2382/Rebirth

Rebirth
Date of Scene:	22 January 2017
Location:	Plot Room #3
Synopsis:	The time has come for Hana Shiroi to regain physical form.
Cast of Characters:	Madison Perry, Naru Osaka, Kunzite, Mikoto Nakajima, Hana Shiroi

---

Madison Perry has posed:
    There's nothing particularly special about the evening. It's cool, being in late January, but not freezing. It's clear, the stars (those few which can be seen past the occlusion of Tokyo's sea of lights) shining down between a few scuttling clouds. All in all, a completely typical mid-winter night in the city.

    But sometimes the most ordinary nights can play host to significant events. On this particular uneventful night, downtown in Tokyo, a young blonde woman is sitting on the edge of a tall skyscraper, watching the headlights of the cars going by dozens of stories below.

    She's wearing something around her neck- a black chain which supports a very unusual Grief Seed- a white gem within a framework of black, twisted metal. The last time it was seen in public, that gem was pulsing with soft white light.

    Now it is shining, bright as a miniature star plucked from the sky above and mounted on that necklace.

    Madison Perry smirks, tossing one of her daggers lazily in one hand as she regards the shining gem suspended above her chest. "Won't be long now.." She murmurs, either to the gem or to herself.

    And indeed, something is happening- a nascent blooming of power which manifests in the slow twisting of reality in the general vicinity. A slow heat-waver of the air, a mirage-like shimmer of the night-time sky. It can be felt farther away than it can be seen, a strange, looming power that any sensitive to magic would likely be able to sense, if not identify, like a storm hovering just on the horizon.

Naru Osaka has posed:
It's a lovely evening, all things considered. Cool enough to warrent being wrapped up in a warm coat and cute boots, when one is waiting for the bus home. Naru could walk, it might even be faster to walk, and its clear that she's considering it, every single time she glances down the street to see if the bus is coming yet. A hitch up of her satchel upon her shoulder and she clearly surrenders to the walk home.

There's something about the flash of light overhead, and certainly something about the shimmer in the air that catches Naru's attention as she strolls along the sidewalk. Her steps slow and she frowns, pausing to try and get a grasp on what, exactly, she senses around her.

Kunzite has posed:
(Elsewhere, a tall, ghostlike figure pauses on his own hunt. That is not the magical disturbance he was hoping to sense. That was something ... other. He is not his prince; he cannot simply know the point of origin. He can search. But it is not so quick )

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Mikoto and Hikari are on their way home from a late dinner out, the catgirl Familiar apparently having convinced her Mistress to loosen up a bit some time recently. They're both dressed quite elegantly, a blue silk evening gown for Mikoto and a matching black one for Hikari. Long leather jackets hang over the fine dresses to keep the girls warm on their walk.

Hikari feels the distortion first, as the shimmer passes them by, her ears flicking up as she looks from side to side to try to pinpoint what's disturbing her.

"Something up, partner?" Mikoto asks, and Hikari nods, directing them around a corner, towards what she thinks is the general direction of the source.

"If there's another one," Hikari suggests, "We'll want to triangulate. And be ready." Mikoto nods, and the two walk on, their attention piqued.

Madison Perry has posed:
    The point of origin of this building magical confluence is not going to be very hard to sense for long. There's an almost palpable pressure growing in the air, like a low-pressure system rushing into the area ahead of a storm- and that stormwall is growing closer by the moment.

    In fact, a briefly concerned look crosses over the face of Madison Perry as she sits there on the edge of the building, at the center of that growing conflux of weirdness. She tilts her head, as if listening to a voice that doesn't speak out loud. "Mmm.. probably a good idea." She says to no one.

    Then she removes the chain around her neck, with its shining star encased in metal, and places it down on the stone lip at the edge of the building.

    Then she steps off the building, hovering in mid-air, before rising and backing away several hundred meters, though her blue eyes remain fixed on the pinprick of light. Is she abandoning the treasure she's worked so hard to obtain and nurture these past months?

    No. Merely retreating to a safe distance.

Naru Osaka has posed:
There's a deeper furrow of a frown as Naru feels that pressure, almost like the start of a headache pressing at the bottom of her skull. She takes a step away from the street, to putting her back against the closed building and getting a slightly more tactical viewpoint.

Which includes looking up as Madison steps off the building across from where Naru is and hovers in mid air. Watching... something bright.

That is probably not a good sign.

