[Day: Friday, April 8th. Time: 3:45 p.m.] [Weather: Rainy.] [You're at Satoshi's!] [Session Start!] * Haruko can be heard driving up outside, she then starts the walk up to Satoshi's apartment. * Katie checks her carving over. "Sounds like Haruko could be here-" She's interrupted by her phone ringing and sighs. * Katie sets the wood down and picks up. "" She blinks. "" She stands and walks off to Satoshi's room, knife still in hand. * Taki watches Katie go and then sighs and sips her orange juice. * Haruko knocks on the door. * Satoshi gets up to answer it. * Satoshi calls out before opening it. "Haruko? That you?" Yup, it's me Satoshi. * Satoshi opens the door. "C'mon in." * Kaede looks aside at Katie's answer to the phone, then settles in a spot on the couch. * Haruko comes in and takes her shoes off. "Thanks. Kyon and Kyoko are both fine, and the search is progressing, but may be a while before they return." * Taki waves at Haruko once she's inside. * Haruko smiles back at Taki and finds a seat. * Satoshi shuts the door behind her. "Yeah?" * Haruko nods. "No real specifics. Apparently they're following up a reading. Where's Katie?" Phone call. * Taki points at the door Katie is hiding behind. "Her mom's on her cell." * Haruko eyes scan the room and rest on Keade for just a moment. She nods at Satoshi's comment. "Right. Okay, so what did I miss?" * Taki looks at Haruko. "Uhm... we... we're going to go search places... related to The Tower... so Tokyo tower, and the construction site, and ... and the place Katie was... and one other I've just forgotten." Haven't we already checked the place Katie was? Way back when, Haruko. The... the first time it happened. The...uh... other one... when the .. the Fake her... * Haruko nods. "Right. That what the reading advised?" Well, it mentioned the Tower fairly strongly, so we thought it was a good idea. I don't know how much splitting up we're going to want to do. * Haruko nods. "I'd say we shouldn't at all." * Haruko then catches herself. "Well, at least that's my opinion. You guys may have a better idea." * Taki nods and tries to remember what the last place was. "Uhm... at least two people... and where was it?" * Satoshi snaps his fingers. "The hospital." * Haruko smiles. "About time. Alright, so you guys work out a battle plan?" We were working on that when you arrived. Right, so what do you have so far? * Taki nods. "Yeah, that was it... and uhm... no... we didn't g... yeah." Go search those places, possibly split up. Or not. Did we decide on the order? * Haruko shakes her head. "I meant a plan for Tenjirou once we find him. We can't afford to repeat last time." We hadn't really gotten to that yet. * Taki nods and looks to where Katie is talking. Okay. Well we can just work our way through the locations based on geography so that's simple. Might as well get to planning. Katie can hear us and modify the plans once she's done on the phone. * Haruko glances around to see how people take to that idea. I'd rather wait until she's done and can discuss things with us while we're planning. Uhm... you could tell everybody what happened with Remi... yesterday I mean. * Haruko nods. "Right. Well, you and Kaede might want to discuss what do if any of us fall in love with Tenjirou. Kaede's new ability will help, but none of us girls should know the specifics. * Haruko nods. "Sure." * Kaede taps his fingers on the edge of the couch, casting his gaze off in the distance. Well. Remi seems to have been avoiding kidnappings and other Arcana. However, she's been having past-life dreams and trouble sleeping. The pain in her hand also isn't going away. I'm going to try to get her an appointment with Masaru, she seemed hesistant, but persuadable. Past life dreams? * Taki nods, "She's.... dreaming a fight her last life got in... over and over and over... and it ends with her... her hand getting cut off." That's... not good. * Haruko nods. "Wandering around a mansion looking for something. She also apparently had an ice sword and fought a swordswoman of apparently inferior ability in a bamboo forest. She lost though, and had her hand stabbed through I think, not cut off. Oddly enough she was fighting someone that looked western but had Japanese eyes." And the fact that things seem to be repeating from life to life... Shouldn't she have been healed though? * Haruko nods. "I haven't had any residual pain from when my stomach was cut open. That's, and the not sleeping, is why I'll try to get her an appointment with Masaru." * Taki brings up her right hand slowly and the quickly grabs her glass and takes a sip of juice. Maybe there's a limit to how much can be healed? I don't know... Could be, could be psychological. * Kaede taps his fingers again. Broody again. We'll hopefully Masaru can at least help her get sleep. ::she frowns:: And that's how Remi's doing. I'll give her another call once I arrange a potential