That's part of why I voted to have Miyako just offer. I don't think she'd passively accept Yumemi confronting Koyomi, but I do think that having that scene be a personal confrontation between old friends who ended up on opposite sides of a new divide is the better choice overall.
Bit of trivia about Yumemi is that she was originally going to have fire powers, as her two initial inspirations were Roy Mustang and Rei Hino (closer to manga Rei I guess than anime Rei). Specifically she would've had fireworks powers, due to Hanabi literally translating as 'fire flower'. this was before she had the name Yumemi obviously, hadn't settled on a name for her before that. Reason I changed her Cultivar to dreams is I felt they were a less common power that as a bonus had more room for creativity
"Did you say she freed someone of a Heart Leech?" Yumemi asked, looking down at Miyako, "If so, we can add 'performed unlicensed operation' to our report on her."
"Unlicensed? B-but thawing people's hearts is what a Hanazakari's supposed to do!" Miyako said.
"Says someone too young to have been a Hanazakari," Yumemi said, a hint of irritation denting her professionalism, before she looked Miyako in the eyes and told her, "Listen, when us Hanazakari were first anointed, we had the Dandelionhearts to oversee us. Now in their... absence, we answer to our world's authorities when we wield the great powers bestowed on us. Yet it sounds to me like Arisugawa thinks her own authority is all that matters."
Let me guess, the "licensed" removal has a price tag attached, and RUNE doesn't want any do-gooders going around reminding people that there's no actual reason they need to charge?
"There is something I should tell you about that," Asahi said, "While it's true Koyomi freed a boy from a Heart Leech, she... almost killed him in the process. Now, that was by accident, and he has recovered, but..." she looked at Miyako and saw her aghast, "you have the right to know. Nozawa-chan, I'm obligated to tell her," she whispered on the side.
...I'm not terribly certain that's an excuse, given the current vibe that she just helped RUNE with their efforts to have Arisugawa either pressganged into service or indefinitely detained at meguca Gitmo.
If the options are RUNE or nothing, RUNE is the best chance. And people who work at RUNE wouldn't be inclined to consider non-obvious possibilities. (And they might be discouraged from discussing them...)
The logic of that argument is somewhat faulty. It's entirely possible that RUNE actually is worse than nothing at all, actively collaborating with those already in power and furthering existing injustice while also stamping out anyone who tries to use supernatural means of evening the scales.
If nothing else, the fact is that our current representatives for it are a woman who apparently considers it her right to invade the mind of anyone, anywhere and a stuffed shirt openly interpreting every bit of information on Arisugawa in the worst possible light and then giving us this extremely normal, not at all Starship Troopers reminiscent line:
A duly appointed agent of Dear Leader said:
We thank you, Higashi-san, for doing your part for your town and country.
The logic of that argument is somewhat faulty. It's entirely possible that RUNE actually is worse than nothing at all, actively collaborating with those already in power and furthering existing injustice while also stamping out anyone who tries to use supernatural means of evening the scales.
But that is irrelevant to the question of whether humanity can defend itself against another alien invasion, which is the frame Yumemi puts over the discussion. And also internal thoughts about RUNE, I assume.
I'm not saying that Yumemi is right to think like that; in fact, if you read between the lines, you'll notice that I imply she's wrong. But I'm not surprised she considers it a compelling argument. There's always a bigger fish to justify RUNE's existence, and hence the things it does. Because invading dreams is somehow connected to protecting against future magical threats.
Was also worried the name 'Yumemi' would be too obvious for someone with dream powers... until I remembered how on the nose a lot of Sailor Moon's names are if you know Japanese.
the fact is that our current representatives for it are a woman who apparently considers it her right to invade the mind of anyone, anywhere and a stuffed shirt openly interpreting every bit of information on Arisugawa in the worst possible light
Slight note, I noticed you phrased it like the dream Yumemi and physical Yumemi are two different people, when they're called Yumemi in both cases. While she looks different in the dream due to Hanazakari transformation, they're the same person. Or maybe you did know that and I'm just misreading
[X] Take another route to reach Koyomi's house before her.
Miyako knew Koyomi's house was just northeast of town, and with the shrine straight east of town, she figured she could beat Yumemi there by heading straight north through the... forest. The same one she'd gotten lost in the night of Kazuya's thawing. I mean, it's daytime now, it'll be different, Miyako thought before she remembered how the trees around the shrine could block out even the midday sun. On second thought, maybe I'll just take the back alleys?
