Beneath the shade of a particular Japanese lilac tree, only a few rays poking through its protection from the summer sun, two young girls are seated on the grass of the Seishou Public School's grounds. It's lunch time, and around the pair, their peers are enjoying their break. Some of the younger elementary students are playing on the blacktop not far away, braving the heat. Others talk and socialize, animated and bright. To an outsider--to an adult--this is an idyllic scene.
But paradise isn't quite the experience of these two girls. They have to navigate this world day-to-day: the challenges, the trials, and sometimes, the pain. Because some of their peers aren't quite so fun. Invisible to the watchful eyes of the teachers roaming the grounds, there's a certain, sometimes brutal, order to this place, and an uneasy tension that hangs in the air when bad things are expected.
Maybe she won't come over here today. Or maybe she will. It's hard to predict which days will be ruined, and which won't be, but one can see her in the distance with her raven black hair, talking with her friends, wearing that very distinct smile as her eyes occasionally drifts in the direction of the duo.
Mei's only been back at school for a few days, and even though it's nice that things have gone back to normal (more orless), there are some parts of 'normal' that she doesn't like. Parts where suddenly becoming a magical girl won't help her: like waking up on time for school, or paying attention in math class.
Or navigating the social battleground of cliques and bullies that their fourth grade class has become. That's probably the worst, actually.
All told, the little redhead was out of school for about a week, and there's no telling what kind of rumors circulated while she was gone. The police finally settled on a hit-and-run with no leads and declared the case cold. There might have been some small column about it in the paper somewhere; to be honest, Mei'd tried to avoid the news for just that reason. It's *embarrassing* -- and if she doesn't see it, then she doesn't have to acknowledge it, right?
Thankfully, no one's brought it up yet. Today especially has been pleasant, almost totally unaffected by the specter of What Happened except for the bandages that still wrap around her chest under her uniform, and the medication that she has to take to keep the pain at bay. The doctors told her to take the pills with food, and since it's lunchtime...
"Be back in a minute, Reiko-chan!" the girl says with a smile as cheery as she can make it. She takes her water bottle in one hand and her pencil bag in the other, then sprints off towards the outdoor water fountains. As she passes, red eyes drift over to the black-haired girl almost of their own accord -- but she steels herself and walks on. If she does this fast enough, Koumoto should leave her alone.
Some people cast a long shadow. Hiroko Koumoto, standing a few inches taller than her peers, certainly does. As Mei enjoys the cool, refreshing water, she might suddenly feel a few degrees colder still, the sun's warmth receding as that looming shadow is cast over her. Hiroko is like that, enough of an athlete, or perhaps predator, in her to stalk across the grounds quickly enough without being noticed.
"Hello, Akatsuki-san." Hiroko's voice. She /always/ says that. She always greets Mei with those exact words, in that exact tone, filled with faux respect but a note of biting condescension. And then there's an unfriendly giggle on Mei's other side, one of Hiroko's equally awful "friends," though "member of her pack" might be a more apt description. Nowhere to walk away to without walking through someone.
There's a moment of silence that follows, but there's little chance of Hiroko leaving. She's not done. She stands there watching appraisingly, disapprovingly. "I'm sorry to hear you were injured like that." She always starts nice, but that's usually only the wind-up. "There's a _lot_ of talk going around school, you know."
Mei's not exactly intuitive -- but there are a few things she can sense without looking. Koumoto's approach is one of them. Maybe it's the dainty, measured step that stands in stark contrast to her own clumsiness. Maybe it's the chill silence her presence always carries with it. Maybe it's the snickers of her cronies. Or maybe they just spent so much time together as friends that she just picked up on her wavelength. (*That* is not an explanation she likes to entertain too much.)
Whatever the reason, the bully's approach is all too familiar, and it raises the hair on the back of her neck. A tightness takes over her body, her relaxed posture tensing into one of closed, unspoken hostility. Leaving the water running in the fountain, Mei straightens, hand clenched around the pill bottle that rests inside her pencil bag.
It's going to be one of those days, then.
"What do you want, Koumoto-san?" she asks, perhaps too bluntly straightforward. She's seen other girls attempt to turn these needling conversations around -- she'd tried herself, at the beginning -- and it never, ever works. Best to get right to the point and get the whole thing over and done with. "I don't care what people are talking about. I didn't do anything wrong."
Her eyes flash in the mirror, but the insecurity is obvious underneath her indignation.
