"Empty your pockets, and show me your forearms," he answered simply. "Covenant collaborators are typically branded with tattoos and carrying bugs or other tracking devices." Remembering that trap before all too well just outside of Big Bear, he waited for the girl to comply. He didn't care too much if she thought she was some mystical savior, so long as she wasn't Covenant. If she was, he'd waste her right then and there, bystanders or no. After all, the reason the Nihil feared him so much was his willingness to break the rules of war.

Sophia starts to empty her pockets, removing some money and loose change, scrap pieces of paper, lint, and a finally pen. She removes her coat and rolls up her sleeves. Besides a thin scar on her left forearm, everything is normal about her. However, she looks like she is starting to get cold without her coat as she begins to shiver.

The situation she finds herself in is somewhat amusing to her though. A giggle sort of escapes, “I have to say… you’re the first person to find me threatening. Even the youma, ummm… covenant, don’t find me very threatening when I’m shooting at them…” When around other knights or senshi, she was never a main target. Probably because she wasn't the most physically powerful or the group. She did her best to contribute though, and now was now doing her best to create a cohesive group.

"You don't need to be intimidating to be a threat," Yinko answered coldly. Throwing the coat back over the girl's shoulders, he sighed, pointing towards a direction far away from the crowd. As they walked, he clenched his left shoulder, limping like a tired, old soldier.

"The girls, typically the twelve and thirteen year olds..." he started, "those are the ones the Covenant prizes as collaborators the most. They're easily... broken." He hoped he didn't have to say anymore. He remembered the blonde girl, the one with the rusted, dented small caliber pistol pointed at his head. He had tried to do the right thing, pulling her out of that debris, treating her wounds.

All of it was a lie, a simple trap to eliminate a minor inconvenience to the Covenant. So, he treated it for what it was. The body was laid with as much respect as possible, but he left it in the open as a message. The Nihil would learn one way or another, they had to stop underestimating him.

“Thank you,” Sophia says as he gives her back the coat. She picks up her cash and grabs her pen. “I sort of need this. I hope that won’t be an issue?” Moving in the direction that David pointed to, she tries to piece together David’s story from the bits that she is getting. “I’m sorry you’ve been through that. Sorry for them as well… My family was stationed to Japan before the Obelisks and the attacks happened, so I’ve never really seen what things were like outside of Tokyo to be honest. And my brothers don’t really tell me too much about it. However, I guess if this past week’s taught me anything that Tokyo’s not in much better condition than the rest of the world.” After all, two knights were gone and Scorpio was loose somewhere.

She soon decides s change in topic was in order. Focusing on everything that was going wrong left her feeling helpless. And she needed to be people’s light, didn’t she? And there was still hope on the horizon if she looked far enough. “Did Nazo tell you what your planetary affiliation was? A few of the senshi don't have knights, so maybe I can introduce you her. Well, I'll introduce you to the whole team. But being in the presence of your counterpart should make you feel more... powerful? I don't know if that's the right word. Energized might be better. At least, that's what I noticed when I had one.”

"Don't get too complacent about Japan," Yinko warned. "This place is nothing like the rest of the world. It's hard to describe or even fathom how things have changed everywhere else, but Japan has it easy. Perhaps the Covenant didn't see it as strategically significant." Then, however, the conversation diverted to the true matter at hand.

"He mentioned something about Venus," David answered. "What are these planetary alignments about anyway? What do they have to do with anything?" Frustrated, David didn't particularly want to look like a dumbass, asking people "Hey, baby, what's your sign?" It was senseless to worry about names and meanings tagged on to his powers. A rose by any other name, he mused.

Sophia stops with expression being a little hard to read. “Ummm… really? Kenji only went into a coma two days ago… I mean, I felt a loss, but that’s… And besides, his henshin item is gone. Scorpio took it.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I’m confused and don’t really get what’s going on. You shouldn’t be… Sorry. I like forward to working with you, I should say.” She gives a forced welcoming smile for that last part. Was Kenji gone to them forever? What did this mean for him? Tomorrow, she’d visit him and hope that maybe he was recovering. That maybe Kenji would be ok.

