2878/Be Wary, Take Care

Be Wary, Take Care
Date of Scene:	16 December 2025
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	In the aftermath of Hands Off, the Star Driver quartet arrive at Mamoru's house for healing, and a few moments' emotional release.
Cast of Characters:	Takuto Tsunashi, Wako Agemaki, Sugata Shindo, Chiyo Sakai, Mamoru Chiba

---

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
They're no longer moving at the speed of oh god; Ginga Bishounen Tauburn lands Wako on the roof of the building with the cat cafe, next to the closed umbrella table, between the big garden and the enormous bronze orrery of a star system that inexplicably centers a planet and has the sun and moon being pulled by alicorns--

Takuto lets go of some of Tauburn's power and releases the armor, and his red eyes are bright and worried as he looks at the other Star Drivers. His opera-gauntleted hands reach abortively for Wako again, and Sugata, but he pulls them back, fretting, and he goes to ring the doorbell. "What if he's not home? What if he's out? You have his number right?" he asks, half-turning to look back at the other three.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Takuto-kun." Wako interrupts his fretting with an out of breath little half-laugh. One hand comes up to paw her windblown hair out of her eyes, and she shakes her head a little, looking at him with a fond smile. "It's okay. Your timing was perfect."

She pauses a moment, glancing at Sugata and Chiyo just to check, before her eyes return to Takuto. "I've definitely got his number if nobody else does. It'll be okay."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"If he's not home then I'm going to force on him an even more useful gift than usual as thanks for his help, but of course I have his number - I ordered the business cards he printed it on," Sugata says, not soothing but practical. He doesn't sound annoyed, but then it takes a lot for him to express a feeling of annoyance, and far more than worry for him to be annoyed at Takuto.

As he lands, he sets Chiyo down on her feet, and doesn't so much buckle as lean against the closed umbrella table for support, grimacing. His henshin flickers away, leaving him in his ordinary, undamaged clothes - hiding the bruising underneath. The damage isn't so bad that he wouldn't walk it off if he had too, but he doesn't, and two King's Pillars, so close to one another, had taken it out of him.

Wako is half-laughing - she's fine. She's fine, which means so is he.

"You made it in the nick of time, as usual. Worry less."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Ginga Hanma was perhaps the worst out of them if only because she had taken quite a tumble before that first King's Pillar. Wako had kept the worst of THAT from her at least. Aside from being singed, and having more than her fair share of cuts and scrapes, she wasn't too injured. Mostly.

When set down by Sugata she releases her arm from around him to shift her weight so she can favor one foot. As the others start to calm down, she does too by just opting to slump into one of the chairs on the rooftop with hands folded in her lap.

"If he's not home or answering his phone I have Usagi's number too." Though she'd rather hope she wouldn't be interrupting date night if that was the case. That happened often enough after all.

Chiyo allows her own henshin to shift back leaving her in her Winter clothes with only a small shudder as she suddenly feels leggings pressing into the scrapes on her knees.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"I'll worry less if you sit down," says Takuto to Sugata with a faint pout, but... Wako is right there and she's half laughing and she is all right, and he simply leans down to kiss her.

Just like that.

His intention, of course, is 'kiss pretty girlfriend', and only after she either ducks away or kisses back will he address the admittedly important other things being said. It is unfortunately as he's moving that the heavy door opens behind him--

If Wako doesn't move fast Takuto's going to be nudged into her face, facebonk.
?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Obviously it's Mamoru opening the door-- well granted it could have been Kazuo, or Usagi, or Masato, or Chibiusa, but it's Mamoru. "Ack sorry," he says, then comes the rest of the way out in his leather jacket, letting out a big shiver and jamming his hands in his pocktes. "Whoof it's cold. Do you want to come inside first, or are stairs too much?"

He looks a little different without his glasses. His hair's a little lopsidedly messy and has clearly only had a hand run through it after sleeping, which matches the warm pink impression of a couch cushion on half his face. Sleeping in the daytime! Well, who knows what kind of hours he keeps. Mahou hours. No sleep til Shibuya.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"If I sit down, I'll just have to get back up when Chiba-san gets here," Sugata points out, and does not sit down. He's holding most of his own weight, but the table is holding a not insignificant amount of it. There's bruising, down to the muscle and bone, and taking a too-deep breath hurts.

He doesn't let it show on his face. If he does, Takuto will simply not calm down.

"When you're done kissing, you could run out and bring dinner. If I'm hungry, there's no chance Wako-chan isn't, and when Chiba-san's done we'll likely all be hungrier still."

And then the door opens, thumping Takuto ever so slightly, and Sugata straightens.

"Chiba-san," he says politely, "We'll come inside if you'll have us. Apologies to interrupt your rest."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako might be slightly wobbly, but she's definitely not going to pass up a kiss from Takuto. She grins up at him and rises up on her toes a little - and thus, gets bonked in the face when the door opens and throws everything just slightly off-kilter.

