To the Moon

The battle was joined.

Sweet Bear and Wolf Knight did not hesitate or pull any punches. Even with their daughter safe by their side, there was no forgiveness for the yokai that had caused them such grief.

But Zetsuboru’s corpulent form proved durable. It absorbed the blows from Wolf Knight and the shots from Sweet Bear’s staff without so much as flinching. On gangly legs it moved about, swiping at the two parents with its gnarled claws.

The yokai’s strength was expected; Sweet Bear remembered Zetsuboru being able to tear through walls like paper. But she didn’t remember it ever moving this fast before.

The back of Zetsuboru’s hand smashed into her and sent her rolling across the room. It was worse than she feared. All that time it had spend feeding off of everyone’s despair, their misery… she wasn’t sure they could survive it long enough to do what needed to be done.

----

Fuku slid across the pavement on a constantly forming river of ice shot from his own wand.

It reminded him of ice skating, in a way. He gently pushed himself at speed towards the continuing melee of the Kaijin Support Group and Jade Chrysanthemum. A quick spell sent a ball of flame spiraling into a baker’s dozen of goons trying to drag Sayuri to the ground.

Sayuri’s eyes lit up. “It’s about time.”

Another goon tried lunging at Fuku, only for Raven Scout to finally arrive on his bike. “Come on, we just have to go a bit further!”

Fuku looked back. The magic circle he’d drawn was coming closer. Its light was starting to shine over everyone who was still fighting. If Zetsuboru hadn’t realized what they were doing before it would very shortly.

----

Zetsuboru sneered. It had both Sweet Bear and Wolf Knight by the neck, both of the two off their feet. It could feel the anxiety from their little brat intensify as it tightened its grip.

Then it noticed the growing light outside. And then it understood.

“You think you can expel me from this body?” spat Zetsuboru. “With my newfound strength, it would take only a wave of my hand to break free.”

Sweet Bear and Wolf Knight looked at each other. Sweet Bear couldn’t see the expression on her husband’s face behind that helmet, but she knew he was gritting his teeth.

They had no choice.

Sweet Bear flicked her staff in her hand and vanished. Wolf Knight felt the hand around his throat loosen just enough from Zetsuboru’s surprise that he could work himself free. With his remaining strength, he jumped behind the yokai and wrapped his arms around her neck.

“Nghk!” Zestuboru wheezed. It did not need air but the move was quite discomforting. “How does it feel, Wolf? Being abandoned by the woman who gave you hope?”

Wolf Knight kicked back on his feet, dragging the two of them into a small garden that had a glass window ceiling. He looked up.

The night sky was crystal clear, and there was an almost full moon in the sky.

“How does it feel!” Zestuboru dropped onto its back, slamming Wolf Knight into the ground and be crushed by its enormous weight. It kept up the pressure, waiting for Wolf’s bones to shatter from the prolonged pressure. “Knowing your own daughter gets to watch you die?”

With a final push of strength, Wolf pushed enough of himself out from under the yokai and yanked its head back to look into the night sky. “Watch this.”

Zetsuboru’s boasts died when it saw a small speck of pink on the moon.

----

Sweet Bear’s foot smashed into the lunar soil.

She locked her staff in her hands, aiming at the blue planet she called home. The power of magic was keeping her upright, keeping her lungs from suffering from the lack of oxygen, letting her say the incantations to her spell.

They had risked everything for this one moment. Fighting Zetsuboru in its strengthened form, drawing the magic circle the way that they did.

The grey regolith started swirling around Sweet Bear. Pink and yellow energy charged at the end of her staff.

Sweet Bear’s charged energy kept growing and growing. The speed and degree of its growth shocked her. She’d never tried to understand how many people had watched the shows they’d pitched based on their lives. How many people enjoyed them. How many remembered them.

Maybe she’d look into that when this all was over.

The charge was easily twice her size now, glistening with all the positive emotion from the Smile Showcase. Thousands upon thousands of people she would never meet all had intense positive emotions focused on her and her husband.

All that energy needed was a focus.

“SUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

There should be no wind. And yet the charged energy was now bellowing it out, scattering more and more of the moon’s dust.

Her feet were planted. Her eyes were firmly locked onto those tiny islands she called home.

“HONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!”

This was for her family.

“BEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!”

The charge exploded into a beam shooting out from the moon to the Earth.

-----

The Moon and the Earth are roughly three hundred and eight-four thousand and four hundred kilometers away from each other. In the days of the space race, it would take three days for a manned voyage to make that distance.

From the moment Sweet Bear fired the Super Honey Beam to the moment it hit Zetsuboru, it took seven seconds.

Time enough for Zetsuboru to scream in futile anger.

----

Floor after floor of the Nise Kitai building had its windows blown out by the Super Honey Beam. The flash of pink and yellow was enough to catch everyone outside off-guard.

Something ethereal seemed to clue the Jade Chrysanthemum goons in, or was no longer doing so. In the moments immediately following, they rapidly started fleeing en masse. There was no more fight in them. Only a base survival instinct to get the hell out while they still could.

Fuku, Sayuri, and Raven Scout all made their way to the Nise Kitai building. With bated breath, they entered and all wondered the same thing – had they done it?

It was difficult to make anything out with all the dust still flying around. But they could see a feminine figure hovering over a nearby garden. Then they could see an armored one carrying someone.

A wave of relief washed over everyone as they got a better look. Sweet Bear was the one hovering, watching Wolf Knight cradle Ayumu’s unconscious body in his arms.

It was finally over.