Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a rare day of leaving Kaia to her own business, so Hiro explored. There were always new neightbourhoods of Destiny City to venture into, new streets to wander up and down, and... he paused, head swinging to one side like a beagle catching scent of a fox... apparently a corrupted senshi to visit. Hiro's teal eye blinked once, twice. How very intriguing, he decided.

Hiro slunk into the shadows and followed the star-beacon of a corrupted senshi.

There was a girl sitting on concrete stairs, licking at an icecream cone. The star in his head that represented a corrupt senshi was blazing now - this was definitely the girl he'd sensed. Actually, now that he was closer, he could tell that this wasn't even their first meeting. Hiro doubted Eternal Sailor Lyra would remember him, though. She'd been understandably out of it after being corrupted and then upgraded on top of that. Introductions were definitely in order.

... Soon.

Instead of trotting out, Hiro kept to the shadows, slinking his way closer. He approached from the side of the stairs, a small furry face slowly rising over the top of the raised edging of the stairs. (Perhaps the Jaws theme should be playing in the background.)

His one eye focused on the dripping vanilla cone, Hiro slunk closer, wondering if he could get a taste before Lyra realised he was there...

"GYAAAAH!" was Hiro's reaction as the cone was jammed into his face. Cold, cold, cold! He flailed and tried to scrub the offending mixture off his face.

He didn't see the hand coming for him, too preoccupied with trying to get clean again. He did, however, pause after Sabine spoke and shoot her a tiny glare (it might have partially been his fault for sneaking... or not, he decided).

"Are you trying to take my other eye out, too?" he hissed, voice low but - yes - definitely speaking English.

Hiro allowed the ear scritch. His senshi were special, after all, and needed a bit more coddling (and sometimes yelling at, too) than the un-magical Negaverse officers. He gave a soft purr at the treatment. Lyra had just undergone a lot of trauma, so he didn't mind going easy on her.

"As real as yourself, Lyra," he replied quietly. "We have met before, though I'm not surprised you don't remember. Your upgrade to Eternal - as well as the events beforehand - took a lot out of you."

So, talking cat. Who knew her identity and her powers. There was a logical conclusion to be reached here, but Hiro didn't mind if it took a while. Lyra's human form had nice nails, good for scritching...

Ammolite...?

Well, that earned a narrowing of Hiro's eye. Fair enough to assign Negaverse names for those accidentally awakened before learning their senshi identity, like Alunite. But when a senshi already knew their name, exactly what was wrong with keeping that? Hiro bristled, fur briefly standing on end. If anyone tried to rename his Alkaid, there was going to be blood on his claws...

He sniffed at 'Ammolite', but decided in the end that if she wanted to go by another (less, in his opinion) name, he couldn't stop her. He made note that it was her 'brother' who had decided this. Silly family antics. Lyra was a perfectly good name.

Hiro instead switched his focus to her other question. "Unfortunately, yes," he replied. "Perhaps some day you'll remember some of your senshi life, but it seems that the process of bringing someone over to the Dark Kingdom removes all traces of your civilian life. It was the same even for me." It also removed any other secret identities people may have known, which irritated the Negaverse leaders to no end, Hiro was sure. But Lyra-Ammolite didn't need to be worrying about that.

"My name is Masahiro. Hiro is fine," he offered with a wave of his paw. "I'm a Guardian Cat to the senshi of the Negaverse, such as yourself."

Hiro sighed. "No, it's fine. If that's what you wish to go by, I will try to remember to call you Ammolite." It wouldn't be the easiest thing, considering that his Mauvian senses recognised her as a glowly senshi star named Lyra. He would simply have to try and ignore the name it screamed out to any Mauvian who was close by.

Perhaps it wasn't so unusual that her brother, whoever that was, would want her to use a different name. Unlike Alunite, Lyra was known to the Negaverse. Her brother must be hoping to drive home the point that corrupt-Ammolite was not the same person as whitemoon-Lyra.

