728/Show me the paperwork

Show me the paperwork
Date of Scene:	08 November 2023
Location:	Rooftops
Synopsis:	Hematite, Kazuo, Naru and Chrono all meet up to discuss very important matters of a contractual nature... Can they find the loophole? Perhaps.
Cast of Characters:	Naru Osaka, Mamoru Chiba, Kazuo Saitou, Chrono Harlaown
Tinyplot:	Lost & Found

---

Naru Osaka has posed:
There's been conversations here and there between different people. Naru and Mamoru. Mamoru and Chrono. Probably all sorts of people and Kazuo. Finally it just becomes easier to get all four people in one location and have one conversation that does not involve many games of broken telephone.

There is an assumption that all magical people are part cat because they like being on tall things. In that respect, Naru is fully mundane. She hates heights, but yet, rooftops are probably the easiest location to have meetings amongst this crew without roommates, or people inturrupting, or anything of that ilk.

And so.. Naru finds herself on a rooftop of the school, with her emotional support coffee and a notebook.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Two boys join Naru up there in short order, maybe a couple of minutes before 'exactly on time' -- they step out of nowhere, and one of them's in a grey uniform with black trim, shoulder-length hair touseled and cape flowing majestically in the breeze.

That one immediately drops his transformation because you know what, it's a lot more comfortable just. You know. Wearing a school uniform when at school. "Hey," Darien calls cheerfully to Naru. "It wasn't too bad, at lunch. I'm milking the Adrien lie for all it's worth."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The other one starts out in a school uniform, because apparently he didn't bother changing in the first place. Tall, white-haired, likely unfamiliar to Chrono except perhaps as the irritatingly perfect white hair standing out like a banner down a hallway or across the cafeteria. Kazuo eyes Naru's emotional support coffee like he is blaming it personally for not twinning itself, but Naru has better grounds (ahem) for having it than he does, so no doomed attempt is made to sweet-talk her out of it. "Do I even want to know what happened at lunch?" he asks, vaguely skyward.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown was never a big fan of tall things himself. But that was why he'd always been in his barrier jacket while on duty. You could only be the enforcer on duty who had to climb onto counters and the like to get to things on the top shelf so many times before you just said 'screw it' and stayed henshined all the time.

But today it wasn't about shelves. It was about contracts, demons and strange boys. So he arrived precisely on time, the boy in full barrier jacket, enforcer mode on, staff out, landing on the rooftop. A lidth's jay flew around him two times before descending, landing directly on Naru's shoulder, giving a light chirp. Why?

One might think she was looking for treats, but the truth was... she thought Naru could use the extra support. Fenyx was a good comfort bird.

"Shields-san. Osaka-san," Chrono said. "... Friend of Shields-san, I assume," he said before holding out his hand and... They all know what was coming.

The TSAB I.D. Hologram appeared. "I am Time Space Administrative Bureau Enforcer, Chrono Harlaown. Please to make your acquintance. And that," he said, motioning to the bird by Naru. "Is my familiar, Fenyx. A pleasure to meet you."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Hi Fenyx." Naru manages to hold coffee and notebook in one hand to be able to offer the bird that is now on her shoulder a light scritch. "I don't think you drink coffee, sweetie."

Naru does offer her coffee to Kazuo for the sharing though. She clearly knows the white haired boy /that/ well. It is why she got what could affectionately be called 'bucket o' sized coffee.

"I'll let Kazuo introduce himself." Naru notes as she flickers a smile to Darien and then answers Kazuo. "Usagi's table at lunch was a delightful mix of people .. some with chill, many without. Some trying to keep their alter egos out of things, some not.. it was delightful chaos. We even had a Jason sighting, which is rare." She looks to Darien. "Hopefully the work phone wasn't epic levels of awful? I will totally ask about the lies later." She shakes her head a little, making a vague effort to stay on one topic. It's in vain, but she can /try/.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"What Naru said, call from the boss," Darien tells Kazuo, shrugging one shoulder a little uncomfortably. There's a flicker of a smile in her direction and he bobs his head in agreement: lies later. He looks delighted at the bird that lands on her shoulder when Chrono arrives. "Pleased to meet you, Fenyx!"

