[Day: Wednsday, March 12th. Time: 2:50 p.m.] [Weather: Light snowfall and chilly.] [Yesterday you argued. Today, you head to the lockers!] [Session Start] * Satoshi is, as always, doing the book-exchanging thing. He finishes and looks around for everybody else. * Haruko walks up with a fairly determined look, her pace is quick enough that her borrowed duster flutters slightly behind her. * Katie sits on the floor with a set of colored pencils out, working away. * Haruko waves. "Hey Satoshi and Katie." * Satoshi waves back. "Heya, Haruko." How's it going? * Katie keeps coloring. * Haruko shrugs. "Alright.. although I'm not really going to be able to relax until I find who did that to Maki. Oh.. Katie, you get a chance to call Kyon for a reading?" * Kaede walks down the hallway with kaban in one hand. His phone is resting on his shoulder for a second as he switches hands with his kaban then picks it up, talking softly into it as he walks. He's got bags under his eyes too if you look close enough. No. By the time I could have called him, it was a little too late. * Katie puts down the brown and picks up a lighter shade. * Haruko frowns slightly. "Oh well.. maybe tonight. Or we could try again to find Saori. If it comes down to it I'll just confront him, but..." Confront who? * Kaede shakes his head and turns the phone off as he approaches. "Idiots." He goes to his locker and proceeds to open it up. Yushiro. Whoa, wait a second? Are you sure that's a good idea? * Haruko walks over to Kaede and puts a hand on him. "Time to finish healing you..." It probably isn't. * Haruko glances back. "If you think it's necessary, I'll try to arrange some backup." * Kaede waves Haruko away and puts some stuff in the locker absently. He closes it and turns around, back to the locker as he puts two fingers up to the middle of his brow, closing his eyes tightly as he rubs it. I'll back you up, if it comes to that. I just don't like the idea... * Katie looks up at Haruko. "Do you even know where to find Yushiro?" * Haruko glances over at Kaede. "Alright, this can wait, but unless you want me to follow you to the store, let me heal you when you're ready." I don't want to have to rely on that..I'll be fine. * Kaede 's still rubbing his forehead with his fingertips. * Haruko glances back to Katie. "I can find him if I have to, ask Chikako to pull his records, but he goes to this school anyways. I can handle that level of detective work. * Katie shrugs. I'm just saying that you shouldn't go alone. * Haruko looks back to Kaede. "Please... if nothing else, if something unexpected and dangerous comes up, as it has been known to do,.." Yeah. We don't know what he's capable of. * Haruko looks back at Katie and cracks up. * Satoshi blinks, confused. "Um...?" Oh... ::giggle:: so that's why.. ::giggle:: Yeah, I meant Ryuji, Saki, or Eriko for backup. No way I'd try something like that unless I had no choice. * Haruko is down to a low but sustained giggle. "Alone..." * Kaede opens his eyes slowly and looks straight at Haruko. "And how would we get along if we were normal? How often do we have to keep exposing ourselves before we get caught, Haruko-san?" * Katie studies Haruko for a moment, then goes back to her coloring. I mean...you treat it as if it's no big deal... * Haruko looks back at Kaede. "If it were normal, we'd be going to the police and not be fighting. It's not normal, we're not normal." Maybe not...but I'm damned well going to try to be... Well..normal for me anyways. * Kaede lets out a long sigh and leans back against the lockers. Then let me heal you, unless normal for you is badly hurt. (*laughs*) * Katie snerks. * Kaede rubs his head slightly and replies without much flickering of emotion. "...maybe it is..." * Haruko tilts her heads and walks closer to him. "Then find a better normal. You don't deserve this." I don't know..after getting fried last night..I'm not in the best position to argue. Getting fried? Did I miss something? * Haruko starts to look confused. "Then don't argue, tell me about it while I heal you." It was...a dream. I was walking through a field...and all of the sudden, I got struck by lightning. I expected to black out but it never happened..it just kept coursing through my body like mad... Hmm.. maybe we should do the battery testing then. I had a theory you might be able to shoot lightning but I thought.. ::Haruko glances at Katie:: Uh, nevermind. And then a second bolt came out of nowhere and knocked me down...but I couldn't do anything about it..and..someone else was there I couldn't remember..someone I knew. * Satoshi blinks several times. "Okay, that's just *weird.