2908/Aoi's First Day

Aoi's First Day
Date of Scene:	14 January 2026
Location:	Cafeteria Plaza
Synopsis:	Aoi Mizuno was erased from reality by the Unfinished Girl -- and now she's got new friends. One new 'friend' in particular...
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Mamoru Chiba, Rashmi Terios, Amanda Faust, Adora Rainbowfist

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
It's taken a little while for Radiant Heart to get everything in order.

Aoi Mizuno is not the first child to appear from nothing and suddenly need -every- form of documentation available and adult support. She absolutely will not be the last, either -- but these things /do/ take some time to organize and assessments were needed. And it's not like Aoi could say 'So a Nightmare of some kind erased me from reality altogether and now my own family doesn't even recognize me'.

Well, she probably could to -some- people... but it wouldn't really have made much of a difference. The wheels of bureaucracy had to turn regardless.

Now, today is her first day of attending actual classes at Radiant Heart.

Emi had walked her to her new home room for the day. She'd been checking in with her, see, and making sure she was hanging in there. It's not like she was the only one, either.

The long haired girl fresh in her radiant heart uniform sits down in the black of the classroom, looking every bit the awkward, uncomfortable new girl in class.

Emi and her share home room. Given that the already knew each other, this makes plenty of sense. Gives her a vaguely familiar face in her environs -- even if Emi spends a lot of time half-asleep and barely paying attention until someone chucks an eraser at her.

She always catches it.

First morning break time of the day comes around and she takes Aoi on a walk -- helping her get more familiar with the Campus.

"... this place is fancy," says Aoi.

Emi makes a face, tugging her uniform jacket.

"Tell me about it. I'm -still- not used to the fancy."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And a god-damned handsome third-year high-schooler jogs up, fluffy hair up in the breeze before it settles when he stops, and takes his glasses off to polish them with a microfiber cloth that looks like a fried egg. It's all as he's saying, "Aoi-san, Emi-san, how are you doing?"

It's Mamoru, obviously, but then all of a sudden he looks uncertain-- the veil is the veil, after all, and he doesn't remember if he took his mask off for her. "Mamoru Chiba," he introduces himself, "I got forgotten with you. I don't have any idea what you remember, I'm sorry if I'm being overcautious."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Oh that was you!" Aoi says, more excitedly. "I almost didn't recognize you." Check: completely didn't recognize him.

"Yeah, sorry that happened to you," says Emi to Mamoru. "I had no idea that Nightmare had gotten that powerful." Her face creases with concern about that.

Aoi just sort of looks at Emi for a moment and then shrugs her shoulders before turning back to Mamoru.

"Cool, cool. Emi's just hanging out with me. Man, you're tall."

"RIGHT? It's unfair."

They chat with Mamoru for a while, of course, for the duration of the break. Emi is still a bit foggy after all this time, like she's not completely recovered from what happened in Kyoto, and she mentions that Bliss-Chan -- "Who?" says Aoi -- showed up around christmas time in case Mamoru hadn't heard.

Soon enough, the bell rings and they're on their way back to class.

Lunch time is the next break of the day and a trip to the cafeteria is warranted.

"You know," says Aoi to Emi, "I thought the cafeteria at -my- high school was fancy but this is ridiculous."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The 'cafeteria' is its own little indoor plaza, and one of the tables near the doors is currently occupied by a pair of redheads, both familiar to Emi. The one with large, round glasses turns her head the moment Emi and Aoi open the door, and her entire face just blooms in a wide, cheery grin. "Emi-chaaaan~!" she calls, lifting up a hand and waving. "I barely see you at lunch! C'mon, you and your friend sit with us!"

As if this wasn't a plan hatched in advance, to ensmoothen Aoi's acclimation to a brand new school and new life.

But few things make a new kid feel more welcome, than having people ask them to sit with them at lunch.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Lunch. Amy doesn't have a group she usually sits with when not with mahoujin. She had resolved to try and start talking to people more, but it's hard.

