Donuts. Reiko wanted Donuts. Only. Her grandpa wanted her to stop eating donuts. They were bad for you.
But Grandpa can't tell /Prism Keeper Orange/ what to do, right!? IT WAS THE PERFECT DISGUISE! Karou, mysterious man of mystery who runs the donut shop didn't seem phased about a girl with wings and a bright orange dress and also magical koi that he gave donuts to, also!
So Prism Keeper Orange is flying in the air and comes to a plop into a tree where she hides--- but is easily seen enough as she begins to eat Donuts. All the Donuts.
If you want some, you better be fast~
With school back in session, it's time for students to get used to the schedule again. There's club meetings to deal with, even if they're just for planning when the next full meeting will be taking place.
That had taken a bit of time from Ikiko's afternoon, and when she finally left the school she had met Ayana. The two had been walking and talking, heading to pick up a snack to celebrate Ayana's first day at Seishou.
"...and apparently class 3-B is going to be getting a hamster as a class pet," Ikiko mentions to Ayana, still going on about the big things mentioned in the Animal Care club's short meeting. "This might get them more interested in checking out the club, but it'll probably be a while before they decide one way or another, so we're not going to stress about it yet."
She catches her breath for a moment while she thinks, then looks at Ayana. "How many of the clubs tried recruiting you?" she inquires. "I know they pay attention to when there's a new student, but I'm not sure how much they push for recruits at this time of year."
Ayana's first day went about as to be expected. While Ikiko was busy going to her club, the fox-girl was busy cleaning erasers from the chalkboard for having thrown one at one of her classmates when she was laughed at for failing to complete a problem. As a result, her brand new school clothes (admittedly created through the same magic that allows her to shapechange) are now covered in fine bits of dust, and the black-haired girl is presently more like a grey-haired girl in a fowl mood.
Spotting Ikiko after school, however, cheered Ayana up a bit, and now she's walking along with the other girl, not particularly concerned for their destination, allowing Ikiko to talk about her thoughts on the Animal Care club. "But why would they have a hamster for a pet?" she asks confusedly, after a few moments of extended silence. "I mean, hamsters are cute, but they're so much better a--" whatever she was going to say is cut off, when the kitsune's finely honed nose detects a far more interesting scent than 'chalk'. She stops dead in her tracks and starts sniffing, then takes a step forward and sniffs again, then points up at the sky, "Someone is flying overhead with donuts." She doesn't even look.
Prism Keeper Orange is sat in the tree. Eating donuts. She's probably going to have a massive tummy ache later with all those donuts, but she doesn't particualrly care right now. She picks another one up---annnnnd....
A donut with a heart shaped hole falls down from the tree and lands in front of Ayana and Ikiko. Prism Keeper Orange eeks! and dives down from the tree.
In front of Ikiko and Ayana!
"Ah... Hi Ikiko...and.." she panics at the girl she doesn't know! "...um....personIdon'tknowlookover there--A DISTRACTION!" she suddenly shouts and with her donut box shoots back into the tree.
She peeks down. Did she successfully rehide!?
She isn't blending in with the green of the tree leaves.
Ikiko Hisakata blinks at the sudden donut, then takes a step back as Orange pounces on it. The sudden startled shout leaves her pausing for a moment, then she giggles. "It's okay, Orange," Ikiko says. "This is Ayana Moriko, a friend of mine. May we join you for donuts?"
She does start climbing into the tree before the donut question is answered, trying to hide so that they can chat without drawing too many odd glances. Once she's sitting on the branches, she offers a hand to help Ayana up.
Ayana blinks as the donut falls past her point of view, then again as Prism Keeper Orange follows it. She blinks again in surprise when the small magical girl vanishes up into the tree. Ayana slowly tilts her head back, spotting Ikiko climbing up in the tree. She blinks and looks away hastily, then spins around once before confusedly looking back up. "Trade you donuts for pepperonis!" she offers, grabbing Ikiko's hand and vaulting herself up into the tree. From her backpack she pulls a large pepperoni stick wrapped in seran and holds it up victoriously. "Why are we in a tree?"
