988/Putting 'Inai' In Perspective

Putting 'Inai' In Perspective
Date of Scene:	09 January 2024
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	Kyouka invites a few of her trusted students to her apartment for a bit of storytime regarding her past.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Kazuo Saitou, Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Wako Agemaki

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    The address that Kyouka provided was to a two story apartment block in a quiet residential area of Tokyo relatively near to the school. It's not an upscale neighborhood- workman class would probably be the word. The streets are narrow and quiet, there's a convenience store on the corner. The building itself is one of those blocky two-story affairs with motel-style rooms that open onto an exterior walkway rather than an interior hallway. The building is clean enough, but it's clearly on the old side, with chipped paint and rust showing in spots on the handrails.

    Kyouka's apartment is at the end of the walkway on the second story, Apartment 2C. It's a single-room flat, not a whole hell of a lot bigger than the average dorm room at RHA. It has a narrow foyer, a little kitchenette with a sink and hot plate on the left as you enter, and then the carpeted living area, currently home to a kotatsu. A single bed is pressed up against the wall, and on the opposite side there's a sliding glass door out onto a private balcony which currently has miscellaneous laundry hanging over the railing. There's a small bookcase with a bunch of photographs on it, and a quite small TV facing the kotatsu.

    She's made an effort to clean- which is to say, the clutter-bomb which usually appears to have gone off has been curtailed into some semi-organized piles. Clothes have been stuffed into drawers, empty cans have been removed to the recycling, and there are no dishes in the sink. It still feels a little bit cluttered, but you'd have to stretch to call it messy and it's certainly not dirty.

    "Make yourselves at home." The counselor tells her students as they arrive... only this isn't school business, and she's not a counselor tonight. She's wearing jeans and a t-shirt and looking more or less like she could be a college student just a few years older than her guests. Which, of course, she could be.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There is such a thing as coming prepared. Kazuo has a carrier of storebought coffees in one hand, and a box of assorted sweet baked goods in the other arm. (That box itself has a smaller box inside tucked into one corner, labeled 'Agemaki.' Three guesses what's in that.) Their hostess is silently offered first choice of the carrier's contents. It's like a hello! Except caffeinated.

He has also, given how many of them their are, brought a couple of spare pairs of slippers, one of which he steps into promptly. Efforts to clean shall be respected.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Inai-sensei's apartment complex isn't grungy - or well, maybe it's a little grungy, but it's not that bad, but Usagi is still very sure that the school should probably pay her more. After all, she's doing a lot of work for them! She got her arm broken that one time!

Don't worry about who did the breaking.

But once they're in the apartment, Usagi wastes no time with settling herself at the kotatsu, cozying up for warmth because winter is so cold. She'd changed out of her school uniform in favor of long pants and her highly saturated purple jacket, which was flashing fiercely with the pastel pink turtleneck she wore underneath. Did she care? No! She was warm.

"Thanks for having us over, Inai-sensei," she chirps, and resists asking if they needed to stage a protest to get her a raise.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru does, indeed, make himself at home -- he shrugs out of his Kyouka-provided leather jacket and slings it over the back of whatever looks like it regularly has coats slung off it, leaving his shoes by the door, and he starts holding out a little tiny wrapped box to Kyouka, one corner of his mouth turned up. Then he sees the whole big thing Kazuo's carrying and puts his tiny box on top of the pastry box. He says, "Thank you! Your place is very nice," and then literally scrambles to ... get second place at sitting at the kotatsu. He nudges Usagi.

Naru Osaka has posed:
There's going to be plenty of food, as Naru has brought muffins. This clearly felt like an occaision that required muffins. There's a lot of teens being shoved into Kyouka's poor apartment, and she tucks herself into a corner over by the far side of Usagi. At least she's little. "thank you for inviting us, Inai-sensei." She has already changed out of her school uniform, into warm tights and a cozy sweater dress.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Thank you for the--" Wako begins as she steps out of her shoes, but she's quickly derailed by the sight of the living room. "Ooh, a kotatsu! We've never had one, since the island doesn't get that cold." She bows politely - Vice President nimbly keeping his balance on her shoulder as she does - and then beelines to claim a seat at the unexpected luxury.

She hasn't finished sitting down before the fox launches himself from his perch and squirrels his way up Mamoru's arm instead, investigating the tall boy and his short hair with intense interest. Wako smiles ruefully, but has long since given up on apologizing for him.

