740/The Last Harvest of Autumn

The Last Harvest of Autumn
Date of Scene:	22 December 2015
Location:	Mitakihara - Downtown Neon District
Synopsis:	Christmas Shopping for energy vampires is adorably wrong.
Cast of Characters:	Ayana, Kunzite

---

Ayana has posed:
December 21st. Just a few more days until Christmas, and officially the last day of Autumn in many parts of the world. It is safe to say Mitakihara's Neon District is utterly and completely packed. Here where entertainment is king, from karaeoke to anime to night clubs and more, the Neon District is overflowing with Commercial Christmas Cheer, filled to the brim with people thronging and thrashing, buying and bargaining for those last minute gifts and deals.

It is a Lightfinger's paradise--and thus a paradise, as well, for those vampires who prey upon energy, rather than petty cash and goods.

One such vampire isn't really a vampire at all, but a black-furred kitsune who, for this very special occasion, has dressed the part! A Christmas dress, all red lined with white fur, and matching tall candy-cane stockings. Ayana has on white sandals, as well, but in this environment, at this hour of evening, her black furry ears and bushy tail are on prominent display, concealed only by a red headband in her hair. Because it's Mitakihara, where catgirls walk the streets with impunity, and who's going to call them out on their oddness, here?

No, here, such odd features are only likely to earn a girl attention from the seedier types--and these are the kinds Ayana is happily looking for, anyhow.

One such guy tries to pull her aside, and Ayana goes willingly. She even drags him just a little further out of sight, into a dark alleyway.

And there, he finds out just how wrong this entire idea of his was when she utters just one single word: "Gloom!"

Oh, how fun it is to feast upon the energy of the living, when all they can do is pass out in response.

Kunzite has posed:
There are all kinds of predators out tonight. There are the ones who make their pretty nests, vendors in their stalls and stands, staff in their clubs; there are the ones who scavenge off their victims, stumbling and apologizing and making wallets or purchases vanish. There's the pretty candy-kitsune. And there's one in white to her darkness, and where he lingers, the shadows that the crowds walk through are just a little bit darker, the night a little bit more chill. Shoppers consider calling it a night a few minutes earlier. Partiers look for somewhere to sit down for a moment. None of them are missing enough to really notice ... but there are so many of them. And a spark or two, multiplied by a thousand, can build into a flame.

Gray eyes are bright and alert by this point in the night. Even in his peripheral vision, he can catch a hint of red and a flicker of black being escorted out of the crowd, off alone.

It's probably nothing, he tells himself. It's probably people who know exactly what they're doing. It's certainly none of his business; he has more than enough to worry about already, he doesn't need to court trouble with strangers.

But it's something he can look at, can avert if it's trouble after all, and things that he actually dares affect are few and far between right now. Which means that that pale figure, quiet as a ghost, follows that bright flash down the alley at a distance, prepared mostly to fade away when his concerns prove inevitably unfounded...

Gloom!

That was not the way he was expecting them to prove unfounded. Kunihiro Saito's eyes widen. And when the victim collapses, and lets him see clearly the candy-kitsune rather than merely a flash of her dress - well. Perhaps he can be forgiven for the moment of quiet laughter. And he says aloud, "I should have known better than to be concerned."

Ayana has posed:
So busy was Ayana with draining the poor boy that she didn't even notice Saito's approach. She straightens, and her tail and ears all stand erect at the sound of his laughter. So close, so clearly pointed her direction.

So very Saito.

Ayana stands with her back to him, a blush forming on her cheeks. "Saito-senpai!" she eclaims, not daring to turn around. But her ears swivel his direction. And her shoulders hunch tightly. "Umumum. I can explain," she notes. "This boy tried to um. Do things. So I defended myself."

