244/New Perspectives

New Perspectives
Date of Scene:	15 August 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Usagi has something to say to Kyouka, and hopes donuts will ease the conversation. A discussion on the nature of evil, Dark Energy, and how to deal with Darien Shields begins.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Kyouka Inai

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
TXT from Usagi: Inai-sensei, are you in your office today?

Kyouka Inai has posed:
TXT from Kyouka, a few minutes later: I'm around. What's up?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
About ten minutes later, there's a knock on Kyouka Inai's office door. The knock is followed almost immediately by the door opening, and the sight of two things: a long, flat donut box, and Usagi Tsukino. The blond is looking a little sheepish as she enters, holding the donuts out to her teacher without even taking a seart.

"Inai-sensei, please take these as a token of my apology! Um, sorry I thought you were being a jerk about Darien-kun!"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Whether or not Kyouka planned to be in her office today before receiving the text from Usagi is anyone's guess, but she's certainly here now. She's standing behind her desk, chair abandoned, window open. Arms crossed, she's looking out over the school with a pensive expression.

    When Usagi enters with donuts, she quickly gains a smile, lopsided as ever. "Tsukino-san, I'm never going to turn down donuts. But you don't owe me an apology for thinking I was being a jerk. Being a jerk is kind of my professional specialty." She looks curious, though, as she says, "What happened?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Well, they're for both of us. Mostly you! But I want to eat some too. Because. Um. I think we're going to need them?" Now that she knows Kyouka isn't upset - or at least, doesn't seem to be - she inches her way into the seat at the other side of the desk, the donuts deposited neatly on said desk.

"You remember when Darien shared the Ramune with us, right? Well, after you left... we kind of talked... and he kind of shared some things... and then I thought about what you said before the dance. And I tried to remember exactly what you said, but I was really mad that night, and - were you, um, maybe, warning me that Dari-kun is maybe a little bit on the side of evil?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyoukoa falls into her padded office chair with a thud, half-spinning it to face the desk (and the donuts) as she gives Usagi a ittle bit of a smirk. "These things don't keep very well, and despite what you may think of me, I'm not quite capable of polishing off an entire box of donuts on my own." She pauses, seems to reconsider, then adds, "Well, not if I want to stay in decent shape, anyway. I miss the whole teenage metabolism thing." She talks as if 23 isn't still basically a teenager.

    She listens attentively to Usagi talking about what happened after the Ramune incident, and she purses her lips, considering her response as she reaches for a strawberry-frosted donut.

    "I was warning you that he's in over his head, and he's associated with people I would consider dangerous." She says, after a moment. "I have reason to believe that he works for people you would probably consider 'bad guys', yes. I didn't, and I don't, want to discourage you from interacting with him. But I also want you to be aware of the dangers, so you can be prepared for them."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi looks Kyouka up and down, doubtful. Sure, she's older but she's not Old, not even like most of the other teachers are. Usagi can eat an entire box of donuts and regret it later, so she's pretty sure Kyouka can... But hey, if she's sharing, she's sharing!

"He told me his other friends hurt people," Usagi says bluntly, holding a plain glazed donut in her hands and looking down at it. "I didn't - I was dumb, I guess. Baka Usagi. I didn't think people could be bad guys, like that. I thought it was just us against the youma, not that they had bosses." And maybe she should have, because Hematite was there that first night, and the monster had yelled at him like she expected his help, but he'd been so obviously helping her and Naru, that she didn't even think about it. Now she wonders if Hematite is anything like Darien, trapped, because he is nice. He is.

"I think there's something wrong with him, and them, for it to be like this" she hedges, "But I don't know how to fix it! And I've got to fix it."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka listens to this, and there's sympathy in her eyes if not particularly her expression. "It's not dumb to want to think the best of people." She tells Usagi, her tone gentler than it usually gets. "But it is dumb to expect to always get it. Unfortunately, that's a lesson most people only learn by getting hurt. If this," a vage gesture at the box of donuts, "is the cost of you learning that lesson, then it's a pretty light one compared to how it might have been."

    She chews a bite of donut, perhaps trying to decide how much to say, then apparently decides Usagi is worth confiding in. "You know that one of my abilities is sensing magic, right? I can tell who has magic and who doesn't. I can't tell what kind, or who they henshin into, or even if they're a.. Puella or a Device Mage or anything. But there's one sort-of exception to that."

