Rika finds out she really is a witch.
Current IC time is: Wed Jul 03 11:57:31 2002
Lunch break.
Rika
This girl fits the textbook definition of ‘cute redhead’, and while she’s unmistakably asian, her relatively pale skin and dark green eyes, coupled with flaming red hair cut in a pageboy style make it easy to forget about it, especially since there’s no sign of hair dye. She does seem to wear some makeup on her face, still posessed of soft, childlike features, but it’s hard to trace just what did she do with it - there isn’t much. Overally, she resembles a fox - lithe and slim, and generally small, since she’s rather short.
She is dressed in the Eriol Gakuen girl’s uniform - white jacket with blue sailor flap and cuffs, not to mention the tacky crown-shaped medal, white and blue short skirt and the long blue stockings with regulation white shoes. She looks unsurprisingly feminine and attractive in this attire, which was probably the initial idea. She’s dragging around a thick cloth bookbag, and a tiny Minolta Dimage Xi digital camera is hanging on her neck on a chain.
Yuuzen Akito
At first glance this teenage boy looks to be nothing out of the ordinary. His asian cast skin, fairly short black hair, chestnut brown eyes and short stature would make him easily blend into a crowd of other Japanese boys.. looking more closely though it’s possible to see that he’s in better shape than most kids his age and has a fairly well toned physique for not having finished growing yet. In fitting with his good shape his movement holds a certain smoothness to it, the kind of balanced stride which comes from long training. He also seems to be very aware of his surroundings, his eyes active and energetic in their search to understand the world around him. However his only truly unique features are upon his hands, which look both strong and rough.
He is wearing the very fashionable Eriol Gakuen school uniform. It’s design is dominated by a bold white long-sleeve vest, accentuated by royal blue and gold detailing. The school crest, a three-pointed crown is featured in the same blue-on-gold pattern on both a band across the arm and a medallion pinned upon the chest.
Lunchtime at Eriol Gakuen and Akito is on a mission. He’d put it off for as long as he needed to.. really as long as he could… but .things. had started to happen. At first just minor accidents like stuff spilling accidentally or a spell misfiring when it shouldn’t have but they’d started to happen way too often for coincidence and a nagging feeling in the back of his head had begun to grow. So now, he’s hunting for Rika and somehow he’ll have to find a girl called Toyomiko too. Stalking the halls he finally spots Rika, amazingly she’s not even with Eileen! “Oi, Maeki-san!”
snip goes the small glittery camera, “Yuuzen-san.” Rika smiles - a neutral smile.
Akito holds his hand up in greeting and begins to talk to her in a perfectly normal voice. As if his words didn’t hide a great secret, really the only way to prevent -everybody- from hearing about it. “Ne Maeki-san, I need to have a word with you. Up on the roof if that’s ok, an don’t worry, has nothing to do with Airin-san.”
Rika raises an eyebrow, “Why would I worry if it had anything to do with Airin-san?” she comments, but nods, “Well, let’s go?” Her smile goes from neutral to curious.
Roof — Eriol Gakuen
The roof of Eriol Gakuen main building is empty, save for the pipes and water tanks which have something to do with the school’s heating and water supply system. There isn’t much of anything else here, actually, save for the tall wire mesh fence, preventing any and all attempts at jumping to your death below. That leaves the view from the roof being it’s most interesting feature. From this vantage point, you san see as far as Meguro, and the skyscrapers of Ginza glitter in the distance.
Sitting along one of the walls of the school roof are a series of potted plants. Although they aren’t great in number, they provide a wide range of interesting greenery.. a few flowers, a couple types of common herbs and one pot from which nothing is sticking out just yet although it’s almost certainly been seeded. A rather lovely addition to the bleak roof landscape..
Summer is in full swing, it’s hot enough to melt some plastics, and there’s no end in sight… who said Tokyo weather was kind? It’s pretty hot even after sunset.
Akito grins as a weight is lifted off his mind, he’d caught a curious Rika this time and not a paranoid one as sometimes can happen. As they travel towards the roof he comments in an amused voice, just to pique her interest further.. “Yes, this is something you’d definitely not want to miss out on I do believe.” As they walk up the stairs and step out onto the roof, the heat beats down upon them with the intensity of a Taiko drummer.. Akito squints as his eyes adjust to the light. Well, at least this heat would almost positively insure their privacy..
Heat goes hand in hand with the light and light is a photographer’s friend. snip Rika really could make a whole album consisting solely of pictures of people’s backs. “I have about seven paranoid theories on what you could call ’something you wouldn’t want to miss out on’, so I figure I’ll wait until you tell me what the deal is…” she comments, as the pupils in her eyes narrow down to thin pinholes, adjusting to light. Constant flashing will train you to do that…
Akito walks a few steps ahead of Rika, then stops and turns back so that he’s facing her. After a moment of thought he says matter-of-factly, “It’s probably best if I just show you first, then talk later.” Opening up his bookbag, he pulls out a) One very thick book, adorned with an odd symbol on the cover, b) An slim rod made of oak, c) A bottle of water. After holding it out for Rika to see, he places the book on top of his bag; the long oaken stick he holds in his right hand; the large bottle of water he places on a the ledge of the roof. He then points the rod towards the bottle and chants “Ishu Shuukukura Ton Eyarlrleya Ssn!” and almost instantly the water inside turns to solid ice, unfortunately for Akito shattering the hard plastic bottle in the process.
snap You can’t blame Rika for not being ready. Her eyes light up brightly. This is one of the moments she’s been waiting for a long, long time - catching physical proof in flight. “I suppose it IS water, …right?” She knows enough about chemistry to suspect there could be some chemical compound capable of freezing so quickly, but Akito swore not to lie to Rika…
Toyomiko
Long luxurious black curls spill down this young lady’s back almost to her waist, lovingly styled in wide, sweeping ringlets in the back, and shorter curlier ringlets at her bangs, an occasional strand left almost artfully loose to swirl of it’s own accord amidst the more organized curls. Framed amidst this ocean of hair is a classically oriental heart shaped face, flawlessly pale skin and almondine eyes colored a deep purple, a tiny pert nose and thin lipped mouth. Her figure is trim and fit, standing just a bit taller than the average girl her age, adding a bit of gamine grace to her lines, as do the feminine curves finally starting to fill in just so.
She wears the uniform of an Eriol Gakuen high school student, a white and blue sailor fuku complete with scarf and alternately blue and white colored pleated skirt. A tacky medal clipped on one breast and large blue cuffs add an almost militaristic feel to the uniform, from the Napoleon era, let us say. She has tailored her skirt so it falls about a little more than midway between thighs and knees, just long enough to not be obscene, but short enough to draw the occasional glance from the right sort of person. White baby doll shoes and baggy blue stockings which come to about midcalf round out the uniform. She wears expensive adornments for a firstyear highschool student. About her neck is a golden chain, a rather nice looking pocketwatch hanging on the end of it, engraved with her name in delicate looking kanji. Constantly held near her hand by a strap about her wrist is a rather pristine looking Canon Optura 200MC Digital Camcorder, the standby light almost constantly blinking, unless she is holding it up to film something. Which she seems to do a lot of.
‘u~fu~fu~fu’. Toyomiko is at least smart enough to keep her laugh below audible levels, and only the most skilled of observers would notice the little red light on her camcorder or the glint of the lens as she films this whole thing from her hidden little spot on the roof. Yes.. she saw Rikacha~n and Akitocha~n sneaking up to the roof, and although she isn’t catching what she HOPE she’d be seeing on tape, this is interesting in and of itself. Clearly it is all some sort of conspiracy! They thought they could hide ‘The Truth’ from Fukyou Toyomiko, but they WERE WRONG! ‘U~FU~FU~FU’. …..oops. That one was a little loud. She got carried away, as always.
Akito nods to Rika, “Tap water to be exact. Nothing special about it, nothing added. I trust you remember my promise and I trust you can at least reason out that I wouldn’t break it for so idiotic a reason as trying to trick you into believing I could do this. If it was a trick I’m sure you’d eventually figure it out anyhow. What I just did was magic and I showed you because it wants you to learn as well.”
