822/Grant Unto Us the Path of Light

Grant Unto Us the Path of Light
Date of Scene:	29 November 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Usagi and Darien visit Sailor Pluto to give her the actual details on who, exactly, she offered refuge to -- and Setsuna has gifts!
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Setsuna Meiou

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Well, maybe you can tell me about her later. Maybe it'd be a better idea to properly meet her after I quit my job," Mamoru says to Usagi, sotto voce, in front of the door to the nurse's office. "Which, I'm definitely texting my resignation on the 18th. The deal's going through."

It's after classes but before clubs, and the halls are very busy. Mamoru's school uniform looks as terrible as ever, that orange doing absolutely nothing for the blue or the black of the rest of it or his hair and eyes; his hair's tied back and his glasses are on, and he's got his school bag in one hand and a thumb drive in his blazer pocket.

There are a lot of things to reveal today.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Definitely," Usagi murmurs, "You've heard about her before, but we haven't run into each other in a while..."

She will definitely be telling Mamoru all about it soon though, because she and Uranus... she would like them to not have an antagonistic relationship. She doesn't really understand her or Neptune, not anymore, but she wants to.

It's after classes, and in her school uniform, she could almost be any one of hundreds of students, were it not for that unmistakable hairstyle.

"And hey! At least a resignation date is going to make all of this easier, right?"

Slowly and with resolute calm, she pushes open the door to the infirmary.

"Setsuna-san, are you in?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Ah, the school infirmary. A staple of the high school experience...where students go to deal with the various cuts, scrapes, strains and the like common amongts a building full of 1000 or so hormone-soaked adolescents. Not to mention all the ones trying to scam the nurse to let them skive off of class.

Generally, the infirmary's a fairly small office for the nurse and some equipment. At least, that's the general rule. Given the budget Radiant Heart boasts, the infirmary's a bit bigger and more well appointed than most. There are several beds (which are currently not in use) and to an eye familiar with the medical world, there's enough well-laid-out kit that it's quite likely that, in extremis, one could actually do surgery here.

Still, most of the room is broken up with little rolling-wall medical dividers, with the bulk of the area set up for the kind of service one would need for a typical average assortment of students. Reasonably nice chairs, little triage areas, that kind of thing. The walls have various posters one might see in a doctor's office, though most of them are a bit more aimed at student-level things like common adolescent illnesses and the like. One particular poster, however, probably catches the eye:

It's a picture of what appears to be a leg bone with the caption 'I found this Humerus'.

Since the infirmary is open at least through most of the clubs, Nurse Meiou can be found leaning up against one of the counters, book in one hand and pen absently being spun through the fingers of the other as is usually the case for her during idle moments.

Also as usual, the book in her hand has a picture of a tall, scruffy-looking, trenchcoat-bedecked man carrying a staff in one hand and a rather large revolver in the other.

As Usagi and Mamoru stand outside her office, she glances up at the door...her pen spinning to a sudden halt as she waits to see if who's outside will actually be coming in, or if they're merely pausing for thought near the doorway.

When the door opens to reveal the two outside, however, she smiles and says, "Ah! Miss Tsukino...and Mister Chiba. Please, do come in. How can I help you today?"

While she says this, she absently twists her off hand...and the pen is replaced with...well...it kind of looks like a bar of pure void...like she's holding a somewhat rectangular hole in the fabric of space.

She shifts her fingers, and the hole changes shape subtly...and a stylized capital P (better recognizable to those in the know as the astrological symbol for Pluto) seemingly made of pure gold apppears hovering in the middle of the emptiness.

Which she then puts into her book as a bookmark before closing it and setting it on the counter behind her.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It should help, yeah," murmurs Mamoru before Usagi announces their presence and they go in, and he doesn't look like a deer in headlights! It's a vast improvement over being taken by surprise in the dorm room. He does hook his free hand in his pocket after bowing in greeting, glancing over and cataloguing the high points of the area-- and when he catches the leg bone poster and glances over it, he suppresses a grin.

Then he watches what she does with her pen with vast interest, but is polite enough not to ask. "We need to read you in on some things, and I have a translation of the notes from that map for you, just as a backup. Rashmi said she was going to give you the deciphered notes, but the translation..."

Mamoru shrugs a little diffidently, then takes a breath. "I also have a resignation date, and I'm hoping the guys follow me, but I can't... I can't make them. So there are some things we should tell you before I leave. Do you have time right now?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi squeezes Mamoru's hand tight, but otherwise stays quiet as support - this part of the show is his to run, and he needs to be able to say his part.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
The moment Mamoru makes it clear what this is about, the nurse's expression gets rather more serious...though not in a mean way.

