Ouroboros

TXT From Ami-chan: Hey, are you busy?
TXT From Takashi-kun: A little. Project. Can put it down in a moment, though.
TXT From Ami-chan: Oh, well I don't want to interrupt anything you're working.
TXT From Ami-chan: But I was hoping we could have another picnic up at Mount Takeo.
TXT From Takashi-kun: I can meet you after I finish up here. But that sounds good.
TXT From Ami-chan: Maybe for dinner? Or I guess it could be after sunset if you prefer. I can just go as Mercury to avoid worrying over the cold. Midnight Starlight?
TXT From Takashi-kun: Midnight starlight sounds wonderful, if you'd like. But I can make time at dinner if that's more convinent for you.
TXT From Ami-chan: Midnight's fine. I've got some homework I should finish up anyways. I'll just wear a short skirt and a sailor shirt. Good luck with your project.
TXT From Takashi-kun: Mount Takeo at midnight it is. Thanks. Looking forward to it!

Mount Takeo is not actually a small mountain. Still, there's likely no doubt in Takashi's mind as to where specifically Ami meant when she suggested it as a place to meet. After all, they've spent hours up here together on two very important occasions, and the vantage point Sailor Mercury chose for their first visit is stunningly beautiful.

Several miles out of Tokyo, the high overlook provides a commanding view of the twinkling perpetual twilight of the city below. Easter Tower is plainly visible from this distance, as are several other notable landmarks. Most of the city's many districts can still be made out distinctly.

But this spot is far enough away that the city's ambient glow--while present--is dim enough that the stars overhead can be seen shining brightly.

With her ability to open hyperdimensional tunnels through subspace, Ami makes her way to the overlook well ahead of Takashi, and begins setting up the picnic. Transformed into Sailor Mercury, the chill night weather doesn't bother her at all. She's spread out a large, fluffy blue blanket on the ground, and there's a wicker basket in the middle. Mercury hasn't removed her boots--something Ami probably would do if she weren't in Henshin--but she has taken a seat on the edge of the blanket.

There's a telescope in front of Sailor Mercury--just a simple little thing that probably only cost a few thousand yen. She's busy staring through it, curiously observing the sky while she waits for Takashi to show.

Mount Takeo is far away enough from Tokyo to require some form of transport to be convinent - and the ones Takashi would normally use are... somewhat out of question at this point. Meeting with Ami made henshining into Riventon and taking any of his usual options unwelcome - no Dusk Zone jumps, or Eclipse cars or helicopters. That left one option besides renting a cab.

And that's why he made his way from Downtown Mitakihara to well out of Tokyo in a series of athletically impossible jumps, a silver-and-blue streak jumping from rooftop to field to tall tree to, eventually, nountaintop. It still takes him longer as Frost Knight Iceni than it does for Sailor Mercury to make a subspace jump, but he still arrives just before midnight, a small bag on his back. 'Is it possible to be out of practice with a henshin?' Takashi has to wonder. Something about being Frost Knight just feels a little bit more alien, more different than he remembers.

"Hey! I'm so glad you wanted to meet tonight. I probably needed to get out anyways." he says. He sounds so chipper, which is odd to himself too. He doesn't remember to unhenshin until sometime after Ami turns around, leaving him in a blue longsleeve button down shirt and black jeans, black socks, and polished black shoes. "I brought some snacks, too."

Mercury looks up from the telescope--and bumps it away from whatever she was looking at, clumsily. "Ack!" she says, then frowns and peers through it again. "Oh, bother, I've lost focus," she says, then sighs and turns to regard him. For a moment she says nothing, but then she blushes and looks away again.

"Taka," she says softly, then sneaks a look at him again. "I brought ... sandwiches. Juice boxes. Nothing fancy, but I thought it would be good to make sure you're actually eating something. I know what it's like to get deep in a project and forget ... oh bother. Um. Do you want to join me?" she asks, patting the blanket. "What did you bring?"

Takashi smiles and doesn't, for once, make any action or effort to make her anymore embarassed than usual. He just kinda takes her in - Ami, Sailor Mercury, the very pretty girl alone with him on that mountain - and finally snaps out of it long enough to realize she asked a question, play it back in his head so he can answer it.