Rika raises an eyebrow curiously at Akito and walks over to the ice in the shape of a bottle. Rubbing a finger on it, she tastes the melting water… Water. Anything that would freeze so quickly would have to be very concentrated. “It wants me to learn itself?” she asks to reiterate, thinking for a brief moment… crush goes the bottle-shaped piece of ice on the roof edge, and Rika swiftly hurls the remaining chunk in the direction of the red light of the camcorder, “Get outta there, Toyomimi!” she yells.
You think a mere chunk of ice can phase HER?! “OOOOO~HO~HO~HO~HO~YA!” she cackles, leaping out of her hiding spot with rival-like agility, adopting a pose even as she lands, a hand on her hip, the other one pointing accusingly at the pair of students. “Ufufu.. so you thought you could hide your conspiracy from me.. Rikacha~n, Akitocha~n. What you didn’t count on is that -I-, Fukyou Toyomiko, know everything that happens in this school! Your cannot hide your scheming against my intelligence and beauty!” …what does beauty have to do with figuring out schemes? “You have been DEFEATED! Oooo~ho~ho~ho~ya!” …when does anything she say ever make sense.
All Akito can do is stare at Toyomiko as she makes her appearance, his heart sinks as he realises that yes there is no mistaking that she’s the Toyomiko that was meant to be part of the club.. then with a fatalistic tossing of his hands to the air he addresses the two girls; weakly at first, yet despite himself his voice builds in confidence as he continues. “Well, at least I don’t have to do this twice. Welcome, both of you to the Eriol Gakuen magic club and if you have any protests on the matter, take it up with the magic. It will be more than happy to ignore everything you say and continue to have its fun while leading you to do as it likes. I suggest just going along with the ride, keeping the secret and that you sit back and enjoy learning some damn nifty magic.”
Rika giggles, “I have been defeated?” She’s still dragging her enormous bookbag behind her, even at lunch break, and for a good reason, cause right now she reaches inside and pulls out a thin book. Looks like a small photo album. “Here, catch.” she says, tossing the album to Toyomiko. “I think it turned out very well.” Turning back to Akito, she says, “You mean I’m supposed to be in the same club with HER?!” Never mind the magic. Never mind that she gets inducted into the club without being asked, as Akito seems to imply. It’s Toyomiko that gets her twitching right now.
“OOO~HO~HO~HO~HO!” Pointing finger shifts to Akito, purple eyes flashing as Toyomiko replies. “Try to exclude.. Akitocha~n..” …he’s not. “But you can not hide your precious secrets from me!” …he’s not. “For I.. Fukyou Toyomiko, will know all that you are hiding!” …he’s… not. Thankfully her attention is diverted by the photo album, which she catches, eyes flashing as she cackles at Rika, then looks down, flipping the photo album open, blushing a rather interesting shade of red, and snapping it shut, holding it behind her back. A black eyebrow twitchtwitchtwitches at Rika, and it looks like if she had a bazooka, Rika would be a smoking crater in the ground. “Neeeee.. Akitocha~n. Are you sure you want this worthless akaikamionna in your club?” She asks in her sweetest tone, fluttering lashes at him. She’s hotter, pick her!
Akito snickers at the suggestion that he had choice in the matter, “Though I might be president of the club, it’s not always up to me who gets to join up. When the job was handed to me by a complete stranger not more than a month ago, he mentioned two names. Maeki Rika and Fukyou Toyomiko, the magic wants you and has marked you as its own. As far as I can tell, it’s not by any means a malicious force but it knows what it wants and .it.wants.you.both.”
Rika twitches. And then twitches again. “…can we set up some sort of time sharing agreement or something?” she replies half-jokingly… she has to take several pictures of Akito and Toyomiko just to calm herself down. Being in the same boat with Toyomiko wasn’t on her list of priorities. “…what does the magic club do anyway?” Paranoid ideas can be practically seen flying around in her head now.
“Maaaaa.. well.. who says I will be in a club with this annoying akaikamionna anyways, neee.. Akitocha~n?” U~fu~fu, and she turns flashing purple eyes on Rika, sneeeering and capturing it all on her own camcorder. “Surely the magic would rather have -I-, a descendant of the famed kabuki, rather than this abomination!” She points accusingly at Rika, even while cackling in her shrill way, striking her best ojousama pose. Apparently, she didn’t hear that last part that Akito said, or just doesn’t care.
