Seishou Public School! Possibly one of the biggest magnets for odd occurrences in the city, today is really no exception! After school, as clubs are just getting out, it seems like... there is a strangely large amount of porcelain dolls around in the school, each one different from the last, and sitting in random corners.
What's odd is that, for some reason, as people try to leave they find themselves turning around. Remembering something they forgot, usually something that they don't actually need -- or they actually already have it on them! For those sensitive to magic, it was a subtle shift that happened maybe 1 or 2 minutes ago, where the energy around the school got slightly darker, easy to miss in the rush to get out of the school building to go home, or to go hang out with friends, and similar. To a certain fox, however, it might be possible to tell that there is a curse hanging over the school, and a very resentful one at that.
Jiaying Maki had actually fallen for the curse initially because she's kind of easily distracted! What with her obsession with sneaking onto the roof and things like that. Mind you, the second tiem it happens, she sort of stops and slows down. She had other things to do! Most notably dealing with OTHER curses and she doesn't have time for this! Also creepy dolls. Because she has a creepy doll of her own, she's not AS weirded out. Glancing around to see who's around, she gently pokes one of the dolls a few times. Then tries to pick it up, then if nothing bad happens, well we'll go from there. Just to be on the safe side though, after one more look around, she reaches behind her and tugs a tag free, stashing it in her satchel for now. Her form flickers briefly, fuzzy around the edges and then it's back to normal.
A heft of Naru's book bag over her shoulder as she roams her way out of the classroom where the debate club meets, chatting with her partner of the evening. By the grins, it appears that they had a good night of well defined and well defined arguing. Naru isn't specifically magically sensitive, but she notices. She notices in ways that most mudanes don't.
A glance towards a doll sitting on top of a set of lockers and she quirks a brow, not commenting per se, but her steps slow a little as she notes the next doll.
And the next.
Naru is fully wary by the time she realizes that she's headed back towards her locker, and not out the door, as she'd planned. Without /entirely/ having realized she'd changed her path in her distraction.
Yeah. That's never a good sign. The mundane sighs, longsufferingly. "It's gonna be one of /those/ nights, isn't it?" She asks of no one in particular.
Nothing immediately bad seems to happen as the doll is poked and prodded! And when it's picked up, it just dangles like any doll would! ... At first, that is. As the tag is pulled free and moved towards the satchel, the doll's hand moves to attempt to grab the edge of it -- intent on tearing it if Jiaying doesn't notice it in time!
As Naru -- and many other students -- begin to grow wary, the dark energy begins to blossom. Confusion. Panic. Fear. All of the emotions of the less calm people grow enhanced.
"H-hey, what's going on? I was just about to leave, and I already have my phone..."
"Why did I want my receipt from lunch so badly?"
It isn't long before students are trying to hurry back out, only to be turned back once more, coming out of their brief stupor to grow even more confused, even more panicked. And those dolls seem to move closer to the lockers and classrooms each time a student returns -- some of them even closing classroom doors on students inside.
"Oh my... you seem very aware. I wonder if you have potential..." Comes a voice from right next to Naru -- when (if) she looks, there was quite suddenly a woman standing right next to her. Possibly too close for comfort! "And you seem to draw in curses, too... hmm... I wonder if there's a very weak curse hidden deep within you..."
While this musing might be odd and unnerving, it likely pales next to the fact that the woman appeared to have doll joints, and in her left hand is a rather large cleaver.
Jiaying Maki tugs her tag away from the doll a bit too late and it's torn, but... she wasn't wearing it anyway! Still, the doll being alive gets a surprised squeal from her and she unceremoniously dropkicks it down the hall. About halfway through the kick, she realizes she probably should have considered hitting it with a tag stuffed with Yang since.. it's a creepy doll and she's going to assume it's got plenty of Yin. Still, with a clear problem at hand, she carefully makes her way back to her locker, intentionally this time and pulls a hoodie free and pulls it on. Pulling the hood up, she claps her hands together and says, "Something new, something to do. Let's stop the creepy creepy dolls~."
