[Day: Wednsday, March 12th. Time: 4:00 p.m.] [Weather: Light snow and chilly.] [You're on your way to Seiryuu High to find Remi and confront Ayako. You're on a subway train.] [Mini Start] * Haruko leans against a subway pole and watches Katie. * Satoshi shifts nervously, getting the feeling that something is probably going to happen, and it's not going to be good. * Katie shrugs, having a seat. She toys with a pen as she says, "I don't know if I can do without it. No, I can. I don't know if I want to." * Haruko nods and closes her eyes. She comments in a somewhat distant tone. "Course you *can*, I get the feeling you haven't really respected me for a while. But before fairly recently though you were polite enough to hide it." Polite? What do you really know about politeness, Haruko? * Haruko opens her eyes and tilts her head. She takes the headphones out of her ears before continuing. Have I done something to offend you? Maybe you have. * Katie taps the pen against her chin, looking out a window. * Haruko stands up. "Then perhaps you should tell me about it directly. I'm told I'm not always the best at guessing things." * Satoshi folds his arms and leans back. He keeps quiet. * Katie looks down at her pen, twisting it now. "I'm angry at you, Haruko Kinsha. Angry and... I don't know what the word is. Betrayed?" * Haruko blinks and looks flabergasted for just a moment. She quickly covers it and comments in the closest she comes to a caustic tone, "Oh, I betrayed you... I'm interested in hearing your logic on that one." There's no real logic to it. * Haruko expression actually softens a tad at that response. "Oh?" No. I don't think you completely deserve it. * Haruko 's expression softens a bit more at that. "Am I right in thinking this is about Souichiro?" * Katie pops the pen out. "Sure." * Satoshi blinks a few times. I told the group what I was doing, if it bothered you, you could have talked to me about it. * Katie shrugs. "I could have." * Haruko frowns a bit. "You should have. Like you should have talked to me once you knew." * Katie snorts. I'm only human, Haruko. I don't like how you handled that, and I particularly don't like that you didn't even give me a chance to give input before making your decision. But you're right, no one is perfect, I'm certainly not. * Katie glances at Haruko. "What am I supposed to say? 'Haruko, I'm wondering if I should be angry at you! Is it fair? Please, the people want to know!'" * Haruko snorts. "Hardly.. you can feel whatever you like, I may be unhappy about it, but I wouldn't complain. It was immediately going to Kyon that bothered me." * Katie folds her arms and looks out the window again. "Why should it bother you?" Because I promised to keep a secret. My first plan was to just have Satoshi do just what you did, but I decided that it was unfair to Riko. Not hardly. Kyon already knew. * Satoshi blinks, as he *finally* realizes something, then blurts out, "Wait... Katie didn't know? I thought you'd told her, too." ( I don't even know what you're talking about at this point @_@ ) * Haruko shakes her head. "I got permission to tell one or two people, and then permission to talk to Kaede specifically." * Satoshi looks very confused. "Oh." You didn't tell me. And I never asked or made promises to Riko. * Haruko looks back at Katie. "No, but you're my ally, maybe even my friend. What you hear me say, particularly when I don't know you heard it, should be treated with some confidence." If I think something is needed for our survival, I will share it, promises be damned. * Haruko looks down. "Why do you think I betrayed Riko? Even what I did do broke the spirit of my promise, even though I got permission for things from Riko and warned her Kyon would probably find out." * Katie snorts. "So Kyon and I could lead the group and trust each other. The blind leading the blind. That's what you wanted?" * Satoshi shifts again. * Haruko then makes eye contact. "It's not just that. You're also his only real friend in the group." * Katie blinks, then laughs. * Haruko doesn't really react, she just watches. * Katie laughs for a long while, then calms down. "For the longest time, I'm sure we hated each other. And I don't know if Kyon would count me as a friend. You should ask." * Haruko shrugs. "You're still the closest thing he's got. You're something more than an ally to him, and he deserves someone who isn't keeping secrets about him, even if you don't actually like each other." How do you know we aren't keeping secrets from each other? * Haruko sighs. "I don't, but I didn't want to add to them if you were." * Katie studies Haruko for a moment, then wordlessly looks out the window. * Haruko keeps watching Katie. "And the last reason is that I didn't know if you could defer to me. The fact that you didn't consult me after you found out, even if you might subsequently ignore my advice, makes me think I might have been right on that." I would have. I will do what I think is right, whatever you might think. * Haruko thinks for a moment. Consulting would have been enough. I'd have been annoyed that you didn't listen to me, same as you are when I don't listen to you, but that's not really important, trust is. ( I feel bad for poor Satoshi ) * Satoshi is still watching, still keeping quiet, but he's frowning slightly now. You're not one to talk about trust. * Haruko 's eyes narrow. "For what I did to Riko, perhaps not, no." * Katie smiles a bit, sadly. "I might not be, either." * Haruko bites her lip for a moment, then smiles a bit herself. "Perhaps not either, but I still do trust you. For what it's worth." * Katie nods. * Haruko