If Jiaying goes looking for Reiko, she'll be pointed to the second grade corridor in Seishou where she's standing on a ladder propped up against the wall near a large bulletin board. Reiko is using a pencil to expertly draw a big, serene japanese landscape on heavy that's been tacked up.
It's a stunning scene, it's well drawn- very well drawn. Reiko wasn't lying about her art skills. She has the skill and hand of someone five times her age somehow. It's no wonder that Infinity wants her so badly. She could /go places/ with this art.
Except here she is, drawing a display for the Second Graders to decorate with cutout birds.
There's some jars of paints setup on the 'table' of the ladder- unopened- it seems she's intending to paint it when she's done penciling.
Two magical koi chase each other somewhere over the bulletin board. One has a paintbrush in it's mouth. The other one seems to be trying to get it back. Back and forth... back and forth.
Reiko seems to be ignoring them.
The fox in question isn't actively looking for Reiko. What she IS looking for is the door to the roof, being too stubborn to just ask for directions. Or if that's even a thing, they're in anime, that means her school should have them too. At least she doesn't use that reasoning in other things, yet.
Still, she finds herself in an area she's actually taller than the average kid and that's a rare treat. Spotting those fish again is even better though! Glancing around curiously, she fishes out her phone and holds up the camera to see if they show up in the viewfinder. Whether they do or not, stuffs the phone back in her satchel, then says cheerily, "Your imaginary friends are showing!" feeling maybe a touch impish after the other day.
Either way though! Her gaze soon shifts from the fish to the drawing, which is rather nice and she actually takes a moment to scan the whole thing.
Reiko Touyama lifts the pencil away from the drawing as she leans back a bit and head tilts. Then she looks down at the roof-searching girl and blinks. She squints her eyes and then--- "Oh!" she says softly. "Hi. Um. You were. There. At the strip. The other day. Right?" she asks.
She steps down a bit. Roof access is a thing, but students get in trouble if they're caught. You're not SUPPOSED to be up there.
Students do it anyways.
She blinks. "Imaginary friends...?" she looks up. The koi do indeed appear in the viewfinder no different than they do in the real world. Of course, non-magical people would see nothing if she took a picture to try to prove it.
"Oh! My koi. Um. Yeah. That one's been chasing the other for the past hour eventually I'll need to bop the one with the paintbrush though, I need it back soon!" she says.
Jiaying Maki isn't supposed to do a lot of things that she does. There was a solid year with furniture problems. Arms crossed at first, she begins laughing when she's barely recognized by Reiko and giggles out, "You really went all out for Ba-.." She stops, shrugs and says, "I've forgotten his name if he ever gave it. The name he would prefer to go by at least..." Still, fish!
She points up to the one with the paintbrush and asks, "No one notices that kind of thing? The flying brush that is? Because Pinky couldn't see them being silly, which is super distracting by the way! But I mean, the brush is real right?" There's a few moments of thought, her arm drops to her side, then she shifts her weight to one foot while watching them and asking, "Are they ghosts or figments? If they're ghosts I want to teach a friend of mine to pick things up. I've forgotten your name too by the way. I didn't give you a nickname either. Didn't know you came to this school too."
Reiko Touyama huhs. "Well sometimes. It depends. Most people don't notice. I guess what they pickup turns invisible or unseeable sometimes or not?" she scratches the side of her head. "Ghosts? Not that I know of. Figments might be closer. They're projections from the Chroma Crystal I wield." she looks back to the board and picks up a can of black paint. She purses her lips. "Hey get down here...!" she demans to the fish. It stops and looks down at Reiko and shakes it's head 'no!'. But the other fish that was chasing it catches up and the two colldie and explode in an orange sparkle. The paintbrush falls and Reiko catches it. She sighhhhhs a bit.
She begins to open the jar of paint. "Yeah there were really distracting at first but I got used to them." she says.
"Um..." she says. "Kind of hard. To explain.. you see the koi so you gotta know somethings by now." she says. "I'm a Guardian of Color, a Prism Keeper! I keep the color orange. It's my favorite color and--- when I think about orange... I think of koi. So. That's the shape my power takes." she says, begining to trace her lines with the black paint and the tiny paintbrush.
