Quote:What, you mean when everything starts happening in exactly the wrong way and carefully built structures collapse like _so_ many cheap playing cards just pretending to be a house in a stiff breeze?
The Plot Hammer O' DOOM is practically a -HiME trademark, was what I meant...
Yeah. Though that's something that I haven't the foggiest whether or not I'll actually be able to do. I _have_ a point when the situation is going to become really FUBAR planned, but I have no idea whether or not it'll work out.
Quote:Agreed.
Now that is rather more like it!
And, ooh, Nagi's playing that game as well? Hehe. I suppose Mr. Bad Hairday didn't _only_ pay off some people to shoot Tate, then.
Which begs asking whether or not the Black Guardian had taken N!Tate into account.
Maybe 'his' people merely want to lull his opposite number's agent into a false sense of security.
Or maybe I'm just paranoid.
I've often wondered where the seemingly magical camouflage properties of a hawaiian shirt came from. If you were to have me guess, I'd say it was sensory overload. The shirt is so damn visually loud that you not only don't but _can't_ notice the person, because of the morbid curiosity not letting you go as you stare and wonder 'Is that an actual pattern, or did someone drink too much and puke on it?' or something similar.
It seemed to work for Nagi dai Artai, though it was about as difficult to misidentify him as it was to mistake ... well, me, for someone else.
As of the latest population count, there was still a shortage of white haired, red eyed people on Earl, and the number didn't seem to be rising any.
I briefly shuddered as the concept of dai Artai spawning came across my mind. Then did so again as the concept of doing so myself did. Not that I found the process objectionable, but ... well, simply put, the way things stood now? That'd end up being one messed up kid, pretty much no matter what. Genes allowing, he'd try to end the world. So, not going to happen.
Not that I was seeing Nagi dressed like that in person. Rather, the picture I was currently holding did well to bring home the situation.
If height were any indication, he was about as old as the Royal Brat of Windbloom, and if whispers were to be believed he wanted to capitalize on that in the grand tradition of people wanting to strengthen their countries the easy way - by marrying into power. Well, more power.
Artai wasn't exactly rich, or as powerful - in a military way, at least - as Lutetia or Cardair, but it was still a country, still had a military ...
And had placed two students in Garderobe.
One of whom had set up a neat little network of connections to the shadier social circles. The trouble with Juliet-ane-san was that you were never able to be quite sure of her loyalties.
The information she sold us was accurate, though ...
I chuckled. Well, that wouldn't be the first case of employing, or subcontracting, as it were in this case, to someone whose priorities were suspect.
"You know, this really isn't that much of a laughing matter," I was told.
Wind whipped around outside and below, whistling through the crags of the rock wall Desert Port - the departure point for most of the ... oh, hell, I'll call them sandcrawlers and be done with it ... sandcrawlers leaving Windbloom - had been built into.
The balcony we were on was deserted, the people having departed either on the sandcrawler going out or on the maglev train into the city.
Didn't really make me or him any less cautious. Hence the fact that we'd taken a smallish table in the balcony's nook, which had us obscured from most of the platform.
"Actually, I find the shirt hilarious," I deadpanned. He snorted and shook his head in reply.
Neither of us was dressed to look inconspicous at first glance, myself in one of the spare runner kits - a tough pair of riding pants and a moderately heavy tan jacket, complete with adjustable hood which was currently up to hide my hair - and him in the clothes I pretty much always saw him in, meaning the dark green chinese style pants and jacket. The braid just made the image even more complete.
Still, it was more about attitude than it was about clothing. Acting like you belonged and everything was perfectly fine was as important as looking like you belonged.
A few subtle mental nudges with a thinly spread AT Field to anyone who came close enough to be interested in our conversation derailed any potential eavesdroppers.
"Dai Artai doesn't do these things without a reason, and him having a meeting with Smith of Schwarz?"
"You've been in and out of Artai for longer than anyone else, Yamada," I shrugged. "What do you think it means?"
"Other than a hunch just being proven right?" the braid wearing man gave me a wry smirk. "The Grand Duke wants Windbloom. He's wanted it for a long time, for one reason or another. It follows that this alliance they've made is going to result in something soon, since when dai Artai does something seemingly drastic, results usually follow close behind. What happens then? That's anyone's guess. It's as likely that they'll stay allies, as it is that one party will get rid of the other."
I nodded. "Schwarz ... I have speculations of my own, but what do you think about the why?"
"Romulus and Remus. The situation has their fingerprints all over it, if you know where to look. They're testing something. My guess is, they want some closer secure location to make sure whatever it is they're doing doesn't go wrong for them," Yamada pretty much confirmed what I'd been thinking. I nodded again.
"She visisted yesterday," I remarked, off-handedly. I didn't really need to name who I was speaking of, since there was only a single person to visit either of us like that, coming and going unannounced and as she pleased. "After what she said, I think we're going to be sending someone to have a better look at things in Lutetia."
"I have no time," he replied. "One of my other employers is nearly running me ragged, though it's killing two birds with one stone, really, since he wants me to look into Schwarz as well."
"I figured. I'd thought I'd send a runner, or even go by myself ... Windbloom is nice and all, but it's gotten a little stuffy."
"Even with the new skylight you've put in?"
I sighed wearily. Did he _have_ to mention that one? They'll never let me live it down, either of them, though Miyu was a bit more ... subtle, in her digs.
Serves me right for coming clean with the guy back when we three were laying the groundwork for Black.
Yamada, one of the two silent partners of Black, Miyu being the other?
Seems to work. Barring eventual future developments in Otome, of course.
And hey, everyone's got their own agenda.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm