2816/Fall of Kyoto: What's Up With Emi

Fall of Kyoto: What's Up With Emi
Date of Scene:	31 October 2025
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Emi's gone silent. Uh oh.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Hinoiri Kirara, Usagi Tsukino, Rashmi Terios, Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust, Veronica Perenna

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Since her little party, Emi has been oddly distant, even by her standards and today she's stopped responding at all to anyone's messages.

-Something- is up with her.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne had been... having a day, to say the least.

Burgers. Burger. Zombies. Why. Why were there... burger... zombies. Yes, she knew what zombies were, thank you very much. Kirakirafantastica had quite a bustling horror scene, you know. And she'd been here about two years now. So she knew.

But meat. It all came back to meat. Nothing ever came from eating meat. She always said that. And so she'd retreated back to the school. She'd contacted one of her friends who she knew didn't have outside-magic and was prone to making poor choices and went to check on her... and so now made her way into Emi's room, likely sneaking in via a window.

... Wait. Emi's bed was made. "Emi?" Hinoiri asked. And her room was clean. There were the first two alarm bells. The third?

The bat was gone.

"I'm going to kill her."

The fourth alarm bell? The ticket stub... And the fifth? Her phone. And well...

Group text from Cure La Licorne: I'm going to kill Emi. If you see her, wherever she is, stop her. And then tell me. And then put her in protective custody until I calm down.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
    Group Text Reply from Usagi: I WAS A ZOMBIE
    Group Text Reply from Usagi: is emi still gone??? Maybe she went to a Halloween party?
    Group Text Reply from Usagi: or got zombie'd, there are a lot out there

Usagi is no longer a Burger-Mad-Zombie, but she had really wanted a burger after that whole experience. She'd dragged Mamoru for a pick up order for burgers in an office building that was still open and also not swarmed by zombies, and chomped own on so many... but now she was pretty worried, and about more than just Chibiusa, who'd been getting candy when she remembered getting bitten with Mamoru.

"Mamochan, have you gotten any texts from Emi-chan?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Group Text from Rashmi Terios: Sorry I haven't seen Emi-chan today, there have been zombies. They're still out there, but I'm tapping out to let another cluster handle it. Where are you? I'll be right over?

At least there was time to get a burger between her falling back and Hinoiri's text, and the calories are *helping* Rashmi recover from her part of the all-day zombie slog. Stopping to grab Hinoiri's favorite variety of drink from a nearby conbeni, Rashmi soars back toward the Academy, and presumably the part of the dorms that Hinoiri's currently pacing in.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru TXT: well i mean i can find her if you help me, hinoiri-chan, you're probably closest to her of all of us

"No," he says to Usagi, frowning then glancing up. "I mean... if I haven't and Hinoiri hasn't, probably no one else has either." He rubs his face and takes his glasses off and rubs the sides of his nose. "It's always gods-damned halloween. Always! Maybe there'll be ghosts." He holds out his hand as he holds his pocketwatch in his other.

"Earth Crystal Power, Make Up!" he says, transforming while offering his hand. "We should get over there. As soon as we find out where there is."

Amanda Faust has posed:
TXT from Amy: Oh dang I haven't seen Emi all day.

TXT to Emi: Kenken are you there? Is Emi busy in dreamspace? She missed Halloween! Or is it like a major day for nightmares or something?
TXT to Emi: Also she missed zombies. Will explain later.

    ...Okay, admittedly, if Emi couldn't respond to all the group texts about zombies earlier, and Kenken could have, she probably would have without specifically being asked.

TXT from Amy: Hinoiri you're right next door right? Is she in her bed?
TXT from Amy: Oh right it's probably locked.
TXT from Amy: ...There might be vents? Entrapta used to use them to get around right? Anyone with a mascot they might be able to fit and check that way.
TXT from Amy: I mean I'm assuming you knocked first obviously and that if she's in there she can't hear even from the dreamworld for whatever reason.

    Amy also kinda wanted a hamburger after everything. She couldn't eat that many though.

