[Monday, March 28, 2004 - 1330 local time] [a train station in central Tokyo] [mini start] * LadyRoyal looks around idly as she walks. * LadyNightshade tails the group, looking around at nothing in particular. * PrincessSakura leads the way through the train station... though not towards the expected connecting train. * LadyRoyal follows, pauses with a blink, shrugs and follows. ...where is she... * LadyNightshade eyes the train path but doesn't say anything yet. * LadyRoyal looks around some more. "Where is...who?" Mmm. You'll see. ...okay... What about our meeting? * Woman waves at the three of you from a table at a cafe built into the train station. We'll get there... eventually. There she is. * LadyRoyal blinks, but doesn't say anything further. * LadyNightshade eyes the woman suspiciously. * Woman looks very, very familiar. She's young, maybe still in her teens, and in a salary woman outfit, but you can't *quite* place her. * PrincessSakura sits down at the table. * LadyRoyal eyes her. * LadyRoyal takes a seat, too, making the eyeing more discreet on coming close. * LadyNightshade sits as well, not wanting to be out of place. * Woman smiles warmly at the group. "Hi, Sakura-sama. Hey, guys." ... * LadyRoyal grins. "Hi. Fancy seeing you out and about." Uh, hi. One of them figured it out. ^^ Wait, is she transed now or is this untransed? Or is that a secret, too? Transformed, dear. Oh okay. So why are we meeting out here? Is something wrong? * Woman pours some tea for the rest of you. * LadyRoyal accepts with a quiet "thanks". * LadyNightshade nods her head politely and takes the tea. Because I had an... idea. * LadyRoyal tilts her head. "Oh?" * PrincessSakura suddenly looks really serious. * LadyNightshade raises an eyebrow. Taki... I slapped you down pretty hard the other day, when you suggested that we simply... dispose of our enemy. * LadyRoyal narrows her eyes. Yeah. I can't have you going off half-cocked like that, so I'm not too sorry. But you're also sort of right. Yeah. So? Well... * LadyRoyal controls a small twitch. What if... we create a situation where that is the appropriate response? * LadyRoyal chokes on her tea. "Say *what*?" Then you'd let me do it? * Woman shakes her head. It's hard to tell from her expression whether she disagrees with what's being proposed or is simply amused. Mina... how can we possibly approach this enemy? It was never my intention to make a big production out of it. He'd simply turn up dead one day and they'd be left to pick up the pieces. No big speeches or anything... But you want it to send a message? Hush, Taki. Right... Wait, this isn't a rhetorical question? It is, but if you have a real suggestion, I'd like to hear it. Ah. Well we'd need him to publicly demonstrate his anti-MG leanings. See, it's not that I disapprove of the idea of killing him the way, say, Haruko would. But I think it would be ever so much more useful if we could know what he knows first. We have money, and a bit of influence, but ultimately we're a bunch of young women. We can't penetrate his organization - I doubt we have time. If we could maybe get someone with a transformation like Oldman's we could try and get him into the organization... If we can kill him, why can't we stalk him too, find out who he speaks to, any sort of hint about how he controls this...thing. I looked it up. Oldman was the only one who has that sort of transformation. And the IMA has stopped hiring women under thirty. Could we maybe get an agent from the US to help us? Perhaps that man who wouldn't share his name would be able to help us. * PrincessSakura shakes her head. I hardly think they'd accept an American, all things considered. Not all Americans look American. I'm sure they have Japanese agents. He said they didn't want to go that far against a friendly government. Mm. It would just be information gathering... They owe us for some favors, but that could really mess up our countries' alliance. Hmm... What if they came out against us? Maybe say that our being on the base fighting ningyo was a violation of their security or something. ... Not sure where you're going with that. Maybe then this Seiji will try to contact them and try to organize something. * PrincessSakura thinks about that. If we were monitoring him and we could possibly record him incriminating himself... ...I don't think he would involve gaijin like that. Certainly not directly - he couldn't expect them to help with a campaign like his. Mm. And how would we record... well... hmm. We could bug him. Or maybe use a directional mike. He hates the Americans. Remember what he was before the war. ...well, I suppose we can't be sure of that. But if he thinks the Imperial Family is debased now, he'd likely blame the US for it. Oh, right, we'd BUG him. Ha. So how can we make him reveal himself then? Have a Lady run for political office? A corporate building is one thing. This... He'd probably just send more assassins. Well... I'm not as concerned with directly revealing himself, as drawing his organization out far enough to make it impossible for him to hide. ...hmmm. Well they'd obvious lobby