WHO: Kaname Chidori, Meiya Mitsurugi, and Macua Huitl, with a phone appearance by Kazuma Ardygun.
WHAT: Studying, girl talk!
WHEN: June 2nd, after school.
MISSION: Pass the Classical Japanese Literature class.
WATCH OUT FOR: References to very old Japanese texts.

Kaname's apartment, before the big Japanese Literature Test.

Meiya steps into the apartment after Kaname, holding a copy of Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of th eFive Rings. "it won't be that bad, it's only the first two chapters." yeah she can say that because she's read th whole book back to front several times already.


Kaname groans. "Have you read it yet? It's like you have to translate it from antiquiated Japanese to /normal/ Japanese to even have a remedial understanding of it!"

She sighs, then drops her bag next to her chair at the dining room table; while she'll sometimes work on her homework in her own room, this place has become the unofficial headquarters for Jindai High School study sessions.

"You want something to drink?"


It's even worse when your a non native Japanese speaker. Such as the green haired girl from Neo Brazil. It seems their Gundam fighter is much happier here in Jindai. She's carrying several things with her, a shopping bag full of food so she's not leaching off Kaname.

She then knocks on the door!


"Yes, please." Meiya responds to the offer first. "nd, I uh, have read it."

"A few times." She stops and turns back towards the door "I'll see who it is." she opens the door. "Ah, Macua. Hello." she steps out of the way to let her inside.


Kaname blinks. "A few times?" She'd only managed to get through it once--and that was only the chapters assigned for this exam. Meiya must have a steel will to be able to get through /that/ thing.

Kaname pulls a soda out of the fridge for her and Meiya--and grabs a third when she hears Meiya say Macua's name from the hallway.

"All done with work, then?" she calls to Macua as she sets the drinks down on the table.


Macua Huitl gives Meiya a smile and says "Hey Meiya thanks." She's seemingly glad to not be alone today as she enters into the apartment. Macua pauses at Kaname's words and seems to dampen a bit. "Ya...work's done." It was still a failure in her view, not that she's going to talk easily further on it.

"Man, I have issues with modern Japanese. I can get by but with something this old my head's going to explode."



"Uhm, well. It's one of my favorites." Meiya says. Wait, that monster is one of her /favorites/?

"Well, I guess I'll have to help you two." she moves to sit at the table and puts her bag down, taking out more of her study materials.


"Well, I'm glad someone in our class understands it!"

Kaname sits down and pulls out her copy of the book, along with the notes she took on the assigned chapters while she was reading, and then opens her soda.

"The first sections's The Book of Earth, right? I know this book's supposed to be about military strategy, but why this random tangent on house-building?"


Macua Huitl pauses at this point "Because you may need to house your army? But that's just a guess there." She admits,, as she finds a spot to sit down and the bag's full of snack food, several brands that are not from Japan. She raided the bar/lounge on the Freedan before coming here. She did have the sense to leave Juku's candy alone or face her friend's wrath.


Meiya seems pleased that Kaname actually asked that. "Ah, well thats part of Miyamoto Musashi's philosophy." she takes out her own notes, since the teach implied translating the archaic to the modern.

"Miyamoto belived it was important for warriors and strategists to understand other occupations. To learn to apply the concepts of strategy to something new, and by doing that you can master almost anything. Like how he taught himself painting."


Kaname expression is simutaneously surprised and impressed. "Wow, you really know your stuff, Meiya!" She scribbles down a few notes appreciatively.

"This actually sounds like something Sousuke'd like," she remarks, thumbing through a few pages. Did he even do the readings?


Macua Huitl thinks for a moment. "You mean so they can live a life when they are not fighting and not be looking for their next fight? As that's all they know how to do?" Kinda made her think of herself. "You know Mr. Army would likely enjoy it."


"Sort of, Macua." Meiya nods a little "Miyamoto belived the same basic principles could be applied to anything, battle, house building, painting, writing. It wasn't a book just for sword fighters, a lot of bussiness men read and follow it's principles."

"Sousuke does seem a little... enthusiastic about that sort of thing." she can't possibly imagine why.


Macua Huitl cough. "His antics I think would let anyone at our school pass explosives handling in basic training." IT's ment as a joke but it could very well be true. "I guess that makes sense. Question are there any good engineering schools in Tokyo?"


"Yeah," she chimes in, "Shinji, too. Though to be honest with you, he's more of a fan of ASes than anything else."

And then Macua issues her inquiry. "Engineering schools? Well, there /is/ Tokyo University," she says, frowning. "The entrance exams there are supposed to be pretty tough, though."


Macua Huitl says, "They don't have a parical exam do they? Where they throw a wreck at you?" Maybe she is considering further education? Who knows. "Humm I might look elsewhere though I think programs that put you out in the field to learn are better than say ones that have you knee deep in texts.


