568/So Your Thoughts On Murder Are...

So Your Thoughts On Murder Are...
Date of Scene:	08 October 2023
Location:	Cafeteria Plaza
Synopsis:	Usagi needs Minako's opinion on an important topic, after her confrontation with the Outers.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Minako Aino

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
SAILOR VENUS's communicator receives a ping! as SAILOR MOON reaches out to her. It's not voice - not yet, anyway, but a message that she can read on the screen of her communicator: Venus-chan are you free to talk?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
SAILOR MOON's communicator accepts the call, of course. She'd been the one to make it - it would be pretty grimy if she couldn't accept it, right? Right. Her voice, when she answers, is artificially light. "Venus-chan! Thanks for having time for me. I'm - I was hoping we could talk. I'm on campus, in the cafeteria plaza! Think you can meet me?"

She swallows, the sound audible with the excellent microphones built into the communicators, and then - "The Outer Senshi have found three of their four. I got to meet them. Professionally. It didn't go too well."

Minako Aino has posed:
"Sure Sailor Moon, I'm on the volleyball court, give me a little time to get changed and..." she trails off, nodding her head a little. "I met another one, Sailor Uranus, myself, aside from Pluto-chan that's only two I know of..."

She trails off, tilting her head to the side. "What went wrong?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Uranus?" Usagi frowns to herself, and then asks, "Is her bow yellow and her collar blue?"

Does she already have an answer to one of her questions? That would be pretty good, actually. She'd appreciate it significantly.

"It was Pluto, Neptune, and Sailor Blue-and-Yellow, for me. And... you remember when I told you about Sunbreaker? The one who you know, had Naru-chan?"

She's sitting alone in a corner of the cafeteria plaza, settled not too far from the place she'd first met Michiru. She's trying not to think about it.

"Well, she's been up to a lot of no good."

Minako Aino has posed:
The call ends, Minako making her way towards Usagi with an excited wave and a bright bouncing step to where she was headed. Sliding into the corner seat beside Usagi there's a little scooting slide and hip-bump-turned-greeting-hug. It was genuine, but also a good moment for her to lean in close. "I think so, she backed me up against the witch who sicked an angry giant truck monster in the crowd of a food market."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The call ends. Usagi has gotten some food from the cafeteria - a tray of ricevalls with different fills to share, because of course she has. If she's going for a meeting in a cafeteria, why not? Even if she's not especially hungry, given the topic of conversation...

Usagi mouths the words giant angry truck to herself, then shakes her head. Nope. Not important!

"Well, I'm glad Sailor Uranus helped you... that's not fair. They did help me, I just - I'm getting ahead of myself. I fought a youma, earlier this week, and after, Sunbreaker, she kind of ticked me off, so I ticked her off, and she, kinda, sorta, beat me up. With fire. I'm fine! Healing good and everything!" This is to ward off any concerned reaction. "But... the Outer Senshi showed up to save me. Sounds cool, right? Only, they weren't out so they could save me. They were out because they were - hunting. For Sunbreaker."

Her voice cracks a little, remembering it, the pain that stole her breath away, the fear, the relief at the rescue - and the way it was all tainted with horror that deepened by the second, by the offered word.

"Minako-chan, they were there to kill her."

Minako Aino has posed:
It's good that Usagi had got things to share, because there was a real assumption to be made by Minako as she brightly reaches towards one of the balls to claim it for herself tilting her head as she listens before blinking a little and sitting back. "They were hunting her down directly? I don't think I've actually crossed paths with Sunbreaker myself yet..."

Did she seem to be bothered by the killing? Not so much, instead her concerns lift with her gaze towards Usagi. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you Usagi-chan..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
In better times, Usagi would be nodding along that Minako is a friend after her own heart, what with her implicitly understanding that food brought together on a plate is food meant to be shared, and all. Instead, she frowns. "They were hunting her directly. She - she put someone in the hospital, and she terrorized someone with a prank, and well, she'd kind of just fought me, and they wanted to just... kill her."

This is the part that's freaking her own!

"I'm fine! Really! She's not even the first person to burn me, even if she did it with fire, instead of lightning, and I'm already healing up, M- Naru-chan took care of it."

Her boyfriend is her secret. For now. While she figures this out.

"The killing thing is kind of the important part here, I mean - we can't just kill people!"

Minako Aino has posed:
"Still I...it's my job to..." she trails off, a sigh before shaking her head. "I know you can handle yourself but still, I want to keep you safe." Minako -had- spent so long working alone, maybe she'd got a little lonely and hadn't relised till she'd actually found herself with the princess and her fellow senshi.

