Takashi had generally given Ami some time without his harassment or appearance after thier long stint together in Peru. But only some. With Exams out of the way, it was a good time for a little celebration. And he had some more serious concerns to discuss with her.
A few text messages to that regard and a suggestion to meet at the Tako Cafe and now Takashi is there, sitting at a table, occasionally patting out a short beat with his hands trying not to look too impatient - but he was here early enough to beat out the usually early Ami.
Ami has spent her time since finishing the tests mostly feeling sick to her stomach. Stress and frustration and uncertainty have been gnawing at the poor teen dramatically, and her friends have been busy.
Takashi's texts are met with a quick response to meet. Maybe he'll view that as a good sign; usually she'd hesitate. And in fact, he doesn't hvae to wait long at the Takoyaki place before Ami slides in through the door, dressed in a white sweater-dress over black tights and shoes.
Ami doesn't call out or wave to him; she just slips past the other customers to join Takashi at his table.
Takashi's already got drinks for the two of them and plenty (PLENTY) of Takoyaki, and he does wave to her a bit casually. He slides the coke over to her.
"So - firstly, it's good to see you, and congratulations." he says with a big smile. Even though results haven't been posted yet. Because Takashi's pretty sure he knows how both of them will do.
The bluenette eyes the takoyaki and drinks surprisedly--not that he paid for her to eat, but that he didn't ask what she wanted, first, and yet probably still got everything right. Ami slides into the seat across from him and looks over the food, then looks back to Takashi uncertainly. "Congratulations?" she asks. Because she has no idea.
"On the exam." Takashi says, before knocking his drink cup against hers. "On us doing exceptionally well!" There's that big grin. The mischevious one, not the dangerous one.
Unlike Ami, he's not tense at all. It's that ego. He means it as much as he could mean anything - he's sure he did exceptionally well.
"And I kinda wanted to bask in it a little bit before I start disussing magic and all that."
Ami starts just a little at the knocked cups, then smiles up at him nervously. "I'm sure I did well on the high school tests. Those were very easy. But the entrance exams for University ..." she trails off, then takes a deep breath. "Well, I guess we'll find out in about a month."
Ami shakes her head, trying to banish the worries. But they don't go away easily. "I'm probably not going to be good company for your basking," she notes. "I'm really not so sure I did well enough."
Takashi shakes his head. "Ami, I'm sure you did. In fact the only problem I forsee you having is convincing them that your perfect or near perfect score is not the result of a grading error or cheating. I was there with you when you spent all those hours studying, I don't think there's a way in this world you could do poorly."
"And in any case, not being excited about it does you no favors, and being excited about it is fun." he notes - a little bit of his outlook on himself on display as he bites into a fried takoball.
Ami takes a deep breath, then lets it out slowly. There are so many reasons she wants to argue with him, but it's not worth the fight. Neither of them really knows how well she did, and arguing over it is just going to stress her out even more.
Ami counts to ten quietly in her mind, and when she's done, she's notedly calmer. Opening her eyes again, she grabs one of the takoyaki and shoves it in her mouth. Omph! Soon it's gone, along with the bad energy. "Guess we'll see," she says quietly. "So why are we here, anyways? I mean, other than the possibly premature celebration." Nope, she can't commit.
Takashi lets it go too - but with a bit more of a 'really' expression at her 'possibly' - sure, neither of them can know, but probability is a thing, right? Or at least that's what he wants to say and doesn't as he eats his own bite of Takoyaki - though the bad energy obviously sticks around for him.
"I figured I'd get the good stuff up front since it's not all good. There's something you should be aware of, and possibly something I need to talk to your friend who used to have a dark energy body. I could sense the Dusk Zone on him and that means he might have some information to add."
"Something's going on in the Zone, something I haven't seen before, and I don't necessarily think it bodes well." And then he eats another bite.
Ami blinks a little in surprise a that news, then tilts her head. "Not exactly very specific," she notes quietly, but she finishes another takoyaki before giving a real response. When she does, it is a measured and thoughtful, "Hmmmm."
