1581/Appreciate the Art

Appreciate the Art
Date of Scene:	23 May 2024
Location:	Mitakihara General Hospital
Synopsis:	Kyouka Inai is Fyuko Yuuhi's emergency contact, a fact which comes in handy when the hospital comes calling. Information is exchanged, and the beginnings of a plan are formed.
Cast of Characters:	Fuyuko Yuuhi, Kyouka Inai
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora

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Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
It's late on Thursday when Kyouka Inai receives a call from an unknown number.

"Hello, this is Mitakihara General Hospital. Have I reached Kyouka Inai?" The voice is female, and sounds rather doubtful when she says that last name, but the tone is otherwise professional and distanced, perhaps a little harried.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka picks up the call, because nobody ever actually calls her and if somebody is it's probably at least worth figuring out who.

    Her first thought upon hearing the woman on the other side is that something has happened to Mamoru (something further), since she is the one who filled out his paperwork on behalf of RHA.

    "This is her." She says, levelly, while her mind races.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
There's a pause, where the voice on the other end might have normally said something like great! or wonderful! or something positive, and instead, says very carefully, "I'm glad to reach you, and I'm very sorry to have to tell you this. You're listed as the emergency contact for one Fuyuko Yuuhi, who was recently admitted to the burn ward. She's in stable condition, but I'm afraid her injuries are rather serious... Are you in a position to reach the hospital?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka falls silent for a moment. It's something of a shock to her- she'd always believed if something happened to Fuyuko she would... feel it? Be aware of it, somehow. But then again, it's also not a shock to her.

    She had known Fuyuko was going to confront Sunbreaker. She had been warned that it could lead to disaster. She had even passed that warning on. Whether the warning was too late or Fuyuko had simply noted it and then chosen to proceed anyway, this outcome while undesired is not unforseen.

    There's still a difference between acknowledging something could happen and being confronted with the reality that it did happen.

    "Yeah," She says after that long moment of silence. "I'll be there soon."

    And she is. Sooner than is likely physically possible by any normal means. Hopefully the person on the other side of that phonecall isn't in a position to care about that.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
There's a long moment of silence, and the nurse, in the burn ward, standing at the reception area, grows worried, fearing that she's been disconnected or worse.

"Inai-san -"

But then there's an answer, an affirmation, and the phone is hung up. The nurse blinks at the receiver for a moment, shaking her head.

"This city," she sighs, and goes to scrub up - it's time to make the rounds for her other patients.

It's a good thing, too, because Kyouka is at the hospital far too soon. Once she enters the hospital, she's questioned, given directions, and then -

Before very long, she's in the burn ward, and being informed that she'll have to scrub up so that she can change into a yellow gown and gloves, for a sterile environment. Fuyuko's still being treated - she'd been given a dose of painkillers and is currently being bandaged, which may take some time.

They want to know if Kyouka is willing to wait, and to give any additional information she has about their patient - allergies, any medications she might be on...

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    These people are lucky that Kyouka cares enough about Fuyuko to not just teleport to her bedside as she gets more and more frustrated by the various delays. She is smart enough, at least, to acknowledge that they have purpose. These people aren't keeping her from seeing Fuyuko, they are making sure she does not make the situation worse. She understands that, even if she is frustrated by it.

    So she plays along. She does the scrubbing, she puts on the gown, and she waits- until someone tells her that it's okay to go in, that Fuyuko has been sufficiently sedated and bandaged and whatever else needs to be done.

    She bears it with remarkable stoicism, though anyone familiar with her could see the fidgeting ticks which speak to how much she dislikes everything about it.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Finally, perhaps an hour after her arrival, she's given the okay to go in. Like the other burn victims who have been slowly filling this hospital like the world's worst variety of flowers, she's been given a private room, all the better to ensure she doesn't gain any infections - burns are notoriously prone to infection, and Fuyuko has only recently gotten into the hospital, her wounds incredibly fresh.

She's in a hospital gown, bandages covering just about every patch of skin. Her hair has been haphazardly trimmed, burnt sections cut away to prevent damage - it's to her chin now, though with the bandages on her face, and the way the hair has been pulled back, it's hard to tell.

Her eyes are open, and the monitors are saying that her heartrate is elevated. When Kyouka enters the room, she turns her head, sucking air through her teeth as the only sign of pain she's willing to offer.

"God, you people are fucking annoying," Fuyuko rasps when she hears the door open. "Give me some of those ice chips. Fuck, I forgot how much it hurts to be burned."

