estoria | (Open) Come on, choose one. You mustn't be afraid.

Entry tags:

(Open) Come on, choose one. You mustn't be afraid.

Who: Rei Hino

faithfulflame & You! This is open!
When: 2/1-2/6 (7/10-7/18)
Where: All over Cerealia. Entertainment District, Shopping District, Residential District, Research District
What: Rei goes out to check on some people, take care of some business/be social, and spend time with various people.
Rating/Warning: None save maybe language? Will update as needed.

I. Residential District:

[Today there's a young woman walking rather briskly through the winding streets of the residential areas. She's got something on her mind, a focus and more than a few worries weighing on her of late. There are questions she has, and people she needs to talk to. If it happens that she brushes past you on the street, there may even be a palpable sense of heat following her despite the chill. Her control is slipping, and she needs to get answers and information.

She's heading for specific apartments, preceded by a simple text message request to speak. Athena Cykes, Nonon Jakuzure, Simon Blackquill and England can all expect to hear from Rei at some point, but there are other people she's checking up on. CR can assume they're on this list, I cannot list all of you!

II. CERES Gym:

[Rei's kendo training is coming along well, and she's showing up at the gym even when she doesn't have classes with Sousei to practice both that and her archery, sometimes late into the evening. Her hands are steady as she holds the shinai, and her eyes are focused on each target she looses an arrow at. To an experienced observer she's much more comfortable with the bow, but she's seemingly taking to the bamboo sword rather quickly. Sweat and hard work may not be particularly dignified, but given how insane everything's been lately? She's willing to just give up on that for now.

Hard at work, she may not notice observers until she pauses, or practically sinks down next to a water cooler. Grab her however!]

III. Research District:

[Realizing that her control is in fact slipping and has for a day or so, Rei makes her way to the hospital to get a quick checkup. It's not that she's worried she's overdoing it...but she is, and she's hardly foolish enough to let the signs of stress go unanswered.

After her checkup, she heads out of the medical facility wearing a very severe frown, looking around and hoping she's not going to run into anyone she knows. That's probably not the case, knowing her luck, but she can hope, right?]

IV. Shopping District/Auto Shop:

[This is a bit of a whim of hers, but one she's decided to indulge. It's not like she can't afford something nice, and after the scare with the buses and trains recently it has a bit more practical application. So, here she is, browsing the selection of motor-bikes available. She's actually considering it seriously, simply to have an alternate way to work.

Look out roads...]

V. Closed to Minako Aino:

[The Shopping District was something alright. The selection of things to eye-shop and possibly by rivaled and probably exceeded downtown Tokyo, but Rei'd never quite admit it. She'd also never admit to Minako that she was letting all this stress and worry get to her, but it seemed the blonde had picked up on that without prompting. At least, that was what the raven-haired priestess had assumed when she'd been told that they were going out that evening for shopping and dinner, so that Rei could 'Loosen up a bit!'

And with no choice in it and the matter settled, here they were, outside a large department store. Just before Valentine's Day...]

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If CERES is to be believed, mostly because she's dead. But well, if CERES is to be believed, then we can get them back in due time, so it's nothing to get too broken up about!

[ It should be obvious that she misses her family terribly, but Nanoha's putting up a strong facade. Being alone is fine, really! As long as they're working towards ending this awful situation! ]

And I don't believe a word of that story. It's not possible that such a thing's occurred.

[There may be a note of almost religious zeal in her voice. She cannot and will not believe that the Ginzuisho failed somehow to protect the world. Not after everything they'd been through.]

There's another explanation, so I'm sure she's alive.

I believed it. It was way too ridiculous to be a lie, right? At least that's what I thought, but after some investigating I'm beginning to doubt it. It's hard to say for sure, but what I have to do doesn't change: I keep investigating, and I keep training for the battles to come.

[ In many ways, being a magical girl was easy. Find the bad guys, and blow them up with huge blasts of magic. Of course, bad guys rarely made themselves obvious right from the start, but that was fine. ]

It'd be best if this was some ridiculous joke and everyone is actually alive, of course, but I'm still stuck apart from her...

[The woman's vociferous attitude isn't lost on Rei. She understands it, rather keenly at that, and appreciates it. She hated the thought, absolutely so, of something like that happening, and it sounded just insane.]

You'll get back to her. Because she's not dead. [That stubborn set to her jaw remains.]

Because you're right to doubt it. CERES is not exactly an upstanding organization. Obviously.

I will. No matter what the truth of the matter is, I'll get all of them back, and while I'm at it, I'll help get everyone else back home too. [ She's completely serious. She'll do it. ]

With or without CERES.

[ And that's that. ]

Oh, right. I'm Nanoha, Takamachi Nanoha. What can I call you?

[Good resolve. Very good. You sound a lot like Haruka, okay?

She'll just nod in agreement.]

Hino Rei. It's nice to meet you, Nanoha-san.

It's good to see you too Rei! Now then, all this talking about getting home has gotten me in the mood for more training. [ Nanoha's actually always in the mood for more training. She's a chronic workaholic. ]

Love and justice isn't enough to win the day after all, my magic isn't nearly so convenient!

Magic?

[It's a single word that Rei the priestess zeroes in on. Does this woman actually know magic? She starts casting out with her supernatural senses, trying to get a bead on that...]

Magic.

[ Nanoha's not exactly hiding her identity as a mage. It's her one big failing as a magical girl. Rei would easily be able to find that Nanoha's full of magical energy, centred around an intangible, pulsing core in her chest next to her heart.

