The Silent Firework (9) : Fireworks are aplenty this time of year, and there’s always something going off somewhere in the city. Little pops and noises are common, but something about this firework is completely abnormal–it makes absolutely no sound. Instead, light and color splashes across the night sky and leaves a lingering glow behind. No one knows where it came from, but it lit up the sky like a midnight sun, and was gone after about a moment. Anyone who managed to see it in person may find that when they blink, there is a residual glow before them. Strangely, it even seems like there’s a trail of faded, glowing light guiding them somewhere. Maybe you’re led to some special place, or some special person, or–maybe the trail ends before you ever find out where you were supposed to go.
In all his 21 years, Spei had never seen anything like what just happened. A huge flash in the sky and what looked like an enormous firework went off in the midst of the usual Star Festival fireworks. It was dazzlingly bright, lit up the night sky like a colorful sun for a brief moment, and as he blinked and looked up again at the space where it had been, he saw the sky glowing softly. And throughout this entire event, there was dead silence. No boom, no pop, no bang. Nothing.
The Moon Page was beyond puzzled. What was it? And where did it come from?
Staring at the residual glow of the massive firework, Spei noticed something: a glowing tail descending down into… the forest outside the city? The city itself? He couldn't tell from this angle; it was like chasing rainbows, you never could find the end of one. But he had a feeling that he'd find the source of this weird firework's residual trail – it was clearly pointing him somewhere. But where? He had to know.
Spei set off at a loping trot in the direction the trail was pointing, determined to find out what was going on and where it was leading him to. He didn't care who or what he might encounter on the way – he just had to know what the strange firework was.
He totally ignored the tingling sensation in the back of his mind that would have told him he wasn't alone…
Xamorremanet
Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 8:17 pm
Tonight’s adventure had really taken Murikabushi far afield of where he usually patrolled. A while ago—he hadn’t bothered keeping track of the time, since ADHD made that difficult and it was a Wednesday night anyway, so he had nowhere else to be—he’d just been watching some of the fireworks going off over town. Nothing out of the ordinary, not for most of the display……not until the one firework that hadn’t seemed to make any noise at all.
Curiouser and curioser, Reiki hadn’t been able to help thinking as he’d run off on the trail of that one firework, looking to see where it and its chorus of sparkling, lit up kin had gone. Even with the increased speed he’d gained as a senshi, it had been a long trail to follow, heading out of town proper and toward the woods. Dimly, he was aware of more showers of fireworks going off as he ran, but they all seemed to lead to the same place.
Once he’d gotten there, out into the woods, Reiki wasn’t certain why he’d bothered.… Maybe he’d jumped the gun, assigning any kind of significance to what he’d seen. Lights in the sky near the end of June and early July? When every ******** with no respect for anyone else or their own safety was trying to buy whatever fireworks they could get their hands on and set them off in the middle of the neighborhood? As if nobody in any of the surrounding apartments had beloved dogs who freaked out from all the loud noises and the sounds of explosions, curling up with Reiki and shivering under a weighted blanket until the neighbors shut up?
……Yeah. Right. Super significant, the sight of fireworks at a time like this.
Heading out into the woods was just……bad news. As much as he could, Reiki had avoided this place since finishing high school. Too many memories of bad decisions made out here at informal “parties” while desperately trying to avoid being at home. Even with a senshi’s power behind him now, Reiki couldn’t help feeling tense. Cold. Kind of sick. All because of the memories of being a stupid, s**t-head teenager who’d thought that something interesting might happen if he’d thrown himself at any willing guy.
………And, he noticed, perking up like Cersei did when she sensed Haruhi in the hallway, an aura that felt distinctly White Moon. Not powerful enough to be Kerberos or Ida, but definitely someone on their team. Probably more on the level of Daphne and Fang—itself somewhat comparable to Murikabushi’s level—but it was hard to tell for sure.
“Who’s there?” Pulling his posture up straight, readying himself for the chance that this White Moon aura might belong to someone less friendly than the two Eternals he’d met, the two extraterrestrial senshi who’d ultimately been decent to him, and the Cosmos Knight whose attitude toward him had become eerily reminiscent of Are You My Mother?, Murikabushi held out a hand. He didn’t shift fully into an attacking position, not yet, but he got himself ready. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”
Yukio wasn't an outdoorsy type, or one of the popular kids as a teen. He didn't go camping, he didn't get invited to "woods parties", which involved sitting around a firepit getting drunk and making crass jokes as far as he could tell. Yukio was a nerd: a computer geek, an A/V geek, an electrical engineering geek, a sound geek. Zit-faced and awkward, he wasn't a "cool kid" until he became a DJ. And he avoided the woods at all cost.