She tilts her head up a little and says in a clear voice, "Niti-chan. Privacy mode, please."

A moment later, a synthesized voice responds from a speaker somewhere nearby, "Certainly, Nurse Meiou."

And with that, the door swings closed and locks itself and at the same time the blinds for the windows all deploy and rotate to full concealment.

Nurse Meiou glances around, then nods, "There we go. Nobody should be able to walk in or watch us. And yes, I most certainly have time for the two of you."

She walks over, "Please...show me what you have."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Despite the privacy and Setsuna's absolute reasonableness, Mamoru's still loathe to give up Usagi's hand-- but after squeezing it back, once, he lets go to take the thumb drive out of his pocket and hand it over. "This has the map and also my initial translations of the other thing we were talking around, which is, uh, Nephrite's personal journal." He clears his throat. "I'm still working on it. There's a bunch of private really personal stuff in it which I'd rather not share, but I'm sharing everything I find about the Midnight Tokyo Project. It's important to note that he has scaled it down from the version on the map."

A brief exhalation, and he un-latches his school bag to take out a manila folder, which he also hands over. "This is hard copy of most of the same, but the map works better where you can zoom it in."

That, at least, will show careful and precise Japanese handwriting on notes pasted next to the decoded writing in the original script; it's a confident-looking translation, as if he knows the language relatively well. A quick glance shows that it literally is notes on the circles and points.

"Another thing I think-- maybe-- you didn't understand? Plese forgive me if I'm wrong and you did, but I was sort of expecting more of a reaction, I guess. Which doesn't make sense if you do remember things from back then. If the name Kunzite means anything to you, I'm in his place. I'm the strongest of the Shitennou."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi herself wants to have Mamoru's hand too, but she's a lot less nervous than him. And she's ready to take his lumps and hers, if there are lumps to be given. So when he shares the journal information and the translations, she's nodding along with such force her twintails bounce. "I was really surprised, but he really has kind of scaled it all down, a lot! I mean, Mamochan and Naru-chan had to explain the math and what it all means, but even the map looks a little different now, without so much going on. I think he's having a change of heart. I'm hoping he bails out with Mamochan."

And then she falls silent again, until Mamoru gives that last bit, and she nods and squares her shoulders and says, "Hemachan is the leader of the Dark Kingdom's Generals. But he doesn't want to be. He never wanted to be, and I don't think any of the rest of them did, either. His awful bitch of a boss had to mess him up bad to get him to be part of this, and he's good, he's here because he's good!! But... Setsuna-san, after what you told me... I wanted to make sure you knew for sure what Hemachan's job was, because I know the Dark Kingdom - they... they hurt us. And you most of all. And you're important to me too, so you should know what's going on and who you're offering to help, in case that changes anything."

And she swallows and doesn't lower her head. "I really love him. He's been helping me keep Tokyo safe. I promise I'm not just burying my head in the sand or being tricked."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna steps over and takes the handed-over drive and folder, which she then opens to glance at.

And immediately she narrows her eyes before sighing and shaking her head and uttering a few choice swear words of very LOW Lunarian before going on, "...well...at this point I'm actually VERY glad for your translation...as this is NOT the language I thought it was.

She sighs and shakes her head, "...whatever this is, it's about as close to Arcadian as Mandarin is to Cantonese. I can pick out maybe every tenth word or so, and that's about it."

She glances over at Mamoru, "...and I can understand wanting to keep personal stuff personal...but I'd ask you to perhaps give another read over it a bit later to make sure you didn't miss anything important in the personal stuff."

As Mamoru asks forgiveness, Setsuna blinks and looks over at him...and then when he reveals himself to be not, as she assumed, an upper-mid-level officer, but rather not only one of the Generals, but the current CHIEF GENERAL...

For that moment, she goes UTTERLY still.

A sharp eye will note that she's suddenly concealing something in her right hand...and her eyes twitch rapidly back and forth between Mamoru and Usagi for several seconds.

She then closes her eyes an takes a very deep, slow breath...and someone paying attention to her will note how TIGHTLY she's holding whatever in her hand...to the point where her muscles are twitching slightly as her knuckles go white.

There's ALMOST a moment where it looks like she's going to start moving again...and then Usagi starts to speak.

...and as the blonde says her peace, Setsuna takes another deep, steadying breath...and visibly starts to calm.

After a few more moments, she seems to get full control of herself and she opens her eyes once more.

A very INTENSE look is given to Mamoru...but then a much softer expression is turned on Usagi...and Setsuna takes another deep breath to get full control of her voice again before speaking, "...well." A pause, "WELL."

