Talk:Nishifune Nozomi

Nozomi's Diary

London Summer School

July 30th Morning

London

Cipher: 47, 33, 21, 44

Fitness: 5BX Chart 5, Level D, 5 KM run in 35 minutes (I'm slipping. Too much going on in London, not enough Sleep.)

Outfit: IRO Lorianea skirt, Kenzo white collared shirt, Buzz Rickson's MA-1 jacket. (Not 100% on this look. Worried I kind of look like a punk OL)

Notes:

London maybe a dead end. While I'm learning a lot about Ars Essentiae and alchemical theory, I'm making frustratingly little progress on my condition. While my master's name does not win the instant distrust it does in Japan, it does not open doors, and V is increasingly proving an annoyance. Beyond his obvious and unwanted attraction to me, and his horrible taste in anime, he now adds dreadful politics, engaging in a drunken rant over dinner about western women and the poor, to which I pretended polite non-comprehension. Worse, his much talked up influence has not got me into the restricted stacks.

Contacts with FS proved more stimulating, at least in conversation, and was able to have an interesting about the nature of all space and distance. No help on condition. Neither Sloan Square Circle nor the Verbena blood mage I contacted has been any help either. I'm worried also about the Master of Four. His interest in me is growing a little sinister, and he seemed especially interested in obtaining a blood sample. Managed to pretend non-comprehension to get out of that but glad this trip is ending soon.

July 30th Evening

London

Cipher: 39, 11, 19, 553

Fitness: MMA forms.

Outfit: IRO Lorianea skirt, Kenzo white collared shirt, Buzz Rickson's MA-1 jacket.

Notes

Got in at 11 after out drinking with FS and her crowd. Nice nightclub. Pretty drunk, and did some MA earlier to keep awake. Just wanted to sleep when security called and said that something had attempted to breach the wards.

I've got a bad feeling.

August 1st Evening

London

Cipher: 21, 12, 22, 107

Fitness: MMA forms

Outfit: Cream Soda Blackcow hoodie, Black 501 shorts, white tee shirt (thrift store) stab vest.

Notes

I'm naming the Hollow Spring Heel its outward appearence is of a begger dressed in a mix of victorian and modern clothing. Its outward appearance is more unusual than most Hollows but it appears to exert some kind of pressure to prevent its notice. Master of the Four bought it up with me again this morning. I believe he suspects or has detected a connection. I fly out on the 3rd, but I've decided to try to neutralize the hollow this evening to prevent further enquiry. I'm concerned that a further attempt to breach the ward will lead to my detention and possible dissection by Mo4.

My plan is a bait (me) and switch (lightning strike) ambush, I prepared an area of Hyde Park which FS assures me is a blank spot for Technocratic surveillance earlier today. I'm going to lure it in and try to take it out with lightning from the storm that's blowing up.

If I don't make it, then will the finder of this diary please ensure the destruction of the husk I leave behind.

August 2nd Morning.

London

Cipher: 77, 83, 99, 191

Fitness: none (hurt)

Outfit: handmade kimono brought Mitsukoshi Kimono salon.

Notes

That went as well as could be expected, but it still tagged me. I was expecting it to primarily attack with its arms, not with extended spring leg tentacles. Am with FS's friend the nightclub owner. She has a talking snake. I'm not going back to the dorm wounded. They'll be too many questions. Have sent a message describing emergency and had my bags sent along by the usual methods. The esoteric I have acquired will go through the smuggling routes, but I can't take it through customs.

Rest today, and hope you don't bring this nice lady into your business.

August 3rd
Flying back. Yay! Didn't say goodbye to V. Creepy. Am burning that bridge.

Still hurting from the Spring Heel fight. Will consult KK when I get back.

Back in Japan

August 11th Evening

Summer Comiket.

Cipher 3, 7, 11, 23

Outfit: Satsuki Kiryūin Cosplay (customized Junketsu version. Couldn't do all the work on it :( cause of London and recovery)

Fitness: 5BX Chart 5, Level C, weight training. (I'm not where I wanted to be. I'm probably going to end up in the thick phase for back to school (urgh))

Notes

Cosplay pretty successful, got my photo taken a lot, though wig/makeup/illusion disguised my face. No Hollows, no seizures. Zapped some Otaku who got handsy. After London, Comiket seems like a real holiday. Only problem: This cosplay has no pockets and looks weird with a bag. Will need to seduce someone to carry my stuff.

August 28th Morning

Tokyo

Cipher 99, 88, 22, 51,

Outfit: 2020 Needles white indoor jacket, Bubbles white schoolgirl skirt with black hemline, Brora Sandwashed White Silk Shirt (brought London) with custom black detailing, white cotton ankle socks, blue cravat (made self)

Fitness: 5BX Chart 5, level B, weight training, 6 KM run in 28 minutes

Notes

That sleaze KT may have really come through. He tells me that the item I've been looking for since That Night has been found. A thread of the false spider. If this is true it's the first actual link I've got to the thing my parents made a deal with in two years of looking. This is special and requires a personal meeting. I've invited him around this evening.