Skirting around the dusty alleys that smelled more than faintly of cat hair while Yumemi took the main street, Miyako was able to reach Koyomi's rickety shack before Yumemi could with time to spare. Not that she knew for sure how much time.
"Arisu-sensei, quick! There's this inspector coming around who says she wants to-" Miyako began, before Koyomi cut in.
"First off, 'Arisu-sensei', seriously?" she had to ask. Miyako was hesitant to admit that she tried that out because 'Arisugawa-sama' had become a bit of a mouthful.
"As for the RUNE inspection, yes, I already know," Koyomi then said, her tone going from beleaguered to sour with, "I refused to answer any of their stupid letters, so they sent my 'old friend' right into one of my own dreams to tell me. Hence why I stay a Witch, so my own power doesn't become some general's or CEO's plaything."
Hearing a Hanazakari could go inside someone's dreams was of little shock to a longtime fan like Miyako, she even wondered, Wait, would that be a Wand or Cup power? Wand I guess, Cup would be more fusing dreams or fusing dreams with real things. What was still a shock to her was how her image of RUNE had been so quickly upended. "I used to think RUNE were the good guys, the UN's own magical force, Earth's best and brightest protecting us from what invasions could come. But if that woman's so suspicious of you, even though you used to be her friend, and then went and invaded your mind... I don't know want to think anymore," she mumbled out.
Koyomi sighed and said, "Miyako, do you think if you give the most powerful people in the world even more power through a bunch of magic recruits, that it's not going to go to their heads? And wait, how did you meet Yumemi?"
"Oh, she stopped by to talk to Higashi-sama first, said she wanted another's perspective on your 'activities'. Er, her words," Miyako said, tugging her collar a little.
"What did she tell her?" Koyomi glared.
"Ah, that you saved Kazuya even if you almost killed him, that thing at The Black Goose's opening, and said she'd heard you'd had run-ins with the cops. She told me she had to, what with RUNE's authority. but c'mon, that last part with the cops can't be true," Miyako said.
"No, it is," Koyomi went and said. "Let's just say the Hinodeharu police and I am not on good terms, to put it mildly."
Then came a knock at the door, at which Koyomi pushed Miyako towards the kitchen and told her, "Quick, hide! There should be enough room in the cupboard!"
"But she was fine with me being around with Asahi," Miyako said, or tried to given the shoving.
"Yes, but she wasn't talking with me then, was she?" Koyomi said.
Inside that cupboard, Miyako's cheek pouches ballooned as she strained not to burst out coughing and give herself away; Koyomi's house needed way more dusting than the shrine did. From in there she could hear the door open, then Yumemi's voice saying, "Well Koyomi, I'm pleased to see you didn't run off before I got here like I thought for a moment you would. Though it did sound like you were talking to someone before I entered, how would you explain that?"
Koyomi picked up her laptop and went, "Had to wrap up a video call with my publisher, he should've just sent an email."
"Oh, I sympathise, Koyomi. As Brigadier at RUNE, I've suffered more than my fair share of longwinded conferences," Yumemi had to chuckle. She then said, "Well, I do trust you have nothing to hide, so let's make this a quick one, shall we? Now, I'm told you almost killed a boy when removing a Heart Leech from him without approval. What do you have to say to that?"
"...Okay, I'll give you 'almost killed him'," Koyomi said, then raised her voice, "But if I hadn't stepped in, he'd still be an emotionless Frost Pawn as we speak. His own parents kept refusing to get him help out of shame. Do you think just leaving someone like was what the Dandelionhearts would've wanted, hell, or is what RUNE should want?"
"The Dandelionhearts wouldn't have wanted you to kill the person you were there to save. Besides, you would accuse the international taskforce RUNE of inaction," Yumemi said, pleasantries starting to crack, "when you've mainly spent your time since the Frost Decade sitting in your hut by yourself writing books? It's not like I've heard about you saving many more Frost Pawns than that boy. I trust you'd know the quote 'Poetry makes nothing happen'?"
"Firstly, I'm a prose writer. Secondly, do you know the quote? That's not even the full line, you left out 'it survives'. And thirdly," Koyomi's voice kept rising, before she groaned, "Even if I'm not doing anything but writing novels, don't I have that right? I already fought the Frost Fair; I was friggin' there at Shin Sekigahara! Aren't I allowed to celebrate my victory, live the rest of my life peacefully, and not have to constantly live in fear of another monster invasion that may not ever come?"
