Scene #8787: Ghosts of Ghosts

Owner	Pose
Meika Kirenai	It seems like the city of Kagoshima seems to have catered itself to Kayoko's weather preferences- that is to say, it's begun to rain. Dour winter grey- despite the temperate temperature -coats the streets and rail lines into town, and pools over dull asphalt in oil-slicked puddles. The sky feels close- low, in the way that should comfort like a blanket fort, but all it succeeds in doing is compressing the feeling of the city's busy, callous weight closer to the skin. Trudy is given an address to meet at- the resident magical girls of this city having discussed enough to come to a consensus of where and who they'd like to try communing with. 'Specific spirits' is what Meika said, with the details- that it'd be easier to explain in person. Trudy is free to fill in the blanks of what kind of spirit the magical girls, in their fights against victim-erasing monsters, might be curious to make contact with. Neighborhoods sprawl out, inland, from the coastal city, becoming quieter and quieter for the pitter patter of rain on umbrellas, rooftops, and heads. Nothing specific on her travels- bar the expected areas, like graveyards -stands out as 'places of death' to her. Kagoshima is a city. People live, and die here the same as they do elsewhere. Kayoko, however, doesn't need blanks filled in at all. The two names Meika mentioned, like hot coals in stomach lining, are clear, pressing candidates to reach for if Trudy's practices are at all as trustworthy and reliable as she says. Cold comfort derived is still closer to closure than ever really allowed. Meika also, even if she's pressing her patience to not just do it herself, asked her sister to bring (or beckon) Love and Justice along. It's unspoken that this may all be a challenge to get through- and it's unspoken, too, that company helps. The neighborhood Meika directs people to is as mundane as can be, with clustered up townhouses and little shops and convinience stores interspersed. Cars are infrequent, but splash puddles when they do pass. It's not particularly far at all from the school Kayoko's coming from, and that Trudy has been to for official business, it easily could be walking distance- and most of the walled in yards show sign of kids being numbered amongst residents. It's the kind of neighborhood parents talk about being perfect to raise a family in, to leave doors unlocked in. It feels uncomfortably close to trespassing, walking through it all.
Meika Kirenai	Meika has been sitting near a bus stop there for quite a while- her umbrella is soaked, but so is her letterman jacket. She's carrying in hand a few plastic shopping bags of convinience store goodies- be they gifts, or peace offerings, or supplies. Unlike her sister, she's had nothing like school to stop her from filling in the time from hassling a bank to convert a few hundred and change commonwealth credits into local currency- the teller's glare towards someone like her walking in with lots of foreign cash enough to make her dip out after only handing over a portion. Drop is peeking out from her jacket's hood, already. It clearly knows it'll be needed for what's intended, here. Meika wears her tiredness- in general, and from having her Cherub in such close proximity, clearly on her face, under that umbrella. With the hand she's holding the shuffling cluster of bags in, she waves to the others as they approach, traversing the rainy city from elsewhere, or the various corners of it they're arriving from. She gives an apologetic glance to Trudy, Love, and Justice. "Hey. I- I know it's still a mess, out, but it's a little walk to where- where it happened. Where we're headed. It's...like the anything else Temptations get to. But Drop can help us out with this, too, Miss Grimm. And it'll be easier once we're there. I know you'll- if you've got questions..." An inhale punctuates the silence her words hang in, though it might as well be a sniffle. "I brought snacks, at least. So that's-" She winces. That feels so tacky to say. "Yeah."
Angela	Love and Justice, for those that haven't really gotten to know them yet, are two former Abnormalities and present Magical Girls. The Magical Girl of Love is a normal sized person with pale blue hair and golden eyes. She is presently not in her magical girl outfit but rather is wearing a hoodie and some baggie pants that don't quite fit right. She DOES have her magical staff floating nearby her, though. The Magical Girl of Justice is like 10-12 feet tall and wears a gown made of constellations. Even her hair glitters with stars. A black teardrop tattoo is under her eye and she wears a long cape. She is still...working on Girl it seems but she'll always be inhumanly tall. Changing fate doesn't shrink a knight. Tacky (a cherub) is sitting in Love's hood but aside from 'Badum Badums' has been quiet. ''That feels tacky to say'' "Badum Badum..." Tacky says, completely unrelatedly. "An uneasy pall weighs over me." Justice says. "We owe it..." Love murmurs to her. But she brightens, "Snacks are good! Snacks will only help."
