453/Goodbye, Elephant-san

Goodbye, Elephant-san
Date of Scene:	12 September 2023
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Koji and Mamoru clear the air. A lot.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Koji Silvia

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Last night, Naru was rescued. This morning, Darien was busy with Jadeite. Today, there were classes. This evening, he's already finished his homework, and the introvert is tiredly introverting.

Darien's on his bed with a book open facedown on his chest, phone on the desk next to his bed and quietly playing some gracefully repetitive piano track, staring at the ceiling. There are two other phones next to it: a more expensive one, sleek and black, and a really dumb phone that was probably 2500 yen or less at a mall kiosk.

He's in his pajamas already, clearly not intending to go out in any way.

Koji Silvia has posed:
The door just OPENING in a dorm is usually either one of two things... either the floor's designated monitor is checking in for some reason, or the other person who lives there is coming. However, this is Radiant Heart, so for all anyone knows, some other character from a personal story might just bust the door in with a random declaration to help move the plot along.

Tonight is not the latter, thankfully...

Instead, it's a rather tired and a slightly pale looking Koji Silvia... a roller case trundling behind him and the kind of exhausted expression that can only come from either Youma Draining or an honest-to-goodness injury. Instead of his backpack on his back, it's hooked to the case's roller arm, and he says in a slightly embarrassed tone, "Hey."

Followed by, "Sorry I didn't phone or text. I can explain. Promise."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien sits up, mildly alarmed, then sees Koji and the shape he's in, and he leaves his book on the bed where it tumbled off to stand and come over, looking like he's going to Fuss-- but he hangs back, anxious anyway. "I didn't phone or text you after the first one, either, I figured it was something-- not great, but when something's not great, it's rude to pry, right?"

A beat. "Like, magically not great. I mean-- it's okay. But you're clearly still not. Can I help?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
There's a look of relief that you don't just get up, bolt over, and fuss.

Koji just rolls his stuff to his side of the room, stashes the case in his wardrobe for the moment, and then walks his backpack along and sets it in the small spot between one leg of desk and one leg of bed. Sitting down across from you, he rests his hands in his lap, pressed together for a moment, and then closes his eyes...

"You asked me not to lie for you again... but that I guess means I can't lie TO you either. And to give you the reason why... I have to confess something to you."

He's not looking as he says it, just sitting there, very still.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... you don't have to," says Darien after a silent couple of seconds. He's still hanging back. "I know a lot more than I should, now, but that doesn't mean you should tell me anything else. Unless you want to.

He looks away from Koji, now. "How about I tell you my secret first and then you can tell me yours if you still think you should be obligated."

Koji Silvia has posed:
In a moment of frustration, Koji just blurts out, "Dar-"

Then he stops and looks up at you, "Mamoru, I've been secretly removing all the leftover dark energy you've been trailing into this room for the last 9 months. It left me tired, uncomfortable, unable to focus, and a lot of times I was hiding the fact I was getting gloomy."

"Sorry... you were saying?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... maybe you shouldn't be my roommate if it's doing that to you," Mamoru says with a tired, tired sigh. He sits down on the edge of his bed, and he looks straight at Koji, not proud but not-- not unable to look. "I'm full of dark energy. Do a scan or something, whatever it is you do to detect it. I'm actually not an intern, Koji-kun, I'm a General."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji almost chuckles, "If I scan you one more time, I'll need a consent form or something..."

He almost kicks his legs out like a kid on a chair too big for him, and then just takes a breath, "You and I both want something. An oasis. Where we don't have to pretend, or evade, or act like we're supposed to be something we're not. That's here. I don't care that you've been working for Obsidian this whole time. And I honestly don't care that we may have to be on opposite sides... out there. But that's out there. Here's just... two guys trying to have an uncomfortable conversation we've been avoiding for a while now."

With that he holds up his arm with the smartwatch, "This is Hanzo."