Kyouka may have to evict someone from her kotatsu if she wants a place at it, but she did, after all, tell them to make themselves at home.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka looks mildly bemused at the gifts that are offered... though she takes a coffee. Normally at this time of night she'd be cracking open a can of beer (peeking into the mini-fridge in the corner would find it well stocked with those) but she does at least have the presence of mind to not be quite that informal with teenage students as guests. Coffee will do just fine.

    "Thank you." She tells Kazuo, and Mamoru when he adds his box to the pile. She walks over to the kotatsu and sets the boxes down onto it, Naru's muffins included- taking a moment to peek into Mamoru's just in case it's something she doesn't want to share. "Thanks for coming." She says sincerely to Usagi and Naru, making no complaint as the kotatsu is claimed by the various guests. With this many people, the apartment feels close but not claustrophobic. It's just big enough to handle this crowd.

    "The reason I asked you guys to come over is because after all the shit that's happened lately I was just.. well, I got thinking." Kyouka leans her butt against the top of the bookcase, which is just tall enough to be at hip-height when she's standing, crossing her arms. "You all trust me to give you advice and help with training and stuff, but you don't really know that much about me. I don't... really care to relive the particulars of my days as a magical girl that often, but the fact of the matter is there aren't that many people left who remember those days at all. And I kinda started thinking maybe there should be."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo does not attempt to join at the kotatsu. Because that kotatsu ain't big enough for the both of, er, his and Mamoru's legs, honestly. He does claim a coffee for himself, and set the rest down where Naru and Mamoru can reach, because obviously nobody needs to sleep tonight. Ahem. That says, he finds a patch of wall to lean himself against where he won't be disturbing any of Kyouka's property.

His only reaction to what Kyouka says is a slight blink and frown at 'relive the particulars of my days as a magical girl.' No displeasure at the rest. So at least he's not complaining about listening.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Somehow, a muffin ends up in Usagi's hands. Somehow. A true mystery for the ages. Once it's in her hands, of course, it's in her mouth, a nice chunk of the muffin top being happily devoured even as she listens carefully.

It's true, they don't really know that much about Inai-sensei. Usagi had kind of stopped wondering about it - Inai-sensei was Inai-sensei, she was their teacher, and it wasn't too often she wondered what teachers did outside of their jobs. Even teachers she was very fond of. But now that it was mentioned...

She snuggles up against Mamoru with her muffin, frowning a little.

"There aren't that many who remember?" She echoes, "How come? I mean, even with the veil, your friends would remember, right?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Much like how the magic of muffins ending up in Usagi's hands, there's a coffee in Naru's hands in relatively short order. Because of course there is.

"I mean.. they'd remember that they were friends, but not the magical side of it all." Naru comments to Usagi, before looking over to Kyouka. "Right? Like you don't just vanish, but the magic does."

Naru frowns a little. "I've got some notes and stuff about what we do, in the Shed. For when we get older, so the younger magical kids can hpefully read it. I dn't know if that'll work. Maybe it vanishes too."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"So that you don't get crazy," agrees Mamoru, as placid as a glacial lake while Vice President knocks his glasses briefly askew, clambering all over him and checking out his haircut and -- presumably -- lack of dark energy.

He also takes out a little notebook and a click-pen from his jeans' back pocket and shirt pocket, respectively, and clicks the pen, and puts them both down on the table in front of him in favor of thieving one of the coffees. Which was for him anyway. He glances up and back at Kazuo and smiles, and then Usagi's snuggling in and he can't help but kiss the top of her head, it's right there.

Then comes her question, and his face falls a little: he's realizing right now that something's not common knowledge, and internally cringing--

--and then he blinks at Naru. "What shed? Wouldn't that be kind of damp for notes?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "The Fade takes away more than just your powers." Kyouka agrees, with a half-smile, nodding to Naru. She doesn't seem sad, exactly, but perhaps a bit melancholy a she continues, "You lose all memory of magic and magical creatures and what you did having to do with both. I have friends... from back in the day who are still around. Retired, as we like to call it. They remember me, my name, that we're friends. They don't remember any of the rest of it. If you ask them about what we actually did together, they get this blank look and then come up with some nonspecific answer like 'oh boy, the fun we had' kinda crap." She shakes her head. "Its honestly creepy and I hate it. I don't know if written records will make a difference," this last to Naru, "But it's worth a shot."

    "I guess it's especially painful for me because I didn't really have any life besides the magical one, y'know? My mom died when I was twelve and I ended up on the street, homeless and an orphan and looking out for myself. When the magical girl gig came along it was a godsend for me.. but it was really all I had. I guess that's why the Headmistress thinks I'm good for teaching this stuff. It's really all I've ever known, at least for the last decade or so."

