Magical Fracas, Episode 4: School Rumble?

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Iriumi sneezed politely, before waving away some sun-fluff from her face at the same time. Tayuumi leapt to her feet, before being calmed down by the other girl.

"Don't worry, I'm not catching anything," Iriumi said jokingly, "somebody must be talking about me in the school."

Then she remembered something.
"Oh! I totally forgot. There were two new students at the school today! I'd meant to show them around during lunch..."
"Ugh! You don't mean that fatso and his skinny sidekick, do you?" Tayuumi made a small face. Iriumi frowned mildly.
"I'm sure they're nice people once somebody befriends them."
"I wouldn't mind showing them around," Takuso's voice came from the sickbay entrance.
"And I'll make sure Takki behaves like a good boy," added Shana's voice. Iriumi looked up, startled to see two more of her friends rock up to see how she was feeling. The jock-like young man was currently in the process of knuckle-rubbing Shana's beautiful hair after the quip, but then realized in whose presence he was in, and halted immediately, looking innocent while Shana rubbed her sore crown.
"Oooww, why'd you do that for? I was telling the truth!"
"Hey! I don't beat up everybody Iriumi meets!"
"You just did that to me!"
"Did not!" Takuso stuck out his tongue.

"... Are you sure you guys can handle them?" Iriumi mused, covering her smile with one hand. Takuso rounded again and saluted.
"Yes, ma'am! Come on, Shana, let's go find them!"
"W-wait! You just messed up my hair! You can't just let me-aaaaah!" Shana's complaint ripped off mid-sentence as she was jerked around the door and out again. Iriumi shook her head.
"With any luck, they'll find the wrong people to hassle. Honestly, they'll probably make a mess. I'll go and make sure they don't frighten the slime brothers," Tayuumi sighed, lightening the bed Iriumi and she were sitting on.

"Tayuumi, they're not-"
"-bad people, I know. I'll try not to think of them like that, but if that fatso tries to pull one on me... well, Chichyuu's been giving me some lessons in self defense. Don't worry, I'll be nice!" Tayuumi added after Iriumi's pained look, before vanishing after the duo.

I was wondering when she'd leaf.
Hey, no mental puns while I rest, please, Iriumi cautioned, catching the small echo of tittering laughter in the corner of her mind. Jeeze, at this rate Ivy might evolve the wrong sense of humour...

[Menarker]

"Hmmm, nomnom...."

Menarker strolled along outside within the school borders, eating his bagged lunch along the way, the fares rather basic with only a bit of milk and cookies to really brighten the meal. His mind was pre-occupied with the previous battle and the events of Alex's scrying. The frog figure who may or may not be the same Panko he had fought and departed on bad terms, and the Autekkans whom any could be his next opponent, the nagging worry that the feud between them and the Verda be so prevalent as to attack a child, especially with their refined weaponry.

"Hey... Mena."

Menarker looked curiously back and forth noticing a few groups of people each doing their own thing of chatting, playing or just hanging out. Sensing a little emotional tinge signal, he looked upward spotting his own familiar up in a tree. Mern looked side to side again to make sure no one was actively looking his way and hid behind the tree, beckoning his kitten to the lunchbag, in the attempt to smuggle his familiar as he headed out of school property and toward someplace more secluded and distance closer to home. He opened the bag, but Mero made no effort to crawl out, as she cuddled within its linings. Mern pulled out her lazy limpish body, petting her much to both parties' amusement.

"I'm sure glad to see you. New rule. You'll staying with me during school hours. I'll try to figure out some way to keep you hidden..."
"I see..."
"Well, you wanted to come to school in the first place... How the heck did you get here anyhow? I know I locked the door." Mern's nose twitched involuntarily.
"You left the window open, and I'm no ordinary house-cat."
"Oh god, you jumped out the 2nd floor and... what the heck is that smell?"
"What smell?" Mero tried to look innocent but Mern examined his surroundings and found the smell strongest near Mero. Mern heaved a sigh of disgust and a prompt face-palm reaction.
"Oh hell. Crap, you were in my lunchbox... barely been a few hours and you already getting down and...!" Mern dumped the few remaining items in his lunchbag in the trash, his face somewhat blanched.
"It didn't last long, after I rushed to help you. Stupid barrier kept me out."
"Well, you smell like those scant minutes were the most intense stuff you've ever done."
"Well, there were quite a few..."
"SPARE ME THE DETAILS!"
"Well, I imagine human biology is just as dirty if not more so."
"...I don't need to hear more about today's wild escapism."
"Fine... anyhow, the barrier kept me out, and believe me, I tried shapeshifting and attacking it. I just couldn't get in..."
"Yes, that's why I got to smuggle you in the future, so there isn't more of that seperation issue. ANYHOW, let me explain a bit about the incident."

