[RDMGryphon] (Encrypted Email) From: Taki Shimiru To: Haruko Kinsha Date: Evening of Sunday May 2st, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Hey, I wish that this was me writing a letter to giving you progress reports on my trying to write that apology and getting through Moulin Rouge (I tried to watch the first few minutes without subtitles, but everybody talks too fast) but it’s me finding more trouble while out shopping for the movie and dinner. I don’t know if he’s still using the Jackals name, but Kashiwagi Kei and Toshiki are trying to forceably recruited me. I was given the choice to fight them now, or fight them later. I picked later so I could at least find out what they wanted, but Toshiki really wants to fight the me from that night against the Oni and Reversed, and will settle for the me from the bad times. Kashiwagi says he found the person who was making the drugs for Sho, and called him both The Chemist and a Black Card. I’m going to assume he’s one of the Reversed and trying to sound ominous and not actually part of another set of people with powers. Not sure what I’m going to tell Mikage to do if a crazy cat guy shows up at the door wanting to fight me, am definatly going to ask Akari for tips on dealing with him. I don’t know if I should put this into the same letter as the apology or not, but I think this is more urgent. The part of me that thinks it’s clever says that Kazuko would really want to be a part of this, but the rest of me knows that if The World doesn’t already know, I shouldn’t help her find out, and if she does, it won’t go well for Kazuko or me. If I haven’t sent everybody an email about this by tomorrow night, assume I’m procrastinating again and either prod me or start talking to other people. -Taki [Attached picture of Kei’s buisness card] --- [Grysar] Haruko reads over the email and is tempted to fill a thermos with coffee, grab her bike and head down. But the distance is 500 km, Haruko's driven it before, back when she first got her bike. Even during Golden Week, that's a lot of responsibilities to blow off, she barely manages to hold her schedule together most weeks without road tirp. The mechanic stands to pace but then sits down again, it's been a long day. Nonetheless, she's not going to deny Taki in her hour of need. Haruko then reads the message again, more closely this time. (Encrypted Email) To: Taki Shimiru From: Haruko Kinsha Date: Late evening of Sunday May 2nd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling That's awful. How soon is soon? What support do you need? I'm feeling far away and helpless, so please forgive me if I try too hard to be useful. The Black Cards aren't a new thing, it was what some people were calling themselves, including Jiro. For a while we thought they might be another type of Arcana like you said, but it turns out they were just Sho's gang disguising who they were working for. I'm not immediately recalling a Chemist, but someone to make the drugs seems plausible enough. I wonder if they were involved with extracting energy from the kidnapped or helping Ryo make a power suppressing choker. As for the Jackals, I remember Akari looked up to Kei two years ago. Beyond being in the Jackals, they were working together looking into drug matters, I think. Neither of them were fond of having rules imposed on them (Matthias) or passivity (their departed leader, Akito). They were willing to threaten people, like that girl with the tattoos, to get information despite having no proof that there source was a bad guy. Still, what you're talking about sounds pretty hypocritical given their complaints, if you can focus on talking to her about his behavior rather than criticizing Kei as a person, then you might get some useful insight. I'm a little confused about what they're asking of you. It sounds like Kei is saying join or fight and Toshiki is saying join and fight. Is that right? I don't think going to Kazuko is an unclever plan, but I think the bigger question is whether you want to try to use the Council for something pretty close to its intended purpose. If Kei is back to his old vigilantism and threatening people, he's undermining what little nascent authority it might have. When you update our the group, I'd recommend talking to Kyon specifically. He's got an ally in Hiromi, who is the current Wand Councilmember. You might remember her from her astral projection before the Osaka warehouse raid. She definitely brings her own problems, but if this Chemist is real then this may be a problem better discussed in a small group than on the campaign trail. Either way, Kyon could help you work through next steps if you want to go that route. Sorry for such a long email, I should probably trim it and I'm likely missing something, but it's getting late, I'm getting tired, and I didn't want to leave you waiting until the morning for a response. Per your instruction, I'll follow-up if I don't see an email to the group tomorrow evening. Love, Haruko --- [RDMGryphon] (Encrypted Email) From: Taki Shimiru To: Haruko Kinsha Date: Late Evening of Sunday May 2nd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling I don't know what Kashiwagi's actual plan is, but he implied that if I wanted to be in charge or change whatever it is too much I'd have to fight him, but I don't think he wants that to happen. Toshiki