Tuesday's Disquiet
09:00
If anyone had told Amu, a week ago, that she'd be arguing policy with the second-in-command of a paramilitary force—she'd have called them crazy, if she hadn't been too choked with laughter. If they had further claimed that said second-in-command would be taking her arguments seriously… well, she would have grown concerned for that person, and might have gone to her parents for help.
And yet, here she was. In Hotsuin's office, with him, Makoto and Fumi, doing her very best to reason out the behaviour of society from first principles, while the others picked holes in her arguments. Arguing policy and telling Hotsuin what could and couldn't be done, while her family was peacefully getting to know each other. She wanted to be there, with them.
At least she could draw some strength from Dia's presence.
Other than his age, Hotsuin shared at least one feature with Ikuto: Even when he was clearly trying to be nice, he was far too happy to see her flustered.
"Let's go over this one more time," Hotsuin said. "Your proposals are, in short: Distribute the Nicaea program to first responders and police units. Improve the Dragon Seal, and use it to create an artificial star. Kanno-san, your thoughts?"
Frankly, she'd rather have been anywhere but here. She was barely keeping up.
— — —
Ran thought breakfast was nice. It was a pity that Amu had needed to leave early, but she understood—she'd have done the same, if she'd thought it would help. But even without her, it was a little crowded with nine of them around the table. Thirteen, if you counted Uta, Yoru, Iru and Eru, which Ran did, even if they didn't take up much space.
Utau and Ikuto were not really part of the family, but Utau had a sparkle in her eyes that Ran didn't think she'd seen on her, well, ever. She'd talked it over with Miki and Su, and they were all in agreement, the two of them would be
befriended, Utau most of all
. So to that end, they'd squeezed her in between Ran and Ikuto.
Only the humans were actually eating, leaving the rest of them to unimportant chatter. Not that Ran disliked eating, but she didn't actually need to, and so, and so—
She spied, with her little eye, Miki giggling at something Yoru had whispered into her ear, then whispering back.
Ran grinned. Little Miss "Too young for a boyfriend" indeed, the two of them looked cute together. Her 'little sister' was
really tiny at the moment, having reshaped her original fairy-sized self to fit her new little sister-ish appearance, but that just meant they looked more similar to, say, Amu and Ikuto. The two of them had always gotten well along. If she'd been able to, she would have snuck up behind them and given them a shock; with Yoru preoccupied with Miki, that might actually have worked, for once.
Right now it would be like a mountain trying to sneak, and unlike Miki she couldn't do anything about it. Ran missed that, just a little.
Abandoning such somber thoughts, she turned instead to Ami-and-Uta, who were—
Blink.
"Um. Mom?" Her voice shook a little. This was a disaster—a pretty funny one, true, but it almost hurt just to look at.
"Ran-chan?" Mom turned their way, sounding a little distracted. "Oh. Oh,
Ami."
Ran snickered.
There were some sights that didn't belong in this reality. Ami with makeup, in a style that made it obvious neither she
nor Uta had any idea what they were doing, was definitely one of them. She couldn't help but giggle at the sight, collapsing into outright laughter at their outraged expression as Mom started wiping it away.
No point in asking where Uta had gotten the stuff, this had "Miki" written all over it. Almost literally, she'd caught her in the act of drawing the 'k'.
— — —
"—And we absolutely appreciate it. Kanno-san is important, more so now than ever. Losing her would have been a disaster. Having her used
against us… well, I'm sure you can imagine," Hotsuin said soothingly. It failed to mollify Amu, who'd had her arguments—gently, but firmly—dismantled, taken to pieces and used against her.
"That's exactly why you shouldn't spend your time working on the Dragon Seal. After all, I'm sure you understand the notion of comparative advantage; even if you could do a better job, it is still better for someone with narrower skills to take the job. No offence to Kanno-san, but I believe her response to an attacking demon would be to smash its head in with a laptop."
And keeping himself in control of things had nothing to do with it. Not that she could
really blame him for that, but—
"Haha, but I can see from your face that you're not fully convinced."
Amu felt her cheeks redden.
"The fact that there is no sun has not escaped me, nor the consequences of letting that go on for too long. Originally, we had stocked enough supplies for a few weeks—believing that everything would be over in one, roughly speaking—so it's a great relief to find Japan's strategic stockpiles still intact, but I understand things may take years to reach a resolution now. That means a more permanent solution will have to be found, and as we can't all conjure up food out of thin air—yes, I heard about that, and I believe your sister is becoming quite popular among the common enlisted."
She had been startled at the mention, but Hotsuin looked quite happy at the situation.
— — —
"Big sister! And… little big sister, and
big big sister! Look, look! Here!"
Su looked up from her attempt at cookies to see Ami grinning, her smile stretching from ear to ear. She was holding up a piece of paper on which she had drawn a crude house, the sun shining down on it and seven people visible in the many windows. A simple drawing, the kind any child would draw, but she'd also signed it. "Hinamori Ami." It was hard to miss, Ami was pointing right at it.
