[Day: Wednsday, April 6th. Time: 5:00 p.m.] [Weather: Sunny and cool. Starting to get on towards dusk.] [You're at the subway station closest to Serizawa High. Kaede has joined you, after presumably being contacted. Katie went home.] [Session Start] (Is Haruko there?) (Maybe we picked her up on the way out of school?) [Yes, Haruko is there. You've done just that.] * Haruko gets out her phone. "Well, that was fun, glad I remembered. Okay, how'd things go?" (She talking to the group or the phone?) (Group) Not much luck. We didn't find anyone who matched the pictures on the site yet. * Kaede shows up, looking down at his pad. He hasn't said anything since he got there. There was one name that seemed kind of familiar, but there's an actress with the same name, so we're not sure if we were remembering her or if there was some other connection. * Taki took a nap on the train and is still yawning now, "Yeah, nothing at our school, s'why we're here now." * Haruko nods. "It's tricky to match people up by pictures. Wait... same name?" Was Yuki... Yuki... Ijira? Noo... Ijima? Yeah, that was it. Yeah. Yuki Ijima. Could just be a coincidence, though. (Taki is going to stop talking now, she and Satoshi keep saying the same things.) (He is reading her mind. ;p) (Can I get a CA roll on that?) (Well, no, not seriously. ^_~) ( I guess so, sure ) 2d6-1 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6-1) and gets 7. (Miss by one. Just not sure?) (Not like he'd be able to find much in there right.) ( Yah ) (right now. and I apologise, but I've been leaving out entire words in conversations all day.) (should I too?) * Haruko nods as she listens to the name. "I'm not sure I've heard of her. Well there's always IMBD, good place to look up names." ( Sure. ) IM-what? The what? (Satoshi... in head.) (Also, it's IMDB, but I don't know if Haruko deliberately got that wrong or not. ;p) (Typo) (Sorry. ^^; I'll leave now. ;p) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Kaede (2d6) and gets 7. Internet Movie Database. (Stay, make yourself at home, it's a bit of a mess right now, but when isn't it? :P) Ahh, I didn't know there was anything like that. * Kaede flips closed his pad and looks up at Haruko. "And what did you do to Saori last time anyway?" Neither did I. And huh? * Taki turns pink and looks down at her feet. * Haruko blinks. "Names.." She then looks to Taki. "Oh, it's an a place to look up actors. Like if there's a hot actor... ::Haruko glances over to Taki and Satoshi:: or actress that you want to find what else they were in." * Haruko then looks to Kaede. "She was trying to rip us off. And... Wait, no names! There were names on the sight! This is so much easier, how could I have not thought of that?!" Because we were trying to find Katie and we knew her name? Rip off or not, now she never wants to see you again. Good job. * Haruko nods and looks down. "But that still no excuse." She looks up. "Okay, this is easy, we can use the index of yearbooks, check phone directories, skim electronic records, it's all much easier with names." * Satoshi seems slightly lost in the dual threads of conversation. "Well, aside from potentially Yuki Ijima, we still didn't find anyone familiar." * Haruko looks to Kaede. "She's a greedy, profiteering, untrustworthy brat, she'll get over it with a surcharge." (*snerk*) Who happens to be one of our main sources of information or did you forget that? * Taki hasn't raised her head from earlier, "Sorry." * Kaede rubs the bridge of his nose from under his glasses. "Honestly Haruko, I...no, nevermind. I'm not going to bother." * Haruko waves a hand at Kaede. "Not now, we've got work to do. Okay, so, you guys want to hit the library and check the indexes. Kaede you can start checking online and see if we can avoid visiting the others in person." * Haruko then dials Remi on her phone. "And I'll see what I can do for Remi." * Satoshi attempts to ignore the usual Kaede/Haruko bickering and squeezes Taki's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We've still got plenty of places to look." * Kaede just glances at Haruko. "Excuse me?" * Haruko puts the phone to her ear and holds up a one minute finger to Kaede. * Taki shakes her head, "That's not what I'm... Saori, that's my fault... we should go to the school now, before they close." * Kaede lets out a tssh. "This is ridiculous. I'm leaving." That said, he starts to walk away. * Haruko makes no move to stop him. * Satoshi sighs. "Yeah, let's keep going." * Taki lifts her head and puts her hand over Satoshi's, "C'mon." * Haruko walks along with Satoshi and Taki. * Taki follows Kaede to the school, presumably taking Satoshi along with. * Haruko speaks into her phone. "Hi Remi, it's Haruko. I was