When they are sufficiently far enough the crowd, she plays with the pen. “Scorpio has your henshin item, I think. At the very least, he has the Moon Sword, which I suppose belongs to you now. However, this is mine.” She tosses it in the air and grabs it with her right hand, “Venus Power, Make Up.” The transformation leaves her with the senshi outfit in orange and yellow as well as much longer hair. “You’re left shoulder is wounded, right?” she says before giving David a sudden bear hug. “Restoring embrace.” As the empathetic connection is established and the wound on his shoulder begins to heal, feelings of concern and friendship are sent David’s way.

David blinked. This was the girl Nazo was telling him about? He was supposed to work with her? How could there even be any similarities?

"What do you mean... sword and henshin item?" Stunned into silence, he watched the girl transform, a brilliant light temporarily blinding him. He had been out in the cold and darkness too long, surprised by the embrace, the warmth flowing over the wound, sealing it. Standing there, silent, he could do nothing.

"I'm supposed to... what?" he asked after the longest time. "Kill this Scorpio? How bad could he be?"

Sophia transforms back, looking slightly more tired than she did before. At least it wasn’t a major injury or she’d be completely wiped, especially after fighting Nazo’s hounds earlier that evening. “Alright. From the beginning, you get this henshin item to transform,” Sophia says holding up the pen. “You aren’t supposed to be the Knight for Venus. I had one…”

Time for some honesty. It’s not like David wouldn’t hear about it from being the team. “To answer, you’re question about Scorpio. A group of 4 of us engaged him in Shibuya a few days ago. He put my last knight into a coma and killed another. He also took the last knight’s henshin item which was a sword. So, he’s extremely bad.”

“There’s 4 senshi, including myself, and 2 other knights besides yourself at this point. So there are more of us. And our job is to get rid of all the Zodiac; Scorpio is sort of just the first one we’ve met. I’d rather not kill if it was possible, but we haven’t really had any other options.”

This conversation was getting sort of heavy though. She shakes her head, “You don’t have to join the team if you don’t wish to. But keep in mind that the Covenant does hunt those who haven’t gained the ability to transform. Hanging around us is somewhat safer. Also, I don’t really want to sound this doom and gloom. The last time we were caught off-guard. Next time, we will win.” There’s quite a bit of determination in her voice. She would see that no one got hurt this time.

An idea comes into her head. There was a good way for him to meet the group. Her expression lightens a bit, and she starts to sound more positive. “Listen, if you want, the team will be meeting in Shibuya on Tuesday for a picnic. My number is… if you get lost. We’ll be by the only blooming tree, not too far away from Ackademi, the school with the two giant holes in it. You can have a chance to meet everyone there and learn more about us.”

"Hey," David shrugged his shoulders, "don't complain to me what knight I'm supposed to be. You think I had a choice in the matter?" Rolling his eyes, he still tried to listen. Sophia's information was... helpful, at least. When she started listing off the details, though, David saw something he hadn't in a while.

Determination

These people were actually trying to defy the Covenant, and were the only people so far he had heard of in all of Japan willing to do so. So many others were just cowering in fear, or expecting the military to fix all of their problems. That never led anywhere. This group, he considered, superpowers or no, could be the counterinsurgent element he was looking for.

Taking down the girl's number, he exchanged contact information with her. "The picnic does sound like a thought..." he considered. "What sort of training have you initiated? What are your tactical and strategic aims?" He started rambling with technical questions, before pausing, noticing the girl had weakened. "Hey... you alright?"

“Training…” Sophia repeats. She looks a little embarrassed. “Honestly, I just got everyone together tonight to start to train for the first time. Nazo sort of summoned a ton of hellhounds for us to fight as a group…” She sighs, “If I’m going be honest, we aren’t as well coordinated as I like, especially if we are going to fight Scorpio again.”

