June 12, 1999 -- Afternoon

[punches_fog]

[Souji being Souji, he's naturally at school for half the day Saturday, and he's got his evening booked fairly solid, but by heading out fairly quickly, he can catch up with a certain private schooler on their mutual way home.]

Hey. You were pretty...impressive yesterday. Thanks for stepping up for the club.

[He hands Haruhi one of the two canned coffees in his bag.]

Comments

[kouyouensei]

Haruhi has three k!t-k@t pieces hanging out of her mouth, those local brands indigenous to Izumizaki. She swallows them, then takes out a new piece with which to stir the coffee.

"Thanks, Seta-kun. No such thing as too much caffiene." He's the best; he never thinks she should keep her speed limit to 100km.

"Someone's gotta do it, though, you know? It'd be kinda sad for Maria-chan to seriously be all by herself and all. For that matter Spender-sensei might have a couple secrets of his own!" She swallows her next sip of coffee before looking at Souji directly. "I'll have to mail you anything I find out 'bout him."

[punches_fog]

"That wouldn't surprise me, so keep me updated" he says. Then again, he might have picked up some weird ideas about America and therefore him from Osaka.

"I just want to make sure everyone's still got a place to go after I'm gone," he explains. "I guess I'll have to ask you to look after Hiroshi, too, now that I think about it."

[kouyouensei]

"Yamane will probably be fine." She shrugs, and the resultant in the surface of the coffee sends more whips of steam up into her face. "He'll have all the evidence-of-absence he wants and plenty of time to study. What could be better?" Lots of things in Haruhi's opinion, her tone makes it clear. "I'm gonna make sure he doesn't just forget. Keep him on his toes."

Wow I've been terribly inconsistent about honorifics this whole game

[punches_fog]

Souji takes a drink of his own coffee. "He's not that bad. Every investigation needs a guy like him to keep it grounded, like the woman on that American show."

He looks at his drink thougtfully. "Plus he'll probably be lonely, changing school like that. I'm counting on you to remind him he has friends, too."

cracks the editorial whip

[kouyouensei]

"I want to believe!" She says it in English, giggling around another bite of pocky. "They both want to find proof that exciting things are out there, I guess, some balance element? I only saw a couple episodes back in like sixth grade." The companionship of an investigation partner seems pretty nice, however hard to come by.

"Man, with a second high school uniform he'll have a hard time giving out his second button." She tilts her head at Souji to pose a question: "Would it be rude for him to give out the old button? Which one's been closest to his heart the longest, how does the math come out..."

[punches_fog]

"It's called a 'foil' in writing," he says. "Strong-willed characters have to have someone to balance them out, and the club's pretty much nothing but strong-willed girls."

He rubs his chin, thinking carefully. "Maybe his old one should go to someone at this school, and his new one to someone at yours? I guess it's up to him to decide."

Souji had developed a habit of just quietly scooting out of town when he changed schools. Fewer disappointed girls that way, if somewhat more angry ones.

[kouyouensei]

"Yeah, I'm not about to ask him about it. Changing schools is bad enough without thinking about graduating." Hell, he might even get the wrong idea, which does not so much embarrass Haruhi as strike her to be stupid.

Her pocky packet is empty, flattens under her fingers, and she has to fumble around for the other half. "Ghosts are our best bet back there, you know. Every year there are new opportunities for restless spirits to show up."

[punches_fog]

"What's going to make a spirit restless around here though?" he asks. "This is probably the quietest town I've ever seen."

[kouyouensei]

"Maybe it's just so quiet because we train people to shut up about their problems. A little encouragement could go a long way!" At the corner, she cups her hand around her mouth, pocky sticks between her fingers at an awkward angle.

"Hey departed spirits! How are you feeling?"

[punches_fog]

"This kind of thinking is why you're in the club," Souji says, nodding seriously.

He looks around. "They might be more receptive after dark, though."

[kouyouensei]

Haruhi falls into a more serious mood herself. "I gotta be getting back way before the sun even sets..." and that's not her favorite prospect ever. "We should cross-reference a couple of star charts. If they really wanna hide we can't settle for a lunar cycle, can we? There's a good chance this town will get a more arcane kind of darkness in the next couple weeks. Right when the ghosts are lulled into a false sense of enough security to haunt the earth another day..."

Her hand snaps shut like a steel trap, crunching the pocky packet (a few sticks still inside and crumbling consequentially).

[punches_fog]

"Don't waste food," Souji reprimands absently.

He is giving serious consideration to the star charts idea. "I think I have some free time Monday if you want to go to the library for astronomy books. I'm kinda booked this evening myself."

[kouyouensei]

"You don't know what kind of plan I might have!" It's zeugmatic; her glare doesn't stay on him long before she's sticking her fingers into the foil and licking the crumbs off. Haruhi's eyes track over the schedule in her mind's eye.

"Would it be easy enough for you to come up? The library near me is larger anyway."

[punches_fog]

"Yeah, that can work," he nodded. "I'll just have to make sure to get out of school straight away."

[kouyouensei]

"Awesome. If you have to bring your homework with you, go ahead. We might as well check out other books if they end up having nothing relevant in stock." She's rationing out her enthusiasm so there will be more to expend upon achieving the celestial payload. Previous perusals of birth and death records never worked like on TV in highlighting suspicious discrepancies nor did that numerological library card number analysis. It just means she has to keep looking, of course.

[punches_fog]

"I'll definitely be there," Souji said. On impulse, he stuck a hand out to shake on it.

[kouyouensei]

People don't hold their hands out to Haruhi very often. "It's a promise!" she chirps, while her (empty!!!!) candy wrapper is tossed into the trash. Insouciantly she slots the coffee into the side of her bag, and only then extends her hand for proper shaking. If nothing else Haruhi has an impressive grip and maintains eye contact.

"Later." Turning her back on him she skips up onto the platform for her ride away.