Naru is already known to MCAT. They know Naru works with Crystal Millenium. They know she's the secret identity of "Lady Sei". They know she's the All-Mother. And they're part of the Japanese government, so they either already know what school she goes to or they can find out with a trivial records check.
Naru reporting "Sailor Mars showed me the fire vision of the killer, and it's a classmate of mine" reveals nothing new about Naru. It won't increase the attention MCAT is paying to Naru - that's probably already at max. Because All-Mother.
Inuyasha lore on this is that they are different people with the same soul. In the same way that Serenity and Usagi are different people but have the same soul. (Or to use another fictional example, the way Rand and Lewis Therin are the same soul but different people).
Imagine having Serenity ripped out of Usagi's soul and forced into her own separate body. That's basically what happened with the Kikyo and Kagome situation.
Is it? Or is Kikyo just Kagome's soul in the past? If Usagi time traveled back before she was born, and then used as a catalyst to resurrect Serenity, was Serenity ripped out of Usagi's soul? Or is the timeline just adjusted so that when new Serenity dies she will still be reborn as Usagi?
Furthermore, as I recall it really messed up Kikyo to do so. So I'm not sure that's the pattern we want to follow.
The thing is, there's a difference between saying "these two people are versions of the same essential template, modified by time and circumstance" and saying "these two people are literally the same individual, somehow divided apart unnaturally, so that the best thing to do is to fuse them into a single person."
Yes, but we don't really know what situation this is with Mamoru and Endymion do we? I think we need to study it and figure out what the options are and what are the costs and benefits of different solutions. And then we should let Mamoru and Endy decide. It's not really our decision is it?
That's my problem with all this talk about creating a body to put Mamoru in. It's all based on assumptions about the situation, and then proposing solutions that fit what we desire as the players. We don't know if that's the best solution, nor is it really for us to decide. Our role is to understand the situation as best we can and then provide options on what we can do to help.
I'm not worried that Endymion is going to screw Mamoru over, (if anything I'm worried he'll be self sacrificing even if that's not really what Mamoru wants, he's carrying a lot of guilt over this). So the way I figure it, we figure out what we can, get them together, and let them talk it out while we mediate.
...honestly, I'm thinking it might be best to consider Endymion and Mamoru identical twins, in a way. They both have a right to exist, and they may have started as a single person, but they split, and now they're separate people. If we can get Mamoru a body he can inhabit in an ethical way, I'd say just do that and let him grow up, maybe while keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't accidentally slip out of his body or something.
Except this is dealing with souls. Do they act the same way as genetic twins? Is there a connection between them? We have to know these things, because even if we did end up going with a new body, we might have to do something like sever their souls or some such. Even if it is like twins in some way, how do we know this isn't a Siamese twins things?
We don't know enough to be making plans yet, beyond the fact we need to investigate and figure it out. Instead of plotting solutions, we ought to be brainstorming questions we need answered so that we even figure out what various options entail.
EDIT: To start with:
Are they the same soul? Is Mamoru still connected to his body and/or Endymion?
Is Mamoru a ghost? Or is he something else that looks like a ghost?
What happens if they recombine? What happens if they stay apart? Short term and long term effects.
How does this impact the Golden Crystal?
Could we put Endymion back into his body on the Moon? If so should we do the same thing to ourself and Serenity?
Naru is already known to MCAT. They know Naru works with Crystal Millenium. They know she's the secret identity of "Lady Sei". They know she's the All-Mother. And they're part of the Japanese government, so they either already know what school she goes to or they can find out with a trivial records check.
Naru reporting "Sailor Mars showed me the fire vision of the killer, and it's a classmate of mine" reveals nothing new about Naru. It won't increase the attention MCAT is paying to Naru - that's probably already at max. Because All-Mother.
It reveals nothing new about Naru, which is why I'd even consider it. But it's another ping on the radar for anyone keeping an eye out for shinies at MCAT. Look, this is a real thing in intelligence operations. Maybe MCAT has super secure information security around the All-Mother. But maybe they don't have as much around a mysterious murder in a hospital that has paranormal traits to it. So Naru gives the info on that murder, and that causes someone to look into Naru, and then they discover that there is this hole in their information that they are getting out of MCAT.
Even assuming that the information control holds enough that Naru's identity as the All-Mother is not discovered, it could well reveal that there is something that is being hidden, and thus more resources are devoted to finding out whatever this thing is that MCAT is hiding. It could even reveal that Naru is somehow connected to that mystery, even if the investigator does not know how.
It's basically the same reason we don't want people pulling on threads about Usagi, even if it would be easy to have some cover story that covers this one instance. The problem is that there will not be one instance, but multiple ones, and if people start looking hard enough...
Why even bother is my point. Just say, "this is the killer" with a name and picture. We have enough reputation that MCAT will investigate. I think the worry that MCAT might have too great of expectations from us in the future is easier to deal with than more attention on Usagi or Naru. Just say that there was luck involved that you are not confident will happen in the future.
EDIT: Not to mention, if we are talking about spare bodies, don't we already have Endymion's body on the Moon? As well as Serenity's?