"Kill people?" Minako tilts her head to the side, considering. "We've killed Youma and monsters already...a few of them..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Your job to help look after all of us?" Usagi guesses, because Minako is the most veteran of them all, and that makes sense, and she appreciates that, she does. It was just that she'd gotten help. The problem was -

"Sunbreaker's not a youma though. She's a person. Like you or me, not just some like, bus possessed with dark energy, or a hat that turns a kid into a dinosaur," she grimaces at the memory. "You... do you also think I should have let them kill her?"

Minako Aino has posed:
"N-nevermind, it's something we can talk about later," Minako offers with a little flush to her features and a deliberate swallowing of her stolen snack.

"Do I think you should have let them kill her?" Minako repeats slowly, taking the moment to consider. "I've killed monsters, creatures...but I've never had to kill humans. Even when I've fought criminals as Sailor V."

Would she though? Well, Usagi might not like the answer to that question, even from Minako. Instead, Minako gently reached out to touch a hand against Usagi's forearm. "If you believe you did the right thing, I believe you but..." she trails off, exhaling a breath. "They must have a reason to believe it was the right thing to do..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi has enough on her mind to let it go, because this, this is the important question. The make or break one. Because Usagi -

Usagi doesn't know if she'll never killl anyone. But she knows she'll never murder anyone. She'll never kick them while they're down, or call them an animal, or -

A slow, in drawn breath. Her shoulders hunch, back drawn tight. Her chest aches with phantom pain, a memory. "I know I did. They beat her. She was down. She was crying. And they wanted to kill her anyway, just because they were scared she might hurt someone worse." Sunbreaker wouldn't want her telling people that she'd cried, but Sunbreaker could have thought of that before she broiled Usagi, honestly, so, they're not even close to even. "They think I'm stupid, and ignorant, and naive, and that everything is just happiness and rainbows, but I'm not. Sunbreaker's still a person. You don't just murder people because of what they might do."

There's a flash there, of anger, of rage, of old pain, at being underestimated, being mistaken for a fool, but there's also conviction, plain and simple.

Minako Aino has posed:
Murder versus killing was a more complex question than most might think, but Minako doesn't...well, she doesn't quite have a solution for Usagi. The closest she had? The blonde just draws her arms around her friend and fellow senshi. Sure, Venus might have no idea if in her past life she'd comforted the princess with a hug before, it was certainly the thing Minako Aino would do.

"I understand Usagi, really...we need to find some sort of prison for super bad guys, maybe that might help them...It can be so easy when your job is to protect someone, something, even everyone...to be scared of what might come next."

Her head lays lightly on her fellow blonde's shoulder if permitted, exhaling a breath. "It can be tempting to want to strike first."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There has never been a time in Usagi's life when she didn't accept a hug from someone she cared about. This is no different - Minako offers her a hug, and Usagi takes her up on it in an instant, sinks into her arms and is glad for the hugs from so many people that she's gotten, from Mamochan to Inai-sensei and now here, to Minako-chan.

It's not that she feels better. This - all of this - is complicated. But maybe she does feel a little better, because Minako-chan hadn't said she would have done the same.

It's not better enough to admit she's dating a reluctant general in the Dark Kingdom, but it's something.

"I wish we could just talk it out. Get them to see that this is wrong. Sunbreaker is all messed up, and she's kind of stupid about people and proud and has the worst temper ever, but she doesn't deserve to die."

But how did you even begin to explain that to someone?

"They said we were soldiers. I'm not a soldier. Not a real one. We don't even have an army anymore - I'm a hero of love and justice." Huff! She is absolutely permitting. She breathes, and Minako can feel the rise and fall of her chest. "We're not any better than them, if we do that."

Minako Aino has posed:
"I know Usagi," Minako offers softly, unaware at least for now what romantic decisions her charge might have done. After all, the champion of 'Love and Beauty' hadn't really had time to enjoy that first half herself!

"But...that doesn't mean we never destroy our enemies, that we can never kill ever. That's just...not reality. Not every enemy will surrender, change their ways or be healed. We'll have to...and if you can't, when it's needes?"

A breath, a moment, perhaps a lecture expected. "Then...I'll be there to do it for you."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi looks away. Her eyes fall, and her shoulders slump. "I know. I mean - I don't want to, but - someday... we might have an enemy who doesn't run away, or back down, or who isn't just some dark energy creature that can't do anything but hurt people. Some day, we might -"

Her voice falters. Minako says that she'll do it, and she jerks her head up, stares with surprise and horror and something close to gratitude.

"I... I'm not saying I can't. I'm saying - if the enemy has already surrendered... if they've already lost... I can't kill someone who's done, Minako-chan. That's not who I want to be. That's not who I want any of us to be."

And she hopes - she really hopes - that she's not forced to stand between her friends and an enemy again.