What do you suppose happens when a demonic entity gets introspective? Libra wasn't too certain, and it wasn't especially enjoying the discovery. This was a good plan, all truth told. Possess the crystal. Corrupt Sailor Moon and her friends from within their core source of power. Remake the world to its image.
One thing Libra hadn't expected was that it would actually grow to like these girls. Ugh! A perverted entity like it, actually befriending those it intended to corrupt? It was laughable! It was humiliating! It was... Quite telling of the nature of Usagi Tsukino, all truth told. The ultimate purifier, corrupting the corrupter without even meaning to!
"The hallway into Minako, Makoto and Rei's aspects are much more friendly," Libra mused. Before, those aspects of the crystal's being were rather, ah, hostile. Not to mention sealed off. But that seal had weakened considerably as all three of them had adopted and used the power Libra offered them in the real world. Now Libra could enter them - but the influence within was extremely limited, the most that Libra could do was get a much better look at what Minako and Rei were capable of. The limits of their power were truly remarkable: At their utmost Sailor Mars could create a ball of fire as large as the sun, while Sailor Venus could create a chain long enough to reach the moon from earth and then wrap around it a dozen times, and strong enough to completely arrest its orbit.
Yet that was all that Libra could do with those two. Observe, learn about things that could be useful later on.
Makoto on the other hand...
The tall and busty tough chick who liked flowers and baking. Sailor Jupiter was a force to be reckoned with, no question of that. Like the other two Libra could casually stroll through that aspect, able to look around at anything. Unlike the others, in this aspect Libra could <i>look and touch</i>.
Now, it wasn't much but it was better than nothing. It was sort of like putting your hand through water. The resistance is there, you can even scoop some of it up but your ability to manipulate it to any fine degree is rather muted.Not much at all. But it was a start.
"So if I can convince Makoto to practise using these new powers, I'll be able to influence her more and more," Libra mused. "Eventually she would become my willing ally, and I could use her to further influence the other girls. Yes, yes... Focus especially on one of them at a time, and they'll fall like dominos." Libra nodded. Yes, that made sense. A tremendous amount of it, in fact.
Yet it still felt hesitant.
"Oh, don't be absurd," Libra sniffed. "A friendship? Between a lust demon of my level and a bunch of do-gooders? It is to laugh. Ha. Ha. Ha! Their peculiar quirky charm is naught but a means towards corrupting them into debauchery! I shall drown them in pleasure, then remake the world into my own hedonistic paradise!"
By now Libra was pacing around inside of Makoto's corridor, adopting her form and clasping hands behind back. "The only problem is this order adversary they've picked up. Yes, that's right. That's the real issue here! So long as they're around they'll foul things up. No question. It's not that I like these girls at all! Usagi's naivete, Ami's adorable shyness, Rei's feisty attitude, Makoto's toughness and Minako's chirpy optimism have had absolutely no impact whatsoever on me. At all."
Right. There. That was said. So! What sort of limited change should be made to Makoto? It was probably possible to start making more direct manipulations here and there, give her suggestions on a subliminal level. Alter little things here and there, make her more... Pliable toward Libra's intentions. Heck, it might not even be strictly necessary anymore to ask permission to make... Small changes here and there to Jupiter's powers.
How about orgasms whenever she used her thunder powers? Modifications to her uniform to give her a more erotic appeal? The possibilities were endless!
Yet most of them would put Makoto and her team in quite a lot of peril, which rather undercut his long term plans. If they were distracted by thoughts of sex in the middle of a fight, it would completely undercut their ability to defend themselves.
"It's not that I especially care for their wellbeing or anything," Libra said aloud to itself. "But if they are to be my avatars of perversion I can hardly let them run around getting killed... Especially when those Order goons are bound to make the world a lot less palatable towards Libra's tastes.
