805/A Plan Worthy of Wukong

A Plan Worthy of Wukong
Date of Scene:	24 November 2023
Location:	Club Building
Synopsis:	Cho enacts a plan to get Iona and Hime together to work out their differences. It! Is not a good plan. She tries her best, though. And manages to make things only a little bit worse. Daybreak returns for a journey as well, offering her own advice for Iona. Alas, her heart still aches from what she has lost.
Cast of Characters:	Cho Konishi, Iona Hikawa, Hime Shirayuki, Mio Morita
Tinyplot:	The Precure Hunter Attacks!? The Dreaded Precure Graveyard!

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Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi had a plan! A plan that, frankly, Wuwu thought was actually pretty good.

As such, it was destined for disaster.

She'd invite Hime and Iona for tea in the royal garden, the perfect locale to work things out. Honestly, neither of them were wrong, in her mind. Hime thought opening the box was correct, that people needed help. Now? She was fighting to fix what she had broken. But Iona wasn't wrong either, she was suffering as a direct effect of Hime's mistake, unfairly being punished for something she had no control over. And Iona was right, there was no proof that Hime didn't just make up the excuse of 'hearing a voice'. Perhaps the truth was that Hime had just screwed up and was scared to admit she'd been curious.

What was true, however, above all? Was that they were both suffering. Anger like that, hurt like that, it tore at a person. It was exhausting. And Cho wanted to help the pair of them. Have them talk it out. And so, separately, she sent the invitation. To Hime, it was a cute little note to please come to the Garden at a little after noon. To Iona, it was to please come to the garden a little BEFORE noon. Why?

Because of the two of them, she suspected Iona would be more likely to flee if she saw Hime. Hime seemed a bit more...

... Hime seemed a bit less attentive and she suspected might be distracted by all the pretty flowers and wouldn't notice that Iona was there until it was too late.

The invitation would lead them to a small path through the trees, where a plate of peach cookies, peach muffins and a rather pretty white tea set was resting. There were four seats, though three of them were empty. Cho was sitting, facing the path, her cup of tea already poured and well...

Ohhh, this was nerve wracking.

The garden itself, due to an attempt to make it seem 'larger' than it was, to give that feel of nature, also had many mirrored walls setup all around, allowing the greenhouse to seem like a truly magical, royal jungle.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona hasn't been in all too great a mood ever since the conclusion of the fight with Scorn and the subsequent arguing over Hime and the box of Axia. The only reason she is coming at all is because wasn't actually as negative towards her as Aki had been, and also because she was favourably impressed by the pinkette when they had first met. She certainly works hard and is friendly.

When she got invited to the meeting place of the Student Council, she figured Cho had caught wind of her good standing in her previous school and wanted to invite her in. She doesn't know whether to actually yes to that or no, her hands are quite full with upholding said good standing, her grandpa's dojo and her activity as Cure Fortune. But there is no harm in hearing her out, right?

As she heads there, Glasan is, as usual, just peeking out of Iona's bag, perfectly still.

"Hello, Konishi-san", Iona mentions as the table comes into her sight, giving a polite wave to Cho. "I hope I didn't make you wait too long." The fragrance of tea and the smell of the food force a smile onto Iona's face. She really has done a lot for this meeting, has she?

"Thanks for the invitation and the refreshments. They all look and smell great", Iona comments before sitting down and helping herself to some of the tea. She doesn't ask what Cho has called her for, better to let her make the first move.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi let out a sigh of relief when Iona arrived. Well. That was half the plan right there, not exploded in her face.

Yet. The plan was still early. It could all go tits up soon enough.

"Thank you for coming, Hikawa-san. I wish I could say I was asking you to come here as a member of the student council, but well... that is only half the information. You see, Radiant Heart Academy isn't... like a lot of schools. There are countless magical girls and boys here. Granted, we only make up a very, very small number of the populace. In fact, until recently, I was the only member of the student council who could henshin. We had a few magically aware, but well... it has left me with a lot of duties that I was the only one who could deal with."

