Excellent perfect good yes now they can talk about dungeons to decompress, yes?

(Why are all of his friends extroverts. He supposes Chun-hee isn't exactly but EVERYONE ELSE.)

(Well, not Hye-jin either.)

(Why did his brain not automatically classify her as a friend.)

(He knows the answer and he will instead not think about it.)

Anyway! Dungeons! Yes? Good.

She gets the emergency notification, and it's louder and more insistent than the usual ones. A large fraction of all psychic espers on Earth are getting similar notifications at the same time—if nothing else, to be on standby. They won't all accept it, and some will probably give up quickly, but that's all the more reason for as many of them to be called in as possible.

Nightmare's finally appeared.

Nightmare’s up, I will be on duty for it.

i just saw the notification

you don't do in-dungeon work, right? just victim work?

Correct.

I might end up doing some mental shielding for the rescue teams, but there’s no reason for me to step into the dungeon.

right

good luck

if there's any way i can help you know where to find me

Yes.

You're just a teleport away :)

It’s not the first time she’s dealt with victims of Nightmare, actually. It always pops up during a confluence, but it likes to snatch victims between them as well, and, well. Anyone that is successfully rescued from it sure does have a lot of trauma to work through. All of her patients were years out, their traumas long entrenched and, since they were seeing her, debilitating. Hopefully, with her waiting right outside to treat victims, they’ll be spared the sleepless nights and PTSD.

That’s the dream, anyway. For now she will be on standby while rescue teams are assembled, to see if her particular brand of emotional suppression will be needed for the rescues themselves.

Nowadays, no one really tries to kill Nightmare, anymore. There just isn't any point. It's achieved apex predator status, its core has never been found, it's too large and its layout too inconsistent for proper exploration, and it's... evil. It has the highest esper kill rate out of all dungeons on record, it's extremely hard to predict when it's about to seal itself and then going back to the exit is a race against the clock during which you know you're inevitably leaving victims behind so that you yourself can survive, lots of espers have traumatic experiences with the entire surrounding context. Survivor's guilt is common, and Nightmare does seem to try to tempt espers by showing them victims that they could save if they take a small detour just as the dungeon's sealing itself...

The teams that are sent in are consequently always small: one or two psychic espers for the shielding and rescue proper, one esper who can find the victims, and if necessary an esper who can find the exit. Teleportation does work inside, but distances are inconsistent and constantly shifting, and that makes most types of it unreliable or more expensive than they could be. So when Hana gets there, there are a handful of such small teams congregated already, and two teams are inside; Nightmare doesn't waste time, and is constantly and continuously kidnapping victims without stopping. The only reason people aren't told to immediately evacuate its environs is that... it's been tried, and when that happens, Nightmare just seals itself quickly and quietly and goes elsewhere, and on net, more people are lost.

Nightmare is evil.

It really, really is.

She inputs her credentials into the comm screen system, then retrieves, fills out, and puts on a name tag, then waits for someone to come get her and put her where it would be best. She is a tiny cog in a great big machine that’s trying to reduce the harm this thing does, and she will do her part.

The support staff notices her arrival quickly and a non-esper comes to talk to her. "Ms. Fugimura Hana?" they ask in English. The dungeon is in Germany, at the moment, and the lingua franca in emergencies in Western Europe is English.

"Yes," agrees Fugimura Hana, in English, though her English also isn't great. (She successfully labeled herself in English along with Japanese, though. It was likely she was going to be somewhere where the emergency language would be English.)

"Come with me to a tent, please?" They have translation software, so if she wants to speak Japanese she can, too. "I've read an overview of your power; is there anything in specific you need from us to use it most efficiently?"

Nod. She does make her request in Japanese, though she caught... most.... of what he said. (Why hasn't she studied English more? Stupid.)

"Estimated time since the victim was taken, and physical touch with the victim. I can work without either, but they improve operational efficiency. Holding hands is fine."

"Understood. Only one victim at a time?" Each team usually only does one but multiple teams can occasionally come out at the same time. "How much time do you need per victim?"

Technically she can do multiple people at once, but when it comes to trauma it's really really important to get it right, so:

"One at a time. Ten to twenty minutes." But since it might become relevant depending on the team composition: "If we want to use my powers in advance for fear prevention, I can manage a small group. But for removing it after it's happened, I need to be careful."

Pause. "Yes, that would probably be useful. How long do you need for that, and how long would the fear suppression last?" Here's the canopied tent. "Are there any side effects or caveats?"

She is aware that she's breaking a psychic esper taboo, by being actually specific in her powers. Mental powers are scary, in a way that just threatening someone's life often isn't. Far off threats of violence usually don't feel real to ordinary people in safe environments. That's not the sort of thing that happens to them. But tearing someone's whole emotional world asunder? Their sense of self? Being able to do something to anyone, and no one can ever tell? Yeah, that is truly scary. The kind of thing that causes ordinary people to stop wanting to have the superpowered person around, actually, and think instead, 'You know what, let's go without.' There's not really anything protecting her, if all the world decides to turn on her and tear her to pieces for just what she could do, not what she has done. Why did she say anything, she should have just stuck to the nice and safe and easy version of what she can do? There is no NDA protecting her, this is likely to go straight into the database for everyone to know.

If no one were brave, no one would save anyone from Nightmare at all. Her backlash means she absolutely cannot be deployed into it, but. ... She can do this. She's thought about it.

"Not long to do, but it would begin to fade at the half hour mark. The time it takes to fade at that point depends on the person and how much they - or their circumstances - try to throw it off." Yes, White Star has done testing, yes, it was properly with pre-written consent, and this is actually where most of her large psychic esper money has gone. "Side effects include dissociation, unendorsed high risk taking, and sometimes discomfort with one's actions after the fact." And then, before the inevitable question gets asked: "I could in theory keep the effect up indefinitely if present, but my backlash is mental and makes me more vulnerable to Nightmare itself."

If they got more information than they were expecting, they're not showing it. They gesture at some chairs near one of the tables and say, "I'll pass that along. Would you prefer to have someone interface with other people for you or would just sending espers and victims your way be enough?" They're stretched thin but useful espers are even rarer than that and they're perfectly willing to have someone dedicated to enabling her.

She sits where directed.

"... Interface to start with, please?" she requests, feeling like she's being such a burden on everyone around her but she's already anxious, and it'll just get worse, and and and she's helping them so it's okay to ask for them to help. If she gets good at it, then they can leave her to her own devices and she can stop wasting everyone's time and she will be a better esper who is using minimal resources in a crisis, which is positive and also something to aspire towards, but not actually required. Because she's helping a lot already. "I have an updated copy of my power listing, I'll send it through."

Hana then opens the comm screen to get to doing that. She prepared this in advance, she can officially update the system (and everyone who reads it, oh no oh no oh no) on her powers. Bloop. Here it goes.

(AAAAAAA.)

"Understood. I'll have someone with you shortly. In the meantime, please make yourself comfortable; there's coffee and tea and water and other refreshments on that table over there and some food on that other table—they're labelled for containing meat or milk or eggs or gluten and none of them have nuts—and there's general-use OTC meds on that other table over there like paracetamol and ibuprofen and if you need anything more than that you can send a request through comms or ask anyone. Do you need anything right now?"

Nod nod.

"No, thank you."

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.)

"Very well."

And off they go to whatever their next task is.

Okay. Then she's just going to sit here and. Maybe grab a snack. To nibble at. Nervously. So she knows what to do with her hands.

"Excuse me, Fugimura Hana-san?" asks a man in Japanese.