"I was thinking of Toudai, too," she says, using the casual term for the university. "As for a major... I'm really not sure, to be honest with you. There's not really anything in particular I want to do with my life, except just live normally."


"It'd be nice if we could all go together." Meiya muses, and scribbles down some more notes - even she has to double check some of the proper translations. "Is there anyone else you'd want to go with?"


Macua Huitl says, "I'm honestly still considering taking an apprentice slot on the ship I'm working on. The pay's better than a lot of things. I guess I like actually doing stuff." She leans back and closes her eyes for a moment. " Also Macua's wearing an odd little silver locket, that is pretty new shes not had that before.

"But really Im not sure what I want to do."


"I'm not so sure Sousuke's going to college," Kaname says, resting her face in an open palm; the expression on her face is clearly dissatisfactory. She glances over at Macua, catching sight of the locket dangling from her neck.

"Is that a gift from your boyfriend?" she asks, pointing at the necklace.



"Have you tried talking to him about it?" Meiya asks Kaname. Seh then blinks as the necklace is pointed out and turns to look at it on Macua.


Macua Huitl huhs and nearly blurts out where she actually got the pendat. "Err no it's something I lost a long time ago that I just found." She's not going to go into the wheres or hows unless she really gets pressed. Yes she robbed her own grave for it, explain that one. "You could try talking to Sagara you know. Meiya's right some times it take prodding to get someone to consider further schooling. Look what it took with me."


"Well, no, but..." Kaname frowns, then lets out a small sigh. It's difficult to talk about these things, not only because of her professional relationship with Sousuke, but also because of her personal. Kaname wanted the boy soldier to follow her to college, but lately...


Meiya looks between the two of her friends, and for once feels like she isn't the one thats doing the holding back here. She looks at Kaname, a little worried "Is there something wrong, Kaname?"


Macua Huitl says "What's wrong?" She looks at her friend seemingly worried about Kaname. She knows there's something up with Sagara and Kaname. She's not sure if it's Romance anymore but there is /something/ You don't need to be a newtype to figure that out.


"What? N-no!" Kaname says, raising her hands in surrender. "With Sousuke's class average, I'm not sure he's going to graduate high school, let alone get into college!"


Meiya leans forward, chin proped up in her hand "Oh?" she's looking at Kaname suspiciously. "Worried about Sousuke?"


Macua Huitl says "Well we might have to drag him to a crash study sesson! Also I need to drag my boyfriend's sorry behind to school too...."


"Don't be ridiculous! Why would I be worried about that military maniac?" Kaname lets out a laugh, the same laugh she lets out whenever they've stumbled across a subject she doesn't particularly feel like talking about.


Meiya smiles knowingly "If you say so, Kaname." she goes back to her books. "Though I have a question, if we both went to Toudai, would you want to be roomates?" Meiya could pretty easily afford a place near campus without being a student dormitory.


Macua Huitl looks to the pair for a moment. "All right, we'll leave you be on it for now." She looks to them for a moment and says. "I could be up for that if I did find something that caught my interest." She says half grinning. "You two don't have anything against Haros? I hope?"


"Yeah, of course! Well, if it's okay that Jingle comes, too." Jingle being her pet hamster.

She'd never considered a roommate before, but now that Meiya mentioned it, it would be kind of fun to live out the full college experience. Besides, as much as Kaname hated to admit it, it did get kind of lonely in her apartment by herself sometimes.


Macua Huitl says "I don't mind it beats being alone or bunking on the savlage ship." It's not a sausage fest on the freedan it's just there's only one other girl around Macua's age and she's terrfied of Zako. Also she's off making a movie, she'll need to beg her friend for just a background extra shot somehow. "So, we'll have to scout out a place maybe an aparent me near capus. I don't want to get too harassed if I lived on campous as well a forigner...it would be asking for trouble I think."


"It's settled, then!" Kaname exclaims. "Operation Get In Toudai is officially underway!"


Meiya nods firmly "Mh! We'll all get into Toudai together." she smiles and closes up her books...

Wait, shes /done/? Geeze she really must know that book well.


Macua Huitl says "Allk right I just hope I find something I'm going to want to do there." She pauses looking at Meiya "Wait you are DONE?! Already?!


"Well, I /guess/ we can take a little break," Kaname supposes. The test's not until Monday, anyway. And besides, it's not any day that she has her friend's stay over; she'd been wary of sleepovers since her last failed slumber party.

"So, what do you guys want to do?"


Macua Huitl pauses at this question she's not sure what to say her her social habits have been learned from Garrod, Roybe, Witz and some of the bridge crew. She's not had good role models for that. "I'm not sure what do you want to do?"


