Cute Companions Animal Rescue is a small charity funded animal rescue that takes in pets that need a new and loving home and tries to find them places. Running on volunteers and donations, the operation is always a little strapped for cash. Thus, the person in charge, only paid employee and vet, mister Minato Narukami, is constantly trying to get more money to the operation.
It's on a friday evening, just after dark, that Shiniko's shadows settle in around the business, mildly draining the people present to a state where they're more or less conducive to forget everything and not do anything stupid. There's no sign of her or any of her familiars. Not yet.
It is not, this time, that the impact of Shiniko's shadows is so great that it alerted someone tied to the Earth from halfway across the city. No. That isn't why Kunzite is here at all.
It's because Daisuke mentioned vaguely that he was having some kind of problem he promptly blamed on work. Which means that there's a private good reason for Kazuo Takeba to be doing a casual survey of animal shelters and rescue operations, that being the kind of charity that Daisuke spends a good amount of his time working for.
The uneasiness he's feeling from across the street, though, suggests that if Cute Companions were the source of whatever problem Daisuke's having, there'd have been calls for assistance earlier. A lot earlier.
Jiaying Maki had been out and about, trying to stay out of the house and clearly trying to distract herself. She happens to be wandering past when she senses the strange sensations coming from the animal rescue. Which she initially attributes to it being filled with dogs and the like! Still, she gets over that initial mental complaint.
Then she realizes what the sensation is and she scowls. Making her way closer towards the place, she calls out, "Hello?" Trying not to immediately make any assumptions!
One of the more frequently seen volunteers at Cute Companions is Ikiko, who often puts in some time in the afternoons helping out there. At this time of day, she's usually at home instead, but tonight she's escorting a pregnant stray dog to the animal rescue.
The dog whines about the same time that Ikiko notices that something's wrong. "Stay here," she whispers to the dog in caninespeak, motioning to a tucked-away corner in a nearby alley. As the dog hides in relative safety, Ikiko carefully makes her way towards the building.
As she approaches, she notices a familiar face. "Hey! Hi, Maki-san," she calls to the older girl in a near-whisper. "Does something seem off to you, too?"
Just as Kunzite's spider senses start tingling, there's a light inquisitive presence at the back of his mind, and because of who it is, it's accompanied by a text.
Mamoru TXT: hey whats wrong can i come help i am so done with calculus and usa is with rei and neph is with mako and chibiusa and kyouko is at work and i really dont want to know what zoi and jadeite are getting into because if i dont know i cant get mad right? say i can help (thats not an order) (but say it) (omg pls say it)
Ladies and gentlemen, the Prince of the Earth.
(Kunzite can tell, yes, he is already in transit, with or without a yes. Boredom is compelling.)
Then, out of the darkness comes a pitch black old lady, and then another. The pair approach the counter, and when they speak they do so in unison, and their voice warps and bends as they do. They point at the woozy looking doctor Narukami. "You have embezzled funds from this charity. Do not try to deny it. You have been found guilty, and you will face the consequences."
And then, a large heavy thumping sound. And another, and then a kitten crosses the corner, it's three feet tall from feet to shoulders, and its ears and both its tails are tipped in cold flame. When it mews, its warped much like the voices of those old ladies, and its claws are, without a doubt, out.
Jiaying Maki is distracted enough she doesn't hear the canine speak, which is lucky because even angry, she's prone to being panicky about dogs running around. Turning to face Ikiko, she says, "Something's off-" she was about to say she's pretty sure she knows who it is too when the proof sort of presents itself. She turns hard on her heels and calls out, "Stop sending out these stupid shadows and get out here Shiniko!" The last half of her challenge turning into an angry shout.
Then she sort of catches herself and quickly brushes her hoodie out, briefly looking embarassed. "Yo- yes there's a problem." Pointing to the creepy shadow ladies. She looks to Kazuo and in dark, at a glance doesn't recognize him, but she does gesture subtly towards him, "Let's make sure too many people don't get dragged in."
Maki-san: check. And the voice calling to her is familiar, too, though Kazuo can't place it quite yet. He might be about to approach the two girls, but his cellphone demands attention.
