749/The Same Game

The Same Game
Date of Scene:	12 November 2023
Location:	Okujoo Ramen
Synopsis:	Kyouka Inai and Fuyuko Yuuhi have a talk about work. As arbiters, they might be on opposite sides of the game, but they still share a mutual interest in keeping the league afloat.
Cast of Characters:	Fuyuko Yuuhi, Kyouka Inai
Tinyplot:	The Game

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Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Okujoo Ramen; it's a comfortable place with an almost classy feel compared to the bars and tiny joints they usually meet up in. Fuyuko's grabbed a space under the open sky, and she's already ordered - ordered a drink, anyway, and an order of karaage for them to split. She's downed maybe a quarter of the beer by the time Kyouka shows, and is looking up at the sky - even at this late hour, you can barely see any stars. Tokyo has too much light pollution for all that.

She raises the can in idle salute, looking Kyouka up and down - assessing her condition at a glance, old habits that refuse to die. "Took you long enough; thought I'd finish the first round before you get here. The kiddies at school working you over?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka steps out of the elevator, wearing her usual casual attire of t-shirt, distressed black jeans and black biker jacket. And sunglasses of course, despite the fact that its night and we're outside. Some habits do indeed refuse to die even if people want to take them out back and shoot them. Spotting Fuyuko easily, she saunters over, giving her lopsided smile as she pulls out the other chair and drop down into it.

    "Continually, but this was just a case of not having my shit together.. feels weird to get up here via an elevator." Too much rooftop hopping in the past, actually riding the elevator like a normal person to get to the roof of a building just seems surreal. She signals a waiter with a raised hand, then just says, "Another one of whatever she's having." Gesturing to the beer. Pretty hard to go wrong with something like that.

    She does at least deign to remove the sunglasses at this point and tuck them into the pocket of her jacket. "Fancy joint," She notes, even though it isn't really. "What's the occasion?"

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Fuyuko's still dressed for work - her black blazer folded down beside her, leaving her in just a dark grey blouse and dress pants, one leather-shoe clad foot tap, tap, tapping. She's amused to see Kyouka wearing her sunglasses even at night, not that it's a surprise - Kyouka's always thought the sunglasses look was cool, why would that change now? The mention of riding the elevator sees the amusement fall, though.

There's an almost sympathetic glint in her eyes, before she shakes it off, raising the can to her lips. The beer's bitter, with notes of other flavorings added - supposedly, chocolate and smoke, but it all just tastes like beer to her.

"Tell me about it - I have to take an elevator every day I go into the office."

Two years in and it still weirds her out that she'll always have to take the elevator or grab a mundane vehicle if she wants to go somewhere.

"Figured the same old, same old gets old after a while, don't you think?" She slides the plate of karaage across the table after taking a piece for herself. She considers. "That, and I have a few... questions. Like, one, how many kids are you dealing with at that school?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Well it's a little different when you're going into the building... I assume your office isn't on the roof." Kyouka says with mild sarcasm, as her beer is brought to her. "I know you're doing well for yourself, but you're probably not quite at the top of the tower yet." Her beer is delivered and she picks it up, taking a sip and licking her lips in appreciation afterwards- she likes the flavorings, even if Fuyuko doesn't appreciate them.

    A mild shrug of her shoulders at the concept of the 'same old' getting old. "I dunno. Sometimes I feel like my life could use a little more routine." She says with hopeless longing. "Feels like every day it's a new crisis recently." That's straying perilously close to the forbidden work-talk, so she wasn't going to say any more as she reaches for a piece of the chicken.. but then Fuyuko just crosses that line anyway in a much more blatant way.

    Her grey eyes instantly become guarded, as she eyes other girl across the table. "Student count isn't a secret, Fuyu-chan.. you can see it on the website. What was it, like 5k or something? It's a big school."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Not quite," Fuyuko says, acknowledging the point. "Still, it would be a lot cooler to bust a window to get into my office every day. Less routine, anyway."

The karaage is excellent, by the by. Crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside, pretty well seasoned but definitely benefited by the sauce offered on the side. Fuyuko chews it silently, considering Kyouka's guarded gaze. They've broken their - well, it's not a rule, more like a semi-serious truce. Talking about work never goes well, and she can't even blame Kyouka for this - that mention of crises didn't have to be about work. What she had to say, did.