    "But it also means when my old friends forgot the magic... there wasn't much left of me for them to remember."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako has discovered the melon-pan set aside for her. Important discussion is happening, so she just flashes Kazuo a bright, grateful smile and listens carefully to what's being said as she noms. She's soon looking very thoughtful... and then pensive. The hand holding the melonpan rests on the top of the kotatsu and she frowns faintly, keeping whatever thoughts are spinning behind her eyes to herself for the moment.

Vice President seems to satisfy himself with regards to Mamoru's haircut, which at least means the glasses are safe from further dislodgement. It doesn't mean there's not a fox rolling around on his shoulders, though. Usagi's Mamoru-side odango may catch some batting from a fluffy fox-tail.

"...that must have been lonely," Wako comments quietly, in the wake of Kyouka's explanation.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo inclines his head to Wako's smile, then puts an idle hand out toward the top of Mamoru's head, but does not ruffle hair. It's just a wordless hello to Vice President while he's up there. His attention is on the conversation, too.

"I'll show you the Shed later," Kazuo says to Mamoru, "if nobody else gets to it first. Short version, it's where most of the whiteboard got moved to, a moderately but not completely safe space to store things for sharing."

And then Kyouka starts talking about the Fade, and ... it's not a frown that Kazuo starts to show, as such. It's a mildly irritable expression. As if she were describing, not a doom, but an obstacle.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a look of dawning and profound horror on Usagi's face - and maybe some of the people here (Naru for sure), have heard her mention she's looking forward to being out of the game, that she wouldn't mind losing her powers - now there's another side of that, dawning on her for the first time. That losing her powers would mean losing her memories - and in a way, losing herself. It would mean losing the hows and the whys of her friendships, the whats and the wheres, even if she remembered the who. What would that even do to her time with Mamochan? If she didn't remember Hematite, and he didn't remember Sailor Moon -

It's definitely a new load to add to the bucket of nightmares she'd be having.

And she feels bad about that, because as Inai-sensei is explaining - this is already her life.

This happened to her. Maybe she hadn't forgot, but her friends had! They didn't know about so much of what happened!

"How does that not drive someone crazy?" She demands, horrified. "Inai-sensei, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... that's awful."

Lonely just didn't seem like enough! To be an orphan and lose everything and then to lose it all again - she's squeezing Mamoru's hand under the kotatsu, looking sad and wan. It's a good think Kazuo explained the Shed, because she doesn't think she could right now.

"Is that how you remembered? Because being Stellar is so much of you?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I figured if it didn't work, all I'd be out is a little bit of time, and some paper." Naru gives a little shrug at the notion of uncertainty on the written word. She blinks over at Mamoru and then starts to giggle softly. "Sorry. Yes. The Shed is light side meeting space. Security is not amazing, but clearly we managed some. Any of us can show you, now."

Naru frowns a little at Kyouka's story. It's tragic and sad and a lot to get past. "That's really /hard/." She comments, Usagi having said much of what she is thinking.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru puts his coffee down after sipping it, and carefully looks past odango and fox back at Kazuo to give him a quick nod: okay, on the Shed-- then to Naru too. 'Not now' is obvious. Then he picks up his notepad and pen again, and starts literally taking notes one-handed.

Then he scribbles out that page, flips it, and starts taking notes again -- this time in Japanese, with a vaguely annoyed look of his own. Neat, small writing, swift for all that-- and then he stops and squints at Kyouka. He starts to ask something, but Usagi is squeezing his hand and comes up with a version of the question he was about to ask, and he squeezes her hand back.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka looks apologetically at Mamoru. "The Shed is a secret meeting spot for good guys. Sorry we couldn't tell you before. I'm kinda surprised nobody has yet but.. it has been kinda busy the past couple weeks. As I'm sure you're perfectly aware."

    She starts unwrapping the chocolate orange, which she totally took off the table once she saw what it was. She wants to eat it, but its also something to do with her hands. Her grey eyes are ashen, but her expression remains contemplative, rather than sad or anguished or anything like that. "I'll get to that." She says to Usagi. "Both how it didn't drive me crazy, and how I managed to avoid it in the first place. For now, I want to tell you guys a little bit about what Magical Tokyo was like when I was a kid. Because it was kinda pretty different to how it is now."

    "There were a lot less mahous. I think most of you have heard me allude to that before. Like, a lot less. I think in all of Tokyo there were ten, maybe twelve of us at various times. That I knew about- its a big city, it's possible there were a few others that went under the radar but we did tend to stand out. There were fewer monsters too, but they were... I don't want to say scarier, because I'm not aiming to diminish what you all face. I think it was just that there was so much less help. It was a very Wild West sort of feeling. No rules, no structures. RHA wasn't a thing, not the way it is now, a place to gather people together."

    She gives a bit of a lopsided smile. "I wasn't on my own though.. I had a partner. A girl called Fuyuko. Some of you actually know her.. she's... still around, too." She shifts slightly, and points to one of the photographs, one showing an obviously-much-younger Kyouka and Fuyuko making peace signs at the camera. "We were a type of magical girl called Lux Tenebrous- it literally means 'dark light' in Latin, a bit on the nose I know. Don't go looking for them now, we were the last ones. There were only ever two Lux Tenebrous at a time. One light and one dark. I don't mean dark as in evil, I mean dark like... the night sky. Sneaky shadows. Comforting silence. I was the raging fire, she was the quiet chill, but we worked well together. Aurora was always going on about light and dark in equal measure, how you needed both to keep things right. So that's what we did... mostly by killing a whole lot of monsters."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Sneaky shadows," Kazuo repeats, low-voiced, and there's a brief tug at the corner of his mouth. Very brief. For the most part, he lets the others do the interrupting; they're better with this kind of thing than he is.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako nibbles a little on her melon bread, but she's clearly distracted by absorbing everything Kyouka is telling them. Even Vice President has settled down, after a friendly headbutt to Kazuo's hand, and seems to be paying attention.

"Who was 'Aurora'?" Wako asks. "Something like--" She glances towards Usagi for a moment. "--your Luna, for the Lux Tenebrous?" A moment and then she makes a faintly apologetic face, like she's asked a question she suddenly thinks may not be all that important in the face of what Kyouka's trying to convey to them.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's funny. It's obvious that he was excluded and why and it makes perfect sense, but there's still a twinge of irritation when Kyouka outright says it, and Mamoru gets a little bit of a :T face for a second, but only for a second. "Better security than Mahou Fite Club," is all he says-- and then she mentions Fuyuko and he looks with vast interest at the picture of two magical nerds in like 2016, squinting across the room. Then he undoubtedly makes Wako feel better by asking, "Does Yuuhi-san have a black and silver coat? I know that shouldn't be my takeaway but this is my one shot at asking."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
A Wild West with only a few mahou and a whole city to protect... Usagi's heard bits and pieces of this, but she'd never put it together into an idea that things were truly and fully... different.

Fewer monsters but less back up too. The monsters scarier, because the city was - lonelier. Emptier, but only of help and hope.

All the fights being like her very first one, trying to save Naru with no one else to fight by her side, except - a partner.

Just one, though. And they were the last... but why? She kind of... doesn't want to ask. She feels like it will be a sad story. "That's pretty cool, right? Complimentary. It would be like if the Senshi were just Mars-chan and Mercury-chan - fire and water, light and dark, things that fit good together."

She kind of assumed Aurora was her Luna, honestly, and now she's blinking, because it's probably for the best that Wako-chan asked, and - "Wait, Mamochan, you know Inai-sensei's friend?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Why are there no more?" Naru asks curiously. "I mean.. I suppose every magical tradition has such diverse ways of selecting their mahou, but it's interesting to me that one has .. functionally.. died out." She sips from her coffee, glancing around at all the other questions getting thrown towards Kyouka. A curious lift of her brow at Mamoru's question, indeed.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "No," Kyouka says, perhaps a bit testily to Mamoru. "She has a fancy black dress because she was a vainglorious edgelord wannabe-" she catches herself before going off on a rant, clearing her throat and smoothing her expression. "Anyway, no, unfortunately, matching uniforms was not part of the package. And yes," this to Wako's question, "Aurora was basically our Luna. He's the one who chose us and gave us our powers, and sorta gave us our marching orders although lemme be honest with you, we kinda did whatever we wanted."

    She pauses, and has the good grace to look mildly embarrassed, like a mom telling her kids about how she used to go to ragers on campus or something. "Fuyuko and I were.. kind of a lot, back in those days. Thinking back on it now I kinda cringe a little bit but.. well, this ain't just tooting my own horn you understand. We were really good. Like, so good at killing stuff that we got arrogant. I think the descriptor that stuck with me was "completely insufferable narcissistic god-complex-having fuckwads".. don't curse kids, it'll get you in trouble. Anyway, the point is, we were hard to like. But we did have friends. Two friends, to be exact." She points at another picture, this one showing them slightly older but still teenagers, along with a dark-haired boy and a brown-haired girl. "There weren't really teams back then, such as it was. More like loose alliances to deal with big problems. Friendly cooperation when threats were big or territories overlapped."