Hey! Hauntings are one thing she's actually comfortable with. Mist seems to be trailing from her as she walks and between steps, she's suddenly surrounded by the stuff, some of it coelescing particularly around her shoulders and face, obscuring her features while allowing her floofy tail to show on display!
At the first doll she finds after the first one she had kicked, she probably should have used that, she quickly pulls a blank spell tag, snaps it out before her and touches her fingers to it. A burning smell accompanies the spell tag suddenly gaining the correct markings and she attemps to stick the surge of yang to the doll curiously. She hasn't quite caught up to the other two yet unfortunately.
"No." Naru shakes her head as she turns her head towards the voice. Calm, resigned really, but not with the panic and confusion that most of her classmates are 'enjoying'. "I don't have any potential."
Naru quirks her head as she considers the woman, taking half a step back just to establish her personal space again, or some tiny bit of it. One of her hands goes into her bag, to root around into it. "I draw in curses? What do you mean by that?" Her tone is curious more than concerned, exactly. "Who are you?"
There is a /screech/ as the doll is kicked down the hallway, and a possibly-satisfying crunch as the doll is kicked/lands! Being a porcelain doll, it's unsurprisingly fragile! The doll doesn't move after it lands, just standing there. IMMEDIATELY there would be the sense of dread and something watching her after Jiaying 'injures' one of them. Which grows more acute as the spell tag is applied to the doll's face.
The flood of yang doesn't actually harm the doll, but the moment that spell tag is put onto its face, the doll begins to /scream/, flailing around as it gets up and runs around, until finally it just seems to ... flop over unceremoniously. It's an act, though a very believable one! However, it might be seen through due to the fact it seemed to still give off dark energy.
Immediately behind Nuwu, there is suddenly a group of dolls standing, and if she doesn't turn quickly enough, one or two of them would jump towards her, attempting to attach to her back and begin draining her energy! Luckily, they're too large to completely get into an area the fox couldn't reach normally.
Meanwhile, Maeko smiles sweetly towards Naru. "Oh, I disagree. You clearly have some for you to attract curses -- in fact, you attracted me... luckily for you, however, I am not a cruel curse." Maeko says towards Naru, watching her step back. A hand reaching into the bag. Maeko's lips purse slightly. "Though I am not ancient, I am not so foolish as to not expect that to be you reaching for your phone. I would suggest against it." Maeko says, that large cleaver being lifted to rest lazily against Maeko's shoulder. A subtle threat. "I am Maeko, a huntress of curses." She adds. "Would you like help with yours? I will fairly warn you. To remove a curse so it may never return may be a bit painful, depending on how stubborn it is." The doll offers, holding her right hand out towards Naru. Nevermind the fact those dolls seemed to be encroaching on them... creating a ring around Maeko and Naru.
Jiaying Maki doesn't actually let the doll run around for that long, mostly because she's got sensitive ears and she tries to punt that one as well. Seems she's learning not to take things too lightly anymore. Besides, it smells funny still despite the surge of positive energy. She ends up with one of the two dolls on her back and immediately tries to spin sharply to get it off, catching the other with the first, completely on accident. Spinning for a moment, she stops, takes a breath and slams her back against the wall behind her, cringing at the idea of sharp shards and all and.. she's tired of being hurt, but those brief moments of contact gave her all the information she needed! It felt wrong!
She looks up and down the hall and begins to hurry along, trying to find the source of the dolls, breaking into a quick jog to avoid anything too... nasty hopefully. Running thoughts around in her head as she moves through the halls, she tries to look for any congregations of them. Any more than one or two and she'll stop!
"Nope. Not my phone." Naru shakes her head as she emerges with a small spray bottle. "Pepper spray. Although I really don't know how well it will work on you. So far you're being very reasonable. Thank you for that." She keeps an eye on the cleaver, and upon the dolls coming to hem them in. "I'm pretty comfortable as I am, thanks. I don't think my curses, if I have any, need any help. You're a huntress of curses? That's.. interesting. Do you often ambush people after school? Other than helping with a curse I don't have, what do you want from me?"