"I know that sounds really strange, but it's the truth." she insists.
Jiaying Maki raises an eyebrow and says, "So.. they make other things invisible? Can you make a bunch of koi and go swimming with them? Invisibly?" She then shakes her head and runs a few fingers through her hair and adds a touch dryly, "Mind, they'd probably scatter before that, watching them. Might be fun though."
The comment about the chroma crystal gets a confused, "Huwah?" from the short girl, which she quickly shakes off, letting Reiko go on long enough to demand the fish give the brush back, right up until it explodes. She may reach for one of the sparkles and if she catches one she's totally going to see if sparkles taste orange. That bit of silliness past, she then listens to the description rather intently and after, asks somewhat jokingly, "Is the yellow guardian represented by an Emperor? That would be fun to show off on the mainland I bet." A joke that she's probably going to get and no one else. The emperor part. Shifting from foot to foot she grins cheerily and says, "My powers don't do the invisible thing and it's kinda awkward sometimes. Doors in particular annoy me!" Not that she goes into detail yet.
Jiaying can taste a bit of the sparkle. It tastes like soap. Awful awful soap. "Oh--um. Be careful. With that. That's color energy. It's um--- 'positive energy'." she insists. "Huh? No! Yellow has Stars." she says softly. "But she isn't here right now..." she mopes a bit. "She's busy a lot of the time." she kind of rubs the back of her head. "Besides, this is mostly a 'Reiko needs to draw a lot' thing." she says. "Not very fun to help with just watching me draw and paint."
"Huh? No. My koi can't do anything like that. Mostly they're just 'lovingly obnoxious' and betray what I'm actually feeling. Ugh, I was so upset at this boy I kinda of liked, once who could see them? But I was trying to play it cool, but they wouldn't stop giving him the stink eye." she mutters.
"It was SO akward!" she insists.
She blinks a bit. "What do doors bother you?" she asks.
Jiaying Maki quite audibly gacks and sticks her tongue out, before turning around to at least somewhat cover the fact that she's scraping her tongue against her teeth in a rather sad display. Giving up after a few minutes she turns back around and says, "That's a dirty trick, making orange taste like soap and not like... orange." She shifts from foot to foot for a moment as she digs through her satchel, a decent sized stuffed bunny dressed up as a jiangshi is briefly visible and she seems to be muttering to it, or herself in Chinese.
Finding what she's after, she pulls out a package of gum and pops out a pair of pieces to chew on before offering it over to Reiko, "Want any?" she asks before looking down and muttering in Chinese again before the gum is put away and the flap of her bag secured in place again, whether the offer for gum was taken or not.
With the pack behind her again, she grins cheerily again and says, "I could imagine that being a problem. At least they don't talk, right?" One might swear she swatted at her bag as she said that last part, though it was really just shifting the weight around. Really! "I like watching people paint or draw, but then again, I tend to do my own thing when that's happening. Little book and some pencils you know?" Still, the question about doors confuses her briefly, then she looks behind her and says, "Oh! Right I said that didn't I. Uh.. ever get a finger shut in a door? It's sort of like that."
Reiko Touyama purses her lips a bit. "Oh? I don't control the taste. They're not real fish, they're just constructs." she giggles a bit. "Color Energy." she says. She head tilts. She shakes her head. "No thanks." she says softly.
She seems confused about the doors. "I guess it stinks to get your finger caught in a door?" she asks. "Does that happen to your often?" she asks.
She smiles a bit. "I keep a sketchbook on me usually. But mines in my bookbag right now and that's not with me." she says. "I draw everyone magical I encounter, even the badguys, at least once." she says.
"Because... well. Maybe I'll be able to give one to them someday, if they can stop doing the bad things, you know?" she asks with a soft smile.
Jiaying Maki mutters about the taste for a few moments longer, then she looks confused and asks, "I know they weren't real, I wasn't... expecting soap though. Is that what good energy tastes like? Because that makes me wonder if all of those monsters that eat chi are crazy." Shifting to her other foot she looks around and says, "Uh.. you don't see any dogs around do you? Or cats or... anything else that makes a lot of noise. Kids probably count. So do adults actually..." Especially the neighbor she kept stealing strawberries from back home. Those always tasted better though.
"Every magical person you encounter huh? Do you label them? Because uh... I wonder how you label them actually." Though at the mention of badguys, she looks confused while asking, "Do you mean like... jerks or do you have hungry dead, angry ghosts and the occasional angry cousin that needs a time out in a statue or something?"
Reiko Touyama nods matter of factly. "At least once." she says softly. "Sometimes more. Usually twice." she says with a short smile. She then head tilts. "Chi? Huh. I dunno about that but..."
"There's lots of monsters in the city. Mad Scientists like 'Riventon' who think the city is thier experiment-- jerks who steal peoples dreams in an egg form... um... scary spindly dark things that eat energy... I fight Shades-- creatures that feed off color and try to steal it- that can talk on countless huge and hard to fight forms..." she says.
"There's lots of others, too. Like what the Dark Kingdom was--but. I'm pretty sure those guys are defeated!" she says with a stern nod.
She then blinks a little more again. "Huh? Animals or stuff? No animals here unless Ikiko has some in the Animal Care Club but that's way across in the Club Room Corridor. Um."
She taps her chin. "School's out so there shouldn't be anyone in the classrooms now. I'm here alone." she says gently.
The girl twirls on one foot, standing on her toes trying to get a good look. Standing flat on her feet again she says, "I don't see anyone either. I can't smell anything like this either though so... huh." She stops shy, listening to the description of monsters, cutting in to ask, "Do you talk to monsters first? I mean, Japan has a lot of haunted objects and monsters, you don't assume all are bad right?" She has to make sure in a totally not suspicious manner!
The description of the various names and groups get a legitimately surprised look about her though, which prompts her to ask, "Defeated by people like you then? Are there a lot out here? I've met one guy with the egg things I think. He said everyone had one, but then said I wouldn't have one. I think I ate it if I had an egg because eggs are tasty." As she's talking, she's fishing around behind her, reaching for something it looks like. Unceremoniously, she pulls on something which creates an odd mist about her for a moment. Soon, she's revealed to be holding a strip of paper which she's holding gently between her fingers. Fingers with noticeable claws and a face that looks just a touch more foxish than the busted moment from the other day. There's a big floofy tail too to go with soft fuzzy ears, the former of which is probably what gets stuck in doors. She stands on her toes briefly and sniffs at the air, then quickly slides the tag back behind her and sticks it wherever it was she was hiding it, making her look quite human again. Grinning cheerily, "She says, "There, now we're even!"
Reiko Touyama nods. "Lots of people out there. And yeah! Defeated by people like me." she says matter of factly. She then frowns. "Shades don't talk. I mean. They do. But all they do is say the 'name' they've taken. Like. One that formed in a forest started yelling 'Bark!' and one that took the form of a mecha toy called itself 'Mekka!'. She says. "But they aren't intelligent. Not like you or me. Talking to them is a waste of time. I try to talk to Griselda- the Princess of the Grey Kingom- the person who leads the Shades right now, but... she's just a loudmouth brat." she says sourly
Oh then suddenly, Jiaying is a foxgirl! Then she isn't! and her eyes light up! "Oh! You're a fox! I know another fox! You two should meet! Her name is Ayana!" she says. "Ayana-chan is really nice." she says.
"She goes to this school even!" she says. She nods matter of factly.
"...She has floofy tails too." she insists.
Jiaying Maki listens quietly and says, "So wait, they just say their name like a bad kid's cartoon? That's great." She claps her hands, then laughs softly before frowning and says, "Oh right, but evil. So like kid's cartoons." She shifts from foot to foot, listening quietly once more before finally saying, "Is there.. a list of notes somewhere I can check for all for these things?"
She sighs, looking at her tail, then she perks up at the mention of another one and asks, "Wait really? Totally want to meet them. Are they a local kind?"
