[Ardweden] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening, April 13, 2004 (Japan) / Early Morning April 13, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Aka Meeting Happened To: Kyon Sorata, Haruko Kinsha, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Wataru Yamada, Taki Shimiru Kyon & Haruko & me met up with Aka Uehara yesterday. He's an asshole but also in over his head. I think that the whole idea that he's The Magician in a figurative way is a good one. He came in all in control & confident & evasive & annoying for as long as he felt like he was in control. His spot, his time, his dime. Nothing we said or did seemed to get to him and he wouldn't say anything real or useful. So eventually I got fed up with the bullshit & called him on it & displayed some power, and then Kyon displayed some more. He totally cracked then. I think maybe he truly believed we would never even consider hurting him b/c we're pretty much the good ones. So that took him out of his element and he didn't know what to do. Kind of like that other Magician, only Aka didn't throw a temper tantrum. He got scared instead. We didn't get a lot out of him because however scared he was of us, he was more scared of the people he's working with. He seems to think they'll know things if he talks too much, at least right then. But it's clear he's in over his head & doesn't want to think about it too much. He said something about making a deal with the devil & wanting to succeed where his brother had failed. I'll ask Masaru about that one, maybe once we decide what to do with the Shuffle/Council stuff in general or maybe earlier idk. I promised to keep in touch with him about it all anyway. He also said that he thought he wanted what he got until he got it (maybe money, fame, connections?). & also that the signal had gone out, which I think means the Shuffle stuff. Oh. & he brought up someone else wanting to share their story earlier when we were bringing up problems with the books. He was softer & gentle then. I think he might actually care about Kazuko Yamagata. Overall I think all of this is all more good than bad. I don't think there's any stopping his second book (he was scared & almost apologetic about it) but I bet he's going to think about the third. More importantly, he's a flaw in the World's armor. He isn't happy with her for whatever reason & he needs help & we might be able to give it to him. And anything weird or scary that Aka said is weird or scary to him, but he's not us. We can look into it, find out what's going on (maybe from him if he feels safe enough?), & maybe offer protection depending. Kyon has his info and he left himself open for contact. I think we should consider following up on that. So basically Aka is like Kazuko kind of. He could turn into a potential ally instead of an enemy. I think it might be pretty easy to turn them against each other too if we need to. Katie --- [Capfox] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening, April 13, 2004 (Japan) / Early Morning April 13, 2004 (Maine) (Roughly two minutes after Katie's email) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Wataru Yamada, Taki Shimiru The guy couldn't keep his eyes off me by the end. Think we can work with him if we want to. Sorata --- [Rowyn] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Evening April 13, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened From: Kaede Takeuchi To: Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Kyon Sorata, Satoshi Watanabe, Wataru Yamada, Taki Shimiru The sad truth of it is comparitively we really _are_ the good ones. - Takeuchi --- [Jihatsu] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Late morning, April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Evening April 13, 2004 (Maine) (shortly after the conversation with Kaede) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru Wow, this really echoes that reading I did... Any clues yet on what he's upset with the World about? Wataru --- [Ardweden] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Noonish April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Late Evening April 13, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Haruko Kinsha, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru, Wataru Yamada That it's about the World isn't even confirmed by Aka but it makes a lot of sense that it's her or people working for her b/c Shuffle & Council & everything. Plus your reading. But based on your reading + Kaede's (the CoM problem is listed there as Justice Reversed) + most importantly what Masaru said about his brother = Aka probably being jealous of powers & wanting to see them. Maybe even wanting to have them or study them or expose us. I don't think the World would be okay with any of that to the degree he'd want it. Maybe he's finding the restrictions too bad or the price she's asking for them too high. Really it's something to talk to Masaru about. Anyway the only things we've really got from Aka is he wanted what he has until he got it, he thinks his brother failed and he won't be a failure like him, a signal went out & it's "too late", & he's chosen his side in this fight. The last one's esp. interesting because he thinks there's a fight at all. When the Council's supposed to set things up for peace and there's been no really bad activity that we've seen in a couple of years. Katie --- [Jihatsu] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Noonish April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Late Evening April 13, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Haruko Kinsha, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru, Katie Andrews Could be a political fight? Also maybe if he's in love with Kazuko Yamagata maybe she's the too-high price. Maybe she's too close to the center of whatever's happening and he's worried for her. Does that seem likely? Wataru --- [Ardweden] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Afternoon April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Early Morning April 14, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Haruko Kinsha, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru, Wataru Yamada Any of those are possible. I've only talked to Aka and Kazuko once each & separately, so it's hard to say without more information. But if it is Kazuko somehow, I don't think she knows it at all. Katie --- [Grysar] Haruko reviews the emails and actually swings by the school library and finds a translate tome of Goethe's Faust. She checks it out and skims some of the prose on the way home, but does not get far. She lays it on a dresser with a sigh. She then composes an email, ending with a note that Katie's summary was thorough and accurate, but adding that the engineering students frustration that Aka rejected her demands for even a minimal promise about the third book. After a final read over, she deletes that passage, if Katie didn't think it was something the rest of the group needed to know, than she's probably right. The only comfort she takes from that failure is that Aka is not a person to give promises lightly, which is wise on his part. (Encrypted e-mail) From: Haruko Kinsha Date: Afternoon April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Early Morning April 14, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Katie Andrews, Wataru Yamada, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru My read was that he was scared for his personal safety, he desperately wanted to get out of that room and he never made any indications that he was speaking on behalf of others at the end. His "deal with the devil"* seems more for his personal benefit. Masaru-san is single, as far as I know, but I don't think that is the part of his brother's life that Aka was rejecting. Likewise, we do not know of a time Masaru failed to protect one he loved, although I certainly can't rule that out. Again my read, and this is without having met Yamagata-san, is that his situation is closer to that of the commoner elevated to a prince magic or trickery and thus left very vulnerable. Based on Katie's description, Yamagata-san does not sound directly like a prize or a present hostage, but their relationship may still have been enabled by his Faustian bargain. He genuinely seems to care for her, but his mind seemed to be on the precariousness of his own situation. Haruko * Possible upper case D-devil, I'm still confused about Saki's multiple cards and such. --- [Ardweden] (encrypted e-mail) Fifteen minutes after Haruko hits send: (Encrypted e-mail) From: Katie Andrews Date: Afternoon April 14, 2004 (Japan) / Early Morning April 14, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Wataru Yamada, Kaede Takeuchi, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru, Haruko Kinsha I think Haruko's right about her read on Aka. It's the most likely scenario. I don't think it's upper-case D-devil though. When he mentioned the deal with the devil & Kyon commented on that (because we knew her, ha), he was pretty quick to backpedal about it. Figurative, not literal. Unless it's literal literal in which case there's maybe a god too & we're going to have words. But that's unlikely. Katie --- [Ciara] [Evening of April 14th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Morning of April 14th, 2004 (Orono)] Satoshi opens his e-mail that morning with some trepidation. Sure enough, there's replies from Katie, Wataru, and Haruko. Multiple replies from Katie, even. Sighing, he sits down to read them and... ...nobody reacted at all to what he wrote? His eyes fall on the "Outbox [1]" on his e-mail program. Oh shit. His e- mail never got sent. He must've shut his laptop too quickly, or something. Or the universe just doesn't want him to send this mail. Or this is his last chance to... no. Before he can set up yet another debate with himself, he clicks "Send" and watches his outbox empty. There. It's out now. (encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening of April 14th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Morning of April 14th, 2004 (Orono) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Kaede Takeuchi, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru I feel kind of bad for Aka, but I'd be careful about trying to cultivate him as an ally. His fear of The World might end up being the strongest thing here. She can be very convincing that what she wants is also what you want. In related news (you'll find out why as I go on), Kaede, Akemi, and I went back to the local Tower Reversed. And we found out a lot. Starting with the fact that I own property in the non-Reversed side. There was a different building manager on duty than there was the first time I came, and she recognized me from an old photograph. Or, rather, she recognized my resemblance to my "grandfather." Apparently before the war, Hideo leased property in the building and the instructions were to pass it down to his descendants. Of which I am. Or the closest thing in in existence. (And no, the property manager wasn't there since before the war, but it was an unusual enough