Trudy Grimm	EARLIER-- <B-anter> Trudy Grimm back to the Mahou, "How does this evening sound? I can be on the next train to Kagoshima." ... <B-anter> Meika Kirenai stays quiet, for a long moment. "...N-no, I- I'll... I'll get back to you. Give me a bit." Satisfied with that, Trudy tucks her little crystal ball back into her bag and shifts her gaze out the window to the verdant green Japanese fields flying past. Train travel is a novel thing to the witch, but she's found it quite charming-- even if the agreed-upon rules of Kagoshima means she often has to get a private cabin for each visit. NOW-- Trudy arrives by bus from the train station, snapping open a black umbrella as she disembarks. Her outfit is much the same as it was when she met with Sister Kurokawa; perhaps somehow less formal in the way the ruffles swish about her legs in tall black boots. There's a faint ring with each step; there's a band of metal along the outside of the soles, polished to a shine. "Oh, don't worry about it~," Trudy doesn't hesitate when Meika brings up the weather, "I do quite like the rain, as I said. This is a particularly lovely gloom. The sort of damp chill that makes a warm blanket so much more cozy; a burning fireplace that much more inviting, no?" She casts a look at Drop within the girl's hood, her expression going neutral just as she makes what feels like eye contact. When attention returns to Meika directly, the broad shark-toothed smile returns, "Oh but how rude am I? It's good to see you!" Her eyes glance to those accompanying the Mahou, and up towards Justice, "Shall we get walking then? You can share details with me on the way." "I imagine we may be reaching out towards someone you all knew. A classmate, perhaps? That does sound unspeakably tragic just to think about." The witch tips her umbrella back enough to look to the sky with faintly glowing green eyes, "Tell me about this person. Who they were, how they lived, and if it is not too painful-- how they died." > "I brought snacks, at least. So that's- Yeah." > "Snacks are good! Snacks will only help." "Mm!" Trudy's eyes close with a bright hum of approval, "Something to munch on is always encouraged. Thank you for your forethought, Meika." > "Badum Badum..." The witch shifts her umbrella enough to glance towards the source of the sound with the same forced neutral expression she gave Drop a moment earlier.
Kayoko Kirenai	Kayoko looks healthy. She's looked healthy for the past few days since Meika returned home, despite fainting and needing to go to the hospital Monday morning (Sunday night, really, but the only way Sunday night's dinner could have been worse would've been if she'd gotten sick during it, so she decided to not let it show). Just a bad cold, they said (and anemia, undersleep, overwork, and an elevated WBC count that suggested an infection somewhere, even though they couldn't find one)-- but that's still enough to put her out of action for every day since, insofar as Kayoko ever allows herself to be out of action. Lessons attended voyeuristically despite being bedridden in her dorm, sneaking out invisibly each night to patrol or fight. She could've asked Love or Justice-- or Meika, who has nothing better to do anymore-- to take care of it so she could rest for a bit, but she didn't. She didn't even let them know she'd be out, or ask them for help in any of the fights she got into. They'd all shown they couldn't be trusted, or that they trusted her to do it all herself, and either way her job's unchanged. So after venting a tiny fraction of negativity in the radio, Meika approaches her about necromancy and witchcraft, and Kayoko takes a long while before agreeing. Neither of them will say it out loud, so as to not speak their apathy into existence, but it doesn't really matter how horrified the church would be if they knew they were associating with a necromancer. They're already visiting one-- two-- of their worst failures, so there's no need to calculate the cost of one more sin. When asked, Kayoko considers not even letting Love and Justice know about the location, and the sudden spike of spite she feels towards them in that moment, even more than the simmering resentment that she's had ever since Walpurgisnacht, makes her flinch and reassess. So she brings them, and even brings them in person, despite having to go far out of her way to leave school and take the trip to the sewers before looping back around to get to the meeting. She's not particularly responsive to them, but when they ask if anything's wrong, it's, obviously, fine. Secondary in her choice to walk all that distance is the weather. Drifting through oil puddles and mud in alleyways while rain drenches her to the bone doubles the time it takes for her to get the other two magical girls. She can't be bothered to be worried about the damp getting her sick worse, even as her head pounds and she veers off-path to vomit, watching it swirl away in the gutterwater with repulsed fascination. She, of course, looks completely dry. "We're not-- not headed to a fireplace, Chevalier Grimm." Does she have to say that every time? 'Chevalier', when addressing anyone but Meika. Kayoko's voice is thin and strained, interspersed with coughs whenever she cuts off. "It's still nice. But it's not nice because of being able to get away from it." "We owe it..." "You can head back if you need to, Love. We'll understand. Please don't think you're forced to be here just because you're our friend." Whatever else Kayoko might be feeling about the LCorp Magical Girls, and whatever might leak through in her word choice, she's still polite and patient with them. Reminiscent of the way that Lilian's been treating Meika ever since the Hermit, really.
