Sophia sent a message to Ama to meet her at a Buddhist temple in Asakusa. While she didn’t really find herself absorbed in any religion, you could hear the monks say mantras over and over again at the temple. The repetitive low tones were relaxing. Admittedly, since it was Obon, the interior of the temple was fairly busy, and prayers for the dead were being said over and over again. However, there was a quiet walk to the sotoba. She knew some people liked to leave flowers, but she preferred not to take dead things to the sotoba. She has a bag with rocks, a bowl, water, candles, incenses, and matches, and waits at the front steps of the temple for her.

Amarissa was simple sitting and listening to instrumental music in her room when she got the message from Sophia. She'd been moping, hadn't left the house, since the incident at the art exhibit. So, it took her a few minutes to comprehend Sophia's request. The venus senshi wanted her to come to the Buddhist temple? Ama didn't have a religion so that wasn't an issue, but she wasn't unaware of traditional customs. It was Oban afterall. Considering this, Amarissa dressed in a lavender shirt and jeans with her black trench coat. Pulling on her boots, she stuffed her cell phone in her pocket and left to meet Sophia.

After locking her bike up, Amarissa proceeded to head towards the temple. She made her way up the stairs and spotted Sophia. She gave the other senshi a weak smile. "I got your message. How're you holding up?" she asks quietly. The other girl was so sweet and innocent that Amarissa was concerned about how all the violence was affecting her.

Sophia notices the weak smile. The girl was always so calm, even sadness was dulled. It was nice that the other girl worried about her. She smiles back, but with none of the normal enthusiasm. “I am better than I was yesterday. I’ve had some time to think. I am glad you made it. I’m not really religious, but I sort of like it here,” she says.

“The chanting is nice. And there is a nice trail to leave offerings at the stupa.” She points to the direction of a foot path that leads behind the temple into a slightly wooded area. “I thought it would be a good gesture for the two of them. I wanted to know if you wanted to join me. It would also give us a better place to talk. There was a few things I wanted to discuss. The stupa is normally quiet, and people are normally more interested in watching the Bon Odori at this time.”

“How are you doing by the way?” She was concerned about her. She’d be surprised if Ama wasn’t going through the same amount of pain. And she didn’t want the Ama to withdraw from everyone. It wouldn’t be good for her.

Amarissa nodded, smiling a little. "That's good. I'm not really religious either but this place is nice. I've never been here. It's pretty and the chanting is soothing," she agreed quietly. A look of interest and curiosity crossed her face when Sophia mentioned wanting to discuss some things. She wondered what the other girl had been thinking about too. That thought was interrupted by Sophia's next question. The look of concern on the other senshi's face surprised her and at the same, didn't. It was odd for Ama to have so many people that cared but Venus worried about everyone. A sudden sense of camaraderie prompted her to be honest and she shook her head. Just thinking about the last two days brought fresh tears. "I'm having a hard time. It's not getting better yet, but then Kousuke was the closest thing to a best friend I've had," she said sadly, sniffling a bit and managing to calm herself back down.

Watching the other girl cry causes her to tear a bit. Vivid images of the other night rush to the forefront of her mind before she pushes them away again. Sophia hadn’t known Kousuke and Kishin were the same person, so she imagines that Ama may have been the only senshi to have that knowledge. It was tough enough losing a friend, losing someone that close to you must be even worse. “He obviously cared about you a great deal as well. He was a good person and perhaps one of the more talented among us.” He had a good deal of power and ingenuity and was obviously one of the more self-sacrificing among them.

“I can’t imagine how tough this must be to lose someone like that. And you don’t need to act calm for my benefit. I am alright,” she says, trying to comfort the other girl. It isn’t quite the truth, but her face seems genuine enough.

“I think it’s important that we stay together after this. I think the others may feel just as sad when I tell them later tonight, but I don’t want this to cause us to breakdown as a group. We’re all in this together; we’re all something similar to a family now. So if you need anything, don’t hesitate to talk to me or anyone of us.”

She looks to the trail, remembering what Valdis mentioned earlier, “Earlier today, I was told the tree had some sort of… presence to it. The tree is alive and has some magic to it. I am not sure what all this means, but I don’t believe Kishin has entirely left us. Maybe if someone talked to him, he would hear it.”

