It had been a couple years now since Lepus had been a ‘mentor’ to Chibi Aomori of zashiki-warashi, ever since that fateful day when they met in the middle of the fairy garden. Aomori had been enamored with Lepus, having heard about her before they even ever came face to face, and after the revelation that they were both masters of sneaking around, aka, they were both gremlin children who shouldn’t have been left to roam around unsupervised. Although Lepus had planned to be the one to offer her guidance, Aomori had surprised her by asking to be her student first, a move that had made the now former chibi proud. Lepus had always enjoyed befriending other fellow chibi senshi back when she still was one, especially ones that she had helped awaken, but getting to teach one was even more exciting! So of course she had taken her up on the offer to be a bad influence an exemplary model of justice and virtue, to teach her the ways of trickery and sneaking around.
Of course, any of Lepus’ teachings had just circled back around to her usual mantra of ‘just use your magic to distract and then punch them’ but they were very valid teachings, honest!
Today, Lepus had had the idea to suggest a friendly spar to Aomori, a test of their magic just to see how far Aomori had come so far in progress, and maybe also because Lepus was still frustrated after spending half a year abroad where she couldn’t power up without a risk of kidnapping or corruption. Hokkaido had come along, because even if she wasn’t interested in fighting, she still didn’t want to be out on her own, and Etoile had tagged along because, well, Etoile. Rune was there for both moral support as well as dampening their energy signatures, something Lepus had suggested as an afterthought, because honestly, she’d never thought of doing that before anytime she’d been together with the twins?
The idea had been simple, at least at the start- they’d have fun testing out their magic- and Lepus swore to stick to just her first stage magic- and the older senshi would offer Aomori pointers about how to improve upon her skills. That idea lasted for about all of ten seconds, before Lepus had an even better idea- they would have a ‘friendly’ competition, to see whose trickster magic was better, hers or Aomori’s. Etoile would be their judge, as well as their… training dummy? It was easy enough to gain her cooperation, seeing as she thought this was just a really fun game, but could she truly be unbiased enough to be a judge? “... Right! So, shall we begin? Perhaps a game of rock paper scissors to determine the order?”
This was truly such a galaxy brain idea- why didn't she think of doing this sooner!?
Runelucia
Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2023 9:56 am
Runelucia had been invited to bear witness to this stupendous arrangement that was concocted thoughtfully by none other than Lepus. Ah, Lepus, look at how much she has grown! As a super, she would be a wonderful mentor to the chibis Rune herself had helpfully awakened, but alas, only Aomori was willing to participate in this exercise. What a missed opportunity… it sure would be nice to see what Aomori’s twin, Hokkaido could do. Rune hadn’t failed to notice that Hokkaido next to her was stiff as a board, nervously sitting nearby her.
With that being said, Rune was content with spectating. For one, she wasn’t going to be a judge nor an active participant on the field. Thankfully that was the case in Rune’s opinion because she had decent connections with those involved.
She was even gladder that she could just simply enjoy the spectacle all the while keeping an eye out for any unwanted outside trouble, and just simply exist as the group’s signature dampener. Well, that’s more or less fine with her.
Despite this, Rune softly sighed a bit inwardly, because this sort of arrangement would have been most educational for the senshi she was usually attached to, but alas, Morshita or Lani for the time being had wantonly dismissed Rune today for a time. It almost seemed like Lani was looking forward to Rune’s absence or something.
—
Without paying much mind to others around her, Aomori grinned and stared determinedly at Lepus. She had been waiting for this day to come, which had been a while. No date until recently had been established, and schedule conflicts here and there regularly cropped up much to her dismay. Moreover, Lepus needing to be away abroad for a while made her days as a senshi crawl slower than usual. Now that those days are long past, Aomori now could prove herself to Lepus.
