A Nose for Danger

A Nose for Danger
Date of Scene:	27 December 2019
Location:	Somewhere in Tokyo
Synopsis:	ROOFTOP MOTORCYCLE WHEELIE PRACTICE! Or not.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouko Sakura, Mamoru Chiba, Kunzite

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's evening in Tokyo. The sun has already passed behind the wall of skyscrapers that is the downtown skyline, though it isn't full dark yet, the slivers of sky seen between the monolithic buildings a vibrant purple-crimson. It's going to be chilly tonight, and while it would be an exaggeration to call it 'cold', the wind has an edge to it.

Kyouko sits straddling her motorcycle, the red-and-white street bike, on the open top floor of a parking garage situated among the taller buildings. The lights are just starting to flicker on and illuminate the parked cars- there's a bunch of them, but the lot is far from full, used mostly during the day by commuting salarymen.

She has her helmet tucked under her arm, a red leather riding jacket zipped up against the chill covering her torso. She's frowning towards the direction of the setting sun, her eyes slightly narrowed, her head tilted back. As a fresh gust of wind washes over the building, she actually sniffs the air faintly. "Somethin' ain't right tonight. I can smell it."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm glad you can smell anything," says Mamoru, on his own motorcycle and pulling his helmet off again while they idle. His voice is stuffy and his nose is red. "I couldn't smell a stinkbug if you startled it in front of my face."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I have.. a nose for danger." Kyouko says, completely straight-faced, before jamming her helmet back on her head. It has a tinted visor so it's somewhat like sunglasses. She then slams the visor up because she wasn't done speaking.

"Anyway I wasn't being that literal," although she totally does do the 'sniffing the air' thing unconsciously when she senses some kind of magical malfeasance. "But there's definitely something off around here. Not sure if it's really dangerous but it's definitely not natural. So our rooftop motorcycle wheelie practice may have to wait."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Good," says the prince fervently. "Losing a bet is one thing, pulling it off without getting in trouble with literally everyone is another thing entirely. Which way, O Dangernose? And should we tag anyone else to come with?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Maybe the trouble I smelt was Kazuo coming to yell at me.." Kyouko takes a moment to consider the possibility. Then she shakes her head. "No, I didn't smell any collar-starch, it's not him."

As for anyone else, she adds, "Dunno if we need anyone else or not, since we don't know what we're dealing with, but I'll never say no to insurance if anyone else is in the area."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Mean," laughs Mamoru and leans to shove at Kyouko's arm. But then he puts his helmet back on. "Eh, if we get in trouble they'll find us. Or if it looks like big trouble when we get wherever it is, we'll call them before stomping in, then probably not wait for them before we stomp in, given our track record." He revs. He doesn't take off; Kyouko knows where they're going. But boy does he rev.

Then he thinks better of it and flips his visor up and brings his wrist up, pushing buttons. "Kyouko thinks there's a thing, so we're going to investigate. If there's a thing I'm sure you'll hear the screaming."

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo's voice comes through, thinned by the transmission. "We are eternally reassured."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I am a meanie." Kyouko confirms without remorse, "It's what makes me good at my job." The shove is not returned, but a wink is given instead. She once-again slams down the visor of her helmet, since the Prince is revving.

She does do a wheelie, of a sort, lifting her handlebars to pull the front wheel of the bike off the ground and pivot the back wheel in place to reverse direction, gunning the engine before the front wheel hits the ground again so for a second she's moving forward balanced only on the back before the front hits the ground again. She takes off towards the ramp leading down the multiple levels of the garage to the street, which does necessitate slowing down. A little.

Once at the exit, she pauses, waiting for Mamoru to catch up (assuming he is not quite as reckless around the hairpin turns inside the garage as she was) and casting her senses about, attempting to zero-in on the disturbance. "This way, I think." She shouts through her helmet to Mamoru when he is beside her, and pulls out onto the street, headed west, towards the setting sun.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mamoru is not nearly as reckless around the hairpin turns inside the garage. (He also does no wheelies or stunts, despite nobody else being around.) He is only mildly surprised when they literally ride off into the sunset. On the ride, he considers getting radios or bluetooth headsets or something getting installed in their helmets so they can actually talk to each other while riding on motorcycles, and he suspects that Kyouko might find this cool right up until he starts giving history lessons on various buildings and parks and monuments they pass.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
The city is still decorated for Christmas, and all the lights strung around streetlights and fake trees (and real trees) are coming on, giving the city an almost dreamlike quality as they two ride along it. Of course, Tokyo streets are crowded so progress is only so fast, and out of consideration for Mamoru, Kyouko does not weave between cars or run lights or anything like that. But steady progress is made.

Eventually, Kyouko pulls her bike over to the curb in the middle of a busy shopping district. Taking off her helmet, she frowns at a dim alleyway between a brightly lit coffee shop and some kind of high-end clothing retailer. Mamoru can likely feel what it is Kyouko felt, by this point- she has a sensitive nose for this stuff, but here, the sense of something 'off' is palpable to anyone tuned into magic. It isn't exactly evil, or dark, but definitely otherworldly, and seems to be coming from the alleyway between the two buildings.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Besides, in the middle of the dreamlike city, going fast with traffic there isn't nearly so cool or dreamlike. If it were nothing o'clock in the morning and nobody were about, the strange echoes of the twin roars of the motorcycles on the roads would make the two almost seem like phantoms, there and gone and leaving only fading noise in their wake.