    So much for... well, not like she could really peacefully relax for long while all this was going on anyway.

    Amy starts roofjumping her way back to campus. At least the zombies mostly can't get up off the streets...

Veronica Perenna has posed:
<PHONE> Veronica texts group chat: I will start peeking around for you. Don't kill her too hard now.

She had never really been all too involved in the weirdness involving Emi, and certainly had never set up anything like an emergency for her sake before now, but she still starts looking as soon as Hinoiri contacts the chat.

Still, it comes out as a surprise to her. Since when had Hinoiri become so attached to someone to be this stirred over her? It was interesting to see, even if she probably should act fast before Hinoiri becomes too anxious. If they are not at that point already.

At the very least, she should start from the obvious place, and get rolling from there. One more message is sent, though, a mere minute before entering the missing person's dorm room.

<PHONE> Veronica texts group chat: Zombies, you say? Can you fill me up later, Rashmi-chan?

"Nice, I see we have a patrol team already. Ho, friends!", she exclaims at seeing everything.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Ah, Emi's room.

It's a dorm room meant for two, but she doesn't have a room mate. Both beds are neatly made, and the room is pretty well tidied up, actually. There's a conspicuous lack of personal touches here except for a single Baku pillow set upon one of the beds in place of the normal sort. An extremely basic phone -- Emi's phone -- sits on the end table beside the bed with the baku pillow.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
The group would receive... another message.

Group picture from Cure La Licorne: A picture of Emi's phone.
Group text from Cure La Licorne: Her bats missing. I know it's late, but who wants to join me on a road trip?
Group text from Cure La Licorne: Also, told you. Can't stand the burgers here...

Hinoiri and her hayburgers...

Group text from Cure La Licorne: Not even that close to her! I just bully her because she keeps trying to play lil miss delinquent and she seems to respond well to it.
Group text from Cure La Licorne: And yeah, I came to her place when I realized she was gonna do something daft, so I've been here since before I texted you.

Cure La Licorne was in said room, arms crossed, leaning against the bed, looking... well... like she was going to beat someone. Someone named Emi. "Yo," she said, waving at them as they arrived.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Group Text from Rashmi Terios: It has been a *whole day* with those stupid hamburger zombies. I swear if I find Corona I'm gonna give her *such a pinch.* More later.

But the window in question is growing a queue, and when it's her turn to soar in she... doesn't even land on the floor, *that concerned* about entering someone else's room uninvited. "Yo," Rashmi echoes back to Hinoiri, brow furrowed as she looks around. "...Wow, this is it...? ...Wow."

But then she spots the phone, identical to the picture just received. "Hey Hinoiri-chan, how mad would she get if Nicomachea looked for anything in her phone? I'll set it all to auto-delete if that'll help?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
TXT from Amy: Someone kidnapped Emi on Halloween?! And she had time to grab her bat but not her phone?!
TXT from Amy: Why does everything have to happen on Halloween I just want to get to enjoy it
TXT from Amy: We'll get her. Does anyone have a way to track her? Can Mamoru reach her in dreams somehow?

    Amy arrives at the dorm after Rashmi. "...That's..." Amy frowns. "If it were me... I'd rather not, but saving my life is important." She sighs.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Once Usagi takes his hand, it's a flash of light later and Tuxedo Mask and (probably) Sailor Moon are stepping out of the wall in time-- what?? No, it was just a teleport. "Gotta actually be touching the ground, though. To find her," he says to La Licorne without preamble-- and then he glances at his phone and reads Amy's texts as she's coming in the window. "It doesn't really work that way in the dreamscape. But I can find her if she's on Earth, and I can find her a lot faster if I have help."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica will certainly remember that 'more later'. It sounds like a very interesting story here, and she reminds herself they have something more important to do right now. As much as she is interested, better not waste time.

"A road trip, you said?" Veronica smiles at Hinoiri. "Why, of course. You can count on me for any trouble, La Licorne", Veronica nods, and immediately henshins at seeing the redhead already transformed.

