Sailor Moon: Author Possession Challenge!
- Thread starter Andrew Joshua Talon
- Start date
Beryl's inner sanctum had never seemed so threatening before. There was always that feeling of menace in the air, an undertone of dark power, but now it was almost suffocating.
He stood alone in the vast chamber, the usual groups of youma that acted as a court for the Dark Kingdom's sovereign now suddenly scarce in the wake of the Queen's rage.
Nephrite brushed off his tunic and bowed his head. "You summoned me, Your Majesty?"
"Report," she said coldly. "What exactly has happened to Zoicite?"
"The information we have is... sketchy, but as far as can be told, General Zoiscite has defected from our cause."
"WHAT?!" Beryl roared, making the walls of the chamber shake.
"I think there is more to this as well, Majesty. When I sent some of my forces to aquire him, he was acting differently to his normal self. It is possible that the Sailor Senshi got to him and affected his mind."
"How?! There is no way they could have recovered this much power in so short a time!" Beryl growled. "It took years to regain all of our skills and abilities after our reincarnation!"
"That I could not say, Majesty." he said. "Though after the incident with Jadeite, it would appear as though our plans may require modification."
"Of course," Beryl sneered. She gazed into her crystal ball, brow deeply furrowed. The silence she let linger was even more unnerving than her yelling. This was cold anger, the anger of calculation and revenge.
"Do you come with any useful information?" She at last said.
"Indeed I do, Majesty." he said. "Our agents in Great Britain report they have discovered the location of an item of interest. A sword, of immense magical potential. The British call this weapon, Excalibur."
Beryl's eyes widened. "Excalibur..." She murmured thoughtfully. She gazed into her crystal ball, the object glowing brightly. Whatever it revealed to her made her smile, as she slowly rose her head to look back at Nephrite.
"Inform the Syndicate to bring the sword here with all haste. I want it here. In the meantime, Nephrite... When Jadeite and Kuncite recover, we will launch a new operation. We must accelerate our plans... But with this sword..." Her smile grew, her aura glowing great and terrible in the grim, gloomy throne room.
"Our current losses will be of little consequence," she murmured, gazing back into her sphere. "Now... Get out. I will call you when I want you back."
"As you command, Majesty." he bowed and marched out.
Beryl waited until her only remaining intact general had departed, before waving a hand over her crystal ball. A projection of light emerged, taking a smokey form before slowly colescing into the shape of a man. He was dark-haired and tall, dressed in fine robes. Unlike the royal garments worn by the monarchs of the other worlds, Earth's had all dressed as if battle might fall upon them at any moment.
Mars may have held fire, but Earth held the warriors who had made the most use of flame, the literal and the metaphorical. Hardened, shaped into ever sharper, ever stronger weapons. Their royalty fought and led from the front, and despite the peace of the Silver Millenium and the roles of the Outer Worlds in guarding the Solar System, Earth had never stopped preparing for war.
Death, Wind, Water, and Time-Elements only. Earth's greatest strength was in bending the elements to it's will. The Moon was in power only because of the Ginzuish. And with her new plan, that singular item, the only thing that had kept the Silver Millenium from being wiped out of memory entirely... Would be hers.
Hers... And the new King of this world.
"Where are you hiding... My prince?" She murmured, staring upon the image of Prince Endymion.
TO BE CONTINUED...
He stood alone in the vast chamber, the usual groups of youma that acted as a court for the Dark Kingdom's sovereign now suddenly scarce in the wake of the Queen's rage.
Nephrite brushed off his tunic and bowed his head. "You summoned me, Your Majesty?"
"Report," she said coldly. "What exactly has happened to Zoicite?"
"The information we have is... sketchy, but as far as can be told, General Zoiscite has defected from our cause."
"WHAT?!" Beryl roared, making the walls of the chamber shake.
"I think there is more to this as well, Majesty. When I sent some of my forces to aquire him, he was acting differently to his normal self. It is possible that the Sailor Senshi got to him and affected his mind."
"How?! There is no way they could have recovered this much power in so short a time!" Beryl growled. "It took years to regain all of our skills and abilities after our reincarnation!"
