Sophia pedals her bike just about as fast as she can back home after the meeting. It was pretty late in the evening, and it took damn near forever to get back from that farmhouse. However, she’s forced to slow down as she is greeted by crowds of people and what appeared to be a taped off area. Strong military presence. Did something happen while she was out?

She pokes Artemis in the basket of the bike. “Do you see this? What do you think happened?” she says quietly to the cat. She gets off the bike and walks it around the outside edge to try to get a better view of what happened. However, it's difficult to see much of anything. Eventually, she stops and asks someone, "What happened here?"

David grunted, cradling his shoulder protectively, his black coat hiding the wound. It had been hours since the battle, but he hadn't been able to sneak past the growing crowd. The young man left the duffel and his weapon behind, hoping to recover it later. Pushing past a few of the crowd as one of the enlisted JSDF soldiers shouted at him, telling him to get behind the barricade, he jostled into a number of people.

"Sorry," he started in English, slowly warming up to Japanese. He was halfway through the crowd, when he felt an odd presence, something strangely... familiar...

It was the brunette, the girl turning to him, asking him what happened.

"Covenant...sympathizer, I think..." he answered, hoping it was a good cover story.

Covenant sympathizer… Sophia is a little confused by the meaning of that phrase and it shows in her expression. All the attacks so far had been from the Covenant themselves, not any other separate group that supported their aims. Or did he mean Covenant members?

She pats the white cat in the basket of the bike as she tries to look past toward the scene. A growing concern seems to pass over her face. Another group made things more difficult, especially one that could suddenly appear in a residential district and wreak havoc. Turning back to him, she asks “Did you happen to see what went on?” She wonders if the military was successful in suppressing some kind of attack since the damage didn’t go outside the district.

Why was this girl asking so many questions? The shoulder wound still ached, weeping blood beginning to soak the polo shirt underneath his jacket. As he looked down at his feet, he noticed one or two drops of blood on the ground, starting from his jacket sleeve.

"It was a blur, mostly," David started, then tried to push past the brunette. Yet, something held him back. The white cat in the basket of the bicycle seemed oddly... familiar? This was stupid. He was leaving DNA at the crime scene, bleeding right in the middle of the public, and he was fixated on a cat? Reaching out, he started to scratch behind the feline's ears.

"Perhaps it was the result of anxiety..." he mumbled.

When the man mentions it being a blur, Sophia figures he is her best chance at piecing together what happened. However, she could understand if someone didn’t want to relive a covenant attack. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want. I just have friends that live around here and sort of want to know what happened here.”

At least, the man seemed to be a cat person. Whatever kept him around and talking. Eventually, Sophia notices the blood from the jacket sleeve. “Oh… you’re bleeding…” As soon as the phrase leaves her mouth, she figures the man probably already knows that. She watches as the blood drips down. “Umm… do you want me to get help?” She wonders who exactly did she pick a conversation with.

David froze, feeling the girl's eyes shift onto him, on the blood. Pulling the arm behind his profile, Yinko eased his hand away from the white cat, and cradled his shoulder protectively. Taking a step back, his eyes flickered to blue.

"No," his voice started to project through the ether, his voice oddly not moving. "No, you will guide me away from the crowd. That will be good enough."

If the eye color changed didn't set of red alarm bells in her mind, the fact that the man’s voice echoes through her head did. This wasn’t right. She wonders what the hell she stumbled into. There is a sense of panic, but she doesn’t let it show in her face. With one hand on the bike, she grabs the man’s arm with her other hand, and begins to lead him out. She figures this must be youma, convenant, but can’t figure why it would return to this area.

She looks for area far from people or buildings. If they were going to fight, they needed to be out of sight of the military. At least she had the advantage, this youma was already injured, and it wasn’t any of the senshi who did it. So if the military could seriously wound this thing, she could probably win this fight.

After a few moments in absolute silence, she manages to lead him far enough away from the eyes and ears of the crowd.

David was shocked, to say the least. The brunette wasn't intimidated by his...ability. However, instead of screaming and waving her arms to attract the attention of the police, she was leading him away from the crowd? That wasn't right. Still, he let the silence linger as they came to a stop far from population. Yinko had to come up with a plan.

How could he have been so stupid? Just trusting some random girl because she seemed wholesome and genuinely concerned? That's precisely how friends he knew were manipulated by the Covenant. Clenching his fists, he knew what he had to do.

Reaching up with his good arm, he tried to break the girl's grip, tugging away. "You're NOT taking me back to the Camps!" Yinko's cold, metallic voice pierced her mind in its highest intensity. He didn't know precisely how it worked, but his clothing shifted, the black fatigues and boots quickly replacing the polo shirt and slacks he had worn before. Trying to push the rage just far enough away to focus his mind, Yinko started to summon his technique. The girl seemed human, well... human enough. Perhaps trying to cripple her like Chicken-Man was a bad idea? Just paralyze her temporarily?

"Synapse Shadow!"