... it might, in theory, be an important text. It might be one that gives him a valid excuse to escape. It might, more importantly, be an emergency. Kazuo pulls out his phone to glance at it.
His eyes close for just a moment before he starts texting back his answer. He doesn't have a chance to finish it before there are other sounds from within the building, before Jiaying's calling out a challenge. Which is impressive, given that the answer was one word to begin with.
Kazuo TXT: y
He glances one way down the street and the other, checking for anyone who might be watching besides Jiaying and company -- and for the lack of that, a moment after Jiaying's subtle gesture, the person she was indicating isn't dressed in jeans and a slightly-disreputably-treated shirt anymore. Pale gray uniform, lighter and of a different design than Ikiko saw it last. And a paler cape, now lined with brown.
Ikiko Hisakata nods to Jiaying, then scowls at Shiniko's declaration. "Embezzle?!" she growls angrily. "If anything, he shorts his own pay when the funds run low!"
She glances towards the person Jiaying indicated, then does a slight doubletake. There's a flash of a grin, then Ikiko turns her attention back to Maki. "He can take care of himself," the younger girl whispers. "But we should probably deal with that shadow-cat, and that will take magic."
Seconds later-- literally seconds-- there's a rustling of silk and a gust of wind and the light ta-tap of dress shoes landing on the concrete next to Kunzite; the slightly shorter extremely-tall-boy in a tuxedo and a mask (appropriately going by Tuxedo Mask) stands next to him for a second, red-lined cape drifting down around him.
He stares through the translucent white mask at the building across the street for a second. "Good," he says, "because I was almost here."
He pauses for a second, then glances at Kunzite. "This one's not your fault. Will you FINALLY go on tumblr after this?" he asks, flipping a hand up in the air to produce a rose, sharp-tipped and bright, and far more subtle than his other immediate ranged option.
The shout's not, though. "Hey, Jiaying! Is that a real kitten or a construct?" he yells across the street.
"You lie." One of the ladies answers Ikiko, and the other adds, "The Shadow Witch sees all." The first continues, "Knows all" and the second finishes, "Judges all." They take a step back as the kitten comes closer, and then it goes for the first thing it sees, one of its tails lashing out forwards for Kunzite while the other aims the same for Tuxedo. The frozen flames at the tips drain the heat out of their surroundings, and without a doubt are powered by dark energy.
One of the two ladies for her part answers Jiaying, "The Shadow Witch has a whole world to judge." And then she attempts to what Jiaying with her cane. There's a lot more strength behind that than may seem initially apparent. The other lady adds, "And the guilty will face their reckoning." She whips her parasol in Ikiko's direction, a wave of dark energy is sent by that.
Jiaying Maki calls out, "You're blind Shiniko." When Ikiko is called a liar. She's clearly not having any of this anymore. She steps closer towards the old ladies, her hands doing something within her pockets, releasing with a burst of energy and echoing laughter. Seems she's summoned her ghosts back to her from the surrounding area. "I don't care if she's busy, get her out here, s- get her out here right now or I'm going to..." she scowls, what would she do. She's not really that kind of person right?
Then her and Ikiko are attacked and she ducks and slides to the side, then with a growl leaps forward trying to punch the shadow, only stopping when she remembers what happened last time. Carrying past with her momentum, she stumbles and almost trips before catching herself with her hands. Quickly standing, two of her ghosts appear before her, the green energy from her hands starting to coil around both of them. The third ghost hovers behind her. Her foxy features are no longer hidden, but her face is with the last image of it, being one of anger.
"If this one's not my fault," Kunzite replies to Tuxedo Kamen, typically deadpan, "why are you asking me if I intend to punish myself for it?"
No answer from Jiaying about the kitten's nature, but the extra tail gives a suggestion. And his part of the conversation drops joking and syllables alike. "Shiniko. Usually constructs. Watch the coldfire." Usually having to go back to Mamoru for healing frostbite. Her powers aren't ones Kunzite deals with very well --
He can think of a number of questions he'd like to ask those two 'ladies,' or challenge them with. But he's on the wrong side of the street for that, and the kitten has its own opinions on the matter. And his shields don't deal well with that damned fire. He flings himself out of the way instead, leaping back in a high arc that leaves clear the route between Tuxedo Kamen and -- well -- the nearest high thing to stand on; it's not certain that the other boy will move for that, but it's likely.