Now, as Spei, he… wasn't much different, except that he knew parkour now. So it came as he was running deeper into the woods in a quest to find the end of the glowing trail of that weird firework that the tingling in the back of his mind actually got his attention. Mainly because it was a Chaos aura tickling his awareness, and that could only mean trouble.
Before he could turn tail and retreat, he heard a voice call out; clearly he'd been sensed as well. Oh well. He wished that he knew how to parkour through the trees like some kind of wu-xia performer from those period Hong Kong action films his parents enjoyed so much (his dad for the action, his mum to make fun of them). He'd have felt a lot more confident if he knew he could evade his opponent. But despite that, despite his lack of any kind of magical attack or defense, he proceeded into the woods towards the enemy.
"What do you want?" he called back as he stopped in a clearing, preparing himself to do his best to avoid a fight. "Show yourself." Was this what he was being led to, a fight? So disappointing.
amorremanet
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:00 pm
“What do I want? You’re the one who snuck up on me!” Dimly, Reiki was aware that this accusation probably wasn’t completely fair. Considering the fireworks, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that maybe, whoever this White Moon person—senshi? knight? maybe one of their cats, but like, a really powerful one? who knew?—had just followed the trails out into the woods, same as Reiki. Moreover, in his heart, he knew damn well that not being hostile had worked out better for him with the White Moon people he’d run into than acting like a little b***h.
But on the other hand, he was still feeling emotionally bruised about getting his a** kicked by Sailor Untitled Goose Game, who needed to go back to ******** middle school, where she belonged. How could he know for sure if whoever owned the voice and aura he tried to follow would be more like her or more like Kerberos, Ida, Daphne (after their initial misunderstanding), and Fang?
From the sound of the other person’s footsteps and the feeling of their aura, Reiki felt like he was getting close to them. ……Maybe. ……It was hard to tell with his nerves increasingly on-edge. But since he hadn’t found them yet, an idea flared up, one that he had, admittedly, adapted from several old episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Criminal Minds: “I’m Sailor Murikabushi of Hunger. Which of you nice, White Moon soldiers do I have the pleasure of running into in a place like this?”
The (fictional) agents and detectives of the SVU and the Behavioral Analysis Unit probably wouldn’t have been so sassy about it—but Reiki couldn’t help himself. He’d hit the most important part of the brief: offering a name to hopefully help humanize himself……maybe make it harder to justify attacking him.
Spei whipped his head around to look in the direction the voice had come from. He didn't see anything yet, but it was dark and the Code hadn't seen fit to gift him with super senses. He did, however, sense the Chaos aura, quite close now – but it was like nothing he'd felt before. It certainly wasn't like the auras he'd felt from the few corrupted Senshis he'd had run-ins with already. It felt…. dark, but in a different way. Soothing instead of jangly and wrong, yet utterly chaotic.
He tried to remember what the Code had told him about Chaos. There were corrupted Senshi (of which he had encountered his fair share already), the Negaverse officers (of which he had encountered none, and he thanked his lucky stars for that), and Dark Moon Senshi, which the Code really didn't seem to understand or have a lot of information on. Maybe this guy was one of those? There was really only one way to find out, wasn't there?
"You have the pleasure of running into Spei, Page of the Moon," he called out in reply, mentally preparing himself to parkour the hell out of the way of any attack this Murikabushi might unleash on him. Senshi of Hunger? He could only imagine what the attack would be like, and he didn't much like the idea. "And I didn't sneak up on you, I followed the trail of that weird firework. I have no reason for you to attack me – I have no magic. So I would suggest that we each go on our separate merry ways and avoid an unnecessary fight."
amorremanet
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2022 7:18 pm
“God, how many of you knights even are there?” Reiki called out without thinking and certainly without giving himself enough time to hold back from saying anything. “The Moon, Neptune, Saturn, the Cosmos—what? Is it like ‘Every planet, plus Pluto, and the moon, and also the larger, socially constructed concept of all creation within space’ or something? Next, you’re gonna tell me that there’s some, I don’t know, Sailor Ganymede of Jupiter’s largest moon, and they have knights who all dress like chorus members from ******** Moulin Rouge.”