    "Those two, Kaito and Chiharu, were the only ones who would put up with Fuyuko and I. Chiharu was the type who just.. didn't care. Completely unrufflable. Nothing bothered her. I think she thought hanging out with us was some kind of badge of honor, like, 'look how chill I am, these nutjobs don't even bother me'. Kaito and Fuyuko were dating. Y'know, eventually, when we got a little older. He was, in Fuyuko's own words, a big chuuni loser, but it was a term of endearment. You know, most of the time."

    Naru's question is met with, "I'm getting to that."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru holds up his hand in front of him like 'sorry, sorry' even if he's grinning a little at the minirant, and then he nods to Usagi. "She works at Obsidian," he answers, "in HR."

But then he's silent again, going back to taking notes. He tries not to imagine what it would be like to be dating someone who forgot. He tries not to imagine a lot of things.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
If a fancy black dress makes you a vainglorious edgelord, what did a military style jacket make you? Usagi isn't going to ask, because she's suddenly wondering if her fuku actually was a mandatory uniform, or if one of them had envisioned it and made it stick and all the rest of them stayed with it because it was familiar and if that was the case could she change her fuku?

Could she have different shoes? Or a fancier choker? Or different earrings every day of the week!?

Hardly the point of the conversation, but definitely where her mind strayed. "Somehow, it's just not a shocker that you did whatever you wanted, Inai-sensei."

It's not even too much of a shocker to hear that her teacher used to be described as well - a lot of insults. She was pretty confident now, and used to having her way. It made sense when she was twenty-three - it must have been a nightmare when she was Usagi's age, and still like that. And there's a part of her that - that wonders if the was is because he forgot, or something worse, but she doesn't want to - ask.

A part of her really, really wants to believe it's the first one.

"So the four of you were kind of like us. Not all from the same place, but all deciding to come together anyway."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako has fallen quiet again, still looking very thoughtful as she listens. The melonpan vanishes only slowly, in little nibbles, which is perhaps a testament to how seriously she's taking these revelations. It takes a lot to distract Wako from food.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't add anything to Mamoru's statement about Fuyuko, either to confirm or deny- it's true, and she'll say more about that in a minute anyway. She does give Usagi a bit of a Look when she seems to suggest that maybe Kyouka hasn't changed as much as she might like to think. It does work better as a 23-year-old than as a 14-year-old though, that much is definitely true.

    She does respond to the latter statement Usagi makes though. "Sorta. We were friends. Meant a lot back then, to have people watching your back." She gives a bit of a sigh, shifting where she leans and popping a piece of the chocolate orange into her mouth. "Shit changed in 2016. There was.. well, it was an apocalypse. Not the first we'd faced but pretty bad. We did what we could and we stopped it... obviously." A wry look around the room, the obvious implication that if they hadn't they wouldn't be here having this conversation. "But the cost was high. Kaito.. died. He sacrificed himself to stop the world ending. It was a noble, heroic thing, and it needed to be done for the rest of us to live. I'll always respect him for making that choice."

    Her lips twist into a sour expression, her eyes looking to one side, unwilling to make contact. "Fuyuko didn't take it so well. That was her boyfriend, after all. She... went a little bit crazy. She killed Aurora, then tried to kill half the port district because she didn't think they deserved to live when her boyfriend had to die. I stopped her. The only way I know how to stop anybody." With violence, is the clear yet unspoken implication.

    She huffs out a breath, as if wanting to fast-forward through this part. "Anyway we spent the next couple years vigorously trying to kill each other. Without Aurora around we had zero supervision, such as it was, and it just spiralled out of control. Kaito was gone obviously, and Chiharu kinda.. didn't want anything to do with us anymore. I think she didn't want to have to choose a side, even though it's obvious the 'don't kill people' side was the right one." aka Kyouka's side. "But she was just like that, y'know. She didn't want to fight her friends, so she just didn't get involved."