He shrugs the bag off his back. "Tako from the stand by the ocean." he says with a small smile. "Well, I didn't come all of this way up the mountain to not join you!" he adds, and pretty much directly finds himself the spot she just patted.

"It's nice to have someone thinking about me... worrying about me eating something." He doesn't say the 'again' in his mind. "And you called yourself a bad girlfriend!" Yeah, teasing was going to happen eventually.

Mercury grimaces just faintly at Takashi's response, and looks away. Maybe he'll mistake it for blushing. Probably it's obvious that something he's said has made her feel guilty. She looks away and back towards Tokyo, then hangs her head just a little. "That was a good idea," she notes thoughtfully. "Probably better than the sandwiches I made. Wish I'd thought of it," she admits. Just one more reason he's smarter than her?

Okay maybe she's being a little melodramatic about that.

"So what's the project you're working on?" Mercury asks curiously, turning to look back at Takashi again. "It must be very important. Is it related to why you had to come to Seishou the other day?"

Takashi mistakes it for blushing or any number of Ami's other tics when he says that word, or words in the same family, though there's a little bit of obvious guilt. "Come on, quit worrying about things like that." he says, in regards to concerns about the sandwhiches and thinking about things. It's easy for him to connect that to just what he said a moment ago. "If I say you're doing fine I won't brook argument from anyone else, including you." He says firmly.

"I don't know why they wanted me to deliver that letter - not sure why it was important enough to send a student across the Wards or anything. For all I know it could've been a job offer, or a love letter, or an extremly well-drafted insult." he says, only having a small smirk at the last bit.

Oh. Right. The project. 'I'm working on improved shells to build dark magical girls from' is the truth, but this is not a good time for the truth. Not about /that/ anyways. And he actually didn't have a cover story for this one... so he comes up with one quickly. "I caught a flash of an energy distortion..." he struggles for a moment, but he sees the telescope and jumps on that. "Something in space. Just a moment of it, so there's not a whole LOT of data, but there's maybe something there. I don't know." he says, a bit hastily.

"Really?" Ami asks, eyebrows raised high at his cover story. She stares at him for a long moment, blinks, then asks, "Would you be willing to give me the notes on what you've got? Maybe I can cross-reference them against some readings taken from the moon, and see if there's a correlation. Maybe you found something interesting!" Like a meteor doomed to crash into the planet once the Xenian Flowers have eaten it from the inside out. That'd be convenient, if he just found it. Right?

No.

Then Ami flails and clears her throat. "Sorry, we should eat," she says. "The takoyaki won't stay hot forever, and it's better warm." But she's reaching into the basket she brought to pull out juice boxes. Yes, little juice boxes filled with such exotic flavors as fruit punch, blood orange, lychee, and blueberry. Taking the blueberry for herself, she offers the rest for his selection amusedly. "I shoulda just brought Coke," she admits. "I wasn't really thinking when I put this together."

Takashi's eyes only snap away from Ami's for a moment, before he counteracts. It's fast enough that it looks more like trying to talk down something someone seems interested in rather than the outright refusal to make eye contact a lie might indicate. "Well, I'm not really sure it means anything yet. It's small enough to just be an anomaly in the data. And nothing's really lining up the way I'd expect."

"But if it turns out to be anything worthwhile, I'll show you my readings if you show me yours." he says. Worst case he can make something up. Maybe there's something up there he'll find, too, if he looks. Ami seems to think there might be, if she wants to cross reference them with something else.

Takashi then nods and shrugs as she changes the subject, bringing out the Takoyaki. "I got there just about when they were closing, but an extra tip convinced them to make my order the last one." he says with a wink. Then he reaches forwards and grabs the blood orange juicebox since his first choice was taken by his date.

"Coke would've been fine but so is this." he says, looking up at her, maybe looking a little too long before he comments. "Hey, I know you better than that. You were thinking - just maybe not about the picnic packing. So what's on your mind? Must be at least a little important if it distracted you from a date with me." The last part is said with a style of grin that makes it hard to tell if Takashi is intentionally messing with her or if he really thinks he's that interesting.