Then he leans forward to squint at Chrono's holographic ID card. "I'm actually really jealous, that's a lot cooler than a school ID," he says, not actually having seen this introduction before.

"For the record," he adds, straightening up, "for the purposes of this conversation even though I am *not* transforming, I'm Hematite, leader of the Shitennou and strongest soldier of the Dark Kingdom." A beat. "Still Darien. I'll introduce myself properly when this is over. Which I hope this conversation will help with."

He gestures to Kazuo. "He is *not* in the Dark Kingdom," Darien says proudly.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo: not in the Dark Kingdom. Kazuo: also not in the loop. The white-haired teenager blinks slowly at Chrono's polysyllabic job title; he did not, in fact, know what was coming.

At least he doesn't ask whether Chrono is a bronze dragon.

"Kazuo Saitou," he says instead, with an amused smile by way of greeting. "I'm the one being eyes for Osaka on a couple of projects." And waves the bucket o' coffee back to her, on the general principle that it's Naru and she's probably been attacked by a youma at least once this week, possibly at lunch for all he knows. "I'm told I have a better title, but it seems inappropriate to use it when the people it's associated with are saying things like 'strongest soldier of the Dark Kingdom' with a straight face."

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Fenyx, at least, wasn't here to drink coffee. She just gave Naru a comforting nip before, finally, flying off to land on Chrono's shoulder. It sounded like Naru was already having quite. The. Day.

Then he turned to Hematite and cocked an eye. "I see. And thank you, these IDs have become identifiable across three hundred and seventy-six dimensions and over two-thousand planets. They aim to be concise, easy to identify and useable even in high stress combat situations."

"A pleasure to meet you, Saitou-san. So then, before I speak too much, could you inform me of the nature of this discussion? As I know we aren't... entirely... at the avenue of being aligned, even if our end goals are the same."

He, at least, was nice enough not to call Darien 'Usagi's Catra'... within hearing of him. Yet.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"We are not all.. currently.. playing for the same team." Naru confirms with a nod, bending over to set her coffee down momentarily so she can rearrange her notebook as needed. "But we are all, right this second, operating towards a goal that is net positive and this group.. for the sake of this conversation, is at peace treaty status." She bends again to reclaim the coffee as she pauses.

"I have faith that Darien will give more detail as needed." Naru gestures a little. "But there are magical contracts in place that we need to figure out how to get people out of them, without a copy of them." She glances to Darien for confirmation on that. "And well.. that sounds like a right pain in the butt, but here we are, and I have faith that we'll come up with solutions."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Just so it's said first and foremost, Darien does NOT hipcheck Kazuo off the roof. He does jovially hard-jostle him in the arm at the 'straight face' comment. He nods to Naru. "And whatever contract is in place between the big boss and the other guys-- it's not one that's between me and the big boss, OR between Kazuo and the big boss, and that latter is the most interesting part."

A beat. "This may have something to do with reincarnation, I'm not sure. I kind of maybe hope it does. Or I hope it doesn't! It might simplify or complicate matters, depending on whether contracts carry over like memories and associations and connections."

Then he shifts his weight and looks uncomfortable. "Look, this is the heart of treason for me to be talking about in the first place. So, really, please, I am misaligned in name and bad judgement only."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"So we have three people with potentially related magical signatures who are -" Kazuo stops himself, and substitutes, "under the influence of dark magic and an unfortunate contract, one who is under the influence of dark magic but not with an unfortunate contract, and one who is neither but still might have a related basic signature. The question I have is whether you have any idea whether we could get those signatures, look for common threads, subtract the ones that show up in Hematite but not in me, subtract any that show up in all five of us, and take the remainder -- presumably a signature of the contract -- and use that to figure out what the deal they made actually was."

