Madoka fights the Illuminati (PMMM) [DEAD]

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

BIG RED DISCLAIMER:

I neither promote nor condone any of the actions that the Illuminati or any other character in this quest engage in. The Illuminati are political extremists. It should clear to anyone that they're not heroic people. When they white phosphorus a village, they're being the Illuminati. When they kill what they view as undesirables, they do it because of the ideology.

The Illuminati are highly ideological characters. As such, their ideology is going to resonate throughout this quest. That doesn't mean I encourage you to form terrorist cells to go and kill people according to their ideals.

Why do I write their ideology all over the place? Because unless you know those who could be your enemies and why they think like that, you can't fight them.

I honestly hope that that debacle on SV won't repeat itself.

The year will be known as the first year of a new calendar. It will become the start of an exciting new age, in which the course of human history will accelerate to currently unimaginable speeds, the very rate of this acceleration itself accelerating.

The Meiji Restoration of all Meiji Restorations await.

Very few know this. For 3 centuries as one and for six millennia as many, the Illuminati have slept, waiting for the moment to summon Kriemhild Gretchen, a being that will change the very nature of humanity, to seize humanity under its control and unite humanity against the Incubators.

It is Year 1 of a new calendar and your name is:

25th MARCH START (anime timeline start) {1 day increments until 1st May, 7 days henceforth}:
[] Junko Kaname, serial JP-101
[] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.

1st MAY START {1 day increments when you discover Madoka, 7 days henceforth}:
[] Lord South Pacific, serial AU-008. You are a political, economic, social and military genius, a young man who seeks to impose a New World Order of justice and equality. There's also a problem. You have a rare, terminal genetic disease that will kill you in five years.
[] Lord Boston: The oldest high-ranking Illuminatus, a man with almost a century of expertise, trained in all the Illuminati Arts and with a very personal vendetta against Kyubey.
[] Wen-Li Greenhill, serial CN-144M: Someone who tried to scam the Illuminati for free education and is currently trying to hide from them.

Votes will close on 1900 UTC 25th of December. For me, that is 6:00am Saturday, 26th.

No write-in characters are accepted.

(Un)official opening sequence of the Quest:

Scheming Junko is best Junko

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Vote tally

[X] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.

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[X] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.

Welp. We ain't the flamboyant cyborg South Pacific anymore.

Are you importing any of the side stories you already made, or completely rebooting everything?

Click to shrink...

[X] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.

South Pacfic won't be the same here, so I might as well go with Madoka

Click to shrink...

[X] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.

Click to shrink...

[X] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.

How much knowledge of LoGH will this require?

Click to shrink...

[X] Madoka Kaname, a young girl who has been trained in one Illuminati Art but does not know it.
(I might look around QQ for more quests sometime, might be interesting.)

Click to shrink...

Six votes for Madoka.

[X] Lord South Pacific, serial AU-008. You are a political, economic, social and military genius, a young man who seeks to impose a New World Order of justice and equality. There's also a problem. You have a rare, terminal genetic disease that will kill you in five years.

Click to shrink...

One vote for LSP.

[X] Junko Kaname, serial JP-101

I see no reason not to vote for Plan Bii.

Click to shrink...

[X] Junko Kaname, serial JP-101

A mama-san is fine?

Click to shrink...

Two votes for Junko.

Madoka Kaname is now the player character.

Perk Vote

You are Madoka Kaname. Your mother conferred upon you one secret of Illuminism, but you do not know it.

Illuminati Combat Arts []

• You know how to fight proficiently with firearms. Furthermore, you know how to fight pragmatically, at range.
• You have extreme spatial awareness. Your prediction of bullet trajectories is highly accurate and your aim reliable.
• You can instruct the unskilled in the use of firearms.
• You've got a vague understanding of tactics.
• You are addicted to soft drinks and hamburgers and you're slightly high in weight.

Illuminati Humanities []

• You understand history and philosophy as it is taught by the Illuminati to its middle-ranking members. You understand such concepts as "historical determinism", "historicism", "determinism", "dialectical materialism", "social contract", "utilitarianism" and so forth.
• Your mother has told you a series of supposedly fictional "fairy tales" about evil alien "Messengers of Magic" exploiting the hopes and dreams of female figures throughout history, including Cleopatra to Himiko and Joan of Arc through Faustian contracts, stealing their souls and turning them into monsters.
• You are often described as precocious in insightfulness, and your school grades in humanities subjects are typically good.
• This makes easy the option to defeat the Incubators without needing to become a Magical Girl.

Illuminati Stealth Arts []

• You can fade into the shadows almost by simply willing it.
• This makes looting and plundering Kaname Corporation considerably easier.
• You can practically murder a person in public without anyone noticing it.
• You can detect stalkers and spies more easily and understand the concept of encryption.
• No, you are not a kunoichi.

Solotasking []

• During moments of great stress, your cognition and physical ability temporarily improve.
• You're a berserker with control, essentially.
• If it is truly important, Solotasking will let you accomplish it almost perfectly.
• Your sense of time is powerful to the point that with enough effort, Matrix-like bullet dodges are possible.
• A use of solotasking will leave you exhausted.

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

OOC

[X] Illuminati Stealth Arts

Click to shrink...

It's really a question of what people want Madoka's role to be.

[X] Illuminati Stealth Arts

Click to shrink...

[X] Illuminati Stealth Arts




Eh, that was more Peacock's thing.

Click to shrink...

We stalk Homu nao. /jks

But seriously. Timeline variations. Serious timeline variations. Kyousuke had a guitar in one. This timeline takes that to the logical conclusion.

---

One Year Ago, New York Summer home of the Kaname Family

"...And that is how you turn into a grey blur. Move to the edge where there isn't sunlight. Breathe in deeply. Make sure you can't even see your own toes."

That is how your mother, Junko Kaname, taught you about something ordinary people like you weren't supposed to know.

---

You wake up from a dreamless sleep, hugging your plush, to find that you are staring an a not-unfamiliar ceiling.

You don't like dreamless nights. To wake up from a sleep without a dream is to invite disorderliness into your mind and confound you with insecurity and doubt. "Why am I here, what is my purpose?" Those are questions that those who rise from a dreamless sleep usually ask, in order to fill the void of their thoughts that otherwise would be occupied with thoughts.

You check your clock. You see that it almost time for breakfast. Mother, ever prepared and focused is probably brushing her teeth by now.

You can't imagine a world where Mother would sleep in and where you had to go and ask Father in the garden wear Tatsuya was, with him responding that little Tatsuya was trying to wake her up.

You get out of your blanket and fold it.

---

You're weren't late to the degree Mother that the usual morning banter between you and your mother would be skipped, thankfully. She's preparing her make-up for the day.

Although you don't get the chance to have synchronised tooth-brushing between mother and daughter, you still got the chance to communicate.

---

"What's happening in your world?"

[] "Hitomi got another love letter."
[] Write-in

---

OOC:

Wait, Kaname Corp? We are the heir to a MNC?

Click to shrink...

You're not going to have family murdered by common criminals, so no, /jks. In order to raise a non-affluenzic child, Junko hasn't gone that path. Madoka is not an heiress, neither is Tatsuya an heir.

Isn't the whole point to become Kriemhild Gretchen (on steroids once again)?

Click to shrink...

You can prevent the Mitakihara Scenario if you take appropriate steps. The Mitakihara Scenario is the Illuminati's end goal, but you need not agree with it.

Sorry, your vote was late.

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] Write-in
-[X] Sayaka attempts a confession.

[X] Kimi no Gin no Niwa, PPMM - Rebellion

Click to shrink...

[X] Write-in
-[X] Sayaka attempts a confession.
I will probably vote for the OP in another post if/when I decide what to vote for.

Click to shrink...

---


"What's happening in your world?" Mother continues to apply makeup to her face, glancing up at the mirror every time to ensure it is done properly.

"Sayaka is trying to confess."

"Is she? To the less-than-vital boy? Honestly, given the lackluster nature of most males around here, I'd expect no girl to confess to any boy." You found your mother's assessment a bit harsh.

"But what about Father? If that was the case..."

"I like his meekness."

You put off the topic of your mother and father.

"So, back to Sayaka..."

"It sounds like another one of those middle-school crushes."

"The two are childhood friends..."

"Then it seems like a crush with an osananajimi element. Only time will tell."

"Is that so?"

"But let me tell you this right now, Madoka. Love is for the strong and successful. It is a privilege for those who have too much, they need to give to others. The attraction that Sayaka feels to that boy, it might be a bit harsh, but I think of it as clinging. It will exhaust her. There is no value to be found in it."

"...Even then, you can't deny that she cherishes him."

"No one can deny that. The question is, does she have enough power to seize him and make him her's?"

"Could that be called "love" at all?"

"A working-class person is stuck with either wage-slavery or starvation because of the powers-that-be. Could that be called "choice" at all?"

"...That's surprisingly insightful..." You get the metaphor. What Mother is trying to say is that "true love" doesn't exist at all and that it an excuse for people to control and exploit each other. You don't necessarily agree with her, but it took her a way to explain it for you, so you call it insightful for her sake.

Mother speaks up once again.

"I almost forgot about the ribbons!"

Your mother puts two pair of ribbons before you. One of them is pink and the other is another colour.

"I wonder which ribbon I should wear."

[] Red-pink. You're the cute and innocent Madoka Kaname.
[] The other one.
-[] It's a scary, glaring white, a colour of purity, focus and power.
-[] A peaceful, serene blue, fitting for the Most Serene City of Mitakihara.
-[] An ordinary yellow. Fitting for a normal girl.
-[] A vicious, violent, burning, revolutionary red that makes you feel three times faster and screams for the blood of those around you.

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] The other one.
-[X] It's a scary, glaring white, a colour of purity, focus and power.
[X] I'm Waiting for you, LoGH

Click to shrink...

[X] Skies of Love, LoGH
[X] The other one.
-[X] It's a scary, glaring white, a colour of purity, focus and power.

Click to shrink...

You pick the white ones.

The moment you tie your hair into twintails and look into the mirror, even you can see the atmosphere of power and authority it create around you. Instinctively, you straighten yourself and your mind turns its thoughts to accomplishing great endeavours, even though you don't have any great ideal image of yourself in mind. The ribbons aren't exactly magical artifacts that blind everyone in the room, but their sheen pierces your thoughts. It feels as if you were a star that has witnessed your own birth.

White could also mean death, death from burning far too brightly in particular. However, ever since you saw yourself in those ribbons, you've been more concerned about rotting away and decaying in mediocrity than dying from some violent event. You now look at life from a different angle.

You long for power, power to accomplish your goals, power to not to have to follow people you hate. Even as you long for more power, you seek to use what power you already have to snowball that search for strength and power.

You remain Madoka Kaname, daughter of Junko Kaname. However that brilliant, overwhelming radiance of those white ribbons has inspired you to look a bigger things than ordinary life. You intend for nothing to escape your influence.