Kayoko Kirenai	The snacks don't need to be mentioned. Kayoko knew about them since the moment Meika bought them, and watched her exchange credits at the bank, and watched Kale fumble around at their front door before shoving the money at Meika and running away. Her sister doesn't need to be mentioned either; there's no need to greet her like they spent any time apart, from Kayoko's perspective. "That does sound unspeakably tragic just to think about." "... It can't be unspeakable, Chevalier Grimm. We're the only ones who can speak about it, so we... have to, sometimes. That's our responsibility." Kayoko seems considerably worse about making eye contact with anyone today than usual, trudging along with the group. "But not a classmate. Or, not classmates. Not the same age, at least."
Meika Kirenai	Drop, infuriatingly, glances back at Trudy with a lazy, flat expression- if it recognizes her at all, it's not saying so. Maybe it knows that's more upsetting. "Y-yeah. Hi. Good to- to see you. I-" Meika bites back anything beyond that greeting's return, and bounces on her heels, anxious. "At least you like the rain." 'We owe it...' 'You can head back if you need to, Love.' "Y-yeah. If- if you don't want to be..." A steeling exhale. "It's not something that you need to handle. Kayoko's right. I just- It'd be nice if- yeah." The most sympathy Meika can offer is a slightly pained glance the magical girl's way- and no words to reinforce that at all. "Unspeakably tragic." Meika echoes the witch's words, her own town souring them. It's fine. She doesn't get it. We have to. Whatever. Her hands squeeze at the plastic handles of the bags, letting the weight of them dig the thin material tighter against her palms. "Not my- not our classmates. Two of them, Ch- Miss Grimm. There'll be two of them. C'mon. It's not far." It's further, actually, than her comment makes it seem- with all the focus Meika has on the where of things having happened, of not forgetting that, it's easy for the ancillary details of the route to get blurred and lost. There's an obvious worried pain that it's slipping away, when turn after turn don't yet put familiar sites into view. But they do, eventually- and Meika's footsteps and breathing cut off into silence. Love, Justice, and Trudy are all subject, still, to the brunt of this world's memory redaction. So when Meika stops, and Kayoko can still see just fine, there's nothing notable to look at, no landmark, no obvious destination. It's not until Drop hops off where it's been hitching a ride, and skitters over towards a door- a cracked glass storefront panel door, hanging open on rusted hinges -that the wreckage of a corner bookstore is even worth noticing, right there by a street that's been closed off by traffic cones, or any other reason one's brain could fill in a reason why nobody walks down it, and there's nothing worth seeing. The bookstore itself is sheared open from the street-side roof- but even as the Cherub sits at the threshold, it feels wrong to notice that, to notice any of it, until you step foot inside yourself. Inside, it's better- uneasy, but better. Enough structure remains (albeit, bricks and panelling still litter parts of the inside, gouged and scarred) that it's more out of the rain, but mushy pulp from disentigrating books covers shelves and floors where water isn't blockaded. Nobody has been here in years.