The coldfire's concentrated. There's a chance that the rest of the shadow might not drain as much, this time; and Kunzite has more energy stored than any of the times he's faced Shiniko's constructs before. He doesn't call up his sword and enhance it. He reaches to the side and closes his hand around a curved blade of energy, bright and solid and sharp and an incongrously warm pink, that manifests at his call. Then flings it in a swift arc designed to intersect with the other tail, the one targeting Kamen, below where the frozen flame merges with the darkness. Seeing if the worst of its weapons can be severed, or no.
While her reflexes aren't superhumanly agile when out of henshin, Ikiko still has her athleticism to fall back on. She dives behind a nearby wall, then scrambles while out of view to get a bit further away. Satisfied that she's not in the direct line of fire, she touches a hand to her necklace and calls out "Lycan Locket!"
There's a flash of silver, and then Cute Wolf Tsukiko leaps out. "Attacking someone for alleged embezzlement?" she growls, eyeing the shadow-cat. "You offer no proof, and you act out of proportion to the allegation! I think you're just a dark energy bully looking for flimsy excuses to fight!"
"So mean," complains the prince in the mask, but his eyes are on the giant kitten, and he's listening. "Right," he says, and then its tails are coming for them, and he whips the rose through the air with a crackling trail of red lightning behind it, even as he leaps straight up and over its head--
--yes of course he's aiming for the lamppost. He likes lampposts. Kunzite knows him well. Obviously.
The rose he'd flung was aimed for the tail targeting Kunzite, but the giant kitten's still moving. "What kind of dark energy? Just beating it up work enough, or does it need purification or ofudas or something?" he calls to Kunzite, less loud this time, but still loud enough, they're presumably on different tall things. Or Kunzite's just tall.
"You are an accessory to injustice." One of the ladies answers Jiaying, and the other adds, "You have no right to make demands." Jiaying's ghosts appear, and the lady facing Jiaying takes out what appears to be a big old vacuum cleaner, and she points it at one of them. Shadows start being pulled into it, draining the immediate environment and potentially the ghost as well.
Kunzite cuts off one of the tails with ease, and as a result it falls to the ground and collapses into an oily goop. The end is still burning with cold flame and quickly enough that fire spreads across the entirety of that oily goop, and immediately this dark bonfire starts draining warmth from the surrounding air, to the point where the immediate vicinity of the store starts to dip below freezing.
"The Shadow Witch has proof" One of the ladies answers Tsukiko, and the other adds, "but you have chosen to be blind." This lady flings her parasol again, but this time embers of shadow flame are embedded in the wind.
The Kitten leaps upwards, with a great leap, and goes straight for Tuxedo Kamen, its claws lighting up with the same kind of frozen fire, aimed directly for Tuxedo Kamen. Its second tail is torn off mid-jump by the rose, and it falls in Kunzite's direction, collapsing into the same kind of goo, and likewise lighting up, making the area even colder.
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and steps through her ghosts, drawing her magic away from them and channeling it towards her leg as she delivers a sharp kick towards the vacuum thing, trying to break it. Should that fail, she jumps back a few steps, twisting her charms and funneling magic through them to draw the ghosts away back into the relative safety of those tags. If it's going to be like that, it's going to be like that. "Oh be silent. If she can't even confront ME, she has no right to claim any kind of injustice. Get her out here, now." She punctuates the now with a wild punch that connecting or not, is going to throw her off balance.
"Come on!" She gestures with her bandaged hand, "I never got a response to the bandages, why don't you tell me a few things?" She then lashes out again, this time her hand surrounded in magic, followed by another quick punch with her other hand. Every swing is throwing her off balance, like she's trying to hurt it rather than just beat it. Not... that she's sure they feel pain.
Cute Wolf Tsukiko leaps away from the ember-carrying dark energy, circling around the fray. "If she has proof, then she should show the proof," the wolfgirl retorts, noting how the others aren't striking directly. "If she can't, then that implies that she doesn't have proof! Or worse: if she has proof but sees no need to share it, then she's implying that she doesn't need it to justify her attack."