Should we rip Serenity out of our soul and put it back in her body? Wouldn't that give us another hero unit? Seems like the power gamer move to make. Or are we uncomfortable with that idea? What would it mean for the Silver Crystal? Similarly, if we did the same thing to Mamoru and Endymion what will that do to the Golden Crystal?
I'm just saying that this idea of giving them different bodies seems a little too easy to me. Shouldn't we figure things out before we start making plans?
Is it? Or is Kikyo just Kagome's soul in the past? If Usagi time traveled back before she was born, and then used as a catalyst to resurrect Serenity, was Serenity ripped out of Usagi's soul? Or is the timeline just adjusted so that when new Serenity dies she will still be reborn as Usagi?
Furthermore, as I recall it really messed up Kikyo to do so. So I'm not sure that's the pattern we want to follow.
They were never divided as far as I recall.
Kikyo died.
In the future her soul reincarnated.
Kagome goes to the past, and then some ritual happens that brings forth an undead Kikyo from that time, but she has no soul because Kagome has it and is in that time creating a weird warped unnatural facsimile of who Kikyo was.
Hm. Okay, well clearly the relationships we're dealing with aren't like that. Serenity's ghost isn't a power-hungry monster eager to possess Usagi like a puppet. Endymion seems not to have intended to wind up in sole possession of Mamoru's body, though to be fair it's been over a decade and it would be an easy thing to tell others, or even yourself, self-serving lies about. Mamoru's ghost seems about as mentally stable as you could hope for from a six year old boy's ghost, prone to things like frustrated crying but able to process what's going on and be reasonable about things.
So I guess we can't use Kikyo as a guideline very well.
Yes, but we don't really know what situation this is with Mamoru and Endymion do we? I think we need to study it and figure out what the options are and what are the costs and benefits of different solutions. And then we should let Mamoru and Endy decide. It's not really our decision is it?
This is a common thing that comes up when we're spitballing potential future solutions to problems we already know about.
We don't actually have a button to push that says "willy-nilly irreversibly cram Mamoru into a body of our choosing without consulting him and without further investigating the situation." We probably won't have such a button in the next turn vote, either. There are almost certainly going to be multiple scenes, or off-camera events, that form some kind of process by which events play out before we end up in a position to make a decision.
When people say "I think we should give Mamoru a body," they're not saying "I think we should commit to doing this no matter what information comes to light later on that might suggest that this is a bad idea" or "I think we should decide what to do while disregarding whether it is in Mamoru and Endymion's best interests." They're saying "Based on what we know right now, this seems like the best solution that I know of, which seems most likely to lead to good outcomes, tentatively, pending further evolution of this plotline."
And that's fine.
Sometimes I do this too- I look at discussion of things we might do, and start to react as though people are firmly committing themselves to pursuing a course of action no matter the cost or consequences. But usually, I've come to realize, they're not- they're exploring the potential solution space. Which has advantages, because it lets us think things through better.
Anyway, I don't think you need to worry just because people are talking about it, that there's some serious risk of us committing to doing it without stopping to ascertain if it's a good idea.
It reveals nothing new about Naru, which is why I'd even consider it. But it's another ping on the radar for anyone keeping an eye out for shinies at MCAT. Look, this is a real thing in intelligence operations. Maybe MCAT has super secure information security around the All-Mother. But maybe they don't have as much around a mysterious murder in a hospital that has paranormal traits to it. So Naru gives the info on that murder, and that causes someone to look into Naru, and then they discover that there is this hole in their information that they are getting out of MCAT.
Even assuming that the information control holds enough that Naru's identity as the All-Mother is not discovered, it could well reveal that there is something that is being hidden, and thus more resources are devoted to finding out whatever this thing is that MCAT is hiding. It could even reveal that Naru is somehow connected to that mystery, even if the investigator does not know how.
It's basically the same reason we don't want people pulling on threads about Usagi, even if it would be easy to have some cover story that covers this one instance. The problem is that there will not be one instance, but multiple ones, and if people start looking hard enough...
Why even bother is my point. Just say, "this is the killer" with a name and picture. We have enough reputation that MCAT will investigate. I think the worry that MCAT might have too great of expectations from us in the future is easier to deal with than more attention on Usagi or Naru. Just say that there was luck involved that you are not confident will happen in the future.
1) When you demonstrate the same capability twice in a row, and especially when you demonstrate a more impressive and surprising version of the capability the second time around, people are definitely going to start thinking in terms of "they possess this capability." I'm not saying it's the biggest imaginable problem in the world by itself, but it's still real. We're establishing a reputation for intelligence-gathering and it's going to be hard to convince people that this was a fluke without a plausible sequence of events by which luck could play a role.