"Really, now you shift tracks to talking about your right to inaction? And from the psychological data we've received from most Hanazakari in our Pax Verna age, chances are you're already living in fear of another invasion. After all, what this I hear of you attacking a restaurant as if it were a Frost Fair front?" Yumemi asked, then leaned in closer. "Koyomi, do you not understand the power we Hanazakari wield?"
"What? You'd accuse me of that?" Koyomi asked, already mentally bruised from that restaurant being brought up again. "I know our magic is born from our emotions, the deepest parts of our hearts. Which is why I'm not going to let any authority use them as their weapon."
"You don't understand," Yumemi seethed, then chanted, "The world sleeps, the mind wakes. Blossom, White Egret." The whole room shook as she transformed into the woman in white that had appeared in Koyomi's dream, conjuring swarms of butterflies in all colours from the world of dreams. "Would you have the leaders of the Earth turn a blind eye to our powers, Black Rose, knowing what we are capable of?" she spoke in a horde of voices pulled out of her dreams at once. "You say we fail in our duties in not saving a single Frost Pawn. I and all of RUNE say that we would fail our duties to humanity if we let all you rogue Hanazakari go unwatched. That is the danger we combat as RUNE."
"Yumemi," Koyomi muttered, not flinching for a second, "You think you scare me? I've seen you transformed a thousand times, so don't dare you think you can threaten in my own house. Henshin," she said as she transformed into the dark-clad, white-streaked form of the Starknight Black Rose. Her house promptly went from being but poorly lit to as pitch as the deepest dungeon.
All the while, Miyako was still there, hiding in the kitchen cupboard.
Article:
Her first thought was to:
[ ] Run in and plead with Koyomi to stop, they wouldn't solve anything by breaking out into a fight.
[ ] Run in and tell Yumemi that she shouldn't go after Koyomi, that this wasn't about RUNE, it was about her!
[ ] Stay put in the kitchen cupboard, it may be the best defended part of the house.
[ ] Run outside, even if it meant leaving them there to unleash whatever on each other.
[ ] Run outside and get help, from Asahi, Hayato, Reiji, anyone!
[ ] Write-in
Koyomi sighed and said, "Miyako, do you think if you give the most powerful people in the world even more power through a bunch of magic recruits, that it's not going to go to their heads?"
I wouldn't say that. "Go to their heads" implies some change in their behavior, but the lack of such change is exactly the problem here, no?
"I trust you'd know the quote 'Poetry makes nothing happen'?"
"Firstly, I'm a prose writer. Secondly, do you know the quote? That's not even the full line, you left out 'it survives'."
You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.
From a single google search and a couple minutes of reading, it sounds like that line (and that poem more broadly) was talking about poetry to contextualize the life of one (dead) poet, saying that while poetry doesn't do anything itself, it helps us cope with troubles—like the troubles facing Ireland in the early 20th century. Not capital-T Troubles, mind—those came in the late 20th century, after Yeats was gone—but the Troubles were rooted in plenty of prior troubles.
[X] Run outside and get help, from Asahi, Hayato, Reiji, anyone!
On one hand, Miyako hasn't yet seen a problem she hasn't tried to solve. On the other hand, there's no way she'd be so delusional as to expect her intervention in a Hanazakari fight to affect anything except her odds of survival.
Also, quick question. I've seen some readers call her Koyomi while others use her last name Arisugawa, and was kinda curious about that. Makes sense, given I switch between her first and last name regularly in the story depending on who's talking
Also, quick question. I've seen some readers call her Koyomi while others use her last name Arisugawa, and was kinda curious about that. Makes sense, given I switch between her first and last name regularly in the story depending on who's talking
Don't know about anyone else, but I'm not used to thinking about people on last name basis except for politicians. I'm also horrible with names in the and I heavily rely on the character sheet or mimicking other people talking. It also doesn't quite help that my mind fights over the pronunciation insisting on the impossible Ar-Is-Gu-Wa Instead of A-Ri-Su-Ga-Wa.
Putting the names backwards in the character sheet, like is done with Miku sometimes might help some for me, though I might still get confused when I see other questors talking about Koyomi and Miyako.
EDIT: forgot to vote.
This seems like a situation in which we need to get HELP!
[X] Run outside and get help, from Asahi, Hayato, Reiji, anyone!
[X] Stay put in the kitchen cupboard, it may be the best defended part of the house.