contract that her predecessor made sure she knew about it. And then maybe she found it unusually interesting. I don't know.) So I've got a key now, and access to the building at all hours, and a storage room. (And a letter that I'll talk more about later.) It's not the storage room that's the important part. That was just a means to access the building. I know I'm rambling but I'm getting to it. I'm sorry; this is hard and I need to just say all the things as I'm thinking about them so I don't leave anything out that might be important. Hideo's company, Daisetsu Kaisha, was acquired sometime before the 70's by a company called Global Services. (Guess which present-day company Global Services is the parent company of?) And apparently at one point they spoke with a woman from Global Services who wanted access to the property, but the deal was apparently just to Hideo and his descendants. And okay, we don't *know* that the woman wasn't The World that they talked to. I mean, it could have been some person working for her, but I feel like it was. Especially because of what's in the Reversed part. Or, actually, *because* there's a Reversed part. Turns out that Hideo was trying to start his own network of Towers Reversed on the coasts of the United States. No, I don't know why. I don't know anything about why Hideo did what he did. I've got as many of his memories as I do some random guy walking down the street's memories. But he actually had someone do research on the tallest buildings at the time on all of the Eastern and Western coastal states. Apparently for Maine he couldn't get the one in Portland - that's the biggest city in Maine - so he had to come to Bangor instead. (Well, I'm not sure he personally did, but.) So in the Reversed counterpart of the storage room, there's a bunch of candles and an incomplete ritual diagram. And in that letter that I got with the keys (which is addressed to Hideo) are instructions. Someone did the setup work for Hideo to make World Reversed access points. Apparently he had to live nearby for a certain period of time to activate them, and then complete this ritual to fully attune them to the World Reversed. Because Bangor Reversed does feel kind of... detached in a way. Slightly unstable. Not like the Tower Reversed back home. Akemi felt it too. So no, I don't know who did the setup work; the letter was typed and unsigned. I don't know if any of the other potential access points are still active. The letter said that attuning one might destabilize all the others. It sounds like I could activate this one. If I wanted. I'm not sure I should even want to. Activating it might draw some attention. On the other hand, finishing setting it up could keep it from being used against me. And it's not like Temperance and The World *don't* know where it is. Although linking it might give them *easier* access, so... I don't know. I really don't. Is it weird that I feel like they should stay out because it's mine? More on Global Services: Kaede got information and files on them and I'll let him share his findings on that when he's had a chance to process them. (There was an unfortunate incident with his laptop.) But this has been going on for a while now. There's an archive somewhere of Hideo's notes that someone in Global Services gave the order to create in order to "have full insight into the founder's thoughts." I'm not sure if any of that archive was in what Kaede got. Finally, I found out some of what happened between Hideo and me. (Because remember, Winston said I've been age-reversed twice.) His name was Takeshi Watanabe, he worked for Global Services and was apparently good at it if a bit headstrong sometimes, he actually lived in LA for a while, and he was around at the construction of Tokyo Tower (we found a photo online; there's a woman in it who may be The World but her face is blocked so we can't tell for sure). Maybe he was a decent guy. I'd like to think so. So I guess... on the one hand, I didn't spontaneously create a link to the World Reversed just because I moved here, but on the other hand, I did unintentionally set in motion something that had been waiting for a long time. I'm not really sure what to do here. Satoshi --- [Rowyn] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening of April 14th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Morning of April 14th, 2004 (Maine) (Shortly after Satoshi's email) Subject: Re: Re: Aka Meeting Happened From: Kaede Takeuchi To: Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Satoshi Watanabe, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru > More on Global Services: Kaede got information and files on them and I'll let him share his findings on that when he's had a chance to process them. (There was an unfortunate incident with his laptop.) But this has been going on for a > while now. There's an archive somewhere of Hideo's notes that someone in Global Services gave the order to create in order to "have full insight into the founder's thoughts." I'm not sure if any of that archive was in what Kaede got. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have tried to access from the Tower. At least the server suffered worse. Shame we left it on fire. Anyway, it's just a minor part. I'll have to wait to replace it before I can send everyone the files, but can give a quick rundown if people are interested? - Takeuchi P.S. Will probably be boarding soon so if there's silence, I'm probably in a tube thousands of feet in the air with Akemi. Just so you know. --- [RDMGryphon] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening of April 14th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Morning of April 14th, 2004 (Orono) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Satoshi Watanabe I'm sorry I missed your game. Kaede gave me a link to a web radio thing that was supposed to let me listen to the announcers, but it only worked for half a second at a time. I hope you win the next one. How bad would it be for you to say you're Takeshi's son, but never talked to him? I mean, it sounds like that's who they're assuming you are, and it might get you more information about what he was doing and if it's something we need to stop, or just try not to do more of. I didn't get any memories of this from Yoshiko, but I get the feeling that she didn't care in the slightest what Hideo was doing as long as she was able to keep him safe. And if he was doing all of this in America after the war, it might be after she died anyway. Sorry I don't have a good way to cheer you up, but if I remember anything, I'll let you know. -Taki --- [Jihatsu] (encrypted e-mail) Date: Late evening of April 14th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Late morning of April 14th, 2004 (Orono) Subject: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Satoshi Watanabe Hey. Wow, I wish I could hug you so hard right now. I'm really glad Kaede and Akemi are there. I hope they can help remind you that you have like a whole squad of people who care about you, including Katie who's basically fearless. If she thinks we can face whatever's frightening Aka, I think we can stay strong about this. I have one important thing I want to tell you right away, and it's this: if you bring me the letter, or send it back with Kaede, the odds are decent that I can tell you who wrote it. I, uh, I've been discovering some new abilities, and part of it is being able to tell stuff about things by handling them. If that's a puzzle piece you'd like to have, I think I could try getting it for you without hurting myself or anyone or damaging the letter. Also, I know you're nervous about readings but I could try to do one, see if I can isolate any threads of what's going on, bring stuff into focus. I won't do it without your being okay with it, though. This is... I'm really so sorry. I would be freaking out. Actually I freaked out pretty bad a couple days ago and I'm still recovering from that, we can talk about it later but I think Katie's original email about Council stuff broke something in me. It might not be a bad kind of broken though. Maybe what broke was my fear. I'm not saying I won't be careful, or smart, but right now my brain goes "how do we solve this" before "how do I hide from this", which is new and weird (as you can probably tell from this email - I feel like I could be more like, empathetic, but for some reason scary shit just puts me into ACTION MODE right now. I apologize. I've been like this for a couple days). Let's talk soon. I'll also email the whole group I guess, but I really just wanted to reach out to you right away. Learning more about who you used to be doesn't change anything about who you are. Contact me anytime, okay? Take care, Wataru --- [Ciara] [Midnight to very early morning, April 15th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Late morning to early afternoon, April 14th, 2004 (Orono/Bangor)] Satoshi finishes up his morning classes and gets ready to head to Bangor with Kaede and Akemi so he can see them off at the airport. He does a quick check of his e-mail and sees that there's messages from Kaede, Taki, and Wataru, the latter two just to him. He does a quick skim of them all and sends Wataru a text: "Hey, saw your e-mail. Will give you more thorough reply later, but thank you." Then it's off to meet up with the departing travelers and take the airport shuttle. Upon entering the airport, Akemi's reaction is "It's so tiny! <3" (Look, if anyone can emote a heart in their speech, it's Akemi.) Satoshi laughs and admits that it's by far the smallest airport he's ever been in. There are hugs (at least between Akemi and Satoshi) and yes, all right, Kaede will let Satoshi know when they arrive in New York. Akemi waves until they're out of sight through the security checkpoint. Satoshi heads back to the first floor and lets out a sigh, flopping onto one of the chairs. It's not that bad, he thinks. He'll see them again in a few weeks. He'll get to see everyone in a few weeks. In the meantime, he has a semester to finish, and also... it would be so easy to get a cab to downtown Bangor. It's just 10 minutes to the Tower, and... ...no. He promised Wataru and Katie he wouldn't rush off to do anything stupid, and this is definitely rushing and probably stupid. It can wait until he's had a chance to talk about things. Instead, he boots up his laptop to send out a few e-mails, since he's got someone covering his afternoon discussion section for him and he doesn't have to be back to campus right away. He does check to make sure his screen isn't all that easily visible, even if he is writing in Japanese. ***** (encrypted e-mail) Date: Very Early Morning, April 15th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Early Afternoon, April 14th, 2004 (Bangor) Subject: Re: Re: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Kaede Takeuchi, Katie Andrews, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru Hey, just wanted to let you guys know that Kaede and Akemi made it safely to the airport and are on their way to New York. Also, re: Reversed stuff, we're all okay. Yes, there