* Can't say I've ever dreamed something like that before." I'm...not able to do any testing... Dreams like what? * Haruko nods. "If you're tired don't worry about it." Dreams like getting hit by lightning. About the worst thing I ever dreamed was being out on the ice and having totally forgotten how to skate. I've..had stuff like that before. * Katie looks up. "Really?" You have? Usually...after something like this. Painful experience..painful dreams...though I don't really take much stock in it. * Haruko comments somewaht distantly. "I occassionally dream of burning to death, but not very often at all thankfully." After all..my experience is... Kind of steady.. * Katie frowns in concern. "But it was someone you knew. Is that normal, too?" Well...yes. * Kaede looks uncomfortable talking about it. There might be something more to those dreams. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. Unlike getting healed, as I'm willing to just nag you on that til it's just easier to give in.. I will, believe me. ::Haruko grins:: * Kaede grumbles and folds his arms across his chest, looking at the floor. "Fine...but at least..not in the open? I mean really it's a stupid idea to keep trying things so exposed.." ( But things in the open are good! ) * Haruko nods and smiles. "Sure. That's a good point, wherever you like." And I think you're reading too much into dreams, Katie.. Anyone know where Taki is? She's normally here by now. * Satoshi blinks. "You're right. She's not here. I hope she just had an appointment or something..." I don't know, Kaede. You seem really bothered by them. (Yes, Satoshi, you're wonderfully observant. ;p) I'm fine..I just...haven't been sleeping well lately. That's all. * Katie glances at Satoshi, then shakes her head. "Maybe she's sick or something. It's pretty cold outside, and right after warm weather." We could go to Chikako's office. If no one else is there that'd be a fine place to meet, and Taki would probably think to check. Yeah. I'm sure you're right, Katie. It's jsut that lately we've had reasons to be paranoid. * Kaede nods slightly. Yeah. But get too paranoid and they win. The office, it is And we can't let that happen. So, to the office? * Katie starts packing away her pencils. * Haruko starts walking slowly, making sure not to get too far ahead of everyone. * Katie finishes putting them away and gets to her feet. She glances at Kaede and Satoshi before walking after Haruko. * Kaede eyes Katie oddly then shrugs before following * Satoshi blinks at Katie, then follows. [No sooner do you turn to go up the stairs than you run into Taro! He's dressed in a hakama and has a boken over his shoulder.] * Satoshi frowns slightly. * Taro walks up. "Katie! Come on, it's almost time for kendo!" * Katie tries not to look directly at him. Maybe he'll go away. I don't think I'm going. * Haruko blinks. * Taro frowns. "Oh. Why not?" * Haruko waits a polite distance away. Because I don't have the time. I'll probably quit the team. You shouldn't do that. You've barely started! Yeah, well. At least I won't lose much if I quit now. What about all the money you spent on equipment? * Katie sighs. "I'll try to get a return." Excuse me... * Kaede pushes his glasses up his nose slowly. "But isn't she allowed to do what she wants?" * Taro eyes Kaede. "Yeah, so? I'm just saying it's a shame to give up before even really trying." * Haruko just watches for now. You say that like I haven't tried things, Taro. Kendo isn't for me. But you only been to a few practices! You haven't even been in a real match! * Katie throws up her hands, finally looking at him. "And what? I have my hands full with everything else I need to do. I thought I could handle kendo, too, but I can't." If you don't like the training, how will a match be fun? You'll never be able to compete if you can't put your mind to training. It just...doesn't make sense. * Satoshi nods in agreement with Kaede. "That's exactly right, really." * Taro looks from Katie to Kaede. "Excuse me, but I think Katie can speak for herself." He looks back at Katie. "I know it's hard, but it's really a lot of fun, and... I hate to say it, but I don't think you can get a return for the equipment this late." * Kaede rolls his eyes. "She HAS spoke for herself. You're just not listening." * Kaede throws his hands up in the air and starts to walk off. * Haruko raps her fingers against her legs as she watches. I'll sell it to someone else who wants