Soltindir !4rqjPmV6PI 2009/03/21 (Sat) 19:55 No. 80211 "So is this why you tried to kill me?" You ask, feeling numbed by Rinnosuke's explanation. Maybe you should say something else, some kind of condolence, but you have too many questions.
He nods. "A new student turns up out of the blue, appears to be a real person? We were very concerned when you started showing interest in Satori."
You feel a little colour spreading across your cheeks. "I wasn't-"
Rinnosuke shakes his head. "Don't worry about that now." He says. "We just thought you might be another assassin, but I agree with Youmu, you can't fake the kind of breakdown you just had. I don't think you can anyway."
You wrack your brains for a minute. "So who else is in this little group of yours?" You ask.
Rinnosuke glances at Tewi.
"Yeah, s'fine, tell him." She says. Rinnosuke nods.
"There's me," he says. "Youmu, Tewi and Satori you've seen right here. Rika, another student, she's in the basement at the moment. Four more, Momizi, another student, along with Nitori, I believe you know her already." Rinnosuke gulps. "A girl called Tenshi and ... er ... Mima, who I think you also know."
"Is that all?" You ask. He nods.
"That's everyone. Excluding Youki, of course."
You nod in response, still thinking. You need to know as much as possible, you need to know about yourself, you think as you glance at your fists. It's absurd, but you should ask. You turn to Tewi. She's gone back to her computer screens.
"Tewi." You say. She looks up.
"Yes~?" She cocks her head.
"You mentioned two Oni, when you attacked me at lunchtime today. Who are they?"
"Oh." She glances at Rinnosuke. He sighs.
"The Oni are bad news." He says.
"And how!" Tewi exclaims.
"Ah." You say. "That doesn't sound promising."
Rinnosuke shakes his head. "The Oni stick together, Suika and Yuugi, both students at the school. But Suika is often hanging around with Reimu. We don't know what that means, but it's too much of a risk to approach either of them." He says.
"Mmmhmm." Tewi says. "Scrap metal and a few guns isn't going to stop an Oni." She flashes a grin at you. "But another Oni could."
Something doesn't add up here.
"How do you know that they're Oni?" You ask.
Rinnosuke sucks on his teeth. "I said that Satori can tell when people are people, right?" He says. "It's because she's a sort of mind-reader."
You raise your eyebrows in shock. "A mind-reader? You're kidding me."
"She's not perfect, the thing Yukari send after us fooled her. I don't understand it, but she can hear thoughts, somehow."
"Okay." You frown, not quite sure if you want to believe all this. Maybe you can test that with her later.
"Speaking of stopping an Oni with guns." You say, gesturing to Tewi's computers. "Where did you get all this equipment? Unless there's a local armoury I don't know about, I don't see how you could've picked up machine guns if you can't leave the town."
"We can't leave the town." Tewi says, grinning. "Doesn't mean people can't get in."
Rinnosuke clears his throat. "Youki had a contact who could get in and out. She wasn't from the town originally, so whatever keeps us here didn't effect her. She supplied stuff to Youki, the guns, the computers, some other stuff. Her name was Renko, and with Youki gone we've got no idea how to contact her again."
"Ah. So you're in trouble there too?" You ask.
Rinnosuke nods. "We only have so many bullets, and none of us are trained to shoot." He says. "We're reluctant to move the guns from automatic stationary over-watch on this place."
You put your head in your hands, thinking. If this is all the truth then they're in big trouble, they've lost their leader, their line of supply, their best fighter and they're taking pot-shots in the dark. They were so paranoid they tried to kill you without even talking to you first. One question still burns in your mind.
"What's so important that you and this Yukari woman are willing to kill each other over?" You ask. "This town isn't so bad, in the day at least. What exactly are you fighting for?"
Tewi makes a sound half-way between a laugh and a scornful dismissal, turning back to her computers.
Rinnosuke takes a minute to answer. "We can't leave, we had our memories of life before this place removed or tampered with, nearly everyone around us isn't a real person, there are monsters prowling the streets at night, we get hunted down for mere curiosity and you ask why we bother?" He seems almost angry, but not quite, just a little sad.
"Yes." You say. "I want to why. I have to know why if I'm even going to consider helping you."
He stares at you for a moment. "Fair enough." He says.
"We fight because if we don't, we'd be living lies. Tewi would be dead and the Gods know what Yukari would have done if she'd got her hands on what the hive were digging up. That's why she wants us gone, we got to it first, and we're a threat to the illusion of this town. At least ... we think so."
You stare back at him. Back in school he seemed like an average student, but the man looking back at you now is more like a resistance fighter. Organised, hard-eyed, trying to win you over to his cause.
"I understand." You say. "I think I understand."
"Thank you." Rinnosuke says, taking a deep breath.
"Yeah." Tewi chimes in. "You better understand, pah. Spineless little Oni."
You do your best to ignore her. "There's one thing I still don't get." You say. "This 'assassin' who made Youki vanish. How do you know she was a 'fake person' and not actually a real person in Yukari's employ?" You ask. "You said that Satori thought she was real too, so why wasn't she?"
Rinnosuke sighs and looks down. "We have a method, other than Satori, of telling who is what now. When we used it on her ... well," he shudders a little. "She stopped being human on the outside." His eyes take on a far-away, glazed look. "She was in the back at the time, just standing there. I still remember when her head turned to me and just ... opened up like a gigantic mouth." He shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose. "That wasn't a human being or anything like one."
Tewi glares at you from behind her computer monitors. "Shouldn't have asked that." She says.
"No," Rinnosuke says. "No it's okay, he's curious, he needs to know we're not the bad guys here."
"What's this method you have of telling who is real and who isn't?" You ask
"Other than Satori?" He asks.
You nod.
"It's ... it's what the hive were digging up last year. The thing that Yukari wants back." He says. "Satori can tell the difference between a real person and a person with nothing inside, a blank with no real presence. This can tell the difference between anything, it can also tell you what your name is."
"What is it?" You ask, suddenly eager to know. This 'thing' sounds like the core of everything here.
"It's probably better if I show you, it's in the basement." Rinnosuke says.
You drain the rest of your tea in a flash. "Okay, now?" You ask.
"Whenever you like." Rinnosuke spreads his hands.
"Oooh! Oooh!" Tewi hops down from her seat. "Wait, wait!" She patters over and turns to face you, putting her hands on her hips.
"Before you go see the root of the world." She leans forwards "Look what you did!" She points at her nose. Now you're concentrating and not having a major psychological breakdown, you can see that it's bruised, swollen and purple from where you punched her earlier today.
"You're a heavy hitter." She says. "Do we finally have our Samson? Do you need me to pass you a jawbone?" She asks, totally straight-faced.
[ ] "You mean you want me to join you?"
[ ] "You don't have anything. Yet."
[ ] "Sure." Ruffle Tewi's hair.
[ ] "Sorry about your nose, but you were trying to kill me."
[ ] Brush her off for now.