"That I could not say, Majesty." he said. "Though after the incident with Jadeite, it would appear as though our plans may require modification."
"Of course," Beryl sneered. She gazed into her crystal ball, brow deeply furrowed. The silence she let linger was even more unnerving than her yelling. This was cold anger, the anger of calculation and revenge.
"Do you come with any useful information?" She at last said.
"Indeed I do, Majesty." he said. "Our agents in Great Britain report they have discovered the location of an item of interest. A sword, of immense magical potential. The British call this weapon, Excalibur."
Beryl's eyes widened. "Excalibur..." She murmured thoughtfully. She gazed into her crystal ball, the object glowing brightly. Whatever it revealed to her made her smile, as she slowly rose her head to look back at Nephrite.
"Inform the Syndicate to bring the sword here with all haste. I want it here. In the meantime, Nephrite... When Jadeite and Kuncite recover, we will launch a new operation. We must accelerate our plans... But with this sword..." Her smile grew, her aura glowing great and terrible in the grim, gloomy throne room.
"Our current losses will be of little consequence," she murmured, gazing back into her sphere. "Now... Get out. I will call you when I want you back."
"As you command, Majesty." he bowed and marched out.
Beryl waited until her only remaining intact general had departed, before waving a hand over her crystal ball. A projection of light emerged, taking a smokey form before slowly colescing into the shape of a man. He was dark-haired and tall, dressed in fine robes. Unlike the royal garments worn by the monarchs of the other worlds, Earth's had all dressed as if battle might fall upon them at any moment.
Mars may have held fire, but Earth held the warriors who had made the most use of flame, the literal and the metaphorical. Hardened, shaped into ever sharper, ever stronger weapons. Their royalty fought and led from the front, and despite the peace of the Silver Millenium and the roles of the Outer Worlds in guarding the Solar System, Earth had never stopped preparing for war.
Death, Wind, Water, and Time-Elements only. Earth's greatest strength was in bending the elements to it's will. The Moon was in power only because of the Ginzuish. And with her new plan, that singular item, the only thing that had kept the Silver Millenium from being wiped out of memory entirely... Would be hers.
Hers... And the new King of this world.
"Where are you hiding... My prince?" She murmured, staring upon the image of Prince Endymion.
TO BE CONTINUED...
SeiyaxUsagi said:
Just making sure you knew for future reference. Hotaru is just the soldier of death and destruction, not rebirth it just became associated with her after she died and came back to life. But Life and Rebirth is Usagi and Guardian Cosmos exclusive.
drakensis said:
In the interests of avoiding conflict between writers for the next arc, I would like to call dibs on the DD girls (as adversaries) and Cyprine/Ptilol (minioning). Does anyone have any plans for them or can I use them?
Official discussion thread for the next arc can be found right here.
I think I'll stick with Mina and Artemis for now. I'll try to wrote a bridge with the actual locating of the sword and the transport out of Japan sometime later today. From there, well I leave it open for anyone familiar with Codename:Sailor V to help me integrate those parts into the story as Minako will be in Juuban for the second arc.
drakensis said:
The DD girls are the pack of youma that the Senshi fight at the north pole - the ones that kill off Jupiter, Mercury and Venus.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
If this is allowed, I'll hunt for another character to swipe for myself.
Epsilon said:
drakensis said:
The DD girls are the pack of youma that the Senshi fight at the north pole - the ones that kill off Jupiter, Mercury and Venus.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
If this is allowed, I'll hunt for another character to swipe for myself.
Andrew Joshua Talon said:
Epsilon said:
drakensis said:
The DD girls are the pack of youma that the Senshi fight at the north pole - the ones that kill off Jupiter, Mercury and Venus.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
If this is allowed, I'll hunt for another character to swipe for myself.
Epsilon said:
Andrew Joshua Talon said:
Epsilon said:
drakensis said:
The DD girls are the pack of youma that the Senshi fight at the north pole - the ones that kill off Jupiter, Mercury and Venus.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
As for working under Tomoe... no. Consider the twoferone member of the Witches Five swiped. You've still got the other four and Kaolinite.