    Fortunately, today she has friends to sit with anyway! The redhead smiles and waves when Rashmi says she sees Aoi, although behind that smile is a bit of concern. "Hiiii! And Emi-- yeah, we barely see you at lunch!"

    Amy realizes that Aoi may not have seen them out of henshin. "Oh um... I was the girl with the red eyes and red hair. ...Yeah I know, the veil is weird."

    "...Especially in my case. People recognizing me as who I used to be is uh... not possible, because magic was involved, so..."

    Amy looks at Aoi a moment, suddenly unsure of how to phrase this even though she's gone over the conversation in her head multiple times this morning.

    "I, uh. Also came in here, two and a half years ago, with no identity or past or..." She looks away. "Well, maybe you don't want to talk about that right now. But if you ever need someone to talk to about it... I'm happy to listen. There's people from other worlds, and even someone from the 70's, but... I don't think there's anyone else from Earth, in the present, who was just... Yeah."

    Not wanting to end on that note, she looks back to Aoi with an awkward smile. "Oh, you gotta try the food here! It's amazingly good for a school cafeteria!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Other woooooorlds?" says Aoi, eyes getting bigger at the same time her world is expanding to include more and more things!

Emi makes a face at the attention being called to her that she's rarely at lunch. This is true.

"Yeah, I usually grab a snack and head back to my room for a nap. Time moves differently in my dreamscape so I can like ... get some extra thinking done or whatever."

Aoi mouths 'dreamscape' then gives her whole self a little shake. She bows towards Amy and Rashmi (she would've bowed towards Mamoru too but she was too busy being in awe of him and excited to see him) for the moment and she just sort of introduces herself to Rashmi too. "I'm Aoi," she offers.

"Yeadh, this is Aoi," agrees Emi with a slight, weary smile.

Lunch will proceed apace. Aoi seems more at ease thanks to the warm welcome, even if Emi's not comfortable. But then again, when IS Emi comfortrable?

After lunch, the day proceeds and it's eventually time for the last break of the day before school gets out. Emi's taken Aoi out to the athletics field, talking to her about the various clubs to see if she can find one that she wants to try to join.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Break time! One of the best times of the day when going to school. While Adora actually takes very well to her schoolwork and has been thriving in the structured setting of Radiant Heart Academy, she still found herself looking forward to break time each day.

If there had been a plan made, Adora likely is completely oblivious to them, because frankly, she's pretty one-track-mind and so when she's at school, she's usually /completely/ focused on it. Or she's struggling to focus because she's thinking about other things. Usually various friends or enemies, and situations around them to be honest.

She /does/ pay decent attention to the people at school though, and Aoi Mizuno is 'new'... possibly a forgotten new but whatever it's fine.

Towards the end of the day, even though she thrives in the structure of the school, one can almost see the steam coming out of her ears from all the thinking and work she'd had to do all day while trying very hard not to think about other things like her friends and how cool so many of them are and --

Oh hey new person.

Out on the athletic's field, Adora has taken the chance to cool off by just doing PHYSICAL THINGS. "Oh, hey, I don't think I know you two very well! I'm Adora Rainbowfist, nice to meet you both! If you're looking for a fun club, the Cooking club and the Equestrian clubs are really fun!" She gives a cheerful, friendly smile as she waves towards the both of them, looking towards the two.

Hm! "I'm going to bake some cupcakes later if you two wanna drop by and have some." She offers with a smile, giving her dorm room number to the two. Obviously, she was going to bake in the Home Ec room, since there was no way there was anywhere else that had ovens, but that's beside the point.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Oh hey," says Emi to Adora when she they're in passing and Adora introduces herself. The name never fails to amuse her. 'Adora Rainbowfist' makes her lips twitch. Just a little>

Aoi looks kinda flummoxed, but clearly Adora'd overheard enough of the conversation to offer her thoughts. Cooking club. Equestrian club. The latter makes Aoi's eyes get big. Could she be a horse girl? Could she? She'd never thought about it-- and it wasn't exacvtly available back at her other school...
"HHmmmmmm," she's thinking. "Cupcakes? Sure. Sounds cool."