You could say that you desire to seize the universe with your own two hands.

Such is the ambition a mere pair of ribbons have driven into you.

---

With so much confidence and vitality in you, you couldn't help but to walk in front of your friends as you traveled to school.

Sayaka asked you rhetorically:
"You really are the daughter of the CEO of Kaname Corporation, aren't you?"

Well, answering that was redundant.

---

Eggs, then a transfer student.

"Come in, Akemi-san. Don't be shy!"

People around you clamor about her beauty. That wasn't what was relevant to you.

She stared at you.

The mysteriousness is intimidating, but to keep this beautiful day on a roll, you try not to show any overt signs of worry.

---

"Hey, Madoka, do you know that girl? I could've sworn she was glaring at you when she was in front of the class." Sayaka asks you.

"No. I'm going to ask her about that."

---

As the nurse aide, you were to bring her to the Nurse's office.

You were relatively quiet for the most part, save for introductory banter, otherwise you were enjoying the scenery. You saw that Akemi was a bit agitated, but you reckoned it was none of your business and you sometimes found yourself staring into the sky as the two of you made your way through the corridors to that other building.

"Call me Homura."

Thing took a strange turn when she stopped in the middle of the walk to the Nurse's office.
---

"Madoka Kaname, do you treasure the life you currently live? And do you consider your family and your friends precious?"

[] "I love them very much and yes they're very precious to me."
[] "I love them, because they love me and I try to reciprocate that."
[] "I love them right now, but if they hurt me, that could very well change."

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

"Madoka Kaname, do you treasure the life you currently live? And do you consider your family and your friends precious?"

Perhaps it's social awkwardness, but it's to be expected from someone new to the school.

You reply like any ordinary person would reply to such a question that came out of the blue.

"I love them, because they love me and I try to reciprocate that." She seems surprised by this answer

She makes some comments about you not changing.

You spend time after school with Hitomi and Sayaka. A discussion ensues between the three and you about Homura.

You finish up.

Sayaka invites you along with her:
"Madoka, you wanna hit the music store on the way home?"

[] Okay.
[] You're confident enough today to sneak into and "borrow" from Kaname Corporation, like you've always wanted to.

[] Write-in

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Side Story #001 - Oracle

"Madoka Kaname..." The young woman contemplated the individual with that name as it left her lips. She did not know the person in question in the flesh, although she knew very well what the meaning of that person's existence was. Madoka Kaname presence was essentially, a turbulent stretch of the river of time, rapids where it was not clear how the stream would finally smooth out. Her presence was in itself a great storm even as another storm laid in future. Such was the size of Madoka's importance that it was obvious that her weight in history was somehow intentionally made. Those... secretive individuals who dwelled in the shadows, even as the professed the name of the light and the one that they compared to a nutcracker, both of them were responsible for it. It was because of them two that Madoka Kaname had become the single point on which she dwelt.

She took a sip of tea to try and calm herself from overexertion.

"There are two paths for her." She continued talking to herself, not in madness, but rather, a very crisp and clear comprehension.

"She may firstly intentionally become the Witch of Salvation, whose name is Kriemhild Gretchen. In that case, she will eat the Earth, drastically changing, yet not destroying humanity. That is because she will derive a new truth from their unity of opposites. That truth will then gain a life of its own, returning to its source, spreading virally to guard Homo Sapiens, denying others the power to curse humanity." In otherwords, the benefits of that being's creation far outweighed the costs. Even if the stage-constructor were to come...

And speaking of the stage-constructor, those shadow-dwellers... one among them, the Man in White, for the sake of the one he loved, but could never speak of it... there was a chance that he would bring the shadows back in alignment with the light. He would bungle the scenario of the one that lost his Lenore, created by that terrible Man of Steel, that plan which called for everything to burn so that humanity could rise like a phoenix again. The Man in White would then bring several broadsides against the stage-constructor, maybe burning a lot of earth in that process, but far less fire will visit the world than if the one who lost his Lenore had his way.

"She may secondly become something less, but also something more. Under their tutelage, she will learn their secrets. She will perfect her knowledge of it all and she will become the superior being they all have dreamed of, rescuing her human predecessors from the darkness they've been trying to fight. And in that case, humanity will... humanity will...its own sins and curses...they will be their own and no-one else's." In that case, humanity would become as strong as the first case, or rather, they'd become something more...although she herself was ambivalent about their long-lost project, it had a point there...

House arrest was one of the ways the woman of the tower tried to restrain her. They and their ancient documents were proving troublesome.

However, there was a way to evade them.

Whatever would happen, Oriko Mikuni would consider herself the first servant of Madoka Kaname.
[dice]4256[/dice]

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Saving everyone, including the annoying violinist is necessary to ensure the survival of every civilian in Mitakihara.




Oriko is working with Kirika to try and bypass her house arrest to aid us.

----

Votes locked, writing up.

Click to shrink...

The day continues to grow more and more mellow, its beautiful evening light colouring the inside of the food court with the ever-richer shades of Spring.

That thought feels really out of place for the somewhat cheeky actions you are about to partake in. Extremely cheeky if you consider the fact you're basically intending to steal from your own mother. You've never stolen anything before

"Madoka, you wanna hit the music store on the way home?"

"Sorry, I got other things things to do."

"Eh?" Upon Sayaka's face is a look of disappointment that you are unable to accompany her. "What's gotten into you lately? It's like you've turned into this really hyperactive figure that goes and tries to make things go her way and doesn't have it any other way. Did something good happen?"

"Well, I slept early and my mother got me a very nice pair of ribbons. Somehow, I'm just more confident."

"How are you supposed to be my bride then?" She brings up an in-joke about her own tomboyish behaviour, but when you think about it, this day really has been somewhat out of the ordinary, in a somewhat good way. Brides are vulnerable. She was saying you were becoming increasingly less bride-ish.

"I really don't know."

You were certain that no pink-haired tomboy was going to to draw a mystical sword out of your heart to duel another vying to possess you as a bride.
That was a Revolutionary Girl Utena reference.
---

You leave Sayaka to browse for music on her own. On the other hand, you're going to sneak into Kaname Corporation Tower and get some early inheritance.

You've always questioned your mother's explanation for ruling out Kaname Corporation in any future inheritance for you.

---

A year back

"Mother, could you tell me the reason why neither Tatsuya, Father or I won't have any share in it in case of a bad event?"

Your mother replied firmly:

"Well, in this world, there are things you have to learn to seize with your own two hands, with your own strength and nobody else's. I'm actually helping you in that way by teaching you that earlier."

---

While you weren't the one to talk back to Mother, you thought about it:

Doesn't that which benefits yourself ultimately benefit your family anyway? Besides, if she had some of the things that Kaname Corporation had to offer, then maybe it would be easier to do the "seizing with your own strength" thing that Mother talked about.

---

Back to the present

You make your way out of the mall. It's evening, but there are still people around so its not too late yet.

You head in the general direction of the Kaname Corporation Tower.

---

When you really think about it, Kaname Corporation Tower really shouldn't exist.

You think this, because when it was built around 14 years ago, apparently the city authorities were causing a racket about the proposition for it. They felt that KC Tower would become too much of a domineering titan that would cast an awful shadow around Mitakihara City. The late politician Hisaomi Mikuni held the opinion that it was "terrorist architecture built by global elites to cower and pacify the common people". To some, that sounded like a rant. However, you had to say, he had a point.

From downtown Mitakihara, in the intersection where you stood, you could see the Kaname Corporation Tower reaching high into the heavens, like a huge spire of Earth trying to defy the divine, a legendary Tower of Babel. 1.6 kms in height, with 315 floors, you felt like a mere ant looking at it.

Built on the meteoric rise and increasing profits of your mother and the Kaname Corporation, a huge conglomerate with ties to numerous other multinational corporations including the Xinjiang Tianhe Corporation, having been built when your mother virtually monopolised the financial sector of Mitakihara, the Kaname Corporation Tower was ultimately a symbol of her power.

That wasn't a bad thing wasn't it? You didn't buy into the stereotype of evil mega-corporations domineering and controlling society towards some sinister end. Kaname Corporation, as a conglomerate, was the reason why Japan had been lifted out of its period of stagnation, the Lost Decade. Offering a host of financial products, including first home loans, loans for newlyweds, loans for civil construction and loans even for those with bad credit, at competitive rates and allowing a variety of options for repayment, the Kaname Corporation had singlehandledly dragged Japan out of recession, ushering a new age of prosperity.

If your power benefited others, then you had a right to show it off, didn't you? Unless you reward yourself, how can you keep on going?

You made the long walk to the outside of the Kaname Corporation's security perimeter.

---

Suited guards were everywhere.

If you wanted a loan from the Kaname Corporation, you simply had to walk into one of the thousands of branch banks around the world. This was Kaname Corporation HQ and most people wouldn't have to visit it to get a loan. Apparently, whatever went on in there was extremely important business such that the security would be intense.

Black company cars made their way through checkpoints, manned by suited guards with submachine guns. Employees and guests scanned their cards at the checkpoint, allowing the barriers to raise themselves then lower.

It must've been a real hassle being an employee here.

Your best best, was to crawl inside of a car trunk and hitchhike.

That was exactly what you chose to do.

---

It was a strangely smooth ride, although you found yourself somewhat out of breath. After the car stops, you crawl your way inside of the trunk to a slightly cramped spot. An employee in black suit opens it. As she turns to light a smoke, you crawl out, taking some spare clothing she happened to have left in the trunk.

To move to a dark spot to change into company dress.

---

It fitted you surprisingly well, although the employee could be said to be rather petite herself.

You see that she has thrown the cigarette onto the floor, stamping on it with her... dress shoes.

---

You follow the woman from behind. She scans an employee card to get into the elevator.

The two of you enter it.

Rather martial, yet still subtle classical music plays as the elevator ascends.

The woman then looks at you.

"Do I know you?"

You bluff her.

"I'm the intern that got accepted into the associate program through Mitakihara University. It's a rather strict workplace isn't it?"

"Hmm. Well, just make sure you keep your intern card on you at all times." The elevator stops and the woman exits.

Your mind turns to the business of getting an ID card.

The first destination? Of course, a toilet.

---

You're pretty sure that "Mai Ikeda" is pretty casual for this work environment. She letf her ID card in a toilet, stupidly enough.

Then again, in a company of 5000 people, at least one of them is bound to be an idiot.

Her office is apparently on the 7th floor.

---

You make your way to Ikeda's office. She's in there, sunglasses on, busily typing away on some business correspondence. The room is poorly lit. Pretty bad ergonomics, you must comment.

Using the shadows as your friends, you sneak your way behind her.

It's only obscure business jargon.

You turn to the water cooler. You see that her smartphone is on there. You take it and exit the room and move into the toilet to check it.

---

You sift through some of the memos.

'give saito briefcase'

That interests you.

---

You go and check on a computer that's been left logged on. You get a company roster.

