835/The Return of the Cherry

The Return of the Cherry
Date of Scene:	01 December 2023
Location:	Dorms #2
Synopsis:	Cho runs into Kyouko when checking out one of the dorm rooms. she attempts bribery and subterfuge to get the girl to stay in from the rain. One day at a time...
Cast of Characters:	Kyouko Sakura, Cho Konishi

---

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's late. Most of the dorms are settling for the evening, even though there's no classes tomorrow. It's been dark /forever/, it feels like. Not much of a challenge, the days are very short at this time of year in Tokyo, and insult to injury, there's a cold rain lashing up against the windows.

This dorm room isn't assigned to anyone. The bunk beds are bare, there's no personal stuff on the desks or hanging out in the closets. There's no reason at all for the window to open from the outside, letting in a bit of that rain, and a somewhat soggy Kyouko Sakura.

She turns, closing the window again, giving that whole body shiver of being cold right down to the very marrow of one's bones, shaking the drips from her long red hair like a very slender Clifford the Dog. She unslings her backpack, wrinkling her nose a little at the fact that it's wet too, but the things inside it are dry .. ish. Her soggy hoodie is set by the radiator to dry, and she pulls out a clean dry (ish) tshirt to change into. She's brought along a blanket in that backpack as well, dragging it out too, along with her toothbrush, a flash light and a truly terrible serial manga.

It's not long before evneing ablations are accomplished and she's curled up on that bare bed with her blanket, flashlight and manga. She is warm, and dry. Things could be worse.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi was... well. One might call her a bit... diligent.

Others would call her a stick in the mud and way too focused on paperwork. As a member of the student council, that was useful. It also meant she often volunteered to take care of certain tasks. For example, checking and readying a room that was going to have a new student starting in the next few days...

Doors opening and closing, even at this late hour, wasn't uncommon, the occasional talking and muttering wasn't either. Or when one of the floor watcher's yelled at some kids to not run in the halls. Very little would likely draw much attention.

That is, until the door made a noise... And the lock turned open.

And then the door itself opened a moment later... Allowing Cho to step into the room. She then paused, sniffing the air. "What's that smell?" she asked... before...

Slowly reaching out for the light. Additionally, something scampered down her arm and dropped on the ground, racing into the room...

A ferret?

No, a little helper monkey. GASP! But... she hadn't seen Kyouko. Yet.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Later, Kyouko will berate herself when she replays this over in her mind that she didn't notice the sound of the lock. She is tired, and the manga is so bad it's good. Her subconscious goes 'oh, someone's here' for a few moments before that really penetrates into her conscious that SOMEONE IS HERE!

Kyouko freezes a moment. There is not enough time to gather her things and flee, she literally has seconds and while she's fast.. she isn't THAT fast.

Instead, she pulls her blanket closer, and shoves herself further back into the bunk bed deep into the shadows and clicks off her flashlight. She's hiding. She's not here. She will think that VERY LOUDLY at whoever is coming...

Cho. She does know Cho. It might be.. it's probably not okay.

She has, in her attempt to hide, utterly forgotten that she left her hoodie out to dry by the radiator.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi found the smell a moment later. The aformentioned hoodie. Really, it didn't take her long at all to find. She closed the door, walked to the hoodie, picking it up and frowning. "Did the last student leave it here?"

"I doubt it," Wuwu said.

"It's really wet..." Cho said before sniffing it and coughing. "Ugh, needs to be washed, too. Can you run it down to the wash?" Wuwu just gave her a look and she rolled her eyes. "Fine, fiiiine. I..." Then she trailed off. She'd finally noticed a lump on the bed. "Is... someone there?" Cho asked nervously. Was it a thief? A villain?!

A BOY WHO SNUCK INTO THE GIRL'S DORMS?!

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hey, it's clean!" Kyouko can't actually help herself but protest. "It's just wet." She wriggles out a little bit, indignant on behalf of her cleanliness. She makes an effort!

That does mean that she's not actually hiding anymore. She's standing there, holding her blanket (which admittedly, is a little worse for the wear) and her manga, the flashlight having fallen on the bed.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi yelped and dropped the wet hoody when the bump MOVED! And YELLED! And... was a girl. Oh. It was one of the girls. "Oh," she said, before giving a sigh. "Is this a prank? Or another room scuffle? Listen, I understand if your roommate and you are having an... argument... but... you..." Then she trailed off.

