730/A Crystal in a Haystack

A Crystal in a Haystack
Date of Scene:	08 November 2023
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	Usagi calls for a meeting at the Shed, and reads Naru and Kyouka in on the hunt for the Silver Crystal, as well as some of the on-going danger of the youkai invading Juuban.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Naru Osaka, Kyouka Inai
Tinyplot:	Silver Crystal

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
TXT Usagi to Kyouka & Naru: Can you meet me in the Shed
TXT Usagi to Kyouka & Naru: It's important.

Naru Osaka has posed:
TXT Naru to Kyouka & Usagi: Of course. Be right there. Inai-sensei, want a coffee? I'm making myself one, I can make two easily enough.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
TXT to Naru and Usagi: sure. gimme like 20 min. and yes, coffee sounds great, ty

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
When Kyouka Inai and Naru Osaka join Usagi in the shed, the blond is seated on one of the chairs the room had been equipped with, elbows on a desk and leaning forward. There's a ClockApp video playing on her phone - the ClockApp video, and she's staring at it with an expression between fondness and frustration.

"You've both seen this, right? Hemachan's video about the Silver Crystal?"

She's eating a cookie grumpily.

Naru Osaka has posed:
The smell of fresh coffee anounces Naru before she actually steps into the shed, a travel mug in each hand.

"As I'm pretty sure you've left it running more than once in our room, I'd have to be dead not to have seen it at least half a dozen times at this point." Naru points out as she sets down one of the coffees on the table comes over to where Usagi is watching it. Again.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka arrives not long after Naru. She must have been somewhere on campus, as she's wearing work clothes, though with her usual jacket and sunglasses to boot- it's getting chillier out there, the leaves on the trees surrounding the shed a lot more colorful than they were even just a week ago.

    She glances at Usagi and her grumpy cookie, quirking a brow at the video playing as she accepts a mug from Naru. "Kinda hard not to, the way it's been everywhere lately. Yeah, I've seen it. Dunno what exactly he thought it was gonna accomplish, though."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Luna's been watching it too," Usagi defends herself weakly. She's been the one watching it most often - she can't help it. The video and Hematite's recreation of what the Crystal should look like is the first chance she's had to really see it, since Luna doesn't have any pictures herself. She doesn't know if he just - remembers, what it looks like, or what, but -

"He didn't mean to put it out. His boss did. It was supposed to be sorta like a see, I'm definitely working on this, totally, project in case things took a turn, but she - accidentally hit send." Her expression is pained, the look of one confronted with technological ineptitude of a level one never imagined possible. All scathing contempt and bafflement.

"But now it's out and everywhere and everyone has an idea of the Silver Crystal and Luna still won't tell me everything, because now she says we need to get everyone together before she shares and I'm -" she cuts herself off. She's not actually going to wring Luna's neck, but they've been in frosty silencce for the last day, the tension having settled in after their latest argument.

"Not the point. The point is... I need the Silver Crystal. Hemachan's going to give it to me if he finds it, if he can, but, if we could find it first, that'd be great. So I'm here to tell you guys everything I've gotten out of Luna, and - out of my dreams, too."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I mean.. how do you accidentally post stuff?" Naru shakes her head, boggled at the ineptitude of adults. (current company excepted. Generally.)

"So.. it's like.. legit a thing?" Naru starts there, cause SHE hasn't been having dreams about it, nor has Luna been sharing anything while she's been home to listen. "Alright.. so Evil Bosslady wants it.. you want it." Naru nods a little. "What's it do? Or is that what you're about to get to? Right." She hunhs softly. "I figured it was like these mystical things that Obsidian is in theory looking for in souls.. not super likely.. is this possibly one of those?"

Because that would be super obnoxious, all things considered.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Current company need only be mildly excluded- although Kyouka is not entirely tech-inept, she is certainly not up on the smartphones and social media to the level of many of her contemporaries. Being on her own and without much in the way of financial resources for her teenage years means she never really had access to reliable internet or the newest and coolest phones.

    She listens to Usagi's words in silence, clearly taking more from the girl's demeanor and expressions than from the words themselves, to judge by the seriousness of her expression as she sips from her coffee. When Usagi finishes, she lets Naru speak, then speaks up herself. "I have a confession to make of my own, before you begin."

    "I don't know much about this Silver Crystal, but this isn't the first I've heard of it. I actually snuck into your room, Usagi-chan, maybe.. six weeks ago? Two months? A while back. And had a chat with Luna about it. The reason why is because Himeko-chan appeared to me in a dream and told me, among other things, to 'find the Silver Crystal'. I didn't know what it was, other than it was associated with you Senshi, so I went to ask Luna about it."