doesn't care, he just wants to fight against who I was and even poked me with his staff. I should try to talk to Kashiwagi again when I'm not completely on edge from being stuck in somebody else's field with that person raring for a fight, but I don't know how to negotiate past the part where I finish asking WhatWhereWhenHow. I was assuming that "The Chemist" was actually one of The Reversed because I thought most of us were accounted for, but I could be wrong. Thanks for the advice. I'm going to sleep on this now, Good Night, -Taki --- [Grysar] (Encrypted Email) To: Taki Shimiru From: Haruko Kinsha Date: Morning of Sunday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Thanks, that clears things up a lot. You might be right about the Chemist being a Reversed, Sho doesn't seem like he'd have any compunctions there, so I'd call that a reasonable guess. I think your idea of talking with Kashiwagi on your own terms is a good idea, but maybe not yet. You did good to stall him and get out of a bad situation. But let's go to Haruko fantasy land and say his plan is terrific: he's got good tactics, solid intelligence on the Chemist; you'll go in, smash the drugs, rescue anyone that needs savingwithout them being further endangered; and as the cherry on hand over the Chemist to the police who will have the means to both try and hold him. There's still a problem. What he's implying, the leader is the best fighter and everyone else has to obey them, is such amped up male Arcana syndrome nonsense from a goggle wearing punk that didn't have the full allegiance of his own gang even after Akito died (I'm assuming he still does the goggle thing, they were cute, but kind of over the top). Even if his plan is good, circumstances change and then your only recourse is to throw down if you don't like his updated plan? You said "implied" so there's probably some big talk here rather than specific threats, be sure to get his exact words right if you talk to Akari about this. You seem willing to consider working with Kashiwagi or you wouldn't care about the details, but more important than the plan are what it takes to get your trust and cooperation. He has Toshiki hanging out with him, so no way he's all talk, but he wants a lot from you and he's not offering anything in return. And if he doesn't meet your terms, say no. But if you can get some leverage or more information on him in advance, you're a lot more likely to either get him to agree or how to handle him if he tries to force the issue. (Brief commercial interruption: I think force should be a last resort. Kashiwagi and Akari seriously don't. Setting aside some of our interminable arguments in the bad old days, he's way less restrained and thoughtful then any of the old group.) Short version of on Toshiki is the same advice, set your terms, if any. But it's a bit easier since we know more about him. He's got that staff, sometimes he can generate a floating thing associated with it. He can give Saki a run for her money but she decided that she was cool with that. For better or worse he's probably easily bored, I don't think he necessarily wants just the super powered version of you, like you punched him back when we first met him in the dark. But, let me talk about myself a little instead. I've got things more together these days, but sometimes my emotions still rage and I just have frustration or despair or disappointment in myself bleeding off of me. You know how I let that get the better of me in my high school days. But while I've grown since then I still find escape in driving to the limits of my ability, in dancing, in going out drinking without constantly being on guard that everyone will think I'm a fool, in that brief delightful period between when a boy fancies me and he dumps me. Sis, I think you've got a lot of anger sometimes, and it spills over in ice when things get bad. I think that sort of thing is a tension that Kashiwagi is try to exploit and perhaps provoke. I think Toshiki is probably a dope that does get angry and likes to fight and wants a willing sparring partner, but can probably be bored into going away. But for both of them, knowing what you want and not settling for less is than you need is first step. H --- [RDMGryphon] (Encrypted Email) From: Taki Shimiru To: Haruko Kinsha Date: Late Morning, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Ahhh! Apologizing is hard when I'm in the middle of new problem. This'd be so much easier if I'd managed to do it right after Katie's email instead of getting sick and running away, but I've got to get it done so I can move on. Is there anything I should add or take away? This is ten days late and I have no apology for that and no good excuse. I was frightened. I don't know what Hinako's range is, but I felt like she could be looking over my shoulder when I was writing in Tokyo. What I wanted to tell her was that Satoshi found a Tower Reversed in America and that I thought that was impossible because I remember Winston telling me and Kyon that Tokyo Tower was unique and we couldn't get to the World Reversed from any other Towers. Nothing more than that. I hoped that she'd tell me some of what they knew about the Towers. It was a bad plan. I see that now, but I thought I was being clever. Satoshi trusted me with what he learned, but that is not my secret to share. I shouldn't have