435/Books. Books EVERYWHERE!

Books. Books EVERYWHERE!
Date of Scene:	09 October 2015
Location:	Mitakihara - Infinity University
Synopsis:	Haruna and Madoka both have the silly idea of carrying stacks of books around instead of carrying them in backpacks. Ikiko watches. Corvus screws things up and Haruna accidently chases Madoka away.
Cast of Characters:	Madoka Kaname, Haruna Kurosawa, Ikiko Hisakata

---

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
'Haruna do we really need this many books?' asked Corvus in a whisper into Haruna's ear as she was coming back from the Library. She was mostly relying on Corvus to guide her. Only Corvus wasn't paying attention really at all unless Haruna asked him to peek ahead.

The problem was of course, a small tower of books she was carrying. ALL of them seemed to be about forests and rainforests and everything. This was an epic essay in the making here, of course! Of course. Haruna knew that books would look better for citations. It'd make her look smarter! And maybe...maybe she could inch up on Takashi-san's major big score!

Of course, Corvus was more intrested trying to rubber neck at one of the cafetarias they were passing by because he smelled something good.

Up ahead, perhaps- there's another girl who isn't watching where she is going.

You can sense the explosion of books in the near future. SOMEHOW. Or perhaps not. But it really is looking that way right now!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    While the one girl is leaving the Library with a stack of books Madoka Kaname is heading towards it with one of her own. It isn't so large that she can't see over the top of it, but it is enough to make her have to walk slowly and methodically to keep it from toppling over. The subjects are of a wide variety, from history to mathematics to scientific processes- all things she had needed to cram up on over the recent break for summer classes to help her catch back up to Infinity's rigorous standards.

    The issue being that two months wasn't enough to actually fill that gap, and so she had kept them until now where she had recently received a sternly worded note from the Library for how overdue they had become.

    This would all be without consequence were it not for a certain blind corner and some delicious smelling food in the cafeteria. Her stomach growls and just for a moment she stops watching where she's going to try think on the delicious leftovers waiting from her from the bento lunch her father had packed for her today. She passes right by that corner without looking and wham!

    Madoka's pile of books slams into Haruna's and she loses her balance, tripping backwards and swinging her arms in circles to try and regain it with predictable results for her stack of books, which now rain down around in a small area. Losing her balance also she lands on her rear with a light thump, wincing and sounding a brief pained gasp.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Not too far away, a younger girl in a Seishou Public School uniform is wandering around without a stack of books. She had made plans with a friend of hers that attends Infinity to hang out after the friend was done with club practice. There was still quite a bit of time before her friend would be done, so Ikiko was simply wandering the campus, looking around at the buildings and such.

The sound of lots of books falling catches her attention, and she looks over in time to see the pink-haired girl land on the ground. "Are you okay?" Ikiko says as she hurries over, offering a hand to the fallen while trying to not step on any books in the process.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Haruna Kurosawa eek! She bumped into somebody and fell back on her tush. Also, Crovus squawks off Haruna's shoulder for a moment to flap in the air and look down. "A..Ah!? I mean. Uh. Bawk?" says Corvus. Hopefully everyone was too busy recovering to hear that one. Books fly everywhere.

"O...-oh!? Are you okay!?" she asks the other girl concernedly- and ashamedly. She's pretty sure this was her fault. She couldn't see and Corvus obviously had food on the mind.

"Here...lemme..." she pauses.

"Wait..which books are yours and which are mine!?" she says.

This might take a moment.

She blinks and looks back up at Ikiko as Corvus lands back on her right shoulder. She pushes herself up. Ikiko can help Madoka up.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    At first Madoka had thought she had mistakenly walked into a wall, but upon seeing the blonde girl sitting there on the ground and the vastly multiplied number of books she realizes what must have happened.

    "Ah..! Oh, um..." she stammers for a moment.

    The terrible faux pas has her embarrassed, and truth be told she still wasn't completely comfortable here in her new(old?) school. What overrides this is getting asked if she's okay by multiple parties, which immediately sparks the thought that the other, seemingly slightly older, student might have been hurt as well.