“As for plans, I was told there were these crystals that had the ability to destroy the Covenant. We need to find those. And we also need to find the single person capable of using them. Supposedly, they have the power to purify the members… reverse what they have become. They call her the Silver Princess. I don’t know much about her though or where she could be.”

She smiles as David asks if she is alright. “I’m fine. Everything has a cost, right? Healing is a little physically taxing, but I’ve healed worse and been fine. It’s just been a long day for me. I’ll be fine after I sleep some.”

"We better get going," Yinko sighed, and started to walk with Sophia away from the site. "You might want to stay in street clothes for a while." Looking left and right, he paused among the edge of another dark alley.

Sophia back in street clothes, says, “Well, I wasn’t planning on walking around too long in that. It isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world.” She walks alongside David for a while, and then her eyes go wide as she remembers the time. “I need to get home soon. It’s really late! And I still have school tomorrow morning too…” Waking up early tomorrow would be difficult.

She smiles back, “You can walk me home, and I can continue talking. Or we can part ways for the time being and meet up tomorrow. Whichever you want.”

David considered it, his eyes dulling to their original, drab hue. Walking with the girl would be good, maybe get away from the insanity for a while longer. Turning to look across the street for traffic, he nodded. As traffic cleared, he made sure to keep himself just one step behind and to the left of the girl, as he had been taught during ROTC. It was a traditional gesture, the ability of a subordinate to step in and deflect a frontal attack. But was it strictly ceremonial?

He was certainly the one out of his element.

“I live on base by the way, so I’m going to have to take the train to get there,” Sophia says walking toward the station. “I wish I had more information on how powers worked or who the Silver Princess is or where the crystals are to give you. However, the cats explained a little bit about our current situation before. Did I mention there were talking cats who gave us magical powers? Admittedly, every part of this story sounds weird, but I was given magical powers by a talking cat less than a week ago… so, well, nothing sounds too insane anymore. Supposedly, there was a Moon Kingdom long ago ruled by a Queen Serenity. Endymion, the prince of the Earth, was going to marry Queen Serenity’s daughter. However, Endymion’s own generals and friends betrayed and started to follow a sorceress who was jealous of Endymion and the princess. The sorceress and her Dark Kingdom led youma to destroy the Moon Kingdom. But, Queen Serenity used the Silver Crystal back then to drive back the Dark Kingdom and reincarnate her loved ones and enemies, hoping to give them a happier life. The Silver Crystal was then shattered to seal away seven great youma, the champions of the sorceress’ army, and give them a happier life. At some point, the sorceress regained all her power to do everything all over again. This is what the Covenant is. So we need to find the shards to reform the Silver Crystal to get rid of them again.”

“Now, the cats were held by the military for quite some time, so be wary of the Japanese military. The cats are needed to fully awaken senshi and knights. Evidently, they were supposed to awaken the senshi about three decades ago, which means the Dark Kingdom had about three decades to do as they wished. I guess that explains why they are so powerful now. But Nazo was able to free them, and that’s why I’m around.”

“Nazo said there is a Silver Princess, and she’s the only one who can use the Silver Crystal once we reform it. However, she could literally be anywhere…”

“Also, in the past, there were only senshi. Something caused the planetary energies to split into a male and female. A little strange, but not really our focus to figure out.”

She looks back at David, “Ok. That’s about everything I know. I guess that’s a lot to take in for one night… If you
don’t mind me asking, what brought you to Japan anyways?”

"It was a simple decision," David explained. "I did what I could with the resistance in California, but we need to ramp up the pressure, really throw the Covenant off their game. That means coming to a place that hasn't been conquered. If we can dig in and fight a three pronged assault, there's a chance we can start making headway against them." Clenching his fists, he thought about the situation again.

"If you're right about this crystal, talking cats, and everything else... that's going to make convincing the locals a bit tougher."