[Katie has to go all the way to the newspaper office to find Chikako. She's sitting at her desk evaluating an article.] * Katie makes it to the office, gasping for breath. Is anyone else here? [There is another girl there with Chikako, in fact. She's a bit on the short side, wearing her black hair in a single braid tossed over her shoulder.] * Katie blinks and stays quiet, waiting her turn. * Chikako waves. "Hi Katie! You came to see me! That's so cool!" She gestures at the girl. "This is Arisu Sanada, my coolest reporter!" * Katie smiles and waves. "Hi. Nice to meet you." * Arisu bows politely. "And you must be Katie Andrews. Chikako has spoken a lot about you. But then again, Chikako speaks a lot about a lot of things. Like those Sugar Beans she seems to enjoy..." She seems to have already forgotten you two as she converses with herself. (Arisu! Too bad she got killed in the MC universe.) ( Yes. Well, she's back :P ) * Katie laughs. "All good, I hope." (I liked her. ^^) ( She's too funny to get rid of :P ) (Yup!) * Arisu blinks and looks up. "Huh? Oh, yeah." * Chikako giggles. "She's helping me with the drug increases and the disappearances. Cool, huh?" Very cool. * Arisu nods. "Yes, they've both been interesting cases. Reminds me of my first story I did on the affair of that councilman. Quite a long time ago. I knew something was up. Still never figured out why he did it, though..." she goes off into her world again. So what's up, Katie? I wanted to talk to you. Um, alone, if that's okay. And away from... here. * Katie waves vaguely. "That is, if what you're doing can wait until later." * Chikako blinks. "Sure, that'd be cool." She stands up and waves to Arisu. "Bye, Arisu!" * Arisu doesn't notice. She's talking about the secretary's pudding now. * Chikako follows Katie out! * Katie snickers. "Nice meeting you, Arisu." She heads out! * Chikako says to Katie as they walk. "Cool. So, what is it? Did Taro do something uncool to you? If he did, I'll get back at him." * Katie walks to the playground she and Kaede saw Eriko in back whenever. Nobody should be there, given it's still winter. "Nah, it's about the secret Kyon mentioned." He went about it the wrong way, but he's not wrong. And... I'm really tired of keeping it from you. Ohh... Cool! I like secrets! So what is it? * Chikako follows Katie all the way there, too. Nobody else is at the playground. * Katie smiles. "Yeah, I know you do. Just keep it, okay? Other people knowing about it would be... really bad." * Katie has a seat on one of the swings. "Well, um." She scoops up a gloveful of snow. * Chikako grins. "Don't worry, it's cool with me." * Chikako stands up one one of the swings and rocks back and forth. Is it Ken, maybe? Ken's involved, actually. I don't think he knows he is, though. ... I get it! You like girls, huh? That's cool. I'm not like that, though. * Katie blinks, then cracks up. "No!" * Katie keeps giggling. * Chikako giggles. "But really, what is it? It's cool to tell me." Okay! Okay. But you're not going to believe me unless I show you. And showing you is hard. Can you turn yourself into a pretzel? That'd be so cool! * Katie closes her eyes, then opens them. "Nope. Watch." She tosses the snow into the air. It hovers there for a moment, propelled by the wind, then swirls around Chikako. Oddly, when the wind touches her skin, it's warm instead of cold. * Chikako goes wide-eyed. "Hey, that's so cool! How'd you do it, huh?" * Katie takes a deep breath, and the snow falls suddenly to the ground. "Magic, if you can believe that." * Chikako tilts her head. "So you're a magician? Cool!" You never told me that. Well, not really. Remember those cards Kyon had you pick from? Uh huh. I didn't understand that game, though. Blackjack is much cooler. * Katie nods. "That's because it's not really a game." She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a deck of tarot cards, shaking them out of their box. See, these are tarot cards. And I represent one of them. That's why I have powers. * Chikako tilts her head the other direction. "Huh?" * Katie flips through the cards, selecting the Page of Swords. She gives it to Chikako. "See, this one's me. Page of Swords. I'm an Arcana, so I represent this card, which is why I have powers." Oh... That's cool. And weird. * Chikako still looks half confused. * Katie nods and continues patiently explaining as she picks out another card, handing it to Chikako. So which one's Kyon's? The Queen of Wands, which I just gave you. His powers are fire-based. * Chikako peers. "Ooh..." * Chikako looks up excitedly. "Cool! Which one am I? What do I get?" * Katie flips through and pulls out the Knight of Cups. "This one's Taki. She can teleport." Well... that's the thing Kyon was doing when he had you draw. We wanted to see if you were an Arcana or not. Uh huh! So, which one am I? * Katie smiles a bit sadly. "We... don't think you are one, since we tried a couple times. But I'll try to find out again." She takes the cards back and shuffles them in the deck. * Chikako pouts. "I'm not? I didn't get in! That's so uncool!" It's not really something we can control. You're probably better off not being an Arcana, actually. How come the rest of you get powers and not me? It'd be so cool to teleport. I don't know. I don't know why I have powers and you don't. * Chikako sits down on the swing and folds her arms. * Katie fans the cards to Chikako, face down. "Anyway, it's not all that great. Pick one." * Chikako