With this exercise turned competition, she could finally show Lepus just what she could do these days as the chibi senshi of the zashiki-warashi, which… needless to say, hadn’t been the most substantial. A great deal of the time, she largely relied on her abilities to skirt away from trouble, which was not a bad draw per se, but it could have some extra pizzazz on the side each time she pulled off her named stunt (well, move). Unfortunately, that didn’t come naturally as a senshi. She usually had to count on external elements for that element of surprise she liked to employ whenever she wanted to commit innocent trickery or cause a meaningful diversion.
“Hehe… ready whenever you are, Master Lepus,” Aomori grinned as she readied herself.
When Lepus had proposed that she and Aomori go out for an 'evaluation', aka, 'let's hit each other with our magic like a bunch of weirdos', Hokkaido had been incredibly dubious that things would go the way Lepus claimed they would, but had tagged along, because she didn't like to go too far from her twin. Lepus had brought two cats with them, Etoile, who belonged to the older teen, and Rune, who was the cat who helped to awaken the chibi senshi twins, for the sake of helping to conceal their presence from any 'nefarious individuals' (Lepus' words, not Hokkaido's) who may have sought to crash the party and cause problems for the small group. It was an unexpected move on Lepus' part, because Hokkaido had never heard her suggest such a thing before. The eternal senshi of rabbits had also chosen the location to be a large clearing in the middle of the forest out towards the outskirts of town, that was wide open enough to where they (hopefully) wouldn't cause harm, but secluded enough to where, unless their 'foe' was of the flying sorts (or just happened to be in possession of a drone), they wouldn't be spotted.
(The bus ride to the closest stop nearest their destination had been a very arduous one, especially as they had had to keep Etoile and Rune hidden- no pets allowed on the bus! Not to mention, Nemu would have felt very bad about trying to lie about them being service animals...)
Of course, Lepus was Lepus, and as Hokkaido should have suspected, the teen had to go and make things even more complicated. What had started as a suggestion for a friendly spar turned into a... competition? Somewhere along the lines, 'use magic on each other' had been lost in translation, and was warped into 'use magic on a cat (and see whose magic was cooler)'. She wasn't exactly in agreement with this idea, but was outnumbered four... to... one... so she hung to the edge of the clearing, not wanting to get involved, but there just in case anyone needed her magic, or at least that was what she told herself.
--
Etoile, on the other hand, was cheerfully oblivious as always, just happy to be included in this little party that was going on. Lepus had said that they were playing a game of sorts, or that they were making a game out of their sparring match, something like that; Etoile had been invited to tag along, which she did so happily, because big gatherings of people generally meant there were snacks involved, and she liked to do things together with Lepus anyway. She hadn't been happy about having to hide in Alise's bag when they were on the bus, but she was used to it by now, after all their years together.
Lepus had taken the group to a clearing in the middle of the forests on the outskirts of town, something she said was the safest place for them to be, where they weren't going to have anyone crashing the party. Etoile was supposed to be there largely to cheer them on, as well as help to conceal their auras, but then Lepus had said that Rune could handle the whole hiding their powered aura thing, and had suggested a really fun idea- she and Aomori would compete to see whose magic was the best, and Etoile would be the judge! One might have thought that being the bonded Mauvian to the Sailor Lepus that she might be biased in her decision-making process, but Etoile promised she would be very neutral and only declare the person whose magic was best to be the winner.
(There was the matter of power imbalance here, as Lepus was eternal and Aomori was a basic chibi senshi, but none of the involved parties seemed to care much- save Hokkaido, maybe, but who ever paid any attention to poor little Hokkaido?)
"I'm ready when you are~!" the kitten called out to the two competitors.
--
"Then, let us begin!" Lepus declared, ready and raring to go, "As your mentor, I shall graciously allow you to go first."
(What happened to 'rock, paper, scissors to decide the order?' Lepus forgot all about it the moment she suggested it.)
Runelucia
Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2023 6:41 pm
Aomori kept her ears alert for any pertinent information about the competition. She was giddy and ready to go. Oh, and in some level of inconsequential consequence, she paid little attention to (poor) Hokkaido and her clear wariness over the situation.
