The primary living area of the apartments is under reconstruction, but apparently the boys filled out another one for the time being. Not precisely the same, and oriented in a different direction. But close enough.
And a certain clock is still ticking in its niche, protected from the damage last month did.
By the time Ami arrives, the place is ready for visitors. In the usual fashion, drinks are set out, and a plate of the everpresent baked goods -- part Naru's spicy cookies, part date-filled shortbread confections flavored with orange blossom water, and a handful (that must have been carefully and closely guarded) from the last batch of Makoto's.
Whether that last is intended to send a message or not is left perhaps purposefully unclear.
Kunzite's -- Kazuo's -- hair has been regrowing at speed; it's longer now than Takashi's. There's a faint lingering discoloration of the skin on his left wrist, around where the comm Luna gave him sits. Apart from that, he looks no different than ever. Jeans. Rolled-up sleeves. The apartment's still comfortably cool, lower in temperature than most air conditioning gets set; his power's not actively making it that way now, but it'll take time for it to fade.
Zoisite is nowhere to be seen.
Since Mamoru's return, Ami has not used the front door to this apartment once. Today is, apparently, a day for firsts, however, because rather than teleporting into the kitchen-under-rennovation, she uses the elevator like a normal person.
Jean shorts and a light summer blouse, and strappy little sandals are her motif, with a charm bracelet on one wrist, and a simple wristwatch on the other.
When Kunzite opens the door, Ami bows briefly in greeting, then steps inside and takes a few moments to undo the strappy sandals so she can leave them by the door. She looks tired, and distant, and her expression seems disinterested in the day-to-day. But she at least offers Kunzite half of a fake smile as she steps away from her shoes. "Hello, Kunzite," she greets him shyly, then fidgets with her hands while she thinks. "How are you?"
"Still integral under various physical stresses." As if Ami were asking after a report on the myth-science experiment that is Kunzite's body, rather than making conversation or going through the motions of general etiquette or even actually wondering in a normal fashion. Who knows? It's not impossible that he's right. "Mamoru hasn't reported anything anomalous so far, either." Kunzite glances out the door to check for any felines following, then closes it at last to lead her in. "Yourself?"
Ami blinks at Kunzite's response, then manages a small smile despite herself as she follows him into the apartment. "I'm surviving," she replies, which is about as much of a non-answer as she can give, "despite a close encounter of the Zoisite kind." She says this last with an accusatory look, but then drops it almost immediately in favor of looking about the apartment curiously.
"Are you going to eventually rennovate all four?" Ami asks curiously. "Just one at a time, go through until you've turned the entire floor into a palacial penthouse?"
"We're already living in all four," Kunzite answers. "We started work on the place as soon as the Tsukino home was in good shape again. Current construction is mostly to deal with the recent damage and the issues it raised - neither carpet nor hardwood is a good choice for places where people are likely to bleed, for instance. I don't like all the consequences of the plan; I'll be talking to Nephrite about getting warning on risks to the building's other tenants, for instance. But it'll serve some useful purposes. Guest space, for instance. And whatever else might have called Mamoru here; I'm not convinced it was only the size."
He paces into the substitute living room, glances out the intact glass doors at the balcony. This one is also intact. "We all have purposes. Even the place."
"Mmmm," Ami replies quietly as she studies the room a few more moments, then shrugs just faintly and crosses her arms over her stomach in a closed posture. "Have you considered what will happen if a fight breaks out at the base of the tower? If everyone knows where he lives, wouldn't it be better for him to at least be at ground level so you don't have the whole building leveled beneath you?"
Then she shakes her head. "Sorry, Mamoru-kun's security isn't really my concern," she admits. "I've just been thinking a lot about these sorts of things, lately. Risks, balances, checks and rewards. Mm. Which ..." she trails off, then sighs, "Kyouko's penchant for unpredictability and destruction sortof feeds."
"Yes, I've considered it," Kunzite answers. "And no, it would not be better. If we were sited at the base of the tower, the tower would already have sustained significant structural damage. In certain senses, it would be best not to be located in a city at all - but then we couldn't do our jobs. Making certain that Endymion has what he needs is one of our highest priorities. Not the highest, no. But it still stands: he needs this place. So we need to consider the problems that makes for other people, and do what we can to minimize them. If Mamoru needs people around him - then we need to keep those people safe."
He gives a nod toward Ami at the sigh, before she even speaks Kyouko's name. "It's not a good resonance between the two of them," he says. "Particularly with Agera-san having involved himself with the witch drought. Competition for scarce resources that only one side needs to live ... does not produce the kindest of feelings on the other side."
There's a brief pause, then Ami's eyes narrow just faintly. She looks at Kunzite, then asks, "'Witch draught'?"