She should be asleep, unconscious, in the sweet grip of emptiness, but she'd woken up as they were finishing up her dressings and refused the morphine.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka does not give any indication of distress upon seeing Fuyuko in this state- though perhaps it's a good thing for her dignity she isn't also hooked up to a heart monitor. She pauses, taking in the scene... then greets her oldest friend with, "Damn, you look like shit."

    She advances towards the bed, and perhaps it's good there's no nurses in the room at the moment because her presence seems to have an effect on Fuyuko- it's not like her wounds start miraculously healing or anything, but maybe the pain lessens, the heart rate slows. There won't be any infections.

    Simultaneously, Kyouka winces slightly, as if at a muscle twinge. Maybe the start of a headache.

    Two sides of the same coin- like Light and Dark, one cannot exist without the other. But so long as both do exist there is a connection. Unfortunately, it's two-way.

    Kyouka sits down on a chair next to the bed, interlacing her fingers and resting her chin on them. "I take it your attempt to glean information did not go well."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Yeah, well, at least I don't look like I got dressed in the dark and mobbed a dragon," Fuyuko grumbles, thinking about Hinoiri's absolutely bizarre new look. Scales, tail, lab coat, mini skirt and bows - who was that girl trying and failing to impress?

Still, as she registers that it's Kyouka - and there's a look on her face that says she isn't entirely pleased, though it's not about her oldest friend at all; it's about the fact that she didn't hear her coming. There's an emptiness in her that isn't explained by the energy drain, except in all the way it is, and if not for the fact that she still remembers what happened to her, she'd be panicking.

Good thing she's not doing that. Definitely not doing that at all.

As Kyouka steps in further, the pain - dissipates, some. The ache in her every muscle eases, the tightness in her body loosens. Her heartrate lowers.

"Fuck you, it went great. The kid who was still conscious got away with her power and I got her to keep talking. You know she can use the powers she's stealing, in their actual form? It's not just fueling her flames." Kyouka did not know that, she's guessing, and she's going to feel smug about that, even while she literally lies in a hospital bed because she got her ass kicked. Small victories.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I didn't know that, actually." Kyouka is willing to allow Fuyuko this victory, given her condition. "But it.. well, I won't say it makes sense because it's magic and it doesn't really make any sense at all. But it jives with what I've found out from talking to Mamoru."

    She straightens, then leans back in the chair, her eyes on Fuyuko's face. She doesn't look away, doesn't shy from the reality of the situation. There's no pity in her gaze, but there is sympathy.

    "The good news is, even if she's currently using your power, near as anyone has figured out she hasn't actually... taken it. She hasn't removed your magic from you, in other words. She's.. borrowing it, sort of. The way the smarties figured it out, it's like your power is getting siphoned before it reaches you and re-directed to Sunbreaker. Like I told Mamoru, you're a TV that's plugged in but someone has attached a siphon line outside the house, so even though you're plugged in you still don't work. The power isn't reaching you."

    "The good news is that if we remove the siphon.." She doesn't finish the sentence. It's self-evident. Remove the siphon, the power returns to flowing as it should."

Shehe does look away then, glancing out the window. "That's good to know though, about her using the powers. Thanks." She stops short of saying Fuyuko 'did well' or anything like that. She doesn't want to seem patronizing just because she's the one on her feet with her magic and Fuyuko isn't.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Yeah, the whole thing is pretty fucked up, but, better you know now." She closes her eyes for a moment, because despite everything, she's exhausted. She keeps them closed as Kyouka shares the theory the 'smarties' have come up with, nodding very slightly - everything hurts when she moves - to show she's listening.

"Makes sense. If she'd outright taken it, I probably wouldn't remember half my life." Which is a really flippant way to express her greatest fear, but like hell is she going to get weepy about something that didn't happen. "I'm pretty sure it's fucking her up. Taking people's power, making it part of her. Her sound is godawful these days. When you find her, she's going to reek."

Dark energy and so much other magic, a cacophony of nonsense.

"I don't know if she comes back from this. Didn't sound like she wanted to, either. I don't know what happened, I don't really care either, but she hit that point in her dark energy where she's lost her goddamned mind; decided she'll create a world where she can be happy, and if she can't, she'll destroy this one."

Which is maybe a little relatable, but as long as Kyouka doesn't call her on it, she doesn't have to admit it.

"She's willing to get hurt to take what she wants, but she's still the same Sunbreaker, at her core. Has the saem weaknesses. Hit her in her sore spots and she'll come after you. Arrogant, overly emotional, despairing and angry about it - keep it in mind if you try to knife her."

