showyousomethingnice | breakfast of champions (Reo, Haley)

Reo has spent a lot of time thinking this list over, imagining what his teammates here would have to say about some of the players on it to gauge the likelihood of magic (since his own perception of what's reasonable is obviously distorted), and he thinks he's got it as right as he can with what little information he has now. Ms Dresden will, he expects, be the one who decides how likely his conclusions are.

"I broke it up into groups," he explains. "Players I'm nearly certain of, players I'm not so sure of, and -" His expression darkens a little. "I'll explain the last two when I get there.

"Most of them - may I?" he asks, politely reclaiming the list but aligning it on the table so it's right side up for Haley. The names are all written in careful romaji letters, given name first.

Seijuurou Akashi
Ryouta Kise
Atsushi Murasakibara
Shintarou Midorima
Tatsuya Himuro
Kotarou Hayama
Daiki Aomine

Taiga Kagami
Tetsuya Kuroko
Teppei Kiyoshi
Eikichi Nebuya

Shougo Haizaki
Makoto Hanamiya

Reo tries to stick to the Western name format and leave off honorifics as he speaks, to avoid confusion for Haley, but the more focused he becomes on his explanation, the less successful he is.

"Most of them has at least one specific skill that I haven't seen other players manage. Um" - he turns a bit sheepish - "our skills usually have names, I don't know where they come from. Magazines, I think? They're convenient, so we use them."

~~And he hopes Haley doesn't laugh at them quite as hard as some of his teammates had.~~

He touches the first name on the list. "Sei-ch - Seijuurou has the Emperor's Eye, which allows him to predict when an opponent is going to do before he does it, before he even knows he's going to do it. It's supposed to be because he can see micro movements in the muscles and the pulse and read them fast enough to know what they mean." He pauses. "I've been thinking about whether the explanations are as logical as I've always thought, and I - don't think that one is. I'm not sure if everyone on this list has been using magic, but I'm sure of Sei-chan." He would be sure of Sei-chan even without basketball, if only because, now that he knows magic exists, it's difficult to imagine that someone like Sei-chan wouldn't have any.

"Kise is - when I say no other player can use our individual skills, I mean no other player except Kise. His skill is the ability to copy and perfectly execute any play he sees." Reo's tone turns a bit sour in spite of himself. "Including ours.

"He's also something of a celebrity - he's a model, and I think I heard he might try acting? We all get - got more attention than basketball players usually do, but Kise-kun is known far beyond that. He's easily the most likely of all of us to get caught."

Reo pauses there as the waitress returns with Haley's coffee and to take their breakfast orders. He orders an egg white omelette with chicken breast and vegetables, and a glass of orange juice.

When the waitress is gone, he asks,

"Does this make sense so far? I could only make guesses." It's surprisingly difficult to decide what's reasonably possible and what isn't when you've been steeped in the unreasonable for so long.

Haley listens to his explanation, but her brows go up with surprise at the description of Seijuuro's gift. She waits until he gives her a break to reply. "Okay, so what that Seijuurou guy has, that's a rare one. The copying thing could be explained without magic except that he's copying your magic shit, so it's gotta have magic involved somehow, but seeing the future is huge. Even if it isn't seeing the future but, I don't know, reading minds, or even as you say, it's that he's got amazing enough vision to see what's going to happen, it's easily exploitable, whether he does it or somebody else figures out what he can do and does it, for him. And trust me, if somebody else figures it out, they will."

She scrubs a hand over her face, looking even more tired, now. "Hells bells, if these are your 'probablies', I'm afraid of your certainties down at the bottom, there. These are extremely specialized skills, tricky for most wizards to manage, and suggests to me that they've got pretty localized gifts. That could be good for training them and keeping them safe, or could be really, really bad. Keep going. Tell me more. I'll tell you what I think of the rest."

Reo's expression turns a touch wry. "Anyone who tried to exploit Sei-chan would very quickly start wishing they hadn't."

Yes, he knows that this is a whole world of stuff that Sei-chan doesn't know about, and that he has to learn the same as anyone else. Still, Reo's faith in him is rock solid.