was a fire, but it was a small one and we put it out quickly. I'll let Kaede give the file rundown on his own time once he's had a chance to finish fixing things. Satoshi ***** (encrypted e-mail) Date: Very Early Morning, April 15th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Early Afternoon, April 14th, 2004 (Bangor) Subject: Talking About All This To: Wataru Yamada Talking with you all is making me feel better about this, it's true. And Katie is definitely unafraid to speak her mind. Even though there's not much about the Aka situation I can do (at least not from over here), I'm feeling more confident in you guys' ability to handle it. Or maybe I'm just comparatively less worried because of all this. I'm holding onto the letter for now. It's not that I don't trust you and Kaede, I just didn't want to let it go yet. But we can definitely take a look at it when I get back. You being able to find out information from items makes sense; I mean, it seems like a pretty logical extension of your ability to find people from their things. I'm not anticipating anything happening to me, but if you guys suddenly don't hear from me, you have my full permission to use something of mine to find me. I promised that I'm not going to do something stupid or impulsive with this whole Tower thing, and I'm going to stick with that. Maybe I'm just feeling slightly paranoid. I don't know. The reading is actually a good idea; I talked with Katie briefly and she suggested it as well. This seems like the kind of situation that calls for it. Is this the kind of thing you'd want to do over video chat so we could both see it? Or do you prefer to do these sorts of things privately? Whatever you're most comfortable with, really. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do things, I think, as long as we're careful about them. I want to do something. I've been down the "let's not do anything" path before and it's not really one I want to start heading down again. I'm just still worried about doing the wrong thing, something that makes all this worse. But I want to do something. Oh, and do you want to video chat this weekend? I'm a lot more free now that the season is over, though I still have classes to deal with. This is assuming your internet usage won't be a problem. If video chat won't work then we'll call each other, and that can be sooner than the weekend. Just let me know what's best for you. Thanks for checking up on me, Wataru. I'm glad I haven't managed to scare you off with my weirdness. Satoshi P.S. Some of the game footage that Kaede took is already up, though Taki e- mailed me and said she had a problem accessing it, so maybe wait until Kaede has a chance to review it? But if you want to watch it after that, please do, even if it's not the outcome we wanted. We still made some pretty impressive plays. And there's always next season. I'm going to keep practicing hard over the summer. ***** (encrypted e-mail) Date: Very Early Morning, April 15th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Early Afternoon, April 14th, 2004 (Bangor) Subject: To: Taki Shimiru Taki, I'm not sure what's going on with the footage. Maybe it didn't upload properly, or maybe it's a video player incompatibility. You might want to wait a few days and try again. Let me assure you that it wasn't our goalie's fault at all. He did a great job. (He's already been drafted into the NHL! I hope he comes back next season so he gets another shot at the championship. But if not, we have another good goalie in my friend Grant.) Technically, it wouldn't be too hard to say I'm Takeshi's son, but that would also probably set off all sorts of alarm bells and draw the attention of people whose attention we don't really want. I'm going to pursue some other methods of information gathering. Most of this was pre-war, but Hideo really wasn't telling that many people about it, and he used a high level of security for those few that he did. Unless Yoshiko was also a member of the company, she probably wouldn't have a reason to know. I'm feeling better now. Time and talking helps. Satoshi --- [Ardweden] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning, April 15th, 2004 (Tokyo) / Evening, April 14th, 2004 (Bangor) Subject: Re: Re: Re: Aka Meeting Happened To: Kaede Takeuchi, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru, Satoshi Watanabe There was a fire? And a server? Why? What did you try to access from the Tower, Kaede? (I think you mean the one in Bangor?) The internet wouldn't make any sense... Anyway I already called Satoshi but I guess I'll say some stuff here. There's a lot of unknown about this ritual & it's been sitting dormant for a long time. It probably will stay dormant until or unless Satoshi goes and messes with it. If the World or Temperance or whoever wanted to mess with it and could they probably would have already & then it doesn't even matter that much. + it looks like Satoshi's presence is needed for it to kind-of exist anyway? Because it's unstable? I'm not really sure how that works. So yeah, Satoshi should probably wait until he comes home & then we can all look into it together. idk if it's possible to get a picture of the room, or a sketch, but if looks & instructions & letter are what we have to go on then every bit helps. Wataru might be able to tell some stuff from the items, Kyon's got a good occult library, maybe we can lure Jin with chicken & then hold him "hostage" at Satoshi's apt. while we wait for Winston to show up & we can ask him 1000000 questions. Options! I'm also curious