assumed that it was and absolutely not with somebody working with The World. I regret that I was planning to violate his trust, and I'm thankful that I was stopped. It feels like such a tiny number of words when I scroll up on my phone and reread it, but everything I've tried to add feels like I'm making excuses for being bad at making excuses. -Taki P.S. Thanks for the advice, I'll reread it before I write the second email I'm going to send everybody tonight. --- [Grysar] (Encrypted Email) From: Haruko Kinsha To: Taki Shimiru Date: Midday, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Taki, This looks good. I think your instincts are good about adding more. Experience has taught me simply adding more words often does not help with communications (I still write long, but at least now I know it's a mistake). So your core rule is basically to be conservative in terms of what you consider other people's secrets and to minimize any information sharing with those associated with the World and/or the Council. There's one sentence I'd suggest you consider changing: "I regret that I was planning to violate his trust, _I intend to keep asking first whenever I'm uncertain_, and I'm thankful that I was stopped." You did the right thing by asking, that's how you avoided anything irreversible, and if you're comfortable with that as a policy then I think it would be good to reiterate it. The one other thing you might want to considering adding is a summary of what you actually did talk about. Maybe between your first and second paragraph. Obviously you're dating Hinako's sister and you should not feel obliged to share any details there. I think that would help those most concerned about Hinako have a better sense for what she knows. It also illustrates where you draw the line. Make sense? I don't think it's that important that you include your logic or any guesses about what Hinako knows there, just the facts suffice as you've already laid out your general policy. Regardless, I think you have the right idea and you don't need to run the final version by me. Love, Haruko P.S. I give you credit for asking. --- [RDMGryphon] (Encrypted Email) From: Taki Shimiru To: Haruko Kinsha Date: Midday, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Speaking of things I have told her and you about, but nobody else, there's my potential relationship with Toshibara Emiri and Akari. *scraps draft and starts over again* It's like the universe has finally noticed that I took a couple years off of my life being insane and has crammed everything that was supposed to happen during that time into the past two months, and then found that there was another year of crazy backed up and stuffed it all into April 19th and 20th. --- [Grysar] Haruko experiences a brief moment of panic as she walks between explanatory signs at the Japanese Parliamentary Museum. The place is getting a reasonable amount of foot traffic on Constitutional Memorial day, but Haruko's date plans are off, Maki was heading off to do some grease monkeying, and she doesn't have any campaign platform yet from Katie. She may also be procrastinating on some group update emails, but turning procrastination into productivity on something else was key to her doing well enough at high school to get into Tokyo Tech. Her favored form of burning energy is also off the table, as Golden Week really isn't time to take a drive for pleasure. After pausing, and then quickly stepping out of the way of another visitor who shoots her a dirty look for being distracted by her phone, she finds a place to stand and think. No, she hasn't told anyone about Akari. Still, she hadn't actually properly classified that as a secret, which scares her for a moment. Not for the first time, she laments the brainpower she has to devote to determining what she should share, should convince someone to share, and should protect at all costs. Sometime after reading a few more realistic books about spying, all that James Bond stuff doesn't look like so much fun anymore. After taking a few slow breaths, she jots a quick reply. (Encrypted Email) From: Haruko Kinsha To: Taki Shimiru Date: Midday, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Understood. Also, thank you for highlighting that you have kept that to a small group. That is your secret to share or not, if you want to save that for another day or for the news from Osaka, I think you're on solid ground. In that case, I guess you don't have anything to summarize, unless anything else you've done with the group came up. Haruko --- [RDMGryphon] Taki finishes cleaning up after her lunch and checks her phone to see that Haruko replied while she was eating. (Encrypted Email) From: Taki Shimiru To: Haruko Kinsha Date: Midday, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling It's not something I meant to keep secret, it's just that there was so much *else* going on. As for what Hinako and I have talked about, that's probably something that should go in its own email someplace, I just don't see a place for it to to fit in the two I'm going to send tonight. Mostly we just talked about classes and normal friends/coworkers, and avoided talking about Arcana stuff. Actual Arcana conversations were things like "Nicola wants to meet all my old friends, how bad of an idea is this actually?" Sometimes I complained about how hard it is to get