817/Let me explain...

Let me explain...
Date of Scene:	28 November 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	A coffee struggle and conversation about secrets and plans and translations.
Cast of Characters:	Naru Osaka, Mamoru Chiba, Kyouka Inai

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Naru Osaka has posed:
It's early enough on a late fall morning that Naru is probably not yet missing class, but late enough that she's already been for a run and all the rest of it. The child does not sleep. It's the only answer. At least it's a sunny day, if decidedly on the chilly side. Winter is coming, there is no doubt about that.

Naru appraoches Kyouka's office, with a pair of coffees in hand, steam curling from each of them into the air. Naru peers around the door to see if the counsellor is there yet. "Good morning Inai-sensei.. are you in?" It's the best she can do in lieu of knocking, without spilling coffee at least.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And coming up from the other direction is a Mamoru-- ah, Darien-- who's got a manila envelope in one hand and nothing in the other. "Naru-san!" he calls cheerfully. "Good, you'll want this too. I slipped a copy under your door but I didn't want to wake Usagi up-- oh you brought me coffee? How did you know?"

He's got that particular bright-eyed too-pale look that people get when they've just pulled an all-nighter, and he is reaching for Kyouka's coffee.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka is most definitely in, because she has to be, because it is ostensibly her job and if she's late too many times she'd get in trouble. She'd probably happily sleep 'til noon, but even if her actual employment as a guidance counselor is a sham, she values the job enough to want to keep up the pretense and that means being here on time. Most mornings.

    This morning she definitely is, and she doesn't even look too tired as she turns from where she was just hanging her jacket over the back of her chair, clearly having just gotten in a few moments before. "Good morning, Naru-chan," She greets the girl who appears bearing coffee, and instant way to up her stock at this time of the morning.

    Then Darien shows up and attempts to poach her coffee. "Don't you f-" She halts before swearing, amending, "Don't you dare, Shields. You know the old adage- steal a counselor's coffee before 8am, doom upon your house... or something. It's something like that. Anyway that's mine." She hurries over to try and take it.

    This may result in an awkward tug of war over a coffee cup full of steaming hot liquid.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Good morning Mamoru." Naru glances to the envelope. "What..?" She starts and then ers as both of them start to head for the coffee. She holds her arm out, literally between the pair of them and pulls her head back (and her own coffee back.. MINE!) in an attempt not to be too close in the splash zone.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I was up all night translating your stuff, I deserve this coffee!" Darien asserts, pushing the manila at Kyouka and letting go in the hopes that she reflexively takes it, and goes for the coffee with both hands and his mouth, and even if he doesn't win the war, he makes sure he wins at least a battle by licking the cup and lid right where one might drink said coffee.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "You deserve exactly what you're going to get," Kyouka says, before reaching out with one hand to snap the folder up while with the other hand grabbing the cup, twisting her body like a snake in a rather perplexing show of agility. She doesn't prevent Darien from licking the lid like a goober, but she somehow manages to lift the cup right out of his hands a second later, and then... disappears.

    She re-appears seated in her desk. She actually teleported across the room. Folder in one hand and cup in the other, she lifts one foot to put it on the edge of the desk and smirks. "You're about ten years too early to challenge me, kid." She tells him, before sipping from the cup, showing no concern over the fact that he licked it. Nobody tell Usagi.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru actually half closed her eyes, wincing a little at the prospect of coffee slaughter. "Ewww Mamoru!" she protests at the licking and then... woosh.

Kyouka has coffee. And the folder. And is behind her desk.

Naru blinks a moment and then straightens. "Well. Um. So what /is/ in the folder? And there's more shrine info.. although only a smidge."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The shocked look on Mamoru's face is as comical as him thinking licking a coffee cup would keep it safe from Kyouka. It's really too bad Usagi didn't get to see that, since taking something right out of her hands is something he did no less than three times before they started getting close-- once even right in front of Naru.

"Well," he says, stymied for a second. "Well. Uh. It's a translation of the notes on the Midnight Tokyo map." He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a thumb drive, and tosses that to Kyouka -- here, catch! -- too. "I did, in fact, stay up all night translating it. But you go first," he tells Naru.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka, who still has the coffee in one hand and the folder in the other, catches the thumb drive in her mouth. Seriously. Like a goddamned seal. It seems more like instinct than intent, as she looks vaguely embarrassed as she places the folder down and takes the thumb drive out of her mouth, surreptitiously wiping it on her sleeve before placing it on the desk in front of her.

    She looks intensely interested at the revelation of what is actually on the drive. She doesn't stick it right into the laptop sitting on her desk though (She does have one, now!) but instead looks to Naru when Darien chooses to defer to her. "You were coming to see me about something not-this, weren't you, Naru-chan?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Uhh." Naru blinks again at the seal act. She recovers faster from that at least. "Yeah.. although it sounds like they might be vaguely inter-related. I just wanted to let you know that there was another shrine fight last night." She moves further into the office, holding her own coffee close. Just in case. "But now I'm more curious about what the map says, to see how or if it relates to the shrine last night."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru doesn't even try to recover from the seal act. He puts his hand over his mouth, eyes crinkling up, and moves aside to let Naru pass. By the time he's finished obviously laughing (silently) at Kyouka, Naru's in the room properly and Mamoru has shut the door.