Prism Keeper Orange ducks her head back..."Ah..nothing up here...but us birds....."
"That isn't working is it?" she asks.
"Darn."
"Okay, sure!" she finally says. The branch she's on is super sturdy and is practically tree sitting strong, She has donuts left, surprisingly.
She offers the box of heart-hole shaped donuts over to the two as she head tilts....why...why does Ayana have a big stick of pepperoni in her backpack? "Uh.. no, thanks! But you can still have some donuts!" she beams.
"Not really," admits Ikiko as she takes an offered donut and munches on it. Kaoru's donuts are good~! And sharing them with friends is pretty fun, especially when you're sort of hiding from the world.
As she munches on the donut, she ponders some phrasing. She recalled Ayana mentioning that she knows Reiko, but Orange didn't recognize Ayana. Probably a case of Black Fox meeting Reiko, then, she muses. Well, that's... not as complicated as it could be, at least.
Still makes it tricky to hint while still respecting identities, though.
"We've met a couple of times during the summer," she finally says. "She's new to the area, and I've shown her around town a couple of times." A small pause, then she adds "It turns out that we have several things in common." Very true, while still oblique enough to not reveal too much.
Ayana takes a donut out of the box, then shoves the whole thing in her mouth. While Ikiko is trying to carefully navigate the politics of Not Revealing Your Friend, Ayana is busy trying not to choke on just a little too much food in her mouth. Somehow, she manages, all the while looking extremely delighted at the taste of the donut. "Ohmygosh these are so good!" she says when she finally has her mouth mostly empty.
She smile at Prism Keeper Orange, then asks, "Where did you get these? These are better than the donuts I get near my home. Also, are you a magical girl?"
Prism Keeper Orange listens to Ikiko and nods a lot. "Oh? That's neat! Is she in the Animal Care Club, too?" she asks with wide eyes. She peeks at Ayana and sweatdrops at Ayana shoving a donut into her mouth all too much at once. She head tilts a bit and taps her chin...
"Well..Karou makes nice donuts and I like the heart shaped hole~" she beams.
She pauses. "Y...yeah. I'm a magical girl." she says as an aside.
She blinks and keeps the box open at least.
Ikiko Hisakata munches on a second donut, partially because they taste good and partially so that she can cover her giggles at the surprising frankness of Ayana's question. "I don't think she's declared for any clubs yet," she says once she regains her composure. "First day at school, and all that."
She snags a third donut, holding onto it while she continues munching on the second one. Best to have a firm claim on it now, while it's still available and not currently contested.
"Me too," Ayana says, grinning at Prism Keeper Orange as she reaches for another donut. "Do you have a cool magical device, or do you get your power from a wand, or what? Everyone seems to be different, it's really interesting. I get mine from a device I found that talks to me, and gives me a barrier jacket to protect me. I can't do much in a fight, though, so I just stand back and fire off foxfire and try to help other magical girls take down the youma. I'd be in serious trouble if I had to take one down by myself."
Prism Keeper Orange sort of blinks as Ayana drops a buncha information on her and she looks to the side a moment. "Uh....okay?" she asks, the girl a little confused. She looks at Ikiko for help with wide eyes, or maybe just confirmation? She looks very very confused. SO much in fact, that a koi appears over her shoulder and is spinning and is making @,@ eyes.
"Aha---haha. Do.. I know you thought...first? Who are you?..." she asks meekly.
Ikiko Hisakata reaches over and pats Orange on the shoulder, then pats the koi on the head. "The device is new, but she's helped out before by dazzling and confusing enemies," she nods. "She has more tricks and options now, but they still look similar to what she was usuing before."
