2720/King and Knights: Jadeite Edition

King and Knights: Jadeite Edition
Date of Scene:	02 August 2025
Location:	Crystal Tokyo
Synopsis:	King Endymion and Malakai seek out the Jadeite of Crystal Tokyo era. And they find him!
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Kazuo Saitou, Jadeite

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"If I'd just-- come up to you out here, with no context, and said do you want a job," King Endymion's saying to the white-haired man next to him as they walk through the palace, on their way into wherever the palace told Kendy Jadeite was. "I don't think that would have been so easy."

Turns out the place they've been heading for is where the twenty-first century people have more or less set up camp now that the people are all back in the city and the folks who were stuck in the palace are free again. "Jadeite?" calls the King over people's heads.

It's a couple of hours after the apocalypse was reversed, and the King has spoken to nearly everyone who was looking for him, and he's wearing a little thin on the social, but he's had a thousand years of practice and you know everything else is happy again so it's fine.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The white-haired man next to King Endymion gives the King a mildly askance look in return. He's wearing brown work clothes of a style that hasn't changed since considerably before Jadeite's native Tokyo, let alone the Crystal version. "I think it would've been very easy," he says, remarkably casual for someone talking to a sovereign. Though the white hair, gray eyes, and somewhat familiar features might explain a bit. "'Yes, sir' is only a few syllables. Granted, 'but you might have to waive the age requirements' would add a few."

Jadeite has posed:
The fight is over. Everything is at peace. Jadeite has been spending his time in Crystal Tokyo helping with access to water so no one dies of dysentary, and seeing the sights, and being slightly awkward. It's fine. The apocalypse is over. Everything is ending happily ever after -

He hears Kind Endymion's voice and his head whips up. He jumps, waving, to be seen over the crowd.

"King Endymion!! I'm over here!"

And soon enough he will be joining Endymion and Malakai - his king is looking worn thin so he is going to try not to add to it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
King Endymion's clearly a little taken aback by the amount of enthusiasm being displayed. "I'd ask if he's always like this, but you don't know," he says to Malakai, looking ahead at the teenaged Jadeite and smiling. He waves, then stands there with his cape behind him and his cane-like sceptre in front of him, waiting.

Once Tamaki's come the rest of the way over, the King reaches to put a hand on his shoulder. "I wanted to thank you for listening to my daughter, for following her here, for helping to save us all-- and for taking care to make sure my younger, alternate self wasn't alone before meeting Usagi..."

His hand falls, and he looks wry. "I'm also wondering if you might be able to give us some pointers as to where your other self might hide."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Malakai falls back a little as Tamaki approaches - not leaving the discussion, no further back than the King's cape flutters; but putting Tamaki at the focus of the conversation, himself fading off to the edges of it. If he were his younger, alternate self, he'd be finding some convenient wall to lean on and meld with.

Jadeite has posed:
"I've been like this since I got the Beryl juice washed out of me. Which is good, since I was kind of intense before," Tamaki reports, standing at easy attention in front of Endymion.

He'll take puppy dog over...uh, whatever was going on in the Moon Kingdom, thanks!

"YOu're welcome! I wish I could have been more help - but

And then he nods seriously. It's a totally natural thing for Endymion to ask, after all - who wouldn't want to get the band back together? If Mamoru didn't have to be alone, neither did this alternate future self.

"I'd look for artists - sculptors specifically, but the other me might go to other art types in a pinch. He'd definitely be here in the city - even if he doesn't know, he'd be drawn here."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"If he's here in the city, he-- he can't be very old, then," King Endymion says a little hesitantly, if unsure. "Kaito-san spent most of his time away sailing, and... I mean I haven't met everyone but I'd like to think..." He trails off, then chuffs a little laugh. "Let's walk. You can't have seen much of the city in a couple of hours. And if he is old, then he could have been a sculptor for a while and then a painter and then a cinematographer-- or whatever--"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"He could be twenty-eight," Malakai says helpfully. He looks twenty-two. So do a whole lot of people, now. "And he might be doing something with light - holograms, stained glass, prisms and reflections. That seems as close to the ice I saw this gentleman tossing around as anything he could be doing that wouldn't make him the city's best-known banquet decorator."

