It's nearly been a few days since the trio of Senshi almost caught Kunzite. In the intervening time, Ami has been largely out of communication, despite promising Rei that she would fill her in on several details. Eventually, however, a text arrives on Rei's cell phone, from Ami's number: Come by my place sometime tonight.
It's evening, and the Mizuno apartment is high up in one of Tokyo's more lush buildings. It's a two-story affair; a western-style loft with a large living area and two bedrooms overlooking the city. That the Mizuno residence is wealthy really isn't in question.
What might be in question, however, is Ami's sanity. When she answers the door, the girl is still dressed in her Pajams, despite the late hour, and her hair is a stringy mess as if she hasn't taken a shower in a day or two. She doesn't smell like she hasn't showered; it's just little hints, such as her hair, her state of dress, and the bags under her eyes. Once more, Ami is overworking herself. "Hey, Rei-chan," she mumbles, "come in." She smiles at her friend, then turns back towards the kitchenette near the living area. "Do you want something to drink? I can put on some water for tea, or start the coffee pot."
But Ami reaches into the small refridgerator and pulls out a Coca-Cola for herself.
Rei Hino has been waiting for this call. She didn't really question it taking this long. A lot has happened recently, between Mamoru having been first suspected and then confirmed as alive, if brainwashed by the Dark Kingdom and the business with Kunzite. Besides, Rei figured that Ami needed some time to deal with the data she was given.
The fact that Ami is such a mess when she answers the door for Rei just confirms her guess. There's no way she'd ask the clearly overworked Ami Mizuno to work any harder, so when asked if she'd like something to drink she declines. "No, that's okay. Thanks anyways."
She follows Ami into her house, leaning into a wall as she looks her friend over. Rough shape. Ami sure does work hard.
"How've you been? I know the last few days have been rough."
"I didn't get much done Christmas night," Ami notes as she leads towards the livingroom, then slumps down onto the floor near her coffee table. The Mercury computer sits in a stand, prominently, in the center. But its display is mostly controls, because her much larger Television is being used as an external monitor.
On it are dozens of maps and notes all scattered around. Oddly, mostly of what looks like an urban spraw, with French on it? "Did Usagi-chan tell you what happened at the chicken place?"
Rei follows Ami to the living room, taking a seat on the floor next to the bluenette. She glances over the maps and notes on the TV screen, seeing a city. A french city, maybe?
The chicken place? Rei thinks it over. "I don't think I've heard of that, yet. Why, what happened? Did a youma try to ruin Christmas dinner or something?"
She's worried about Ami, working herself so hard, but she also doesn't really know what to do about that. This is Ami's specialty, and it's not like just anyone could do it for her.
Ami leans her head on Rei's shoulder when the girl sits next to her. This seems to be more out of a need for support than anything, because she doesn't stop. "Endymion, actually," Ami notes quietly. "He attacked a fried chicken place Christmas night. I'm not sure why Usagi wasn't at home, but ... that's not really important, I suppose. She was in the right place.
"Afterwards, she texted me that he had poisoned her," Ami explains faintly, as she reaches up to touch the screen. It flips to another window, where a picture of a half-eaten chicken drumstick can be seen beside some weird graphs and charts. "It was dark energy, not poison, but I'm not sure there's a functional difference, in some cases. I don't know why she didn't Escalate him, but she didn't, so ... Endymion is still free. But at least Usagi is safe. She spent the night that night, and I tried to keep her from crying again. There were a lot of Disney movies. Not a lot of work," she reiterates.
"Anyways, once I was done analyzing the chicken," Ami continues, "I was finally able to get back to the matter of what Kunzite told me. Foremost, this," she flips the screen again, this time to a picture of the arctic circle. "According to what he said, there should be a crater near eighty-eight degrees north, one hundred fifty-seven east." There's a red circle indicating the area on the map, although to Rei it probably mostly looks like a vast white wasteland with a red circle in the middle. "The other Senshi cannot know this, yet, Rei. I need you to trust my judgement on when they're ready, but Venus is right: If I'm taken out, someone else should know. So if I'm taken out ... it's going to be up to you to decide when they're ready."
Rei doesn't move as Ami leans on her. She's perfectly content to be leaned upon. She listens as Ami recounts the story of Endymion attacking a fried chicken place. "So he was using dark energy to taint the food. Probably gathering energy, like usual? I mean... it might not be, but if there's a change in their methods we ought to be aware of it."
She studies the image of the half-eaten drumstick is brought up. "I'm sure she would've Escalated if given the chance. She probably just couldn't."
"Though, staying up late to look after our princess is work," she adds with a smirk.
Rei's mirth fades as she looks up to the location that Kunzite gave. She focuses on it, studies it, memorizes it. It's very important that she know this information by heart, in case something happens.