A quick text message before Naru becomes Hyalite and she watches. Nothing's gone boom, yet.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Hikari pauses halfway down a block, and then Mikoto stops beside her. "Right, that's it. We definitely need to check this out." A quick look around and they duck into an alleyway, finding some space to don Barrier Jackets and take flight over the rooftops towards the source. A quick mini-barrier from Labyrinth Architect and they're nearly invisible against the skies.

Kunzite has posed:
Rather more visible is the answer to Naru's text. A column of writhing darkness reaches upward from a balcony not so far away, energy like white and lilac lightning crackling over it. It takes - longer than usual, the magic fighting with that sense of pressure, having a few seconds' difficulty adjusting to it. A final flare of shadow, though, and it disappears, leaving Kunzite in uniform in its wake, the breeze at his height at once toying with the white of his cape and hair.

If he's still swearing to himself when he can see Madison and the captive star in person, no-one is close enough to hear it.

Hana Shiroi has posed:
    Nothing's gone boom yet? Prophetic words. It seems, that like with almost any buildup of pressure, magical or otherwise... eventually something is going to go boom.

    When a Witch is born, there is a tremendous release of energy. This is, in fact, what the Incubators harvest in order to fuel whatever arcane process they use to stave off entropy. It is true both when a Puella becomes a Witch- and when a Grief Seed hatches. Generally, the release is less from a Grief Seed hatching for the second time. But this is no ordinary witch.

    There is a sound like cracking glass which rings through the air, as if some gigantic window was giving in under tremendous pressure. And when the explosion itself comes, it is... significant. The shockwave tears through the air, and it's a good thing none of the observers are close enough to really get a good look, becaues Madison had adjourned to safe distance for a reason. Windows shatter. Car alarms go off. Cars on the street below swerve as drivers are startled by the sudden concussion. The damage is contained to mostly broken windows, in fact, simply due to the fact that it does happen so high off of the ground. But there's no way anybody within a mile missed that.

    Nor could anyone with even the faintest sense of magic miss the convulsive waves of weird un-reality that pulse outwards from the epicenter of that explosion. The world seems to flicker on and off, like someone is playing with the light switch. There's a glimpse, furtive and brief, of a ghostly white flower unfolding its petals in the sky far above, spreading over the whole city, before it flickers and vanishes once more.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Clearly Hyalite spoke too soon. She is watching and when that explosion /does/ come, she has to turn away, to shield her face from the explosion that's going on all around her, the glass that's around her.

She turns back quickly, while things are still in chaos on the streets, to look back to where things are going weird. Lots of weird, and it's going on WAY up there.

There's just a glance, a noting of Kunzite's arrival, even if it's just a flash of that white. Also WAY up there.

Hyalite shudders, not /quite/ managing to get herself going /up/.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
It's probably a good thing Tessen and Hikari are already in the air when the explosion happens. Getting thrown into a building or the like would be ... unpleasant. As it is, they've already gotten close enough to be thrown off course by it, tumbling and correcting in mid-air as they hurry towards the source.

Unpleasant words in Old Belkan welcome the appearance of the White Flower in the skies above them. This is the sort of thing that really annoys people like Mikoto. Last she'd checked, the White Flower was safely contained...

"Madison Perry broke out a few weeks ago, remember?" Hikari reminds her. And Tessen bites her lip, then nods, and hurries on towards the center. Kunzite's pillar of darkness gives them a nearby point to aim for.

And above them, flickers of light form and swirl about, following after the pair like shards of glass, zipping through the air.

Kunzite has posed:
Virtue's damned phone is still in Kunzite's hand, and he brings it up to try to record, and he's still bringing it up as that crack rings out --

and it records absolutely nothing, because in the instant before the shockwave hits, he's dropping to a knee and curling down, wrapping himself protectively in his cloak. It hits him hard, but not hard enough to send him through the glass he's in front of, and the glass breaks in, and the startled people in the apartment already fled when the darkness rose outside. They'll remember it as a stroke of luck on a night of terror, nothing more.

When he can steal a look at the phone again, the damned thing's rebooting, because this close to the center of that flickering sense of the unreal, of course it is. Technology.

He's rising again, a moment after, turning to look past the warped rail of the still-intact balcony to that place where the glow had been. Looking there instead of looking for Perry first may be an error. But that's a risk he needs to take, to find out what the White Flower has been reborn into.

