292/Welcome Home (Second Take)

Welcome Home (Second Take)
Date of Scene:	23 August 2023
Location:	Starlight View Mansion
Synopsis:	Nephrite returns home to find his mansion destroyed. He calls Hematite, and asks for an explanation. Neither of them like the answer, and it only spawns more questions.
Cast of Characters:	Nephrite, Mamoru Chiba
Tinyplot:	Midnight Tokyo
Tinyplot2:	Lost & Found

---

Nephrite has posed:
    The call from Masato to Darien was short and to the point.

    "My home. Now."

    The destruction waiting for Hematite is likely beyond most expectations of what is wrong. Nephrite is standing there, outside a half-collapsed mansion, with shattered glass, and all sorts of other unpleasantness. The barrier he had up around the mansion itself is absolutely full of holes and barely even functions. Standing outside, fists clenched so hard he has blood stains on his gloves that are steadily dripping on the debris-littered ground. There are signs of battle. Orion the Hunter is nearby, on patrol, watching for any more intruders.

    Nephrite's Shadow is looming large around him, transparent enough to see its owner, but shading everything nearby in tones of crimson and flickering midnight.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite steps through the air in his dorm room, doesn't even bother leaving before henshining. He steps through the air and comes out the other side in midair, and just ... stops, for a second.

Honestly--

"What the fuck?" breathes the leader of the Shitennou, drifting down to alight next to Nephrite -- with enough room that he doesn't overlap that Shadow, and a lurch in his heart and stomach at the way that Shadow looks. "Who did this?"

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite is hissing between his teeth when he turns, red-eyed (not glowing, just like, actually super duper pissed to the point they're bloodshot), and says, "I was hoping that perhaps you could tell me." He's not mad at Hematite. No, no, no. Not him. Never him. "At first, I thought it was one of your Sailor Senshi playmates. Perhaps Sailor Moon getting revenge for her cat's injuries while spying on that Usagi girl." An illusion appears, replaying what the Shadow saw. A black cat, running, ducking, diving, leaping, and sliding. "But no. No, no, no."

    He teleports.

    He has moved to inside the mansion.

    He's standing in the same room where he, Hematite, and Pyrite shared drinks and talked about the guilt of not being as good as they wished they were (or the two men did at least, Pyrite was just being Pyrite) and promises not to abandon each other even in the face of death.

    The bar is destroyed. Alcohol has seeped into the carpet and smells like it. Glass, porcelain, plaster, the marble counter, all the other fine accoutrements that were once here now destroyed and scattered.

    There are gaping holes through the floor, walls, and ceiling. Multiple rooms have become single rooms because they've fallen into each other or no longer have enough wall to separate them.

    Nephrite is starting at his red palms, opening and closing them despite the self-inflicted wounds there. Distraction. Calm down. Get control.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The teleportation that follows Nephrite is unthinking; Hematite doesn't have to search for Nephrite to find him immediately, to step out of the air in that destroyed room and hover near him, unwilling to step on the unreliably present floor. His cape hangs around him, and his hair hangs around his head like a cape itself, long and shaggy, uncut from before he forgot.

His own hands are in fists, still, and it's from a combination of anger on Nephrite's behalf and having his hackles up because of what Nephrite was dancing around, outside.

Blue eyes the color of a becalmed sea at night watch the brown-haired man from under the shadow of Hematite's hair, the glitter of reflected light making it easier to track them, should Nephrite look up. But his voice is even. "I know you say a lot of things you don't mean when you're mad. So that's how I'm going to take stuff like 'your Sailor Senshi playmates' and the hope that I could tell you what happened to your house."

He looks down at Nephrite's hands, and he bites his lip. "For now I'm going to see if your first aid kit's still under the kitchen sink, okay? Bandaging hands is easier with another set of hands," he says, and starts for the direction of the stairs, but there's a big piece of the ceiling in the way. Right, he should probably teleport.

Nephrite has posed:
    "You and Jadeite encounter them most frequently. 'Playmates' was intended facetiously, to refer to the closest thing you have to rivals." Nephrite explains in his raspy voice, trying as hard as he can to remain calm as he looks back at Hematite. He's not mad at him. Never his Brother. Just... Whoever... DID this. Unfortunately, he knows who did it. He knows WHAT did this. "Don't bother. They're already healed." Because he regenerates. Healing factor.

    "A black cat." he says again. "But it wasn't a real cat." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath as the anger comes back. Anger and fear due to how he expects this to go. "It was a Dark Energy construct." He opens his eyes again and turns fully to face his leader. He may not have a cape, but the way his soul-projection hangs off of him like a mantle makes the two of them look very similar.

    "Who do we both know that is made of Dark Energy and has an unliving cat at her side?" he asks.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite turns back away from the staircase and hangs in midair, suspended in the middle of three lives, and watches Nephrite.