to join the team. Maybe I'll need to wait a year, but it's fine. * Taro sighs. "Well, I guess so." He looks at his watch, then hurries down the stairs. "I gotta get to practice. I'm late." * Haruko gets walking again. * Taro stops at the bottom and looks back up. "I hope you change your mind, though." Then he hurries off. * Katie watches him go, then goes back to walking up the stairs. "I don't." * Satoshi just shakes his head. "He's not giving up, is he?" He doesn't know how. I wish someone would teach him No? He's that bad? Boys often have trouble finding a clue. Sometimes it seems to take pounding it into their heads. He starts fights with random people over me when there's no need for them. He says things just because he thinks I want to hear them. * Kaede snorts at Haruko's comment and walks off towards the office faster. Taro is not the typical boy, really. We should all be glad. * Haruko shrugs. "In the fighting no, but you'd be surprised." What? They're all obsessive? * Katie grins. "Remember who's with us." She heads towards the newspaper office. Not all... just, romantics are the worst. DOn't give up on love.. that sort of thing. * Satoshi blinks. "I'm not obsessive. Am I?" My current record is seven fairly firm talks... * Haruko glances over at Satoshi. "Nope." * Haruko grins a bit. "Although for the ones that annoy me, one normally suffices." Good. I mean, I didn't *think* so. * Haruko nods. "You're correct in this case." [As you approach the office, you find two people: A busily working Arisu and a very frustrated-looking Ken.] * Satoshi murmurs. "Of course, most of the time I don't have the guts to even *talk* to a girl, so..." He stops when they get close to the office. * Kaede waits outside the office door for the slowpokes. ( Satoshi is weak :P ) * Haruko starts fishing through her bag for something. (This surprises you? ;p) * Katie blinks. * Haruko smiles over at Satoshi as she searches. "You really should be more confident, you've got a lot going for you. Taki's has good taste." * Kaede would take part in that conversation, but he missed the second half. * Satoshi blinks, then blinks again, then blushes slightly. "Thanks..." [Arisu is busily scribbling down: "... Where upon he passed to the left center, who was intercepted by the opposing team." Ken throws up his hands. "What? No! That's not what happened!"] * Haruko fishes out what's by all appearances an Utena themed tarot deck. * Katie glances at Haruko's deck and sighs. She knows what's going to happen. [Ken goes about correcting Arisu on what happened, but he doesn't get far before Arisu starts telling him what plays would have worked better. Ken tries to argue back, but Arisu went off into her own world again.] * Kaede blinks a bit at the conversation and looks more confused now than irritated. * Haruko chuckles at bits that she understands. * Satoshi is suddenly glad that Arisu doesn't cover the hockey games. [Ken finally rubs his head and walks off. "Ah, the hell with this." Arisu doesn't seem to notice. She's still talking about a method that would have worked better, and what plays their team could have used to countered that method, and so on.] * Haruko takes out the cards and starts shuffling them as she walks up to Arisu. * Kaede blinks again and looks at the others, pointing to Arisu. "Is she...always like this?" Yes. I think so, anyway. * Katie idly starts twirling her fingers through the satchel strap. "Satoshi beat me to it." * Satoshi chuckles. * Haruko calls out to Arisu once she's close enough that she doesn't have to yell. "Hey Arisu, I learned a card trick recently. Care to test if your reporter instincts let you see how I do it?" Arisu: "... then pass to the goalie. Nobody would think of that. The goalie could then pass to the left fielder, who would be open, unless the opposing team's center feilder guarded out center fielder from the left side..." etc etc. * Haruko comes closer and then coughs politely. She gestures to the others that they can proceed to the office without her. * Arisu doesn't seem to notice Haruko. * Kaede rubs his head and does just that, shaking it. * Arisu is standing in the way! * Kaede doesn't push Arisu down! Yay for her. * Haruko coughs again, this time muttering "Hot fresh of the printers news" as she does so. ( It's a puzzle. Like in Suikoden. You need to go talk to a number of people in sequence to get Arisu to move :P ) * Katie shakes her head, too. * Kaede does stop though and sighs. "Excuse me, miss..." * Arisu continues: "... And then could have taken the