Mamoru pulls over next to Kyouko , and by the time his helmet's off his head it's a top hat, and he disappears it with a flick of a white-gloved hand. He turns his bike off and pockets the key, cape billowing unfairly as he dismounts. "If that's ghosts, we're calling Jiaying in and going home," he says firmly.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Sometimes, Kyouko feels like a phantom, at least as far as the mundane world is concerned. She moves through it, interacts with it, but it's not /her/ world, and hasn't been since she was ten years old. Sure, she has a legal identity now, a job and an address. But that isn't who she is- she could walk away from it all, if she needed to, and leave Kyouko the conbenie manager behind. Apatite, Fifth of the Shitennou, is who she is. But Apatite has very little connection to the people milling on the sidewalks, the salarymen driving their cars. Hers is a world of shadows and monsters. Phantoms, in truth.

She hasn't henshined yet, or maybe it's more just that henshin is a state of mind as far as she's concerned. She kicks the stand of her bike down, swinging off of it and clipping her helmet to the seat. Unzipping her jacket, she strides towards the alleyway mouth with a purposeful tread. "It's not ghosts." She pauses, glancing back. "I don't think. I'm not sure what it is. I don't think its a Witch or anything. Doesn't feel quite that.. malicious."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm just saying. If it's ghosts and they want me to deal with them, they have to wait until after the new year, because I'm done with ghosts in 2019," Tuxedo Kamen says, adjusting his gloves like he's a magician about to pull a trick. He paces Kyouko because he could go first, his legs are long enough, but that's the opposite of what he's supposed to do when his Shitennou are around. Nonetheless, he also doesn't hang back. "Hey," he calls ahead. "What's going on in there?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Moving through the alleyway, the space opens up into a small lot, really not more than a slightly wider space which contains all the trash bins and back doors for the businesses in the buildings on either side.

In the middle of this small space is a.. well. Technically, one supposes, it could be called a youma. It's definitely a spirit of some sort. It's a portly little vaugely humanoid thing, about three feet tall, with a white mask over where its head should be with two round holes for eyes, although the rest of its body is featureless, aside from having the expected limbs and general shape.

Kyouko halts just inside the space, staring at the small thing. It is dragging a sack behind it. The top of the sack is open enough to see a pile of gift-wrapped presents inside. "Uh. If you're santa, you're two days late." She informs the creature.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru is really taken aback. His eyes are wide behind the white mask. "Are you lost?" he finally asks. "Or are you related to Delibird?"

He's standing there all tall and overdressed, cape gliding and billowing with the faintest of breezes, and he's stymied enough by the creature in front of them that it's comical. He opens his mouth to say something else, then thinks better of it and just shuts it awkwardly.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
The small creature turns its eyeless mask towards the two humans (or, near-enough) who have approached it, clearly not used to people being able to detect its presence. It pauses for a long moment, then says in a hollow, somewhat squeaky voice, "What is a Delibird? I am merely taking the Lost Presents. It is what I do."

Kyouko looks rather nonplussed. "Okay.. uh. Did you steal them?" She asks, perhaps hunting for a reason to resort to violence when none is readily apparent. She looks over at Tux. "Do I stab it?" She sounds uncertain. It's clearly a spirit or youma of some sort, but it doesn't look very threatening.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Kamen's eyebrows lift and he looks at Apatite like she's got three heads. "No? Come on." He moves to crouch in front of the squeaky-hollow-voiced small creature, but not up in its grille. "Lost presents are pretty sad. Are you rescuing them so that they have a purpose?"

There's a beat. "Has anyone ever given you a present?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Apatite looks some combination of affronted and embarassed. "Well, look, its my /job/, okay? You don't get all snippy when Neph asks if he can solve every problem while stargazing." She grumbles, but to her credit she hasn't actually made any move to bring her weapon to bear. She hasn't even henshined yet.

The small spirit looks up with its hollow eyes at Tux as he crouches down in front of it. "These are not presents that are, but presents that never were. Things intended to be given that were never actually given. They are full of emotion, even if they do not really exist. They are ideas." It pauses, and then adds, "We eat them. But since they do not really exist, no one seems to mind."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You," says the Prince reasonably, mildly, to the affronted and embarrassed Kyouko, "have the fastest reflexes I've ever seen. Faster than V, faster than Kunzite, faster than me. I fully trust you to be able to stop any attack you see begin, before it gets to me."

Unspoken, 'so, only after intent to attack is made clear'. Unspoken, but clear from the part of Tux's face that not-Delibird can't see, 'and that was pretty damn funny.'

He looks back to the kinda-youma. "I intended to give you a gift just now, when I asked if you'd ever been given one. The intent is for you, too." Then Mamoru rests a knee on the ground and sits back on that heel, still regarding the tiny monster. "I think it is also a service you do us, by taking away the regret of not giving these gifts, too."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
The little creature regards Tux with unblinking and expressionless eyes, as if considering what he is saying. It does not seem threatened by the large human so near to it, not does it seem threatening to him in turn, other than by its strangeness. "I do not need gifts." It finally says. "I have all these." It hefts the sack. "This is a bountiful time of year."

Kyouko, meanwhile, crosses her arms over her chest. "I feel like there's some kind of lesson trying to be imparted here, but I'm not sure what it is, other than strange Shyguys eat our holiday stress for dinner after Boxing Day."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I think it's great," says Mamoru to Kyouko, "and I'm definitely not smart or paranoid enough to figure out what the lesson is." So he gets up, nodding to the Shydeli. "Carry on. Sorry for interrupting, we thought maybe you were eating people's life energy."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I'm not sure I'd go so far as 'great'." Kyouko says dubiously, "But at least it's not hurting anybody."

The creature looks at Tux for a moment after he straightens up, and then says, "In a way. Emotions are life. But we only eat what they don't need." And then it turns and trundles into the darkness of the alleyway, dragging the sack.

Kyouko is silent for a moment. Then she says, "This was a weird Christmas episode."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...you wanna make up something more violent and impressive to tell everyone else?" Tux asks, still staring into the darkness. "We should get pizza on the way back."

MahouMUSH

A Nose for Danger