Quote:Shizuru.
Who did Natsuki get mad at..Yukino or Shizuru?
Not, it's perhaps worth noting, for anything that might or might not have happened to her, but solely because of the idea of letting her overreaction cost someone else so badly.
Quote:Kept in the dark and shoveled full of...
Which brings us to the third course of action: the mushroom solution.
Heh. Haruka. Hahehaheh. *mad laughter*
And no, Yukino-chan doesn't particularly interest me. We wouldn't suit each other, I think.
In a lot of different ways, this was going to be the most delicate part of the entire 'plan'. All the other HiME had been, at worst, neutral - they could be approached outright, and the only problem was getting enough information out before they jumped the gun.
Fumi and her mistress were an entirely different order of business - likely they were friendly, true, but even more likely very little of what we'd be saying would actually be news, and, as I'd said to Midori, there really wasn't any way to tell what they thought on the matter.
It sincerely disturbed me how instantly the HiME had agreed that I should take 'point' on the negotiations, though. People-thigns were not a strong point, and the idea of having that much riding on my shoulders... Okay, sure, great, they trust me - even Nao, which was a shock - and that's flattering as all hell, but I've been pretty careful to make it clear that I've got absolutely no clue what I'm doing, right? Right?
I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Evidently, not clear enough.
Fumi-san opened the door and smiled at us - Me in the center, Mikoto on my right, Akane behind, and Shizuru on my left. Deciding who my 'escorts' on this venture would be had been... interesting, both in the literal and 'ohmigodi'mgoingtodie' senses of the word.
Probably the most surprising thing about that discussion was how closely everyone had listened to Nao - you wouldn't think that someone who was universally accepted as being completely self-interested would get so much credit as an advisor, but, as Yukariko, of all people, had put it when Shiho started fussing, 'What better guide through treachery than one who would betray us - but cannot?' After all, Julia was a long way from the top of the power rankings and Nao's odds of making it through the entire course of the standard Festival were slim at best - a coordinated team of HiME-sentai was her best bet of making it through the entire affair even alive, let alone getting her mother back. Since she herself knew that - and everyone knew that she knew it - trusting her at least that far was easy.
As long as she didn't have any other options, which, of course, was why she wasn't here. Mai and Shiho couldn't come since neither of them could even manifest their elements reliably, let alone summon their Childs, and Yukariko had been the first to remove herself from the running... Ironically, it looked like she had even less faith in her integrity than I did.
Mikoto might or might not be subtle enough to try and manipulate events, the consensus had been, but either way it wasn't as though she needed to, since it was fairly clear that only a couple of the Childs could even hope to match Miroku in a straight fight, and none the HiME could do the same to his mistress. Even if my memories hadn't been clear enough on the matter, Akira's quick experiment had only gotten her knocked straight through the nearest wall even before most of the others had even realized either of them had moved - so no one had any worries about Mikoto's bothering to try and betray them. Besides, as Mai had said, she was just too cute to distrust.
Even without the Festival there to drive her bats, Shizuru was more than clever and ruthless enough to try a betrayal, but since her agenda was pretty much entirely limited to staying in Natsuki's good graces that was considered a bit unlikely.
Especially since Yukino had volunteered to stay behind (and, thus, out of sight, the clever girl) and have Diana throw a live view of the entire proceedings up for the other HiME's to monitor.
The real reason it worked, though, was that the internal political blocs of the HiME-sentai were already emerging - mostly they seemed to be the 'Normal' types, the more 'Driven' ones, and, well, all the rest. Mai, Akane, and Yukino were, by their own testimony, mostly interested in getting through this whole mess with life, sanity, and loved ones intact, and had found themselves assuming much the same positions as the arguments - well, discussions, since there'd been surprisingly little vitriol involved - went on.
The more crusading personality types - Midori, Akira, and Natsuki, with Shizuru essentially tagging along behind the latter - had actually stopped only one step short of declaring an outright alliance, which would have been amusing except for the last thing - namely that even they seemed to think of me as being neutral in the whole thing.
Well, sure, okay, I'm trying to keep the group together, but does anyone seriously think I don't have opinions of my own? Midori at the very least ought to know better...
Those two groups' existence had essentially left the 'outsiders' to form their own, since they weren't really trusted. Nao was even happy about it, I guess since it meant that the universe had lived down to her expectations, but Shiho had thrown a fit (and thereby, I had no doubt, demonstrated exactly why she was counted where she was), Yukariko had just sort of accepted it as her due, and I'm not sure Mikoto had even noticed.
Those who have been keeping track of both the 'factions' and the girls who'd come with me will've noted that I'd brought one from each. No, that was not a coincidence, though I'm still surprised that I had been paying enough attention to realize why Nao suggested it.
Nrg. I'm out of medication. This does not make me happy.
Grrr.
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."