A bit of disguise magic, and her top hat has taken the form of a helmet, with space through which her ears can poke. She doesn't think Hinoiri would have anything fitting otherwise, and roadtrip likely does mean bike.

"We can make it up to her, later, Amy-chan", Veronica puts a hand on the third member of this room's redhead trio with a smile, trying to console her.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
    Group Text Reply from Usagi: who said she was kidnapped?

It's a text that comes through just before Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon teleport into Emi's room, and Sailor Moon looks around carefully, frowning.

"This is... depressing. We've got to take Emi-chan shopping, once we get her back from whatever stupid she's doing."

She has decided to trust Hinoiri's characterization of Emi as off to do something stupid. Why not?

"Getting into her texts is probably the best way too find her. She's always researching nightmare stuff, right? Maybe she went after one and got into trouble."

Rashmi, Veronica, and Amy are all given waves of acknowledgement, but this clearly isn't the time for chitchat.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne stared at her phone at Amy's reaction and just... nope. She didn't respond. Cause... she did not have the energy for it.

"Do it," she told Rashmi. "She didn't get kidnapped," La Licorne said. "Trust me. If she got kidnapped I wouldn't be so *blindingly pissed* right now."

"And yeah, do it Rashmi. You're probably one of the best people to do it. Delete whatever you get after you figure it out. Knowing that brat... actually, knowing her... she left the phone behind in case she knew I'd follow her. Or so we'd follow her."

"ARGH! I'm going to KILL HER!" she snapped, stomping a foot down. "I swear it's the library ALL OVER AGAIN! I didn't deal with that stupid wannabe spirit of rejected literature past eight hundred times so this kid could run off and get herself killed swinging baseball bats at some other youma! She better hope she finds whatever she's looking for first before *I* get a hold of her!" she snapped, pushing off the bed and pacing a bit.

Someone was worried about her friiiiiiend.

"So just do whatever you need to do. If she gets mad, she can get mad at me, I okayed it. Better pissed off than dead."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
<PHONE> Veronica Perenna texts Laisa Samuiko: I am going on a roadtrip in search of a friend.
<PHONE> Veronica Perenna texts Laisa Samuiko: I will text more if it gets long.
<PHONE> Veronica Perenna texts Laisa Samuiko: kissemoji

"Do you know her tastes, Moon-chan? What kind of pictures would she likes on her walls?", Veronica hums, looking more intently at the room itself. It was kind of grating how sparse it all was.

"Hinoiri-chan, Hinoiri-chan, you cannot murder her if you give yourself a stroke first", Veronica comments with a smile at Hinoiri's reaction. As much as her care for Emi was cute, this wasn't really helping her.

"Sit down somewhere, and start breathing slowly, ok? It will all be fine. Why don't we talk about what to prepare for the roadtrip?", she says brightly. Good enough rerouting, she tells herself.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "What's depressing? That she just... vanished like this and we couldn't check on her because of... zombie nonsense?" If it someone comments further, she ohs. "I mean... I don't have any posters in my room, either..." She looks around the room. "I have plushies too... I never would have thought that a computer, game books, and a couple of gunpla counted as all that much, but..."

    Amy frowns thoughtfully. "Maybe it's that any time in here she just spends sleeping anyway? Though, where's she do homework then?"

    After her comment on phone, Veronica says we can make it up to Emi. Amy grimaces. "It's not that. It's just..."

    Amy looks around at those gathered, and shakes her head. "This isn't the time for this conversation. Just, don't pry into anything you don't have to, I guess."

    Amy looks to Tuxedo Mask. "We can only hope she's on the ground, then. How can we help you?"

    And if that doesn't find her... could she have left something in the dreamscape? Not many of us can get there intentionally, though... and I'm not sleepy."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi doesn't look much *more* comfortable with breaking into somebody's phone, but... if there *are* clues to be found there, better to give the others at least some idea of what they'll be facing when Tuxedo Mask yeets them however far across the world he's gonna have to take them. "Nicomachea," she says, setting the book onto the *other* bed. "Depot Investigation."

