View source for 1622/Half Way To Never

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/06/17
|Location=Festa
|Synopsis=Ami and Takashi meet for the first time since they broke up. It's supposed to be dinner and an informational exchange about Fiore, but as everything with these two, it winds up being so much more complicated. One of them leaves in tears, and the chess board judges them both.
|Cast of Characters=54,47
|pretty=yes
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{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Festa is unusual, as Karaoke bars go, in that it's not just a karaoke bar, but also one of Tokyo's high class gourmet restaurants. It therefor has the distinction of being one of the highest class restaurants where private rooms can be had for two on very little notice.<br /><br />When Takashi arrives, he is shown into one of these rooms, where Ami is already seated at the low, Japanese-style table with her shoes off, legs curled up beside her on one side. As the first time they met for dinner, she's dressed herself well: a blue mini-dress, shoulderless with a strap that arcs up from the middle and wraps around her neck to straps in the back.<br /><br />She's wearing the jewelry he gave her: a silver necklace with an onyx pendant bearing the symbol of Mercury, a silver bracelet woven with diamonds and sapphires. And of course, the trio of blue studs she always wears in her left ear, and the one in the right.<br /><br />When the door opens, Ami looks up and--well it's not exactly a smile that greets him, but it is a curious expression. "Hello, Agera-san," she greets him politely. There's a chess board set in the center of the table, as well as their menus. She has very carefully given him the white pieces, and herself the black--backwards of their typical arrangement. But this is the board he gave her, too: all of the very expensive pieces glistning on pristine display.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi read the text message and literally dropped the phone, where it skittered across the lab floor. Then he had to frantically pop the battery back in and let it reload while he made sure he read the text and who it came from.<br /><br />Was it even MEANT for him? Of course it was. Information was, after all, something he had in spades about all sorts of things - and with her comment he could guess what it was about. But a thousand times more importantly it was dinner. At seven. At Festa Karaoke. With Ami Mizuno.<br /><br />His first thoughts, likely colored by the change in his energy, laid it as a trick or a trap. But he quickly deduced either way he'd end up coming so the best thing he could do was arrive, be careful with himself, and not let onto any of his own plans that it was too early to reveal.<br /><br />And once that was over he quickly ensued entire an entirely different kind of panic, a kind of concern and panic entirely unique to this circumstance and one he'd never really had to deal with elsewhere: WHAT DO I WEAR TO THIS?!<br /><br />When Takashi arrives, at 6:58pm exactly, he's decided to go with the same outfit he went with on their not-date - his midnight blue suit, and the cufflinks to go with it - in case of emergency any sort of advantage might be useful - that same sour-hearted concern is why he's got enough of his own 'troops' wandering around near the area, in case he needs to hold off a surprise ambush from Ami And All Of Her Friends And Maybe All Of Virtue. Axion's current resting form of the three studs in his own right ear contrast hers, though there's no match on the other side.<br /><br />But while Ami might not have a smile to greet him, Takashi's concerns go to live somewhere in the back of his mind and his heart, and as he realizes she's wearing the gifts he got her, bringing the chess set he got her, she /does/ get greeted with a smile - a genuine smile, perhaps a rare thing for Takashi in these times.<br /><br />"Hello, Am-Mizuno-san." he says, at first excitedly, then carefully. "I... wasn't sure you'd have kept all of this." he says, gesturing to the board, then the jewelery. And he takes the open spot on the white side of the chessboard.

