2827/Hasn't Been Hiddenite Lately

Hasn't Been Hiddenite Lately
Date of Scene:	08 November 2025
Location:	Korma Chameleon
Synopsis:	The Shitennou (and Ami) are ready to tell Mamoru the truth about Hiddenite. Mamoru... only avoids crashing out because he's in public.
Cast of Characters:	Kazuo Saitou, Nephrite, Ami Mizuno, Zoisite, Mamoru Chiba

---

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The place was Masato's idea. Kazuo wouldn't've thought of it - he has, oddly enough, never actually been inside the Korma for longer than enough time to pick up takeaway. Sometimes a lot of takeaway, granted. But once Masato suggested it, he agreed, dining area sight unseen. If they're too close to people to talk privately, he figured, they could always eat first and tell Mamoru on arriving home.

... they are not too close to people to talk privately. This is a delight.

The food here is also a delight, which is why distracting people with ordering occurs first. There is no interrupting the decisions. It's after people have chosen that Kazuo glances between them - to Izou first, checking on his state, then to Masato, whose judgment on 'now? after food? something?' is probably better than his or Izou's, and definitely better than Tamaki's.

... probably he should have come up with an internal reason to glance at Mamoru too. Probably.

Nephrite has posed:
Tamaki is already totally taken with the menu and the ordering process, perhaps because it's a little easier than thinking over how they're all going to do this-- definately easier than answering Kazuo's 'look'. The answer from him seems to be 'after food', even turning to Masato beside him to point at a platter, half way through an order. "Oh, wait... This is great too, though. Can we split this? We should split this--"

"Just pick one, Tama-kun." Masato looks distracted, and he's already rubbing at his cheek. He's trading a glance with Kazuo and Izou next. Then his sapphire gaze lands on Mamoru, perhaps a little too attentively, as if to make up for Kazuo's avoidance. He looks about to say something, hesitant.

"And get the sandesh for Ami-chan." That's all he manages.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
As though he were her bodyguard in this, Ami had settled herself in beside Masato in just such a fashion as to ensure that the tall, brown-haired Shitennou sat between herself and Mamoru. She'd already organised a glass of water for herself, rather than a coffee, because the relatively tiny Senshi already knew what was coming. It made her mouth dry and, much like Kazuo, Ami was avoiding Mamoru with her direct gaze.

Izou. Izou was safe. She smiled at him pleasantly before her attention could be diverted by a very important suggestion from Masato.

"Yes." She agreed to the offer of sandesh quite quickly. "That would be lovely."

Then she sipped at her water to avoid saying anything further.

Zoisite has posed:
At least they were doing this together. The four of them, regardless of what they felt about Riventon and the situation with Hiddenite. It made his teeth itch really, now having more time to think. A mixture of sentiments that have not settled well, firmly between an understanding sympathy that he could extend due to his more recent adventures, only to be staring back at the utter rage he felt that could rival his disgust toward Demande.

Either way, his own emotions would be put aside for the evening (hopefully) in favor of attending Mamoru. And he doubted any of them would have the strength to do this alone.

Izou mostly favored his tea as a distraction over the menu before catching Kazuo's gaze.

No. Definitely not Tamaki. And Izou had less stakes in this than Kazuo and Masato. In fact, Masato was almost killed along with Mamoru, so if anyone should break the news, it should be them. It felt more appropriate.

Green eyes went from boyfriend to roommate to Mamoru's ex in a matter of seconds, lifting an eyebrow like he was giving them the 'if you need me to bluntly spill the cup, I will' look.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamo's been genial the whole time, he LOVES Korma, and -- okay, he's a little confused, and he's been wracking his brains for what special occasion it could be that they're taking him out to dinner. But the longer they go with people saying Very Little, or nothing at all, and Kazuo and Ami?! avoiding?? looking at him?? And Izou's not looking at him either-- and everyone's trading glances, and Mamoru shrinks as he sits down, not reaching for a menu yet.

"What is it," he asks, and his fingertips are white on the table's edge.