"Alright. Well, he mentioned getting the Silver Crystal first. I guess it all hinges on that, right? I think that'll be the turning point. Especially if the power difference is as big as Kunzite says."
"Maybe," Ami replies, not entirely confident in answering that question. "There are ... other possible sources of power and information. I admit, there is a not-insignificant part of me which wants to start an internet hoax about something at that location."
Ami reaches up to adjust her reading glasses faintly. "It would be a sad loss of life, but the information gleaned could be invaluable ..." she trails off, then sighs. "But ultimately, the loss of life is likely not worth it, and it risks tipping off Beryl to Kunzite's betrayal. I have to wonder how long before she will reinstall herself as dominant over his mind."
Ami sighs and rubs at her own eyes, then takes her glasses off entirely. "Unfortunately, the glamour in place is rather complete. I won't be able to gather information via satellite or drone. Either a physical body needs to go to this location, or we will be going in blind when we do decide to investigate it. I'm not happy with it, in part because it's impossible to verify Kunzite's information, but more importantly because it's impossible to capitalize on it."
Rei listens as Ami mentions the internet hoax idea. She thinks over what she imagines would happen in that situation and comes to the same conclusions as Mercury.
"You know... now that I know that location, I could do a fire-reading on it. I might run into the same problems that you have, in not being able to glean much, or there might be a weakspot that I could exploit."
Then she frowns again, saying, "Yeah but... if they do have defenses against it, then that also might tip off Kunzite's betrayal, and we'll lose him as a potential ally."
The thought of going there in person, even just to investigate, causes her stomach to churn in dread. "I feel like snooping around there by ourselves would be a very bad idea. If that's their headquarters, that sad loss of life might very well be ours. We need to be careful about this."
Ami considers Rei's suggestion for a long moment, then winces a little. "Let's not do that, ye t. I think we need more information, first. Kunzite ... mentioned a creature controlling Beryl. As much stronger than her as Beryl is stronger than he. She nearly killed me," Ami reminds quietly, "and Venus."
"I'm worried," Ami explained, "that whatever the thing Kunzite mentioned is, it might be able to sense magic turned towards it. Even peripherally."
Which is why Ami leans forward and flips the screen back to the French maps. "But he mentioned something off-handedly which I think we can investigate," she explains. "'Like the gardens under the catacombs in Paris, it pushed [her kingdom] away.'" Ami glances to Rei, then notes, "Rei-chan, I want to go to Paris. I could buy us all round trip tickets for a few days from now, if we can work out the excuses to our parents. Everyone staying with Makoto, maybe. I don't know. Whatever the case, we need to look into this. Figuring out what's there may tell us much about what we will find in the arctic."
Ami's wince tells Rei all she needs to know. The explaination that comes after just confirms it. Rei nods, then adds, "Yeah, back during the Scorn issue, if you'll remember, when I started looking at Corvus, he started looking back. When I pushed the issue with my fire-reading he even paid us a visit. If something stronger than Beryl were to do the same..."
Mars shivers, and says, "... but hey, this is why we talk about it first, right?"
Rei listens as Ami starts talking to Paris, and gardens and catacombs. "Paris, huh? Well why not. Normally I wouldn't even feel a need to hide a trip to Paris, I mean we could say the five of us were just taking a trip together, but... I don't know if it's that wise to be obvious, and we don't necessarily know that the parents would give permission.."
She taps her chin, looking up at the screen. "It'd be helpful, if nothing else, right?"
All of Ami's tension seems to dissolve when Rei agrees with her plan of action. Sure, Rei's agreement isn't entirely unexpected (in fact; she pretty much did expect it). But the confirmation does much to ease Ami's stress. Maybe she didn't miss any angles, after all.
"It would," she agrees, as she oozes against the other Senshi slowly. "Will you get everyone ready? I'll buy the tickets. But I think ... I need to sleep first. And they will need time to pack. And figure out excuses. For a week."
Rei nods, slipping an arm around Ami as the other girl leans into her more and more. "Yeah, I can handle that. And I agree, you do need to sleep. I'll make sure everyone knows."
A week in Paris. Well, it shouldn't be hard to talk the others into that even if it is on business. It'd probably actually be harder to talk them out of it.
Ami lets out a soft sigh of contentment as she huddles up against Rei's side. "Great," she says softly, but her voice is already trailing off. Poor Rei is in danger of being a long-term pillow, at this rate.
Nope, too late; Ami didn't even open her coke, and now she's starting to snore very lightly in Rei's embrace.
Rei smiles as Ami falls asleep on her side, fingers reaching up to stroke through the bluenette's hair. After a moment, Rei realizes that Ami has fallen asleep for real, and shifts to pick the girl up.
She'll have to carry the girl to her proper bed, then make sure the frotn door is locked. Oh, also she might want to put that coke back up. And then she'll have to text all of their friends. Well, the senshi friends specifically.