Fortunately, there is only one Saito in the whole in the whole building.

---

You ascend a couple of floors.

You make your way into this Saito's office.

He's dozing on his desk.

You check the drawers and find a strip of paper with random characters written onto it.

You look at his planner.

'get screws and nails for technicians in B-21'

You assume that's the 21st basement floor.

You take that slip of paper with you.

---

"ACCESS DENIED. IKEDA MAI DOES NOT POSSESS AUTHORITY TO ACCESS BASEMENT FLOOR 21. ATTEMPT RECORDED."

You find yourself a bit worried at that.

You go back to Ikeda's office.

---

You see that a guard armed with a SMG is asking Ikeda on why she tried to access the basement. You ignore the bickering that ensues.

Having only a hunch, you sneak in the shadows while Ikeda and the guard are arguing and pick the guard's right pocket.

You get an ID card. It belongs to Tomita Juichi.

---

This time, you manage to make it to basement floor 21.

As you enter, you see that place is crawling with security bots armed with machine guns patrolling the area.

That must mean some seriously expensive equipment they're storing.

---

Of course, you sneak past them.

---

After sneaking your way through the robots, you arrive in a room...

...where the safes are opened.

You look through the room and find a note.

"K.K. managed to bypass some of the security measures for you. Unfortunately, the room can tell if the things are still there or not. Regards, M.O."

You put the note into your uniform pocket. Someone was helping, weren't they?

Well, you'll thank them later.

You look around the room. You see a couple of books, slightly wrinkled from having been handled, but they're still intact.

You examine the books.

"MANUAL FOR UT-10 INFANTRY JETPACK"
"MANUAL FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARMOUR "VON SCHÖNKOPF""
"MANUAL FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLGENCE AUTOMATIC CARBINE WITH GRENADE LAUNCHER "GUNTHER""
"MANUAL FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SATELLITE SMARTPHONE "STAHL""

You then examine the four briefcases that were pulled by whoever was there beforehand, dispersed on the floor.

You open them and before you, you see your rightfully earned early inheritance.

In one, you see a couple of thrusters attached to a backpack. It was in white.
In the other, you can see the plates of what is presumably "Von Schoenkopf". It was also white.
In the other, you see a modular-straight-lined short rifle. That was probably "Gunther". Again, white.
In the other, you see a smartphone. Yet again, white.

You look at the side of the room. You check it.

Faceplates.

Were these Technicolor weapons meant for child soldiers or something?

You take a couple of pink ones and switch them with the white ones.

And for the sake of whatever deity of fashion out there, there was also a pink pair of tunics and trousers and a pink peaked cap.

You stuff them all in into the briefcases.

They are surprisingly light.

You see a radio on the table.

You take it to use it for your escape bluff.

---

As soon as you move out of the room, as M.O. said it, the alarms started ringing.

You put on a pair of sunglasses you happened to loot and make your escape.

---

With that radiophone next to your ear as you made your way out of the Kaname Corporation Tower, you looked like a security guard, a short one at that, carrying important equipment out. No-one noticed you as the whole building panicked. You made it through every part of the lockdown as you bluffed your way through the security measures as a security guard.

---

With evening becoming as dark as it is, you manage to use the shadows to make it through the entrance's checkpoint.

---

You've managed to sneak into Kaname Corporation to take what is apparently three pieces of highly advanced military equipment and a jetpack at that, managing to bypass surprisingly incompetent security. And you've got a pink military-ish tunic and a peaked cap too. Crazy luck, you'd say yourself.

What do you do now?

[] Telephone Father and tell him you'll be out late
-[] Try on your new equipment and go wandering around in dank and dirty places for a thrill.
[] Go home and sneak your briefcases in.
-[] Then sleep.
-[] Read the manuals until midnight, then sleep.

March 25 Friday - 6:00pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] Telephone Father and ask tell him you'll be out late
-[X] Skim the manuals on your new equipment before doing anything dangerous.
-[X] Try on your new equipment and go wondering around in dank and dirty places for a thrill.

Click to shrink...

[X] Telephone Father and tell him you'll be out late
-[X] Skim the manuals on your new equipment before doing anything dangerous.
-[X] Try on your new equipment and go wandering around in dank and dirty places for a thrill.

Click to shrink...

You go the the nearest payphone booth and dial it, giving it a couple of coins as payment. You contact Father.

"Hello Father? I've got a school assignment to do. No thanks, I'll walk home by myself. Tell Mother for me, please."

You then hang up.

You crawl into a secluded alley and pull out the manuals, skimming through them.

---

After skimming through the four manuals, these were the conclusions you reached about each of them.

VON SCHÖNKOPF

• "Von Schoenkopf" is an artificially intelligent exoskeleton armour system that can conceal itself as a backpack and transform when the user presses the right button sequence.
• It is resistant to all melee attacks save heavy hacking and cleaving. In other words, it is stab-proof.
• It is resistant to even heavy rifle rounds, even in quick succession.
• It is water-proof up to 50m.
• The AI it is built around, full version name "von Schoenkopf, Walter" can assist the user in making primarily offensive tactical decisions.
• It has decorative faceplates and is currently mounting pink ones.
• "Von Schoenkopf"

GUNTHER

• "Gunther" is an artificially intelligent automatic automatic carbine with an integral grenade launcher.
• Gunther can join with von Schoenkopf to conceal themselves.
• Gunther is accurate to distances of up to 1km.
• Gunther comes along with 40 rounds in its proprietary magazine.
• Gunther can take standard STANAG magazines as well.
• Gunther is select fire, with semi-auto, full-auto and AI-controlled firing abilities, where the trigger is pulled to identify and enemy.
• Gunther can fire 40mm grenades.
• It takes 5.56 NATO ammunition.
• It can fire in water and is waterproof to 50m.
• The AI focuses on defence through firing tactics and retreats.
• Gunther has decorative faceplates and is currently mounting pink ones.

STAHL

• "Stahl" is an artificially intelligent smartphone that can make tactical decisions and provide advise on how to use the other systems.
• Stahl can work with Gunther and von Schoenkopf to conceal itself.
• Stahl is waterproof to 50m.
• The AI is focused on balanced tactics and strategy as a whole.
• Stahl can decrypt lightly encrypted files through distributed computing through botnetting.
• Stahl can ascertain the outlook of a battle.
• Stahl can learn and make ethical decisions involving civilians.
• Stahl can pretend to have a personality and interpret language to appear to be truly sentient.
• Stahl has decorative faceplates and is currently mounting pink ones.

All three artificially intelligent weapons can calculate in tandem and it is possible for the user to select one to lead the others.

As for UT-10:

• It is a water-fuelled jetpack that can be fixed and conceal together with von Schoenkopf.
• It has two modes: Control Mode and Jump-Fall Mode.
• Control Mode allows the user to fly, however, they must consciously control it.
• The default Jump-Fall Mode does not possess this ability, but the user is free to use it without the need to control.
• Von Schoenkopf can translate verbal orders for UT-10 to allow flight without control mode, but the firmware is currently being built.
• UT-10 has faceplates and of course is mounting pink ones.

You've also taken along a pink tunic-longcoat and cap, simply because it was there.

You realize that it is oversized for you, maybe to make up for von Schoenkopf. It's like a WWI-era Western Front greatcoat decided to become retro fashion. You examine it closer. Apparently, the tunic has got a flap that can allow UT-10 to stick out. If you put on the tunic and hat, you reckon you'd look like a certain 90s magical girl protagonist.

Well, it makes good outwear. After you put on von Schoenkopf.

You take out von Schoenkopf. It's not a backpack right now, it's a disassembled mess.

You follow the manual, connecting its pieces around your school uniform.

---

You put on the last piece. Von Schoenkopf is fully assembled around you.

You then pick up Gunther. You place Stahl on a pocket specially made for it on the side of Von Schoenkopf.

You press sequence of buttons on Von Schoenkopf and it activates, as does its voice synthesiser.

"FIRST INITIATION. CREATING BIOMETRIC PROFILE AND USER LOCK. PLEASE DECLARE USER NAME."

"Madoka Kaname."

"USER REGISTERED. SYSTEMS ONLINE AND READY TO GO."

You then activate Gunther, the carbine and Stahl, the smartphone as well. You add UT-10 to the back of Schoenkopf for good measure.

Both of them demand of you again:
"FIRST INITIATION. CREATING BIOMETRIC PROFILE AND USER LOCK. PLEASE DECLARE USER NAME."

"Madoka Kaname."

"GUNTHER..."

"STAHL..."

"VON SCHOENKOPF..."

All of them announced to you via voice synthesizer:
"...AT YOUR SERVICE."

The three asked:

"PLEASE SELECT ONE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO LEAD OPERATIONS."

AI selection
[] "Gunther" Defence is important to survival.
[] "Stahl" Think of the big picture.
[] "Von Schoenkopf" A strong offence is a strong defence, although you don't know whether you'll fight or not.

Where do you intend to wander now?

-[] Hospital. Gonna practice avoiding civilian gazes.
-[] One of the more lower-class areas in Kazamino City.
-[] Some scummy, run-down neighbourhood in Mitakihara with plenty of crime and other shady business.

Do you put the pink tunic and cap on you as well?

Spoiler: What it kind of looks like

--[] Yes. I don't want people to recognise me in case of trouble.
--[] Just the tunic to keep out the cold, the cap could obstruct my vision
--[] Neither. I can stand the cold.

March 25 Friday - 6:30 pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked commencing write-up

Click to shrink...

---

You simply reply "Stahl!"

"YES MA'AM." Stahl's acknowledgement is followed by von Schoenkopf's and Gunther's. Von Schoenkopf and Gunther are now subordinates to Stahl in their strange AI chain of command, however that works.

"I'm just going to try sneaking around in the hospital, so relax a bit."

"ACKNOWLEDGED. GUNTHER, ENGAGE SAFETY, VON SCHOENKOPF RELAX ACTIVE PROTECTION AND ENGAGE SILENCE MODE. STEALTH MISSION HENCEFORTH, MUTE VOICE SYNTHESIZERS."

Two lights blinked on Gunther and von Schoenkopf as if in acknowledgement to Stahl's orders.

You wondered if speaking out those commands were really necessary. Was it just for show?

---

It was getting darker, which was perfect for wandering around stealthily in. You could honestly say that you felt like a young superheroine fighting evil by the night, except you had no evil to confront.

You were just going to wander into a hospital, armed with three or four pieces of high-tech military equipment.

Perhaps it was being a bit melodramatic, but maybe you were the evil? Yep, it was being a bit too melodramatic.

At this hour, the hospital was probably still open, the staff wandering around like the overworked drones they were. Poor doctors and nurses. Perhaps the reason for a doctor's high pay was not only because of skill, but because of the demands of their work.

But that wasn't what you were here for was it? You were here to try and practice sneaking around in that bounty you seized.