Meika Kirenai	"...Like I said. It's like what's left of- of any attack." Meika's face is less-than expressive, if only because a lack of strict control right now would be unbearable. Her eyes scan the interior, the crushed stairs that led to a second floor that's been, mostly, pulled away from where it sat. Imagination fills gaps in what it used to look like. Imagination is all that can. "I never thought I'd- I'd hate a bookstore being this quiet..." Her tentative steps in seem to lead her towards a destination- near the back, in an area more untouched, there's still a few small tables- cobwebbed, dusty, the wood fragile, but still there. It's as much of a place to congregate as the group will get. The snacks get set down, Meika feeling all the more guilty to have bothered bringing them in the first place. Her chair squeaks as she sits in it- and she winces. I wonder how often they came by here. Was it even a habit, or were they here for the first time? Quietly, she covers up a cough with a balled fist. Drop's back with her, to help echo her words in tandem- the Cherub's are easier to listen to, here, explaining things, even if it's a one-to-one copy of what the magical girl is saying. "L-like I said. There's two of them. Who, um. Died, here. Yuuji and Hiina Kurokawa. Brother and sister." The words don't sound pained from Drop- only Meika's expression carries that. "They were a little younger than- than Cobalt. Er- than Kayoko. We'd see them at church functions, sometimes, and Kyou knew Hiina, I think, but..." If Trudy can't guess, the family name is, in fact, the same as the Holy Refulgence's liason counselor. Nuns don't have kids- so family some other way, at least. Meika sniffles, and shoos drop off her shoulder, where the Cherub scampers away for a minute. She shuffles with the plastic bags, and pulls out atrocious-looking spicy something-chips, to open up. "Is calling them within your doing..?"
Angela	Love looks towards Justice and says, "O-of course not! I'm just saying that we ''also'' owe it. We want to help!" She looks at Justice and the Knight caves without a sound. Tacky looks at The witch and says, "Dum... Dum..." without the Bas this time. Love reaches back and squeezes Tacky's head with her hand tightly but doesn't actually throw them. They eventually pull their hand back and bites at her lip. The guilt is real. In chasing after Meika she left Kayoko alone. As a non-Abnormality, she has nowhere else to go. As a person she has no records and she does not exist. But more than that... they really are friends, right? Sometimes you fail your friends but Love believes that if you do yuor best after, show that you've learned a lesson--eventually such friendships can grow even stronger. She just has to do better, that's all! And if nothing else they can be moral support for reaching beyond the grave for friendship which is, frankly, not something Love has any issue with whatsoever. They follow after the other magical girls, Justice as stoic as ever. Love looks at the bookstore. Back when she was an Abnormality, a sight like this wouldn't bother her at all, she wouldn't even really understand it, but it rankles at her too-human mind now. "Yuuji and Hiina Kurokawa..." Justice murmurs, shedding a tear from an eye. "Yes Witch," Justice turns back to Trudy. "Miss Witch." Love interjects. "Miss Witch." Justice continues. "Lend us your aid."
Trudy Grimm	> "We're not-- not headed to a fireplace, Chevalier Grimm." Trudy spares a friendly glance as Kayoko shares some measure of grouchy frustration but also something so painfully thoughtful. Her free hand touches at her own chin in thought, mulling over the younger sister's words with a little 'hmm', "Oh, certainly not, but it's nice to look forward to, no?" > "... It can't be unspeakable..." "But yes, I see," the witch acknowledges with a nod, "Death is but one step further in the cycle, it is when one is forgotten that their existence truly ends. Thank you both for thinking of these two when others cannot." She had mentioned something related to that before, hadn't she? During a conversation on the radio about the nature of ghosts. She doesn't seem to mind the long walk, even at one point singing softly in her native language. Only some words make it into the realm of understandable; "The moonlit sea, the raging storm... His will and his domain... Bend the sea, oh God of Waves... And guide us through the wind and rain~..." Eventually Drop skitters about. Trudy's musical stylings stop abruptly and her eyes flit to the Cherub's activities. It reveals something she Hadn't Noticed Before; which she was not in fact meant to notice. The witch hums thoughtfully, briefly enamored not with the bookstore but with the effect obscuring it. So very similar to what hid the building before. So that structure was also destroyed by a Temptation, was it? > "I never thought I'd- I'd hate a bookstore being this quiet..." "Just how much of this town is concealed in such a way?" Trudy's thoughts