    "Anyway, she was a bit older than us, so she Faded first. Forgot all about us, or at least, the important parts. Meanwhile Fuyuko and I were still extremely seriously trying to murder each other, with the kind of unthinking anger you only get when its family who betrayed you, y'know? Its not just anger, its like.." She flounders, lost for words, trying to explain what its like to be so mad at someone you were so close to. "Anyway, clearly neither of us succeeded. I think when Chiharu hit the Fade it was kind of like a wake-up bell for both of us. We were just turning 18, and obviously our time was running out, too."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru listens quietly, sipping her coffee and watching Kyouka. She nods a little at the mention of a previous apocalypse. That doesn't surprise her too much.

There's a little wince at the costs called for in the prevention. She can utterly see how that price might need to be paid, and she doens't have to like it.

"It's not just anger.. it's /personal/ and it's /passionate/." She offers to Kyouka, with a little nod of understanding. And sympathy.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Several of the people here have ... very good reasons to be familiar with that kind of anger, and that kind of sacrifice. Not all to the same extent. But that kind. Which might be why Kyouka picked them to be among the ones she talked to.

When Kyouka says what age she was turning, Kazuo drops his attention to his coffee for a moment. Gives it the irritated look. Then drinks it, and looks back up, more thoughtful.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There may be red ears at the talk of heroic sacrifices. There may be a little bit of egregious pen clicking in the moment after 'it's not just anger', and Mamoru stops when he notices it's him. He doesn't say anything. The less he says, the faster Kyouka will get to the part where there's a way to avoid forgetting. Maybe. But more importantly, the faster he won't have to think about--

--so many things.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi doesn't giggle, but if the mood were lighter, it's clear she'd be smiling and giggling at the Look thrown her way. She didn't say it was a bad thing!

But the mood isn't lighter. There's a story being told.

It's a sad story. The kind that doesn't end well. There's a flinch, when Kyouka explains Kaitou's sacrifice, and there's no hiding the way she looks at Mamoru, looking over his features, as if memorizing his face, his features, again, as if making sure to remember him like this instead of like that. He hadn't died at Soryuu Shrine, but he had on the Moon. Serenity's grief had once been Usagi's and her terror had been enough to crack whatever seal had kept Serenity from her all this time. She doesn't think she'd be angry enough to kill people, if Mamoru died, or one of her friends, or Naru-chan, but she can almost understand that terrible awful unthinking need to do something. To destroy.

Hadn't Serenity shoved a sword through her own chest, to make it stop?

So she bows her head, because hadn't she been the one to say that if Naru went evil, Usagi would still be her friend, at her side, yes, talking her down, but - still... at her side. Not fighting her.

That must have been... really hard," she says quietly. "And then - your friend forgot about why you were even fighting."

And they were old enough to forget why they were fighting.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't respond to the comments, other than a brief nod to both Naru and Usagi. She's on a bit of a roll here, and it's obvious she doesn't enjoy talking about this. But like she said- the more people who know, the more real it is. The more it seems like it actually happened and wasn't just some shared fever dream. That, at least, is important to her.

    "So anyway, we probably would have just... Faded out too. Probably still hated each other, but in a much less magical street-brawl kind of way. Except somebody... something showed up and made us an offer. Both Fuyuko and I. Our new boss." She grimaces faintly. "You might have heard the term 'Arbiter' thrown around in connection to me, or to Fuyuko." This last mostly to Mamoru. "Or maybe not. But that's what we are now. We made a deal with a being I am increasingly convinced is some sort of devil, Fuyuko and I, so that we could continue to be... us."

    "It... he, he always comes off as male to me although I'm not sure how I know that, calls himself Balance. He's.. I dunno. A god? A spirit? Some kind of bodyless presence. He believes in, get this, 'balance'. Clever name, huh? Thinks that if the good guys or the bad guys ever actually win, everything turns stagnant and boring and the only way to keep the universe rolling forward, progressing, is to foment chaos. So he takes people like Fuyuko and me and cuts us a deal. Train the next generation. Keep the fight going by making sure there's fighters to fight it. That's why I work at the school. Why Fuyuko works at Obsidian. It's our geas. In return, we get to remember... and to keep a small amount of our power. What I can do now, its a pale shadow of what I used to be capable of. But its better than nothing."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo sighs, and lifts a hand up to rake back through his hair. "It hasn't met very many humans, at least, if it thinks we need help to keep fighting each other." A pause, and a glance across toward Kyouka - and it doesn't take being Mamoru to read that as we need to find a better way to do this. Because of course dozens upon dozens of literal generations of magical children and teenagers never, ever came up with that idea before.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
The corners of Wako's mouth curl downward. "From what you said, though," she muses, "it hasn't been all that long that there was a 'next generation' to train in the first place... in Tokyo, at least. So... what was this 'Balance' doing before that?"