---

Having thrown a token coin you found on the ground to distract a nurse, you sneak into her office. You take a nurse uniform and for the first time and after putting down your cap and tunic-longcoat, you try your equipment's ability to transform. You look at the right sight of von Schoenkopf and pull open a control panel. You then press on the correct sequence of buttons to transform the weapon set into a backpack.

Von Schoenkopf disengages its connections, a slight whir nonetheless humming as it carefully loosened itself. It deployed straps around your back and folded itself into a backpack. You see that it hasn't taken Gunther in as well. You place the backpack of von Schoenkopf down and roughly stuff Gunther into it, alongside your coat and cap. Then you quickly change into the nurse's uniform, just in time.

A doctor wanders in, furrowing his eyebrows at you.

"You must be the intern assigned to the surgical unit. Come-on, get a move on. And that backpack..."

"It belongs to a patient, Mr Doctor, she told me to check it for medication. I'm returning it to her."

"...Patients. They can't even be bothered to do it themselves. Ah, well, just return to unit with it once you're done."

So far the bluff was going quite well. You make your way to the surgical unit just to keep it.

Why did that box on the ground smell of used underwear? What kind of hospital kept boxes lying around anyway?

You ignored it, moving on.

---

You wander with a food trolley into the surgical ward and your sense of wanderlust suddenly dies.

You feel a heavy atmosphere of death and sickness, threatening to collapse onto your head.

You push onwards, ignoring it. Getting used to it might improve you, you morbidly reckon.

---

This part of the unit just sounds outright depressing. You hear the voice of a young girl, crying.

Moved by it, you can't help but to wander right into where it is.

You see that young girl knelt before the bedside of her mother, pink dress, chocolate sleeves and white hair. Her mother's eyes look empty.

"...Don't cry...Bebe. Don't. Just don't."

Such was her tiredness that she couldn't say much else to the young girl who was presumably, her daughter.

"Mama, don't leave me!"

"But Nagisa. You know that I must. I told you about it before. There is no avoiding it."

"...But Mama!"

You just wanted to practice sneaking. Now you had the misfortune of making it into a palliative care unit.

Well, that put things in perspective, quite badly though. While you lived an ordinary, maybe even extraordinary life, given your mother's status, others had to wallow in the ground.

The morbid thought of you being tormented in their place filled your mind, although you dismissed it as self-serving self-flagellation.

Since you're in here with a food trolley, you suppose you should play a role:

[] "Would you or your daughter like anything, Madam?"
[] Bow to apologise and leave them to respect their privacy.

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] "Would you or your daughter like anything, Madam?"
Cake and Cheese Overdrive to occur in 3...

Click to shrink...

[X] "Would you or your daughter like anything, Madam?"

Click to shrink...

---

Still in your nurse disguise, you ask the mother and child duo a question:
"Would you or your daughter like anything, Madam?"

The daughter looks at her mother and her mother shakes her head.

"Palliative care... No dairy."

The young girl, far more sincere due to her youth tells you:
"Just a slice of cheesecake. The other doctors and nurses won't let us!"

To ease the pain of the duo, you intend to get them just that.

A slice of cheesecake to share between the two of them.

---

You quickly make your way out of the hospital to a still open dessert shop. You buy a slice of cheesecake and make it back to the unit.

Those fading away deserve dignity even as they pass.

You didn't want to say that what the woman was going through was terminal, but by the looks of it, it was.

---

You bring to them a slice of cheesecake to share between the two of them.

You wait outside for the two of them to finish.

Apparently, it wasn't very busy. You did manage to overhear a conversation between two other real nurses.

---

"Kashira kashira, gozonji kashira?"

"Kaname Corporation is going to formally absorb Overreach Industries, that dead American company."

"You've got to "hand" it to Mrs Kaname for being so bold and enterprising."

"She never asked for this."

"Kashira kashira, gozonji kashira?"

---

Daughter and mother have finished sharing their cheesecake.

The mother catches on to your act.

"Tell me, young woman... you're not really part of the staff are you?"

Denying it would've brought you no good.

"No."

"You're too kind to have been one of them." The woman coughs.

"They have their reasons for restricting your diet. Please understand that."

The woman nods.

"Even so, I'd rather have it quick." She worded it in such a way so that her daughter didn't understand it.

Even deceit could be used for kindness.

The woman reaches her bedside table and hands you a small notebook.

"Address and things for you. Walk her home today please."

*Mrs Momoe's diary GET

---

You introduce yourself to the little girl.

"My name's Kaname Madoka. Yours?"

"Momoe Nagisa."

In such a sullen day, there is little else to talk about.

---

You walk Nagisa home, wearing your backpack stuff with a nurse disguise, a smart gun, a smart phone and a jet pack. You carry four briefcases, stacked inside of each other.

---

What now?

[] "I still haven't finished my "school assignment" yet." Call Father and tell him you might be arriving home later than expected. You still haven't had your thrill yet.
-[] You're morbidly interested in wandering around the less savoury areas of Mitakihara.
--[] Dressed up in the pink coat and cap. It's strangely cold for spring.
-[] Maybe up the danger level a little bit and wander around in Kazamino.
--[] Dressed up in the pink coat and cap. It's strangely cold for spring.

[] Anymore and family might be worried. Go home.
-[] Study the manuals and go to sleep early.
-[] Study Mrs Momoe's diary and go to to sleep early.
-[] Look up Overreach Industries and go to to sleep early.
-[] Do all three and sleep late.

March 25 Friday - 7:30 pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

You figure that since it is night-time, anywhere wandering about and you will make your family worry.

You wonder on how Mother is doing. There must be a lot of trouble over at the Corporation Tower.

You make your way home without further ado, with your "backpack" and bunch of empty briefcases.

---

You arrive home. First, you put the backpack and briefcases to the side and then you walk in to greet your family.

"Tadaima!"

Your father responds.

"Okaeri!"

Your little brother comes up to you to hug you.

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan!" You pat on his head.

"Dinner is on the table, so you can just reheat it." Your father kindly tells you.

"Thanks, Papa!"

You then silently sneak out to get your loot, deftly moving into your room and hiding it under the bed to conceal it.

---

You take out the manuals for von Schoenkopf, Gunther and Stahl and thoroughly read them. You feel confident that the next time you use them, you will be quite good at using all they have to offer.

---

You read through Mrs Momoe's diary.

Diary Entry 1:
Joined a medical trial, Von Langenstein Pharmaceuticals. Roughly 1000 other subjects. The pay is good, so why not?

Diary Entry 2:
Apparently, I'm taking the experimental nootropic "Odin" as part of the experiment.

Diary Entry 3:
I have to say, I'm working harder, stronger, better and smarter. My thanks to the creator.

Diary Entry 4:
I'm on my third bottle know. V.L.P. said I have to sign a waiver to continue being a participant. I signed it.

Diary Entry 5:
I don't feel so well. The other subject I know is doing perfectly fine. Why do I feel so weak?

Diary Entry 6:
I discontinued the experiment. Wretched corporation says I can't sue them because of the waiver.

Diary Entry 7:
The wasting away won't stop, even months after I've finished it.

You all found it rather morbid.

After eating dinner alone as Tatsuya and your father went to bed, you brush your teeth and go to bed too.

Mother still hasn't arrived home yet.

---

Burglarising Kaname Corporation Tower to get super-armour.

An interesting dream.

---

You wake up. You try and make your way out of the bed, but stub your right big toe on a chair and fall down.

"Ow!" You land in such a way that you can see the briefcases...

You're not supposed to have briefcases under your bed.

Clearly, it was no dream. You went in to Kaname Corporation Tower and burglarised it.

You're wandering how Mother's doing.

---

Mother is still brushing her teeth. You manage to brush your teeth alongside her.

"Scumbag thief broke into the Tower the other day. Came home at 1:00." That shows, with droopy eye circles ruining your mother's otherwise sharp face.

"How were the security measures?"

"People are the weakest connection. Two of them were complete and utter idiots I say. Gonna' have them fired with no severance package. And if I find that tricky animal that broke into the basement, I'm going to sue them, sue their mother, sue their father, sue their brothers and sisters and even sue their pets for all the trouble they've caused."

"What was stored in the basement anyway?"

"Military equipment on transit to Xinjiang Tianhe. Didn't even manage to look at it. Bo...Friend's going to rant about chickens again. All business matters but. Honestly, that scumbag. Oh dear, I'm sounding like a bitter old hag."

"You're still the CEO, Mother."

"Yeah, I guess."

---

Apparently, your mother didn't "even manage to look at it". You take this to mean that she didn't know that von Schoenkopf can turn into a backpack.

"Is it possible for you to turn into a satchel?"

Sadly, von Schoenkopf replies:
"NO."

You're going to have to concoct some creative truth to get the others to not ask about the backpack.

---

You walk to school with Sayaka and Hitomi, as per usual, except the former is pressing on about your backpack quite incessantly.

"Eh... So you were out shopping without us?" Sayaka takes your account at face value.

"Don't you think backpacks at our age are quite... brutal?" Hitomi asked that of you.

To be honest, even in backpack form, von Schoenkopf looked quite savage. Compared to your body, it was massive. It probably could store more than the blue satchel, which you also brought along.

"What's in your backpack anyway?"

Sayaka decides to fool around, glomping you from behind and by extension the "backpack".

"A couple of books."

"You're going to turn into a bookworm now? Please don't, princesses are supposed to be naive and innocent!" Again, Sayaka made another one of her jokes about marrying you.

---

School finishes and the three of you again visit a mall.

It was the usual fare of banter and gossip.

With nothing left to talk about, the three of you go your separate ways.

---

What is your next course of action, White Ribbons?

[] "I still haven't had a thrill!" Go wander around in dank and dirty places.
-[] The less savoury areas of Mitakihara.
-[] The more benign parts of poorer Kazamino.
-[] The worst parts of Kazamino.
[] Go home.

If you choose to go thrill seeking, will you wear your "inheritance"?
[] With coat and cap! You think it will be the standard wear from now on.
[] No.
[] Other

[] Write-in

March 26th Saturday, 4:00pm

OOC: Anime timeline comparison:

• March 26th Saturday - Possibly Mami vs Gertrud

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked and commencing write-up

Click to shrink...

You weight the merits of wandering around with the your new backpack against the merits of going home and using the internet to look up on the various rumours you've heard and read. Specifically, a couple of things stoke your urge to know more.

Firstly was that interesting conversation between the two nurses in the hospital you sneak in last night:

The first thing is Overreach Industries:

"Kashira kashira, gozonji kashira?"

"Kaname Corporation is going to formally absorb Overreach Industries, that dead American company."

"You've got to "hand" it to Mrs Kaname for being so bold and enterprising."

"She never asked for this."

"Kashira kashira, gozonji kashira?"

Click to shrink...

The second thing is Mrs Momoe's account of her involvement in the trial of a nootropic known as "Odin" by von Langenstein industries.

You have already decided that you are going to look up the Odin issue and maybe the Overreach Issue as a bit of a sidenote.

---

You arrive home early.