"Student count, sure. But - how many have you found for work? I'm not asking for their identities, Kyou-chan. You wouldn't give me that, and I don't need it. But even the bits I'm hearing make it out like there's a fuckton more than there ever were before."

Fuyuko pauses. She hates the thought of giving anything up, even when she wants answers, even when she's the one who brought it up, it burns to even think about it. Not because she cares about Obsidian, but, "It sounds like plenty more than I've found, anyway."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka laughs at the comment about busting the window every day. "I feel like you'd be wracking up the on-the-job expenses pretty quick if they had to replace your window every day. Corporate overlords aren't too keen on that kind of thing, are they?"

    She definitely appreciates good karaage... or any good food, as Fuyuko more than knows. She chews it with must more aplomb than Fuyuko is doing, even if her guard remains up at the unexpected, perhaps unwelcome question which strays into the territory of things that shouldn't be said if they want to maintain a peaceful dinner.

    "There is." She allows after a moment, swallowing her bite of chicken. This doesn't seem like giving away too much information, it just seems like telling a fact. "There's way more kids.. special kids, than there used to be. When we were young sure, but even just in the past couple years."

    She pauses, then adds, "I don't know about what you've found, but being at a school makes it relatively easy.. after all, even a bunch of 'your' kids go to the school, too. But... I'm sure Balance told you this too, but he told me that we're approaching some kind of critical point, or a flux point or something. Like something big is coming. I'm sure that's why there's suddenly so many more people with magic showing up although I'd be lying if I said I knew exactly what for or whether its somehow intentional or just a side-effect.."

    This isn't giving anything away. This is just comparing notes on the state of the world. This is okay.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
The karaage and beer are a good combination, the chicken not so oily that it churns her stomach. The waiter will probably be back to see if they want to order some actual ramen, but for now, they have the chance to just - talk.

"I've found a... not a normal amount for our day, but a normal-ish amount for the last few years, I guess," Fuyuko says, and she looks at Kyouka for a second, then away, back at her can. "Balance mentioned it, yeah. Smarmy attitude about it too, never any details about what the so-called critical point is, but."

Sometimes the bitterness of it threatens to drown her, that there are so many kids running around - even in Obsidian, even if she hasn't taken the opportunity to meet with every last one of them, she hears of them, and hears the complaints from the supervisors in their various divisions, and it's more in just Obsidian than there had been active for the entirety of their careers.

Thinking about what could have been if is enough to dip her thoughts back to dark places. It's a reason she's avoided this conversation, has tried not to think about just how many there are now, all to stop the threats facing the world now instead of thosde that had come before.

"That's what I've been thinking about. If there's more of them to meet the threat, or more threats to meet them, or some other bullshit we haven't thought of."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'm not sure he actually knows." Kyouka says, of Balance. She takes another karaage bit and bites into it, then sips her beer before continuing. "You know.. I think he knows something is going to happen. Maybe he can feel the energy buildup or.. or see some kind of something but I don't think he knows what it is any more than we do, but he doesn't want to admit that to us, of course, so he just dodges the question." She sounds annoyed.

    Then she blows out a breath, leaning back in her chair. "Or.. I dunno. I have no proof of that. It's just the feeling I get. But it could just be me not liking to feel like somebody else knows more than me." Even when that somebody is some kind of trans-dimensional god or energy being or whatever the hell.

    "I don't know." She says, finally. "I feel like.. is more really going to be better, when they're not particularly more powerful, or skilled, or experienced? I guess it depends on how long it is until this crisis, but even then, every one of 'em has an expiration date let's not forget. We're supposed to-" She cuts off, then huffs out a sigh. "We're supposed to be training kids to fight each other. That's what Balance wants. His dumb eternal struggle. I don't see how an external threat would be his concern in that way unless it has a chance to disrupt the game entirely. I'm half-convinced this proliferation is a side-effect rather than causation." She's using big words for her, her tone more analytical than Fuyuko may be used to hearing. Perhaps working in a school is rubbing off on her. "Like, we're not getting more magic kids in answer to the threat, but rather whatever the crisis point is is simply causing them to be produced passively due to.. I dunno, more magic in the system, or some kind of overloading or something."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Yeah, well - I hope the bastard does know. If he does, we can trick it out of him. If he doesn't, we're just stumbling in the dark."

