Fireworks and Festival Fights - Part I

"So like - we just went full mecha, as well as classic tokusatsu! Where do we like, totally go from here?"

Jade asked excitedly as she and the other Dragon Furies were once again at their new favorite bubble tea spot! Ririka was the first one to look up from her Thai Iced Tea and smile, knowing that it was most definitely her time to shine, as she was a lifelong tokusatu otaku thus far. 

"Well, Kobaysahi-san, if this is anything like standard tokusatu shows - then we should be gathering for some sort of epic battle, a truly evil foe coming to face us down! But after I saw what we could do, with our powers combined, and our hearts and minds set to friendship and victory - anything is possible!"

Ririka replied with true gusto and an excited sense of resolve! Jade simply blushed when Ririka had mentioned the part about "friendship" as after what they'd all been through so far, along with being classmates at school - she couldn't help but feel a much stronger sense of attraction that went beyond simple or even close friendship. She wanted Ririka to be her girlfriend, and nothing less! Though, she just hoped that Ririka felt the same way.

"Well if the villains her any worse than those four that we faced off against before, or even Horror-riya - how can you be sure that we'll win?"

Mako asked with cautious optimism as she sipped her bubble tea. The overlaying seriousness of their conversations as juxtaposed by the bright pink coloration and comfy seats within the bubble tea cafe that they were in. Aiko and Mei also nodded as they sipped their drinks, looking to Ririka to see what kind of wisdom she could give them. 

"Well - another trope that's in tokusatsu shows is that when the most difficult villains in an arc come out, the heroes get better suits, powers, and weapons! And at this point - I'm kind of wondering of the creators of tokusatsu shows somehow knew that this was all real? Like, maybe they knew Hazaki!"

Ririka added as Aiko looked slightly relived after taking a moment to consider what Ririka had just stated .

"Well, if your calculations are correct - then I'd say that our end result of this tokusatsu equation is definitely a positive one! I just hope that you're making sure that you're taking all of the variables into account."

Aiko stated with an equal amount of cautious optimism as they all then took a few sips of their bubble teas - before they smiled at each other and considered that they should speak to Hazaki about all of this too. Suffice to say, the way that Ririka and the others looked at each other, they knew that they were thinking the same thing. Jade then took a moment to look at Ririka, feeling all the more attracted to her by the second. 

Meanwhile, a press conference was taking place where the battle against Horror-riya had taken place, except the small group of female politicians and their driver weren't actually who they appeared to be! They were none other than Azaka, Sadako, Wazaka, and Kazashi. they all looked as stunning as ever, and thus along with their skills in the highly prone to deception, art of Publix speaking - Azaka lead the group in attempting to hoodwink the Japanese public on a live NHK broadcast that what actually occurred was a very dangerous terrorist attack - not a real life tokusatu battle for the fate of Japan and the rest of the Earth!

"As a leading member of the Liberal Democratic Party in the Diet, I feel that it is my responsibility to tell you that we were attacked by who we expect to be vicious gaijin terrorists who employed hallucinogenic weapons against a large group of innocent Yamato civilians! We are joined in solidarity with a member of the Sanseito Party - and I can promise you that when we get back to Tokyo - we will make sure to assert that the only ones who should be wielding any kind of heavy weaponry in Japan are the Self Defense Forces, and our close friends and allies in the American Military who are based here in the mainland, and on Okinawa Prefecture."

Azaka stated calmly and firmly into the microphone, while Sadako, Wazaka, and Kazashi for their part, maintained their disguises with effortless skill as they silently listened in support. Despite this, the crowd that had gathered to listen wasn't convinced. 

"What do you mean terrorists!? All I saw were colorful, real-life female tokusatsu heroes fighting and defeating some psycho villain girl with hashiriya-style Subaru WRX's!"

