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Summer vacation had come and gone, unfortunate as it was, and in its wake heralded the arrival of fall... and the return to school. For the average, well-adjusted youth who happened to like going to school, this probably meant actually doing their schoolwork, and focusing on getting good grades so as to get into a good college or something. For an idiot like Lepus, though, who absolutely detested going to school with every fiber of her being, it meant the exact opposite.

She still attended class, of course, albeit begrudgingly, but she had always been certain to only put in the bare minimum needed not to be expelled, because as much as she disliked going to Crystal, there was still the knowledge that her mother wouldn’t accept any alternatives. At the very least, she was in 11th grade now… not that that came as much of a relief, given she still had one more year left to go after this. It helped though, to try thinking of this as the ‘home stretch’ until her freedom had been earned.

Autumn had gone by rather uneventful, save for that really weird dream that probably wasn’t actually a dream, where she had been trapped in an abandoned village for a couple weeks at the mercy of the big bad forest monster that had brought them all there. While she was no stranger to being transported to other dimensions, Alise had to admit there was something pretty sus about the whole ordeal. Ultimately, it had been forgotten all about pretty quickly enough, as she decided she wasn’t too concerned about the finer details, other than that they had gotten home one way or another in the end. Winter was here now, which meant winter break.

(It also usually heralded the arrival of yet even more strange occurrences happening around town, but details.)

Originally, Alise had been out on a stroll, accompanied by Etoile hidden away in her little backpack as usual. She hadn’t had any set plans in mind when she had set out, other than that she had wanted to get out of the house, because if she had to listen to her grandparents and her mother talk about her future, she was going to have an awfully miserable time that would make it awfully hard to resist the temptation to go spend a couple days holing up in the Temple of Lepus, talking to nobody but invisible ghosts. However, a flash of white caught her attention, and- were those… yes! It had been ages, but it seemed that once more, there were rabbits running around Destiny City.

Suddenly, Alise forgot all about whatever else she had potentially wanted to do, a new game plan forming in her mind. She had to catch one of those rabbits, no matter what it took- she’d been unable to get close enough to catch one last time, but she was older now, and wiser… maybe? Well, either way, Alise was going to get herself a bunny or two to take home with her.

You know, for science. And not to keep as a pet or anything.

Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, Alise ducked into a nearby ally and powered up, before dashing back out in pursuit of those fluffy lagomorphs. She’d get herself a new minion yet!

It didn't take long for Lepus to be successful in her quest to acquire one of the fluffy white rabbits roaming around, given that the ones that were wandering about this year were tamer than the ones a couple years back. In fact, the rabbits this year, while oddly cold to the touch and exuding snowflakes on occasion, were awful friendly, and were perfectly fine with being picked up and held, with no risk of being bitten. It made for a very successful mission, and Lepus felt satisfied at a job well done.

Busy basking in her victory, Lepus wasn't paying as close attention as she should have been, and thus was still under the impression that she was alone when she powered down. After all, who could have possibly thought to follow after her, aside from Etoile, who she had sent to run interference in case the rabbits turned out to be evasive to catch?

That was, of course, until Alise realized that she had powered down in front of Cinta. Momentarily flabbergasted, she felt a rare sense of panic rise up.

"Wha- you... you...!" Alise struggled to find the words to say, while still keeping up with the facade of the persona she presented usually, "You there! Tell me what you saw."

'Being caught by a classmate while powering down' wasn't exactly anywhere on Alise's top 10 list of things she expected to ever happen, and she struggled to formulate a plan on the spot. Revealing her powered identity to friends was only ever a thing she did intentionally, when she had confirmation one way or another that they had a powered identity, too, and as far as she could recall, hadn't she and Etoile already confirmed that Cinta was just... an ordinary human? Alise could have taken advantage of the confusion, convinced Cinta that she was just imagining things, that the cold weather must have clouded her senses, but it was too risky, too much of a gamble, even if she normally was all about taking risks and not being concerned with the potential danger.

She really needed a 'break glass in case of emergency' things, except it would be labeled 'break glass in case of classmate discovering your secret life'.

As Alise continued to attempt to figure out how to explain this one away, salvation came unexpectedly, in the form one one tiny Mauvian. Etoile, having caught up with Alise, came up from behind Cinta, blissfully unaware of the awkward spot that her partner had been put into. "Oh, Alise! You caught a bunny already? That was fast!"

Quickly, Alise saw an opportunity for a 'Plan B', and jumped at the chance. Turning her attention to Cinta, her voice took on a serious (yet cryptic) tone. "I'm afraid you've seen too much," she told Cinta, slowly walking towards her, the snow rabbit she caught still in her arms, "You can't be allowed to leave."

And then,

"Alright, Etoile, run interference, cut ‘em off at the pass, whatever- don't let her get away! Block her from escaping!" she called out to her Mauvian companion. Nevermind that Etoile was a tiny kitten and Cinta could just, pick her up and walk away or anything. In Alise's mind, surely Cinta would be too intimidated and confused to try to run away, if she was surrounded on both sides.

Just as quickly as she had come up with it, Alise's very 'genius' plan was foiled... all because she had failed to take into account that Cinta loved cats, and just so happened to make a hobby out of making homemade treats for them. She probably shouldn't have placed the amount of faith she did in her on-the-fly plan, but such was the fate of about 50% of the plans she came up with.

She'd just have to hope that Etoile had, like, some sort of amnesia-inducing power. Like those neuralyzers from MIB, or something.

Etoile, meanwhile, was extremely out of the loop as to what was going on, having only just arrived on the scene. Alise had told her to stop her classmate from leaving, except then Cinta had scooped up the little kitten unexpectedly. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing- Etoile was very much a people person- but it was certainly a surprise! She blinked, recalling Cinta as someone she had technically met before, a year or two ago when Alise had smuggled her onto the fairgrounds, to try sensing if Cinta was a potential senshi or not.

At the time, Etoile couldn't sense anything, but now, held in Cinta's arms, with a treat being offered to her, she squinted, sensing... something. Could she have been wrong? Alise probably would be relieved to know that... maybe.

"Oh, hello! Is it a sweet treat? Because I really like sweets," the kitten cheerfully replied, completely fine with talking to Cinta like it was no big deal, "If you have anything sweet for me to eat, I'll give you something in return!"

"Um... yeah?" Alise replied, as if it weren't already obvious, "I told you I had a cat, didn't I? Or at least, I'm pretty sure I remember telling you?"

Granted, she hadn't told Cinta that she owned a talking kitten, nor had she ever actually shown Etoile to her classmate, citing the need for secrecy, but surely Cinta could connect the dots, yes? Actually, wait- why were they even chatting casually like this? She was supposed to be stopping Cinta from running away! Except... well... the very Mauvian that was supposed to be helping with this was currently sitting very cozy-like in Cinta's arms, being fed treats like it was no big deal.

Man, talk about betrayal!

Etoile, meanwhile, seemed relatively oblivious to Cinta's sudden confusion, waiting eagerly for more tasty treats. The one Cinta had given her was certainly delicious, yes, but did she have anything sweeter? She was growing all the more hungry as she waited for Cinta and Alise to sort things out between them...

"Yes, please!" Etoile said happily, happy to be acknowledged. Now that she'd had some more time and was held closely like this, the kitten was almost 100% certain that Cinta was a senshi, even if she didn't (and probably would never) understand how this happened when her starseed didn't 'ping' to her last time around. Oh well, at least this meant she'd have someone else to feed her treats now! Etoile didn't really care about the specifics or anything like that, she just liked when Alise made new friends who would spoil the tiny Mauvian.

"In return, I have a present for you!"