1494/Back On Campus

Back On Campus
Date of Scene:	01 March 2024
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	After the Angry Corn Massacre Rescue of Naru and Hinoiri from La Crima, and after Mamoru healed Hinoiri, and then both Kyouka and Fuyuko, and after Mamoru got attacked by Taro and Kyouka rescued him, Mamoru is beset by help.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Jadeite, Kazuo Saitou

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
March 1st, between 10 and 11pm probably, after the Angry Corn Massacre Rescue of Naru and Hinoiri from La Crima, and after Mamoru healed Hinoiri, and then both Kyouka and Fuyuko, and after Mamoru got attacked by Taro and Kyouka rescued him:

It's late. Mamoru has been walked back to campus by Kyouka, and he thanked her and waited until she left before just laying down in the spiky winter-spring grass and taking his phone out to send some group texts. The last texts to be sent were from Kyouka reporting that Mamoru was fine and she was there, and this is maybe twenty minutes later.

    Mamoru TXT: im back on campus.
    Mamoru TXT: im gonna sleep on the quad under the big tree by the club building.
    Mamoru TXT: not really but im not moving for a while
    Mamoru TXT: if youre already in bed stay there im fine

He flops his hand (and phone) onto his chest after turning off the ringer and just lays there, looking at the dark but light-polluted sky, picking out those few lone stars still visible.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi Tsukino spends twenty minutes blowing up Inai-sensei and Mamoru's phones, demanding updates nearly every thirty seconds and expressing her extreme willingness to commit violence against anyone who was hurting her Mamochan.

Fine, Inai-sensei says! FINE, as if Mamochan ever asked for help when he was totally just fine!!!!

It's been a long day. Hinoiri was returned to her dorm and Naru was returned to theirs, though by Cat Noir and not Usagi, and a splurge of vegetarian snacks had been produced and Luna and Usagi may have wailed and hugged onto Naru a lot, but all those warm and relieved feelings are BURIED.

    Usagi TXT: you're fine my ass
    Usagi TXT: i'm coming to find you! I'll bring tea, kazuo-kun bring blankets, yours are longer!!!!

She won't be the first to arrive at Mamoru's side, but she is the fastest texter.

Jadeite has posed:
DJJDite: Be there soon. Dont do anything foolish.

Tamaki is the first to arrive, having bolted from his apartment as soon as the texts started flying. He?s got a thermos of tea that?s half honey, two coats on and a frantic look on his face as he comes galloping down the quad.

"Mamoru!!" Where! Is! His! Prince!

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
By the time Kazuo is in sight, he's Kazuo again, in a casual lazy wander with a bundle under his arm. ... given how quickly he arrives, Kunzite was the one who received the texts, though.

His version of hello is the softly rolling fabricsnap as he shakes out the dark-blue blanket and settles it over Mamoru's length, feet to phone, then settles to one knee to tuck a the thin pad of a cushion behind his head. Black hair thus obscures almost all of the tongue-lolling grin of an anime sheepdog face. Kazuo might be hoping it gets ruined. Just a little.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru siiiiighs as his phone continues to blow up, right there on his chest, and Kazuo gets there with a blanket and a cushion that Mamoru doesn't see properly before it's under his head-- and when Kazuo lifts his head onto that cushion, Mamoru laughs a little and lets his other hand drop to the grass again, digging under the blanket for it.

"I'm fine, I'm not hurt, I'm just... I'm missing probably around the amount of blood you'd be missing if you donated it, and I can't transform right now," he's saying slowly as Usagi gets there. He's not even slurring, he's being careful to enunciate, no matter how tired he is. "I can even get up. I walked back with Inai-sensei. I just don't want to get up, the ground is nice. It has energy in it."

He feels the thudding of Jadeite's feet, galumphing across the quad and calling out as he is, and he goes, "Shh, shh, people might be sleeping, I'm fine! Nothing hurts! Getting stabbed didn't even hurt, it was kind of unnerving--"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Getting stabbed?!?"

In accordance with Mamoru's wishes, Usagi's would have been scream is more of a shrill whisper. She was not expecting Tamaki to come running behind, crashing around like a drunken kittycat, and she slaps a hand to her face as she promptly sits at Mamoru's other side before it can be claimed. True to her texts, she has a mug tea as well, a thermostat of the stuff as well as bottle of American style iced tea, both in a conbini bag she'd kept tucked in her room.

"You were stabbed?! What do you mean it didn't hurt? Who stabbed you? I'll blow them up!"