One man in the crowd yelled as others started to nod and mumble that he may've actually had a point! Azaka, Wazaka, Sadako, and Kazashi meanwhile in their human disguises stood on the podium and miniature stage divided equally with the colors and logos of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Sanseito party - all with an easy feeling being shared amongst them, since they couldn’t exactly reveal their true forms and silence them! 

“He’s right! Why should we trust a government that let all this devastation happen!?”

Another young woman in the crowd yelled, pointing at the imposter politicians! As the crowd began to chant and vocalize their disapproval for the rhetoric being given to them, Azaka once again stepped up to the microphone to try and gaslight the crowd! 

“As our friends in America say - this is ‘Fake News’, we cannot resort to anarchy and mob rule. Anyone who is not part of the government, police, or military shouldn’t be committing any sort of violence or destruction within Japan.”

Azaka shouted into the microphone as her final argument, making sure to say ‘Fake News’ in English as best she could - albeit beautifully heavily accented. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t deter the crowd at all. As soon enough, the crowd began pelting them with trash, as the disguised villains rushed to their government limousine for safety, and to escape to their main base once they were out of sight! 

As they fled, Ririka and the other Dragon Furies were taking a walk after they’d fulfilled their lust for bubble tea.

“Hey, look! There’s a ‘flash festival’ coming to Kyoto tonight!”

Mako exclaimed as she pointed at a poster advertising a mew fireworks-filled festival that was being out on that evening - despite it not being a holiday, or some other sort of impromptu  celebration. Jade was enthralled too, since the poster was varying shades of pink with white accents, as well as classic Japanese-style, thin, cylindrical firecrackers forming a nice aesthetic texture at the bottom of the poster!

"We like - totally need to go to this! I mean, just think about how fun it could be to properly celebrate after defeating that crazy psycho car villain!"

Jade added in support of Mako, as Mako nodded with a smile. Mei soon joined in after taking a second to consider everything.

"I have to agree. I mean - we have been through a lot as of recently, so why not take some time to have fun and be ourselves?"

Mei chimed in as Ririka considered all of the points that were being made, along with how random this announcement poster was. Before she could speak up however, Aiko beat her to it, making her opinions on the situation known without any room for confusion. 

"Something doesn't seem right though - how could there be a festival happening so randomly and on such short notice? How would vendors be able to prepare and set up? How would the area be made secure for people to come and go? There has to be more to this festival than is being revealed to us."

Aiko stated after going through a few moments of careful mental analysis to ensure that she wasn't speaking prematurely, or otherwise focusing too much on one or two aspects of the interconnected subject and question at hand. Ririka finally spoke up, taking in what Aiko had countered with.

“I can’t say that I disagree with where Aiko is coming from. I mean - this just isn’t how it’s done. Any time that there’s going to be a festival - it’s either a regularly scheduled holiday, or it’s planned out well in advance. We should bring this up with Hazaki.”

Ririka seated calmly as Aiko looked relieved and nodded, while Mako, Mei, and Jade looked at each other, and then nodded to Ririka as well. As they headed to go seek the counsel of Hazaki at his hidden castle, Azaka, Wazaka, Sadako, and Kazashi resided in the dark “palette-swap” of Hazaki’s castle, which belonged to Sazaki, who still in his ornately carved and circular-mounted amethyst form on the wall behind and centered above his old throne, watched with glowing eyes, while Yumeko in her possessed schoolgirl form, was slouched across the throne, sleeping soundly. 

“Lord Sazaki, we have failed you. Even with the essence of the Armor of Avarice, Horror-riya wasn’t powerful enough to defeat the Dragon Furies. Yet fear not, we shall create an even stronger foe for them, one which shall surely succeed in slaying the slayers!”

Azaka recited with penance as she bowed along with Wazaka, Sadako, and Kazashi. Kazashi then nudged Wazaka in the side and smirked. 

“And whose bright idea was it to create her? Oh yeah - Little Miss Venom Princess! How’d that work out?”

Kazashi asked Wazaka snidely - but before a fight could break out, Sazaki’s trapped essence boomed! 

