670/Kyouko Can Haz Payback

Kyouko Can Haz Payback
Date of Scene:	05 December 2015
Location:	King Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Minori, Ami, and Rei ask Kyouko for help smacking Kunzite.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Kyouko Sakura

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
After a quick flurry of text-messaging and arrangements-making, there's a meeting set up for Kyouko with Mamoru and 'two friends' on the roof of the library in King Penguin Park-- it has a lovely view of the tree where Kyouko first met Tuxedo Kamen, and also the playground that's been torn up and repaired no less than two times in the past six months. Um, possibly three.

When she gets there, though, it's that girl from Crown and two Senshi. The girl from Crown is eating an apple with cheese, holding her hand in front of her mouth while she talks. "...meeting with Sailor Moon to give her my homework, since she doesn't want any stalkers getting any bright ideas," she's in the middle of explaining to them.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is glad to hear from Mamoru. She hasn't been worried, precisely- well, aside from the general state of worry that's been her life since she admitted she actually cares about a person or two (why did she decide this was a good thing again?) She was pretty sure if something really bad had happened, she would have been told by Usagi or somebody. But even so, it's nice to get some actual confirmation after days of silence.

    She's just been roaming about- nowhere to be, noplace to go back to at the moment, so it's not hard for her to detour to the arranged meeting place. She soars gracefully out of the darkness, in henshin but without spear, landing lightly. She's not surprised to see the two senshi- they're like Mamoru's bodyguards, or something. At least it's not Homura.

    But her eyes flick to the girl from the crown who is between them, rather than Mamoru. She blinks once or twice. But she's a smart one; cunning, at least. She remembers how Mamoru-esque this girl had seemed the other day. And she's already grinning slightly as she saunters over, having combined the evidence to reach a conclusion in light of this.

    "Hey.. Minori, is it?" She says, over-sweet. "I was supposed to meet Mamoru here, but.. have you seen him?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury is leaning up against the wall beside Minori with a blue augmented reality visor floating a centimeter from her face. She seems to be staring at the visor more than the world around her, but then: the visor does give her plenty of sensor readings of that world around her, so maybe she's not quite as unallert as she seems.

Her eyes flick up at the incoming Puella when she lands onto the roof, and one eyebrow arches. "Your guest's here," she notes quietly, then reaches ujp to touch one of the trio of blue earings in her left ear. The visor shimmers into nonexistence, banished back into some otherspace. She smiles a little when she recognizes the saunter and the hair. Ah, so she wasn't kidding about being a Puella. "Hello, Kyouko-san," she greets cheerfully.

Rei Hino has posed:
Sailor Mars is listening to Minori's explaination. Homework, okay. Sailor Moon, okay. Well, if they're hiding Mamoru it only makes sense, right? He IS in a lot of danger now.

Mars turns towards Kyouko as the Puella speaks up, giving her a small wave. "Sakura-san, was it? We met on Mamoru's balcony once."

She makes a tactical decision to not mention anything Apatite-related.

When Kyouko asks Minori where Mamoru is, Mars clears her throat and says, "Umm... Maybe you should tackle this one, Minori-chan."

Yeah, better to leave it up to Mamoru to best explain his current situation.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Minori reaches into her pocket with her free hand and pulls out another apple, lobbing it gently toward Kyouko. "I should hope not. He has mono," she says cheerily, winking. "Hi, Kyou-chan. So: payback against the Dark Kingdom, yeah?"

She's sealing up her bag of cheese and dropping it in her school briefcase as she's talking, and also pushing herself up to sit on the ledge, her own apple still in one hand. "Kunzite got very personal with his threats. He knows I'm Tuxedo Kamen. He's going to attack the orphanage I grew up in. This is going to mean a lot of kids in danger, and it's a trap he knows we're going to walk into, so it's going to be complicated as hell-- but he's also not actually shown his face on the field when directly coming after us, so I can't guarantee he'll be there to argue with, though he'll at least be watching."

