Just after school let oout, Kaeru with her pet magic blue frog riding on her shoulder was waiting. She hops onto the monkey bars, then hooks her legs on a bar and dangles there, the frog on her shoulder ribbiting irritably and jumping to cling to her chest bow. She just waits for Reiko to come - she has a lot of questions for her regarding various things - like who Fate is and what side she's on.
Everything's calmed down- well for lack of a better word of 'somewhat back to normalish'. She got deathly sick during that hole affair- a deep seated churning in her stomach. It dissapeared shortly after but still. She knew Kaeru wanted to talk, so she's found her on the playground, rather than the usual meeting spot of the lilac bush.
"Hey Ka-chan!~" she sings out mostly.
"That was a mess. I'm so sorry you....had to deal with that... during what was an emergency." she says with a sigh.
"I bet you have a lot of questions. I think Hoshi should be around soon. She's involved too." she says softly.
Hoshi woke up at home a few days ago, like the whole thing at the north pole was little more than bad dream. Fortunately, there was a good ending. She'd called in sick after, but now she is back at school, "Rei-chan, Kae-chan!" Hoshi greets, energetically.
She bounces over, approaching the others cheerfully. One of her stars popping up aside her head. Effectively confirming Reiko's statement that she's involved. "What's up?"
Kaeru Aokawa unhooks her legs and drops down, gazing at the two of you. "Oh..." she muses softly, her eyes focusing on the yellow star. "So... are _all_ of the girls who played the Prism Keepers game now actual Prism Keepers?" She sees that star and makes a guess. "You even have the stars..." She sighs softly. "So... ummmmm...." There's a blue frog riding Kaeru's shoulder. "I am just _sooooo_ confused about all of this magical girl stuff - especially about someone named Fate Testarosa..."
Reiko Touyama beams and smiles wide at Hoshi. "Hoshi-chan!" she calls out, she reaches out and gives Hoshi a big hug--- and then a koi appears---and dives for the star---and then the koi hugs that. Reiko hugs Hoshi like she's been gone for a very long time. Like... something happened she can't explain! She still sniffs. "Are you okay? I know you went with Kamen-san and the others! You got to meet him finally, right? Tuxedo Kamen!" she says with a smile. "Don't worry! I held down the fort with Ka-chan's help!" she smiles. "Oh.. um. Ka-chan..... was attacked by a Shade and--- Roy have her the Blue Prism." she sighs a bit. "So she's Prism Keeper Blue now!" she says with a best a smile as she can.
She looks to Kaeru. "How are you confused? Tell me more about this Testarosa-san...?" she asks softly as she looks to Kaeru.
Hoshi hugs in response, "I'm okay. We did it." She smiles, and when Tuxedo Kamen comes up, she makes a nervous shrug. "I got to be in a group of people he was in. We didn't really get to talk, though..." She shrugs, and turns towards Kaeru. "Welcome aboard the team, how are you doing?" She lets Reiko handle the Fate thing. She has no clue who that is.
Kaeru Aokawa nods. "Yeah - just after that freak storm where I awakened... there was a solar eclipse, and I felt something... ugly. So I transformed and checked it out - there was this horrible old woman who was doing something to channel the eclipse with a little girl about our age wearing black with a glowing yellow scythe. The old hag talked like a stereotypical villain so I assumed they were bad guys..."
Kaeru sighs as her frog jumps over and gives a big hug to the koi and star. "So I thought that the old woman and the girl she called 'daughter' were the bad guys - so I went after her - took a minor hit - it hurt a bit but not that much - then some of the other girls were PROTECTING her. I could'nt figure the situation out so I retreated." She shrugs. "Ummmm... did you go somewhere, Hoshi-chan?" she asks as she watches the star, koi, and frog all hug. "And... does your magic costume look a lot like the one that Reiko made us?"
Reiko Touyama listens to Kaeru and looks down as she looks back up. "Not... everything is so cut and dry Ka-chan." she says meekly. "There could had been something happening you weren't aware of. You may be better off trying to track down one of the others there and asking them about it. I'm afraid that I never met a 'Fate'. but----"
"You should stop people from hurting others. If you can help it!" she says softly.