Hana Shiroi has posed:
    That aura of unreality continues to flicker and dance around the entire area, though its intermittant, unformed. It's a very similar effect to being inside Witch's Labyrinth, the same feel, except overlaying the real world rather than contained in a mad pocket dimension. However, it doesn't seem to have any focus, or to be put to any particular purpose. The effect is rather like being in the midst of some mild hallucinatory episode. Everything around is still there, still real, but flickers of weirdness radiate through it. Shapes at the edge of your vision that turn out to be nothing. Strange sounds that when you listen closely disappear. That heat-shimmer between the Earth and the Stars, as if looking through a thin curtain.

    And she stands there, on the edge of the roof where that shining seed had been a few moments before, looking much as she had a year ago- a short young woman of clear Japanese ethnicity, with long straight black hair, dressed all in white. With eyes that swirl in myriad colors like ever-turning kaleidoscopes.

    Hana Shiroi regards the city of Tokyo with physical eyes for the first time in over a year, sweeping her gaze across the buildings around her, the people below. Then up, to where Madison hovers a few stories in the air above her.

    The sense of unreality... retracts, suddenly. The sense of drawing inward is almost palpable, as the White Flower marshalls her power, reins it in. Soon the night is normal again- except, of course, for the very unnatural presence that now exists within it.

Madison Perry has posed:
    Madison's grin is feral as she watches the White Flower step back into the world. She had been working months for this. Soon what she had been promised would be hers- well, maybe not soon. But this was certainly a large step in the right direction.

    Slowly she descended through the air until she was hovering just before where Hana stood on the edge of the building. "Lookin' good, Flower." is her casual, not particularly respectful greeting. "Not one for subtle entrances, are you?"

    A flicker of blue gaze to one side, then the other.. tracking the motion of both Kunzite and Tessen in the nearby airspace (Naru, still below, is as-yet unnoticed). "No surprise, given that, but.. seems like there's a bit of a welcome party." She makes no move to attack either presence, though her knives are held ready as she hovers beside Hana.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Hyalite is the one removed, none but Kunzite know that she's there, particularly, and he likely doens't even know where precisely she is. She can watch, however, and as reality flickers around her, feeling that particular flavour of weird and she nods. There's even just a twist of a wry little smile.

There's no rushing to jump up to the tops of the building, to come and stand on the roof, even to come up to the conversational level. She can hear the words offered from Madison to White Flower. She doesn't expect anyone to her her own greeting from so far away.

"Hello Hana."

Kunzite has posed:
There. Not easy to see, from this distance, but there aren't many human figures at this height. Madison Perry's is more familiar. There.

Kunzite rises and straightens, the phone vanishing from his hand again, and then steps up on that warped and damaged railing; it can't possibly take his weight, but it holds all the same. Sometimes, gravity does Endymion's people favors.

Like Perry, he does not attack. Not given the negotiations his prince held, not so long ago; not given the art they saw. Instead, he bows, angle precisely calculated, the motion accented with a minor flourish of his cape.

He is never foolish enough to take his eyes off Madison while he does that, of course.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Naturally, Tessen doesn't recognize 'Hyalite', although it's always a pleasure to see a new fighter for the side of Light. Subtle, however, she can do. She and Hikari approach, keeping a building between them and Hana and Madison, trying to keep out of line of sight to avoid notice until they can confirm what's going on - and get in a nice surprise attack. Not noticing that they've already been seen.

And following them, more shard-darts twinkle into being, glistenings softly in the dark skies, like glass dipped in oil.

"Be ready," the girl in blue whispers to her partner, and draws a rapier from her belt, the blade gleaming.

"They're liable to summon up extra helpers," Hikari adds. "I'll keep an eye out."

And it's definitely Madison. But that's Kunzite, as well. And Tessen is not about to get in his way in a fight. So she waits.

Hana Shiroi has posed:
    The night is normal again. Hana watches it with impassive eyes , sweeping the area around her. As Madison speaks of a welcoming party, though, her eyes shift upwards briefly, fixing on Kunzite. In time to catch his polite, if not particularly friendly, bow. If she is aware of Tessen, lurking behind a nearby building, or Hyalite on the street below, she doesn't give any indication.

    Instead, she returns the greeting with a faint inclination of her head. An acknowledgement. "So it would seem." Her voice, cool and neutral, as bored-sounding as ever despite being uttered for the first time in the physical world after so long an absence. "However, that is not the welcoming party I find most interesting."

    And then it comes again- a wall of weirdness, a wave of surreal twisted reality. But it's not coming from Hana, this time.

    It's easy to see, to sense, for those with magical power. Suddenly, all around, in every side-stret and alleyway, Wraiths fade into existence. Dozens. Perhaps hundreds of the tall, skeletal creatures. They make no move to attack, or to do anything, but they are there, and in such great numbers.