Cho recognized her.

Then she was suddenly THERE! Hugging Kyouko. Like. One moment she was across the room. The next, there was... THE HUG! GASP! "Sakura-san! You're okay! Oh my gosh I was so sorried something terrible had happened to you! I-I thought you'd died, or been stabbed or were stabbed and then dying! Or a witch! Or one of the generals! Or even the precure hunter had gotten you!" So much hug. So much, much, much hug.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"ACK!" Kyouko wasn't sure what she was expecting in getting caught by someone when she was squatting in a dorm room, but suddently having a Cho-shaped barnacle wrapped around her was not it.

It is clear that Kyouko has no actual idea what to do right at the moment, and she tries awkwardly patting Cho on the back. "I'm not dead. I'm really hard to kill, it's a /thing/, y'know. I do the stabbing, not the other way around." Sure, sometimes she has to hole up and heal a bit, but we just won't talk about those days.

"Okay okay.. enough with the hugging." Kyouko's voice protests as she prods the other girl. She's not actually /struggling/ to get away, but she's got a reputation to uphold here!

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi held on for longer than was necessary and then pulled back before...

"So, why did you break into the room?" Cho asked. "I mean, I'm not sure which room you have, but I'm pretty sure it would be a lot easier to come and get a key from one of the RA's than break into a room." She then pulled back, a bit damp now most likely. "Or are you just embarrassed for locking yourself out of your room? Trust me, I get it."

"I don't like being a bother, either, I once ended up spending nine hours locked outside because I was scared to tell my grandparents that I'd accidentally lost my key and I was sure they'd be furious with me. They uhhhh... were more upset that I'd done it when I had a cold and only got sicker... My point is there's no need to get worried about that. We can just get you back to your actual room, okay? If you'd like, we could say I lost the key or something."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Only a little damp, the worst of the wet is.. well was.. drying by the radiator. Kyouko has mostly dried, save for her hair at least. She WAS all nice and cozy.

"I.. I'm not really a student you know." She points out to Cho with a skeptical expression. "Like.. classes are for /nerds/." She says it like its a title, as much as a derogatory commentary. "I can't just live here for like.. /free/."

Immaterial of the fact that apparently that's exactly what she's been doing. At least some of the time, and of any night to have chosen to camp out in a dorm room, this cold and wet one is a good choice.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi stared at her, her mouth falling open. Finally, she asked the question. And it was likely not the kind of question she'd expect to be asked from a member of the student council. "Why can't you?"

Not 'Why are you here if you're not going to classes' or 'not a student' or 'why are classes for nerds'. Just 'Why can't you live here?'

"I mean, don't get me wrong, you are a delinquent which admittedly-- oh! Would you like some peach muffins? Wuwu, can you go grab them?"

"Do I look like a butler to you?" the monkey asked.

"No, you look like a helper monkey. And this would be helping, monkey," Cho said, with annoyance.

"Fiiiiine," he said before scampering off... and not even using the door.

She then turned to Kyouko again. "You are a delinquent, but you're not expelled. Until you are, you have a home here. Nobody..." Pause. "Okay, most people aren't going to get annoyed at you if you stay in your room. And the people who are don't matter anyway."

Admittedly, her plan was insidious. If Kyouko was here... then she could, bit by bit... slooooowly lure her into classes. With food. Maybe make a real student out of her!

"Besides, you're Cherryspear. So having more girls with magical powers and stuff is great, it means we're less likely to... be attacked... huh. You've... been gone a while, though. Where... have you been staying?"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's a few moments where, yet again, Kyouko is frozen. She just blinks at Cho as apparently she bluescreened some bit of her brain.

Why can't she?

"Do you literally just always have peach muffins on hand?" Is the first thing that Kyouko thinks to ask, because that is clearly the relevant point here.

Why can't she?

"Oh y'know. Here and there." Kyouko is vague on the where of her general locations. She's hardly about to give up the goods on the choice spots in town. They are few, and far between, if you want to be in the city itself.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi gave a small nod. "Well, peach muffins, peach cookies. I have learned over the years that no matter how annoying I think I am, people are ALWAYS happy to see the person who brings snacks. I used to buy them but uhhhh... my allowance doesn't cover that. But if I buy the ingredients, my parents are usually happy to buy those because it teaches responsibility or something. That and fresh baked muffins taste soooooo much better than normal ones, right?" she asked, almost sparkling a little when she says that.