appointment." How'd it go with Sumire? Any hope of building an alliance with her, if not Takeo? Takeo and her are a pair...at least for now. Everyone else has kind of...disappeared. I think Senshiro and Natsuko might still be working together. Or at least in contact with each other. * Katie opens the door the rest of the way, walking out of Satoshi's room. She's rolling her eyes. Her phone's away, and she's loosely holding her carving knife (seeing as she brought it into the room with her, that's no big surprise). At least, that's the impression I got. * Satoshi looks over at Katie. "I'm suddenly very glad I did the laundry last night." But I don't see any reason why we can't work together. Overbearing parent, Katie? * Kaede doesn't look up much when he says the end. Yeah, but I can't complain. Why's that, Satoshi? * Taki sets her glass back down on Satoshi's table and looks up at Katie. * Katie glances at Haruko, then reclaims her seat next to Kaede. Because otherwise, my dirty clothes would've been strewn all over the room, and that probably wouldn't have been pleasant. * Katie snickers. * Haruko nods. "Well, we can try for them next." She then glances over to Katie, keeping her gaze on her and eyes clearly visible for a moment. "Right. So, let's get planning, I vote we don't split up because we barely got out alive last time." * Taki blinks and gives Satoshi a confused look. * Satoshi grins briefly at Katie before turning back towards Haruko. I think we should. Not necessarily to take out Tenjirou, but as far as finding out where he is, we have to hit him when he's down. * Katie shrugs. "Though if it'd be easy to kill him, I don't think we should waste that." * Haruko keeps her tone very matter of fact. "If we find him they may notice us. Best case then we lose the element of surprise. Worst case we lose a few people." Correction. We don't send a female to check on his whereabouts. * Taki takes a deep breath. "I... I know where all of these places are except ...where... one of them so if he's at one of the others I can get everybody quickly." We can split just fine. So long as it's me or Satoshi who's doing the checking. Right. * Katie nods. * Taki also nods. * Haruko shakes her head. "It's not just falling in love. They beat the hell out of us last time." The point is surprise, Haruko, and catching them off guard. They weren't. No. Chariot did. The rest of them didn't stand much of a chance, especially if you hadn't...well, nevermind. * Haruko closes her eyes and sighs. "Right. Okay then, what's the battle plan for when we call in the full group?" Depends on what's there. * Haruko shakes her head. "We suck at improvising." She's got a point. * Haruko smiles. Not really. It's coordination we "suck" at. * Katie nods with Kaede. (And thus, the battle lines are drawn. ;p) So, let's try having a plan to make coordination easier then. That's hard to do when we don't know what's there. * Kaede rolls his eyes. "I'm not getting into this..." * Katie pauses a moment. "And... if it comes down to taking on the Chariot, I don't want to." Well... if it's anybody but Chariot... no wait that won't work... because Tenjirou might... * Katie sighs. We're going to have to get through Chariot to get to Tenjirou. Assuming otherwise is wishful thinking. I don't want to, either. Are we? ... We need more guys. The entire point is to get Tenjirou when he's weak and injured. If we get into a fight, we *are* in trouble. But... We don't know that. * Katie looks around the room. "With us, we have people who can stall, people who can distract, and people who can run." Chariot could be working with Ryo as much as Tenjirou. And Ryo has his own agenda. Ryo is in it for revenge and money. He has no real loyalty to the Chariot. He ran, remember. So, we assume we deal with Ryo, Chariot, and Tenjirou. If they're not all there, it'll be easier. If there's more than that, we run away. You're...okay, that's probably right. Although I meant more the other way around. * Katie picks up her carving and goes back to work. * Haruko nods in acknowledgement of Kaede's comment but keeps a straightforward look. "So... I'd suggest we don't try to beat them all, we just stall them, knock out or kill Tenjirou, and port out of there with his body." Why take his body? Uhm... that way if we're fighting we... don't have to take the time to finish him there? * Katie sighs. She looks up. "Look. It's not hard to kill someone." It is hard to want to though. * Haruko takes a deep breath. "Two reasons." She looks down. "We need to be sure. And if we take it we can dispose of it. We don't want the police or Natsuko seeing it." ( Listen to Katie. She knows :D ) * Haruko keeps looking down. * Katie shows her knife. "See this? You drive it up here." She sets her carving down and indicates the underside of her chin. "Here. There's nothing stopping it from going up." You push it through the mouth and