Here, Sailor Mercury blushes again, but she reaches up to accept a takoyaki from Takashi without saying anything else. She nibbles on one of the greasy, still piping hot balls for a moment, then frowns and pokes at the second one thougthfully rather than stuffing her face like she normally might.

There are a few more moments of silence, then she admits, "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately." As if that's a surprise to him. She frowns at this realization, then lowers her gaze, "I accidentally gave one of the chocolates you gave me to a friend," she tells him softly. "A girl who hasn't got any magic."

Here, she looks up at him, eyes a little uncertain, watching him for something. But what?

Takashi innately worries a little bit at the combination of 'doing a lot of thinking lately' and the way she's frowning and nudging the takoyaki. These are not actions of someone who's in a comfortable situation, and Takashi has been increasingly more and more concerned about Ami feeling less than comfortable around him.

When she continues, though, Takashi tilts his head, a bit confused. "You know, those were really for you specifically." he says, but manages to avoid sounding too stern or annoyed. Just a statement of a fact, bare and bold.

Then he thinks about it, combined with the secondary comment she made, and that gets a slow eyebrow raise, and more silence as Takashi thinks about what makes that explicitly relevant. "Well, I mean, unless you split the box with her she should be fine. A few chocolates should be well below the level for which I'd expect to see any major changes in anything, even for someone without resistances." he says. Then, there's a pause.

"Guess this is why I should've brought up what was in them when I gave them over... but I didn't expect you to share them." he says, quietly. Because Takashi totally gets the reason why Ami was annoyed about that and is in no way completly off base with that, right?

Right?

Whatever it was she was looking for from Takashi, it seems she doesn't find it. Mercury frowns just faintly, then looks back to her takoyaki. She eats the next little bite thoughtfully for a ew moments, then observes, "I think she's fine, but I'm no expert on dark energy." Oh sweet irony.

"Anyways," Ami deflects the conversation thoughtfully, "you really should have told me about them first. I know we've had this conversation, but you didn't reiterate it when you gave this second bactch to ef. It's very difficult to make informed decisions if I'm lacking the 'informed' part of the process."

Ami looks at him again, and here she falls silent for a few moments, yet again. She stares at him, then eventually asks, "Are you a member of Eclipse?"

Takashi catches that frown, but considers it differently. "If you'd like me to take a look and make sure I will." he says, quickly. He puts his hands in his lap and looks up. "I understand now you want to be told if I put any of that in stuff. I figured you'd know because they were the same chocolates as before but if you'd like to expressly tell you I will. For the record, there's no dark energy in this Takoyaki, or in any of the jewlery, or in anything else. Just the chocolates, and well, me. And in the unlikely event I decide it needs to go in anything else you'll know."

The chiding makes Takashi a little uncomfortable so he goes for the juice box - which is what he's drinking when Ami asks her major question. He makes a face, the juice goes down the wrong path, and he starts up a coughing fit. During the fit the first word, the first coherient thought, is 'TRAITOR! WHO'S A TRAITOR AND TOLD HER' but he manages to get control over there. He keeps up the coughing longer than strictly necessary to start thinking.

Takashi thinks at lightning speed, and considers. No sense in denying it outright, if she's asking she either has evidence or suspicion or information, and she's too smart to just hope she accepts it. Does she know he's Riventon? He suspects if she did there'd be no reason to not lie since he was about to get set upon by a horde of senshi and senshi-allies anyways.

Eventually he can't reasonably cough anymore without suspicion and he just tries to wriggle free. "I've done some work with them and helped out some people in Eclipse with some problems, yeah. My mother used to work for them, and they have the best labs in the world for the kind of work we do. But member's not the right term. Contractor, maybe."

Sub-contractor. Also, Executive. "A lot less lately." Until recently. "...sometimes it's nice to work around people who don't consider what I do a curse and want to punch or cleanse me for it." he says. "It's been mutually beneficial though. I'd never do anything that'd comprimise my ethics." If you could FIND something to comprimise Takashi's ethics... It obviously wouldn't be lying.