Meiya hmmns "Well I've read this book a lot..." she thinks as Kaname asks what to do, "Well, I don't know... The only time I was over was uhm... The last big sleepover." that went a little crazy.

Meiya actually looks a little shy for a moment, that kind of unsual for her, probably because she's struggling to say something to do.


Is Meiya embarrassed? Well, it's Kaname's duty to decide what the three of them can do, then!

"Well, we can watch a movie, or maybe..." A devious expression crosses Kaname's face. "You guys ever play Truth or Dare?"

It's a game that she and Kyoko, Mizuki, and Ren used to play on the annual class trip--well, the class trip /before/ the entire class was held hostage by terrorists.

"But, if you guys aren't into that, I /think/ there's a Stallone movie marathon airing tonight."


Macua Huitl Says, "A what who?" She's got no idea who that is at this point. She pauses pondering old movies from before the space age. "Or what about a game of truth or dare like you suggested? That would be fun!"


"Truth or Dare?" Meiya asks, she's never played it before, because uhh... yeah. "I've never played."


Kaname's not surprised that Meiya hasn't played; she didn't exactly seem like the truth or dare playing type.

"All right, watch and learn! Macua," she says, turning to face her tealhaired friend. "Truth or dare?"


Macua Huitl looks to her friend and doesn't seem to cower at the questio. "Dare, do your worse."


"All right," Kaname says, clapping her hands together. "Convince your boyfriend to come to Jindai for a day! Use any means necessary!"


Somewhere over Europe, Kazuma Ardygun abruptly sneezes, and the Valhawk wobbles a bit in flight.


Macua Huitl pauses at this dare. "All right I'll do it." She pulls out her cell phone and places a call to Kazuma. The moment she picks up she'll be speaking in a slightly sultry voice. "Oh Kazuma...."


On the phone (so probably only Macua can hear it):
Kazuma: ".... uh, hi, Macua. What's up?"


Macua Huitl says, "I need you to do something. You really should stop dancing around the school and enrole at Jindai for just a week. You need to go to normal school just once." She's still in that tone, also she's little miss run away experiment and she's saying that Kazuma needs some normalacy in his life.

Meiya blinks, looking between Kaname and Macua in their exchange. She then looks kind of suprised at Macua's tone of voice. "Is...this..uh...normal for this game?"


"Well, kind of," Kaname says, smiling. "Things /usually/ get a little more wild than this, though."


Meiya just blushes.



Kazuma: "You keep telling me that, but stuff keeps coming up ... work is a Trailer's life, ya know."

*pause*

Kazuma: "... why do you bring it up now?"


Macua Huitl says, in the same tone for a moment. "Yes I know, but if you don't get a taste of how other lives you'll be missing out. If I can balance my job and school. I think you can manage for week hummm?"


Kazuma: "I'll talk to Pops, see if the Valhawk can do without me for a week."


Macua Huitl keeps talking into the phone. "You know I still need some help with my martial arts you know. I could really use a hand and I know you been pestering me about it." Wait wouldn't that also mean helping her with trace suit calibrations. "You do this I will let you help.


Kazuma: "......."

Mihiro, in the background: ".... oniichan? Is something wrong with the life-support? Are you okay?"

Kazuma, muffledly: "'M okay, Mihiro ..."


Meiya looks over to Kaname, she didn't understand that last line from Macua.


Meiya's questioning gaze is met with a quizzical expression from Kaname; she doesn't seem to know anything, either.


Macua Huitl says "See you later Kazuma, I'll be over for dinner with your family like I promised and say hi to your sisters for me." The tone's been dropped own as she'll hang up after any last words Kazuma says. She looks to her friends who seem confused and she just grins.

She's not going to ahem bring up a Mobile G fighter infront of Meiya, right? Now if Meiya ever did follow the gundam fight she'd have a good chance to sniff out at least Macua's Neo Brazil's Gundam Fighter. Also the mysteirous hell GM that the EFA's run into may be her's as well. But that's for another time as Macua speaks. "All right Meiya? Truth or Dare?"


"Truth!" Meiya answers a little too quickly, she doesn't want to have to do something like that!


Macua Huitl is just asking an innocent truth, she's got no idea about the horrible reality behind what she's about to ask. "Have you ever used an actual sword rather than a Kendo stick or own any real swords?"


Meiya pauses, she swallows almost imperceptably. "Yes." she answers, compelled to the truth. "I...own two swords, one was my passed down on my mother's side, the other was a gift." She does not say if she used them on anyone.

Anyone like a mutineer on board the TDD-1.