against any Lady running for office. * PrincessSakura shakes her head at Taki. "And what do we have to offer them that could get all of their available forces to show up at once?" What are you thinking of, then? That's not a good idea. It's a gamble. It's not worth it. The only way that could possibly work is if we evacuated it first, or set up a dummy location. If you kill one snake, the rest go to ground. If you can kill them all at once, and capture a few for study... You sound like you already have a plan... And what makes you think they won't do the same thing to us? We don't have time to set up a convincing dummy. There's a lot more they can do than just send soldiers after us. Is there? They haven't, so far. They put a bomb in the school. A school they knew was full of innocents. And we can control that on our ground. Far better than the school. It could get even worse. What if they used a biological weapon or something? I don't think they can get that sort of thing. Not in the timeframes we're talking about. The Palace is the only thing we have left. We can't give that up. Taki-san... they'll find it eventually anyway. That's why we need to strike them first! Not lead them to us! We can't strike them first if we can't find them. If they come to us... * LadyRoyal nods slowly. We have a list of names besides Sato himself. We should start there. A lot more people are going to die if we do it this way, I promise you. There would be casualties, no doubt. But everyone has underestimated how strong we are. You guys, how many have you killed? If you really let loose, what sort of odds could you overcome? How many deaths are worth it though? And there would be a dozen Princesses on hand. Fifty, maybe eighty Ladies. On home ground, too. Okay. How does this lead back to him though? If we can get them to do a crash deployment, to throw everything on hand at us, then there will be traceable elements. A huge pile of evidence. And what if they try something more subtle? There's a lot of explosives you can fit into just one suitcase. If they could get said suitcase close enough. And we can, in our knowledge of who was behind it, even strike back directly. And there would be no one who could say we were not justified. A suitcase? Pffft. They have helicopters. They could just fly over and drop it. There are... things we can do about helicopters. And they won't take that as a just enough cause to send the entire military after us at that point? If you really want them to all heading into the Palace, then we're going to have to abandon it anyway, right? So let's evacuate it beforehand, and then load it up with explosives and just blow the place up whenever they all rush in. That way we're not risking any of our own people. What, some strange winds would justify bombing us? Not likely. And that's assuming they could really point the army at us, which they can't. If we give them enough info to tempt them to attack, you think they won't know if we've abandoned it? How many Ladies do we have that can create illusions like Haruko? We can make the whole place look like it's filled with Ladies. Not enough. And Haruko doesn't do... illusions. *shudder* Nike is right, though. How long do you think it will be before the Palace's cover is broken anyway? I think we should take Mina's suggestion and watch him first before we decide anything. *hissed* Sakura... ... Nike? Oops. * LadyRoyal blinks. * Woman facepalms. * LadyRoyal grins slyly into her cup. Well, you did agree to come out... it's not like they wouldn't have figured it out sooner or later. They probably already knew what I was. But they didn't have to know WHO I was. We won't tell anyone... Lips are sealed. If the Hierarchy finds out I'm not dead, it would be a problem. ...for both of us. *grimaces* ... * LadyRoyal raises her eyebrows. * PrincessSakura sips her tea. Long story. No it's not. So? You still won't tell it. I'm getting soft in my old age. Maya didn't believe me, but... * PrincessSakura sips more tea. * LadyNike does too. Well it's good to hear you're still alive, in any case. Hn. Yeah. Congratulations, so to speak. * LadyNike snarfs tea and gags. Look, with all the families living there, how long do you think we can keep the Palace a secret? It wasn't meant to be long term anyway, was it? * LadyRoyal thumps Nike on the back lightly for the gagging. There's no way we can predict how they're going to react to this. Not just Ladies will die. All those families could be hurt as well. This is something we *can* get the Americans to help with, though. They won't object to keeping surveillance on a property all the way out there. That's definitely good. Would they even try to attack the palace if we killed him though? Who would organize it? We know what group to watch. We can see who else tries to take charge. Taki, THINK. We CAN'T watch him. And how would we find out who takes his place? It wouldn't necessarily be his successor at the IMA. Then we can just kill all of them! I don't want to see a bunch of Ladies die just so we can be in the right! All of who? All the unlucky people in the Agency? Yes. They know who