This seemed, to Reiki, the height of ridiculous suggestions. So much so that he let himself have a moment to giggle at his own joke. It probably didn’t do anything to make him sound worth taking seriously to Mr. Spei, Page of the Moon—but it was, in Reiki’s mind only, a truly apt and biting satire that he would appreciate for himself, since the only other person around probably wasn’t going to. Honestly, why did all these knights have to come in so many flavors that all seemed to amount to the same damn thing: weirdos in pretty outfits, carrying around and trying to fight youma or whatever with things that distinctly did not seem like weapons?
Still, Spei……admittedly had a good point. Several of them really. Especially the point about both of them getting out of here. They’d only run into each other by accident, and it didn’t need to get violent. Plus, the longer they were out here, the higher the chance that they’d run into someone else. Or, more worryingly, something else.
Something, perhaps, that might rustle around the trees in a way that didn’t sound like the ******** didn’t think he felt a youma aura? But his thoughts raced too fast to tell. What if was a youma? What if the Negaverse had some way of concealing their auras so they could sneak up on people more easily? Spei didn’t have any magic; he’d just said as much. His “weapon” might’ve been something crazy like a wiffle-bat or a bag of dice.
But what if Reiki’s attack hit him? After what it had done to Kerberos? To Fang?
Whatever was in the trees rustled again, and Reiki made up his mind. Better to risk making mess that he’d need to clean up than risk letting this poor Page get splorched beyond repair because he had no magic. Planting his feet, Reiki summoned up the memory of how it had felt so warm to share Ida’s energy, how everything had felt so much clearer after Kerberos had thwacked him with the realization that he was expecting too much of himself, too soon. Nothing big necessary, he told himself, just enough to let this guy get home.
Extending his arm into the darkness, feeling the magic crackle inside him already, Reiki intoned, “Gnawing Hunger!”
tatterpixie
Extending an arm, Murikabushi bends his wrist back; as he calls the name of his attack, he curls his fingers into a fist, then jerks his hand down as if tugging a cord. Enemies within 10 feet of him begin to feel a powerful hunger or sense of craving, one they feel cannot be sated, and yet, they are compelled to try. This craving can be for anything—food, drink, affection/intimacy, alcohol or narcotics, the answers to the math homework, etc.—but it is quite distracting. This spell lasts for 25 seconds, and Murikabushi can use it three times per battle.
"Actually," Spei remarked, raising a finger, "there are Knights of Ganymede… I haven't met any yet, however, so I can't speak to their fashion sense…"
The trees began to rustle ominously – but not in the direction Murikabushi's voice was coming from. Spei's guard immediately went up and he crouched, prepping himself for having to bound out of the way of whatever it was… provided he could. He knew there were dangers in the woods, things that might or might not be wild youmas; apart from being too big of a nerd to get invited to woods parties anyway, he'd heard enough stories that it didn't matter.
More rustling in the trees put him further on edge. Here he was, a lowly Page, no magic, out in the middle of the dangerous woods with something nearby in the trees, and he couldn't do a thing about it except parkour the ******** out of the way. It was beyond frustrating at this particular moment. Would he be able to do more if he was a Squire? He had no idea, but at least he would stand a better chance than being just a pastel-goth Mr Darcy all alone (well, he may as well have been alone) in the woods.
He heard a shout, Gnawing Hunger, and sensed the tingle of magic in the air. Murikabushi must have used his attack! Spei didn't feel anything though; he figured after a moment that he must be just out of range. Or something – at least he wasn't the target. The trees rustled again and he heard a low moaning sound, haunting and desperate. More rustling, then silence. Whatever the magic was that Murikabushi used must have affected whatever it was in the trees, because it seemed as if it was gone.
"Thank you," he muttered, letting out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Arigatō gozaimashita." The Japanese was reflexive; he didn't even realized he said it.
amorremanet
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 1:40 pm
Good lord, Reiki had so many questions for someone who knew better than him about how many flavors of Knights the universe actually needed. (Was he going to ask Blossom? ……Yeah, he’d probably ask Blossom. After being so vulnerable with Kerberos—on two separate occasions, no less—Reiki felt a need to both reassert some degree of Attitude Problem and try to unlock the snarky b***h he’d decided had to live inside of Kerberos somewhere. ……Plus, Blossom would probably genuinely know more on the subject than either Levi or Acubens-oneesan did, and what did anyone get out of trying to learn from other ignorant people?)
