180/Phone A... Friend

Phone A... Friend
Date of Scene:	30 July 2023
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	With worries piling up far beyond her ability to do something about them, Rashmi turns to the only other mahou she knows for help. Getting his attention, turns out, is the hard part. Everyting after that? A lot easier.
Cast of Characters:	Rashmi Terios, Koji Silvia

---

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When you're a mahou...

High places hold an odd attraction. Perhaps it's the fact that you get a better view on patrol. Perhaps it's the perspective that one couldn't ordinarily get, with the highest parts of a skyscraper often not accessible to teenagers.

Perhaps it's a combination of the ability to fly, and the need to contact someone without ever having their phone number.

The latter reason, if perhaps more specific than most, is why Rashmi stands on the roof of one of the taller office buildings in Juuban, in full Barrier Jacket and spell-circle rotating beneath her feet. "Remember, Nico," she says, as the Device calculates the parameters of the spell. "Just the rooftop. We want to be obvious, not threatening.

*BONG!* << ACKNOWLEDGED, MASTER. >>

<< TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

In short order, the skyscraper is now capped in a bubble of gray-black energy, with a large golden ribbon of light slowly revolving around its equator. In Mid-Childan lettering, writing can be seen upon the ribbon, making it difficult to read by the untrained eye, but easy to decipher by any Device:

<< HANZO PLEASE COME IN >>

Koji Silvia has posed:
"Yes Mom... I was working on that this weekend. Three hours of training. No... there's actually some kind of self-defense class at school that I'm thinking of at- Yes. Yes."

Koji WAS just stepping out of a conbini with some soon-to-be hot snacks and some other weekend treats where his magical 'sense' that he's developed since becoming a Mage gives him the 'feeling'.

'"Mom, I need to go, I'll talk to you later."

Sighing to himself, the young man looks around for a moment, adjusting his glasses in the light of the morning, and then when he finally sees it... he almost runs into something.

"H-hanzo?"

    << Confirmed, Young Master. Time-Space Barrier Active. Signature matches to Nicomachea. >>

The defeated look on his face would be amusing for some other people as he mutters, "No, I brought this on myself. Who the heck am I, trying to be a mentor... alright. Cloak and Set Up."

    << Initiating Obscure. Set Up. >>

About five minutes later, Rashmi sees 'Hanzo' appear out of nowhere, just one second nothing but a ripple in the air, and then suddenly... Ninja Mahou.

"I admit... that was inventive. So, here I am."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The sudden entrance still startles a squeak out of the redhead, covered -- badly -- by a clearing of the throat and an apologetic smile. "Um... Sorry to bother you, just... Um. I don't know who else to talk to."

Inwardly, she heaves a tremendous sigh of relief. << Thank you, Nico, you can probably turn off the sign now. >> Obligingly, the ribbon of light fades from view outside the bubble.

"So nobody's ever noticed a Barrier like this, that wouldn't need to, so... You don't need to worry about cameras and cellphones and stuff. Anyway... I need to talk to you about the Clover Mall explosion."

Koji Silvia has posed:
He doesn't really show any expression when you bring up the Clover Mall incident, and this just causes 'Hanzo' to move over and sit down on a roof AC unit, feet over the back side instead of the fan, "I'm aware of it. Some people were hospitalized, some were hurt. No one died that anyone is aware of, but the news has the kind of talk that tells me it was something else. You asking me just confirms it."

He pauses, and then takes a breath, "Oh. This is new to me, so I'm just passing it on. No reason for me to look cool or mysterious for you. Our Devices have an old subsystem that lets us speak to each other directly via Telepathy. All you need to do is ask your Device to open a link to another Device you know. The other side can refuse to listen in, and there are some who can listen to anyone if they know it's happening... but... it means less rooftops and announcing to EVERYONE who can see it that you need to speak to someone."

He pauses and closes his eyes, and then Nicomachea receives:

    << Communication Request from User: REDACTED. >>

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi's eyes brighten visibly as the request is announced, but REDACTED makes her shoulders immediately sag. Still, the request is accepted, followed by the mental clearing of a throat. << Testing, testing. >>

"Thank you very much, Redacted-san," she says vocally, her gratitude tempered by a tiny thread of annoyance at not having a name to refer to. However, the talk seems to be important enough she blows right past it to get to the heart of the matter. "So anyway, um. I was there. What *happened* was, a monster just busted through into this dimension. Nobody called it or directed it, it was just... completely without a leash and causing havoc."

Koji Silvia has posed:
'Hanzo' pauses what he was going to say in the middle of it as he nods to Rashmi that the telepathy was accepted and then she goes on speaking out loud. After she's done, he brings two fingers of his right hand to the spot just in front of his ear and holds them there a moment, "Pardon. Someone else I've met saw your little display. Just reassuring her that things are alright."