they're working for. ...what makes you think that? * PrincessSakura looks askance. It's their job! Their job isn't to plot against Ladies. Hundreds, probably thousands of people who just are doing things to maintain the Imperial Palace and help their family. Exactly. ... * LadyNike looks disappointed. "I thought you weren't that bloodthirsty, Taki." Yeah but... * LadyNightshade looks down. There has to be a better way of doing this... We destroyed that stupid warehouse for no other reason that to annoy the people who had wronged us. How is this any different? ...how is killing hundreds of people, probably mostly innocents, any different? How is that any different then letting them kill all the innocents we're protecting at the Palace? We're not "letting" them. * PrincessSakura smiles vaguely at Minami. So what if we all go down fighting? Does that make us righteous? We'd still all be dead. So a bloody massacre is more righteous? It keeps us alive. You don't even know how many of them actually *work* there. There could only be five actual employees who are also under Sato's control, and the other however many hundred could know nothing. We know they have Ningyo ties. They could just flood the Palace. There's too many unknowns to allow them to just come after us in the manner of their choosing! How do we know they have Ningyo ties? So then let's tie Sato to a chair and start cutting off his fingers until he tells us everyone who is involved. Because they coordinate the ningyo attacks. The President of Hitachi-2osen was protected by the ningyo when he escaped from the American ship. The Yakuza working with USC did. ...this Tokko... I don't think so. Why wouldn't they? A better question is how would they? How did the other group contact them? I don't know. It's far safer to assume the worst. There's just no evidence of contact. None of them have used any Sea Magic. They've had to flood areas with their agents for days on end to merely observe a Ningyo fight. Alright. So do we know why the ningyo have stopped attacking? With the yakuza groups, you knew they were given exact details beforehand. This has been entirely different. * PrincessSakura looks down. "No." If they're not attacking it makes it harder for us to justify our existence anyway. So this should be done sooner rather than later. How are we going to go about revealing our location? Run TV commercials? Oh, no. We'll use the lead they already have. * PrincessSakura smiles at Minami. * LadyRoyal groans. Loooovely. Well, that's what I'm doing it for in the first place... Right. Okay. So we let them follow her. It's pretty simple, actually. We'll just do some things to generate a little more attention on her... and then we'll move her to the Palace. How do we convince them they need to attack now instead of waiting until they can plan out a perfect strategy? Time is on their side. * LadyRoyal states mildly, "You're not putting my family in danger, by the way." Like they're not already. I was thinking your father would move in with you. * LadyRoyal ignores Taki. "Are you sure it wouldn't be better if he and mother went...somewhere else?" Your mother... can't really be moved. But we can do some things to secure the hospital. ...right. If you want your father evacuated farther... I guess I'd rather not do that, but we could arrange for it if you insist. Well, it's just. I still think we should at least move the families out before we do any of this. Mina's father included. If something, you know, happens...mother needs at least one of us to be left. I suppose that's fair, especially since you're assuming the most risk. ...thank you. Is the Queen even going to agree to this? Do you think I'd bring this up if the Queen did not? * LadyNightshade sighs. I just want to go on record as saying I think this is a bad idea. But I don't really have a choice but to agree with you. It's the only way out that I can see, Taki. I would love to have a better option. It's not what I would prefer either, but so far it's slightly ahead of the other options that have been suggested. What if we announced our involvement with the Americans? Wouldn't they come out labeling us as traitors? ...why? I don't know. If we were more known then they couldn't just hunt us down. The public is never going to agree with them just killing teenage girls because they disagree with our organization. It'll force them to make things political. How? They'd just keep doing what they're doing. They aren't running a smear campaign, they're just killing whatever they can find. Are we really all alone in this though? They're committing acts of terrorism. Other governments wouldn't allow that to happen... We could ask for asylum from the US. I don't know. There has to be some way to stop the fighting without people getting hurt. * LadyNightshade runs a hand through her hair. So basically, you want to run away. Why not? * LadyRoyal rubs her temples, shakes her head a little, and drinks some tea. We all live and they don't have to deal with us anymore. And the next Lady who becomes in this city. What happens to her? If they want us to fight the ningyo for