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Now Ami does smile, although there's no warmth to it. More like the frigid cold behind the beautiful ice. The one who brought Takashi bows and closes the door, then heads off to let their waiter know they are both here.<br /><br />Only once the door is closed does Ami respond, "That is because you didn't actually listen to what I said, when I saw you last. You were too busy dwelling on how I'd wounded your poor, fragile ego to actually pay attention. Which is exactly the problem, isn't it," she notes, then straightens a little.<br /><br />"I've taken the liberty of ordering for both of us," Ami explains to him. "If I got your order wrong, well, at least you didn't pay for it. If you decide this meeting isn't to your liking, you can leave at any time. I'll be exceptionally disappointed, but I understand you find it uncomfortable being around people who oppose villainy and encourage justice. Or at least, I understand that now, Agera-san. Or should I call you Riventon-san? Which would you prefer?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi's face falls like an elevator that had it's cables cut while carrying a full load of pianos. "It's not about my ego." he says, defensively. "It's about survival. And not just mine." he says, scooting back perhaps a bit unconsciously. Her glare is withering. That glare could be on anyone else and the biggest reaction it would earn is a blast or blade, but not Ami's.<br /><br />"Either works." he says honestly, turning his hands upwards and shrugging. "Not a lot of difference between them now, anyways. The coldness isn't to my liking but perhaps expected. Shouldn't get in the way of us trading information." he says, sitting up straight after the scooting away.<br /><br />There it is, in his eyes, in his face and mannerisms. Ami's coldness, her words - it's pushed him back into the place he feels safe, the darkness, and he uses it to dull his other emotions. It makes him somewhat less like the Takashi Agera she knew and more like Riventon, but it also keeps him safe, keeps his heart from hurting.<br /><br />"I don't think our goals are that different, I just think I look at things from a different direction, different life experiences, and different awareness of the totality of the problem, Mizuno-san." He has no trouble with the name this time. "You're treating the symptoms, but I'm understanding the nature of the infection."

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ami frowns faintly at him, then sighs and shakes her head. "Our goals ''aren't'' that different," she agrees with him, "which is why I asked you to come here tonight. But Hideki Tojo thought he was doing the right thing when he signed the Tripartite Pact, too," Ami points out to him.<br /><br />"I didn't--" she starts to say, then grits her teeth and shakes her head. "No, that's not why we're here," she grumbles. "There's no time for me to go into how much you misinterpretted what I said when we broke up. There's an asteroid coming to strike the earth in a few weeks, and a whole lot of plants inside the planet eating it alive. There's no ''time''," she says, frustratedly. "It's your move," she motions to the board, then stands and heads to the door, not bothering with her shoes, to step out and signal the waiter--and maybe cool off a bit.<br /><br />Ami returns only two minutes later, and taks her seat again. "I have some numbers I want you to look over," she says without waiting for him to say anything. Drawing out the Mercury computer, she taps it once, then slides the tablet across the table towards him. "I've checked the math five times and I don't see anything wrong with it." Except, of course, that it requires data which should be impossible to have: the mass of the asteroid. "Can you confirm it for me?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi at least appreciates the historical reference. "Well, he actually stands as a good example of what can happen without total control. He didn't want to make all of the decisions he did, but was forced into them by his militaty leaders. Japan would've been better off with a stronger leader in those times." he riposts.<br /><br />"I pefer 'plant-like organisms' but I suppose plants will suffice for brevity. I mean they look like plants as we know them, but plants don't use Dark Energy over photosynthesis. They do have a rather interesting biology, but I guess you're not here to discuss that, either."<br /><br />He's moved before she's made it back, settling back. It's a cautious opening move that gives nothing away. He brings Axion into a gauntlet form, and looks at the tablet. He's doing the math himself, but also cross-referencing it back in his own personal mainframe. "...it looks right. Can back-derive the mass from it, and run a virtual simulation with my Device, but probably unnecessary." he says, calmly. "I mean, the liklihood we're both missing something here is... so infintesmal I'd say it was at least impossible in the popular vernacular."

