Scene #2779: Identities and Secrets

Owner	Pose
Takashi Agera	Takashi and Sayaka had continued to meet on a few simple dates over the last few months, sharing similar but still distinctly different appreciations for music and continuing to enjoy each other's company, and yet... always a bit stifled by the fact that large parts of his life was still hidden from her. Truthfully, meeting Sayaka has long become the only thing Takashi had used his Hiddenite Henshin for - especially once he had begun the falling out with Mamoru during the trek to the Alternate Timeline... but now, after the fight and the blowup, the thought of being Hiddenite anymore was not just pointless but actively repulsive to him. And it was the way only Sharpsong currently knew him out of all people - but after everything that happened, he couldn't be sure that soon news of who Takashi was wouldn't move through the Mahou Grapevine; so the fact that he had told Sharpsong who he was... would likely mean her connecting the dots to Riventon eventually, he felt. And if all of that was going to come out? Well, Takashi was smart enough to know the only hope the company he'd enjoyed of hers could even have of surviving, thin as it might be, was if she got all of the information from him first instead of discovering it from others. Sure, it'd blow a hole in things but... how important was it, really, to pretend to be normal anyways now? Better to know where he stood. So for one last time, he was in Hiddenite's henshin, standing at the botanical gardens where he'd asked Sharpsong to meet him, where they'd met before, leaning against a tree once more. At least one way or another at the end of this, the ridiculous Hiddenite experiment could be put to bed. Or six feet under the bed. He glanced at his phone a little nervously though. There was also the rather notable fact that he was still wearing the bruise on his face from Mamoru's fist. He wasn't ready to forget it, yet. And maybe he was aware, consciously or not, that it did make him a slight bit more sympathetic.
Sayaka Miki	Those dates with Takashi had been a substantially different from when they were Hiddenite and Sharpsong. There were a lot less hoops to jump through to be able to see each other, and plus, she was now able to initiate the dates on her own rather than having to rely on Hiddenite showing up to meet her. She had yet been sure what to do about his makeshift replacement henshin yet, but they would likely be able to find a solution eventually. By the time a solution sprung up, they would have maybe found out something that would help protect those he cares about, and cut his ties with Obsidian for good. Her search for PreCards had sped up considerably as a result, now that she finally had a worthwhile cause to use it for. She was still a way off from completing the album, but that was still more progress than she'd done before when she only wanted to stop the Phantom Empire from harming people. When she shows up at the Botanical Garden, she is in her civilian self, and her eyebrows raise at seeing him in henshin. Her first reaction is to glance around, wondering if he is in danger, and if she should transform too. Noticing the bruise on his face only reinforces her feelings, and the reflection of the Pretty Change Mirror quickly becomes reality, letting her grip her enchanted sword. "Is Obsidian hunting you?", she asks him, settling in a guarding stance, paying attention to any sign of magic she could pick up. None comes to her, and yet she doesn't relax.
Takashi Agera	Hiddenite's face warms on seeing Sayaka - it's actually the first spot of warmth he's been able to feel, or maybe that he's allowed himself to feel, since that fateful fist fight. He shakes his head and smiles. "You can relax, nobody's after me right now. Really, nobody knows about this henshin but you at this point." he says. "And this is the last time I'll ever have it on." he says. "You were the best part about my time as Hiddenite, so I thought it was only appropriate to stand near you when I finish it." he says a bit dramatically, but it IS Takashi. "The reasons I developed this henshin, the brother who I aimed to help - well, he's the one who gave me the bruise on my face." Hiddenite says, pointing to it. "So all of it... I'm quite done. I just wanted my last memory of my time as Hiddenite to be about you instead of all of that." he says, shaking his head and banishing the henshin. "Hiddenite is... really, not me. It's a personality I created to try to help people without causing trouble for myself. Because my day job is the sort of thing where helping the wrong people is... it could get me fired, or at least it could back when people were capable of firing me. But that's not true anymore, anyways." he says with a bit of a smirk. "But it's also something I've kept hidden from you. Out of fear, honestly, because you're a magical girl and that could be a big problem, and... and admittedly, because I've enjoyed your company so much and I wanted you to get to know me without all of the weight. But I can't hide it forever, and I shouldn't have hidden it for so long." he says, rolling up his shirt sleeve to reveal a Device on his arm. "And I know if I want any chance of keeping this precious thing that we have - or at least that I feel we have - I have to come clean about it. Myself." Before anyone else does. He takes a deep breath. "Because my other henshin - and who I really am... that's..." another deep breath and he pats his device, gripping it for a moment. "I am..." <STANDBY, READY> announces the device that sits on his wrist in a stern, mid-chidlian male voice. "Axion, Execute." <BARRIER JACKET>, the device suddenly becomes garbeled, and its voice abruptly switches to a Belkan female voice, continuing without a hitch. <SCHATTEN UMHANG, AKTIVIERUNG BESTATIGT!> The device bursts a blast of dark blue negative energy in front of it, which Takashi punches first one arm through, then the other. That energy continues to coat his arms and body, before he pushes himself through it completly. On the other side, he is now wearing a heavier-looking lab coat, with somewhat plated looking armor on his torso beneath it - his Barrier Coat. Long pants, heavy boots, all combined to give him the look of a cross between a scientist and some sort of combat personnel. His Device assembles itself, building a gauntlet around his right arm that goes all the way up to his eblow, a hybrid of multiple kinds of technology, with Axion's jet black stone resting on the back of his hand. <BARRIEREMANTEL> <READY> the device reports, in its twin voices. "...Riventon." he finishes.