They were going out! He's dressed reasonably nicely, though it's his leather jacket hanging from the back of his chair, and those are black jeans, not black slacks. But, black silk shirt and his fancy shoes, clean glasses, fluffy hair...

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
They are all so incredibly subtle.

Kazuo sets a hand on the table, inside Mamoru's reach if he can do it, as wordless reassurance that It's Not Him - he can check and see. Then he says, "It's old news we just got more information on. Something your brother was doing, irritating but not disastrous, and not a problem that needs solving. Just awkward. We're all so very good with awkward. Do you want the details now so you can shrug off the idiocy before the food gets here, or do you want to be fortified before you facepalm?"

Nephrite has posed:
Tamaki makes a face, because Kazuo is setting the ball rolling. It's inevitable, now. It's going to happen before they can even eat, and maybe that's for the best. It was a stomach turning revelation-- he still gets angry thinking about the things that were said after that witch fight.

"We could totally sue him for copyright infringement." He adds, perhaps unhelpfully. "And also, what he did was unbelievably cringe. Like... no coming back from that, kind of cringe."

Masato sighs, letting his head tip to and fro, and he spends a long moment eyeing Izou, before finally rolling his shoulders. "I'm not one to throw the word cringe around, but he's right." He clicked his tongue. "It was. Even more so when you consider what was said, and... other things that happened that were really weird."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami set her glass down and remained quiet for a good long while as her gaze fixed upon some central point of the table. Others spoke--Kazuo, Tamaki, Masato--and that was reprieve enough for her to manage a fairly small nod. Then sapphirine gaze lifted to Mamoru with a reassuring smile.

At least, she hoped it was reassuring.

"I'm just here as moral support." Ami commented politely.

Well. Moral support and sandesh, of course. These were two things that almost guaranteed to conjure Mercury from her studies.

Zoisite has posed:
Oh good, Kazuo started the subject. This will be done sooner than later. Thank the gods for it.

'Oh, maybe the trim is gold because I didn't fall in line with her A SECOND TIME--'

Like kindling, Izou could feel some of the old anger from when those words were uttered. The callousness, how lightly what they've been through was used as cheap imitation. It was a mockery, a sad attempt, a--

"I'd say it was rather 'pathetic' of your brother, really."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"*Gods* just tell me, if it's so bad, if it's so bad but cringe, it can't be any worse than--" he stops before he actually gets to looking at Tamaki, and he looks at Tamaki, and all he can think of is Usagi's memory of Silmil Jadeite's hall of heads, "it can be," he finishes lamely.

Just Kazuo's offer to clear it up by touching is enough to make him relax about ninety percent of the anxiety, and his shoulders de-tense under the black silk. He eyes Ami. "Whose moral support? You're here for the sandesh."

Then he freezes. "Wait, copyright infringement--?" he asks, zeroing in on the unhelpful Jadeite after all. He looks from Tamaki to Masato to Ami to the burgeoning anger of Izou to Kazuo, and he frowns. "There's an obvious connection I can't make because of the Veil, isn't there."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Just the same way the rest of us all missed the connection to a white-haired man concerned about your well-being, trying to play a role connected to you, being cryptic and secretive, and when caught in a lie, doubling down, repeatedly and increasingly angrily, rather than concede the obvious," Kazuo says, leaning back against his chair to stare up at the ceiling briefly. His hand's still on the table, so it's not instead of looking at Mamoru, it's just a silent and cranky appeal to the heavens. His other hand covers Izou's nearer one if he can get away with it, and he pulls his attention back down again. Looking at Mamoru directly, his head tipped a little to the side, hair falling loosely across his shoulder. And says, wry and just a little wearied, "In fairness, he hasn't tried being Hiddenite lately."