“Camps?” Sophia repeated. It appeared that she misunderstood the situation, and so did the man. Now she was confused, and his voice was so loud. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time to think on what he was saying. “I’m not…” The shifting appearance was startling enough. What the hell was even going on? He may not be a youma, but the man was obviously powerful and just as confused and scared. Not a good combination.

As he shouts the words “Synapse Shadow”, she falls to the ground. It seemed to her that both of them were completely frightened of the other. What had this guy been through? She needed to reach through to him somehow. Her emotional control of love and her elemental control of light burst through as somewhat of a defensive action. The whole area seems lit up as she pours everything into it. Love, concern, and caring flood the immediate area with greater intensity than what she released at the basketball game a few nights before. She looks up at him with a worried expression, but for his wellbeing, not her own.

"Yes... the Camps..." Yinko's voice echoed. His mind flashed back to the camps in the desert, the Covenant guards patrolling the fenceline. Images of the incinerators, the cultural reprogramming centers, the mass graves, they all flooded through, his mind churning in an ever increasing boiler of hate. "Identify yourself!"

Then the wave of emotion hit, an odd, warming sensation, a longing, a caring. Something deep in the back of his mind began to resonate, his eyes deepening to a cobalt, then darker into a navy blue. Clutching at his head, the effects of his Synapse Shadow faded, Yinko dropping to one knee. His wound started to close, clotting finally taking effect.

Shielding his eyes from the burst of light, Yinko eased off on his mental defenses. It was against his better judgment, but something was wrong about the entire situation. He'd just gone toe to toe with some chicken-man creature, and now a random girl was messing with his head.

Somehow, however, he thought the day might be improving.

Sophia sits up right, now being able to actually feel her body again. However, she’s left with the feeling of her whole body having fallen asleep. Fairly unpleasant. However, she tries to stay cheerful and calm. “Sophia Anna Torres,” she says to his request of identification.

“Alright. We seem to have some kind of misunderstanding here. I didn’t mean to scare you if I did. I don’t have any intention of taking you to any camps or hurting you so long as you don’t plan on attacking anybody. And I can fully heal that wound if you’ll let me get close…” The bright light lessens, but the emotional effect lingers. Sophia looks somewhat more tired though. “But I need to know, who and what are you? You don’t seem like Covenant…”

Yinko spat in disgust. "Of course I'm not Covenant! Those sadistic... I'm going to kill them all." She didn't know, did she? Neither did that other guy, the masked figure jumping out of nowhere to nag him. He looked around slowly, still feeling the concern radiate from the girl, Sophia. Extending his hand cautiously, he eased her to stand.

"David," he answered simply, "but... the Covenant and resistance know me as Yinko." He didn't know if Japan knew anything about the resistance movement. Maybe this girl would. If not, while his reputation wouldn't gain him the respect and influence it had in the high Sierras, the advantages of not being known, especially amongst Covenant sympathizers and collaborators would be a benefit.

But what was he? For the longest time, David had known he was human. However, meeting that man and the tengu in the alley just hours before, it became suddenly clear he was something else. "That Covenant monster and some crazy guy in a mask said something about being a potential knight..." he grumbled. He didn't really want to disclose everything he knew. That would just be plain stupid. Still, something about this girl made him trust her.

Sophia takes the man’s hand as he guides her up. “Sorry, I thought you were one of them. I jumped to conclusions, and that was wrong of me.” As he mentions his name and alias, she shakes her head. “I’m unfamiliar with the name Yinko. I’m American, but I’ve lived in Japan for a long time. And well… you don’t hear much of the outside world here.”

She listens to his story, and she brightens up considerably when he says potential knight. “Oh! The crazy man in the mask in Nazo… he generally tries to be helpful though. He’s not actually as creepy as he looks. Did he explain the knight thing to you?” Being a knight would explain the crazy powers and surviving a run-in with a youma.

"Not entirely," David answered cautiously. Taking a step back, he wondered just how much this girl knew. "What's your connection to this? How do you know this... Nazo character?"

Sophia watches as David back-ups and allows him to have his space, not wanting to scare him more. “How do I explain this without sounding crazy?” The whole idea of senshi and knights were a little far-fetched, and she isn’t quite sure how to start. “As far as I can tell, certain people are bestowed powers through a planetary alignment. Mine is Venus. For each planetary alignment, it looks like there is a senshi and a knight around. We haven’t managed to find them all yet, but there are a few others like us. Together, all the senshi and knights are supposed to destroy the Covenant and help rebuild the world.”

“Nazo has been somewhat of a mentor and guide. Mostly, he’s been helpful and explaining what’s going on. And he’s been training us to use our powers cooperatively. Admittedly, he can be a little cryptic sometimes.”

“So this all probably sounds really far-fetched, but I have some proof. Every one of us can transform into a state where we can better access our powers… I can heal in that state for example. I can show you, but I need you not to freak out on me.” David reminded her of a deer somewhat who might flee if she moved too quickly. She is also a little worried that he might do the brain zap trick again as soon as she reached for her henshin item. “You probably want some kind of assurance you can trust me, right? So what can I do assuage any fears about me?”