Ami shakes her head just faintly at his offer to take a look at Naru. No thank you, she can take care of it herself. As he begins listing all the things he's given her that don't have dark energy, however, a smirk that borders somewhere between amused and irritated crosses her lips, and she stares at him flatly until he desists the laundry list.

"Let's just go with 'don't put dark energy in things you intend to give me unless it is to save my life'," she asks quietly of him. "I don't want to take risks with it anymore."

Then she watches his expression as he works through his coughing fit regarding dark energy. She doesn't try to help him with the coughing, beyond reaching up to lay a gentle hand on his back, but she does wait through it patiently. When the fit passes, she puts her hand back in her lap, and listens to his explanation.

When some people listen, they are already busy figuring out what they want to say next; wondering how to respond to or rebutt whatever they are being told. When Ami listens, she merely absorbs the information and places it in her mind for storage and review.

It's not until Takashi is entirely through speaking that she even seems to be thinking about what to say, and then it takes her a few moments to process what he's said a second time before she blinks, slowly, and lets out a tired little breath.

"An ... ally," Mercury tries out the word, frowns--unsure if it's correct--and then decides she can't really find a better one, "of Sailor Mercury's also works for Eclipse. I've been in some of those laboratories, and I have no doubt that they are truly top notch. I was able to perform quite a bit of extensive research on a topic that turned out very useful. Working for Eclipse is not, in-and-of-itself, truly problematic."

Oh how heavy the 'but' lingers in the air as she looks at Takashi again and asks, "May I see the card?"

Takashi reads incorrectly into her comment - maybe he's a little sore or sensitive about his own nature, or maybe he's still concerned about what her friends are saying. Or maybe he knows the truth and is defensive about that. "Fine." he half-snaps, half-says, obviously a little perturbed.

"I just wanted to do something nice for you, but alright. I won't even give you any food that doesn't come from someone else. I wouldn't want to accidentally cause you to take a risk." He's only snapping a little.

Having divested himself from that conversation, though, it's onto the next prickly subject. Takashi wants a coke pretty bad right now, that's for sure. He quirks an eyebrow at her request, and perhaps still a little off balance, asks. "I suppose you'll want to check my cellphone, too?" he asks, a bit sarcastically. It's to mask his own concern. It's a lucky thing he started divesting Takashi-The-Person from Riventon-the-Person around when he started dating Madoka - around when he first became Frost Knight. The number of people who know both people are the same is small now. Though one of them is that 'ally' of Sailor Mercury's.

He pulls it out from nowhere - not from a pocket or from a wallet. It'd make a pretty good magic trick. It's a black card, metal and not plastic, with the circular Eclipse logo imprinted on it in silver. There's not a name or information to be found on it. It's an access badge, not an ID card.

"This is what I use if I need to get into a building or something." he says, holding it between two fingers, but not yet handing it over. "Two caveats - one, there's definantly Dark Energy in this thing. Two, I can't let you hold onto it for very long, you understand." he says before tipping his fingers forward and offering it to her for inspection.

"I really wouldn't have the clout I do without my mother." And his father. "She used to be their top researcher, and a lot of the reason Eclipse is so competant at understanding energies. Some of her notes are still there, too."

Takashi's growing churlishness doesn't seem to be impressing Sailor Mercury. She leans away from him just a little, but doesn't comment on it. She just gives him plenty of space, then watches as he slowly comes undone.

When the card is produced, her eyes are immediately drawn to it. Reaching up to touch her earings, she draws out the Mercury visor, and lets it scan the device's energy signatures quickly. "Thank you for telling me it has Dark Energy," she says to Takashi as she studies the thing briefly, then banishes the goggles once again. She doesn't reach out to take the card from him. Once she's done her observation, she merely nods, then says, "And thank you for showing me the card."

Then she looks up to meet his gaze, then takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Takashi," she murmurs, "there is a lot about you I don't know or understand, and the deeper I dig, the more complicated and--frankly--uncomfortable your story gets. I have no room to judge you for who or what you are; your life choices are yours to make, and I have no intention of telling you whether they are right or they are wrong.

"However," oh, here comes that big 'but' she left off earlier, "I do have to think about how your choices will reflect upon me, as your girlfriend." Here, she hesitates, eyes crinkling just a little, before she admits, "And further, I have come to some conclusions recently which lead me to believe I have unfairly taken advantage of you."