Emi sorta nods. "We're gonna hang out after class -- maybe we'll see you then," she tells Adora.

Indeed, once school is over, Emi has brought Aoi back to the courtyard, having texted Mamoru, Amy and Rashmi that she was going to do just that. Time for everyone to hang out, it seems, even as Aoi seems fairly exhausted and bewildered by her first day. She's met a lot of people, talked to a lot of people, gotten a lot of work done, and had a lot to handle. And Emi wants to make sure she has a ring of people around her at the time, even if this kind of socializing isn't her speed, really.

Still, they've settled, and everyone has a chance to asettle in with some tea. That's what Aoi's got. Boba is the answer to everything.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Mission success! And with an after-school hangout in the offing, Rashmi texts back that she's going to be very slightly late. The reason for this, Emi probably clocks on the way out of the class building, as a very specific shape flies overhead toward one of the confectioners that keeps shop near the campus, borne aloft by dragonfly wings of golden light attached to her ankles.

So when she *does* show up, it's from the direction of the school gates, with a big box of assorted cookies to go with boba. Boba makes everything better, but cookies make it *magical.*

"So I'm not sure what you like, Aoi-san," she says in place of 'hello,' "so I made sure to get a little of everything. First pick's yours, and welcome to Radiant Heart!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Equestrian club. Is there anything Radiant Heart Academy doesn't have?

    Amy shows up from the direction of her last class. "Ooh, cookies!" She smiles brightly at Rashmi's offer, and comments as an aside to Aoi, "We know a few people who bake cookies, you'll probably get to try Taro-kun's or Chiyo-san's eventually."

    ...has Emi even had their cookies?

    Then she actually looks over Aoi and sees how overwhelmed she looks. "Oh... first day is... is something, alright. But... you're among friends, if you just want to chill quietly, that's fine too." She's gotten one kind or another of sweet tea, herself.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora grins towards the two and would happily chatter with them about the clubs until that mention of the hanging out after class. "Sure! I'll bring the cupcakes then, then!" Adora says cheerfully, and then later...

After class, when they meet to hang out, Adora /does/ bring cookies. They are a mixture of the Unicorn type cupcakes, a mixture of colors with a kind of tutti-fruiti kind of flavor to them, along with some Red Velvet cupcakes and some plain vanilla cupcakes because if nothing else almost everyone at least tolerates vanilla cupcakes even if they don't necessarily like much else.

Boba, cookies, and home-made cupcakes. They're going to have so many leftovers to take home with them. "Hey again!" She says cheerfully towards the two as she brings out those cupcakes to set on the table. She's gotten pretty good at cooking/baking over her time at Radiant Heart Academy apparently! Oh, and Rashmi and others are here! "Hey Rashmi, good to see you, and Amy too!" She says, giving a grin and wave towards the two as she takes a seat. "So you guys met with these two as well earlier, huh?"

...Seriously she wasn't part of the plans she was just a golden retriever doing golden retriever things.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Afterschool-Mamoru is wearing his leather jacket instead of his uniform blazer, and he's not carrying anything but his phone, on which he is texting as he walks slowly toward the little group. He's smiling as he pockets his phone and swings into one of the open seats, backwards, one leg under him like some kind of token bi.

"I," he says, "only brought magic candy. Because I figured everyone who knew how to make delicious things would bring them. I'm probably as much of an introvert as Emi-san here, but I'm better at tanking. Unfortunately, my fiancee is the extrovert, and she's off with the other girls."

He reaches for a cupcake, sliding Rashmi a glance and ostentatiously trying to sneak one of the cookies while she's not looking, before Aoi does, just because he's being Like That.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Cookies! Cupcakes! Friends!