hit the nasal cavity. That hits the brain. He's dead. * Taki shivers and then nods. (I sure do!) * Satoshi looks ill. And try getting close enough to do that. If he's in the condition he should be without Haruko or the Cup, we shouldn't have a problem. * Haruko looks to Katie, she's shivering a bit. "We need you to hold off Chariot. And I should say..." * Haruko looks down again. * Katie picks up her carving again and eyes it, then gets back to work. I don't know if I'd be able to kill him. Then don't. Whoever's distracting the Chariot needs to be able to run if things get too bad and pose enough of a threat to get him out of there. Threat...to Chariot. * Kaede snorts. I don't mean to the Chariot. I mean to whoever he might be protecting. * Taki blinks at Katie. "Isn't he... kinda yeah..." Or anger him enough to make him want to move. He wasn't protecting anyone last time. He was trying to get you. * Katie looks over to Kaede. "By the way, did you find out Tenjirou's relations?" * Haruko keeps looking down. "You're the only one who could stall him Katie." * Kaede nods to Katie without fully looking at her. "Two parents and that's their house he's living at. He also has an eight-year-old brother..." All right. You've got the records already, yeah? Any absences for Tenjirou lately? * Haruko looks up at that. "Not near them." * Taki dry swallows. * Satoshi takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Nothing out of the ordinary. There's been some absenses, but... Lately. Has he been gone the last few days? * Haruko looks down again. "If he's there, we need a field, we don't do it around innocents, if we can't get a field we wait til we can. No more Fuyukos." * Katie points out Taki. "Field." * Taki doesn't react when Katie points at her. * Kaede nods. "He has been. Actually been missing for a little while now." * Katie tilts her head. "What's the reason?" * Haruko looks down and distractedly tugs at her hair. None given. You expected that he would? ...Parents might say something.... * Katie nods. "Yeah, I was gonna say..." Could check missing people reports. It's an idea...somehow I still doubt it though.. It's hard to imagine him with family though... Yeah, but I want to be as sure as I can. Can you check? He had to come from somewhere, didn't he? * Haruko keeps looking down as she twirls her hair. "And we are sure there's no other way, right? Like porting him to an island, or reversed world, or an island in reversed world, or a group of monks, or cutting off all of his appendages?" She then flinches slightly as she thinks that last one through. Otherwise, that raises the possibility of Arcana just... spontaneously being generated. * Katie looks at Haruko. "If anyone can keep raping people with all his limbs cut off, it's Tenjirou." * Taki nods after a bit. "D...does that mean somebody... built the towers?" * Kaede sighs and pulls out his laptop. The Tower's an exception, though. I meant more the ones that have human form. I guess...but... * Kaede starts up his computer and concentrates on that. * Taki picks up her glass using both hands and takes a very short sip. * Haruko nods at Katie's statement and then comments quietly, mostly to herself. "Everyone has a mother and father. Or maybe a jail cell in reversed world. We'd have to bring food and drink like once a week, but in a few weeks we might find out how that power suppressor works. May be able to make it permanent." And if it doesn't work? If he gets out? We're not the only people who can go to the World Reversed. ...An...and even if we do turn off his power... he's still the same person who.... who used it. * Haruko still doesn't look up. "It'd buy us time to find out if it could work." * Katie nods at Taki. "He's still the same person." * Haruko looks up. "He's still the same person, but the police could handle him. We're only doing this because now they can't." ( No, if you turn his power off he becomes Douglass MacArthur. ) (We could give him to the North Koreans.) I don't think we'll find a way to make it permanent. Not in a few weeks. Not with what we have. * Kaede shakes his head. "If there's any female police officers anyway.." ( Little did they know that Arcana powers can be nullified by a hat. ) (!) (But what kind of hat?) ( Zein is powerless!) (Katie's white cowboy hats!) (Remi wears a hat...) I've only been at this for two months. We've done a whole lot in that. We know its chemical, we can try to analyze it or maybe find the source by then. * Katie shakes her head. "And make it?" Make enough of it to last forever? Maybe give him a high enough dosage, they probably still needed you with your powers so they might have held back. We haven't even done a reading on if there is a way. That won't work. And he's still dangerous without his power. ( ph34r his He's a weak idiot without his powers and he'll be useless to his sponsors. ::she closes her eyes:: Maybe