    << *BONG!* >> << DEPOT INVESTIGATION >> the book answers, manifesting a golden disc just above its pages. "Clone all data found in this phone, but do not display until search hueristics are complete. Parameters: Relevant text, audio, or image data pertaining to where subject 'Emi Hoshino' would choose to travel between two days ago and today. Once complete, flag *all* cloned data for deletion one hour after my mark."

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE >>

The longest space of time, of course, is the thirty seconds it takes for a not-exactly-sentient alien magitech Device to defeat the phone's security. After that... Well, nothing displays on the screens, but clearly Rashmi is getting a running precis, which seems to confuse her. "...Okay so... nothing there, nothing there, this was *definitely* her phone after she got here..."

A few moments later: "...Okay *wow* she does not like to be herself; how many social-media usernames does somebody *need?*"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask gives Sarek a faintly apologetic smile. "I don't think it'll be an actual road roadtrip. If she took the train-- if she went back where she's from, it's like 450 kilometers. No one wants to ride a motorcycle for like six hours, and we won't all fit on two. Might take the train. Might take magic. Depends on how much trouble she's in."

He moves back against the wall and leans on it, taking his phone out of midair and texting with gloves on.

Mamoru TXT Chibiusa and Usagi: small lady, are you all right? sorry we got zombied while you were getting candy

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a little conciliatory pat to Mamoru's shoulder - "Don't worry Mamochan! I know you can find Emi-chan, it's just - she's gotten really good at asking for help! She even organizes lessons and threw a party, so if she left, there's gotta be a reason. It's probably dumb, and maybe self-sacrificing, or something..."

As for Amy's question? She hums, and elaborates on the room being depressing, and when Amy points out her own decorating tastes -

"It's not just about posters or stuff, it's about making a place lived in. This could be anyone's room, or no one's. It's like... it's not even a place that Emi-chan lives. Definitely something we'll fix when we're sure she's not in trouble."

As Rashmi cracks into the computer with careful plans, she frowns at the news - "When you say social media accounts, I mean... how many?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne sighed and shook her head. "I'm going to have more of a stroke if I have to sit still." Then blinked. "Wait, what's so depressing about her room? It's just like the room I used to have back home. Well, except missing a like... sun poster or two."

She then paused.

"Oh."

"Oh sweet Sora... Figured it was something like that. No wonder she never complained about me crashing here so often," La Licorne muttered. Alas, it seemed she and Amy were in the same boat in that regard. Then again, she'd spent a lot less time in her room.

As Rashmi talked, La Licorne nodded. "Yup, that'd be here. As I said, she likes to play the role of delinquent. It's part of her act. Pretends to be a lot of things except herself. Acts like the tough girl. Girl is about as tough as three sheep that fell into a vat of conditioner," La Licorne said, rolling her eyes. "Terrified of a lot of things, especially being herself. I should have known she was going to do something daft... I got so wrapped up in studying the jar and Yuyami and everything else that I hadn't come back to my room for the last few days and just... Ugh..."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Lots," Rashmi replies to Sailor Moon, eyes flicking back and forth as the data scrolls over her optic nerve, and the picture begins to take shape. "Aaaaand... not so much an act, apparently she ghosted a get-together of her delinquent buddies tonight. But... *lots* of different usernames. Lots of identity-masking tricks too, but the point seems to be she's been trying *really hard* to use social media to look out for nightmares she can take on. There's a support-group channel she runs, bad dream hashtags and a subchannel on 2chan she moderates... ... Hang on," she says, brow furrowing deeply. "...Wait, that... ...Nicomachea, you flagged these right, right?"

Without waiting for the Device to give her the answer she knows he'd give, she makes a sweeping gesture with her hands, and a dozen screens bwip into place. Comments about a pervasive feeling of 'heaviness' and 'oppressiveness,' a screenshot of a man who talks about drowning in a lake of black syrup in his last dream, and on and on and on; all the posts are of a piece. Something is wrong, *very* wrong, and all signs lead to Kyoto.