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Which means either it's complete bullshit," Ami says--and yes, she really does use the word 'bullshit', "or somehow, Nephrite has worked out the mass of that asteroid. Which means he's measured it from multiple angles, and analyzed what it's made of."<br /><br />Ami makes her own move, then reaches up to take the laptop back from Takashi. "I've run those simulations," she notes. "Destroying it will take more power than the Senshi can muster, and it will only break up on impact and cause wider spread damage to the Earth's magnetosphere. Utter vaporization would require a lot more power than I think I have at my disposal. Fine," she says and takes a breath. "Guess I know how to defeat it, then," she notes unhappily.<br /><br />"Meanwhile, the plants here on Earth are known as Xenstalks," Ami explains--then pauses when the waiter enters and sets down a plate of delicious smelling hors d'oeuvres: shrimp in lemon garlic, and Coca-cola for both junior scientists.<br /><br />When he's gone, Ami continues as she reaches for a shrimp, "They're known as Xenstalks, and they are mostly psychic entities. Smaller ones can worm their way into the body and take control of the host at the heart and mind. Larger ones drain the energy from the planet itself. We're being eaten," she explains to Takashi.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi makes a noise of amusement, but stops himself from making comments. He'll tell Kunzite he knows more than he ought to - but not Ami, because she's absolutly smart enough to put far too many links together on her own. "He's the stars guy, right? Maybe he's got some magic that helped." he tries to divert. "Or astrology. What's the sign for 'asteroid apocalypse' again?" he asks, still snarky as ever as he moves the next peice.<br /><br />"Yeah, the little plants have been popping up around Sunset Tower. I was looking at engineering basically magical weedkiller, but I didn't like the applications, so we went with special flamethrowers instead. Frankly, I find that more satisfying anyways." he says, with a suspicious glint in his eye.<br /><br />"Yeah. I've noted the threat they can pose to unprotected humans. And youma, actually. Sure are insidious for beautiful things. Something about books and covers." he says, entirely oblivious to any personally applicable comments, popping a shrimp into his mouth.

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ami rolls her eyes at Takashi's childish snark, and moves another of her pieces. She nibbles on the shrimp, then licks her fingers clean before explaining, "I hope those special flamethrowers don't catch anything ''else'' on fire. But they're also unlikely to kill these things at the root. I have some theories on how to destroy them. If I'm wrong, I guess it'll be up to you," Ami says, motioning towards Takashi. "Because I know you don't want this earth to be destroyed any more than I do."<br /><br />Ami sighs and leans back a little, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Beneath the makeup, and the pretty dress, she looks tired. Too tired. She hasn't been sleeping nearly enough.<br /><br />"I still haven't found all of them, either," Ami notes with her eyes closed. "They're all over the planet. And they don't have a single source; there are just ... a lot of them. Worming their way in. Taking over. Creating their mindless minions. This is worse than Zoisite's stupid CD."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi doesn't answer the question about the flamethrowers and other fires. Nope. Instead he goes to his own more pressing concern. "I've grown rather fond of the Earth over the last 15 years, sure. Beats the hell outta the Dusk Zone. But if yoiur plans fail to the point where it's soley up to me, I guess it'll be up to Miss White, because I'll be too busy trying to figure out if necromancy is a thing." he says. There's not even a hint of humor in his voice, either.<br /><br />Takashi leans forward, and there's anotther thing they have in common - he hasn't been sleeping enough either. Too many projects, too many plans, too many threats, too many allies. Just too much. But work is easier than dwelling. "Still, from what I can see they are ''less'' dangerous at the root, so it's at least containing them from the employees. For reasons I probably do not need to go into great detail on, a great many of them are... shall we say, particularly suceptible."<br /><br />"Sounds like the sort of thing it'd be handy to have an army to deal with though - stalks all over the globe, hordes of mindless zombies." The way he says it makes it sound like he could have one on standby, too. It's that obnoxiously self-assured attitude, the same way he acts when he moves the next peice, and though still incredibly defensive, it's a successful play to attempt to stifle Ami's burgeoning board strategy.