He then almost seems to laugh, "She says she wants to meet you and may be here shortly. What you did was kind of like shooting off a flare. You meant it for me, but everyone saw it."

Making the moving on gesture, 'Hanzo' continues on, "Well, if you were there, your Device probably got a reading on the entity and the dimensional... tear... it caused. You can always ask it to analyze it and check if it recognizes where it came from."

Bringing his fingers back up to his ear again, "They have a vast amount of information, but they only know what they know in context to us. Hence why... we learn situationally at times. Back on the homeworlds, we'd have a proper mentor or we'd learn operational basics in school."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Yeah, Nicomachea says I need to ask the right questions," Rashmi says wryly. "But no I'm not asking hows. Here..."

Nicomachea floats down to rest a couple centimeters over her upturned palm, gem pointed skyward, then blinks. "O-oh. Well probably better I wait on the explanation until they get here, I guess? Nico, can you fix it so more than Redacted-san can actually come in?"

At the book's affirmative *BONG!*, Rashmi smiles ruefully at Hanzo. "He'd tweaked the entry parameters so it would only allow you in."

*BONG!* << SUBJECT 'Nicomachea' INCLUDES A ROBUST SENSOR SUITE. >>

Koji Silvia has posed:
Looking at Nicomachea directly rather than Rashmi, 'Hanzo' gives a polite little bow of the head, "Our guest, if she arrives, will be Trager des Blauer Grife. A Belkan Unity Knight. She's a friendly."

    However, in contact with the book-Device, the real Hanzo sends << Warning. Device Blauer Greif is an older design specification, and has been active well past most Device run-times. Blauer Greif can be... Belkan. Very Belkan. >>

"Since we're waiting for a moment" 'Hanzo' goes on, "How are you adjusting to being a Mage? It makes you see the world differently."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< CATEGORY 'Belkan' IDENTIFIED >> Nicomachea acknowledges, then provides an explanation for his User. *BONG!* << CATEGORY 'Belkan' INCLUDES A PEOPLE OF DEEP RELIGIOUS AND MARTIAL CULTURE. SUBJECT 'Redacted-san' WARNS THAT EXTREME TRENDS TOWARD CULTURAL STEREOTYPES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, INTRANSIGENCE, COMBATIVENESS, STUBBORNNESS, EBULLIENCE, RESPECT FOR MARTIAL PROWESS OVER MENTAL... >>

Nicomachea natters on in Rashmi's head, as the slightly bewildered girl powers through the explanation to focus on the *conversation.* "And she's... friendly? Okay... So um... Yeah being a Mage is weird and amazing and terrifying and *I can fly what the heck,* but um... I've been seeing and doing a *lot* of weird stuff lately. And I get that maybe I should have been taught a lot of stuff, but uh. Real quick..."

Rashmi falls silent for a moment, then lets Nicomachea float there, *still lecturing,* as she flails her arms over her head. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHO TO TALK TO ABOUT ANY OF THIS?!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji actually rubs the back of his neck when Rashmi kind of blows up like that, and somehow his headtilt shades his eyes as he pushes up from sitting and walks to her. Putting a hand on the girl's shoulder, he says softly, "Okay, take a breath. Yes, it's overwhelming, but you can handle this."

He suddenly sounds so calm and assured once more, but his eyes flick to Nicomachea to try and get it to stop going on like that again, "There's no network between the people with different backgrounds in this. Not everyone has a Device like our own, and then there's the other side."

Letting his hand fall away, he steps back, "And this requires trust. I know I haven't proven you can trust me yet. Because I won't tell you my name or anything else. I'm doing it to protect people. When you get into an incident, there are most likely going to be others there. It's your choice to reveal yourself and break the veil of secrecy. I won't tell you to do what I do. You're not me."

But then he chuckles just a bit, "If it's any consolation, my first fight, I was scared and without my mentor, I wouldn't have made it."

'Hanzo' stops himself there, and asks, "Does Nicomachea have a healing spell? That may be important later. Mine can do some regenerative magic, but it requires an intense amount of focus. Meaning I can't be doing it mid-incident."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"..." Pausing, Rashmi furrows her brow. A quick mental check interrupts Nicomachea's exhaustive lecture of all things sterotypically Belkan as known across Administrated Space, and provides a much more consice report. "...He says yes, but it's for battlefield-support, not injury recovery. So I guess more like a magical version of a bandage, painkiller, and really strong coffee?"