Macua Huitl seems to pauses for a moment like something's touched her and she's getting a very strong feeling of regret she seems a bit a sad about the question. She'd not ment to hit a nerv. "All right, it's your turn to ask one of us a truth or a dare."


Meiya snaps out of it, pushing the memory to the back of her head. It's okay, neither of them knew about it, it was an innocent question, not one to dwell on. "Alright." She considers for a moment.

"Kaname... Truth or Dare?"


"Truth." No way she's going to end up on the balcony in her pajamas like last time!



Meiya tilts her head a little as she tries to think of something to ask. She thinks back to the conversation, just after te incident on the TDD-1.

"Is there someone you like?"


Kaname's face contorts into an expression of surprise. The question seems to have completely caught her off-guard. But just as quickly, a blush draws itself across her cheeks, and she sets her gaze on the canne ddrink sitting before her.

There's a moment of uncomfortable silence, and then, "So what if I like someone?!"


Meiya blinks a little, she wasn't expecting that reaction. She holds up her hands defensively "I didn't say you had to say who it was." She knows her friend isn't going to say anyways.

"Uhm, I guess I'm kind of bad at this game."

Kaname lets out a soft sigh; she didn't mean to upset her friend.

"The guy I like... probably isn't interested in me at all," she says, by way of apology.


"Oh." Meiya says softly, no longer so keen on trying to find out the deepths of how much Kaname likes who she suspects she likes.

"Well it's your turn, Kaname." wow she hopes this starts going better.


Macua Huitl winces "I know how that is, I'm sorry." She peers at Kaname and humms thinking things over. "Meiya? Kaname? Have you ever seen Earth from orbit? My boy friend's dad runs a cargo business and does colony runs...."


"The furthest I've been from Japan is America," Kaname replies.

"All right, Meiya! Truth or dare?"


Meiya takes a deep breath and lets it out, smiling a little "Truth."


"Hmmm..." Kaname raises a hand to her face, pressing it against her face thoughtfully; her eyes lit up with sudden realization, and then: "All right! What sort of guy do you like?"


Macua Huitl is curious about this.


"Wh-hat sort do I like?" Meiya blushes, and does that thing again, where she takes both ends of her hair ribbon in both hands and starts worrying them in her hands. "W-well." she thinks.

"Some one who... is nice, poliet but... not afraid to get to know me. A man that....mmn." She isn't even sure how to say this.

"Someone that isn't intimidated by me, but is faithful."


Kaname nods sagely; she should have anticipated this, coming from Meiya. A sturdy, reliable, trustworthy type is what she'd have to keep an eye out for.


Meiya is glad that's over, at least it wasn't 'do you have any crushes'. "Alright, Macua. Truth or Dare?"


Macua Huitl laughs a little bit. "I kinda have that effect on Kazuma." She admits. "He's a good guy though." He had the sense to not take it fast. She pauses "Truth."


Meiya hmmns, she tilts her head to the side.

"Are you really the Gundam Fighter for Neo-Brazil?"


Are you Neo Brazils Gundam Fighter? Now theres a loaded question, Macua looks at Meiya about to answer and says, "Wait what?" Thats when she falls out of her chair flailing her arms and land smack face first on the floor.

This buys Macua some time but, how can she lie about this. All it would take is aquick log on to the net to confirm she is but how does she tell her friends the truth. Kaname knows but darn it Meiyas going to know too.

She seems to go quiet and says quietly.

"Yes I am Neo Brazils Gundam fighter."

Which opens up another crate of ammo. Given where her hell GMs been seen pre Gundam fight.


Meiya blinks as Macua falls out of her seat. She stands up "Macua... " she looks concerned at her friend "I know you probably didn't want people making a big deal out of it, I'm sorry."


"H-hey," Kaname manages to get out, her hands raised in surrender. "It's not like it really matters! I mean, there's other pilots at our school, y'know?"


Meiya blinks at Kaname "Other...pilots?" pilots, pllurrel?


Kaname didn't mean to let that slip out! "I mean, there's two of you, right?" There's a nervous edge in her voice; she didn't think that they knew about Duo, and they certainly didn't know about Sousuke, either.


'there's two of you' Meiya eeps at those words, holding up her hands and shaking her head back and forth at Kaname. Aparently Macua doesn't know.


Kaname hasn't forgotten that Macua doesn't know yet, but unfortunately, just the thought of this particular food is enough to contort Kaname's cheerful expression into a surly frown.

"At least not /all/ pilots are jerks!"


Macua Huitl is trying to figure out, there are more pilots at the school? Wait what? She knew about duo but was Kaname referring to him? She recalls the most bizzar absence Kaname had around the time of the fall of the Orb Union.


And now that Kaname is on the subject, she can't seem to get off of it.