Akito reaches to his bookbag and picks up the previously displayed book, “There are two main parts to what the magic club does, the first is to learn and perform magic. I’ve been doing some of it on my own and its pretty fun, still there are some spells you just can’t do by yourself and for that you need to have more club members. The second part is decoding this, its written in an unknown form of Kana likely made specifically for this book.” he then opens the book and gestures towards the text inside, “and I’ll say this pre-emptively before you even suggest it, it cannot be copied. Bad things happen when people try. No photograph of it, digital or otherwise, will ever turn out and likely any video recording would likely find itself erased.”
Rika might be an abomination for all she knows… but natural red hair is considered a sure sign of a witch in many cultures, and Rika knows that well. Screw Fukyou Toyomiko. This is her birthright. A winning smile appears on her face, a bright, happy expression. “…I have a feeling this is what I have been waiting for a long time, Yuuzen-san.” she comments, in a voice suddenly free from her typical faintly sarcastic intonation. She walks back over to Akito and reaches for the book cautiously.
Oh nononono, Rika doesn’t get to see the book first! Toyomiko dashes over, trying to nudge the redhead out of the way, giving Akito her sweeetest look, dark lashes fluttering at him. “I will be glad to accept this burden, Akitocha~n, my family has a history that dates back to the Edo period, and I am sure it is within our power to read such ancient text.” Oooh, all formal.. all the sudden. Well she can’t let Rika look at the book first! It wouldn’t be fair! …or something.
Akito quirks his mouth at the two, both grabbing for the book. Instead of handing it to either of them he walks over to find a bit of shade then sits down on the floor of the roof and places the book in front of him, open and facing outward. In his own sweet voice he tells them, “You can both look, but you will be careful not to rip any pages fighting for it yes? I’d hate to think what the results of that would be if the book was damaged by careless rivals.”
Rika nods vigorously, “I won’t rip anything if she won’t push me away from it.” she says, tossing a glare at Toyomiko and reaches for the book again.
“As long as this illmannered -child- behaves, then everything will be fine, neeee.. Akitocha~n?” He gets her best goodgirl fluttery lash look, and then she turns to look at the book, eyes glinting expectantly. At last, the power to defeat that annoying redhead will BE HERS!
The two girls reach for the book, their hearts yearning for the power to place themselves above the other. As chance would have it, their hands touch the Grimwald’s pages at the same moment and it is then that time freezes for everything but the three teens on the roof. A great blue light swells up from inside the grimoire and bursts up into the sky as another beam reaches from the sky down towards the book.. and as time (for them) passes, a symbol begins to materialize on the hands which touch the book. On Rika’s right, . On Toyomiko’s left, . No voices are heard, but a simple fact becomes known to the three. Rika and Toyomiko will only ever achieve the power they seek together, apart they will only be able to tap into a trickle of the power.
Rika glances on the symbol on her hand… and then glances at the photo album Toyomiko’s holding behind her back… and grins silently, a mischevious glint in her eyes.
Toyomiko is too busy staring at the symbol slowly forming on her own hand to notice that mischevious look, even Toyo is impressed by some things. She holds the one hand in front of her, the other still holding that album behind her back, paying no mind to the other too. This is it! The power that will bring about Rika’s DOOM! Or at least embarrass her! Or at least… something! Oooo~ho~ho~ho~!
As the symbols finish imprinting, marking their hands both on the back and on the palm the light from the book begins to recede. Dimming slowly at first and then seemingly all at once the light is gone and time has resumed. Akito is just stunned, this tops anything and everything he’d ever seen magic do. In a dull voice he just says, “Wow.”
Rika starts leafing through the book, ignoring Toyomiko’s laughter for once, a hidden grin on her face. “…how much of it is decoded already?” she asks after a short while, “…and what’s the code?”
The raven haired rival is awed as well, staaaring at her hand. Her… hand. “Mooou! What have you done to my beautiful hand?! Look.. y–you’ve marred it?” She holds it up for his inspection, the symbol clearly emblazoned on it. “Nee… nenene, what have you done, Akitocha~n? Reverse this at once!” Magic to defeat Rika is one thing, but how will she find a husband with her hand MARRED!