"Besides, you're not entirely disappointed when you see me, right? And that's the power of bribery," she said, making a V sign with her hand. As if that was a victory. "If you want, I could teach you the recipe sometime."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Usually kinda confused." Kyouko answers with perhaps a touch of overhonesty, but it's not entirely unkind.

Her mind is still chewing over the notion of the dorms before giving a little shake of her head, dismissing it. If she's in her room. Then they can find her and that would be .. something something..

Terrifying. That's what it would be.

"Wait.. you cook all the treats?" Kyouko catches that on the instant reply. "Like.. you go .. home? Dorms? .. after you're here late .. why ARE you here?"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi opened her mouth to object, then paused. Finally, she shrugged. "Yeah, I confuse people a lot. I confuse myself a bunch too, but I try not to think about it. I usually just blame Wuwu for that."

That likely didn't help.

"And no, my room has a stove! One of the perks of being responsible, I guess. Or a member of the student council... or maybe it's because I board with Coco-san and she's rich..." And now she looked unsure. "Or maybe it was just luck because a lot of these rooms really do seem to be kind of.... strange. I think our room used to actually belong to an adult, since... err. Nevermind, not important. And of course I cook them. If I had to buy all those muffins do you know how expensive that would be? I'd never be able to do that!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Do you sleep!?" Kyouko weathers the barrage of words with a baffled look. "Like school And the council thing. And whatever you're doing breaking into rooms at night. And the magical girl thing. AND baking treats to bribe people? Are you just like eternally strung out on energy drinks or somethign?"

It would explain a lot, really.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi blinked a few times and... "A-actually... the... the room thing... is for the student council... and... I'm mostly just kind of checking on the room because someone is coming to live here tomorrow. The baking thing is just kind of a routine, it helps me calm when I get nervous.... I ummmm... used t odrink a lot of energy drinks. I... I try not to anymore, though. I know it's not healthy. As for the magical girl thing, it's... well..." Slowly, her eyes lowered.

"It's scary, I guess? But I'm not really asked to do much. In fact, I think I probably do more to help other people with their magic than I deal with my own. The bone demon hasn't been very active lately. I don't really have a lot of hobbies or friends so I don't have a lot of things to take up my time. Believe it or not, I used to be a lot worse. I didn't do anything for me, but well... now I have magic and I get to be me, so... it's nice. Oh! And I'm learning stage magic!" she said, looking up at her again. "It took me months but I finally learned a card trick! I can get it right almost every time now!" She was way, way, wayyyyy too excited about that.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"I mean.. I'm not sure magical girls really need to worry much about healthy." Kyouko points out. "I mean, most of the time, we should be dead a few times over, but.." She opens her hands. "Not dead yet." She uhs softly. "Not that I think you should be pounding back energy drinks."

Says the girl who exists largely on sugar. Constant streams of sugar.

"There's asking?" Kyouko looks skeptical on that. "I mean, for me.. hunt up a witch, kill the witch. No one sends me an invitation saying 'hey Kyouko, could you attend the witch on Thursday, if you please?'" She shakes her head. "You go out, and you do the thing." She gestures a little. "Or if helping people is your jam, that's the thing you go do." Her tone says that 'helping people' is not really her jam.

Kyouko looks skeptical. "Card tricks?"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi gave a shrug. "I don't know. I die a lot as it is, though. Cause, ummm. My whole thing. Dying and coming back. Huh. I wonder if that burns calories or if it would use up the chemicals in my drinks. Do I come back exactly as I was, or is it like.... each day I kind of lock in and.... I wonder how I'd test that? Maybe if I cut myself and--"

"You're overthinking things again," Wuwu said from the nearby counter, a plate of muffins there with him and making Cho jump.

"GAH! Right, sorry, heh. Err, and no. They don't usually ask. Though I know they are targetting me. But they usually try more to... destroy my self esteem and stuff. So it's... not as bad. Witches... witches are rough. They're... yeah. Heh... eh heh... muffin?" she asked, motioning towards it.