The lad went into detail about the time stop, his encounter with other Verdas, seeing the Autekkan through the scrying window dealing with the bell-bringer, and his brief yet shocking conflict with the firesnake along with the orange barrier whose origin and purpose remained undefined.

"Alright, let's take this a few steps at a time... Do you have contact with any of those Verdas you met?"
"No, I would have to seek them out..."
"Disappointing... Would be useful to have some allies... But from what I grasp, the Autekkans don't know you, so you won't be actively targeted by them. All the same, it would be good to have some counter-measures..."
"Well, their armor and weapons look mechanically high tech. They probably have good armor, but I can use eletricity. Aside from potential issue that their metal might conduct the current, but my electric ability is a natural life current which I imagine doesn't have the same flow as ones that flow through wires. I'm sort of suggesting a "brown-out" if you will. Computers are known to get permanent damage if the source of electric power that sustains them is incompatible and a sharp surge of it might short out or overload a few things. Of course, this is all conjecture, but it's the best I can think of aside from going toe to toe with lasers."
"Well, I guess that's worth a shot."
"Mero, as much as you have helped already, I was wondering if there was some way you could contribute more, aside from just being there to aid my power boost like before?"
"You're already pretty effective a bit judging on your little solo adventure today. You're growing fairly nicely. Heck, let's give it a try, and you can try some light training."

The familiar shifted to her battle form, nodding for Mern to get his power boost, but some repeated touches and patting and Mern looked at her and his hand rather oddly.

"Any time now, Mena." She gazed lightly with a bit of impatience.
"I'm not getting a reaction."
"Eh?"
"My electric ability also changed a bit from how I used it before. At first I thought I was just getting used to how to channel it better, but now I'm starting to wonder if my absence from you is changing both our skills."
"I don't think it could be that at all." Mero looked somewhat distraught and confused in her enlarged form, as she examined body for any obvious defects. "My abilities... without exception, had always worked, as far back as when I was with Sora and without changing either. I can shift form, so it's not like my powers are useless."
"Sora? What does Sora have to do with your abilities? And you don't seem to be quite confident about your powers always having worked."

[Teal Mage]

With the latest hit pop/alternative rock song blaring over her iPod's speakers, Leanne Tachibana danced through her home's sizable kitchen in her slippers and pyjamas. The bluenette hummed along to the lyrics as she slowly collected all the necessities of a traditional Japanese lunch, instant ramen, instant rice, and a perfectly chilled can of saké.

She'd just finished adding the hot water to her ramen when, even over her blaring music, she heard her grandma's sweet old voice coming from the hall.

"Leanne deary, I'm home!"

Leanne couldn't help wondering how her grandmother managed to shout like that. The young woman shook her head, before pushing the pause button on her iPod.

"How was the Farmer's Market Grams?" Leanne called, as she opened the saké.

"Oh, it was the most fun I've had in weeks!" Came her grandma's happy reply, "I met Marta there too! She had the most darling story to tell."

Leanne took a deep gulp of saké, her grandma was about to tell a story. "Really Grams?" She asked, praying she wouldn't regret her question.

"Yes dearie." Something in her grandma's tone gave her pause; had someone died? "You see dear, a few nights ago, Marta saw strangest thing outside her window. These kids were all standing in the street!"

"What's so weird about that?" Leanne asked, deciding it was just another of her grandma's boring pieces of gossip. She took another sip of saké.

"They were all wearing the most outlandish costumes too, Marta says she one of them dressed like a Miko!" Leanne breathed a laugh, Marta's eyes were terrible. "And there were all these lights and colors! It was like someone was filming a movie-"

"So, what'id ya buy?" Leanne quickly interjected. She loved her grandma to pieces, but she really didn't want to hear an eye witness account from someone who was almost blind.

"Oh! I did buy something." Her grandma didn't sound nonplussed at the topic change. "It’s in the hall! Have a look for yourself." Leanne flinched, that meant it was a present for her, or Alex. "I'm off to the garden!" The door shut as she finished.