He does not say 'as a step toward breaking it, getting them a chance to get out, and thus getting Darien out.' Not out loud. He's hoping Darien and Naru have explained enough of the situation that that's a trivial exercise for the Chrono.

"All of which depends on whether magical contracts, which I personally have no actual clue about, even work that way. Or work that way sometimes, which would still be a chance. Or whether I'm thinking about this entirely the wrong way."

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown nodded. "I see. Well then..." He held out his hand again and a holographic display appeared. Of... a contract. "My familiar and I have a contract, the one made when she became my familiar. She draws on my power, in return I gain her assistance. However, the difficult part comes about without access TO these contracts."

"You see, from a legal side, at least to the TSAB, contracts must be publically facing to involved and affected parties. Otherwise they cannot be enforced. Unfortunately, it seems like this is more of a magical contract. A geas, if you will."

"The contract between myself and Fenyx is well known by both of us and can be exitted at nearly any time. However, we are able to mentally visualize it as well, as part of the bond."

"If the contract between them and your friends isn't anything like that, if they are unable to recall exactly what they agreed to, there is three possibilities that come to mind. First, they are lying about it or unwilling to share it with you at all. Two, it's an entirely different type of magic and it doesn't follow any of the laws of contractual magic I am aware of and, therefore, I will need access to it to come to any conclusions."

"Or three, there's no contract at all and it's a giant shell game. It's something else entirely and the talk of a 'contract' is just a distraction from what she is actually doing to you. However, if you DO have access to the other contracts between yourselves and your boss and can show them to me, I would be happy to go over them with a triple-amped polyhairgicider. Considering the steps your boss seems to be taking to ensure you are unaware of their contents, however, I find it doubtful that even should the contracts lose their signatures, as it were... that she'd obey them."

"... And if they follow you across lifetimes, even reincarnation? Then I imagine the second is more likely. It may even take the death of your 'boss', or a miracle of some sort, to alter them. Fortunately, miracles appear to be in... not so short supply these days."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Just don't make it a wish." Naru mutters quietly as she listens to the three of them, drinking her coffee. "I really am mostly just the facillitator here, to be perfectly fair." She considers thoughtfully, nodding at various points.

"Mix in a healthy dollop of mind control, memory screwing with and potential possession to the shell game and there could be anything going on." Naru considers again as she listens. "I'm going super on just gut instincts, which have totally been wrong before, but I doubt that we're working with a neatly defined and written out contract like the one Chrono has with his familiar. It just doen'st feel like the big boss' style, which is dramatic and over the top and exceptionally possessive." She gestures to Kazuo. "I like examining the magical signatures aspect though. If we could figure out how to get you some.. is it within your skills to examine them? Or potential skills?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"There's something that's not anything like that, though, that's good, and that's-- I think that is the shared magical signatures. I can... I can always tell where they are." Darien glances aside to Kazuo and looks a little sheepish. "I mean. Sorry, if you didn't know that before now. In theory you should be able to tell where I am, or even where they are, too."

He rubs at the base of his thumb with his other hand, frowning a little. "It could be a pact, maybe. A deal, a bargain. If the word contract is giving you trouble, those might be better. I just have no idea what they gained from it, or what power it had over them that it could just... levy."

The black-haired boy pales. "Oh gods. Or if they were looking for what she's looking for, and all they wanted out of it was to find..." He trails off, then shuts his eyes. Feeling guilty about unknowns is useless and counterproductive. He takes a breath. Then, "It might take a miracle. There's no written contract. But like Naru says, Kazuo's idea has a lot of merit. I can probably get at least one of them to meet with us. He knows he wants out."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I don't think their evil stepgrandboss particularly cares about the legal side," Kazuo agrees, a drier echo. Chrono's explanation of the specific contract, though, means that he glances toward Fenyx, studies her for a moment, then nods in her direction. "I apologize for not greeting you properly earlier," he says to her. "I made an incorrect assumption. I'm sorry."

