<@Grysar> [Date: May 5, 2004. Kyon and Taki weren't able to manage a pre-game meeting, but Taki was able to get tickets.] <@Grysar> [Not a bad game, but Kyon did give up two runs and had proved to be the losing pitcher when the Buffaloes overtook the Lions in the bottom of the 9th. He might have been in the W column, were it not for two errors by his teammates. Interpret that as you will.] <@Grysar> [Game ended at 8:54, though Kyon was out about an hour earlier. Taki, where do you suggest for a meeting?] <@Grysar> [Weather: The day was unusually hot, high 27°C / low 17°C. That said, it was an evening game and there was just a bit of a light drizzle earlier that wasn't unpleasant given the heat. <@Grysar> [Mikage is a bit put out (literally and figuratively), but is willing to go along if Taki is willing to show off something she's learned at school. (In game terms, spend +Direction to really hunker down and focus this semester, with general scholastic benefits, but you don't get to spend it on something else).] <@Grysar> [Mikage accepted Taki's V-sign promise and will be out the whole night, no questions asked.] <@Grysar> [Start!] * Taki suggests meeting at her new place given that her roommate will be out tonight. * Kyon texts back to accept this suggestion and ask whether there's anything he can bring along for her. * Taki texts that she can't think of anything, she was not expecting him to show up same day. * Kyon texts back that he'll just pick up something appropriate and then show up soon. <@Grysar> [Kyon's trip is not that far and he can grab something from a convenience store or the like if he can think of something. We'll rejoin them when he arrives.] * Kyon rings the bell for the apartment. He's in a non-descript black baseball cap and sunglasses, a plain navy blue t-shirt, and tan running shorts, and he carries a plastic bag from the conbini in one hand. [There's a light thump from the other side of the door as Taki checks the peephole and then she opens the door. "Hello, plase come in.] * Kyon nods to her curtly. "Thanks for having me," he says curtly, and passes her the bag as he steps inside and starts taking off his shoes. <@Grysar> [Taki's apartment is fairly modern, not out of keeping with her student lifestyle but definitely a good find. Bedroom off to the right, the kitchen and sitting room is down quite the short hallway. Beyond that is a balcony with a view that includes the train station Kyon walked from. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17QIbwJ77YcrnBs5o84al7owbCxNWDdFb_wjFe7xHp RQ/edit ] * Kyon takes a quick look around as he gets his shoes off, taking his bearings. * Taki points with her free hand at the closed doors to either side of the entrance, "Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen is around the corner and you can see were the living space is. We got a really good student discount on the place." * Kyon nods quickly, stepping up into the hallway. "It's close to school?" The walls are mostly bare, but a couple of posters have been tacked up. One of the Tower of the Sun statue, another is a painting by an artist that graduated from Mikage's school. "Closer to mine than Mikage's, but yes it's about fifteen minutes." * Kyon nods back to her curtly, and rolls his shoulder, grimacing. "Useful." He gestures at the bag. "Got some snacks and drinks. For your place. Also an icepack." He holds out a hand expectantly. * Taki takes it. "Sorry I don't have a hot pack to trade you for it." She puts it in the freezer and then starts to set out the snacks he brought. * Kyon follows her into the kitchen space. "Should cool down quickly. Then I can use it." He scowls now. "Came over straight from the game." * Taki nods. "I... yeah. I had to cheat a bit to get back her before you did, it's why I don't have any snacks of my own ready, so thanks for these." * Kyon doesn't look very pleased. "Right. Sorry you had to see that." It was a tied game when you were done, and that last run wasn't your fault. Pitching an entire game is supposed to be super rough, isn't it? * Kyon snorts. "Wouldn't have been on base if I hadn't put them there. And they shouldn't have scored." He flicks his gaze over to one of the bottles of tea he brought. "It was a disgrace." * Taki sets a cup in front of him and pours bottled tea in. "It's not my place to say 'you can't take responsiblity for all of your infielders,' but I'm going to say it anyway. That's the coach's job." * Kyon rolls his eyes. "Maybe. Can still blame them for it, though." Absolutly. I don't even want to think about how much scrambling around they're going to be doing next practice. * Kyon smirks. "I can guess." He reaches over and pours her some tea in exchange. * Taki thanks him and sits down across from him. She takes a sip of tea. "This isn't bad..." * Kyon shoots her a look. "Why would I bring you bad tea?" Ah... Well, you wouldn't, but sometimes _I_ mess up when picking a new brand or a new flavor, and it's helpful to remind myself what the good ones are and if you like them enough to buy? * Kyon looks somewhat mollified. "Just got it at your conbini. Should be easy for you to find." * Taki nods. "That's good. I wish my Dads place was this close to a train station, it takes a little getting used to the noise, but it's very convienent to have so much so close." * Kyon nods curtly. "Right. It's a good location." He sips more of his tea, and then says, "Your roommate's already out?" * Taki nods. "I bribed her with choice of menue for a week and she gets a serving of my final projects. We've got all the time we need." * Kyon nods curtly back, and snags a senbei from the snacks. "Right. So let's start with what you sent about the Jackals. And then work back." Okay. * Taki takes out her phone, jumps through the loops of Kaede's security, and opens up said email. <@Grysar> [Mikage is remaining