[Ciara] Masaki knows he shouldn't be here. This isn't his assignment. As a rookie reporter, he's supposed to be covering matters of far less import than the mysterious attacks that have recently been occurring throughout the city. Perhaps it was sheer luck that he was just walking into the office tonight as the policeman was giving his report, but he can't shake the feeling that this is more than just coincidence. He passes his dim reflection in a shop window and, out of habit, stops for a moment to straighten his tie. Then he shakes his head and quickly moves on. He needs to hurry to get to the site before the reporter actually assigned to this story arrives. Luckily for him, he knows some shortcuts... although he should probably consider the value of saving time versus possibly exposing himself to danger. But if he can figure out who - or what, a part of his mind says - is behind these attacks, then isn't it worth taking a few risks now? Up ahead, Masaki can see what what looks like a body, covered by a cloth. He shudders briefly, then realizes something odd: shouldn't the police actually be there? Surely the officer who came by to give the report wasn't the only one at the site? Suddenly, the street lights flicker and then go out, leaving only the full moon and the stars for a light. Masaki is startled, but he continues to move closer until he hears the voices of two men approaching. Frantically, he glances around, thankful that his eyes have always been able to quickly adjust to the darkness, and finds a narrow alleyway between two buildings to duck into. The two men stop, having presumably reached the body. "This one ours?" the first man asks. There's a moment's hesitation, then the sound of cloth being moved (when did it get so quiet, Masaki wonders) before the second man says, "Yes." He sounds younger than the first man, probably close in age to Masaki. "Damn. This... whatever this is, it's getting bolder." "But... w-what could take one of us out?" the second man asks, his voice trembling. The first man snorts. "We're not invulnerable, kid. Not even the big guns." "But-" "The Council's gonna have to be informed." "Don't they already know?" "They're not omnipotent. Much as she'd like everyone to think they are. Nope, someone's gonna have to tell them. And unfortunately, that someone's probably gonna be us." Masaki chances a quick glance out of the alley. The figures don't appear to be looking this way. They're both, interestingly enough, wearing hakama and haori, and one of them actually appears to be carrying a sword. He pulls his head back, and his fingers twitch. Dare he chance it? He thinks he feels some sort of connection, but... Masaki closes his eyes and wills himself to see, as he's done before. See the connections, the series of strings that links person to person in an ever-complicating web. He opens his eyes and peeks out of the alley again. The two men are connected by a shining golden thread. A fainter one connects both of them to the person on the ground. Despite the relative darkness, seeing the threads is hard, like he's having to push through some sort of viscous liquid. (A part of his mind dryly remarks that it's a terrible comparison and he shouldn't use that in an article.) There should be more threads, he thinks, but he can feel his eyes straining, so he closes them again and shuts the vision off. Meanwhile, one of the men has re-covered the body, and the first man speaks up once more. "Let's go. We've stayed here long enough." The two men start to move away, and the lights flicker back on. Masaki picks up the sound of a passing car in the distance. He stays put, watching, listening, until he thinks the two men are long-gone. A Council, he thinks as he slips away. Somehow he doesn't think this has anything to do with a neighborhood merchants' association. No, there's a connection here, between the Council and the two men, between the Council and the body lying on the ground. He shudders again. But this is big, he thinks, very big. Possibly the kind of story that could make his career. Assuming you don't end up like that corpse back there, the dry voice in his mind says. Masaki heads home. If work is concerned about his absence, he'll tell them he felt sick. It's not entirely a lie. ***** It's a slow day at the newsroom, and Masaki is working on his secret project: his notes from his investigations into this mysterious Council. Council of Mysteries? Perhaps. He's so engrossed in writing down his latest notes - "There is talk of Judgement, as if it is a person and not an action, and something that is possibly in opposition to the Council" - that he doesn't notice that someone has entered the room until there's the sound of a throat clearing and a quiet "Masaki-kun." Masaki jumps in his seat and looks up to see one of the senior editors and his mentor, Yamamoto-sensei. "Yes, sir?" he says, rising to perform a polite