Evening - Monday, January 17th, 2011
...blahhhh. Yeah, you're not getting anywhere with this group right now. "Okay, okay," you say, trying to look as obviously disappointed as possible. You then sigh dramatically and at length to give yourself time to brainmail Minami.
Keep looking, head for where you last saw her, Maiko and I will catch up. "I get it," you continue out loud, "you don't want to chat. I'll get to the point, if you'll hear me out?" Ugh, trying to hold two conversations simultaneously is annoying.
I-- okay, Minami says.
I can do that. Special Agent Motome, over and out.
Maiko clears her throat.
You know, that's not actually the corre--
Nuh uh, you interrupt.
Spy now, nerd later. Got their info yet?
The girl in front of you glances back at her teammates for a few moments. "Fine," she says, turning back to you. "Out with it, already."
No such luck, Maiko replies, sounding slightly peeved.
Can't see their gems from here, can't get a better angle without crossing the border. They might not notice, but...
"Okay, here is my super-official friendly guide to border-sharing." You clear your throat. "If you have a problem with me or someone from my town let me know and we can try to resolve things peacefully, otherwise if you keep to yourselves I'll return the favor, schedule permitting I am always happy to talk and thrilled to help, if you're in trouble let me know and maybe we can work something out, aaaand if you want to set up a more formal arrangement later that's also cool," you rattle off quickly.
"Fine," the other girl says. "Anything else?"
"Uh... oh, right! I'll give you my contact info since I'll usually be out of brainmail range," you say, looking around for something to write on. And write with, for that matter.
The girl standing with Chizuka furrows her brow and mouths 'brainmail' to herself, while the girl in front of you frowns. "That's not necessary."
"Hmm... got any paper or something?" you ask, pointedly ignoring her statement. She opens her mouth to reply, but before she can speak you snap your fingers. "Oh, I know. Chizuka! Can I have some metal?" You hold your hands up, gesturing to indicate the size you need.
Chizuka looks confused, but a chunk of torn steel floats over to you. You grab it out of the air, flashing her a thumbs up.
Any attempts to ask you what you're doing are cut off by the harsh creak of bending metal as you squish and squash the steel into a crude heart shape, followed by a high-pitched screech as you remove a glove and scratch your phone number into the metal using a fingernail. After finishing, you lob the metal heart with your number engraved in it back toward Chizuka, who still looks baffled and nearly forgets to 'catch' it with her magic. The girl standing with her examines it intently for a moment, then gives you a look you can't interpret.
"Feel free to get in touch any time!" you say. You'd ask for their contact information, but it's clear from her body language that the girl in front of you would refuse and the others are mostly keeping to themselves, so you decide to leave it be. You wave goodbye to the three Nerima girls, who do not respond in kind because
of course they don't.
Feeling a bit miffed and frustrated, you turn and jog back to the nearest building so you can roofhop your way to catch up with Minami. The Nerima girls stay where they are, watching silently as you leave, so you take the opportunity to brainmail Chizuka one more time.
Hey, you've seen personally that I can be reasonable. Well, reasonable-ish. Uh, or maybe kinda unreasonable in a tolerant and forgiving way? you say.
Something like that. Anyway, I mean it--if you or your team end up in a pinch, contact me! Then I will come and be benevolently unreasonable at people until things are resolved.
Uh, okay, she says.
Thanks, I guess?
No problem! you say cheerfully, then cut the connection.
Once you're out of sight of the border, Maiko swoops up from an alleyway and flies alongside as you.
So... why a heart shape? she asks idly.
Why not
a heart shape? you say.
Hearts are the official theme shape of magical girls everywhere, you know.
Oh, I get that, Maiko says.
It's just that it could also be taken as trying to flirt with her, is all.
I, uh-- b-b-wha-- no! you reply, going red in the face.
Did it really seem like that? Augh...
Hmm, Maiko replies.
You grumble to yourself as the two of you keep moving.
When you meet up with Minami a few minutes later she still hasn't managed to find any sign of the calligraphy girl, unfortunately.
"Any idea where she went?" you ask.
"Most likely home," Maiko says. "You can identify magical girls even when they're not transformed, right?"
You wave a hand slightly. "Kinda? I can recognize a Soul Gem if I see one, but if there's enough other people around it'll blend into the, uh, background haze. If that makes sense."
"Background haze?" Maiko asks, looking curious.
"Sort of? I mean, that sounds all gloomy and ugh and stuff, but it's not like that," you say. "Like, there's so much magic everywhere.
So much magic, seriously. Lots from people, small amounts from animals, even tiny amounts from some machines. Each magic source has its own..." you gesture vaguely "I dunno, feel? A sort of hard-to-describe impression I get if I look at it closely. And magic isn't blocked by walls and stuff, so I can see all the magic coming from all the things around me, and it all kinda overlaps and mixes together until I can't make out any details." You tap your chin thoughtfully. "Like, imagine being in a thick fog and in the distance are, like, thousands of multi-colored disco balls."