Reiko Touyama beams! "Kind of!" she says. "Um. It's a long story. But. Remember that Riventon jerk I mentioned? She was her familar. But the jerk mistreated her- and bent her to his will a lot despite what she wanted. So me n' her girlfriend went and got her away from that junk. But then she became just a fox again so me n' some friends went to Inari-sama and did some challenges and we got her to become a proper kitsune with a deal." she smiles.
"I'm just glad she's okay. She's a friend!" she says hopping on the toes of her feet.
"...even if she teases me a lot." she mutters.
"Huh..like a kids cartoon? There's LOTS of monsters like that around here, Jiaying-san." she says softly. "--and don't take them lightly. They're very dangerous!" she says with a frown.
Jiaying Maki taps her foot against the ground and says, "Neat, I want to meet Inari, I want to ask her who she was related to back home. Or if she's just wearing a different name here. I doubt she's Nuwa either way." She rubs the back of her head after though and asks, "So wait, does she actually speak or is.. I'm lost. She's a normal fox turned like me or the other way or what?"
To the other thing, she laughs and says, "I don't worry about bad things! Some of them are neat. I've met a lot of ghosts and bad things and monsters. Most are talkative!" and not what she'd be facing here.
Reiko Touyama says. "I dunno, we had to go through a lot to meet Inari-sama. He'd probably be upset if we visited just because. He has industrious things to do!" she insists. "Oh! She speaks! She /used/ to be 'just a fox' but the whole familar thing made her intelligent and a girl too. She talks. And has ears n' a tail like you!"
"She's nice. She just teases me a lot like I said." she smiles.
"Yeah, well.. some of those bad things hurt a lot of people at once and steal color or happiness or dreams. Just because it looks like a giant evil teddy bear doesn't mean it's to be taken lightly." she frowns, placing her hands on her hips.
"And sometimes the ones who can talk just want to impose thier stupid will on you when you disagree when they hurt people." she frowns.
Jiaying Maki crosses her arms and says, "THat seems annoying and oddly convenient. I should go harass the statues at one of the shrines to Inari until they come to yell at me." Which.. may not be a good idea, but at the same time, what better way to introduce yourself to distant family.
Still, she nods then says about the ones that steal color and the like, "I wouldn't hug an evil teddy bear, I've got a haunted bunny to hug anyway." She then laughs and finds a place to lean against the wall, "What do you do to them?"
Reiko Touyama frowns. "I would not upset a god." she says. "That seems like a bad way to go." she says. "Especially a god of foxes like you are! You may not be from around here but you're on his turf now!" she insists.
She crosses her arms. "Shades I need to purify to return the color- which destroys them. Most of these things are sort of weak to 'Color Energy'-- positive energy." she says.
"I call it Color Energy because that's my magic. I've heard it called other things by other people but I think it's all based on the same concepts really." she says tapping her bottom lip.
A koi appears just next to her and nods matter of factly as she thinks. The koi is agreeing with her for whatever reason. "Most foxes are seen as orange in lots of people's minds so it's important I protect my color because I want my friend to be safe." she says softly. "Sunsets... and Dafodils and lots of stuff are orange I need to protect." she crosses her arms.
Jiaying Maki grins and says, "I want to know if they know Nuwa or anyone else! And if they're really a god! Who wouldn't want to do that?" She probably won't be able to accomplish that sort of thing on her own mind, so she's fine for now. Beyond that, "Wait wait, you destroy them? Gone? So there's no saving them though?" She actually sounds vaguely upset about that. Crossing her arms, she asks, "Are they like haunted, things? What are they, just colorless? You said shades, shades shouldn't be destroyed unless you have no choice!"
Prism Keeper Orange frowns. "Shades are negative energy that hurt people! You can't reason with them!" she insists and stamps her foot down. "It's like a bug, a really evil bug that wants to eat color and take it back to it's evil hive." she says.
"They've /negative/ energy." she says. "/bad/ energy!" she says.
"They steal color. When color is stolen, people fall unconcious-- and have thier wills stolen!" she frowns. "They /hurt/ people, never help!" she says. "You can't talk with the things. I've tried! I've tried speaking with the leader! All she wants it to destroy my Chroma Crystal and remove my color from the world! The same with the rest of the Keepers!" she says.
