[center][h2]Nightime Debrief[/h2]
[color=BFBFBF]Zenkichi Hasegawa[/color] & Sandalphon
Banishing Flats/Frozen Highlands
[b]Word count:[/b] 2,159 (+3 XP/Rapport) [/center]

Band's commiseration had, perhaps paradoxically, bolstered Zenkichi's spirits a little. Awkward interactions around the table with Nadia aside, it was heartening to be reminded that he had kindred spirits within the Seekers. Nadia was fun, Geralt was a consummate professional with a reluctant heroic streak, and Sakura was a pure ray of sunshine, but he and Band had a lot of shared feelings and ideals that helped remind the eldest Phantom Thief that he wasn't alone here, even as far from the other Thieves as he was. 

As they returned to Banishing Flats, Zenkichi bid Band a good night before making his way into the small park that the other detective-turned-Skullgirl Hunter had played in, finding a bench to sit upon. Looking out at the dwindling foot traffic, he smiled before bringing his finger to his ear and speaking. [Color=BFBFBF]”Hey, Sands. How are things going over on your team's end? We actually managed to locate the Guardian in Esaka…well, the Guardians, apparently. The Four Kings are more than just in charge of the martial arts tournaments it seems.”[/color] 

“Interesting,” Sandalphon’s voice replied. “Progress in the Frozen Highlands is good. We decided this morning that drawing the Guardian to us would be more prudent than attempting to chase him down, and are bound for a suitable destination. I estimate our expedition to be approximately fifty percent of the way to the goal.” The archangel spoke as if delivering a mission report, clinical and deadpan. “Although two of our number were forced to retreat, we have not suffered any casualties. In fact, we have gained several new recruits.” Only after a few moments did Sandalphon consider that Zenkichi might want more from her than a succinct status update. Nevertheless, as the Seekers’ elected leader she could not shirk her own responsibilities, so she returned the detective’s question. “Does your team have a plan in mind for the deposition of these Four Kings?”

[Color=BFBFBF]”I'm glad nobody's been hurt, then.”[/color] Zenkichi replied first, nodding at the information Sandalphon was reporting. [Color=BFBFBF]”I'd have hated to hear anybody was lost. We've picked up a few new recruits on our end, as well. Harry found his partner from his world, and we recruited a local fighter named Terry. We're planning to join the tournaments to fight through the ranks and earn an audience and chance to fight each of the Kings, and take them down all at once so they don't have a chance to come back. On that note, there is something strange about Esaka. It seems like killed fighters are returning to life extremely quickly, so much so that there's a tournament where the losers are, quite literally executed publicly, but are fine in a day or two. The locals are chalking it up to spectacle, but from what Sakura and Terry have said…I don't think its just special effects. I think Moebius is manipulating the system to bring people back quickly enough to hide that they're actually dying.”[/color] 

The call was quiet for a brief moment as Sandalphon thought. “If this seemed like the most viable solution, the odds are highly stacked against Gold Team. The failure of even one person could render the entire endeavor moot, and if your foes catch on to your intentions, you may not get a second chance.” It sounded like victory in Esaka involved a much more difficult set of conditions than in Midgar. Sandalphon found herself hesitant to ask for the specifics of the upcoming tournaments, lest she actually become able to calculate his abysmal the Seekers’ chances were. Instead, she tried to pivot toward the other matter Zenkichi mentioned. “It stands to reason that the prolonged existence of Moebius would drive its members to seek as efficient a system as possible for the slaughter and harvest of their livestock. If Esaka’s Flame Clock runs not on the flames of other colonies, but instead cannibalizes itself like a serpent eating its own tail, such an endless source of sustenance and entertainment may very well represent a ‘perfect example’ of what Moebius desires. They won’t part with it lightly.”

Zenkichi couldn't bring himself to disagree with Sandalphon's assessment of their odds. [Color=BFBFBF]”Yeah, it's…not ideal, to say the least. I think some of the others just want to get involved in the tournament for the sake of the fight, but there is a legitimate snag in any attempts to attack them directly: The city is apparently protected by a sort of metaphysical spirit of fair play, at least as far as the tournaments go. And if the Four Kings are really the Guardian like the Organization XIII member said they are…well, there's no reason they or Moebius couldn't take advantage of that. I fully expect the Consuls to try and ambush us the night before our fights with the Kings, assuming we all get that far.”[/color] Cynical, perhaps, but they'd directly stood in their way against the Gravemind and against the Guardians of Midgar and apparently the Under. It would be foolish not to prepare. [Color=BFBFBF]”Speaking of Organization XIII, I asked them about the ten-year limit, to see if they had any knowledge about getting around it. They just said that beating Galeem is the only way around it if you're already in the system. So, nothing there yet. I'm not sure if using a Guardian Spirit does anything on that front either, but it apparently being split among four people is so strange that I don't even know what form it might take.”[/color]

“It seems like it would be inconvenient for Moebius and Galeem if their Guardians expired every ten years,” Sandalphon remarked. She could extrapolate that the matter that really interested Zenkichi wasn’t Guardian longevity, though, but the newly revealed conundrum that now troubled them both. In theory the archangel had good news on that front, but she wasn’t sure how much she wanted to tell Zenkichi. There was no guarantee that her plan would work, after all. “I inquired with several others about various methods of cheating death in other worlds,” she told him. “No definitive answer yet. One individual I met, Mokou, claims to be ageless and immortal thanks to an irreplaceable tonic called the Hourai Elixir, but there is every indication that the ten-year limit has claimed her life in the past. Extending one’s lifespan is not the solution, since one’s lifespan has no relevance to the limit. Such an end is more like erasure than death; the product of an external ‘off switch’ than anything biological.”