out. Incidentally, the painting in her poster is a somewhat impressionist take on the growth of Osaka as a boomtown in the post-war period. The eyes are naturally drawn to a family in traditional garb watching as a skyscraper rises from the ruins of what had once been an upper crust traditional neighborhood. The bright lights of the new city and construction constrast with the twilight and shadows that were subject to careful brushwork.] * Kyon nods quickly. "Anything further you've heard since then?" * Taki shakes her head. "It was only three da- Did I forget to put that in the email? Yeah." * Taki nods to herself. "I did remember." * Kyon shrugs quickly. "Never know what can happen in a little time. Sometimes things can move fast." He regards her for a beat, and then asks, "Do you feel safe here?" * Taki points at her face. "I'm not worried for myself, but a tiny bit that Toshiki might try something with Mikage to motivate me to fight him. I still haven't really gotten in contact with my potential new sister about the best way to deal with him." * Kyon nods curtly. "So best to just keep an eye out. Tag along more." He smirks. "Tonight aside." * Taki nods. "Of course." Can reach out more soon. Now that we know someone's still trying this. I'll do more research. Might ask you to do some followup. Since you're here. Thank you. I'll do the best that I can. * Kyon nods curtly. "So next. That envelope with the information. You still have it?" No, I gave it to Haruko. * Kyon nods curtly. "Right. Except for the box." No? I gave her everything... maybe she burnt the box with the cover letter when I asked her to have the whole thing exorcised? She was right there when I opened it. * Kyon thins his lips. "And then they got destroyed. Which isn't great for tracking them down. Could have been evidence there." He winces a little as he reaches for his tea. * Taki looks down at her tea. "Sorry, I panicked. It just a whole bunch of 'Hahaha, you thought you'd managed to escape, so here's a whole bunch of Arcana related coincidences all at the same time to remind you.'" * Kyon nods curtly. "Could be. Could be fate reaching out." Well, hopefully fate can be bribed with food. * Kyon smirks. "Maybe it's the Fool's cousin. You can entice it with chicken." I will make it chicken such as never been seen or tasted before. * Kyon snorts, and takes another sip of his tea. "Going to follow up finding who dropped that off. Some inside information in there." * Taki nods. "I hope they can help you." * Kyon nods quickly. "Any more thoughts about who it might be?" * Taki shakes her head. "I've been avoiding thinking about the whole thing, it's part of the reason it took me so long to actually write that email." * Kyon nods curtly. "Here now, though. Good time for it." Uh, okay. * Kyon sips his tea and looks moderately patient for him. [Taki's initial list of suspects was Saori, Mikage, Hinako, Zein, Masaru, Sho, Ryo, and Meimi. There's other possibilities maybe Kazuko, though she doesn't belong at the top of the list. It's also safe to eliminate Zein (not really his style), Sho (dead), and probably Meimi (catatonic and there's been enough handling of the physical evidence at this point that we can rule out illusions).] [Closer reflection is also enough that Taki can bring to mind the contents of that initial burned letter with reasonable fidelity. http://bacon.sandwich.net/ardweden/neoarcana/other/ShimiruPackage1_Cover.html ] Hmm, wraped cardbard box with a lable with my name on it. I never asked Dad where he got it from. Inside was a letter I did read on special paper that burns strange colors, and some markers, and a couple of other pieces of paper. Haruko said there was a key, but I don't remember seeing it. * Kyon quirks an eyebrow, but otherwise doesn't look much less patient than a moment ago. The letter was "The world is dangerious for you and the people you care about, but we can help you, but we have to be sneaky because it's dangerous for us too, do this weird thing if you want to contact us." She sips her tea. "I think I was supposed to write what I wanted on the back of an Ema at a certain shrine." The list of people I know who are dramatic enough to send something like is pretty small. * Kyon nods curtly this time, and turns his teacup in his hand, and waits once more. And, half of them are dead or in coma, and the other half like to be dramatic and mysterious in other ways, but could be covering that. And since Haruko says there was actually important, usefull stuff on the other papers, I think that elminates Mikage as a suspect. * Kyon nods again. "So who are you thinking?" So, rulling out definatly probably dead people, that still leaves Saori, Hinako, Masaru, Ryo... And I guess Zein's off too given how dedicated he is to having the stakes laid out in front of whatever deal he's trying to make. I guess there's the only other person I know who's part of things, but I've got a hard time imagining Yamagata-san intentionally managing to be mysterious. * Kyon frowns. "Better to leave her in. Don't want to rule anyone out that could do it." And that's basically everybody I've ever met more than once who's either super mysterious or knows anything about Shuffle. * Kyon nods back. "Right. We can work from there. Anyone seem more likely?" * Taki looks into her tea. "Maybe Hinako trying to test me? In which case I don't think I passed, but didn't completely fail either." Right. But somewhere to start. We'll look into it more. Talk with some of the others about it after I get back. * Taki nods. [On further reflection, Taki does think that probably, the easiest way to identify the sender is to take advantage of the communication means offered. Her instinctual approach is just to reject bargains, but making them cleverly and avoiding obligations is something Kyon is good at. If identifying the sender is her top priority, she