Naru tries to angle herself to have an out to run, although that's quickly being cut off. Then again, it's pepper spray versus a cleaver.
The screaming making her glance, trying not to take her attention off Maeko for too long before back towards that offered hand, rudely denied.
Punted! That poor doll. Its screaming is cut off with a sound of surprise as it's punted; and much like the other, it smashes with a CRUNCH! The doll is knocked out of the air by that spin too! Rather fast reactions from Jiaying to catch it like that! ... Slamming porcelain against the wall was, in fact, a bad idea! LUckily it's not ~quite~ as bad as glass, so mostly it wouldn't stab into Jiaying, though if someone isn't paying attention later they might get an unpleasant surprise! Either way, it's not moving... and the other one is running down the hallway!
It... wouldn't be too hard to find congregations of them! Considering there seems to be one around a girl down the hallway.
Speaking of Naru, she gets an amused look from Maeko. "Definitely you have some potential then, if you have the will to fight back against me." Maeko says with a soft laugh, stepping towards her. "And I have to say... you're the first one I've ended up ambushing. Though not the first I've removed the curse of."
That cleaver is lifted, but Maeko doesn't swing with it. Instead, she steps forward suddenly, attempting to grab the front of Naru's shirt and pull her in! If she doesn't dodge it, she might feel the beginnings of a familiar draining feeling -- though... luckily there's no pain involved right now. "Well. I am a bit hungry, now that you ask..." She responds to Naru's question.
Jiaying Maki makes her way down the hall quickly towards that gathering crowd, hurrying towards them with a spell tag drawn, she begins the process for burning in a purification spell and may or may not be saying not so nice things as she messes up in her hurry and throws the half-burnt tag away. Instead she calls out, "Just kick them and run." while trying to do just that, straight towards the ring of them to kick them away!
It's about then that she recognizes the girl and.. recognizes that there's a cleaver. Well, she gave up her element of surprise, but isntead she's going to try something else and she picks up the pace and leaps straight at the one with hte big knife, foot extended out in a kick and encased in raw magic! This can only go... well any which way really
"I wouldn't call it potential. I'm just stubborn." Naru declares as she chats with Maeko, trying to keep her distance and hestitating on setting pepper spray off at schoo. Not /just/ yet at least.
Naru tries to take another step back, to move away from that cleaver, to dodge away from it, although that really just lands her right into a doll that's gotten behind her and she sighs a little at that entirely familar sensation. "Wow.. you could actually be sneaky about this if you wanted to. Why ambush me today?"
Naru startles as Jiaying comes leaping into the fray of it all. "Careful!" She is entirely unaware of Jiaying's abilities, nor her god-like alterself, she just sees someone jumping at a cleaver.
"I would rather prefer you don't break my friends. That's rather cruel of you." Maeko responds to Jiaying as she runs towards them! And then, well... the lady is leaping towards her! She turns to the side to allow her to do her kick! ... Though she briefly considered taking the kick on Naru, she seems to decide not to use her as a human shield, instead digging her cleaver into the ground and bracing against it to allow Nuwu to strike the metal! It... might... be incredibly uncomfortable for her feet, really. "So violent, and I haven't even harmed anyone yet." Maeko comments with a chuckle, shifting to pull her cleaver out from the ground again. "Besides... I couldn't hurt anyone with this if I tried... see?"
If not stopped, Maeko's cleaver would be swung towards Naru rather unceremoniously! And she would be exposed to the oddity of her weapon; it wouldn't hurt, even if it struck her. It would just pass through her flesh with some mild discomfort, no worse than a bruise, really! Mind you, the force might still send her off-balance. Not to mention the rather rapid energy drain from just that slash -- still, she'd probably be able to stand! For now. "Also, I suppose I could have been stealthy, but I honestly just wished to visit my school and create some chaos, so stealth is a bit... well. Detrimental to that." Maeko responds rather simply, lowering her blade. "Though, it seems the person I really want to torment isn't here right now..." Maeko adds in a disappointed tone.