She motioned to the pastries. "Please, help yourself, I baked them myself. Now, while the school has a lot of magical boys and girls, we're still an incredibly small minority of the population here. Even moreso when you consider that, in most cases? Many people can't even remember anything they hear about magic for more than a few seconds. We're really quite isolated."

"It's because of that, when I find other magical people who need help, I find it very important to help them where I can. As some of my other duties have recently calmed down and, frankly, the white bone demon has been quiet as of late, I was hoping I could offer you help. As Cute Wukong, I mean. You mentioned before a... Maria, I believe? I'd like to know her story, and your own, if you wouldn't mind sharing it?"

"None of us are an island and, at the end of the day, if we try to carry all of the burdens ourselves, we'll just be crushed under the weight of them. But the more we work together, the more we help each other, the more we'll be able to do. Us magical girls add up to so much more than the sum of our parts."

She then took a sip of her tea, looking incredibly calm and relaxed.

Internally, however: AHHHHHHHHHH! OH MY GOSH I SOUND SO DUMB AND SILLY AND SHE'S GOING TO CALL ME OUT ON ALL THE BULL THERE'S NO WAY SHE'S BUYING ANY OF THIS OH GOSH SHE'S GOING TO KNOW I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING AHHHHHHHHHH GAHHHHHHH I AM SUCH AN IMPOSTER TADASE HAAAAAALP!

Yup. Just gonna sip her tea.

Meanwhile, near the entrance to the garden, Wuwu was lounging on a tree, eating one of the muffins and watching, keeping an eye out for Hime's arrival.

Iona Hikawa has posed:
There it is, the invitation to join the student council. Cho's speech makes sense: being one of the only magical individuals in the student council, she would be rather swamped with work. Honestly, if that's the case, maybe, she should in fact find the space for it, but the thought of the other magical people that would be in the council gives her a bit of unease. Will they react as Aki did, or will they demand her to go along with Hime? Cho knows, and Iona wouldn't put it past her to have talked about it, even in a benevolent way.

She takes hold of a peach cookie when Cho invites her to, slowly dipping it into her tea before eating that part. Her compliments, these are quite good. At least, that's what she would say if Cho weren't speaking and her focus wasn't fully on the speech, anyway.

To her surprise, the offer to join isn't what comes next, but rather a desire to help. Is that really what this is about? "I appreciate your intention a lot, Konishi-san, but I am carrying my burden perfectly well, so I do not require any assistance with finding my sister or beating the Phantom Empire. I can however help fight with this white bone demon, should the fights resume."

That does not mean, however, she couldn't explain who her sister was. She was very reluctant to share the exact events, but in the end, Cho had done nothing to warrant that, and has in fact been rather open to her. "I can tell you about my sister, though. She was the greatest Precure there ever was, undefeated no matter what the Phantom Empire tried to do against her, including the Precure Hunter himself."

Iona takes a pause where only the clatter of a spoon against the cup of tea is heard as she dips one more cookie. "Things could have continued like this if I hadn't been accidentally caught in an attack by Phantom, and Maria jumped in between that and me. I was powerless to watch him steal away my sister too, her Pretty Change Mirror the only only thing I had left from that encounter", she explains, a shadow on her face.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
And here comes the proverbial monkey wrench in Cho's plan. That being Hime...existing. The pretty little thing wanders through the paths behind the school, admiring everything as she goes. The younger girl is wearing a beautiful white dress with a floofy skirt, and pale blue ribbons and buttons adding cuteness to it all. Fluffed sleeves billow down to her wrists. Ribbon rests atop her head, acting like any other stuffed animal. It's normal for girl's to carry their stuffies atop their heads, of course.

She hums loudly to herself, a bit of a skip to her walk. She's trying REALLY hard not to let her SUPER MEAN new roommate ruin her day. This invitation is exactly what the girl needs to make everything better and simply let her relax away from a mean, judgy person. She's overjoyed!