Not that she'd need to, because Nanoha's summoned a small pink orb in her left hand. ]

See? [ She tosses it with a flick of her wrist, and it zooms across the room to smack a training dummy on the side of its head. ]

[Rei is a little different, as she's keeping her identity tightly guarded. It helps that she actually only has limited spiritual abilities when she isn't in full on Goddess of War mode, though.

The orb is watched and gets a blink from Rei. That seems like something that maybe Chibiusa would do...]

That's pretty impressive. Bubbles of magical energy? I can't do anything like that.

Something like that. I wouldn't call it anything as cute as "bubbles," though. More like "bullets." [ She's a military grade magical girl after all. ]

So you're saying you can do something else? That's really cool! I haven't met many girls who can use any magic at all. [ She's met a boy and a shark-man, but that's really not the same. ]

Well, bullets then.

[She thinks Bubbles because of Ami...]

And I can, though nothing so direct. I'm a miko, at home. And what I can do is a lot less flashy. [She holds up a hand and calls out a flickering flame.] Except this. But I can't use it the same way.

So miko actually have spiritual powers... I could never know for sure. That's really interesting. Not to mention I don't have any elemental powers! Where I come from, they're really rare. I only know three people who can use fire at all!

Not...all of us. I do, but I am a little bit unusual in my world.

[Read: Very]

But you know other people who can do that?

I see. That's a little unfortunate, it would have been really cool. [ But really, she about expected that. There were many shrine maidens and priests of all kinds, and as far as she knew, not many magically-inclined people on Earth. ]

Let's see, Signum, Agito, and Rio. Those names probably wouldn't mean anything to you, but they are fire aligned.

[Well, there is that.]

Are any of them here? Because otherwise no, the names don't ring a bell.

No, they aren't. Unfortunately it seems like I'm the only person from my world who got taken here. Oh, but if we're talking about people I've met on Cerealia, there's a couple who have some kind of fire powers. There's Ruca, I met him on the network asking about magic, and then there was this guy I spotted who set his own foot on fire after I was done sparring with Vegeta...

Well, then no, I don't know them. It's a shame about your friends and family though. I'm lucky enough to have one person from home. An old friend from high school. But she's pretty ordinary, as far as magic goes.

And you sparred with Vegeta? Really? That guy's rather intense.

A little bit of luck in an unlucky situation, I guess? Make sure you keep your friends close, Cerealia can be a dangerous place for a couple of girls without powers.

[ What with the fortnightly happenings that invariably meant Nanoha had to fire a Buster at something. ]

Yeah, I lost completely! That kind of speed and power is totally unfair! At least I got a couple of good shots in, and it's good to know there's another fighter on this colony who can fly. Most of the challengers were land-bound, which can be a big disadvantage in a real fight.

We're not defenseless.

[Rei gestures to the bow and shinai to one side.]

And I imagine you did. The way he moves is something else. I saw him when he and his wife arrived. I've never felt a presence quite like his. Or Jaco-san's.

I'm sure you can handle pickpockets and the occasional thugs, but the giant fan-robots at CEREScon and berserk cleaning robots not too long ago would probably be a little rough. [ Not to mention who carries their shinai everywhere? Either Rei was just a bit weird, or there was more than meets the eye. Not that Nanoha was the type to pry here. ]

It really is! I'm going to challenge him again, and next time I'll find a weakness! Just because he's legendarily strong doesn't mean he's invincible!

Don’t trouble yourself about me, Nanoha-san. I’ve been here for several months, and dealt with my fair share of trouble. Ghosts, demons, haunted amusement parks, berserk robots, and more things than I care to count and I haven’t been hurt yet. I don’t need anyone worrying about me.

[It helps that she carries a knife now, that she’s extremely athletic, can throw fire, and can transform. Not that she intends to talk about that.]

And no, he’s not invincible. I already know his weakness, and that’s his pride and his ego.

[Like all musclebound apes.]

Well, if you say you can take care of yourself, I'm sure you can manage it just fine, but if things ever look bad, I'm here to help! I work as a bodyguard here. At any place, at any time, give me a call and I'll fly right over!

[ Why was she giving her pitch? Because apparently she had to advertise aggressively or nobody would ever realise the service was there. ]

He certainly believes he can beat everyone on this colony in a fight, but it's not much use trying to take advantage of that fact when he has beaten everyone in a fight. Maybe if we started a kilometre apart...

I'll...keep it in mind.

[Rei isn't sure why she's making the offer, she just knows that she's not really interested in a bodyguard. Strong, independent woman that she is, even without the magical power, she would rather not ask for help if possible. Maybe from Vegeta, if things were really bad, but normal threats here wouldn't be too much trouble.

Still better to be polite.]

I wouldn't think that'd make much difference, honestly. Vegeta-san is really quite fast.

[ Rei just seemed like the type of person who walked around with bodyguards. She just gave off the aura of someone from old money. Perhaps it was because she looked too much like an archetypical yamato nadeshiko? Of course, that wasn't quite the case. She clearly looked like she had no use for bodyguards. ]

He's faster than me, that's for sure, but he's a martial artist and I'm a shooting mage. The longer I can stay away from him, the more openings I can find! [ That would be a good plan, if Vegeta didn't have ki blasts. Unfortunately she hasn't had the opportunity to see them, every fight she saw had been resolved without so much as a Galick Gun. ]

Well, I'm sure I'll figure something out eventually! I'll let you get back to your practice now. I should really do the same if I'm going to catch up to Vegeta!

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faithfulflame - 2015-07-14 23:56 (UTC) - Expand

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