(And his expression also has a gentle warmth to it that he doesn't realize is there.)

"The Emperor's Eye isn't on all the time. He has to concentrate to use it and it drains his stamina." Pause. "Or - his magic, I suppose, if that's how that works. But I've never known him to use it for anything but basketball. He's not like that. Even before, when he -"

Reo cuts himself off there, torn on how much he needs to share versus how important it is to keep Sei-chan's privacy intact.

". . . Sei-chan is complicated," he says finally.

(They covered Dissociative Identity Disorder in his Intro to Psych class last month; the smugly thoughtless jokes and commentary from his classmates had made Reo so angry that he'd discovered, after class, that his nails had cut into the skin of his palms. There's nothing funny about how Sei-chan could only save himself from shattering into a thousand pieces by breaking into two instead.)

He shakes his head briefly, to get himself back on track and to indicate that the subject of Sei-chan's complications is closed.

"Those last two names," he says, "perhaps I should explain those next. I'm much less certain of Haizaki now. His skill is similar to Kise's Perfect Copy, except that he changes the moves he takes a little bit, which confuses the timing of the person he took them from so that they can't use them anymore. He never managed to copy any of us, but it also took Kise-kun time to be able to, and Haizaki quit playing before he might have been able to reach that point. I saw the last game he played, against Kise. Kise-kun was injured, and Haizaki deliberately stepped on his injured foot to make it worse. He's not a pleasant person. I hope he can't use magic at all."

He looked a little disdainful speaking about Haizaki; now his expression hardens with anger and fierce dislike as he continues to the final name on to the list.

"Hanamiya is worse. As far as I know, what Haizaki did to Kise-kun was on impulse. Hanamiya did it on purpose, in every game. He became captain of his team a few months into our first year, and after that, they never faced a single team without injuring someone. They sent many players to the hospital. And the referees never saw a thing."

He pauses, aware of the way his voice got angrier and angrier as he spoke, and takes a breath, trying to rein it back in.

"You asked what else I could do," he says. "I'm very good at drawing fouls - I place myself just so, so that the player who's guarding me can't help but run into me. The referee calls it a foul and I can shoot to get an extra point. I was thinking about how that would work in terms of, of forcing my will on someone, and I thought - it doesn't always work. I can't get the timing or the other player sees me coming. But I've never had a referee notice what I was doing. I always thought I was very good at hiding it, but perhaps I'm just making the referees not see.

"And," and his mouth and his words tighten as he speaks, because he loathes the idea of having anything at all in common with Hanamiya, let alone anything like this, "I thought perhaps if that's what I'm doing, then perhaps it was what Hanamiya was doing, too.

"I don't think he's playing in college. But I put him and Haizaki separate because if they, especially Hanamiya, can use magic, they should be watched. Hanamiya hurt all those players for fun, and he is very smart. I don't like to think what he'd do if he learned whatever it is we'll be taught and then went to use it without anyone watching him."

Haley's not usually great at picking up social cues, and she might have gone on to point out some of the ways even the most strong-willed of people might be compromised, but the conversation moves on to something a lot more important, at least for the moment. She listens, expression growing more grim, and she nods at the last. "I'll make sure whoever goes out there is warned. It could be something simple like a veil-- that's making something invisible, or hard to see. Like an illusion. Tricky, but my last apprentice had a gift for them, so the inexperienced can set them up if their power's geared that way."

She frowns, though, and continues: "Could be something a lot worse, like influencing the ref's directly, in their minds. That's black magic, and it's definitely against the Laws. That sort of shit is what gets the Wardens to chop off heads. Sometimes they're premature about it, maybe, but a lot of times there's no way to turn somebody back from that path if they've been on it too long."

Reo's anger has fallen away by the time she's done. He picks up his coffee, but his stomach has knotted up too tightly to even think about taking a sip; instead, he stares down into it for a moment before he says quietly,

"I hope I haven't been doing that."

Not because of the consequences. Because - god. He hopes he hasn't been doing that. How could he live with that, with knowing that something inside him decided the best way to get what he wanted was to reach inside someone's head and mess up what he found?