She looks back to Hoshi and grins! "Good! I'm glad! You'll have to tell me what happened later!" she says.
She grins and beams! "That makes... Me.. Hoshi.. Chouko.. and now you Ka-chan!" she says softly. "That's four!" she says.
"Nrg I need to.. call Mei soon. I dunno how she's gonna take this." she looks down.
"She trusted me with the Prisms to keep them safe." she says sadly.
"She didn't want others involved..."
She looks back up and balls her fists up. "But--but if it was up to me! I think it's selfish to want to just do it alone!" she says. "But..." she looks down again. "It should be a choice too..." she says softly.
"I don't really know either." Hoshi pipes in, a little bit nervously. She glances to Reiko too, "I'm still kinda new at this, but Rei-chan is right, you'll have to talk to the people involved." She doesn't really know who Fate is or what happened there, but then Rei starts sorta beating herself up, and she has to step in.
"Rei-chan... there's a reason there's more than one, or two, Chroma Crystals. We're not supposed to do this alone. Remember what I said to that girl Rivenjerk made? Painting everything one shade of Orange would just make another monochrome.
"If Mei really wanted to prevent us from awakening, she probably was making things worse." She pauses for a moment, and then clarifies, "I'm sure she didn't mean to; but we're a group, we work together, not alone."
Kaeru Aokawa sighs softly. "It was a choice. I chose to help you. Besides- you can't defeat all those monsters by yourself... the pool monster... you were getting your butt kicked..." She clicks her tongue. "I have no regrets - this is so cool... I know it can be dangerous but I don't care. Everything can be dangerous. Walking down the street. Scuba-diving."
Reiko Touyama looks down. "For five months it was just me and her. Then she found some information about where her mom might be." she says softly. "So she left me in charge. Then... you woke up Hoshi. Then Chouko. Then Kaeru. I---"
"I dunno what I'll tell Mei if Momo wakes up." she says looking down. "but--nrg I keep beating myself up!" she huffs and crosses her arms. "That's not being a leader!" she huffs.
She nods. "That Shade was something... the one that attacked Chouko was a giant butterfly. The one that attacked me was all the gardening tools in the Botantical Gardens given form. The one that attacked Hoshi was telescope-like..." she sighs.
"Bloom... Harc... Flutter... Looky... Mekka... Bark.. Ool..." she crosses her arms. "Those are all the vocalizations I've heard so far. Have you guys encountered Shades on your own yet...?" she asks softly.
Hoshi responds not with words, but with hugs. Why bother with rational thought when at the core, Hoshi can tell its got nothing to do with such things. She doesn't let go until Reiko seems to be less filled with self-doubt. "Not yet, but... you needed my help when I awoke, and we needed Chouko's. Maybe it's fate?"
Kaeru Aokawa hmmmmmmms as she gives hugs to both of you even as the star, koi, and frog are playing with each other. "So Chouko's Purple, I guess?" she asks. "If I recall, her thing was butterflies - I haven't seen her in a while.." She hmmmmms softly. "So now there's four of us - with Mei gone on some long voyage..." She hmmmms. "Let's see - do we know who Griselda is? There is a Griselda I hope?"
Kaeru sighs softly. "I'lll just leave that Fate situation alone - thinking back on it - she didn't look very happy to be there - like that hag of a mother was making her be there - and man, did that hag treat little Fate like dirt..." She sighs. "But I was scared to attack Precia directly."
Reiko Touyama suddenly gives Kaeru a look...
"....I know someone named Ayana... who's 'brother' was cruel to her. He forced her to pretend to be a magical girl so-- so he could 'learn about them'. She was actually a familiar, an animal companion to a mage. This mage she served was named 'Riventon'-- a jerk mad scientist who only cares about his experiments." she says with a grouchier tone.
"He threatend to unmake her because... because she fell in love with another friend of mine, and because she made friends like me. So we.. we did something and broke his control over her, so she didn't need to worry about that anymore, and can make her own choices!" she says folding her arms over one another.
"If this girl is..is being hurt by her mother..." she sort of clenches her teeth together.
"Kaeru you can't just leave it alone! You need to act and help people or-- or at least make sure they're okay!" she says wide eyed. "I've seen that before and--and it's awful! No one should be hurt by someone who's supposed to care for them like that!" she says.