"Going to meet my pretty frieeeend~ and her weird little mooooonkey~," the princess sings to herself, the sound reaching the gazebo-like tea area before she does. And then she appears in the doorway and raises an arm, doing a full twirl. "I am here! Thank you so much for inviting me, Cho-chan! It seems like FOREVER since I got good tea and tasty snacks! Blue used to have them all the time, but now I'm here, and cafeteria food is yucky! My new roommate is super mean, and I'm happy to just relax!" Yes, she just voiced all of her thoughts."

She has not yet spotted Iona...

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi nodded, listening intently to what Iona says. Her eyes went wide with each and every word, a hand moving up to her mouth to cover the concern. Then... then lowered it. Slowly, she took a deep breath. "Oh. That... that's... oh."

Her sister. An amazing precure... one who held off someone known as the 'Precure Hunter'. While she'd never met the man, even Wuwu had confessed that she was likely nowhere near ready to face someone of his level. Heck, he was unsure she ever would be.

Great way to be supportive, Wuwu. However, the more Iona talked, the more she found an issue. "I mean, it sounds to me like you're not carrying the burden perfectly fine. Until we beat up this Precure Hunter and save your sister, then this burden--"

It was then that Wuwu made a light hooting noise. Oh. Hime was almost here. Time to--

And then eeped when suddenly Hime came BARRELING into the garden and down the path with all the subtlety and tact of one of the puella's witches starting a rave in the middle of a silent auction.

And yes, Wuwu was, in fact, a weird little monkey. CRUD! Welp, too late to let things like 'reason' and 'caution' get in the way of a failing plan. When everything is already doused in the gasoline of poor choices, why not light them with the fires of passion?

"Ah, Hime-chan, I was hoping you'd arrive! Because, uhhh, as magical girls!" She got to her feet and slammed her palms down on the table, making things jump and, fortunately, not knocking anything over. "I feel it is very important that we all work together. If not for our own sake, then for those of the world, those who need our help." She dashed forward, to grab Hime's shoulders and tug her to the table, guiding her into the spot besides Iona.

"And, Hikawa-san, I understand what you've been through. You've lost someone very important to you, someone you care deeply for. Even if Hime-chan is at fault for it, we all make mistakes. The important thing is that she IS trying to fix them. And I firmly believe that she can. If we all work together, we're like the strands of a rope and we can tie ourselves in knots to bludgen this Precure Hunter into the ground and smash all of his glass, rescuing your sister and anyone else he has captured!"

Yes just keep talking and hope they get caught up in the energy!

Also, she grabbed a cookie and well... "Here, try these, I made them myself!" And kind of just... stuffed one into Hime's mouth. You know, if her mouth is full she can't talk.

Mio Morita has posed:
A simple mirror. What better object to set off an already beautiful area for tea parties and Student Council meetings. It adds an elegance to the greenhouse for sure. The mirror just sits there like any mirror should. Nothing suspicious about it at all.

Suddenly the the Mirror shimmers and the form of a person appears within it. "Happy to help, Blue. I Think its time for me to go home." She gives a wave and then steps out of the mirror. Now standing in the middle of the greenhouse, a familiar Precure now stands.

"Okay. First things first. I need some food that is not American. I think I put on ten pounds over there." Cure Daybreak exclaims with a smile. "I know what I want. I want a taiyaki. Chocolate. Lots of Chocolate." She looks around and suddenly realizes she is not alone. "Well I guess its a good thing I didn't pop out the mirror in my civvies!" She laughs a little. "Don't worry folks. Just a figment of your imaginations."

Suddenly things feel very awkward. "Aaaaand you can all see me. So... More Magical Girls?" She asks as she looks around the place. "So it looks like I returned at the Student Council's Greenhouse. Meh Could have been worse. When I arrived in the United States, it was through a girls bathroom mirror in a school!" She laughs a little bit. "I'm Cure Daybreak for those who don't know."

