Rena has been quite the busy girl today. She had set up her little shop in the park again. All in all it went well. she's made enough to recoup her expenses so she can make more goodies and she has a bit to go shopping with. That has lead her out to the Shopping strip.
She's been going to different shops and even managed to find some really nice clothes. Though among the crazy things shes gotten is several copper pipes. They aren't exactly light but she is carrying them. "Gods this is heavy, Why the heck do you need all of this?"
Dabble laughs, "Because Copper is actually a really good material. Its one of the ones we used on Gearwork If you know how to temper it just right its really tough and its conductive, oh and good for a lot of stuff."
Chloe just....happens by and takes some of the copper pipes. "Why Copper, Rena?" She says before winking to Dabble. You know Gold is more conductive, right? It's just more rare and harder to create than Copper." She says softly as she walks with her.
But why was Chloe here? Shopping trip round three is seems like....as Cathy takes a couple of copper pipes as well. "Holy cow, Rena! Why're you carrying all of these copper pipes? You must have a really bad plumbing problem. Oh wait, then you'd need PVC, not copper."
Kukai Souma is out on patrol again, trying to keep his mind off some of the things he's been dealing with, and some of the things he's waiting on. Name, a text from a friend or sight of a particular person. Unfortunately for now, neither of those have happened.
Wandering the city looking for a specific person might sound crazy to other people, but it's worked for Kukai before, and he's got a duty to make sure there's nothing going on in the city proper as well.
So, he's in a light jacket and pants and running shoes, jogging through the shopping center, Daichi riding his shoulder and looking at all the people as he goes past. And so it happens that he sees three girls he knows, one of them doing her best ant impression, carrying several heavy looking bags. He moves over towards them. "Hey you lot! What's with the piping?" He grins and nods to Chloe and Cathy as he examines Rena's load, then offers his hands. "Want some help?"
"Oh umm, my parents are doing a project and they needed copper." Rena states to Cathy as she tries her best to conceal the real reason for the piping. She gives a little smile to Chloe and nods.
Dabble chimes in finally, "Gold doesn't work as well for what I am doing. I'm going to try to make a device that lets me pick up on some background frequencies. You know? So I can help Utau-san?" She gives a smile and attempts to help lift the stuff.
And then, Oh sweet fortuitous day, Kukai arrives! Rena smiles brightly and gladly accepts his help. "Yes please umm... Well. umm. My parents are doing some work at home." She winks to Kukai. "Actually I am really glad to see you at the moment. I sorta ran into Utau Hoshina-san. I won't beat around the bush though, I'm going to need your help."
Kukai Souma takes as much of the piping as he can carry without losing too much speed, then looks over at Rena. "Oh? You met Utau-chan?" His voice is sort of quiet, maybe a little embarrassed. "Sure, I'll help, however I can." He grins, winking back at Rena.
He lets out a small grunt as he hoists the copper piping. "Man every time I see you you're carrying something heavy. You'd think you'd have bigger muscles."
Cathy looks skeptically at Rena. "Some work at home? Wouldn't you need a shovel too, or do you have one at home?" Cathy seems really skeptical at first.....then Kukai shows up and Cathy blushes at seeing him. Chloe rolls her eyes. "Just like Cathy, sees a pretty guy and she's gone." She waves to Kukai, but Cathy snaps out of it. "YOUMETUTAUOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODICAN'TBLIEVEYOU....wait....you need help? Can I help?"
The second she says 'Can I help?', something pops onto her shoulder for a moment, strides across her shoulders for a moment and says. "No....not time yet." and pops out of existence. Strange.Chloe blinks at that and peers at Rena. "Did you just......never mind. Yes we met Utau....and you can't help, Cathy....Hey Kukai. Nice to see you again."
Rena nods, "Oh yes, I have the stuff they need at home. We just need to put things together really. And then, it happens, Super ultra mega fangirling! When she offers to help though, Rena hmms, "Well, maybe!" She looks at Cathy with a smile, "Let me think about how okay? Things are a little crazy."
Thats about the point something appears for a brief moment. Rena blinks a few times. She turns her attention to Dabble who also seen what popped out. "Ummm... okay that. Well. That's good news!"
She turns her attention to Kukai, "Oh come on, I don't always carry heavy stuff! And I'm stronger then I look! You can't be a baker or a cooks kid without moving heavy bags and stuff. I just am not used to carrying around heavy pipes."
Quickly she looks at Cathy, "Hey I forgot to grab a coconut for some cookies I'm going to make. If you can grab em for me, I'll make you a dozen all your own!" She smiles hoping to get her to step away for a bit.
Kukai blinks as something runs across Cathy's shoulders. He's used to magic but that? That was strange. "Uh... okay." He looks back to Rena and grins, hoisting the pipes. "Hey, weight is weight. This is just really dense weight."
He looks over at Cathy for a moment, getting the gist of what Rena's wanting, and then leans over a moment later. "So what's up?"