She takes a slight step back...and she absently starts spinning a pen through the fingers of her right hand...and if one has ever seen any of the Inners' Henshin wands, it's easy to recognize this as almost certainly Pluto's version of the same, "...I will admit that this is more than a bit of a surprise...BUT."

She turns that intense gaze on Mamoru, "...you do, at least, have perhaps the best reference I know...so I will stand behind my earlier offer."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi's face is set and solemn and unusually serious, for her, but then, as Setsuna calms and takes in that breath, she darts forward and gives Setsuna a hug. A tight, classic Usagi hug, that has her putting all the considerable love and affection in her heart and translating it into physical touch.

"I knew from the second you offered to help you had to know everything, Setsuna-san, because I'd never, ever, let you make such a choice without knowing everything."

The words are whispered, just for the two of them. She had been touched and shaken beyond measure by Setsuna's offer to protect Mamoru, and she'd still been shaky, in the moment, about the revelation of everything - but since then, she's learned more, about herself, about the Senshi, about the life she's been reborn into again. She doesn't understand the grief, but she understands more the scale of the everything Setsuna has lost, and - she wouldn't betray her.

Then she steps back, dabbing at wet eyes (ahhh, crybaby Usagi strikes again!) and says, "There's... something else."

Because of course there is.

"Luna told me and the Inner Senshi about - the Moon Kingdom. And the Dark Kingdom. And... and the Golden Kingdom of the Earth. And Mamochan told me that his boss... Beryl... she's looking for a prince. Just like we're looking for our princess."

And her eyes, they trail to Mamoru. She doesn't even intend them too, but it's like resisting the force of gravity.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He's holding his breath, Mamoru's holding his breath; he looked a little sheepish at the part where it's not the language Setsuna expected, and he nods firmly to the part about giving the personal parts and everything another read-through, but now? Now he's holding his breath.

When Setsuna gets that LOOK, that Sailor Pluto look, he closes his eyes and stands there, taking Usagi's hand again, and then Usagi defends him and he doesn't get blasted into smithereens outside of his own henshin, and he opens one eye cautiously, and Setsuna's spinning her henshin wand but walking back her reaction a little--

--Mamoru remembers to breathe as Usagi runs forward to hug Setsuna. His breathing even steadies again as Usagi works through the rest of her explanation, but with no hand to hold and his school bag on the floor, his hands are empty and his stance is loose... but solemn, straight-backed.

"There was no Hematite, and-- I found Kunzite. And I kept him out of this instead of recruiting him. Not only because I didn't want him to be corrupted by the same force that corrupted my other Shitennou, but because... if Beryl had five in 'her'--" the single quotes are audible "--elite four, she might understand that she already had what she was looking for. It's-- the others all know, on some level, on some level even close to the surface. Zoisite said... and Nephrite said... things to the effect of, they couldn't be trusted not to betray me. Because of the contracts on their souls that the demon, Metalia, managed to extract." He takes a breath. "A contract I never made, ever. One that they think was made eons ago."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Usagi darts in for the hug, Setsuna blinks...and reflexively returns it.

The blonde can feel the much taller woman relax a great deal as the hug goes on...and one can actually FEEL her calming a bit more as it goes on.

When Usagi steps back and finally goes on, the taller woman blinks a moment...right up until the name 'Beryl' is mentioned. For Setsuna's memory of details from that time may be a bit spotty due to various circumstances...but by the twitch of her fingers and the anger on her face...THAT'S a name that stuck...even if she hadn't quite been able to recall specifically what it had been.

Too many centuries of referring to her exclusively by names that get rather...blisteringly derogatory.

But then when Usagi all but reveals that Mamoru was the Prince right under Beryl's nose all along...for the very briefest of moments, a connection is made in the back of her head...because that specific Prince was in love with a very specific Princess...but before the thought can fully form, the power of an almighty disguise magic shorts the thought...and instead she snorts and starts giggling at how incompetent Beryl is to miss what's in front of her.

After several moments of helpless giggling, she gets control of herself once more, "...well, then. Chalk this up as a bit of a coup for our side, then."

She gives Mamoru a stern (but not angry) look, "...I'm sure I don't have to spell out that if you hurt Usagi, the line to beat the crap out of you will be very, very, very long...but enough of that. I DO have a promise to keep."

And with that, Setsuna steps back slightly, then raises her right arm over her head, henshin wand extended before she declares in an oddly reverberating voice, "PLUTO PLANET POWER...MAKE...UP!"

