action for kohaku, accelerator + text for everyone else

[tenminutes]

ACTION;
[ Yuri had been staring at her phone for a while now. According to what she'd been told, if a person was no longer in the afterlife, their name disappeared. If they were NPC'd, their name was gray in the phone list. Hideki Hinata was gone. Haruhi Suzumiya was gone. Accelerator was gray. There were a couple of other people she knew that had disappeared before now, along with another girl she'd barely met disappearing. But it was those three that were really affecting her right now.

There was so much to be said about who Yuri Nakamura was. But there was one thing above all else that she herself recognized, and it was that she was supposed to be able to protect the people she cared about, but she kept losing them. Haruhi's disappearance she didn't understand. Haruhi was miserable, she'd made that much clear, and she shouldn't have been able to disappear. So was there a way to disappear besides finding what you needed? Had Haruhi found what she needed and just.. gone? It was possible, but it didn't seem likely. It was a loss of a friend, even if they'd been in a rocky place recently, and that was more than enough to make Yuri shut down for a while in a normal circumstance. But...

Even before she'd noticed Haruhi's name was gone, Yuri had seen another name that had already screwed her up. Hinata was gone. The way she'd gotten back from being an NPC was because he'd kissed her. Because her important memory that he had triggered was her first kiss, back around Christmas, when they'd gotten stuck under the mistletoe. She had feelings for Hinata, and that kiss had been extremely important to her even if she had promised herself that she never wanted to let herself fall in love because she'd- she'd end up feeling like this when one of them disappeared. It was a rare occasion when Yuri could barely hold onto not breaking down crying, but this was one of them. There was too much going on for her to be this weak, to feel like her heart had shattered into a thousand pieces because she had let herself love and it backfired.

She was supposed to have disappeared, back when Hinata and Otonashi and everyone had. But somehow she'd been brought back. She hadn't been mad at him, even though he'd promised that he would stay by her side as long as they were both here. They'd both thought that they'd disappeared. But this time, he'd left her alone, and the only thing that she could think of as to why was because he'd figured out that she loved him and he probably loved her too. Was that why he disappeared? Was it her fault? He was already satisfied from before, was he holding onto something? Yuri had been fighting for everyone. She wasn't sure what brought her back, but she knew that she was staying because this place wasn't safe- because there were people she'd come to care about that weren't safe and her job in defeating the Programmer hadn't been completed. Yuri had wanted to stay and make sure that this wouldn't ever be a problem again, but Hinata was more likely there for her. Because he'd never wanted to leave her to fight on her own again.

Yuri had sat in her room for a good long while that morning, just trying to get her emotions under control. Trying to convince herself that there was something she could do. If he was happy, that was great. If Haruhi had found a way to get through her problems, then she should be happy for both of them. She should be but..

After a few hours locked away in her room, not really responding if anyone came to visit her, Yuri had managed to shut herself down for at least a little while. Because Accelerator was still here. He was still here, and he was stuck, and she was the one he'd told how to solve that. It was something she had to do, something she was responsible for even if she didn't know that she was even capable of protecting the people she cared for. This entire second stint in the afterlife had nearly proven that-- she hadn't been able to do very much at all against the Programmer so far. She'd lost herself at one point, lost others, and she felt useless. She felt like she couldn't do anything. But Accelerator was still here. All she had to do was bring him back, and she could just.. he could be safe. That's all that mattered right now, the rest of everything-

If she could keep it down, she could focus on what was important. It wasn't those feelings that she couldn't do anything about. Everyone else needed her to be strong, so she couldn't let herself show any signs of it.

Yuri put her phone away and stood up, heading over to where Hinata had kept his gun. Hers had been in the dormitory and she hadn't brought them along since she was an NPC at the time and had to practically be kidnapped as a rescue attempt. She'd made a knife, but she was taking Hinata's gun. It was most of what she had left of him now and she took a brief moment to stare at it, her eyes a little cold compared to what they normally were. She took a deep breath. She knew how to shut herself down, she'd done it plenty before. She just had to maintain it.

...Still, she couldn't lose anyone else. Yuri raised her head as she tucked the gun into the holster beneath her shirt on her back side, then called out. ]

Kohaku!

[ He'd better be in the house or she was going to kill him, and that wasn't a joke this time. ]

TEXT, LATER THAT NIGHT
Hinata, Haruhi disappeared.

Tired of waiting for the Programmer to make his next move. I'm looking for ideas to take the dorms back, then once we regain our ground, we're taking him down. I'm tired of waiting to see him buried 6 feet under for the rest of his afterlife.