If this is allowed, I'll hunt for another character to swipe for myself.
"Artemis, what's so important about this sword that you're freaking out over it?" Minako asked as I rode on her shoulder while she hopped from rood to roof in a warehouse district near the Welsh coast.
"You can't have been styudying here for over a year and seriously not know what is special about Excalibur, Venus," I replied in the kind of shock that borders on horror.
"Um," Minako responded as she chewed on her lover lip in embarassment.
I sighed a little bit as I added, "Honestly? King Arthur? The Lady in the Lake? The Sword in the Stone? Nothing?" I prodded.
Minako's eyes lit up a bit in recognition before her brow creased in worry. "How bad are we talking about here?"
"Bad," I admitted. "Maybe bad enough to swing the balance of power in Beryl's favor if she can unlock the blade's full potential."
I had to admit, at least to myself, that I was NOT looking forward to the consequences of the Holy Sword of Earth ending up in Dark Kingdom hands. At this rate, I was half tempted to look up what I would need to do to try to summon Queen Maeve of the Faye for help. I know that Niume, the Lady of the Lake, was bound to bodies of water, and thus limited in the aid she could offer. Maeve at least would be willing to intercede to protect the Earth from interlopers, even if she was not known to be fond of humans.
Then again, Beryl was a Princess of an Earth human before her run on the Moon Kingdom...
We really need to find that sword.
We finally arrived at the warehouse I had tracked down through finincial records to be owned by the Dark Syndicate boss I had observed in England and I hopped off on Minako's shoulder to peer into the skylight.
Sure enough, there was the Dark Syndicate goon, Mort, who I had been being abused by his boss before handing him a heavilly warded and bound case that could easily hold a sword roughly the size of a longsword.
Funny, media images aside I always pictured Excalibur as a gladius. Arthur WAS supposed to be a roman descendant, after all.
*****
"Well, you're halfway there Mort. That's something I suppose," the Dark Syndicate boss commented as he looked over the crated weapon. "Did you encounter any trouble?"
"No sir. Well except fr the ten guys we lost getting the blade, sir. But no Sailor V anywheres to be seen," Mort replied meekly, which was rather sad when you considered his buly the guy was in comparison to his boss.
*****
Just looking at the leader of this cell of the Dark Syndicate made my blood boil. This was the man that ordered the death of my charge. Of a middle school aged girl. And for what? To increase his own pathetic power base and get in Beryl's good graces. A fool's errand for a foolish man.
"So how do we do this, Artie," Sailor V inquired from where she was watching the proceesings beside me.
I looked around at the bare roof, you had to love the arrogance of the Dark Syndicate when I came to the lack of proper guards, and tried to think of something. Ironically, my first thought was What would Batman do?
The answer was obvious, take out thwo thirds of the thugs there from the shadows before either sending Robin alone through the skylight as a distraction or joining him himself and attacking the ones out of position to take queitly in a fanst and hard surgical strike.
Unfortunately, there isn't much a 7 pound cat can do to offer those kinds of distractions OR help take out the thugs. Even one that is mystically empowered as the animal guardian for a magical girl.
Then again, if we're talking a distraction...
"We're going to look around the area and get the two largest crates you can find up here. Make sure one is really heavy and the other looks sturdy enough to hold the weight of the first. I'm going to offer a bit of a distraction once we set things up While you try to take these guys down in the confusion. I things go south and I say run, you RUN," I replied.
Minako gave me a look the bordered somwhere between confusion and skepticism as I hopped back on her shoulders and we went looking for compnenets to set up my surprize. Ten minuites later and three warehouses down I found something that made me grin more like a chesire cat than a Mau.
"Artemis, are you sure this a good idea?" Minako asked as she looked over the shipmens of fireworks bound for a celebration in London two weeks from now.
My mind flashed to my personal experience in my home dimension working for the professional 4th of July displays back home every year as I nodded and replied, "Venus, I've never been more sure of anything. you help me set up the first surprise, thwn leave me with these crates and a lighter, and everything will work out just fine."
"But Artemis-" Minako tried to protest.
