Quote:He was writing down literally everything he could possibly remember about the canon - for all intents and purposes, they probably wouldn't be able to learn much more if you handed them a full DVD set and all six manga tankoban.
I wonder what was discussed on those planning meetings and whether the subject of Haruka ever came out.
Anyway, I'll have to remember to work it into the narrative, but yeah, Haruka was mentioned in one of the group's discussions - Yukino didn't have much to say on the subject, mostly because Natsuki misinterpreted Shizuru's attempt to be diplomatic about the whole thing and tore a very public strip off of her... it's hard to be angry at someone when another person has not only already said just about everything you might have or more, but pretty much reduced your target to a shivering wreck in the process.
Note to self: Shizuru family backstory and why Natsuki matters so much.
Whatever else she may or may not have been, Sugiura Midori was anything but indecisive. After a couple of seconds, she nodded to herself and said, "Okay, I'm in. What's the plan?"
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "Well... For the time being it's mostly 'find out more about everything we can'. The Okuzaki clan have a lot of in-house records on the earlier Festivals, and Kuga-san managed to pretty much cart off a copy of the Searrs Foundation's local branch's archives, but Fujino-san's people have been able to find quite a number of things that weren't in either collection... They haven't had time to do more than scratch the surface of the scholarly community, though, and even so..." I hunted for how I wanted to say it. "...Your name keeps coming up."
She blinked, and blushed a little. "I hadn't thought I'd done that much work... So you want me to try and put together everything into a coherent whole?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Both of the older organizations already have their determined views on what was happening, and those two are not mutally compatible with each other, let alone my sources... The next practical step after we've gotten all the HiME introduced to and... at least willing to trust each other on a provisional basis... is to try and bring in Director Kazahana." I shrugged. "I didn't want to bring her in earlier because, frankly, she and her assistant were one of the less-characterized elements in this whole mess, and because one of the things that was shown was that she was juggling completely different roles and scenarios depending on who was watching... If the character I saw in the show is close to the truth, she'll be an incredibly valuable asset, but if it wasn't..."
"...she'd've made you vanish without a trace." She took a sip of tea, then cocked her head at me. "Just how old are you, anyway? Under the high-school boy's mask?"
I blinked. "Twenty-two."
"Good!" she laughed. "That means I don't have to try and be a leader!" She made a face and glanced at the bundle's second page again. "Fourteen, fifteen, seventeen, fifteen... Yeesh. They're all just kids - and that'd leave me, of all people, trying to play the red ranger..."
"Don't get too comfy," I told her dryly. "I'm just the cute talking mascot."
Megh. Timing problems - shopping, school, mechblegh. Anyway, Mashiro next, then some filler while Nagi kills time.
Ja, -n
(Still trying to figure out where the Real World is fitting itself into all of this.)
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."