There's another pause, then she says, "I'll let hiim know you'd like to talk to him, but he's a bit busy lately. He might not have time right away." Still, things like that are worth studying. "Is now the right time to bring up that I still haven't been there, and was supposed to? I think I proved I can handle the darkness rather well in Peru, although obviously that's only a fraction of what's on the other side."
Takashi nods. "It crossed my mind. Something weird is going on in the Zone. And outside of it." he says, after a moment. "Someone decided it was a good idea to break into my system and yank some data. Some of my own research and all of Lacrima-san's studies on the flora and fauna of the Dusk Zone. Might be concidence but I'm worried it's not."
"So... I guess I have to start simple." Another drink. "You know how you get a big enough concentration of Dark Energy together and it starts to form youma right? Like, denovo. And they're dumb and vicious but they're not without some form of malevolent intelligence."
"Well, the Dusk Zone does the same thing. It's where youma that don't have a purpose start out."
"But now it's doing that on... a really grand scale." Takashi holds out his palm and there's an odd landscape, mountains and trees - sculpted out of motes of dark energy. And then something really titanic - as tall as the mountains - forms in his hand. "Pretty much like that. Big. I'm calling them Dusk Titans for now."
"T'kashi!" Ami hisses, as he starts casually using magic in the restaurant. Sure, most of them won't notice, and those that do will pass it off as a cool bit of tech, or something. But still she'd rather not have to worry about the one who doesn't just ignore it.
Ami glances around worriedly, before looking back to his example. She scowls a little, looks to Takashi's face, then sighs and looks back to his magical landscape. She watches the unfolding explanation quietly for the rest, then looks back up to him. "Alright," she says quietly, "that sounds dangerous. And I'm assuming you have notes on how one might go about making these Dusk Titans, which is why you're connecting them. Other than getting Kunzite's attention for you, how can I help?"
Takashi shakes his head as he lets the little landscape fade back into his hand - an unintentional reminder that dark energy is what courses through him as easily as water for a normal human. "Nope. Cause I don't think anyone is creating them. Not directly, anyways. The Dusk Zone is. The issue here is that Lacrima's been doing studies on the Zone, the intricate notes she's been taking about the place vanish, and then it starts doing something new? It's just suspicious."
"My notes were on... making friends. That's what they copied from me. Then tried to destroy with a virus." he scowls, clearly taking all of this as a personal insult. "I don't know which was the target and which was the bonus, and it might be an unrelated coincidence, but... I felt like given the concerns you expressed about the way I handled Orange I should clue you in explicitly here."
"Mmm," Ami replies quietly, around another mouthful of food. She frowns, but doesn't respond until she's finished chewing and swallowing.
Then, calmly, Ami observes, "Takashi, how you handled Orange was to think that you knew the answer, and then execute on your plan to 'fix the world' without running it by me first. Someone screwing with your stuff doesn't require my input."
The pause after that isn't long before she adds, "But if you want to know what I think you should do, it's not complicated. Forensic analysis of what they did should give you at least a profile of who might have done this to you. The list of people who know what might be on your computers is awfully slim. And the fact that you got lured away to information about your mother so that it could happen seems to add a few pointers in a specific direction. There's no magical police authority, no matter what Lindy and TSAB might think. So when you figure out who did it, you probably owe them a good thrashing. Just ... don't kill them, maim them, mind control them, or otherwise permanently harm them. Get them to promise not to do it again. And if they do it again, well ..." she trails off, then shrugs. "You warned them."
Takashi nods. "Oh believe me I am working on it. Someone thinks they're smart enough to get away with this, which can only mean they think they're smarter than me." He doesn't even quantify that with anything other than probably the single most offended look Ami has seen since Beryl made lewd actions with a milkshake straw.
"But that's not the concern. The issue is what's going on in the Dusk Zone. Related or not, big huge dark energy monsters is kind of a thing I feel like deserves some degree of attention. If my theories are right they're not just random occurance, they serve some sort of purpose, or will."