Nephrite has posed:
Tamaki, unaware of the direction of Mamoru's thoughts, simply blinks at him. "What?" His brows knit, unable to know what the implication was. He deflects, after Kazuo. "I'm not joking either. Our uniforms could be trademarked for legal protection! You know, at least... In magical circles..." He stumbles on that point, "I've been learning about all this stuff recently for my artworks, there's a real precedent for it. The colours and design elements-- Masato-kun even thinks it could happen again. Another faker could pop up at any time!"

Masato licks at his lip, fiddling at the woven star band upon his wrist-- thinking fondly of Makoto, who would probably just find a way to have spat it out by now. Better to get to it, then. Reel back and punch. Be plain spoken about it. Yeah.

"Our fifth Beatle situation... Yeah." He begins, squinting briefly. "Riventon was behind the whole thing, Mamoru. Right from the start. He was playing us, and trying to drive a very particular wedge between us and you."

He glanced at Ami. "There was some suspicion after I spoke to Takashi about Hiddenite, when he told me that the guy was more or less losing his power and wasn't going to be showing up anymore. Then the fudged data forwarded to Ami... but it was worse than we thought."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
It was quite the feat just how much Ami could manage to convey with a smile. There were dozens of emotions and subtle sentiments that she could communicate all while retaining an air of polite pleasantry. In this case, coloured somewhere around her eyes and the corners of her mouth, the blue-haired senshi managed to make every inch of her expression terse.

"Part of me wishes to be specifically upset with Riventon for managing to meddle with Agera-san's data before he could get it to me." Ami said with a kind of breathy exasperation. "But, this just means that a game is now in play."

This was all metered out quite obliviously. Ami now knew that Riventon and Hiddenite were the same--though she'd never met the latter--but was still unaware of the connection to Takashi. The Veil was weird like that.

Then she cleared her throat.

"Everyone's." Ami replied finally of moral support. "The sandesh is just a bonus because you're all lovely and generous."

Zoisite has posed:
Hand upon hand, Izou squeezed Kazuo's in return, appreciating the care offered. A deep breath, a sip of his tea, quietly thankful that Kazuo breached the subject before he did.

Gaze lifted to meet Mamoru's, watching carefully with anger quickly melting away into concern. The rest of raw data was being delivered by those involved with the entire situation. He himself did not have much to offer in return. Only his presence.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
So Mamoru's like 'just tell me' and Kazuo takes a literal year to get to the point-- granted it's all great context and grinding the point home that the Veil is powerful as hell-- but Mamoru's jaw is working already by the time Kazuo says enough indirectly that...

...he still can't do it. His eyes blaze indignant blue, which is a shade between indigo and ultramarine, and he reaches suddenly to slap his hand over Kazuo's, and Kazuo gets to see the Veil defeating Mamoru in realtime until Masato just says it--

--and the prince goes still, then draws his hand back away from Kazuo as the cold settles in. And then the heat. His ears, his neck, and then his face. He looks at the tabletop, crossing his arms. Tightly. "Gimme a minute," he murmurs. "I see why you did this in public."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
He hasn't tried being Hiddenite lately, Kazuo said.

And that hand over Kazuo's catches the memories, the Shitennou pointing out the flaws in Hiddenite's story, the places where he had information about the Golden Kingdom but ran with it in the wrong direction - and Hiddenite getting a very familiar anger, trying to assert his story over what the others remembered or knew about what actually happened.

They didn't catch it then, either. And Masato is just saying it, still more clearly than Kazuo did --

His turn to squeeze Izou's hand, as his contact with Mamoru breaks. And to look sidelong at him, checking on his state again, half-relieved and half-concerned-in-turn at the change in Izou's body language.

He does not look at Jadeite, this time. Because explaining to him right now that someone willing to fake their uniform is probably not going to be concerned about licensing? Somebody would get punched. Probably Kazuo. Possibly by Mamoru. And that's just not something to trouble Rashmi's family with.

Nephrite has posed:
Tamaki might be the first to look moderately guilty, but soon there will be the comforts of curry. "Sorry. Izou-kun wanted us to all be together to do this, and Masato-kun thought it would be good to do this here..." He wilted a little, finally letting go of a sigh himself, and his head tilted. He looked decently troubled. "You know he said that we were failures for not stopping Serenity and Endymion from getting together?"