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Oh, I can already tell you it isn't," Ami informs Takashi. "Or did you forget I've already ''completed'' that research, and successfully raised the dead?" She opens her eyes, here, to give him a pointed stare. <br /><br />"If I fail, and you need to raise an army to save the earth," Ami says, "I guess I won't be around to stop you. But try it before then and you won't be happy with the results. We can still be allies," she points out. "Even China and America have managed that, and they have far fewer mutual interests." She smiles at him, thinly, then looks down at the board and frowns. Not a good place to be in.<br /><br />Carefully, Ami defends against his aggressive attack, then returns to the shrimp and sighs. "I really wish you had listened," Ami notes, "but I guess it's not your fault. The Dark Energy in you has far more control than I realised; more than you'll ever be capable of admitting to, I suppose. I hope, someday, I have the time to try and help you."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi shrugs. "I didn't mean raising an army. But I also don't know what sort of connections... you know, nevermind." he says, waving his hand. One probably doesn't discuss necromancy of one's not-girlfriend infront of them without things getting odd. "It's an unrelated tangent. My point is, I can amass the firepower necessary, but I hope I won't need to."<br /><br />"The only thing that worries me..." he says, continuing to parry her with an unnaturally good move again "...is how concerned you seem. Again. Either you're really worried about your chances of success because there's too many unknowns you haven't filled in..."<br /><br />Takashi takes a shrimp and points it at her. Rather uncouth. "Or you either didn't take my advice about having more faith in yourself to heart or filed it under the header of 'dark energy therefore super-bad' and ignored it."<br /><br />The shrimp is consumed and he looks at her. A little bit of a head tilt follows. "Mmm, I'm able to sit down and have a civil conversation with you and share my information with you. I haven't eaten any children lately. I think your fear of dark energy - a fear I feel the people around you have instilled in you, or at least increased - has a far greater hold on you than the actual truth of me. Fifteen years of no murderous rampage or consumption of babies and running, you know." he adds. "That's prolly some sort of record."

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ami looks uncomfortable at all three of Takashi's observations about herself, as she watches the move he makes on the board. She reaches up for a piece, then actually lets out an amused chuckle. Some of her anger and frustration seems to melt away at his morbid humour.<br /><br />"It's ... not that I think you're a bad person," Ami explains to him with a sigh. "It's that I think you make bad decisions. No, you haven't eaten babies, but you ''have'' done things which are illegal and harmful to others, and you can't begin to claim otherwise," she notes. "Out there," she motions towards the door, then places her piece defensively once again, "we are required to be enemies, at least so long as you continue draining energy from the people of Tokyo, or stealing artifacts of power, or any of the other horrible things I've heard you've done. It's not personal," Ami notes, "and I don't like it. I'd rather be in here, laughing about the things you haven't done, eating shrimp and--soon--steak, and watching as you miraculously figure out a winning strategy in Chess for the first time, what the heck, Takashi?" she asks, looking up from the board to peer at him. She's not conceding, yet, but she can see the noose tightening.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi smiles again at the chuckle, and some of that sterness of his own leaves with it. He looks at a chess peice, turns it over in his hand, looks at her before moving another one instead. The moves continue to be just aggressive, expert pressure from him. "You know, maybe I can explain what it feels like to me."<br /><br />"Imagine you're a doctor and you're on the brink of a vaccine for some sort of ravaging disease that claims many lives a year in some sub-saharan country." he says, quietly. "The vaccine isn't perfect, and it needs more work, but you can save thousands of lives a year if it works. But you have to test it on this specific population, and of course, as luck would have it, it's all of the tribal societies where they don't even have the basic foundational knowledge to know what you're really doing." He picks up a shrimp and investigates it all too closely, too.<br /><br />"So all they see is the side-effects of what you're doing which range from mild to severe, and they become convinced you're out to do something horrible to them - it's a campaign by other countries to exterminate them or something. I mean, these are people who lack the foundational knowledge to understand fire is a chemical reaction."<br /><br />"And they really can't give the ethically required informed consent. So... you're standing by, watching the disease mutate and grow and ravage them. Knowing you could solve all that, but you can't because you're hamstrung by the rules, by the people themselves. How long do you stand by - until the entire group is erased from the planet?" he asks.<br /><br />"If what I'm doing works... I'll be hailed as a hero. If it doesn't, if I fail... well, hopefully there will be enough people around afterwords to at least make use of my research in ways that help others. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time science has been improved by research left behind by people the community considered ethically questionable."

