240 Seconds (Kyouka Inai)
| 240 Seconds (Kyouka Inai) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 26 May 2024 |
| Location: | |
| Synopsis: | Kyouka speaks to Balance after Fuyuko is drained by Sunset of Sora. |
| Thanks to: | Fuyuko Yuuhi, Hinoiri Kirara |
| Cast of Characters: | Kyouka Inai |
| Tinyplot: | Sunset of Sora |
Kyouka shuts the door to her apartment behind her. Heaving a heavy sigh, she walks across the small, quiet space, tossing her keys onto the table and falling heavily to sit on the edge of the bed.
A long moment of silence stretches. She’s alone in the room, the lights still off although enough ambient light from streetlights and the city beyond the window filters through the blinds to cast the small apartment in dim illumination.
“You really okay with this, boss?” Her words aren’t loud, but she’s not whispering either. Speaking into the empty darkness as she leans back on her hands, she hasn’t yet removed her jacket or her sunglasses. There’s no one there, but she clearly expects a response.
A moment later one comes. “Since when does my opinion concern you, Inai?” The voice is deep and sonorous, seeming to emanate from nowhere and everywhere at once. No visual representation accompanies it. Just a voice out of the darkness.
“Oh, cut the crap.” Her voice cracks like a whip, her barely-restrained anger tainting its edges. “We both know there’s issues between us. But this isn’t about that. We’ve been doing our job. And it can’t look good to have one of your chosen ones laid low, her power in the hands of an enemy.”
Silence for another moment. Then the male voice speaks again. “You are… not wrong. My Arbiters are my hands in this world. Removing one from operation is not only a threat to the work, it is an insult to me.”
“Disrespect.” Kyouka agrees, grimly. “That is one thing you and I have in common, Balance. We do not well tolerate disrespect.”
“What would you have me do?” The voice from nowhere sounds like it is asking a genuine question. “The one called Sunset of Sora is powerful. And you are forbidden from the use of much of your magic.”
“Release these fetters, then!” Kyouka snarls, suddenly animate, sitting up on the bed and glaring at the empty space in front of her. “Let me face her without these shackles dragging me down, and I’ll remind you why you chose me for this gig in the first place! The world may have forgotten what an angry, unbound Stellar looks like, but I sure as hell know you haven’t.”
“If I do that, the Fade will take you.” It is a simple statement of fact, not a threat. “That is the whole reason you are restrained. Releasing those restraints would see you lose not only your power, but your memory of yourself.”
“All at once?”
Silence. Then- “You would have perhaps four minutes. Maybe slightly less. More I cannot promise.”
Kyouka breaths out, slowly. “Beat her in three minutes fifty-nine, then. Peace of cake.”
“She is most likely still too strong for you, even unleashed.”
Kyouka’s smile is slow, crooked. “When has an idea being bad ever stopped me?
Another silence. Then- “Four minutes. I will cut you off when time expires. Bear in mind, I do not do this for you. You and I have unresolved disagreements that make me loathe to grant favors. I do this because this creature is a threat to the equilibrium, and because I do not tolerate insults to my power. Remind this Sunset of Sora that the pond she swims is deeper than she knows.”
“Four minutes. That is all.”
Kyouka falls back on the bed, folding her arms behind her head as she stares at the ceiling.. “Four minutes.” Silence stretches. “It will be enough.”