Iona Hikawa has posed:
Iona tenses immediately when she hears a voice loudly talking from further down the path. "Is that Hime..." she says, an angry expression showing on her face. "I'm sorry, Konishi-san, but as long as Shirayuki-san is here, she would get in the way of our talk. Please send her away, or I will." Her tone makes it clear the latter wouldn't be any pleasant if she were in charge of it.

And then the azure imp barges into the patio with the strength of a locomotive, blabbering something about Cho having invited her. And to make matters worse, the pinkette confirms it, breaking into a panicked speech about the importance of teamwork and forgiveness.

"Konishi-san." Iona says in a firm tone after Cho has finished her speech. "I did not believe you to be willing to resort to such underhanded means to force me to meet someone I despise and doesn't stand a ghost of a chance to fix what she has brought on us."

"She only just recently learnt not to be a complete deadweight in fights, and you expect me to believe she is going to stand up to the Precure Hunter?" Her voice resonates clearly throughout the garden, as she gets more worked up. "She doesn't even have any intention of repenting. Rather, last time she spent her time insulting me while I was talking about what she did."

She gets up abruptly from her chair, its legs screeching loudly against the ground and the spoon falling with a clatter on the plate of the teacup as she prepares to leave. "Have a nice afternoon, Konishi-san."

Then there is one more arrival, and Iona turns towards Cure Daybreak with a frown. "Would you mind? You may be another Precure, but that doesn't authorise you to ask Blue to barge in here." She takes a second to gaze at the other Precure and adds towards Cho. "Though, you can try and recruit her as my replacement in the fight against the Precure Hunter. I will manage that alone."

One last glance at Mio. "Just don't trust the azure girl. She is just a calamity waiting to happen."

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
"Wait...what?"

Hime blinks, her excitement fading swiftly and being replaced with dread when she sees Iona and hear's Cho's words. "Oh no...," Hime whimpers. She hesitates in the door of the gazebo before Cho is grabbing her arm and hauling her along. She probably weighs like twenty pounds. Well, not really, but it seems like it! She yelps and falls into the chair. Her blue eyes are as wide as wide can be, and she's about to say something when a cookie is suddenly being shoved into her mouth! "MMF!"

And then an unfamiliar PreCure appears through a mirror, and she chokes on her cookie. She coughs and slaps her chest, her big eyes watering as she tries not to die! After a moment she rights herself and grabs a cup of tea and guzzles it down to clear her throat. She lets out a breath as she sets the tea down with a trembling hand.

"H-hime Sh-shirayuki. C-Cure Princess," she squeaks at Daybreak before she glances between Iona and Cho. She wilts into her chair, as if she can try and retreat from Iona's anger.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi went still as suddenly... there was another one of them. Cure Daybreak, as she said. Ah. Well. Uhhhh... "Wuwu? Why can't I do something like that? I want to teleport!"

"You have a cloud. Well. Will, eventually," Wuwu said.

"But teleporting is awesome!" Cho objected! A cloud was cool. But Mirror teleporting? THAT was incredible! And well... "Oh, uh. Hi. Cure Wukong. I ummm... won't reveal who they are. Cause that'd be rude. But uhhh..."

But disaster was here. And not just the girls themselves!

And Iona just... tore into Hime... making her cringe with each word. "Well... I mean... she... I... I didn't... I mean... So what?!" Cho yelled. "I-I'm dead weight too all the time! My first like, dozen fights the only reason I survived at all was because other girls were there! I still die usually two or three times every fight, when I'm lucky! I once died five times, not even mentioning all the times I've ended up falling and missing and died from that, my point is just because someone STARTS useless doesn't mean they STAY useless! She can make princess machine guns and that's cool, but that's not what matters!"

"What matters is that people out there need us and we can't just fight amongst ourselves! Just because you don't LIKE Hime-chan doesn't mean you shouldn't give her a chance to prove herself! And... and just you wait!" She put an arm behind Hime's back, patting her on the shoulders.

"I'm going to start training with her personally. So how about this! Give Hime-chan one chance. Just one. You don't have to like her... but... the next time you fight besides her, let her. Don't push her away. Don't shove her down. Don't tell her she's bad. We all make mistakes, at least let her try and make up for these ones. Please. Just one chance."