Jiaying Maki lands against the blade and gets kind of a frazzled look about her from the weird blade. She keeps her momentum going and lands on the other side of the strange doll-like thing and says, "You've got a big sharp looking knife, you're locking people in the classrooms, are creepy and give off evil vibes. I don't feel too bad trying to distract you!" She laughs quickly to hide.. something she had been about to say, hoping it distracts the two from quickly tapping her foot against the ground to get that weird feeling out of it. She was about to say more when the blade is raised.
That gets her attention really quick-like though and she tries to tackle Naru out of the way, leaving a misty outline of herself where she had been standing before it seems to realize it's been left behind and trails after her. She's not sure if she's got the weight, momentum or luck to knock Naru out of the way of the blade, not really wanting to take the word of a killer looking doll. Whether she was successful or not, she says quickly, "C-come on, no need to cause chaos here, it's noisy enough and chaotic as is and the person you're after isn't here, just leave. Or if you're stuck here I can fix that!" Hey maybe it's still a ghost. Maybe!
Naru isn't really all /that/ good at dodging. She tries, but she is being held by her shirt and there's not really all that far she can go, exactly. She winces in anticipation of the pain.
Pain that doesn't really come. Not as she expects at least, but rather she's tackled and sent stumbling, which is entirely unlike a cleaver, no matter how much the cleaver doesn't hurt. Or supposedly doesn't hurt. "ooof." Naru offers as she stumbles into the lockers. "Who are you looking for?" She asks as she rubs her shoulder.
Saved by the fox! Though it might have hurt more, the tackle probably saved Naru's ability to attend her dance classes later! Still, Maeko's smile fades entirely. An overwhelming look of resentment comes over her face as she steps towards Jiaying. "Evil vibes? I do believe that the pot is calling the kettle black right now." Maeko responds to Jiaying, her eyes flaring with purple glow. Whatever she was doing, though... Maeko pauses. She hesitates, watching Jiaying. "You know. Before you offer to free me, I think there is someone far closer to you that you should help escape."
Maeko tilts her head as she starts more seriously looking towards Jiaying. "My. You're an interesting curse." She says thoughtfully, tapping her finger against her lips as she looks down towards Naru.
"There is a young woman... I don't recall her name. She is the cause of my Curse. She has black hair, she enjoys playing games, and tends to keep her hair in a ponytail... hmmm. Her eyes... they were... brown, I think?" Maeko responds to Naru, helpfully describing far too many people in japan. "I think... she might be... hm? Maybe... 14 or 15 now?" Maeko gives a soft sigh. "I do so wish I could find her..." Was that legitimate sorrow that she couldn't?! Still, that sense of darkness, and the black mist hanging in the air around her... there couldn't be a good reason she was looking for that person, right? "Perhaps if you find her, I can help you with your curse, young woman." Maeko says, pointing her cleaver towards Naru. At least for the moment she doesn't seem intent on attacking...
Jiaying Maki grins towards Maeko and says cheerfully, "Well that is just rude." then before she's even finished saying it, she goes for a sucker punch. Maeko may have touched on something of a sore spot and it shows as she actually looks angry immediately after she's said what she had to say. Backing away, placing herself between Maeko and Naru, mist drawing around upper body like a mantle, masking her arms and giving them a soft after-image.
The other comment gets a briefly confused look to cross her features before it clicks and she says, "That's different! I didn't force that!" The thing in question sticks it's head out of the bag, a bunny wearing a zombie costume in essence, having picked up on Jia talking about it. It asks something in rapid-fire Chinese, to which Jia points to the doll and the doll shakes it's fist at her. Well then. Still, after her attempted sucker punch and step back, she doesn't advance and seems to be controlling her breathing to calm down. "She's not cursed. You're going to need to be more descriptive too doll."
"That /seriously/ doesn't narrow it down." Naru points out at the description that covers a healthy chunk of the teen girl population of Japan. She looks between both of them, bending to retrieve her dropped pepper spray. Just in case.