"...multi-colored disco balls," Maiko says dubiously.
"Yeah! And the fog is dense enough that you can't see them directly, but there's all kinds of light and colors moving everywhere, except it's not actually
colors in the literal sense," you say. "Anyway, Soul Gems are really bright so they stand out if they're close enough, but even looking across a room full of people would make it really hard to spot a Soul Gem. Like, I never noticed Shinobu at school the handful of times I looked around in class with full-power Magic-O-Vision."
Maiko seems to be lost in thought, so you and Minami share a glance, then shrug. "If she's still outside I can probably spot her," you say.
Maiko blinks, then nods. "Ah, right," she says. "Sorry. You want to keep looking, then?"
"Yeah," you say. "We took the bus out here, and if I had to put up with such a boring non-magic-y method of travel I wanna get at least
some benefit from the trip."
Maiko rolls her eyes. "Of course."
The three of you manage to cover a good chunk of Asaka Ward while looking, but in the end you can't find the mysterious calligraphy girl--the residential areas are pretty dense here, and there are just too many people around for you to reliably spot an untransformed magical girl at any sort of distance.
"This isn't working," you say. "Bah."
"The target appeared relaxed and cheerful while under surveillance," Minami says. "Making contact can likely be deferred to a future date."
"Well, yeah," you say. "I'm still miffed about the bus ride, though. I mean, it's--" You're interrupted by your phone--which you remembered to not leave in your other outfit!--buzzing three times. You pull it out to find messages from a number you don't recognize.
[please meet me tomorrow]
[the park by the JSDF base]
[its about chizuka]
You blink. Is that from the other girl you saw at the border? You have to assume so, since the girl you
attempted to talk to certainly didn't seem like she'd be interested in talking another day either. There is definitely
something going on with that group... In any case, you show your friends the messages.
"Dissension in the ranks?" Minami suggests. "Sounds like she's going behind her teammate's back to talk to you."
"I suppose it also could be a trap, but I'm not sure how or why," Maiko says. "Are you intending to meet her, as requested?"
"Maybe?" you say. "I mean, I kinda feel like I have to, after making such a big deal about wanting people to talk to me, y'know?" You shrug. "Also, it would be totally rude to reject a sudden request to meet on short notice from a strange girl from a group who may or may not have manipulated a teammate into a situation that could have gotten people killed and then stonewalled my attempts to get them to explain themselves."
"Oh, yes," Maiko deadpans. "Dreadfully rude indeed."
"I can come along as backup," Minami offers. "Unlike Agent Sakue, my existence is not classified."
"Ugh, I hate not knowing what I'm getting into," you say. "Maiko, do you have enough information that you could research the Nerima girls like you did the Itabashi group?"
Maiko drums her fingers on her thigh. "Hmm. With Chizuka's profile and having seen their costumes? Yes, but not quickly."
"How not quickly are we talking?" you ask.
"Not quickly enough to finish before certain middle-school girls should be in bed," she says. "You have school tomorrow."
You pout. "Ugh, balancing magical girl duties with regular life stuff is a pain," you grumble. "I would ask you how most girls manage it buuuut I'm pretty sure you'd just do that thing where you answer with something really sad and depressing in a tone of voice like it's the most obvious thing in the world."
Minami snickers as Maiko's face reddens slightly. "Er, yes. Most likely," she says. "...I'm not
that bad, am I?"
"Hmm. Only sometimes," you say.
"Marvelous," Maiko sighs. "That said, the fact remains that it's getting late. Shall we head back?"
Reply to the messages:
[] Accept
- [] Let her pick a time
- [] (write-in a specific time for the meeting)
[] Don't accept right now
- [] Tell her you're too busy tomorrow, but maybe another day?
- [] Don't reply at all yet
-- [] Reply tomorrow morning, after checking with Maiko for more info on the Nerima group
[] (write-in?)
For the rest of the evening:
[] Head home, do homework and then go to bed
- [] Ask Maiko to use her spookybook tonight to find info on...
-- [] The Nerima group
-- [] The calligraphy girl
-- [] (write-in?)
[] Get a quick Witch hunt or two in first
- [] Bring Maiko
- [] Bring Minami
- [] Invite someone else (write-in who)
[] (write-in?)
Tomorrow:
[] Just follow your usual routine for going to school
[] (write-in anything special to do before or during school)
FYI, I ended up rolling 1d6 for finding calligraphy girl with a 50% chance of finding her: catching her walking home on a 1 or finding her after she got home (and thus learning where she lives) on a 2 or 3. Alas, you got a 4, sorry!
I feel so betrayed...