She darts across the rooftops, sizing up the opponents. Kicking them with normal strikes seems to be likely unwise, and given the look of the shadow-goop a magic-enhanced bite would be hideous at best (and possibly kaiju-inducing at worst, if she accidentally swallowed any of it).
"Exorcism is faster, but hitting them works. Stay away from the remains --" Kunzite is, in fact, just tall. If they both took themselves off the street level, the kitten would have no-one to go for but the wolf and the fox, wouldn't it?
Well, no. Kittens jump high.
The problem is, there's more and more of that cold fire burning. And while Tuxedo Kamen is Kunzite's primary concern, he's also proven himself more than able to take care of himself. Humans without magic --
Humans without magic freeze, in the cold. They lose fingers. They die.
He calls his blade back to him, catches it, gestures with it and with his free hand; and he covers with his own shadows the patches of coldfire burning. Domes that reflect the ambient heat outside back to the street, keeping the chill from increasing any further.
He's thoroughly aware that Shiniko may be baiting him into doing just that, since he did the same thing at the prison, and since it keeps him from taking any more direct action. But his primary concern is, well. Concerned about bystanders. Forced moves happen, sometimes. Time to see how well she prepared for it.
"Che--" Yeah he was about to say 'check' but it finishes "--ack!" because it's almost on him before he sees it-- it's the flicker of the cold blue fire on its ears in the corner of his sight, and Tuxedo Kamen jumps again, but it's close, it's so close it's not just close; he gets sliced by those claws as he goes up, and one spotless dress shoe comes down hard on the giant kitten-thing's head. For a surreal second he feels like he's in a very cold and painful platformer except for the burning...
...and that's when he gets furious. Because that's not just cold, that's not just pain, that's not just burning. "Distract it," he tells Kunzite. There's frost flaking off the gashes down his front and he's landing, and his eyes go bright and fierce behind the mask, because it's taking heat from him. Taking energy. Without asking.
He dodges again, up and out of sight, and lands silent in shadows; there's a crackling line like an ember's skin discovering some char it hadn't touched, and then one bare hand's reaching into the dirt at the base of a sidewalk tree, burying fingers. The other hand comes up and begins to glow, brighter and brighter and brighter.
The face behind the hand wears no mask, and the incantation is only a whisper.
"...tuxedo la smoking bomber."
The ladies offer no further words, not to Jiaying and not to Tsukiko. Jiaying bludgeons the one she attacks into goop while Ikiko takes to the rooftops. The other lady turns her parasol-waving to Jiaying just in time for another one of those punches to hit her in the face, and she collapses from it. The ladies were never the real threat to begin with, they just could talk.
Kunzite is doing a good job containing the cold, but there's a problem with what he's doing. It means the shadowy fog that clouds the area no longer serves its purpose, and all of that power, all of that energy collapses into the Kitten, which grows to be three times the size it was before, and now being Kaiju-sized, it regrows its tails.
Just in time for Tuxedo Kamen to blast one clean off. This one is scattered sufficiently that most of the goop doesn't immediately light up, just the bits near the tip. The kitten that still remains goes straight for Kunzite. Ignoring Ikiko, ignoring Tuxedo Kamen, ignoring Jiaying. It opens its jaws, and tries to swallow Kunzite whole.
Jiaying Maki actually looks frustrated that the creatures were that easy to take down. Shaking both of her hands, she takes a staggering sprint towards the creature, drawing her magic into one condensed place before her as she then leaps into the air and tries to drive it into the giant kitten-thing like a spike, trying to pin it in place for the others, especially since it's trying to eat cape guy. This is also the first time that she seems to be noticing the others since the fight started.
Beyond that idea, she's not sure what else to pull as her usual trickery would put her ghosts at risk and she's not about to risk them. That would be too far to the point that she'd blame herself, but never forgive Shiniko either. So she's leaning on magical brute force and sheer anger to push through!
With the shadow-ladies out of the fight, Tsukiko turns her attention to the (suddenly larger) shadow-cat, just in time to watch it try to gobble down Kunzite. "Hey! Spit him out, RIGHT NOW!" she yells, dashing forward and launching into a flying kick aimed at the back of the kitten's head.