picks one. Which one is it? * Chikako shows it. The Heirophant. "It's a guy in a really cool hat!" So what, is that me, huh? It'd be so cool if he was. I'd like a cool hat like that. * Katie giggles. "Let's see." She takes it back, shuffles, and spreads them face down again. Okay, now pick one again. * Chikako draws one. Four of Wands. So am I that one? I guess it's cool, but I liked the guy with the hat better. * Katie sighs. "Probably not." * Katie takes the card back. So I am the guy with the hat, then? Cool! See, one of the easiest ways to tell if someone's an Arcana is if they always draw the same card with another Arcana holding the deck. Oh. * Chikako frowns. "So I didn't win?" Since you didn't draw the same card, it's not likely. It's possible, I guess, because there are exceptions. Just not likely. * Katie shakes her head. "It's not a contest." See, the other thing is... um. * Katie frowns a little. "Arcana don't all get along." * Chikako tilts her head. "Why not? That's not cool." No, it's not cool. And I'm not sure why not, but some of them want to kill us. * Katie shrugs. "I guess, in the end, it's because Arcana are people, and people aren't all cool." * Chikako stares. "That's so uncool!" Yeah. It is. * Chikako huffs. "Not fair. I wanna have powers too." Then I could keep them from killing you. It'd be cool. * Katie touches Chikako's shoulder. "You help already." * Chikako kicks the ground glumly. "Not as much as I could. It's not cool." Hey. Hey, don't get like that, all right? You're the best friend anybody could ask for. You've kept me from going crazy because of all of this plenty of times, and you didn't even know it. That's beyond cool. * Chikako looks at Katie. "Well what if something bad happens to you? I'd feel so..." She searches for a word, but just comes up with. "Uncool." * Katie smiles sadly. "If something bad happens to me? I guess... I don't know. I hope nothing does. I'll try *really* hard to make sure nothing does." Tell you what, though. I'll make sure I talk to you about this stuff from now on. Okay? * Chikako nods. "It's cool. You shoulda told me sooner, though." Then I could write a cool, cool article in the paper! I'm sorry. I wanted to, but... it's not just my secret. * Katie laughs and shakes her head. "No, no articles." * Chikako giggles. "It's cool. Just a joke." * Katie grins. "I know, but it can be so hard to tell with you sometimes." * Chikako frowns. "It can?... Always thought my jokes were cool." Anyway, we think that the disappearances might be Arcana related. And the drugs, too. Oh? Cool! Can I do articles on those? * Katie looks down at the cards as she straightens them. "If anything, some of the drug dealers are Arcana, and a lot of the people disappearing are, too." Oh... Don't do drugs, okay? They're not cool. Ugh. No, they're not. ( Chikako goes on to do anti-drug commercials "Drugs are so uncool!" ) (Woot!) So, Kyon's an Arcana. So's Taki, Kaede, Satoshi, and Haruko. And Jiro, and Ken, but I don't think he knows. * Chikako pouts. "But Ken's not cool at all!" And Jiro dropped out. * Katie shrugs. "Hey, Arcana aren't necessarily cool." She blinks. "He did?" When did that happen? He's not the type to drop out like that. * Chikako nods. "Uh huh. Didn't you know? I thought you guys were cool like that." We were, but... after we found out that Meimi was an illusion, he kind of stopped talking to us. Uh, earlier this month. She is? That's not cool. * Katie nods with a small frown. "Must have been what happened. Something's wrong with him." She's sending me fake articles? Well, the one we were dealing with was. Hey, even if the articles do turn out to be illusionary, they're real enough. Right? Well, yeah, but it won't be cool if they suddenly disappear. All my backup copies will be ruined. That would kind of suck. I'm pretty sure she'll make sure you can cover it up, though. That'd be cool. * Katie sighs, setting her cheek against one of the swing's chains. The cold stings, but she doesn't move. "There's a lot going on, though. With the war, and the disappearances, and the illusions, and the drugs, and people thinking *I'm* the reason people are disappearing, and the fake Saki who tried to eat us, and... just a lot going on." * Chikako blinks several times. "Uhhh..." So... yeah. Why would you be? That's not cool. * Katie smiles sheepishly. "Sorry about keeping it secret." I dunno. I don't think I'm making people disappear. * Chikako looks at Katie sternly. "Well, you should be. It's not cool to keep a secret like that from your friend." * Katie scuffs at the snow with one foot. "Yeah. Forgive me?" * Chikako grins. "Aw, it's cool." * Katie giggles. So! Want to see a movie? Cool! * Katie hops to her feet. "Great. I'll let you pick. No post-apocalyptic bike movies, though." * Chikako grins. "It's cool. There's this new movie about an American cowboy who comes to Japan in the 1800s that looks cool anyhow." An American cowboy, huh? Maybe I should get a cowboy hat after all. * Chikako grins. "That'd look so cool on you! We can get one after the movie!" * Katie laughs. "Sure. I can wear it to school tomorrow. Make a fashion statement. I wonder if I'll get in trouble for violating the dress code." Probably, but it'd be cool anyhow. * Chikako giggles. Yeah. Besides, it'd be my first violation. * Katie works on her Texas drawl, which sounds awfully funny in Japanese. "Hoooooowdy, pardner!" * Chikako giggles. "That's so cool!" * Katie giggles, too. [Session End]