"Tadaima!"

"Okaeri!"

Again Tatsuya greets you with a hug. You reciprocate.

---

After cleaning up early, you head into your bedroom.

You log on onto your computer, the keyboard projecting itself onto the table. The computer starts up quickly and you open the browser.

You type in "odin medical trial von langenstein pharmaceuticals" into the search box.

You click on the first result. You arrive at the home page of Von Langenstein Pharmaceuticals.

"Faster, Stronger, Smarter" was the main tag line of the page you were on. You browse through their products. Apparently, they mainly focus on "nootropics", a term you search to find the meaning. It means "smart drugs" essentially, that improve concentration, motivation and/or focus. They also offer other products, such as muscle growth formula and immediately strength enhancement pills.

You search for external reviews. They are usually positive for some reason. Then again, judging from the fact that it was tested by volunteers, maybe they really were genuine, those drugs giving the people who used them real power.

You then check Von Langenstein Pharma on a wiki.

It turns out that Von Langenstein Pharmaceuticals is a multinational corporation based nominally in Brisbane. Some link-surfing then lands you on another page, which lists it among the fastest growing companies of recent times, including the Xinjiang Tianhe Corporation that mother talked about, Guadalajara Biotechnology, Sao Paulo Steel Incorporated and Kaname Corporation itself.

That, of course, tells you nothing except of the fact that they have grown rapidly

You decide that maybe you could get a feel for public opinion by browsing on other sites.

You check on a social news site. The opinions are primarily positive and it seems that anyone that speaks bad of it is called a hippy or hack.

You check on an imageboard. Extreme amounts of profanity seem to crop up wherever it is managed, with wild arguments of cheating and envy being thrown around.

You check on a druggy site and all of it is, not surprisingly, positive. You check a transhumanist site and it too is positive.

You go and read on an fundamentalist religious site and a conspiracy website. Strange allegations of von Langenstein Pharmaceuticals belonging to a secret cabal of Satanic space lizards seeking to exploit humanity and steal their souls and take foetuses as food for the New World Order and whatnot are everywhere. You get a headache just reading through it.

You check on the imageboard again. This time, it's on a conspiracy section. Insults involving cuckoldry and ethnic slurs are thrown everywhere, such is the nature of an imageboard. However, you actually manage to make a sense of the incoherent mess.

Apparently, some people believe that a mysterious conspiracy called "the Illuminati" poisoned some of the Odin testing supply. Additionally, Kaname Corporation was responsible for handling the trial in Mitakihara City for the handful of people who let themselves be subjects. You make note of that, even as it insults you, the suggestion that Kaname Corporation is involved in some diabolical scheme.

---

You do the same for the Overreach Industries issue. The positive and negative receptions are a bit different this time around, but the fact was, conspiracy theories were as abound as with Von Langenstein Pharmaceuticals.

The difference was in the content of those theories. The general consensus was that Overreach Industries was on the verge of a breakthrough that would allow neural-link bionics to become feasible, essentially creating mechanical body parts that would work not just as mere prosthetic, but would interact with their users' nervous systems. The conspiracy theories tended to go in the direction, that the hugely destructive Overreach Industries fire a decade or so ago was done by the Illuminati as they feared that research going out of hand, creating people with the strength to fight them

Apparently, Kaname Corporation acquired Overreach Industries a while ago. Newer conspiracy theories proposed that Kaname Corporation was a company with heavy ties to Area 51. A couple of them even went so far as to suggest that your mother was a reptilian beast that was being supported by Area 51 human traitors to take over the world. Some more insane posters even said that your mother was the bastard offspring of an evil banker, related to Hitler who fled to Japan during WWII. Strangely enough, the Hitler family tie allegations were mixed with anti-Semitic ranting that accuse your mother of being a love child between a Jewish refugee and a Japanese demimondaine. In other words, the conspiracy theorists were a bunch of nutjobs. You facepalmed at it all.

That finishes your strange experience in the weirder side of the internet.

---

What shall be your next course of action?

[] Sneak into the Kaname Corporation Tower and go search for anything related to Von Langenstein Pharmaceuticals or Overreach Industries.
[] Kaname Corporation is probably on high alert after that incident. Go sneak around somewhere else.
-[] The hospital
-[] The less savoury parts of Mitakihara.
-[] Kazamino, generally.
-[] Kazamino, the worst parts.

What will you wear as your standard wear when sneaking around from now on?
[] Pink coat, cap and full armour with jetpack.
[] Other combination.

[] Write-in

March 26th Saturday, 6:00pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Side Story Constitution:

If you check the current post for side story #001, you will notice that I have rolled another nat 20.

In order to compensate for the lack of an experience system, I will create a constitution for side stories:

The Purpose of the Side Stories

• The roll for a side story determines tone and mood.
• Side stories provide OOC knowledge to expand on the world and setting without directly interfering with decision making.
• A side story should neither be a diabolus or deus ex machina, because the plot ought to be made by the author with long term planning. New plot elements shall not be made using side stories. As such, side stories shall focus on the past or events too distant to be of high plot significance.

Implementation of the Side Stories

• The questmaster will roll on the previous side story post. They will make a new post to announce a roll has been made.
• The questmaster will provide three options from which a side story with a mood fitting of the roll can be chosen.
  • A roll near 1 indicates 5 degrees of darkness. A roll 2-3 indicates 4 degrees of darkness. 4-5, 3 degrees of darkness. 6-7, 2 degrees of darkness. 8-9, 1 degree of darkness. 10, neutral. 11-12 one degree of fluff. 13-14, two degrees of fluff. 15-16, three degrees of fluff. 17-18, four degrees of fluff. 19-20 five degrees of fluff.
• Side Stories require a first-to-three vote rather than first-to-two.
• The QM will announce that the vote is locked and commence write-up, as per usual.
• The questmaster will write the side story and repeat this process.

Vote for Side Story #002

[] Peacock's Feelings

[] The Blue Planet of Water, Earth

[] The Rise of Mitakihara

I am still waiting for the main story vote.

EDIT: Disregard that, reversion to the old scheme of dice.

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked, commencing write-up.

Kazamino generally. Next side story "The Blue Planet of Water"

Click to shrink...

If Mitakihara was the shining city on the hill, Kazamino was just your "average" town, where "average" was a euphemism, with the label of city. Kazamino was an "average" place with "average" people. It wasn't a third-world hellhole, but it was clearly overshadowed by Mitakihara. The gigantic skyline created by Kaname Corporation Tower's presence didn't exactly help to take attention away from the awful disparity between the two locales. Unfortunately, this meant that the scum of Mitakihara found it a good place to try and avoid the ire of the Kaname Corporation. For some reason, whenever Kaname Corporation was involved, organised crime, Yakuza to simple street gangs tended to run away as if Kaname Corporation were bigger fish. Some of the conspiracy theories on the web you've read about Mother's business said that the Kaname Corporation had in-house hitmen who went wherever there were poor little Yakuza or gangster fry to kill them for hurting business. Indeed, one of the crazier accounts even alleged that Kaname Corporation was responsible for a certain notorious event around a decade ago in which 30 Yakuza were bloodily and boldly massacred in broad daylight and their bodies mutilated, Eyes of Providence and Owls of Minerva branded onto their corpses.

You dismiss it as the irrational and strange conspiracy theory that it is. A corporation didn't need to go and make example of organised crime in order to attain power. Surely, the sheer presence of the business would deter organised crime, because the government's interest in unemployment reduction would make them want to protect it? Your mother was ambitious and confident, but she wasn't a bloodthirsty secret-society maniac.

So in your pink coat concealing your equipment, you start your trip, first to the train station, then to Kazamino.

You think you just caught another whiff of that strange smell of used underwear that you smelt earlier in the hospital, but you dismiss it as your imagination.

---

You step off the train and make your way into the streets.

You start walking, looking left and right, examining your surroundings. What shops there are seem to be stocked with mediocre amounts of goods and you pass by a bankrupt store that is boarded up. As you make your way further down the streets, you see a broken window or two.

How strange, that next to a city of prosperity, there is a town in recession.

A girl in school uniform giggles as she holds onto the cuffs of a salaryman, tugging him to take him away from your field of vision. Oh dear...

You see a couple of hipsters gathered around, presumably to talk about hipster things, whatever they were. The gentrification has already started, hasn't it?

You pass by an open groceries store and you see that a grumpy old man is busy cleaning one of his outside stalls. You look closer and see that the stall, judging from the sign, used to have apple up for the sale.

The grumpy old man turns around at yells at you:
"What, another truant street rat who wants to steal my stuff? Begone!"

With such an unlikeable manager, no wonder the store has so few customers.

You wander around further.

---

Down further the street, a bank and a pawn shop, opposite of each other. Judging by the moderate amount of people around, it seems that they are the biggest businesses around.

You look through the pawn shop's window. The pawn shop owner was probably the richest small business owner in town, judging by it, although business wasn't exactly very small. Phones, guitars, a violin, white goods, a toaster, a television and even a child's bicycle were up for sale.

You try not to make a judgement about the owner, who you can't even see, but seeing the outrageous disparity in wealth between him and the rest of Kazamino, you can't help but think if something is off.

You turn around and look at the bank branch.

The branch belonged to, of course, Mitakihara Bank, open 24/7, a subsidiary of the Kaname Corporation in charge of entry-level business and personal financial products.

You look at the ATMs. There was a queue of people lined up, waiting to withdraw money.

Just as you are about to turn your way back from the depressing sight, a man storms out of the bank branch, angrily ranting about his personal circumstances:
"How come the interest rates are so high? I just wanted a loan for my daughter's education and they won't let me have it lower because it's Kazamino! I can't afford them, so now what?"

Powerless to do anything and realizing that quite sharply, you turn your back on him and make your way back nearer to the train station, seeing very little of value. Essentially, Kazamino was town that was financially knocked down, trying to get back on its feet the very best it could.

You wander past an alley in which a couple of drunks are messing around on the ground and arguing with each other. Just as you stop and turn to stare at them to get a feel of what they're arguing over, another girl, dressed in a turquoise jacket exposing her midriff and short jeans showing off her legs, stops by your left and looks onto to miserable sight.

"Drunken escapist scum. Absolutely pathetic."

That was a piece of social commentary you weren't expecting.

[] Stalk her from the shadows. She sounds like she's got some pretty interesting ideas and boy does she thrill you.
[] "That's not very nice. Their lives are painful and alcohol is their only escape, what's wrong with that?"

[] Write-in

Batman Begins Reference

watch at 2:49

March 26th Saturday, 7:00pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked and write-up commencing. Also, added "Siegfried", "Stein" and "Linz" to obtainables.

Click to shrink...

"Their lives are painful and alcohol is their only escape, what's wrong with that?" Your mother enjoys alcohol responsibly, whiskey allowing her to relax and calm down from the tension of her work when she relaxes at night. The only difference between her and them is that your mother has control over their drinking habits. If it is that bad for them, then its the outcome for not controlling their habits.

