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Aruna was no stranger to the weird and unpleasant happenings of the city at night. The strange monsters at holiday times, the youma and chaos operatives at all the other times, it was just par for the course living in Destiny City. So when she found herself looking down from a rooftop to see as civilian being stared down by a youma that looked particularly hungry, it really didn't startle her all that much. Of course she cared and was alarmed that a civilian was in danger, but the fact that it was happening was what didn't really come as a surprise.

Scowling, she allowed herself to drop down, landing surprisingly gracefully for how graceless she felt as a civilian, and drew herself up to her full height, standing straight with her shoulders back. "Sorry, you get to go without a snack tonight, youma." She kept her eyes on the creature as she carefully moved past the civilian to stand in front of him. "How about you pick on someone who can fight back?" The tiniest smile curved her lips and she brought her foot down on the pavement hard, the terrain before her shifting as an onslaught of magical rocks and debris collided with the monster. "Raging slide."

Hearing the boy hit the ground, Aruna gave him an apologetic look before turning back to scowl at the youma again. Did it seriously not go down? This thing was tougher than she had thought. And then there was a youma flinging itself towards her and there was no more time for thought. Lifting an arm to shield herself, Aruna flinched and grit her teeth as the youma collided with her, feeling something sharp tear at the hip of her fuku, right where not too long ago, lightning had branded her with a serpentine marking.

A hiss escaped her, and then she froze. Was... was that civilian intentionally trying to get himself killed? A rock sailed by her and bonked the creature in the head, bouncing off almost comically. If it had been another time, Aruna would have laughed at how hilarious it looked. Right now however? Not so much. Moving to put herself between the youma and the boy again, she made sure the civilian wouldn't get hit again before launching her attack.

Foot slamming down onto the ground, her attack unleashed against the youma a second time, finally dusting it. Sighing in relief when the creature dissipated, Aruna turned to look at the boy who had been targeted by it. "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Reaching into her subspace, she retrieved a small box of bandages and held it up in offering to him with a small smile.

Aruna reached out to catch the boy by the arm, just barely too slow. She winced as he hit the ground, feeling guilty. "Shoot, I'm sorry!" She saw the distress the poor boy was having and crouched down in front of him, gently using an antiseptic wipe (also procured from her subspace) to clean the scrape before putting a bandage over it.

"Take a slow, deep breath, alright? You're okay, you're safe. I promise. Nothing is going to get to you while I'm here, okay?" She let her hand rest on his arm over the bandage, hoping to give him some form of comfort. Once she was sure he was going to be okay, she spoke again. "Let's take one thing at a time, okay? My name is Aruna. I'm a sailor senshi, Super Sailor Aruna of Landslides. That monster was called a youma. People like me fight monsters like those. Are you with me so far?" Her voice was soft, calm and soothing as she gently explained things.

She shook her head, still smiling softly as she reached up to touch her collar. "No, like... like sailor collars on uniforms. I don't know why that's our title, but senshi means warrior or soldier, and that's pretty fitting for what we do." The compliment, calling her pretty, caught her off guard and she blinked at him, electing to assume he was just a little delusional.

"Youma. They're called youma. And yes, people like me. There are other people like me that have powers like this. One of my friends can summon harpies, for example. And there are others who have more physical weapon based things. They're called knights."

At his question, she looked down at her side, not having realized that the scar from the lightning strike was showing. "I'm alright. It only tore fabric and just grazed the skin." She gestured at the mark beneath the fabric. "That's not from this, it's from a lightning strike a few weeks back. That's....it's a long story that you shouldn't have to worry about. Not right now, at least." Her fingers brushed against the tear of her fuku and the scar, momentarily lost in thought before returning her attention to him.

"I'll be alright. Senshi and knights have higher durability than civilians. We're faster, stronger, and more durable so we can fight monsters and corrupted negaverse agents and keep people safe." She slowly got to her feet and held a hand out him with a kind smile. "Lets move somewhere less.... well, somewhere that isn't a dark alley? I'm sure there's a park bench here somewhere we could sit on, if you'd like to ask more questions?"

Aruna gently helped Mason to his feet, making sure he was steady before walking. She nodded at the question, not being opposed to walking as they talked. “If you wanted to take a moment to sit on a bench just to get your bearings, that would be understandable. That being said, I was going to offer to walk with you anyway. I want to make sure you get where you’re going safe and sound.” The idea of someone being that worried for him made her feel warm. It was a foreign concept to her, but nice all the same.

“Honestly there’s probably an endless amount of us. It’s….all a little overwhelming if you think on it too much at first. It’s only been about a year since I awakened as Aruna, and it was a fairly big shock to me at first too. There’s a lot of information, a lot of names, and a lot of impossible things that seem to not make sense. But the most important thing is knowing who is safe and who isn’t. Which brings us to Agents.” She stepped into the light of a street lamp so he could see her fuku properly as she gestured to her bodice. “The bodice of my outfit is white. As is the bodice of all Order senshi. Knights are a bit more difficult to figure, but if they’re holding something that doesn’t look lethal, they’re usually a good bet. Senshi aligned with Chaos will have a black bodice, and Agents, the inverse of our Knights, will have lethal weapons with them and darker, more militaristic style clothes. There are two types of chaos senshi, Negaverse and Dark Mirror. Both have black bodices, though Dark Mirror have a sort of gauzy over layer to their outfit? But either way, I suggest staying a safe distance away if they have a black bodice. Negaverse, or rather Corrupt Senshi, have what appear to be cracks here and here.” She pointed to her forehead and then the center of her chest as she spoke. “They’re pretty recognizable so it should be easy to avoid them should you encounter them.”

She watched Mason’s face, using his expressions to measure how much he understood. “If you have more questions so far, I would be happy to do my best to explain further?”

“I honestly don't know if you'll encounter them a lot or not. I'm sorry, I wish I had a better answer. That's like….asking if you'll encounter a lot of redheads though, I think. It's possible, but who knows?” She gave him an apologetic smile.

“Youma. They're called youma. I…. don't know if it's dead, or if it just reforms somewhere. I admittedly don't know a whole lot about them to begin with, other than they see people as food, more or less. But yes, it very much wanted you to be dinner.” She knew that wouldn't make him feel any better, but it was better to be honest.

Oh. Right. That would make sense for him to be a bit confused. “Senshi are just….fundamentally speaking, normal people. Our soul, more or less, is connected to someone who had these powers before, and the powers awaken when the time is right. That's….the condensed version at least. There's a lot more to it, but that's the very very condensed version. Maybe it would be easier to show you though….” She glanced around to make sure they were alone before letting her henshin drop. Where Aruna once stood in her green, brown, and red fuku, now stood Halia in a tea length soft pink skirt, light brown ankle boots, and a white sleeveless blouse.

Hearing her name exclaimed made her pause and really look at the boy. How did he…. Oh. Now she recognized him. They were a few years apart but had been in school together. And he was on the cheer squad. With her sister. Crap. Color drained from her already pale face as she quickly realized this, and she looked visibly alarmed.

“You cannot breathe a word of this to Maya. Please….” There was genuine fear in her eyes as she looked at him, belying something horrible beneath the shiny pretty veneer of her sister. “Just….. please, I'll do anything you ask. Just please don't tell her.” Fear. Genuine fear. Something that seemed out of place for something like this.