@Echo, it's a little weird that we're deciding how to approach the meeting before getting briefed on what it's about if Maiko thinks she knows; "I'm sorry but she's not into girls, don't give her more metal hearts with your phone number" obviously demands a different attitude from "we can't keep Chizuka alive, please take her and care for her" which demands a still different attitude from "we're all going to bloody battle soon and Chizuka is our most aggressive fighter, please fight on our side in a war to save her since you clearly like her". Is there some reason we can't get that information over the next thirty seconds in-character and
then decide on our social ploys?
Assuming that's impossible...
If Maiko thinks she knows what this is about and knows everything listed, I'm not inclined to play guessing games with what information is most important. She knows politics and what we're trying to achieve here; just ask her to tell us what's most relevant and she can make that call.
Our overall objectives are to 1) fend off hostility and 2) poach likely recruits. Our attitude during our previous meeting with the Nerima crew was to be cheerful and friendly- aggressively so- but in a way that displayed uncompromising strength to the best of our ability to do so. That was a fairly well-chosen attitude and it's usually best for diplomatic relations in general to remain consistent- people love consistency in their neighbors because unpredictability means they might attack.
Of the default options, "flair and force" seems the most aligned with the general principle of "keep attitude consistent". The others don't really fit; I don't think we want to ever make a habit of coming to meetings in our vulnerable untransformed form and we were being serious rather than hamming it up last time; we might communicate a desire for love and justice by giving out metal hearts with our phone number and demanding that they not smash buildings or hurt civilians, but we let our actions speak of our dedication instead of playing to cliches. That's the right move for someone demanding respect from veterans; anyone who doesn't visibly have steel in their character is easily brushed off as a naive girl likely to witch out before long.
It's not a good idea to go places completely alone, so we need to bring at least one person. When considering our backup options, please remember that Minami's time is not currently unallocated:
"Oh yeah, I meant to ask," Minami says a bit later. "Any immediate assignments for me, commander?"
"Hm. You should continue investigating the persons of interest located in Yoshikawa and Kawaguchi wards. If possible, establish and confirm their identities and then engage Class 2 surveillance protocols," you say. "Uh, that means use your magic spy satellite."
Minami grins. "I see. Invisible spy-sat, got it."
"If you can find their names tonight and can spy on them from your apartment or at school that'd be convenient," you say.
"Oh. I'm... not sure if my spy satellite can reach that far, now that you mention it," Minami says.
"If you can't, then we'll look into it tomorrow, I guess? ...ugh, tomorrow this, tomorrow that. We have so much stuff to do," you grumble. "So much, Maiko. Like, imagine lots of stuff and that's almost as much as we have to do, except with more stuff on top of that. So much stuff, like, wow."
We haven't had word of successful investigation from Minami yet, so it's a fairly safe bet that she hasn't looked in on those two girls and confirmed their identities and magical girl status. If we bring her with us then that investigation will simply not get done, which leaves it on our to-do list. We can't afford to let them keep not getting investigated, so Minami being part of this meeting is out. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with her later in the evening when we're done with our meeting and she's done with her investigation so that we can introduce her to Team Rio.
Maiko is a good choice for backup because she's always a good choice for doing almost anything and she can feed us the information that we didn't get on the way during our conversation, should it be relevant. That said, she doesn't need to be our
only backup.
I'm thinking that if Koharu isn't otherwise occupied (pretty sure she's ungrounded by now) and has an interest in participating, we call her in. Koharu's house and school are generally between Yui's school and the southern border (see
map) so she's fairly conveniently positioned unless I've misunderstood the meeting location; additionally, we need to start working with her where possible so that she feels like we're more of a team instead of a remote figure giving orders. She's currently working closely with Himari, who is a morale case (in that she doesn't actually support our leadership or think well of us, she just supports Maiko who supports us), and if Koharu spends a lot of time with Himari and very little with us she's likely to start picking up anti-Yui opinions. We can't afford that and demonstrating our leadership and compassion in a diplomatic setting probably won't hurt.
Of course, depending upon what the girl calling us wants, her presence may not be appropriate. It has some risks as well- we can't control Koharu and don't know what she'll do; we might end up needing Maiko to actively run interference with Himari instead of supporting us if Himari shows up alongside her; Koharu's wish was all about paying attention to her and she might not be happy to play second fiddle and let us take the lead. While I think it's on balance worth a shot, I'm interested in hearing others' opinions on the matter.
So my vote looks something like this for now, though it may change if more information becomes available:
[x] Have Maiko start with whatever she believes is the most relevant to the upcoming meeting. She should have a handle on what information best supports your objectives.
[x] Ask Maiko to tag along at a distance, like usual.
[x] Ask Koharu if she has an interest in accompanying you (openly) to a hopefully-rewarding diplomatic meeting.
[x] With flair and force--try not to threaten her directly, but present yourself as the combat powerhouse you are.
