614/Luck is Needed

Luck is Needed
Date of Scene:	19 October 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Kyouka and Naru have a chat in the infirmary after Naru is shot in scene 600.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Naru Osaka

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    It's but a brief, jarring moment to be teleported by Kyouka, the surroundings blurring and snapping into focus again as somewhere completely different. In this case, from outside the club building to the inside of the infirmary in the blink of an eye.

    It seems the nurse isn't here right now- not that surprising ,as it's well after school hours. But that's fine anyway, as Kyouka, still in henshin as Stellar, lowers Naru down onto the edge of one of the beds.

    She glances back over her shoulder in the direction that must be where the club building is, sensing the magic that way... but she trusts Usagi to be able to take care of herself, and if she can't, she'll call again. She returns her gaze to Naru. "Are you alright?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Okay, that was spectacularly trippy before two teleportations back to back." Naru comments as she sits on the edge of the bed. Not quite so out of it to flop down to laying down, but she looks glad enough to be sitting.

"I'm fine." She confirms after a moment. "Still just a touch dizzy, but I think that's the mix of teleportation and recalibration, and its settling quickly. Immediately after I woke up again, it was really odd feeling, but that's rather to be expected, I suppose."

Naru looks over to Kyouka and there's a wry twist to her expression. "Broke rule number 1.. and now we know they really dont want us to get one of those guns."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka dismisses her henshin after a moment, returning to her normal office clothing, and looks Naru up and down. She seems to be satisfied with what she sees, because she nods her head after a moment. "Alright. Well, Agemaki-san seemed to recover quickly as well, so I believe you."

    She sighs faintly. "Yes. It figures they would have some kind of defense like that. Of course, at least we destroyed one of them. I don't know how many they have, but it can't be that many at this point ,so that's a minor victory. Maybe there's some way to trick the anti-theft.."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Two." Naru corrects, even if she's not rushing to go for a run, she's getting her wits back about her. "We've destroyed two of them so far. I'll have to let Chrono know that destruction is the first objective rather than capture."

"I'm not sure what the trigger is for getting them to blow.. I expect dark energy of some sort?" Naru mmms softly as she considers. "It can't be a held trigger, La Crima was just letting it dangle by the strap."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka nods. "I mean, we destroyed another one, I should say. Hopefully it takes them a while to replace them, although assuming they are too dear may be wishful thinking. I doubt they'd be letting people run around with them so freely if they were that valuable. Still, better destroyed than not, I suppose. I would say the first objective is still capture.. if we can figure out a way to manage it. Failing that destroy, yes.'

    Kyouka shakes her head ruefully. "Unfortunately with magic it could be any number of things. Dark Energy is a decent conjecture, but not every Obsidian operative uses Dark Energy. I'm not saying that's not it, just that other possibilities exist depending on how they plan to use these things."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I've also not seen any other Obsidian operative use it beyond La Crima and the chick that was with Riventon use them." Naru points out. "As she was tossing youmas into the mix, I'd say she's probably a dark energy user, but conjecture certainly."

"La Crima would do better if she brought back up, but I'm not in a rush to help her do this better." Naru gives a little shake of her head. "She's a mess. More than most of them, she's a mess." There's a sigh, deeply rooted, at that acknowledgement. "I think La Crima is planning to use the crystals personally, but I don't know what Riventon wants with them."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'm not convinced La Crima, if that was our shooter both this time and the last time, is doing this in a really sanctioned way." Kyouka says, with a shrug. "I mean, I'm not saying she has the gun without permission, but these attacks seem... poorly planned, poorly executed. I mean, both times we were able to get the crystal back into the victim within moments, before she even had a chance to get near it. And both time's she's given up in a panic when beaten. It feels more like she's floundering than that she's executing someone else's orders. It's possible we can leverage that, but seeing as how we now know the guns can't simply be taken, I'm not immediately sure how."

    "Unfortunately I don't know much about this Riventon." Kyouka says, thoughtfully. "Did you get any clues about his intentions from that incident?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'm not convinced she's entirely working to script either.. or they've given her a terrible plan and Riventon is more clever than that." Naru tucks her legs up under her to sit cross-legged on the edge of the bed.

"Riventon is fascinating, he thinks he's brilliant, and I've yet to find evidence to the contrary, which is always irritating. He also has, as best as I can tell, pretty much zero empathy for others." Naru frowns a little as she continues thinking. "Wait.. no.. I /do/ remember why they're shooting people. Clearly there's still check engine lights in the brain still. Apparently there's some sort of artifacts or something hidden in three people's souls and they are trying to find them." She considers. "So.. having the soul might not be the actual aim, just checking to see what's in it, so to speak. Although I know in the first one, Riventon absolutely wanted it, but that might be a secondary objective."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Zero empathy for others sounds like a product of long-term Dark Energy usage... or he could just be a psycho. Brilliant is less easily explained and more of a problem." Kyouka hmphs. "But I guess the bad guys have to have some talent too, or they wouldn't have gotten this far to begin with."

    She listens to this info about artifacts hidden in people's souls, and frowns. "That.. seems remarkably inefficient. Looking for 3 people in a city of 28 million by shooting people one at a time? If this Riventon is as brilliant as you say that can't be the final plan. So maybe the guns are just a test of the technology.. which is also troubling to consider."

    She nods. "Souls are a potent source of power. Even as just a byproduct, they'd be valuable to collect for one with the lack of scruples to make use of them."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"As much as it would make our lives easier if the dark side folks were all bumbling incompetents.. they are not." Naru agrees with a bit of a resigned shrug.

"I'm pretty confident that they are banking on it being in someone magical.. although that really doesn't explain today's shooting. I wasn't the target, after all. And my magical ability is questionable." Naru considers. "Of course, I don't know if Kin Tanaka has magic, nor do I want or need to know."