I jumped off her shoulder and onto a crate to look in her eyes as I laced my kitty paws tofether in my best approximation of lacing my fingers together as I interjected, "Trust me, Sailor V. Everything here is within the scope of my scenario."
I was all I could do not to break down laughing at her confused "Huh?" at my strange response.
"You can't have been styudying here for over a year and seriously not know what is special about Excalibur, Venus," I replied in the kind of shock that borders on horror.
"Um," Minako responded as she chewed on her lover lip in embarassment.
I sighed a little bit as I added, "Honestly? King Arthur? The Lady in the Lake? The Sword in the Stone? Nothing?" I prodded.
Minako's eyes lit up a bit in recognition before her brow creased in worry. "How bad are we talking about here?"
"Bad," I admitted. "Maybe bad enough to swing the balance of power in Beryl's favor if she can unlock the blade's full potential."
I had to admit, at least to myself, that I was NOT looking forward to the consequences of the Holy Sword of Earth ending up in Dark Kingdom hands. At this rate, I was half tempted to look up what I would need to do to try to summon Queen Maeve of the Faye for help. I know that Niume, the Lady of the Lake, was bound to bodies of water, and thus limited in the aid she could offer. Maeve at least would be willing to intercede to protect the Earth from interlopers, even if she was not known to be fond of humans.
Then again, Beryl was a Princess of an Earth human before her run on the Moon Kingdom...
We really need to find that sword.
We finally arrived at the warehouse I had tracked down through finincial records to be owned by the Dark Syndicate boss I had observed in England and I hopped off on Minako's shoulder to peer into the skylight.
Sure enough, there was the Dark Syndicate goon, Mort, who I had been being abused by his boss before handing him a heavilly warded and bound case that could easily hold a sword roughly the size of a longsword.
Funny, media images aside I always pictured Excalibur as a gladius. Arthur WAS supposed to be a roman descendant, after all.
*****
"Well, you're halfway there Mort. That's something I suppose," the Dark Syndicate boss commented as he looked over the crated weapon. "Did you encounter any trouble?"
"No sir. Well except fr the ten guys we lost getting the blade, sir. But no Sailor V anywheres to be seen," Mort replied meekly, which was rather sad when you considered his buly the guy was in comparison to his boss.
*****
Just looking at the leader of this cell of the Dark Syndicate made my blood boil. This was the man that ordered the death of my charge. Of a middle school aged girl. And for what? To increase his own pathetic power base and get in Beryl's good graces. A fool's errand for a foolish man.
"So how do we do this, Artie," Sailor V inquired from where she was watching the proceesings beside me.
I looked around at the bare roof, you had to love the arrogance of the Dark Syndicate when I came to the lack of proper guards, and tried to think of something. Ironically, my first thought was What would Batman do?
The answer was obvious, take out thwo thirds of the thugs there from the shadows before either sending Robin alone through the skylight as a distraction or joining him himself and attacking the ones out of position to take queitly in a fanst and hard surgical strike.
Unfortunately, there isn't much a 7 pound cat can do to offer those kinds of distractions OR help take out the thugs. Even one that is mystically empowered as the animal guardian for a magical girl.
Then again, if we're talking a distraction...
"We're going to look around the area and get the two largest crates you can find up here. Make sure one is really heavy and the other looks sturdy enough to hold the weight of the first. I'm going to offer a bit of a distraction once we set things up While you try to take these guys down in the confusion. I things go south and I say run, you RUN," I replied.
Minako gave me a look the bordered somwhere between confusion and skepticism as I hopped back on her shoulders and we went looking for compnenets to set up my surprize. Ten minuites later and three warehouses down I found something that made me grin more like a chesire cat than a Mau.
"Artemis, are you sure this a good idea?" Minako asked as she looked over the shipmens of fireworks bound for a celebration in London two weeks from now.
My mind flashed to my personal experience in my home dimension working for the professional 4th of July displays back home every year as I nodded and replied, "Venus, I've never been more sure of anything. you help me set up the first surprise, thwn leave me with these crates and a lighter, and everything will work out just fine."