Arms fall to her side, and she puffs her cheeks in irritation. "We're on the same side, right?" she finally says. "I'm panicking because I only barely have any idea what I'm doing, probably need to actually break some laws thanks to what I found out, and *then* probably upset someone who's dangerous enough to put *Dark babies into digital assistants.* So this isn't a case of 'Figuring things out the hard way,' Redacted-san. I know very well that I am currently in over my head, and everyone else who was involved is a complete stranger to me. I don't *care* about trust, I need *help!*"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Crossing his arms, 'Hanzo' nods and he takes on more of the stern mentor look in his eyes, "First thing... we are going to break civil law here in Tokyo, just being what we are now. I regularly break into spaces, alter computer records and footage to hide my presence, and have used my magic to truss up and keep more than a few policemen out of harm's way. They can't fight the things we fight, and it's suicide to let them. There are wild youma that occasionally cross over from the other side, whatever it is, and I've been going out nights to find and destroy them."

He moves back to sit down in his spot from before, and then motions towards you, "Still not sure she'll make it here soon. Trager does however want to meet you, and to help teach you. She'll be rough, and she will INSIST you learn how to fight... it's a Belkan Thing... but honestly I believe she means well, and she really wants help too. So let's focus on what we CAN do right now."

All six Blades float out of their sheathes and into the air, points down, and move towards you, "Bring out this thing you found and lets get a look at it. It's not surprising someone on the other side has decided to go modern. They seem to want to gather negative emotions. Fear, Terror, Hopelessness, Jealousy, Rage... the things that drive our dark sides. What they do with it once they get it? That part I don't know for sure. But I do have a question..."

"Is this from Obsidian?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Loosing a long, deeply-held sigh, Rashmi nods, returning her hand to underneath Nicomachea. The crimson cabochon at the center of the book glows, and from it rises one of the Black Jade globes that Obsidian has been promoting, wrapped in a bubble of warm golden light. "I haven't even turned it on yet," she says, as informational screens start popping up around the gadget's perimeter. "Not since Nico-kun found the thing inside."

One of the screens zooms in on a small cube buried in the depths of the globe, made of runes and glyphs and bearing *some* kind of structure, but matching nothing in either Hanzo or Nicomachea's databases.

"But I'm pretty sure it's the baby of the monster that broke in. The thing is... I'm not sure this is Obsidian's *fault,* if it was then the saleslady would be *directing* it, right? But the monster was acting like it was trying to find something, and just before it got vaporized it was lunging toward one of *these.*"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Four more screens appear around 'Hanzo' as he gets a lot of the same information from Nicomachea, and as he looks back and forth between them, the Blades seem to be emitting small beams of light from one of the studs on the energy-blade mounts, "Well, you have to admire their ingenuity."

He seems to already have expected a more visceral response to that, and says, "Okay, so bear with me a moment. I'm just catching myself up. They give these out. You turn it on, and you start using it, but with it on... it could easily just start drawing in energy ambiently from the creature inside, and then send it wirelessly back to a central point. People ALWAYS forget to turn smart house devices like this off.

After staring at it for a moment longer, he looks back up to Rashmi, "These are probably not intended to ever hatch, and since they're so young and so underpowered, they could easily stay trapped and just continue to suck energy, since without being empowered like us, regular people are an easy mark. It'd be a careful balance game though, and if one of these fails or has a glitch... well..."

He brings his hands together, curls his fingers together, and then splays them out, "Baby comes out hungry and eats the houseowners."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Probably?" Rashmi says, shrugging. "But I went back the other day, around back. There was a lot of stuff in the trash from the cleanup, right?"

Rashmi's hands spread out to her sides. "*Not a single one of these was anywhere in the trash.* Wherever they went, they were taken away somewhere. And I haven't the faintest clue how to go about finding out where."

Koji Silvia has posed:
The fabled BROW ARCH happens, as 'Hanzo' replies, "But you already have the biggest clue. It's a wireless smart device, being handed out for free by Obsidian. Product testing is usually done through a Marketing team. So our best bet would be to break into their system to look for the work order... or..."

Motioning his hand towards his Blades, the float back and resheathe themselves, "You don't get to clean up something that big without leaving a trace. If there was a camera watching whoever drove up to take away the wreckage, we could see who did it, then use the city's traffic cameras to try and find where they went."

The ninja-dressed Mahou shrugs, "I guess it depends on how you want to do this, Rashmi."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As the blades return to their belt, so does the Black Jade float back down into the cabochon, to disappear back into its dimensional quarantine. "If I had a choice?" Rashmi says, after careful thought. "I'd want to be quiet and quick about it. But I also know perfectly well the chance of being caught means we'll probably have to *escape* loud. So reduce the chances we get caught...?"

The redhead chews on the inside of her cheek for a moment, then looks up. "Cameras. If I had to guess, it'll be less dangerous to hack mall security instead of corporate security. There's a *lot* less corporate espionage going on in malls."

Koji Silvia has posed:
"Then there's another thing you need to know, something important."