Naru nods. "There's a lot going on in Obsidian that needs power and probably a whole lot more that we know nothing about that needs even more power. If your moral compass is either sufficient busted, or missing completely, I can see how this would be a useful harvesting method."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Some proof of concept tests are likely before they'd go after the real targets." Kyouka point out, "However, like we already noted, this La Crima doesn't seem to be fully operating on-script, which means it's likely her attacks may not actually be linked to the overall goal." She sighs.. "The other girl? I didn't sense anything from her. Which only adds to the theory that this is not the main purpose these devices were built for."

    She considers.. "I wonder if there's some way to defend against the shot. I don't know how it works.. tech, even magic tech, is not my forte. But.. body armor can stop bullets, right? I wonder if there's such a thing as soul armor.. or if there isn't, if we could make some. Of limited use, I guess, since obviously we can't give it to the whole city. But protecting our fighters from a weapon that could otherwise take them out of a fight with one shot would be valuable."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru flickers a little half smile and nods. "I've been talking with various of the barrier experts and protection mages about what options we might have in terms of protection and so far we're coming up short of something that is always on, doesn't require people to be in henshin.. which isn't an option for all of us to begin with, that isn't super bulky and obvious to say.. wear to school. So far we haven't come up with anything, but if you have any inspiration, I'd be glad to add it to the research."

Because oh yes, there has already been research and investigations and the attempt to figure out how to combat this. No brilliant plans yet.

"I will say, that I have quite a bit more information to add from this perspective that I didn't have before." Naru mmms and nods. "Valuable, and I'm grateful that you and Usagi and ... others.. were there to help me out."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka shakes her head with a rueful smile. "I'm afraid designing magical tech or items isn't really my thing.. I've always been more of a front-liner. Kind of ironic, given my current status.." She laughs softly, but says, "It's a potentially valuable idea, so keep thinking on it, if you would. Maybe you'll come up with something.

    Kyouka shakes her head again. "I was only there because Usagi-chan called for me. She's the one who deserves your thanks for thinking quickly. But I still can't help but feel like we're treading water on this, without making much forward progress. We need a breakthrough of some sort to shift the balance from reactive to proactive."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"It's still simmering, although your point about we're treading water is absolutely accurate." Naru sighs anew and gives a little shake of her head. "It's hard to stay positive when we're constantly just reacting to an onslaught of new threats, or expanded old threats that feel like they come out of nowhere. We have a lot of sources of adversity, and not a lot of sources of magical research, or think tanks, or experience."

Naru mmms softly and then takes a slow, deep breath. "We're trying with not a lot of options, but we're trying. I'm truly not sure how to change from reactive to proactive.. it feels like we'll need a lot of luck somewhere."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "All you need to stay positive is to remember that people have been trying shit like this for years, decades, and we're all still here so obviously they don't succeed." Kyouka says with a big of a lopsided grin. "But I understand feeling like all we can do is react to threats instead of taking the fight to the enemy is frustrating. I feel that way too."

    "I'm working on something I think will help, a way to up organization and info-sharing.. I'm waiting on some permissions from the Headmistress here at school, but I'll let you know as soon as something happens. Hopefully soon."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"They only need to succeed once at somethng like Midnight Tokyo." Naru points out but she nods. Point taken. "Still, it is frustrating."

Naru doesn't also point out that the light side, more so than the dark side, has to fit in figuring out how to save the world alongside not failing a social studies quiz, or math exams.

Naru nods at the mention of organization and info gathering. "The ad hoc info sharing is working, but there's absolutely holes. I know we were concerned about security for having a set location, but I think we've hit the point where getting information to people is more important." Naru smirks just a touch. "In a more organized fashion than my contact list."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Very true," Kyouka allows, to the idea that the bad guys only need one victory to render past failures moot, "But the fact remains that that's always been the case, and they're still trying."

    Kyouka smiles, tilting her head. "I do thank you for your efforts, Osaka-san. I do believe they are making a difference. Hopefully something will make itself known soon... all we need is the right bit of info, for them to make a mistake, or a little bit of luck.. or preferably, all three."

    She sighs, glancing towards the door. "If you're okay, we should probably clear out. Hanging around the school infirmary after hours might bring annoying questions."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Luck, information.. more luck." Naru nods. "All three would be ideal." She takes a deep breath, unfolding her legs and nods.

"I'm well enough, certainly well enough to go find a coffee and see if Usagi's alright." Naru hops down off the bed, turning around to straighten things, as if she was never there. "Thank you.. It doens't feel like enough, but someone needs to try and get everyone to talk to each other. If someone has that key bit of information, but doens't tell anyone else, it doesn't do any good."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka nods her head and gives a genuine smile. "You're right. And I do try to do some of that- putting people in touch with other people, coallating information and stapling it together. But I'm wearing a lot of hats already, and as you're surely aware, that's a lot of work. Having someone else doing it, someone arguably more suited to it, is a big help to me. Lets me focus on what I'm good at. But I still do what I can."

    "Anyway. Usagi-chan hasn't called me so I assume things defused themselves after we left. It didn't seem like our shooter was much of a threat anymore... not sure what was going on with the theme-music bat-wing chick. Maybe that was just a prank.. either way, we should probably check up on it, if you're sure you're fine.."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"And some people will say things to you that they are unwilling to say to me." Naru points out as she brushes off her skirt and looks around for her satchel. "Probably still over there, I'll check on things and collect my satchel. Or Usagi has it."

"If you are titling yourself as an Overlord.. well." Naru shakes her head and just sighs a little. "Did we say something about always being on the reaction? Anyhow.. yes.. I'm fine, even if I'm probably not much good for practice tonight, and I'm glad I dont have much homework. It's a stupid movie sort of evening."