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Throughout all of the city’s Star Festival, plants everywhere had seemed to bloom so much more vibrantly and vivaciously than usual. Aesthetically, Kaifeng appreciated it because summertime truly deserved to have so much bright color going around, and because the flowers simply looked nice. Having them around lightened the mood (as long as one didn’t stumble into a scene in which Ming-er had gotten drained and abandoned amongst some very pretty orchids). All of the green leaves, he was pretty sure, helped clean up the air—right? That was definitely A Thing? Because of Science Said So reasons or something, yeah?

As he traipsed through one of Destiny City’s parks, Kaifeng felt pretty certain that that was A Thing. He recalled that Zhìháo had learned this fact about trees in school at some point or other? How they took in carbon dioxide and turned it into oxygen through a process that, as far as Kaifeng cared, ought to have gotten replaced with literal magic because, after so long separated from the need to care about Zhìháo’s old rote memorization of the process because his one or more of grades and his AP Biology exam results depended on it, magic made infinitely more sense to Kaifeng than whatever the actual process was.… Maybe the same logic as that process applied to green leaves on plants other than trees, or maybe not. Kaifeng sort of didn’t think he’d bother looking it up later, though. Really, he had more important things to do.

(Besides, on some level, part of him realized that he didn’t care at all about the biology at work here. He didn’t discount its potential importance to someone else? But tonight, he’d gone to a park on the other side of town from the parks that he and Selenga had visited together recently. Meandering through its paths and stretches of grass, Kaifeng wanted to fixate on the plants as much as he could manage specifically so that he would not think about Selenga.

He liked working with Selenga; Kaifeng really did. He liked getting to have a decent relationship with his cousin-in-law after so many years of being assholes to each other. But after the argument that they’d had last time……? After everything Selenga had called him out on, and how richly Kaifeng felt he had deserved that callout……?)

Pausing on the path, Kaifeng gave his head a firm, abrupt shake. Banished those thoughts (as much as he could, anyway, which……didn’t feel like very much, actually—and as much as he liked the pretty pink star-charm that he noticed and picked up, it didn’t really feel like it helped him much either). No. No, no, no. He was out here on his own tonight, and he was doing things other than overly ruminating on that conversation with Selenga, and—wait, was that a swirl of sunset-colored, something or other?

It passed through the corner of his eye so quickly, Kaifeng didn’t fully process what he’d seen. But he recognized the colors—or, more specifically, that they looked very sunset-flavored.… He felt another White Moon aura lurking somewhere out here as well, so……maybe? Could it be? Had some clue about the pastel alien senshi in the sunset-colored fuku finally crossed his path?

Turning on his heel, Kaifeng set off chasing the sunset colors. Whatever was going on here, he had to know.

Demeter hummed a bit as she wandered through the forest—she'd come in here to seek out some more rare flowers for her garden at home, and better to be safe (as Demeter) than sorry (as Autumn). She'd heard there was some kind of crazy thing happening where a bunch of plants just started blooming like crazy, so she hoped to run into some nice, rare flowers that had magically over propogated so she could take them.

Of course, it wouldn't be that simple, and even though it was only a civillain she heard (based on the lack of aura) and the aura of a Page, she still felt cautious as she peered through the trees and into the small clearing where—

Pretty girl!

There were definitely other people here. Two of them, in fact! She greeted both with a smile and a wave, spinning specifically to the one who had spoken to her. As she did, the little light whirled around her, and seemed to settle, floating above her shoulder like it wanted to perch there.

"Oh, goodness," she said, eyes alighting on his wispy little companion, "it seems I do." She tilted her head to the side, curiously. "What are these little friends? I don't think I've ever seen one before tonight. And what was it that you called me?"

It wasn't a language she was familiar with, but all that really meant was that it wasn't English (or smatterings of a few European languages, none of which sounded like what the stranger in the beautiful skirt had said.)

"And you!" She called, to the other girl, still half-hidden. "There's no need to be secretive, join us here in the light. I'm Jupiter Butterfly, and it is a delight to meet you this evening."

With both of the cute meimeis coming out to join the conversation, things felt much easier—at least to Kaifeng. He could see them both, and true enough, neither of them was the senshi that Kaifeng wanted to find. Both of them seemed perfectly lovely, though, so Kaifeng kept up the polite smile. “Well, I called you ‘Riluo-meimei’—which? ‘Meimei’ means ‘little sister’? And ‘Riluo’ means ‘sunset,’ which is because……” Kaifeng nodded at her and gestured at her hair. “Then, I called Miss Demeter ‘Ju-meimei,’ or ‘orange-meimei,’ because……well.”

Again, he nodded at a cute girl and gestured at her hair.

“And, uh……” He shrugged. “I have the honor to be Kaifeng, Page of Saturn. And I have no idea what these little wispy guys are or what they do? But mine came and found me during one of the meteor showers that have been going on for Star Festival, and I’m pretty fond of them?”

Demeter stepped a little closer, fascinated with the little wispy things. They seemed so cute... Aww, her new friends were so lucky.

"I guess I get why orange-sister, but come on, this is clearly the top of a pumpkin," she said, flicking the tiara. "Nice to meet you both!"

And, as far she knew so far, that wasn't exactly how knights worked, Miss Jupiter? But she'd let the expert talk—maybe he was an alien—just a very boring one. Honestly, aliens should have cool ears or tails or horns or something!

Jupiter considered the information she had received. She supposed it made sense--a page was a young knight, if she remembered her fantasy novels correctly, and a knight had to serve someone, didn't they? And who better than a magical princess? It felt, really, like her little walk in the park tonight was giving her knowledge of things that she wasn't supposed to know--and so she loved getting to learn them.

"Ohhh, I see," she said, and she reached out to trace her finger over the symbol on Kaifeng's wrist. Yes, she knew it--from all of her studies of astrology, and how the moments of the planets influenced humans on Earth. "That's very special! I don't think I've ever heard of planet Ida, but if it has a magical princess and knights, it must be quite the place."

How lucky was she? A little wisp friend, and an introduction tot he real magic that undoubtedly existed in Destiny City.

……These young ladies certainly were interesting. In a good way, naturally, but they were also veering off into directions that Kāifēng personally could not have anticipated. Humming, he considered all that they had to say while letting his little wispy friend idly bob and dance around his head. Whatever tune it may or may not have been following, Kaifeng didn’t really know. Maybe it had its own song in mind, or maybe it was simply making things up as it went.

“I hadn’t heard of Ida either until Selenga found out that he’s a magical knight,” Kaifeng agreed with a shrug, “but he seems to think that it’s a nice place.… And in fairness, Princess Ida said to him that it’s a bit more complicated than the knights being entirely in service to the princess? It’s more like we coexist and work together in different capacities? But Selenga takes the service aspect pretty seriously in his way, y’know? Likes having someone who he sees as being in charge of him, I think.” Kaifeng made a pensive noise, idly puckering his lips. “That doesn’t seem to be how Saturn Knights have ever worked, as far as I know? But I also don’t know very much.”

He needed to spend more time up at his tower. Needing to cool down between visits because he couldn’t summon enough magical power to get up there……well. Kaifeng supposed that it made sense, in its way. Meant that he’d need to work harder and get stronger.