there isn't another way, but pretty soon it won't be just talk, research, and planning. It'll be killing him. ::she bites her lip:: We could do a reading. * Katie frowns. "What? You don't have enough proof already?" This isn't even about justice, Haruko. It's survival. He's going to kill and hurt us until he stops. We've already tried other things. * Taki nods. He's guilty as sin. He's evil. But we've never checked if there's a way to take away powers permanently. And you want to wait until we can know for sure? * Katie gestures with her knife. "He'll be back on his feet and looking for revenge." ...He... he's not going to wait for us. You think that what he did last time was the worst possible? * Haruko looks down. "We'll never know anything for sure. I think at very least we should take him out of action for a while. But we could just do a single reading on it. That doesn't take so long." Funny how I don't remember you telling Sumire this... * Satoshi finally speaks up. "And what if the reading says the best thing to do is to finish him?" * Katie looks to Kaede. "What?" Just what I said... * Haruko looks to Kaede. "I... thought, it didn't feel quite so immediate." She looks to Satoshi. "Then, well, we'll know we don't have an option." Like you really trust your destiny to cards, Haruko. You told her about how he tried to kill...but you never really explained your intentions from the start. * Katie shrugs at Kaede. "Yeah. Because talking about killing people in public's a really good idea." So you plan on telling her? No. * Haruko looks to Katie. "They know more than we do. There might be a system. And if there isn't, then we'll know." I'm sorry. I see how I could have made that mistake then. What do you mean? * Haruko looks to Satoshi. "Do you want to check too? We could send someone. Not me or Taki, but we could stay out of sight if we were the escort. Just phrase the question so it doesn't give away what we're thinking." Wait, what? Look. She worked with him...she didn't want to see us killed...but I think that extends to us too. * Taki shakes her head. We're researching right now. One of us could just go to Saori and ask now. Save the time we're spending debating it. If we plan on killing him just on our own, I wouldn't look too highly on that if I were her. No, she probably wouldn't. But there's no reason she has to know. She'll know he's dead. * Katie shrugs. "So?" And how do you intend on keeping it from her? She'll probably be happy he's dead. Or she won't care. She didn't seem to care then. * Haruko looks puzzled at Katie and Kaede's talk for a moment and then looks back to Satoshi. * Katie rolls her eyes. ", Kaede. I'm not about to run around screaming that I'm a murderer." * Satoshi puts a hand to his forehead. "I don't know. Honestly, how much help could it be?" We'd know as sure as we could. I could drive you over and stay out of sight. You ask, we find out, we know. I drive you back. That'll give Katie and Kaede time to finish debates and computer research. And it won't tire Taki. * Kaede eyes Katie. "Well it's obvious to all of us." He stands up suddenly. "If you're going to go ahead with this with that kind of ill-conceived rationale, I want no part of it. And you'll be short at least one of two males to help you." * Haruko looks rather oddly at Kaede, as if she doesn't know what the hell is going on in that conversation. She seems oddly relieved for a moment but looks back to Satoshi. (Katie! Somebody's been listening to us plot murder! We have to kill him!) (Okay.) * Katie eyes Kaede. I don't even understand where you're coming from. ( Gah, memory wipe. Come on people, you aren't even trying.) (:P) * Taki looks at Kaede. "Th...Then what would you do?" (* Taki blinks. "You know how to get into contact with her?") ( Sure, appear in public and start showing off our powers. :P) * Satoshi seems to be ignoring Haruko for the moment and watching Katie and Kaede. You said she won't care? Did you even ask her? Do you think it's a good idea for me to go around telling people I'm a murderer? ( ... and I thought I didn't think things through.) * Katie gets to her feet, too, and glares the short distance up at Kaede. "Do you? Maybe I should go to Chikako." Why not? It's obvious without you saying it. Oh, yes. I killed Yushiro. And I'm not sorry he's dead. How about the police? I should go tell them, too. And my parents. Because they care more about me than Sumire ever will. You killed Yushiro. You weren't a murderer then. Satoshi! Let them work it out, it'll take time. We can know for sure. ::her voice gets a pleading quality:: Don't you want to be as certain as we can be? * Taki looks up at Katie. "Y....you don't have to go that far." You're acting like a murderer now though. If that's what we need in order to live through this, that's what I'm going to do. Honestly, your lust for wanting to kill Tenjirou, survival or not, is clouding your judgement. * Satoshi sends to Haruko, ~I want to *see* this. I want to hear this first-hand rather than having someone try to tell me about it later.