about to go off.

With people being too slow to run and simultaneously on fire, he has to hope that will be enough for the moment and so the red head yells something no one wants to hear anyone say: ]

I shall take care of the bomb!

...Please someone see to McGillis if they can.

[ If they can't, Argenti will try to check himself after this.

Before anyone can so much as complain, the Knight of Beauty runs forward - all at the same time Aaron tosses the stripper pole at it - perfect! Argenti suddenly places a great deal of power behind this Psiodyne, which may or may not have a spear swinging in afterwards to compensate for any lingering weight.

But, perhaps surprising of all is this:

...That it is a successful gambit! The entire thing smashes straight out one of the windows (14) — ]

1/3

[kandata]

[By the time Argenti does his gamble, the beeping was getting faster and faster. The explosion is imminent!

When Monokuma's enormous form is thrown against a window, it collides, shattering the windows, and vanishes out of sight for...half a second or so. Argenti threw it out just in time. Everyone is spared from the worst since there's a thick wall between the explosion and them all...but there are windows.

The windows explode inwards. That might be the cause of some of the injuries your bad rolls received, because that's a lot of glass flying all over the place!

...but it's all over. You have defeated Monokuma. The bear is gone. Is it dead?

...........

Well it sure isn't appearing right now again!]

2/3

[kandata]

[All around the walls gain cracks. The explosion seems to have made it all unstable.

Not too far from you, where McGillis had tossed her, a girl stands up shakily. She looks extremely roughed up, bruised to hell and back because really, Monokuma was not kind with her during this fight. She stares at everyone, dumbfounded and silent.

She's just...silent. She opens her mouth for a moment, but no words come out]

3/3 END

[kandata]

[...and she just falls apart.

The walls of the trial room break, falling apart. This girl just stands there, crying, and she can't bring herself to stop. The palace is breaking, and what's beyond, still is gray because yeah, things sure aren't fixed for her.

If anything, it's as if everything she knew has been destroyed, and that's just...extremely overwhelming. Everything has crumbled apart.

Monokuma did exactly what he said he would. Kirumi Tojo is dead. There's this girl left. Whether she even keeps the name and the profession or not, well, who knows.

Whether something new can grow from here or not, well, it depends on her, doesn't it?

Time to leave. But for the time being, she just...is going to need a lot of rest]