them, then they can ask us to come back. I don't know. We find someway for them to contact us. ...so we're just going to exile how many girls without giving them a choice in the matter? * LadyNike snarls. "I can't believe I'm hearing this from you." What? We're already living in hiding! There's a place and a time for hiding. Of all people, I know that. There's a difference between that and leaving the only country you know for who knows where! Most of us don't even *speak* English well enough to get along, or any other language. I don't want any more Ladies to die! But I didn't run away even when I was in an impossible situation. I stayed, and helped, and saved lives. Rin and Leena and Haruko came way too close to dying with Hardhat... I don't want that to happen again... This will save lives! Your plan only sacrifices more lives! For what purpose? So we can kill the men who already deserve to die with a clean conscious! I don't give a shit about conscience, Taki. Then what do you give a shit about? This is all about survival. So we can go somewhere else and survive. Can we? Where can we go? You're just going to put the lot of us on planes with suitcases and hope we manage to make lives for ourselves? We have each other! Why do you keep thinking you're going to be on your own, Mina? Survival for all of us. Survival for the Hierarchy. Survival for the girls who become Ladies next year, or next decade. Survival of our families. ...and survival of our honor, damn you. I'm not just talking about me, I'm talking about all the other girls you're going to uproot from their homes and lives. How come dictating lives is only right when *you* do it, Taki? Everything's going to work out because you and Rin have money? What kind of mindset is that? This isn't about money! We didn't get to choose what family we were born into. Quit acting like you're so much better because you're poor. Isn't it? Then how are we going to survive overseas--ALL of us? Assuming that's even logistically possible, which I highly doubt. The same way we survive here! People get jobs! The Americans aren't going to kill us just because we're different. ... How many deaths is enough? How many Ladies need to die before it becomes not worth it? * LadyRoyal shakes her head and gulps down some more tea. I don't want to die. I don't want to have to make that choice. There, I said it. Are we just going to force all these Ladies to fight? We've already resigned ourselves to fighting humans, the Hunters team has. We're going to make everyone else do the same? It's survival. Sakura's right. And when the fight comes to them anyway? On the enemy's terms and not ours? ... How is it our terms? They're still going to hold all the cards. We just sit there and hope it's enough that we can deal with it. On our ground, which we will be actively preparing? With friendly media on hand to document what happens? With - hopefully - a hundred Ladies on hand? That's not our terms? And how do we convince all the Ladies to fight? Do we just order them? If a man came to your apartment in the night and tried to knife you, would you need convincing to fight? So what, we don't let them know ahead of time? If terrorists slaughtered dozens of your friends at school, and you had the power to fight them when they came again, would you need convincing? I don't think you give our girls enough credit for wanting to live. ...it sure sounds like YOU, do, Taki. But not most of them. Oh, no, not most of the refugees at the Palace. * LadyNightshade sighs. Fine. And... yes, this is being kept a secret, at least our end of it. But it's not a secret at the Palace that we are preparing for the worst case. And when we think it's coming, we certainly won't hold that back. * LadyNightshade is trying really hard not to let her eyes water anymore than they are. * LadyRoyal nods. Are you okay with this, Lady Royal? ...we *are* going to let them know about the attack, right? We'll have to, at least that day. Good. * LadyNightshade just shakes her head. * LadyRoyal thinks it over for another minute, sips some tea, then takes a deep breath and nods curtly. Thank you. ...honestly, we didn't have another Lady who could do this other than you. ...really? Oh, well, I suppose I am already in place, bait-wise. * LadyNightshade sits there and stares into her tea. Makes sense. And we couldn't put another one in place without really arousing suspicions. Right. * LadyNike gets out a laptop and starts doing something. Taki... the reason I brought you in on this is because I want you to shadow Mina through this. At least until we get her moved. Fine. * LadyRoyal ...sips more tea. If you can, I want you to find the people who are watching her. Okay. * LadyNightshade continues staring down at her tea. ...Taki... What? * LadyNightshade doesn't look up. Never mind. I guess I don't understand you as well as I thought. * LadyNightshade does look up at that. "What?" * LadyNightshade eyes start to water more and more. You wanted to do something, sooooo badly. And this is an active plan... and you hate it. And for reasons I just don't get. I didn't say I wasn't going