It's all going so well. SO well. Emi is happy. Aoi needs the support. Aoi isn't...

... Okay, it's hard to call her happy, how could she be? Everything that's happened has taken its toll, but she's trying to be okay and this all helps a lot. She scarfs a cupcake and a cookie, and when she has a moment. Conversation ensues. Just light chatter. She talks about her day, meeting everyone, class...

"I just wanted to say thank you," says Aoi, "But... yeah! I mean, I always saw this place whenever I was downtown and I'd seen the students and everything but I had no idea it was like --- magic and stuff?" She looks around, wide eyed. "It's so weird. Everything about it is weird! I mean, it's great -- but weird! Anyway... really. I appreciate it. All of you. For making me feel welcome. But weird."

"Even your mascot is weird."

"...mascot?" says Emi -- quite possibly at the same time as everyoen else.

"Yeah," continues Aoi, "the weird cat thing?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"--oh god no--" Mamoru says, eyes wide, fumbling his cupcake almost into his lap. He looks in alarm at Amy, whose job THAT one is.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Mamoru's play for 'actually the first at getting a cookie' is not met with a slap of the hand or a warning, or anything of the kind. She just smiles. Eyes closed, bright smile, one specific one she'd been trying to copy from Lindy-mama. The smile that says 'You know exactly what will happen to you if you keep doing what you're doing but I would *never* be so much of a mood-killer as to *threaten* it.'

But, sadly, the threat implied by that smile will not be followed up on, as Aoi drops an innocent conversational bomb into the moment.

'Weird cat thing.'

Rashmi chokes on her tea at the exact time Mamoru bobbles his cupcake, and it's a moment before she can get her breathing back to normal. "So uh... Amy-chan's the best one to tell you about him," she says, thumping her chest. "But short form... If it's a cat with weird long ear-hair that looks like hands? You wanna stay as far away from that thing as possible. It... could cause you a lot, a *lot* of problems."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Oh hey, Mamoru! Adora scoots over towards him to take one of his magic candies. "It's fine, Mamoru! I'm glad that you're here, at least! It's too bad Usagi couldn't show though, she's like, the best at making new friends!" She says popping one of those candies into her mouth. Now that they're out of school she's changed into her pink jacket and pants combo, comfortable, mostly fashionable, definitely cozy.

And then they mention a certain weird cat thing. "Uh. Yeah if you see the weird cat thing with extra ears... Kick it and run." Adora says straightforwardly towards Aoi in agreement with Rashmi. "You're welcome though! I mean, I just saw a pair of new faces and wanted to introduce myself, so I don't think thanks are /really/ needed but hey~."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh boy, there's also cupcakes? and magic candy?

    But Aoi isn't... happy. Amy reflects back to her own first days of class. She was so excited. School was a pain, but people wanted to talk to the cute new girl, the foreign transfer student, and didn't generally regard her with disgust when she was, for the most part, weird and bluntly honest. And of course, there was magic. And she got to be a girl.

    Mamoru mentions his wife the extrovert, and that phrasing calls to mind her own briefly-shared vision of How Usagi Tsukino Sees Socializing.

    Amy could never match that, but she thinks about how this situation is different.

    Amy's friends were few, and none she'd known IRL or online were as close as the friends she has at Radiant Heart. Aoi... Amy thinks back to that party. To how many were uncomfortable every time the missing girl, the hole in their memories -- Amy remembers what it felt like to feel the lack left where her memory of Mamoru was -- and suspects that Aoi indeed had a lot of friends. And perhaps a family that she's close to.

    And she gets to know about the world of magic, but does not get to wield that power to help people.

    And getting to find out what being a girl is like isn't a special treat for her, nor is free room and board and freedom from bills and taxes and whatnot.

    Yeah okay this does kinda seem like a net negative, and Amy can't help looking at her with a bit of pity.

