Nox's POV:
I finally awoke from my slumber as a creature of the night. Or that is what I would have liked to say if I knew the blood in my mouth wasn't my own. I woke up holding the toasty offender of my skull by the collar, with my crippled right hook firmly planted in his crooked nose. I wonder whose got the most blood on that face. His nosey face is covered in scars from what I assume are the protruding bones in my hand and fingers, so it's hard to tell. Either way, I'm outie.
"Oopsie daisy! You activated my self-defense mode! Here's an apology kick of justice to say I'm sowwy!" I said cutely before kicking him between the legs.
*Bang*
*Thud*
*Sharp inhale*
I then made my escape to get to my appointment. Judging by the alignment of the broken lamplights, and the position of the debris and unconscious security guards, I'd say I was out for about an hour give or take, meaning I'm on in five.
"No time for the fairy workshop! Sowwy!" I said, apologizing to my makeshift wand that has been passed down from a fish to another fish to Nox to Su.
I could hear the music playing and the sounds of my apprentice crushing it with his off tune singing as his tsundere fans booed him on from the stands. I made it just in time. With my fingers crushed back into place, short range illusions activated to hide my tattered and bloodstained clothes, I jumped out from inside the birthday cake-shaped podium covered in springers and hart decorations singing and dancing.
"TIME FOR A BRAND NEW START! STEALS YOUR BREATH THEN TAKES YOUR HEART!♪"
I watched as Riri's tsundere fans discourage me as their previous booing and tomato throwing turned into cheers and applause. It's kind of sad really, to think my student would surpass me this soon. Makes me want to maybe take an early retirement, but just because my legacy is in good hands is no excuse for setting a bad example for such an impressionable old man. I need him to know never to give up until the very end, so that when I am gone, he will have no regrets as he realizes that baby-face 2.0 and I faked his signature to make him legally required to participate in the next moon concert, assuming he lives through this one that is.
"FEEL THE RYTHEM, IN THE STARS! HEAVY BREATHS, BEHIND METAL BARS!♪"
I did tons of flips, pirouettes, and more as I danced across the cake and even in the air thanks to the flashy color shifting rocket shoes I totally made for this event and not just because I was jealous of my apprentice's rocket feet. All that time I spent in that underground circus finally paid, well no its still has a lot to make up for, but at least it's at least worth one or two of the lions I had to fight as the unkillable undead boy wonder. Still kind of offended that they assumed my gender, but whatever, they got raided the day after I escaped.
"KILLS THE LUNGS, BREAKS YOUR HEART! DROP THE SMOKE, AND KICK CIGARS!♪"
I finished my musical number of how smoking is bad for you, by concentrating on the mist I had been breathing out while singing around the birthday cake I had flown atop, using it as a smokescreen as it slowly sank back under the arena floor. I then took the opportunity to blow a kiss to the audience before jumping down through the smoke covered hole I came from right before this sinking smoke cake fully went under.
*Loud applause*
"Hmph! If they don't like it, then just leave! There is nothing stopping them from taking a smoke break outside until the opening is over!" I said, feeling kind of pissed how backwards moon-people are.
While listening to the sounds of my haters up above, I was approached by baby-face 2.0 who seemed crestfallen for some reason.
"Miss Su, I-!"
"Sorry my fellow dreamer, but this magical girl has some bad guys to fight! See you later alligator!" I said before rushing off to my next battle.
I would love to take a break from my countless haters and chat about my ideas for a magical girl academy with the baby-face, but as they say, there's no rest for the wicked alchemy girls. So, I rushed back up there to fight for drug-money, I mean dreams and justice.
The first round of the lunar drug making contest began, and wouldn't you know it, the toast powered steamroller who ran me over earlier was there, glaring at me with a red face. He probably hated my performance too. It's definitely that and not because I kicked him in the nads like 15 minutes ago. Good thing, there is a rule against competitors fighting each other or he might suddenly attack me out of nowhere. Oh, here comes the ref to encourage me to do my very bes-!
"Contestant Su, you are disqualified!"
"Huh? Wait what?!"
"According to multiple eyewitness accounts, you attacked candidate Nakahara Ryuji! As you know, violence between competitors is strictly prohibited! I request that you please exit the arena quietly!"
Shit. Will I be denied my cash once again, all because some douchebag triggered my self-defense mode. Is there no justice left in the world. As a magical girl there is only one thing to do.
"SMO-!"
"WAIT!"
Just as I was about to throw a smoke bomb so I could grab the prize money and skip to the next moon over, the douchebag responsible for my predicament spoke up.
"Please, let her stay!"
"Contestant Nakahara Ryuji?"