Like it had been with - no. She's not going to think about that. She's not going to slam back her beer, either. She's not surprised Kyouka would rather think Balance didn't know; she doubts Kyouka is surprised at the way Fuyuko thinks, either.

"Working at a school's good for you," her teasing is more fond than mocking, even as she's - surprised, a bit. The Kyouka she knew would have called that a bunch of thousand yen words, but the logic is familiar - thought through with less of the hot-headedness she's familiar with, but it's not entirely unfamiliar.

She doubts Kyouka can be entirely unfamiliar.

"Yeah. The endless war, them vs us, us vs them, riling the kids up and making sure they know how to fight long enough to carry it on forever and ever," she rolls her eyes a little, remembering Balance's attitude. She doesn't care about the cause, outside of doing what's necessary to keep up her end of the bargain. "An accident, then? Whatever's coming creating more opportunities for more kids to be recruited, and Balance doesn't care because more of them just means more for the war... maybe that, then."

She doesn't like that, either, but... Fuyuko flicks her eyes to Kyouka. Thinking about crises - but she doesn't know anything about those crises. And she doesn't have any reason to threaten her cushy job, just because Kyouka might be anxious about the little heroes she encourages.

"If you think about it like that, it almost makes you wonder if they'll Fade out faster than we did. Maybe there's more of them just to face what's coming - but if that's the case, who knows if they'll last. The ride might end for them even faster than it did for us."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Stumbling in the dark," Kyouka says with a faintly acidic tone, as she does take a perhaps slightly-larger-than-is-dignified swig of her beer. "Sounds like the usual state of affairs for us.. besides, I thought you were right at home in the dark." That could be taken multiple ways- while currently the 'dark' arbiter working for Obsidian, Fuyuko also was the dark Lux Tenebrous and had darkness powers, so whether or not that's taken as a jab depends on how the girl chooses to receive it.

    "It's not... where I would have seen myself." Kyouka admits, of working at the school, taking another bite of chicken. "I don't think it suits me, honestly. The rules and the behavior.. I can't smoke on campus, y'know? They won't even let me wear my jacket in public. 'bad influence' on the kids.. bullshit." She rolls her eyes. "But I do feel like I'm doing good here.. if that's worth anything."

    "Balance might care," She goes on, responding to Fuyuko's thoughts, "Or he might not. But whether or cares and whether he knows are two different questions with two different answers. Either way I don't think it's good news for us mortals."

    She twists her mouth sourly, her expression disgruntled, as she drinks more beer. "Like there's only so much magic to go around, and by spreading it out thinner it's making them less powerful and shorter-lasting? I don't like that idea. But I don't have any evidence against it.. I guess only time will tell. Also dunno if I think that's a good thing or not."

    She leans a forearm at the table, considering Fuyuko. "Despite all we've done to hang onto this life... most would probably be better off, happier and safer, Fading out sooner than later."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Fuyuko could take that as a potshot, as a jab at the past, but she doesn't, taking a long swig instead before shaking her head. "Not like stumbling in the light is a thing. Unless you have something to confess?"

If one was going to stumble, it was generally going to be in the dark.

Besides, she'd known what she was doing in the dark, before. Even now - maybe especially now - she wasn't willing to say she'd done something so lost as stumble in her past.

"Oh please. You? A bad influence?" There might be a hint of old bitterness there, but if there is, it's faint enough that she shouldn't be called on it. "If the worst you teach those kids is that leather jackets are cool and worst things than cigarettes could kill you, you're doing great."

They both know what Kyouka could be teaching them, and how much more she could do to be a bad influence to a crop of magical kids that trust her.

"It would make sense, right? Why are there so many now, when there were so few before, unless it's because the problem needs more bodies now, instead of later? When it was us -"

But she cuts herself off. Shakes her head. "For some of them, maybe. Some - I get the feeling they'd do as much as we did, to keep what they've got."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka laughs about that. "You're damn right," She says. "There's a lot of harsh lessons that need to be taught.. sometimes I see how bright-eyed and bushy-tailed these kids are and it almost hurts to have to encourage that but.." A faint shrug. "It is what it is. Besides, I have at least a few keepers." She lifts one corner of her mouth in a little smirk. "But I guess with the sheer amount, there would have to be at least a few."