Kunzite has posed:
"Clearly," Saito agrees. She can hear his steps now, quiet but audible as he comes closer. Not directly; he's not coming up behind her while she's not looking. Beside her, instead, with distance between them. More than arm's reach away. He regards the unconscious body on the ground for a moment, then stoops long enough to check for a pulse. "And effectively. Well handled, Ayana-san. Shall we leave him there, do you think? Surely someone will trip over him eventually." The night's cold, but not cold enough to freeze him; the pavement is cold, and he's going to be miserable when he wakes up, but unlikely to come to permanent harm. As long as she didn't drain him too far, and the pulse suggests that that's just not the foxgirl's style.

Ayana has posed:
Indeed not; just past the point of consciousness is as far as Ayana goes, when she's actually aware of her own hungers. This boy is likely to wake up with a four-alarm hangover in a few hours, but other than a hassling by the police he's unlikely to come to any real harm.

Ayana manages to calm her blush a little, and turns to regard Saito with wide sapphire eyes. Her ears pivot with the turn, always pointing towards him. "You want to go somewhere?" Ayana asks him confusedly. "W-w-with me?" Then she bounds a step towards him, sandals making little snapping noises as they strike the ground in her excitement. "Okay!" That tail of hers is actively wagging.

Kunzite has posed:
There's a reason that Saito came up on her left-hand side. If that bound extends itself into an impact, it'll hurt, but it'll hurt a lot less than it would from the other direction. For the moment, he turns partway toward her in answer to that question, just enough to offer her his arm. "Of course," he says. "Even as capable of taking care of yourself as you are, it would be the height of discourtesy for me to abandon you to attentions like his." He pauses for a moment, and there's that little turn upward at the corner of his mouth. "Unless, of course, you're enjoying yourself. In which case it would be just as discourteous for me to interrupt."

Ayana has posed:
Ayana's eyes widen all the more at that proferred arm. There's just something about the gentile way it's offered--the calm tone of voice, the politeness of it all--that forces Ayana to straighten up a little, calm down a little, and very gently slip her arm around his.

A wicked little fanged grin erupts on Ayana's features as she slides up beside him. Her tail still wags, but her whole posture has changed from excited thirteen year old to something almost resembling an adult. "Do you want me to look older?" she asks him, worriedly. "I can, if you want. I know you're worried about appearances."

Kunzite has posed:
"That depends on whether you're going to behave yourself." His tone hasn't changed, neither has the sense of courtesy, neither has his expression. It's only the pacing of the words that makes it clear he's teasing her. "If you want your ears petted, perhaps that shouldn't be on the street. But for the rest, it's all right. I have no particular improper intent, and I doubt I'll still be at the school after this term ends anyhow."

Ayana has posed:
Ayana's ears fold down to either side of her head, and she leans in just a little bit closer to him. "I will behave," she promises quietly, as she puts her head against his arm gently. "I'll do whatever you want me to do, Saito-senpai. Go wherever you want me to go, if you'll pet my ears."

Then the rest catches up, and she blinks in surprise. "Where are you going? Are you going to go to a different school?"

Kunzite has posed:
His free hand settles against her hair for a moment, after she rests her head against his arm. "You shouldn't make that kind of promise." His voice is grave, now, not merely polite. "There are too many people capable of holding you to your word."

And then he's keeping the implicit promise made last time, and her ears are petted. Gently, at least to start. "I was only ever standing in at Infinity for a teacher on medical leave," he admits. That he put on medical leave, granted. "This term - if necessary, I'll stay for it. And if not, well. I have some work to do, tutoring." Actually true. If not in a sense most people want to think about.

Ayana has posed:
She nearly loses it. Having hear ears petted is pretty much all Ayana has wanted for more than a week. And while she has selfishly attempted to get that affection, each attempt has turned to disaster. So for half a week she's given up on it, and sulked instead.

Having him provide that little bit of attention is almost too much for her. Luckily. Heartless Ayana is made almost entirely of selfishness, so rather than melting into wibbles, she simply sighs happily, at the feeling, and her tail wags just a little bit more, brushing against his leg with its extreme arc.