sighs. "But that doesn't change the fact that I want to be treated with respect." I'll try. * Haruko nods. "That's all I ask." * Haruko thinks for a moment. "I do have one idea you may find reasonable... Although I'm afraid Satoshi may not like it." Haruko glances back at the silent boy with an apologetic look. * Satoshi blinks. "What is it?" ( Ritual sacrifice ) * Haruko sits down, finding a seat where she can watch both of Satoshi and Katie. "As I'm sure you've both noticed, we don't work as a team when it comes to combat. At best, we don't get in each others way, we don't normally even manage that." * Katie says, dryly, "I've noticed." Hey, I *try* to stay out of the way... even when I probably should be doing something else. * Satoshi looks a bit embarassed. * Haruko nods and looks at Katie. "I don't really know how to fix that. Kyon's not here to do it, and I don't think that it's really your thing either or you would have done it by now." * Haruko watches Katie for any reaction. "You see where I'm going?" It's not about strategy as much as knowing what everyone can and will do. And being in agreement. * Satoshi looks down. "...this probably means getting over my reservations about hitting things, doesn't it?" ( Agreement? Great, we're screwed :P ) (No kidding. ;p) * Haruko shakes her head. "It's not just that. People without powers work as a team, even with different philosphies." ( They cheat. ) Where? * Haruko turns over to Satoshi. "Oh.. the military, sports, that sort of thing." * Satoshi actually chuckles. "We don't normally have many philosophical disagreements on the hockey team." * Haruko nods. "And we don't normally have philosphical agreements in combat. We have a clear goal, normally to protect someone or something, and want to do it without causing unnecessary pain." None of us are good at this sort of thing, but I think the guy whose a team captain would be the best to figure out where to start. * Satoshi blinks a few times, looking decidedly uncomfortable. "But... really, I don't know all that much about combat strategy. I mean, yeah, I can usually figure out stuff for hockey, but that's because I've been playing for a while." * Haruko stands up. "We can all give ideas, we can talk to Ryuji and Saki too. But like Katie said it's not about strategy, it's about working together." * Haruko grins. "I'm sure you'll do a really bad job at it, and at best one time out of three we'll have our act together. That'd still be a dramatic improvement." * Satoshi considers. "I wonder if there's a way we could... practice, somehow." * Katie keeps twisting her pen. * Haruko nods. "See, like I said, you know where to start." She then turns to Katie. "What do you think?" Sounds good on paper, but where would we do it. * Haruko bites her lip. "Maybe we find someone who can put up a field. Maybe we pretend we're a club and reserve some space." Mmm hmm. Could somebody keep a field up long enough for that to be worthwhile, though? ( I can think of a place o/~ ) ( Yeah, but we don't want to go there! :P ) Point, so we try to reserve space, Kyon can probably help us on that. But Kyon's not here. He can probably make calls. ::grin:: I think Kyon can probably pull strings by phone in a pinch, his voice alone is pretty commanding. And, if he were, he'd probably be far more qualified than me to organize this sort of thing... he's the captain of two teams, after all. * Haruko giggles. "Or we could go through legitimate channels." Yup, but he's not here, and I'm pretty sure he can't phone in training. True. We'll see. Yeah... guess we will. * Haruko puts the headphones back on and resumes listening to the tape. She looks over to Katie as she hits play. "So, you ever figure out how to fly?" Nope. Awww... I don't know how much that'd actually help, but I've got to think it'd be a lot of fun. * Satoshi nods. "It would be cool, although I'm not sure I'd like looking down below me..." * Katie looks a bit wistful. "It would." * Haruko keeps listening and grins. "So look up. The sky's a pretty place. I mean I'm a land vehicle girl, but the open road is fifty percent open sky." * Katie nods. I guess. Never thought about the open road much, to be honest. Hiroji's promised to take me in a jet someday, he swears it'd beat a motorcycle, no matter how fast the bike was going. I don't really believe him, but I'll give it a try. Who's Hiroji? * Katie goes back to looking out the window, *still* toying with her pen. What's taking so long? * Haruko looks over to Satoshi. "Old friend of mine." The way she says friend is a little funny. She then gestures at her duster. "It's his jacket." Ahh, okay. It's a nice jacket. * Haruko nods. "That's why I borrowed it, that and leather is flame retardent... But yeah, he's another mechanic at the school, really rather good for someone whose not me." * Satoshi grins. "Someone who's not you?" ( I know someone who's not Haruko! ) (I would think that there are many people who aren't Haruko. ^_~) * Haruko nods and grins. "He tends to get testy when I put him on the same scale as me. Which is why I stopped dating him." * Satoshi blinks at that. "...oh." (I'd be surprised if you knew someone who was Haruko. ^_~) ( I do. Haruko is. ) (That's true. :P) Shouldn't be a problem with Ryuji. ::Haruko sighs:: Assuming he turns out to actually want to date me, which is dubios assumption. Ah. Well... good luck? * Haruko grins. "Thanks! But I'll be okay either way." She then grins a lot bigger and goes into a sing song voice, "A hottie with a sword may be oh so desirable, but Mitsubishis are a girl's best friend." * Katie facepalms. [Session End]