Sayaka Miki	Sharpsong's sword dissipates into bubbles when Hiddenite reassures her he isn't being chased, and listens with a deepening frown at how he procured himself that bruise. The lines on her face soften slightly at his association of Hiddenite's identity. "What are you going to do without it?", Sayaka asks, tilting her head to the side. If he is giving up on the anonimity, and his only other available henshin brings a lot of trouble with it, is he trying to go into hiding? She pushes back the thought that he may be dedicating himself fully to Obsidian. That wouldn't make any sense, not when he wants to to continue being together. She is not sure what he means by his inability to be fired, recalling the favouritism Obsidian shows to 'permanent' ways of firing someone. But he has been harmed by his brother instead, and she wouldn't know what it will mean for him if he is being antagonised on both sides. Her mouth thins at the reveal of the identity that he has been covering from her, and many pieces fall into places, places she is not sure she would have appreciated it being the case. She wants to appreciate it finally emerging because he wants to be with her still, but the day of their first meeting presses to the front among everything else, the attack he was leading, and that he allegedly protected her from. "How did everything start?", she speaks, taking a deep, deep breath, trying to maintain a calm she doesn't feel. "When you approached me and 'saved' me, what were you aiming for?"
Takashi Agera	"I didn't want you to get hurt, but I also..." curses, right, it had been so long, he'd enjoyed her company so much, he forgot that when he initially saved her it was basically from himself and now things are super awkward and it shows. "I uh." he pauses. There's a moment where he's weighing it, the truth versus a lie, honesty versus deception. "I didn't want Fate-chan to actually hurt anyone, and the girl's a lot stronger than she looks. Than she's really fully aware of." he settles on, after deciding that if he delayed too much longer it'd be even more suspicious. "It's easy to discount her because of her age, but I'd wager she could hospitalize upwards of half of Obsidian in a straight fight, if she really went out. And she was really going out there." he states. Whether the statistic was true or not, there was some degree of not wanting such things on Fate's concsiousness. "And I figured it might help people trust Hiddenite a little more. I was trying to have him at a position where he could save people and not be seen as suspicious." Of course now Sayaka had the information needed to deduce he was always, actually, suspicious. "But everything after I made that decision was 100% on the level." except for him being Riventon. "If it wasn't. I wouldn't be explaining everything to you now and looking like an idiot. Do you know what it takes for me to accept this sort of humiliating, shameful situation - how much I value you that I'm willing to come clean even though it means looking like an idiot? It's not something I do lightly."
Sayaka Miki	"All the people to have your little theather about, and you choose the one who regenerates", she stares at him with a hand shut tight, the knuckles whitening. "Must have really had a bad luck that lady", she comments and grimaces. Does he know that he could have chosen to have Hiddenite be trusted based on actual merit, even if he could have taken longer? Of course she did, Sharpsong thinks bitterly. It's why he took a shortcut. "You could have chosen to earn it. For all her fumbles, Equivalence didn't try to lie so we would trust her." Does he know? If he doesn't, that's all he is getting. At the mention of him being an idiot, and she feels her nails dig into her palm. "Is this what really matters to you? Your pride? You were never in it for wanting to do good. How do I know you just don't want somebody to use?" She scowls at his bruise. Is he only trying to appeal to her because he got found out? "If you were really in saving people, you wouldn't have stolen the jar of memories, or tried to make us think it got broken."