"I bet it does. I bet it was Meiji Shrine," he says, sticking his hands in his pockets as he comes over closer, leaving the chair for Naru if she wants it. "I'm sorry I didn't get the warning to you ahead of time, but it sounds like you found it anyway. ...how did you find it?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka's grey eyes narrow slightly upon Naru as she mentions another shrine fight. They flick briefly to Mamoru when he mentions that he's sure the two are related. "Tell me about it. What happened? No need for details, just the general overview. I'll ask questions if I want more specifics." She tells Naru, with regards to the events of the previous evening.

    "I'm not sure you should answer that," She then says, when Mamoru asks to know how they knew where to go. She at least shoots an apologetic look at him afterwards. Like, I know you wouldn't betray us on purpose, but I've gotta be the over-cautious bad guy here. Irony duly noted.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I mean.." Naru has the grace to look sheepish at Mamoru. "I was just there for a walk. I do appreciate visiting the shrines, it's a moment of .. well it used to be calm, less so these days." Because of course she was, trouble magnet that she is.

Naru does settle in the chair with her coffee. "Nephrite was there, and La Crima, and had some sort of book that he'd been reading. Apparently it's Veronica's, but that's besides the point.. I think. Anyhow, thunder botls and lightning and crash boom and dark energy all over the place. I'm not sure if Neph actually got anything implanted though, or if one of the other guys did while he was the obligatory distraction."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru looks legitimately annoyed at Kyouka. "I wouldn't ask something it would be dangerous to tell me, nevermind the fact that people keep telling me dangerous things anyway." He leans against the wall, crossing his arms, then nods to Naru. "That's fine. This was the last marked shrine, but there should be five... I'm going to have to ask Rashmi to scan the next couple of pages that showed up..."

He looks to Naru and looks incredibly sheepish, himself, now. "She gave me an auto-erase that I can text to Nicomachea if something turns out to be too private." Then he glances at Kyouka again. "I got Neph's diary and it's magic and he's still adding to it somehow. Magic diary. It's in code too, but he provided the cipher, so he's cooperating too. I knew he would, as much as he could."

Mamoru shifts his weight, then unfolds his arms to stick his hands in his pockets again. "Did Nephrite tell you anything about what was needed? I mean I'm assuming an awful lot, here, but I also don't think any of the other guys were there. And I think my sister was there briefly, did someone damage the shrine itself?"

A beat. "It wouldn't hurt to purify the heck out of the shrines."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I can't control everyone," Kyouka says testily to Mamoru, "but I can control what happens in my office, at the very least. Anyway I'm not going to stop her from telling you anything. But I'd feel remiss if I didn't at least voice a warning. I'm sorry." She looks a bit regretful as she says it, at the very least. "You know I wish I didn't have to be that kinda bitch to you."

    She makes a 'hrm' thoughtful sound when Mamoru mentions Neph's diary. "That's interesting. I'm... glad that he's cooperating. Legitimately. I've had a few interactions with Nephrite that were... well, I won't say enjoyable exactly, but civil and productive. Though if he's still doing dark energy shenanigans at shrines clearly he hasn't quite reached your level of cooperation."

    She sighs a little at Naru. "So we don't know if anything actually happened, or if it was all a lot of show." She glances to the thumb drive. "Maybe this will let us know what they were trying to accomplish at least."

    "Purifying isn't my specialty. But we can let Wako-chan and Usagi-chan know. Sounds a little boring but probably better to be safe. Purifying all the shrines, I mean."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Yeah.. Pyrite stopped by cause .. someone tossed a stone lantern." Naru frowns a little. "I was reading, I didn't see who."

Naru shakes her head. "Nephrite and I barely talked, because people were mostly trying to kill him. To be fair, he was mostly trying to flood the place with dark energy and kill them back, so y'know.. it was legit." She considers a moment. "There was for sure purifying going on, I'm confident that Sailor Moon was tossing around happy juice like a sprinkler."

Naru nods to Mamoru. "If Rashmi is doing the cyphers now, then I'll stop working on them from the other direction. Nicomachea is light years faster than I am, that's for sure."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Actually annoyed enough to be even more immature than trying to steal her coffee, Mamoru makes blah blah blah gestures with his hand as Kyouka's saying 'that kinda bitch', then crosses his arms again and scowls. "You're sorry, fine. Anyway, he can't be more cooperative. He has a demon in his head that I don't. I'm still looking for a contract magic silver bullet to get them out of that. The thing can wear them like Edgar suits if it doesn't like what they're doing. It's even visible in Neph's diary, shit getting redacted on the fly if he's not opaque enough."