    And then in the sky, there are tears. At least a dozen holes in reality that suddenly rip open within moments of each other, revealing twisting madness behind each. Witch Labyrinths. Nothing emerges from them, but there is the sense that each of them contains something looking out.

    None of these creatures, myriad Wraiths or the dozen or so Witches in attendance, make a move to attack, or to follow any perceived orders. It is less a sense of an army responding to it's general, but instead... curiosity. They have come to see.

Madison Perry has posed:
    Madison's fingers tighten on her knives as Kunzite makes himself known officially, her face shifting into a scowl. But she doesn't move. Perhaps she is wary of displeasing her newly reborn leader so soon after her arrival. She keeps a wary eye on where she saw Tessen and Hikari vanish behind a building, as well.

    But when the youma appear, or at lease, make themselves visible, all around them, her eyes widen slightly, and a faint whistle escapes her lips. "Well. Ain't that a sight."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Hyalite hadn't been in a rush to jump up to various balconies to get a higher view of the proceedings. She was quite content to be on the ground, watching from many stories below. The consideration of jumping had already been considered, discarded when her brain had a moment of 'oh /hell/ no' about it.

And then there's the wave of reality twisting and the street bound Hyalite is /surrounded/ by wraiths, and if there was anyone down there with her, they'd see her eyes widen and her breathing effectively stop as phobia two overlays nicely onto phobia one and her brain effectively ends up flooded with terror. She takes a step back, flattening herself against the wall behind her, even if it's missing windows on either side of her and fights to reclaim her sanity for a moment.

Kunzite has posed:
Tessen's concern about being in Kunzite's way in a fight seems ... premature. He continues to launch no attack, nor to reveal any allies he might shield. He remains, only. Tensing at the sudden appearance of the things he'd been hunting before the Flower began to blossom again -- yes. But tension is a thing he surrenders a moment later; it slows reactions, warps perceptions, and the apparently casual scan that he gives to confirm by eye the new population of the side streets and the sky ... that wants as accurate a count as he can give it.

He's stopped swearing. The languages he knows are possessed of an inconvenient lack of appropriately forceful monosyllables. Maybe he should've tried to pick up German after all.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Belkan, fortunately, has plenty of such monosyllables. German-related as it is. And Mikoto is cataloguing them in her head while she watches all this.

A pause in the action is all well and good, as far as she is concerned: She gets to spend more time building up her arsenal of Flickers, the darts swirling about as they orbit her and Hikari, barely visible in the darkness.

"There's at least a dozen Labyrinths," Hikari mutters to her. "What the heck has she been swilling?"

"Pure darkness, maybe?" Mikoto speculates. "Or Madison's been up to No Good while she's been laying low." Hikari wasn't around for the initial fight with the White Flower... but it looks like she has a clue about Witches, at least.

"Alright, the minute our boy in white makes his move..." Of course, at this point, that move might well be 'get the heck out of here'. Which is honestly sounding better and better in Tessen's mind right now.

Hana Shiroi has posed:
    The appearance of the myriad Wraiths and the dozen Witches are met, as ever, by an impassive, considering gaze by Hana. She takes a moment to turn in place, regarding them, especially the entrances to those Labyrinths hovering in the air. There's something almost challenging about her gaze. Whatever is going on here, it is not simply servants greeting a master- the interplay is more complex, though inscrutable to outsiders.

    Then, as swiftly as they came, the holes in the air seal and disappear. Moments later, the Wraiths begin to fade as well, though as they do, it almost seems as if they all, in unison, incline their heads towards the figure standing atop the building. Soon, they are all gone, and with them that sense of heavy distortion. For a second time, the night returns to normal.

    Hana's eyes return to Kunzite. She speaks, her voice carrying unnaturally- heard easily though she seems to speak at a normal level and distance and wind would make that seem impossible. Even Hyalite may hear her. "An eventful night, no doubt, servant of the Prince. When you return to your master, bid extend to him my greetings."

    She turns to glance at Madison beside her. "Come, Madison. There is much work to be done, and picking fights here, now, is not likely to be productive."

    She turns and begins walking away across the rooftop, though to where ,exactly, is initially unclear.

Madison Perry has posed:
    Madison watches as the youma disappear once more, and as Hana addresses Kunzite, her gaze flicks to him as well, narrowing in apparent challenge. At Hana's words, however, she makes an annoyed 'tsk' between her teeth.

    Fingers flex on her knives, and for a moment it seems she might disobey. Then, a short, huffed grunt, and she turns to follow Hana- though she keeps glancing back over her shoulder. Towards both the hovering Kunzite and the concealed pair of Tessen and Hikari. Ever watchful.