It's not as fast as a Silver Wolf Tackle, but there's still an aura of silver on the leading edge of her feet, like the envelope of flame around a spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere, helping to protect the wolfgirl and adding a smidge of cleansing energy to her impact. Tsukiko strikes hard, then uses the recoil from the impact to leap clear once again, landing across the street. "Begone, you shadow-dwelling mockery of an animal!" she snarls.
'Distract it.' Kunzite runs down an internal checklist of options; feeding it energy would be easiest, but he's running two remote shields at once, under stress. There's the blade already formed; that glows, that can --
-- already have the thing's attention --
He doesn't have time to move; it's headed straight for him. He does what comes naturally, instead. Calls a second blade into his free hand -- if it's going to try to consume his energy anyway, he may as well make it hurt. And he braces. Smiles. Lunges in, slashing --
Providence is looking out for someone, right now. Tsukiko's shouting as she makes her leap. With that kind of cue, there's no chance he'll cut her instead.
Okay-- right-- Hannah likes it when he's angry. So does dark energy. All it took off was a tail? For a half second, Endymion's frustration's about to boil over--
--and then the thing goes for Kunzite and it's the size of freaking Mothra. His hand is still clenching the dry, grassy soil at the base of the tree, and he sees that feral smile on Kunzite's face through the dark, and all at once the calm focus clicks into place. That's always how he showed his love, and in all the darknesses it was always there, even before the thread of silver twined around his heart. And Kunzite's smiling as he fights.
They trust each other, don't they? To do their jobs. Jia and the Cute Wolf are doing theirs, and Kunzite is doing his, and Endymion pulls up a welling of gold from the earth and it wreaths around his hand as he stands up. That hand comes up and glows brighter, cleaner; there's no anger on the boy's face now. Good: Tsukiko is clear. Jia's working to pin it, her ghosts safe for now. Kunzite is slashing there--
--and there's his opening. Tsukiko and Kunzite deal with its head, Jia's holding it down, and Endymion aims for its heart.
This time his shout is loud, ringing through the street, and the explosion of light and force and heat and the raw fires of creation blast forward, whipping his cape back behind him: "TUXEDO LA SMOKING BOMBER!!"
Kunzite is an excellent distraction as he faces down this large youma, as he gazes into that deep maw. It doesn't seem to be quite aware of what else is coming for it, even though by rights it should be. Jiaying's power spikes into its shoulder, and it slumps. It briefly glances towards a shout, just in time to get hit by the source. Tsukiko's tackle does a lot to hurt it, keeping it vulnerable and in place as she beats it down with that cleansing energy/
And then Kunzite slashes the head open from the inside. All of that is enough to hurt it enough to be near death, and to prevent it from escaping Tuxedo Kamen's blast, which thus delivers the finishing blow. What's left of the shadowy kitten is scattered far and wide.
What else is telling, now that there's no more distractions, now that the youma are gone, is that the shadows in this area are thin and subtle. They're there, no doubt, but they should be wider and more pronounced.
Suddenly an armored prince is a somewhat ragged magical hero in a wrecked tux, ignoring the burning sensation on his chest as he runs toward the others -- he can feel it, which means it's already healing -- and beelines for the white-haired guy who he just saw get swallowed in the mouth of a kaiju kitten. Beelining. There may or may not be a crash. If there is, the impact is the kind that involves arms around. "KUNZITE that's not what I meant by distracting it ARE YOU OKAY!"
"Ayana would be mad at me if I let you get eaten like that, Kunzite-kun," Tsukiko adds as she walks up, her voice mostly filled with bemusement with traces of annoyance and concern. "But I'm glad you knew how to deal with that shadow-cat."
The wolfgirl then glances over to Tuxedo Kamen. "Also, are you okay?" she inquires with a bit more worry. "That looked like it really hurt!"
Cold. Everything about the thing is cold, and cold's something he's never had all that good a defense against. If it weren't for the energy spike in its shoulder damaging it badly, for that targeted dose of purifying silver that lessened its power locally, it would be much worse.