She considers the question for a moment longer, then shakes her head. "Anyway, it sounds like you don't agree with him." She takes a bite out of her melon bread, chews unhurriedly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And Mamoru looks from Kyouka to Kazuo, then puts down his pen and shakes out his hand, letting it sit for a moment on the heated table before stealing taiyaki from Kazuo's pastry box. He'll get a muffin later.

"I was about to say," he says before biting the head off his fish, "there are always going to be people willing and able to do what we do, and there will always be people willing and able to wreck things on purpose, for fun or money. Not that I'm arguing you getting to keep your powers and your memory -- I'm just -- your boss is a little bit of an idiot."

Then he bites the head off the fish and is sorry immediately because he wants to add to what Wako says, rip.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi is frowning and frowning, because it's not that she doesn't agree with her friends - she does! But -

"Does that mean, he'd want Fuyuko to be training up the next Beryl?" She hadn't been entirely sure what question would come out of her mouth - only that it had, and that she didn't like it. "Because... there's always people who want to help and people who want to hurt, but if he doesn't want things to end, that means he needs more than just herks, right? He needs... total monsters, and people to fight them."

She doesn't like the idea, not at all, but she's played a lot of video games where people won peace for an era, even, and she's kind of been hoping that they can do that, but it sounds like... it sounds like Inai-sensei's boss would want to make sure that didn't happen.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka shakes her head a little bit, her expression mildly impatient. Not particularly with the questions, since given the knowledge they have the questions make sense, its just- "No, you don't get it." She says, perhaps a bit more waspishly than intended. She dials it back a moment later, fidgeting agitatedly. "Sorry, you.. well you don't get it, but you don't have a reason to get it yet. What you're saying makes perfect sense except something is off. With the world. That's why Balance is here. Why he made us this offer."

    "I don't know what it is, exactly. I don't think he knows either. But he has some way of telling.. hell, it's not even that hard. Something's changed. All the mahou, like ten times as many mahou. And monsters too. Magic is kinda.. I dunno, going haywire? At least that's what it seems like to me. Like there's too much of it or something. And Balance isn't afraid we'll stop fighting. He's afraid that somebody is going to win. Us or them, it doesn't matter to him, either is equally bad. But he talks about a crux of events, a crisis point.. something. I dunno like I said, I don't think he really knows either. But the point is, shit's out of whack. That's what we're supposed to be correcting."

    "Only," She takes a deep breath. "Look, when we took this deal, Fuyuko and I were both desperate. Neither of us wanted to Fade. Any port in a storm, y'know? But as time has gone on, I think we're both realizing that this whole thing is kinda bullshit. Not.. helping you kids." She's quick to add that, holding up a hand as if to forestall protest. "I would have done that anyway. Or at least, I don't regret it. Y'know maybe the job steered me in that direction but I legitimately think its work worth doing. But the whole 'Eternal Struggle', this idea that nobody's allowed to win.. I hate it. And the more I think on it, the more I hate it."

    She glances to Usagi as the girl asks about 'the next Beryl', and she shrugs. "Look, Fuyuko and I we've.. chilled out, some. When it comes to each other. We talk again. Without violence involved. Most of the time. And I think we're in agreement that things need to change. Just we're not quite sure how to accomplish it, yet. The Fade is hanging over us like a Sword of Damocles- if we break our deal with Balance, boom. We lose everything. But maybe..." She trails off, looking into the distance, momentarily lost in thought.

    Then she shakes her head. "Anyway. That's the story of me. I'm a punk-ass kid who was only ever good at one thing, pretending to be a guidance counselor because some spooky voice in my head told me to in exchange for not forgetting most of my life. It's not even.." She pauses again, then heaves a sigh. "There's not even really a point to this. Just wanted to get it out there, y'know? Makes it all feel a lot more real."

    "So thanks for listening to me."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"So, that just means we can only get rid of Balance," Mamoru says calmly, "if we get rid of the Fade first."

He finishes his coffee, then lifts a finger. "Maybe we can get rid of Beryl before that, just saying," he adds as he puts his empty coffee down.

Bold words from a kid eating taiyaki.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako startles just slightly that that 'you don't get it' - at the sharpness of it - then stills and listens closely, keeping silent until Kyouka has finished. When she does, and when she's thanked them, Wako smiles and shifts a little where she's sitting to bow her head in reply. "Thank you for telling us," she says. "That was - it was a lot. It's a lot to think about. I'm glad to know about it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I definitely... definitely think we need to get rid of Beryl first. Because the Fade isn't trying to kill us. But then we have to get rid of the Fade before Inai-sensei's boss... But how do we even get rid of something like the Fade? I mean! It just - happens."