"Tsk, just when I'm on the road to turning these beauties into magnificent nymphos, another obstacle gets in my way!" Libra sighed. Not in relief though, this was a sigh of frustration! Just like the smile on its lips was a smile of frustration! "Oh well, no point in feeling bad about that. Let's focus on giving them boosts to their power, something that will really help them out!"
Like... what?
No really, like what? Libra was a sex demon. Every single one of its powers were derived from eroticism in some way. Giving a power boost to the incarnation of lightning in babe form was just a little bit out of Libra's oeuvre. Unless of course a clever course of action was taken.
"Let's see, I should have just about enough influence here to do this..." Libra muttered. "Give her a boost to her battle instincts if she's horny. That seems to be the limit of what I can do for now, I'll need her to give me more access to her powers to make more substantial changes... But that should be a good lead to start with!"
Alright then. Libra nodded and left Makoto's section of this crystalline reality. Convincing her to let that access open up wouldn't be easy. She didn't trust Libra, still. Understandable. All Libra had to do was keep being helpful. She would come around, or maybe one of the others would catch up to her and need more of a power boost? Hard to say.
Over time they would come to trust Libra more and more, surrendering more and more of their powers and their mind to Libra's influence, which he would then use to make them more effective warriors in the fight against evil.
"Not because I like them or anything," Libra reminded itself. "Nor because I want to be their friend. I'm just using those sexy warriors of justice towards my own end. Nothing more."
<hr>
Sailor Jupiter slowly let go of this whole brand new magnetism power she'd apparently picked up, and the boys took a moment to blink back to normal. She hated to admit it, but Libra's power boost had been really helpful. She'd gotten them out of the spell without having to hurt them.
"Boobs!" one of them suddenly yelled, prompting the more handsome of the two to step in between him and Jupiter.
"You know, that's really quite rude of you!" he said, sternly. "Do you have any shred of respect at all for women?"
"Huh?" the other boy blinked. "Uh... S-sorry, couldn't help myself."
Jupiter gave the back of mister handsome's head a flat look. Yeah buddy, you were staring at her talent just as blatantly as he was. Not to mention this whole white knighting schtick was kind of turning her off a little.
"Wait a second, aren't you Sailor Jupiter?" he suddenly gasped, spinning around and flashing a smile that was starting to change her mind a little. "Oh! Oh gosh! Meeting an actual superhero like this, I never would have expected! What do I say? Should I ask for your autograph? How about going out on a date. No, no, that's a little too forward... No wonder he was staring, the most beautiful of the Sailor Scouts is right there in front of him, I'd stare too!"
"You can stop babbling for one thing..." the other boy groused. "I'm outta here. Get the feeling I'm about to become the third wheel on a meet cute, and that wheel always gets ground up."
Which just left the two of them. That was fine. The other boy wouldn't know anything. Yet here was a rare chance for her to engage in some interrogation. She could find out a little more about what was going on here...
"Tell me the last thing you remember," she instructed. Drawing herself to full height and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I believe you were under the influence of an evil being! Anything you can say could be vital!"
"W-well... Alright," he said. He looked so cute when he was nervous. "The last thing I really remember was my friends bringing me to this new youth club they'd joined. They were really quite insistent. After that, it's a total blank. Was I really being controlled by them?"
She nodded, and he broke out into a genuinely relieved smile. "Thank goodness," he said. "Thank goodness that I encountered you. It must have been fate."
Okay, she had to admit. He was a bit of a goof, but he was really cute. Just like her -
And then the world around her fell into sharp focus. It was weird. It was like, somehow she could sense everything happening in her immediate vicinity. Time seemed to slow down, just a fraction. It felt like if someone fired a gun, she could probably dodge the bullet and see it going by...
Then the moment passed.
"Uh... Here's the address," the boy said. "Is there anything else I can do?"
"Go home," Jupiter advised. Weird. What was that anyway? "Stay there until this is over. I'll end this tonight."
- The team moves in to deal with Soldier.
- Cleaner makes her move against Jupiter now.
- Libra contacts Jupiter and makes a few adjustments.
- What are the others up to?
- Something else
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