{ locked to SSS; }
I was going to have a meeting about how to obtain the restaurant tonight for Mami's maid cafe. I'm canceling the meeting and telling you what's happening here and now. Ask me any questions over the network.

Mami and Kirino, you two are members of the student council, so you won't be doing anything that specifically breaks rules. We'll have the NPC cordone off the area to make it a safe place from shadows. There are two houses with no one in them, she can let go of one to cover the restaurant. I already discussed it with her. Here's the plan:

1. Distraction team minus Leon (Kohaku, Yuuko): Guerilla live concert tonight in the auditorium. This will attract most of the adult NPCs and keep them away from the town area, along with a number of lower-age NPCs. Leon will not be going with you because I need him for something else. We're short on people right now and he's the weakest talent in the group.

2. Inigo, Sougo, Yata, and me. You three are in charge of securing the Distraction team. With shadows and teachers going after them, we'll need to stall for as much time as possible. I'll be with you.

3. Leon, Mami, Kirino, Greed, and Ling. Clear out the restaurant in a non-aggressive manner. By which I mean, you're free to flirt your way into talking any staff members and dining guests into the parking lot. Just flirt, you don't have to do anything beyond that, just get them out. Mami, you're in charge of locking up the doors once everyone else is out so that they can't get back in. Eventually they'll give up and go back to their dorms once official "curfew" hits, then we have to rearrange and redecorate that night. We can't obtain all of the tools if we don't claim it while they're open though, so you'll need to get all of the staff members out while you're there.

After curfew hits, all members of the SSS are to head to the restaurant to assist with redecoration under Mami's supervision, as it will be her cafe.

Any questions, ask me here. I'm not seeing anyone until tonight, I'll be busy.

Comments

text | SSS lock

[callmeimouto]

Flirt?

No, no way. I don't do that. I can do it my own way though, pretending to be overly nice always worked out just fine.

text | SSS lock

[tenminutes]

As long as it works.

[callmeimouto]

And within the rules of the student council, right?

[tenminutes]

For you and Mami, at least.

[callmeimouto]

Well, at least I'm grateful for that much. I think I'd get kicked out if I helped... sorry.

[princesadist]

Oi, Hina-chan is gone? Tch, looks like more and more things are starting to pile up right now.

[Really, he was starting to warm up to the guy...oh well.]

But understood. It shouldn't be too much trouble if we have the almighty Yurippe on our side.

[tenminutes]

Yes, he's gone.

[ The "almighty Yurippe" huh? She didn't much feel like that right now. Honestly, if anything she just felt ridiculously depressed and like she was incapable of anything. This mission might not be much, but it was something. It'd better go as planned. ]

With the shadows out and about and most things going in the Programmer's favor lately, we can't afford to goof around too much until we have that restaurant. I'm sure you haven't let yourself slip in terms of fighting, right?

[princesadist]

And here I thought we were going to be best friends. Oh well, guess some people just move on with their life and leave the rest of us behind.

[Not that he wasn't fond of staying here (which he's really not), especially with everything that's happening.]

Of course I haven't let my fighting slip, if anything, I was wondering when things were going to get much more serious around here. Can't afford to let my training go to waste when there are much bigger problems.

Although I should be asking the same of you, Yurippe. Are you sure you're not falling behind standards? I haven't asked how you were holding up.

[He's actually being serious (for once).]

[tenminutes]

[ That was a horrible question to ask her, particularly since he kept bringing up Hinata. The reality was, she wasn't okay. She was holding up by the skin of her teeth at this point, but she didn't want to let anyone see that. ]

I took Hinata's gun, since my weapons of choice are all in the dormitory.

[ She had the one she kept in the SSS room, too, but.. she'd rather use Hinata's right now. ]

I don't slack.

action;

[violined]

[ Luckily, he's returned to the house like half an hour ago, tired from fighting against well... mostly inanimate objects, it was not like there was much he could take his frustration out on.
He dreaded returning to the house when it seemed like it was empty, so despite the sharp intonation of her shouting, it was a welcomed thing for Yuri to leave her room. Kohaku got to his feet immediately. ]

Here!

[ And more than here, also walking over to her now. ]

What's up?

action;

[tenminutes]

We're going to find Accelerator. He already gave me a list of things to try, but we have to get him back here first so we aren't playing around where we're likely to get swamped by more shadows.

[ And they can get some canned coffee while they're out. Not that going to sleep has been an issue for Yuri since honestly, she's afraid if she does then she'll lose someone else without being able to do anything about it.