Sailor Mercury sits up straight, suddenly, and says, "I like you. You know this, I hope, by now. I enjoy especially comparing notes with you, the way you make me feel, the fact that you think to bring me gifts that are not merely attractive, but also practical or useful in some way ..." she trails off, then loses some of her resolve and looks away, unable to meet his gaze as she explains, "but I am not motivated by your happiness; only my own. Part of why I don't know what to do in return for you doing all these things for me is that I have allowed myself to be indulged by your flattery and your gifts, without spending any time reciprocating.

"Worse, when clear of mind and given time to deliberate, I'm not even sure I want to reciprocate those things. It's not that I don't want you to be happy, it's that I don't want to be responsible for your happiness. And more, I don't want to risk tarnishing my own reputation or mental state to achieve your happiness. The other Senshi, and my friends, view me as reliable, trustworthy, cautious, and prepared. I don't make rash decisions, I don't make poor decisions, and I don't make decisions at all unless I have fully thought them through.

"The fact that I gave one of your chocolates to Naru may not have harmed Naru overmuch," Mercury explains quietly. "But it has placed massive doubt in the minds of my closest friends as to whether I am as trustworthy as they once believed."

Here, she looks back up to Takashi, then grimaces and looks away again. "This is really hard for me," she explains to him, "telling you all of this. I don't want to upset you. But I don't ..." she trails off, unsure of how to continue.

Takashi flicks his hand and the card vanishes back to wherever it came from, and he's quiet for a moment. Contemplating, or controlling himself - both seem equally likely. Nope. This is one of many conversations in recent times that he has been unhappy with the direction of... you'd think he'd be getting used to this by now.

Takashi tries to redirect some of the comments after she's made them. "You haven't unfairly taken advantage of me, Ami. Trust me, I know what that feels like." Or at least he thinks he does. "It's not like I've gotten nothing out of the time I've spent with you, it's not like I've been entirely unselfish myself. The fact that seeing you happy makes me happy - that doesn't mean I'm not trying to watch your reactions because of the effect they have on me."

"I've never asked you to spend time reciprocating - " but that line of thought is cut short by Ami's own words continuing. There's a long pause. When he actually responds to the rest of her talk, it's not loud, it's not boisterous, it's not offended or snappy. "So you're really going to go this route and judge everything about us - about the relationship we've had - on the basis of one mistake?" he asks, quietly. "People make mistakes. Even you. Even me. I'm sure you went looking to fix it, and I did once I heard of it." Though the things he's wondering are mistakes are boiling up rather quickly in the back of his head.

"The way to attone for a mistake isn't by rushing to make what might be a bigger one... it's by what you do afterwords. You'll never avoid making any mistakes at all..." he says, looking up, and almost oddly calm. Oddly serene, in fact, especially for Takashi.

"Yes, my story is complicated. And sometimes difficult. But I thought maybe it had a chance of becoming less so." he says, almost looking through her. "Are you about to prove me wrong when you finish this, when you say whatever you don't want to upset me with?"

Sailor Mercury continues to refuse to meet his gaze, as Takashi responds. She grimaces, as each of his words remind her that this decision isn't an easy one to make--present tense, because she still hasn't fully even made it, if she's being honest with herself.

Shifting position on the blanket, Ami looks anywhere but at Takashi as he speaks of mistakes and what to do with them. Eventually she closes her eyes ... and something happens, then. She straightens once more, and stills, and calms as he speaks of a complicated story. Somewhere, she finds some hidden reserve of strength. Perhaps it's the words he chose, perhaps it's the removal of one of her senses. Whatever it is, when Ami turns towards Takashi and opens her eyes, she is calm and collected like he hasn't seen her since their early chess matches.

"Takashi," she tells him, voice laced with sympathy, but also confidence, "your story is complicated, and I do want to help you untangle it. That hasn't, and won't, change. What has changed, however, is my willingness to risk my judgement to your unintentional dark influence. I am very aware that you wish nothing but the best for me; I believe in you, and trust that your objectives and mine are not that disparate from one another."