2) If we're trying to discourage "pulling threads," then leaving MCAT (and, notably, Naru 'Shibuya' and friends in particular) with no rational explanation for how the Sailor Senshi were familiar with a random student at Azabu Juban Public Middle School is not the best idea. Especially if we (to save a LOT of time in the investigation) reveal her name and not just her face. Because it's fairly easy to see how we could cast a magic spell at a crime scene that shows us the killer's face or something, but a bit more impressive if we found the killer's name. Someone's going to want to look into the relatively obvious possibility of "they know a lot about this school." Especially, especially if they already know Naru Osaka is an associate of ours and that she attends that school.
EDIT: Not to mention, if we are talking about spare bodies, don't we already have Endymion's body on the Moon? As well as Serenity's?
Should we rip Serenity out of our soul and put it back in her body? Wouldn't that give us another hero unit? Seems like the power gamer move to make. Or are we uncomfortable with that idea?
It's something that's been discussed. When we found Serenity's body in the first place there was even some speculation that Serenity would try it herself, though it turned out that Usagi was just making a memorial on autopilot.
Now, obviously we'd need to repair that fatally damaged body first, and there may be other complications. But the only thing we really know is that Serenity isn't in a hurry to do it herself or to make a desire to do so known.
Just as I was thinking we don't need a literal man child walking around Tokyo also we might lose tux as an ally although if we do get him a new body I'm ok with him ending up with erm what was "rini"s name again in this? I totally see Usagi going the same route as her father shotgun and all or moon wand in this case
I believe they effectively live together in the mansion-esque house of Michiru's jet-setting wealthy parents, who either think Haruka's a boy and are cool with that, or think Haruka's a girl and are cool with that.
Eh, I'd imagine they're convinced she's a girl. Haruka may enjoy being ambiguous about the matter, but Michiru seems to have firm opinions on the subject!
Reconciliation and Remembrance
Haruka and Michiru were resting in the mansion belonging to Michiru's parents when they heard a knock at the front door.
"I'll get it." said Michiru as she got up and walked to the door and opened it. "Haruka, it's for you."
Haruka got up and walked over there to see a tall woman with a sharp angular face, light blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes dressed in a flower kimono. "Haruka, it's good to see you again." Said the woman.
Haruka glared at the woman and said, "What are you doing here Mom? I don't think Dad would be happy about you being here after he disowned me." Michiru gained astern look towards the woman when she heard that.
The woman, Haruka's mother, sighed, "While I do love him, I do admit you father is a short-sighted idiot. Besides, he doesn't know I'm here and if he finds out, so what? He doesn't control me."
Haruka scoffed, "Sure seemed that way growing up."
Haruka's mother sighed, "It wasn't until the decision to disown you he did anything I vehemently disagreed with. And for such a stupid reason too. 'Women loving each other is unnatural' bullshit, I've had my share of female lovers in my time. I really let him have it after you stormed out. "Michiru's gaze then softened as she heard that.
Haruka balked at that, "Wait, your Bi? And if you tore into Dad after I left then why did you wait so long to contact me?"
"Yes I'm Bi," Haruka's mother said, "And I had two reasons for waiting so long. First I wanted you to cool down, I know you can stay angry for quite a while. Second, the reason that prompted my visit didn't exist."
"So why did you come?" Haruka asked.
"First off, I wanted to meet the young lady who had stolen your heart. I can see why you love her so, such a beauty." Haruka's mother said causing Michiru to blush and Haruka to chuckle.
"Her looks aren't the only reason I am attracted to her." Haruka said. Michiru placed a kiss on Haruka's cheek for that.
"I know but they probably helped kick things off." Haruka's mother said. "The Second reason is all of this news going on about the DK Gang and Youkai and Monsters running around. I'm worried for your safety."
Haruka grimaced, "Mom I can take care of myself."
"Maybe after some training. "Haruka's mother said. "We lived in a time of peace, so there wasn't much reason to teach you, but now there is. Come follow me, I booked us a sparring room over at the Crystal Millennium."
Haruka looked shocked at that and said, "Umm, I probably should tell you that I work at the Crystal Millennium."
Her mother raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, I promise not to embarrass you in front of your co-workers. Now let's get going." She said.
Haruka and her mother stood off in one of the unused rooms on the 6th floor. Michiru was there to give her girlfriend support. And a few employees decided to come and watch. "So, I didn't know you knew how to fight." Haruka said.
"I had an entire life your father doesn't know about. It wasn't relevant before." Her mom replied as she put her long hair up in a ponytail, "Though considering the dangers I'll probably be coming out of retirement."
"Out of retirement? What did you do?" Haruka asked as her mom took off her kimono revealing a light blue bodysuit with futuristic looking heels.
"I was a Bounty Hunter." Her mom replied. "Now get ready." She said right before she rushed at Haruka with surprising speed.
Haruka was taken aback and barely got a block up in time to stop her mom from hitting her in the face with a side kick. 'So fast!' Haruka thought as she launched a punch of her own that her mother dodged, then grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. She quickly kipped up from that and rushed at her mom and threw a flurry of punches and kicks, most of which were dodged or blocked. She did score some hits, but they didn't do much. 'How?' Haruka thought.
Her mother chuckled, "It's nice to finally get that rust removed. I have been out of practice for so long." Her expression darkened. "I won't lose another daughter."