    But she smiles again as Aoi speaks. "Great but weird, and welcome but weird... yeah, that's a good way to describe it. The school... isn't all magic, but it..." Now is not the time to explain the Candidus Cordus, although, Amy reflects, if Aoi remains without magic herself, she might have a place with them someday. "...has sort of ended up as a gathering spot and safe haven for mahoujin -- as we've come to call ourselves since 'mahou shoujo' is-- well, we're not all shoujo, after all."

    Amy then briefly stares into the middle space in confusion, her thoughts having lost their stack pointer.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> Even your mascot is weird.
    "What, Kenken?" Amy assumes she means Emi's mascot.

> the weird cat thing?
    Amy blinks. "Cat thing?" The others make the connection slightly faster than Amy, who is still confused by thinking Aoi is talking about Emi's mascot in some weirdly mistaken way, than that she's come to the conclusion some particular critter is the school's' mascot.

    Red eyes look at Mamoru in confusion, but then Rashmi's description-- Amy looks at Aoi in alarm for if it's recognized or not.

    "God damn it, he's after you? ...Of course he is. I'm surprised he hasn't offered you a wish yet, in retrospect. ...Has he offered you a wish?"

    Whatever the answer, Amy exposits, "That is... Kyuubey. As you've probably guessed, he's invisible to people unaware of magic. He is not the school's magic. He's..." How can she put this...

    "He's an alien. An alien alien. The wishes he offers are real, but will not fix other problems in your life, and the cost..."

    Amy lifts her hand from her lap and looks at her ring. The ruby-red is marred by blackness around one side, not a sliver but not yet a great fraction either, perhaps an eighth or a tenth of its volume so corrupted; it's hard to judge precisely with such a small stone from a distance.

    "You become a magical girl, but in millenia of history only one of us who took the deal has escaped a terrible death so far." Two were brought back, yes, but she doesn't need to get into that. "It remains to be seen if any of us currently alive will, and I'm hopeful since I have so many wonderful friends, but uh. Yeah."

    She looks back to Aoi and grimaces awkwardly. "It's a fate worse than death, if we don't find a way. And it can hurt other people. I wouldn't deny anyone the choice having benefitted from it myself, but if you ever decide you must have a wish that badly, get full knowledge of the deal first, from us."

    "For the most part, we've taken to killing him on sight, or seeing how far we can kick him."

    Amy blinks. "He comes back. Those bodies are like drones. He always has more."

    SO YEAH. MORE WEIRDNESS.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Now, Emi has met Kyubey exactly once. It was a weird moment in her earlier days at Radiant Heart, and she put it out of her mind basically immediately. She's learned enough since then to understand that it is bad news, so when she says 'weird cat thing', she sort of looks back and forth with alarm as everyone else is responding in degrees of alarm and horror. As the various explanations are offered, however, Aoi is just sort of looking between them in abject confusion -- and she winds up staring long and hard at Amy with even more befuddlement.

She opens her mouth, then stops. Smooths her hands down her school uniform's skirt.

"... wait he's not the mascot? But he said ..."

Aoi's face crinkles up with even more confusion. No, what definitely happened is that Aoi somehow came to that conclusion and he let her -think- that he was without any kind of deception whatsoever on his part. Because that's how he rolls, of course.

Aoi scratches the side of her head.

"... he did," says she stutters after a moment, "that we'd talk about my 'wishes' next time we met," she offers, weakly. Become a magical girl. Horrible deaths. "Uh. I think I've already had one horrible death already so I probably don't need two. An ALIEN. Okay. Uhm..."

She's looking increasingly overwhelmed.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru pushes more of the candy over to Adora with a quick, worried smile. "If you want magic, let us work on that for you, okay? We'll find something else. Anything you could wish for that seems impossible, let us work for ways to fix things for you before you do something so drastic, that's all," Mamoru says to Aoi.