As she does, her body is obscured in a burst of, as one wag put it, 'cosmic nonsense' so that all that can be seen of her is a glowing outline before she spins in place, a wall of mist obscuring her for a few moments before disappearing to reveal Sailor Pluto standing there, Garnet Rod in hand as a layer of lipstick to match her purple eyes magically applies itself before she strikes a pose that she punctuates by striking the ground with the butt of her staff."

She then reaches down to the silver chain hanging loose around her waist and grabs the rightmost key, and with a slight tug, detatches it.

She then steps forward and holds it out to Usagi, "So if, when you make your run, you can't get to me but can get to Usagi, this will take you to the Gates of Time, where nobody can get to you."

Once Usagi has taken it, she goes on, "A few things to know. While it DOES work both ways, it will only bring you back to EXACTLY where it summoned you from...so if that's a dangerous place, you'll need to contact me and I can take you elsewhere. Your communicator WILL work from there to here, so you can get in touch with me...but I'll know the moment a key is used, so I should be there shortly anyhow."

She then snaps her fingers, "OH! And one more thing. These lesser keys have an incantation you have to speak to activate them. Hold it up in the air and say, 'O Guardian of Time, tear apart the heavens and open wide for me the door of space and time! I summon thee by thy true name, the almighty god of time father of the guardian, Chronos! Guide us on our journey protect these travellers grant us the path of light!' Doing that will drop you off at the Gates."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The hug is good. The hug was the correct move - Usagi is sure of that now, with Setsuna relaxing in her arms. When the hug breaks and Setsuna is tense again, Usagi is a touch nervous - but instead, she snorts, and Usagi smiles herself, a little smugly satisfied. "That's exactly right. She can rage and cry and throw a tantrum about not seeing who was right under her nose!"

The elephant is a thin one, Elephant-san going leaner and leaner with the way they circle close to the truth, and she doesn't quite roll her eyes at the shovel talk, but she does smile a little. What is it with Outer Senshi and shovel talks, huh? Did this make Hannah-chan Outer Senshi material?

But then Setsuna is transforming and offering Usagi a key, and though Usagi doesn't understand at first, when she does, there's reverence in her face and in her hands, as she cradles the terrifyingly important object. "Got it... I'll keep this safe."

She mouths along after Setsuna as she shares the incantation, not willing to risk uttering a single sound in case she accidentally sends herself to the Gates of Time, fixing the words in her memory.

Though she does wonder... is Chronos really Setsuna-san's father?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The reaction to that name is wholly appropriate, and Setsuna's snort-giggling makes Mamoru's shoulders un-tense the rest of the way, too. He even gets a crooked little smirk of his own, in wholehearted agreement with the sentiment that Usagi echoes. And while she may roll her eyes at the shovel talk, the boy's nodding. "I won't, but if I did, I'd surrender on the spot."

He takes a half-step back when Setsuna transforms, squinting in the sudden light and cosmic nonsense in the blinds-shuttered dimness of the room, then rubs his eyes and looks rueful-- but grows serious and stays silent for all of the explanation Sailor Pluto gives.

Mamoru also looks intent, committing the incantation to memory as best he can -- between the two of them, they should be able to remember it, right?

"I won't have much power," he says slowly after a second, "after I get rid of the dark energy. I was a healer before this, so I know I'll still have some magic, but-- we'll see how fast I can run, if I need to run. I'm planning on texting in my resignation with no notice. If the others don't come with me, they might be sent after me. So... I'll wait to text until I'm near you or Usako, in a place that they couldn't hurt. Does that sound right? Or workable?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto gives Mamoru a bit of an arch look...which shifts to a more considering one after a few moments. Finally, she rolls her eyes, "JUST a healer. You DO realize that, as the nurse here I'd have given QUITE A LOT to have 'just healing' available?" After a moment, she waggles a finger mock-scoldingly at the young man, "Being able to heal is VASTLY important, so don't discount yourself if that's your primary ability."

She straightens up and waves a hand, "Okay...just so you know, when you use this, it'll pull you and anyone you're in contact with to the Gates of Time. The space the Gates are in is connected orthagonally to normal Space-Time...and there's no way in or out without myself or one of the Keys. The Gates themselves are closed since they're broken at the moment. I highly disadvise trying to open them because until I can fire them up again, anything that crosses the threshold would be, as astrophysicists describe it, 'spaghettified'."

She lets that sink in for a few moments, then goes on, "That being said, off to one side of the Gates you'll find a bunch of stuff. Feel free to use the furniture or bed if you need to crash. Just try not to make too much of a mess. Feel free to read any of the books you find on the shelves...if you can. I'm afraid most of the ones I left there are in Earth languages that I think you both slept through the height of..."