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ami listens to Takashi's story with all the attentiveness she usually shows. All the while she's busy studying the board, listening, but multi-tasking as well. When the door opens and their steaks are brought in, sizzling hot, but both medium rare and served with green beans and mashed potatoes, Ami looks up and smiles to thank their waiter. He inconspicuously leaves, but not before shooting Takashi a conspiratorial wink. Clearly he has the wrong idea about what's going on here tonight.<br /><br />As Takashi's story comes to its conclusion, Ami lets out a soft sigh and says, "You know, there's another man who spoke like that. And his work ''has'' helped saved millions of lives," she points out gently. "His name was Josef Mengele. And while the work he conducted revolutionized medicine, once people were willing to actually use it, we have also concluded that the same knowledge would have been attained, in time, without his horrific experimentation."<br /><br />Ami reaches for fork and knife to cut into her steak, then asks, "Is that how you wish to see yourself? As an Angel of Death?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I think there's a conversational law about bringing the Nazis into any sort of conversation like this." he says, looking more at his steak than her. "And of course not. And... even if I did accept your comparison - which I do not for obvious reasons - there's a keen difference between the lives we can save now and the lives we could potentially save in due time."<br /><br />A bit of the steak is cut, and he returns to a point he's made dozens of times, partly because it's become one that bolsters him in his own rare moments of doubt. "Like the one playing chess across from me. Perhaps there is a way to clear that posion that didn't require a use of dark energy on its own. Maybe I could've figured it out in days or weeks. That wasn't time we had. If I get obliterated tomorrow, that's one success I will always count in my column." he says, and is surprisingly blatant about the possibility of such happening.<br /><br />"I have to have power to protect myself. My research. The people I care about from the threats I know about." he says, simply. Unapologetically. "I'm not going to have my projects destroyed or halted." There's a dangerous conviction there.<br /><br />"...and I know, and note with some sadness, there's things I've done you don't agree with and you don't like. I don't do them out of hostility or malice, though sometimes people go out of their way to... move themselves to the front of the experimentation line." he says, looking at the board now too. Intently.<br /><br />"And I'll probably... end up doing things you can't approve of. Maybe even abide. Maybe even the only person I thought might understand is doomed to not. But what can I really do in such a situation, without comprimising who I am - not even in the sense of the energy, this time."<br /><br />"...I once wished you weren't involved in this world, just a normal, brilliant genius beautiful girl. But even then it wouldn't be the same. You wouldn't be able to help like you are. So maybe I'm just very unlucky. Maybe it's the price I pay for the circumstances of my unique birth, a curse laid on me to offset the boon my mother bought for me."

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ami stares at the board as she watches him take more and more of the field from her. After a moment, she lets out a sigh of frustration and reaches up to tip her king over. "You had mate in four," she notes, quietly. "You've never played this well before."<br /><br />Ami leans away from the board and goes back to her steak. She remains silent for several bites, then looks up at him quietly and tries a new approach: "You asked me, I think rhetorically, if I'd give all of this up for you, and become a creature of darkness like you, instead of me asking you to give the darkness up." She tilts her head a little, then offers, "What if I said that I'd meet you half way? I'd give up Sailor Mercury, and all of my power, and all of my virtue contacts, if you'd give up Riventon, and the dark energy, and all of your power, too?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi smiles. It's one of those prideful, self assured, jerk smiles. The kind he uses to cover up other things, but he's done so long it's impossible to tell. Right now it's covering up the sour sort of feeling he has for cheating. But - he does hide it.<br /><br />"I think..." he really does consider the offer and there's a long period of silence. "It's not something I would ever consider from anyone else." he says. "With you - maybe. If I could be assured of some things. Like the fact that a giant plant-asteroid wasn't gonna smash into the earth and render the idea of any happily ever afters null and void. Or that we'd both actually be happy like that, and somehow not interacting with everything out there, in that part of the world."<br /><br />"I don't know that either of those are things that we could really say were true."