They're puffing up and threatening the other, but I don't think either of them wants to actually come to blows and destroy the place. Stay here so we can comfort (well, interrogate) her when Yumemi leaves.
[X] Stay put in the kitchen cupboard, it may be the best defended part of the house.
I do kinda want to see where this goes. Although, I feel like Reiji would have a lot to say on the topic of inaction. Probably nothing that would actually cool the situation down though.
That being said, by this point I would have expected at least someone to mention that Koyomi wanted nothing to do with the exorcism and kinda sorta had her hand forced by civillians poking the leech. That kind of context tends to be pretty important when it comes to regulations.
Also, quick question. I've seen some readers call her Koyomi while others use her last name Arisugawa, and was kinda curious about that. Makes sense, given I switch between her first and last name regularly in the story depending on who's talking
"You don't understand," Yumemi seethed, then chanted, "The world sleeps, the mind wakes. Blossom, White Egret." The whole room shook as she transformed into the woman in white that had appeared in Koyomi's dream, conjuring swarms of butterflies in all colours from the world of dreams. "Would you have the leaders of the Earth turn a blind eye to our powers, Black Rose, knowing what we are capable of?" she spoke in a horde of voices pulled out of her dreams at once. "You say we fail in our duties in not saving a single Frost Pawn. I and all of RUNE say that we would fail our duties to humanity if we let all you rogue Hanazakari go unwatched. That is the danger we combat as RUNE."
The issue is that, from what's implied, you blindly trusted the various governments of the First World to tell you what "humanity" wanted and needed. Now, you're just parroting their own logic - that your own power is self-evidently deserved and your cause is self-evidently righteous, while others' power is self-evidently threatening and their causes are self-evidently vacuous.
Rose was pointing out that unlike you and your ilk, she isn't trying to proclaim dominion over others. RUNE, on the other hand, actively inserts itself into everyone's affairs as the Christ-like avatar of all justice, and thus implicitly deserves to be held to a much higher standard than a lonely recluse.
[X] Stay put in the kitchen cupboard, it may be the best defended part of the house.
If a Hanazakari fight broke out, it actually wouldn't have been Miyako's first time being near one. She'd emptied her wallet going to Hanazakari tournaments, them having sprung up after the Frost Decade for similar reasons as they did ages ago for knights in peacetime. That and profit incentive, but acknowledging that wrecked the fantasy for Miyako, that and the tournaments were getting less and less popular with the Hanazakari all being over thirty. Of course, now the fantasy was shattered even more by Koyomi being in the line of fire somewhere tournament rules had no sway, all while Miyako wasn't even supposed to be here.
Okay, calm down. Yeah it's super tense, but they're not gonna fight, they're just trying to stare each other down, right? Miyako thought while she bit her lower lip.
It was one serious stare-down then, as Koyomi's Black Rose Cultivar encased everything in darkness, Yumemi countered by having her White Egret Cultivar begin to fill the house with sand, sand summoned from Koyomi's own dream.
"What, are you trying to bury me now?" Koyomi spat back.
"I am only trying to make you quit your insolence," Yumemi said, then surprisingly softened her tone, "Please Koyomi, remember how we fought together against the Frost Fair? I am begging you, do not make RUNE your new enemy in their absence."
"I wasn't, till you came back with your 'inspection'. Admit it, you've been making a really bad case so far for why I shouldn't," Koyomi said.
Snarling, Yumemi hissed at her, "Have it your way then." Fanged mouths then opened on the butterflies she'd conjured, and at her pointing her crescent dreamcatcher wand at Koyomi, they all shot forth to surround her.
Koyomi slashed at these butterflies the moment they were all in range of her quill-sword, though still couldn't catch a few that started biting into the sides of her face. Yanking them off as blood spilled out, she then had her darkness surround herself before she took off. As she did, she split the darkness into three shadows with her silhouette.
Having little patience to guess which shadow was the real Koyomi, Yumemi instead raised the sand in a giant heap to fall upon multiple shadows at once. She still couldn't catch the real Koyomi though, who then swung forth at Yumemi from behind, knocking her to the ground.
Bracing herself for the inevitable 'How dare you assault an officer' speech, Koyomi was surprised when that wasn't what Yumemi went for. Instead, the Hanazakari of dreams asked, "You do know this is just what the Frost Fair would've wanted, us at each other's throats? I bet if we had a time Cultivar on hand, you wouldn't have lasted a day as you are now if we sent you back to the Frost Decade."