Sandalphon paused briefly. “I was fortunate enough, though, to have discovered one possible lead. I am taking steps to investigate further.”

Zenkichi took a long, slow breath, reminding himself not to get ahead of himself. A lead was just that: a lead. It [i]was[/i] good that she'd made better progress on that front than he had, though. [Color=BFBFBF]”That's good to hear. I hope it goes somewhere, but I'll be keeping my eye out and see if I find anything. I figure Nadia's sort of immortality deal would work just like that Mokou girl, good for avoiding being killed outright, but no help against the time limit.”[/color] What happened to Band wouldn't be of help here, either, he figured, as he'd only had much of his body replaced by machinery. More like getting a bunch of prosthetic parts than an actual body transfer or life extension. And it wasn't like she could go and join Moebius. Consul S was still alive onboard the Avenger, and from what happened to Peach, it seemed like one had to die to join Moebius. That was, for obvious reasons, a risk he wasn't willing to ask her to take, nor did he believe Sandalphon would want to take it. 

[Color=BFBFBF]”There…was one other specific thing I wanted to talk to you about. Unrelated to the campaign. It's been weighing on me for a while now, and today really made it hit home. In my world, on Earth, there were a lot of different video game series. Pretty popular, and Japan made a lot of them, some of the earliest and most famous series. Things like Super Mario Bros, where a pair of red and green wearing plumbers saved Princess Peach from the evil Bowser, or Pokemon, where trainers would collect and battle each other with fantastical creatures that they captured in Poke Balls. Like…what Geralt and Roxas have. Here, in the World of Light. And I know for a fact that at least two of the tournaments here are named the exact same thing as the most famous arcade games from my world: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. I know, not exactly original names, but spelling Kombat with a K isn't the first thing you'd come up with. And for a while there, I was freaking out because somehow I wound up in a world with fictional characters? And that got me thinking all sorts of crazy things about what that means for my existence, all of our existences here…”[/color] Zenkichi paused to take a breath and re-center himself. [Color=BFBFBF]”But…I decided that it doesn't really matter [i]how[/i] that came to be. We're all here. We're all part of this world now, we all live, breathe, fight, hope, eat, sleep, dream, we fall in love, have families…it's all real, no matter where we came from. Sorry if that was really weird and out of nowhere, but like I said, it was weighing on me a lot, and I needed to get it off my chest. And I feel like I needed to hear myself say it, too.”[/color]

The two experienced a brief lull in the conversation before Sandalphon responded, her tone as officious as ever. “As far as I’m concerned, the existence of the World of Light is strong evidence for what’s commonly referred to as the ‘multiverse theory’, which states that reality exists in the form of infinite alternate universes. If this theory is true, it means that any variation is possible in some universe or another. Perhaps, in some universes, you and I only exist in games. Maybe others are just stories in ours. I have heard of other Sandalphons in the World of Light, for instance, several of them male. Nations called the United States and Japan existed in the world of Senator Armstrong and the Winds of Destruction, just as in yours, but I doubt you’ve heard of the Patriots, or they of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.”

Before she could get too side-tracked with examples, she focused on Zenkichi’s endpoint. “So yes, there is no need to apologize. I am in agreement with your conclusion. Whatever our origins, we are here now, alive, and no less real than anyone else.” She paused briefly, her voice hardening. “Never bow before nihility, Zenkichi. Not even Moebius, who treat all lives as their playthings, truly believe in nihility. They are merely the most selfish and afraid, each believing that out of everything, only their lives matter. Our rebellion against nihility is choosing to believe that [i]everything[/i] matters. I know you care a great deal, and I am glad. As long as we care, anything is possible.” She inhaled as her voice dropped. “At the same time, though, we must defy Moebius, the fear of loss that swindles us out of our futures. If my research does not pan out, you may have to let me go.”

Zenkichi nodded to himself as Sandalphon replied about the various worlds. It wasn't an absurd theory, and Geralt had mentioned something about multiple worlds colliding in [i]his[/i] world's last, so there had to be something to it. Her stark warning earned a smile from Zenkichi. Her words sounded so grave, but he felt, or maybe imagined, the care they belied. [Color=BFBFBF]”Never again.”[/color] He promised. [Color=BFBFBF]”I wasted enough time hiding and waiting. Enough time wondering what the point was. And…if it doesn't work out…I promise I won't give up again. We both deserve better than that.”[/color] Despite the painful subject, Zenkichi couldn't help but smile. [Color=BFBFBF]”I'm glad you care, Sandalphon. It means so much.”[/color] He replied, softly. 

“Of course,” the archangel replied. “And rest assured, while I have no intention of embodying Moebius, I will not give up my life easily. Our bond means a great deal to me as well. I…” She paused briefly, her tone slightly awkward for the first time, as if she were having trouble finding the right words. “...Stay safe, Zenkichi. Though we are far apart right now, we must hold one another together.”

[Color=BFBFBF]”You, too, Sands. I can't wait to see you again, once we've dealt with these Guardians.”[/color]

“Likewise.” Zenkichi could hear the sound of her inhale, then exhale before she spoke again. “Good night.”

[Color=BFBFBF]”Goodnight, Sandalphon.”[/color] Zenkichi replied, pulling his hand from his ear with a small smile. He felt much better after that talk, and he could let the others know in the morning that White Team had been making good progress in their own Guardian hunt.