bow and hoping that he's managed to position himself between his superior and his notes. "The world is wider and full of more things than you can imagine," Yamamoto says. "Keep your eyes open, and..." He digs around for a moment in the pocket of his suit pants, finally coming up with a small book. "Good written records do not hurt, either." Masaki glances at the book. "A Basic Guide to Codes and Ciphers?" Yamamoto nods. "I have found that an abundance of caution is never a bad thing. And should the caution turn out to be more than necessary, well, a good cipher helps keep the mind sharp! Please, take it." Masaki does, thanking Yamamoto for the gift, and the man smiles, bowing politely to Masaki before departing. Masaki sits back down, idly flipping through the book. He thought he was being careful. Apparently, he was wrong. He should have known he couldn't get anything past Yamamoto-sensei, who'd been an ace investigator for years and years until age finally caught up with him. Even though he'd taken the pains to hide his notes, apparently his actions were suspicious enough to get Yamamoto's attention. He wonders if Yamamoto has also been investigating this Council. He could, perhaps, use his sight to find if there's a connection, but he's been hesitant to use it ever since that one night, as if by using it he would be drawing the attention of something of which he really does not want. A brief vision of Tomoya flashes through his mind. It isn't just him that he wants to keep safe. So he will accept Yamamoto-sensei's advice, both spoken and unspoken, and continue his investigations with greater care. ***** Masaki reaches the building where the newspaper office is, only to find a cluster of people gathered outside, surrounding a figure on the ground. He recognizes several of them, and his stomach twists. He rushes up to the group. One of them turns to look at him as he approaches. "Tsumioji-san, it's Yamamoto-sensei. We think he had a stroke. We've called for a doctor..." Masaki cannot hear the rest of the words. Something compels him to look away, across the street, and his gaze meets that of a woman who gives him an incredibly spiteful look before turning and dashing off. Masaki finds himself shaking, unable to stop, unable to do anything except- Kaede wakes up. He's shaking as he sits up in the darkness. "Yamamoto-sensei," he whispers. There's a sudden, sharp note of panic in his chest. His notes! Are they safe? Are they secure? Did he get the code right? ...code? That should be encryption, shouldn't it? Or should it? Code, encryption... the important thing is keeping them secure. So that... His breathing echoes heavily in the silence. He *knows* that woman. And if she found Yamamoto-sensei (wait, Yamamoto-sensei?), then she could find... she could find... "Tomoya." --- [Rowyn] Kaede is definitely searching for his notes and Tomoya. Is Tomoya here? Are his notes? Where is he? How unfamiliar is this? --- [Ciara] Kaede manages to resist the urge to jump out of bed and start tearing up the room - his room, isn't it his room? - to look for his notes. Which is just as well, because it's only now that he realizes he's not alone. There's a stirring from the person beside him in the bed, followed and a soft, sleepy "Kaede?" in a female voice. Could it be Tomoya? --- [Rowyn] Kaede looks bleary in that direction. When did his eyesight get so bad? He was always sure of his sharp eyes and keen ears. "Tomoya?" --- [Ciara] There's a yawn, followed by stretching. "Dreaming of other girls?" she drowsily teases. --- [Rowyn] Kaede lets out a calm sigh. She'd always worried about that, didn't she? Searching the table for a moment, falling back on the pillow, his head hurt, feeling disoriented. "I thought I already told you, you never need to worry about anything like that..." --- [Ciara] She laughs, charmingly melodic for someone possibly still in the process of fully waking up. "I'm not worried about that." Then her tone grows more serious. "Are you all right? Did you have some sort of bad dream?" --- [Rowyn] Kaede _thinks_ so. It's hard to tell. Was it a dream? He sits up, hand going up to his forehead to rub it, trying to think. "Yamamoto-sensei had a stroke, I think...is...is he okay?" --- [Ciara] Kaede is briefly startled when he feels her snuggle up to him. "You've never mentioned a Yamamoto-sensei to me before," Akemi (not Tomoya) says, sympathetically. "Is he one of your professors?" --- [Rowyn] Kaede's consciousness comes back online as he re-focuses. Akemi. That's right. He takes a small relaxing breath at her coming in closer, trying to use it as a focus. "I...no. Old...old thoughts. Mixing in. It's never hit me that hard before though...think it's all this Council stuff doing it..." He starts to half turn, voice groggy but curious. "You ever get things like that?" --- [Ciara] Kaede still feels a sense of unease that refuses to completely