[OOC][PLOT] The Fourth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[robkelk]

I had an evil plotbunny hop through my head over the weekend, and am finally in the right frame of mind to write it up.

The displacees wake up to the news that a reasonably important figure has been murdered. The crime took place near one of the displacees' cities, but not in the particular city. The next day's news shows that reporters have discovered the dead person had ties to a group that the police had been watching.

Then it happens again to someone else, relatively near but not in a different displacees' city. Same M.O. Different murder weapon. Same revelation that the victim had underworld ties.

Then it happens again, in another city. Same M.O. again. The murder weapon was different again. But this time, a security camera recorded a girl about Sasami/Sakura/Ruiko's age carrying a violin case leaving the scene.

In the meantime, HAL, Piffle, and maybe Washuu-chan have noticed that it's become slightly more difficult to purchase hardware that can be used to make powered prosthetics; somebody's buying up enough existing stock to keep a dozen or so high-conversion cyborgs maintained.

Then somebody - Sosuke, Misato, a Misaka Sister, somebody else with more than just a passing familiarity with firearms - notices a girl in his or her own city, carrying a case that most people would think is normal but to that particular trained observer's eye probably holds a firearm. She's headed for a fancy hotel, one that somebody else had previously noticed was the temporary residence of a politician who had been making a nuisance of herself to both/all of the political parties lately...

So, yeah: Gunslinger Girl has appeared in the Metacontinuity. The girls themselves are as much victims as (for example) Sakura Matou in Fate/stay night is, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous, or any less likely to want nothing to do with the displacees in the existing residences.

What do we do? Let's assume people act quickly enough to save that politician's life. After that... SI-Rob is under a geas to be a Hero and Usagi doesn't need a geas to be one, so they'll suggest rescuing the girls from their current lives. The Misaka Sisters will suggest taking them out, hard and fast, and don't risk anybody's life trying to rescue the girls. Mii will want to bring the people responsible for the girls' condition to justice, securing the girls as witnesses (saying they're not guilty of their crimes because of coercion). There are other options, of course, but those are the first three that would come up at Blossom.

No matter which option is chosen, it won't be perfect. It might not even be a good option.


Brent, Gunslinger Girl is definitely not your type of story. If you haven't already seen the anime, don't bother looking for it... unless you really want to watch something that your SI would want to protect Sakura and Akari from.