This, of course, was a sore point-- especially for him.

"We all knew we couldn't trust him, because he was obviously lying. But... we also tried to give Hiddenite the benefit of the doubt, at first." Tamaki lowered his head to frown. "He repaid it by bringing up the worst things we ever did and rubbing it in our faces. Riventon knew exactly what to hurt us with, and he came out swinging. So... yeah, that was the point. To hurt us and make us doubt ourselves."

Masato nodded after Kazuo, glancing sidelong at Tamaki's grievances. Probably not the best moment for him to say all that, given Mamoru was still processing what must've been an intense pulling back of the curtain, here. "I did stab him, if it makes any difference."

"It didn't count!" Tamaki complained, indignant. "He impaled himself. Can't even be stabbed unless it's on his own terms!"

Masato pinched at the bridge of his nose, rubbing his eyes some. "Alright. Fair point."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami watched Mamoru closely now and concluded that the comforts of curry couldn't come soon enough. It didn't feel like explosive anger, it looked far more contemplative. Which had the awful tendency to be considerably worse.

Her eyes flickered between Kazuo, Tamaki, and Masato as they each spoke, and she found herself nodding. Perhaps not out of any kind of knowing--because she didn't--but, certainly, as some kind of affirmation. They all had complicated feelings about this bizarre mess that Riventon had strewn about their feet and all of it seemed very valid.

It did leave her without a great deal to say, however. She really was mostly here as some kind of moral support.

Her gaze shifted to watch Izou now.

Zoisite has posed:
It was a myriad of thoughts that flashed through his mind when he watched Mamoru take in the information. The way blues became vivid for a moment before flash of heat bloomed on his prince's face. And Kazuo's hold in return, the squeeze--Izou elected to lace their fingers together, let his gaze lift up to meet Kazuo's before returning it to Mamoru's.

The small tinge of cruelty wanted to sprout in his gut. Words of stabbing stitching together with others, like he could needle something more in there of that old anger. But in the middle of everything, the confusing dance of emotions he couldn't place, it dawned on him what it was that Hiddenite and Riventon and Takashi made him feel.

'Pity.'

How fascinatingly strange. Izou leaned his head against Kazuo's shoulder as he waited for Mamoru's moment to come to an end.

"He also tried to take a black sphere gem after the five of us defeated a witch. I slapped his hand away and Kazuo secured it afterwards."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru can't look up at anyone; his ears, his neck, are still red. He takes off his glasses and folds them up, putting them in his shirt pocket. His body language is small, tight, controlled. "Don't make me defend him," he says, and it's dull. He looks at a different spot on the table, then closes his eyes.

"Just... don't ascribe to malice that which can be explained by being a dumbass. He doesn't think the way he thinks about anyone else the way he thinks about me. I have no doubt his goal was to be close to all of us, and to protect me without compromising his status in Obsidian."

The prince's voice is a bitter thing for a moment. "When I was still on his good side."
He still doesn't look up, but he sits up, motions stiff and posture rigid, to mechanically take a menu and open it and start blindly looking in it. "You gave him the benefit of the doubt because I asked you to. Because he saved my life that day, and because even though he was either wholly or mostly lying he felt familiar and trustworthy. Like you four all did when I first met you. He was someone I had a connection to. And he still is, damn it-- damn it." His face twists up, and he ducks his head further, hiding his face behind his fluff of hair.

Unsteadily, he says, "He's so stupid. He's so dumb. And he's an asshole and he's always been an asshole, but the dark energy makes it worse the more there is. And it makes him forget that people are important to him. And he hit you where it hurt because that's what he does when people don't believe his lies. But this..."