She doesn't want to be a debbie downer, but this is all a lot.

How do you even get into your only friend killing your Luna and trying to kill you and being your enemy and now your friend only you're both stuck working for a jerk and -

Inai-sensei's life sounds really hard, and Usagi would like to hope it is not a Sign of Things To Come.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Of course there's a point to it," Kazuo says quietly. "You had maybe ten magical people in the whole city. Half of them were about your age, the other half didn't want to deal with you. So like you said. Nobody knew. Now we do. And you got Osaka a place where information gets shared, gets passed on to younger people. So what happened doesn't have to be forgotten. What you've been thinking, learning, living - maybe we don't understand all of it yet. But we understand some. And that means you're doing something more important than just teaching us, or giving us a hand up, or even hopping in to save our asses. You're making it possible for people, a lot of people, to start thinking about the whole problem.

"I mean. We're monkeys, so some of us are going to lose some fingers and hands trying to mess with it. But if this Balance thinks there's a crisis point coming -" He gives a quick, feral little smile. "It might not be a crisis point for us it has to worry about."

Like Mamoru said.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru has been quiet as the explinations go on, and the conversations and questions swirl around them all. Thoughtfully drinking coffee, and trying to shuffle various pieces around like one of those scramble puzzles. "Balance sounds oddly like the creature who offers puellas their powers." She comments quietly, less of a question per se, but more of a musing tossed into the mix. "I wonder how much your.. both of your.. desperation played into its hand. Did it seize upon an opportunity? Lay in wait for just the moment, or did the coming of this inflection point set things into motion. More questions than answers, certainly."

Naru drinks a little more coffee. She's left the snacks for others, but certainly seems glad enough of the coffee. Her smile for their punk-ass counsellor comes easily, perhaps just a little bit gentle. "I dare say that we.. all of the mahou at RHA.. are much better served by a punk-ass counsellor who deeply understands our challenges rather than a prim teacher who has forgotten. I am glad that you are here for us, Inai-sensei."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't exactly look startled that her kids 'get it', at least partially (based on the information they have, the conclusions are sound), but she does look appreciative. There's this feeling of... not stage-fright exactly, but almost shyness. As if the things that were important to her, life-defining in so many ways, would simply be viewed as not that big a deal. Hearing them taken seriously does a lot to encourage her.

    "There may come a point where Balance needs to be dealt with, Fade or no." She tells Mamoru quietly. "If so, I accept that. I've gotten more time than most already. But yes... ideally, we find another way around the Fade first. If such a way exists. Fuyuko and I have been looking into that. So far no concrete plans but we've really only just begun."

    Glancing to Usagi as well, she adds, "And yes. None of this is urgent- I mean, big picture it is, but in terms of weeks and months? We deal with imminent threats, the kind actively trying to kill us, first. Beryl probably top of that list. You'll get no arguments from me on that front."

    Kazuo gets the biggest smile when he speaks, perhaps all the more unexpected since he's been so quiet up to this point. "You're right. Thank you Saitou-kun. These past few years its been almost like being a... living ghost. Like I was still doing all the stuff a living person does, but nobody could really see me. Didn't understand who I was, and what I had done. I'm not saying this one conversation suddenly changes all that- you all know more about who I am now than anyone save Fuyuko, but its still just one conversation. But it's a start, and that means a lot to me. And yes.. I realize the Fade isn't just a problem for me. It's a problem for everyone, a problem which has gone unsolved for so long because all the people effected by it forgot it was a problem to begin with. Maybe we can do something about it. Maybe we can't. I don't know. But finding out is really one of my top priorities."

    She looks at the whole group again. "I trust you guys. You've proven yourselves to be capable and kind and willing to stick your necks out for others. If we can solve this problem, it would be a huge thing for me, personally. But it would also change your futures as well, and everyone who comes after. I think that's something worth doing. I think it would change the world for the better. And honestly, I need help to accomplish it."

    She performs a slight bow, not begging, but politely requesting. "Thank you for hearing me out." She straightens up, brushing a little imaginary lint off her shoulder and looking mildly embarrassed. "Now let's eat all these pastries and stuff so I can send ya'll on your way. I got imoprtant grown-up stuff to do." She grins, reaching for a muffin.