There's that but again. At least this time she doesn't let it linger: "But you are having an influence on my judgement, and not a positive one. I want to be your girlfriend," she points out. "At least for selfish reasons, I want that. But even more than I want to be your girlfriend, I want to be regarded as wise, knowledgeable, level-headed, and a good decision-maker. Right now, these two desires are in conflict with one another. I cannot have both. So instead, I will make you an offer. You are free to see other people; date whomever you wish. I will ... probably not, but I reserve that privilege if I desire it. I will remain your friend, and hopefully your close ally. And I will make freeing you of this darkness that you were born with one of my highest priorities. And if, when you are free of evils that you did not choose for yourself, we are both still single ... then, I will resume this relationship with you, and hope that it works out better than it is right now. And by then, I will make certain I know how to be a good girlfriend, so that I can give to you as good as you have given to me."

Takashi listens. Takashi actually holds himself visually together for a long time, though he might be suspiciously still, his breath suspiciously measured, his eyes looking but not really seeing. Of course, he's -hearing- and that's what matters here, isn't it?

And when Takashi moves, when noise comes out of his mouth, it's probably not the expected result. It's laughter. It starts as almost a giggle but rapidly proceeds to full mouthed laughter. Once that stops, though, Takashi smiles and tilts his head, leaning in closer. "So we can continue to have a relationship, if, and only if, I abandon myself and everything I've ever been?" he says, head tilting a bit more, the angle somewhat extreme and ridiculous.

"Because your friends - who all hate me anyways - will think that sometimes you make mistakes and sometimes you let my very bad influence corrupt your otherwise perfect decision making. So all I have to do is become powerless, weak..." he says the word weak with a special form of vitriol that most people would only reserve when talking about convicted war criminals "and then we'll be able to try again?"

"I have tried... so very hard, for you." he says, leaning back on his hands and looking up at the night sky. "I haven't been perfect. But I've been what I would think is in your estimation better. I've put up with people I've disliked. I've buried hatchets on rivalries. I've committed myself to work with people who I can see are judging me and hating me behind my back all because they were important to you."

"How would you feel if these positions were reversed and I told you that you had to rid yourself of your positive energy and the way you prioritize your friends, in order for us to continue on?" Takashi is certainly not in any way crying, someone must be cutting onions on this mountaintop.

"I think he was right. I can't pretend to be part of both worlds." Takashi says, without really giving context. "I could've been working instead of walking you home or going on dates or trying to make nice with people. Could've been solving the mysteries of the whole universe."

He looks down at the little charm-shaped halberd in his hand, and grips it. "That's what I get for not paying attention, you know? For trying to do things a different way. Turns out it was always true - the only way to change your story isn't working hard, it isn't finding any of those nice things - happiness, friendship... love... that doesn't change anything. It's just dragged out the inevitable so it hurts more."

There's a burst of cold wintry air and as Takashi stands up, the halberd is full size, ice-forged blade gleaming in the moonlight. "The only thing that can change anything is strength and power. And this isn't it." he says, and then angrily slams Eiszapfen into the ground, so much barely contained rage and dark strength in the thrust that the weapon ends up with 3/4 of the haft in the mountain. The area around the two of them starts to chill and freeze even in spring. When Takashi removes his hand from the haft, there's a momentary handprint of dark energy that smokes off into the air.

"You can do whatever you want with that device. I don't think I'll be needing it anymore. Take it apart, leave it here, do whatever. You know how to reach me if you want to..."There's a loud sigh and his hands are in fists. He turns on his heel. "You know one of the most important things, if you've got Dark Energy? It's to not let despair, sadness, and misery consume you. You have to channel it some other way so it doesn't eat you up."

"I want to be your boyfriend." Takashi says as he's turned away from her, the magical winter wind swirling around him now. "I want to care for you, I want to make you happy, to see you smile. I think it's one of the things I want the most in this entire world. So if you figure out a way that can work without asking me to change who I am - without making me lose the gifts that have allowed me to survive, let me know. Or if you decide to change yourself, let me know. I already went a long distance changing who I am and trying to be better for you, and that apparently didn't do me a damn bit of good, in the end."