reach her voice as she steps inside, pausing to shake rainwater from her umbrella and folding it up, "Such a curious curse. I would have to examine it for quite some time to truly grasp it." She tables that thought for later; the idea of whether or not unraveling it at all would do more harm than good doesn't even cross her mind. Instead, she shifts subjects immediately to the building itself and the spirits she's been asked to call for. Her hands clap together once. When she pulls them apart, she's produced her crystal ball and leaves it floating nearby. "Yuuji and Hiina Kurokawa, mm? I hadn't thought that woman had children. Ah, but perhaps she has a brother who married, then." Idle thoughts as Trudy rummages through the countless beads and charms hanging off her hip. She eventually finds enough of the carved basalt beads she seeks dangling off her arm, pulling them free and holding them up by leather cords to examine all four more closely. > "Is calling them within your doing..?" "If they wish to be called, then of course I can call them... Ah, these will do," Trudy shifts the beads to the palm of her hand. Above her other hand she produces a rune, casting sickly blue-green light on the empty shop's moldering walls. She calls them out as the symbols carve their shapes into the beads. "First; the rune of Protection; Algiz. To shield you from the tricks and claws of meddlesome spirits. Secondly; the rune of Man, Mannaz. To manifest unity to the Divine. Thirdly; the rune of Death; Eiwaz. To reach into the dream of the Tree of Life." These symbols form one at a time on each bead of black stone, glowing faintly in a warm blue color. She then holds them out for the four gathered mahou to accept. "Before we start, let us ensure that you are all properly prepared, shall we? Each of you take one of these and keep it with you. It will protect you and serve you well for what you are asking me to do."
Kayoko Kirenai	Kayoko is a very strong proponent of needing to try even harder to make up for your failings. It's not as if she's... decided, in her head, that Love and Justice are forever alienated to her after one mistake. It's not like she's decided anything at all, and especially not anything related to the idea of 'forever'. Maybe all it'll take for her to feel better about everything is a little more effort to get it all back to normal again. That's as far as she hopes, and as far as she self reflects. Just more work, and just a return to normal. Taking 'forever' into account would mean thinking about how there's only a couple of months left until this stops making any kind of sense. "Then I'm glad-- glad to have you two along with us." It's hard to tell whether the lack of inflection in her voice is because of how much it strains her to talk, or because of something else. For once, Kayoko doesn't look ahead to where they're going. She could, there's nothing stopping her, but she'll have enough of lingering among ruins and ghosts soon enough, so there's no need to invite that onto herself early. It's a guilty, private cowardice, it feels like, to choose to look away, even though no one would know either way. "Death is but one step further in the cycle, it is when one is forgotten that their existence truly ends." Kayoko doesn't look queasy at that. Unwelcome thoughts past the next few months, then past the next few years, swirl in her mind. I already knew that they disappear when we're gone. You don't have to remind us how many people we take with us when we do. I know I'm responsible for them dying twice. "I never thought I'd- I'd hate a bookstore being this quiet..." "... I hate the books. I hate how none of it ever moves, until it does." Suffocating discomfort at picking through the ruined bookstore is intense enough that Kayoko offers up her feelings unprompted, somehow lightening the mood-- at least, with respect towards her attitude with the other magical girls-- despite the topic. "Just how much of this town is concealed in such a way?" "No one knows. At least, it's not... possible, for us to know. I'm sure the Holy Refulgence has records, of some kind, but we wouldn't be able to... remember them anyways." Sitting down in the chairs feels like a commitment to blasphemy that Kayoko can't make, not towards the seance, and not towards the environment. Instead, she just lingers near the table, knuckles gripped white on the back of the chair and trembling as she suppresses the urge to cough from the dust; and when she fails, doubling over and trying to choke back her hacking out of sharp embarrassment. "Yuuji and Hiina Kurokawa." Kayoko's lips start moving automatically, picking up the list in fragmented call-and-response that wasn't actually called for. She doesn't raise her voice above a barely-inaudible breath, and even if she shouted it at the top of her voice, it'd slip away from the others' minds too quickly to remember. "Kei Tanaka, Miki Kuwahara, Akira Takano, Emi Kisaragi...." She trails off to silence before long.
