It's lunchtime at Verone and as usual Saki is sitting with some of her friends. It's more than usual, in fact; she hardly ever eats with anyone who isn't an Einherjar or other member of Valhalla, though the other students aren't exactly clued into this fact. Sometimes she'll eat alone if she wants time to think, but the lunch period starts like every other.
Once she's finished with her meal, however, the usual routine changes a little as she gets up and excuses herself from conversation. After a few moments of looking around she locates Eirin, walking over and waiting for an opportune moment to interrupt her. "Wakahisa-san? If you wouldn't mind could we talk in private for a few moments?"
Eirin is eating with the newest group of Einherjar today, dissecting her sushi before eating it ingredient by ingredient. Aki, a veteran reassigned to this group, glances up from her bento - clearly from home, it's not as decorative as the cafeteria's bentos - to see Saki approach, and puts minimal effort into a smile before returning her attention to her food. The other girl at the table looks way too young to fight monsters - moreso than the others, even - but seeing Saki approaches, she leans forwards, eyes shining - even as new as she is, someone's told her about who Hope is. The third, also already finished with his meal, doesn't recognize Saki, and though he was talking quietly before her arrival, immediately shuts up, raising a hand in a fruitless attempt to get his messy hair into some sort of order.
Eirin raises her eyes to look over to Saki, and smiles. "Certainly." She looks around to her eating companions, paying a little attention to each one's reaction in turn. "If you'll excuse me?" It's a formality, though, the words barely escape her lips before she's already rising, picking up her tray in one hand, her chopsticks in the other. She looks over to Saki, and raises her eyebrows a bit.
"Where to?"
Saki pauses for a moment and gives a small wave to the Einherjar when they notice her. The young girl draws a smile from her, closing her eyes and turning her wave into a little peace sign with her fingers for a moment. Her attention goes back to Eirin when she responds, taking a step back to give her room as he gets up. "Just out onto the campus grounds," she responds, making a motion towards the exit. Before following herself she smiles again to the others, "Sorry for the interruption."
She's fairly quiet until they're outside, "Sorry about that. I know we're not supposed to talk about Valhalla in front of the other students, especially with what I was hoping to discuss." A little ways further, out onto the grass just off the main walkways she begins in earnest. "I've been thinking lately; ever since I first transformed into Hope-chan," yes, the honorfic really is a part of the name. "I... don't actually know very much about the day to day operations of the Einherjar on more than a squad level. I'm not really sure how many squads there are, or how often the Jotunn actually attack."
She furrows her eyebrows for a moment before turning around, holding her hands behind her back, facing Eirin. "I've said before that I want to take a more active role, and I'm already fighting more often than I was before. I'm... handling it well, I think. But I want to know how much of an impact I'm actually making."
Eirin trails along, then sits down on the grass once Saki starts talking, placing the tray in her lap, and nods, her eyebrows furrowed. She raises a strip of nori, a few grains of sushi still clinging to it, and it's about reached her mouth when Saki pauses to furrow her brow. Eirin smiles, and starts to lower it again, opening her mouth, only to see her turn around again, and begin to talk.
She consumes the strip of nori, and nods, chewing it as she listens to Saki explain about how she wants to take a more active role. A few moments after Saki stops talking, Eirin swallows, and smiles.
"Eight squads, although one of them is more 'three people who don't go into combat much', myself included. We're keeping it small scale until we have more data, if it ends up everyone-" A short pause, and Eirin reaches up towards her necklace.
"-if there's ill effects from valkyrja, we don't want to expose to many people to it. I have a lot of charts I could show you sometime as to how many we've been having. As to your impact, that's hard to judge - the Jotunn started to become a lot more active slightly before you became Hope-chan, so that messes with all our data. You're definitely a positive increase on morale, and you have a large effect on combat, but there just isn't a large amount of time between the Jotunn stirring and you becoming Hope-chan, so I don't have enough data to draw conclusions on your effects." She lowers her hand from her necklace, and picks up a glob of sushi rice with her chopsticks.
"The biggest impact you could make, of course, is if we could somehow replicate your success, Yamayuki-san. If we had twenty-four people as strong as Hope, we could change the world." She looks down at the piece of sushi rice, eyebrows furrowing.
"But I'm beginning to worry that you may be somehow unique."
Saki stays standing while Eirin sits, maintaining a vaguely formal posture. "Eight." A bit of quick mental math, before sighing softly, "That's nearly every day then, for the Jotunn. We're very lucky you invented Valkyrja when you did, Wakahisa-san. As amazing as the Vanir were it would probably have been overwhelming to have to fight seal last Jotunn on their own." She lets out a soft sigh, "Even I'm not foolish enough to think I can fight all the Jotunn by myself. It would be the preferable outcome, but even Hope-chan can get tired."