There's a pause. "On the other hand, he's really, really sore about us getting you back. And I think he still likes you. So you might be able to argue him into showing up anyway."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko glances towards Mercury and dips her head in a brief nod of greeting. Then she glances at Mars, and offers, "I remember. 'Sup?" But her eyes track back to 'Minori' after a moment, as the girl confirms her obvious deduction. And tosses her an apple.

    Kyouko catches it. In her mouth. This is hard for most people, but when you have the super-reflexes of a Puella and sharp little fangs, it works well. She drops her head, opens her mouth, and then sinks her fangs into the apple as it lands, holding it in place for a moment until her hand can reach up to grab it, pulling it away but leaving a nice juicy chunk in her mouth, which she chews with obvious relish.

    But not nearly as much relish as what she puts into her response to Mamoru's first words. "Oh, you have no idea how much I've been wanting to get me some."

    Her expression lapses into a frown as she listens to the explanation. She does have sort of a soft-spot for orphans, being one as well, although she never lived in an orphanage. Her face grows darker at the mention of Kunzite, and his possible remaining affection for her. Her mind flicks back to the note left in Mamoru's apartment- the one she still hasn't mentioned to anybody. Kunzite had tried to warn her to stay away.

    "They'll be expecting you." She says, after a moment. "They won't be expecting me." She grins a wolfish grin and takes another ragged, juicy chunk out of the apple. "It's the truck you don't see coming that hits the hardest."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury nods to Kyouko's response quietly. "With any luck, it will be exactly like that. If you can remain unseen until our enemies reveal themselves, it will make your appearance all the more striking," she notes thoughtfully. "I suspect the faster we can hit them hard, the safer we'll all be. The longer we draw this conflict out, the more likely we are to struggle against them. If my research is not entirely misleading, Kunzite will be able to draw on our energy during the fight, and possibly turn it against us."

Rei Hino has posed:
Mars listens as Minori explains and Kyouko responds. Mercury's news makes her wince a little. "Drawing on our energy? Geeze. Nothing about that guy is going to be easy, is it? It's even worse if time is on his side."

The red senshi reaches up to scratch behind her own head, saying, "Still... it has to be this way. Drawing them out one at a time, and then striking. Taking them all down at once is going to be too much, and we still don't know how we're going to handle their leader."

Mars is frowning at all of this. "Still, so that's the situaiton. They're going to attack a bunch of kids to get at Mamoru, and we're going to stop them."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
One finger goes up, and Minori tilts her head back. "If he takes the field at all. He hasn't been. He's been having a spy about to direct things, and then turning people into youmas. Given the business with the kittens, and the youma with the blood-sucking roses that Jupiter defeated, and the fact that he's actively trying to piss us off and make us fight dumb, we can't discount the possibility that he'll find some way to make youmas out of some of the kids there."

She drops her hands to her lap, rolling the half-apple from one to the other and looking at it instead of the girls for a moment. "And he's not giving us a choice either way. At least we know it's coming. We know when, and we know where. I can give you a detailed layout of the place if you haven't already got one, Mercury," she sidetracks for a second, then takes another bite, and talks with her hand in front of her mouth as she's chewing, again.

"Also, I know this part is REALLY a lot to ask, but ideally I'd like Kunzite to not actually be dead if we manage to take him down. I want Sailor Moon to burn the darkness out of him like she got it out of you, Kyou-chan."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko casts a glance at Mercury, and scowls slightly- not at her, but at the subject of draining her energy. "Yeah well.. he can try to drain my energy if he wants. He may find that Puella is not a flavor he enjoys."

    To Mars, she just shakes her head. "Kids or no, I'd be there if Mamoru asked me to be. Maybe even if he didn't. I owe those guys, and I always make good on my debts." This is a lie, but it sounds good.

    Then her eyes turn back to Minori . She listens, but then shrugs her shoulders. "He can't hide forever. He won't. Sooner or later, he'll show his face. If not this time, then sometime."