"... If not for her sake, or your sake, then for your sister's. Because if the Precure Hunter is as bad as you say he is, then we'll all need all the help we can get. And she was chosen to do all of this magic... magic crazy stuff, the same as you and Daybreak there! And so I refuse to not believe she can be every bit as amazing as can be! I mean, she's even a real magical girl princess! She was born for this! So... so that's my challenge, that's my terms. I'll wager whatever you want on this, that Cure Princess can and will rise to be the Cure to stand at all of our sides!"

There were words! Some of them were almost coherent! But now she was pointing at Iona! Cho's true power, yell enough things that she almost forms a complete thought that almost makes sense!

Mio Morita has posed:
"No You Won't." Daybreak looks at Iona. "I don't know you from half the Cure's in this world but I do know this. You will not fair well against The Pretty Cure Hunter. If he is half as strong as I have heard it will take everyone of us here to take him down."

Then Cure Princess states her name. Daybreak smiles to her. "Its a pleasure to meet you, Hime-San." Then its back to Iona and her comment. Daybreak shakes her head and winces a little. "What an awful think to say about someone, especially when they are right here, in the room with you. Its harsh."

She is just about to say something more but Cure Wukong goes off on her Motivational speech. She smiles and listens carefully to her. She nods occasionally supporting what she has to say. Finally when she finishes, Daybreak speaks up. "First thing's First. Blue-sama didn't send me here. I picked the mirror because I thought no one would be here. I didn't want to come out of the mirror in my dorm because I would be seen coming out and I didn't want a tardy for the day." She pauses. "Now onto the important thing. Cure Wukong is right. We all need to work together. Not because its easy or because its more fun. We need to work together because we are Stronger together. I learned this lesson working with the Bomber Girls Precure in America. I was sent there because a threat from here was sent there to fight them. They couldn't handle that threat themselves. Blue-sama asked me to go. Its why I've been away from Tokyo for so long. I couldn't take that threat alone, but when we worked together, we became a hundred times stronger. We took down the threat several times until they came back here." She states as she looks at Iona.

"We need to work together. Its our only hope of taking down the precure hunter and not joining into his... His nightmare." She shudders having heard of the grave yard. "None of us deserve what he does to the Precure he takes down. Now I haven't been a precure as long as some others but I am someone who helps others every chance she gets. I am going to help you two to at least tolerate each other so we can all work together and take down the Phantom Empire."

Iona Hikawa has posed:
"Nobody chose me. Blue has never decided to make me a Precure, let alone met me", she specifies to Cho. "I fight only to actually help people and find my sister, not to get along with her."

Glasan chooses that moment just to pop out. "Hello, Cure Daybreak, sorry you had to come out here in these circumstances", she apologises tensily for Iona. "She is Iona Hikawa, or Cure Fortune. My name is Glasan, hi!", the fairy tries to add some pep into the atmosphere.

"Glasan, nobody asked you to do that. What do you think, that it's going to give them any leverage now they know my names?" she complains to her mascot.

She shoots a glance to Hime. Of course, she is taking part in the introductions as if normal, just like Glasan. Iona looks back to Cho. "Konishi-san, you are welcome to train at the Dojo anytime you want, but I cannot accept your help as long as you back up Hime."

And of course Cure Daybreak doesn't know anything. "Let me tell you the truth, Cure Daybreak. This girl is responsible for the Phantom Empire's threat. She is the one who opened the Box of Axia and let them go free. If people are suffering under its threat and losing loved ones to it, that's on her."

Glasan levitates close to Iona's face. "That's no excuse to ignore what Cho and Daybreak are telling you, Iona! You know how fearsome the Precure Hunter is, please don't let your hatred towards Hime blind you."

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Hime yelps softly when Cho puts her arm around her shoulders, but then she realizes she's being defended...and loudly! She blinks and her cheeks color as she glances at the standing Cho, and then from Daybreak to Iona. "I am not good in a fight. And I'm scared a lot," she says softly. "...But I did better this fight then I did the one before. And I will do better next time as well." She looks up at Cho, then, her eyes practically sparking. "You'll train me?," she whispers in awe.