    "I'm fine," she insists, almost dismissive of her own condition, "Are you alright? I am so sorry! I wasn't paying attention for just a moment and..!" She stops fretting for just long enough to accept the offered hand to get back to her feet, Madoka being only a single centimeter taller than Ikiko despite wearing the Middle School uniform of Infinity. "Thank you," she replies gratefully but with a slight blush of embarrassment

    Now it's time for her to look at all the books on the ground- forest habitats, geometry, sustainable forest management, biology, tropical rainforest rainfall statistics, Tokugawa period politics, high altitude forest habitats- she's starting to recognize a pattern here. "I think mine are the ones that aren't about trees," she comments lamely.

    Back to fretting. "Please accept my apology- I should have paid better attention to where I was going! I'll take full responsibility if you're hurt at all." She bows to Haruna several times in succession, only to come up face to face with Corvus as she rises the last time.

    Pink eyes blink twice. "A bird..?"

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Corvus blinks back.

Haruna ahs!? "N..No I'm fine! I'm fine really!? Are you okay!?" Everything is NORMAL and UNDER CONTROL! she says in her head. Haruna isn't used to dealing with people this way. Really, up until fairly recently you'd barely see her at all. She'd hide herself on benches in the hall. She'd hide in her dorm room until classes forced her out. "Um. Yeah. That makes sense. Just. Forest stuff. Doing a report!" she says with a matter of fact sudden and hard nods. Corvus also nods his head and crosses wings in front of himself.

"A bird...?" Haruna really doesn't think of Corvus in well. Animal terms. He's a friend. A special friend. To her, Corvus is very much a person! Of course. That's all her personal thoughts. To everyone else, is a very odd Silver Raven.

"Oh! This is Corvus-Chan! He's a good friend of mine!" she insists to Madoka. She looks over to Ikiko and blinks. "Oh!? Uh. S--sorry! We didn't mean to worry you." she says sheepishly and with a blush.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"You're welcome! Ikiko smiles to Madoka. The two seem to be okay, and it even sounds like the books will be easily sorted! And the bird sounds more startled than scared, too!

Wait, a bird?

She does a minor doubletake at the bird on the other girl's shoulder. Silver ravens aren't exactly common, and she already knows of one in the Tokyo area -- in fact, she ate burgers with him a few nights ago!

Of course, Ikiko's hair is very different from Tsukiko's, so he probably won't recognizer her like this... assuming that it's even the same silver raven, that is! And a busy school corridor isn't the best place to ask about magical things, especially when they're not certain.

Of course, the blonde-haired girl /did/ say his name was Corvus...

Ikiko helps sort out the books, occasionally glancing at the raven. Definitely a bird with personality, that one!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "I'm so glad I won't have caused you too much trouble, then!" The relief on Madoka's face as Haruna tells her she's fine is visible, and her demeanor shifts to being much calmer in general. She's still embarrassed for having caused a mess, but hurting someone- that would be altogether worse! Haruna likewise might have seen Madoka on campus in the last month of the first term, looking extremely out of place and overwhelmed at best. She didn't try to actively hide herself away, but neither had she done much of anything to call attention to herself.

    Except maybe those 'fancy' red ribbons holding her twintails together, that is.

    When Madoka is introduced to Corvus she smiles, "It's nice to meet you, Corvus-chan!" She even offers a quick little bow to him. Not that she realizes there's anything more to him than what is an especially rare color for a raven- in fact Madoka doesn't even realize that's what he actually is. But when introduced to a pet(?) as a special friend she'll treat them as one!

    Of course saying hello like that makes her realize she doesn't know either of the other girl's names, and so takes a step back to offer a polite introductory bow to each of them, "My name is Madoka."

    Pause. Blush. This isn't America anymore!

    "K-kaname Madoka! I-I'm an second year middle school student here. You may call me Madoka, if you like!" She's always preferred to refer to people by their given names just as a manner of being friendly, even before she lived abroad.

    She then lets out a slight gasp of surprise as she realize she's all but let Ikiko pick up all the books herself despite not having been involved in the accident at all. "Thank you for your kindness, let me help!" This also gives her the chance to hide her red face after her second social mistake in only a few minutes while she hurriedly goes around picking up one book after another.