The silver crystal dangles from a thin chain at her throat, glinting in the moonlight. She is definitely capable of blowing someone up.

Jadeite has posed:
Since Kazuo and Usagi have taken both sides of his prince, Tamaki kneels at his knees, pulling out his own thermos before trying to grasp for a free hand.

"if you got stabbed - have you already healed it, my prince?" He whispers, trying to keep his voice down. "I have an extra coat. Do you need one?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"If nothing else, to hide the evidence when you go inside," Kazuo says, only a touch dry. He shifts up along Mamoru a little, making more space for Tamaki. The rest he leaves to Usagi. She has both the concern and the explosions covered.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Oh my god Tamaki is still doing it, and in front of Usagi still too and Mamoru might actually die on the spot. It's a good thing it's dark out, nobody can see him blushing a-g-a-i-n.

He exhales, closing his eyes for a second, then says slowly (again, slowly, but this time it sounds like he's fishing his memory for details), "I was walking home after healing Yuuhi-san, after I went out again to heal Inai-sensei after I came back to the dorms after the fight to heal Hinoiri-san, and I was really tired because that was already too much in one day? At least I got to finish my coffee. This-- asshole started following me, and I didn't want to transform and roofjump if I was going to trip from being tired, and I did not want to get mugged, and then he came at me too fast and I only had time to transform before he pinned me down. He held me down in henshin and stabbed through the armor and said he was sucking my blood? And then I started trying to heal it and he just-- he just took that energy, and he liked it better than the blood, and there's no blood for you to see because it was on my formalwear, and he just kept going and I called Inai-sensei, and he healed it on me before she chased him off."

He stops, then sighs. "I know it sounds stupid. I was really scared, but the guy-- the vampire-- was so strong. And big! And made no sense, he saw me henshin and as he was flying at me he was like 'that's neat!' kind of... enthusiastically? And he told me to stop struggling or I'd ruin my shirt..."

Mamoru's silent for a second, then reaches to pat Tamaki's hand. "The ground is chilly but I was only planning on being on the ground for... I don't know... half an hour? Twenty minutes? I can get up now if you're going to keep fussing, I just don't want to wake Koji-kun up."

A beat. "I think," he tells Usagi, leaning the side of his head against Kazuo's knee, "he called himself the Backstreet Boy."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Still with the my prince, huh? Usagi feels the smallest worm of jealousy creeping in and she stomps it ruthlessly. Ruthlessly!!! Even if Tamaki should really think about how Mamoru is a prince to four people, not just him. Not that Usagi has an opinion or anything. "I brought you some hot tea, but also some iced tea," she offers for lack of anything better to say. "Also, um, Backstreet Boy? Isn't that a meme? Or..."

She frowns, tilting her head for a moment, searching her memory -

"Wait, was it Backstreet Slasher?!?* Her hand flies to Mamoru's chest, prodding and poking gently up and down, looking for holes in his person, relieved not to find any.

"He tried to drink your blood and he stole your energy?! What a jerk! And... why would the Backstreet Slasher want blood anyway?!"

Jadeite has posed:
He is, for now, oblivious to the worm of jealousy in Usagi?s heart. After all, Mamoru is not the prince that he owns but the prince that he?s loyal to, my liege, my lord.

"I have some tea as well. If you?d prefer the princess?s, you could use mine as a hot water bottle?" The princess is phrased deferential - he?s not going to wedge himself in, no matter how much he wants to.

His brow crinkles. "Isn?t the Back Street Slasher from those free to play rpgs that were popular when we were kids? He was the one who cut people with a magic knife that didn?t leave a mark but still injured you. And he?d get bigger every time he attacked?"

. Oh. That sounded less horrifying in his head.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Prodded! Mamoru's hand comes out from under the blanket and closes over the one Usagi's poking at his chest with, and it's warm despite having been on the chilly ground, and he's all right. There's not nearly as much of the Warm Gold as there ought to be there, but his filters are off and she can feel his affection and amusement.

Huffing out another laugh, Mamoru starts propping himself up on his elbows with the aim of sitting up-- "If you want me drinking tea I'd better get up, huh?" he says, but it's goodnatured. And then he leans on Kazuo, who is fussing the least, and he says while reaching out to touch Jadeite's hand, "Tamaki-kun, please, call me Mamoru, or Endymion, or Endy-- I have lots of names to choose from. So does Usako. We're not even transformed. I'll make extra effort not to call you Jadeite, if it helps." The touch there is warm and affectionate too, taking any sting out of the words, but the words are firm under the amusement.