    She shrugs. "She wouldn't tell me much, because she didn't trust me. But I got the sense it was important. I haven't heard or seen much about it since then. Until this whole thing. So I believe you that it's important for us to find... but I'd really love to know what you know about exactly why that is."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi's lips tighten when Kyouka mentions seeing Luna, her expression saying clearly that her cat might just be getting skinned - but then her expression shifts when she mentions Himeko, and she bites her cookie harder than necessary when the words find the Silver Crystal are repeated.

That's getting a touch too close to her dreams, thanks!

"It's definitely a thing," she says first, sitting up finally and rolling her shoulders a bit with a wince - okay, she's definitely been sitting craned over her phone a little too long - "And I don't think it's in anyone's soul. Probably? Me and Rei-chan went to Princess Dia's ball so we could see if her treasure could be it... it wasn't, of course."

It had been very cool, she guessed, to see the world's biggest diamond carved to a person's face, but it was not the Phantom Silver Crystal.

"The Phantom Silver Crystal is half of why Luna woke up us Inner Senshi. The other half is - looking for the Princess. A... long time ago, like, fourteen thousand years ago, all of us Senshi were guardians of this - kingdom, I guess. It... fell. We lost. The Dark Kingdom - the people Hemachan works for even though he doesn't want to - they, were the ones who... beat us. But we... got another chance. Queen Serenity gave us another a chance, to try again. To beat the Dark Kingdom, but most importantly, to find her daughter, the Princess. And to find - the Phantom Silver Crystal."

She pauses again, looking down at her hands. She's still weighing Setsuna's grief, the horror, of being the sole survivor, of being all that was left, of -

"The Phantom Silver Crystal provides miracles. It has - apparently, practically unlimited power. The queen - Queen Serenity used it to make us live again, when we were all killed, and to, to seal away the Dark Kingdom, so they couldn't just do what they wanted with Earth. Fourteen thousand, one hundred and fourteen years." She doesn't remember the rest of the numbers, times, dates that Setsuna had rattled off. She looks up at Kyouka and Naru both. "Mamochan is really, really sure it can let Himeko-chan live again."

Which should probably say everything about why he wants it found.

"I've been having dreams for months about it. About - a boy I can't remember, in my house, or at the hospital, in gardens, in palaces, on horses, in a rivers - asking for it. Find the Silver Crystal."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru listens, drinking her coffee, and is quiet as Usagi speaks. She's quiet a moment or two after as well.

"I should have brought more cookies." is her first reply.

"Alright." Naru considers how all the pieces fit together. "So re-incarnated for round two.. or perhaps just the next round if that wasn't the first go around between you and the dark kingdom." She pauses. "So if the dark kingdom got sealed away.. they're clearly back, is that because the silver crystal ended up going missing, so that seal is breaking down? Or.. was it released?" She's clearly struggling to quite articulate what's rattling around in her head.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka seems to be listening to this speech from Usagi quite seriously. Her expression is a mix of grimly understanding and speculatively sympathetic- an odd sort of serious, which perhaps reflects some shared experience although what that may be she fails to articulate.

    "Himeko-chan said that too." She notes. "She said 'Find the silver crystal, find the Princess' to me. I don't know why she said it to me specifically... as far as I know, I had nothing to do with this ancient kingdom of yours, and I'm not a Senshi. So I don't know why she saw fit to deliver this message to me, unless perhaps it was because I was supposed to tell it to you. If that's the case, I'm sorry I didn't at the time, although I did tell Luna. It seems like you didn't need me to tell you though- you clearly know more about it than I do at this point."

    She sips her coffee, then glances to Naru as the girl asks some very pertinent questions, and sighs. "You know, I understand this thing is powerful, but I really don't trust artifacts which are supposed to grant wishes or make miracles. It seems to me that if such things really existed and worked as advertised, the world would be a lot better... or maybe worse... than it is today. But whether or not I believe in miracles doesn't change the fact that this thing is either very powerful, or enough people believe it's very powerful that they're going to do whatever it takes to get it, and for our purposes those are essentially equivalent."

    She frowns slightly. "So I am going to have to echo Naru here. If this Silver Crystal was used to both reincarnate you and seal away the Dark Kingdom, why is the Dark Kingdom here. Why did the seal fail? And if Queen Serenity used the crystal to do all this, why do we have to find it? Why didn't she leave it somewhere you could easily find it, or give you some clues, or something?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I don't know," Usagi admits, "I don't know if - the Phantom Silver Crystal's just been on Earth this whole time and no one found it, or if it got brought back into the world with all of us, and I don't know if we were all reborn now because that's when the Queen's spell wanted us to be and it just happens the seal broke or if it's because the seal was breaking or anything, for sure, and Luna is being sooo annoying about not saying anything. She wants to tell us all together so she can answer all our questions at once."

