424/Lend Your Ear To Someone

Lend Your Ear To Someone
Date of Scene:	14 September 2023
Location:	A park near the school
Synopsis:	Kazuo returns the borrowed saber to the Galactic Maiden, who turns out to be ... the girl with the fox that stole Kazuo's sunglasses. Sometimes melonpan is an unexpectedly good investment. Especially when Kazuo has other questions for Wako. Wako has answers for Kazuo. And Wako also has homework for Kazuo. Lucky Kazuo?
Cast of Characters:	Wako Agemaki, Kazuo Saitou

---

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako TXT: Hello Saitou-kun. This is Agemaki.
A photo of a small fox with Kazuo's purloined sunglasses perched on his head is attached to the next message.
Wako TXT: And Vice President.
Wako TXT: Inai-sensei gave me your number so that I could get in touch with you, since I forgot to get back Takuto-kun's sword the other day.
Wako TXT: Is there somewhere it'd be okay to meet?

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There is a pause. It is entirely possible that Kazuo is staring at the phone. Not because of Vice President, either.

After a moment, there is a blank text with an attached image: a map of a reasonably local park with a small yellow circle designating an off-the-paths clearing.

Kazuo TXT: Would this be acceptable? School property is also fine if you'd prefer, but it seemed likelier to have someone official notice.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako TXT: That works fine! :thumbsup: Whenever you're free.

And so, the park! Wako seems to have followed the map to the point Kazuo circled well enough. Tucked off the path as the clearing is, he'll most likely hear her before he sees her - with Vice President in his spot on her shoulder, she's holding her cell phone up resting horizontally on the tips of her fingers, singing into it as she waits.

"That sad burden of yours
When you can no longer bear it
Stop walking
Lend your ear to someone
You're familiar with this memory, right?
Now, close your eyes..."

It's the fox who greets Kazuo first; Vice President takes a flying leap off Wako's shoulder and darts over to circle him, the white-tipped puff of his tail bobbing energetically. Meanwhile, Wako taps her phone off and puts it away after a murmur of "Talk to you soon, okay?"

She's smiling when she turns to face Kazuo. "Thanks for coming," she says, and offers a polite little bow. "I hope I'm not putting you out of your way too much."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Unless Wako's hearing is exceptionally good - which it may be - the first sound she hears of her visitor is the lingering, much put-upon sigh at Vice President. "No," Kazuo says down to him. "It's not for you." The duffel bag he's carrying isn't, anyhow. The sunglasses are, however, taken off, and he crouches down (careful of the ends of the bag) to offer them duly.

Kazuo can't really return the bow from that angle, but nods his head back to Wako instead, and keeps it down for long enough to make up the difference. "Not at all. And if you had been, that would already have been worth it. That song was beautiful."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako lets out a little laugh as she straightens - pleased and faintly embarrassed by the compliment. "Ah--thank you," she says, before fixing a sterner look on Vice President. "No, you do not need more sunglasses. Saitou-kun, don't give him those either."

Vice President gives the sunglasses a speculative sniff, but if anything he seems much more interested in investigating Kazuo himself. He circles again, with more snuffling, and takes the opportunity afforded by the crouching down to scamper up onto Kazuo's shoulders to check him out from this vantage as well.

Wako, observing this, can only shake her head ruefully. "I'd apologize about him, except I have the feeling you don't really mind that much. But if you do, tell me and I'll... well, I'll try to help."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The sacrifice is deemed unnecessary! The sunglasses don't go back on; they go into his shirt pocket. Kazuo says, apparently to Vice President, "Careful with the earring. I know it's sparkly, but trying to run off with it would hurt."

The duffel bag is settled gently on the ground between him and Wako. Kazuo doesn't try to stand up. Fox is still establishing self. "A character witness is worth making sacrifices for, isn't it? Ah ... thank you for the loan." A pause. "And for what you did. We'd have been in a lot more pain if you hadn't been there. If we were able to pull it off at all."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
The earring is of particular interest, but Vice President graciously does not try to do more than nudge at it a little before, it seems, he's satisfied enough to claim a spot on Kazuo's shoulder and settle there for a bit.