Haruka and Michiru looked shocked, "I have a big sister?"
"Had." replied her mother, "Died long before I met your father. I may decide to tell you the story sometime." Haruka's mom then rushed at Haruka again and launched her own flurry of punches and kicks, many of which got through Haruka's guard. The flurry ended with an uppercut that launched Haruka off the ground. She fell back onto the ground in a heap dazed. "Looks like there's still a lot I have to teach you." Haruka's mom said, though as Haruka got back up, she added, "Tougher than I thought, though. Good. Still that's enough for the spar."
Haruka nodded still a little dazed from that. "You're a lot stronger than I thought Mom. Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"My adopted family, who took me in after my parents were killed." Haruka's Mom replied. "Anyways, next is time for some Meditation." She said as she sat on the ground in a lotus position and patted the ground next to her, indicating for Haruka to sit there. The Employees started to file out now that the combat was over. Some started gushing about how cool Mrs. Tennou was.
"Alright." Haruka said and sat next to her mother. Both fell into a meditative trance for a while, Michiru keeping watch over them.
After the period of meditation, which lasted about 3 hours, Haruka and her mom were talking back at Michiru's house. "So, about my big sister." Haruka said.
Her mom sighed. "She wasn't my biological child but adopted. I found her as a baby when I was hired to eliminate a group of biological weapons who could drain the life out of sentient beings. "Haruka looked startled and Michiru gasped at that, 'Mom took on Youma?'
"I did my mission and eliminated them all, all except for a newborn. From how she acted it was clear she saw me as her mom, and I just couldn't kill her. I didn't have the heart to do it." Haruka's mom continued as a tear fell from her eye, "I took her and brought her to a group of scientists to make sure she would be taken care of, since it would be kind of irresponsible to take a baby with me on missions. I always visited between missions, even gave her a name, Ripley, and things were fine for a while, then it happened. A group of terrorists attacked the lab, the same group that killed my birth parents, and slaughtered the scientists and kidnapped Ripley. I was furious and when I got there, I was too slow to stop the commander of the group, Ridley, from kidnapping Ripley. And yes, I know the irony in their names being only one letter different. I chased them to their base, which was the same place where I grew up after my birth parents died. Those assholes had taken it over. It took a while, but I was able to fight and kill Ridley, though that bastard never stays dead, cybernetic enhancements, clones, etc." Haruka's mom slams her fist on the table at that.
"Sorry, thinking of that bastard always pisses me off." She said before taking a calming breath. "Anyways, I continued my search and eventually I found Ripley. They had experimented on her, accelerating her growth unnaturally. She didn't recognize me at first and attacked, but as she was about to kill me, she realized who I was and ran off in shame at what she had been about to do. I continued on and encountered the leader of the terrorists, a monster called Mother Brain. I had fought her before and won, but it seems it wasn't enough. We fought again and I had the upper hand until she let loose a beam that she hadn't had before, it drained my life so she probably figured it out from the experiments she performed on Ripley. Anyways, as I was about to die for a second time in one day, Ripley swooped in and attacked Mother Brain, draining her life. She continued until it seemed like Mother Brain was dead, and then she latched on to me, restoring the life both she and Mother Brain had taken." Haruka's mom got a haunted look in her eyes.
"But Mother Brain wasn't dead and attacked Ripley." She continued, "Ripley continued to pour life into me, shielding me from Mother Brain's attacks even as she died. Distraught at losing my child I poured my anger into my attacks and didn't stop until Mother Brain was dead, for good this time. Unfortunately, the collateral damage from the battle caused the place to start falling apart and I had to escape the complex before it collapsed on me." She took another calming breath at that. "And that's the story of your big sister."
Haruka launched forward and hugged her mom, "Mom, I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Michiru also joined in the hug.
"It's okay Haruka, as I said it happened years before I met your father. I've learned to cope with the pain." Haruka's mom said. "Now, I need to get going. Your father will be home from work in," She checks her watch, "an hour and a half, and I need to get dinner ready. I'll be back next week for more training, and I need to talk to someone about how bounties are going to work."
"I think you might need to talk to MCAT about that, as they are the official government department for supernatural things." Michiru said.
Haruka's mom nods her head, "Ah, alright. Anyways, I'll visit again next week. I do hope you can at least come visit, even if it's when your father isn't home." She said as they got up and headed for the front door.
Haruka grimaced, "I'll think about it, but don't hold your breath. And love you mom." She said as she gave her mom a hug goodbye.
"Love you too sweetie." Her mother said and returned the hug. She then walked out of the house heading back to her own home.
The idea for this hit and it wouldn't go away until I wrote it down and posted it. Hope you all enjoy it.
Perhaps Ika Musume? Chizuru acts a lot like Kasumi Tendo but trained as a martial artist, so she could be related to them or simply be one of the people Happosai trained when he was traveling. Although the timeframe is different, that's been ignored before.
Rei nods. "We… should probably get back to Crystal Millennium. Mercury's the one who really understood the stuff Yuuno said and so on, plus… she might get impatient if she doesn't get the chance to explain."