Takashi Agera	"It wasn't ''planned'' theatre, I didn't show up ''planning'' to save anyone. The attack was fierce, and I didn't know you regenerated." he says. "And there was the witch too - I didn't have anything to do with that thing." he says, but he absolutely is starting to look exhausted, defeated, a little frustrated. "If I didn't care about how you felt I wouldn't be telling you anything, I'd just enjoy the ride. But I do care. I'm admitting I made mistakes. If I didn't care MORE about you than my PRIDE I'd keep my mouth shut. Things were fine, and now they're very not fine, and I knew that would be the case but it was still important that you knew." he says. "Waitwaitwait. The Jar? The whole reason I stole the jar is to save people!" he says, obviously affronted about that. "It's why I went through the trouble of making a replica to smash, so Obsidian wouldn't be looking for the thing! Because they wanted it for the Fade - the Dark Witch wanted it, and I made sure she didn't get it, and the reason they wanted it was because it could help people! So now I have it, and I intend to use it to ''help people''. I didn't frickin' bring it back to THEM." he clarifies. "It wasn't about making YOU think it got broken. It was about Obsidian. It was about having a way to protect people like you from the Fade! The people I CARE about." he says. "Do you know what they'd do to me if they figured out I pulled the wool over their eyes for that?" He asks, frustrated... and then blinking. "...I should actually keep my voice down about that." he says, suddenly looking around nervously. Just a bit. Not as much as he was before. He could take on threats and win now. But still... it might ruin his plans.
Sayaka Miki	Sharpsong bites her lips when Takashi keeps pushing for his sincerity. "You are telling me you stepped your own fight midway through, and changed henshin because you wanted to end the fight you started you said that you wanted people to trust Hiddenite for it?", Sayaka repeats incredulous, eyes staring wide at Riventon. She is not really sure how much of it she can examine as trust, understand the puzzles shown to her, and believe that it is fruit of honesty and confidence. She can only figure what would come out of it in the end was him trying to defend himself. But she cannot say how much Is a lie. Sharpsong shakes her head. "I cannot say that's what we shared wasn't magical, but I am not sure we can go back to that so easily." She takes a step back, watching the empty spot. "I think I need a break, for a while, and go with people I feel comfortable be around. Because I am not sure you are being really sincere, or thinking actually about the consequences. At the very least, You could have given the jar to us after two days."
Takashi Agera	"Well, it was complicated!" he argues, poorly. He can't let frustration get the better of him, but at least he's not without Axion this time, and there's a gateway of sorts. "Look, I understand. It's a lot. And I'm not gonna like... chase you down, or be weird about it." he says, despite standing in front of her as Riventon which is on some level weird enough. "...if you need time I understand. I uh. I know I made mistakes. In a lot of places. And... yeah maybe you're right about the jar." he begrudgingly admits, but also. He doesn't really want them to have it, because then of course, he wouldn't be the arbiter of who should be protected from the Fade. But he's also at least smart enough not to voice that opinion either. "I guess there's nothing really for me to do but give you space." he says, dropping his hand. "Like, I'll be honest, I don't want you to feel like I wouldn't fight for you but I also don't want to make things weird so I'm gonna wait for you to message me, alright? I'm sorry, either way." he says. And it's so frustrating, but the way he sees it he doesn't have a better option BUT to detach and wait. Plus... Sharpsong, Sayaka... she's a smart girl, she wouldn't make the wrong decision here, right? He just needs to not screw it up. "You've got my number and... thanks for all the times we've shared." he says, waiting for just a moment to see if she tries to say anything more before he Duskports out - which at least is nice, in terms of being able to just vamoose from a social situation without all of the looking back and awkwardness.
Sayaka Miki	Sayaka watches Riventon preparing to go away wistfully, thinking that they are not going to see each other again. She takes a deep breath, trying not to think too much, at least not until she is in front of Madoka. She is not sure what she would use this time for. Probably just hang out with her, or other friends, and fix some more problems of that weirdo trio. Maybe she is going to work some more on balancing her swordfighting and punching. "Bye, Takashi-san", she replies in that instant he Is dallying for her reply, and turns to the gate as soon as he has disappeared like smoke. Would be convenient having that, she thinks sourly, if only for not having to wait until she has gotten herself to the school. This would be the ''weirdest'' thing to share via phone.