"He's such an idiot, you know that?! I was just trying to help him, and then he just goes off the deep end! What's up with that?! If he doesn't want to pilot, it's not like anyone's /pointing a gun at his head/ and /forcing him to/! All he does it make excuses!"


Oh God, this situation needs salvaging. Some how. Then Kaname goes on a rant and Meiya just blinks at her.

"Who...are you talking about?"


"Johnny!"



Meiya blinks, looks perplexed for a second.

"Johnny... Domino?!"


Kaname doesn't give an indication either way, but given that she doesn't correct her friend, she's probably right on the money!

"You know, and I was really beginning to think that the two of us could become friends!"


Macua Huitl :pauses looking at Meiya and well she's kind of bowled over mentally. Darn it she had nothing against old types but did they know how loud their emotions were? It's like getting run over by a swarm of psycho haros some days. "Wait you know Johnny. Wait what happened with him?" Why does she know that name from before, if she could only connect Johnny as the man who fired freaky mutant beers at her.



Meiya blinks again. "You...Kow him?" She knows Kaname's ranting is nigh impossible to stop, but this is sort of a weird coincidence.

"I mean, outside of class?" She thinks, wait a minute, the pony tailed guy that shows up once in a while "I mean, he only shows up once in a while! Right?" She leans forward ont he table with one hand.

"And, he doesn't look like he's paying attention or really doing anything and sort of a slacker, right?!"


Kaname folds her arms over her chest, and nods firmly. "The teachers decided they'd make /me/ tutor him, since his average was bringing the /entire class/ down!"


Macua Huitl nods in agreement on that. "His average was worse than Sagaras?!" She seems very distracted at that.

Meiya sighs, she's saved. Johnny Domino is the 'other pilot'... then she blinks. "Wait, they made you his /tutor/?"

Macua Huitl looks at the pair for a moment and humms. "It could be worse for a moment wait another pilot? There's another around aside from Johnny." She'll not bring up Cag, who has enough issues but she knows there's at least one more pilot. "Well I hope my average and Sagara's isn't..."


"Yeah, and because I'm class rep, it's my responsibility to help the teachers /and/ students whenever they need it." Kaname sighs. "He's got the worst average in the /class/, and there's no reason for it! It's like he doesn't even want to put out the effort, and when someone calls him out on it, he starts getting /angry/!"


Meiya is actually starting to pay attention now. "Really?" All she really know of Johnny is his prank war with Excellen some time ago. "Does he really have that many problems?"


Macua Huitl Says "Wait a moment he was also in the Gundam Fight for the Neo Bahamas colony. He'd got a bad rep going after younger female fighters almost all the time. Hell it got some of the Big five pissed off at him to the point Chibodee himself smacked sense into him. But I thought he'd got over that. Its really strange." She lands back. "Sorry about that Meiya, I just you know didn't want to bring many people trouble or get swarmed. Its not like I could go to school easily on the colony at this point. I did place 18th over all thats still counting for something. "


"Well, yeah! It's like..." She makes a small, discouraged noise, as if struggling to find the proper words. "It's like... he doesn't /want/ to make himself happy."


Meiya frowns more deeply, but moves over to Kaname "It's alright Kaname, it's not your fault. Johnny probably just needs a little while to see a different point of view."


"Maybe." Kaname doesn't look completely convinced. Especially after the way their /last/ conversation ended.

Thankfully, Macua's snacks shift the conversation elsewhere, and Kaname grabs a bag of skittles from the pile. "I haven't had these since I last saw my dad and Ayame."


Meiya picks up a bag of m&ms, being rather unfamiler with american sweets. "What are these like?"


Kaname examines the packaging. "M&M's? Well, those are pretty good. I like the peanut ones better, though!"


Macua Huitl sasys "Candy coated chocholate the others have peanut butter or peanuts insdie them." She scoops up bag of pork rinds and pauses. "DAMN IT WITZ! I told you to stop getting this slop." She sighs and will yell at the american farmer turned merc later. "Sorry a friend raided my snacks and while he replaced them he ahem picked what he likes." She goes back to digging for something. "Ah ha! Rockets!"


Meiya open the packet, it's regular chocolate kind. She tries one, chewing on it carefully at first "Mmh, these are good... Seems like a lot of sugar though."


Macua Huitl says "Ofcouse they are made of sugar. Most American candy is." She chomps down on some more of the rockets. "These things are pretty much sugar."


"You know, When I was younger before I moved to America," Kaname says, "I used to eat star candy all the time. My mom always told me that the star candies were just like real stars, and so every time I ate them, I ended up making a /ton/ of wishes."


"Really?" Meiya asks "That sounds nice." she smiles.


Macua Huitl just goes quiet at the talk of mothers and such.