Wako, moving to pick up the duffel bag, pulls a bit of a face. "We might have anyway, if Sailor Moon hadn't stepped up like she did," she admits. "I wasn't really sure what would happen. But," her expression brightens, "it worked out, and Naru-chan's all right."

She tucks the bag under her arm, giving Kazuo a curious look. "You're doing okay, too? I kind of lost track of a lot of what people were doing toward the end there."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The bag is just slightly heavier than would be expected if it contained only the sword and belt and scabbard. It might possibly be exactly as heavy as expected if it contained the sword and belt and scabbard *and* a little bit of hastily-acquired baked goods. It is, after all, Wako. He's met her.

Kazuo's earring swings satisfyingly when nudged. Alllll the manyfaceted sparkles. His shoulder is stable, though, as he eases carefully out of the crouch and into a sitting position. "I ... had a little surprise of my own, there," he admits. "I'm doing okay. But there have been some questions that have come up. I was wondering. Would you be willing to talk at all about what you did, when you were containing Osaka-san? Or is that something that one doesn't discuss? I don't mean to ask anything improper."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako's eyes widen just a little. The surprise only lasts a heartbeat, though, before she's shaking her head. "I don't mind at all," she assures him quickly. "If you have any questions that I can answer, I'm happy to help however I can."

On that thought, she takes a moment or two to find a likely spot to sit as well. It's a slightly more inconvenient prospect in a skirt, but she manages. And valiantly refrains from investigating the extra weight in that bag.

"I should warn you... I've realized, since coming here, that there's a lot more out there than what I knew. I'm still learning the words for a lot of it. But I certainly don't mind talking about it, so you don't need to worry about asking."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Words were half of what I was hoping for," Kazuo admits. There's a rueful note to his voice, as if the usual laughter were directed at himself at the moment. "It's hard even to explain why I'm asking if I don't have words to use for it. You were doing something that ... dispersed the tainted energy from Osaka? Or cleansed it? Or destroyed it? Sailor Moon said 'purification,' but that could have meant any of those three."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Purification, yes." Wako bobs her head in a little nod of confirmation. "I mentioned at the start that I'm good at barriers, right? Purifying negative energies, or unbalanced ones, is the other big part of my role.

She muses over that for a brief space, the corners of her mouth turning downward in thought. "If I had to say, 'cleansed' is probably the best way to describe it. It's not about destroying the energy, so much as transforming it into something that's not harmful to people. Does that help at all?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Possibly." Kazuo glances down at his hands, then sidelong toward Vice President, before lifting his head to look directly at Wako again. "Agemaki-san. After Sailor Moon brought down the cabin, there were whirlwinds in the place. Frozen and sharp, laden with something cruel. I was able to fend one off, but my borrowed shield wasn't the best for opposing them, and a second was able to get through. And ... that's where I run out of words. Something changed. I could feel that cruelty. Not as an emotion, but as something I can't name. I could feel it tearing at me, pushing in, trying to make part of me as wrong as it was. And I did -- something. Drew it in to where I could reach it. And burned the wrongness away, somehow, and threw the rest back where it had come from. Is that, does that sound ... not what you were doing. I couldn't affect it till I'd drawn it in. But is it possible that it was related?"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako listens without interrupting, calm and serious, her eyes steady on Kazuo's as he explains. When he stops, when he asks about the possibility, she inclines her head. "I think it must have been," she says. "Not the same thing, like you said. But that cruelty that you felt, that you didn't have words for? It's one of the things I didn't have a name for either, before I came here, but Inai-sensei and other people have called it dark energy. Naru-chan and that whole place were full of it."

Her focus turns inward for a moment. "It almost sounds like you did the same thing I did, but in the other direction. Not pouring your power out to change the dark energy around you, but... taking the dark energy in, and transforming it into your own power to use." Wako's forehead creases as the implications of what she's said begin to sink in. "I feel like you did something really risky, Saitou-kun. Except, you instinctively knew what to do to protect yourself. Some part of you knew what to do."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Dark energy," Kazuo repeats. He doesn't sound unfamiliar with the phrase. But he sits with it a moment after all, considering, before he risks speaking again. "Instinct can get people in trouble. Instinct says 'you need to breathe in,' and doesn't care that you're underwater. The obvious answer is 'this isn't safe, sit these things out.' But there are -- I have reason to believe that that's not a viable choice.

