In The Presence Of Enemies

Fate has a way of brining unlikely situations into being, and unknown to Sayuri -something- had compelled her and Itou to enter the cafe' after a day of intelligence gathering and analyzing the Specter HQ in the city. Indeed, the hunt today was merely the first step in a much longer and more important mission. Kitsunemori's divine mandate to rule all had been threatened, and in such an age the glorious burden Sayuri has been forced to bear is nessicary, and drives the princess forward. However, all that noble talk spouted by people like Itou meant little to her. Right now, she was stressed out, and wanted nothing less then to simply have a quick drink and forget just how impenetrable specter's HQ seemed.

Sayuri walked through the door of the cafe'' proudly flashing her ears and tail.as she gracefully walked to the counter, her cold yellow eyes not daring to gaze upon the "filthy commoners" crawling around the place. Ito was in tow, keeping his eyes on Sayuri as she ordered some green tea from the barrista and sat down.

Taking a sip of her tea, she waved her free hand and a blue floating holo-screen popped up into the air in front of her. As if using an ipad she used her finger to navigate through the files of data she had collected thus farr, trying to find a way to poke a hole in that citadel's iron clad defense..Alice, you sure do know how to build an HQ. Of course, I would not expect anything less of wonderland's maiden of genocide... Sayur thought to herself as she looked at the data on the tower. Howeve,r, through the transparency of the holo screen, something caught her eye; one of the teachers from SA. She had recognized her from in passing. According to rumors she had heard, this teacher was some kind of -time mage- ...though she could not be sure of anything more then that due to the rather -fanciful- nature of some of the rumors...some even claimed she was a 10,000 year old immortal, which seemed quite unlikely, to say the least.

Nevertheless, what Sayuri didn't know was that her and Itou's mere presence would act as one big -flag- to Aurora, there mere presence in this reality being a paradox. Aurora would know -something- was off with them, but she and Itou would, at least for now, remain woefully unaware of Aurora's powers.
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"Itou, so what do you think about that damn specter building, hmm? Do you think we'll find a way to penetrate it's defenses or should we just try and find Ms. Mordrake some other way?" Sayuri asked Itou casually as she scrolled through her data.

Itou Hayato

Of course, the one place in the entire city that could have possibly caught the princess's eye was also one of the most ridiculous in Itou's opinion. It would be like pulling teeth to admit it but quite frankly, the officer found anything overly soft to be rather creepy. Maybe it was the result of spending half of his life in a spaceship but really in this case, it was probably because of the place's name and the fact that he was actually inside of it with a young lady who was young enough to be his daughter. Itou was pretty sure that he had enough restraint to refrain from twitching. Still, it would be nice if people would stop giving him strange looks.

It could be worse, Itou thought, stone faced as Megumi no Miya sipped her tea. It could be the Outer Prince instead. To put it diplomatically, the princess's Kiku side cousin was an intense man. The off putting part about it was that it was not readily apparent on the surface.

As Megumi no Miya asked her question, Itou pushed his glasses up. "A direct approach at this time would be ill advised," he said after a moment, carefully toneless. The princess really was a volatile young lady. "If nothing with us now is effective against the base's defenses, it seems to be an unnecessary waste of effort and resources to try. All it would do at this point is alert her and I would rather avoid drawing attention to ourselves."

What he did not say, however, was that he fully expected them to be found out soon. The world itself that they were in had more or less the same magic as the ones they had come from but there was something suspicious about the melting pot variety. Having already done a little research on his so called colleagues at the Academy, Itou had found a small set that might pose a threat. That was without even touching the student body itself, a true tumbleweed of issues. There were so many powers that ran straight off of the standard charts that he genuinely believed something in this world was different.

Military he might have been but overall, Itou was a careful man. He was most definitely not looking forward to any confrontations here. Yet even then, it appeared that there was already a problem in the works because sitting at one of the tables was none other than the Director of Music herself.