She then considers for a few moments. "I'd like to see them if you're willing to show me," she comments about the charts. "It sounds like we were lucky with that, too, then." she replies about the increase in activity. "Everyone works so hard already. I want to do my best to make things easier on them. I know we're all very well compensated for our work... but things don't have to be as difficult as they are. Just being able to be more liberal with injury leave would go a long way."
Saki shifts a little on her feet as Eirin speaks about replicating her success. "I wish I could help you with that more. I wasn't even aware it was happening, so I wasn't able to take any detailed notes. Though to be honest I'm not sure I could have even if I wanted to; I was a little overwhelmed at the time." Another short pause and she adds, "Whatever the key is I'm sure you'll find it, Wakahisa-san. I have faith in you."
As Saki does mental math, Eirin devours the clump of rice, pauses, does a little mental math of her own, then starts eating more rapidly as Saki talks, not even bothering to dissect the rest of her sushi. Still, she keeps her attention on Saki, and nods and makes somewhat muffled contemplative sounds at appropriate moments.
She frowns slightly as Saki professes faith in her, and glances away, studying the grass for a moment, then places her empty tray aside. She looks back to Saki after a moment and smiles.
"All signs point to some great shift is taking place in the world. I'm not sure of Jormungandr is rising towards the surface, or if the connectivity of the internet has created artificial leylines that are boosting the effect of magic, but it seems very likely things will only get busier from here out."
"I'm sure we'll find out a way to bring about more Aesir... one way or another." She rises to her feet, leaving the tray on the ground.
"Our next class draws close. Come visit me at the Valhalla Compound sometime, and I can show you the charts. They have to stay there, that data is much too sensitive to be shared with the wider world at the moment." She turns, looks Saki in the eyes for a long moment.
"And one more thing, Yamayuki-san. If I show you these things, you must promise not to tell them to the Einherjar. The wrong data told to the wrong person can ruin the experiment, or worse, get someone to panic and get hurt or killed. You have to trust my judgement on this." She smiles reassuringly.
"Okay?"
Saki stands politely as Eirin finishes her food, and after she speaks she moves into a looser stance as the impromptu meeting comes closer to an end. "I hope it won't bother you or throws your plans off too much, but I do plan on interacting more with the other magic users. If magic is shifting it's important I do whatever I can."
She shakes her head for a moment and shifts her weight from one foot to the other, "Not that I intend to do less for Valhalla, or the Einherjar. From what I know things in the outside world were stable enough for a long time, and we were able to tend to containing the Jotunn and conducting research. But now... I don't think it's just the Jotunn that are becoming more active. It's other threats as well, isn't it? I see these stories on the news that don't make very much sense- random explosions around the city, people dying from bizarre causes. There have been some nights recently when you could almost feel the magic in the air."
Saki frowns a little, looking away, "I don't know why I'm saying this now. It's not why I came to talk to you... but since you're being so honest with me, I wanted to be honest with you. I'm not an Einherjar anymore, there are things I can do to help protect the world and save people that Einherjar never could." A pause, "Or Vanir. I can't turn my back to those things now that I can change their outcomes. We're all doing this to protect the city and to and stave off death..."
Her gaze had slowly shifted off to the school building of Verone as she'd talked, drifting over the students making their way towards their next class. She blinks a few times and blushes faintly, "Oh, sorry. I was rambling on, wasn't I? Don't worry, Wakahisa-san, I'll keep your data to myself unless you let me know it's safe to share. And if we do find a way to replicate the Aesir phenomenon... Valhalla will be in a position to do all kinds of good for the world, won't it? We'll just need the vision to be able to take advantage of it."
Eirin watches Saki intently as she talks, shakes her head slightly as she apologizes.
"Please, Yamayuki-san. I always enjoy listening to your thoughts." She turns to look out across the campus, a breeze blowing her labcoat around in a somewhat dramatic manner, and, to a lesser extent, her hair.
"With your powers, we can finally bring freedom to those who would otherwise have an eternity of suffering. With my knowledge, we might be able to make more people like you, perhaps even destroy death itself in time. Together, it is likely we can change the world." She crosses her arms against her chest.
"As for other magic users... there's nothing wrong with you interacting with them, but secrecy is even more paramount there. Don't tell them about our base, don't tell them too much about Einherjar, especially that we can replicate the process. Some people would see valkyrja as an opportunity to raise an army, without the caution or ethics that Valhalla has. Or worse, see releasing the Jotunn as some kind of opportunity." She starts to turn back to walk into the school, leaving her in a direction from the wind that mostly only makes her hair get messier, then pauses.
"And... if you find out anything about how they transform, or the processes they use to gain power, or the requirements to become one of another kind of magic user... please let me know. Any bit of data there might end up being vital to our mission." She looks over to Saki, smiles.
"It might be hard to figure out who are our true allies initially. A lot of people seem to fight monsters, but that doesn't neccessarily mean they have the same goals that we do in doing so."
"Just be careful, and I'm sure it'll turn out fine."