Naru Osaka has posed:
The words provided from Hana might catch up to Hyalite when she catches them on instant replay later. For the moment, however, they really haven't entirely registered. Hyalite slides her way down the wall she's leaning against, curling up into a ball of 'NOPE!', even if the reasons for that reaction have left the streets, leaving only the destruction behind.

She's a little bundle of not coping, head down, eyes closed as Hana and Madison take their leave.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite inclines his head to those words, matching Hana's gesture earlier. "Whatever else comes," he says, "he will be pleased you had a chance to move freely again."

Whether she's about to burn that chance in her cold pride and that spectral, unreal white light ... that's another story. But she hasn't done it yet.

He does not strike at Madison's back, no matter how tempting it is. She's Hana's for now, and Hana didn't attack. Didn't set anything else to attacking. Didn't encourage a hundred or more Wraiths to begin a massive harvest.

If the damned things start campaigning for the vote, granted, he may have words with his prince. But that, like so much else, is an if right now.

He does not glance in the other direction Madison was watching while she and Hana are still visible.

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
The Prince might be pleased Hana has a chance to walk around beyond the confines of her stony prison. Tessen... well, she'll reserve judgement until she sees what Hana does with her freedom. Solely out of respect for the Prince, of course. ... Not that she has a huge lot of that, at the moment. Virtue is not terribly high on her friends list these days.

She waits, patiently, until Madison and Hana are well out of sight, unless Kunzite looks to be leaving before then. She keeps a hand closed around Hikari's, to keep the catgirl from rushing off, the silver-furred tail lashing behind the Familiar a clear sign of her unhappiness with the arrangement. A displeasure shared by both of them, but one Tessen is patient enough to wait to express.

Eventually, the chance to approach arises, and the pair drift out of their concealment. "Well," Tessen says, facing Kunzite while Hikari keeps watch. "That was a thing."

Hana Shiroi has posed:
    When Hana is most of the way across the roof, a sudden, violent tear opens in the air in front of her with a sound like painfully ripping fabric. Sickly, multi-hued light pours through the rift, obscuring whatever is on the other side.

    She strolls into it without a backwards glance. Madison, with a final look behind, follows. It seals itself shut and vanishes without a trace a moment later.

Naru Osaka has posed:
There's silence out of Hyalite and stillness, where she sits amongst broken glass and the sounds of utter chaos that's erupting around her. It's really only the natural inclination of people to look past her in henshin that has mundanes not staggering over to check on her. She's tucked in as she works on getting a grip on herself.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite's expression isn't allowed to drift back to its natural frown till the rift closes itself behind Hana and Madison. He glances back past himself into the apartment he's in front of, but there's no blood visible. Right now, that's as good as it gets.

Then he touches the band on his left wrist, in a rather particular combination. "Hyalite," he says. "Are you conscious?" ... he's not necessarily, at this point, expecting an answer.

That gives Tessen and Hikari a chance to come into view, and he glances at them, then inclines his head. "An unfortunate one," he agrees. "Pity. I've probably shed enough of Perry's blood in the last few months to start growing a new her, but it didn't do more than slow her down."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
Tessen nods, curtly, as the pair float in to a landing nearby. "Sounds like it's going to take something a bit more .... extreme, to deal with her, then." She shakes her head, at that. Extremes are what gets you people like Hana.

Hikari, meanwhile, starts to look around for this 'Hyalite' Kunzite mentioned. A trio of Wide Area Search drones are conjured up and disperse to help her search. If there's someone else in the area who's hurt...

Naru Osaka has posed:
There is a beep on the band on Hyalite's wrist, muffled a bit by the way she's curled up. She has gotten to actual breaths, mostly.. generally, but Kunzite doesn't get an answer to his question. Which isn't precisely a no.

Kunzite has posed:
"My principal generally prefers to keep the number of extremities in check if at all possible. Personally, though, I agree with you." Kunzite glances down toward street level, far below. "I'm afraid we haven't met properly, and I have someone to find before she runs into consequences from exposure. If you could use a little more information on what just happened, we could arrange a meeting under more congenial circumstances."

Mikoto Nakajima has posed:
"One understands entirely. Please, allow me to assist you in your search, as my companion has already begun to do." Tessen makes a brief bow, then visibly conjures another trio of Search sphers to dispatch after Hyalite. "We can discuss the particulars while we locate your comrade, and meet more congenially when there is less urgency at hand."