    At the part about not actually killing Kunzite, Kyouko's face softens slightly. "You know what, I'd rather he not be dead, too. If Moonie can really fix him up like she did for me.. well, I think I'd prefer that too." Her face hardens again though. "But I can't make promises, Mamoru. When somebody's trying to kill you, sometimes you can't pull punches if you want to walk away alive." A very Puella sentiment, but one experience has taught her. "Still. I'll do my best, if it comes to that."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury coughs gently. "Mamoru has Mono," she reminds softly. "This is Minori." Sometimes, it's hard reminding people to maintain the illusion. Sigh. "But thank you," she says to Kyouko.

Rei Hino has posed:
"From what I'm hearing," says Mars, through a grimace, "purifying him might be the only way to actually end the fight. If we had to actually kill him our chances might be worse."

Still, Minori wants him alive. Him specifically. Well, that's what they discussed earlier, isn't it? After all, if Kyouko could come back from that, so could the others, right? It makes sense.

Mars doesn't really know Kyouko well enough to know if she really repays her debts or not, but she knows a line when she hears it. Mars gives Kyouko a flat look before moving on to another topic without comment.

"Yeah... don't get killed trying to do it. If we have to retreat, I could try to stun him, and Mercury can use her fog to cover us. There's things we can do... Still, well, you know well enough what we're dealing with."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
For a second, there, Minori looks like she might actually hug Kyouko.

Potentially thankfully for all parties present, she does not-- she just gives Kyouko a lopsided smile, affectionate and grateful and wry. "I understand," she says. "And thank you."

Then there's a glance to Mercury, and Minori lifts up her apple-free hand to hide her face. "I didn't even notice she didn't say Minori," she mumbles, then tries not to laugh, because even if it's funny, it needs to not be funny. "Um."

A deep breath later, and Minori slides off the ledge onto her feet. "Anyway. Yeah. Kyou-chan I'd tell you how awesome you were, but you already know that. And I already said thanks. But... thanks again anyway. Because."

Because apparently 'screw it!!' because Minori's abruptly hugging Kyouko, and then stepping back and scooping up her briefcase and pretending it never happened because she doesn't have superjump and a cape and a dazzling exit to help her brush past it, at the moment. "Okay let's go, I gotta get my homework from Moon..."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko makes a face at Mercury, and nods at Mars.

    Then she grins her lopsided, one-fanged grin at Minori. "Damn straight. I-" And she gets hugged.

    Kyouko might look surprised for a moment, but then she squeezes back.. her grin slightly self-deprecating as she does so, and then lets Minori go. "Don't worry about it kid. S'what friends are for, right? Besides.."

    Her face turns dark for a moment. "They threatened Saya-chan. Just for that, I'll tear the whole Kingdom down brick by brick, and then set fire to the rubble."

    Just as quickly, she's grinning again, offering a wink. "Stay safe. Let me know where to be, and when, and I'll be there." And then she's turning to run to the edge of the roof and jump off again, dress fluttering in the wind.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury does her best not to giggle at Minori being seized by the need to hug Kyouko. She mostly manages it, but she does have to cover the smile with a hand. "Take care," she says to the retreating Kyouko, before, pushing off the wall and nodding to Minori. "Anyone else?" she asks curiously.

Rei Hino has posed:
Mars lets one arm fall to her side, while the opposite hand rests on her hip, "So that's it, then. Meeting adjourned." Kyouko makes her exit, and Mars turns towards Minori. "We should get going. Hopefully Moon-chan already has your homework by now."

Mars still intends to bodyguard her 'cousin', after all.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A smile after Kyouko, and then Minori blushes at Ami's laughing, glancing away with a quick and faintly embarrassed look. "Just one other! But I need to ask her with Moon if it's in person. White-chan. It's all right. Yes homework good. Okay let's go."

There is definitely one thing to be said for Minori-disguise-time: she's a hell of a lot easier to carry than Mamoru.