The gem glows for a moment, and then a gravelly older man's voice can be heard in the air.

    << Greetings, Darien Shields/Mamoru Chiba. I advised my Young Master that he should not violate this secrecy for your protection. However, he believes this is the wisest course of action. >>

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru listens, and he watches. He clasps his hands in his lap. "Hello, Hanzo," he says politely to Koji's smartwatch. Very smart watch. "I was keeping things secret for Koji's protection. I'm-- very strong, and I'm pretty good at hiding it."

He looks up to Koji again. "It's more of an oasis if we both know, though, isn't it? Because this way there won't be any pretending. I'll do my best to clean up after myself, though given I wasn't aware I was trailing it, I'm not sure how good I'll be at it."

Then he just unceremoniously henshins, his hair loose and his glasses gone, cape pooled on the bed behind him, grey military-esque uniform even darker in the dim light.

The dark energy is considerably stronger. "I truly advise you to scan me, Hanzo, to get an idea of how many allies it would require to take me down if I become a problem personally.

He looks up at Koji's face again, instead of his wrist. "I'm Hematite, leader of the Shitennou of the Dark Kingdom -- which sounds silly but unfortunately isn't. I also can't tell you all about it. But as you say, this is two guys having an uncomfortable conversation, right?"

He gives Koji a crooked grin. "I'm not the one who kidnapped Osaka-san, if you found out about that already. I helped rescue her. You can ask Sailor Moon-- I'm pretty bad at villainy."

Koji Silvia has posed:
You can almost hear the smirk.

    << In the intervening period between my activation and the current planetary rotation, you have been passively scanned 87 times, and actively scanned 3 times while you slept, Dark General Darien Shield/Mamoru Chiba. A minimum of 12 individuals within the Young Master's known network will be required to contain you safely, 50 Percent more would be required to eliminate you. Requirement includes the current most powerful available agents. See: Sailor Moon. >>

But Koji looks surprised and a bit worried, "Someone kidnapped Naru? Oh... that was a bad idea. She has enough friends in... well... the community... that whoever did it probably came to regret it big-time. Is she doing well? I should..."

He pauses and trails off, closing his eyes and taking a breath, "I was told not to contact you while I was gone because I was told we couldn't risk Obsidian connecting the dots. You see..."

He stands up and walks over to the window, leaning his hands on it, and keeping his face from you, "I tried to break into the headquarters database. Using the names you gave me, and some others, I tried to get what I could... give us a frame to this whole ugly picture. Partly because... I've been worried about you. Partly because... I hate not knowing what I'm up against. I can face any test or assignment, look at someone in competition and know what I need to get what I want. But not here... it's too big, and too powerful."

Turning back around to you, "I got nothing. Something literally burned up what I stole, and that was after an elementary school girl with a scythe cut my back open, tried to surgically remove my left arm, and then put me into a building. I've still got the cut on my back and two cracked ribs. I'm supposed to see the school nurse before I can be officially back for anything."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite definitely hears the smirk, and he sticks his tongue out at Hanzo and de-henshins. "Twenty sounds about right," he decides, "to get all the dark energy out. You wouldn't kill me, though. I'm a healer when I'm not dripping with this stuff. Which, sorry." He pauses. "That's, um. That's why I was mad enough at you to pick a fight with you. With the steak. I was jealous that you could help Usagi and I couldn't, but it was before I had my memories back, so I didn't even know why I was so jealous."

He scoots back on his bed so his legs are straight out and his back against the wall, and then he crosses his legs and leans his head back to thud it lightly and sighs. "You went to hack Obsidian alone? Dumbass. Now I'm really sorry I can't heal you. What the hell, man? Inai-san's got a whole network of kids who could have helped you. Ugh."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Going back to his bed, Koji sits down again, and scowls, "I don't trust Inai-San. I don't trust this school. It's all too..."