shot while the goalie was distracted, scoring a point." She looks up at Kaede. "Don't you think?" * Satoshi just shakes his head. This definitely wouldn't work in hockey. * Kaede looks up confused, staring her in the eyes. "...what?" * Haruko takes a step back from the door and tries again. "Probably. Anyways.. Arisu, want to test your reporter's instincts on something?" * Arisu nods to Haruko. "Certainly. I'd be happy to. Although to be honest, they get tested fairly often. Like that one time when I had to track down Shunyo's star basket ball player..." There she goes again! * Haruko sticks out the deck. "Draw a card while you're telling me about the story." * Arisu doesn't seem to hear Haruko! * Kaede clears his throat, and looks down a little. "..actually, we'd just like to get into the office, if you don't mind." * Arisu doesn't seem to hear Kaede, either! * Kaede snaps his fingers several times in front of Arisu's face. * Haruko waits the next natural pause in the story and repeats her request. (Go, Kaede!) * Arisu blinks twice at Kaede. "Yeah!" She snaps her fingers in front of his face. "Just like that! Now I remember." * Kaede blinks back at Arisu. Wasn't expecting that. "...what?" ( And Haruko, there are no natural pauses. She talks like someone from Deus Ex :P ) ( ;_; ) * Katie blinks a couple times. ...what? Snapping your fingers in front of someone's face. It's how that one hypnotist brought his patients out of their trances. He was a pretty good one, too. I remember when I had to do that article... * Arisu goes off babbling. * Kaede snaps out of it and rubs his head, snapping again. This time only a few times. Oi. Arisu-chan... (* Satoshi ponders lifting Arisu and moving her out of the way.) 2d6-1 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6-1) and gets 6. * Haruko keeps the deck out and in a really perky voice comments. "Wow, that's fascinating. Draw a card and then you can keep telling me about it away from the door." * Haruko takes a few steps back as a guide. * Arisu moves away and draws a card. She looks down at it. "Hmm... Utena. I remember when I saw that series. Wow, that was a long time ago..." Away she goes! Okay, the way appears to be clear now. * Kaede watches Arisu for a while. He's stunned for a bit and actually blocks the way himself before remembering what he's doing and heading into the office. * Katie walks by, glancing at the card Arisu drew. * Satoshi follows them in, after giving Haruko what he hopes is a grateful smile. * Arisu drew the funky-haired kendoist guy. (Saionji?) ( I don't remember their names. ) (Green hair?) (That's great. What's he represent? ;P) ( yeah ) 2d6-1 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Haruko (2d6-1) and gets 1, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "I love the smell of a crit in the morning." (Saionji.) (King of Swords!) ( Oohhh... King of swords. ) * Kaede looks about the office for a little while. At least it's relatively quiet in here. He looks for a place he can relax and rub his head. [The rest of you go into the office, where Chikako is not.] So. Somebody remind me why we came here? It was supposed to be private..I guess that's out of the question. * Katie says, as though it explains everything, "It was Haurko's idea." She looks around and has a seat as she waits. "Not really. Yeah, not with Arisu standing out there. Although I'm sure she could keep herself distracted long enough. * Kaede folds his arms and leans back, eyes tightly closed. "So what else can we do...?" * Satoshi shrugs. "I don't know. I haven't had a good idea in a long time." About what? Where to go, what to do, what's going on... * Kaede shrugs and puts his hands in the air. "Anything...is Saori our best guess?" I've been following all of you around, which works for the most part, but it'd be nice to have some direction. We have some things we can do, if we want to. And if you want privacy... It wouldn't hurt. Shouldn't. Not the Tower. * Katie blinks at Kaede. "You thought I was going to suggest the Tower?" * Kaede opens his eyes slowly. "It was one possibility. Didn't say it was the only one." It hasn't been that...private lately anyhow. Considering that every time we go there, we seem to meet someone new and strange, yeah. ( You have names from yesterday ;_; ) (Kick their butts!) There's probably a secret line system we don't know about. Wait your turn for your fifteen minutes. And for crying out loud, flip the sign to "occupied". So the tower becomes an airline toilet. Wonderful. * Satoshi laughs. * Katie