22:52, Today: Shin-Ji Han rolled 17 using 1d10+9, rerolling max ((8)).

Jai paused as soon as the connection dropped. It was like his ears were popping.

"Why is the net down?" he hissed.

03:32, Today: Jai rolled 14 using 1d10+12, rerolling max with rolls of 2.  Get a Clue.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:34, Sat 12 Feb 2022.

Nikola meditated on the next course of action they could try..and an idea came to her and she said it out loud without too much analysis :

"What if we try to access the school records showing which students are not coming to school and if someone already gave an excuse to cover up the missing people? It might be a start. Do you know if the members of other Dojos also attended this school?"

OOC: 00:10, Today: Nikola Net rolled 13 using 1d10+9, rerolling max with rolls of 4.  Get a clue (2) + INT (7).
This message was last edited by the player at 14:37, Mon 14 Feb 2022.

Nikola, Jai, Shin-ji and Valeriya notice that as the group are breaking up a number of kids who were on their phones lost their signal, they are annoyed and, like "hello?!" to their phones as they make their way to class.

The static field passes quickly, however.

Shin-Ji was watching the crowd, though in truth he was looking at the pretty girl a bit more than the others.


"That girl? Diana I think?

She knew this was going to happen, and now she's leaving quickly. It may be a good idea to follow her."

Tailgate didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He heard the bell and looked up as if to see if a big bell was above him in the air. He looked over at Val when she spoke - as he always seemed to. He gave a shrug and half a smirk. "I mean, he talks t'me every once in a while. 'parently, I need t'djust my attitude an' think more 'bout the future an' stuff beyond the next thrillride."

Plus - he hadn't had too much to offer thus far aside from reaching out to Minerva. Might be nice to feel useful.

"What do you mean 'she knew this was going to happen'? She knew what was going to happen? What's happening?" Vamp asked, looking around as she hadn't the slightest idea what Shin-Ji was talking about.

Shin-Ji rolled his eyes, and started walking to tail her.

"All you gonks need Zanshin.
Everyone started tapping their phones.
The phones just died.

Diana just walked off with a 'I just gave you the touch of death' grin.
Maybe she knows why it happened.
Maybe it's nothing. "

But something told him it was "something".
And Shin-Ji trusted his instincts.

He was already moving, trying to surreptitiously follow her.
Blending in wasn't his forte, but at least if he got caught he had a believable if puerile reason to follow her.

"Remaining mind" or 'the mind with no remainder'? What do you know of Zanshin? Did they teach that at your dojo? Can you teach me? I can street brawl but I never got to really study martial arts like my father did and, as far as I know, our family daishō were lost in the fire," Vamp said as she followed Shin-Ji.

"They were nine hundred years old; made by a legendary swordsmith: Amakuni Yasutsuna." 

The good news was that they weren't trying to stay out of sight, just not get tracked by Diana, so the conversation helped mask that.

The bad news was that, Shin-ji was no Zanshin expert. If the girl hadn't been ridiculously pretty, he might not have noticed her odd grin.

But his sensei would have beaten his ass if he'd missed the phones going out. He'd have been punching the boards for hours for something that gonk.


"Our teacher just called it a Russian word that just meant 'awareness'.
The students were the ones who called it Zanshin.

He said "The thing that is out of place may not be a threat to you, but if it is, and you do not notice, it is the thing that will most likely kill you."

Random things would be changed in the dojo, change posters, move decorations, weapons, make adjustments to his uniform. One time he concealed a handgun, unloaded of course, in his uniform. One exercise was to walk between rows of students, one of which who who would attack you. You never knew who.

The idea was, we'd start keeping our eyes open, consciously at first, trying to notice the things out of place, the little movements that indicated someone was committed to violence. Eventually, you become so used to it that the brain does it automatically. "

He got a pained look at the mention of the loss of her family and there heritage.
He wasn't sure how to process that. The death of his sensei and loss of his claat were still heavy in his mind. He wanted to bowing to her while they were walking, but that would have looked ridiculously conspicuous.

It was not an... easy subject. He'd lost his own father recently, and the loss of his dojo still weighed heavy on him. They'd been closer to him than his own mother, in many ways.