wondering how you were doing. Want to catch dinner some time? On me, and we don't have to talk about anything you don't want to talk about." * Haruko then hangs up and walks along. "If she doesn't call back in a few days I guess I'll try to find where she lives." I hope nothing else has happened to her. Yeah, really. * Haruko nods. "Well, I'll find out one way or another." She frowns. "I'm not sure Remi has anyone left to get into trouble. Well, maybe she can start to get better if the pressure’s off." (This is _REMI_ you're talking about. :P) (Yeah, but she's so low that getting better really isn't saying much. :P) * Satoshi shrugs. That'd be nice... and I was starting to forget how long it takes to walk everywhere. * Haruko chuckles. [You round the corner and come in sight of the school! And also the fight. Some 10-20 people are gathered in a melee on the streets.] * Taki looks at the mess and groans. What the...? * Haruko sighs. She looks around to see if there's anything to stand on to get a better vantage. [Haruko finds a bottle of wine that dates back to 1812.] [Oh wait, vantage, not vintage. Haruko can climb on Satoshi!] (That's a better vintage, but it'll bring a good price on ebay! :P) (/me takes the bottle for later consumption.) * Haruko looks. "Can't see a thing. Satoshi, could you boost m... Taki up perhaps?" * Taki blinks and looks away from the fight, "Wh...what?" (Heh. Satoshi's mental processes were amusing.) ( I could look... no, bad thought. Bad.) Uh, sure? * Haruko grins for a brief moment with pride. She then loses it and starts looking for anyone she knows standing around the fighters. * Taki looks at Haruko and then Satoshi, "Uh... okay?" * Satoshi kneels down so Taki can climb onto his shoulders. * Taki walks behind Satohi and then sits astride on his shoulders, "Kay..." * Haruko furtively glances over to the pair for a moment with a slight "Awww.. cute." look, but then goes back to scanning the crowd. "What do you see?" * Satoshi makes sure Taki is comfortably settled, holds onto her legs, and stands back up. He does *not* attempt to look up her skirt, although the temptation's there. Luckily for him, he's the mind-reader and not someone else, because he'd be horribly embarassed right about now if someone else read his thoughts. ;p ( Like I'd have to be a mind reader.) (Idly notes that looking up Taki's skirt right now would involve the abilty to rotate his head 180 degrees.) (So, when Kaede walked off, was it walking off to go home and not towards the school? Because he's been silent for a bit.) (Yes.) (Gee, I guess I wasn' following him then. ^^;) (Kaede is most certainly not there.) (Okay, so retcon that earlier line to avoid confusion.) * Taki looks over the fight, looking for anybody she might recognise, or what might have started it. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Taki (2d6) and gets 8. (kerfailed!) * Taki looks at the fighters, "I can't... they're... they're just fighting." I don't suppose this is something we can walk away from and we can just come back here tomorrow? ...Could just go around them.. We might be able to. But first, what do they look like, and is it just normal fighting? Uh... some of them are in Serizawa, but I can't tell what anybodies doing in there. Some are inside? My, well, if you're up to it Satoshi lets give it a minute. If there's fighting going on inside we might want to go to a different school even if we could go around. This was the only one we'd be able to reach before it closed. We may just have to put things off until tomorrow. * Taki waves her arms and nearly looses her balance, "nonononono aaaiiah! Some of them are in Serizawa uniforms I ment." It's okay, I've got you. * Satoshi makes sure Taki does not fall. * Haruko nods. "That makes sense. Well, if this doesn't break up or turn out to be something we care about, we can hit the phone books and try some computer searching." If we do find some of these people, then what? We make sure they haven't been kidnapped? * Haruko nods. "Good point. We should check missing person reports and police reports too. At this point we're just looking for patterns." * Taki nods, "Uhm...Unless you want me to just teleport us in, I guess you can let me down now." Okay. * Satoshi kneels down so Taki can get back on her feet. * Haruko frowns. "Maybe I'm being too domineering on this. Do you guys have any other ideas?" * Taki climbs off of Satoshi and stands beside him, "No... Katie and Kaed... Where'd he go?" I was too hard on him and he walked off. ::she shrugs:: I'll work on that, but it is his life; he can come and go as he pleases. * Satoshi stands back up and shrugs. "Well, if we can't find anything today, we'll try again tomorrow, unless you