You smile a little bit more. "Can't have that."
And Rei puts her hand in yours, and you shiver for more reasons at once than you feel remotely capable of sorting out. You teleport, taking your leave from a place of sacred fire to a place of a bit more warmth.
"Woah!"
Your mental picture for the return teleport to the locked Senshi-only lounge in the Crystal Millennium building was about ten centimeters out of place. It's a small room with the furniture tight together. You emerge with a stout little table pressing into the back of your legs. You wobble, and even Senshi reflexes aren't perfect when you appear out of nowhere-
But Rei, still in her miko robes, is still clasping your hand. She steadies you with a tug, and you wobble forward into her arms for a moment. She gives you a smile. You squash the feeling of your face heating up as she lets you go and steps back.
"Thanks for doing that. Uh, the catching me thing. And the ritual thing. Both."
"You're welcome."
"We'll be able to stop Ahma now. I… I knew there was something strange about her, but I had no idea she was a monster like this…"
Rei smiles back. "I think if Minako were here, she'd say 'you get used to it.' "
You sigh, shaking your head. "I remember her mentioning that the very first youma she had to deal with was disguised as a boy at her school, but…" Rei is probably right. This is just something you're going to have to learn to live with. But you don't want to. You don't want to have to look at the people around you and wonder if they might be monsters in disguise. It just feels… wrong.
You know, but you do not approve, and you are not resigned.
[ ] [AHMA] You plan to contact MCAT about this very soon, as soon as you get a spare minute. Doing things this way will probably raise a lot of questions about your secret identity and how the mysterious Sailor Moon knows so much about a random middle school student at Azabu-Juban Public Middle School.
[ ] [AHMA] You plan to take some time to think about how to alert MCAT to Ahma's threat, and go ahead when you have a good plan. That might be quick; it might take a while but it shouldn't be too long, you hope. Either way, you should take some time to plan. You know catching Ahma is important, but you're hoping to avoid awkward questions about how the mysterious Sailor Moon knows so much about this seemingly random schoolgirl.
[ ] [AHMA] You plan to confront Ahma yourself, tomorrow, with the help of your friends who attend your school. While you'll probably have to wait to get to her after the school day, you know you can do it specifically tomorrow. And you're fairly confident that you can work things out so that nobody's too likely to end up questioning your secret identities.
In the next few minutes, Rei turns back into Sailor Mars in a swirl of fire that thankfully doesn't scorch the furniture- you're glad none of you have transformations that cause property damage, because it would make having your own building way more complicated. For your own part, you trouble yourself with Ahma, with her cruelty and her threat, and with what to do about it, for a few more minutes. And then the lock on the door clicks.
Ami glides through the door in a quick, whirling motion and shuts it behind her. "Usagi, Rei. I've got Minako settled down with Mana. Is everything all right?"
You open your mouth, but you pause before you give the quick answer on your lips. "Well… yes, and no. Nothing's going wrong right now, but there's… a threat we're going to need to deal with. At school. Do you know Ahma Anteratu?"
Ami blinks, thrown off guard. "Look, she does pretty well on the test scores, but I wouldn't call her a threat-"
"She murders nurses and eats ghosts."
"Oh."
"At least." You clench your fists, not bothering to disguise how you really feel about what the girl's done, not in your words and not in your expression.
"And she goes to our school." Ami looks away, then back to you. "You've already decided what to do about her, haven't you?"
"Pretty much."
"All right, then." Ami smiles, briefly looking weary. "That's good enough for me." She pauses for thought- very briefly, as usual. "Hm. Rei, did you have time to get Usagi up to speed on our visit with Nanoha?"
Rei shakes her head. "I know it got a bit technical. I'd have missed something. You remember what I was like by then."
Ami frowns. "You… cared a lot. It was fine!"
Rei glances down, looking awkward. "Kind of embarrassing, anyway."
"Don't worry about it. All's well that ends well, they say."
Rei looks at the door. "So I… guess you should get your turn too, like you said."
And there's a subtlety to Ami's expression, then, that you don't quite catch, and Rei's eyes widen. But she reacts to whatever message was sent by… staying put right where she is, in her chair? You're not sure why Rei thinks she needs to leave, but you're glad that Ami seems to have put the notion out of her head. Ami comes closer to both of you, sitting down at a chair a ways past your left knee, as Rei is sitting past your right.
But somehow you know that it's Ami's turn now, and she looks at you, and your breath hitches, dreading what she'll say, knowing it'll be about passing out Monday and leaving your friends to fight Cendrellion and deal with all these things themselves…
And her eyes are warm as she leans forward to pat you on the knee. "You know what you did, and why, and you've seen the results. Please… be careful, okay?"
And you nod, gratefully, having expected something so much more painful. "I'll try."
"Thanks. So. I spent most of the time while Rei and me were at MCAT headquarters talking with Jadeite. Some of it was technical stuff- I'll mention it if it ever comes up- but there were parts I wanted you to hear for yourself. Which is easy enough, since I recorded the whole thing." She taps her ear, the place that conjures up that shimmery blue visor she uses sometimes when she's working with the Mercury Computer. "But I'd rather talk about the visit with Nanoha first, even though that happened later, okay?"
