On her way home, or out to play, or ... who knows what Reiko was doing at the moment, she possibly spotted SOMETHING out of the corner of her eye, a purple form and a clatter of porcelain against wall. And... there was a familliar darkness.
A crash of a breaking window, and then silence as the doll enters the abandoned house. The house was half-damaged, still standing, but not safe to live in, so the owners were at some form of shelter or something and the house was abandoned. Well, beyond the doll who was in it right now.
Prism Keeper Orange was flying around, looking down at the ground and surveying the damage, she sighed a bit and shook her head. There was a lot of damage. Lots of people hurt or in pain. It bothered her a lot of course. Things were getting better, though. Hoshi had awakened as the Yellow Prism Keeper! Chouko had returned! She was /happy/.
Then her Chroma Wand began to react to something. Something familiar. Orange narrowed her eyes and let the wand lead her down towards an abanonded home. She looked around and hears a window breaking on the far side. She flutters on over to that side and frowns even more.
"Misa...?" she asks, quiet voice. Not very loud. She peeks in through the broken glass. "Misa?" she asks a little louder.
Maeko was looking around the building for ... something when Prism Keeper Orange approached, this home had notably had children within it... she had been rooting around in a damaged toybox, the toybox had been twisted and crushed along with the building, and damaged toys were strewn around, though many of them had been gathered up by Maeko. And then... there was a voice asking for ... Misa.
That voice. The person who was 'helping' her pet. Maeko's lips twisted into a grin, and she began to wrap herself in magic. Taking on Misa's appearance. "R-reiko? W...what are you doing here? I...it's dangerous..."
Prism Keeper Orange indeed, it's Reiko! But she's Orange right now.
She blinked. "Misa... what are you doing in here!?" she asked. She knew the answer-- it's the doll. She looked around. She didn't see her-- but she rarely 'saw' her. "Misa.. everyone's looking for you, why don't you... come home, okay?" she asked with a smile.
"Or is something bad happening?" she asks curiously...
"Here...!" said Reiko, motioning her hand out.
"I, uhm. I was trying to recover some of the lost toys..." 'Misa' says, showing a few of the damaged toys she'd grabbed. She gives a bit of a sheepish smile, holding the toys in her arms. She frowns when Orange says that everyone's looking for her, and saying she should come home. "Maeko doesn't like me being around my parents... she says they spoil me..." 'Misa' mumbles softly. "A...and they're starting to fight... i...it's not a good place for me anymore..." She shifts awkwardly, beginning to step a little closer to Prism Keeper Orange.
When Reiko motions her hand out, Misa steps close, hesitantly reaching a hand to take the offered hand. Subtly as she reaches to take that hand, invisible lines of magic would begin to wrap around Orange's wrist. If she was paying attention to her wand... the darkness coming off of Misa is far more than it should be...
Prism Keeper Orange frowns and shakes her head. "You shouldn't be in here, Misa it's really dangerous..." she says. "Don't worry, I'm sure that the toys, if they're salvageable, will be picked up during clean up!" she says with a soft smile. "And go to who they belong to-- or to new homes!" She says.
Prism Keeper Orange isn't really playing it smart. This is Misa. It sounds like Misa, right? It looks like her. She knows Misa is just always 'a little dark' now so-- "Your parents really miss you, Misa, though!" she says. Ugh, she wishes she had parents who missed her.
But when Misa goes to grab her arm she can feel...wrong-- and her Chroma Crystal is reacting more violent in her wand. She pulls her hand back, as she frowns.
"You're not Misa..." she snaps.
"You're that stupid doll...!" she insists.
"It's not /that/ dangerous... s..see it's still standing and stuff! Not safe to live in, but still pretty safe." Misa says, smiling cheerfully. And then Prism Keeper Orange insists that her parents really miss her. And Misa frowns. And then... Prism Keeper Orange realizes what's really going on. And the frown continues down into a furious look, something almost impossible to imagine on Misa's face.
"Those people are so ignorant. They have no idea what's really going on. They're so weak. So worthless. Already succumbing to my CURSE." The form of Misa disappears in a flare of black energy, and Maeko is left, her large cleaver held in her left hand, right hand still held out towards Reiko... but now it was consumed in purple/black fire. "Misa belongs to *ME*. She is *MY* doll." Maeko says, that black fire shooting out of her hand towards Prism Keeper Orange, eyes glowing with the fury of the forsaken doll.
