Corvus asked Haruna to bring him to the Hikawa Shrine. Haruna didn't feel this was particularly malevolent- and trusts Corvus anyways at this point, so she's done as asked and arrives onto the grounds with a silver raven on her shoulder and looking kind of like her shy, confused and overwhelmed self. Somethings just don't change particularly fast, Magical Girl or not!
She looks around the area.
"Why did.. you want to come here anyways?" asks Haruna. Corvus remains quiet for a short moment. "I was here before." he says.
"...wha? No we weren't...." says Haruna. "No. /I/ was here before. You weren't." says Corvus. Haruna frowns.
"Were you doing things when I wasn't looking when I was some sort of rhyming witch!?" she asks with a huff. Corvus sort of looked taken aback and blushed. "Um... well. Just this. One time." he insists. He's at least telling that truth.
Haruna sighhhhed a bit and rubbed her face a little. This didn't help her general demeanor atm in terms of shyness.
Hikawa shrine is pretty peaceful at this time of day. A group of high school girls walk past Haruna, chatting amongst themselves and not really paying attention to her. They're talking about the fortunes they just had told, and the mysterious miko who told them.
Two ravens, with some magical presence, circle overhead. One of them lands on a nearby branch, eyeing Corvus carefully.
"Phobos! Deimos!" calls Rei, who is just stepping out of the temple. The two ravens fly towards the girl and land on her outstretched hands. She smiles at the two of them, and then turns towards the visitor. "Oh, hello! Welcome to---"
She immediately trails off. Haruna? Haruna is here? With Corvus? How did she...?
The miko hesitates. She doesn't know what to say. Phobos caws in her ear.
"Welcome! How can I help you?"
Haruna Kurosawa found birds pretty. Even the ones that many people see as flying rats. Ones that she used to feed with her sister at the beach! It's really not a particular surprise she became 'Cure Gull', though not like Rei would know that. Oh! Two Ravens! Her eyes sparkle. "Wooooooow! They're so pretty." she says. Was. Was that a jealous look Corvus just gave? It's kind of silly.
She blinks and looks over to Corvus. "He--hey you're pretty too!" she says. Corvus is now playing the silent act because there's people around. Wait. Did one of those ravens just speak to Rei? She gives a suspicious look. She can't detect magic.
Wait. How can she be helped? Her eyes go wide in panic. She can't... say that the bird wanted her to come here. Can she? Ughhhhhh she doesn't want to appear like a crazy person when she's finally getting some sort of hold on her life.
"Um...would you belive. That my bird here asked me to come over here." she asks sheepishly. She feels really small now. It shows on her face and general body posture, two fingers poking each other in front of her.
Rei looks between Haruna and Corvus... well, Rei knows the real story between those two. When Haruna says that Corvus told her to come, she just smiles and says, "Sure. I'd believe that, Haruna-san."
Yes, Rei did just use her real name there.
"He's been here before, but things were a lot different back then. All of that's in the past, though." Rei's being a little mysterious, but not without reason. She doesn't want to just outright say that she's Sailor Mars, because someone might be listening whom she doesn't see. Yet, it probably wouldn't be a problem if Haruna kneew. She's a fellow member of Virtue now, after all.
Just... not out here.
"It's a bit of a long story, though you know most of it already. If you'd like to come inside, I'll explain."
Phobos and Deimos fly away, and Rei stands by the entrance of the temple, holding the door open politely.
Haruna Kurosawa is called Haruna-san?... She just. Met. This........She shakes it off. Shake shake shake.
She frowns a little. So she's confirming Corvus has been here before. But that things are different now? Corvus is still kind of silent. Regardless. She approaches. "Um. You... seem to know my name. I guess. Who are you?" she asks softly. She begins to follow Rei along as she looks about. She hasn't particularly been to a shrine in a long time.
She hasn't done a lot of stuff in a long time.
"Well, we've met before," says Rei, leading Haruna into the shrine. Rei goes into the more private places that most people can't go. She leads her to the fire pit, where Rei does her divinations, and she does a few checks and looks around a few corners to make sure that no nosey grandparents are around. Once she's satisfied, she turns to Haruna with a smile.
"You know me as Sailor Mars, but in my normal life my name is Rei Hino. This is my family's shrine and I'm a miko here."
Rei's black eyes focus on Corvus for a moment, and she says, "The last time we met here I was doing a reading on you. It attracted your attention, and also the attention of... some of your friends. I'm glad we have this chance to meet under better circumstances." Her smile, at this point, is genuine. "I'm also glad to see the two of you doing alright."
Haruna Kurosawa walks in and looks around, amazed at the authenticity and athmosphere and all that. They're lured into the fire pit area where Rei does her divinations and she places her hands in front of her, clasped around one another as she blinks as she looks over to Corvus. "Yeah... this is it." he says. She's about to do her 'cover act' which is...pretend she's some sort of weird bird ventriolquist.
But then Rei mentions she is Sailor Mars and she sort of blinks a bit...
"Oh..you were........" ah! She suddenly bows very hard. "Ah--t--thank you... for... helping me. All. I.. uhm.. Ah...!?" she's going to spastic sudden apology and thanks mode and this can't possibly be good for her and that's when Corvus shushes her. "Relax." he says softly. Haruna comes back up and takes a few deep breathes. She feels light headed from the nervousness. "I. Thanks..." is all she can really say. "I did.. a lotta bad things.... and so did.. Corvus. And. And. All I can is really sorry in the end. We were both really... hurt. and lost. and.."
She takes a deeper breath and stops talking.