    She starts with all of Haruna's books first; it just seems natural to do so.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Haruna Kurosawa doesn't seem bothered by the social mistakes. "I'm Kurosawa Haruna~" she says softly. I'm in third year middle school!" she says with a smile. She begins helping with books too. She just begin picking out books. Corvus suddenly has one of the books. He has it open. He is flipping the pages, and how does he do this with his wings, let alone know how to read isn't a thought to dwell on too hard for a mundane else your head might hurt. Or maybe. Maybe this is entirely natural.

"Hey Haruna." says Corvus. "What's this stuff?" he asks, showing her a page filled with math. One of Madoka's books.

"Oh..that's Ma-----"

She suddenly slowly looks to the right. Corvus-chan you big dumb birdbrain! You're talking in front of people and now she's going to have to explain and now EVERYTHING IS HORRIBLE and she wants to just retreat into the floor like a very embarassed mole.

Corvus doesn't get math. He's a /magical/ bird. These things are like super alien to him.

"Thanks!" she says at Ikiko with a very very very embarrased smile.

Man, the sheer embarrasment in this area right now could probably power an embrassment eating youma for years.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko's eyes widen for a moment at the words coming from Corvus -- more accurately, that he *is* speaking! She doesn't say anything about it; instead, she picks up a book in each hand and gives them back to their people--

--wait, the books are in the wrong hands to be easily handed back--

--cross arms, /now/ hand them back to the right people!--

"I'm Ikiko Hisakata, fifth-grader at Seishou Public School; pleased to meet you!" she says brightly, trying to dampen the ambient embarassment through the power of cheerful smiling*!

(*: Results may vary.)

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka smiles to each of the girls as they introduce themselves in turn, "Haruna-chan! Ikiko-chan! Is it okay if I call you Haruna-chan and Ikiko-chan?" Despite this potentially being a third social misstep she doesn't treat it that way unless rebuffed. Introducing herself improperly is one thing but wanting to immediately treat people as being friends is just who she is.

    She misses the fact that Corvus is actually holding and reading a book because her eyes are focused at foot level rather than shoulder level, right up until he talks. Wondering if maybe someone else had simply walked up and started talking she looks in that direction just in time to see Haruna begin to explain to him before pausing.

    Were this a couple of months ago the books she'd just picked up might be hitting the floor again, but Madoka has at least been introduced to the idea that magic exists. Even so she's staring dumbfounded for a moment so that it takes her a moment to realize there is a book being handed to her. Her head slowly turns to Ikiko and she gives the girl a slightly weak smile while she accepts it, "Thank you."

    She walks briefly over to a nearby bench and sets the books she's picked up there, only to walk back over in front of Haruna- it looks like she isn't going to let this blow over as easily as Ikiko might have.

    "Haruna-chan," she begins, only to pause when realizing addressing her may actually be rude, "Corvus-chan..." She takes in a little breath and holds it for a moment before asking with a voice filled with gravity, "You're... a Magical Bird, aren't you?"

    It's probably painfully clear to the other two girls just how unaccustomed to magic she is with that kind of delivery!

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
"Indeed! I am Mahou T----"

Haruna whinnnnnnnes. She's asking /questions!/. "Corvus you jerk you're not supposed to talk in front of others like that! I can't even use the 'I'm a bird ventriloquist' thing on this one!" she insists to Corvus. "But...that stuff looked important!" he explains in a huff to the book. Which Haruna snatches from him angrily.

Fricken Math probably looked like magic runes or something to him.

She has to admit stuff now and she hates this because she just met this girl and it is the burger stand all over again just the opposite of that!

"No--! I'm a magical girl, and Corvus-chan is my partner okay!?" she says with a huff! "Don't tell anyone okay!?"

