Takashi Agera, along with his familiar, Ayana Moriko, have moved from their relatively small apartment into the set of dorms provided within UMBRA's brand new headquarters. Being that Takashi is the Director of this little venture, his dorm is larger than the others, and a definite upgrade from the apartment. And yet, he hasn't spent much time in, it - most of his time has been spent in one research laboratory or another, trying to make the most out of his recent discoveries, acquisitions, and information.
And all of this progress has meant that he has spent even less time with his familiar than before - largely leaving the rambunctious fox-girl to her own devices.
Tonight though, that's different - he's crawled out of the lab to make sure he can spend some time with her - and he's brought an item in his pocket. The fulfillment of a promise.
He opens the door to the dorm-apartment and leans his head in. "Ayana?"
Ayana has spent most of her days making trouble at one park, pool, or beach, hating the heat and hating stupid adult rules even more. Unfortunately this has gotten her kicked out or banned from half the places in Tokyo, and left her more than a little bored. At present, the fox-girl is layed out on Takashi's bed, arms spread-eagle with a fan blowing over her, and a popsickle in her mouth. She's wearing a pair of bike shorts and a sports bra as she tries to beat the heat. Aat the sound of her name being called, Ayana opens one eye, then sits full upright when she realizes it's, "TAKASHI!"
The half-dressed fox girl bounds out of bed, flying across the room to tackle Takashi in a sudden and likely unexpected hug. Her popsickle has been abandoned to the bedcover (that'll be gross).
Takashi grins, stepping into the room just in time to be tackle-hugged. He manages to catch her and do a little spin with her, before setting her back down. "I hear you've been a bit of a mess." he adds with a smile. "Some days I am not sure it's possible for you to leave the office without getting kicked out of somewhere."
He lets go of her, walking across the room. "I mean, if you're going to make trouble, you shouldn't be making it just for yourself. Plenty of people I can point you to that you should be focusing on making trouble for."
There's a pause. "I'm sorry I've been so busy, Ayana."
Ayana scowls and points out, "It's not /my/ fault they have stupid rules! No splashing, no cannonballs, no eating in the pool. Hmph." But then she drops the irritation to drag Takashi into the room, closing the door behind. "I tried to make dinner for you, but it sorta got messed up, so I bought some cheeseburgers instead." She lets him go and rushes towards the desk, tail wagging ecstatically as she goes. There, she opens a white bag, then frowns and closes it. "Nope, not that one," she opens a brown bag, then frowns and closes it, too. Then she bounds towards the trash can and digs through it. After a moment, she glances over her shoulder and lets out a soft, nervous laugh. "Ahee. Um. I guess I ate it. Sorry."
Takashi looks at Ayana. "You don't have to cook for me, I'm perf..." he begins, then ends as she's continuing on - now looking for the burger. He's been around her enough that he is not entirely surprised when she announces that she ate his burger. The kitchen fridge doesn't usually keep any sort of food around for long, with her around.
"Oh no, you ate the burger! Whatever will I do, surely I will starve now for I am a lowly human with no ability to feed myself!" he says, overdramatically and with a ridiculous grin on his face. "Seriously though, I'll be fine, you don't need to worry about feeding me or anything silly like that."
"..Although, you know, I did create you to do other things than just raid my fridge."
Here, Ayana grimaces and looks away. "I know, but school isn't in session and it's /really hard/ to find magical girls. I keep trying, but ... none of them want to stay around and talk after we beat up a youma or something, and I don't really know what you want me to do with them, anyways. I'm sorry. I'm a failure."
Takashi walks over to her. Looking down at her - for only a moment, before he ruffles her hair and scratches behind her ears a bit. "You also don't have to be so hard on yourself, either. I didn't ask you to do an easy thing. Or a simple thing. If it was easy or simple, I could've gotten some loser from Eclipse to do it instead of creating a familiar." he adds with a grin. "An awesome familiar, at that."
He pauses. "And, to be fair to you, it might have unfair for me to take a breave, inquisitive little fox and turn her into an intelligent familiar, only to have you sit around here with limited instructions and wait for you to slowly get bored out of your mind." He admits, and now it's his turn to grimace a bit and look away. "It's not like I had ever made a familiar before. So I might not have been properly prepared."
Ayana looks up at Takashi, then shrugs her shoulders a little. Her tail wags slowly back and forth in uncertainty. "What would you like me to do?" she asks him. "I will do anything you ask me to, but 'make friends with magical girls' and 'learn a lot about them' ... I've done all I can, with that, I think."
He sits down on the bed next to her. He's not usually an honest person, hiding any fears or doubts behind his outward personality. If there's one thing Ayana Moriko gives him, it's someone he can trust - someone he knows won't be out to usurp him, or steal from him, or take his power. "I'm not sure. I'm being pulled in a bunch of different directions by all sorts of things. There are a lot of plans, a lot of research I'm working on, but I'm sort of waiting to see what bears fruit. There's a lot going on in the world, but all I can do right now is watch, and think, and research until I understand it."