But that was all Future Reiki’s problem, and thinking about it did exactly nothing to stop his heart racing as the panic set in: sure, Spei sounded like he was alright—he was talking like he was alright—but Kerberos had smiled like everything was fine and even tried to reassure Reiki that his magic had worked, that third time………immediately after being hit with alcoholic cravings, all because of Reiki. All because of what Reiki apparently did to people with his magic.
Just because Spei sounded okay, that didn’t mean he actually was.
A deep breath, then Reiki took off, trying more than he had previously to find Spei, in person, to get a visual lock on him. Fortunately, that proved easy enough, and in fairness, Spei did look mostly fine (and very cute in his pastel uniform, but not now, Gay Thoughts). But—Reiki had to be sure.
“Tondemonai,” he answered the Japanese—though probably with more casual Japanese than he would’ve used on a first meeting normally. At least, while he was in his civvies as Reiki, he wouldn’t. But Murikabushi, he figured, probably had more leeway to make overconfident linguistic choices with his Japanese. More softly, though, he asked, “Are you alright? I didn’t hit you, did I? With that attack?”
Please, he hoped silently. Please don’t let me have hit him.
Still braced to parkour out of harm's way, Spei was suddenly confronted with a vision in dark purple gothic lolita attire. A rather fetching outfit besides. He still couldn't determine what flavor of Chaos person this was, but to his relief he didn't see the distinctive holes in the chest and forehead that marked a corrupt Senshi. This was indeed a Senshi of a different flavor.
He hadn't meant to thank the new Senshi in Japanese, it had just come out; but the reply he received absolutely intrigued him. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "It was a clean miss. I could tell you used magic, but it didn't hit me." He allowed a little half-smile. "Not to worry, though I definitely appreciate the concern."
It was sweet and a little odd that this Chaos Senshi of some indeterminate flavor was concerned about whether or not he'd been hit by the magical attack, so he relaxed his stance a little bit – still prepared to leap away if needed, but not urgently so. "Forgive my ignorance, but what… Court are you, is that the right term? I know so little about Senshi in general…"
Spei thought again. "Also, you speak Japanese? I'm half-Japanese myself…"
Why was he making nice toward someone who was ostensibly the enemy?
amorremanet
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:14 pm
Hearing that he’d missed Spei entirely, Reiki didn’t try to stop himself from sighing in relief. He could breathe more easily afterward, too. “Okay,” he said, half for Spei and half for himself. “I don’t—I don’t know what I heard, or what was going on or any of it? But…what it does to people…” He shivered, remembering how Fang had howled and thought he was dying, how Kerberos had run off to hide somewhere he couldn’t get his hands on alcohol. “Let’s just say, I don’t like using it against people unintentionally.”
Spei’s other questions, while undeniably fair, mostly elicited a shrug. “Dark Mirror Court, and…there’s a lot I can’t really tell you? I mean, partly because I’m not sure how much of it constitutes secrets that wouldn’t be good for us, if your side knew them. But partly because there’s a lot that I don’t know, myself. I, uh…haven’t…really…been doing this for very long.” Maybe, Reiki hoped, there would be some kindness in the universe’s intangible heart, just enough to not grant the White Moon’s knights darkvision or anything. Just enough to keep the blush on his cheeks between him and queer proto-socialist Jesus. “But…I’m pretty sure we’re just senshi, at least? We’ve got a prince somewhere, but I think he’s a senshi, too? Haven’t met him, don’t know. Either way, I don’t think we have Knights like you or Captains like the Negaverse, so…”
Ruffling a hand over his head, Reiki huffed slightly. “But…yeah, I—my whole family’s Japanese, and my Mom and Obaasan—Dad’s mother—are both, uh…Mom came from Kyoto and Obaasan’s family from Osaka when she was young, so…yeah, I grew up speaking it at home.”
Reiki probably would’ve found this conversation odd if not for……everyone else he’d met from the White Moon side, so far. Well. Maybe not Angelica, but those were extenuating circumstances; Reiki couldn’t hold heartbreak against her.
Spei nodded. "If that thing's moan was any indication, I'm glad I wasn't the one that got hit." The thing in the woods sounded tormented, in agony. tHe looked at Murikabush with gratitude. "Thank you for taking it out of commission. I don't know how long I could have evaded it if it had attacked. It sounded pretty big."