Akito holds his hands up in the air defensively, “Hey, don’t ask me, I didn’t do a thing! Heh, looks like you two are stuck with each other though..” then addressed to Rika, “Well, there’s a fair bit of it already decoded. The magic club’s apparently existed for more than fifteen years and they’ve been working on it the entire time. Still, there’s a -lot- left.”
Akito holds his hands up in the air defensively, “Hey, don’t ask me, I didn’t do a thing! Heh, looks like you two are stuck with each other though..” then addressed to Rika, “Well, there’s a fair bit of it already decoded. The magic club’s apparently existed for more than fifteen years and they’ve been working on it the entire time. Still, there’s a -lot- left.”
Rika continues leafing through, studying the pictures. “Were is it?” she asks, ignoring her rival’s plight. A true conspiracy theorist would give that hand wholly away for what they just acquired!
What good is power if she has to share it with that… that.. REDHEAD! “Mooooooou..” Toyomiko whines, “Jyoudan jya nai yo~”. <Quit joking.> She doesn’t wanna work with this redhead! She mopes for a bit, blue spirals dancing above her head, before she notices Rika flipping through the book. “OI!” And she nudges her way in.. no fair! She’ll get the power before Rika does for sure!
Akito simply watches for a while as the two go through the book. He realises now that it can hold its own, he doesn’t need to protect it.
Rika looks up at Akito fom the book, leaving Toyo to puzzle out the encoded script without the keys. “Where is the decoded text?” she asks Akito once again.
She’ll figure them out! She is the descendant of kabuki! Toyomiko stares intently at the text, purple eyes flashing, chuckling darkly to herself, sure she will figure it out with time! And stares. And staaaaaaares. And stares some more.
Akito gestures to his book bag, “I’ve made a couple copies of the initial text of the book, what we have decoded anyhow. It details the the main activities of the club as well as, er, the design..oftheclub..ah..costumes. For girls, a.. er… rather interesting evening gown and pointed hat.” To show his point he pulls out the copies of the notebooks and points out the page which shows the clothing design. Its, er, rather flashy and a little bit revealing..
Rika grabs at the notebooks and starts leafing through them. “…whoever wrote this must’ve been a major league hentai…” she comments idly, not taking more than a second to study the clothing design. One of the joys of having a good figure - everything looks good on you. “…It says everywhere here ‘wave your wand’” she says after a few moments of study. “Where would one get a wand?” she asks looking at Akito questioningly.
U~FU~FU~FU is Toyomiko’s only comment when she see’s the outfit. With her dazzling figure she won’t mind wearing it at all, of course, but she turns to Akito, all but leering, and chides. “Neeeee.. Akitocha~n, do you really think it is fair to Rikacha~n to make her wear such a thing?” …since when did Toyo ever care about fair? “I mean… with her ill-proportioned body.. she will only make a fool out of herself! OOooo~ho~ho~ho~ya.”
Akito’s mouth flattens a bit, . o O ( Not sure even Rika deserves to be bonded to this girl.. ) As the thought finishes, so does lunch.. the bell signalling its end can be heard faintly through the door leading inside. “Ah, no comment. Oh, and just one final thing, there’s another member to the club besides us. Yukino Hana.” He smiles and blushes a bit as he says her name, but doesn’t stick around long enough for questions. Leaving the copies with the two girls, he heads inside the school and off to class.
Rika grins at Toyomiko, “I wonder if you can make a magic wand out of a…” hanging pause, “…pencil…” and lets out a laugh, which causes the birds perched on the roof wire fence to scatter in all directions - “OOooooooooooooohohohohoho!”
Geck! Toyomiko blushes that interesting shade of red once again, eyebrow twitching at Rika once again, before she ‘hmpfs!’ “Like a boring akaikamionna like you will ever learn anything useful.” She snorts, sticking her nose snootily up in the air, and follows Akito towards the door. When you can’t think of anything good to say, childish rants always work! Yay!
Rika waits for Toyomiko’s ‘geck’ before scurrying back to the stairway and down to class.
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