"I don't want /anything/ from you, Akatsuki-san," Hiroko replies, an almost amused note to her voice, as if asking the unspoken question, what could *you* offer *me*? "I was just concerned." Concerned. She's always "concerned" about her "friend," even if that concern only ever seems to result in cruelty.
"Not just for you." Her head tilts slightly, but gray eyes never falter from watching Mei closely. She's studying her. She's waiting for that response from Mei. Sometimes she doesn't get it, and sometimes she does, but whatever the case, she's always willing to play dirty. "I do remember your mother. She's a very respectable woman. It must have been hard for her, with you causing her so much worry." Her eyes narrow slightly, expectantly. "What were you doing, Akatsuki-san, to put yourself in such risk? I do hope it was worth it." A brief pause. "You're not the only one you should be thinking about, y'know."
Lunch-time! Reiko had her koi-shaped bento box all out, loivngly prepared by her grandfather, no less, it's orange and yellow fishiness always brightened up her day! And Mei-chan was back from the hospital! Ugh, she was worried sick- the poor orange-haired girl almost had five heart attacks this week.
Mei gets up to fill her water bottle. "Okay, Mei-Chan!" she says cheerfully. She'd brought desert! (Two cinnamon rolls) for later, that she tugs out of her backpack, she intends to share with Mei when she gets back from filling her water bottle.
Her eyes drift towards the water fountain though, when she sees Hiroko approach Mei. She frowns to herself...really!? She just got back from being hit by a car! And she's going to give her grief over it!? Reiko closes her koi shaped bento box a moment and smoothes out her shirt- fixes her glasses by pushing them up her nose by the bridge, and begins walk over towards Mei and Hiroko and the part of her 'pack' with her.
Reiko is able to catch Hiroko's last statement.
"Hey, that's not any of your bussiness! Why are you sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!?" she says with a huff, over Mei's shoulder. "You're not the one who was in the hospital for a week!"
Mei didn't ask for help, but this isn't going to stop Reiko from standing up for her friend! Though she's hardly intimidating.
"Don't lie," Mei says, her voice dropping to a shaking quiet, almost as though she didn't want Hiroko to hear. "You're not concerned for me at all." Not that she would even want the black-hearted girl to be concerned for her anyway; if she'd showed up at the hospital, she probably would have called security to throw her out. But the lie -- the lie is worse.
She tries desperately to keep herself calm as Hiroko goes on, knowing that she's been through this all before, knowing that she's just looking for a reaction. It doesn't help. Her mother's disappearance is too fresh, and although she couldn't *possibly* know about that, her words cut deeper all the same. "My mom is FINE," she spits out, perhaps with a bit too much conviction. Her mind races for a comeback -- something about Hiroko's mom, something that could tip her off balance -- but she comes up empty. She's just not *good* at this. She doesn't know how to posture and needle like Hiroko, even when she wants the other girl to feel just as hurt as she does. She's just too straightforward.
Her hand, trembling on the pill bottle, clamps down like a vice as soon as the bully finishes. Caring only about herself? *She* is one to talk about that, and after she got this injury trying to save people, trying to help them. Anger like a blinding flare takes over her senses, and she's one moment away from turning and throwing the stupid pills at the girl--
When Reiko comes over, and she's spared from her own bad decision. Barely.
"It's fine, Reiko-chan," Mei says, finally turning from her death glare at the mirror. "Koumoto-san's just jealous because everyone would be happy if she disappeared for a week."
(She may be the victim here, but no one said she was innocent.)
There's the faintest flicker of a reaction from Hiroko as Mei says those last words, hints of the child behind the perceived demon. There's a moment of pained shock in her eyes, but it never goes farther than that, not spreading to the rest of her face. She's too poised for that. If anything, her face hardens even more a moment later, eyebrows dropping slightly into a position of anger.
"Touyama-san," Hiroko begins, her childlike voice dropping just a touch in pitch, her eyes now looking past Mei to the orange-haired girl behind her. "You do know that it's not polite to interrupt a civil conversation, don't you?" A grin spreads across her face, one that just might say, /You're next./ "Especially if all you're going to do is talk from behind someone's back. That's not really going to accomplish much, is it?" And then her eyes drift back to Mei.
"And that's a rude thing to say, Akatsuki-san. Especially coming from a girl who can't quite tell fantasy from reality. I don't suppose you could tell me . . . out of the people who care if *you* disappear, how many are real people, and how many are imaginary?" There's something about her second attack which seems less polished, though, more rote and less cutting. She's good at this, but she's perhaps not quite as perfect as some might think. Did she really get caught off-guard? Whatever the case, she seems even angrier now, and she doesn't stop there.