"But Artemis-" Minako tried to protest.
I jumped off her shoulder and onto a crate to look in her eyes as I laced my kitty paws tofether in my best approximation of lacing my fingers together as I interjected, "Trust me, Sailor V. Everything here is within the scope of my scenario."
I was all I could do not to break down laughing at her confused "Huh?" at my strange response.
D
DhampyrX2 said:
Then again, Beryl was a Princess of an Earth human before her run on the Moon Kingdom...
Though I am a little sad that your ignoring Elysium's connection to the Earth Kingdom in favor of Arthurian legend. :blue:
D
Elysium was where the Golden Kingdom had stood. It was what protected earth from the inside while the Silver Millenium protected Earth from the outside. Helios and Mamoru both were its guardians. Mamoru as the Prince/Ruler and Helios and the keeper of the shrine that continually offered prayers to protect the Earth.
Intro snippet for this end of Act 2, now with Extra Recap Power. Well, okay, not that much recap, but if it's a new act, it's sort of the expected thing to do.
---
An eyelid twitched.
A body unconsciously shifted out of the way.
Even with drawn blinds, the coverage isn't perfect, and stray rays of sunlight stabbed through into the darkened bedroom, first playing over the sheets, then over skin, until finally reaching the face.
Its sleeping owner shifted again, only to find that getting away from one caused her to move right into the path of another.
Stilling for a moment, the figure then threw an arm to cover its eyes.
Nothing.
With a disgruntled noise, Ten'ou Haruka decided she wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon, and sat up, shoving the sheets to one side, then swinging her legs out of bed.
With a momentary wince, she stood, and any confusion whether the craziness of several days past had been real or not was removed.
Moving to Azabu had seemed like such a good idea at the time, too. Finding her own place that she actually liked the look of, getting out of a house that stood empty most of the time anyway. Punctuated by her first victory in an actual, official race.
Which was when things proceeded to go decidedly pear-shaped.
Oh, she'd heard of the so called Music Disease on the news, but it had seemed like more of a publicity stunt than anything else ... before it happened to her.
That she was out celebrating with her race crew and had gotten a bit on the tipsy side before that was just the icing on the cake. Not to mention the morning after. Or the night after that.
She hadn't as much as dated a guy in years, nevermind sleeping with one. Not that what she could remember of the later parts of that night was a terribly traumatic experience, her tastes simply didn't run that way.
She frowned in thought for a moment.
No, they still didn't seem to run that way.
Pulling on a loose tee and boxers, she stepped out of her bedroom and shuffled towards the kitchenette, where she put the kettle on and meandered bathroom-wards.
She frowned at herself in the mirror, before removing the t-shirt. She wasn't that much of a stranger to scrapes and bruises, but seeing only a few days ago she'd been in a worse state than that one time she'd wiped out her bike, she was recovering surprisingly quickly. The pulled muscles barely twinged anymore, and most of what the bandages and band-aids were covering had already healed up significantly.
Not that she was complaining about that. Or about the fact that, on the one or two times she'd tried to work the stiffness out of her arms and legs, she'd suddenly discovered herself doing what appeared to be fencing drills.
It was vaguely unsettling though.
She inspected her bandages, and went about her morning abolutions.
A few minutes later a much refreshed Haruka stepped back into the kitchenette, taking the whistling kettle off the stove and going about making some coffee.
The smell of fresh brew rising from the mug in her hands, she leaned back against the kitchen counter and cast a glance back into the living room, where a shapeless lump consisting mostly of her spare bedding lay immobile on the L-shaped couch.
Alright, she admitted to herself. No matter how awkward some topics still were, it was sort of nice, not being on her own for once.
It certainly beat the boredom of even the most challenging routine.
At the very least, this ... Zoisite? Or whatever he was calling himself at any given moment ... was easy on the eyes. And the way he could go from almost outright lechery to at least acting like a gentleman ...
She honestly hadn't cared about much outside of getting the youma blood and bits off her, being too exhausted to raise any sort of genuine objection when he'd drawn the bath for her and all but manhandled her into it and out of her ruined clothes. The next she knew, she was being wrapped up in her favorite bathrobe and carried to bed.