"Don't worry," Ayana explains, "Anyone who would actually hold me to that in a negative way would probably get drained, and then my big brother would beat them up. I mean just because I say I'll do anything doesn't mean I'm being entirely literal or serious. I'm not exactly known as the most truthful girl," she admits with a shrug.

"I'm sorry you won't be able to stay at Infinity, though," Ayana replies. "I mean, unless you don't want to stay there. But I could give you my phone number and we could keep meeting. Especially if now you're not a teacher, you can pet my ears any time, right?" And why wouldn't he want this?

Kunzite has posed:
Heartlessness is so much easier, sometimes. Or at least so much less complicated. The flick of her tail against fabric is almost enough to prompt a renewed hint of a smile. But in the context of that conversation, that topic - nothing would be quite enough to win that. Especially when her answer is what it is, unconcerned, assured that her personal view of reality can override anyone else's. Blithely assuming that, fights with magical girls aside, she's essentially safe.

His fingers still for a moment. That's the only outward sign he gives of how much he wants to take her by the shoulders, turn her to face him, find a way to terrify her into understanding exactly how dangerous those open promises are. If his own promise weren't still in force, he'd do it in a heartbeat, and her opinion of him be damned.

But he never knows who might be watching.

The petting resumes in less than a breath, fingertips digging in gently for a moment at the base of an ear. It's not her fault; foxes and cats both run to the short-sighted by their nature. So do children. In a sense, he suspects, she's both. "You have a brother?" he says instead. "I don't think you've mentioned him before. And we might be able to do that. I can't make promises about it. But we might." The connections she makes are potentially useful, on the one hand. On the other - he acknowledges the other without thinking about it, because with a fox standing this close to him, he doesn't dare risk a shudder.

Ayana has posed:
"Riventon," Ayana says without concern for what impact it might have on Saito. After all, he already knows of her ears and tail; he already knows she's magical in some way. Indeed, she's convinced he must be, too.

"My brother is Riventon," she says again, this time with a little pride. As she explains, Ayana leans into the petting, as if urging him to be a little rougher, a little more decisive. "He has a beautiful dream," she explains, "where evil is banished from this world, and he rules over it as its protector. If Magical Girls still exist, it will be because they've agreed to be goodly and kind rather than attacking on sight just because we happen to have a difference of opinion."

Kunzite has posed:
Riventon. It's not a name that Kunzite knows personally. But that Ayana expects it not to need explanation - that in itself says some interesting things. And attaching the name to the shadows of influence he's seen in her behavior already says more.

Attaching both of those to her description of Riventon's dream says everything.

Leaning into the petting gets the results Ayana wants, an echo of Saito's increased focus on her words. "Magical Girls have been giving you trouble, have they? But you've been handling that capably, too. At least, you don't show any signs of having taken harm. Your brother's teaching? Or your own?"

Ayana has posed:
"One of them tried to bind me to her like some sort of love slave," Ayana replies with a little noise of ire. "Another tried to tell me what I can and can't eat--fish of all things! Hmph."

"Magicla girls," Ayana explains, "are selfish, childish, and greedy. All they want is to impose their will on others; to ensure that their view of the future is the only one that survives. And they violate the natural order of things just by their means. Rather than accepting the very premise of evolution: the weak shall perish while the strong survive--they try to circumvent this by protecting the weak from the strong."

She sighs, and leans into his pettings just a little more. "It's not that I mind that part," she notes. "I mean, protecting what's yours is also a part of basic evolution. But you don't have to be rude about it, right?"

Ayana tilts her head a little to look up at the man, then smiles at him. "Anyways, I heal myself. He doesn't even know how to do it as well as I do. I just ... eat a little energy, convert it directly to mana, and then spend it directly on repairing tissue and bone. This one time I got in a fight with a girl who could make fire. She burned me pretty badly. I was back to normal within two days because I drained about six people like I did the boy back there. It was pretty dumb, too; she only attacked me because I was draining a girl gently. She made me drain more people than I otherwise would have. So stupid."