That's the end of that distraction; he returns his attention to the rest of the conversation. Listening, thoughtfully.

"I can examine them to some extent," he says to Naru. "But it takes time, and it's obvious. And unless they throw something at me, I can't hold on to it and show someone else, or compare them directly; only by memory. So it's either 'get one or more of them to cooperate, preferably all three,' or 'somehow get them to magically attack me, preferably all three,' though please God not all at once."

And then Darien brings up ... at least one of them.

Well. Careful what you wish for.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown nodded, a hand moving up to grip his chin and now seemingly lost in thought. He was going through different records he had access to... sadly, since crashing, the information he had on such things was drastically inadequate. He gave a soft sigh and shook his head.

"Having something tangible would help our efforts considerably. However, that in and of itself is possibly something we can use. You say you can always tell where they are and they can tell where you are, correct? Can they tell where each other is? More importantly, can your 'boss'?"

"You mention memory alterations and the like. There's always the possibility that the contract they have with 'her' isn't with her at all, it's with you. Or even the possibility that there was a contract at one point, but using magic she altered it into its current state. In which case, you could very well be the key to breaking the contracts."

"... But this is just an hypothesis, so please don't go and try and get yourself killed or anything to test it. However... if all you need is their presence, if it is possible to lure out all three? I may be able to contain them for a short while. I'd requite the aid of a few other powerful mages, but... in theory, binding all three of them, even if they are of your power, Hematite, would be feasible... How long would they need to be bound?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Okay.. but we do have .. or probably could more easily have.. written magic from one or more of them. Is that sufficient?" Naru asks Kazuo as she drinks more coffee. "Cause I'm not keen on the whole 'analyze magic while they are throwing spells at you' angle, I'm just /saying/ here." She considers and then flashes a smile, "Although sucks that we can't just have like a magical video recording so you can pause and rewind it a thousand times until you are sure of what you see."

Naru wrinkles her nose at the notion of binding them. "So they might be playing for the wrong team right now, but I don't think we're at the kidnapping for their own good stage yet. Especially when at least one is willing to cooperate, and I suspect.. that more than one will." She glances over to Darien. "It'd be a hard sell, but we can talk about /that/ in more detail later."

Naru quirks her head thoughtfully. "Is there a potential that they made a deal with you, Darien.. and she mucked with it to make it seem like it was hers? I mean.. that totally fits the MO, but is kinda hard to prove."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'd say it's possible?" Darien says to Naru, jamming his hands in his pockets, "but there's definitely possession by a demon that is absolutely not me that goes on when they act too counter to its desires. Which..." he says slowly, "it a practical reason it's a bad idea to try and bind them. It would break out in all three and then it might not let go. The one, cooperating, though-- he might be willing to throw something at you."

What he is not doing on a public-facing level: wigging out about any of them attacking Kazuo, WHAT THE HELL.

"Anything involving all three at once that doesn't involve use of the miracle is going to lose me control of the situation almost instantly. I think-- I think I like the idea of--"

Darien reaches up and shuts his eyes with his fingertips at his temples. "This is a lot of potential tracks and I don't have a Device keeping track for me. Right. So. I'm absolutely certain that my boss cannot tell where I am. The other three can tell where each other are, and where I am. One of them can ward against scrying. I don't know if she can tell where the other two are. I do know that It, the stepgrandboss demon, is in the backs of their heads, watching them always, creeping through their doubts and magnifying them, messing with their memories, editing what they're saying or doing sometimes..."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Which is another reason not to try luring and binding them at this juncture," Kazuo says quietly. "To make certain that it doesn't have an easy route to try to break their connection to Darien. Granted, if it's hacked their oaths to him somehow, it wouldn't want to try to do that. But if it has its own pact, then convincing them he's broken faith with them would be ... unfortunate."

'Oaths' comes out so easily, never mind that the word hasn't turned up in this conversation before; he hardly even seems to realize he's said it.

"Still. If we can get him to cooperate, then I can take a look at him directly. I still won't be able to record, but we can at least see if it's visible, and if so, maybe find somebody better at analyzing these things than I am."