fade, even as Akemi has an adorably contemplative look on her face while she considers things. "Sometimes I wake up with the feeling that I've been trying really hard to remember something," she says after a bit. --- [Rowyn] Kaede nods. That makes sense. He shifts, edging himself more comfortable in the bed as he continues to try and look more fully on Akemi, half to remember that he's still here. "Yeah?" His own contemplative pause. "Did you ever end up remembering it?" --- [Ciara] She shakes her head. "It might have just been a dream." --- [Rowyn] Kaede slumps back, eyes closing with a sigh. "Wasn't a dream..." Rubbing the bridge of his nose. "One positive thing about us being the last ones...nobody's going to have to deal with reliving my life...I suspect it'd be terribly frustrating for _anyone_ involved." --- [Ciara] Akemi lets out another quick laugh before carefully resting a hand on Kaede's wrist. "I talked with Matthias about this once," she says, softly. "He said that it varies from Arcana to Arcana. Some remember more than others. Some remember earlier than others." --- [Rowyn] Kaede nods carefully, thinking about that, still deep in thought. He looks down at the hand, but doesn't move for now. "How much do you remember...?" --- [Ciara] Akemi wrinkles her nose cutely. "There was a fight, I think. Well, an argument. Not a physical fight. But that's all I can remember." --- [Rowyn] Kaede nods, then thinks. Come to think of it, had he told anyone about his own? It never seemed all that important. "I'm a reporter...I think. It's hard to tell..." --- [Ciara] "Oooh, were you chasing down big scoops?" Akemi's eyes light up. --- [Rowyn] Kaede nods. "Mysterious deaths...the Council...ciphers..." he pauses. Kind of like encryption really, now that he thinks about it. --- [Ciara] Akemi snuggles in closer. "It really seemed to be affecting you. Was your past self close to Yamamoto-sensei?" She pauses, then adds, "Do you know what your name was back then?" --- [Rowyn] Kaede breathes in at the unexpected closeness, unusually tense, but it soon relaxes. Turning around, he reaches for his glasses (Oh yeah. He needs glasses! Good to remember!) And puts them on. It's still dark but at least easier to see. He focuses to look at her and read her expression. "Tsumouji. Masaki Tsumoiji, I think. It's hard to remember everything. Usually it's not so important..." --- [Ciara] Akemi looks contemplative. "Tsumioji-san," she repeats, sounding it out. Then she pokes him gently in the arm. "Not important? Really? How long has this been going on?" --- [Rowyn] Kaede flinches and rubs his arm from the poke, although it's likely more from habit or in mock. Kaede is made of stronger stuff. "Hey!" He stops himself while he rubs that, trying not to pull off his hurt look. Which granted he doesn't pull off well. "Not as long as the others. Really, amongst memories from the past I've received thankfully precious little. I don't know if that's a net positive or simply outright unusual..." --- [Ciara] Akemi giggles just a tiny bit at Kaede's reaction to the arm-poking. "Matthias never really mentioned how much he had," she says. "So I don't really know much for comparison. You have more than me and less than..." Her voice trails off. --- [Rowyn] Kaede looks at her with some curiosity. "Less than...?" --- [Ciara] Akemi bites her lip for a moment. "Promise you won't get mad?" she asks. --- [Rowyn] Kaede looks at Akemi. You are...not doing a very good job at not tempting him. Which, to be fair, is kind of what Akemi does. "...the fact that you have to have me promise that makes it even worse..." --- [Ciara] "Please?" Akemi is adorably insistent. --- [Rowyn] Kaede frowns, but he just...can't be mad at that. Can he? All of his irritation deflates when she does that and he agrees, "Fine. I will do my best..." After a moment, he adds, "For you..." At that, he slumps, pushing back his glasses with half of a sigh and a deflating groan. What she says better not be that bad or he's going to regret this forever... --- [Ciara] Akemi flashes him a grateful and pretty darned dazzling smile before clearing her throat to proceed. "Sooooo... I did talk a little bit about this with someone other than Matthias." She pauses. "It was Yusuke. He brought it up, actually. I wanted to ask him more about it but then Anatoly walked in, and... I didn't really get a chance to after that." --- [Rowyn] Kaede blinks. He doesn't look mad. Not at all. He's far too confused to be made. "Yusuke? Yusuke Fuyuken?" And then his voice drops as he answers his own question. "That's silly. What other Yusuke would I know? So....he's talked? What of his sister?" He sits up, turning to look closer at Akemi, far more curious than mad. The reporter/investigator must still be part of him. --- [Ciara] Akemi blinks back in momentary confusion before shaking her head. "He didn't say anything about her, and I haven't had