    She finishes off her beer, then raises her finger towards the waiter, ordering a refill. She looks back to Fuyuko after that, quirking her brows. "Maybe. I feel like you're probably working with a different... caliber of up-and-comer than I am. Maybe a bit stronger on the ambition, huh? Either way though, I guess you're not wrong.."

    She shakes her head. "I just don't like operating with so little information. We both know the kind of mistakes that leads to. And we might not be playing for the same team but we're still playing the same game, and it's no good for either of us if the entire league gets cancelled."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"It's better they learn it from you than from one of the brats I've got," Fuyuko snorts, and puts in an order for a refill as well, and another plate of karaage. What? It's good, alright? She's curious about those keepers - but she's not going to ask. Way too likely to open her up to having to answer Kyouka's questions, and considering her crop of absolute little monsters are sure to be causing a hell of a lot more trouble. "With as many as there are, at least a few have got to last as long as we did."

At least a few. If they didn't die, first.

She shoves a bite of chicken in her mouth at the thought, barely tasting it, using the moment to not say something she'd regret.

"More ambitious, more driven. They know what they want, that's for sure."

The problem with playing hero was always having to wait. See what comes next, see who does what to who and when and figure out a way to stop it, if you could. At least when you were the villain you got to step to your own beat.

"You're not wrong. There's too much in the air and the tots are all running around, chickens with their heads cut off, doing this and that and everything. It'd be easier to manage if we knew what was coming, but when's it ever been easy?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka makes a sour noise. "I don't suppose you could just tell your 'brats' to take it easy for a while, huh? There's a lot going on out there. It's honestly a bit hard to keep track of." She makes a bit of a face, taking a drink of her second beer. "But I'm practical enough to know you won't and also to realize that's not actually our biggest problem."

    She sighs, toying with a bit of karaage between her fingers. "I don't think it's ever been our place to manage, Fuyuko. We're as much pawns in this as anybody else.. or at least that's what the hands moving the pieces want to believe." She quirks her lips to the side, a dissatisfied expression. "I've never been content to let other people have their way without having a say." That, at least, Fuyuko knows to be very true.

    She lifts her eyes again. "You know there may come a time when we have no choice but to flip the table."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"I wouldn't, and even if I did they wouldn't listen," Fuyuko says dryly. "Anymore than you could get yours to quit ganging up on them."

Why ask for the impossible? They have their own goals. Their own ends and means.

"Coaching, managing, it's the same thing. Balance wants us to keep a war on, then Balance wants us to keep influence the players. Keep the rivalry alive and well. We might not own the teams, but we know more about the shape of it than any of our teeny-bopper players." When it comes to the conflict, anyway. Sure, the finer details, the plots for the apocaylpse, they might not know, but the endless nature of the grind -

She grows serious, taking note of that dissatisfaction, and straightens.

"I'm aware."

The whole point was the war. Both sides could exchange blows, win little meaningless victories, deal seemingly fatal blows - but it was never allowed to be over.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka makes another face at Fuyuko. Thinks about saying 'ganging up' isn't fair when we're talking about protecting lives and property. As much as the two might call it a 'game' the fact is the damage is real. Some is inescapable and Kyouka isn't the type to cry over necessary sacrifices. But she does take offense to doing everything possible to save people's lives being seen as somehow 'cheating'.

    She doesn't say it aloud, though it's likely the other young woman knows what she wants to say anyway, because it's far from the first time that disagreement has been touched on. "Just don't forget it, alright? You might be cozy with your corporate job and your lack of concern for the welfare of others but I'm only along for this ride until I decide I'm getting off. And when I get off I don't intend to let the car keep driving." So many mixed metaphors today, she's really on a roll.

    That doesn't change the fact that her grey eyes are steely. "For now it's necessary to be a good little passenger and do my job. But I'm already getting fed up with the rules, the lies, the lack of information. Sooner or later, I'm making a grab for the wheel." Her gaze is steady. "I hope when that time comes, you'll be there beside me. Because as much as we may not see eye to eye on the details, big picture? I know we're looking at the same view."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Fuyuko cracks the new can the waiter brings to her and takes a long sip. Resists the urge to dump the can in Kyouka's lap by reminding herself what a waste of good beer it would be. That's what complimentary water cups are for, and she'd turned down the complimentary water cup.

She knows what the objection is. She doesn't particularly care - at the end of the day, the game was going to keep going, people were going to keep getting hurt, and if the loss of a bit of energy here and there was the price of ambition - well, that just sucked for the saps who went about their lives, never knowing what was really happening.