"Well…" Uta scratched the back of her neck, responding to Ran's questioning glance. "I couldn't tell her no, now could I? It's makin' her happy, that's mah' job."
"But—"
Why the sudden Kansai accent? "Wasn't that supposed to be keeping an eye on her?" she teased, to which Uta shrugged helplessly. It was to be expected, she supposed; grown-up version of Ami or not, Uta was still a kid. Not like her.
"I drew my name!" Ami explained, redundantly. "Hey, big sis—" Ami started pulling herself onto her lap, slowly until Su could boost her the rest of the way. She ruffled her hair affectionately, sticking her tongue out at Ran's jealous expression.
It was a little…
tight, that was the word. Miki's trick had worked fine, but she felt like she was a balloon that someone had blown up too far and reality was trying to crush her. It probably didn't help that she looked a few years older than Amu or Ran. Well, that was all worth it to have Ami on
her lap instead of the other way around!
(Su, who looked pretty where Ran looked cute. Who'd taken the coveted spot of eldest sibling by
cheating, and then—she remembered it fondly—had the temerity to act nice about it when Ran and Amu protested. It was her own fault, really, Ran had kept insisting on being twins.)
"Nn…" Ami brought her out of it by reaching out for the drawing, which was just a little bit too far off on the table.
"Here, let me help." Ran reached forward, about to pick it up.
"No, I've got it—" Ami's face was set in a rictus of concentration.
The drawing fluttered, crept a few millimetres, then flew into her hands as if being drawn by a magnet.
"See?" She smiled triumphantly, a few beads of sweat visible on her face.
— — —
"As to the Nicaea program, it is more a matter of safety. Your work and Kanno's has convinced me that it would not be inherently dangerous, if used correctly; however, that is the concern. We are already getting reports that summoned demons do not disappear, even if their summoner is unable to force them to heel. As I said, simply publicising the instructions would lead to more people attempting to use it, and might paradoxically make matters worse; something we cannot afford, as JPs is already stretched thin maintaining public order, though not so thin that we need to take desperate measures. However—"
Amu looked up, sharply, and even Dia seemed to perk up a little.
"It's true that we have to do something, to maintain order in the long run. Your original suggestion of passing it on to emergency services wasn't bad, they will simply need more instruction than is plausible in a booklet. Demons aren't toys, and no matter how carefully the program has been written, summoning them will never be a game—especially as any summoners will likely be exposed to demons that have escaped its constraints as well." Hotsuin nodded thoughtfully.
"We will begin aggressively recruiting from those services, at a pace that still allows institutional understanding to be maintained. Perhaps, later, we can try it your way, using those recruits as a core."
She reluctantly nodded. He wasn't
wrong.
"Which brings me to my last point, namely you." He smiled. "I understand wanting to help. Your heart is in the right place, and you've already done a great deal—for Japan, and for everyone still living. As such…" Distractedly he rummaged inside his desk, finally taking out a personnel file. "Mm, here we are. Takeba Yukari and Lieutenant Kato Shinji; I believe you already know the latter, but the former is someone who… well, has brought herself to my attention, shall we say. Her file should be interesting reading. In particular, one name. Nyarlathotep."
He was all business now.
"I must warn you to be exceedingly careful, but anything it would willingly offer you is not something we can ignore. I believe Takeba-san would be extremely useful to you, if you're visiting a shrine associated with it, and she asked me specifically to keep her informed. In addition… although it's somewhat irregular, I want to assign Lt. Kato as your permanent aide. You're not an official member of JPs, so I can't make it an order, but he's a good man and a strong combatant. Of course, you can bring anyone else you like… Just don't make it a family outing!"
He tried to make a joke out of it, but it fell somewhat flat, as Amu was already leafing through the personnel file. Takeba Yukari, twenty years old. Not officially affiliated with any organisation, but a prominent information broker in the occult underworld—Amu knew she had to get a better overview of that someday, and she glanced gratefully at Hotsuin—but most of the file was devoted to a single year, regarding something called Nyx—
—She'd done
what?
[ ] Head off to Narukoten Shrine (2 hours, minimum)
- [ ] Bringing Takeba
- [ ] Io Nitta
- [ ] Lt. Kato
- [ ] Someone else. While you don't have a four-character party limit, try to keep it sane.
[ ] Do something else
A/N: I don't know what you were expecting. Also, anyone you don't decide to order around will do their own thing. Anyone you do… well, Ikuto will follow orders if and only if they involve protecting Amu and/or Utau, while Maya is… Maya. Um, I guess you don't have a lot of reliable people who aren't, in some sense, Amu.
<Maya> "Narukoten shrine? Never heard of it. I could tell you about Russia—" Her voice goes frosty. "I could tell you quite a bit about Russia."
As to Yukari, you can assume her file has roughly the same information as in
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Yukari_Takeba, only with less personal information. Plus a large blurb on the overall plot.