Itou's suspicions where right. Discovery would come sooner then the two of them would expect, in the form of Aurora simply being in there presence. However, the threat of discovery was the last thing in Sayuri's mind. All she cared about right now was that some girl had the gall to take a seat at the princess' table without first humbly asking her permission. Did she not have any respect for personal space. You never barge in on the princess without her permission, and she was going to let Aurora know this. "Why should I tell you where your from? You have no sense of personal space or proper behavior, no matter how diplomatic you try to be. Do you interup people in the shower or at the hot springs, too?" Sayori said with a cocky smrik, her tone obviously mocking Aurora.

Itou Hayato

Itou blinked, calmly because it would have been utterly inappropriate to palm his face instead. In such a small place, Megumi no Miya's taunt had easily broadcast itself throughout the entire cafe. People were looking at them now, which was what he had just been warning against. There wasn't much that they could do about that now but it didn't seem like anybody was really taking note of them. Hopefully, everybody would just assume that they were simply a strange bunch of people and get right back to what they were doing before.

So as he swept the tatters of barely conceived plans off the table, Itou attempted to salvage the situation the best he could, shooting glares at the customers who were still watching. For the time, though, they were all lesser in importance than the woman who had joined their table.

Did Her Highness even hear what was said? he wondered. Probably not. It seemed like her mind had latched onto the Director of Music's perceived rudeness without paying any attention to the rest. Well, he supposed that damage control was something that he was already used to doing anyways.

"この所で皇帝がいらないんです," Itou said to the princess first. "こちらは内親王を見たことがないと思うので無知を許してください。" He didn't really think his explanation would calm her down all that much but as long as it diverted some of her annoyance, that was all he was aiming for.

He turned his attention to the director then. "Forgive me," he said to her. "The customs here are quite different from the ones we are used to."

While she hated to admit it, Itou was right. On this world, there emperor had little sway. Sure, Kitsunemori ported them supplies, intelligence, luxuries and even treasure so they could live a comfortable lifestyle, but they could -not- extend actual political or cultural influence here. As much as Sayuri despised the situation, on earth, she was no better then Aurora. Turning to Itou, Sayuri responded back in Japanese: "じゃあ, 今貴方の方法を使う。でも幸せじゃないよ。" before truing back to Aurora. She paused for a second and took another sip of her tea before responding to Aurora's questions...

"Well, I am a student. Itou here is a teacher. As for being from "not around here" we come from another dimension and era where I am a Princess and Itou is an esteemed member of the imperial military." Sayuri responded to Aurora, her tone a bit cocky but yet more civil then before when discussing her and Itou's titles. She took another sip of tea to distract her mind from Aurora's disrespect and then continued to talk, her tone even more civil then before but still caring an edge of superiority in it.

"Also, if you think our existence is problematic, your wrong. We're actually the good guys, here. We're on a mission to save reality from a crisis that happens in our era. Perhaps if your sensitive to other worlds, you may be familiar with it?" Sayuri asked.

Itou Hayato

Itou personally wouldn't have said even that much about their own ranks in the Empire. At the least, he definitely would have attempted to keep Megumi no Miya's status quiet for as long as possible. Considering her dignity, though, he supposed that idea had never truly been an option. To her credit, however, the officer had to admit that the princess knew how to be civil when she felt the need to be.

For the time, though, he felt very improperly grateful that Megumi no Miya was actually listening to him. It was a mildly irksome sentiment to carry. Itou was used to giving orders himself but sometime between military campaigns and a certain string of incidents with the Kiku side imperial family, it appeared that he had given up on having any sort of self pride.

That said, the man was certain that he couldn't pass for a student. So Itou really couldn't help but jerk his head at that particular question. I'm not that short, he thought in slight exasperation, smothering a cough. If that was the reason for the director to have made her conclusion, then it was honestly one of the most hypocritical ones he had ever heard of.

"I've only been at the school for some time," Itou said to the director shortly. "I wasn't expecting you to have recognize me." He grimaced a little and took a sip from his cup of tea because it would have been an inappropriate time for a coughing fit. "I teach economics. As a supply officer, it seemed to be proper."

He held his tongue as Megumi no Miya touched on their mission and waited for the Director of Music's reaction. There was an uneasy feeling in his chest but that could have easily been his lungs acting up.