Prism Keeper Orange frowns. "Your stupid curses!" She huffs as she recoils. "MISA ISN'T YOUR DOLL!" she cries out as she uses her wings to dodge out of the way- moving to the right. "She's a girl! and she deserves to have a life!--and--and not be possessed by you!" she huffs.
"Why are you so jealous!? Did somebody scorn you in a past life!?" she huffs.
She unleashes a brilliant beam of orange color energy at Maeko- trying to catch her off guard. "Just... let her go!" she huffs.
"Stupid curses? Is that all you can do? Call my curse stupid?" Maeko's hand shifts towards that incoming beam of orange color, catching it on her hand -- which fractures and most of the ceramic of her hand fragments, several of her fingers falling to the ground. Maeko turns her hand, looking at it quietly for a few moments. It was already beginning to gradually recover, but it was slower. She turns her gaze up towards Orange.
"I need her. I *need her*. If I do not have her, cannot use her, then I cannot do what I need to." Maeko shifts slowly, her cleaver shifting very slightly, eyes narrowing. "Have you seen what humans do to toys that they no longer love? The new, shiny things that replace the old, beloved things." Maeko moves forward suddenly, her entire torso rotating to slice at Prism keeper orange once... twice...
And each slice would... not hurt if it struck. At least, not much. There would no be cutting, it felt more like getting hit. That feeling that her very being is being torn away might be horrifying though. "I am the cumulation of that resentment. That pain. That anger. Just like me, Misa was abandoned. And so I chose her. I played with her." As she got angrier, more worked up... the already dim room seemed to darken.
Prism Keeper Orange just listens and clenches her teeth. "H-hey! Old toys can have new life!" she mutters. "And yes, your curse.. /is stupid!/." she huffs. "-but! Toys can find new life secondhand, or being repaired! E--even my fishies come from a shop like that!" she huffs. "Cuz.. no one else finds fish cute!" she insists.
"'cept me!" she huffs.
"---and what is it you wanna do!? Hurt people!? If all you wanna do is save toys...."
"Why can't you and Misa do that together without you possessing her!" she cries out. "I bet she'd be happy to help you, if you asked! But-- maybe not now, after all you've done!" she says.
That clever comes down into her and she eeks! She doesn't-- get sliced, or open-- no instead-- she takes energy and this feels and wrong as orange energy ebs off her.
She fires another burst. "Maybe---maybe I can convience her to work with you, huh!? Would you like that!?" she asks.
"They can have new life... and yet... so many are thrown into the trash, carried to massive lands where the best they can hope for is to be burned or crushed." Maeko responds, her hands slowly shifting as she watches and listens to her. "So you take lost and abandoned things as well, then." Maeko says, watching Prism Keeper Orange silently for a while. Perhaps she wouldn't torment her QUITE as much.
A little less, at least. "What I want to do is none of your business." Maeko responds calmly, listening to her as she talks. "Like it or not, when she bought me, I became bonded to her. So long as she still lives we are bonded." Maeko responds to the question of possessing her.
Delicious orange energy, devoured into the cleaver and her damaged hand repairs itself rapidly. She turns slightly, lifting the previously-damaged hand. A magical circle appears over her hand and she steps suddenly towards Prism Keeper Orange, attempting to push her hand STRAIGHT into the center of her chest. The range means that once again the beam of orange strikes Maeko. Either she isn't very good at evading, or she believes the attacks aren't worth evading. "Share in my curse." And then... as she implied, if Prism Keeper Orange didn't dodge, there would be a curse placed over her. It was ... not immediately effective. Subtle. In fact, it would feel almost like... nothing actually happened. Maybe she resisted it? Or maybe she just didn't notice it, because she was already focused on anger of Maeko. "She would not help me. You're right. I have done horrid things to her and her previous family. And her current family is already breaking."
If the curse was not dodged... a flash of feeling.
She was small. Being played with by a girl, loved, and feeling amazing and wonderful. Taken care of lovingly. Another flash. Time has passed. It feels... disgusting. Somehow she would KNOW she was dusty, abandoned. Her hand was missing, or rather... it was there, but it was agonizingly broken. She could only see through one eye. The feeling that it had been like that for ages, watching a family breaking apart in fast forward, moving rapidly. The daughter who used to play with her hiding in games, while fighting could be heard down the stairs. A dark... disgusting feeling beginning to fill her body.