Then as he's reaching for the mug of tea Usagi already has out, he says, "I want everybody's tea. Just not all at once."

Sip.

It's probably not a bad idea that he went for Usagi's first since it's not half honey like Tamaki's...

"I don't know what a free to play rpg is, but that sounds accurate to experience, except that the magic knife definitely sucks blood, and it comes out of his hand," he says. "And the guy was huge."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's amusement and affection in Mamoru's energy, the kind of warmth that beckoned and encouraged, though she frowns to feel how little of it there is. "We're going to have to stuff you full of food! Beef steak! Green things! Full of iron to replace all your blood."

Never mind that he hadn't lost all his blood.

"Yeah, and some of the not so free to play ones. I had to play a few for my streams. Oh! A free to play RPG is a indie game usually, someone made it at home and wants to share. There are a lot of them about urban legends and scary things..." she makes a face, "And if someone's... trying to take that name to scare people..."

She doesn't like it! She doesn't like that at all.

As her tea is drunk, she looks pleased - chosen first! And she helps tuck Tamaki's hot tea for use as a water bottle for the moment.

Jadeite has posed:
"Sorru, my - er, sorry, Mamoru," Tamaki says sheepishly. "It feels strange referring to you so informally now. I don?t want to overstep, especially since you and the pr- er, Usako have rekindled things."

He is not allowing himself to be jealous. He is not. Not that she?s clinging to him, not that he drank her tea first. He is a bodyguard, and his prince?s feelings come before his own.

"It sounds like this Backstreet Slasher is working off the urban legends. Or is the urban legend? It doesn?t seem to be acting like a youma."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Green things," Kazuo says thoughtfully, in echo of Usagi, while propping up the Mamoru leaning on him and supporting his reach to touch. "Now there's a thought. Iron, Vitamin C to replenish after collagen synthesis, Vitamin K. I think ... kale smoothies."

Perhaps he thinks this is a way to encourage Tamako to be informal. Perhaps he is trying to help.

Help with what, is the question.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"All my blood doesn't need replacing! It's less than half a liter," Mamoru protests, probably futile-ly. He cranes his neck to give Kazuo a betrayed look. "I'll eat kale if I have to, but I'm not drinking a kale smoothie, that's cruel and unjust."

He looks back to Usagi and enlightenment is his! "That's nice of people, to put the work into a game and not look for money."

Every once in a while there's something that just underlines that the way he grew up was different. Fortunately, Usagi explained and Mamoru moves on from 'woah, people volunteer for fun and not obligation?' before it can be addressed--

"Do you still stream?" Mamoru asks as the thermos gets tucked into his arm. "Maybe if I hugged you while you play the scary ones they'd be less scary~"

Maybe that's not better.

He closes his hand over Tamaki's this time, and squeezes. "He wasn't a youma. No dark energy at all. That's why I was so surprised there was a magic knife, and everything." Squeezes: not just a bodyguard, back then, never just a bodyguard, and if Mamoru had his way, not a bodyguard at all. And then, "Usagi-chan," he corrects Tamaki with a laugh. "Unless you're her boyfriend, too. In which case please let me know!"

Uhoh he's sparkling at them both with so much laughter. "All right, bleh, I should get up and go to bed."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Kale smoothies can be okay if you put apples and pineapple in them," Usagi says supportively. Supportive to who is the question. "My mama tries them every now and then, and they're good! And it's any of your blood, so you have to have replacement stuff! For the blood!" She nods, sharp, stubborn. Any amount of blood loss might as well be all of it! Don't ask her the logic behind that! Just PANIC with her!

Though the panic does take a bit of an arrow to the knee at hearing Usako from not Mamoru lips. "Eh? EH? Is this how people feel when I -chan them on the first day?!" Self awareness! Will it change behavior? No!

"Usagi-chan will do. Maybe you can convince Kazuo-kun to go to Usagi-san at least?" Since you're so casual, Tamachan! "I'll do a stream with you! But only if you know you're going to have to play Call of Duty with me, to show everyone you're not me."

Jadeite has posed:
"I thought spinach was better for blood since it's got iron in it. Though if he really wants iron, we should give him beef."

Beef! Beef! Beef! Feed the prince a steak!

"I'm not sure if I can convince Kazuo of that, but I can try? Usagi-chan." LIke that! he's got it!

And. 'You could make him play Undertale."