1698/And a Lousy Unicorn

And a Lousy Unicorn
Date of Scene:	24 June 2024
Location:	Mitakihara General Hospital
Synopsis:	For all the ironies, Mamoru goes to visit Hinoiri in the hospital after she's badly burnt by Chaar.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Hinoiri Kirara

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Undoubtedly, Hinoiri's phone absolutely blew up after the 'Help!'

One of the people who left texts and a voicemail was, surprisingly, Mamoru Chiba -- who sent 'what's wrong' and 'where are you' before calling and leaving the message, a little exasperatedly, "Should we put a lo-jack on you?"

It's the day after intensive care, and there are voices outside Hinoiri's door, a familiar boy's voice and the voice of one of the nurses that's been seeing to Hinoiri. They converse, and it sounds amiable, and the boy laughs, and then--

The door opens and Mamoru's holding the door handle, still half-smiling over his shoulder as he turns to look at Hinoiri. Finally he steps in, letting the door shut most of the way behind him, but not closing it entirely.

Mamoru regards her for a second, then comes closer. "Hey." He holds up his hand, and it's got that elegant white kid glove on it, and he waves his fingers. "Want to get out of here early?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara looked... terrible. It wouldn't do to go into too many details, but she was covered, heavily, in bandages and gauss. Connected to machines to monitor her. Her hair was singed and a bit shorter and she... well... she didn't look good at all. Her face wasn't too bad, but the patches covering her were a clear sign of how off she was. Around her neck, the geode was resting.

She'd been in surgery for quite a while, removing the parts of her that had been melted to her body.

When Mamoru came in, she gave a low groan, and was preparing to snap at him. To tell him she didn't wanna hear whatever scolding he had planned for her.

... Instead he offered her help.

"I... what? You want to... help... me?" she asked softly, her voice raspy and weak. It hurt to talk, but she couldn't not respond to... that. "Even after what I did? I thought... you were here... to lecture me..." she mumbled softly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nah, I figure you've got that covered," Mamoru says easily. "Lecturing yourself. I take it you've imagined what kind of things I would say, right?"

He pulls off the glove, and-- oh, it looks bad. Puckered and discolored skin, with some patches of pristine skin where there was some outpatient surgery. The whole front of his hand, half the back of it, his fingers, the front of his wrist...

He puts the glove on the table, then holds that hand out, unsure where to touch. If skin on her hand or arm is uncovered, he'll broadcast what he's doing, and touch there. Just a couple of fingertips and a golden glow.

The first thing to go is always the pain. "I'm not a saint," he says, not letting Hinoiri feel his feelings, keeping himself cordoned off from the connection. He won't block her emotions, but he's blocking his own.

"I'm still pretty ambivalent towards you when I'm not mad at you. I used to think you were fun, actually, when I wasn't furious with you. And funny, sometimes, and a pain in the ass."

The healing starts, a slow and steady ripple radiating outwards from his touch. It's still warm and golden and light, and it's still solid and dark and safe, like bedrock, like something to hide behind and something to build on. Through Mamoru's filters, his lifetime's awareness, this isn't overwhelming, it just is, this connection to humanity and the weight of history.

But today it's impersonal.

"Of course I still want to help you. Princes do what they want, and I want to be Mahou MSF. That doesn't mean I'll forget."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara sighd and just laid there, still. She didn't say anything, though. Keeping her mouth quiet. Finding a part of her that was uncovered... wasn't the easiest. He... wasn't a saint.

But he could feel it. First, and foremost, was the pain. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Then, the fear. When she saw his hand... the fear. Not that it would happen to her again. Well, there was some of that.

Regret. For all that she had done. All the pain she had caused...

... And fear that she'd do it again. That she'd justify it again.

... But more than that, under that fear and that regret.... Loneliness. That feeling of abandonment. He'd possibly felt her before, that there had been a rock, something she had embedded in herself. To keep herself stable. Strong. That all of her had been built on. Now, at its core? It had been torn out.

There wasn't any more feelings of pride. Sure, there was anger. Competitiveness. But they were more like rocks tumbling in a void than the steadfast mountain she once was.

She was lost. She was alone. She was... abandoned. And she was trying her best but she wasn't sure what she could be, who she could be, anymore.

"Honestly, I figured you'd hate me..." she finally mumbled. "I was a monster. I.... I didn't care, then. I lost control, got so wrapped up in myself that... I didn't care who I hurt. I was so angry and upset I would have, happily, destroyed your world. Even if I lost control... it's still... something I could do again. You all would be right to hate me. To want to kill me. Instead, you keep helping me..."