Hell, she'd even gotten breakfast in bed the next morning ... not that she'd been able to actually get out of bed that morning, what with her muscles protesting severely enough that she knew trying to get up was a bad, bad idea. It was a good thing she'd tested out of her grade early in the year, mostly because she'd wanted to give racing competitively a serious try, and that there were not practices or team meetings planned for the next few weeks.
Of course, that brief bit of pampering was offset by the fact that the day after _that_, when she'd felt up to moving, and every day since, the guy had been sleeping well into the day and seemed to consider mornings as beginning at 12 noon.
Then again, she wasn't sure how she'd have reacted if he'd actually tried to pamper her more during her, admittedly rapid, recovery. No, scratch that. She wasn't some fragile flower. A brief moment of indulgence wasn't too bad, but she likely would have started throwing things at him if he'd tried to do more than that.
So, maybe this wasn't all that bad a situation to be in ...
"SWEET BABY BUDDHA ON A UNICYCLE, DON'T TOUCH THAT FISHCAKE!"
She choked on her coffee, sputtering, as her houseguest shot from horizontal into vertical in an instant, finger outstretched towards the doors to the balcony.
He blinked, then lowered his hand and looked around, wrapping the sheets around his waist into something like a makeshift toga, then blinked again ...
"That was ... what the heck was I dreaming about again?"
And then there were moments like this.
Several minutes, and paper towels used to mop up the coffee spillage, later Haruka watched bemusedly as a sheet-toga clad man rifled through what was, only upon closer inspection, recognizable as having once been a leather jacket.
Well, it was still a leather jacket, technically ...
In much the same way that a sheet of paper is still, technically, a sheet of paper after being run through a shredder.
A pair of wallets, in barely better repair, their contents still miraculously intact, was produced as a result of the investigation. She looked on as her houseguest rifled through those, interrupted by frequent sips from his own mug of caffeinated go-juice.
"Yes?" He asked, looking up.
"What, have you suddenly decided to start paying me rent?" Haruka asked.
"If you want," the onetime Dark General shrugged. "I was thinking more along the lines of getting some actual clothes to wear ... or I could just keep walking around in this," he jerked his thumb at the savaged jacket. "I've never really been into ... what do you call it ... grunge?"
She considered. She took a sip of her coffee. She smiled evilly.
"So ... shopping trip?"
"Yes, shopping trip ..." he replied, then looked up again, and noticed the look she was wearing. "And why do I think this means something else for me than it does for you?"
"Because you're learning?"
---
---
An eyelid twitched.
A body unconsciously shifted out of the way.
Even with drawn blinds, the coverage isn't perfect, and stray rays of sunlight stabbed through into the darkened bedroom, first playing over the sheets, then over skin, until finally reaching the face.
Its sleeping owner shifted again, only to find that getting away from one caused her to move right into the path of another.
Stilling for a moment, the figure then threw an arm to cover its eyes.
Nothing.
With a disgruntled noise, Ten'ou Haruka decided she wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon, and sat up, shoving the sheets to one side, then swinging her legs out of bed.
With a momentary wince, she stood, and any confusion whether the craziness of several days past had been real or not was removed.
Moving to Azabu had seemed like such a good idea at the time, too. Finding her own place that she actually liked the look of, getting out of a house that stood empty most of the time anyway. Punctuated by her first victory in an actual, official race.
Which was when things proceeded to go decidedly pear-shaped.
Oh, she'd heard of the so called Music Disease on the news, but it had seemed like more of a publicity stunt than anything else ... before it happened to her.
That she was out celebrating with her race crew and had gotten a bit on the tipsy side before that was just the icing on the cake. Not to mention the morning after. Or the night after that.
She hadn't as much as dated a guy in years, nevermind sleeping with one. Not that what she could remember of the later parts of that night was a terribly traumatic experience, her tastes simply didn't run that way.
She frowned in thought for a moment.
No, they still didn't seem to run that way.
Pulling on a loose tee and boxers, she stepped out of her bedroom and shuffled towards the kitchenette, where she put the kettle on and meandered bathroom-wards.