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>They aren't, and Ami knows it. But the fact that Takashi was willing to consider it at all speaks volumes to her, right now, and she at least offers him a sad, wistful smile.<br /><br />He knows they couldn't do it, either; neither of them would be happy, now that they know what they know. Not if they went on to solve cancer together. Not even if they cured dementia, and ended 'death' by old age. They'd always wonder what more they could have done, if they'd kept the power.<br /><br />And so Ami abandons the idea as an actual option. But oh how her heart clings to it as a might-have-been.<br /><br />"I understand," she says eventually, then places her fork down on her plate, steak only half-eaten. It's not that she's not hungry, it's that she doesn't have the energy to finish, right now. It's being used elsewhere. "I'm not going to stop hoping that someday you'll see the light," Ami explains to him. "I'm no hapless, ignorant villager dying of this disease. I probably know more about Dark Energy than anyone else on my side except Kunzite, at this point, thanks to the experiments you ran on me." Because that's what they were, whether he wants them categorized in that way or not. "And I don't like what it does to you."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi has... perhaps less culinary compunctions than Ami, and finishes more of his steak, but after a while more steak simply pales in comparison to... other things. He looks at her for a moment and leans forward again. He regards that wistful smile maybe with one of his own. "Destiny has a real way of making things difficult for me, don't worry." he says with a smile that really isn't a smile, it doesn't reach his eyes, and it's not happy. "You have no idea the things, the people, the relationships I've lost." he says, quietly.<br /><br />And that's when he reaches across the table with an agility and speed that he probably has no business utilizing. But he doesn't grab at her or attack, except to take one of her hands in both of his and hold it tightly, looking at her with an intent of purpose drawn from somewhere deeper than maybe even the Dark Energy.<br /><br />"I know you said you didn't - but I said I did. And I'm sure I do." A pause. "Love you, I mean." he says, after a moment of realizing that he didn't clarify what he said. "And I know there's going to be days where you probably wake up and hate me, and there will probably be days where I wake up frustrated and annoyed at you - I admit to having those already. But maybe we can go to bed knowing that fundamental truth of how I feel about you hasn't changed on all of the days." And then he lets go of her hands like she's become made of fire and the sun and he's not even looking at her.<br /><br />Because way too much of him is questioning his actions, questioning what he values, questioning if he meant what he said just a moment ago about giving it all up, questioning what he just said in that moment. Asking what he wants and what he's going to sacrifice because trying to have it all has already failed, but it sure looks like he's still trying.

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno| (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Ami startles, when Takashi reaches for her. She nearly jumps away--nearly moves to defend herself. But she doesn't. Instead, she just sits, transfixed, caught in the trap he didn't really set, staring into Takashi's eyes as he delivers those passionate words.<br /><br />Breaking a little inside to hear them all over again.<br /><br />She's shaking, just a little, when he lets her go. And her reply is a soto-voiced, "I know." She takes a deep breath, then looks away from him, trying to regain control of her emotions.<br /><br />Except she hasn't had enough sleep to keep control of her emotions. And she doesn't have enough energy to resist the hot tears threatening to fall.<br /><br />It isn't ''fair''. Makoto's words, spoken straight from Ami's heart.<br /><br />"I didn't ..." she starts to say. But then her phone bleeps once. An incoming text? And then just as suddenly she stands, grabbing her shoes. "I can't do this," she says, as she opens the door and rushes out, leaving the food and the chess board behind.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi can't do what he wants to do - can't vanish away - because Ami beats him to do it. In his heart he knows he's saying that - where did that even come from? - even as he's doing something that he knows will make his prophecy self-fufilling - a morning is coming soon where she'll hate him.<br /><br />Takashi draws his suit up around himself like it's a coat for a moment. What is he even doing, he asks himself, as he looks over the chessboard. It sits there, accusing him in the empty room. Accusing him of cheating - not just in chess, but everywhere else, of trying to be too many things at once, of being Riventon and Frost Knight and Takashi Agera and who is he underneath those three.<br /><br />There's a temptation, loud and strong and angry, to launch the chessboard through the wall and into Kazamino City with its peices, with the stoic knight and king and the glaring threat from the peices. The urge is strong enough for him to feel the energy flowing into his hand, an orb ready to burst.<br /><br />It'd be so easy to just give in, to let that power surge out, to unleash his emotions and annhilate the board, the room, the building, the people inside, to surge out and become that comet of energy again, and not have to deal with his many betrayals.<br /><br />The energy wafts away harmlessly, though, and Takashi sits for a moment before he begins to carefully pack up the chess set, so he can leave it in front of Ami's door where she'll find it with a simple card, handwritten, and an apology for being so forward. And a smiley face and a note that he paid since she found herself 'otherwise indisposed'.<br /><br />And then he'll return to his lab, return to his work, return to his other goals - so diametrically opposed that the only way he can shut out the noise is to immerse himself in it, in his work, in that calming, soothing black energy that shuts out the world and shuts out the within.
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