301/Landmines

Landmines
Date of Scene:	25 August 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Kyouka figures that giving weapons to the enemy is fine, if they plan to shoot their own.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Takashi Agera
Tinyplot:	Midnight Tokyo

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Summer break is not usually the time people get called for appointments with the guidance couneslor. But there are still students living at the school, and there are still summer classes being taught (albeit at a much reduced number and frequency) so it's not utterly insane that such a thing should happen. Except, there really isn't a good reason for Takashi in particular to find himself summoned to speak with Counselor Inai.

    But as it turns out, that is exactly what has happened on a friday afternoon late in the summer. The building is nearly empty, and certainly seems deserted, but the door to Kyouka's office is unlocked. Inside, she's leaning back in her chair, feet up on the corner of the desk. She's wearing her 'school clothes', slacks and a button-down white woman's dress shirt, but she's got her sunglasses on, even inside in her own office. Well, there is a lot of late-afternoon sunshine coming in through the window behind her. Almost creating a halo effect that makes someone at the door have to squint a little to make her out.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi almost considers blowing off the appointment. But... He's actually curious about this counselor too. Well, curious isn't the right word. He knows something is up. He knows she's been poking her nose in where it doesn't belong. And the worst part is, she's been asking about something that he doesn't like happening, but... she's not him. Not one of them. That means she's one of The Others, and she shouldn't causing trouble. Plus, she was involved in bothering Sheilds-san in some way too - he knew more than he should, and Kyouka Inai wasn't the only person who worked hard to know information other people have been keeping from them.

    So he does, in fact, show up - still in his school uniform, leaning against the door, shielding his eyes from the brightness. "You know, there's this radical invention called blinds. If you closed them, you could probably sit at your own desk without needing sunglasses to avoid permanent retinal damage." He said, as his way of introduction. There was a lack of respect, now, because of where her nose has been, the questions she'd been asking... and due to Takashi just being who he was.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Yeah but," Kyouka kicks her feet down and sits up in her chair- at the same time pushing a button on her desk that causes the automatic blinds to snap shut, pulling the room into a dramatic twilight, "then I wouldn't get to look nearly as cool when waiting for someone to walk in the door." She says, with a lopsided grin. The room now a more comfortable level of illuminated (even a bit dim, perhaps) she pulls the sunglasses off and folds them, placing them to the side on the deck.

    She gestures to the two comfortable chairs on the other side of the desk. "Come in, Agera-san, and have a seat. I've been meaning to catch up with you again. Especially since having a discussion with your young co-worker, Tomoe-san."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi could appreciate the visual effect Kyouko was going for, even if he wasn't going to admit it. Though, she did admit it. He shrugged. "Isn't looking cool something for us students to worry about, while teachers are supposed to be concerned about looking dignified?" he asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking forward. He does not, however, take a seat, instead standing behind what would be his chair.

    He shrugs. "Yeah, I heard about that. But I don't see any donuts here so I'm not entirely sure how you're intending to fail to bribe me." he added. "But it's kind of a strange thing for a counselor to worry about, what a large corporation does with its projects. It's certainly not anything the Academy needs to worry about." he added, shrugging. "So is it a personal project?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'm not a teacher," Kyouka says, dismissively. "I'm not even a guidance counselor, not really. What I am," she leans forward on the desk, hands folding in front of her, ash-grey eyes fixing on Takashi standing on the other side of the desk, "Is a person who will go to a great deal of trouble to make sure that the people of this city do not suffer undue harm. From anyone, individual or collective. But a big evil corporation does seem particularly apropos for an adversary, doesn't it?"