Which Usagi can understand, a little, but it's very frustrating when she wants answers right now. She's wanted answers since she was handed the Moon Stick, which feels like it was a long time ago, when it very objectively wasn't.

"What Luna has told me about the Phantom Silver Crystal is that it's very dangerous in the wrong hands. It's supposed to be with the Princess, I think - it's why I was hoping Princess Dia was our Princess, but she's not. I really don't know if it can do all that we hope it can - maybe it can, I hope it can - but I was born to find this thing."

And isn't that a thing, to know? Most people spend their whole lives trying to figure out what they were brought into the world to do - and here's Usagi, who knows exactly what her life is for, this time, and maybe every time. She hasn't really confronted that thought, if this is just her purpose in the world for every turn of the karmic cycle, and she's definitely not doing it now.

"The Princess... we're trying to find her, and the Silver Crystal. And I have a lead, on that - I think... I think Himeko-chan might have something to do with it, and I want to go check out her shrine, with Mars-chan - Naru-chan, I would want you to come, really, but her shrine was full of ghosts and a part of Himeko-chan might be trying to become the goddess of the dead, and I don't know what that will do to someone not transformed -"

She has dumped so much on them in that single statement - "But the Silver Crystal is the bigger problem because now everyone in the city could be after it, and all of Hemachan's asshole coworkers are after it too, probably, and I still don't know where it is!"

She drags both hands down her face, tired. "Don't sorry, Inai-sensei. It wouldn't have really helped, back then, because I was already having dreams about it. I already knew I needed to find it, and - I really care about Himeko-chan but I'm really, really hoping she's not the Princess, because I do not want to have to tell Luna that our princess is a ghost who was killed ages and ages ago and who was almost turned into a kami of murder by people praying to her and now she wants to be the goddess of the dead."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"So much for being a housewife." Naru teases, oh so gently, about Usagi's previous life goal, as she notes that she was born to find the Silver Crystal.

Naru listens and drinks more coffee. It's a lot. Clearly it's a lot on Usagi's shoulders too.

"So we're looking for a crystal, and a princess. And both could be.. anyone or anywhere... possibly anywhen as well, but for the sake of our sanity, we're going to aim ourselves at the here and now, because .. yeah." Naru considers a moment or two longer.

"I don't know either." She acknowledges on the notion of the shrine full of ghosts and her untransformed self. "I don't seem to be fully mundane, but that does not escape the reality that I am still fully squishy human and not transformed, even in combat. I probably shouldn't be there, no matter how much I might want to be there. We'll see. We don't always get to choose such things." There's another moment of pause. "Goddess of the Dead, hmm?" Naru considers that and then moves over to her own desk.

Clearly the time has come where she is no longer confident on keeping all of this in her own head and she retrieves a notebook and a pencil and starts making some notes. "So.. there's a few things though.. Silver Crystal is magical, yes.. so won't it just sort of look like nothing special to the mundanes?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka huffs out a short breath. "Well, whether or not one believes it can do miracles, having it fall into the wrong hands definitely sounds like it's something we want to prevent, so I totally believe that's true." She says of the Silver Crystal. She shakes her head a little bit. "I understand where Luna's coming from, but considering the situation I think answering a couple questions more than once is a less bad alternative to someone with those wrong hands finding the crystal first."

    She nods her head to the talk of Himeko's ambitions. "Can confirm from independent source. It seems like Himeko-chan is attempting to ascend the vacant throne of Izanami-no-Mikoto and become the new goddess of the dead. Or part of her is, at least. I am unclear on whether this is really a bad thing or not, although my source seemed to believe that her making the attempt is dragging the world of the living and land of the dead closer together, and that apparently is a bad thing. For what it's worth, Himeko-chan has also mentioned to me having visions of a fallen ancient kingdom, but I'm not sure it's the same as the one you're talking about. She's old but my impression was not 14,000 years old, and a lot of kingdoms have fallen through history. Still, I don't have a clear answer."