Kohaku might notice that her tone was clearly a little clipped and cold compared to normal. She didn't really seem to be looking at him directly, either. ]

action;

[violined]

[ Accelerator.... Compared to the disappearances, someone becoming an NPC had suddenly become a minor occurrence. It was weird because normally there would be nothing else of as high priority for him as this. ]

Mr. Superstrength and Supercool finally let his guard down, huh. And like that, too. Pathetic.

[ He says despite the fact that he and Yuri both have lived through the same thing already. To think Accelerator now, too, is vulnerable is weird. Kohaku had always despised the way he somehow wound up getting saved by the guy again and again - it was humiliating. He should be satisfied that even Accelerator is not invincible, but he's not. It just makes things even more complicated. ]

Let's go then, I'm sick of seeing this place right now.

[ The house is not a good place to be. Just the two of them as such is not bad, but the circumstances... He really wants to not notice that Yuri's tone is different - that not everything is changing, clearly for the worse - but it's hard. ]

action;

[tenminutes]

[ Yuri nods and heads for the door, clearly much more quiet than normal. If she were in a good mood she'd probably joke around with him about something stupid while they went, but she seems to be staying mostly quiet. She's thinking, and it's obvious, but given how far from the norm it is for her to stay completely in her head like this (in her head sure, but not completely) it's hard to tell even what she's thinking about.

Once they're out, it seems like Yuri's doing a last minute check of the gun, taking the cartridge out to make sure it's got ammo. She isn't 100% familiar with Hinata's weaponry, so she knows she should take it apart and put it back together once they're done. But there's not time right now.

Yuri glanced over at Kohaku, almost as if she's making sure that he's still there. ]

text; sss lock

[tsunball]

What's up with calling me the weakest talent in front of everyone?! [ Sorry, Yuri, apparently feeling emotional is not going to give you a break from having to deal with Leon's own delicate sensibilities. ]

At least put a better reason like "Leon's so handsome, I bet he could charm the whole female population of the restaurant in one go"!!!

text; sss lock

[tenminutes]

You're the one who needs the most practice, Leon. You're still better than I am at it, so if you've got time to complain then you've got time to practice.

If that's true then prove it and I'll say it.

[tsunball]

Why are you guys all so obsessed with the p-word.. [ Practice. Not... anything else, okay. ]

You know I'm great at a ton of shit, don't act as if I can't do jack shit!

[ He's practically pouting to himself as he types - although he seems to at least be taking the situation slightly serious since he's not doing his usual "so many shortened words you can't even read what it originally said" thing. ]

[tenminutes]

Because women are attracted to hard-work and excellent skill. You can't get that skill without practice. The rest of the stuff comes after.

You can do plenty of stuff, you just need to practice more at music.

text;

[losthersheep]

Yurippe-san..

[ Mami hardly knows how to respond to that. She's happy that Yuri is going to help her, though amazed that she's put so much planning into it. She had been really thinking about doing this herself, but with Yuri's help, it makes Mami realize she needs to put in just as much work as the other girl, and everyone helping, or else she'd be letting them down. ]

I don't want anyone to get hurt. But I trust that you'll protect them.

[ At the moment Mami has no powers herself, all she can do it trust that Yuri is strong enough, though its not something Mami is good at doing. ]

Though, I'm not sure how you think I can "flirt" to get people to leave the restaurant..

text;

[tenminutes]

No one's going to get hurt because of this. The restaurant is going to be safe, and I'll be with everyone else.

You have womanly charms, Mami. Use them and a smile and guys tend to do whatever you want. If you can force a little blush and keep your eyes open wide it works too.

text;

[losthersheep]

I trust you. I just wouldn't want anyone to do something dangerous only for my sake..

[ But if they are getting a place for all of them to hang out at, and enjoy, then it's for everyone's sake, she thinks. ]

I think you must be thinking of someone else..

text;

[tenminutes]

Having a safe place to obtain food is important to everyone in the SSS. If we don't have to face the shadows in order to get a meal, then that's better for all of us.

Look down and say that again. I'm not saying that you have to flash them or anything, but you can't deny and you shouldn't ever have to deny that you have them.

[likeacrow]

whoa we got a mission?

[HE'S KIND OF PUMPED... Even though it's weird, too. Being told to do something like this by someone who wasn't Mikoto or Kusanagi... It was really weird. But he sure isn't going to mope about it, either.]

hell yeah, you can count on me!

[tenminutes]

I'd better be able to. You're strong, right?

[likeacrow]

damn right. whether its shadows or npcs, there'll be no problems here

[tenminutes]

Well, don't attack the NPCs unless they look like they're going to go shadow. We need most of them in the concert, just try to distract any adults.