anything more than the final scores for American College hockey. Early on we talked about why I'm not chasing Katie's heart anymore, but I didn't go into anything more specific than Kyon can help her and I can't. There was only one big conversation about it and that was right before I sent that email and it started because I was still angry about the letter in that package. I told her why I felt that the letter was a threat against her sister and that turned the topic to about my temper and the way it freezes things, and then she showed me her power to calm me down, and then asked for my help. I think I said I'd have to ask before I told her anything, but I might have just said I'd like to help her, but I didn't know anything. Somewhere in there I told her about Akari and that I'd asked you to burn the box and letter without having opened anything else. She said something about being surprised and impressed that you'd overcome your fear of fire and I agreed. I'd never told her about that. And with that out of the way, here's a draft for email number two: I have a new problem down here in Osaka. It's still in the "I think I can handle it myself" stage, but it relates to things that I definately can't. I got the first hints about it the same day everything else went wrong, but it kinda got overshadowed. My Dad has been dating Toshibara Emiri: Sargent Sagara's ex and the mother of Toshibara Akari (one of the Jackals.) I'd kinda thought he might be seeing somebody, but I only found out who at the same time that Pandora's Box showed up on my doorstep. I still don't know if I'm ready to have an older sister or a mom, but I'm happy that there's somebody who'll be looking out for Dad. Anyway, Toshibara-san was complaining that none of her daughters friends would help her move. I found out why last night. Kashiwaga Kei and Toshiki are down here in Osaka and want me to help them deal with a person calling himself The Chemist. They said he's the one who made the Drugs for Sho. Well, Kashiwaga wants me for that, I think Toshiki just wants a new plaything to fight with now that Saki's gone. They're both being pretty insistent. I'm guessing that whoever The Chemist actually is, he's one of the Reversed, but I don't know enough about him to even guess which one. Kazuko would probably want in, but I don't know how much help she'd be, and, if The World doesn't already know, I don't want to help her find out. I won't be telling Hinako for the same reason. I will be asking Akari for advice on dealing with Toshiki soon. Thoughts? -Taki --- [Grysar] Haruko checks her phone every now and then and this time when the email comes in, she goes to find a bench. She is glad she did this because when reads over the email, heart skipping a bit when she reads about the fire. She reads the rest distractedly. She takes the time to finish in the museum and then wanders to the nearby garden, focusing her thoughts. Mental Katie just isn't much help when it comes to Taki, so better just to think back to the real thing. Katie's fear was that Taki's gauges are off. Thus even if she had shared something she shouldn't have, Taki might not have noticed. Mental Katie had not been pleased about the mention of why Taki's not chasing Katie's heart anymore. However, in the absence of trust, even more details there seemed unlikely to assuage fears. (Encrypted Email) From: Haruko Kinsha To: Taki Shimiru Date: Early afternoon, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling Thank you for sharing all that. Hinako likely saw my fear of fire in one of our fights, likely flinching from Kyon's fire shield. Also, she'd be a lot less impressed if she'd seen my exposure sessions with Kyon. He's patient with me, but somehow the element of the ritual made more of a difference to me than trust. Regardless, concur that your current email suffices. So long as Hinako sometimes throws you for a loop, it may be good to keep track of what you talk about for you own purposes. She does seem to have a sense of your moods, and may have a lot to teach you there but that also does give her an advantage in learning things. I guess one of the ideas of rules is that it means that we have a simple guide to turn to even when our emotions are strong, and I think you've found some straightforward ones. The second email also looks good. You tie together a few of the things we'd talked about earlier. Maybe just add a parenthetical that you've ask me to update the group on the pandora's box thing. Other stuff I've been dealing with have meant that I haven't gotten to that yet, and it'll be a lot easier to write that note to clue in Satoshi and Wataru if I'm responding to something you've said. Also, man, I see what you mean about stuff piling up. The move may have shaken some of this news loose, but it's still a lot to deal with. Sorry that remote hugs aren't one of my powers, but I'm glad we can talk about this, in addition to sending my prayers your way. Haruko --- [RDMGryphon] (Encrypted Email) From: Taki Shimiru To: Haruko Kinsha Date: Early afternoon, Monday May 3rd, 2004 Subject: Re: Settling I didn't realize that you were so busy! Hopefully after tonight I won't need to rely on you so exclusivly for advice and take up less of your time. I think it's going to take more than a parenthetical to talk about the box, but I'll see what I can do. -Taki [End!]