"Yeah, that was a long time ago, though," Kaname says, a little sadly. "Mom's gone now, and I don't really eat star candy at all, anymore."


Meiya ohs. She looks down at her M&Ms "Sorry..." she thinks for a while "...My mother's gone too." she says, kind of suddenly.


Macua Huitl is still deathly quiet and munching on the sugary rockets.


"It's nothing to be sorry about," Kaname insists. "There wasn't anything they could really do." She leaves it at that.

"You know, it is sort of strange. Almost everyone else at Jindai High lives a perfectly normal life with a /perfectly/ normal family. Well, except for Sousuke, anyway. And out of all the people we could have been friends with at school, the three of /us/ ended up together. Imagine that!"


Meiya hmms "I guess we just... saw something in each other?" she notices Macua has been quiet for a while and looks over at her "Macua?" she prompts.



The sound of a knock at the door is rather abrupt.

If whoever answers ends up peeking through the peephole, they'll find /Samson J. Drake/ standing there -- which is actually just Cecil, the kid from before, and not Samson. His hair is a little messier than usual, but he's still impeccably dressed. He's holding some kind of box wrapped in a white cloth and staring toward the side idly.


A knock at the door interrupts the conversation. Kaname is perplexed; Macua, she was expecting, but there wasn't anyone else that had said they'd drop by.

Kaname slides her chair back, and stands up. "I'll be right back!"

The door is opened, and standing there is Cecil Ciele, his hair a little worse for wear since the last time she saw him.

"Hi, Cecil," she says, leaning slightly down to his height. "Did you need something?"


Macua Huitl still munching on rockets, actually she's tossing them up in air. With her eyes close she just seems to know where each candy is falling. It's actually a thing she does to practice using her abilities.


Cecil looks up a little -- gesturing, he holds up the box and then glances around the girl. Hmm, looks like she has a couple of guests. It looks ... homely, too. He concentrates on Kaname again, though it's clear that he's a little worn. "I found this outside my door. I figured it was yours."


Meiya looks around Kaname as she answers the door, "Oh, Cecil. Hello." She didn't expect to see him again so soon. "How are you?"


Oh? I can't say I was expecting anything." But there on the package is a label, address to Miss Kaname Chidori of Apartment 2-D.

She turns it over. "Weird, there's no return address." She frowns.

"You want to come in Cecil? We're actually eating American candy."


" Cecil blinks -- a couple of times, allowing himself to be relieved of the package. His arms drop to his sides, then slide into his pockets. "I suppose so."

It's not like his sweet tooth can resist.


Macua Huitl gets the last of the rockets and gets up. "Hey whose there?" Cecil she doesn't know and she's not heard his voice on the radio enought. "Hi there. Cecil was it?" She seems friendly enough. "Humm a package?" If Sagara was there it would likely get exploded, good things he's not.


Kaname tucks the package under her arm and leads him to the dining room, where everyone's still sitting. "You already met Meiya," she says, placing the package on the counter in the kitchen. "And this is Macua. She goes to Jindai High with Meiya and me."

Kaname walks to the fridge, pulls out a soda, and then deposits in front of the unoccupied chair at the table.


"Macua," Cecil says calmly, stepping into the apartment as he's invited in. He wanders, looking around until he comes to the dining area. "That's a name I've never heard."

He glances at the can -- figuring that's a sign he should sit there, the boy takes a seat. For an 8th grader, he's pretty adult ...


Macua Huitl nods to the young man, and now goes looking for more candy. Also she gets the bag of random candy packages. She offers it to Cecil to let him take his pick of the various sugar filled things within.


Kaname wanders back into the kitchen to open her package. "So," she says, reaching into a drawer to pull out a box cutter. "Cecil, what happened to your hair? Were you riding your bike or something?"


Cecil looks from Macua to the bag -- he reaches in and pulls out a couple random chocolate bars; he opens one of them and pops it into his mouth, chewing for some time as Kaname fiddles with the box. Kaname's question causes him to raise a hand to his head. "... Hnnn ... yeah," he says. He never thought about it. "I hit a little bump."

He certainly wasn't piloting an Arm Slave and menacing innocents.


"You should probably be more careful," Kaname lectures, making her way back to the kitchen to pry open the delivered box. She reaches into the drawer, grabs a box cutter, and carefully cuts the box open.

And what she finds inside is--

Kaname tenses visibly.

And what she finds inside is--

She lets out a small "geh!" of disgust.

--a photograph of her picking her nose with her pinky finger.

The photograph is promptly torn to shreds, and Kaname throws packaging in an attempt to find any clue to the photograph's origins. Instead, she finds a letter, which she quickly unfolds. Eyes narrowed, her brows furrowed with a mixture of anger and disgust, Kaname skims through the letter's contents quickly:

'Meet at the photography club meeting room after school on Thursday with the two of your friends.'