"Ow!" she complains, with no actual note of pain in it, rocking back and bringing her hand up over her nose. Sugata gets what would probably have been a huffy look if her hand weren't over her face.

As if on cue, her stomach growls.

Her eyes find Takuto's again, apologetic and plaintive in equal measure. "Beef bowl, maybe, please?" A beat. "Hello, Mamoru-san. Sorry to bother you."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai lifts her head in time to see Takuto go in for a kiss--And then get bonked into Wako when the door opens. A hand goes to her stomach to clutch with the first initial laugh that dies almost immediately after. Bruised muscles were not pleasant to laugh with, plus she wasn't really wanting to laugh *at* her friends anyway.

It was just such perfectly awful timing.

"Inside," she agrees while working to lever herslf back to her feet only to hesitate with a sidelong glance to Sugata to check if he felt up to it. But apparently he already had thoughts on that.

"Warm sounds amazing," She agrees with a sigh.

"Hi, Mamoru-kun, sorry for the bother."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Matching almost-huffy hand-over-nose faces from fiancee *and* boyfriend, Sugata's on a roll. He shakes his head and lets his hand drop and takes a step back so he can see everyone. "Hullo Chiba-kun," Takuto says, trying to sound normal instead of fretty, and then he turns back to grinch lightly at Sugata before nodding, then nodding more firmly at Wako. "Beef bowls for everyone unless I get texts saying otherwise," he says, hand out for Sugata's card; he kisses Sugata, too, then turns to Chiyo and teases like he's going to kiss her too and ducks any potential smacks.

Then the redheaded boy doesn't even bother jumping, there's just the blaze of bright blue-white energy beneath his feet and then he's taking off, fully intending to fly to a ramen place, get food, stay in henshin, fly back...

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Mathing almost-huffy, hand-over-nose faces, and Sugata smiles, lopsidedly, pleased to see the both of them relaxed. If they can huff and pout at him, the situation isn't all that bad.

Takuto comes over, and is provided both Sugata's card and a kiss, Sugata lifting a hand to Takuto's hair, burying it their for a moment.

Then the kiss is over, and the original Star Driver is tearing off across the sky.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Shindo-kun, Chiyo-chan, Wako-chan, Tsunashi-san," Mamoru greets everyone in return, smiling a little with his shoulders hunched up against the cold, then shaking his head again. "Not a bother at all. It's a bother if I'm on a date at the time, but I wasn't. Come on in where it's warm."

When he opens the door again, the heat from the stairwell immediately starts escaping, making the air shimmer a little.

Once they're inside, it's a short walk to come in through the back apartment entrance nearer the kitchen, and from there a short walk through the kitchen to the living/dining space. There's the dining room table with its wooden tavern chairs with cushions on the seats, and over further, couches and armchairs.

"I can't do triage if you're all masking pain," Mamoru says brusquely, "so you'll have to tell me who to start with."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Takuto confirms there will be beef bowls and Wako immediately brightens. "Yay!" She's still sparkling as he takes off, and she turns to help shepherd Sugata and Chiyo ahead of her into the warm.

"I'm not so bad," she tells Mamoru once they're all inside and the matter of triage comes up. "I mostly just burned a lot of drive, so don't worry about me..." Trailing off a little, she looks between Sugata and Chiyo, back and forth, trying to assess their conditions and mostly not drawing any conclusions. Presently she gives up on making a guess and leaves it to the other two Star Drivers to figure out while she goes and sinks down onto a couch.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
The faked out kiss coming Chiyo's way is met with a hand flapping at him as if she were going to smack him silly. She doesn't of course, but she does turn a bit pink from the joke. He got her there. Plus she'd just watched him and Sugata kiss which was kind of hot but she's not admitting to that! She's pretty sure they all know it already.

A look of relief washes over her as she follows into the apartment where it's warm. Her arms remain hugged around herself though taking care to keep her stomach covered as she shuffles over toward one of the comfy looking chairs. If she was going to be in pain she was going to at least relax where she was sitting.

Before she sits the question comes causing her to pause, and glance with worry toward Wako and Sugata. "Ah... I think Sugata--" she begins only to hiss out a breath.

"Okay, me then, please." A look of embarassed guilt creeps over her. "I took that dark energy wave pretty hard."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
They descend inside, Sugata stoically controlling his pain literally in spite of Mamoru's direct directions otherwise. As he glances between the three of them, he resists the urge to say that Wako should be seen to first - he knows, rationally, that for however close Riventon came to draining her, he hadn't actually succeeded. And between him and Chiyo, well -

"Chiyo-san," he says decisively, even as Chiyo wavers. He can wait, until the other two are taken care of - until then, he'll sit on the couch beside Wako, leaving room for Takuto to sit at her other side when he returns.