'Hanzo' lets that sit in the air a moment before going on, "Our Devices, by default, remain non-lethal towards other people and creatures that are not from this other dimensional space. So if I was to throw a Blade at you and even detonate it, at most you'd be knocked out. You could lose your Barrier Jacket, and might get scraped up from whatever you hit... but what we do will not kill."

He then lets the other shoe drop, "But they can. You can direct your Device to disable this. This is warning you as much as advising you. Agents on the other side with Devices could have disabled this setting. So you know you won't kill, but you can never assume someone you're fighting won't."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...I understand," Rashmi says quietly. "I spent a lot of time freaking out about that, when I first met Nicomachea." Looking down at herself, she tugs on the bottom of her vest, chuckling quietly. "Look at me. I feel like a cosplayer sometimes, wearing pretty clothes and flying around. But things happen to people... *terrible* things, and turns out there's more people out there... *actively trying* to run around and make the world a worse place by inches."

Looking up, her mouth presses into a thin, determined line. "Redacted-san, if you're worried I think this is a game... I don't. I don't know *why* this happened, why *I* got the power to help people who need help... But it's mine. And sure I'm freaking out trying to figure all this mess out myself, and wondering where my little space teddy bear is who shows up and teaches me everthing. But that's not going to keep me from helping. If it did... I don't think I'd *deserve* this."

Koji Silvia has posed:
'Hanzo' holds up one finger, "I don't think you think this is a game. I'm passing on what little I can, because a lot of it would require us to go someplace and let you go at me for a bit. Training either means we find a youma to go after, or we duel. I just want you to be aware of the things that can happen. Like security guards in malls at night. I'm not saying you have to do something, but I want you to be aware of what could happen."

A second finger comes out, "I am sorry, but you were special before you picked up your Device. We can't use them unless we have the gift. That means you are either like me, or you are someone born here with the rare gift to use magic. Eventually... it would have caught up to you, the same with me."

A third finger finally, "You're also very brave. You're probably braver than me. So, while I'm no space teddy bear... whatever that is... but I'll try and be here for you as much as I can."

He stands up again, and there's this long moment before he just nods, "I'm trusting you..."

Waving his hand across his face, the mask portion vanishes and he holds out his hand to let a set of GLASSES appear from his Device's storage. Putting them on, he looks at Rashmi... and waits...

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi tilts her head as Redacted-san evokes his trust, eyebrows shooting up as the mask disappears. Then the glasses get put on.

Rashmi has never been very good at masking her thoughts, even before she could actually broadcast them into people's heads. The journey from curiosity to puzzlement to recognition to annoyance to humor is a *very visible* one across her face.

Finally, she simply lets out a quiet laugh. "Well that simplifies *one* thing at least," she says, shaking her head. Then, looking up, she nods, once. "If anyone finds out, it won't be from me... Koji-san, right?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji touches his glasses and they get put back away with the rest of his normal clothes, and his hand passes back over his mouth, letting you see the mask reappear like a bit of digital editing being done live, "Yes, it's Koji. The person I want you to meet, her name is Hannah, and she knows too. Since she was born on one of the Time-Space Administrative Worlds' colonies, she doesn't really get or understand the whole secret identity thing."

There is still a sense of amusement from him as he walks to the edge of the building and looks down, "I get that you're scared. Truth is... so am I. But it's why it's easier to be Hanzo. I can put it all behind the mask and not be 'me' for a bit."

"So I guess we're going to break into a mall in the middle of the night. Thankfully... even if they already erased all regular storage of the footage, not everyone remembers all the places they get stashed. It'll be even better if they have physical backups. This'll be fun."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"'Fun,'" Rashmi echoes, laughing quietly. "I mean, I *hope* it's fun. Because it could also probably be 'running and screaming in panic as monsters chew up the ground floor of a tower to get us,' which... I mean, not so much."

Shaking her head, she inches toward the raised lip of the building next to Koji, leaning forward just slightly and staring down. "...I still get nervous of heights like this," she says after a moment. "I mean I *flew up here,* and that was breathtaking and wonderful... But when my feet are on the ground like this? Sometimes I forget I'm magic."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Flicking his eyes towards Rashmi, Koji nods, "There are nights I'm hanging up on one of the skyscrapers in Mitakihara, and looking down at the world, and it just makes it all feel... right. Like this is what I was meant for."

He takes a couple steps back, "That's the thing. Some day soon... you're going to realize that it's okay to have magic in your life. We're not going to have it forever. My mentor is too old to use her power anymore. Even though she's told me stories of adults using magic on the homeworld... on Earth, magic seems to be the power of youth."

Another couple steps back, and he runs to the edge and LEAPS!

"You can't fly unless you're willing to fall!"

And then he holds one hand up, launches a Guidewire that impacts into another building and it arcs him into a swing that takes him off and away, as he yells, "You know how to reach me when you're ready!"