He bows to Jadeite in greeting. "Hello. I'm Malakai Kuroda. I'm half-trained for public safety, which means I've spent the last decade-plus memorizing the city's maps down to the layout of the utilities. It doesn't make me a good guide, but if there's anything you'd really like to have a look at later, please ask for me anytime."

Jadeite has posed:
"Then let's walk! I have no doubt he's some kind of artist - and with any luck, he's selling his art somewhere we can find them. Holograms and prisms..." That does sound fun, actually. Maybe he can go shopping...

"Hello, Malakai! It's nice to meet you! I'd love to get a tour of the city sometime - you've got a great sewer system, as far as I can tell. Do you know where we'd find art stores in the city?'

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh well if we're going shopping," King Endymion says, eyes starting to sparkle again behind his mask, "Please excuse me a moment so I can tell people where I'm going and who I'll be with, et cetera-- I'll be right back. Hmm, I'll meet you outside the doors."

He does, in fact, actually just teleport away.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Art supplies or places where people make art available?" Malakai asks, as he keeps pace with Jadeite in the wake of the King's vanishment. "He might be asking Kaito's grandmother about that while he's gone; she'd know better than I. Hm. People who live in the city tend to trade things they make, or give them away, rather than offering them up for sale. We could try the tourist-heavy areas - visitors don't have the social connections or time to find exactly the right people, not to mention the stability to get a local reputation, so they have to resort to older methods."

Jadeite has posed:
"Places where people sell or exchange art - a tourist area sounds like a good place to start. If nothing else, if we don't get any hits, we can talk to people who can point us in the right direction," Tamaki says, nodding sagely.

He blinks and looks around. "Which doors are we meeting him at? I still get lost in this place."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"The big exit doors," Malakai says, gesturing ahead to where they are not in fact in view. "Don't worry. I still get lost in here occasionally too, but I've been cleaning enough floors that I can find our way that far."

A beat. "He could also be saying he'll meet us at the doors of the first place we plan to walk in to, but if he were in practice at locating us in that kind of detail yet, he'd be able to just look for our probable-artist. So - the main exit, this way. And yes, there are tourist places in the vicinity. So we'll have an easy round to start."

Jadeite has posed:
"Then let's go! I'm still getting turned around in this place - everything is so new here..." Sometimes he just. Has to stop and look at some cool window or art piece in the castle for twenty minutes.

"Excellent, then let's get started!" To the doors!!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When they come in sight of the doors, Mamoru's standing by them -- looks like he got his hands on some non-tshirt-and-jeans clothes, some Local Garb as it were-- a loose, light blue shirt, cut long and with long sleeves, but linen. There's dark blue embroidery at the hem, around the collar, at the cuffs-- and white summer trousers. They're not work clothes, they're very clearly fuckoff vacation clothes for people who really like nice things. Which is, honestly, Mamoru and his parade of yukat--

No red tips.

And as they get closer, yeah, that's an adult, twenty five at the very most. Which, here, could mean anything. In context though, yes, this is probably the King, incognito.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Nice embroidery," is all Malakai has to say about what probably-the-King looks like. "Good accent. We're thinking the easiest place to start would be the tourist areas around the Palace - which isn't entirely unlike looking for something we dropped in the area that happens to be lit, but in this case it really is the way to get the most ground covered fastest. Just in case. Unless you already keep an eye on those, in which case we'll look further out."

Besides, Jadeite might want a souvenir. Or, given the enthusiasm, possibly twenty. Fortunately, Malakai's good at carrying things.