Naru takes another step back, as wary of the fox as she is of the doll Maeko, it might seem. The appearance of a bunny in a zombie costume which speaks Chinese really only garners a glance and a freshly skeptical look. "Why do you want to find her?"
"Again, pot calling the kettl--" Suckerpunch! Maeko does, in fact, take the suckerpunch! And she steps back... one could hear the crack of porcelain breaking, followed by the possibly disconcerting crackling of said porcelain /repairing/ itself, though her clothing largely hid that part. "Now /that/ is just rude." Maeko responds, giving a slow exhale as she looks towards the doll and Jiaying. She lifts her hand and waves her hand. "She has the same skin tone as her, and wears ... ... Normal trendy clothing." So basically, the girl was very plain, most likely! "Sadly, I can't give much else description." On top of that, there wasn't any guarantee she actually goes to this school!
Maeko did move once more though, stepping towards Jiaying to press her right hand towards her, attempting to knock her off-balance -- before the doll seemed to just... disappear in between blinks. "She is the reason I am cursed. She is the one who abandoned me and left me broken on that shelf for years." Comes Maeko's voice from just behind Naru. That voice could only be described as one thing; vengeful. And the area seemed to grow darker, those passionate and negative emotions that had been enhanced earlier growing stronger, and the two could feel the darkness tugging at the edges of their minds and energy. "I am Maeko, The Forsaken Doll. And I will have my revenge. She will know the pain of being forsaken." Maeko was, for the record, totally standing behind Naru from the short-range teleport, not like... gone and her voice just echoing from nowhere.
Jiaying Maki actually smiles when her punch connects. She really doesn't seem to like being called bad. Shaking her hands a few times, she says, "You keep accusing me of things you know nothing about." She leans back from the shove and takes a half-step back, showing a surprising amount of balance actually. Jia snaps out a blank tag and hits it with the palm of her hand as Maeko fades out of existence. A look at it would show the words, 'Yang' 'Energy' and 'Liar' burnt into it. It's a bit sloppier than she'd like, but she quickly spins on her heels and tries to attach it to Naru, finding herself looking at Maeko halfway towards her intended target!
Off balance for sure, she drops the tag, leaving it to gravity, chance or Naru realizing she's trying to help to use the tag and instead uses her forward momentum to try and carry the doll away from the prone woman. "I am a Nuwu! I will not let you harm her! I'll even help you look for your lost friend!" The bunny in her satchel hops out, carrying a pair of spell tags herself, both with their meanings held against it's tiny chest. Standing up straight, the jiangshi bunny points to Naru, says something to her that would probably sound quite strange to the girl and then points down the hall away from the two! Nuwu's a bit too distracted to provide a translation sadly.
The last thing Naru was expecting was a tag to be stuck upon her, and she really doesn't have time or attention to notice its arrival, or question it with Maeko blinks. There, and then gone and then back. And close. Oh so very close
"Forsaken?" Naru turns as the voice of Maeko comes from behind her, giving a little shiver as she feels the negative emotions building back up again. She moves to scuttle back a bit more, attempting to get back onto her feet to have better opportunity to make an escape from this conversation. She squints at the bunny a moment, sparing a glance down the hall. "So if she's not here right now, are you just looking for energy enough to feed and then you'll keep looking? Is that how this is going to work?" The question is plain enough, if perhaps a touch on the blunt side.
A spell tag, Maeko's lips twitch into a frown again as she watches that, though it ... lands in place, her eyes tracing it. "...Hmm?" She says, looking towards Jiaying. "Why are you bothering to make those manually?" She asks with a tilt of her head. But she pauses. "Nevermind. Don't answer that." She adds. The comment of what she's accusing Jiaying of gets a simple smile. "Oh my... I can feel the energy of your darkness, even if you can't. After all... a curse knows a curse. I have not said anything or accused you of anything beyond that." She says, lifting her hand towards Jiaying... and flicking her hand towards Jiaying, sending darkness towards her! However, that darkness seems to be just that; darkness. No attack paired with it.