As it is, by the time the shadow melts away, by the time he can dismiss those blades and reabsorb the energy that went into their creation, Kunzite's hands are less than steady. He starts to draw his cape around himself, to try to use it to conserve what heat he has, not quite thinking through that the cape was near -- was within -- the creature too, and is colder than he is, not warmer...
And then he can hear just enough of an approaching footstep that reflex makes him let go of the thing and turn to catch the incoming formalwear, and the boy wearing it. There is a crash. It does not involve either of them winding up flattened on the sidewalk, though Kunzite staggers from the impact, insufficiently braced.
"It had its own definition," he tells Tuxedo Ragman instead. "I'll be all right." Because that sentence ever makes Mamoru calm down. He lifts his attention to Tsukiko on her approach. "Your efforts were and are greatly appreciated. I've had a couple of runins with the Shadow Witch's constructs at this point. Though I'm not the expert that Maki-san is. Are the two of you all right? And her targets?"
"I'll be fine-- it only hurts now that it's healing, but I heal fast--" the tall boy in the tuxedo tells the little orange wolf-girl, not letting go of Kunzite. (Kunzite-kun? Well, she's friends with Ayana...'') A glance at the still-taller boy, and Tuxedo Kamen lets go enough to take off one of his gloves. Almost like it's rote, that hand moves to take Kunzite's wrist, pushing up the sleeve a little, and there's a dim golden glow, matter-of-factly in the background. He does, in fact, seem calmer-- even if the hand that's just disappeared the glove is now held against his own chest gingerly.
"What he said. Also," he really does sound very, very calm; his blue eyes are bright behind the mask, but steady. "And I don't think we've been properly introduced, I'm sorry! I know you're Very Cute Wolf Tsukiko; I'm Tuxedo Kamen, me and my guys work with the Sailor Team."
A clearing of his throat, and he looks slightly abashed, gaze flickering over to the animal rescue across the street. "Uh-- and what he said. I didn't know there was anyone inside there with you..."
"Pleased to meet you, Tuxedo Kamen!" Tsukiko smiles, blushing slightly at the added 'Very'. "I actually wasn't inside at the time; I was escorting a stray dog to here when I noticed the uneasy energy that Maki-san noticed."
She glances towards the animal rescue; Jia looks to be checking on anyone that was inside. "Dodging dark energy blasts before getting into henshin isn't my idea of fun, but I should be alright after a good night's sleep," the wolfgirl reassures the tall duo.
Kunzite is not entirely certain where the urge to say 'we should check on the dog' came from. Probably through that skin contact. He tells himself that, anyhow, and quashes it routinely, because if it's Tuxedo Kamen's, he shouldn't be the one voicing it.
Kunzite does, however, incline his head to Tsukiko when Kamen references 'his guys'. That particular inclination is all his own.
"There's always a target, when it comes to Shiniko," he says aside to Mamoru. "Someone she can take it into her mind to blame. The prison was an obvious and larger target; it's interesting that she picked this place. She must have had some connection to it, to know that it exists, let alone to have something to accuse someone here of."
There's a glance at Kunzite, curious, and Tuxedo Kamen asks blankly, "...the d--?" and then he blinks and looks down at Ikiko again, hand slipping from Kunzite's arm. "If you're hurt or drained at all, let me fix it? And is the stray dog you were escorting okay?"
Another quick glance to Kunzite and he reaches up to rub at the back of his neck. "And yeah, that pattern of 'potential of wrongdoing'-- or rumors of-- and she still thinks it's justice?" He's shaking his head. "Man, I hate dark energy."
Cute Wolf Tsukiko thinks for a moment. "I'm pretty sure she was out of the way, but checking would probably be wise," she agrees. The wolfgirl heads towards the alleyway, dropping her henshin in a glow of silver as she goes so the dog won't be confused.
After a minute or so of checking, Ikiko returns. "She's taking a nap, but otherwise seems to be fine," she tells the other two. "Oh, and because of friends-of-friends stuff... when I'm not being wolfy, my name is Ikiko Hisakata. Nice to meet you!"