Ayana considers the information from Ikiko, then shrugs and points up at her hair. A pair of furry black ears pop out, emerging as if they were held in place gby her hair. "We met in the park," she explains to Prism Keeper Orange. "You were trying to fly, and ran into the swings." She glances at the koifish and licks her lips hungrily, but instead of lunging for it, she instead shoves another donut in her mouth.
Prism Keeper Orange blinks blinks. Ears!? Is.. is this another Cute Wolf?...is..is she Cute Wolf Ayana!?
But then recognition hits her! "Ah----! You were... that fox... thing...girl. The Foxgirl!" she says with a beam. "Ah---I'm still no really good at flying.." she admits sheepishly. The koi stops spinning and poofs away!
She head tilts. Device that talks to you....
She knows two people like that.
She doesn't like either very much.
She kind of head tilts. "Um... I get my powers from my Chroma Crystal..." she answers finally. "I Guess... um... um if Ikiko knows who you are...." she blushes.
She lets her henshin fall, and now she's Reiko...
Who shouldn't be eating all these donuts and who's grandpa is gonna be dissapointed at her for all the Donuts.
Ikiko Hisakata nods, relaxing slightly now that identities have been sorted out. "Reiko, this is Ayana Moriko, also known as Black Fox; Ayana, this is Reiko Touyama, also known as Prism Keeper Orange," she says with a slight bow to each of them, formalizing the introductions.
A grin crosses her face. "We discovered the problem with using the same phone numbers for both mundane and magical contacts," she admits sheepishly. "That's part of why it was pretty easy for us to tell who the other was." The other part was Ayana's phone decorations, of course!
"I don't see how it's a problem," Ayana points out to Ikiko once she's swallowed the next donut. She grins at Reiko, then says, "We're all on the same side, right? So why does it matter if we know who one another really is? I mean, we can probably coordinate defeating Youma better if we do know one another."
Reiko Touyama head tilts. "Well if the wrong people found out..." she looks down. "That happened to Red. And then she got beat up because of it..." she says meekly. "I hate Miss White and Mr. Black!" she huffs. "They...beat up Red because she was trying to protect people!" she says with closed fists.
She huffs. Her appetite is kinda ruined now so she hands the box of the rest of the donuts over to Ikiko. The other two can share them.
Ikiko Hisakata accepts the box of donuts, then reaches over and hugs Reiko. "Knowing someone's identity is a sign of trust," she adds to Ayana. "There's several magical girls out there that I would count on if we found ourselves on the same side of a fight, but that doesn't mean that I trust them enough to tell them who I am outside of magic."
The box of donuts is still open, and she does offer some to Ayana. Ikiko is looking forward to dinner, so she doesn't want to spoil her appetite too badly, while Ayana seems to be fine with munching several.
Ayana takes another donut--her third--and tilts her head at Ikiko. "But why not trust one another? Aren't all magical girls chosen or empowered to defeat youma? I thought that was the whole point; to protect the earth, to defeat the evils, and to ..." she trails of, considering a moment, then looks to Reiko. "Are you sure that's why they beat her up? What if they had another reason?"
Reiko Touyama huffs! "T..they attacked her before she even transformed! Because she wanted to stop... a... nrg, what's it called...a Witch!" she huffs. She head tilts and frowns and looks down. "I dunno if I chosen or empowered.... a story Red wrote came true and-- that's why I'm a magical girl and sometimes it's weird, but sometimes it's nice! But.. I don't know what that happend..." she says looking down.
"I just. Do my best to help people, and fight Shades..." she says.
"Ikiko's saw a Shade before!" she nods matter of factly.
Ikiko Hisakata nods. "They're tough, but hitting them with magic works pretty well," she notes. "Singing them to sleep seems to work if they've been weakened, but I'm not sure how well that would work if it still felt like fighting. And their color drain saps your color AND your energy!"
Given that lengthening her fanglies takes magic, she wonders how well that would affect Shades. It would certainly give her another option on how to fighte them, if it works... and at the very least, it might help weaken whatever accumulated armor the Shade happens to be using.
