24/What IS she

What IS she
Date of Scene:	03 July 2023
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	No one dies, but Pyrite is going to attend RHA and Hematite and Nephrite are giving her a tour.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Pyrite, Nephrite

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"--but our grade's dorms are over there," Darien's saying as he points to a building that is not even next to the one he just pointed out as being Himeko's. "You can't just keep living at HQ and this is a pretty good compromise, honestly."

He's in his school uniform, which... well, it fits him better than the green jacket he wears sometimes when he's not in his suit or other uniform. Darien Shields can manage to pull off the color scheme, and there's a lot to be said for what tailoring can do to otherwise questionable clothing choices.

There's a volume of a manga in his jacket pocket, but it's hard to see which one it is when it's mostly hidden like that.

Pyrite has posed:
    Trotting along behind Darien Shields is a small girl in a slightly-oversized girls' school uniform. It is, for some reason, mostly black with a splash of red in her bow and scarf. Also the red of her eyes, but that's normal probably. She is very quiet, this little girl. She looks wherever Darien points, more tracking his movements than what is being pointed at but taking in the sights either way.
    There is some muttering about 'don't live at HQ' and 'temple is my home' but it's just the current of discordant whispers one would expect from one's little sister so it's probably normal.
    "Will be staying with senpai?" she raises her small voice enough to ask. That is logical. After all, why else would she be moved if not to be closer to her upperclassman? This is logical, and sane, and definitely normal.
    So is the way her footfalls in her shiny black, buckled shoes don't appear to produce any sound.
    All so very normal.

Nephrite has posed:
    The tour group has a third member. Taller even than the ridiculously tall Darien Shields, Masato Sanjouin walks along at the back of the group. He is wearing a suit, tailored to look much like the boy's school uniform of Radiant Heart Academy, if there were a version of it made specifically for faculty. Thus, given his mature looks and tallness, he probably seems to those who don't know him to be a teacher or someone. Maybe a parent. Either way, he's following the other two and surreptitiously keeping an eye out for trouble.

    It is left unsaid that the biggest source of potential trouble is the orphan than Darien picked up and decided to repurpose as an apprentice of the Shitennou. No one is denying she has an extraordinary affinity for Dark Energy -- unnaturally so, even -- but it is her behavior that troubles Masato.

    The Devil himself has nothing on the kind of madness and chaos she can wreak when her precious 'senpai' isn't around to placate her. It's not a tenable situation to have her at HQ, for many reasons, but that's one of the biggest.

    Masato interjects, "I doubt it. He already has a roommate, and they pair together students in at least the same general age range." His voice is deep, but he speaks... Not quietly, but perhaps sedately. As though he is unbothered by any of this, no matter what sort of wheels are turning inexorably in his head like crushing gears churning all problems eventually into something usable or so much ruined debris.

    "But you will be on campus, at least." he adds on grudgingly with a tilt of his head. Poking the bearcub isn't worth the resulting tantrum.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's not quite a wince at the question, but thankfully Masato helps out with this thing called 'the rules'. Darien glances back and nods, then looks down at Himeko again. "And hey, remember, when we're here on campus, you want to call me niisan. If they think of you as my sister, they'll be more likely to call me in if there's a problem instead of calling, say, Beryl."

He starts to put his hands in his pockets, remembers there's a manga there, and lets his hands fall again. "At any rate, yes: your dorm will be significantly closer to where I spend a good chunk of my time than either HQ or the temple. And who knows, you might get a nice roommate that you have things in common with!"

Stranger things have probably happened. Possibly happened. Anything is possible.

"Which brings me to the next thing to keep in mind. This school is an important research connection, so don't..." He glances at Nephrite, then, and thinks hard about what's a good deterrent, because 'getting kicked out and sent to jail' probably isn't. He returns his attention to Pyrite. "If you actually murder anyone and get caught, they'll separate us."