“Ready or not, here I come!” Aomori announced, which was, not fully befitting of a sneaky senshi, but maybe just this once so that her intentions were made clear that she was going to start.
And with that, she began sprinting towards the willing target (Etoile). At first, it was a straight dart, but then she circled around and disappeared in a nearby bush before whispering out the initiation of her attack. “Tokotokoshi-” Aomori faintly chanted. It was more a diversion than anything, with phantom footsteps appearing from who knows here, but there’s a chance the little cat could be drawn to the distraction presented.
Quote:
Invokes the mischievous nature of the zashiki-warashi, causing little (phantom) footprints to trail along the ground, on a path of up to five feet; they are annoying and distracting, leaving them unable to focus on anything else. The more aware a person is that they’re being tricked, the less likely this works. Lasts for twenty seconds, and can be used up to three times.
—-
Meanwhile, Rune watched the chibi senshi make a run for it with rapt attention. First, she was strongly curious about what she will do both as a senshi and a sneak artist. To her, it was honestly really cute to see the green-haired girl make an attempt at all considering her limited effort as a chibi senshi. She wouldn’t immediately grade her entrance with an A nor an E for effort, but Aomori’s valiant effort to make it known she was going to take the opportunity to start a show should at least grant her a grade of B. B for “better than expected.”
After seeing the first step appear, Rune turned to Hokkaido who clearly looked a bit nervous, or more than nervous about what was to come her face appeared tense, and almost felt like squeezing her eyes shut and not wanting to see any potential calamity unfold between the two senshi. On that note, Rune didn’t really pay much attention to the fact that Lepus was an Eternal senshi and Aomori was but a basic senshi. It’s not a huge oversight or anything! She’s fully aware of it… it’s just that she really wanted to depend on and trust Lepus to be a responsible mentor and keep the situation that was going to unfold under control. Apart from that, Rune couldn’t help but exclaim ‘Poor Hokkaido!’ to herself. If only Hokkaudi could summon her rare ounce of bravery and volunteer at least once. Instead of proposing the idea, as interesting as it was, Rune decided to check on Hokkaido’s status.
“Hokkaido, are you… okay? Don’t worry about them. They’re clever and slippery, so I think they’ll be fine,” Rune added the last remark as an attempt at reassurance. Whether that worked or not was up in the air, however.
"Um... it's not that..." Hokkaido began, but she wasn't sure how to explain her worries to Rune. It wasn't that she was worried about them getting hurt, per say, or at least not here (though she did have some concern for Etoile's well-being), but... well, looking back and forth between Aomori, who was sneaking up on the other Mauvian, and Lepus, who was watching on approvingly...
-- Well, alright, there was also a worry about them being discovered, but...
She had to really wonder- would Aomori grow up to be like Lepus? Was it too late to try to convince her twin not to idolize the older senshi so much, to try to turn her away from this path of recklessness? Hokkaido really wondered...
--
Etoile watched with anticipation as Aomori sprinted towards her, eager to find out what happened next. When Aomori ducked into some bushes, though, the kitten looked around curiously, wondering where the chibi senshi went, and very excited to learn about what kind of magic the girl had, because her previous only other demonstration had been during the battle on the hill... maybe? Possibly? It was hard to remember.
Footsteps trailed along the ground near the kitten suddenly, and they drew the Mauvian's attention. "Oh! Is that you, Aomori? Where did you go? I can't see you!" the kitten called out, as she followed after the footsteps curiously, wondering how the chibi had managed to vanish.
Runelucia
Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 7:27 pm
Aomori softly giggled to herself as she scurried around between bushes. The footsteps lasted but a mere few seconds, but they lent her additional leeway as they went and generated some footsteps in the opposite direction. Much to her amusement, Etoile had followed the sound of those footsteps instead of her fainter ones.