"What happened was just as much my fault as lady Su's, and since we both seem capable of competing, I beseech you to overlook this incident just this once!" He said, obviously trying to avoid being thrown out along with me.
"You were the victim of this offence! Are you sure, you don't want to press the issue?"
"Victim?!"
They seem to think he was the victim in that scuffle, but I have a footprint on the back of my brain that says otherwise. Between this and the numerous break-ins I suffered last time I was here, it makes me wonder how this place is still floating in the sky when the law enforcement is this incompetent.
"How could I possibly do that against such a beautiful maiden!" He said as his eye started twitching for some reason.
Glad I'm not the guy behind me, because that look in that toast powered douche's eyes is the creepiest thing I've seen all week. He's probably planning to roofie the poor fellow later for some fun, like his character will do in my next book. I wonder if it's too late to negotiate for another performance with the reporter princess. Wait, has the first round already started?
"Oops, got lost in thought again! Time to focus on what's important!" I said to myself as I looked longingly at the floating mystery box containing the 1st place reward for this tournament.
Money here I come. Now let's see what kind of meth we're cooking today. I used my sixth sense to peek at the naked pills in the furnace showers around me, but something was off. They were too different from each other. I guess I'll just ask one of the refs for what this diverse looking pill is called.
"Hm? Excuse me citizen, but I didn't catch the name of the pill we're making!"
"Miss Su? Have you not been informed of the rules of this competition?"
"Bingo Bongo mister man!"
I then got a quick rundown of how assuming makes an Ass out of U and Ming, and since I didn't want to be lumped together with an old man's butt, I took this lesson to heart. Apparently, the tournament is different from the preliminaries, in multiple ways. There are three rounds, with their own themes. The first round is all about diversity, where we have to make as many different pills as we can in the time we're given. Something like that would have been a simple thing for me, if not for it being bring your own ingredients to workday. That's right, I have to pay out of pocket to make each and everyone of these pills. I mean, thanks to my aura being the ultimate transmuter, I can basically just toss some crap with a dash of magic stones and create a five-star drug for these junkies, but the whole point of this was making money not digesting it.
"Welp, whatever! Plus, victory will take the sting away!" With that mindset I got to plagiarizing my surroundings while rationing out my magic stones.
As long as I win more than I lose then it will be worth it, and if it isn't, I can just mug the rich kids here to make up the difference so I can live happily ever after. I always love a happy ending.
*Whistling melody*
"And dunzo!" I said as I finished cooking the last batch of my differently shaped drugs.
I then spent the remaining time I had humming the melody for my next song while assembling my next masterpiece.
"TIME IS UP! CONTESTANTS, PLEASE PRESENT YOUR PILLS TO BE EVALUATED!!!" The ref shouted over the speakers.
*Murmuring crowd*
"CONTESTANT SU! WHAT IS THAT?!" The judge shouted in surprise, when I carried over a cloth covered basketball on a plate.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! LET ME PRESENT, 'THE RAINBOW-DEATH-MOON'!" I said as I pulled off the veil to reveal my latest creation.
"CRAFTED FROM OVER FIFTY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PILLS, SHAPED SPECIFICALLY TO INTERLOCK WITHOUT THE NEED FOR GLUE, TAPE OR SCREWS!"
"CANDIDATE SU! THIS IS AN ALCHEMIST COMPETITION! NOT A-!"
"AND BEST OF ALL, IT HAS ITS OWN ANIT-HATER DEATH LASER, TO INCINARATE ALL UNFAIR ART CRITICS!" I said, before I pushed in one of the pieces on my model-scale death-moon, which caused a chain reaction between the inner layers of pills, creating a multi-colored laser that shot out of the north pole-hole.
After silencing all the critics with a cool lightshow that could be seen from outer-space, I had to unfortunately watch as my masterpiece was dissected for science, cause they couldn't distinguish the different pieces I used otherwise. Well, I was going to do that anyways since the laser battery needed to be replaced. Naturally, I advanced to the next round for having the largest number of pi-.
"1ST PLACE IN ROUND ONE GOES TO NAKAHARA RYUJI! WITH 37 DIFFERENT TYPES OF PILLS MADE!"
It seems like the pills that burned up in my light show didn't count, apparently my score got lowered to 12, barely landing me in shared 9th place, which barely kept me from getting booted in the first round.
Oh, and here comes the toastmaster to rub his win in my face.
"He-!"
"DON'T CELEBRATE YOUR VICTORY JUST YET EVIL PHANTOM-TOAST, FOR THIS DRUG WAR IS STILL FAR FROM OVER! YOU MAY HAVE THE BIGGER DRUG PROBLEM, BUT I STILL HAVE THE BETTER STYLE! SMOKE BOMB!!!" I said dramatically before smoke bombing away.