Dark Mirror Court? He recalled the Code saying something about Dark Mirror Senshi, basically that not much was known about them except they had Chaos auras. This guy seemed pretty chill, though, and kind at least, not the sort of Senshi who was going to attack him just for being Order-aligned. "It's okay, I haven't been doing this very long either. I was told a little bit about the Dark Mirror Court, but only that you're Senshis that gather energy, like the Negaverse do. Though it seems to me that if the others of your Court are as good-hearted as you are, you would do it in a much kinder way to the um… energy donor." If that was the proper term.
"I know, it seems like a weird conversation to be having," Spei said wryly, echoing Murikabushi's thoughts, "but I haven't found too many Japanese speakers around Destiny City who aren't complete weeaboos, you know? And with my mom – she's from Tokyo – in San Francisco now, I don't get a lot of chances to speak it any longer."
He regarded the taller man with amusement. "Maybe this is what the tail of that weird firework was guiding me to. A friendly encounter with Chaos."
amorremanet
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:37 am
Reiki shrugged as though it were no big deal—because he very badly wanted this to be the case. “I was wrong to accuse you of sneaking up on me when……it’s like you said, both of us just wound up out here by accident. You didn’t do anything to attack me, so my accusation was unwarranted……and honestly, based in something that had nothing to do with either of us, so it was unfair to hold that against you.… I’m sorry.”
Likewise, it would’ve been unfair to Sappho to air her entire……thing with Angelica all over someone who was even more unrelated to the situation than Reiki was. Besides, the more important thing here was apologizing by way of also explaining why he’d stepped in to help someone he nominally shouldn’t have.… Probably shouldn’t have, anyway, since they were nominally on very different sides of this whole magical girl version of West Side Story. Order versus Chaos—it was supposed to pit them at odds with each other, wasn’t it?
“Anyway,” Reiki added with a wry glimmer in his eye, “at least you’re not with the Negaverse. So, if this meeting was what the fireworks had in mind, I’m glad it took us somewhere that didn’t involve them—and that I could give you a chance to speak Japanese with someone other than a weeaboo.”
A quick glance to the sky, then he asked, “Do you think you’ll be alright getting back to town? Or d’you want to stick together until we get there?”
"No apology needed," Spei said with a nod and a faint smile. "I don't blame you in the least, given the current state of affairs in Destiny City. I'm just glad you weren't a Negaverse agent of some flavor. At least now I can say I've met my first Dark Mirror Senshi, right?"
And what a relatively friendly meeting it was, too. Even though they were on opposite sides in this war for the heart and soul of Earth, the Dark Mirror Court seemed mostly harmless to Order, if Murikabushi was any indication. Spei would have to remember what the other's aura felt like so he could judge his reaction accordingly. Now watch, the next Dark Mirror he met would try to kill him. It would be just his luck.
"Yeah, meeting someone else who speaks Japanese as a native speaker has really been an unexpected bonus." He snorted a soft laugh. Who would have thought? Maybe the tail of the firework was right.
Spei cast about for other auras and found none. "I should be okay getting back to down on my own. Not that I wouldn't enjoy the company, I just don't want either of us to run into something that might cause trouble. I may not have magic, but I do have parkour training, and it's served me well in the past. I'll be fine."
He wished he had a business card tucked away in subspace he could give Murikabushi. He rather wanted to stay in touch with him.
amorremanet
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:32 am
Hearing out Spei’s answers, Reiki nodded. Everything he was saying made perfect sense, yeah. This was a nice meeting—another good one to put in Reiki’s ever-expanding list of “Times When White Moon Agents Did Not Act Like He Expected Them To”—but there was no telling what could’ve happened if they went back to town together. Like leaving or arriving at a party with someone when you wanted to keep your relationship low-key, people could have come to a lot of conclusions based on noticing two energy signatures—one Order, one Chaos—moving together in the same direction.
“Well, take care of yourself, yeah?” Giving Spei one last smile, Reiki moved to start toward where he’d come from, to put some distance between himself and Spei so they could get home without looking like they were coming back together. “Parkour the other guy into the ER, not yourself and all that.”
Like stick them with the pointy end, but……for level one Knights. Who, like Reiki as a basic senshi, didn’t seem to have access to things like Arsenolite’s bow, Amsvartnir’s cane, and whatever magic powers Blossom was hiding down his thotty little hot-pants.