Cathy grins and jumps to attention! "OKAY!" And she zooms off. She didn't even bother asking what sort of coconut to get. But she was gone for the moment.
This causes Chloe to watch her run off. "Did.....you all just see what I saw? A little person on her shoulder? Or a fairy, or something?" She says softly. "Oh yeah, Kukai. Utau kinda spilled the beans on you being that.....soccer guy. King Jack or something like that. my memory on names stink. I apologize."
Rena Sakai sighs a sigh of relief as Cathy takes off. "First things first, That was a fairy!" She exclaims. "Dabble What in the world?!"
Dabble looks about as shocked as Rena does. "That was definitely a friend from Gearwork. She needs protected. If Craft gets wind of another fairy and another prospective Sentinel he will be after her really fast."
Finally Rena gives a little sigh, "Okay Utau-chan is in trouble." Her voice is soft. She doesn't wanna draw any additional attention. "She explained that she isn involed with Easter. I know they aren't good, I dunno much beyond that. Studying that company is on my todo list. She is being forced to work there. Her brother is being held by them. As long as she does exactly as she is told, They won't hurt him. If she does anything against them, they will hurt him. She doesn't wanna do what they've been having her do. I want to help her out."
Kukai Souma hmms, listening to Rena and her little bear fairy talk for a moment about another Sentinel in the making. Whatever's going on, he hopes they can work it out. "If I can help you with that, I will, if I'm able to."
He sighs. "Yeah, I'm aware of Utau's connections to Easter. It's..." He thinks. "OK. So. Within some child somewhere, and we think here in Tokyo, there is a special heart's egg. Heart's eggs are the hopes and dreams of children, their Big Dream that can change the world, as I've heard it described. If they can achieve that dream, they can do amazing things."
"But there's one kid somewhere with a dream that might not just change the world, it might change the course of the entire planet forever. That's the Embryo. Easter knows about the Embryo, and they're trying to either find it or make it, one, using the power of X-Eggs, abandoned dreams."
He looks at the two of them. "I know about Ikuto, her brother, too. She and I talked about this a lot. The problem is that she only sees the one way to help him - using her powers to spawn X-Eggs, stealing them, being a brat, following her naughty nature in Iru, one of her Guardian Charas - and I think she should leave them and we should try to find a way to break Ikuto out. But then there's the fact that without Easter's help she might never have become an idol, and the fact that my idea might end up with Ikuto hurting more..."
He reaches up with one hand, rubbing his head. "And then there's me and Utau and the whole thing with her being mad at me because.. well." He stops there, going quite red. There may be more along that line he doesn't want to mention. "Honestly, if you want to help her, I appreciate it, but it's a whole great big thing and she and I see it from different angles. Not entirely against one another though. We both agree Easter is a big pile of buttheads."
"It was?" Chloe says quietly, but with quite a bit of surprise in her voice. "Well, I'm not telling her. The last time I mentioned anything about magical girls, she spazzed out for three days straight before going to a convention. Only to pass out sleeping on the way there." She then chuckles. "better to hold off. and I think that one's keeping hidden."
She then looks to Kukai. "Well.....Whenever you want help, let me know, I'll help you out." She then lets out a breath.
Rena Sakai frowns, "I think this might be a little different though, Kukai. She wants to get him free. She wants it bad enough to actually ask for help. Judging by my encounters with her, That takes a miracle. If this, Ikuto-san is being manipulated and used in the same way as Utau-chan, then, I think maybe dealing with the big problem might be the better solution? Maybe make a way to get them both out of Easter's hands?"
She sighs softly before turning to look in the direction that Cathy ran off. "She's going to get her wish at least. Thats good, I guess." She thinks a few moments. "I'm worried about Cathy. I've not heard anything of craft in a while. He's gotta be up to something. I think he is working with Eclipse."
Kukai nods to Chloe and smiles. "Well, if it comes up, I'd appreciate it. Thank you." He looks back over to Rena. "Huh. I wish she'd asked me, but ok. The thing is, we haven't seen Ikuto doing much bad stuff as far as I know. He'll come out, play with her, they'll pull some X-Eggs out, and then afterwards Utau scoops them up with that scythe-wielding bodyguard of hers. If we can get them both out, that'd be a great help."
He hmms, looking at Chloe and Rena. "Craft? Somebody you need to deal with?"
"Utau probably doesn't want to risk losing your friendship, or put you in danger over something like this." Chloe says to Kukai as she looks to Rena. "I have a bit of experience in what she's going through. The abuse part, that is. it's part of the reason why I'm in Japan, and not still in the states. They're using her as much as they possibly can, and when she's no longer useful to them, Ikuto's going to get hurt anyways, as well as her." She then looks directly to Kukai. "She's only delaying the inevitable."
Rena looks to Kukai and frowns, "I was thinking maybe getting some people together and cooking up some sorta of plan go get in and out. I dunno though. I am definitely feeling out of my league right now. I don't hardly know anyone. I'm still a rookie at all of this. At best I can get people together, explain the situation." She frowns. She's definitely doubting herself a bit here. Her attention shifts quickly to the other issue.