"Well, sure." You don't really mind one way or the other, after all.
"Okay. So, because of all the business with MCAT, it was getting late- close to sunset- before we had a chance to go speak with Nanoha. Thankfully, there's a nice park close to her house, and we could go out and have a chat there."
"What? Weren't you worried about someone overhearing things or bothering you?"
"You've never seen one of Yuuno's barrier spells. It was… strange, but we might as well have had the whole park to ourselves. He's used them to hide fights between Nanoha and giant monsters. This was easy by comparison. I still haven't figured out how he does it, but I want to." Ami sounds… intense. "I learned a lot just from talking to him yesterday. More than from Jadeite, really- I'll talk about that later. Most of it…" She looks at you. "I can try to explain but I'd have to start with differential calculus and vector fields. And, uh. Maybe not a great use of your time right now."
"If you say so. Wait." You frown, squinting suspiciously. Calculus. "Isn't Yuuno nine?"
Ami nods. "Yeah."
Then you remember who you're talking to. "Nevermind."
"Okay. So… let's see. I talked with Raising Heart and Nanoha and that girl is sneaky but-" she grimaces- "okay, so I've been cheating. I slipped a couple of books on signal processing theory out of a technical library since the big tree incident so I could stay ahead. Well, mostly ahead. Anyway, I think I know what I was doing wrong looking for the Jewel Seeds back in Uminari, so I've got a workable short range scan for them now that shouldn't drown us in false positives or freak out if Nanoha's flying around nearby. I am very jealous of that massive multiplex search spell Nanoha's got but Raising Heart got so tense when I started asking questions about the executable so I could run it on the Mercury Computer that I started to feel like it would be cruel to push her on it, so that's on the back burner for now. I'm… starting to get the idea that we could order Raising Heart to do things that she really wouldn't want to do, and she'd do them." Ami shrugs."Some of that 'ancient contract' stuff, which apparently was an international treaty before the Fall."
That thought makes you uncomfortable. When you first saw Raising Heart, it was at least imaginable that the staff was just a tool to help Nanoha use magic, like the Moon Rod is for you, or more like the Mercury Computer, you suppose. But at this point it just feels wrong not to think of Raising Heart as a person with ideas and feelings of her own. You're not sure you're comfortable with the idea that she's programmed to obey orders from you that would make her uncomfortable or sad…
Ami seems to be having similar thoughts, because she's trailed off too. Rei shifts in her seat, drawing your attention, and Ami's.
Once Rei has your attention, she starts adding to what Ami said. "I think we- maybe especially Usagi- need to be a little careful when we talk with Raising Heart. But she seems smart enough to recognize the difference between orders, suggestions, and ordinary conversation. Especially with Nanoha around to clear things up. We'll just have to make sure she knows she can complain."
You purse your lips. "I wouldn't want Raising Heart angry at me. I've seen her, how did she put it, 'be shot.' " And I'm pretty sure when Nanoha just plain disappeared from Moon Sparkling Sensation's… sensation… that that was Raising Heart, too. Even if we can tell Raising Heart what to do, I don't want to hurt her, and I don't want to hurt Nanoha, either. How's she doing, herself, by the way?"
Rei smiles. "Better than she was right after the tree thing, I think. Raising Heart says she's getting more sleep- I remembered to ask her, not just Nanoha, after what you said. And when I reminded her that we're happy to help, she seemed to take it to heart. That we'd come for her in an emergency, even if, well… like I said, yesterday evening, we didn't know how long you'd be asleep."
Ami frowns. "I think she's starting to worry because she hasn't found any more Jewel Seeds since the Tree. That's… a big slowdown for her. She's certainly taking this very seriously, though. Studying Yuuno's magic very hard."
Rei pauses, briefly pauses, tapping a finger against her chin, looking just a little concerned. "I do think there's something else she's not telling us… But I don't know what. Maybe she's just having a fight with a friend at school or something. It's hopefully nothing to worry about." Rei shrugs. "We'll probably be able to catch up with her again before too long."
"So, one thing… I found out what a 'resonance disruptor' does. After the third time someone tried to shoot me with one"
"Wait, three times?" You only remember Ami mentioning it after the police station. And the man who had a 'resonance disruptor' there missed, as you recall.
"Dimitri had one at the mall." Ami flinches. "Shot me through his coat before I realized he was even planning to attack. It hurt, too. I caught up with him anyway, but it… hurt. It did something to the disguise, too; I couldn't remember my own name." She stares into space for a moment.
"That sounds horrible!" Instantly, you feel outraged that someone did that to one of your friends. And guilty that you didn't know.
"Well, it was easy to fix. I just dropped back to mild-mannered schoolgirl-" Ami smiles slightly- "and transformed again."
"Oh, that's a relief." You relax a little. "But then… what does it do?"