Then she pulled out a deck of cards from her pocket. Did... did she actually keep it in her pocket all the time? "Okay, watch! And... pick a card!" she said, shuffling them for a moment before fanning them out.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Dying and coming back?" Kyouko squints at her. "Like.. on purpose? Eternally? That has to /suck/." She looks confused. "Do you like.. remember dying? Like /all of the time/?"

Kyouko heads over towards Wuwu as she notices the muffins. She is hardly above being bribed with a muffin. They are good muffins. "Witches aren't that bad. I mean.. pay attention, but.." She shrugs. It's a living. Or.. something.

"Wait.. what?" Kyouko was mid muffin bite when she has to pick a card? She reaches for the pack, choosing a card at random.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi shook her head. "What? No! Like. If I get stabbed I 'die' and then I kind of... refresh. I guess? It's usually pretty quick. I die pretty easy, too, happens all the time. I... I remember it though, yeah... it's... I guess... you get used to it. Eh... heh heh... eh..." she said, rubbing the back of her head.

Cho, at least, wasn't going to comment on 'witches aren't that bad'. Instead, she let her pick a card, put it back in the pack and began to shuffle! Shuffle shuffle shuffle aaaaand more shuffle. Then, after a few more shuffles... "Is... this your card?"

And, surprise surprise... she was correct. Which wasn't so bad. Since a few months ago when she'd tried this trick with Kyouko she'd failed. Over. And over. And over.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"That.." Any comments Kyouko might have had about dying over and over and over again are gone when she looks at her card.

"Hey! You got it right!" If she's supposed to be gracious about pretending that she didn't notice Cho getting it wrong a million times over.. well.. that's not Kyouko.

The card is offered back. "I guess if someone is moving in here tomorrow, I should get my stuff out." Kyouko moves over to get her still damp hoodie and back pack.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi actually bounced up and down on her heels a little bit, obviously preening. "Yeah, probably. Grab your stuff, you can head on down to your room. I can see if I can find the spare keys if you like."

She moved the cards back into her pocket and... "And... if that makes you uncomfortable, you can sleep on our couch tonight? My roommate won't mind, she's really cool." Pause. "Also, a mermaid princess. I'm telling you this because if she tells anyone she's a mermaid, she dies instantly apparently. But if I tell them, even if they find out on accident, she'll be okay."

"... This school is weird. It's... confusing sometimes. But uhhhh... I know it's... probably kind of weird but ummmm... if... you're nervous about the room? I wouldn't mind if you stayed at our place..."

"... You're one of the students, even if you don't want to be. So... I want you to at least be safe when you can be. Especially since... you know. We fight monsters. It's not safe for any of us out there alone."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Uhhh." Kyouko was about to pack up and head back out into the cold rain.

Clearly she's getting soft, because there is absolutely nothing in her that wants to go back in that cold rain to sleep somewhere cold and damp.

"Your room mate is a mermaid princess? How does she get around? Like, with fins?" Kyouko is distracted from her internal debate.

"I.. think I'll take my chances on my own room." Kyouko pauses, her eyes widening in horror. "Do I have a roommate?" The thought is clearly a deal breaker.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi gave a small shake of her head. "No, not really. She actually looks normal. Apparently some things can transform her into a mermaid even if she doesn't want to, then she dies. It's... a thing. So... you know now. So it that happens, she won't die. All is right in the world." Cho has a liiiiiittle bit of stress from that. "But she usually walks around and stuff. As for you having a roommate... no idea. If you didn't before, probably not. Either way, we can go and get all that sorted. I'll take care of the room after, it shouldn't take long anyway." She just had to clean it up a bit. She motioned the other girl to follow her out. She'd get everything sorted!

... And knowing Cherryspear was safe, well... that'd be nice. "Hey, if you're here in the morning, want to join us for breakfast? We make pancakes sometimes."

... Kyouko may, in fact, be a stray who Cho is trying to ensure doesn't die.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Yeah.. sure.." Kyouko is packing as Cho is chatting about the ways her roommate can die. It really doesn't take much. She's carrying her hoodie, but her manga and flashlight and blanket all get shoved into her backpack. It really only takes her a blink of an eye to render the room looking as if she was never there.

"I've never been to the room to check." Kyouko sounds skittish, and wary. It seems a good bet that if there's a roommate there, she is probably going to happily head out into the rain.

This stray is somewhat feral.