Pyrite has posed:
    The discordant whispers that accompany Himeko's mutterings increase in number along with the rising agitation in her mumbles about not being in the same dorm. But she remembers to clamp down on them in order to maintain the Veil. "No killing." she repeats quietly. She's not bloodthirsty. Honest! It's just that killing is the most expedient solution to >so many problems< which is why it's perfectly normal for it to be her go-to method of conflict resolution. "What will do here? Learn letters?" Ah, yes. Reading. Another skill she doesn't have yet. The squiggly lines are a mystery to her, one that makes her angry specifically because this is one of the few situations where killing actually isn't the solution.
    She turns her head to glare at the tall man with the stormy eyes. Even though she has that perpetual, small, Mona Lisa-esque smirk on her lips, there is no joy accompanying it. Joy is a victim from long ago. One of her first. She died slowly, because Himeko wasn't as skilled with the knife she takes to herself as she is now.
    If the excising had been more precise, the edges might not be so tattered around the hole in her psyche where so very many things are missing. She didn't kill all of them. And that makes her angry, because it means that parts of her being >missing< instead of >dead< is also one of those rare situations in which killing isn't the solution.
    So frustrating. If not for the bond she shares with Darien, her hand would be closing around an unseen knife even now.
    "Nii-san. How long is staying here?" she asks in a tone more befitting a young girl pleading with her beloved big brother, rather than the disturbed little shadow that chases after Darien whenever she can.

Nephrite has posed:
    The cold reception isn't new. Nephrite hasn't had a lot of interaction with the girl, but their mutual antipathy for each other is one thing established early on. He can only assume that Hematite keeping her around is part of a plan to make her into something of worth one day, along with the ridiculous big-brother act. Honestly, who does he think he's fooling? Averting his gaze from the terrible thing with the lazy ease of a man accustomed to seeing terrible things, he scans around once more for anything else of interest.

    This school... Yes, it's an experimenting test ground, and he can see why. But Masato also senses other things. Strange energies rising and falling. Potentials yet unawakened, but growing steadily towards their peak. He is not new to this academy, but he is new to this 'version' of it.

    The template for Radiant Heart Academy has been used to create a second layer and possibly a third. The energy schematic is completely different between these layers. What in the Abyss has changed? The report of dozens more of the Enemy showing up than were assumed to be present, along with all the recent additions to Obsidian... And still other, darker powers that remain unaligned, like stars of utter pitch wheeling chaotically and randomly through the sky, coming ever closer.

    He wants Queen Beryl to succeed, for Hematite and the Shitennou and Obsidian as a whole to prosper, but he cannot help but feel... Apprehension over the possibility of someone on their side reaching out to attempt to tether one of those powers to their own cause, and realize only too late that they have hooked something much bigger than anticipated, and much hungrier than the one holding the bindings.

    Still outwardly ambivalent, he looks again at the red-eyed girl as she continues her attempts to act like a human child.

    Perhaps one of those things has already swallowed the hook.

    To distract himself, Masato points out the manga poking out of Darien's pocket. "A guide to handling little sisters?" he asks teasingly. Lighten the mood a bit. There's still much to take pleasure in, and he damn well isn't about to let some grave rat salvaged from some ruins dictate his mood.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Learn to read and write," agrees Darien, smiling down at Himeko, "and numbers-- you know how much I like numbers, you might like them too. Those are the tools you need to learn a lot of other things, like the different sciences, and psychology and history and even how to learn other things."

It may be that very few of these things hold any interest for Pyrite, but Hematite likes them, and his enthusiasm can be a contagion vector sometimes. Sometimes. Occasionally just mildly convincing.

Hematite reaches up to rub at the back of his neck for Himeko's next question, and he laughs a little uncertainly. "Well, there's the rest of this year, and then two more years, before I graduate high school. Provided we don't abolish the school system or all die before then."

The change of subject is an immense relief to someone who doesn't care to examine the future that closely, and Darien's shoulders lose some of the tension that they'd been slowly gathering. He sighs out a laugh, and takes the manga from his pocket: The Prince of Highschool vol. 7. "No, it's my roommate's -- he loaned it to me as research for repairing my reputation with this one girl who has a lot of friends. I made her angry and that was a major tactical error. If this school is as full of magical girls as the beach was the other day, we're not ready to take them all on at once. And you know how girls roam in like... packs."