This development feels advantageous to Aomori as it allowed her to circle around the perimeter through the shrubs and inch closer and closer to Etoile who was turned away from her. Would she succeed? That seems likely… but wait, no, she must believe that she would succeed. After all, she really wanted to prove to her mentor Lepus that Aomori hadn’t gotten rusty during her absence abroad.
—
Meanwhile, Rune read Aomori’s signature and sighed a bit to herself. She could tell that Aomori was getting a tad bit too bold and presumptuous. Etoile may not always be the brightest, but she was not without a keenly developed skill of observation… or so she believed anyways.
Etoile continued to chase the footsteps until they vanished, tilting her head curiously as she now had no idea where the chibi senshi had gone. "Aomoriiiiii? Where did you gooooo?"
The rustling of leaves from the shrubbery surrounding her got her attention, and the little Mauvian decided to poke around the bushes, as if this was a game of Hide and Seek.
"Aomoriiii? Are you in the bushes?"
--
Lepus, meanwhile, had been waiting for her turn to show off shine, and while she certainly had initially promised to be fair and only use her most weakest of magic, the fact was that Lepus wasn't really the best at sticking to her word when it came to the chance to showing up a small child. Yes, even if that child was her student, and yes, even though she was usually pretty good at otherwise sticking to her word sometimes.
Etoile was still distracted by trying to find Aomori, and the teen saw the perfect opportunity to strike. She wouldn't use her special extra non-trickster attack, of course, because kicking Etoile would just be wrong and immoral and not at all something a Defender of Justice would do to their trusty mascot. There was nothing to say she couldn't use her strongest magic, though, even though she had sworn not to do it, because she had made up the rules and rules were made to be broken, after all!
"Excellent work, my apprentice! Now, watch a master at work." Lepus said, "Meddlesome rabbits!"
With the power of magical ventriloquism (sort of) to make it seem like she is where she's not, Lepus tricks a single opponent into looking behind them, where she has created a decoy Lepus, tricking them into attacking the fake. After a few hits, or after thirty seconds have passed (if not attacked), the fake Lepus 'dissolves' into a bunch of bunnies, who swarm her target before disappearing, leaving her opponents temporarily too confused to take any action, while the real Lepus delivers a sneak attack from behind in the meantime. This can only be used once.
Runelucia
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 8:04 am
“Buhgyah?!” Aomori gasped as she saw a perfect visage of her mentor Lepus leering at her. Naturally, Aomori lost her balance and nearly collapsed to the ground.
But wait, she quickly repositioned herself as to regain her stance and promptly and nearly tempted fate by throwing an accidental punch into the air. Air? Air?! Seriously? What?
Somewhat annoyed and out of the open, there was no way she could just ignore Lepus and catch Etoile the cat at the same time. And with that, the next best thing that came to mind is an attempt to throw in some punches and kicks or something. She wasn’t super powerful, but sneaking around wouldn’t do at this point and Lepus was keenly readying to return the punch. In that case, how about a few more attempts? A jab maybe or even a roundhouse kick… albeit as an agile sneaky child, that likely amounted to no more than an ankle or shin kick.
Still, the fact that it barely made any tangible contact, any contact… that’s nothing short of annoying. Was this the power divide between a chibi and an eternal? How was that fair?! Still, giving up was not a part of her vocabulary, so Aomori persisted.
Eventually, upon making enough contact, which was several rounds of attempted jabs and kicks, “Lepus” winked at her and almost seemed to giggle before exploding into a plethora of rabbits. They quickly clouded Aomori’s vision as they hopped away and vanished into the nebula behind her. And at long last, the “sparring match” could be marked as concluded as Aomori lost her balance and fell unceremoniously onto the ground. She grumbled and whined in defeat.
“Heyyy…. Lepus… correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that magic, uh… eternal senshi magic? H-how was that any fair?” Aomori pouted, frowned, and whined whilst making that point clear. She normally wasn’t going to be a sore loser about it, but surely it was clear as day that Lepus kinda sorta cheated?! Aomori wasn’t sure what to make of the outcome except that she was understandably bothered. Any sort of mollifying better make up for it.