She gets hugs, Hoshi hugs, she calms down a bit and just hugs back.
"Thanks Hoshi-chan." she smiles softly. "I know I can count on you guys! It's just... just.. it's been an overwhelming month! I went from having no help to-- three new Prism Keepers waking up!" she says as she bounces on her feet.
Hoshi listens to Reiko share the tale of Ayana, a tale she's only been involved with at the tail end. Or is that the tale end. Ayana still has a tail, that's the important bit. "You should try to find out what's going on." She sorta agrees. "If she's only helping that woman because she's being hurt, she needs our help." Then, "And we'll help you, Rei-chan. That's why we're freinds."
Kaeru Aokawa smiles. "Yes - you two were so kind to me when I moved to this school - you and the others. If I see that Fate girl again, hopefully without that 'mother' of hers... I'll see what I can do to help her. It was like her mother didn't even love her... she was a crazy old hag."
Reiko Touyama frowns. "Well.. crazy old hag or not..." she crosses her arms. She nods in agreement with Hoshi. "Inaction... is worse than trying and failing!" she insists as she places her hands to her hips. She looks back at Kaeru and taps her lips. "Oh you asked... about Griselda. Yeah. She's... a thing." she says softly. "Powerful. But.. to be honest." she takes a hard relaxed sigh. "I feel better knowing they'res so many of us now!" she smiles. "Fighting her alone is... dangerous." she says. "She almost destroyed my Prism..." she mutters.
"The Cute Wolf was there to help me though!" she says.
She crosses her arms and sighs.
"But... I know this sounds silly, but this stuff is real." she says to Kaeru. "There's lots of other magical girls and boys." she says.
"Speaking of that..." she says.
"I need to talk to you guys about joining Virtue soon-- the group Tadase and Kukai are a part of." she says.
"I want to know what you guys think about joining it!" she says.
"I don't know... I'd have to talk to them about I guess. Kukai is kinda nice, but I don't really know anyone else in it, I think." Hoshi doesn't know she does know other people in it, but then this is the first she's heard of Virtue. "And if you wany help figuring out what to do about that situation, Kaeru, I'll try!"
Kaeru Aokawa blinks. "What's Virtue about?" she asks blankly. "Is it a superhero team? Like the Avengers or something?" she asks, clicking her tongue. "I wouldn't mind joining other people to fight things ilke that shade or that awful Precia. I haven't met anyone yet..."
However, the froggy girl smiles. "However, I do have some good news - I was flying randomly, and ended up encountering my brother - don't worry, he didn't see the magic costume - I ended up subconsciously heading over that way and... I reunited with him - I haven't seen him in months upon months..."
Reiko Touyama nods. "Yup! That's why we're talking about it later. Kaeru should try to meet some others too. I can introduce you to others, but... there's a lot to be said for saying hi to some other people by yourself!" she smiles.
"It can be hard to nab others to talk, but keep trying. Offer to talk later at a secret spot. I like the top of Clover Tower. It's pretty up there." she says softly.
She smiles at Hoshi.
"I do know it sounds like they need people who can-- 'heal' darkness and that's stuff our color energy can do." she says.
She nods! "Virtue is more like a loose co-op, but yeah, it's much like a group of heroes working together, Kaeru." she beams.
"I know it can. Uh." Hoshi looks a little awkward, like she isn't quite sure what to say. This is unusual for her, and so she just goes to talk about something else. "It's nice that you got to meet your brother again, Kaeru-chan. I hope that works out okay!"
Kaeru Aokawa nods. "I'm going to see if I can find people..." she muses softly. "If you could give me some people to talk to, that'd be awesome..." She hmmmmmmmms, clicking her tongue. "I should check out the Clover Tower..." She shrugs. "If you think they're good guys... I'd have no objections..."
Reiko Touyama gives Ka-chan a tight hug, and Hoshi another tight hug. "I gotta get home now guys.. I'm gonna need to fly home to get home in time for Grandpa's noodle kaboodle!" she giggles. Grandpa's name for a mix of leftover noodles fried up with fresher vegtables.
"But yeah think about it. We'll talk about it later."
"Thanks you two.. for everything!" she beams.