"That's what girls like you don't get, Akatsuki-san. It's not really about you. Do you think whatever silly fantasy you were chasing when you got hurt was helping your mother? Your sister? No. It wasn't. But I doubt you care about that. You're a daydreamer first and foremost, Akatsuki-san, and I feel bad for those around you."
Reiko Touyama just stands there, hands against her hips now. This is Reiko's /serious stance/! She huffs! "This is hardly civil! You're just being a jerk, like always, Koumoto-san!" she says. "Always pushing around people because you get a kick out of it!" she says angrily. "I rather stand at my friends back than not!" she says as Hiroko talks about her hiding behind Mei.
Hiroko says some more, incredibly mean, vile things about Mei dissapearing. Who'd miss her!? WHO WOULD MISS HER!? /SHE WOULD MISS HER! THAT'S WHAT!/, how can Hiroko say such a thing! This causes Reiko to grit her teeth, but remain quiet for a bit before she talks.
"Better imaginary people who'll miss her than jerks like you who'll laugh it off!" she says. "BESIDES! I'D MISS HER! SHE'S MY FRIEND!" she finally says loudly, and stamps her foot in defiance!
She'll probably continue to speak until Mei tells her to back off.
"All your buddies ever do is talk from behind your back, so maybe you should say that to *them*," Mei fires back, immediately coming to her friend's defense. Picking on her is one thing -- picking on her friend is another. It's in her nature to shield Reiko from the emotional onslaught that is any conversation with Hiroko Koumata.
The comments about fantasy bring a flush of anger to her cheeks, despite her efforts to keep a cool head. Ironically enough, fantasy has definitely become hard to separate from reality, but not in the way she thinks. If Hiroko knew what her silly little story had become -- what it had given her the power to do -- she wouldn't treat her this way. She wouldn't say these nasty things. She'd leave her and Reiko and all the other poor Seishou students alone, because Prism Keeper Red is the magical patron of Class 4-A, and she'll send all bullies to the Grey Kingdom where they belong!
...or at least, she'd like to. Turns out magical justice doesn't come for bullies sometimes.
The redhead picks up on something in Hiroko's second verbal attack, something she can't quite name, but she loses hold of it as the words take hold. Real people care about her, she knows this. One is standing right here, one is off doing whatever business masked tuxedos do during the day, one is a few classrooms down on her own lunch break. But...her mind goes blank when she tries to think of any more. Three people -- is that sad?
"Why are you so convinced that I only care about myself?!" Mei finally bursts out, slamming her fist on the fountain and scattering her open pencil bag on the ground. "I was trying to help! I was trying to help people when I got hurt! That's all my stupid daydreams were ever about -- helping people! I wanted them to make people *happy*!"
The orange pill bottle rolls along the asphalt, stopping as it hits Hiroko's foot. "I feel bad for the people around you too, Koumoto-san. You have them fooled into thinking you care about them. At least you've shown Reiko-chan and I what you really are."
Hiroko is staring now, baleful eyes burning a path toward Mei. She's poised. And ten. And past a certain point, when the emotional stakes are high enough, the two are mutually exclusive. So while Hiroko's body language might project the dignified affect of somebody pushed hard to be the perfect child, those eyes of hers can't stop talking, rambling on about her anger and resentment. And then the pill bottle comes rolling toward her feet.
She looks down, eyes first, then her head. And then she crouches to pick up the bottle, breaking eye contact, lingering down there for a few long moments. That's enough for her, it seems, to regain her composure. A smug smile is presented to Mei and Reiko as she stands, not bothering to read the label of the orange container in her hand. She's going to return it, of course, if her past behavior is any indication. Hiroko might be verbally cruel, but she has never gotten physically violent, never disrespected the property of others, and never shown rage. No, the girl who can't help but do *those* things has another name. Still, that doesn't mean that Hiroko is nice.
She takes a few measured steps toward Mei, hand reaching out to stand the bottle up again on the fountain, next to Mei's pencil bag. And now closer, Hiroko replies in a half-whisper. "You're selfish because your fantasies are just that, Akatsuki-san. Fantasies don't let you save the day, no matter how badly you want to be the hero. And they certainly don't stop you from getting hurt." If there's a feeling behind those words, she doesn't show it. Instead, they're empty, as she herself often appears to be to untrained eyes, not quite feeling the things other people should, certainly not pity or remorse. Right?