    "There's a type of magic called Dark Energy. It's different from the rest, because basically anyone can use it. Doesn't matter what sort of person you are, where you got your powers from. Dark Energy is powerful, but it's also dangerous." She cocks a brow, as she takes another bite of donut. "It corrupts the people who use it. It gives them a lot of power, but warps their emotions and minds. Makes them.. petty. Jealous. Evil might be too strong a word- I don't think everyone who uses Dark Energy is evil. But certainly people who are evil use it. And everyone who uses it eventually becomes the worst version of themselves. It amplifies the worst in people, in exchange for granting them power."

    She swallows, leaning forward on one elbow on the desk. "I can sense when someone has been using Dark Energy. That's the one type of magic I can identify, separate from just 'magic' in general. It has a.." She wrinkles her nose. "Stink about it. Rotten. It clings. And your boy Darien.. he reeks of Dark Energy. Tons of the stuff. He's full of it. That, combined with the fact that he works at Obsidian, is what led me to warn you to be careful. I don't think Darien is evil. I don't know why he's using Dark Energy, or what he's doing with it. But I do know that the fact that he is using it, or is somehow coming into contact with it, makes him a danger to those around him. And his friends are likely the same."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi bites into her donut with a frown as she listens to Kyouka, particularly because her voice is gentle, and Usagi feels a little - not raw, but, vulnerable. "It's not even... I know people can be jerks. They can be really mean! But... I guess I just thought," she doesn't even know. What, that power wouldn't be given to someone like that? That the Lunas of the world - the people who gave out that power - wouldn't let something like that happen?

She just shakes her head, leaving it there.

"Is that how you find us? You can tell who's got magic and who doesn't?" It makes sense. She'd used Naru-chan to find her, and she hadn't been interested in Naru-chan - or at least, not interested in her the way she is with Usagi, with mahou fite club and all that - because she knew Naru-chan didn't have magic. And the thing is - Usagi really wants to ask about some of that. What's a Puella? Is Ms. Tragar-chan a device mage? But she doesn't. She listens. Because -

"Calling it Dark Energy kind of seems like it's asking to call it evil," she mumbles a bit, because. It's a little on the nose. But - power, that corrupted. Made you worse, warped their feelings... was that why Darien wanted to hurt people, sometimes? Why his friends wanted to hurt people? Because they had this - Dark Energy? Because they used it?

Was Darien... were his memory problems because Dark Energy? Is that why Mamoru was gone and Darien was his name now?

She didn't know enough to have those answers. And all the people she could ask - Darien didn't really like Inai-sensei. She couldn't tell her his secret, not when it wasn't her secret! He'd said she would need people, she would need help, but if she didn't yet know what he needed help with - once she told someone, she couldn't untell them. And it was his secret. So shouldn't she hold on?

"Is there a way to... fix it? The Dark Energy?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Hey, I didn't make up the name." Kyouka says, with a snort for the comment on Dark Energy seeming a bit too on-the-nose. "I'd say it's more a descriptor than anything. Like you see a red car and you call it a red car. There might be finer distinctions to be drawn but.." She makes a face, "I'd have to call Fuyuko, and I'm not about to put myself through that this afternoon."

    Asked if there's a way to 'fix' Dark Energy, Kyouka shrugs. "I mean.. it's possible to just stop using it? That should make the corruption stop. The problem is getting rid of what's already there. Nothing is without cost, Usagi-chan, and people who use Dark Energy have to pay the price for the power it gives them. That said.."

    She finishes off the strawberry donut with a final chomp. "There's a special type of magic. I've heard it called 'purification', although similar to 'Dark Energy' maybe that's just the layman's term. I've heard it can purge Dark Energy. But what exactly that means, like, what does 'purge' exactly mean, I'm not sure." She shrugs, with an apologetic look. "Purification magic isn't something I could ever do. Nor really any of my friends. You hear rumors, stories about it, stuff like that. But I've never seen it used against a Dark Energy wielder, personally."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I guess not," Usagi concedes, chewing another bite of donut. Who knows! Maybe Inai-sensei did name it! Maybe she's just covering it.

Nah, Probably not.

"It feels dark so you call it dark?" Red car because it's red, dark energy because it feels dark... "Who's Fuyuko?"

Can anyone fault her for being curious? No, no they can't.

"The price for using Dark Energy," she mumbles, and thinks about Darien who was Mamoru who was Darien. Was that the price? Or was that what someone had done to him? Everything was such a puzzle and all the pieces she has are so small and, and, and -

"Purification," she breathes it, that word, imagines it - "Purification could fix Dark Energy." Maybe. Her teacher is urging caution, a little, admitting she doesn't know, but Usagi, she will grasp this hope like a lifeline, something she can use, something she might be able to do - "Luna might know something! Or Pluto! I just have to get them to tell me!"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Not everything in life needs complicated terms to explain it." Kyouka says, souding amused, although she adds- "As much as some people like to assign them anyway." At the question of who Fuyuko is, she makes a complicated face, half grimace and half smile, then gestures to the photo on her shelf, the one she's showed Usagi in the past.

