I'm trying my hand at this, but the first time I posted this turned it into some kind of strange mess of coding. Hopefully it'll work better this time around.
Maria Takarada held in a sigh, taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly instead. She would not allow her happiness to escape so easily. Even so… she was bored, and a bit lonely. Ren-san and big sister had both been quite absent as of late. The young girl understood that they were busy. Adults were always busy with something, especially in the entertainment industry. She understood very well but… she couldn't help missing her two favorite people. Grandfather had offered to help her past the boredom with dress-up and games like he always did, and she had actually considered it for a moment! Would she become a strange love-monster as well if this boredom continued?! Maria quickly shook her head and desperately opened her cabinets full of magic items. She would practice her arts some more! That'll get her mind off of her boredom and loneliness for sure!
Running over to the bookshelf, she quickly pulled out some of her favorites. Potions, spells, enchantments, books she had accumulated over the years to help her work on her magic. Her favorites, however, were somewhat old and worn books her grandfather had procured for her reading pleasure some year or two ago. Their somewhat rugged appearance and hand-written contents gave them a somewhat more authentic look. Some would claim that it was an elaborate piece made to fool others, but Maria wasn't about to doubt the magic she could feel in it.
She passed the time by making all kinds of potions and drawing the diagrams sketched in one of the heavy journals. Lunch demanded a short break, and grandpa Lory gleefully ate with her, but she refused to be distracted from her work until supper time. Grandfather had set out to do something around that time, so she had desperately wanted to fill the room with some noise. She found herself thinking about wanting to see big sister again, as well as Ren-san. The sigh escaped her before she could stop it this time and she gasped as soon as she noticed what she had done. She shook her head quickly and ran over to the shelves near the television, scanning them quickly. Love films, love films, love show, an entire shelf of love games, ugh!
"Grandfather really needs to expand his interests." She grumbled in annoyance before she paused. Was that… it is! She happily pulled up a stool and stretched up, grabbing the case marked 'Dark Moon', flipping it open and putting it into the player as quickly as she could. Dinner was so much more pleasant while watching Ren and Kyoko acting against one another. She had chills and felt giddy, getting absorbed as she ate her meal. The disk soon reached its end and she begrudgingly put it away, trudging back to her room in silence. What was grandfather even doing? He rarely stayed out so late. Maria let out a groan as she sat at the desk with her journals again. She was even lonelier now. She flipped through the thin, silk-like pages idly as her mind wandered. She would go to the agency with grandfather tomorrow morning. Maybe big sister or Ren would be there! Looking up at her large windows, she could see a few stars in the sky. It really was getting late…. Maria rested her chin on her crossed arms set over the open book, only mildly thoughtful of how it would strain the pages and spine. She just… couldn't bring herself to be overly concerned with it at the moment. Instead, she dreamed of spending time with some of her favorite people. "I wish we could play more. If only they were as little as me. Then we could play all day." She mumbled sadly as she fell asleep.
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Kyoko woke to her alarm going off, yawning and slowly getting out of bed… before she tripped on her own night clothes and tumbled to the floor. She let out a groan and rubbed her head, feeling like she was incredibly off balance for some reason. Actually, before that, why were her clothes suddenly so big? She looked down at herself and gasped, finding little hands and feet.
"What happened to- gasp!" she covered her mouth quickly. Her voice! She sounded like a little kid! She struggled to get up, abandoning her sleep shorts in favor of running to her makeup bag, pulling out a little compact mirror to look at her face. She stared back at herself with shock. She had the rounded face of a young girl, maybe seven or eight, her black hair falling a little past her shoulders. "What… happened to me?" she finally managed to get out. This was a disaster. She was a tiny child. How would she explain this to the restaurant owners? How would she explain this to her acting jobs?! "Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no no no no nooooo!" she cried, holding her head as she shook it wildly. How had this happened? Did she piss off some evil spirit or something? She couldn't recall doing anything recently…. Was this a delayed backlash of kissing the fairy prince?! "Ahhh!" she went back to shaking her head wildly as she recalled her time with Corn in Guam. It was because her heart belonged to another, wasn't it? Now she was cursed because of her fickle feelings while trying to break such a powerful curse set upon such an important magical person! She suddenly had an idea and rushed to her precious things, opening the tiny purse and pulling out Corn's blue stone.
"Corn, I've been cursed! Save me, Corn! Please lift this dreadful curse from me!" she held up the stone to the light coming in from her window, watching the magic filter through it… but nothing happened to her. She was still little. Tears pooled in her eyes as she started to resign herself. She had just gotten that new role as Momiji, but now she was in no state to act anything but a tiny child! "How could this have happened!" she cried in despair, burying her face in her hands.
"Kyoko dear, are you alright?" The Okami-san's voice came from the other side of the door and Kyoko froze. What was she to do? She couldn't bother the owners with this strange new problem, but what else could she do? Sniffling, she stood up and adjusted her night shirt, now closer to a night gown, before padding over to the door. The doorknob was only a minor problem, but child Kyoko managed and peeked out at a very confused older woman. "Kyoko?" she called again with uncertainty, lightly pressing on the door that had simply cracked open.
"O-Okami-san, I'm down here." She called up nervously. The woman looked down and startled, blinking at the sight of a small child staring up at her.
"Oh! Oh my. And, who are you?" she asked, softly sitting down in front of Kyoko as she attempted to figure out where this child came from.
"Okami-san, it's me. It's Mogami Kyoko. I… I don't know what's happened, but for some reason I woke up as a little kid. Please believe me." Her eyes started to water again as the woman looked at her with shock.
"I…," the woman paused to look around the room, as if unsure if she should believe a teenage girl could age down to a child overnight. Her eyes took in the discarded bottoms and the oversized top still on Kyoko before noticing the little purse she was clutching to her chest protectively. The child… certainly LOOKED like Kyoko, and that little purse looked oddly familiar… "I came up because there's a man here claiming to be your manager." She says slowly, apparently deciding to accept the explanation for the time being. Kyoko gasped and stomped about in circles as she tugged her hair.
"Yashiro-san! Oh no, how am I supposed to explain this? Nnnnn…! Fine, I'll just have to do my best!" The Okami watched with wonder and fascination as the child ran to the stairs and quickly reversed before clinging to the wall as she carefully descended, breaking out into a run once she reached the bottom. She spotted Yashiro instantly, talking pleasantly to the Toshio as he explained that he would be in charge of looking out for her. "Yoshirooo-saaan!" she ran over quickly, stopping before him and waving her arms as she made sure she would get his attention.
"Oh, hello there little one. Um… you know my name?"
"Yashiro-san, it's Kyoko! I'm Kyoko, but I woke up small. Please help me!" she begged. The man looked down at her with shock… noticing the big amber eyes of his charge gazing up at him.
"You… really are Kyoko-chan, aren't you?" he asked incredulously. Kyoko nodded with enthusiasm as Yashiro scratched his head. This was… quite the predicament. Just then, Yashiro's phone rang and he quickly put on his gloves before pulling it out, pausing to look at the caller id before answering. He barely got out his greeting before the president cut to the chase.
"I need you to loosen up Ren's schedule for a while. There's… he's a bit unwell at the moment."
This is the start of my cross-posting from AO3, so feel free to check me out under the same username there while I figure out 's system. It takes a little while for an old dog to learn new tricks, but we'll get there eventually. I'm just glad I double-checked to see how it turned out when I posted this the first time.