"Oh, is that one of the ways RUNE condemns people who don't conform?" Koyomi said.
"Like you have any right to know," Yumemi hissed back as she conjured a second thing from Koyomi's last night dream, a rose that choked the Witch by growing right up through her mouth.
Not that Miyako could see any of this, only hear the escalating back and forth between the two Hanazakari. She was so tempted to break out of hiding and tell Yumemi 'Hey, Arisugawa-san would last longer time travelling back then than you ever would!' but feared that'd only make things worse. All the while the cupboard had been gradually filling up with leftover summoned sand, like she was in the bottom half of an hourglass. It was only so long before she'd have to step out anyway.
Gagging and coughing up blood from the dream rose, Koyomi played her last card by covering everything in darkness again. This may have looked futile with the dark holes covering White Egret Yumemi's own eyes, but Koyomi followed by sending all the darkness away. Yumemi gasped as the rapid influx of light made her all concentration, leaving the dream rose to evaporate from Koyomi's throat.
Koyomi then picked Yumemi up by the hem of her regalia and out of sheer fury threw her against the bookcase. What she didn't foresee was that the shockwave through the walls would also knock Miyako right out of the cupboard.
"So, you had someone else here this whole time?" the crumpled Yumemi still spoke on hearing footsteps. "And don't tell me they just snuck in without you knowing."
"You leave her out of this, everything's between you and me!" Koyomi snapped at her.
That did nothing to keep Yumemi from calling, "Show yourself, intruder! Do you realise how confidential a meeting you've eavesdropped on?"
"Miyako, run!" Koyomi called out, but still Miyako showed herself in front of Yumemi, hands raised.
"I-I just came here to tell Arisugawa-sama that you were coming that's all. I couldn't see anything within the cupboard," Miyako said shivering as Yumemi's gaze fell upon her. But then she steeled herself and told her, "And I was the one who tried to thaw Kazuya's heart in the first place, Arisugawa-sama just stepped in once things got bad! So blame me, not her!"
She didn't know if Yumemi knew it was Kazuya who'd been thawed, but figured it would've been easy for her to find out anyway.
Fully upright again, Yumemi approached Miyako and said, "Wait, I recognise you. Weren't you that shrine maiden? Yes, you were just as defensive of Koyomi back there too. Well now you're here, why don't you tell me why you hold her in such esteem? If it's originally because she let you spend a night- wait, are you a runaway?" she then asked, "Because why else would staying over one night matter so much to you?"
That question nearly shattered Miyako. At least she was twenty, and guardianship wasn't RUNE's area, so there was no way they'd send her back to her parents… was there? Rather than reply as ordered, she asked instead, "Wasn't Arisugawa-sama your friend, your teammate? 'Cause then why do you need me to tell you that she's a good person when you should know her better than I do?"
"Oh she was, all the way back in high school," Yumemi said, before she side-eyed Koyomi, "Nowadays, I was only just told that Kuramazov was her, though I'd had my suspicions. You'd be surprised how much some people change over the course of years."
"Likewise," Koyomi hissed back.
Yumemi then sighed. "I must concede, if I continue to play into Koyomi's decades-old pent-up frustrations, this inspection will get nowhere. So as a truce, I'd like to extend the two of you an invitation," she said, her tone having done a 180 and her even detransforming, "Koyomi alleges that RUNE have been doing nothing with the authority we wield. To prove to her otherwise, I would like to offer both of you a tour of one of our secret bases. Now as you are both civilians, as of now anyway, it will have to be a guided tour with an emphasis on 'guided'. But what do you say?"
Had Miyako been given this offer earlier, she would've exclaimed yes in a millisecond. Post-Frost, RUNE was the numero uno Hanazakari organisation. But after everything Yumemi had accused Koyomi of and the fight that'd broken out, she found herself hesitating. She still leaned towards 'yes' but more because she didn't want to see how Yumemi would respond if she told her 'no'.
So Miyako stood there waiting for Koyomi to answer first, which she did with, "Alright then. I doubt anything you at RUNE could show me could ever get me on your side, and after that I'd like to see how you could ever keep making excuses for them. So I'll play along."
That answer genuinely surprising Miyako, she then said, "Well, if Arisugawa-sama's okay with it and you say I can come, then yeah, guess I'll go too."