    She nods her head to Naru, and adds, "I think this video," She gestures to the phone, "Might not be as big a deal as all that. I'm not saying it's nothing, but. It seems like the bad guys already knew about the Silver Crystal, and the vast majority of people won't be able to recognize it for what it is even if they did find it. The only effect here is other magicals learning about it which is not great, as it adds an element of unpredictability, but you never know.. maybe someone we like will find it and solve the problem for us."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I know, right? I just wanted to be a housewife," it's a lament and a whine, but not one laced with true grief. For all that Usagi really doesn't want to be some amazing warrior, she's not... entirely regretful of the way her life has changed. Except for now, anyway, when there's all of this going on. "Setsuna-san is pretty confident that the Princess and the crystal will be here in Japan, because all of us were born here - or, drawn here, in her case, in the right time to be each other's friends and peers and - annoying jerks, I guess."

Yes, she's thinking of Uranus.

"So for the sake of my sanity, I'm hoping she's right after all, and we'll find them both here too. But now that it's all over ClockApp, there will probably be all kinds of fakes, and people making up stories, and all kinds of things." Everyone wants to be famous, after all! "That's what I'm really worried about. It's going to be really hard to find the Crystal when everyone is making up stories - and also, I mean... I think just the Dark Kingdom, knew, before. Now, if anyone believes it - probably everyone will know. And the bad guys will probably believe it's real, because they know Hemachan when they see him."

She does not need La Crima trying to eat the Silver Crystal, or Riventon snatching it for his guns, or the Butterfly Man deciding it was Miraculous-Enough.

"There's definitely something like that happeing - the dragging, thing." She looks exhausted, for a moment. "Hyakki Yagyou was last week - the one hundred demon parade, you know? It was a lot more than one hundred demons - and they were all - in the flesh, or close to it. They were in our world, and they still are. They're slipping in, and half the time when I go on patrol, I'm purifying a youkai instead of a youma, and that never used to happen."

A pause.

"Right, I can purify stuff now, that's a new thing I can do."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Is she trying to race the dusk zone? See which horrible location can merge with earth first? Youkai vs youma.. fiiiiiight!" Naru's voice presents it as if it's a new fighting video game on the market, except that it is entirely too real.

"I mean.. yes, there will be fakes and you.. and Mamoru.. will be hunting down false leads, and finding a lot of lack of energy. Which will be a time waster, but hopefully nothign more than that." Naru is optimistic on that point, probably too much, but still.

"That does explain the change in what I find when I'm out and about.. I.." Naru looks a little sheepish. "Just thought they were some funky type of youma, to be honest. Although they dont' drain the same, but now I'll try and keep an eye on the proportions. It might give us a clue as to which realm is getting closer to merging.. basically who is winning on the merge race."

Naru blinks at Usagi. "Ooh, that's handy. You come with your own happy juice! Excellent."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "At least the land of the dead, home to yokai and ghosts, is natural. By which I mean, it's meant to be linked to our world. Sure, them being in contact isn't exactly healthy for the majority of normal people but.. it's not the same as the Dusk Zone." Kyouka shakes her head. "That's unnatural in the extreme, at least when talking about the rules reality is supposed to play by. I definitely think Midnight Tokyo is the bigger threat, but then again.." A mildly sardonic smile, "When both will kill you, I suppose the difference is merely academic."

    She shakes her head, though. "I'm sure you're right, to a degree, Usagi-chan, but I also think this may work to our advantage more than it ends up being a problem. Because sure, like Naru-chan says, you'll be chasing false leads. People will be making stuff up. But all those people looking... those are so many extra sets of eyes you wouldn't normally have. Some of them might be bad sure, but at least an equal number won't be. But this can work out for us. Hematite's boss may have unwittingly done us a favor. What we need to do, more than look ourselves (although we should do that, too) is watch the watchers. Because 10,000 people looking for a thing is likely to find it a lot more effectively than 10 looking for it. All we need to do is make sure when somebody does find it it's either one of us, someone who will bring it to us.. or someone we can take it from." That last said a bit grimly.

    She holds a hand up. "I'm not saying it will be easy or anything but.. this is definitely likely to force a resolution more quickly than both sides just searching in secret for ages. And frankly, I'm the sort who enjoys a nice, big frantic race over a slow, stealthy creep any day of the week."

    At the mention of purifying, she just says, "Nice. Now I have someone other than just Wako-chan to call if I need some purifying done. She's always good for it, but I'm sure she'll appreciate having a backup if she's out on a date with Boyfriend-kun or whatever."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I hope she's not trying to race the Dusk Zone," Usagi groans, "But yeah, I guess if I had to pick, at least the youkai are like... supposed to be in our world. Technically. I guess."

She is very reluctantly admitting this. "And - Naru-chan!!! Have you been running away from youkai too?"