about what kind of person Takeshi was. It might help us know what kind of person the World was too. Since he worked for her & etc. Satoshi: It's not weird to want them out because it's yours. But it is SUPER WEIRD that the lady recognized you on sight when she never would have met your grandfather. Maybe Hideo started a weird multi-generational Arcana- following cult or something in Bangor, Maine of all places. (I hope not but it is still super weird.) Katie --- [Ciara] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Morning, April 15, 2004 (Tokyo) / Evening, April 14th, 2004 (Orono) Subject: Re: Re: Etc: Aka Meeting Happened To: Katie Andrews, Kaede Takeuchi, Haruko Kinsha, Wataru Yamada, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru Sorry for the confusion. There were a few things that I didn't think to put in my first e-mail to you guys that I should add now for clarification. The lady recognized me because she had a photo of Hideo. It came with the letter and the keys to the storage room. She'd gotten it from her predecessor and apparently it must have intrigued her enough that it she decided to take something of a personal interest in it. So no, I don't think there's an Arcana-worshipping cult, just an old lady who was curious about the whole thing. I asked her if she wanted proof of my identity, but the resemblance is strong enough that she seemed to accept that as sufficient. (Also, I guess, my reaction to finding out about the property holdings of my "grandfather." And if she really wanted, she could probably find articles in the Bangor newspaper about the team to prove I've got the right name. "Watanabe" isn't exactly a common family name in Maine.) We got a copy of the photo and let her keep the original. She seemed kind of attached to it. I guess I could try to get it from her if we wanted to get a closer look at it. As for finding out more about Takeshi Watanabe, well... my "dad's" name is Takeshi. And some of the things Kaede and I found out about Global Services Takeshi match up with things I "remember" about my dad. It makes sense, you know? Why create a completely new story when you can draw from things that actually happened? I've got some account records of his, and even his official business seal. So I think we can definitely glean some stuff from those. I'll be home in a few weeks, but if you guys want to try and get started on it sooner, I can call the apartment building management and see if they'll let you have a spare key. Kaede can give an explanation for the whole Tower access thing. I don't quite understand how he did what he did. I can try to go back to the Tower this weekend with a sketchpad and a non- electric light source and do a drawing of the diagram in the closet. I'm not sure how else to do it. Do you think an antique camera might work? There are some shops around here I could check. Satoshi --- [Grysar] (Encrypted e-mail) Date: Evening, April 15, 2004 (Tokyo) / Morning, April 15th, 2004 (Maine) Subject: Re: Re: Etc: Aka Meeting Happened From: Haruko Kinsha To: Satoshi Watanabe, Katie Andrews, Kaede Takeuchi, Wataru Yamada, Kyon Sorata, Taki Shimiru Satoshi, Wow, that's a lot to take on. My engineering instincts protest against leaving leaving Bangor Reversed unstable. However, Katie is not wrong that there are risks, so let me lay out my thoughts for consideration or refutation. 1) Rituals of purification and sanctification are covered within Kyon's library. This may be relevant, although such ceremonies are particular to their place, so getting a picture and sending over a scan of the instructions makes sense. 2) If you aren't worried about a flash, you don't need to go antique camera. The 70s or 80s probably had a fair number of with no batteries. It might be worth picking up a few different brands of disposables, they just use the electricity for the flash typically. You might also want to pick up a gas lantern, just remember to light it before you head in. 3) The concerns about whether this would alert those spying on you are straightforward and practical. In this case, I think Hideo Watanabe would share them and thus a ritual he commissioned would likely ameliorate them rather than aggravate them. It's not like a "secret base" tied to the tallest buildings in a state is that easy to just hide. 4) In terms of weighing cost vs. benefits, this seems like a classic case for a tarot reading. Happy to help certainly will defer to Wataru if he wants to do it after getting some reading in. Anyhow, that's a lot to take in, good job finding it all the three of you. Hope Takeuchi-san's laptop is repairable without too much of a challenge. If you decide to try to figure out what Temperance was up to, I do still recommend the fingerprint kit I sent over. It's a bit harder now that there's been two more people up there, but if you focus on items that Shiraishi-chan and Takeuchi-san haven't handled, you might be able to figure out if she was acting alone. (You'll likely have to deal with your own fingerprints, but with gloves you won't leave more). Anyhow, that's enough practical stuff. Anyone want to watch the recording together? Hibiki doesn't rule it out, but I fear I'd end up having to hear about how soccer is better because it doesn't have all this ice nonsense. Regardless, thanks again for recording and sending it Takeuchi-san. Miss you Satoshi, should have something to share on that assignment you gave me before too long. Looking forward to being in the same time zone, now that it feels in sight again. Til then, see you online. Haruko