nods. "Exactly." Maybe the Tower takes reservations. * Kaede pushes his glasses up his nose again and pulls out his pad. "We could always look into the drugs more..that seems our best bet.." Everything is tied to this stupid... I was going to suggest either doing that or looking into Jiro, because there's something going on with him. * Kaede blinks as he looks at the pad again. I have a feeling they'll lead us to the same place. Jiro? That's right...another at Seiryuu. Have you seen him lately? * Katie looks at Satoshi. "No. That's what's wrong." And it's.... * Kaede frowns as he looks at the name. The model? I kinda miss him. What happened to him, anyway? Crap..don't tell me that Eiko's.. He dropped out of school. Saki said something about him trying to get her to work for some master. And when I saw him, he looked at me all... wrong. What? * Katie snaps her attention to Kaede. "What about Eiko?" * Kaede stands up straight and rubs his forehead. "Remi told me...that Eiko's been hanging out with Ayako a lot more often...and Saki said she was related to the drugs..." * Katie blinks. Oh no. * Satoshi frowns at Kati's statement, then looks over at Kaede. "Remi's friend... and the drugs? Oh. That's definitely *not* good." We've got to get there fast. * Kaede picks up his stuff. Seiryuu? Do you think she's still there? It's worth a try, isn't it? Whoa, wait. What? Why do we have to get there right now? Because you never know when these things might be going down..and the sooner we go, the more likely she's still at Seiryuu. And what are we going to do when we get there? Hopefully stop someone else from being a drug-crazed zombie? * Haruko walks in the office and shuts the door. She then glances up at Katie. "Hear all that? Uh.. drugs?" * Katie waves for Kaede to slow down. "Maybe you should call Remi." * Kaede walks out of the office after gathering his stuff. I was going to do that on the way. * Haruko blocks the door. "Healing first... It'll just take a few minutes." * Katie sighs and gets to her feet, hurring after him. "I was going to say that. She'd know if Eiko's acting strange." We may not HAVE a few minutes. Then I'm healing you on the way and we hope nobody is watching. * Kaede keeps walking, flipping out his phone and dialing the number quickly. * Haruko lets Kaede walk and does just what she promised. [Arisu is still outside, babbling to herself.] * Satoshi sighs and follows along, because really, trying to stop Kaede when he's *that* determined is an exercise in futility. * Haruko holds off on healing until Arisu is out of eyeshot. ( Is not. You have super strength :P ) (Satoshi pushes Kaede into a lamppost! o/~) (Oh, he *could*. But I dont' think he wants to. ;p) * Haruko sighs. "I was hoping to run into Chikako... she was going to get me information and a back issue I wanted." * Kaede puts the phone to his ear and waits for an answer. * Kaede covers the mouthpiece and scowls slightly as he speaks quickly into the phone. "Nanako. Is Remi there? It's important." "Is she still at school then? Do you know?" * Kaede rolls his eyes slightly. "Well has she come home from school at all?" "And does she usually get home by now?" * Haruko glances over to Katie as they walk and comments rather quietly, "So did you hear my discussion?" * Kaede grumbles slightly away from the phone and responds into the receiver in a deadpan voice. "Thanks. You've been a big help." He hangs up. His expression looks even more sour. * Satoshi looks at Kaede. "So she may or may not still be there?" [By now you're outside the school.] * Kaede rubs his forehead as he walks. "Yeah. That girl can be very irritating sometmes." Let's hope she's still at the school. * Haruko puts her hand on Kaede's shoulder and heals him as they walk. She tries to make it look like a natural, but in no way romantic, gesture. Right. Onward. * Katie shivers and buttons her jacket. "I didn't know you were having a discussion, Haruko." * Kaede puts away the phone and goes to get his bike. He doesn't seem to react when Haruko heals him. * Haruko nods. "Ok.. hearing not that good. Right, Arisu drew three different cards, so she's not an Arcana or she breaks the rules. Or maybe this deck doesn't work." * Haruko hands the deck to Satoshi. "Here, shuffle this please, I'll do a quick test." Well, that last one's easy enough to... yeah. * Katie sighs. "Haruko, not everyone is one." * Satoshi takes the deck and shuffles it. (Haruko read my mind! ;p) Just us "lucky" ones. * Haruko shrugs. "She was at a place we were drag-porrted to, it