    She leans back again, chair turning half-sideways as she crosses one leg over the other. "This is not on behalf of the Academy, Agera-san, which is why I'm speaking to you frankly and not as the guidance counselor. I'm not going to try and bribe you. I'm not even going to ask you what you know. What I want to know," She narrows her eyes, examining him, "Is if you really want this project to fail as much as young Hotaru-chan seemed to think that you do."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi tilts his head. "Yeah sure, just a simple question you want to know the answer to - but that question is super dangerous, Inai-sensei. Or maybe just Inai-san, since you're not a guidance counselor or a teacher." he adds. "Dangerous for both of us. Because now, it sounds like you think there's reason to believe I have information I shouldn't - I am, after all, merely an intern, a paper pusher, a go-for, a coffee-bringer. And it sounds like you believe, based on information I don't have about stuff that's well out of my pay grade, that I have opinions that might not only diverge from executives within the company, but in fact run counter to their goals. That would be somewhat damaging to my career prospects if it were to get out. Radiant Heart won't be paying for my dorm forever, after all. I've got to be set up for my post-college life as one of Tokyo's faceless suited office drones and I can't have one of my best career prospects go down the drain because of an unfactual, unsubstantiated and frankly quite wild rumor."

    "Furthermore, my employer, Obsidian, and its many corporate subsidiaries and fully owned minor companies, are no more evil than any other giant corporation. Which is to say, just capitalists. Any assertions to the contrary are, quite frankly, ridiculous. You are far too old, Inai-san, to believe in ridiculous things like magic and similar. Midnight Tokyo is, based on some forms I've seen while copying things, merely a plan for a new neon-coated block of late-night entertainment district, regardless of any other information you might think you have. Night clubs and cabarets and bars."

    "It's not really the kind of project a 15 year old intern even has an opinion on. It's not exactly my place to say if I think it's a risky investment or not."

    "Hotaru-chan is a good girl but her abandonment by her workaholic father and trauma from her accident means sometimes she makes up outlandish stories about things that frankly, do not exist, in order to get attention from the gullible. You, though, should know better than to believe the words of a 12 year old girl about things like this. The world she talks about isn't a world you should be worrying about."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka listens to all of this, the whole speech, with a small, half-cocked smile on her face, leaning back in her chair with her arms folded. She even nods along at times, as if Takashi is reciting some script that she has read beforehand- not true, of course, but it's a very well-spoken answer and if perhaps not exactly what she was hoping for, definitely something she expected as a possibility. Some variation of it, at least.

    When he falls silent at last, she heaves a small, dramatic sigh. "Very well put, Agera-san. I applaud your pragmatism and your loyalty to your employer. But there's a hole in your little presentation which, I happen to know, rather invalidates a large portion of your argument. It's simply this,"

    She leans forward again, elbows on the desk, fingers tapping lightly on the wood. "You can't have a career in Tokyo if Tokyo doesn't exist anymore."

    She shrugs her shoulders as she leans back again. "Or maybe you can. Look, I don't pretend to know what your actual role at Obsidian is, Agera-san. I don't know your stake in this or any of their operations. But I can smell the Dark Energy coming off of you from here, and that tells me that you do have an opinion and you likely have a very good idea about the possible ramifications of overlaying the Dusk Zone on the material plane in a city of 27 million people."

    She reaches into her desk and pulls something out, slapping it down on the surface of the desk under her hand. "Hotaru-chan is a very sweet girl. But what she's told me has been corroborated by other sources. Multiple other sources. It's a pretty leaky ship, your bosses run over there, Agera-san. But... that could be to your benefit ,as well as mine." She removes her hand, and a small USB thumb-drive sits on the desk.

    "Because I might be inclined to let you have this."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi flippantly replies. "It's hard to keep a ship from leaking when it's assembled of a whole bunch of wood constantly trying to rip out the next plank up." he answers. "But look, I don't know what you think you 'smell' on me, but at most you might catch residual from the place I work, or maybe my dormmates or friends? Just because it's hard to keep up with how smart someone is, it doesn't mean you need to go looking for supernatural explanations. So put that out of your mind. I would certainly find it highly hurtful if you went around spreading false rumors about me, as well. It's hard enough making friends and keeping them when you're thinking on a level they can't comprehend, if you started telling people crazy things about some sort of made up 'Dark Energy' it would be highly unhelpful. Some people are supertitious enough to buy that drivel. But the only Evil kind of thing in this room is the smoke you bring into your lungs and the liquids you assault your liver with."