"That's… a bit of a story. Yuuno didn't recognize it just from looking at it. If they have them out in space where he comes from, he probably doesn't know much- and he says he actually knows quite a bit about weapons, especially for someone his age. Because this 'TSAB' and its archaeologists run into a lot of them."
"Did you two- or Rei and Nanoha, I guess- figure anything out?"
Ami sighs. "Well, Raising Heart scanned the thing and she got… haughty about it being a primitive artifact inexplicably resistant to finite element analytic simulation, and didn't say anything useful. Nanoha was on Raising Heart's side, Rei was just staring at the argument… but Yuuno thought that he might be able to figure it out if he saw it used. So he turned back into a boy for, well, opposable thumbs, picked the thing up, and zapped a big rock with it."
You nod, but stop. That there. That's another chance to pick something up and keep it. More of the 'wish you'd been paying attention in school for more than three months' stuff. By now, you've started trying to pick that stuff up when you get the chance on your own, without the little ghostly whisper in your head urging you on, but…
"Opposable." You look at Ami a bit helplessly.
Ami, who was probably doing this kind of thing a lot even before you met her, holds up a white-gloved hand and taps each of her fingertips with her thumb. "Makes picking stuff up easier. Or possible at all, really, unless you're playing with magic I suppose."
"Oh! Thanks. So..."
"So nothing happened."
"Maybe a big rock doesn't have any 'resonances' to 'disrupt?' "
"That's what Yuuno thought, but the only thing I could think of was to hit one of us with it."
"Is this the part you meant when you talked about three times?"
"Well, it did seem kind of unfair, but then I thought about trying to talk Rei into volunteering, and-"
Ami looks at Rei. "Well, I've already gotten shot with one…"
"No. I have already dealt with a senior government official, a horrible little man who thinks he's Sherlock Holmes, and a crying ghost. You have dealt with one dark general you had already knocked around in a fair fight before. No."
Ami looks at Nanoha. She says nothing, shakes her head slightly, then looks away. Rei's eyes narrow with unreasonable suspicion.
Nanoha lets out a slight 'awk!' as Rei rushes over, picks her up bodily, and sprints away into the trees, shouting over shoulder.
"I will protect this innocent flower from your mad scieeeeennnce!"
Ami looks at Yuuno. "...She's had a hard day. Well, we might as well get to it."
"-I wound up volunteering myself. So that's why I've been shot with this thing twice." Ami sighs.
Yuuno trait Killer Instinct of a Rutabaga does not activate!
Untransformed Prowess: 17 vs 34
Tier I Effect: -0% of differential between transformed and untransformed states Tuning II bonus to transformed Prowess unaffected
Buff effect neutralization still possible!
No buff effects to be targeted!
"It stung a bit, but Yuuno couldn't really hurt me with it."
You sigh with relief. "Good." You'd worried.
"Yuuno says that's probably just because Dimitri is a stronger magician than he is. He said Nanoha might be able to make it work, but that it wasn't really important, because now he at least understood what the thing was trying to do. So I decided not to ask her to zap me, and just listened to Yuuno."
Ami shrugs. "Part of his explanation- not sure this is really important to understand, but it's interesting, was about what Yuuno thinks our transformations do for us- and I'm pretty sure he's right. They remind him of what his people call a 'barrier jacket.' a series of magical protections and… improvements, you might call them… that give greater strength, protect you from injury, let you survive without air, and so on. Ours disguise us, too, of course. Yuuno said that a magician could cast any one of these spells on herself, but that really good protection comes from having a great many such spells, all interlocking and supporting each other. His people use magical computers, their Devices, to keep track of the protective spells- dozens, even hundreds- and help a magician maintain them. The Devices can do all kinds of different things, but something like this-" Ami twirls her hand and the Mercury Pen appears in it- "only seems to do that thing in particular. More or less."
You nod. "I'm with you so far." Something stirs in your mind, and you're not sure that's a complete explanation of the truth for you and your friends, but it's a helpful idea. Lots and lots of magical protections, all tied together. Okay.
"Now here's the thing. These 'resonance disruptors,' wherever they come from, they seem to attack spells cast on a person. Directly on the person. If I were holding a magic sword, it probably wouldn't be affected…"
Rei completes the sentence. "But if you cast a spell to put blades around your hands and karate-chop with them, they'd get hit?"
"Exactly. And they can affect a lot of spells at once, too. Which… hm, how to explain…" She waves absently, lost in thought.
"Got it!" She drops her right fist into her upraised left palm, smiling in satisfaction. "The transformation is a lot of spells woven together, like a sweater made out of a lot of threads. But the resonance disruptor can affect many spells at once. If a powerful enough magician used it, then it would be like some, maybe not all but a lot, of the threads of your sweater suddenly got much longer or shorter, and some disappeared entirely. The fabric of the sweater itself would try to warp and twist, and might fall apart entirely if enough damage was done."
While you've never experienced what this thing does, you're starting to get the idea. "I see… I think."