Then Daybreak steals her attention, and the bluenette sets her jaw and nods quickly. "We're gonna lose if we're not all together. Even the good fighters..." She trails off and flicks her gaze to Iona, trying not to wilt immediatly when she turns her attention to her.

"...I'm sorry you never met Blue," she adds at the end of all of Iona's bitter words. "We should change that. We should all go see him. Soon. I'm...he's really smart and kind, and he knows more about the PreCures and the War then any of us ever will. We...mabye that will help?," she offers, desperate for anything to grab onto regarding the purple haired girl.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi sighed and gave Hime a comforting look, patting her shoulders. It... wasn't her fault that things had gone horribly. She hoped. Try as she might, she just couldn't see a situation where the bluenette would try and cause this kind of disaster. And sure, Cho made disasters and stuff all the time ,but they weren't intentional. It was just... magic. She nodded along with Daybreak. More importantly, the other girl was... good. Apparently, getting summoned by Blue-sama (who, admittedly, she hadn't met him either but he SOUNDED amazing.)

Meanwhile, Wuwu was on the tree, watching with the muffin in tail, taking a bite and cocking an eye. This was going nowhere, as far as he could tell. He, however, saw a solution...

Cho, meanwhile, cringed at the mention of the box. Hime... Hime really had done a lot of damage. She smiled down at her none-the-less. "Of course I'll help train you. We're both cures, aren't we?" Cho asked.

"You know, Cho," Wuwu called out. "You're all cures, but their power comes from Blue. Yours comes from me. We're similiar, but not the same. Their battle isn't ours."

"Of course it is!" Cho snapped, her anger getting riled. Which, frankly, Wuwu was prepared for and expecting.

He tossed the muffin into his mouth and then chewed, talking around it despite the sheer rudeness of it. "My point is, this whole mess? Seems like it's Hime's fault. You don't want the Iona girl to run off on her own, you're not a part of their fight to begin with. The princess there obviously needs someone to take care of her as she gets her feet under her. So why not have a challenge?" Wuwu asked. "The whole thing with Scorn is Hime's fault too, isn't it? So, girl, how about you show you can clean up after yourself? I'll let my cure train with you. Learn, grow, all that. Next time she shows up?" The monkey leaped down, landing on the back of Hime's chair before jumping onto the table and taking a cookie, stuffing it into his mouth. "Prove you actually *can* learn from all this. And if Iona here still doesn't think you're worth it? Then she wins. Wukong won't help you anymore, she'll just help Iona." He chewed loudly, aggravatingly, as Cho looked ready to make some monkey kebobs, her eye twitching. "After all, if you can't get any better, you'll just Cure Wukong hurt and I don't want one of Blue's girls dragging my representative down."

Now, his goal here was really to just get Iona to at least see how hard, how sincere Hime could be... but frankly? Even he didn't see the depths of the pain inflicted on her heart.

He did, however, see when Cho tried to lunge and grab him. He leaped over her grab with ease, the plate of muffins on his tail, and leaped off her back, sending her down on the table before he leaped away into a tree, climbing up it to eat the muffins.

To the table's credit, it managed to remain standing, despite Cho having collapsed off it now. It only spilled a little tea from the collission, even. "I hate you... Wuwu... ow..."

"You're still a few lifetimes too young to grab me, kid!" Wuwu called down at her, before looking to Iona and waiting for her answer.

Mio Morita has posed:
Daybreak smiles, "So we are all on the same ground." She powers down. Her henshin breaks leaving her mundane form standing there. "Mio Morita. A pleasure to meet you all." She smiles and gives a polite bow.