"I am so sorry for the loss of your family, and the loss of your blade.

My own father many years ago. I do not think I mentioned it, but I did not want you to think I was trying to compare our loss. I still have my mother at least.

Vamp, you are welcome to my mono-katana, and I will train you any way I can.
I know it is no replacement, but it is a start to continue your family's heritage.
"

He tried to rationalize giving it away with the idea that he really didn't "need' it more with his new arms and legs. But the truth was, every time he looked at the thing now, it just reminded him of his failure at the dojo, and blood.

"I am looking for a new dojo. I will also try and get you in, though we will need to work on the basics, first, to see where you are."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:25, Wed 16 Feb 2022.

“What the frack was that?” Val whispers, blinking away her puzzlement. “It wasn’t just an outage, it-I lost all readings for a moment.”

And it was almost a relief, phew.

Her eyes went from Shin-Ji to Tailgate, blinking again.

“She… knew? OK, I don’t like this, someone should check that she…”

But the Street Fighter was already gone, tailing that Diana, with Vamp in tow. She was miffed that they had just left, without the queen bee’s say-so.

“Like, whatever, see you later, Vamp and weird guy who speaks in haikus!” she said to their backs, turning to Tailgate. It was… strange, to be suddenly alone, the two of them. After all that had happened the other night, that unexpected privacy was…

What the frack are you on about? You are just, like, alone in a highschool corridor, not like, alone in his bedroom or anyth-

“So, T. Thanks for that drink, the other day at the Obelisk. That was rim of you. I just hope that bartender got shot.”

"Thank you," Vamp said, voice barely above a whisper. "That...that means a lot of you to offer. Those blades were a true family heirloom and the thought of them lost forever is terrible as the rest of that night was. If I had them that would mean I still had something left of my family."

She turned to look at Val and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, aren't you coming? You really want to go to class or actually find out what's going on? Move your bum, Vee!"

Darina moves through and with the crowds of juvies.  The way she wears her uniform attracts attention form most quarters and she is well-known for skirting the rules and the lines of decency.  She heads to a classroom, looks like an English class...

---

Nikola and Jai were with Val and Tailgate also.  Is anyone else following Shin-ji and Vamp?

Nikola paid attention at Shin-Ji's comments on the net going down and Darina noticing, so she started to move along him after Darina, she did not want to interrupt his conversation with Vamp but when she had a spot she mentioned to the group:

"Maybe I can spy on her with my probes and see if she says something, I mean if she comunicates or something that gives us a clue on what she might know "
This message was last edited by the player at 04:49, Sat 19 Feb 2022.

Tailgate hadn't been planning on followed after the 'girl who knew too much' anyway so he just watched as Shin-Ji and Vamp - and then Nikola as well apparently - left to do that. He was about to turn and go on his own part of the 'mission' to gather information when Val spoke to him.

His head and eyes immediately swung back to her, and then he looked away and then back at her. Luckily Jai was still with them as well so it wasn't too awkward. Until he made it awkward again, of course, as was his only talent apparently.

"Uh. Null persp, Val. Not like you need my help for things." Did his eye twitch or did he try to wink at her. He quickly spoke again and had to retrain himself from rubbing the eye. "Never thought I'd get a drink with you, if I'm honest. You're way outta my league." Wait, why did he say that? It made it sound like he was some fanboy who thought about her all the time or something. His face reddened a bit and he looked away from her again.

He swallowed. "uhhh...Anyway. I should go...I mean, t'talk t' the counselor person. Y'know, t'see...what I can find out....if anything." The awkwardness was palpable. Ohgodohgodjustwalkaway! He mechanically turned himself away from her and began walking, body stiff as a board.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Sun 20 Feb 2022.

Shin-Ji spoke quietly to Vamp before getting back to the matter at hand. We should talk after school.

Once she went into the room, Shin-Ji frowned.

<red>"It'll be super obvious if we go in there. If you think you can scan her that way, cool, but remember, if we get caught doing that sort of thing here, that'll be it.