Kayoko Kirenai	"Before we start, let us ensure that you are all properly prepared, shall we? Each of you take one of these and keep it with you. It will protect you and serve you well for what you are asking me to do." Kayoko hesitates before taking the runes, side-eyeing Meika to see if she takes them first. It's one thing to accept necromancy as a necessary evil, it's another thing to be handed a 'rune of death' in a Satanic ritual so that she's not tortured by evil spirits. "... Is that something that might happen? Are there... spirits, that might be... messing with us?" Kayoko sounds extremely nervous, though she's trying to hide it. You could imagine her face to be blanched in fear, but it's not. "Is that usual? It wouldn't be... them, that attack us, right?"
Meika Kirenai	'Thank you both for thinking of these two when others cannot.' Meika's teeth grit tight enough to hear. She doesn't hide her throat-tightening distaste like Kayoko does- whether she forgets to, doesn't care, or intends it to be known. Did you read that all somewhere? Or is it something you really believe? Shut up either way. Anger follows close behind guilt and bitterness. The other two are present in excess, still. That worry- forgetting and its paired guilt -is constant enough that prods and poking only makes the spillover distill into something else. 'We want to help!' Meika relaxes. It's nice to hear that there'll be more trusted company. Kayoko's flat tone in her own response is familiar- even though she sours it, the steadying nature can't diminish fully. "...I'm glad, too." It sounds more forced from her, somehow, even if she means it. The bookshop is never going to lose its rotting cellulose smell. In passing, Meika raises a hand near one of the broken and battered shelves, with its cluttered books, a flurry of messy thoughts running through her mind- to shove something over, or carefully mimic some expectation of somber reverence in touching some remnant of this scenery that nobody else would or could. She doesn't, still, whether from a lack of heart or general resignation. '... I hate the books.' "Yeah." 'I would have to examine it for quite some time to truly grasp it.' "Why? What- what good would come, from-" A silent, angry exhale cuts herself off. "... You don't have to grasp it. It's not your problem, and- and it won't help you to try." Be it frustration or exhaustion, her patience on the topic isn't unending. As Kayoko starts her hacking cough, Meika stands- the chair is silent, this time, as she hovers her hand just half an inch from tapping her sister's shoulder in that instinctive offer of steadiness. But there's still that half inch. {"Do you need some air?"} That Meika chose to whisper that, such that it's inaudible to anyone else, is both awkwardly selfish of her to say something that one-sided, if Kayoko does need air, but maybe a small comfort to save her the effort of denying it if she chooses not to get up. Meika's bet is just already hedged that she'd choose not to. She's fine. Quietly, still, Meika pulls one of the plastic bags over across the dust-laden table, and sets a saccharine energy drink near where Kayoko's standbing by. 'Sugar helps' is an adage for queasiness more than actual sickness or dust, but Meika can only guess at the queasiness of having to be here, once more. It's what she's feeling, and projecting makes sense.
Meika Kirenai	Seating herself back down, though, she goes silent at Kayoko says out those names, mouthing along even after Kayoko's stopped. There's an anxious point where even that drops off, though- some of the names she goes through in her mind start to get more recent, but it makes the few weeks she spent away even more glaring with how there's a gap in what she knows. Down at her sides, Meika's fingernails dig into her legs, pressing through fabric. Meika seems intensely uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, but the bringing out of the runes is skin-prickling. "... We shouldn't be- be scared. Not of-" Wouldn't they have plenty of reason to hate us? I would hate me, if- The magical girl shivers. "... Yeah." After a moment of hesitation, it's only Kayoko's worried-sounding tone that gets Meika to actually take the offered runes, to try and show that it's okay, for no other reason than to assuage her. If it's wrong, it's her who's doing it first. "It'll... be okay, Kayoko." Lying comes easy enough. Slowly, quietly, and looking anywhere else around the ruined bookstore and its remnant wreckage of page after page instead of at the visiting witch, Meika blurts out a small little "W-whenever you're ready," Trudy's way. Permission to call them, not that it's needed- And call she can. This store is, after all, a 'place of death'- through whatever means she has to call out at spirits, there are only two impressions in the premises of note- and both of them are eerily, uncomfortably faint and indistinct.