Somewhere Else in the Cross Mirror Room, Blue facepalms and just sweeps the image of Haruna away on his big viewmaster mirror as it switches to checking up on another Cure who's probably having an emotional spike.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko Hisakata nods to Madoka; she's fine with being friends with friendly people, and Madoka certainly fits into that category! Friendships are being made, things are being cleaned up, everything's going well--

--and then Madoka asks if Corvus is a Magical Bird.

Ikiko winces in sympathy with Haruna; getting your identity as a magical girl called out like that, even indirectly, is awkward, to say the least. At least Haruna was able to minimize her secret identity to just 'the partner of Corvus,' so that's not too--

--waitaminute. If Corvus is Haruna's partner, then that means... Well.

"I won't tell anyone," Ikiko promises. It feels like there's more that she should say, but this isn't the place for it. Instead, she murmurs "I'm familiar with having to keep things like that a secret."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Uh oh! Madoka's curiosity seems to have upset Haruna and gotten Corvus in trouble with her as well. This makes her feel a little bad and when she sees that it's her book that was the problem it only magnifies this feeling. All of a sudden Haruna is acting huffy and upset, and Madoka knows she's the cause.

    Then Haruna admits to being a magical girl herself- for some reason this wasn't immediately obvious to the pink haired girl, and her eyes widen with wonder. "--you're?!"

    That's as far as she gets. Though the curiosity and interest is so clear and obvious on her face, impossible for the Middle Schooler to hide, the annoyance and upset at this information having to be given away makes it very clear to her just how important that kind of information is.

    Her mind fills with memories of improbable landscapes and ghastly monsters, and worse still the faces of people who have proven all too willing hurt innocent, unmagical people purely because they are important to people that are.

    Her face pales and becomes takes on an expression of shock. "...I'm sorry..." she whispers, barely audible, only to all but rip the Math book out of Haruna's hands. "I- I won't tell anyone. Ever! I promise!" She begins rushing about, picking up her remaining books from the ground.

    "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she repeats over and over as she gathers them up, only to clutch them tightly to her chest. "I really am sorry- to both of you. I was so stupid to ask an important question like that. I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me!"

    And with that Madoka is rushing off towards the Library, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Haruna Kurosawa blinks blinks. Haruna is----not really good with people. For two years she's been living in a dorm, doing her best to imagine that no one around her existed except for the memory of her sister- and even before then she was shy. Shy because---- because she doesn't even really know. She looks down because she's replaying the last 4 seconds in her head. Did she yell at her? She didn't... mean to. Did...?

"H..hey!" she says out. But it's too late. She looks down and closes her eyes. "Nrg...! I didn't...mean to----"

Corvus looks /really/ ashamed and guilty now. "I'm sorry. Just. weird writing...." he murmurs. No point in hiding the talking now as Ikiko remains(?). She begins to pick up the last of the books and---oooh boy, two of these are math books which means Madoka has her two forest books and now she's going to need to track the girl down later maybe.

"Why do I always mess things up!?" she asks as she kicks at the wall and crosses her arms angrily. "Haruna....please calm down..." Corvus urges. "We can apologize later. It's not like you stole her soul or anything." he tries to jest. Haruna just glares. Corvus O.O's and acks- okay. It was a bad idea to play coy on the past right now. Haruna... Haruna was actually straight bothered by this.

She looks back at Ikiko. and blinks.

"I... didn't.. yell at her.. did I? I just..." she looks down.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko Hisakata hugs Haruna. "You weren't yelling," she reassures the older girl. "I'm not quite sure, but I think the fact that you're a magical girl worries her. Or makes her worried /for/ you; it's hard to tell."

She looks towards the direction Madoka fled to. A hug might be useful there as well, but giving Madoka some space for now might be a better idea.

There's a moment of hesitation as Ikiko tries to figure out how much she should mention right now. "I should probably go meet up with my friend," she finally says, an idea starting to form in her head. "But I'll bring the two of you a snack later -- if that's okay, of course?"

Haruna Kurosawa has posed:
Haruna Kurosawa looks down..."Okay I guess..." she says softly.

She picks up her books..placing the two belonging to the pink haired girl on top, and then she headed back towards the direction she was going in the first place.

Yeah, lying down in bed and staring at the ceiling seemed like a good idea right now.