"So I need to learn. To understand what this is, what I was doing. To be able to tell what's safe to do with it and what is becoming part of the problem, and when something I thought was safe is going wrong." Kazuo exhales again, and averts the almost-apologetic look he acquires in favor of reaching carefully, carefully over to tentatively touch Vice President's fur. "You know what you're doing with your power. You learned it somehow. Would you have any suggestions on what I should try? I don't... I've seen a little of what that energy does to people. Not only Osaka. I somehow doubt that holding in esteem courtesy and honor would be quite sufficient as a method of fending it off."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
The breath that escapes Wako sounds a little bit like a laugh. "There's another thing about that too, you know," she tells him with a lopsided smile. "When you have power, even if it's risky for you to use - the rest of the world, of that side of the world that most people don't know about, probably isn't going to leave you alone. Whether you want it to or not."

There's something a little wistful about that wry half-smile, though it's soon replaced by something resolved and purposeful. "So," she says, "you're right. Figuring it out is the best thing that you can do."

Vice President leans companionably into Kazuo's tentative touch, while Wako looks contemplative. "The first time I used my power wasn't all that different from what happened to you," she says. "I did it by accident, without knowing how I knew what to do. Afterwards... mm." Something sparks in her eyes. "Esteem for human courtesy and honor might not be much help with all this, but some of those other concepts will apply just as much to magic as they do to kendo. I used to do purification rituals every day, sunrise and sunset. Correct and rigid training, to mold the mind and body and cultivate a vigorous spirit and I can't believe you made me remember all of that."

Now she really is laughing, pulling her cell phone back out of her pocket to tap out a quick text message to someone. "Sorry. What I mean is, there are ways to start training yourself without actually using your power. Maybe not through kendo specifically, but we can find an exercise that draws on how you felt back there, when you took that cruel feeling and turned it into something else. And," she adds, "I can be watching out for you in case something does go wrong, and you accidentally take in something that you can't get rid of."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo is listening; his attention appears to be on gentle petting of the fox's fur, but his expression mirrors touches of Wako's (her half-smile, her contemplative look, her laughter) even if he doesn't seem to be looking in her direction. And he does glance back just at that spark. And, at the word 'believe,' that echo of her half smile turns into a wickedly impish grin.

    "My mornings are already spoken for," he admits, "but when sunrise is early enough, or if I can figure out how to make up a little more sleep..." He trails off. A pause, and a breath, and more serious: "If you think I've done that, you have my permission in advance to take necessary steps to deal with it. I'm willing to put that on file, so to speak, with any third party you like, so that you have someone else to speak for you if you need it - to avoid any clashes from people thinking you're attacking me for no reason, especially if my thinking's distorted enough that I'm yelling that you are attacking me for no reason."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"It doesn't have to be sunrise or sunset," Wako puts in cheerfully. "My purification rituals wouldn't help you anyhow, even if there was a proper directional shrine here. But some kind of exercise that helps to train your mind and your reflexes with the right patterns, so that when you do need to use your power you're not doing it totally blind. That's where you should start."

She sobers when he does, nodding slowly and perhaps a bit reluctantly as he elaborates on those precautions. "We can hope it won't come to all of that, but... better to be safe than sorry. The important thing is, you're not on your own with it if something goes wrong."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"So. Identify the right patterns. Design an exercise. Use it and keep using it. Right." Kazuo lets out a breath, and his other hand comes up to rake through his hair on his unoccupied side. ... then the grin creeps back, a little more wry this time. "I'm not alone, and I have homework. For some reason, supernatural power is a lot more like regular high school than I expected."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako brings a hand to her mouth to try to smother her giggling. It doesn't really help. "Count your blessings," she tells him, not especially repentant. "I started in grade school."