    "Old friend. The girl in the black dress. She knows a lot more about Dark Energy than I do, but eh... talking to her is a bit of a draining experience." She realizes what that might sound like, and hastens to add, "Not.. literally draining. Just the normal, emotional way."

    She watches Usagi puzzling through the situation re: Darien without choosing to add anything, until the girl suddenly exclaims about other sources of information. She quirks a brow. "I don't know Luna or Pluto.. but if they know about purification, then it might be worth asking." SHe grins that lopsided grin of hers. "As much as I enjoy pretending sometimes, I do not in fact know everything."

    Her expression becomes a bit more serious. "Just... be careful, Usagi-chan. I know you want to help Darien. Heck, I want to help him, too. But leaping without looking won't help anybody, except maybe whoever is pulling these strings we're seeing. I'd dearly love to know that, but not if it means getting you or any of my other students in trouble or hurt to find it out."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Tell that to my chemistry teacher," Usagi sniffs, and then goes silent, looking at the picture in Kyouka's office, remembering the other girl. Is it appropriate to ask a teacher if someone's a good old friend or not? Probably not. Besides -

"Luna's my friend - she's the one who gave me my broach, to transform," her hand goes to the broach, touches it gently for subconscious emphasis. "And Pluto - she's one of my teammates." Her face scrunches with annoyance. "They know things, and Luna doesn't want to tell me everything, which is really annoying."

There are other words she could use to try and describe it, the feeling she has when Luna makes it so clear she's holding back, but - "Pluto is here. I um - I don't think I should tell you who. But she's pretty cool, I think. And if she tells me something good, I can tell you!"

She'll be the one who knows more about something than a teacher for once. Wouldn't that be cool? But Inai-sensei grows serious, and Usagi feels her own smile slipping away, her shoulders hunching a little.

"I know. I know - I only have these little pieces, and I'm not even super smart to begin with, and Darien -" she is not going to be telling anyone about Darien, she realizes. Not if they don't know him. Not unless they're not like Inai-sensei, who knows. What if she tells the wrong person? Even Koji-senpai, who'd introduced her to Elephant-san, was still... "I want to help him, and it's going to take a while," she's wistful. "It's not like it could be as easy as hitting him with one of my attacks. I don't even have my tiara anymore."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka absorbs this information about Luna and Pluto without evident surprise- not because she knew all about them already, but rather because it makes sense to her that Usagi would have gotten her powers from somewhere, and that she might have teammates or others who share her origin. "It sounds like Luna is the one you should be asking. Although," A faint snort of amusement. "I am very familiar with people who don't want to share everything they know." Perhaps a wry expression. "Usually it's because they are worried about what will happen if too much gets out too quickly. But it can also be a trap. Sometimes you just need to trust people."

    She steps forward, reaching out to put a hand on Usagi's shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "I trust you, Usagi-chan." Her tone is serious, her grey eyes firm. "You don't need to be a genius, or some all-powerful goddess. All you need to do is be determined, and be patient, and not give up. You're right- things take time. Especially complicated things. But if you don't lose sight of your goal, and you work to better yourself, to find out and to put those little pieces together... you'll be able to do almost anything. I know it."

    She removes her hand and steps back, leaning on her desk. She quirks her brow. "...what happened to your tiara?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi is still and may always be surprised to learn that others don't have those who share in their origin, don't have team members they barely know but would trust with their lives (but not Darien's, not yet) because something in their gut says yes. So she takes Inai-sensei's lack of surprise as natural and is going to say - I love Luna and she loves me but we don't always like each other - I'm not what she wanted - it's really weird when your talking cat knows more than you - going to say something, but she doesn't manage it, not before she leans forward and oh so kindly cracks Usagi's chest open with her words. She has to blink, hard and fast, to not tear up, to not cry, to not blubber because hey, hey, do you mean it? Do you mean it? is bubbling up in her chest. She has to take some deep breaths to not just cry, because all of this is so scary and she's so bad at it, she thinks, but Inai-sensei trusts her -

And then she laughs, wet, and smiles. "Do you remember when you stopped Ms. Tragar-chan and I from going all out?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    If Kyouka has any idea how her words, heartfelt as they might be, have effected Usagi, she doesn't show it on her face. It would be impossible for her not to notice the wet blubberiness of the teenage girl, but perhaps she knows that tact is the better part of valor, at least when dealing with fourteen year olds.