–
Rune blinked and stared blankly at the scene before her. She had just watched a chibi frantically attempt to punch and kick an illusory Lepus for a few moments before the figure exploded. Then she heard the chibi senshi on the ground whine in defeat. She sighed and inwardly agreed with Aomori. Lepus… that chibi senshi was your student… who only had but a simple nonoffensive arsenal of magic on her person. It was designed to divert attention, which wasn’t dissimilar to Lepus’s arsenal, to begin with, but putting that aside… what Rune saw just now almost felt like bullying. By now, Rune reasoned that Hokkaido was likely quivering and in some state of shock. Better think of something to console her before she burst into tears or something…
“Uh... Hokkaido, I know what you saw was excessive… er… too much, but Aomori seems to be fine! And besides, I imagine that Lepus has some explaining to do, so let’s hear her out first, alright?” Rune attempted to smile comfortingly but instead, it appeared somewhat forced. Even she couldn’t conceal her astonishment and shock herself.
nyamomask
quick lepus placate them with a wrap up and ice cream
If Lepus were a little smarter, perhaps thinking a little harder, she'd have tried to spin this as a learning opportunity, something about needing to be aware of your surroundings during battle because something something friendly fire or something. Aomori hadn't been her intended target, but Etoile had been looking away, and well...
Again, this could be a learning opportunity! If only Lepus had given it some thought. Instead, she was 'caught in 4K', and, with both cat and chibi wanting answers, scrambled to create a diversion. Quickly, what should she say?
"- Well! Excellent work all around, everyone!" Lepus declared, dodging any and all accusations of cheating, and cutting the training session short, "Now, who wants ice cream? If we act quickly, we'll be able to reach the shop before they close, and what better way to cool off after such a hot day?"
--
Hokkaido cringed a little when Aomori tried to attack the fake Lepus, knowing what would happen next, but she kept on watching, because she felt she had to see this through to the end... and perhaps also because she was hoping Aomori would realize what was going on and maybe come to her senses. Was it unfair for Lepus to use her strongest magic? Maybe, but Hokkaido had never exactly agreed with this setup in the first place. Incidentally, she would have agreed with Lepus if the older senshi had spun this as some sort of lesson to be learnt, because Aomori did need to pay more attention to things at times... but alas, that didn't happen.
Aomori and Rune were attempting to confront Lepus about her actions, but it didn't seem like Lepus was going to comment on the subject. Hokkaido preferred to remain neutral on the matter, because it was probably better if she stayed out of it, but one thing did bug her slightly...
"Um... but who won?" she meekly inquired.
("Everyone's a winner here today!" Lepus had responded.)
Runelucia
wrap up with your next tag or something idk
Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2023 8:09 am
“Uh… well… I think it’s a draw!” Rune squeaked out an answer to Hokkaido’s response. She attempted to cover up the mess that Lepus conjured since any further dwelling on the matter spelled nothing but terrible events going forward. Rune then sang, “So yeah! Good idea, Lepus~ Let’s go get some yummy, yummy ice cream~”
“Ice cream… sounds good right about now… but I want a fancy cone, too, okay?” Aomori’s lips trembled before she let out a deep sigh. ‘Calm down, Aomori,’ she spoke to herself. ‘There’s always next time… you’re not a silly kid anymore… gotta be more mature than that…’ she further placated herself. It was clear as day that Lepus, well, didn’t think hard enough on what action to take, but Aomori knew that if she made a big deal out of it, no one’s gonna be happy and then there wouldn’t be an ice cream party anymore.
“Well… let’s find out what they got at the parlor, okay? If no fancy cone.. then you could try asking for two flavored scoops instead-” Rune nudged Aomori who then proceeded to power back down to her civilian form. It seems that Satori will be fine as long as she gets sufficiently placated with something else of value.