Mamoru folds his arms across his stomach, "makes me sick because he had that reaction to me getting hurt by Demande, and then he did it himself. He loves me and wants to protect me as long as I'm not making him really mad. Do you understand? That's what I'm sick about. And I cannot-- I *cannot*-- emotionally engage with him until he's off the dark energy. I'm so angry I don't know what to do with it, so I'm going to just-- I'm going to put it away. And get medium spice lamb korma and aloo papri chaat and a cardamom lassi and garlic naan."

He didn't read the menu at all. He still won't look at anyone. He puts the menu down and puts his hands on the sides of his chair, locking his elbows for a minute, then deliberately relaxing. "I'm putting it away. If we weren't in public I don't know how I'd be reacting right now. I don't know how I'm going to feel later."

Finally he does look up, finally, and it's to say to Izou, "For the record those are called Grief Seeds. Puella Magi use them to keep their magic from getting used up. If it gets used up, they die. Riventon... had a kohai and a girlfriend who were both puellae. But one was dead and the other had broken up with him by then, so who the hell knows."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"We passed that one on to Amy Faust," Kazuo adds, picking up on Mamoru's new topic, steady for Izou's leaning-against. "She's a reasonable destination for them - not a final one, something else gets done with them when she's finished. I don't pretend to understand."

He'll check on whether they need to restock dedicated breakables, later. Much later. Sometime after Mamoru's slept, eventually.

Nephrite has posed:
Don't ascribe to malice that which can be explained by dumbass-- Tamaki is almost restless in his seat with clear frustration and conflicted feelings. On some level, maybe he even understands, but he doesn't want to right now. There's more he could say, and now is so clearly not the time, and he's learned to become more aware of that. It's not really about him.

He hasn't been present for a lot of these disucssions about Riventon, and perhaps in a small point of seeking solidarity, he looks to Izou. Maybe the only other person at the table that felt the same way he had about Hiddenite.

Masato watches Mamoru, silent for the most part while Kazuo notes what he does. It's a small silver lining, that it went to Amy. It's a good little something to offset some of the tension. Still, he's got a finger hooked into the woven bracelet, like a small security object.

Masato's already said a lot about Riventon, and about the complexities of things. He understands, maybe better than most, that this is a very delicate and nuanced situation-- and Mamoru is right. Takashi is being stupid, and he's being an asshole, and he's forgetting what's important.

"I don't see why it can't be both," Masato finally settles on that much, "So until further notice, I'll operate on the assumption of both malice and dumbass."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami was terrifically sympathetic to Mamoru's plight. The whole situation with Riventon now was, simply put, absolutely horrible for him. It wasn't easy watching the people you cared about be twisted around by so much Dark Energy and they'd all been through enough of that in relatively recent times. It was just unfortunate that there really wasn't anything to do while Riventon voluntarily steeped himself in all of it.

Still. She did not want to ascribe malice to any of what Riventon had done. Ami--even when they'd all first been informed--had been remarkably understanding of the Director's motives.

"I still mostly just think that it's incredibly sad." The blue-haired senshi barely murmured, running fingers over the cool of her glass with a sigh before finding her volume. "Korma definitely sounds like a good idea."

She didn't like spice. Ultimately, Ami would stick to tikka masala, but it felt like she needed to say something that agreed with Mamoru openly.

Zoisite has posed:
It was good to know that the Grief Seed went to someone that was of some trust. At least someone that seemed close to Usagi in any case. Izou lifted his head some and offered a small smile to Mamoru then, before leaning away from Kazuo to take another sip from his tea.

This is when he catches Tamaki's searching gaze, a hope of connection on sentiments where the tennou was unable to find it anywhere else. Izou nodded his head discreetly, aware of the frustration he could see, and that he understood, but also wasn't about to engage in a conversation about it. They were not there to make it worse for their prince.

Perhaps later, they could talk privately about it.

Green eyes lowered back to his menu then, it still open to the last few sections as his heart was mostly set on something a bit sweeter. "I think we should also order extra dessert."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"They end up with Hope Blossom. You can give them to Akemi-san too, or Cure Sharpsong, or Kyouko Sakura-san if you meet her, she has red hair like Inai-sensei..." Mamoru trails off; how many Witches has he fought or heard of since the last time he saw Kyouko Sakura?