She then frowns and taps her chin, "...though if you have enough memory to remember whatever Arcadian variant that was, then I think I have some books somewhere that are in Imperial Lunarian..."

There are a few moments where she trails off...as if a thought was occuring to her...but then she shakes it off, "...in any event, do you have any other questions or things you need to tell me?"

However, before either of the other two has an opportunity to respond, she blinks and snaps her fingers as an idea occurs to her, "Wait. You know what? I was planning on giving this to you later, Mister Chiba...but you've got some hard days ahead of you...I think you might just need this now."

So saying, she lets go of the Garnet Rod...which proceeds to stand upright in a very rigid way while Sailor Pluto takes a small step away and starts making vague aborted gestures with her hands, "...no...not that...no...that's not the one...where'd I put it...AHA!"

And with that, she suddenly has box a bit bigger than two feet a side in her hands...it's made up like it's done up in white wrapping paper with a blue bow, but it's just a box with a separate lid which she hands over to Mamoru, "...Merry Christmas, Mister Chiba."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'd love to be able to help you, when this is all over," Mamoru says honestly, taking seriously the 'not just a healer' mock-admonishment. "I miss it. I miss it so much, when this stuff is at an ebb and I can think straight without so much effort..."

He shakes his head and ducks it a little, smiling faintly. "Problems, problems. It'll be over soon."

Then he's not standing so straight and tall anymore, looking less regal and more like the high school student he also is, slouching just a little. He nods firmly. "I won't mess up your stuff. You're being so kind, and besides, it would be incredibly rude. I won't make a mess." A beat, and his eyebrows lift. "Imperial Lunarian? I can for sure give it a try, it sounds like fun." Because he's a nerd and it would sound like fun--

"There's a black hole in the Gates of Time--?" First, yes, he got the reference. Second, he looks like he's going to make a stupid joke, and possibly thankfully, he does not. "Nevermind, I definitely won't mess with them either. I don't think I have anything else to tell you... can I text you if anything comes up? I have a communicator but it can only connect me to Usagi, Luna, and Naru right now, since I'm still technically on the opposing team--"

But Setsuna's looking through her dimensional pocket all of a sudden, with something for him... something for him?? Mamoru looks baffled, a little pleased and a little stunned, maybe. Not quite disbelieving, but-- maybe lowkey incredulous, especially when she finds it and hands the box over. He takes it and glances back up, questioning, and whatever he sees in Pluto's expression has him carefully lifting the lid.

Inside is something he immediately lifts out, eyes absurdly bright and making a tiny delighted sound: an egregiously adorable and extremely well-made handmade Sailor Moon plushie. "Oh my god," he breathes out. "You made this? For me? Thank you!! Usako, look!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There are fierce nods happening over on Mamoru's side, as Usagi encourages this line of thinking and argument! Just a healer! Just a healer! Her Mamochan was wonderful and cool and it didn't matter, if when he lost the Dark Energy, he stopped needing seventeen mahou to take him down. Even if he didn't have power as wonderful as healing, it would be good.

"You're going to be able to help a lot of people. And more important, you'll get to be all of you, all the time." Because helping people was important, but not as important as her Mamochan's continuing happiness and well-being!

And then Setsuna is sharing the other details of the Gates of Time, and Usagi nodnodnods along, even if she knows perfectly well that Mamoru would be a polite guest, and even if - "I wonder if I could read Imperial Lunarian," she mumbles to herself, and then - "Since Mamochan could read one, I mean! Maybe we all have something in us that we don't remember..."

It would be kind of cool, to be good at a language besides Japanese, since her English grades were - well, they were better.

And then there is gift box, and it is for Mamoru, and she is bounce-bounce-bouncing for him to open it, eyes fixed on the box, curiosity and interest and all of that wrapped up inside himself, and -

gasp

"It's a little me! Suna-san, it's a little me! Did you make a little me, for Mamochan?!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Sailor Pluto had obviously been hoping that Mamoru would open his present now...and as she sees the delight in his eyes, she gets a huge grin of her own as she sees her modest gift so well recieved.

She reaches up and puts a gloved hand up to cover her mouth as she giggles at Usagi's antics before she finally nods and says in a very amused voice, "...Yes, Usagi-chan...I made a little Sailor Moon for him. I WAS going to wait, but given how much stress I think he's going to be under, having a surrogate Usagi to hug now and again will help him through some of the times ahead until he can get to better times."

That said, she grabs the Garnet Rod once more...and then with a burst of 'cosmic nonsense' and the impression of ribbons, she detransforms back to being Nurse Meiou once more.