Then her attention turns to Iona. "And?" She shakes her head. "Do you think Hime-san doesn't carry the weight of that every day? She made a mistake. That is on her. She is a Precure and she is doing what she can to undo the damage done. Would you rather she be tied up and beat with a stick so she can physically suffer as well as emotionally and mentally? What punishment should she deal with to quell your anger? How much is enough? You can choose to run off on your own and fight your battles trying to take on the Phantom Empire by yourself which you know they have been getting stronger. Or you can team up with Hime-san and help make sure she doesn't wind up in Phantom's hell." She frowns and shakes her head. "Like it or not, we are going to draw him here sooner or later."

Then Wuwu presented his idea. A means to show Hime as dedicated to the fight. Its a sound idea and one that will get Iona a teammate no matter if Hime succeeds or fails. "We could do that..." She frowns. She would much rather this be resolved than pin it all on a bunch of theatrics. "I will stand by Hime-san and I will stand by you Iona-san. We are Precures and we want the same thing. The end of the Phantom Empire so we can actually have our world back... Have our friends and family back too."

She pauses and shakes her head. "I hope you have heard what we are saying. I hope that maybe you can soften your heart just a little to see that maybe helping Hime-san is a good thing. I can hope for a lot of things but honestly, none of it is going to change anything. Only you can do that."

Iona Hikawa has posed:
"Like I would want to meet Blue. I have no intention of meeting someone who is known to disparage and forbid love among his Precures", she rebukes Hime. "Love is something important, that has to grow and be cultivated. To just deny that... No, I want nothing to do with him either." Her gaze is still hard, but this time not due to resentment, but due to deeply held convinction.

A startled look of surprise appears on her face when Wukong addresses them from his tree, offering yet another way to mend the bridge over to Hime. Really, why do they all want to take her side? Should she really forget all that happened? All that Hime is responsible for?

"That's a no from me", Iona replies frustration ever growing to Wuwu. "Please, stay out of this business. You can choose to bersmirch your reputation or not, that's your call, but I will have no part in this part as long as Hime is even remotely involved."

"And don't you think I don't want to associate with someone who is responsible for my sister's inprisonment?" Iona bites back at Daybreak. "Think all you want of me, I can be the worst person you know if you want to think that, I am out."

With that she walks away, only taking the time to wave at Glasan to come her. The fairy stares sadly at the rest of the group before following Iona.

Hime Shirayuki has posed:
Hime blinks as the two defend her. She glancesd back and forth between them, her blue eyes wide as she tries to follow along with it. She nods eagerly at the monkey's offer. "Yeah! That sounds gr-..." And then Iona ia rejecting the offer, and she wilts a bit back into her chair. She watches the girl/enemy storm out before she lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Dang it."

She tuirns in her chair, then, sulking a bit before she takes note of the issue with the table and CHo. "...You okay?"

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cho Konishi gave a soft, weak little whimper. "N-not really..." she said softly. "That... hurt." In the end, however... it seemed their pleading was for naught. Slowly she cralwed back to her feet and glared at Wuwu. "What was that for?"

Wuwu just shrugged. "I'm standing by it, even if she said no. Hime? You better work hard on getting stronger. Blue has a whole bunch of you girls. The only cure I have is Cho. If the angry girl won't be judging you? Then I will. And if you can't meet my expectations? Then I won't let her help you any more. Cure Wukong has enough issues going on without getting dragged into Blue's mess," Wuwu said before tossing another muffin into his mouth, then uptipping the plate and dumping them ALL in his mouth, before giving a massive belch. Greedy monkey.

"You can't do that!" Cho yelled, glaring at him.

Wuwu just shrugged. "I can do what I want. Better work hard, Princess." And then, he leaped away.

Cho groaned and face palmed. "Well... that... could have gone better. Uhhhh... Mio-san? It was great meeting you. Please don't think too poorly of Hikawa-san. I'm... I'm certain we'll get through to her eventually." He then looked to Hime and held out her hand.

"In the meantime? How about we head out and start practicing. I wanna see more of your princess machine gun! And your other attacks!" she said, smiling down as encouragingly as she could... then blinked.

"Oh, right. But ummm, after you've had as much tea and cookies as you like."