think this is so urgent that it can't wait." ...Right what I want to do next is sleep for three days so I can think again. I think its worth hitting the computer and books today. If that doesn't pan out hopefully Katie and Kaede will be able to think of something tomorrow. You are all welcome to come to my house to research, although our computer is slightly dated. * Taki starts to say something but gets interupted by another yawn. You want me to walk you home, Taki? * Taki smiles up at Satshi, "Please? I don't want to sleep through my stop on the train." Sorry, Haruko, but I think we're better off waiting. You should go ahead and keep looking, though. * Haruko nods. "You've earned rest Taki." * Taki nods slightly at Haruko, "Thanks, see you tomarrow." * Satoshi blinks. "Field. This yours, Taki?" * Satoshi looks around to see who is and isn't still in the fight. * Taki checks her watch, "I... I don't think so... mine have always been when I teleported." 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Satoshi (2d6) and gets 11. * Haruko looks around and starts crutching over. "Well, Arcana buisness never ends." [There seems to be only a few peopl around now. They glance around and look towards the school. Satoshi doesn't recognize any of them from here. ] I just want to go home and sleep and try to undo the past week, that's all. Don't recognize any of them. * Taki sighs and looks at them herself. * Haruko waves at the people. "Hi!" [They're some distance away and not looking at Haruko, so they don't hear her.] * Taki looks at Satoshi and then Haruko, "You want to go over there now?" * Haruko slowly gets closer. ( Taki and Haruko can gimme awareness rolls. ) ...I guess so. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Taki (2d6) and gets 10. I want to know what's going on. (feh) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6) and gets 9. (Nope) [Haruko and Taki don't single anyone out either.] * Taki nods at Satoshi, "Guess we'll go home later then." * Taki follows Haruko over. * Haruko keeps getting closer and waves again and calls out louder. "Hello!" * Satoshi walks with Taki. "I hope Haruko's not about to get us into more trouble." * Satoshi sends to Haruko, ~Hey, Haruko? Is trying to get their attention such a good idea?~ Can still run away, and maybe I won't knock myself out this time. [Haruko catches the attention of the closest one. She knows him, too: Toshiki. He grins and stalks towards the group. "Well well. If it isn't my Sakuragaoka friends."] * Haruko stops. ~Well, we all meet sooner or later~ ~I still can't believe he lectured me about that lying little punk~ ~Damn, you're right.~ * Haruko sighs and then plucks up her courage. "Hello Toshiki. It appears we were wrong earlier, if you and Saki wish to fight one another uninterrupted we'll respect it." [He nods. "Good. Glad you see it my way. So, up for a rumble?" He summons his staff, his eyes going cat-like. He grins widely.] * Haruko gestures to her crutch. "Not really. And besides, wouldn't that be like cheating on Saki?" ~Haruko, Taki, get back.~ How about no? * Taki looks more than a little nervious as she recognises Toshiki, "Ah, no need." * Taki does take step back after Satoshi asks. * Haruko starts to crutch back and prepares to go watery if need be. [He shrugs. "Not really, no."] * Haruko crutches closer to Taki. "Didn't you already have another fight going on? You hadn't seen us when the field went up, and it wasn't ours." [He shrugs. "Yeah, but they were just normals. No challenge, no fun. You sure you don't want to go at it?"] Absolutly postitive. "Alright, some other time." * Haruko nods. "I have a dance I need to heal up for this weekend and we're all pretty tired. It's been a rough week. But thank you for offering a choice, I hope you can find a challenge all parties will enjoy." * Haruko waves goodbye. Yeah, uh, have fun. [He nods. "You bet. Heck, I think I'll start with Matthias."] Uh... bye. Matthias? * Haruko nods and then heads towards the school, now that the path is cleared. He's here? * Taki looks around at the other Arcana. * Haruko stops and then looks around. She'd forgotten about the others. [Matthias does, in fact, seem to be there. He's standing in front of the gate, in front of 3 other Arcana, all of whom Satoshi recognizes.] (Are they all just standing there, or are they getting ready to face off?) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Kaede (2d6-2) and gets 6. (And which three? :P) (evedently ones we don't know :P) (or just his gang) ( They're talking! But you're too far to hear! ) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katie (2d6) and gets 8. (Dang it Katie, stop doing mysterious things somewhere else, we need your eyes and ears over here! :P) (Shoulda thought of that before you wandered off without me.) * Haruko starts crutching over. "Well, we're there allies, so we should be there if they call on us." (You went home! The GM said so!) * Satoshi narrows his eyes. "I recognize them..." (You're the one who decided who was going where!) * Haruko looks to Satoshi. "Oh? I see Matthias, who are the others?" * Haruko keeps crutching, as she's not all that fast. * Taki looks back at Satoshi, "Wh... what she asked?" Two of them were the ones Kaede and I met yesterday, and the girl with all the earrings is a Jackal. Ran into her and Toshiki a while back. With the tentacle girl? The other girl *is* the tentacle girl. * Taki says in a small voice, "oh." * Haruko nods and then speaks quietly. "Taki, we may need to transport Matthais out too if this gets ugly. He can probably handle himself, but he may be quite outnuumbered here." * Haruko keeps crutching. * Taki nods, "I can do that." (Tentacle gal won't you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight...o/~) (*snerk*) ( Oh, so you do want to fight.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Katie (2d6) and gets 6. [Closer and closer! You still can't hear what they're saying, but both sides sound pretty upset.] * Taki keeps moving closer, and isn't paying attention to what Toshiki's up to. * Haruko keeps crutching. "Stay close. If we get too seperated I can go watery and Satoshi can jump away, but better if we don't have to." (Satoshi has levels in jumping I don't know about? Or is that just general superstrength?) (He does. Taki may or may not have been there when he launched himself clear across a street.) (Come to think of it, *Haruko* might not have. ^^;) (The only one I remember being there was Kaede.) (Wasn't she) (I thought that was on the walk to fight Yushiro) (We were all there but Kyon.) (There were puddles.) (Ahh, right.) (I don't remember it at all. ^^;) (Hey, it's late and it's been a while. Anyhow!) [They get there just as Akio comes out of the school. He lights a cigarette and runs a hand through his hair. He sighs and asks, "What's this all about?"] (Suddenly I have him running out of the school then stopping midway just to pull out a cigarette and say "Yeah, I'm cool" out of fricken NOWHERE.) [The tentacle girl points at Matthias. "He interfered with our affairs again! I hate when he does that!"] (ha!) * Haruko waves slightly to Akio and comes closer. She lets the people who were ther talk. (I *like* that!) * Taki follows slowly behind Haruko. [Matthias: "I warned you, I will not tolerate violence around this school any longer. If you want to fight, go somewhere else to do it."] * Haruko then smiles and looks at Matthias with a marked amount of respect. [The girls responds. "Oh yeah? Why should we listen to you?!"] [Akio sighs. "How troublesome."] * Haruko looks to see if Matthias has shown any sign of recognizing the arrival of reinforcements. [Akio just wanders past them and you, out of the school. "Look, knock it off, will you? I'm not up for this."] [Everyone just watches him leave with a blank look. Except Toshiki, he's grinning. "Later, boss."] * Haruko watches Akio walk off and gives him a bow. "Farewell Akio, perhaps we'll see you another time." [Akio stops and looks at Haruko as though noticing her for the first time. "Hm? Oh, yeah. Sure." He continues down the road.] * Taki looks confused and rubs her head. [The tentacle girl frowns. "Grr... I say we beat him up anyhow."] [Matthias watches calmly. But Nori shakes her head. "Akio said to stop. Let's stop."] * Haruko decides to not stop a good thing. [They wander away. Leaving the goggles guy and Matthias.] * Haruko looks to Matthias with a smile. "Greetings." [Matthias ignores Haruko for the moment, instead regarding the other guy, who says, "We won't always follow Akio. He doesn't have any motivation. Once I become the Jackal leader, this school is in for a big change."] Matthias: "Do you really think you can get anyone to follow you, Kei?" [The goggles guy doesn't respond. Instead he heads after the girls.] [Matthias shifts his gaze to Haruko.] (Unless I'm very confused about the gender of one of the Jackals there's only one girl) ( There's two :P ) * Haruko looks over Kei as he walks off, she then looks to Matthias. (Nori and tentacle girl) (Ahh) (There's the tentacle girl and Nori, the earring-girl.) [Incidently, Toshiki is still there. He seems to find something extremely funny about the whole ordeal. Or maybe he's still hoping for a fight.] (Which from what Satoshi said I thought Nori was the Tentacle Girl. ^^;) If you ever desire our support in such a fight, we will give it to you ally. ::she then smiles slightly:: But then, you seem quite