"Okay. So, the barrier jacket- and, I would guess, our transformations- are usually immune to spells that try to unravel just one spell at a time, or even one particular kind of spell. It's like how a sweater would still stay on and be okay if you disappeared one thread. Yuuno says that magicians with barrier jackets probably wouldn't even notice. But by hitting every spell cast on you at once, the resonance disruptor can get past that, at least part way. It attacks the defensive spells and messes with the way the spells are woven together, and then you have trouble. If the casting magician is strong enough. It's pretty tricky. If there's a way to make barrier jackets immune to what a resonance disruptor does, apart from "be a more powerful wizard," Yuuno doesn't know it, and he's never heard of anything quite like it before. He said he could think of a bunch of ancient references that might be something like that, but he also said not to take that too seriously because a lot of those references could have been a lot of other things too." Ami shakes her head. "Yuuno was pretty surprised."
Rei suddenly gets a naughty little smile. You're not sure why, because the question is innocuous. "What would happen to someone who had two of those used on them at the same time?"
"Um."
You smile encouragingly at Ami. "It's okay if you need time to think. You've told us a lot about what this thing does, even if I'm not sure how to stop it except for not getting hit in the first place."
She stares at her feet and sighs. "It's not that I need time to think. I…"
"It's okay." You smile even more encouragingly at her.
"Well, with the I took off that horrible man at the police station, and Dimitri's, we had two, so we could have found out somehow. But Dimitri's, well… I tried using it. Just up into the sky, to see what it was like."
"Oh! What happened?"
"It… kind of started pouring out magic smoke. I think it may be a Sailor Senshi thing. Now, I put it out! I think it's repairable. But… now it doesn't work."
"Oh. Well, that can wait, I guess." You decide to change the subject, since that's not really a problem right away. "So, was there anything else big that you want to tell me about what you talked about with Nanoha and her friends, or should we go on to what you heard from Jadeite?"
"I think… maybe Jadeite." Ami glances at Rei, who nods softly. "Okay. So… I expected that some of the things Jadeite said would be really important, and you'd probably want to have his exact words and not just me telling you what he said. Some of what we talked about was me asking him technical questions, so I set up to fast forward through that, but I… kind of recorded the whole conversation."
A twist of her wrist calls the Mercury Computer into her hand, and she sets it down in her lap. She pushes a button, and the voices play back, true as life. You recognize them perfectly.
"So, thank you for agreeing to see me."
"It would be pointless to dodge you. If nothing else, I'd get tired of teleportations much faster than you would." The man laughs softly.
"So, first question… is 'Jadeite' your real name?"
"Heh. Thank you for asking, I suppose. No, no. Queen Beryl did give me, us, those names after she had her hooks in us. Before that, I was Ydrárgyros Smarágdi of… of Mercury."
[X] [AHMA] You plan to take some time to think about how to alert MCAT to Ahma's threat, and go ahead when you have a good plan. That might be quick; it might take a while but it shouldn't be too long, you hope. Either way, you should take some time to plan. You know catching Ahma is important, but you're hoping to avoid awkward questions about how the mysterious Sailor Moon knows so much about this seemingly random schoolgirl.
This probably has the best balance of maintaining our cover while also showing that we respect MCAT's jurisdiction. Solving all the subtle problems ourselves would be quicker, but MCAT needs to know threats like this exist outside the patterns already established by treats like the Dark Kingdom
[X] [AHMA] You plan to take some time to think about how to alert MCAT to Ahma's threat, and go ahead when you have a good plan. That might be quick; it might take a while but it shouldn't be too long, you hope. Either way, you should take some time to plan. You know catching Ahma is important, but you're hoping to avoid awkward questions about how the mysterious Sailor Moon knows so much about this seemingly random schoolgirl.
[X] [AHMA] You plan to take some time to think about how to alert MCAT to Ahma's threat, and go ahead when you have a good plan. That might be quick; it might take a while but it shouldn't be too long, you hope. Either way, you should take some time to plan. You know catching Ahma is important, but you're hoping to avoid awkward questions about how the mysterious Sailor Moon knows so much about this seemingly random schoolgirl.
I think the general consensus has been "get Naru to tell them" or something along those lines, right?
[X] [AHMA] You plan to confront Ahma yourself, tomorrow, with the help of your friends who attend your school. While you'll probably have to wait to get to her after the school day, you know you can do it specifically tomorrow. And you're fairly confident that you can work things out so that nobody's too likely to end up questioning your secret identities.
[X] [AHMA] You plan to confront Ahma yourself, tomorrow, with the help of your friends who attend your school. While you'll probably have to wait to get to her after the school day, you know you can do it specifically tomorrow. And you're fairly confident that you can work things out so that nobody's too likely to end up questioning your secret identities.
[X] [AHMA] You plan to take some time to think about how to alert MCAT to Ahma's threat, and go ahead when you have a good plan. That might be quick; it might take a while but it shouldn't be too long, you hope. Either way, you should take some time to plan. You know catching Ahma is important, but you're hoping to avoid awkward questions about how the mysterious Sailor Moon knows so much about this seemingly random schoolgirl.
We don't need to take her on at all. By all accounts she is MCATs jurisdiction.