~ You don't want an answer. You just want him dead. An answer to *what*? To how else to deal with the problem. Sumire may have another solution. Or she may agree with us. Who knows? Yeah. If she had another solution, I wonder why she hasn't used it yet. But the only reason you don't want to tell her is because you know I'm right. You know she won't approve. Didn't really matter if he's a rapist if they got the fans, did it? * Haruko sighs and folds her arms and closes her eyes. So if you take that attitude, then what the *hell* was the point of even talking to anyone in the band? Ask Haruko. It was her idea. No. I agree with her. * Haruko looks up and opens her eyes. "I.." She then shuts up. ( *shock!* ) (o_O) * Katie takes a breath. "Because Sumire can be useful." You're the one that's off here, Katie Andrews. So if you want to do this, do it on your own. Sumire can be useful. But I'm not looking for someone to justify my actions to me. * Haruko is presently processing this brave new world. Please be patient..... * Katie picks up her sheath and slips the knife into it. She stoops, putting her carving back into her satchel. "I can barely justify them to myself. But it's what I have to do." If you can't justify them, then you haven't thought enough about it. No, I've thought a lot about it. The whole time you thought I was crazy, I was thinking about it. And, you know, it was luck. The first time, the second time, it was all luck. * Haruko continues to process. She does nod at Katie's comment though. So you don't believe in the cards. The more people know, the more leaks we'll have, and the more likely someone who shouldn't know about this might find out. * Katie eyes Kaede. Not really. No. They can be a tool, but I believe in all I can. * Katie shoulders her satchel. * Taki shakes her head and then looks at Kaede and speaks quietly. "Not ...on her own... I ... I don't.... I remember what it was like... to be in love with him. I remember what it was like... to not be in love with him any more... For me ... for me that he... even one person... all the people he's done it to is too many." A tool. * Katie slides her knife into her jacket. Either we believe things are written in the cards in some way, or why use them at all? * Haruko breathes in and out slowly. She shifts her glance between Kaede and Katie. She looks increasingly anxious at Katie's preparations for leaving. I guess you've stopped believing in yourself then too. * Katie looks Kaede in the eyes. "People are far more important than cards. I can't control what cards say. But I can control what I do." Isn't that what you said once, Kaede? I might be a Page of Swords, or I might be human, but I'm still Katie Andrews? (You're actually now Katie Smith. She's a transfer student from Florida. please adjust customs accordingly.) ('scuse me while I go stab the customs officer.) * Haruko stands up slowly. She keeps quiet. * Taki watches Katie and Kaede from her spot on the floor. People are more important than cards. But there's a lot more people involved here than just you. Well. * Haruko walks over to her shoes and slowly puts them on. She watches Katie and Kaede. * Katie turns, watching Haruko put on her shoes. "I'm not asking you to kill him." No, you're not. But you're still being short-sighted. How? Do you want to face all the Band pinning us as murderers? It's not like it'll be hard to pin it down. So, you think it's a better idea for me to just *tell* them that I'm going to kill Tenjirou. I didn't say that. You did earlier. Why didn't you tell Sumire you were planning on killing him? It's basically what you said. Maybe she'd have a better way. I'd like to know, because they didn't have him on a leash even when he were *with* them. * Haruko still doesn't seem to be understanding this argument, she finishes with her shoes. Did you even discuss ways to deal with Tenjirou with her? You were there. You'd know. If not, I'm curious why you even brought it up...why you even *came* to see Sumire... * Katie looks back to Kaede. "Because I wanted to know where he could be hiding. I wanted to know if she still had ties to him. I wanted... to warn her, because I'm still not quite a heartless bitch. Anything else?" And what about Zein hmm? If you want to hunt him down, go ahead. * Kaede sneers at Katie. "But. You. DIDN'T. Warn her. That's my point." Fine. I think I did. I think that if Sumire has half a brain, she would consider herself warned. * Katie shrugs. "But she did hang out with Tenjirou. So what do I know?" * Haruko stands up. She seems to be pondering speaking, but she waits for a moment to see how the conversation goes. * Kaede gets up and takes his pack. * Haruko gulps as she sees Kaede do that. [Right, so it's over.]