Amarissa just nods in agreement to Sophia's compliments of Kousuke. It was all very true and no one could deny it. "Acting calm helps keep me calm. I need to be calm and sensible for the group. They need some one that can keep a clear head in any situation and be responsible. You're right though. We should stay together and I think after what happened, it's more important than ever. We need to find a way to be able to contact each other quickly in times like that. Had more of us been there, perhaps..." she trailed off, shaking her head and wrapping her arms around her chest.

Her gaze follows Sophia's down the trail as she listens about a presence in the tree. A small flicker of hope briefly lights her eyes, and she decides to talk to Luna about it later. "Maybe. What all did you want to discuss?" she asks, somewhat changing the subject as she makes for the trail. Amarissa stops at the beginning, waiting.

“I ended up staying the night at Valdis’ house. A little bit unintentionally…” Sophia says, thinking back to be drugged. That wasn’t pleasant, but the evening gave her more to think about. She smiles and looks down at the ground, “However, thankfully, she stopped me from frantically calling everyone else at 2am. I don’t think that would have been very helpful for anyone.”

“First, I wanted to ask Priestess Rei Hino to bless the tree. Kousuke deserves it. And I think it would be good for the rest of us as a group to do something for him as well. She already knows something about our group, but I am unsure to what extent. However, having an ally would be nice.”

“Second, I thought a lot about preparedness. I felt… very unready for that. I don’t think I was ever that scared in my life. I was wondering just how we will navigate through this war because unfortunately that is what this is. I don’t really like the idea of continuous fighting, but I am more comfortable with it now. Hopefully, there will be a better way in the future. In the meantime, we have to look out for everyone else as well as our selves. I thought it may be a good idea if we all trained together. Get use to the way each other fights and use each other’s strengths. Nazo has agreed to help us.”

“I was wondering what you thought about all this. You were also there, so I couldn’t think of a better person to ask for an opinion.”

When they get to the stupa, Sophia will begin taking out everything she has in the bag. The bowl comes out first, and she fills it with water. Then she takes out the rock followed by the candles and incense. She lights both the candles and incense. She knows stupas have five elements, but couldn’t figure out to give an illustration of space. Hopefully, two planetary alignments being present counted for that.

Amarissa listened thoughtfully as they walked, nodding where she agreed. "Absolutely, we should bless the tree. We could get the group together and have a little picnic in his honor maybe. I think he'd like it if we were happy instead. I felt a lot hope around the tree," she said quietly, smiling a bit. She looked at Sophia silently for a moment after the girl admitted to not being ready, something that was almost pity in her eyes.

"We can get some training, that would help. Get to know each other and what we can do and how we can use that to our advantage. However, I can promise you Sophia that there will be more casualties. Maybe not more senshi or knights, but friends. neighbors. acquaintances. family. And believe me when I tell you, there is no way to prepare for that. The first few times you deal with death, those are the hardest. Especially if it's someone you love or care about. No amount of training or talking can change that," Amarissa says, her voice ringing with hurt at both the fresh pain and the old.

Lapsing into silence, the silver haired girl watched as Sophia laid out all the ingredients. She noticed that all elements were represented but space. Having the two of them here might help, but also there was physical space around and she felt that would be enough.

“You’re right; we should try to do something pleasant. A picnic would be nice.” That tree may be the only living tree these days, so it reminded her of spring somewhat.

Sophia is quiet after Amarissa speaks, letting the silence sit. She resumes speaking after she has put everything together. “No, there is a no way to prepare for death. And yes, there will be casualties.” These were things she thought about long before the events of last night.

“I live on base, so I know what it is like to not have neighbors come home. People disappear from your life before you ever really got to know them. Ever since the theatre when we watched the youma die, I became aware just how much more death I would encounter. This whole thing is unfortunately just as much about death as it is about life. I don’t hide it… I feel strongly about everyone. Every living creature I meet, I care about, which isn’t very conducive for this sort of job.”

“But we have the power to minimize how many people get hurt. We lost two people last night, but a whole building was also saved. And with training, all the knights and senshi can see this to the end. I am not preparing for a miracle. I am preparing against the inevitable battles to come.”

She looks up at the smoke from the incense. “I have hope that we can save far more than we lose. And that the sacrifices of the past will allow us to live to the conclusion of this, whatever that may be.”

Amarissa listens quietly, thinking on everything that Sophia said before nodding slowly. "Yes, I hope so too. Training can only help. Not many of us are trained in any weapons or hand to hand combat. I wonder if we'll get more powers later on? That would certainly help. We need to devise a plan of action for dealing with this Scorpio person whenever we run into him. He's way too dangerous for us to handle without the whole group, and maybe not even then." she says thoughtfully.