capable of handling yourself. [He nods. "I see. But why are you here?"] * Taki boggles quitly at Haruko, and keeps her mouth shut. ( Me ponders a Haruko action figure. "Complete with mind- boggling action!" ) (*cracks up*) (haha!) (*snicker*) Honestly? To use your library. We're doing research. Some Jackals seem to be on a similar course. You got the details about Katie's kidnapping, right? (Haruko had told Akemi offscreen.) [He nods.] * Taki lets everybody else talk, things will make more sense after a nice long nap. "Yes, someone put her picture on a site, along with a number of other girls. From what you've told me, I seriously doubt you'll find much in our library. What little a library there is." * Haruko nods. "Well, many Arcana go to our schools, so we thought we'd check the yearbooks." Toshiki laughs. "Books are good fuel for flames. Hey Matt, you gonna get rid of this field? I wanna beat these people up some more." (...going to have to update Matthias's entry in the peopleguide.) [Matthias shrugs. "If you insist, feel free. But I don't think you'll find any patterns amongst the girls, save that they're all linked to the Nine of Cups."] ["If you'll excuse me, I have another problem that needs to be taken care of." He wanders past you lot towards Toshiki.] Wait a moment. All linked? * Taki looks up and opens her mouth, but closes it again without saying anything. * Haruko nods. She looks like she had more to say, but waits. "We can ask after he deals with Toshiki." [They talk for a bit quietly. By the end, Toshiki looks annoyed, but shrugs it off as he wanders away. "Fine, I'll go visit my soon-to-be girlfriend instead."] * Haruko talks to the others right after Toshiki walks off. "Guess Toshiki's not so bad, for a male Arcana." She grins slightly. Is there something I should know? ... You can go get beaten up ever day if you like... I'll pass. [Matthias turns around. "It sounds to me as though the girls you seek are victims of the Nine of Cups's power. I doubt there's any connection to them aside from that, unless he's smarter than you've said."] * Haruko pats Satoshi on the back. "You're great, so are a few others. For the rest fighting normally seems unavoidable." (Up that please. * Taki does speak up now, "But there are guys on that site too, and his powers don't...." * Haruko looks back to Matthias. "There were guys, but he didn't post them Taki." Anyways, you might be right. He just kidnapped me once and my picture wasn't posted. I was thinking that it may be he only posted ones tied to the drugs. [Matthias nods. "His connection to the drugs is another matter entirely."] * Satoshi eyes Haruko briefly, then shakes his head and turns to Matthias. "Are *all* the girls on the site are connected to him?" "All the ones by that poster, certainly." "It's likely nothing more than..." he searches for a way to put it, "A trophy room of sorts for him." Sick bastard. * Satoshi looks at Haruko and Taki. "Do we have a list of all the ones he's posted? If not, can we get one?" * Haruko nods at Satoshi's comment and takes a moment to think this through. "Well, maybe he just didn't get a chance with me. In that case I shouldn't press Remi." She sighs. "But I do think when he kidnapped Katie it was at least partially for drug reasons. Chariot seemed to want at least one prisoner." * Haruko looks back to Satoshi. "Kaede had the list, but we could quickly pull it off an internet connected computer." * Taki nods slightly, "...sounds right... I forgot about that." So we should narrow our search first to the girls he posted, and then go from there. * Haruko looks to Matthias. "Any ideas what he might need one of us for? I've thought that the chemist they have, who also can make a power surpressing serum, might need Arcana to produce the drugs. But it could be something else entierly." (That was the list we were working off I think) (I assumed there were thousands on the page) (Was it? I didn't know how specific a search we were starting from.) [He shakes his head. "Not... I have an idea, but there's still a few pieces of the puzzle missing. I'll contact you again when I'm certain."] Thanks. We'd appreciate that. * Haruko nods. "We'll keep Akemi posted if we find more." Her voice drops. "Our next step is to deal with Tenjirou. We'll have to get by Chariot to do it, but once we do we can run away without defeating that hulk." * Haruko turns to head off, but then looks back. "One more thing. Toshiki and Saki like to fight, so that's not really our concern. But we'd like to try to prevent other violence around our school. Do you have any advice? You seem much better at it than we do." [He shrugs. "Know your enemies and know how to stop them."] * Haruko nods. "Thanks." [End!]