seemed reasonable to test." You think everything seems reasonable. * Satoshi holds the cards out to Haruko. "Draw one?" * Haruko frowns. "We've met Chariot, Saori, and Yushiro through those things. I'm thinking Yushiro's an Arcana, although that could be one of my unreasonable guesses. Testing Arisu was easy and made sense." * Haruko then draws a card. * Kaede puts his hand on the handlebars of his bike and looks back to the rest. "I'll meet you guys there..I don't want to have to leave this." [Haruko draws the Queen of Cups.... We'll say it's one of the shadow puppets.] * Satoshi nods. "Okay. We'll meet you there." * Kaede sets his kaban in the carrier and unchains his bike. * Satoshi looks at the card. "Is that the right one? I'm not familiar with the tarot in general, really, and I'm not familiar with this one at all." * Haruko grins. "It works." She then takes the deck and puts it away. Once that's done she looks back over at Katie. She never breaks healing contact with Kaede. * Katie coughs. "But Haruko, what if Jin didn't bring us there." It's neat, though. I like the art style. There's no clear proof that he did. Even going by what we know, every other time he was *there*. (Which probably is starting to look weird now) * Haruko nods idly. "Alright, it broke the pattern. But the power used seemed extremely similar. You may be right, and there's more support for that theory because I conducted a perfectly reasonable test." Haruko's voice is sounding a bit more insistent as she ends that sentence. Every time Jin's brought us somewhere, hasn't it been as a group? I mean, weren't we all together before that? But that night in that apartment... the three of us were all at home before we got brought there. * Haruko shakes her head. "No, I don't think everyone was there for Saki. Saori wasn't a drag-port, she was a field walk, but that was just me and Katie. And Kaede showed up late to Yushiro's." Oh, and to Saori too. Could you two quit arguing over what makes sense and what doesn't because, quite frankly, a whole lot of this doesn't make sense. All I know is that right now, we have a few people related to drugs that we know, we know the drugs are important, and we're going to check that out. * Haruko nods and comments in a vaguely annoyed tone. "Alright, what do we know that's new. You guys haven't told me yet about what you found out in the prison." Later. Let's get to Seiryuu first. * Kaede hops on his bike, healing contact be damned. * Haruko looks miffed and sighs, she glances over at Satoshi. "Could you tell me on the way?" * Katie keeps her hands stuffed in her pockets and walks to the subway station. She doesn't have a bike. I'd like to know why we're going to Seiryuu before we get there. * Haruko walks to the subway. * Satoshi shakes his head. "Really, Kaede's the one who knows." * Haruko kicks the ground, hard. "That's a surprise. Maybe my guesses are weak because no one will tell me anything." * Kaede takes off a-peddlin' * Katie opens her satchel, reaches in, and pulls out a casette tape. She tosses it to Haruko. "Catch." * Haruko catches. That's everything you want to know. Congratulations. * Katie keeps walking. * Satoshi blinks. Oh? You have a tape recorder... Cool.. that will help with Yushiro. If there's nothing stopping it. I'd forgotten about that. * Haruko stares at the tape. "Although I'm not carrying a tape player with me. And we have Kaede if there's a field up." * Katie takes a walkman and heaphones out of her satchel, too, and holds them to one side, still not slowing. If Haruko wants them, she can get them. * Haruko retrieves them and starts listening. "Thanks." * Haruko mutters as she goes. "Good thing there wasn't electronic survelience..." * Satoshi shoves his hands in his pockets and walks along. Walk, walk, walk. For what, an interview? They won't let me take notes? No... I just think they often eavesdrop on conversation with prisoners. So if Kaede says much about Arcana or asks where to find drugs.... About Arcana, you must have very little faith in him. About drugs, they wouldn't find out anything more than they already know. It's interesting to every reporter out there. Why should we be any different? Because when highschoolers ask where to find drugs, I think the police will start looking into their backgrounds. * Katie snickers. "Spotless." * Haruko shrugs. "Me too. But I'd rather not have the attention." Regardless, you're smarter than me on this sort of thing Katie. I'll gladly admit that, but I could rather do without the attitude. [Session End]