"Don't pick at me because you took a shit school system job instead of something that pays well." Her chopsticks stab at a piece of karaage, and she raises it to her lips. Pauses, before she takes a bite. "You think you're so special the wheels will stop turning because you want them too?"

Fuyuko shakes her head, bites into her chicken. Chews, slow, and thoughtful. "Fuck it. If I get mine, what do I care if the car goes off the track?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Fuck no," Kyouka says, with a half-snarl in her voice. "It ain't about wanting." And suddenly there's the old Kyouka that Fuyuko remembers- the half-feral girl from the streets with her delinquent accent and her angry eyes. "It's about seeing a system that sucks and tearing it down because it's not fair to anybody, and because there's no point to a game nobody can win. Nobody gets anything in this world just by wishing for it, no matter the bullshit that meddling aliens and soft-hearted do-gooders peddle in order to get gullible kids doing what they want."

    "You gotta make the results you want. And while I'm not naive enough to say destiny isn't a factor, I fully believe that nobody, and I mean nobody, is railroaded in this life. With enough heart, enough will, enough rage, you can break those chains and forge your own path. I've done it. You've done it. We can do it again, if we have to. And the longer things go on the more and more certain I am that it's going to come to that, sooner or later."

    She falls back, anger replaced by glum resignation in her expression as she tips her beer back. "I'm not looking forward to it. Because people are gonna get hurt. But I'm also not willing to just accept a shit status quo because somebody told me I have to."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
And there it is. There's the rage that powered that half-feral girl that Fuyuko had called her other half once. That fire that said she could fix something, as if any of this could be fixed.

Fuyuko laughs. Soft. Cold.

"I wanted to break things too." And she regrets that, some days. Most days, maybe. But she'd wanted to break it all too, make it all end, and Kyouka was the one who stopped her. Fuyuko might hate her for that for the rest of her days.

"What did we do, Kyouka? What did we do that actually mattered? Save the world? They found new players, new threats. All we ever did was earn a recess. You know that as much as I do."

Do it again? They didn't even do it once. What was the point of Lux Tenebrae, when there so many who'd come before, and apparently an endless number who would come after?

"That doesn't mean I'm not along for the ride. Might as well let you get your turn."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka scowls. Firey anger, relentless determination in contrast to Fuyuko's cold, dispassionate cynicism. Ever two sides of a coin, showing opposite faces yet stuck together nonetheless.

    "We looked at the rules laid out for us and we said 'fuck that' because neither of us was willing to just give up and go open a flower shop." A passing reference to their mutual friend Chiharu, retired and now working at such a shop downtown. "And look, we're still here. I'm not arrogant enough to think I can put a stop to threats, to make the world a paradise. But I am exactly arrogant enough to think that I can find a way to undermine and destroy an arrogant bastard or two who think they're in control. Who think they control me and people I care about."

    She shakes her head, tossing back the rest of her second beer and crossing her arms over her chest afterwards. "It's not time, now. For now, you do your desk job and help that soulless corporation churn out another couple bucks. I'll play the helpful, supportive guidance counselor and give these kids someone to lean on. But it won't last forever, that's all I'm saying. I am discontent."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Well, if all you want is to crush an arrogant bastard or two under your heel," and she ought to sound sarcastic, but she doesn't. Instead there's something thoughtful to it, as she considers the idea. It's not like she doesn't work with a number of people she wouldn't want to see stomped on.

And if it came down to it -

Well, it wouldn't be the first time she killed a mascot.

"Your discontent is noted. Want me to file that complaint in triplicate?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I want you, Fuyu-chan," Kyouka says, with a gleam in her grey eyes and a lopsided smile, "To keep your eyes open and your blades sharp."

    "All games come to an end. And neither of us is going to be satisfied without a winner. There's been too much blood spilled, too many promises broken. I don't trust your motives but I trust the result. We're a matched pair, and if we're stuck with each other till the day we both die, you better damn well believe it's going to be on our terms, and nobody else's."

    "We'll settle things between us one day. But before we get that far, there's a lot of others that need settling first. And I can't think of anyone else I'd rather with or against."

    "Thanks for the beer. Next time it's on me." And she's just... gone. With a faint sound of displaced air, the chair across from Fuyuko is empty.

    Leaving her with the bill, of course.