He goes very still.

"Do you not know what she is?" he asks, his voice disconnected from everything. "Then I'll tell you."

Hematite drifts closer, weightless, the cape and his hair moving like he's underwater. "Her body is a dark energy construct. She is a ghost, a dead girl from long ago, who recently took the soul of a dying cat because she was lonely." His voice gets quieter. "She is also some of the things I have forgotten. She exists by the rules I have created for her, and she needs my permission to kill, and she hasn't much actual interest in anyone but me, beyond what others can do for or to me."

Finally, Hematite lands in front of Nephrite and looks up at him -- just the little bit of 'up' that's necessary anymore; two years ago, Hematite was significantly shorter. "She is really unnerving but she has no motive for this. She's also bound by magic to tell me the truth if I ask her, so, I can ask her if you want."

Nephrite has posed:
    No, he didn't know. He listens, and nods to the explanation. He agrees with the proposed course of action. "Please do. Because if it wasn't her, then someone has done a very good job of framing her." His shadow sends out one of its 'arms' passing through the gaping mess that was once a home, and curling upwards to the former bedroom. When it retracts, it's holding something in its hand. Nephrite takes it from his own corrupted soul, and then shows it. "This is my laptop. The one with the Midnight Tokyo data on it. The one that I picked up on that same night we shared those drinks, because it had that information I needed, and the one I took back to the tower the next day to get my work done. I stated that's what it was, and why I was doing it."

    He produces another illusion, recreating what the Shadow saw happening. Anything outside of that is obviously unknown, but what it saw seems to have been enough. The Dark Energy cat, surrounding and then... Merging with the computer, like it's a liquid, or just a shadow itself. Then popping back out and running for it. The chase through the house that followed. The damage done mostly by Nephrite's own Shadow, with the cat doing its damndest to just run and avoid and escape with whatever it obtained from that brief fusion.

    Then, finally, he says, "And I found this while taking stock of the damage and seeing if anything else had been tampered with." He teleports again, to the dingier rooms he uses for his Astrological rituals.

    He waits until Hematite is with him before pointing at one of the walls, where there is peeling wallpaper. There is a hint of something red underneath the hanging material.

    "Please tell me what that says, Hematite." he asks quietly and politely.

    Underneath is a single word.

    A name.

    Himeko.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When Nephrite seems to calm down some, Hematite still remains somewhat wary.

(You were so confident then that you weren't being lied to, manipulated--)

"I see," the Shitennou's leader says with a nod. He's listening. He always listens, at least. Sometimes he feels like he made that mistake before, sometime, in another of those spots he can't remember, maybe -- not listening. He's aware that Nephrite is leading him down a path, and he isn't entirely a fan of it, but Nephrite enjoys theatre and if it makes him less explosive, great.

Then Hematite leans in to pay better attention to the illusory show, his frown deepening as he watches the circus in greater detail and at greater length. It merged with the computer. He thinks about Pyrite sticking her phone in her head and pushing 'decline call' with her tongue using horrible ghost physiology as in none, no physiology at all, no. He thinks about her texting.

(--maybe you weren't, but what about now?)

Hematite reflexively teleports after Nephrite again and looks where the man's pointing, and his eyebrows go up. "'Himeko,'" he says obligingly, then crosses his arms. His tone is frank. "Well, either she's going to tell me she did it, or she's going to tell me she didn't." Don't say it's a neat effect, don't say it, don't don't don't say it. "I'm not even close to convinced she had anything to do with the laptop and the cat and the severe property damage," he politely doesn't talk about Orion, "but she might have tagged your house under the wallpaper like a young magical ghost reprobate."

A beat. "Neat effect with doing it under the wallpaper, whether or not she did it."

Please don't kill him he can't help being who he is.

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite doesn't interrupt or disagree. If it isn't Himeko, that's for the best, isn't it? He just also doesn't want Hematite's obvious attachment to her to affect his judgment. The ghost is attached to him in ways that Nephrite can't even begin to untangle. Just the knowledge that Himeko is a ghost at all adds a whole other layer of worry. Ghosts don't usually wander around like this, they stick close to their place of death, their haunt, and if Himeko has identified Hematite as her 'turf' then--

    No, not right now. Not the time. He does nod along though. "Isn't it just?" he agrees.

    Then he's quiet for a while, just staring at the wall, the peeling wallpaper, and the partially-covered name written there.

    "All of this alone doesn't prove it was her." the Dark General who was affectionately nicknamed 'the Professor' in a previous life (due to his stuffiness, educator vibes, love of theater, and frequent subject of many a young lady's romantic overtures) concedes. Then he adds on, "Kyouka Inai has been asking a lot of questions. And she hasn't been subtle about it." He lets that hang in the air for a bit, then turns fully to face Hematite. "Can you think of anyone else who was in the meeting room that day who would have the motivation to leak information about Midnight Tokyo to an Enemy who could do the dirty work of opposing it on their behalf?"