"And then Wako-chan."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru, running both his hands through his hair again after he takes his jacket off, no longer has cushionface. He also has an amused expression, and he sighs, and he agrees with everyone because it's simple and none of them is in shock. "I'll be really mad if it turns out you're bleeding internally or something, Shindo," he says a little severely, but he crouches in front of Chiyo's chair and holds out his hand.

When she takes his hand he closes his eyes, and there's a gold glow around their hands, and her pain is gone. "Please don't move," he says mildly, "it's still just anaesthetic. But how about you all tell me what happened that slapped your crew, of all teams to be able to slap?"

Meanwhile, he's systematically focusing in on where the pain signals, interrupted as they currently are, originate. This deep bruise here, that scrape there, this gash, that bruised organ, "Oh, no wonder you hurt," he murmurs, and there's just this peaceful sense of vast connectedness behind the power, quiet and steady.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako turns a quick, reassuring smile in Chiyo's direction, a look meant to communicate without words that she has nothing to feel embarrassed or guilty about. It lasts just a moment before she's turning an immensely unimpressed face to her side to regard Sugata.

She doesn't say anything yet. Instead, she leans over and very deliberately pokes him in the shoulder, where the dark energy beam ripped the jacket of his henshin.

Then she pokes him again.

"Don't be ridiculous, Sugata-kun," she tells him tartly. "You're going next."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai reaches out her hand so that Mamoru can begin what he needs to do. That sensation of warmth flooding through the touch to soothe away the aches and pains does at least ease her breathing which had been tight. Already she could feel her muscles relax--Although she does take care to heed his warning of not moving. Pain only so far after all.

At the question to explain what happened, a pink eye cracks open to peer at Mamoru. "Would you like the bad news verbally or would you prefer I show you?" There's just a little trepidation to her tone as she asks given she knows there's some whole family drama thing with Mamoru and Riventon.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
The first poke, Sugata is expecting, because he's known Wako all of his life and knew full well that he was provoking her by saying she should be healed next. "I'm not bleeding internally."

As far as he knows, anyway, he's never had that particular experience. Still, he's fairly certain he isn't bleeding internally; his ribs don't feel as though they'd broken, and he's reasonably confident that they'd need to have broken for him to have internal bleeding given his skin isn't otherwise torn in the abdominal region.

(He's wrong. About needing to break a rib to get internal bleeding, not about having internal bleeding.)

And then, as Mamoru is working, Chiyo falters on the explanation - why? What would be the point of showing when all it takes is a handful of words? Sugata's opening his mouth to spit out those words when Wako pokes him again. A hiss escapes, equal parts pain and annoying.

"Yes, I am hurt, but I can also wait my turn," he informs Wako, before biting out, "Your brother. To no one's surprise, becoming a director has not cured his kleptomania."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I-- just tell--" Mamoru starts, eyes opening and eyebrows lifting in startlement, then one lowering in puzzlement as he withdraws first his power, then his hand, from Chiyo. (She's all right now, but her own body's resources were used to fix her, so she'll definitely want that beef bowl!)

And then Sugata chimes in, and he spins by shifting his weight and switching which knee he's on, and Mamoru freezes. His eyes go to the shoulder Sugata had been favoring, then back to Chiyo, then to Wako.

"Please don't pull your punches with him, if you were," he says flatly. "I am truly sorry for the behavior of my brother," he adds and it's formal, it's a formal apology, he gets up to bow. And he's furious. It's in the rigidity of his shoulders, in the cold promise of later fire in his naked eyes. "You shouldn't gift me anything for this one."

Then he's grimly crouching before Wako and Sugata, holding his hand out to Wako. "If you burned through drive," he says, voice still a little gruff even if he's relaxing slightly, "at least let me replace some of the energy. I can get it back meditating for a few hours in the basement, and if he's going to be a stoic idiot, he deserves to hang on to that pain a minute longer."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
She's poised to poke Sugata again when Mamoru approaches and holds out his hand, which prompts Wako to turn an immediate betrayed look toward him. Et tu, Mamoru-san?

She lifts her chin, index finger still extended for poking, looking as if she intends to be stubborn, but she checks herself as it begins to sink in how angry Mamoru is. With an exhaled breath, she relents and takes his hand.

"We didn't," she promises, as that golden energy begins to flow from him to her and fill the nearly-drained well of her drive with that calm sense of rightness. Unconsciously her muscles relax and she sinks a little more into the couch. "Pull any punches. And we booked as soon as Takuto-kun got there and gave us the chance."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai shifts in the chair a little to lean one arm against the armrest as she watches the sudden tension in Mamoru. "No, of course not. You told me not to pull punches with Hematite as well, back then. And I *like* you. I'm certainly not going to give him that."