(How could he trust himself on the court again?)

The list, he reminds himself after another moment. He needs to focus. The others need him to focus. He puts the mug down and looks at the list he has committed to memory, forcing himself back on track. He describes the next three players more dispassionately; they were never his teammates or his friend the way Sei-chan was. Is. (They never did anything to hurt someone he cares about the way Hanamiya did.)

"Murasakibara. His most unusual skill is - difficult to describe. It's called Thor's Hammer. I don't know the reasoning behind it, I've only seen it, but - he spins when he dunks, and something about that . . . he doesn't just avoid letting his opponents get to the ball, he knocks them away without ever touching them. It's a bit like watching the, uh, the spinning part of a helicopter dunk the ball.

"Midorima-kun can make a perfect three-point shot from all the way across the court. He never misses, not without direct interference, and the only people I've known to be able to interfere are on this list. That may not sound like much if you don't know basketball, but I can't even think of a professional player who could make that shot every time. It shouldn't be possible.

"Himuro is actually here in America. He attends UCLA. He has the mirage shot, which is - when he shoots it, right before, the ball becomes difficult to see. It looks like the air is shimmering around it. Hiding it." Reo shakes his head a little. "It made my eyes water a little the first time I saw it."

He tilts his head consideringly. "From here, I'm less sure. It gets harder for me to see the difference between what might be magic and what's just talent. That's why I wanted to present it like this for you, since you ought to be able to make some distinctions more easily than I can."

Some distinctions, though maybe not all of them; Ms Dresden may be the one who knows magic, but Reo knows basketball, and he's certain that at least some of the remaining candidates don't need any magic at all to play the way they do.

Haley nods, looking more relaxed about the rest of those than she had about the other three he'd described. "Those are all pretty simple to do with magic, and not as dangerous to them or anybody else. If you're not sure of the rest, all we've really got to do is get somebody with magic to watch them do what they do, and they'll be able to tell. Same way I could tell you were using magic, not just whatever you thought you were doing. Wizards can sense that kind of stuff."

She holds out a hand for the list, aiming to put it away and send it along to people she trusts. Having one of them actually in LA is useful, since the Warden on that side of the state is a good friend, and one of the younger Warders, so less likely to pitch a fit over untested practitioners.

That taken care of, she watches Reo. He might notice, by now, that she has yet to make eye contact for more than a beat or two. She still isn't. Her voice, though, is serious. "Why are you so worried about what you might've done? Afraid of getting in trouble?"

Reo surrenders the list willingly, saying,

"It might be wise to warn them to look very carefully for Kuroko Te - Tetsuya Kuroko. He has a very weak presence. He's one of those people who is easy to overlook even when you're looking for him."

He doesn't think there's necessarily anything magical about that - if he did, he would have added Mayuzumi-senpai to the list as well - but it is the kind of thing that can trip a person up. It's only fair to offer advance warning.

He's thinking about that, about what else he ought to say now and what he wants to ask (he mustn't forget to ask about Tecchan's injury, that's very important), and so her question - and the fact that it's an obvious test - catches him by surprise.

"I'm sorry - ? No!" Of course he doesn't particularly want to be beheaded, no one does, but that isn't his primary concern. "It's a - terrible thing to do to someone! What kind of person -"

He falters, his gaze dropping back down to his coffee.

"What kind of person does that by - without thinking?" He struggles for words for a moment more before he gives up and leaves it at that, unable to express in either English or Japanese how much the idea of being that kind of person frightens him. He's always wanted and tried to be someone who helps. Someone who fixes damage, not someone who inflicts it.

(Hanamiya's opposite, not his parallel.)

Haley sits back, looking satisfied. "Then you're either a great actor, or you aren't one of those ones too far down the path to want things easy, and step on other people to get them. I'm betting on it's that second one. You strike me as a pretty good person, Reo Mibuchi, and that's what's important. But I am one of those people who can take off your head if you turn bad, just to make sure we're both on the same page. I won't want to, but if I have to, I will. So--"

She finally softens a little, to a slightly wry grin. "--keep being a good person, okay? I just hate seeing kids get killed just because they didn't know any better. That's why I'm gonna teach you everything I can, so you will know better."

It is, unexpectedly, reassuring to hear that he's in the hands of someone who is not only empowered to kill him, but willing to exercise that power if need be. He never wants -

"If you have to," he says quietly, "then I want you to."

He never wants to be that.

He takes a breath, trying to dispel the rest of his anxiety. It seems like a good time to ask about how magic can be used to help people, so he does.

"Is it possible to use magic to get rid of an old injury? Completely, the old scar tissue and - to make it like it never happened?"

Exactly the right thing to say. Haley nods soberly and lets that go.

"To get rid of it, no, not really, not unless you've got one hell of a gift specifically for fixing things like that," Haley but depending on how strong your gift is, anything you've got will start to heal, the more you use it. See this?" She holds up her left hand, on which there was some faint scar tissue, obviously left over from a burn. "Used to be I couldn't even use this thing. Every doctor I went to wanted me to take it off. Now look at it."

Reo's face falls a little at her initial answer, but not for long. He will just have to find out how good he can be at using magic to heal.

(He used to keep a well-stocked first aid kit in his dorm room at Rakuzan, for treating teammates who were too stubborn to take their minor injuries to the infirmary but deemed seeking out their vice captain's help acceptable to their pride. It worked well. They always healed quickly and nothing ever went wrong. Maybe that's something he should think more about.)

"Well, that's useful for an athlete," is what he says aloud, examining Ms Dresden's hand with interest. "How long did that take?"

"A couple years. It's slow, and I had to be patient and do physical therapy and all that. But if you've got a lot of power, enough for this sort of thing to happen, you'll have a long life to spend healing from shit," Haley confides. It's pretty important information to share, even if it's not something that's as cool as it sounds. Haley isn't looking forward to watching purely human friends die around her. "My own mentor's a couple hundred years old, now. Doesn't look a day over sixty. So if you're strong enough-- which I don't know if you are, we'll hafta test that and find out-- if you're strong enough, you will, too. Unless something kills you first, anyway. That's always a possibility."

Reo blinks, taking this in.

(His first thought is that Sei-chan will certainly be among the ones strong enough to live so long. He can't imagine a scenario in which Sei-chan isn't among the best and strongest of any group he's in.)

The waitress arrives with their food as he thinks; he waits until she's gone to ask,

"How does the testing work?"

Haley shoots him a grin, still not quite meeting his eyes for more than a second. "All sorts of ways. Mostly making you do magic, see what you're capable of, which can take a while. Weeks or months, as you practice and get better at control. Or I can try the quick and dirty way, but it's not a lot of fun for either of us." A soulgaze isn't something one forgets. Ever. And it's only a 50-50 chance it would give her what she needs to find out his magical strength, anyway, but it would give them both a deep insight into who the other person is, and what they are each capable of. Plus, it might well make him pass out or throw up or something, if he's not got enough magic in him to tolerate it.

He's beginning to notice now that Ms Dresden hasn't been making much eye contact. That's another thing about America he's still getting used to, the way people stare at each other during conversations. Ms Dresden is, he thinks, the kind of person who would normally be doing a lot of that staring. That she isn't doing so is something that he should perhaps be paying a little more attention to; he's been told, and seen for himself a few times, that it indicates discomfort or dissemination for Americans.

He considers this thoughtfully as he takes a neat bite of his omelette, then asks (after he swallows, of course),

"What is the other way, if I may ask?"

"Of course you can ask," Haley snorts at him. "If you're going to be my student for a while, you're going to have to ask questions. I can't think of everything."

She takes a gulp of her coffee and a bite of her waffle-- shut up, it's tasty and filling and she doesn't eat out much-- before answering that one, though.

"There's something wizards can do called a Soulgaze. It's not perfect, and it can be pretty disorienting. One friend of mine passed out when I accidentally did it on her. Another one threw up. To a magical being or a strong enough wizard, it's not so bad, just it's not something that leaves you. Ever. You'll remember whatever you see with crystal clarity for the rest of your life. You ever heard the American expression 'eyes are the windows of the soul'?"