"...Okay so I'm a *little* annoyed that she didn't mention this to any of us," Rashmi says, frowning at the displays, "but if *she* wasn't sure until the second she was, I can kind of understand her swan-diving into a crisis. Because I think that's what we're looking at, guys."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy quirks an eyebrow. "So she hasn't decorated her room with any personal touch she feels comfortable expressing, and doesn't like being herself where she doesn't have to."

    Beat.

    "Well it doesn't seem like gender stuff with her, so... what is it that she feels she has to hide, and why? I mean, she's brave enough to dress like that regularly in public, and good for her! But it doesn't seem like she's especially weak to peer pressure or society's expectations."

    She does sigh in relief when Rashmi says the social media accounts are just anonymously investigating nightmares. That seems less significant.

    Amy gives Hinoiri a surprised look. "She's pretending to be tough? But why?" Amy looks like she's about to say something, meets Usagi's gaze if she's looking away, then looks away and continues thinking. "I mean... she's seen our dreams. It's not like we're not open about... not being tough all the time."

    "And she is tough in, in dealing with all those Nightmares! She knows her stuff, in the dream world, and how to handle it!"

    "...Could it be some kind of memetic hazard? She's gone to fight a nightmare that will attack us if we know about it? But then why physically go anywhere?"

    "Wait, did you say she runs a support group? For... nightmare victims?"

    And then she looks at the screens (how cool it must be to be able to project holoscreens like this) "A lake of black syrup, heaviness and oppressiveness... but if it's a nightmare... like, we went up against the Salarymen, and Bliss-chan, and we handled that weird bridge, and the thing in the subway, and more! Why's she think we can't help with this one? And why's she think she can handle it alone if it's this big of a deal?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    After a moment, Amy adds, "...At least the lack of a note indicates she expects to be back. But why leave her phone?"

    Amy facepalms. "Mister Sakamoto. She can be tracked! Ugh, we gotta get her a communicator and maybe a burner phone."

    Beat.

    "...Did anyone check the shed for a note? She did say they might search her room so she can't keep anything on magic stuff here and has to wipe her text messages regularly."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Even my half of the room with Koji-kun had more character than this room," Tuxedo Kamen agrees with a nod, judicial but not judgmental about it, if that makes any sense. He sounds more like he sympathizes, although he is patted and also called out by his wife at the time. "It's just, uh. Not a high bar."

He looks to Amy and seems thoughtful. "I'm pretty tired, I could fall asleep if I had ten minutes of quiet, and I know how to get to campus from my personal dreamscape. And Emi has at least one rose, she could have left something in my dreamscape for me. But-- that's a pretty big if."

But then Amy asks how she can help, and the older teen brightens. "Human chain to my hand! If everyone's thinking of her at once that's a tapestry of connection to her. Makes it easier to group teleport that way, too, if you're already holding hands."

Then he looks at Hinoiri, then Rashmi, as he vanishes his phone again. "She can send a text, I cannot understand not sending a text even if you're gonna swan-dive into a crisis," he says unhappily. "I swan-dive into crises all the time! But I tell on myself."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Lots of little puzzle pieces, and Usagi doesn't know enough about Emi to put them all together. She always thought there'd be more time to figure her out, puzzle out ways to support and comfort a new friend. Now she's worried that Emi could get herself in over her head, could face consequences that the rest of them aren't ready to learn.

That's why they've got to find her.

"She's touch in some ways," Usagi defends. "She's got a lot of grit! But... I've noticed that Emi-chan's not exactly the mean sort, if that's what you mean by tough?

Coming closer to the holoscreens, she observes what she can and thinks through all the Nightmares they've faced, the situations they've seen, the training Emi had given them - how to identify nightmares, how to find dreamers, how to navigate different dangers in the Dreamscape...

And she grabs Mamoru's hand immediately. At least Tuxedo Kamen has gloves.