And then the mountaintop is suddenly blasted by a choking surge of Dark Energy that emits from Takashi and mixes with the snowy winds. Something he'd been holding back for so long, becoming a snowdrift miasma. The surge of energy stops just before it'd reach Sailor Mercury, somehow maintaining control enough for that, and then Takashi - if he's even still Takashi - vacates the mountain as a surging comet of black energy that seems so dark it seems to suck the light from the sky around it as it heads back towards Tokyo.

The laughter catches Ami by surprise, but she doesn't respond to it straight away. Some part of her wonders whether he's heard her; or whether he's decided to ignore her. A tiny part of her wonders whether he's gone mad. When it stops, his response becomes far more the expected.

As before, though, Ami doesn't interrupt Takashi while he speaks. She doesn't look for rebuttals or responses. She simply listens, unmoved by his slowly building tirade.

When he suggests that she's asked him to become weak, she almost responds; but then she gets the better of herself and holds onto the thought, waiting as he continues to explain how very hard he has tried for her. And he's not wrong: she's been proud of how well he's comported himself near her friends; proud of how well he's gotten along with Mamoru despite the fight they had that night at Easter Tower. Have they judged him too harshly? Perhaps so; Ami certainly thought so.

But the idea of reversing the roles seems to be repugnant to her. She can't not react to the idea of 'giving up' positive energy. Unless he just means magic in general. Become mundane for him? Something normal? That's an idea worth thought and merit.

But Takashi has more to say, so the idea gets filed away for later consideration. When he stands and draws Eiszapfen, the initial gust of cold sends Ami's hair flowing around her. The Senshi of Water stares up at Takashi, unmoved and unmoving, as he continues his speech.

As the blade slams into the ground, a gust of arctic wind threatens to sweep Ami backwards. But she is not a mortal girl, and she wore this outfit knowing that this was the likely outcome of their discussion. Eiszapfen's power pushes her back, but Sailor Mercury stays her ground against the sudden rush of frost.

Still, she doesn't stand; doesn't make any moves to provoke him further. Because he wants to be her boyfriend; he says the words, and she believes him: trusts him, even now in his justified and expected wrath. The wind whips her bows and her skirt around her, but Sailor Mercury remains unconcerned, still believing that he will not hurt her.

She trusts him still as the final blast of dark energy chokes the mountaintop, engulfing everything around her. And yet, the blast of energy surges and swells, but it flows around her; it doesn't affect her. And that, more than anything, confirms Mercury's beliefs and convictions. This was the right decision.

As Takashi streaks away on a comet of darkness, Mercury watches him go. She waits until the corona of his energy no longer swells around her, and only then does Sailor Mercury finally rise from the blanket she shared with him.

She watches, then takes a breath and turns to put her hand on Eiszapfen, gently touching the device where his dark energy still sears at it, slowly receding. The device practically hums as Sailor Mercury lays her hand on it--perhaps sensing her intent, or perhaps judging her as its new owner.

"I could learn to love you, Takashi Agera," Ami says to the air around her. "I might even give up being Mercury for you. But I cannot abandon my conviction that Good must triumph over Evil, and that the ends do not justify the means."

Where Takashi worked with brute, raw power, Ami uses finesse and care: sending her power down through Eiszapfen's haft, she freezes the ground around the blade, injecting little bits of crystaline water all through the soil, until the blade slides free with the soft tinkling of breaking frost.

Hefting the halberd over her shoulder, Sailor Mercury observes to the air, "I won't give up on you, even if you've given up on me. I will destroy the darkness that consumes your soul, and I will forgive you for the transgressions you make until I have done.

"Because, Takashi, there is one thing that you don't understand about power," Mercury continues in her soliloquy to the mountain air. "With great power comes great responsibility, and mine is clear, in this case. I am Sailor Mercury, Guardian of Wisdom and Knowledge. And even if you never repent your sins, I will wash them clean of you until all that is left is the pure, brilliant scientist beneath."

"This is my vow," Mercury says, a little louder now. "I will not fail you, Takashi Agera."

And then, casting blanket and basket both into the subspace pocket she keeps at hand, Mercury reaches up to activate her visor once more. Time to warn Virtue.