There's a bit of dead air there, before he turns to her. "But there is something you can do for me, for a little bit. And it relates to something I promised you." he adds, his tone brightening. He can't stay in a depression spiral for very long; it's not in his nature anymore. He reaches into the pocket of his jacket and pulls out a small black gem, set into a necklace. It has small little white sparkles in it - it is incredibly pretty. It is also, somehow obviously to the familiar, quite magical. He holds it out to Ayana by the chain.
Ayana's eyes widen just a little when she spots the gem. She leans forward to touch it, then hesitates a moment before leaning forward so that he can put it around her neck. "So pretty," she murmurs, taking the gem in both hands to inspect it curiously. "What do you want me to do, Takakun? I will do it! I will make you proud," she promises him.
He grins. There's someing about seeing her pipe up happy that mkes him happy too. And he puts it around her neck gently. "Do you know what that is?" he asks, teasing a little bit. "It's something new. And I made it for you." he adds. There's a lot of pride in his voice. "It's something nobody else knows I even understand yet. Something I'm keeping a secret."
"It's also something I promised you a while back."
"It's a device," Ayana says, smiling up at Takashi, tail wagging happily behind her. "I can sense its power. And it's so pretty." She hops a little up and down, but tries so hard to contain her excitement; so hard to remain calm for him, so that she doesn't make the mistake of missing whatever instruction he'll give her.
"Of course it's pretty. I made it for you." he says, grinning still. "I wouldn't make an ugly device for a beautiful familiar." He can't help flattering in situations like this.
"I'll admit, it's a prototype. But it seems to pass every test I give it, and I've been really impatient to give it to you. Just know to be careful with it, and let me know if it behaves in an odd way."
"Now, I could tell you it's name. But if you hold it close to you, and concentrate, it should tell you all on its own. It is, after all, custom-built specifically for you."
"It's warm," Ayana says, then leans in to close her eyes. She reahces out to the device with her mind, and then smiles. "Still Night," she breathes quietly. The device flickers to life, the sparkles glowing into full lights within the depths of the black gem. "Set up!" Ayana declares.
"Stehen bereit," the device declares in a quiet, feminine voice. "Einrichten."
The little fox's whole body begins to float up and backwards away from Takashi as the device prepares her barrier jacket. The gem floats up out and away from her, breaking the chains of its bonds. The device grows, swiftly expanding into the shape of a wand, which whirls once before Ayana grasps it out of the air. Immediately, the white light in the gem spreads outwards to engulf Ayana, covering her in layers of blue, black, and gold as her barrier jacket takes form. It's the same outfit she's been pretending to for months, now. But unlike the illusion, this barrier jacket is real, and Ayana's eyes are watering as the device lowers her back to her feet. "Takakun," she mumbles, then wipes her eyes and jumps towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck again. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you."
He grins. "I made a promise to you. I am not in the habit of breaking them." he says firmly. "Though I'll admit I just breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was worried I'd have screwed something up here. It's still firmly a prototype. So it can't hold as much magic as I want, and you'll probably want to bring it back around to me so I can check up on it. But... it should give you something to do. Because now you're not just an illusion anymore. You can go out there and fight alongside them. You can hunt and test Still Night, and when you do that, you'll be helping me. Because it feeds information back here." he grins. "So just by going out and using it, you're helping me. Getting information I can use to make us both stronger. Testing the limits of what I built." he adds.
"And hopefully, something a little more fun than lazing around here eating my cheeseburger." he adds with a wink.
Ayana hugs Takashi all the tighter, then lets him go. "So you want me to go and fight youma with magical girls some more?" she asks him, making sure she understands. "Test Still Night to its limits. I can do this. I will do this. Oh thank you, Takakun. You're the best master a familiar could hope for. Thank you so much."
There's a nod. "Yeah. I know it's a lot more of what you've been doing - but I can't think of a better test, for now. You're already very strong when you're standing by my side as my familiar, fighting alongside me - but I want to see how this thing I've created compares to their strength. I want to see what it can do. I want to see what you two can do together - and I still think the best way is to work alongside them for a bit. Plus, if something bad happens, I'd rather you not be attacking them - I couldn't stand to see you hurt if Still Night has an error or bug."
Ayana smiles a little and hugs Takashi one last time, then says, "I'll go out tonight. Maybe I'll find a youma to defeat, and get some Magical Girls to help me. Or maybe I'll just defeat one all my own and test it. I will make you proud, Takakun," she reiterates. Then she turns to run for the door, apparently meaning /right now/.
He blinks. "You can rest tonight..." he says as she slips away, and heading for the door. "If you decide to go out and test, be very careful." he shouts - not angry, but not wanting to see his Familiar (and her shiny new device!) be damaged. But it's hard to get an idea out of Ayana's head once it's there - and that door is already open.
The magical girl that Ayana has become is already gone, dashing out the door and on towards the night. With wand in hand, she wraps a tiny bit of magic around herself and takes flight--for the first time, under her own power, the little fox flies towards destiny, putting Still Night to the test.