"Unless she didn't leave a note because she didn't know what to say. Emi-chan's not the most open, and she's going off into danger, after spending all this time making sure all of us could help her protect the Dreamscape even if she's not with us. Come on! Think about Emi-chan and how much you want to shake her for worrying you!"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"Putting pictures on the wall would be a start", the moonlit thief insists to Usagi. "It can break in this Place Is actually hers, you know? Sometimes you just need that right level of comfort first."

Tbe Princess of Sarek's top hat goes back to normal within a second when Tuxedo brings up this isn't going to be a roadtrip, and nods at him.

Her attention is already on what Rashmi has divulged. "I agree, this is indeed worrying. Maybe she didn't realise exactly how much she had on her hands, and now she can't back out?" She thinks out loud.

She looks at Sailor Moon. "Wouldn't this be pointless without her? Isn't she our only link to the world of dreams?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne shook her head. "I don't mean mean when I say tough. She's tough in a lot of ways that matter. But she's not tough in the way she pretends to be," La Licorne said with a sigh. "She pretends to be, but she's not. She acts like she could get in a fight with a pair of hydras and come out on top, but she's not the sort. And she shouldn't *be* the sort. She *is* the sort to run into that same pit of hydras, though, to save someone else's skin and I can respect that."

"But I don't respect someone who runs into that hydra's den, unarmed, when there are guards literally *right there* who are trained to handle this mess. That's dense. And yes, I know, I did that kind of thing before and it was stupid then when I did it."

"I've been trying to figure out how to get her power outside the dreamscape, just like she's been working on getting us to help her in the dreamscape. But for now? We need her there like she needs us here. And we've talked about this. ARGH! Stupid... BAKA!"

He held out her hand to Mamoru. "Right, so, think about her... huh? Fine. I can do that." And she was thinking about her. And definitely worried about her. A lot. And wow, her emotions were coming through crystal clear these days, had they always come in this crystal clear? Very... sparkly. And sugar coated. Must be a unicorn thing. Oddly... fluffy. Even her anger wasn't really anger, it was more just this warm... protective blanket of 'You dumbass how can I protect you from you?' At least she held out her hand so he could take hers and brace himself before he touched her.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"All right," Rashmi says, stepping back and giving the 'bigger picture' a final once-over. "So she's in Kyoto, and according to this so is something *extremely bad.* I'm gonna stay behind because, I mean... *someone* needs to alert the everyone else to get ready to ride to the rescue. At the very least, your boys," she says, nodding at Mamoru, "and your girls," this time to Usagi, "would probably draw and quarter whoever had the *chance* to tell them you two hopped off after Big Trouble and didn't. Also... Hinoiri-chan. Don't be so mad at her it scares her off of telling you anything after, okay? People are weird, it might happen."

Drawing in a deep breath, she shuts down the screens, takes the phone off the disk, and carefully returns it to its place on the nightstand. "Nicomachea: Mark."

Turning back to the rest of the room, she offers her friends a smile that she doesn't bother to keep the worry out of. "Be safe, all of you. And *come back.*"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask squeezes Sailor Moon's hand, then nods firmly to Rashmi. Then he looks around and says, "Okay everyone-- meet you out on the quad, we'll find her, and teleport, from there. I can two-person teleport whenever, but to do a big group teleport it has to be outside. Or we'll explode her floor."

ONCE they are in fact out on the quad, which is safe from dark energy hamburger zombies due to the Crystal Heart's protection field over the campus, there's a hand-chain again and Mamoru's other hand on the ground--

--because everyone's connections to Emi are brighter when they're together, making a more whole picture of disparate parts of her that show up in different friendships, truly a tapestry of shared events, shared emotions, shared jokes. They can all feel that big wide ribbon snap into place between them and Emi.

When he spreads the fingers of his free hand across the cold ground, what he's seeing will take a second to make sense to them all, but they can see it too: it probably feels like everything, but with their hands making a circuit of those connections Mamoru can send his awareness through the Earth, following the thread to where Emi has gone.