He turns to Naru, then. "Written magic? Do we have something that qualifies?" Would that count as Chrono's something tangible? That all depends, doesn't it.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown shook his head. "No. I don't mean kidnapping. Binding spells are my specialty. They're like small traps that hold someone in place for a short bit. Often used to setup for larger attacks, remove momentum from martial strikes or slow down pursuers. I suppose this world's equivalent might be a... glue... grenade? That can't be right."

"However, if she's permanently connected to them... it's very likely there's no contract at all. If she's got something inside them that can hop out at any second to take over? We need to remove it. Purify all three of them at once. Because the moment one gets 'fixed'? Chances are something bad may happen to one of the others."

"Still, if you do manage to get something tangible, I should be able to apply my own knowledge of such magical systems and can possibly help dismantle it in a different way. But for now, I'm afraid there's little else I can offer."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'm just going to put it out there that the brainstorming and conversation is a great deal of help, no matter what else happens." Naru points out with a gesture to all three of them. "I think, for the moment, the idea of getting all three of them in one location at one time to do much of anything is a phase two sort of prospect. We just dont have enough information at this point to be aiming to pop out demons and start shoving people into a giant hamster ball of happy juice and figure we're good to go."

"As for written, it feels like there's potential there, if there's enough magical signature for you to work with, Kazuo." Naru gestures a little wiht her coffee cup, having set her notebook down at some point without even realizing it. "Getting an item, or something that they've magic'd for you to analyse later feels far less risky than getting semi-cooperative people that have a wholly uncooperative demon in their heads to only attack you a little, so you can squint at the magic. I might be /really good/ at ignoring red flags of bad ideas, but those ones are bed sheet sized and even I'm picking up on the 'bad idea' vibes happening here."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"What... about... written magic, what about the cipher?" Mamoru asks Naru, a breath of hope struggling to maintain itself, along with the 'you may be the key to breaking it', in the face of 'anything good happening to one of them might make something bad happen to the others', which... he knew. He knew. But there are such wonderful straws to grasp at. "Maybe the-- the thing you're working on, Chrono-san."

Not the book. Not yet. Not yet. Maybe. "If there were a source of more of that, since it's not normal math, might it count as written magic?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Is it a thing that one of them would have infused with their own personal energy?" Kazuo asks. "If so, there's a chance. It might not be enough to get at it, if it's small, but -- even that might tell us something." He spreads a hand, and inclines his head ruefully to Chrono. "We have so little to go on that 'little else' is in itself incredibly valuable. They don't remember what happened to them. I remember that something did happen to me, but not in this lifetime; I remember how it was broken then, but not how it was begun. And I don't know that it was the same thing to begin with. We have that, and the reports of what happens when their eyes gleam red, and ... very little else."

He pauses.

"How literal is Time Space Administration?"

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown nodded. "Possibly. There's a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately, at this current junction I'm not currently able to offer much. But the thing I am working on is... useful."

"As for other lifetimes, well... I'm not sure. Yes, we do protect time and space. Which means no, we don't tamper with it. But seeing through time is feasible... or would be."

"Except I currently do not have access to the Infinity Library. Even if I did, it could take years to find anything to properly aid us in thi--"

He then trailed off for a moment. Looking, once again... thoughtful. "How... literal... do you need Time Space administration to be? Because while I don't have access to the Infinity Library currently... I may know a guy."

Well. He knew a girl. A very, very tall girl.

"Exactly how far back would we need to look?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"The cipher is exactly what I was thinking of." Naru confirms with a nod to Darien and then looks over to Kazuo. "Yeah, he's likely infused it with personal energy. Not super recently.. but more recently than anything that requires conversations about different lifetimes."