Absence makes the heart grow ... less costumed, apparently. When Ikiko comes back, the domes of shadow in the street have dissipated, the last flickers of the frozen fire dying out in mere whispers of chill breeze. And with that, Kunzite has lapsed back out of uniform -- still tall verging on too tall, still that mane of white hair, but dressed in jeans and a white shirt with sleeves rolled up and top button undone. It's probably less than comfortable; it'll take a little while for warmth to seep back in to this part of the street. But he doesn't particularly seem to care. Instead, he's frowning at the other boy, and occasionally glancing across to keep half an eye on Jiaying -- or where Jiaying was the last time he caught sight of her, anyhow.
He glances up to Ikiko, and gives her that faintly familiar little bow. "Kazuo Takeba," he says. "Though Ayana will probably still be calling me Saito when neither of us remembers why. A pleasure to meet you properly."
Aaaand the other boy, still tall and black haired but wearing an Infinity uniform and a pair of glasses, has a face that's been visible on the edges of things sometimes. He's gingerly prodding at his chest where the coldfire claws sliced through it, shirt already unbuttoned despite the cold, grimace firmly in place. He hastily buttons his jacket over his unfastened shirt as Ikiko bounces back, and he gives her a crooked smile. "Mamoru Chiba," he answers after Kunzite.
The name's frequently talked about in school gossip circles, rumored to have asked Ayana to dance a year ago and then she was mocked for it: high school senior at Infinity, sometimes sick enough to be out of school for long stretches, overachieving model student and former kendo and track star... one of those /names/. "Or Endymion, I answer to that too." And another name with entirely different connotations. "It's nice to meet you too! Really though, did you get hit at all, or drained? I'm going to be sleeping this off anyway, so..."
Ikiko's eyes widen a bit at Mamoru's introduction, but only for a moment. "A few minor scrapes and energy splashes, but nothing anywhere close to being major," she reassures him. "Being a diluted werewolf has its advantages at times like this. But, if it makes you feel better, I won't object to an offer of healing."
"Do we want to get off the street for this?" Kazuo glances to Ikiko rather than Mamoru -- not in a fashion that takes any authority away from Mamoru. Only as if Mamoru's response were an already-known thing, and Ikiko's the only question. "Or do you not care?" Or does she want to stay near the dog? (Why does he keep thinking about this hypothetical dog, anyhow? Wasn't Mamoru's influence after all. He silently places blame on Madoka instead, who is conveniently not here to dispute, and leaves it alone.)
"Offer's definitely open," Mamoru says cheerfully, starting to extend his hand toward Ikiko to make good on it, other hand held against his own chest almost idly. But then Kunzite's question, and the high-schooler half-laughs and half-sighs. "It's a lot less of a light show than what we just did, but if anyone's going to come looking after that, yeah maybe we shouldn't be right here."
"Probably a wise idea, yeah," Ikiko agrees. "We should be out of sight over this way." She heads back to the alley, motioning for the other two to follow.
The stray dog looks up as they approach, but after a few gentle pats and some murmured words in caninespeak, the dog dozes back off. "She should be okay until tomorrow," Ikiko mentions to the other two. "After what happened tonight, it's probably better if we let things calm down before bringing her in to the animal rescue."
Kazuo keeps pace with Ikiko, long easy strides that leave him unobtrusively covering Mamoru in case of any -- currently unprecedented -- additional waves of shadow constructs. "Once they stop panicking and start parsing what happened into terms they can understand," he agrees, "there will probably be police involved. And even those who aren't dealing with them won't be at their sharpest." He glances toward the mouth of the alley, as if he had something else to say, but whatever it is will evidently wait.
They probably look so sketchy, even anyway, but odds are decent nobody's even looking out windows right now. It's not quite blithely that Mamoru follows Ikiko into the alley-- but he trusts her, and he's handled and/or used enough dark alleys on his own that it's more of a self-aware amusement than anything else.
The bespectacled prince leans against the wall, watching Ikiko stroking the dog's head and murmuring reassurances, and when she straightens he nods at what she says, and what Kunzite says, and his eyebrows go up at the swallowed comment but he doesn't ask. Then he offers his hand again.