Lines show for a moment between Kunzite's eyebrows, as if she'd just had to doublecheck about the nature of the ceiling. "Hadn't you seen the lack of labyrinths?" he asks. "Almost none of them formed in the last -- two months? Three? Certainly since before we moved back in here. Agera-san caught Puella attention by way of appearing at one that did manifest before they could; and the incident I mentioned to you, encountering him over a youma - I found that one because the youma's signature resembled witchsign."
-
"I admit," Ami replies, "tracking Witch labyrinths hasn't been my priority." She frowns a littlel, then considers, "Does he have some sort of way to locate them? I know that with his device he can traverse the city nearly as fast as I do. Getting there isn't the problem; identifying it in advance is. Although it's entirely possible it just happened to be near his lab." Her expression shows how unlikely she finds that idea.
"Is this why Kyouko attacked his lab?" Ami asks curiously. "Does she think he has some way to find witches?"
"Whereas watching for them is part of keeping the people here safe." Kunzite inclines his head to Mercury, as if agreeing that she has other priorities, then circles around to pour a glass of water. He holds it out to her with a brief inquiring tilt of his head, as if asking silently whether she'd prefer something else.
"It's possible. His own powers. Technology. His construct of Kyubey, animated by a splinter of his own soul. Some combination. And that's likely why Kyouko went in, yes. She put it as reconnaissance rather than attack, and I haven't seen any gas line explosions on the news. But one way or another, she went in, and Agera-san caught her there. She wasn't as badly damaged as I'd have expected. But I don't know the specific reasons he was holding back."
Ami reaches up to accept the glass of water from Kunzite with a polite, "Thanks," then takes a sip before holding the glass in front of her. She finds a seat to settle at the edge of, as she thinks on the topic.
"I know why I think he held back," Ami says after a moment, "but I suspect it is an unpopular opinion, and probably idealistic of me. But if you'd like, I can find out the truth of it.
"He's not actually evil," Ami points out to Kunzite. "Killing people isn't a priority, and neither is hurting them. What he cares about--his sole motivation--is to gain enough power that nothing can oppose him. He wants to be able to take on villains like Beryl single handedly, because he doesn't trust anyone else except--possibly--me to actually be able to do so. He's wrong," Ami points out, "but his motivations are at least for the right reasons, yet twisted by the darkness you know all too well."
"I think," Kunzite says, and his tone as he seats himself at an angle to her that's convenient for conversation, "that we have a disagreement on the definition of evil. There is a point at which methods must be considered rather than ends alone. But I agree, certainly, that killing and hurting people are only sometimes his goals, that the end he believes he is seeking is admirable, and that he is not at present wholly lost."
He's quiet for a moment, glancing down at an empty glass and studying it closely. "I am," he says eventually, "familiar with the mindset that insists it's saving the world while taking actions toward destroying it. It's a difficult one to address."
"Evil actions do not make an evil person," Ami notes quietly. "Especially when that person is born with evil influence from the darkness they bear as burden. He isn't evil. But he absolutely does evil things, and I will oppose them. That's why I asked for ethical oversight of his projects. All of them. Someone has to tell him right from wrong; he wasn't born with that ability, innately, and even if he was, the darkness has disabused him of the ability to listen to it."
She sighs, then raises a hand, "Sorry, you don't need me to preach to you about him. I'm sorry. I'm just ... a little sore on this whole subject, I suppose. You are right: his actions are destructive, and whether or not he is himself evil, or is merely taking evil actions as a victim of some influencing force is a matter of philosophy and not fact. I should constrain myself to the latter. Is there anything else you wanted to tell me about Kyouko's 'reconnaissance'?"
"The darkness doesn't compel, Mercury," Kunzite says quietly, still regarding the glass. "It incites. It offers excuses. It warps perception. But it is not making his choices for him. Do not misunderstand me: I do believe that he can be reached, and I respect him tremendously for retaining as much of his ideals as he has. I could not have done the same. But the moment at which he decided he was entitled to risk lives for the sake of his pride, and did not care about the consequences..."
It's the same topic after all. Watching for labyrinths. Talking to the foreseer about the people put at risk by their presence. Drawing a line, silently, through the conversation: the difference between caring and acting on that caring, and - not.
Because when their powers are derived from state of mind and strength of heart, philosophy matters.
He shakes his head, then. "No. He threatened her, even if only implicitly. She chose not to accept a relatively quiet encounter as setting a new baseline, and intruded on what might as well be his home. He reacted. She's been cleaned of the residual dark energy, and should heal. The question is whether either or both of them is going to escalate again. You needed not to be blindsided by it if they do."