His gaze slides to Kazuo again, then to Masato. "Both," he grants, "momentary malice is still malice. Just... not, in this case, malice aforethought. GOSDFDSJGKL he's so STUpid--"

Mamoru is definitely rude enough to put his elbows on the edge of the table and lower his face into his biceps, forearms and hands draped above the top and back of his head, uneven, giving the impression of the verbal keysmash coinciding with him melting. He says, muffled, "Yeah. It's sad too. It's pitiable. He wants friends he can relate to at the same time as he's taking himself slowly out of the realm of humanity-- and-- he... I won't forgive him. I won't forgive him. But I don't want him to be my enemy. I still love him. Dessert is good."

Thankfully someone's coming to take their orders, and he straightens up in time to give his.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo inclines his head to Mamoru's list of viable Puellae - then lets his attention sliiiiide away, wandering across the others at the table, pretending politely that absolutely nothing out of the ordinary is going on with Mamoru and he certainly never made that sound.

The jalfrezi he orders is mildly terrifying, but only mildly, and almost certainly is thus not self-punishment over anything. He does not challenge Rashmi's family's ideas of acceptable heat. He is smarter than that.

... when Mamoru has just mentioned 'he wants friends he can relate to at the same time as he's taking himself slowly out of the realm of humanity,' Kazuo is very carefully being intentionally smarter than that. Talking about Riventon is odd for all of them, but for him, it's a reminder that what Riventon's doing now is very, very similar to what Kunzite did once. And for what he thought were similar reasons.

Dessert is good. Yes.

Nephrite has posed:
Masato nodded, because yes, this was top tier level dumbass, but even a momentary flash of malice-- with all the power Riventon was now capable of-- just might get uglier than anyone could foresee. Maybe even uglier than Riv himself was ready for, if he kept it up. It was that little pain point for Masato that kept coming around; he and Riventon were friends, they had even admitted as much in their own way. And yet, it wasn't a normal friendship. It wasn't a normal connection. There were strings attached. There were clashing worldviews attached, and a shitload of baggage, and this horrible push-pull about it all.

It felt so stupid and small to say Masato had finally gotten to a place where he was ready to be Riventon's friend-- perhaps consider him family, too, because of all things considered-- and let waters flow under bridges. What hurt him the most was that Riventon was cutting himself off from such things, and was doing things that hurt the few people that may truly have his back, and Mamoru most of all. There was the lack of trust, the lack of belief, in there somewhere... But then again, he supposed, they'd never really trusted him.

Or had they? It was hard to say how much trust had gone between them, while pretending that they didn't, for there to be a feeling of betrayals, too. Evidently mutual ones, at that. Hiddenite saddened him because there was something of a real, squandered potential in it, he thought.

I won't forgive him; I still love him. "I know, man." Masato said, simply, following suit despite his own lack of a sweet tooth. "Dessert's great."

Tamaki, meanwhile, is a little relieved to see that Izou understands. It settles him a little, and makes him feel less as though his feelings stick out like a sore thumb. There's a part of him that feels he might be missing a lot, here, but mostly he's unable to see too far past his own perspective. His angle on Riventon is very fixed, especially with more and more compounding points against him-- it's hard to believe if this came from lashing out at them for not doing a better job (as good as Riventon, he guesses) or for doing a better job at everything than Riventon, lately. At least where Mamoru was concerned. He did clearly feel threatened, right?

"I'm going to say it," Tamaki said, "That jerk needs therapy."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami remained the outsider here, though she was certainly happy to be present. Well, happy was perhaps a little strong given the context, but these people were also her friends. They were a strange, eclectic group--no more so than the Senshi, really.

They'd been kind to her. They'd all fought alongside one another. Plus, Mamoru and Usagi were married now and that made him her Prince, too.

But, she didn't really know what to say.

"I'm pretty sure you've figured it out already, but I recommend the sandesh."