She'd been willing to kill Hinoiri to stop her, so she's sure her counterpart is at least considering it.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I don't.." Kyouka starts to say she's not sure that's true- the Fade isn't dependent on them losing magic, it makes them lose magic. So if the magic is taken by some other means, then maybe their memories wouldn't be? But she doesn't finish the sentiment now. It doesn't matter, currently. All that matters is that Fuyuko does remember, and that fear which Kyouka fully shares has not come to pass. This time.

    "I'm not worried about finding her." Kyouka says, and she doesn't mean that she isn't going to try. She just means she doubts it will be difficult. Not with the path of destruction that's being left behind everywhere she goes.

    "I don't care if she comes back from this." Kyouka says it quietly, but firmly. Maybe this would surprise some- she is supposed to be the 'good' Arbiter, after all. But it shouldn't surprise Fuyuko. "She hurt Mamoru, and she hurt you. If I can make sure she doesn't come back from it, I'm damn well going to."

    In other words, in Kyouka's eyes lines have been crossed. If Sunbreaker is lucky, someone else will be making that call when the time comes.

    She listens to the advice. "As much as it pains me to say it, if I go after her like I am now, I'm going to end up just like you." She says, then pauses.. her mouth quirking slightly. "Which.. actually gives me something of an idea.."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Yeah, I figured you didn't," she's not surprised at all. She and Kyouka had never been the 'magic of friendship' sorts. They had been heroes because they put monsters in the ground. Saving lives had been a part of it - saving souls had not. "But some of those kids probably do. Make sure they know they're better off blasting her than appealing to her better nature, or this hospital's going to fill up too damn fast."

She pauses. Considers - because despite everything, this isn't personal, between her and Hinoiri. She'd trained the girl, and it might have meant enough to her to 'offer' Fuyuko a chance - but to Fuyuko it was a job, because the girl it was attached to was heading for one end.

That end's coming up, now.

"She's sadistic, now. More than she used to be. If she gets the chance, she'll take it slow, hurt people instead of finishing the job quick and easy. If you catch her hitting someone else - might be the chance to put a knife in her back."

Because killing her is probably how this ends. But -

"What kind of idea?" Unspoken is the kind that ends with you through a bus or-

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I don't think any of the kids I have particular sway with is in any sort of talking mood at this point. Maybe after the blasting. Certainly not before."

    She nods her head to the note about Sunbreaker's newfound sadism. "That's the problem with a lot of these kids, isn't it?" She says with a faint sigh. "Too focused on the gratification to appreciate the art. Hurt the enemy, save the people, redeem the bad guy... it's all about the ends."

    "Nobody appreciates the art." Kyouka appreciates the art. It's the fight which is the joy of it. The conflict. The test of skill. Saving people is a worthy cause but the joy isn't in the having saved- it's in the saving. In the fight. The poetry of motion and the thrill of battle. It's addicting. And Kyouka would be lying if she said she wasn't excited by the prospect of a foe like Sunbreaker- even if the outcome is unlikely to be in her favor.

    When Fuyuko asks about her idea, she gives a tight smile. "What happens when our powers try to coexist, my dear other half? Say, in the same vessel? Say, if someone tried to use them together, someone who wasn't actually familiar with how they worked?"

    She looks off into the distance for a moment, thinking. "I need to talk to our boss."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Good," Fuyuko says firmly. "The last thing we need is someone pulling their punches at the last minute."

She'd expected as much, given that Kyouka liked Mamoru, and Mamoru had a boy band following after him, as well as, apparently, a girlfriend and probably plenty of people who owed him their limbs, if not lives.

But it had to be said.

"Some might say it's a problem with mentorship," she says dryly, "But honestly, I think they're just too impatient."

Hypocrisy of the highest order, and yet, neither of them is wrong. They had always loved the fight itself - not the win or the loss, not the victory, not the save, but the fight. The challenge. The thrill in the blood, pulse racing in her veins, the clash of power and will. Destruction not for the sake of destruction, but for the sake of battle.

Hinoiri especially has always been about the ends, rather than the means, the conclusion rather than the process. She'd put herself through pain so she could achieve her goals - not because she enjoyed the process itself. The struggle. The challenge.

A love of the game, one could call it.

Maybe that's why Kyouka's tight smile, her bright answer, sparks another laugh, and Fuyuko let's it rumble out of her, let's it shake her shoulders even as her body aches, her skin tightens against the motion.

"Oh, Kyou-chan, I think poor little Hinoiri has no idea what she's about to sink her teeth into."