She emits a soft 'grr', then turns her eyes to the next line:

'Or else we'll post this photo on 3ch next week.'

Kaname is furious.


Meiya can /feel/ it. She can feel Kaname's anger rising like a furnace, you don't need to be a NewType to get that broadcast. She looks over at Kaname, looking a little worried "Kaname?"


"That stupid photography club!" Kaname shouts. "You see this?!" She holds out the letter, gesturing at it violently. "They're /blackmailing/ me!"

With what, Kaname abstains from saying.


Cecil pops another chocolate bar into his mouth -- taking a bite out of it as he listens to the going-ons. He momentarily lifts his head, adding to the conversation with a calm -- "That's easy to take care of."

He kind of wonders why that package was left on /his/ front step, though. Maybe those kids aren't so smart.


Macua Huitl wonders what is in the box, she's got no idea about what's there. She then feels the angery and the outrage, she now is actually holding her head. To her not only did she see the reaction. She felt the reaction as if it was her own. She tries to recover from it. She doesn't want to bring up oh ya I have brain magic and I'm an empath.

She now look up to Kaname for a moment, "Wait what their blackmailing you?" She now tries to grab the letter and read it. "Let me see that.":


Kaname hands the message over.


Meiya reads the message over Macua's shoulder "...and bring your two friends, what?!" she asks incredulously. "just what do they want?"



Kaname gives no resposne other than a frustrated 'grrr'; instead she scratches her hair frantically, toussling it slightly in the process. If it were just her, there wouldn't be a problem. But now the photography club seemed insistent on dragging her friends into whatever it is they wanted!


Cecil idly rubs the inside of his ear, watching the other three go over this terrible situation.

Girl things.


Macua Huitl looks over the letter and just eye narrows. "So they want to play that way huh?" She seems to be getting an idea. "Cecil! Could you join us! We'll need your help." Oh where is she going with this. "You know we could play along for a bit and then deal with them in a far more /amuzing way/. Given there are things such as photo editing."


Meiya can /feel/ it. She can feel Kaname's anger rising like a furnace, you don't need to be a NewType to get that broadcast. She looks over at Kaname, looking a little worried "Kaname?"


"That stupid photography club!" Kaname shouts. "You see this?!" She holds out the letter, gesturing at it violently. "They're /blackmailing/ me!"

With what, Kaname abstains from saying.


Cecil pops another chocolate bar into his mouth -- taking a bite out of it as he listens to the going-ons. He momentarily lifts his head, adding to the conversation with a calm -- "That's easy to take care of."

He kind of wonders why that package was left on /his/ front step, though. Maybe those kids aren't so smart.


Macua Huitl wonders what is in the box, she's got no idea about what's there. She then feels the angery and the outrage, she now is actually holding her head. To her not only did she see the reaction. She felt the reaction as if it was her own. She tries to recover from it. She doesn't want to bring up oh ya I have brain magic and I'm an empath.

She now look up to Kaname for a moment, "Wait what their blackmailing you?" She now tries to grab the letter and read it. "Let me see that.":


Kaname hands the message over.


Meiya reads the message over Macua's shoulder "...and bring your two friends, what?!" she asks incredulously. "just what do they want?"



Kaname gives no resposne other than a frustrated 'grrr'; instead she scratches her hair frantically, toussling it slightly in the process. If it were just her, there wouldn't be a problem. But now the photography club seemed insistent on dragging her friends into whatever it is they wanted!


Cecil idly rubs the inside of his ear, watching the other three go over this terrible situation.

Girl things.


Macua Huitl looks over the letter and just eye narrows. "So they want to play that way huh?" She seems to be getting an idea. "Cecil! Could you join us! We'll need your help." Oh where is she going with this. "You know we could play along for a bit and then deal with them in a far more /amuzing way/. Given there are things such as photo editing."



Meiya looks at MAcua a little oddly "We shouldn't be getting Cecil involved..."


Cecil glimpses upward again, lowering his hand. "... It's not a big deal."


"Look, we just need to meet them there on Thursday," Kaname says. "We meet them there, we can find out what they want and /who's/ the culprit." She cracks her knuckles menacingly. "And then we can make them /pay/!"


Cecil just plants his fist on his jaw, tapping his fingers on the table. "Can I see the photo?"


Macua Huitl pauses for a moment and nods to Meiya, maybe it was a horrible idea. "I guess your right." She looks to KAname and nods. "And we'll clobber them. They'd have a hard time taking you or Meiya.Let alone all of us. When you have several brothers." Wait? She'll think more on that later. She looks to Meiya "What do you think?"