Finally he's listening to Naru and nods. "She indicated to me that someone throwing that lantern hurt her when I got worried at what I was picking up from her," he admits, and then grimaces. "Sounds like the whole thing was a wild mess. Glad you didn't get hurt. And yeah, Rashmi's doing it, I have to tell Kazuo too."

Then one corner of his mouth turns up. "And I have to tell Kazuo that I've got a commit date for quitting Obsidian, but you better believe I'm not giving them two weeks notice. And then--"

He exhales. "Inai-sensei," he starts after a second, "I'm going to need a lawyer. Probably one attached to the school. To make sure I can keep living here."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka absorbs the information from both parties thoughtfully. She ignores Mamoru's pique, perhaps thinking it's somewhat deserved but simultaneously being unwilling to apologize further. Both the tidbit about Pyrite and, perhaps more intently, the information about Nephrite and the demon in his head (not to mention the other guys) are greeted with contemplative expressions but no words. She's already discussed contract magic with Mamoru, to the extent she has information on it, which is more than nothing but less than much useful.

    "Oh, Sailor Moon was there?" She says to Naru, when the girl mentions her sprinkling happy juice everywhere. "That's good, then. One less shrine to re-visit, I suppose. Hopefully even if they accomplished something she un-accomplished it for them."

    When Mamoru turns to her to ask about a lawyer, she gets this look on her face like 'wtf are you asking me for', half-annoyed and half-panicked because she has no idea if that's something she can provide.

    However, after a moment that look subsides to one of determination, and she just nods. "I'll see what I can do." She says. No promises made, but no refusals either. She'll see what strings she can pull.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I got the sense that Nephrite was doing as much as he could to phone it in while not getting the demon cranky. Which, admittedly isn't much, but it was something at least." Naru points out. "I mean.. he just absently handed me the book and didn't try and get it back.. which was very calculated careless." She gives a shrug. "I'm pretty sure he wrote stuff in it, but I couldnt see what in the chaos of it all. I'm not sure quite /what/'s in there, I expect notes about the magic."

"Oh yeah, it was utter chaos." Naru confirms. "But these things usually are. There was Moon, Mars and Jupiter, so plenty of senshi representation." She considers a moment. "Princess of Sarek, and some demon girl I don't know very well. I've seen her around, certainly a few time though."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
That half-wtf and half-panicked look on Kyouka makes Mamoru look suddenly uncertain and a little small, and his arms cross a little more tightly, as much of a shield as his fake name. When she looks determined instead, and says she'll see what he can do, he recovers a little of his composure -- or what passes for it when he's in this office. He nods back.

Then Mamoru nods to Naru. "I saw a demon girl arguing with Pyrite's mother at the youkai march around the end of October. Like telling her to call off the parade or something. Good effort, too bad it didn't do much. I wonder why she thought it was a good idea to mess with a shrine," he adds, frowning.

He sighs. "Anyway, I hope my translation's good enough. In case Rashmi didn't get you a copy of the deciphered but untranslated copy, it's on the thumb drive too. And in case Pluto can translate it, Rashmi was going to also give her a copy, so you might want to check with her just to make sure I'm not lying."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka perhaps catches a little bit of the uncertainty on Mamoru's face as a result of her own uncertainty, and maybe feels a little bad about it. But the fact remains that lawyers and legal stuff and paperwork are well outside of her wheelhouse. But she genuinely wants to help so, as she said, she'll see what she can do. Even if it means asking the Headmistress.

    She merely 'hms' at the mention of demon girls and the like, not having much to add on that front. When Mamoru mentions including an untranslated copy, she sighs a little bit. "At this point, I'll take lies over nothing.. at least we might be able to glean some information from the specific lies that were told. But either way, thank you. I'm sure it will be valuable either way."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Not sure, but after Pyrite turned up, she did say she'd do better about not damaging the shrine." Naru comments on the topic of the demon girl.

"Your translation is WAAAY better than mine, so it's currently top rank for amazing." Naru points out to Mamoru. "Rashmi has given me nothing. I just connect people and then don't often hear back once things are accomplished, so yeah.. I'd appreciate a copy too." She looks over at Kyouka. "I've got my own thumb drive, you can copy it over for me, if you dont' mind."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh that's what I shoved under your door. Hopefully Usagi doesn't step on it," Mamoru says, suddenly grimacing again. He pushes himself off the wall, then straightens his uniform blazer and nods to Kyouka. "For what it's worth, it's not lies. But I know you can't afford to believe that. I'm gonna go get some coffee before class, you two enjoy talking about me."

And abruptly, he's seeing himself out with a grin back over his shoulder.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I can afford to believe it's not lies," Kyouka says to Mamoru's retreating back, "I just can't afford to be certain about it. Either way, it's useful. And if you say it's not lies, I'll take it as true until proven otherwise." She rolls her eyes at his assumption of being the topic of discussion. "Don't be late!" She calls after him. Because she needs to at least pay lipservice to doing her job.

    To Naru, she adds, "Sure, gimme your drive. I'll copy it over for you. And let me know if you get anything out of it that I don't."