The landscape comes in flashes from an ant's point of view, from a rock's point of view, from Mt. Fuji, from the traintracks, from rivers and valleys and cities and roads and towns, trees and people and cars, the electric humming underground and animals in dens, ancient riverbeds below the surface--

--and then it snaps into place, a view of Emi wherever she is, whatever she's doing, where she is in Kyoto.

Mamoru stands up with his eyes closed and takes Hinoiri's hand once more and closes the circuit for Sailor Teleport.

"Autobots, roll out!" he calls cheerfully! "Sailor Moon, you call it."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is a bit horrified at a thought: "Wait, is she just spending all of her life outside of her class on her job? ...No, she likes fashion and horror movies..."

    She gives Veronica a slightly confused look. "But how do you know what pictures to put on a wall...?"

    And then Sailor Moon says they were being prepared for being able to fight without Emi, and that maybe she just didn't know what to put in a note, and her face pales.

    At least she's not thinking about having to miss Halloween anymore.

    Aaand they're relocating outside. Amy hugs Rashmi after she says she's staying behind. "Keep in touch. It's not like texts won't reach us there, until we reach the dreamspace or whatever."

    She doesn't respond to Rashmi's request other than to briefly look at her. They are teleporting into danger that is the opposite of safe, and of course they'll try their damnedest to come back!

    They head out of the dorm room. Amy suggests maybe spending a few minutes before to grab anything they can quickly take from their rooms for a trip -- who knows what sort of nonsense sealed dimension or world they might get stuck in for a bit, after all -- and anything else they want to quickly do before they leave since Mamoru can't 'turn the teleport around' once they set off.

    Once they're out on the quad, she links hands -- "Ready." -- and when Mamoru says that--

    "I never did see that show..." she mutters.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Earlier that day ...
r Over the months that she lived in Tokyo, Emi had never stopped watching Kyoto. Watching for the signs that would tell her it was now or never.

And they were everywhere.

It had begun with the usual trickle of exhausted complaints and sleepless confessions.Nothing that wasn't out of place anywhere else, but lately she had begun sensing a shift in the tone of things that had pushed her to greater urgency. She had to make the others ready, teach them about the dreamscape. Just in case. Now or never.

The people she followed, the support group for lucid dreaming and night terrors she participated in, had deteriorated. People had been disappearing, dropping out or giving up. Those that remained had begun to display sharper edges, a note of desperation ringing clearly if you knew how to read for it.

The nightmares were never the same, of course, but there was a common thread she had begun to take note of. They used words like 'heavy' or 'thick' or 'suffocating'. One dreamer spoke of drowning in a dark lake with water thick as syrp. Another dreamed of a forest without sound, the canopy seeming to come down on them: a third woke crying because their dreamer begged them to switch places with them.

Different dreams, different people, all in Kyoto. The same pulse threading through all of them. Something terrible was happening in Kyoto's dreamscape -- and she knew exactly who was responsible for it.

Now or never.

She lingered but a moment once the decision was made. She yanked her bag -- the one for this eventuality -- out from under her bed, checked the contents. It would be enough. KenKen was welcomed onto her shoulder and she quickly tidied up and made her bed. It would be rude to leave a mess behind.

With one last glance cast behind her, she took her bat and stepped out into the Tokyo sunlight.

-----

Emi had expected Kyoto to feel wrong. She had not expected it to feel -this- wrong.

The moment her shoes hit the platform, she could feel it. A chill, a pressure that settled just behind her eyes, sank into her lungs. Commuters brushed past her in tired silence, eyes dull, unfocused. Little chatter, even less energy. Just worn down silence.


The evening light was already dimming and the station lights were kicking on. They flickered. Once. Twice.

And then came the welcome she was expecting.

A woman holding her child paused mid-step, herald turning, eyes glassy and glazed, like someone else was looking through them.

HIM.

"Hoshino," said the mother's voice, except it wasn't hers at all. "You should never have come back to Kyoto."