Why is she so surprised? Of course Naru's been encountering youkai and youma. She is definitely, one hundred percent, not a mundane, not with how much everything wants to chew on her.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe - having everyone looking for it will be a good thing. Because, yeah... I guess if it came to it, I could steal it from a ViewTuber a lot easier than I could get it from Sunbreaker."

Stealing was wrong. Unless it was for the sake of the world.

And a little smile, finally, "Yeah. My own happy juice, complete with a pointy stick to jab at them if the happy juice isn't enough."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I mean.. if I have to pick, I pick neither." Naru points out with a gesture of her pencil.

There's a faintly skeptical look from Naru to Usagi at her surprise. "Um.. yeah? I mean, not as much. From my perspective, youma are definitely winning."

"Reallocate to it's destined purpose." Naru corrects. "I mean.. we don't need to steal it, per se. We can exchange it. Or something. We'll figure that out if it comes up, first we need to find the thing."

Naru can't help but giggle a little at the mental image of Sailor Moon jabbing purification at people. "Is the stick to make sure you get it into all of the nooks and crannies?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka gives a little half-smile. "Stealing is wrong, but a little wrong to do a lot of right is a bargain I think most of us could live with. I officially give you permission to steal a thing if doing so will probably save the world." She says, as if she has the authority to make such a ruling. Well she is an Arbiter- in a legal sense that means she gets to decide the case, right??

    She walks over to one of the desks, sipping her coffee again and then placing it down as she paces a few steps in each direction. "I'm not saying the situation is ideal. I'm just saying that we can turn it to our advantage with a little bit of effort. We already have Hematite on the inside, so to speak... like you said, if he finds it, or can get it, he'll give it to you if possible. There's a chance it won't be possible, sure, but having him willing to do that is a lot better than not having him willing to do that. So we've got hordes of mundanes who might find it, but won't know what they have, a good number of mahous on our side who will hand it over willingly, and a relatively small number of bad guys who will take it for their own purposes. Frankly, I like our odds."

    She scrubs a hand back through her bright red hair, mussing it. "Ahh, y'know," she gives a faintly wolfish grin. "It's stressful, but I never quite feel so alive as when there's a potentially world-ending race in the making."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Naru-channnnnn, the youma want your energy, but the youkai might eat your liver!" Or other organs, or disembowl her, or a bunch of other things - "But I guess it's not like you can just stop going outside."

She deflates, already accepting that alright, she can't just wave a hand and make it so her friend doesn't see trouble.

"And reallocate does sound a lot nicer than stealing, but, if it came to it... I guess I'd steal to make sure we got it. One person out of a jewel is a lot better than someone like Jadeite getting his hands on it."

Absolutely not. Inai-sensei is right about that.

"I guess you're right. The odds are better. There are a lot of people who would help us - and a lot of people I need to make sure know to give me, Venus-chan, Mercury-chan, Jupiter-chan, or Mars-chan the crystal - and a lot less who would want it for themselves. It could be... worse."

Ohhh, she hopes that wasn't a jinx. And oh, she does not want to be Inai-sensei when she grows up.

"Honestly? I think it's just because it looks pretty. I'll show you, when we get home. But it would make a pretty nifty stab-and-jab tool."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'm hardly running up to them and offering them a nosh on my internal organs." Naru points out to Usagi with a chuckle. "So far, so good on the dodge from youkai. I'm aspiring to keep that record alive a while longer." Because it's true, she can't just stop going outside, and her ability to attract the wrong kind of attention is legendary.

"I've had some good conversations with Jadeite, but I worry for him. I worry for all of them, but Jadeite for sure." Naru mms softly and nods a little. "Ideally that part just doens't happen and we dont have to extract it from any of the 'ites."

Naru glances over to Kyouka at that wolfish smile and returns it with one of her own. "I.. can kinda see where you're coming from there. I just would prefer if our world ending crisies were considerate enough to make an orderly queue, rather than rushing in all at once."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka shakes her head slightly. "It'll work out. I believe in the world's continued desire to exist, and I believe in us." She says firmly, with a more genuine smile. "Just have a little faith, alright?" She picks up her coffee again, taking a sip.

    "As for right now, it sounds like I have some work to do." She sounds genuinely excited, like it wasn't just talk that she is invigorated when the stakes get high. "Let me know if you do find anything, alright?" This to both the girls, before she smiles again. "Don't worry, Usagi-chan. If you were literally born to do this, then I think you have the best shot of succeeding of anybody, right? Destiny is a bitch, but sometimes it works in your favor. If you can grab it by the horns and force it down the path you want."

    She heads for the door. "Thanks for filling me in. I'll be in touch." And she's gone out the door.