And that seems to be the end of it. It's always a little anticlimactic, though. She has her fun, or whatever you want to call these interactions, and then it's suddenly over. She turns around, her "friends" falling in behind her as she walks away, leaving the pair standing together under the sun.
Reiko Touyama just stands there, making an annoyed, upset face at Hiroko as she picks up Mei's pill bottle and places it on the fountain--- glad that the girl isn't going to steal Mei's medication. Reiko didn't want to have to fight Hiroko for the honor of saving it from her. Instead, Hiroko says more mean things.
Reiko huffs and fixes her glasses again as Hiroko leaves with the pack of girls with Hiroko leave. Leaving her and Mei alone.
Reiko steps forward and huffs, taking the bottle of pills and handing it to Mei before anything else can happen to them. "Here, Mei-Chan." she says with a frown.
"Hiroko-chan is such a jerk. Don't let her get to you, Mei-Chan!" she says "She's just grouchy because she has to make her friends by being a jerk. I bet she has much less fun than everyone else!" she insists.
"I have Cinnamon rolls back at my bag. Don't worry, Hiroko doesn't get any!" she says with a huff and a curt, matter of fact nod to Mei.
Mei doesn't say a word, doesn't even look at Hiroko as she says those horrible things. It's completely inexplicable how the girl zeroes in on her weak points, voicing the thoughts that she tries to suppress in her own mind. Even though her fantasies have given her power -- and even though she *has* managed to save the day -- she'd be lying if she said she wasn't afraid that every word out of the bully's mouth was true.
That other bully, the Miss White copy. She also said she couldn't save anyone. Why is she suddenly *hearing* this everywhere?
The redhead groans angrily after a moment of silence, grabbing the returned bottle from Reiko and throwing it into her pencil bag, forgetting completely about actual taking her medicine. "She's so awful," she says, then turns off the still-running fountain. They'd wasted enough water. "I wish her stupid rich parents would send her to Infinity already. I'm sick of having to deal with her every day."
Mei smiles at the offer of cinnamon rolls, but it's weak, her eyes still obviously preoccupied. "Aw, you don't have to split them with me or anything, Reiko-chan. Your grandpa probably packed them as a treat for you."
Reiko Touyama gasps! "Nah-uh! I stopped by Midori-ya on the way to school today, since you were coming back from the hospital, and got two! One for you, and one for me." she says with a huff. She has no clue of the things Mei /actually/ went through to get into the hospital, nor her visitors.
"Grandpa only makes the bento." she asides. "Besides, you need something sweet after that that sourness." she makes a face as she walks back towards her bag. She zips it open and re-retrives her bento and the cinnamon rolls. She frowns and looks down.
"I.. I was worried you, you know!" she huffs. "I was afraid when you were in the hospital." she admits, sheepishly.
"Stupid jerks in cars! I hope they find that jerk and throw the book at him!" she insists, crossing her arms as she sits back down.
Mei's mood perks up juuust a bit when Reiko mentions that the cinnamon rolls are from Midori-ya. A part of her almost wants to keep feeling angry -- it's an undeniable rush, and no one could say that Hiroko didn't deserve it. But...*cinnamon rolls*. From *Midori-ya*. With her *best friend*.
Yeah, ok, fine, that's enough to make her chill out. After all, it's not like this is the first time she's had to deal with a bully's crap. She'll push through.
"Thanks, Reiko-chan," she says, sitting back down under the tree. "For the cinnamon rolls. And for helping me out back there." She starts to smile, though the other girl's mention of the hospital turns it from a smile of gratitude to a somewhat frenzied smile of reassurance. "Oh, I was never in that much danger! It's just my ribs, and they'll be all better in no time. There's no need to worry!" Mei laughs, and it's nervous, but she's not exactly lying to her friend, so hopefully it will come across as genuine ease.
(Mei happens to be a *terrible* actor.)
She balks even more noticeably when Reiko brings up the book; you know, since she hasn't told her best friend that the book came to life and granted all of them power and all that /totally unimportant/ stuff. So she looks for an oh-so-subtle way to change the subject. "Mmm-mmm! I can smell those cinnamon rolls from here, Reiko-chan. Let's hurry up and eat before class starts, or I'll be daydreaming about them all through English!"
Another nervous laugh. Rub of her head too. Poker face of *steel*, this one.