Jadeite has posed:
He looks so much like Mamoru. Jadeite has to double-take to make sure it's not actually him - but no, it's Endymion. No red tips.

"Inkingnito, huh?" he says, nodding. "Besides, if we look in the places that are lit first, we can get them done the fastest, as it were. And maybe I can pick up something to take home? - not that that's why I suggested this!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When they get there, the man extremely likely to be the King inclines his head, eyes twinkling. "Thanks," he tells Malakai, very very slightly preening as if he'd made it, but it was undoubtedly commissioned. He relaxes, hands in his pockets, and nods to Malakai. Then frowns, and it turns into shaking his head. "No, I just woke up, and everyone was still dead a few hours ago. And before the attack, I-- had stopped regularly actively looking, I'm sorry. It's been seven and a half centuries."

He takes a breath. "Right. Tourist traps it is. Lead on, I haven't been there in decades."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
And therefore it's the white-haired young man dressed in brown who leads the moderately unlikely party out. Vacationers and a guide! This happens! No wonder the blond one is looking around everywhere and at everything, especially now that buildings are intact again, and growing things alive and growing, and he can see the way the buildings and the green spaces interact, the way they're shaped with an eye to the people walking through them, to make sure they have both enough light and enough shade, enough beauty and enough rest.

Granted, this normally doesn't happen right after a crisis, but normally there aren't crises and crises also don't take into account vacation schedules.

Jadeite has posed:
It takes fifteen minutes of looking and wandering before Tamaki looks at a storefront and almost trips on his own feet - "This is it!"

MEMORIES OF THE CRYSTAL reads the store name. Hanging in the window of the store is a tie-dye shirt with colors reminiscent of Serenity's Moon Space that has "I Survived Nemesis's Attack On Crystal Tokyo And All I Got Was This T Shirt" stenciled on it - there's a small rack of the same shirts hanging outside the store, free to whoever wants to take one. There's a stained glass window ornament that depicts the crystal castle at the center of town. There's a music box that has, on top, a statue of Serenity and Endymion dancing in their wedding clothes. Through the window is a cavelcade of colorful items, small statues and paintings and plates and everything you can think of.

Tamaki doesn't wait before opening the door.

"I'll be with you in a moment!" a voice calls out from the back - and soon enough comes the owner of the shop - a blonde man in his late 20s, with reading glasses and a stained apron worn over another tie-dye shirt - 'I Didn't Survive Nemesis's Attack' is visible, but the apron hides the rest - carrying a box of more of those shirts.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Oh bless, King Endymion's eyes have gone a little wide. "It's only been a couple hours," he says in astonishment. "How-- did you get all those so fast? There wasn't any warning!"

He's missing the point, he's mIsSiNg tHe pOinT--

"Hi, I have. Maybe. A present for you? But it could also be a burden. Do you-- shimatta I wasn't thinking, maybe I should have been in henshin," he starts, then turns back looking helplessly at Malakai and Tamaki. "Hi," he says again, and he pulls a sleight of hand and is suddenly holding a mask up to his face, and then he's putting it away and holding his finger to his lips. "We think you're the reincarnation of one of my guardians, do you mind if we check? Or would you rather not know?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Hello," says Malakai, with considerable if carefully contained amusement, as he follows Tamaki and then the King through the door and eases it gently closed behind you. "My name is Malakai Kuroda. It's a pleasure to meet you. This is a very nice shop. Do you design the pieces yourself? And make some of them? I like the stained-glass. Also, he's not joking."

Jadeite has posed:
"Oh, these? I can make these pretty quickly - it's good for if there's big surprising events in the city. They're popular for events, too," the blonde man says, putting the box down. "Plus it gave me a good excuse to make sure the store was intact after - all that nonsense, you know? I make about half of what's in the store and highlight local artists for the other half. I did the design for the stained glass, but someone else did the glasswork - statues are more my thing."