Hiro happily moved on to a different topic. "I've only been in Destiny City recently. Since a bit before you joined us. Before that, I was working with... Marthozite," Hiro stumbled over the name of the now-deceased General-King, "in Africa. They say I must have been in Europe or somewhere before that, since no senshi or cats ever awoke in Africa, but I don't remember that."

Something they had in common. No memories before their 'rebirth' as a member of the Negaverse, and only vague second-hand tales about their lives before that.

"So, I haven't worked with corrupted senshi before moving here," he continued. "I must say I do prefer it."

Not that he didn't like the normal Negaverse officers - especially those enthusastic ones like Painite - but they weren't senshi. And part of Hiro's Mauvian makeup said he was meant to be helping senshi. Actually having some to assist and train made him feel so much better. So much so that he was all but basking in Sabine's presence and nearly missed her next question.

"Around my- ?" Hiro glanced down, even though he knew exactly what he was wearing. "It's an obi. Part of traditional Japanese dress. They used to be what held a kimono closed, but now I think they're more decoration."

Why yes, Hiro did know some rather useless information. No doubt picked up from watching all his martial arts tournaments on tv.

Hiro chuckled weakly. "I don't know whther he would have wanted me to regain my memories or not." The memories might have been useful if Hiro had known of any senshi prior to his corruption. Or they might have divided Hiro's loyalties or priorities. The cat couldn't guess which option Marthozite would have thought more important. "But he died recently, so that's a moot point."

It seemed to be the first question of the senshi he met lately, Hiro thought. How many were there in the same shoes, they wanted to know. Perhaps he should arrange a meeting of all the corrupted senshi so that they could answer each others' questions. Hiro had yet to meet them all himself, but he had heard that there were a few who'd been around much longer than Alkaid.

"I've met you, Alkaid and Alunite so far," he told Sabine. "I know there are several more. But I wouldn't think more than a handful." He thought it unlikely that the Negaverse would waste too much time and energy on subverting the senshi when it was quicker and easier to simply kill them. Alunite had been an accident - and there were whispers he wasn't the first. Lyra, now Ammolite, had been revenge. Hiro wasn't sure what Alkaid had been, and wasn't sure he wanted to know. (Would he then hurt that person or thank them? Perhaps it was better not to find out.)

Hiro's ears perked up at the title, despite his best efforts to appear unaffected. It was as close to a proper Masahiro-sama as he was likely to get. It wasn't a bad sound, he thought, flicking his tail where it lay curled around his legs.

"Hmm, I suppose I could," he said, inwardly gleeful. More soldiers that would be properly trained. And senshi, to boot! Oh yes, today was turning out to be a very good day for Hiro. He warned Sabine, "It will be hard work, though!"

Hiro perked up when it was revealed that Ly- Ammolite, he corrected himself, and Alkaid had already met. Excellent. The Negaverse's senshi should be there for one another, especially since there were so few of them.

Several of the Negaverse officers had a place in Hiro's heart, but they simply wouldn't understand the memory loss and out-of-place feeling that the senshi and Guardians Cats experienced on being converted. "You're not alone," he reminded Sabine. She already knew Alkaid, he wouldn't certainly ensure that Alunite met the two girls, and they all had Hiro himself. It was a smaller, stranger, senshi family than they would have had previously - not that any of them remembered - but still a senshi family just the same. Now with Negaverse cousins or in-laws.

Hiro beamed at Sabine as she spoke of being able to handle hard work, and asking to jump in right away. The hand over where her starseed currently rested wasn't lost of him, either. Embued with Negaverse energy or not, a senshi starseed never led them astray.

"Of course you can handle it," he purred. "You're a very strong Eternal." As evidenced by her corrupted, alone. Hiro had learned from watching regular corruption attempts (and listening in dark corners) that the weak of heart didn't survive the process. He didn't see why the same criteria wouldn't apply to senshi as well as to normal humans - only the strongest made it through.

"Tomorrow night," Hiro advised after some thought on when he was free to work with Ammolite. He had some business with Tanzanite and whoever her best information officer was first, and daylight wasn't conducive to hiding from the general public. "We can patrol and see what you need to polish up on."

He spoke as though it was a done deal, but he still waited, head cocked, to see if she agreed.