Taking another deep gulp of saké, Leanne steeled herself for whatever surprise her grandma had brought. With a deep breath, the bluenette strode boldly out of the kitchen, through the living room, and into the hall. The bag was by the door. She closed the distance.

Leanne stared down at it balefully. Then, with a sinking feeling, drew the bundle of fabric out into the light. With an expect flick of the wrist, the bundle unrolled before her wide eyes. It was frilled. It was pink.

It wasn't her size.

* * *

"...and that's how you use Hammerspace." Miranda concluded, crossing her arms. Mia, sitting on her bed in front of the familiar, nodded. "Since you use tools for your spells, Hammerspace will be a key-"

She was cut off by a cheery ringing from Alex's pocket. Miranda looked over at her partner, she wasn’t happy.

Alex gave her an embarrassed smile, "Sorry, forgot to turn it off." The blond reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone, "Its a text." He stated.

"From?" Mia asked, she looked vaguely curious.

"Leanne." Alex replied, two keystrokes later, "There's a picture..." He trailed off, eyes widening. After a moment, Alex sagged into the chair, letting his phone clatter to the hardwood floor of the room.

A frilled pink dress was on the screen, the message, "Grams bought you this. -Leanne." Just below it.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

There was an argument coming from the corridors just outside the lunch hall. It sounded quite heated.
"...'s fault is it that I had to fix out all the snags in my hair before looking halfway decent to be a guide, huh?"
"You looked fine with knots in your hair! Seriously, nobody would notice!"

The cafeteria door slammed open, discharging two heated students well into their argument. It was late lunch, and Kaemon and Rei were seated. Takuso and Shana vaguely noticed and headed straight for them, still debating whose fault it was that made them late.
"Seriously! You shouldn't have overreacted when I told you off in front of 'Rumi. What am I, some kind of stuffed doll?"
"Sometimes I think you are. You brush your hair every other second, and it's never the same hairstyle throughout the entire day." This was true. Instead of the high ponytail Shana sported early morning, it had now come down alluringly in curled golden locks. The top half of her mane was pulled back to prevent the hair from falling in front of the girl's eyes.
"Oh, whatever," Shana harrumphed, before becoming all smiles and cheer in front of Kaemon and Rei, "good afternoon! You two must be Rei and Kaemon. Welcome to our school."
"And we're sorry for our previous 'altercations', too," Takuso added after a nudge, using the word 'altercations' as if it was some strange and exotic new word to him, "we were hoping to make it up to you two by showing you around the school today at lunch, but it seems like most of the lunch has already gone because lovely Shana here forced us to stop on the way to fix her hair, OW! What'd you do that for?"
"Ahahaha," Shana fluttered as she shifted her bodyweight subtly back from putting her heel firmly on Takuso's big toe, "Takki here jokes too much. I'm Shana and he's Takus-"

"WHATDOYOUTHINKYOU'REDOINGYOUMONSTERDON'TYOUDARETOU CHSHANA!!!"

"-o-crap."

Before Kaemon could spring the sleaze on Shana, it looked like Tayuumi had gotten the jump already. Flinging the door open in red fury, the other girl barged in, her dark hair flinging prettily as she charged at the table Kaemon and Rei were sitting on, completely ignoring anybody else there in the process.

"Wuh-wha?! I didn't do anything!"
"Don't lie! I SAW YOU!"

"Tayuumi wai-"
But the other girl didn't. In her fit of possible PMS, Tayuumi picked up a chair - despite her slight stature and frail-looking frame - and smashed it at Kaemon, who was smart enough to leap epically out of the way. Rei barely escaped grievous bodily harm too, leaping after his fatter friend, while Takuso and Shana flung themselves to one side to avoid Tayuumi's wrath as she began chasing the two newcomers around the school cafeteria, yelling all manners of things.

~~
Are you glad you came?
"Regretting every moment of it," Iriumi winced from the doorway. She naturally didn't really trust the trio to do a good job, and risked the wrath of the returning Nurse to come join the lunchroom. She heard the commotion long before she reached the doors, and dreaded to know what had transpired while she was gone.
What now?
"I... should calm Tayuumi down."
But...?
"I... can't... stop... watching..." Iriumi's eyes were riveted in horrid fascination on the fat rolling blubber of stomach Kaemon possessed wobbling all over the lunch room, closely followed by the steaming Tayuumi and her Chair of Doom.
And you say I need help... Ivy mentally rolled her eyes.

[Arhra]

School's out... next episode!