Jiaying Maki crosses her arms at the stamping and says, "You're sure of that? Because I don't like that idea. Fighting and biting's fine, but you get those monsters that aren't happy and erh..." she trails off and offers a shrug up, "I'll take your word on it if you're sure, but I still think I'd want to verify it first." Though, the further explanation does help soothe the girl a touch. "Fine fine fine, if I see a thing stealing color, I'll stomp on it. Big teddy bear or whatever." Or she'll try at least. Or more realistically, she'll annoy it until others show up.
Reiko Touyama frowns some more. "I know I'm right. I don't like 'dusting' things but I gotta when they don't talk and just fight and hurt people." she frowns. "I know those things aren't intelligent. They just do whatever the hell Griselda or Mister Black or Miss White wants." she huffs.
She crosses her arms again and sighs. "Look, sure, there's bad things you can talk to..." she says softly. "But you can't overlook the bad things people do." she frowns hard. "If they're not willing to change thier ways, then they're not worth trying to get through to them. You're wasting your time." she says.
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and crosses her arms, "Nope! Always worth the effort to at least try. If they snap after, fine, their call. If I didn't do that, then I wouldn't be a good fox! Our stories aren't quite as playful as yours and Nuwa's had to punish someone's ancestor.. hopefully not mine because what she did was not nice. At all." She shrugs and sighs.
"It's just like assuming all ghosts are bad even if they're haunting because they're hurt or angry and just need a way out." She doesn't mention that she's had to forcibly remove at least one of those, but... that's then. This is now!
Things that are dark... that are hurt... and angry...
Misa immediatly comes to mind. Misa-- possessed by that stupid doll that's so upset and hateful because it was abanonded--- but it doesn't want to play nice it just wants to curse and make more hurt! and-- and-----
And keep her dear friend Misa away from her...
It looks like Reiko's right eye twitches a bit and she closes her eyes and takes a deep cleansing breath because she wants to start screaming in Jiaying's face about haunted things that are angry and sad.
She opens her eyes. "Just because someone is angry or sad doesn't excuse the things they do, just like normally! Just because 'you're sad' doesn't excuse you being a jerk to people, you still need to be able to say you're sorry!" she says.
"You can't just excuse it if they won't do that!" she says.
Jiaying Maki crosses her arms and says, "Right, it doesn't. It doesn't mean you're supposed to condemn them if you get them to talk either." She leans forward and plants her hands on her hips, "I wouldn't be here if someone didn't try to talk to my mom and I wouldn't have at least on friend if I had just immediately exorcised her. I will ALWAYS give something a chance."
She stands up straight and dusts her hands before crossing her arms and watching the other girl before adding quickly, "Not everything out there should be called a monster and killed outright is all I'm saying."
Reiko Touyama frowns, hands on her hips. "Well not everything can be made your friend, either! Somethings just want to throw the world into darkness because of jealousy and hate and sadness!" she says.
"If I didn't belive what you're beliving I wouldn't have Ayana-chan as a friend!" she says. "But jerks like Griselda won't be happy until the world's dark and grey and lifeless as she is." she says with a frown.
She looks back to her art and gets to tracing the board with her her black paintbrush again. "Using shades to attack children... drain energy..." she mutters as she hurmphs!
Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says dryly, "Some things are inhuman and only want to prey on the weak minded and foolish. Who dwell in jealousy, greed, desire for power or the will to hurt things. Great great great great grandma wasn't nice though."
With a shrug, she turns to watch down the hall and says, "I will give the offer, whether it's taken or not will always be up to the other party and the consequences are tied to that."
Reiko Touyama frowns and keeps tracing concentrating on her work now because she is clearly being agitated by this conversation. "Yes, that's what I'm saying Shades are." she says as she sighs and grumbles.
She sighs and climbs the ladder.
"Look, I kinda. Need to get this done today. If you wanna talk about this more, maybe later is better..." she says.
Also when she's thrown off this now mopey mood she's aquired. Thinking too hard about Misa now...
Jiaying Maki shrugs and turns on her heels, "It's no different than the stories I grew up hearing. Finish your work, do what you have to do." before picking up her pack and making her down the hall, resuming her earlier search.