He was right: when Ikiko takes it, there's no light show. He also has enough control these days that nothing he doesn't expect happens, and there's nothing overwhelming. There's warmth, there's a brief summery sense of open fields at night and deep forests with dappled floors in the day, of the pulse of the city's heartbeat and the fathomless depths of the oceans; there's peace and rejuvenation. A few scrapes and some minor energy depletion-- and the day's energy depletion-- and any lingering aches that even a diluted werewolf might feel-- and they're washed lightly away with a dim golden glow.
Endymion drops his hand, and the crooked smile's back. "If you're ever really hurt, give a call, though, eh? Or if you have a friend who is. If you're friends with Ayana I'm sure you have a way to contact Kazuo, and he can bring you to me very quickly."
"Thanks, Chiba-san!" Ikiko beams. Between the healing energies and the lupine part of her wanting to run through some of the sensed terrains, she's definitely feeling upbeat! "And I'll be sure to keep the healing in mind -- Kazuo gave us his phone number last time we met, so that's already covered."
An impish grin crosses her face. "And if you ever need someone who can speak with animals, go ahead on contact me," she offers. "I'm primarily fluent in canine, but I can mostly understand other species as well."
Kazuo hangs back, quietly, keeping watch while the two of them are distracted by that contact. Not so far back that there isn't a low sound of amusement from him when Ikiko mentions being fluent in canine. "I can think of someone who'd admire that ability quite a bit," he notes aloud.
And then he asks, bluntly, still watching toward the mouth of the alley: "Do you know who Shiniko is, when she's not the Shadow Witch?" A bare instant's pause. "I'm not looking for a name. Just a yes or no. Or a none-of-your-business."
Mamoru just laughs, crossing his returned hand back over his chest, holding the other arm in place with it loosely. "No problem, and good good." He tosses a quick grin Kazuo's way and then ducks his head to hide the crooked smile that results. "Me too. Maybe you could even teach him some vocabulary or grammar, who knows..."
But then he's quiet, backing out of the conversation to listen and work some more on healing himself like they always tell physicians to.
Ikiko Hisakata frowns in thought for a moment. "I haven't been as actively on patrol as I've been in the past, so it's been a while since my previous encounter with her," she admits. "When I saw her in late February, she wasn't this... malicious. Or preemptive."
She sighs and shakes her head. "But to answer your question, I'm not sure who she is. If I had an idea, I'd probably be willing to share it, but at this point..."
Mamoru's remark brings a smile back to her face. "Given how instinctual it is, I'm not sure how well it could be taught, but I'd be willing to give it a shot," Ikiko comments. "If the guy you're talking about is willing to try, I'd be okay with giving lessons... or attempting to, anyway."
"This isn't the most malice she's shown," Kazuo says. "And she's growing more powerful, or at the very least better able to exploit her power. You were coming here; Shiniko had to be aware of this place, too. And you called Maki-san by name. She knows who Shiniko is -- I've talked with her before, about trying to identify what happened to her; she suspects possession or a curse. But --" He spreads a hand, habitual movement whether or not it's visible in the dark. "She's a fox. I'm never sure if she's really tracking the conversation, or whether she'll remember to follow up. So I hoped you might have some angle. But if not, then not, and we can still hope for her."
... and still be vastly, if invisibly, amused at the image of those lessons. Daisuke might forgive them that amusement. Maybe.
"I'll see if he'd like to try, then," says Mamoru to Ikiko with a little smile, carefully lowering his arms. And then he takes a step closer to Kazuo, lifts a hand to touch the back of his for a second. "Listen-- I'm going to go see about speeding this up a little, invade Zoisite's place or something. Come find me?"
"I met Maki-san one lunch when introduced by a mutual acquaintance," Ikiko notes wryly, recalling the resulting chaos between Ayana and Sora during that lunch.
Wait...
Ikiko's expression turns more thoughtful. Possession and curses, especially the more malignant ones, tend to wreak havoc on the person affected by them. Also, they tend to display more signs as they strengthen their hold, which can occur if the person taps into them for power. And given what happened that time Ayana went to Sora for tutoring...
The sometimes-wolfgirl gulps. "It might just be a string of coincidences, but..." Ikiko hesitates for a moment, then continues. "There's someone I know who might know more than I thought. I'll have to check, because I might be wrong..."
She looks in the general direction of her home. "...but if I'm not, then the danger is closer than I thought," she finishes grimly.