He trails off, and then just slumps a little, "I've been fighting against this dark energy stuff since I found Hanzo. Late nights, occasional alerts that come up... I've been helping where I can. I get people out of the way so that the others who show up can do all the heavy fighting most times. If this SCHOOL knew I was going to have this... they brought me here. If they didn't, they must have known SOMETHING. Either way... Miss Inai is part of the problem. She reminds me too much of... the person who used to own Hanzo. She spent the better part of a week dissecting every mistake I made. I'm not really up for going through that again. Even though I probably will."

"I'm sorry I made you jealous about Usagi. But... if you didn't know you didn't know, and you wouldn't have to tell anyone... and she's important to you. So... I did what I could for you."

"That's what friends do, right?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"That's what friends do, yeah," says Mamoru, and he sounds-- a little frustrated. Not terribly. Not more than the annoyed and concerned he sounded when he called Koji a dumbass. "You told her what you were doing, though, right? I mean, consent forms and everything." A beat. "She knows, by the way. About me."

Mamoru holds his feet, under his knees, bending foward to grab them and then just pulling them back closer; it's fidgeting, he lets them go a moment later. "You're shooting yourself in the foot, bro. You really, really are. Inai-san doesn't dissect what you did wrong, anyway. You gotta give her a chance instead of being a dick. We get along now even though I'm still kind of a dick to her. Naru got kidnapped in front of her and she immediately started texting around for help. She texted me because she knows Naru is my friend, even though she knows what I am, because she knows who she can trust with what. I send people to her because she helps. Her job is helping the magical kids here. I'm sorry you don't trust that. You're going to have to start sometime, and I hope that sometime doesn't come because she has to mount an investigation into rescuing you."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Wiping at his eyes and down his cheeks, Koji looses a long and obviously pent-up breath... one that's enough you can see him wince in pain from what is hidden under the uniform jacket and shirt he has on for school.

"I got a lot dumped on me really fast, Mamoru. A lot. And then a person that I thought was just... normal... suddenly I'm not who I thought I was anymore."

Nibbling on his lip for a bit, he goes on, "It's... I don't go home on weekends to just visit family. I was being trained. Self Defense, deductive reasoning, situational awareness... how to use my friend Hanzo... and that became the extent of my relationship with them. I just..."

It comes out almost childishly, "Adults lie. They think they're protecting us, but they just lie to us. I'm trying to figure out who I'm supposed to be, but how am I supposed to trust anyone when I know they've been holding out on me? Trust works both ways, or it doesn't."

The tone melts away, "Which I know... pot and kettle for the last year."

Brushing his hair back, he goes on, "I trust you because I know you. Because you try. Because you're cool enough to yell at me over the things that matter. Not stupid crap like grades or sneaking out at night... something BAD is happening to Tokyo and we're both stuck in it... and at least I can trust you to know that... I'd have your back. Even if you're on the other side right now."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru wants to lighten this. He wants to. He can't, so he shifts uncomfortably. "Sorry. It was a relief for me to find out I wasn't who I thought I was. I was dead sure I was a construct of some kind, or that I'd been in stasis for thousands of years, and that my real name was actually Hematite."

Then he looks toward the window, out at the darkness. The quiet track playing on his phone in the background ends, and the crickets and cicadas outside are audible, and something in Mamoru's posture relaxes.

"But remembering is different from finding something out. And yeah we've been lying to each other for the past year, but it's different when the lie is a known quantity, isn't it," he says thoughtfully into the silence. He looks back at Koji. "I wish adults had been able to lie to me as a child without my knowing it. It would have been some comfort to believe everything might be all right. Children need to be able to escape despair sometimes."

He leans over to pick up his phone -- the one that Koji knows is his personal phone, not the work phone or what's presumably a burner -- and he looks at the screen, then turns if off and tosses it on his pillow. "I trust Inai-san to try her best to defend us if we ask her for that help. I trust her not to lie about shit. She's awful at lying. Not like your parents."