"... well I'm all black and white anyways," Ayana notes amusedly, twirling her hair in her fingers. "But I guess it'd suck if they made my eyes turn grey instead of blue." She frowns, then looks at Reiko thoughtfully. "So do you go to Seishou, too?"
Reiko Touyama beams. "I do!" she says softly. "I.. someday hope I can get into Infinity..... there's so many great students and folks there like...Chiba-san and Takashi-san..." she beams. "But..." she pauses.
"It's really important I stick with Red, too. Lots of people say I should just. leave her behind...."
She closes her eyes. "Red is like my best friend! I can't just leave her." she whines a bit.
"Good friends are always worth keeping," Ikiko agrees. "Skill and talent can be worked on anywhere, but friendships are best in person." Especially when there's a shared magical secret between the friends.
"Why would you leave her?" Ayana asks Reiko, confused. "I thought she was trying to protect people. Did she do something wrong?" she asks confusedly, looking between Ikiko and Reiko. The fox-girls ears turn towards something in the distance, but she doesn't turn her head towards the sound. Still, her eyes go a little less focused, as she splits her attention.
Reiko Touyama Ahs! "Red is... her name. Like. Prism Keeper Orange....she's Prism Keeper Red! She's my best friend. I can't leave her at the school we're at while I go to a differnt one." she says. She looks down. "Ah---you guys...enjoy the donuts. I need to get home." she says as she crawls to the edge of the tree. Then falllls down the trunk, and lands on her butt!
She gets up with an ooof! "I..I'll see you two later!" she beams.
"Take care, Reiko!" Ikiko waves. She munches on another donut and carefully sets the box down between herself and Ayana, keeping one hand on the box to help keep it balanced.
A smile crosses her face. Good donuts, good friends, and what might be the start of an unofficial team -- looks like things are going well!
"Oh, okay," Ayana says to Reiko. Her foxlike ears vanish back into her hair, as if they were never there at all. The foxgirl watches Reiko climb down from the tree with a frown on her face, clearly deep in thought. So deep in thought she doesn't even reach for more food right away. Once Reiko is out of sight, she turns to glance at Ikiko, then smiles and asks, "Can I stay at your place tonight?"
Ikiko Hisakata frowns slightly. Not in anger; her expresssion is more of worry. "That might not be a good idea," she sighs. "At least, not tonight. My family is aware of the basics of magic, so they might notice that you're magical. I'm not sure how well I could explain it to them without mentioning what I've been up to as Tsukiko."
She gives Ayana a sheepish grin. "I, uh... kind of accidentally found an old magical family trinket that wasn't supposed to be used anymore, and, um... Used it. Without realizing it." Her hand idly fiddles with the locket around her neck. "And now I'm worried that if my family ever finds out that I'm using it, they'll ground me forever -- or worse!"
"I can probably hide my magic," Ayana says with a disappointed shrug, "but I guess I'll just go home. My parents are out of town so it's just me and my brother, and I was hoping to avoid telling him I got kept after school." She glances down at the chalk that's still covering her uniform, then sighs. "Guess there's nothing for it. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
Ikiko Hisakata gives Ayana a hug. "I'll try to figure out a way to invite you without mentioning too much," she promises. "It'll just take a few days to get set up, probably. This also gives my family some time to prepare, as they do like having advance warning of visitors."
She takes another donut, then hands Ayana the box and climbs down the tree. "See you tomorrow, Ayana!" she waves, then starts on her way home, ideas starting to percolate. Hmmm, maybe if she mentions checking up on some suspicious happenings, then go from there...?
Ayana opens the box, finding exactly one donut left inside. "Hmm," she murmurs to herself thoughtfully, then sticks the donut in her mouth to enjoy it. As Ikiko heads on her way, Ayana leaps /up/ out of the tree, heading for the rooftops, so that she can run towards Takashi's home unseen.