    So many questions and implications folded and stacked atop each other in that one base question.

    'Are any of the others traitors?'

    'Do you think Riventon would have talked?'

    'Firefly?'

    'Jadeite?'

    'Zoisite?'

    'You?'

    'Are you absolutely sure it wasn't Pyrite. Are you completely certain that you have as much control over her as you think you do?'

    'You told her that day not to tell anyone what was said in that room. She wouldn't have to if she just dropped off the information in a neutral medium that someone else could happen to pick up and read for themself, would she?'

    'We both know she loves finding loopholes in your instructions, so why are you so sure she didn't do it this time?'

    'Who in that room, other than her, even makes Dark Energy constructs with this level of sophistication and flexibility?'

    And finally, 'Do you think I did it, and can't even remember, because something else made me forget?'

    His Shadow has, by this point, completely disappeared, called back to its home. Haunted by his own ghost, Nephrite is tired now that his anger has faded and he's trying to find an answer. He is very, very smart, and very, very competent. Enough so of both that he may have gotten to the exact right answer with the exact right evidence and the exact right logical process of deduction and still somehow gotten it wrong due to some variable he can't examine.

    Doing it himself and not remembering, because of how he was compromised by the Enemy that same day, is what he thinks may be the missing variable.

    But the true variable, the one there's no way of either of them knowing about, is going to leave whatever answer they come to off-target.

    Nephrite passes a hand over his face up into his hair. "I need a drink."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I need my head clear," Hematite says with a slight frown, floating closer to the writing on the wall and lifting a hand up to smush gloved fingers against the ink, see if it smears. "I'm going to need to be extremely precise in how I ask her, like making a contract. I don't like doing that. I feel like she's learning how to be a little girl again..."

He straightens up, looking at his fingertips, and then looks towards Nephrite again, running a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. "Which is terrible when the construct is dark energy. I don't know what else to give her to reconstruct herself, though." He sighs.

"Kyouka Inai is a pain in my ass. If I'm nice to her she might be so surprised she rats out her sources. Or if I'm really, really, really mean. Fortunately, Hematite can't get kicked out of school because he doesn't go." Silence for a moment, and the teenager starts pulling the hanging wallpaper down because it BOTHERS HIM. He may be pulling it down a little more aggressively than is truly warranted.

"You know I don't touch people's minds," he says conversationally. "But if you think interviewing Inai-san requires it, then go ahead, you interview her. I'm not a fan of my dice lately, I couldn't even--"

Hematite crumples wallpaper in his hands and YANKS a big swath of it down. "--wake Kunzite up. You really need a drink now, don't you? Kunzite. There are five of us because there's supposed to be Kunzite. Zoi is going to have a blast recruiting him. You know what else I can't trust? Aside from my own mind with its swiss cheese holes in it--?"

He tosses the big parts of the wallpaper into a corner with other debris. "Apparently dark energy doesn't actually hurt other people who use it! Does it hurt you? Because I was all excited that I managed to turn the pain into a weapon, and I showed Takashi, and he practically had a heart attack it felt so wrong to him. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure he and Firefly did, in fact, hate the plan. But I have no idea if they spilled. I can ask but they don't answer to us."

He looks at the wall again, and at the pile of trash in the corner, and he brings a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. "Sorry, I'll... I'll help you clean up. If you want. Later. After I go find her." Then he looks at Neph again. "And sorry-- you said you wanted me to tell you things. This probably wasn't the best timing. It's just, it all feels related."

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite is listening. No, really, he is. To all of it. The parts said, the parts not said, the body language, the person who is his Brother, who he is most similar to among all the Shitennou, though all of them share some part of themselves that 'matches' with their leader. The name 'Kunzite' makes Nephrite's head swim like a gong just went off, but maybe that's just his blood pressure resetting.

    "Yes. Good. I hope he succeeds then..." he mutters. He's actually paying attention, but simultaneously distracted by Hematite tearing down the wallpaper of Nephrite's house. Not because of the destruction but because--

    Don't let him finish.

    Something in him keeps--

    Stop him before it's too late.

    He steps forwards and starts to speak, "Could you--"

    And then it's there. Under the wallpaper, just off to the side, more writing. Other than Himeko's name.

    Welcome home, Himeko.

    Nephrite slowly lowers his hand and just stares.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...what--?" starts Hematite, blinking at Nephrite, then looking back at what he wasn't paying attention to. He looks at what Nephrite's staring at, and his hand drops. "...the hell?"

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite's throat is suddenly dry. He doesn't know why he felt such a sense of dread, or what this means, but... He swallows, and as soon as he can, he speaks in his raspy voice, and he's surprised to find it's shaking. "Perhaps," he begins. "You should talk to her sooner rather than later."