Ami sits back a littl ein the chair, listening to Kunzite's explanation of dark energy. She certainly doesn't have any room to lecture him on what it's like, and even in the worst throes of despair she's always interested in learning more. So she learns, from the closest thing to an expert on Takashi as she's got. And she files the information away for reanalysis later, when she's not already emotionally compromised. Or maybe when she has time to try and sift through what is emotion and what is not without forcing another to watch that process.
With the return to the subject at hand, Ami frowns just faintly, then nods her head. "That is the question," she agrees with him quietly. "If he does not escalate--if he lets it go without another consideration--will she leave him be? Or do you think it likely she will try to go back there and incite him further?"
Listening is important. Sometimes listening is even enough.
"That depends on what's already been said and done," Kunzite says. "If she believes herself under threat, she'll act. Especially with her sister living at home. The girl is wary, but not always in the right way or of the right people. And there are still limits on what either of them can do and survive. Agera's smart enough that Kyouko has to recognize the risk of simply being worn down."
"I see," Ami replies, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Alright. I'm going to talk to him about it. Defending himself from intruders is a reasonable response. If it ends at that, then I think it's the best we can hope for from him. I will encourage him to leave it alone. Can I tell him that you will be encouraging Kyouko to do the same?"
"Defending himself is reasonable, yes," Kunzite agrees. "I'm not sure that I can promise the other. He has a way with loopholes; I'm not about to offer her reassurances that might be mistaken enough to get her sister hurt."
"That's not fair to him," Ami points out gently. "And it leaves me with no incentive to ask him to leave this alone." She frowns a little, then says, "But I will anyways, even so. It's the right thing to do," she emphasizes. "And someone has to be the bigger person about this. I will encourage it to be him."
"Presuming that it's possible that he might continue to do things he's done in the recent past isn't fair?" Kunzite inquires. "In what way is acknowledging the possibility that he may continue to act like himself unfair? Denying the possibility that he might behave otherwise would be unfair, certainly. But the other is not."
He leans forward, pouring a second glass of water, taking it up himself. "If he set something in motion to harm Kyouko yesterday, he would see nothing amiss with promising today that he would do nothing to harm her; he would do nothing, it would already have been done. If you asked him instead to promise that he neither had nor would, but he knew that someone else present in his lab intended to, then he would see nothing wrong with omitting that information. He would not consider it lying. He would not consider it being unfair to you. He would be angry and hurt if you said, after finding out about it, that he should have informed you, or called such a thing back. He is not capable of gauging violations of the spirit of an agreement unless they injure him. I will do what I can to help. But in this particular instance, the one who has my sympathies for the moment is neither Takashi nor Kyouko."
"..." Ami stares at Kunzite in open disapproval and displeasure for several moments, then leans forward to set her glass on the coffee table. "I see that your opinion of me is lower than I thought it would be," she admits, "but I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised by that; I did, after all, foolishly trust you enough to let you nearly kill me. And I likely seem to be making the same mistakes with Takashi. Perhaps I am making them.
"But my intention was not to merely say 'please don't retaliate'. I will be far more thorough than that," Ami says. "And it is unfair to press him as hard as I will not to retaliate, whilst no one bothers to even ask Kyouko to leave him alone. That is called a double standard, Kunzite, and it's unfair. I absolutely think Kyouko should take steps to protect herself and her sister. I think she should be prepared for him to retaliate at a moment's notice, because he is volatile and he is untrustworthy."
She scowls, then says, "But I fail to see how it is fair to press him as I will, and not even ask her to avoid a preemptive move against him. She's the one who was in the wrong, here; she assaulted his home. Call it reconnaissance all you want, breaking and entering is still wrong. The onus should be on her to make recompense for that, but I'm not asking her to. All I'm asking is that you encourage her to avoid taking further proactive action against him without provocation."
"You're reacting to a situation that is not the one actually at hand," Kunzite replies. "This is not about my opinion of you. This is about our lack of information.
"We do not know whether either party has already delivered additional provocation. We do not know whether there are forces already in play. I am not willing to promise that I will encourage Kyouko to leave it alone, which is what you requested, specifically because that promise would bind me to do so even if further attacks have already been prepared or threats already delivered.
"I will do what I can to help. I am unwilling to promise specifics when we do not know how the field actually lies."
"That ... is ridiculous," Ami tells Kunzite flatly. "You are acting as a lawyer would, as if you need some protection from my or his wrath if she doesn't keep her word, or he doesn't keep his. Meanwhile, I am trying to act in good faith, as a human being and a concerned party; as a friend. Do you want them to escalate?"
There is a moment of silence. Then gray eyes come up to meet Mercury's, clear and cold.