You wait for a response but none occurs.

You think that maybe you offended someone. You turn to your left and see that the redhead girl is shaken. Tears are welling in her eyes, although you see a healthy dose of rage in her face as well.

"And... and what about the people those escapists leave behind? What about family and friends? What about their wife, their husband, their sons or their daughters? What about them, huh? You think it's just right to run away? Do you, you middle class hedonist brat?! You're not from around here are you?!"

"I'm sorry if I offended you, it was just my opinion..."

"Well, your opinion can go and...die!"

You wondered what was her problem.

She storms off violently and the way she walks makes it clear she wants to get away from far as you as possible, your presence being odious to her.

[] "I'm sorry!" Chase after her and apologise.
[] Stalk her. People with mental problems like that... you pity her.

[] Write-in

March 26th Saturday, 7:10pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

You should probably modify the statement: Under sufficient stress, most people will be willing to kill.

But that really has no baring on the situation. The choices here were to apologize or stalk. I choose neither and added an opinion to give final advice before leaving.

IF things degenerate into a fight, I don't mind that outcome. It gives Madoka a chance to find out more about the world she lives in.

IF nothing happens, then we haven't wasted time either.

That's really the point of the votes right now.

Click to shrink...

---

"I'm sorry!" You continue to chase after her. She hears your apology, but dismisses it even as she's running.

"I don't care. Just go away! I can't handle the thing you're making me remember!" She is surprisingly fast.

Suddenly, Stahl activates and speaks, at a volume only you can hear. Of course civilians around you are curious

"WITHIN MITAKIHARA-KAZAMINO AREA. PURSUIT SITUATION RECOGNIZED. CONNECTING TO ANONYMOUS OPERATIONS SATELLITE VPN. CONNECTING TO XINJIANG TIANHE LABORATORIES. ACCESSING MMMR SYSTEM. RETRIEVING MAGNETIC SIGNATURE, SUBJECT IDENTIFIED AS SAKURA KYOUKO, SPECIAL DESIGNATION, SECOND CHILD."

"Memo that down for me for later, Stahl!"

"ACKNOWLEDGED, MADAM."

You stop for a minute to catch your breath. You then remember that you were supposed to be chasing that girl, whose name is apparently "Kyouko". You then realise that stopping has caused her to escape your sight. You take out Stahl, your strategic smartphone and look at the screen. What you see is amazing.

Before you on the phone screen is a three-axis map that shows you the layout of Kazamino City. Currently, it is focused on a moving dot labelled "SAKURA, KYOUKO" that is rapidly moving around Kazamino, apparently on the higher levels.

You try and think about that.

She's jumping across rooftops!? Was she an acrobat or something?

Chasing her down was going to be hectic...

---

She finally stops at an abandoned hotel, apparently. You come to the understanding that she is a street urchin. A very athletic one at that that can run across rooftops confidently.

That just adds more layers of strangeness to it.

You wanted to apologise to her and to have her accept that apology. That probably requires a gift.

You go to a small corner store and buy a tub of ice cream with your pocket money.

---

You head your way into the abandoned hotel.

"Gunther, brace yourself, I'm going to smash that door."

"ROGER."

You pull out Gunther, your artificially intelligent carbine and use it to smash the flimsy and rotten door. Since Sakura-san is at the top floor, you reckon she won't hear it. You crash Gunther into the door knob, rendering moot the issue of the door.

You wander in and boy, do you realize this wasn't exactly a high quality hotel. Syringes, vodka bottles and used... stuff are thrown all over the place.

From a pragmatic, hide-in-an-unpleasant-place point of view, this was the perfect hideaway. Dirty, putrid, disgusting. No sane normal person would've thought of crawling here. It's either you're insane or abnormal, apparently. The same could be said of the redhead.

You sneak up the stairs, taking out the muted Stahl occasionally to check whether you were looking at the right side of the corridors.

You get nearer to this Sakura as you advance.

You arrive at the room Stahl say she's in. You peer in. Stahl wasn't mistaken. It was the redhead alright.

And she was pigging out on fried chicken, rice and instant noodles and sweets. She didn't have any nutritional education, did she? Well, it's not like you controlled her body, so it wasn't any of your business.

You politely knock on the open hotel door:
"I still want to talk."

On the other side of wall, you hear Sakura-san yell:
"Oh what now, you persistent little mouse?"

"I got ice cream to prove to you I mean no harm."

"Hmm. Now you're talking. Come in."

---

A short and pleasant dialogue ensues between the two of you.

You say to her:
"So, I'm sorry for offending you and hurting your feelings in any way."

"Apology accepted. You shouldn't break down at strangers. I'm sorry for ranting out my resentment against you. You're surprisingly persistent at giving apologies." She replies.

"Hmm. I guess that's what happens. I don't want to make enemies."

Having finished your apology, you stand up and make your way out of the hotel room. Of course, you are stopped by a question.

"What's your name and how did you manage to track me down? And what brought you to Kazamino?"

NAME
[] "Can't tell."
[] Tell first only.
[] Tell full name.

HOW
[] "I can't tell you."
[] "I'm a corporate burglar."
[] "I'm a corporate burglar. You're fast. Want to join me next time?"

PURPOSE
[] "I was looking for a thrill."
[] "I was looking for criminals."
[] "I wanted to wreck something."

Saturday 26th, 7:40 pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked commencing write-up.

Click to shrink...

"My name is Madoka. Simply Madoka. Yours?"

"Well, if you're just telling me your first name, I guess you have your reasons. It's a two way road, but. The name's Kyouko. First name basis, you're, almost, not quite, but almost sis-tier." The redhead winks at you as if she were speaking in an argot.

The redhead of course, wants to know more. She cocks her head to your right as she takes a bite out of a chicken drumstick. Eating meat after a dessert isn't exactly your taste, but everyone had their differences...
"So. How 'dya get to me and what's your reason for wandering around in here?"

You reply:
"Well, firstly, I can't tell you, because business is business and secondly, I came here to look at the lowlives and criminals and observe them."

Kyouko throws to you an apple and you catch it. Seems like you're the guest here, so you clean it with the lower ends of your outer coat and start munching on it, slowly in contrast to Kyouko's ripping and tearing, of a mere non-meat apple no less.

She leans in closer
"You a white knight by any chance? "Hunting down criminals to bring them to justice"?"

[] "Well, I'm not going to exactly go and bomb a marketplace and detonate a nuke for kicks and giggles, but given I've gone and burglarized a business, I'm not going to pretend I'm a saint. I wanted to to do business with some of the denizens here."
[] "If you hit me, expect to get hit. If I hit someone, I expect to get hit. I just wanted to wander around here for a "good Kazamino experience"."
[] "There's a wall of separation between politeness and passivity. I'm getting in some shady business, but why should I physically hurt others unnecessarily? Same thing here with the ladies and gentlemen of this place."
[] ""Justice" means order and power to another person. "Justice" may as well be an excuse for controlling other people. I'm here to seize control of the Kazamino underworld."
[] "Well, recently, I've been a somewhat bad girl, but I had my reasons, so I can definitely understand the contempt of good law and order, but you compare the folk here to Mitakihara, well, there's a reason."
[] "Yeah. Go and rob that groceries stall again and I might not exactly continue to view you in a positive light. No wonder this place is in the dumps."

[] Write in

Saturday 26th, 8:00 pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked, writing up.

Click to shrink...

"I you hit me, expect to get hit. If I hit someone, I expect to get hit. I just wanted to see what it was really like over here."

Even as she chews on her piece of fried she smirks in approval as your apparent assertiveness:
"Muh girl." she says in obvious parallel to the idiom "my man."

She continues:
"So, not-quite-slum tourism, right?"

"I guess so, although it was more out of curiosity than wanting to smugly look down on others."

"You don't even look that rich to go looking down on people. Middle class, not old money, I can tell."

"Yeah... See you, I've got... business to do." You select the euphemism of "business" seeing as she is away from her family. You make your way to the door, about to leave the room once again.

She doesn't catch on to what you mean exactly:
"Well, 'cya and good hunting, whatever it is you're looking for."

[] "You want to rob the Mitakihara Bank Branch here, Monday at 5 afternoon? We'll plan tomorrow, here."
[] "Let's go hold up that pawnbroker Monday at 5 afternoon. We'll plan tomorrow, here."
[] "You want to go and burglarise Kaname Corporation Tower on Monday afternoon, around, say 6 in the afternoon? I'll meet you near the bushes outside the entrances."
[] Leave and go home without further ado or silly try-hard extreme propositions.

[] Write-in

Saturday 26th, 8:30 pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

I was thinking about 'Unknown' Items floating around... But since the bank vaults are more likely to have those + Money etc, we might as well go with that.
I hope we aren't doing it too soon in the quest.
We also don't know Kyouko's Morals too well either.

[X] "You want to rob the Mitakihara Bank Branch here, Monday at 5 afternoon? We'll plan tomorrow, here."
EDIT: ...

Click to shrink...

Well we can't just go without suggesting a daring heist, but we probably don't want to try robbing the Kaname Corporation Tower as our first joint outing, since their probably on higher alert now, and holding up a pawnbroker is just petty, rather than daring, so:

[X] "You want to rob the Mitakihara Bank Branch here, Monday at 5 afternoon? We'll plan tomorrow, here."

Though I hear bank heists aren't very lucrative these days either, so if someone has a better idea I'll go for it.

Click to shrink...

"You want to rob the Mitakihara Bank Branch here, Monday at 5 afternoon? We'll plan tomorrow, here." Maybe it was the confidence the ribbons gave you. Maybe it was the way you casually broke into the heavily guarded Kaname Corporation and how it encouraged you. Madoka Kaname was supposed to be good girl. She wasn't supposed to rob banks, was she?

Not when she felt this powerful. Everything changed when your mother gave you the white ribbons. That constant feeling of droopy tiredness, of innocent dullness, the moment you put on those white ribbons, they disappeared.

Being normal was boring and being boring was not ambitious. Even now, the bright radiance of those ribbons called upon you to escalate your behaviour each and every possible time.

Well, such was life. You're feeling good and strong now and anything that wanted to make life less boring for you ought to be thrown into the bin.

Returning to the topic of bank robbery, Kyouko dropped her jaw at your proposition:
"Whaddya say?"

You repeat yourself:
"I said we should rob the bank. Two more times to make myself clear. Rob the bank. We literally rob the Mitakihara Bank branch in Kazamino. Seize a million or more dollars, take what we want, how we want. Possibly give a thousand to every little kid in Kazamino, keep some for ourselves and do what we want with it."

Kyouko was still surprised, her expression still one of shock.
"You think you can simply walk in a bank branch and take whatever money we want?"

You reply:
"What's the point of a bank robbery if we don't get money?"

"No, my point is, you expect to be able to pull that stuff out?"

"I've got a plan. We'll refine it tomorrow." You didn't really have a plan at all, but you're still confident that the plan you make will succeed.