A pause. "Do you want us to let you chill for a while? We can be a lot."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"It's okay," Rashmi says gently. "Just... yeah, Mamo-san's got it. Also, and this will probably be more pertinent; we *love* helping out our friends. Up to and including solving bully problems. So if something... *anything* goes wrong, let us know, okay?"

The bespectacled redhead smiles, head tipping to one side. "You're among friends, Aoi-chan. We've got your back."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora nods along as Amy properly explains the situation with Kyubey, not really having too much more to add to that beyond reinforcing the 'kicking him' part with a sage nod. "Yes, kicking him." Pause. And then she sees something. Something horrifying. Aoi ... looks... /overwhelmed/.

The gears in Adora's head begin to turn rapidly, and then she quickly grabs one of the cupcakes and sets it in Aoi's hands. Because nobody can be overwhelmed or panicked while they're focused on a cupcake instead, right?

Right???

Talk of others helping her find magic gets Adora making a slight shifty-eyed look. She's She-Ra, right, maybe she could... wait no that only works with animals. And while people are animals too, that's not the same, she could maybe... hm... share her aura with her or something maybe? Though that's less effective without other princesses. Hrm. "Yeah! Or if you don't want magic, we can always help make sure you /don't/ get magic."

And she pops another one of those candies into her mouth. Wait, wasn't there some warning about eating too many magic candies? Oh well, whatever.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Red eyes give Aoi a questioning look when she implies Kyubey said he was a mascot, but her expression suggests she's realizing he didn't actually say that. She simply nods when it's admitted that wishes were mentioned, and when Aoi says that being forgotten was already one horrible fate.

    She glances at the others and gives an awkward, weak smile. "Thank you for not being mad at me for telling her the wishes are real. I'm not comfortable lying about this."

    If someone happens to be looking at just the right spot at just the right moment, they might see red eyes peek around a corner and then a flash of white tail as the Incubator turns and runs pre-emptively. Yeah no now is not the time for him to force a confrontation.

    Amy wasn't looking in that direction. She smiles at the others' words, "Having friends -- real friends -- truly is wonderful. I'm still getting used to the idea that I can ask for help with anything, there isn't... anything where we have to suffer alone without help."

    "And if you just need to chill for a bit... believe me, as much as I love informing and problem solving, I get that feel, and others do too. No one will think less of you if you don't like... meet some kind of friendship quota, or something."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
So, overwhelmed is definitely the look on Aoi's face. Everyone is trying to help -- is helping -- but that's still a lot to take. "A wish..."

Aoi's wheels are turning slowly. For those that know, it's probably not hard to fathom where her wishes might go. The offer of magic, is a distraction from that train of thought. "That's like even a thing?" She says, scratching her head, sputtering. It was not exactly what she was thinking about, but it's definitely a distraction and she just sort of goes with it. The cupcake is held between her hands and she just takes a bite from it. Munches slowly.

"Okay," she says after a long moment. Trying to work her way through it.

Emi looks worried, herself. Aoi looks up.

"Friends are good," she agrees.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"It is a thing," Rashmi says, bobbing her head. "And I know things are weird and overwhelming, but... in some ways, magic makes the world *incredibly amazing.* Like... Now that you're part of the world, you get to learn a secret."

She leans in, placing a chocolate-orange cookie into Aoi's hands. "Mermaids are real, they are *fantastic singers,* and a Mermaid Princess probably has homeroom a few doors down from you."

Why does everything magic have to be *dangerous,* after all? Wonder exists, and is even better when it's real.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    That's even a thing? Amy smiles, "Yeah. We can't promise any given magic works for you, or that there's an available Device or anything, but we can look into it, or have people check if you can awaken as a Pretty Cure or something."

    Amy nods, confirming the revelation that mermaids are real fantastic singers and at least two mermaid princesses go to this school.

    Friends are good.

    Amy smiles.

    "Friends are good."