The only judgment Reo is about to pass on Haley's breakfast is the same thing he's thought about Western breakfasts for years now - too many carbs, not enough protein. How is that supposed to get even a non-athlete through until lunch?

He nods in answer to her question.

"Yes, that's familiar."

If that can be done by accident, he thinks, then that must be the reason for the minimal eye contact.

Well. He does appreciate that.

"Well, it's the truth, if you have magic," Haley says with a shrug. "You'd be surprised how many sayings really are true, when you look at it from a wizard's perspective. But in this case, I'd look into your eyes, and you'd look into mine, and if we kept it up for more than a second or two, we'd see each other's souls. It'd be messy, but it'd give both of us an idea about the other person's power, as well as what we're really like, as people. So: quick and dirty way. But you might throw up. That's the dirty part, I guess."

Someone who didn't look any further than Reo's careful appearance and often borderline-fussy mannerisms might expect him to recoil in horror at the very idea of vomit, but Reo is also an athlete who has thrown up during more practices than he can count, especially when he was young. That part gets half a shrug.

"Perhaps," he says with just a touch of dryness, "we should wait until we've left the diner, then."

(He should approach the whole notion with more gravity, maybe, but Reo is only nineteen. He doesn't yet have the life experience to really start to grasp what such a thing means.)

And Haley can guess that. She eyes him thoughtfully. It would give her a better idea of just how likely he was to fall into bad ways, and could be used as evidence if a trial took place despite her early intervention. "So that's what you want?"

"If it's all right with you," Reo says, because while he may not be able to grasp the full implications of the soulgaze, he certainly understands that it's the kind of thing that should ideally be undertaken with consent from both parties. "It sounds like the most efficient way to get started, if it works."

Reo likes efficiency, always has, and finds the thought of it reassuring in the middle of all this - of all this. And if it doesn't work, well, at least they tried, and it sounds as though something can still be learned even from a failure.

Haley snorts around a mouthful of waffle. Efficient. Right. Depending on your definition, she supposes. Once she manages to swallow, she warns, "Don't think that all things with magic can be solved the quick and dirty way, like this. A lot of times there isn't a quick and dirty way. It's just practice, discipline, and a hell of a lot of work."

She forks another piece of waffle. "You know. Just so you know. Once we're all paid up here, we'll go outside and see what we see."

"I'm an athlete, Ms Dresden," Reo says mildly. "I am accustomed to discipline and hard work."

He may not yet understand the implications of everything he's found himself in the middle of, but the one thing Haley won't ever have to worry about is finding him slacking off.

"But thank you for the warning," he adds. "I imagine you've had trouble with people making that assumption."

"Once I actually convince people I'm not faking it, they usually figure they can use magic for anything," Haley snorts. "Doesn't work that way. If I wanted to, say, flip over this table, for pretty much everybody, it'd be a whole lot easier to do it with my hands than tossing a spell at it. Magic's best used for those things your hands can't do, and even then, it's tiring, especially if you go slinging it around in big ways."

Reo considers this as he eats.

"That would explain why my specialty shots are more tiring than my ordinary ones," he says. "Physically, they don't take that much more effort, but if I do too many of them, I'm exhausted by the end of the game. I mentioned the effect the Emperor's Eye has on Sei-chan, too . . ."

His mind is turning back to the list. "I have two other former teammates on that list. I have my doubts about Ei-chan - Eikichi Nebuya - I don't know how much magic you need to eat far too much and develop your muscles obsessively. I added him mostly for completeness's sake; he was considered one of our group of elite players. Koutarou Hayama seems more likely, he can dribble the ball so fast it's just a blur. It never seemed to tire him out, but then he's an eternal bundle of energy. The only time I think I ever saw him slow down was after we lost the Winter Cup in our second year."

He frowns thoughtfully against the rim of his glass.

"Quite a few of the players on my list were in that game. It was a very strange one."

He's always thought that, but had acknowledged that, as a member of a losing team experiencing its first major loss in years, his perspective was biased. Now he's beginning to wonder, though.

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