Kaname looks reluctant; the picture's more than a little embarrassing, and there's no telling what it'll do to her reputation as class rep. Still, she scoops up the remains of the photograph into her hand, and deposits the remains in a pile in front of CC.

Maybe he knows something that /they/ don't?


"We'll deal with them on thursday." Meiya confirms. "We don't need to blackmail, but they're the ones in the wrong here. I'm sure we can presuade them."

And if not, Meiya has four ninjas...well a ninja and three in training.


Carefully, the pale-haired boy looks at the shredded photograph; oh my, he hadn't realized she'd already tried to dispose of it. Still with his fist to his chin, Cecil leans over, face concentrated intently. Slowly, he lowers his arms flat on the table and starts rearranging the pieces -- Kaname's arm on top of her head, her nose where her eye should be, and her head where her chest is.

"Hmmmmm."

He rubs his chin.

"Hmmmmmm."

Finally, the boy looks up. "Why's a high schooler picking her nose in a public place? That's gross."


A junior high student thinks she's gross!

Kaname's balance falters, and for a second, it looks as though the girl's about to fall over backwards. But somehow, Kaname manages to catch hold of herself.

"It's not like I always do that!" she says defensively, hands flailing violently. "I don't even /remember/ -doing- that!"


Cecil smiles a little, covering his mouth with his hand. "-- Well, in that case, then it must have been manipulated to look like you." He looks down at the picture again, rearranging it again.


Kaname crosses her arms in front of her chest, then nods firmly. "/Definitely/ a manipulation," she agrees, though she has no evidence proving otherwise.


Macua Huitl looks at the photo or what's left of it and then to Kaname. Then back and she seems to be training. She nods to Meiya for a moment. "Well worse comes to worse? I can pummel them into the ground." She also has a nerdy friend who she could bribe to make their lives online hell. After all there are systems on her GM that Kid begs her to look at. "We'll deal with them."


"It's too ripped up to tell," Cecil concludes. "So the top priority is to kill whoever wrote this letter." So casual about that -- he seems serious and joking at the same time, so it's hard to tell.


"W-what?!" Has this kid been taking lessons from Sousuke, or something?!

But if there's anything that she agrees with, it's his decisive intention to deliver punishment--even if the punishment might have been adopted from one of those spy movies that have been airing on TV recently. "The person responsible definitely needs to be punished!" Kaname says, nodding sagely. "But in this case, the punishment should fit the crime!"


Macua Huitl head snaps around so fast she might get whiplash from it. "I hope your joking about that. I agree though they shouldn't get off free but killing them is pointless. You know I have the means to hang them up from the flag poll of the school in their underware."


"It'd get rid of a lot of future trouble," Cecil says, a little giggle escaping closed lips. He doesn't seem interested in the candy anymore, given he hasn't touched it the entire conversation, instead tilting his head and glancing at the offending photo again. "There's all kinds of ways to do it without getting caught."


"All right," Kaname says, looking down at the mini-Sousuke, hands on hips. "Just because you see people getting away with killing on those old mafia movies doesn't mean that things are so easy in real life!" She punctuates this with a firm nod, her hands locked on her hips.


Macua Huitl is chilled and tries not to show it, there's just something disrturbing. Macua knows some such ways, after all she was going to be some group's little drugged up kill soldier once. So she's somewhere in the netherworld Sagara lives in. Maybe not as deep in but she's somewhere there.

"Ya, things are a lot different in reality." Still she's unnerved by it prehaps it hit too close to home?


Cecil's mouth is a little crooked, as if he were just humoring them. "Ah ... well, if you say so. I was just helping."


With a life like this one, it's no wonder why the junior high student would rather pretend he had the exciting life of a mafiaso.

"It's too bad life can't be more like Kumodoushin, though," Kaname says, referring to the period drama she watched every Thursday evening featuring a samurai with powers powers amazingly similar to a certain spider-suited superhero. "Instead of superhero samurai, we have to deal with people /obliterating/ half of Shibuya."

Kaname sighs, scratching at the side of her head.


Macua Huitl pauses. "Wait you watch Kumodoushin?" She pauses looking at Kaname and almost mentions she knows of a super robot driving Samurai. Too boot has a sword bigger than most mecha. She does wonder is her life like a bad action TV show? Naw that would be silly. Still Cecil has been quite creepy.


Cecil stares out boredly. "I've never heard of it."


"You haven't heard of it?!" Kaname is shocked. Surprised, even! "How can you not know Kumodoushin? All right!" She clenches a fist in front of her, then points an accusing finger at the pale-haired boy before her. "Thursday! You'll have to come over and see it! No excuses!"

Isn't that the day they're scheduled to meet with the photograhy club?