Kunzite has posed:
Another tried to set Ayana on fire. That, apparently, doesn't even rate. On the other hand, she hasn't mentioned any of them trying to stab her; perhaps Kyouko's had a change of heart? ... of course she hasn't, she didn't manage to get her spear into Kunzite's. Count that still potentially in play, then.

The explanation about the philosophical aspects of magical girls does finally renew Saito's half-smile, though. Indignant predators: cuter than kittens. And for most of the same reasons, too. "You've spent some time thinking this through," he observes. The reward for this is scratching at the base of her ears, a pleasant contrast to the pettings she's leaned into. "It's not their viewpoint you mind, then, but their hypocrisy." Not quite a question, though it could certainly be taken as one. And his tone carries approval, as if there were some subtle point she'd found and he'd acknowledged, and been pleased.

(And he is, in ways he wouldn't express at the moment. There are bits and pieces in the core of her that might be seeds for something better. He certainly can't do anything with or about them. But someone might, someday.)

There's a more immediate topic at hand, though. There's the fire, and there's the matter-of-fact description of exactly the same thing Kunzite is out tonight to work on himself - though his harvests are divided between restoring his normal reserves, and repairing the rest of the damage he's taken. "Inefficient on her part," he agrees, with a nod that acknowledges everything Ayana's said on the subject at once. Evidence for her belief about him. "My apologies for so nearly interrupting your dinner, though. Are you still hungry? Certainly there are more than enough potential candidates for dessert, if so. And it might be a little less annoying for you, if you had someone able to keep an eye out for magical girls while you hunted."

Ayana has posed:
"Yes, Exactly!" Ayana says of hipocrisy. "If they'd just be honest in their intentions and their beliefs, I wouldn't care so much. If they'd just accept that there are different points of view ..." she trails off, then shakes her head. "Well I mean, maybe I wouldn't stop if asked. But at least if I was asked I'd have the choice to stop, you know? Then fighting me would be because I chose not to do as asked, and not because they're just being jerkbags."

She sighs a little, then looks back up at Kunihiro once more. "Dessert? I mean, I could feast on their energy for days and not be fully sated. It's constant hunger that my creation has left me," she explains, slipping just a little of what she is into the conversation unintentionally. "But I don't mind spending more time with you, instead."

Kunzite has posed:
"There's no reason not to do both." The petting finally stops. But that's so that Saito can lift his hand away, close it and turn it over, open it again with a cupped palm full of shadows and sparks of crawling, discolored lightning. It is not the prelude to an attack; he offers it to her, instead. Dark energy looks like so very many things, depending on the source, the emotions that flavor it, the people and things that held it last. But people like the two of them can recognize it in whatever guise. And at least he's being honest about his own nature, now. "It's a pleasant night to have a little company."

Ayana has posed:
Ayana twitches just a little, at that offer of energy. In its raw form, she doesn't even have to engage her gloom to consume it. Instead, she merely reaches up and touches the ball of energy with a finger.

For any mortal, sane creature, such a touch would be painful and dangerous. For Ayana, it is like a quickening. It crawls up her arm and into her chest, and she smiles as the warmth of it suffuses her. A faint twitch of her shoulders, and then it is done, and she licks her lips hungrily.

"Saito-senpai," she mumbles happily, "I don't know how I knew you would be so wonderful. But I'm glad I was not wrong about you."

Kunzite has posed:
Echoes of a shared power, maybe. Maybe that they're both half monster or more, bound to something dark, with the buried potential for something better. Or maybe she just caught the scent of what passes for his blood. He doesn't venture a guess; he just tousles her hair lightly, ears and all, and says, "Let's go for a walk."

The lights are pretty, after all. And there are so many more people in the crowds.