"He just switched from a barrage of single blasts to one huge one and I couldn't dodge." Then there was Kings Pillar, and other things. She doesn't get into that though.

With a quiet sigh she remarks, "He is not your fault. Although..." A little frown comes as she regards him again. "Mamoru. One of Reshbal's powers lets me 'see the truth', and I saw him. What's left of him." Her mouth opens, then closes, as she just regards Mamoru a long moment. "I'm sorry. I'll never 'take it easy' on him."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"We didn't," Sugata echoes Wako, curt but not dismissive, being straightforward and clear. "I never have, and never will. There's no need to apologize, Chiba-san; you're not responsible for your brother. You aren't his keeper, and you've clearly broken faith with him, if not ties."

Wako accepts the healing, and though Sugata is in pain, he's soothed more by seeing Wako taking care of than he would be by being healed as she suffered even slightly. (No, it doesn't occur to him that she could feel the same way.)

"I'll gift you what I please, given the aid you're offering. You did not encourage him to try and steal what he can't understand. It's our own fault for being unable to handle him, and I will take responsibility for that."

He looks at Wako, and then Chiyo.

"We need to train more."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Good," Mamoru says to Wako, and his voice is tight, but he's getting his anger under control, and he's keeping it from muddying the waters at the same time as he's using it to keep the sorrow at bay as he listens to Chiyo. "Thank you," he says, deflating some, diminishing some. "I just... yeah."

Mamoru pats the back of Wako's hand then withdraws -- he didn't entirely refill her energy well, but she could probably do a low-key non-boss fight now.

'Low-key fight'.

"Of course you'll do as you please," he finally says to Sugata, not even mad about it. Not even tired about it. Just agreeing. "I also do as I please. Except for when it distresses my partners. Or my alt-future daughter. And even sometimes then."

When Sugata takes his outstretched hand, again, the pain goes away. Mamoru starts fixing the injuries, bruises to muscle and bone, that shoulder... and he looks distressed now, and he's trying not to, because Wako is looking at him. "I don't know if I'll be able to save him. I won't hold it against anyone if I can't. But man... every time he hurts someone, it's awful... But he came after you, and he knows where you live. He's a Director at Obsidian and he's still in the field. He doesn't understand. Or maybe he's closer to losing it than I thought, and he already broke nearly every bone in my body once. Please be wary, take care, don't just train to fight, train to run away."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"I will," Sugata would shrug, but his shoulder does hurt, and he has no - absolutely no - intention of making it worse. He takes Mamoru's extended hand, and as the pain vanishes, he has to summon discipline to keep himself from slumping in relief; that the pain is gone does not mean the injury is. Moving while in the middle of active healing would be stupid - particularly because while the wounds aren't life-threatening, they aren't good either. His shoulder had been sprained in the impact, muscles torn.

"You might not," he says, and there is a thread of something vaguely compassionate there. "And I appreciate that you intend not to hold it against us."

He's aware the words aren't - warm, comforting. He's hoping Wako will have something to offer there, because he doesn't. There's no love lost between him and his family, and no love extended towards Wako or Takuto's families for that matter. Understanding Mamoru's feelings is an impossibility - empathizing with them, a little easier.

Mamoru is working through the rest of Sugata's injuries - bruised and cracked ribs, but indeed, no internal bleeding. He could have recovered on his own, but even with Mahou healing, it would have been a couple of weeks.

"I have no intention of being a fool. We'll train not just to defeat him, but to ensure we can get away."

This warning is for Wako and Chiyo's benefit.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako can't help but grimace at Sugata's statement, but she nods as well. "I hate that you're right... but you're right. We do need to train more. I've been taking it too easy up until now." She's not actually leaning on his arm, not while Mamoru is working on healing, but she lists a little in his direction.

"He might try coming after you, too, Chiyo-chan, now that he knows you're a Star Driver. Don't hesitate to send out an SOS the moment anything happens, all right?" Tipping her head back, she looks thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "In a way, this might turn out to be a good thing. We have an idea of what we're up against, and we can use that in our training."

She rolls her head to look over at Sugata. "Right?"

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"He was after our 'robots' and Wako-chan's energy. Though I think he would have taken any of ours, if he could. He can't," Chiyo assures at least in regards to him taking a Cybody. "He won't believe that though."

The suggestion of more training is met with a solemn nod of agreement. It was necessary. Much as she might grumble at times, she could be serious when admitting such things. "Yeah. We'll train, and we're not afraid to run away when needed either. I also don't have a personal beef with him like I did with Sunbreaker so I'm not going to try to break his face against all odds."

Just if the chance comes up.

Her head turns at this, tipping to the side as if she were listening to something. Then with eyes rolling she remarks, "Takuto's on his way back with food and is probably going to need a hand. Resh thinks he's not going to be able to balance it all."