Matter of Connivence

[Ram]

The woman staggered and braced against the chain fence for support as the tengu girl took to the skies so suddenly. Their fleeting wings and dog cruising up and in an arch to circle around the roof in a taunting manner. Her camera went to her eye to try for a tracking shot with the sound of Naoyoshi's footsteps making a mad dash for the door. The red oni laughing as he faded out of sight. "So much for a sky view this time," Emi lamented for a moment and looked at her options of either hurling over the fence or chase Naoyoshi. Giving it some thought on how she'd want to get her shoots done, the woman smirked and began to psych up her own breeze. "Guess it won't be fair that it's all from above," she grinned and propelled herself forward with a gust of her own to chase after Naoyoshi. Riding the air with a light camera in hand had her glide the sharp corners of stairs and down the rails in weightless, reckless parkour with the feathers of her hair decoration trailing behind.

Tailing Naoyoshi and the tengu girl in turn at ground level was an exhilarating exercise to relive again. Muscle memory slowly coming back to her to glide as a spring breeze to get her subjects into frame. One snap shot of the kimono girls and company, the next a brief flurry of cherry blossoms kicked up from the chasing wind. Gradually the woman would have to pass Naoyoshi in the chase when spotting the groups of students. The shutter on her camera stuttering in high speed to surf by on the air and catch the groups mid-action. Candid and in the moment just as Emi often took her pictures to be to express her subject's lifestyles before each were briefly showered by a wave of pink petals. Eventually someone called out to them forcing Emi to curve her trajectory as though reversing on a half pipe to meet back to the mildly sweaty Naoyoshi and a couple of students; one in a goth loli clothes and the other from the biker shot just taken a second ago.

"Looks like friendlies to me," Emi motioned over their bickering once her feet touched the ground to greet them with camera in hand. Since Oboro introduced themselves politely, she turned to them first to greet. "Nice to meet ya. I'm Emi. Actually, I'm an alumnus of the school and was invited back to take some photos. If you're worried about privacy, all these will be turned in to the school for promotional usage." After explaining that small bit of work detail, she turned pointed down the walkway. "I think Ichigo is getting away if we're still giving chase."

[Sengoku]

The biker indicated as Takeda whistled and raised his eyebrows at Emi.

"Damn, guessin' we gotta call you Emi-senapi, eh?" he remarked with a chuckle. In the background, Naoyoshi still struggled chasing down Kiku as she flew around with Ichigo in her hands. Only when Akamaru appeared and grabbed her leg mid-flight did she pout and surrender the Shiba. "Abe-U still like whatchu' remembered?"

"Quite impressive you're passing with how often you skip classes," giggled Oboro.

"Please, as if you're ever on campus long enough to know what the school's like," growled Naoyoshi, walking back with Ichigo secured on a leash again. "You should keep the photos. For the memories." Oboro, however, gave Emi a sly grin.

"I could sneak you into the Photography Club's room so you can make copies. Some for us and some for you~"

"I expect Takeda to cause trouble, not you, Oboro," Naoyoshi snapped.

"They aren't using it on weekends anyway. Sharing is caring, no? Up to you, Emi-senpai! They are your photos, after all."

[Ram]

"Maybe? I don't know if that still applies since ya'll weren't my juniors when I was here." Emi chuckled at the idea of being called a 'senpai'. Technically correct but Emi rarely thought of herself as a student of the school anymore. Just a person that was here by requirements of skills needed some honing. Their bickering was amusing and mildly confusing. At the thought of the photos being memories, the woman looked at her camera for a moment. That wasn't the exact plan as that'd be turning to the school empty handed on promotional photos. Normally a school would prefer these photos in a class yearbook due to the fact that Emi wasn't any real PR staff. These students probably didn't know any better so she didn't put it past them on the idea. The thought that the goth lolita fashioned student offered to sneak her into the photo club room for the copies did get a chuckle out of her.

"Here I thought it was all work as thanks for the meal," she mused. Until she got her own camera, however, these would be her first photos in consideration of the school. Not a near perfect replication of her time on campus but the thought of taking pictures back then didn't occur to her. Feeling to make the whole thing fair, Emi turned and headed back towards the school. The rest of her gear was left on the roof still. "Alrigh alrigh. I wanna make sure everyone gets their share of the pictures though so that room better have a good stock.~"

[Sengoku]

Naoyoshi and the biker named Takeda would accompany Emi back to the rooftop while Oboro waltzed off in a different direction. Here, Emi would learn that the biker's full name is Takeda Katsumoto, heir to the Takeda clan just as Naoyoshi was heir to the Ii clan. Big names going to Japan's premier university for the physically and spiritually gifted. When they retrieved her belongings, the group would reconvene at the Photography Club's room, with Oboro down on a knee, poking at the lock with hairpins. He kept a slight grin on his face - he looked no different breaking into a room than if he was ordering a snack at a vending machine. A quiet lock sounded off as the others approached him, the door now sliding open.

"Right on time," Oboro commented. "Do be careful now. I'm sure the Photography Club won't mind us borrowing a few things but I don't imagine they'd be happy if anything broke." He smiled at Katsumoto. "So be on your best behavior, Katsu-senpai!" The biker scoffed and rolled his eyes. Naoyoshi turned to Emi.

"Tell me what you're looking for. We'll make this quick." Akamaru manifested into existence again, cracking his knuckles. Naoyoshi narrowed his eyes at the oni. "Carefully as well." There was a low chuckle that escaped from Akamaru's fanged smirk. As those two rifled through boxes and desks, Oboro already unlocked yet another door, this time leading to the darkroom for developing photos.

"Emi-senpai~" he called her over in a singsong voice. "This'll be useful to you, right?"

[Ram]

'Usually people that say to be careful, it's about the Club members returning', were Emi's thoughts as they successfully entered the club room. The room itself was classical and hardly changed from the layout. Some new photos hung on the wall and announcements that didn't appear as important as they were when Emi first did the club; papers largely ignored on the wall. She moved around to tug on cabinets and drawers to see what equipment was laying around. Rental cameras, lose rolls of 35mm with a collection of 60mm and others in between for different cameras or someone preference. Emi looked at her camera and tilted it back and forth in her hand. Digital has become the new wave without fussing too hard about film but there would always be the adjustments of shutter speed and exposure to fight over on the saving grace to delete the bad ones than find out later. Her head turned to follow the charming voice of Oboro as he found the darkroom.

"That'll work. A real classic. The instructor should really encourage the new students to use this more," she said and walked in and flicked on the red light. "I'm going to work on this so it'll going to be a bit." Emi explained and closed the door to start on reviewing the negatives and getting the photosensitive paper ready. The personal touch ups to the prints and adjusting the light exposures to bring out the dominant focus of her subjects for that crisp look. Using a devise that enlarges a projection of the negatives onto the photo sensitive paper to enlarge them, Emi quietly worked on adjusting the burning and presentation for each main subject. The labor process would take a while due to the sheer number of pictures taken so the girl had to be selective in picking the best to set aside and work on the next. It must have been pretty boring for the folks waiting outside so hopefully the results speak for themselves when the door eventually opened and the original first print pictures were laid out. Her subjects lively stills in the movement as if clear animation cells.

"Like I said, you guys get the first dibs. Everything else is school magazine use. If they use them," Emi explained in a mock dealer voice as her spread of premium student pics.