“INSOLENCE AND IMMATURITY - IN MY THRONE ROOM!?”

Sazaki boomed as his amethyst carved and imprisoned self made his rage known with his increasingly glowing eyes, as Kazashi and Wazaka quickly forgot their squabble. The commotion caused Yumeko to awaken as well!

“Oh my gosh - you’re all such baka! Just shut up and let me get my rest and rehabilitation nap! Honestly - you’re all so second-rate!”

Yumeko said sassily before she proceeded to laugh and roll her eyes at them. If one didn't know - they'd swear that Yumeko was just a particularly attractive girl who could pull off the school uniform look - with a particularly spicy female attitude!

"It matters not - you're not powerful enough yet to take the fight to the Dragon Furies, so insults and a youthful attitude won't get you anywhere. As for now, we're the ones who are fighting."

Azaka replied with a clam but assertive tone. Yumeko merely rolled her eyes while Sazaki's eyes glowed as his wall-mounted, ornately-imprisoned carved amethyst self expressed his approval of Azaka's demeanor with a glow in his eyes.

"Then put action into your words, my faithful servant - I should say all of you together, my faithful servants."

Sazaki commanded with a renewed interest as Yumeko yawned and rested her chin in her hand, still sitting across the throne incorrectly. Azaka nodded and bowed to Sazaki dutifully, before turning to Kazashi.

"Give me a firecracker. Since we've created a deadly fraudulent festival - I'll make sure that those teenaged Dragon Brats all have something to choke on!"

Azaka stated as Kazashi snapped her fingers dutifully, out of which appeared a roughly five inch long, somewhat thin, traditional red Japanese firecracker! As all in the throne room watched carefully - even Yumeko - Azaka swiftly and effortlessly swallowed the firecracker - to everyone's monetary confusion, yet they dared not voice any opinions, due to Azaka having both the real and actualized potential to access powers which were only definitively surpassed by Sazaki and Yumeko!

The confusion in the room lasted for a few more moments, Azaka began to violently choke - yet her body language was strangely purposeful as evidenced by her calm eyes!

"HRCK! YYAACCKK!"

Azaka let out as Kazashi, Wazaka, and Sadko all looked at each other. Though her eyes weren't visible due to her dark green and black hair covering them, Sadako could be seen rolling them and muttering to herself.

"I thought she meant that the Dragon Brats would be the ones doing the choking - not our leader."

Sadako remarked as Kazashi and Wazaka were immaturely making gagging motions at each other to mock Azaka. Yumeko meanwhile laughed to herself briefly before transitioning to a smirk.

"If you wanted to be as disgusting as a gaijin - you could've just asked me. I lead the armies that created a ‘dynasty of the disgusting’ back in the day!"

Yumeko remarked - though she closed her mouth once she noticed that the glow of Sazaki's eyes meant that he was thoroughly unimpressed with the behavior that he saw, save for Azaka's. 

"You're all such baka! Shut up and witness a demonstration of raw power!"

Sazaki growled as his eyes glowed - his grim and forbidding presence being felt even from within an amethyst-imprisoned state. With that, Wazaka, Kazashi, Sadako, and Yumeko each closely watched Azaka with a respectful, if slightly nervous silence.

"SSSSRACK! HHHERRRAACK!"

Azaka let out as thick, ink-black saliva began to drip from her mouth, the same colors her ink-stained teeth! Azaka then jammed two fingers down her throat, just as all who were gathered in the throne room could see a small, somewhat thin, cylindrical object moving up through her neck.

"HHHACK! BLECKKK!"

Azaka finally let out as she hacked up the firecracker that was now covered ink her ink-black saliva - before a swift explosion of pink, white, and orange flame erupted in its place, and when the smoke of the same colors cleared, there stood a new female villain!