"'Kay. You know, your voice sounds really out of place with the fact that you're basically a thug?"

"Well, it's not getting deeper any time soon, so I have to deal with it don't I?"

You say your goodbyes to each other and you make your way home, leaving Kyouko in her hovel.

---

"Tadaima!"

"Okaeri!"

"Nee-chan, nee-chan!" You hug Tatsuya as he comes up to hug you.

"Where's Mother?" you ask your father.

"She's busy asleep to make up for last night. Oh, and Madoka..."

Father tries to lecture you about arriving home late, but of course, Father being Father, it comes off as a suggestion.

You clean up and sleep.

---

After breakfast, you go to Kazamino, as promised earlier, to the hotel room where Kyouko is dwelling, in casual clothing, carrying the backpack form of von Schoenkopf as emergency.

"Hi! So about robbing that bank, you're serious, aren't you?"

"I'm here, so yeah." You giggle at the absurdity of it all. Madoka Kaname, planning to rob a bank.

"So, what's the plan?"

The plan will take around nine hours to develop. You're sure it will be a perfect heist but.

[] "I'll tailgate a manager, pretending to be an intern. I'll get their credentials, hide in the shadows, stuff them into a bag. I'll walk quietly out, you relay them to the hotel room. The moment anyone gets suspicious, we stop."
[] "You go quietly hand over a written threat to a clerk, then you take a small bag and run away with it."
[] "Balaclava, ninja suits. Hold up the whole bank and everyone inside. While they're distracted, I'll sneak, hauling it out. Then, we scram via the rooftops!!"

[] Write-in

March Sunday 27th, 9:00 am

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked, commencing retcon write-up

Click to shrink...

"So, what's the plan?" Kyouko asks.

"The plan is one involving stealth and tact. I think "bank robbery" was a bit of a misnomer. It's more like a bank burglary, one that happens right under their noses."

"I can't sneak around to save my life. I suppose you're going to do it?"

"Of course. Your role is too relay it here."

"How do even do that?"

"It's a trade secret."

---

The two of you stake out the bank branch.

---

After that, you develop the plan, refining it to clarify a couple of points. You take a packet of chips from Kyouko's snack nest, but she doesn't seem to mind.

---

"I think I got most of it." Kyouko tells you.

"And I think we've finished most of our work here."

"I was planning to go to the arcade. Wanna join?"

[] "Of course. We're going to need to relax ourselves."
[] "Sorry. I've got other business to attend to."

March Sunday 27th, 6:00 pm

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Currently wearing casual clothing.

Votes locked, commencing write-up.

Click to shrink...

"Of course. We're going to need to relax ourselves. Tomorrow is when our operation begins and we can't afford to be too tense. Lead the way please."

Kyouko obliges, leading you to an arcade somewhere on the edge of Mitakihara and Kazamino.

---

The arcade, though open, is pretty much empty except for the two of you.

"DDR?"

"I'll try."

---

"You're average."

"And you're skilled. How much time do you spend here?"

"Usually a hour or so a day." Kyouko tells you.

"I see. It's no surprise then." You then get off the DDR stand.

"You're not going to play anymore?"

"It's not really my type of game."

[] Invite her to a two-player shooting game.
[] "I think that's enough for the day. We're ready for tomorrow."

March Sunday 27th, 7:00pm

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] Invite her to a two-player shooting game.

Click to shrink...

[x] Invite her to a two-player shooting game.

Click to shrink...

[X] Invite her to a two-player shooting game.

Click to shrink...

"Would you like to play against each other on a shooting game?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

Kyouko jumps off the DDR platform and follows to a row of CS Neo consoles.

You pick one opposite of her.

---

The two of you start. Initially, your kill-to-death ratio is abysmally skewed in Kyouko favour, but then you realize the way she's playing, namely, she favours shorter-range, seemingly reckless attacks that involve charging at you with whatever weapon she has selected from the side or from behind. You wise up to this. Knowing that she favours a short-range oriented shooting style, you focus on gaining the local higher ground with the use of scoping weapons.

Over time, the ratio evens up.

As the match ends, you tell her it's time for you to go:
"I've got to go now, so bye!"

"See 'ya Madoka! Tomorrow, 'kay!"

Indeed, tomorrow would be the big day.

---

You make your way home. You clean yourself up, eat dinner and make your way upstairs.

What is your next course of action?

[] Talk to Stahl about the memo it recorded yesterday.

[] Write-in

March Sunday 27th, 7:30pm

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

For reference, the memo was:


[X] Talk to Stahl about the memo it recorded yesterday.
-[X] What does it mean by "second child"?
-[X] Who are the other "children"?
-[X] What other records are there of Kyouko (and any of the other "children", if applicable)?

Are there any other questions we want to ask?

Click to shrink...

[X] Talk to Stahl about the memo it recorded yesterday.
-[X] What does it mean by "second child"?
-[X] Who are the other "children"?
-[X] What other records are there of Kyouko (and any of the other "children", if applicable)?
No other votes, so this seems good enough.

Click to shrink...

---

You make your way into your room. You pull Stahl from under the bed and pull yourself under the blanket to begin your investigation of that what Stahl said during your "pursuit" of Sakura Kyouko.

You ask of Stahl:
"Stahl, what did you mean by "Second Child"? Who are the other "Children"? Do you have any other records of Kyouko or other "Children?""

A delay occurs and a screen showing that Stahl is trying to load answers appears. Stahl responds:
"UNABLE TO LOG INTO XINJIANG TIANHE LABORATORIES OR KANAME CORPORATION DATABASE. REASON: PASSWORD NO LONGER VALID. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WILL BE BASED ON CACHED INFORMATION, MADAM."

"Right, Stahl."

"ANSWER TO FIRST QUESTION: "SECOND_CHILD" APPEARS TO BE A SPECIAL DESIGNATION OF CATEGORY "CHILDREN". UPON CHECKING CACHED INFORMATION, "SECOND_CHILD" WAS LINKED TO A RECORD LABELLED "MITAKIHARA_SCENARIO", FILE LOCATION ADDRESS IS KANAME CORPORATION NETWORK ACCORDING TO REDIRECT INFORMATION IN XINJIANG TIANHE NETWORK. NO CACHED INFORMATION EXISTS ON TERM "MITAKIHARA SCENARIO." ANSWER TO SECOND QUESTION: ANSWER UNKNOWN. ANSWER TO THIRD QUESTION: AS MENTIONED, CANNOT ACCESS EITHER XINJIANG TIANHE OR KANAME CORPORATION NETWORKS. FROM CACHED INFORMATION, FILE OBJECT "KYOUKO_SAKURA" HAS THE FOLLOWING TAGS FOR REFERENCE IN BOTH SYSTEMS: "ACCELERATIONISM", "PASTOR_SAKURA", "KAZAMINO_CHURCH_FIRE", "HISTORICAL_MATERIALISM", "MITAKIHARA_SCENARIO", "ECONOMIC_MANIPULATION", "ARTIFICIAL_POVERTY", "ALCOHOL_PRICE_DEFLATION", "FLAMMABLES_PRICE_DEFLATION", "MITAKIHARA_CITY". THIS IS THE EXTENT OF OUR KNOWLEDGE GIVEN THE SMALL SIZE OF THE CACHE."

"Thank you, Stahl."

"GRATITUDE ACKNOWLEDGED MADAM."

What do you do now?

[] Start an investigation, writing in your Campus Note.
-[] What do you write in your Campus Note? What do you write as your to-do for your investigation?

[] Write-in

March Sunday 27th, 8:00pm

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] Start an investigation, writing in your Campus Note.
-[X] Based on the key words, "KAZAMINO CHURCH FIRE" should be safe enough and public enough that you can find information on the news pages. Check that out first.
-[X] Afterwards, find if there's any other information connecting Mitakihara to what was found out.

Click to shrink...

[X] Start an investigation, writing in your Campus Note.
-[X] Based on the key words, "KAZAMINO CHURCH FIRE" should be safe enough and public enough that you can find information on the news pages. Check that out first.
-[X] Afterwards, find if there's any other information connecting Mitakihara to what was found out.

Click to shrink...

---

You retrieve your Campus Note, an ordinary notebook that you sometimes found yourself doodling in whenever you were bored or couldn't focus. To be quite honest, you haven't touched it in the last couple of days. However, starting from today again, it's going to become an important asset for you as you use it to make sense of all these strange things happening around you.

As you pull out your Campus Note, you search the internet for "KAZAMINO CHURCH FIRE" as keywords. You kind of suspected that it wouldn't exactly be a widely covered topic and indeed, the first result is an a completely irrelevant fertility drug ad. You make your way further down and you click on a link to a imageboard site.

Aside from blatantly insensitive "discussion" that is the staple of such image sites, there is much else you can learn from your foray into this somewhat murky part of the internet. All you know is that Pastor Sakura was a heterodox clergyman who got estranged from his peers because of his differing beliefs.

Of course, a news report isn't going to cover much of the situation. Even as you click on a link related to the keywords, one which indicated that a murder-suicide fire in Kazamino killed an adult male, an adult female and a young female, you don't learn anything else.

You try a more tasteless approach, namely visiting a religious fundamentalist website and searching it.

---

Not surprisingly, the content on the site regarding Pastor Sakura is outrageous and offensive. Accusation of Satanism, Black Mass, witchcraft, drugging and unpleasant ad hominem attacks on Pastor Sakura's wife are levelled. You learn nothing except that Pastor Sakura was hated by everyone.

Kazamino Church, according to various accounts, is a dead one.

---

From what you've researched, you've established a link between the death of the family in the small Kazamino fire and the collapse of the Kazamino congregation. They occurred in the same window of time.

However, with the fire that you are hypothesizing was the suicide-murder of Pastor Sakura and his family, you can't help but be befuddled. If Pastor Sakura indeed killed his whole househeld, how was Sakura Kyouko related as Stahl said? Maybe Pastor Sakura was a close relation of Kyouko's?

You add "MITAKIHARA" as a keyword to "KAZAMINO CHURCH FIRE". You don't find much else except more unpleasant accusations about Pastor Sakura, among them that he used to buy alcohol from a store on the border of Mitakihara and Kazamino.

The internet is so vitriolic. You give Pastor Sakura a minute of your thoughts as you rest from scouring through the hate-filled accounts about him.

What is your next course of action?
[] Research something else.
-[] Research what?

[] Go to sleep.

[] Write-in

March Sunday 27th, 9:00pm

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Side Story #002 - The Blue Planet of Water, Earth

Two galactic powers had raged for more than 400 years, bringing massive destruction to Milky Way. The Galactic Federation and the People's Union of Galactic Republics had fought a great galactic war over a combination of ideology, competition over resources, but most of all, pride and a thirst for revenge that fueled itself in a vicious cycle.

That war had ended. In the unnatural calm of apathy, the one who was named after the sky, the one whose family's name talked of blue clouds, tried her best to think good thoughts about her retreat.