She frowned at herself in the mirror, before removing the t-shirt. She wasn't that much of a stranger to scrapes and bruises, but seeing only a few days ago she'd been in a worse state than that one time she'd wiped out her bike, she was recovering surprisingly quickly. The pulled muscles barely twinged anymore, and most of what the bandages and band-aids were covering had already healed up significantly.
Not that she was complaining about that. Or about the fact that, on the one or two times she'd tried to work the stiffness out of her arms and legs, she'd suddenly discovered herself doing what appeared to be fencing drills.
It was vaguely unsettling though.
She inspected her bandages, and went about her morning abolutions.
A few minutes later a much refreshed Haruka stepped back into the kitchenette, taking the whistling kettle off the stove and going about making some coffee.
The smell of fresh brew rising from the mug in her hands, she leaned back against the kitchen counter and cast a glance back into the living room, where a shapeless lump consisting mostly of her spare bedding lay immobile on the L-shaped couch.
Alright, she admitted to herself. No matter how awkward some topics still were, it was sort of nice, not being on her own for once.
It certainly beat the boredom of even the most challenging routine.
At the very least, this ... Zoisite? Or whatever he was calling himself at any given moment ... was easy on the eyes. And the way he could go from almost outright lechery to at least acting like a gentleman ...
She honestly hadn't cared about much outside of getting the youma blood and bits off her, being too exhausted to raise any sort of genuine objection when he'd drawn the bath for her and all but manhandled her into it and out of her ruined clothes. The next she knew, she was being wrapped up in her favorite bathrobe and carried to bed.
Hell, she'd even gotten breakfast in bed the next morning ... not that she'd been able to actually get out of bed that morning, what with her muscles protesting severely enough that she knew trying to get up was a bad, bad idea. It was a good thing she'd tested out of her grade early in the year, mostly because she'd wanted to give racing competitively a serious try, and that there were not practices or team meetings planned for the next few weeks.
Of course, that brief bit of pampering was offset by the fact that the day after _that_, when she'd felt up to moving, and every day since, the guy had been sleeping well into the day and seemed to consider mornings as beginning at 12 noon.
Then again, she wasn't sure how she'd have reacted if he'd actually tried to pamper her more during her, admittedly rapid, recovery. No, scratch that. She wasn't some fragile flower. A brief moment of indulgence wasn't too bad, but she likely would have started throwing things at him if he'd tried to do more than that.
So, maybe this wasn't all that bad a situation to be in ...
"SWEET BABY BUDDHA ON A UNICYCLE, DON'T TOUCH THAT FISHCAKE!"
She choked on her coffee, sputtering, as her houseguest shot from horizontal into vertical in an instant, finger outstretched towards the doors to the balcony.
He blinked, then lowered his hand and looked around, wrapping the sheets around his waist into something like a makeshift toga, then blinked again ...
"That was ... what the heck was I dreaming about again?"
And then there were moments like this.
Several minutes, and paper towels used to mop up the coffee spillage, later Haruka watched bemusedly as a sheet-toga clad man rifled through what was, only upon closer inspection, recognizable as having once been a leather jacket.
Well, it was still a leather jacket, technically ...
In much the same way that a sheet of paper is still, technically, a sheet of paper after being run through a shredder.
A pair of wallets, in barely better repair, their contents still miraculously intact, was produced as a result of the investigation. She looked on as her houseguest rifled through those, interrupted by frequent sips from his own mug of caffeinated go-juice.
"Yes?" He asked, looking up.
"What, have you suddenly decided to start paying me rent?" Haruka asked.
"If you want," the onetime Dark General shrugged. "I was thinking more along the lines of getting some actual clothes to wear ... or I could just keep walking around in this," he jerked his thumb at the savaged jacket. "I've never really been into ... what do you call it ... grunge?"
She considered. She took a sip of her coffee. She smiled evilly.
"So ... shopping trip?"
"Yes, shopping trip ..." he replied, then looked up again, and noticed the look she was wearing. "And why do I think this means something else for me than it does for you?"
"Because you're learning?"
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