"Hiya! I'm Fest-Evil, and I'm going to go send the Dragon Furies out with a bang! That is, after they choke on my deadly selection of festival refreshments, shall we say - and then go out on a finale of the hottest fireworks to ever be brought into this world!"

Fest-Evil exclaimed as she giggled and kicked her legs up and jumped with her arms in the air! Once she was back on the ground, she posed for a moment to be admired by those who summoned her! Fest-Evil certainly looked as vibrant as her name - in that she was a bihaku-skinned, thin and highly attractive, dressed in a short and tight Japanese sailor school uniform that was white, with pink and orange accents on the collar, neckerchief, and short sleeves! 

Her short uniform skirt was made of three small, thin, firecrackers - with the first row all the way around being white, the middle row being orange, and the last row being pink! She also wore white knee-high converse with colorful animated-style patches of bombs, explosions, and firecrackers, while on her face, she wore a tight nose and mouth metal face-mask that had "BOOM!" stencil-sprayed in white in the center! Topping it off with her red eyes and red and white hair that was styled into  large, side-hanging twin-tails, with the large plastic clip on the left one being a pink cartoonish skull, and the equally large plastic clip on the right one being a small pink bowtie type bow!

"We should totally hang out sometime! Want to get some bubble tea after this?"

Wazaka asked Fest-Evil flirtatiously as Sadako rolled her eyes once more, Yumeko threw back her head and laughed at this show of affection, and Azaka stepped forward, placing her hand over Wazaka's mouth. 

"You're just the life of the party aren't you? Well, go over and give the Dragon Brats the time of their insufferable lives."

Azaka commanded as Fest-Evil snapped her fingers and disappeared in another white, pink, and orange explosion. Azaka turned to Sazaki and bowed, while giving Yumeko a less than friendly look.

Little did Ririka and the other Dragon Furies know - they'd be up against more than a Kyoto festival version of "Fyre Fest"! For the moment though, they were steeling themselves for what was to come as they listened closely to Hazaki.

"So what you're saying is that there is definitely something wrong about this festival?"

Aiko asked as she looked at Ririka and the others, as they nodded and then turned their attention back to Hazaki.

"Hai! Though I sense that something is there - something dark and something powerful. Be careful, Dragon Furies - for if my senses are indeed as correct as they've always been, this evil force that is connected to this fraudulent festival will be more powerful than anything that you've all faced thus far!"

Hazaki warned as Ririka, Aiko, Jade, Mako, and Mei looked at each other nervously, before they each took a breath. They all knew that since they were now the Dragon Furies - fighting supernatural and superpowers evil forces were part of their general responsibilities now. 

It may've been more dangerous than homework - but like homework, it had to get done! With that in mind, they disappeared in their respective flashes of color to the festival, then looking around once they materialized amongst the lit up, neatly kept, but completely empty stands and stalls at the festival grounds. 

Even in the dark of the night - it was clear from the glow of the perfectly set up, arranged, and maintained vendor booths and stalls that no one was there. Or, so it seemed.

"It's - quiet, but why is everything set up?"

Mei asked as she looked at the others. Ririka nodded as she walked in the front and center of the group. Mako looked around, picking up a plastic mask from an empty vendor's stand. 

"Seriously - you're not wrong. Why would someone just leave all their merchandise?"

Mako added, before she put the mask back carefully.

"It really is strange. But Hazaki confirmed what Aiko had ascertained, so I think we need to be ready for the worst."

Ririka announced as she fought against her own nervousness.

"Like, this place totally gives me the creeps! Sorry, that's like - a gaijin expression that we said back in America."

Jade chimed in as she blushed and nodded, while Aiko looked around, nodding to concur with what everyone else was saying. Barely one moment later however, the silence was broken!

"Hiya, shōjo! Looks like all of you are in serious need of some festival fun, and I, Fest-Evil - would be more than happy to oblige!"