    "Yes, I remember." She says, when prompted by the question about the self-defense class. "Though if I recall, your tiara was still very much intact when you left that day."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I hit him harder than I was going to hit her," Usagi says, and it's not exactly pride but not far from it either. She had been terrified and angry and she had scraped every ounce of power in her body - every ounce of power her friends offered - and she had made him hurt.

"I combined it with Mars-chan and Wako-chan's attacks and when it hit him I made it blow up. Moon Tiara Implosion," those last three words are softer, as she recalls the moment. "Ms. Tragar-chan showed me how to stand. And told me I should use my fist more. So I held it in my hand until it burned and blew him up until he ran."

And then she scowls. "My tiara hasn't come back. I don't think it will."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka lifts her brows as she hears the story- its likely she had heard some reports of the attack in general, but likely not to this level of detail. Such as it is. When Usagi finishes explaining what happened, Kyouka actually gives a short laugh- and then reaches out and ruffles Usagi's blonde hair, right between her odangos. "Thatta girl." She says, sounding proud. "Blow them up and make 'em run.. that's how we do it around here, when people threaten our friends or innocent bystanders."

    She then says, "I don't claim to be an expert on your particular power. But the tiara was just a focus. You weren't actually attacking with the tiara. You were using it as a vessel for the power you always have inside you. So even if the tiara is gone, your power isn't any less. You just need to find new ways to express it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's enough smug child in Usagi to be pleased when her hair is ruffled, to smile warmly at making her teacher proud. "He's going to be back. But we can handle him. We really can!"

She is so sure of it.

"Yeah... I threw a rose once, and it worked," she confirms, "My tiara was nice though, it always came back. The rose was ah... Gone, after."

One hit wonders.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "They always come back." Kyouka mutters with the jaded outlook of experience, but it's a passing comment. "I'm sure you can too. And remember, if you ever find yourself in a situation you feel like you need it, you can always call me for help, too. But I have a feeling you won't need it all that often."

    "Your Tiara was obviously a focus meant to work with your power." She sounds thoughtful, tapping her lip with a forefinger. "Other things work, but if they aren't designed to take that force, they won't last. Focuses, like anything else, work best if they're purpose-designed."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
They always come back. It's a lesson Usagi hasn't fully grasped yet, not when her enemies, great and terrible as they seem, haven't come back yet. There have been the threats and the posturing, the claims, the bloodshed (an Usagi more inclined to self-awareness and self-reflection might be contemplating the nature of trauma and if she has any, right now), but the enemy hasn't come back. Yet.

She knows they will. There's trepidation at the thought of that. But mostly, there's confidence and pride - because for all the threats and anger, they had run and she hadn't.

Who's the real crybaby?!

"I'll call you," she promises, "If Jadeite or Lightning Guy gets too out of hand, I'll call you."

Usagi, are you aware that you're just dropping names without context now?

"Maybe... I mean! It was definitely meant for me! But... If it was purpose designed, and it's part of my power, maybe I can get it back? I mean, not piece that one together, it's probably dust all over Tokyo, but if it's my power, my tiara, my focus - maybe I can make it come back."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka's brows visibly raise as the name 'Jadeite' leaves Usagi's mouth. She seems to consider for a moment before asking. "Who's Jadeite?" She hasn't heard a name other than 'fire eyes' ascribed to the character behind the previous attacks. Lighting Guy she can pretty much figure out.

    As for the tiara, she shrugs. "I don't know the intricacies of how your power works, Usagi-chan. It's possible you can just summon another focus into being. If not, I'm sure you can have one forged for you.. it's just a matter of finding someone with the appropriate skills. Either way, losing one is an inconvinience, but it's not a tragedy. Especially if you learn to expand your repitoire because of it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Fire Eyes," Usagi says promptly, grimacing. "His real name is Jadeite like the rock but not the American actor The Rock and he's a general from a dark Kingdom, or maybe The Dark Kingdom?" She frowns, then shakes her head. "He's as much of a jerk as I thought he was. But seeing him throw a temper tantrum made him the tiniest little bit less scary?"

Tiny bit!

But as for her Tiara...

"I'll figure it out. I'm figuring it out! It's going to be fine. I'm getting better! I'm actually getting a bicep, did you notice?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka frowns as well. Dark Kingdom.. if the name means anything to her, she doesn't show it on her face aside from that pensive frown. "So, he's the one who's been causing trouble. Interesting."

    That lasts just a moment though, before she gives a little smile. "You are. Both getting better, and a bicep. Just keep punching bad guys in the face. And let me know if you figure anything out about your tiara."

    "Oh, and Usagi-chan? If you hear anything else about this.. Dark Kingdom, or who might be involved.. keep me updated, alright?"