could probably work with him to figure out how to use the communications to narrow the list dramatically or even identify the person outright.] [Of course, it's possible that attempting to communicate would bring no response at all. However, were that the case, it would eliminate suspects that either didn't know that Taki had moved to Osaka or that had no reason to bother checking, in the later case, Hinako. That said, half of the list may not know who had moved...] [So that approach does have a downside. The other approach that might help is to make information exchange a two way street. Kyon has been asking a lot of questions, but he hasn't said anything about the information that Haruko said was useful and what he's discovered. He may be coaching Taki in deductive reasoning, but he's also got information that she doesn't have at hand, that may help.] Have you been able to find out what that key was for? Whatever's behind that lock might be able to tell us about who sent it. * Kyon nods back curtly. "Still working on it. Doesn't obviously link to anything, but we can do more research." * Taki deflates a bit. "That's too bad." * Kyon nods quickly. "Looking into the company that it connects to, but we haven't solved that yet." * Taki nods and drinks more tea. * Kyon taps his fingers next to his teacup. "Doesn't look like the key is a safe key, though. More like a general key for the company. So it'll make getting in easier if we need to go." Huh. Do you think it's a, oh what was the word, front company? * Kyon cocks his head to the side, and then says, "Could be. Still doing more research. Takeuchi's looking at it." * Taki nods again. "I hope he finds something useful." Right. * Kyon moves to refill her tea. * Taki refills his as well. "I've got a couple of half formed ideas, but I think they'll just stir up more trouble than they're worth." * Kyon shrugs quickly. "Just tell me. In a different place, might have different angles." Well, like, I could completly prove or eliminate Mikage if K-Takeuch went through her computer, or might get something more from Hinako if I went to talk to her again about it, but, I've got the feeling I'd wind up talking about my Jackal problem and really want that over with before I talk to her again. And following what I remember of the directions in the letter could ... It's much more than I want to deal with. * Kyon nods back, and wraps his hand around the teacup. "So we'll come back to that once we've dealt with that situation." * Taki nods sharply. * Taki then looks down into her tea. "My attempts to call Akari for advice hasn't gotten past staring at my phone and wondering where to even start." And I owe her a gift, maybe overnight a box of cookies with a note in it? * Kyon frowns. "Sure. Make something unique, you're the cook." * Taki nods. "Right." * Kyon sets his cup down on the table, and then says, "About notes. I wanted to talk with you in person to tell you to be more careful. We don't know what's happening yet, but the pattern's coming into view. And it's one where we should be keeping info closer in. Can't say what people know yet. So we can't just be giving things away." * Taki nods. "Yeah, uh, do you think Satoshi wi- actually nevermind. I shouldn't bother you with problems that are completly my responsibility." * Kyon thins his lips. "We've worked together a long time. Come through a lot. You'd prefer to just get out, I get that. Got a lot going on myself. But we're still on the same team. You talk with us before you talk with people outside the group about these things, and it'll be easier to keep it that way. And then we can help you through this more, if anything comes of it." * Taki nods. "Thank you. If you need me, I will come as quickly as I can. And I hope that someday I can earn back some of the trust I've lost. But for now I'd to get back to pretending to be a normal teenager as fast as possi... Safely as possible? Anyway if I learn something, I'll send an email to all of you." * Kyon nods quickly. "And if we can work on things from Tokyo, you tell us. We have resources. And it's better to know." * Taki tries and fails to cover her reaction that that last sentence by drinking tea. * Kyon smirks. "It'll make it so we don't lose track. But you do your school. You moved for a reason. Don't want to step on that. But we'll all do better if we have the right information." * Taki nods. * Kyon picks his cup up, drains it, and replaces it on the table. "Right. So stay on top of this." Uhm, before you go, do you have any advice for dealing with the Jackals, you've probably talked to them more than I have. * Kyon stills in his chair. "How much do you want to deal with them?" That's where I'm conflicted. If they're right about The Chemist, then somebody needs to do something and that somebody might even be me, but if I start, I'm afraid that I won't stop, and I really don't want that kind of life. * Kyon nods back. "You're here on your own. I'd set up a meeting with them and get more info. But if you don't want to deal with them, you can ask for them to give you more evidence before you get involved. Then see if they have more than just suspicions." * Taki nods and smiles. "Thanks, even just having a basic plan like that makes me feel more confident." * Kyon starts to get up, and winces as he rolls out his pitching shoulder. "Right. So what are you doing from here?" * Taki stands up and hurries to the freezer before she replies. "Getting you that ice pack, going shopping for dinner and idea of what to send Akari, writing her a note, starting class, and then trying my best to follow her and your advice on getting information and not a fight out of the Jackals?" * Taki hands the ice pack over. "Oh, and let you know if anything else that seems Arcana related happens." * Kyon nods, and presses the pack to his shoulder. "Right. Good plan." [End!]