Corvus pauses... "It's just. Really me and Procyon now. Procyon said the others got.. killed. I talked to him for a bit. He's kind of trying to get help getting help getting out of his own tablet- but only with not the the.... um...." he kind of looks away for a moment. "Soul draining." he says.
"Haruna's... been working really hard to apologize to folks. I should. Work hard too. Right? I remember I tried to attack you. But that's really all." he says. "Thanks to.. all I done, I don't have a lot of magic I can do left. Not even the stuff I used to do originally. Blue gave me an enchantment to help Haruna. But that's really it now." he says quietly.
Haruna does blush. "I feel a little better about myself. I guess. I just. Kinda kept to myself. For a long time. Since....." she trails off.
Rei quietly listens as Haruna and Corvus apologize and say thanks and basically explain things to her. Rei frowns at the news that the others got killed. She looks saddened by that. It's an empty feeling, knowing that someone is dead, and though she barely knew them, she knew at least one of them to be brave and kind.
To think that she'll never see them again...
Yet, what's done is done. Rei wonders how it happened, but they were old and tired. It wouldn't be hard to guess...
"It's alright now. I know you two were hurting. I know you were in pain, too. You were both desperate and you acted on that desperation."
A soft smile reappears on her face, though still with a tinge of sadness. "I'm glad we were able to help. I know that not everyone will accept you, but I at the very least would like to be able to call you a friend."
Rei glances towards Corvus. "So you've lost your power? I suppose Justice should have very little reason to fear you then. Not that I suspect it will stop some of them." She sounds a little annoyed at them, remembering what happened after the fight a few days ago.
Turning back to Haruna, Rei says, "I'm glad you're feeling better. I'm sure we'll find your sister one day. I don't really know the full story of that, but as long as she's alive there's hope, right?"
Haruna Kurosawa looks down. "Blue talked to me about that. She's a captive of something called The Phantom Empire, led by a Queen Mirage. He also said that they're most likely working with the group that took me away and---- put whatever that was in my head." she says. She looks up though! "Right.. Blue made it so Corvus is... well. A Pretty Cure normally has a fairy companion. And he was going to assign me one. But... Corvus said. He wanted to do that." she says blushing a bit. "So... he did something, that let Corvus detect some sort of monster activity-- and the ability to produce PreCards when I purify something...." she says softly.
Corvus nods at Rei. "That's all I can really do now. I owe Haruna a lot. I'm going to do my best to watch over her."
Haruna closes her eyes. "I have some people who are going to help me find out where my sister is." she says. "Then I'm going to kick them in the face." she says plainly. "It isn't that. We don't know where she is? It's... getting there that's hard, because Blue can't reach there." she says as she looks down.
She does look back up though! "Um... do you know. Um.... Dude in a cape? Top hat... mask?..." she asks sheepishly.
Rei listens as Haruna explains more, and she says, "From the sounds of it, it sounds like it was someone from the Dark Kingdom, one of the Shitennou, who put something in your head. They might have an alliance with the Phantom Empire, from the sounds of it. It wouldn't surprise me... as much as I hate the thought of it."
Rei sighs and then headtilts, "but it's our job as magical girls to handle that kind of threat, right?"
Rei looks to Corvus, "So, you're her companion now? I guess that fits. You two have been together for... well... as long as I've known you at least."
Rei's smile turns into a grin as Haruna says she'll kick the people who captured her sister in the face. "That's the spirit. If you need help with that, you know where to find me."
A dude in a cape, top hat, and mask? Sounds like someone she knows. "Tuxedo Kamen. That's the only name I know him by. He's a bit of a mystery to me and the rest of the Sailor Senshi, actually. I know he shows up pretty often, though. If you want to find him, I'm sure he'll show up sooner or later."
Haruna Kurosawa commits the name to memory. Dark Kingdom. Okay....
She blushes. "I've. Only been a Pretty Cure for a couple of days. I haven't really. Fought anything. Not since. Well..." she nods a little bit. "I'll do my best when it comes time, though!" she says.
She head tilts. "Tuxedo Kamen...." she closes her eyes a moment, and opens them. "I... um. Can you thank him... for me? if you see him? I know that.. he comes to the aid of... your type of.. whatever... magical girl you are?" she asks sheepishly. "I mean. That's the impression I got... as Scorn.." she says gently.
"I don't want to bother. Many of you guys. I'd like to meet everyone! But. I don't want to make... everything awkward." she says meekly. She looks around. "I should. Be going soon.. Now. I mean now. I should be going now because I've missed SOOOOO much school work and they're letting me make it up over the break." she says forlornly.
Rei nods gently. "I think many of us would be happy to see you. I'll tell the others that you stopped by, including Tuxedo Kamen if I see him."
"... and on that note, Sailor Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and myself all call ourselves Sailor Senshi. Each one of us is tied to a planetary body from our solar system. It's actually still a bit unclear to me, too." Rei shrugs noncommitally.
Rei takes a glance at the clock, and looks back to Haruna. "Well, if you need to. Good luck with your schoolwork. There's still time to catch up, after all! ... though admittedly it's probably going to be a bit tight."
Rei remembers that school starts in like... little over a week. Yikes! She hopes Haruna will be okay.
Haruna Kurosawa sort of flails. "I missed like two months of school.... because. I stopped going.. to school. When..." she sort of blushes. "It's just my own mess I need to clean up!" she says with a smile. "I'm going to get caught up though!" she says.
She pauses a bit. "Sailor Senshi.. okay then!" she beams. She turns and begins to run out. Corvus seems to be holding on for dear life. "S..slow down."
"Ack...right..." she says as she begins jogging slower. >,>.
There she goes!