She had exchanged her soul to end a war. A byproduct of that was that she had become a sort of nexus between peace and war, one who was attuned to the ebb and flow of time. She knew the "rights and the wrongs" of history, whatever they were. In doing so, she knew the "tendencies of things" and could preserve them. Whatever remaining artifacts of civilization she had was her was due to that alone.

It was not true precognition by any meaning of the word. However, she felt that the resident sentience species in this particular starzone could one day accomplish what others were either too timid or weak to do.

They had evolved, they had adapted to be creatures that at their core, wanted to be free. The greatest adaptation of homo sapiens sapiens was that it had the desire to not be beholden to anything to anyone, one of the few species out there with such an impulse.

That desire to intentionally clash against those that wished to yoke them, to triumph and conquer those that threatened them, that species of Terran apes was highly belligerent and vicious as a result of that discreet adaptation.

They had conquered Smilodon, driving to extinction by eating their prey. Other megafauna, who sadly evolved to find humans tasty, could not adapt against those opposable thumbs and the new defence that was the stone-age spear. They could eradicate their enemies and stand proudly over them.

But also important was their collective ability to conquer the violence of others. That instinct desiring freedom allowed coherent groups to exist, to develop rather than to to melt meaninglessly like other animals. Perhaps, they could overcome the mistake of her kind. She couldn't tell from here.

"Porter, how many more minutes until we reach Terra?"

"An estimated 30 minutes remaining."

She thought to herself:
"Maybe when the time comes, we can hand them the tools to complete that task we had so long ago forgotten."

---

A pink-haired savage looked into the sky, wandering why a new star had come down to the world.

"Ugg. Ugg. Cavedoka sees new star. Cavedoka thinks pretty. Cavedoka will go kill wolf for dinner."

The pink-savage readied her bow to and hunt for a thrill, inspired by a star.

[dice]4278[/dice]

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked, commencing write-up. Side story vote still open.

Click to shrink...

You make your way out of your room. You peer in Mother's room to see if there if she is home yet or not.

Part of the reason why you do this is that you have a hunch, or rather, a confirmation from Stahl, that the Kaname Corporation is engaging in somewhat unethical behaviour. For example, why was it that Kaname Corporation had files on Sakura Kyouko? You've heard of companies spying on their customers to make marketing decisions, but to know that your own mother's company engage in such... interesting behaviour... while you couldn't exactly disapprove because the Corporation's CEO was your mother, it stirred so much interest in you that you couldn't help but to want to know more.

As you peer into her room, you hear the door to outside downstairs open. Unsteady footsteps make their way to what you apparently hear to be the kitchen. The slurred voice of a woman rants and raves about her work.

"Thieving scum...can't eben find thems..."

"Oh dear..." goes Father. Evidently, Mother is back home drunk, presumably have been driven home by one of her subordinates.

You take her drunkenness as effectively her being "not home". You make your way into her room.

---

You make your way to her working desk. You look at the papers.

Extensive amounts of legal documents are sprawled all over the desk, alongside accounting sheets. Evidently, they are copies, because mother is the chief executive officer of the Kaname Coporation and CEOs don't do all the work themselves. She's probably working hard to oversee and triple-check that her subordinates are doing the right thing. Mother is such a hardworking woman. Aside from the drunkenness, she was a true role model to look up to.

You can't seem to find a single piece of paper that allows you to find any... interesting things, until you see a list of companies that mother titles "TO ACQUIRE". Interestingly enough, you see that she has circled in red a couple of companies. Among them included "Murakami Dairy Ltd", "Studio Cylinder Inc.", "Sugawara Cosmetics", "Fujikawa Beverage Company" and... "when it is privatised, the Mitakihara Rail Corporation"? That sounded extremely expensive, even for the Kaname Corporation. You've heard that the Kaname Corporation had been expanding its operations beyond finance, but to see how ambitious Mother was, that was something else...

There's a note on the bottom of the sheet. "Check smartphone for deadlines of acquisition." You presume it's your mother's smartphone, which is on her person.

With nothing left for you look at, you make note of what you've seen on that piece of paper in your Campus Note and return to your room.

---

You search the internet, typing in "KANAME CORPORATION BOUGHT OUT KAZAMINO CHURCH" as keywords.

A plethora of irrelevant, fertility-drug oriented results pop up. However, at the very bottom is an imageboard archive site feature those words.

You visit the /pol/ board and this one line catches you eye:

> implying that the pastor in Kazamino isn't preaching that desperately because the megacorp had to adjust food prices and he was so poor he couldn't afford it

No discussion exists of Kazamino Church being bought out by the Kaname Corporation.

That comment devolves into a flamewar and you can make no further conclusions from it.

[] Research something else.
-[] Research what?

[] Go to sleep.

[] Write-in

It is March Sunday 27th, 9:30pm

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

Votes locked, commencing write up.

Click to shrink...

It's getting late. Tomorrow is a school day and not only that, but you also have a bank to burglarise alongside a street urchin that got offended by a comment regarding alcohol.

That sentence put things into perspective.

You make your way to the bathroom in order to brush your teeth.

You then crawl into your bed and close your eyes, waiting for yourself to fall asleep.

---

It was yet another night of dreamless sleep. As you yawn yourself awake, you see that you have awoken earlier than usual.

Well, no matter. That just means you'll take your time. You make your way to the bathroom, brush your teeth, brush your hair, go back to your bedroom, get your white ribbons, tie them up, have breakfast early, this time Mother being late, go to school with that new "backpack" that not even your mother knows about and...

...the transfer student Akemi Homura pulls another "I'm not well" and decides to give you a lecture in the skywalk. You try to be assertive.

"Kaname Madoka. Have you been thinking about how your recent actions might be hurting others?" Her voice has a monotone to it, as if she were trying to address you seriously.

You almost speak, but you are reminded by yourself you're going to do something risky today.

[] "Indeed. However, promises are promises. I've got to do what I said I'm going to do. Now I know your opinion, I'll take it into account next time."
[] "Giving what you just implied you've been doing, I can hardly see why it should be considered such a bad thing."
[] "There is no return without risk. So long as I understand this, I will do what I want, how I want. Your intrusion is not appreciated."

[] Write-in

You are wearing your "backpack".

March Monday 30th, 10:00am

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

32 days remaining until ???

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

"Kaname Madoka. Have you been thinking about how your recent actions might be hurting others?"

"Not really, no. Such businesses have insurance, so it won't hurt in the long term. And for that matter, why are you so interested in me? Given what you've just probably referenced, I think you've been trailing me. To put it politely, I think it's unusual."

She seizes you the shoulders in order to emphasis something.

"You're supposed to be kind and gentle, Madoka! Why are doing this? You're fine just the way you..." Homura doesn't look angry, but you can see that her eyes are getting wet even as you frown. The girl is beyond socially awkward.

[] "Right before you, you see a confident, ambitious, young woman, inspired by her mother, trying to improve herself. However you got your information on me, please treat it as outdated. I wouldn't mind being friends with you if you can understand that."
-[] "It all started when I put on this ribbon...."
[] "Please stop following me around. As with everyone else, avoid touching others."
[] "I don't even know you. Get off of me."

March Monday 30th, 10:10am

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

32 days remaining until ???

 

[Reinhard Von Lohengramm]

[X] "Right before you, you see a confident, ambitious, young woman, inspired by her mother, trying to improve herself. However you got your information on me, please treat it as outdated. I wouldn't mind being friends with you if you can understand that."
-[X] "It all started when I put on this ribbon...."

Click to shrink...

Restating my current vote for clarity:
[X] "Right before you, you see a confident, ambitious, young woman, inspired by her mother, trying to improve herself. However you got your information on me, please treat it as outdated. I wouldn't mind being friends with you if you can understand that."
-[X] "It all started when I put on this ribbon...."

​

Click to shrink...

You don't know why, but you suspect that the the aura of the "mysterious transfer student" that has been coming from Homura the moment she arrived is only an act. Judging by the way her tears are welling, you think that deep down she has a small bit of emotional baggage, one involving pink-haired girls.

Regardless, the topic to be dealt with right now was the fact that she seemed to know quite a lot about you, a disproportionate amount given her recent transfer.

You straighten yourself in front of her, raising your head high.

"Right before you, you see a confident, ambitious, young woman, inspired by her mother, trying to improve herself."

Her eyes got a bit wetter at that and you saw that see was trying to rein them from becoming full-fledged tears.

"The image you seem to have of me, as a meek and mild-tempered person was only true up to a couple of days ago. Tell me, have you ever seen something shine so brightly, so radiantly, that you yourself want to shine like it? Just last week, I saw something just like that. These ribbons," you pointed to your twintails, "they shined so brightly, that I found something new in myself. This is all there is to it. That image you've got of me, as the "kind and gentle Madoka", while it isn't necessary false, I've become much more than that. That radiance showed me greatness and I seized it. I haven't become a ruthless jerk, but I certainly believe more in my own strength. If you can understand that, I'm sure we can... relate to each other much more smoothly." You give her a smile to show her you mean no contempt.

"So, you're still Kaname Madoka, except you've seen that "shining thing"."

"That's right. I am Kaname Madoka, eight-grader in Mitakihara Middle School. My mother is Kaname Junko, my father is Kaname Tomohisa and my brother is Kaname Tatsuya. I live in a good house with a loving family and I treasure all my friend and respect all the people around me. No matter how assertive I get, nothing will change that. I am certain of it."

"Thank you. Please don't let that change."

You see that her hands try to move from your shoulder to your hair, but your gaze returns her hands to herself.

Lunch ends, ending too the chance for Homura to deliver any further cryptic remarks.

You wonder why she is so deeply interested in you.

---

With inspiration and confidence, you fly through classwork as if it were a casual dancing night.

---

School ends and the usual fare of hearing Sayaka and Hitomi gossip and chat about in-school happenings and more of Hitomi's love letters occurs.

The three of you make it to the mall once again, having a meal together.

The conversation takes a caustic turn as Sayaka starts talking behind Homura's back.

"And have you noticed, Madoka? Maybe you haven't seen it with the way you've been so hardworking recently, but I saw transfer-girl staring intensely at you every second or so when you were working. What is that supposed to mean? I think it's yuck."

[] "That isn't nice Sayaka. I am sure Homura-san has her reasons."
[] "If you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. Talking behind others' backs isn't exactly charming."
[] "Homophobia explains nothing but your ignorance. I expect my friends to be more open-minded than that."
[] "Hopefully, you are willing to apply the same standards to your knight-and-princess jokes about me then, Sayaka-chan."
[] "Yes and I've heard of the incident involving you and Kamijou's recorder in grade school camp."
[] "While don't you stop being a bully and a bigot, Sayaka?"

[] Write-in

March Monday 30th, 4:00 am

Anime timeline comparison:

• 26th March Mami vs Gertrud
• 4th April Mami vs Charlotte

32 days remaining until ???