Fest-Evil announced as she expertly launched herself into their view from the shadows in the more distant part of the festival grounds. When she finally stopped and stared around Ririka and the other Dragon Furies - the former all looked at Fest-Evil, putting their hands up and taking their respective fighting stances!

"We're actually just taking a detour to get home from club activities at school. So thanks, but not thanks."

Ririka shot back, feeling more confident as she embraced having to lead the fight the Dragon furies against yet another otherworldly villain! 

"Yeah! We're like - totally going to put a stop to your oddly specific brand of clowning around!"

Jade added, which caused Ririka to nod and smile at her along with Mako, Mei, and Aiko. In response, Fest-Evil just smirked.

“Well in that case - how’s about you all go out - with a bang!?”

Fest-Evil exclaimed as she manifested seemingly countless glowing red, thin, cylindrical Japanese firecrackers, simultaneously sending them flying at the Dragon Furies!

“No, but I do think we need to shed some light on this situation! IT’S FURY TIME! WHITE DRAGON!”

Ririka shot back as she took her combat stance and held out her white, smoothly carved crystal, as the sky erupted in a thunderstorm, and the Dragon Sword came crashing down to Earth - a blast of light erupting that caused the supernatural firecrackers to detonate prematurely! 

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to cancel the festival activities this year!”

Ririka added as she posed with the Dragon Sword at the ready next to her head! Mako, Aiko, Jade, and Mei followed suit!

“PHOENIX!”

Mako announced as she held out her crystal and went through her own henshin transformation!

“SHARK!”

Aiko announced as she followed suit! 

“UNICORN!”

Jade announced as she followed suit with her crystal.

“CHEETAH!”

Mei announced finally as she held out her crystal and like the other Dragon Furies, now donned her tight-fitting, color-coded, tokusatsu armor! 

“Ah - that’s too bad! I was hoping that we could really spark some fun here!”

Fest-Evil fired back as she snapped her fingers on both hands and sent sparks that turned into explosions towards the Dragon Furies - hurling them back! The blast and the fall hurt, but they knew that they couldn’t give up! 

“We like, keep a pretty tight friend group - so if you’re like, going to come in and totally act like a baka gaijin here in Japan - I’m afraid that we’re going to have to ask you to leave!”

Jade yelled as she threw herself into a drop kick right at Fest-Evil that surprised the villain, causing her to stumble before refocusing. 

“And if there’s one thing that you don’t do in Japan - it’s ruin a festival!”

Ririka added as she charged in with a lightning fast circular spinning slash move like that of a tornado -  yet Fest-Evil blocked every hit with equal speed and power!

“Oh really!? Looks like I actually can! After all, you’ve never been to a festival hosted by me before!”

Fest-Evil replied with snark as she held the Dragon Blade back as Ririka tried to push the blade forward and keep her spinning attack up! 

“And by the end of this - you won’t forget it!”

Fest-Evil added as she sent Ririka flying back with a hard push kick! Once Mei and Mako made sure that Ririka was alright, they too ran and delivered flying jump sidekicks in tandem towards Fest-Evil, who threw down more enchanted cylindrical firecrackers and shoved Mei and Mako out of the air! 

“Looks like it’s time to put your fire out for good!”

Aiko threatened as she jumped into a swift backflip kick - which Fest-Evil blocked, before slamming Aiko down! 

What Fest-Evil didn’t notice was that Ririka had gotten up a few yards behind her!

“You know what makes a great friend? They watch your back!”

Ririka yelled as the Dragon Sword glowed, before it flew straight at Fest-Evil, while Ririka supercharged its power with a swift slide side-kick!

“WHA - UGHHHH!”

Fest-Evil let out as the Dragon Sword went into her and she exploded instantaneously! 

“YEAH! We got her!”

Mako let out cheerfully as she hugged Ririka! But Aiko notified something as Mei and Jade joined in on the group hug! 

“WAIT - SHE’S NOT GONE!”

Aiko let out as the sense of relief quickly subsided like the flames that Fest-Evil had become moments before!