Kneeling before the bowl, she closes her eyes briefly. Amarissa mentally repeats Sophia's last sentence and adds her own wishes and a hope for Kousuke. She realized idly that she was praying, odd for a non religious person and she wasn't even sure who she was praying to. Standing, she turns back to the other girl. "Perhaps becoming religious wouldn't be so bad. I see and hear people praying to one god or another and they seem happy. Their prayers even sometimes get answered. We could use all the help we could get," she says quietly.

Sophia smiles at Ama. Valdis was right; she was the sort of a take charge person. However, that was the nature of everyone in this group. “Hopefully, we can make some head way on that later tonight. And I agree that no one should try to fight him without the others presence. I don’t think the others would like to hear about the subject of retreat, but it’s an important one…”

“Priestess Rei Hino says benevolent spirits sometimes fulfill people’s prayers,” she says, remembering last Thursday. Spirituality was something that she was getting more and more drawn to. However, she has trouble picturing herself a devout follower. War seemed so fundamentally at odds with being devout in any religion. It makes her feel like she is corrupting the ground that she stands on. Besides feeling so much anger and hatred toward one person made her feel a little bad for being at the stupa in the first place.

At the same time, she would like to see Ama in better spirits. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. It does give a lot of people a sense of happiness and contentment. Asakusa has a lot of places to go to. And there is of course Hikawa Jinja.”

Amarissa nods in agreement. "Yes, the subject of retreat is important. Sometimes it's the best option. Never surrender, sometimes retreat and then regroup and re-plan," she says. She thinks more on the idea of religion and then Sophia says something about benevolent spirits. "Who is this Priestess you keep mentioning? I'm not familiar with the local spiritual people. Benevolent spirits fulfill prayers? I find that hard to believe. I thought they went to a place called 'heaven' or 'paradise'. What power do they have to grant such things? " Amarissa asks, sounding slightly skeptical and yet curious. She didn't understand this at all. Perhaps speaking to this Priestess would be a good idea.

"So when would be a good time for this picnic/blessing? and what should we do about food? A potluck sort of thing perhaps?" she asks lightly, changing the subject and picturing a fairy tale sort of picnic with the red checkered blanket and basket thing. Laughing a bit, she shakes her head. If Valdis came, it would be far from picturesque.

“Rei is the priestess of Hikawa Jinja. She also helps head the paranormal club that Kail, Valdis, and I are in. Also, Valdis is a miko there. Valdis and Rei seem to talk, so it does seem she has some understanding of what is going on. And the other mikos say she is very talented.” The priestess deserved the praise if she was going to help their group. She can’t imagine it was easy handling some of their concerns.

“I think a potluck would work best. We should probably determine who will bring what when we all get together. I was going to talk to the Priestess about the blessing on Monday after school. How about Tuesday after school?” Sophia starts talking like her normal self. Something about doing a mundane activity made her feel like life was more normal or at least would eventually return to normal.

Amarissa considered that. "Maybe Rei was one of the senshi that never awakened then. You know, like Nazo told us? I'd like to meet her," she said decisively. Looking around at the peaceful settings, she sighed. They could use all the help they could get, honestly.

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a pad of paper and pencil. Amarissa wrote 'Potluck, Tuesday after school' and then the names of all the members. She showed it to Sophia. "Am I forgetting anyone?" she asked, then continued "Alright, so what would be good things to bring? and Who should bring what?" She considered. "Maybe we should msg or call some of the other members."

It never occurred to Sophia that Rei may be the awakened senshi. "Hmmm... possibly? How do you determine if someone has supernatural abilities from a senshi that never awakened? She definitely would have been good at it though, seeing as she is talented without those abilities..."

“Ummm… I forgot to inform everyone that we have a new knight since Friday. So there is one more. His name is Kenny, and you’ll meet him sometime tonight,” Sophia says, looking at the list.

“We can do it over email. We can even do it during lunch at school tomorrow since we all go to school at the same area. Or at the meeting tonight,” she says. “As for good things to bring: sandwiches, fruit, salad, water, soda, juice, chips, hmmm… those are all the normal things anyways.” She is happy to see Ama so excited about it. “Do you want to take charge of organizing this?” It would get the other girl to interact and get to know everyone else better, which would be a good thing.