Pyrite has posed:
    It's fully possible that, if she wasn't containing her energy, Himeko would have a nimbus of malice around her, shining black, and cold as the touch of Death. The description of what she has ahead of her is very Displeasing. But she is very much controlling herself. Her normal human form is not the thing that makes Nephrite nervous, because her normal human form is as suppressed as any other girl. Even a Senshi. One can still almost see a small storm cloud following along over her head, raining and thundering, as she continues to walk silently across the grounds.
    "Much space." she mutters. Too much. She doesn't feel comfortable without nooks and crannies to climb into, or shadows to hide in. Being out in the open leaves her feeling exposed. The sunlight makes her feel exposed. All of the eyes on her make her feel exposed. No matter what whispers or even comments about how cute (or odd) she is take the edge off.
    The manga was completely unimportant right up to the point where Darien focused on it. Then it became an Item Of Interest. Craning her neck and hustling closer, to the best of her ability with her very short legs, the red-eyed girl tries to see what the heck the Tall Man was pointing at. Fixing reputation? Some girl? A Prince? Confusing. Alien. Distressting. She knows that she was told not to kill around here, but she doesn't cotton to the idea that Darien has to do anything to regain someone's favor. It is owed to him, and parodoxivally they do not deserve to receive it, in Himeko's opinion. THe mention of magical girls, however, takes her attention again.
    Tugging at Darien's sleeve with her thumb and forefinger as she trots at his side, she waits until she has his attention, and then asks, "Nii-san, please. Can eat the Magical Girls?"
    The simple desires of small children.

Nephrite has posed:
    "I see," Nephrite says airily to the explanation given regarding the comic book while looking at Hematite askance. Yes, that is definitely the reason for it. He buys it completely. "Perhaps we should head indoors now. We can only tour the same ground so many times before it starts to look ridiculous." Masato tilts his head towards the accumulating onlookers. Some boys, mainly girls. If they aren't squealing over Pyrite then they're swooning at him and Darien. Not that he minds that, but that isn't why he's here.

    Also, he is looking at the schoolgirls only as sources of energy -- disposable batteries all lined up and ready to go. So no matter what handsome smile he gives, the monster behind his eyes is no more romantically inclined than the Big Bad Wolf. 'What sharp teeth you have!' he can picture one of them saying, as he tears out her slender, delicate throat.

    Why that specific mental image, given Nephrite does not typically kill people by biting them or really kill at all if there's a more efficient alternative? Probably because of Himeko's question.

    "Honestly, what is she?" Masato finally asks openly. He was going to inquire more delictately, but cannibalism is the most charitable interpretation of Himeko's question that a bystander could pick up, and subtlety is rapidly becoming a luxury. He hurries his pace, going towards the dorm building. "We should really go inside now."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"No," Hematite tells Pyrite apologetically, but reaches to take the little girl's hand. She's probably-- honestly probably-- the only person he doesn't have to filter his touch for, because the psychic sense of aching loss and corruption and wasps that happens if he's not paying attention isn't very popular.

Darien follows Masato's quickening footsteps, glaring not-quite-daggers at his back for the airy 'I see' a lot more than he reacts to the man's question. "They probably cause indigestion," he tells Himeko, "and besides, remember what I said before about them separating us. Neither of us wants that to happen."

A couple of times on the way in, he almost comes up with an answer for Nephrite, but honestly, what is she? What is the girl he took home from the temple? She hurts, and she hurts in such familiar ways that it's almost comfortable being around her -- protecting her, caring for her, explaining things -- in a way that existing in his own head isn't. At the same time, he knows how dangerous and unsettling she is, but like so many things he vaguely knows he ought to care about, he can't bring himself to be bothered by that.

After all, if his murderghost kohai distressed him, wouldn't everything else be a little less easy to bear?

Finally, as they get inside the administration building, he tells Masato, "I honestly don't know, but it'll be okay. We're working things out."