An actual smile appeared on Yumemi's face, as she said, "It's good to see you being so agreeable for once. We can fit you both in first thing tomorrow, would that suit you?" As both nodded, she even went and added, "And to show our goodwill to the public, we'll let you invite one more person of your choice. How does that sound?"
Article:
As that extra offer only got a fleeting glare out of Koyomi, Miyako took the initiative and said she'd bring along:
[ ] Kazuya.
[ ] Reiji.
[ ] Asahi.
[ ] Hayato.
[ ] Nobody, just them was fine.
[ ] Write-in
The second Yumemi was out of earshot, Miyako had to ask Koyomi, "She was really your friend, right? Then she couldn't have always been like this?"
Article:
To that Koyomi answered:
[ ] "Hate to say she never really changed. She was Little Miss Perfect back in high school too."
[ ] "No, she wasn't. I'm sure teenage Yumemi would hate seeing what her future self's become."
[ ] "She wasn't quite like this, but now I look back, there were warning signs of who she'd grow up to be." [] "I hate to admit, the Yumemi I remember would've been little like the real teenage Yumemi." [Koyomi hasn't trained her Mind to face up to this.]
[ ] "Teenage Yumemi would despise seeing what her future self's became but, there were warning signs of who she'd grow up to be." (Iris-Iven-Ibis write-in)
[ ] Write-in
[X] Write-in- "Teenage Yumemi would despise seeing what her future self's became but, there were warning signs of who she'd grow up to be."
I combined two of the options cuz I thought they would make a fun narrative when combined together also changed one of the words to emphasize the point
Edit I want to say that we should probably go for Rich Boy to bring they're more likely to Make Some Noise because instead of just being two people who are relatively disliked or just unknown will bring someone who's relatives have a lot of bunny points if we have him write something to his brother about how he's been invited to see the secret room based
Um, I feel like everyone has the right to know how an arm of the state (technically UN, but that's acting as an extension of world governments) punishes people who breaks its— (I am suddenly pushed away by a wave of sand)
She conjured a second thing from Koyomi's last night dream, a rose that choked the Witch by growing right up through her mouth.
[...]
Gagging and coughing up blood from the dream rose...
Ah, weaponized hanahaki disease!
I wonder if Yumemi's read My Che— (My head is buried in sand to protect RUNE secrets)
[X] Write-in- "Teenage Yumemi would despise seeing what her future self's became but, there were warning signs of who she'd grow up to be."
I want to bring someone, but I'm torn on who. III makes a decent argument for Kazuya (unless I've forgotten which K is which again), but Reiji could be fun too, and...Asahi, right? She'd probably have a bit more insight into how things work, by virtue of being old enough to remember anything about the Frost Decade.
[X] Reiji.
[X] "Teenage Yumemi would despise seeing what her future self's became but, there were warning signs of who she'd grow up to be." (Iris-Iven-Ibis write-in)
Hm, let's see, Reiji would definetly be the loudest fellow critic to bring along (and wouldn't that be a hilarious thing for him to bond with Koyomi over), but I'm not sure his complaints would actually carry that much weigth to the organisation.
Kazuya meanwhile is a more relevant case for RUNEs recent inaction, but he's highly unlikely to bring much up himself.
Asahi brings another layer to the social drama and not neccessarily for the better, but can't really speak with much authority on the current state of affairs.
Then there's Hayato. I suppose he'd be the most generally open minded person about all of this?
Ultimately, I think Kazuya strikes a good balance between not being too confrontational, while still poking at their shortcomings.
[X] Kazuya.
[X] "Hate to say she never really changed. She was Little Miss Perfect back in high school too."
Meanwhile, these two just strike me like there has always been bad blood between them, whether or not that means Koyomi's take is as biased as the locked out mind option implies.
Also, can I just say that there's something really fucked up about making your investigator the person that actively benefits from her targets being nightmare ridden, so she can weaponize their trauma against them? And that's on top of the whole invasion of privacy issue.
[X] "Hate to say she never really changed. She was Little Miss Perfect back in high school too."
[X] Kazuya.
This sounds shady as hell, to be honest. She went from fighting to offering this supposed tour way too fast, I'd be running the other way. Who's to say there isn't an accident while we're, uh, 'touring the secret base'. I guess the plot demands it, though, so I'm probably worrying too much?
Bringing Kazuya is a bit of a power play. Show them someone they failed. Maybe he'll show some emotion when they rag on Koyomi and Miyako for saving him? That'd be fun.