"I would suggest," he says, "that when you are speculating on these matters, you also consider whether you are lacking information. When you collect data first, you are almost always accurate. When you make assumptions, you are increasingly less so as they compound."
"I am well aware that I have painfully little information to go on," Ami tells Kunzit eflatly. "What we are failing to agree on is whether I require sufficient information to ask Takashi to not to escalate a fight with Kyouko. But we're also going around in circles, at this point. My friend, and your friend, are having a fight. I want to deescalate that situation as fast as possible. I will talk to him. I have no means of talking to her, unless you introduce me to her. I don't have her phone number, if she even keeps a phone. Knowing how volatile he is, and how impulsive I have witnessed her being, I do not find myself with the luxury of time to find out whether one or the other has already put something in motion before asking them both to knock it off. If I take that time, I am relatively certain one or the other will' do something. Maybe they already have. If I actually talk to him now'' rather than waiting until I know the whole story, I have a chance to prevent him from taking action--maybe even to retract whatever actions he may have taken. If I wait, I have a high probability of this exploding. I would suggest," Ami tells Kunzite, "that when speculating on these matters, you weigh probabilities with what you do know, and reevaluate as more information comes in. Right now, I find it highly unlikely that they will both leave this alone, if not spoken to."
"I agree with your assessment," Kunzite says. His voice is clinical and even, and he does not fidget with the glass he holds. "I'll do what I can on Kyouko's side. I will not promise specifics of what that will be, but I'll keep you as well informed as I can of what progress I'm able to make, or of what I learn. If you need a contact method for her, I will provide it; I'm inclined not to recommend such a conversation, but you are hardly bound by my opinions."
Ami lets out a sigh of tension she didn't even realise she was holding. She closes her eyes just faintly, and then nods her head. For several moments she doesn't say anything else.
That the next words out of her mouth are, "I'm sorry," is probably telling of her emotional state. "You're not wrong: I am allowing my emotions to push me far too much, lately. Here, too," she observes, as she opens her eyes to look at him again. "I feel like ..." she trails off, then shakes her head. "Nevermind." Beat. "Nevermind," she repeats.
Gathering herself, she somehow manages to visibly compose her emotions and school her features to something more neutral, then says, "Thank you. That is all I can ask. I will do the same with Takashi, and I will similarly keep you apprised of what progress I make. And hopefully, when we have the whole puzzle between us, perhaps we can put it together and make peace."
Those first words were not ones that Kunzite expected to hear. She can't see his first blink. She can see, when she opens her eyes again, that his expression is only the lack of one again, rather than a mask of itself.
"It's neither you nor him, nor her for that matter, that makes me cautious of giving my word," he says quietly. "You know that when you're thinking straight, I suspect. I broke my oath once. Making a habit of taking my promises lightly, even in small things... I won't risk that again."
He glances down at her glass, then up at the girl. "And if I thought you were foolish, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I do think you think in straight lines and defined moves by default. That lets you see farther and analyze problems more deeply than anyone else; and you can switch to other methods of evaluating, where most people cannot. But you still have that preference, and sometimes it betrays you. That is not an insult, no more than it's an insult to Everest that its peak is still within the atmosphere. It happens. That's all."
"Mmm," Ami quietly replies, with a nod. "I'm still floundering in a sea of information, struggling to fill the shoes of a woman I once was and am not sure I can be again. But I will manage," she states firmly, "and I will fix the mistakes she made, as best I can. And I will make new ones all my own."
There's a moment of uncertainty, then she says, "Thank you for bringing this to me. And for talking through it with me. I should probably go now and try to talk to him. If either of them is to blow up, it's likely to be him." She blanches a little, then says, "If Makoto comes by ..." She doesn't finish the thought. Instead, she risese with a shake of her head. "Nevermind. I should get going."
"The wise thing to do with shoes that old is give them to a museum. But it's your choice." There's something almost a smile, briefly; then Kunzite rises as well, and says, "Thank you for answering."
He sees her to the door, if she bothers to use the door. And he does not ask about Makoto.
At the door, Ami pauses to strap on her sandals. She straightens, and then in a moment of impulsiveness she leans up on tiptoes to give him a brief hug.
"Someday," she says, "I will ask you for more information about what it's like to be a creature of darkness. Just as soon as I have the time," she promises. "I hope you will answer."
Then she turns to go.
This time she can see the blink. And then there are hands behind her shoulderblades, a brief pressure in return while still leaving her a weak point she can easily press through to escape.
"I'd appreciate a little advance notice when you do that," Kunzite says drily. "So that I can schedule the next day to accommodate the hangover."
He doesn't slow her.