Pyrite has posed:
    Hurried along indoors, not only by others but by her own silent feet, Himeko doesn't... 'Relax' exactly, but once she has walls around it's like the space around the trio 'retracts' back to tis normal state. Slight distortions that had built up over time so gradually that they may have gone unnoticed, making the surrounding environment take on a fishbowl appearance, have resolved. Himeko, still with her slight smile, is bothered that even now she isn't fully controlling herself. There is no joy in her smile, and the frustration of failure adds to her anxiety.
    She can't eat their Light, and she can't kill. Now she can't even follow the directive to remain undetected. She will do better. She must.
    Pyrite can only protect Hematite and do as he says, but pain, isolation, and angry hissing things are almost as soothing as his touch. When she looks into the missing part of herself and compares it to Hematite, she sees a similarity there she hasn't encountered in anyone else so far. It is the absence that brings comfort, the wanting of it, not having it. That is why she keeps applying her scissors to herself, and clipping off little pieces. The more she lacks, the greater her Want, and so the more she will pursue it.
    "Does not deserve it." she mutters maybe a minute after the first mention of the manga and its purpose. "Does not deserve Nii-san. Should apologize for not respecting him." The girl should apologize with her blood. Maybe she'll find the girl and suggest that to her. If this stranger ends herself, then it won't be Pyrite's fault, right? Flawless logic.
    She gives a sour look towards Masato, her red eyes gleaming (but not glowing, thankfully), and asks hotly, "What is >he<?" in retort. Why is everyone but Hematite so rude to her? Why are they all in her way? The Throne of Want is hers, and Hematite is her crown. They cannot have him, and trying to separate them with suspicion and poisoned words and tricky little insults told in the blinding light of Day only make her desire more strongly what she does not have.
    The more she lacks, the more she Wants. Perhaps that is why, with all that Hematite is to her, her Want grows strongest and fastest when she cannot be with him.
    Denying him to others, like that Nephrite, would bring her the broken and shambling homunculus of spite and malevolence that is filling in for poor dead Joy, but they might pursue as she does, and simply killing them isn't allowed. Hematite said so.
    So she waits. She'll wait until he realizes he doesn't need anyone else.
    Then they can be together forever.
    "--Are those ducks?" Pyrite asks, slipping away from both her own sleeve-grip and the hand-holding to rush over to one of those window-wall things and look out with her face pressed to the glass at some birds floating in a pond outdoors.
    With a mix of alarm, excitement, and deep significance, she turns back towards Hematite and Nephrite, and informs them, "They >are< ducks!" Then her face and little hands go back to the glass.
    Maybe things will be okay like this for a little while longer.

Nephrite has posed:
    There is a lot to discuss somewhere more private. The emotional tension that can slightly distort space-time, the one-sided attachment that has the tone of obsession, the broken way the girl talks, the ducks, the fascination with killing and eating people, and Hematite not even knowing who or what she is really. Is she, like them, a thousands-of-years old creature only recently awakened? One of the magical girls that they managed to suborn into their services by getting her while she was still young? Could she be the prototype for the Dark Magical Girl that Division 7 has been pressing him about getting more funding for?

    And then there's more relevant questions for him to ask. Why are there are so many of the Enemy in this city, let alone this country? They are empowered in response to actions from the Dusk Zone, are they not? That's how it works. Action and counter-action. The war that has been going on for countless ages and will continue on potentially until the end of everything is going to continue one way or another, no matter how much Nephrite may wish to put an end to it once and for all.

    More disturbing than the basket of disturbing standing by the see-through wall, or the relationship between her and the leader of the Shitennou, is the possibility he has not yet voiced because he doesn't have enough evidence yet to support it.

    When he first saw the report on the turn-out of Enemies at the beach, the very first thing that he thought was this: 'It's like they were waiting for us.'

    That thought has returned more than once since then.

    "Keep an eye on her." Nephrite cautions softly, without even suggesting he intends to answer the question about what he is, at any point.

    Does the Enemy have some insight into their plans? An early warning ability of some kind? Or do they have a traitor in their midst?

    As with many subjects, the Stars know everything. Consulting them has just moved up his docket of priorities for the night.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
One might think that the leader of the Shitennou would object to being told to do something, like one might expect him to have objected to Zoisite taking over the other evening, after the beach. He doesn't. He takes the advice like Nephrite is an advisor; he nods firmly without saying anything, blue eyes making contact with blue. There's one thing that hasn't changed from the moment-- from the time-- from some time that neither of them remembers, and it's trust from Hematite. That may not be healthy in an environment like Obsidian, but there it is.

One might think that someone like Hematite wouldn't have patience for this, for coddling a disturbing little girl, but Darien Shields -- honors student and one of the leaders in their class -- is a popular source of sunshine and friendliness on campus for a number of reasons, and it's an effective disguise. He always has time for little kids, especially the kind that no one has time for. He shouldn't. He has a lot of things to do. But there's an excuse for everything--

He shouldn't have a manga in his pocket that has potential instructions to getting in the good graces of a high school girl, because why should he want to?

There are a lot of things that don't make sense for someone who was promoted so rapidly, someone who has so much power so young, in an organization like Obsidian.

But there he is, after agreeing with Nephrite: there he is, on one knee next to Pyrite, looking out the window with her at the duck pond and grinning like the good kind of big brother, pointing out what kind of ducks they are, teaching, giving attention. There he is, being kind.

He'd do better to keep lying, or life will eat him alive.