They look like some nice tourists, even if the one with black hair gives him a feeling of deja vu -

Wait. "Your Maj- " he stammers, then slaps both hands over his mouth. The king had said to keep it quiet, after all??

"I - yes, yes, you can, it's definitely not a burden! It's totally fine! Um, I'm JD, this is my store??"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The same hand that produced a mask a moment ago flips over, empty, then produces a rock. A shining piece of imperial jade. The color's high in the King's face, but he's made of dignity (despite the magic tricks). "Hello, JD," he says more gently, taking a step forward. "Maybe you're Jadeite too. If you pick up the stone, you may get about two hundred years of memories of being a ghost after the end of the old world. And you'd definitely have a new job."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"It's a little bit of a shock," Malakai volunteers. "Overall, the good kind of shock. I won't let you stagger into anything breakable, though, I promise."

He waits till JD is not looking at him before glancing back at Tamaki. Checking on the past Jadeite, because he has no idea whatsoever how he might be taking this.

Jadeite has posed:
Tamaki nods back to Malakai - because this is definitely him. The eagerness, the devotion, the focus... And if the other him needs help, he'll help him.

JD takes the stone; he feels something like a static shock, and then -

Running through the woods with Endymion and the others, laughing and screaming as they played in the woods near the palace. Serenity silloetted by the moon. Beryl's eyes glowing in the dark. Death, and life again. Seeing and not-seeing Endymion again, not recognizing him - not realizing his mistakes until it was too late - and then a blossom of fire.

When he'd made the first prototype of the statue for the music box, he had been looking through old photos of the king and queen,, and something about the way they were dancing had made him start to weep. He'd had to recreate the photo in clay; that night, he'd dreamed of being there in the past, as real as a gust of wind, watching them dance in a crowded hall. And Jadeite had watched Mamoru-Endymion grow, and grow, and grow, and so had Serenity, and so had their little girl, and he couldn't bear the thought of moving on.

He's crying now, again, as he staggers; the emotions overlaying him are so strong they're almost physical. "My king. I'm sorry I took so long to come back."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hey-- hey!" Endymion says, eyes widening a little again as he darts forward to catch JD up, to steady him. "Take it easy. It's not like you had control over it--"

And then he's just hugging him, hugging the last of them to be found, this tall tall king who is nonetheless still shorter than Kunzite, goddammit. "Your alternate self led us right to you! Meet Suikawa Tamaki-san, he's from the twentieth century. Twenty-first. And he's one of the people who saved us. And he's also a Jadeite! And you know you know who Malakai-san is..." And then he half-whispers, "And I'm still Tsukino Mamoru, I'm still here. All those times I asked for your guidance-- it'll happen again, are you ready for that nonsense?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Malakai has a hand in for the steadying, too, keeping shelves and displays safe as promised. He yields JD over for the hugging, though; some things have their own proper time. "We all took so long to come back," he says. "Except Nephrite, who's going to find some way to lord it over us for the next few centuries." Despite having been two handshakes away and never having made the connection, which he will be mocked over right back. "The important part is that we're here now."

When they could give their King that little extra hope to help see him through the crisis. The possibility they might exist. Then the certainty that at least one or two existed, and the hope of finding more. Malakai does not think that contributed to the King's survival, not compared to the hope for and faith in his wife and child ... but he wouldn't want to have risked it, either.

Jadeite has posed:
JD hugs them both back tightly as he tries to get his tears under control. So much has suddenly - snapped into place, making everything make more sense. And he's -
F Oh, he's definitely going to get roasted by the others for interpreting his lingering memories as a desire to make art about his king. But that will be! Later!

"You're still here. I"m ready for that nonsense. I can," hic, "even help out if you miss an anniverary, since I've got more art than I can shake a stick at," he jokes wetly. "You really found all of us?" He looks between Endymion and Malakai, then - over to Tamaki, who waves a litt.e.

JD wades back. "Well. If nothing else, it's good at at least ONE me was there to help you out."