Naru glances between the three of them and just shakes her head a little, drinking her coffee and letting the three of them sort things out. She is just the mundane around here, and her life is much much simpler. Single lifetime. Just one.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"There's-- this is the guy who would probably cooperate anyway, but-- he gave me something that..." Mamoru looks at Naru, and she can tell he's like >< close to just vibrating in place with a certain knowledge. He tells her, "There's more writing in the back of it than there was a couple of days ago and I didn't write it."

Then he reaches up to rub at the back of his neck. "Ahh-- to the time that the language under the cipher comes from. And it's not related to any known language trees on Earth, so that's... uh. I mean. A long time. From before what's left of recorded history here? Granted, that only goes back about six thousand years as far as academia's concerned, so that's... a lot of time to cover."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The words 'Infinity Library' bring a startled glance from Kazuo. He transfers it to Fenyx, because 'did you know about this?' is not a question that can be asked even in a look of anybody else on the rooftop; the bird gets a blink and the beginnings of a delighted smile, Chrono gets the end of it. Apparently, lack of access or not, just the idea that such a thing might exist outside of Borges makes somebody around here happy.

"It's another thin and slightly ridiculous thread," Kazuo admits. "Trying to ferret the memories out of my head somehow is probably easier. 'Trying' being the operative word there. No certainty that either is even possible."

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown nodded and then glanced between them. "Well... that should be possible. It'd require some finagling. I'll need to reach out to... some... others I know... hm. Actually, I may know two people, actually. Would this predate the dinosaurs, or after them? No, I imagine after them. At least."

"... The magic in this realm is very strange. The fact I offhand know at least two possible resources for information on that period without having access to all of the TSABs resources says a lot about this realm. But... I may have some leads."

"I wouldn't get too excited about the concept of the infinity library. It's incredible, true. A location with every single document that has been, is or will be created from every dimension... and, in most cases, is barely ever touched because it literally has *everything*. It takes experts just to navigate it and can take months to find anything of value. It's admittedly more of a novelty than anything else."

"As it is, you continue to see what you can remember while seeing if you can locate more information on the contracts? I'll reach out to my contacts and see if they can give me any information on the time itself, though I'm... unsure of how much aid they will be. Is there anything else I can do?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru's eyes widen at Darien's words. "Seriously!?" She blinks at him and then her smile widens. "Okay.. that is amazing, so very cool and he is /such/ a jerk. Cause omg. Such a /pain/ to get to." She rolls her eyes, but it hardly masks the delight at that revelation.

"I can totally be delighted by the /concept/ of the Infinity Library." Naru points out wiht a smile. "Even while acknowledging that I will never visit and never see such a place. The fact that it exists is exciting and delightful."

Naru gestures. "Are we good to make some inquiries, do some digging and probably meet again in a while, when we have either new ideas, or more information?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru grins at Naru. "Right??? Okay-- but yes. Okay. Right." He turns to Chrono. "If I think of anything else, or find anything useful, I'll come knock on your door, since... literally your next door neighbor. Or I'll hand it to Adrien if he's there and you're not." A beat. "But! I think exchanging numbers is a good idea anyway. Mine is <...>," he says, "text me and I'll have yours. Kazuo?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo dutifully recites a string of numbers. Then adds, "But possibly more easily reached by catching me going by Darien's room to bring food, harass him, and do homework." Yes, that was an and, not an or. Early mornings are Naru's. Homework time is Mamoru's. These things are simply divided.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown chuckled and smiled to Naru. "Well, Osaka-san. If I ever manage to get access there again, I will endeavor to take you on a tour for all the aid you have offered me." He paused. "I would, however, have to remain with you the whole time as an enforcer. There are many sensitive documents within."

He nodded along with the others. "I've been using the number XXX-XXX-XXXX. The message is sent to my device, however. Feel free to message me if there's anything else you need. And if texting doesn't work... well... I would suggest contacting Osaka-san. She's pretty good at getting others into contact when... they need it..." For a moment, then, he was staring at Naru. A thoughtful look on his face. He then shook his head. "Until we meet again."

He moved his shoulder and Fenyx flew off, the blue and pink bird soaring away, him following behind her just a little.