"Craft is... Well he's from the Planet Gearwork." Rena begins. "He belongs to a Corperation called Red Tree. Red Tree is bad. I'm talking as bad if not worse then Easter." She sighs and begins. "Gearwork is where the Steam Sentinels originated. They were common people who wouldn't give in and become another cog in the machine. They were true to themselves. The fairies there created watches that drew out the magic within these people. They became the Steam Sentinels. The Red Tree Corperation swept over the planet, taking over and turning it into one planet sized factory that strips all resources from the world. The Sentinels were captured and pretty much forced into working for Red Tree."
Rena frowns and looks over at Dabble for a moment. She is definitely sad over the story. "The fairies there escaped with watches. Dabble is one of the fairies. They set out to find more Sentinels who can stand against Red Tree. Dabble came to Earth and Craft Followed her. Craft is one of Red Tree's laymen. He's one of their lieutenants. He wants Dabble captured, me dead or enslaved, and every other fairy taken out and he will do whatever it takes to make that happen."
Kukai nods a little, then shrugs. "I... dunno, Chloe. I think she's tried to stab me a time or two. But that might be for other reasons." He frowns, not sure how to respond to Chloe's woes. "I'm sorry. It sounds awful." He nods, though, at the second part. "Yeah. They're going to drain everything they can from her and then toss her away when they're done. We gotta stop them before then."
Kukai nods. "I've had half a dozen other little disasters pop up that all needed my attention at once, but yeah, I want to get some people together and do something. I just don't know what. The problem lies with getting Ikuto out from under their control."
Rena begins talking about Craft and Kukai listens, walking along with her. It's so amazing, all the things... "So, wait. If they're stripping everything valuable from the planet, how do people live? How do they eat and drink and survive day to day? Are they wanting the planet to turn into a lifeless dustball?"
He winces. "So... you're going to be fighting against people with your own skills but... better? Different? From another world? That's awful and scary, too. Have any of them made it over with Craft yet?"
"Redtree? if they're that bad, why doncha cut 'em down?" Cathy makes a dramatic reappearance and a rather silly quip when she has no idea what's going on. "And who's this craft guy?"
Chloe looks ready to respond when she hears Cathy and she smacks her forehead. The most she can do is look to Kukai and shrugs. "Something tells me you can't do A without doing B too, Kukai....All hands on deck and all."
Rena winces. Dammit. She didn't want Cathy to know about this yet. She didn't want a lot of things but crap. "Ummm... Cathy, things are a little more difficult then that. I promise, I will explain everything to you about it. Just not right now okay?" She sighs and looks to her friends, "Anyway, Things are going to be nasty. We gotta do something right?"
Kukai Souma nods. "We gotta do what we can to help one another. And the goal has always been to help Ikuto if I can and thus help Utau."
He laughs a bit. "Things are always sort of crazy, but we always do our best to help one another." He hoists the copper pipes again. "Which apparently includes these things."
Chloe looks to Cathy. "Cathy. You can't help, and you weren't really supposed to hear that. You know that Utau girl we ran into the other day?"
Cathy says "Mmhmm!" She looks ready to burst again.
"Okay. We're trying to help her with something, but it's incredibly dangerous....SO dangerous that even people that KNOW of this could get hurt." CHloe Says.
"Ooooooh right, so I'm to be like Sgt. Schultz!" Cathy squeaks.
"Bingo. And you don't talk to anyone about it except us three......not even if anyone else is around, okay!?" Chloe seems to know Cathy's caught on.
"I KNOW NUZ-ZINK!" Cathy says in a full attention pose.
"She gets it." Chloe says with a laugh.
Rena Sakai turns her attention to Kukai and frowns, "Utau-chan seems to think there is some sort of frequency at work that is causing issues Ikuto. A friend of mine is pretty good at making machines and stuff." She looks at Dabble for a moment to tip off Kukai. "I'm getting these supplies for them so they can try making something that can detect if that is the case. It's no guarantee though. The better choice is to find someone who is actually more 'local' and better equipped to handled this." She frowns a little.
Kukai blinks. "Sgt. who?" He nods, at least, then turns on the charm, giving Cathy a wide, happy smile. "Thanks. It's really important that we keep this secret, OK?"
He looks back to Rena, then nods, getting the idea about Dabble. "I don't really know anybody local who isn't already busy with their own problems, like building a house. So if you can get your friend to do this, it would be a big help."
Chloe gestures to Cathy's quote. "Sgt. Schultz. From a TV show we used to watch re-runs of called Hogans Heroes. Actual quote." Cathy is grinning her head off that Chloe remembered. "She's good at keeping secrets, Kukai."
Rena Sakai sighs softly. "Utau believes that few people are going to help her. She specifically named a The Guardians. I've heard a little of them but I don't know much about anything. I am going to talk to some of the people I know to see if we can figure things out a little more."