"Yes, but I'm completely blind to that issue," Ami points out gently to Takashi. "I've never been there. Even if you take me in there, I won't have a baseline to compare to. I'd need Lacrima's notes, and that assumes her notes are in a format I could convert." She shrugs just faintly, then says, "I appreciate you bringing it to me, but I don't know how I can help."
Takashi sighs, then frowns, then sighs again. "Well, you should still come. You've got access to things I don't, right? From the past? And you can look at it and maybe see what I don't." Takashi seems a bit exasperated between the inability to accept her greatness in the testing and in this. "I'm sure I'm better off with your help than without it."
"And I do want to speak to your friend. Whenever he has time. I don't THINK this is pressing. It doesn't FEEL pressing."
"Oh." Takashi exclaims, reaching into his pocket and passing Ami a flash drive. "It's a copy of the notes my mother kept. I'm still working to clear them but I think you'd mentioned wanting to help and maybe an offsite backup in your hands is also a good idea."
Ami reaches for the flash drive reverently. It doesn't get placed anywhere so mundane as a pocket; for a brief instant, Takashi is granted a glimpse into her mastery of subspace, as she simply opens a pocket and places the flashdrive within, before it closes. All without word, gesture, wave, or obvious thought process. "I'll take good care of it," she promises. "If you ever need a new copy, I won't lose it." After all, she's literally carried information through a reset of the entire universe, before.
"Anyways, I would be happy to give it a look," Ami says softly. "I need to go in there with you, anyways. That was part of the deal. You won't trust my judgement on your actions at all until I've seen what's on the other side. So let's do it. This weekend, even, if you can be ready that soon."
Takashi nods emphatically. "It's beautiful in a way. Like the way that 'persistence of memory' is beautiful. Still messed up at the same time."
"I'll do a last check on your gear and if it's all good a day trip there sounds good for this weekend. I'll pack a picnic." It's hard to tell if he's entirely serious about the picnic. His poker face here is quite good.
"Let's ... avoid the picnic," Ami notes amusedly to Takashi. "And also, given we found out my armor kinda acts like a beacon to the dark energy, if you can find a way to suppress that I'd appreciate it. I won't be able to learn much if Eiszapfen is having to work overtime to just keep me safe the whole time we're there." The little glaive charm dangling from her necklace makes a soft humming noise in response--challenging, perhaps, her assertion that it couldn't do the job and give her room to study. Ami remains dubious.
Takashi nods. "Trust me, I've prepared some pretty extreme precautions. You'll be better protected against the Dusk Zone than the astronauts were against space. The magic form of a self-sustaining ward. No dark energy, either." he says with a little bit of pride, then adds "I want you to know getting that to work was a pain."
"But I didn't want to risk exposure. There's a reason people can't just use it like a magical subway."
Ami reaches up to grasp Takashi's hand--initiating the contact briefly to squeeze it. "Thank you," she says quietly. "This may sound unnecessary from your world view, but I want you to know that I trust you," she tells him quietly.
"For all that we don't always agree on methods and approaches, and for all that we've both got our own demons to work through ... I trust you, Takashi. And I'm looking forward to this. I have been since our fight at the Charity Ball."
Here, Ami lets him go, then leans back to pick up another ball of takoyaki. "I will talk to Kunzite tonight," she explains, "and tell him both what we're planning, and what you've told me. I'm sure he'll get involved as much as he can." Then she sticks the treat in her mouth to enjoy the meal.
"It's not unncessary." Takashi responds when she takes his hand, fgirmly. "It's important than you trust me." He doesn't elaborate, and the rest of the discussion is had with the way his eyes regard her.
"Thank you. And I am looking forward to it. And... I want to thank you for coming to Peru with me. I know that it cost you a lot of study time and it was inconvinent and there was that point where I was a jerk for a little bit. But... it meant alot to me. It was about... my mother. So thank you."
Takashi stuffs a Takoyaki sphere into his mouth in an action that is totally not meant to push any feelings away.