And then it was back to normal. With Maeko standing in front of her, that cleaver lifted and aimed at Prism Keeper Orange. "Abandoned. Broken. Just like Misa. We are one and the same."
Prism Keeper Orange sort of snaps. "Her family's only breaking because she isn't /there/ and you took her away!" she yells. She huffs. "I bet she'd help--if--if you talked! Because Misa's a good person and she just wants friends that you won't let her have!" she snaps.
"I know what it's like to be abonded too!----" all too many times, in fact, staring at the spot her parents should had been during a talent show, or being at a resturant with her and grandpa and sitting two people in a place for four and----
She shakes it off- though the distraction means she isn't able to dodge the curse and it pulses through her and she screams out and---
She watches as she huffs! It's a little sad, sure. But.. does that really justify this?
"I buy stuffed fish and--fish things and from secondhand shops-- sometimes new- but-- I never replace anything! I keep repairing Mr. Kippers no matter how many time mom tries to throw him away!" she huffs. Mr. Kippers? Probably a stuffed fish on her bed. She has PLENTY of them. It's like she sleeps in a fuzzy aquarium.
"We can't fix-- or can't save everyone! Not even-- us magical girls can do that! We can only do that by working together!" she snaps.
"--but you don't want to work together, you just think you're right and that's it! Well---I'm going to do everything I can to help Misa!" she rasps. "Wether /you/ like it or not!" she calls out.
There was, perhaps, for just a split moment... a look of regret on Maeko's face. As if a part of her could still feel, still love, still care for those who were good. But it was just a very brief thing, fading as fast as it came. "It's been breaking for far longer than this. They weren't ready for what they adopted." Maeko murmurs in response, that cleaver lifting.
"I wonder how long until you forget your love of fish. That's how it started for me. Adoration, love, joy. They played with me every day... then it became every other day... then once a week... once a month... then I was stuffed into a closet by her drunkard of a father." Maeko's gaze shifts, any regret was gone, replaced with a burning anger, a resentment that couldn't be reasoned with. "Abandoned to his madness." She lifts her cleaver, leveling it so that the blade was even with her own head, her free arm extended forward as her legs spread slightly in a stance. "I stopped caring about right and wrong a long time ago. I simply am. You are trying to reason with a curse." Purple fire engulfs her body, and she moved forward suddenly, her blade attempting to stab straight into the center of Reiko's chest.
"Forsaken Reaping."
If she succeeded in the sudden stab, the blade would suddenly do an EXTREME drain of Reiko's power... if she missed, Maeko would let the cleaver's momentum carry her to the window. Either way she would speak, "Reasoning with a curse... I think that's the most foolish thing I've ever heard of."
Prism Keeper Orange sort of just stands there. "I'll never stop loving fish. They're so elegant, and cute and remind me of happy thoughts! -- and sure-- I guess I chase boys sometimes like a fish to some flakes but--- that doesn't mean I'm going to forget my fishy friends and they're in my bed whenever I go to sleep and they all get cuddles!" she insists!
She sort of glares at Maeko. "If you stopped caring then why are you upset!?" she asks.
But she doesn't get to retort anymore because that blade sort of sinks into her and there is a TREMENDOUS power drain on her, she begins to hover backwards a bit as she cluthches her chest and places her feet properly on the floor now.
"You're obviously not just a curse..." she mutters queitly. "You care about something... you just can't..."
Yeah she's probably gonna just fall over any moment now.
"If you never stop loving fish, you'll be one of the few." Maeko says, shaking her head slightly towards Prism Keeper Orange. The mention of chasing boys though... that seemed to have made Maeko's tone take on one of only vague belief at all.
"Right or wrong... I will do what I need to." Maeko says softly, slowly pulling out her blade. "Try not to let that curse consume you." Maeko then turns to leap out the window, purple fire absorbing her halfway to the ground... and she's gone. But... that curse would likely linger until Prism Keeper Orange's own energy either purges it, or she gets some help to heal it.
Luckily, it was a relatively minor curse beyond that brief flashback. Otherwise, it would simply amplify any negative feelings she felt. It seems it was just a relatively mild curse placed to make that bond so that Maeko could show her what she showed her.