to help. I didn't say I thought you weren't. I just don't think it's right that we're so gung ho about this one thing without even trying to explore our alternatives... ... And I really haven't heard one realistic alternative from you. * LadyRoyal swallows what she was about to say with some tea. I wanted to be able to make things right. We shouldn't have to involve everyone. They don't deserve the same burden we have... Why not? They're in as much danger most anyone else. * LadyNightshade sighs again and whimpers. Maybe that's where we're different. I think every Lady deserves to have the same burdens we do. Shouldn't they have that right? But... we're-- We're protecting them. They're depending on us. And what's wrong with letting them depend on themselves, too? They shouldn't have to... There's a difference between being protected and being smothered, all choice taken away. But they have a choice! We don't have a choice! We can't take that away from them... You *are* taking it away from them. * LadyNightshade chokes back a sniffle. You're saying that they shouldn't, that they *can't* fight. Goddamn it I never used to cry. Why does this keep happening to me? I'm not saying that! * LadyNightshade wipes at her eyes. This is hard stuff, Taki. I cry about it sometimes. ... You do? But but I always try so hard to be strong like you... She's not strong, Taki. Just very practical most of the time. And with a lot more experience - you've been doing this maybe six months, but she's been at it for... four years? Five? More like four. * LadyNightshade swallows. "So... so do I just follow them then?" For the most part. If they try anything, or you think they're going to move against her... well. The point, though, is for us to know that they know. Is there anyway we can scare them so they'll think they have to attack immediately instead of waiting for the right moment? ...me, or the Palace? Maybe if we let them know we know. Indeed. If we let them know that we know they know... it should force their hand. Frankly, though, they haven't shown a lot of patience up to now. So I don't expect a problem. Mm. If I attacked their spy and let him just barely get away... He'd be able to report in and let them know we know. Only after Mina has moved. Hopefully they don't get carried away by dreams of a glorious finish or anything. Yes it would be after Mina makes it to the Palace. We should also wait till after my clan has had time to extricate Junko's family. * PrincessSakura shakes her head. "No, we can't delay much. There's some setup which will keep the move from happening for a few days, but if we wait, it puts Mina in much more danger." * LadyRoyal frowns and scratches the bridge of her nose. You don't think they'll try and use them against us? They could bring them there and try to draw us out... The other part of this is that Mina being investigated also means that eventually they will find us - the team, the Agency - as well. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't already. Not that I haven't been taking precautions. We, uh, had a Lady take care of certain Takeuchi Memorial records. But there's still data out there. Do you think they'll go after Agency before they hit the Palace? If they find the Agency first... That's why we can't delay. Or part of it, at least. ...the OTHER part of this is I want to keep it secret from the rest of the team, at least for now. ...o--yeah, I can see why. Alright. Wait, Maya too? We won't conceal the move. I mean, we can't. But I want to keep the plan quiet. Part of that is just to avoid strife. I can't even imagine what Haruko would say. ... We'll burn that bridge when we come to it. Should I have Mitsuko help me track them? No, I see that. But I really, really think Maya should know, if she doesn't already. If she can keep the secret... and will cooperate, yes. And talk to Mitsuko about this, Taki - I think she may be able to help you with your feelings. Alright. Maya... and the others... well, in the long run, we don't want it to get out that we deliberately invited this. Secrecy is better than Orders. You've seen that already. And the fewer who know... True, but...I'm not asking for her because she's my friend, I'm asking for her because she's our team leader, and if something comes up to put what she wants us to do and what we're doing in conflict... I'm going to try to arrange so that won't happen. If there's a problem, have her call me. ........well. All right. * LadyNightshade nods. Sakura's phone rings. It's Haruko. * PrincessSakura puts her off with an excuse about motorcycle problems, then hangs up. ...and that brings us to our meeting with the Queen. ...yeah. If I'm right - if this will work - I don't think the meeting will happen. ...oh? Think it through. At all, or with the rest? What? * PrincessSakura gets up. Just don't tell anyone. The latter I can see, and I suppose if we've already decided then I guess we don't really need the former... * LadyRoyal finishes her tea and gets up. "Not a word from me." I won't. All right. Let's go not see the Queen. But... [end mini] Session Close: Sat Nov 19 22:06:59 2005