"... Chaar is my fault. I did this to her. I... I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought... if I taught her fear... she wouldn't kill someone. I thought... I thought I'd keep her safe, by teaching her she could, would die... if she went too far..."

"I'm a terrible person... an awful friend... and a lousy unicorn..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I don't hate you. I'll have nightmares about you probably longer than I'll have nightmares about Beryl, but I don't hate you. I was a target of opportunity, it wasn't personal. I definitely hated you for a while while I was in here, though," Mamoru says, and if he doesn't let Hinoiri see the feeling of grim schadenfreude he has when she fears his hand, he doesn't let her see him feeling sorry for her, either.

"Even right afterwards, I didn't hate you. There's a huge difference between being mad at somebody and hating them, I promise you." His voice is calm, resonant, just a little too businesslike to be actively pleasant-- serious. And there's no weight one way or the other on his tone, and he's keeping himself walled up.

"You thought and did a lot of stupid things, you were jacked up on dark energy. You were pretty terrible, yeah, and you were absolutely an awful friend, but you're not terrible now, and you can fix the second thing. I can't speak to being a unicorn, I've never been one."

Mamoru exhales through his teeth, shutting his eyes and spending more of his attention on actually knitting flesh, closing wounds, easing inflammation... it's pretty bad, but it could be a lot worse.

"Nobody deserves getting burnt like this," he says firmly. "But I'm glad you're learning that your actions can have negative consequences that are then, in fact, actually your fault. And you can look at this like a vacation before you inevitably discover the true power was in you all along. Just work on being a better friend and everything else will follow."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara just laid there, soaking in his words... "Ah... so the nightmares... they're normal... good. You know... I'd been burned before. I used to get burned all the time, you know? Practice, sometimes blew up in my face. Studying dragons, things like that? A little burning is normal."

"... Never felt like this, though... It wasn't the burning... that... hurts. It's scary. But it was that feeling of powerlessness. That feeling of knowing... I couldn't do anything. Of knowing... she could burn me. Would... burn me... and there was nothing I could do..."

"... Couldn't even call for help. My phone couldn't get a good signal. It just keeps... I haven't even looked. I just... tried to send out a text but.... I was just..."

"And this is what I was doing to other people. How does... that... go away? I thought it was... I didn't... I though if I didn't go too far, if I just... didn't... do anything permanent... it'd be okay... but this... this was never okay... I did this to so many people..."

"And I didn't care..."

"... Thanks. For helping. Assuming... nobody from Obsidian tries to kill me while I'm not able to really move much... how long do you think until I'll get out, after this session? And... don't overdo it. I'm not exactly... any good to anyone like this. So... I'd rather you not run out of juice to help someone who needs it and wasn't put in here by their own stupid decisions."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Couple days, maybe," says the prince, one corner of his mouth turning up. "Three at the most. You still heal faster than someone with no power at all, so there's that."

He shakes his head, then, still leaving the connection there, the anaesthetic as well as the work. "You're not the boss of me, Anyway, I won't run out of juice, don't worry." After maybe fifteen more seconds, he says, "I'm taking my hand away, and the pain will be less, but it'll come back. Just as a warning."

And he does, and it does, and it's not nearly as bad as it was-- but after the 'no pain' of the last few minutes, it sure exists.

"I have no idea how it goes away," Mamoru says frankly, finally, and he lets his hand fall away completely before he reaches over to get his glove. Pulling it back on, he says, "I can only tell you from the perspective of someone who was in the middle of watching the world die: the nightmares will follow you. But I can't speak to the guilt, I've never done anything wrong."

A beat.

Mamoru grins. "Gotcha."

He puts his hands in his pockets and cants his head a little to one side, smile falling away. "Remember what I said, though. Work on being a better friend before you go after anything for yourself. Just, it's your turn to make the overtures now." Another pause. "And maybe try not to get chucked out any more windows by really powerful youmas, too."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a soft chuckle. "Yup. Never a single thing wrong... Hematite," she mumbled gently. "Still, you're better than I ever was at healing... Rose still hurt a whole lot more... and not sure I can promise that..."

She closed her eyes, laying back in the pillow. Yeah, that? That hurt. And she was so tired. But... it was better. Less misery.

"I am told I have a personality worthy of defenestration. I'll... I'll be better though. No more fire. Never... again... I won't make anyone feel this way..." It wouldn't be long, though, before she passed out again. Gotta love the painkillers.