    "Now, if you'd like, I can look up the corporate complaint number though. It seems like this is much more a them thing than a me thing." Takashi continues. His eyes go to the drive and he looks at her, quirking an eyebrow. "Did you miss the part where I'm a genius? I'm not going to go plug your obviously virus-laden USB drive into a corporate machine and lose my job, Inai-san." he adds. "If you're going to try something like that you really should do it before spouting off all of the crazy conspiracy theories."

    He looks up. "But the good news is, as crazy as all of this is, all of the things I like are in Tokyo, so even if you were right, the correct thing to do would be the same thing. Stay out of my way. Your job is consoling crying teenage girls after their first breakups and telling those who flounder that they can still make it in life even if they can't. You should stick to that. Talking about all of this magical kind of stuff is dangerous, people might think you were crazy if they overheard you. Just assume I've got it all under control. It's the truth, anyways."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Oh, I completely agree, and I'm not really complaining." Kyouka says flippantly, on the topic of leaky ships. "After all, it's certainly been to my benefit this time around. And look, Agera-san. It's not my style, nor my intention, to spread rumors about you. Or anybody." She uncrosses her arms, spreading them in a wide, 'what do I look like' sort of gesture. "What do you take me for? Other than," She adds, with a sardonic twist to her mouth, "somebody with her share of vices, I admit." Maybe that thing about smoking and drinking did hit a little close to home. "The point is, Agera-san, I'm not out to get you. Quite the opposite, in fact."

    She uses a forefinger to push the drive across the desk towards him, then pulls her hand back. "Then don't plug it into a corporate machine. Take it. Use it or don't, I don't care. I have more copies, obviously. You may be a genius, but I am at the very least not a complete idiot. What you find on there may help you.. how did you put it.. rip out the next plank up? Or maybe just give you a little bit of catharsis. I won't even ask you to promise me anything, because I'm pretty sure they already know I have it, if the little visit I got from Mr. Shields at the mall yesterday is any indication." A faint laugh. "He's not terribly happy with me at the moment. But I think he's the sort of person who has a lot of obligations that weigh heavily on him, so I can forgive a little bit of temper."

    Her eyes go hard as she leans back in her chair again. "Maybe you've got it all under control. You certainly can talk a smooth game. But do me a favor- take the drive anyway. Throw it in the trash can outside if you want to. Or don't. I don't care and I don't need to know."

    "This isn't me making a deal with you, Agera-san. It's me hedging bets. It's burying landmines. It's digging pits. And if they end up having spikes at the bottom, I don't care where those spikes came from. Just that they get the job done."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi, questioningly, suspiciously, and slowly... reaches out and takes the USB drive. He's about to put it into one of the cavernous pockets on his lab coat, until he realizes he isn't wearing it. So he just holds onto it, for the moment. He makes a sort of dissatisfied mmm sound. "Sometimes Shields-san is right and sometimes he's wrong. Like most people." As opposed to Takashi, who is totally always right. "I guess all of the rest of that remains to be seen. And I would hope nobody is out to get anybody. A scuffle between a school employee and a student would be good for nobody." he adds.

    "I've said a lot of words, and I've also said a lot of things without the words. I think we have a passing understanding of things. But I only have one more thing. A request. Perhaps even a desperate plea."

    "The people you've mentioned, Shields-san and Hotaru-chan? They're closer to me than my own family." An easy thing for an orphan to say, to be fair. "So be careful about who you spread all these wild rumors to when you believe either of them is involved. Please don't make me find out what I'm capable of if your crazy conspiracy theories and wild ideas get to the wrong set of ears and get either of them hurt." He adds, turning around and heading for the door as he adds. "I really don't want to know." Some of that is Takashi being unable to leave a remotely adversarial conversation without the last word. Some of that is him playing the part of the villian. But some of that is true, too. His worry about them. The fact that she told him their names makes him worried she might tell others. And he really would have to do something about that. He hopes she's smarter than that, as he leaves without asking if he can.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka watches Takashi leave, then heaves a little sigh. "The last thing I want," She says, turning to glance at the closed window behind her, "Is for anybody to get hurt."

    "But we don't always get what we want, now do we, Agera-san?"