a chance to talk to him since then. It's been a while since we've talked, really. We've both been so busy." --- [Rowyn] Kaede slumps over, suddenly a lot more tired and resting up against her. "We all have..." First time for him to really admit that. --- [Ciara] Akemi makes a brief, startled sound before shifting position slightly so that they're both more comfortable. "It's true," she says, her voice soft and a bit sad. --- [Rowyn] Kaede turns over, glancing at her expression from his resting position. "You think we should do something about that?" He knows that tone. --- [Ciara] "Well, we could take a day off," she answers playfully. --- [Rowyn] Kaede looks for a moment as if he'd been stung. "Day off...?" --- [Ciara] Akemi giggles. "That's what I thought. Well..." She puts a finger to her chin for a moment. "We could do something with Yusuke. Anatoly's been suggesting it, and I'm sure we could find some sort of chance to talk to Yusuke about past lives. Maybe it'll help me remember more, too." --- [Rowyn] Stung moves on into sour lemons as he glances at her, clearly wrestling with the idea of Yusuke AND Anatoly in the same room. "Does it really have to involve the peacock?" He knows he promised the man to get Yusuke in the show, but nothing said he had to be PRESENT for it. -- [Ciara] Poor Kaede. Akemi must find his sour lemon face quite amusing, because she's outright grinning now, laughter in her eyes. "Oh, I can handle Anatoly. Don't worry about that." --- [Rowyn] Kaede isn't convinced. He's seen your "handling". "He would be far easier to handle it he wasn't there..." It wouldn't work but it was worth a shot. --- [Ciara] Akemi holds up her right index finger. "But then we'd have to bring in someone else for hair and makeup and it really doesn't make sense from a business perspective!" She seems far too pleased by being able to legitimately make that argument. --- [Rowyn] Kaede just stares at her now. "This is a business lunch? You never said this would be a business lunch..." Can't he have things that aren't bus-- No. No. Of course not. This is the Takeuchi way. --- [Ciara] Akemi still seems very pleased with herself. "It could be fun, too! And it's a good way to get you to talk to Yusuke without putting him on his guard." --- [Rowyn] Kaede reaches up to rub the bridge of his nose. Clearly your idea of fun and his are very different, Shiraishi-san. Some people enjoy drinking a box of nails too. "Going out to hang with an old friend and co-model and her boyfriend would put him on edge?" And hanging out with Anatoly wouldn't put HIM on edge? And suddenly talking about Arcana stuff part of which he was DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BULLSHIT (even though he was very very sorry) during a supposed business meeting wouldn't put him on edge? This was a terrible idea for all involved, Shiraishi-san. It's a good thing one of your powers isn't being psychic. Cause you'd be getting a whole FLOOD of conflicting information right now rather than just the odd, incredulous stare. --- [Ciara] Funnily enough, the Arcana's resident telepath has never had problems with a flood of information coming from *Kaede's* brain, but that's neither here nor there right now. At any rate, Akemi's pleased expression fades. "I think he might find you a little intimidating," she admits, then sighs. "All I wanted was for us to be able to talk without it raising too many suspicions, and since Anatoly had already proposed that Yusuke and I work on something together, I thought it might be a good chance. That's all." --- [Rowyn] Kaede frowns, looking off to the side a bit. "Do I really...?" But then he pinches his eyes. Of course he does. "...I am trying to work on that..." After a moment, he lets out a small sigh. "Promised I wouldn't get mad..." in a half resigned, half acknowledging and appreciative tone. "I'll trust you to know him best. Pray it does not come to a point where we require a new hairdresser. Despite how I feel about him, I can't deny the man does good work..." He then squints, turning more fully on Akemi. "...you're not to tell him I said that...." --- [Ciara] "My lips are sealed." Akemi makes a zipping motion across them. --- [Rowyn] Kaede adjusts his glasses and looks closer at the woman next to him, arm slipping between her and the pillow. "I don't know how you thought I could possibly get mad when you do things like that. That's simply ridiculous.... Do you have to throw me off so...?" And even in the grumbling, there's a hint of affection there. --- [Ciara] Akemi snuggles in closer, sliding her own arms around him. "Maybe I do." She smiles. --- [Rowyn] Kaede visibly relaxes. Well. Someone has to, don't they? His fingers touch her hair as he reaches for his glasses again, taking them off. "Can we try to sleep at least? We'll worry about this more in the morning..." --- [Ciara] Akemi stifles a yawn. "Mmm-hmm." [Thread End!]