Naru gets a glance. "You have several classmates passed out in classrooms. I have gathered the energy I need. Largely I was lingering because you two are mildly amusing. I do believe I'll make you two my toys in the future..." She says with a chuckle, lifting her cleaver into the air, energy beginning to grow around it -- and her. "For now, however, I believe I shall grant your wishes and leave." And the darkness covers Maeko, who then simply... seems to ... disperse. The darkness over the school disappears, and those dolls also seem to have gone... beyond those three crushed ones that Jiaying destroyed.
Jiaying Maki watches Maeko and says, "Make them manually? I don't hav-.. be silent!" Then there's being told not to make them manually and she says, "Because I can!" Not that hse feels particularly great that she has to improv as often as she does, that's another time though. With a shake of her head she says sharply, "We /are/ not a curse! I am trying to help!" and she almost swings at the doll again, clearly having a bit of an issue with what the doll's accusing her of. Not a great thing to show that her buttons can be pushed.
Hearing that her fellow students are drained and hurt, she says something quickly to the stuffed toy, which seemingly stiffens up, then falls over. The door closest to her opens up on it's own if it's not sealed and she tries to get a look inside to see if anyone was actually collapsed. The doll makes a funny noise, something like laughter akin to breaking glass and climbs back into her pack as the door is just as quickly closed!
While she was distracted, the doll makes it's escape, getting a frustrated sound from Nuwu. She almost kicks a locker out of frustration, stops short when she realizes she has an audience and instead tries to smooth her hoodie out. The mist around her disappears as her form shimmers a touch. Offering her hand out to Naru she says, "Come on, we need to check the other rooms too. Or I do at least, but... you shouldn't lay there."
"Well dammit." Naru grumbles softly about classmates getting energy drained as she brushes herself off. "I make a terrible toy!" She calls after the darkness that was Maeko and then her attention goes to Jiaying.
"She seemed to know a lot about you." Naru points out, and she watches Jiaying's own doll crawl back into her pack. There's a bit of a squint at Jiaying as things calm down enough to get better looks at people, or at least person. "Jiaying?"
Naru doesn't appear to be hurt herself, or at least is capable of faking it, as she heads to the nearest classrooms. "Hopefully she didn't drain so much out of people that they won't wake up 'til morning. Awkward."
Jiaying Maki glances around and seems to be trying to listen for anyone calling for help or anything. Naru, after getting to her feet was going to be asked, "Are you oka- hrk." when her name is mentioned. She holds her hands up says, "Q-quiet quiet please! Yes yes." She makes a few gestures and lifts her hands to her head and pats around. Hood pulled down she asks, "Are they showing?" While turning to make sure her tail is hidden too.
Naru's... attitude to it all gets a really confused look though and she looks back to ask, "Is this common for you?" Hey it's common...ish for her. Kind of.
"Ears? You're good." Naru peers at Jiaying, to confirm that she's safely de-foxed and she simply seems to accept that as the same level of normal that creepy dolls offering energy drain is.
"I'm good." Naru grins, rubbing her shoulder a little. "She barely touched me, all in all. I'm not even shivering." She peers into the classroom, watching people sleepily wake up a little dopey and with the 'I dont know anything' dumb looks. "You should head home." Naru informs her classmates before she catches sight of the clock.
"Ohmygoodness, I am gonna be late!" Naru erks softly and then nods to Jiaying. "Yeah, its pretty common for me. Once a week or so, little less sometimes. Thanks for the save, I gotta go or I'll miss dance class."
Jiaying Maki looks... more than a little shocked that this is a weekly thing. She asks, "Do you have any protective charms, protective people, sharp sticks?" Trying not to sound like she's stunned that she's so used to being a chew toy it doesn't slow her down. Still, baffled look aside she slowly raises a hand and says, "See you later?"
"Pepper spray!" Naru grins. "Although I didnt want to use it in the school, so I need to rethink that plan." She hrms softly and then waves. "I'm fine! Thanks! See you later!" She's clearly a touch stiff, she'll feel it more later, and the tired will hit her like a ton of bricks when the adrenaline wears off. For the moment, chew toy ftw!