The last is a shot in the twilight, not in full dark, but it's still a guess.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji doesn't look up as he says it, "Mom. She used to do what I do. Except..."

He just lets it go, "She's not from Earth. She's some from another world that's like this future uptopia where magic is as common as breathing. So... not only am I some kind of magic-slinging vigiliante fighting weird demonic beings, dark-powered robots, and the crazy people who made them... I'm also half-alien."

"She says I may only have another three or four years doing this at most. After that... something makes it go away. It also makes us forget. She knows what magic is, sort of, but she can't remember how to use it or why she even came to our world. It eats at her. She started vaping around the time she started training me."

There's that continued edge of disapproval in him, "She swears now too. I don't even know her anymore."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's biting his lip. He's trying so hard, because to Koji this is serious. 'She swears now too, I don't even know her anymore,' he'd said, and that's it, he lowers his face into his hands and hunches over, shoulders shaking.

There's an incredibly muffled, "She swears now," and a hitching sound, and he finally looks up from laughing helplessly, wiping at his own eyes. "I'm so sorry! I know this is real bullshit you're having to deal with! But what, you don't think grown-ups swear all the time where you can't hear it? Koji-kun!"

He waves a hand around in the air. "Just because someone's from another planet doesn't mean they're not human! You exist! Do you really think if she was that much of an alien you would exist? Your brain weasels are working overtime to generate angst, my friend. Hanzo! How much dark energy do you have to purge out of Koji on the daily because of his brain weasels?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
You swear you can hear...

    << *SIGH* >>

In the middle of it all, on a sharp left turn of topic, Koji's head shoots up and he looks RIGHT at Mamoru this time, and then even points, "THAT WAS YOU!"

And then he stands up, and crosses his arms, thinking the better of it a moment later as some pain shoots up his side, which you can see from the twitch in his eye, and the change in the color of his skin for a moment, "That was you at the zoo that day with those two girls who were trying to pull the soul out of the elephant! What the hell man?!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Only one was!" Mamoru says defensively, but he's still stifling giggles. "And she knows better now! And I was already planning on doing a deep dive with her on how modern zoos aren't animal prisons, I was pretty gratified to hear you were on board with that even if you were being completely 'someone is wrong on the internet' about it--"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Just sort of flopping bonelessly back down on his bed once more, Koji frowns, "They're not. It's a managed conservation eff-..." But he cuts himself off.

"Okay look..." Koji goes on, still watching you giggle, which makes him smile just a little bit, "If you want me to give Inai-san a shot I will... but I will only see her in my other form, and only with you there. So you can explain that I don't trust her right now. I'll see how she reacts from there."

He then adds, "And you may have told Usagi-chan, but I'm not going to. I don't want her starting to get afraid that she and Naru are just living in the eye of a hurricane. But? it was brave of you, and good of you to tell her. I'm glad you two have this."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's grinning at where Koji starts off, and then there's a little more seriousness, and he flops back against the wall again. Mini-thunk. "Okay," he agrees on how to talk to Kyouka. "She might laugh at your mask, but that's because she has less tact than I do."

He clasps his hands loosely in his lap and smiles lopsidedly. "I won't tell Usako about you either, but I really advise that you do. For reasons. Not least of which is just in case she needs someone magical to cry on if I lose my mind and Hanzo needs to find twenty kids to dunk me."

Then Mamoru's eyes widen. "Oh yeah! And by the way, like, as long as we're confessing stuff, I'm also bi and she knows it and she also knows I also have a thing for Kazuo."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji.

BSOD-faces.

After a five count?

He Blushes. Hard.

Instead of speaking he turns and flops face-first into the bed to hide his expression.

It comes out as a muffled, "Just... keep it on your side of the room, and shoot me a text if you need... like..."

"I wish I could just transform and go hang out on a roof or something..." He almost whines, "WHY DID YOU TELL ME THAT?!"