Does anyone know anything about her other than her fashion sense? She's hard to miss, but I got no idea which Yogang she runs with.
<red>

He looked down at his own phone very quickly, checking to see if the failure had dissipated. Was it a hack? Some kind of EMP device? Or did she have cyberevolved abilities? Night city infrastructure wasn't 100%, but they'd done a lot of rebuilding since the ISA had started their revitalization projects. Shin-Ji hadn't seen a net failure in school in his life: this was a solidly maintained area.

"I'm not a Scanner. I can hit her with lightning but that might be flashy and counterproductive. Val's the Scanner so if she would just walk her arse over here and join us, we might get an idea what's going on."

Vamp shot Val the hairy eyeball and made a motion that was very distinctly of the "get the hell over here" variety."

The number of juvies in the halls dwindled sharply as everyone reports to their final class of the day.  Whatever was disrupting the phones is no longer active.

We'd better get to our last class.

We can do some research on this later, maybe find out more about her after school.

We should probably meet up anyway and figure out our next move.

Assuming we don't have a free block for last class.

The group breaks up to go to class or otherwise, some of you may have class together, Jai gets a ping from Minerva's daemon.  It flies down virtually and drops a note onto his phone.

---

You may have a free block for class, though it more likely the higher the grade level.

We could lay out a rough class schedule for everyone, make it easier to figure out who is where at what time of the day (or at least, where they are supposed to be).

Also, the school virtuality system puts an image of a small biurd flying to/from whenever someone sends a message or email on the school network.  Originally it was to discourage passing of notes in class, and of course, you can only see them around the actual sender/recipient, not flying all over nor is any able to track a message in that manner. (they actually move very fast of course, it's just an animation.

Shin-Ji found it difficult to concentrate on his studies. He really needed to actually get moving on stuff that mattered, like finding the missing kids.

After school, maybe they could find out if Diana had been responsible. He had a weird feeling just from the grin she had, but that wasn't enough to potentially blow their cover on.

Hopefully, after school they could meet up and discuss a plan of attack. Also, he'd make good on his promise to teach Vamp and get her that katana. It didn't mean that much to him, but if it gave her peace, then she was welcome to it.

The school day ends not soon enough with the last bell.  This is the week of final exams and wrapping up the year.  Most of the after-school clubs are having their final meetings of the year this week and the day after tomorrow (Friday) is the last day of school.

Earlier:

"Huh. Update from our mysterious benefactor. According to her, maybe up to thirty kids are missing... that's like three percent. No empty halls, but likely each of us knows someone or knows someone who knows someone..."

Now:

Jai debated whether to call in to his job, wondering if he was needed for the search. He tried to catch up with Shin-Ji, the martial artist seemed to be pretty gung-ho.

“Mmm-huh,” Val says as sole answer, watching Tailgate leave while pretending to check her v-term. Boom, he’s said it loud and clear, in his own inimitably, charmingly awkward way. He’s out of her league. Well, yeah, I mean… yeah, it is true. And yet, isn’t it cute that he’s thinking that, which also means that he’s been thinking… whether he’s on her league or not. Which means, he’s into her.

Val blushes unexpectedly, pretending to be incensed at something she has just read in Virtuality.

Like, of course he’s into me! Every dude is, isn’t that the point? So why is it such a big deal? Eh, what are you on about, it is NOT a big deal. Yeah. Just, like. It’s funny. It’s… cute? But is it not a big deal. No. Sure not. Yeah. Carry on.

She walks to Vamp and the others, happy to slip back into her old can’t-be-assed-no-fucks-given routine.

“You called for the Big S? Yeah, I could scan that. But I’m late for French and that’s the one I’m not supposed to miss – going to be spewing some in my next video, so. Catch ya later, losers.”

After school, she decides to drop by the Drama & Dancing club, which she hasn’t attended much during the year for obvious reasons, but it’s a good way to go out with a bang: leaving half the club star-struck, and the other half with severe feelings of inadequacy.

She calls it self-care.

Vamp smirked at Val. "Spewing is right; that's what I do when I hear your music, 'Big S'. Scan it when you're done spewing, yeah? Might be we're not the only ones able to do what we do. The more we can get together means the more we can do."

She gave Tailgate a wink after Val walked off. "Don't sell yourself short, mate. You like her; she knows it, the rest of us know it. Maybe you're just what she needs: someone to keep her grounded. Treat her like a real person, like I do but...without the insults."