August 28th Evening

Tokyo

Cipher 48, 303, 71, 45

Outfit: 2020 Needles white indoor jacket, Bubbles white schoolgirl skirt with black hemline, Brora Sandwashed White Silk Shirt (brought London) with custom black detailing, white cotton ankle socks, blue cravat (made self), stab armour.

Fitness:: MMA forms

Notes

Oh no. Oh no. Not when I'm so close.

There was a something watching the house. It was gone by the time I got upstairs but it was watching. Maybe it's just, just another Hollow, but even if it is, it's powerful. I've got a bad feeling, overwhelmingly bad. I'm writing this in the living room ambush spot.

Meeting with KT went well. I think my witch powers rather put him off the idea of assaulting me. He was all set for all manner of nastiness when he realized I was a rich girl in her house alone. He told me the item is currently in the hands of an underground casino near Roppongi, the Kanezawa Palace. Information from both KT that the Kanezawa group, who run the place, are a group of thugs with little morality. They are apparently new, violent and eager to make a name for themselves by gambling away various priceless artefacts which they have acquired, mostly at auction. They're also apparently involved in human trafficking and quote "other things I won't touch," which probably means drugs. I phoned NR-kun to get information. Had to talk him out of trying to stop me doing this.

Spending the night in the living room ambush space. In the morning, I'll check the spot I saw it, under the maple in the park across the road.

August 29th Morning.

Tokyo

Cipher 39, 4, 30, 349

Outfit: 2020 Needles white indoor jacket, Bubbles white schoolgirl skirt with black hemline, Brora Sandwashed White Silk Shirt (brought London) with custom black detailing, white cotton ankle socks, blue cravat (made self), stab armour, rubber boots, my white fight gloves.

Fitness: dug grave. Will do rest after I write this.

Writing: 0 words (bleh. I'm going to try this afternoon)

Notes

Checked under the tree this morning. The Hollow had killed a cat by twisting it up into a helix. Fortunately, I think it was one of the park strays, not someone's pet, so I only have an animals death on my conscience. I buried the body and made an offering to the poor thing's soul. The tree had been scratched heavily, possibly by claws. Photographed both cat and scratches, they go on the wall with the photos of spring heel's effect. I don't have a name for this one yet.

I'm not spending my last few vacation days hiding in a panic room. I called KK up and suggested we hang out. She invited me to go see the new SF movie Eins Rei. Live action, which is weird It looks pretty good. The white-haired robot girl would make a pretty cute cosplay if I could grow my hair out months in advance and get ahold of enough vinyl. Not sure where I could use that cosplay of course, as it's not anime, but w/e.

August 29 evening

Tokyo

Cipher 1, 99, 107, 183

Outfit: Blue bubbles jacket with stab layer, G2? light blue silk shirt, dark blue bubbles skirt, white silk fight gloves, blue cotton knee socks, white boots (not sure if those work. I need to get some more reinforced fight boots in other colours

Fitness: 5BX Chart 5, Level C, MMA forms.

Notes

It's stalking me. I saw it. I know what it looks like.

The hollow I will now name Office Lady. It appears to be a professional woman in her 40s, dressed for the office but expensively, but with subtly wrong. Tie is on backward, shirt buttons on the wrong holes, shoes on the wrong feet. Office Lady is clearly visible to Ars Potentiae based sensory magic, as it is a strong void of such energy. I estimate its power to be at least somewhat greater than Spring Heel.

The film was fine, though very much KK's thing. The robot girls in it eat the guy. I don't know where she gets this stuff from. Probably not cosplaying as this.

August 29 Evening continued

Tokyo

Cipher 28, 40, 82, 434

Outfit: Lilysilk grey silk nightgown (brought in London), stab vest, fighting gloves (black)

Fitness: Done for the day.

Notes

I can't sleep. Office Lady is now testing the wards regularly. Am sleeping in the panic room. NR-kun came through with the information on the Kanezawa Group and their casino. Apparently, the Kanezawa Group are some kind of rogue offshoot of the Kamitouge Group, an industrial and medical concern. Kamitouge apparently operated what is now the Kanezawa Group as its black operations team, but cut them loose when they became too much trouble. They themselves augmented somehow, capable of winning most fights they pick. NR-kun seemed pretty worried about me going in there, even compared to how he usually is, but did supply me with the building plans and various other information on their security setup and workers. The gambling itself takes place in the back room, however, which he has no information on.

Kamitouge apparently is a medical and industrial concern, so I think we might be dealing with a group of rogue cyborgs or the like.

I have a plan here, but it's crazy. I don't know if I can take a dozen cyborgs, but I'll bet the hollow can if I lure it in there.

August 30 Evening

Tokyo

Cipher 484 342 42 94

Outfit: Black Cayce Pollard Unit number 2 (shorts). Fighting gloves (black)

Fitness: Operational preparation warmup.

Notes

Started the ground work for the operation today. 1: Contacted local street people. They know little about Kanezawa Palace that I don't already have. Brought one of the younger ones a suit and a shower and set him to hawk CDs with a virus I'm going to make. Hopefully, this will let me easily subvert the cameras without needing magic. 2: Going to contact the cleaning lady. Apparently, the firm is very bad. It should be easy enough to compromise one. Will do a little ritual snooping to find out who.

Office Lady was following me. I don't know how she was able to get into my proximity as I've only seen her move at walking pace. I was able to lose her.

August 31st Morning

Tokyo

Cipher 775, 41 2, 89

Outfit: Lilysilk white silk nightgown. Black Fight Gloves. Contempt.

Notes

Just about got the computer program completed and burned the CDs. I hope this works and it doesn't get tracked back to me. In the end, I had to buy a bunch of it off a hacker website to get it in time.

Last day of Holidays and I spend it chatting with a hobo and a cleaning lady. Not that it's his fault. The poor guy was an ambulance driver. He lost his job, his wife divorced him and got the house and suddenly he was homeless. I intend to give him enough to remedy that condition. I hope he doesn't use it to drink himself to death.

August 31st Evening

Tokyo

Cipher 999, 32, 31, 82

Outfit: Grey CPU 3s, with shorts, blue bubbles thigh highs, buzz ricksons MA-1 (It got colder, but this is a heck of an outfit)

Notes

I got the computer program to the guy in time, just, but I don't think he managed to get it to the club guys. Maybe I misunderstood their taste in music. Oh well.

The cleaning lady was much more productive. The woman who is responsible for daytime cleaning was, after a little persuasion, willing to help. She was able to give me good information on the lay out of the back room, including pinpointing a fire escape. She agreed to hide a CS gas grenade in the front and a knife and pepper spray set in the back. She also thinks I'm crazy to do something like this, but I think she'll do it. She warned me about the white-haired Kanezawa Group man, who is apparently a pervert.

The first day of school tomorrow. Urgh. If I feel like I did this morning I'm going to need to take some MA just to get through the day.

September 1st: Evening

Tokyo

Cipher 59, 67, 444, 21

Outfit: School Uniform.

Notes:

I almost got myself killed today. Worse, I think I almost got M-chan killed, or encouraged her, which might be as good as the same thing.

The Office Lady turned up at school at lunch time. It was watching me when I left by car, and arrived at the school gate at lunch. Did it just walk across town? Either way, I saw it and got scared it was going to rush me now. So I set a trap for it, trying to restrain it in a force net until I needed it tomorrow night. It broke through the net as if it was nothing. It started to come for me. This was on lunch break and M-chan was right there, looking over my shoulder. I told her nothing was wrong but there's no way she believed me.

My second plan was to use the remains of the spell to charge it with prime energy and bring in all the lesser ghosts of the school to mob it, I don't know if this would have worked though. Instead, I got myself saved. That first year, RY and her ghost prince, mostly the former. Apparently, they detected the hollow and the ghost approached it, then it just turned around and withdrew. I've never been more relieved, even if I ended up relying on someone else. I told RY as little as I could. I hope she won't investigate. I don't want her to get into something as unwholesome as my family's business.

If the Hollow don't like ghosts, maybe I'm safe at school as well as at home? I wonder what running from a ghost says about their behaviour... or about RY's mysterious companion?

Got through the first day of school with no MA. Yay me?

Semptember 2nd, Evening

Tokyo

Ciper 77, 49, 11, 14

Outfit: Dsquared2 Black 'Tuxedo' velvet effect blazer w/stab liner, bubbles black pleated skirt, Brora Sandwashed White Silk Shirt with silver threaded symbols, red jewel collar, white bubbles thigh-highs, thin set white fighting gloves.

Notes

I got it! I got it! Yes! This is the day when maybe I might have started to get a future.

I also seem to have acquired an M-chan. She was the main thing in my plan that went wrong, the other glitch being a lot of messing around with the camera system. I went to the club and gained entry through use of a case of money, making sure Office Lady was roughly twenty minutes behind me. When I got inside I found two other players, a one-eyed professional gambler and a fat old Yakuza in a white suit, who I believe bribed the dealer to let him win. The game was a strange combination of rock paper scissors and poker, which I confess I had some difficulty with.

Sometime in the third hand, M-chan was dragged in. I'd scared and confused her so much yesterday she'd decided to follow me tonight, and got caught by security. The white-haired man told me I was now playing for M-chan's life. Of course, what he didn't know was I wasn't actually playing at all. When Office Lady breached the main doors, I detonated the CS bomb to clean out the civilians, and disabled the guards in the room with me. As the Kanezawa Group members and Office Lady confronted one another, I grabbed the prize, M-chan and Fat-San and ran them for the fire exit. Office Lady revealed its true form, a horror with dozens of arms (like the giant from Greek myth? I should check on this).

In the ally, the professional player, who appeared to be what I learned in London to call a Ghoul tried to take the Thread, before being knocked cold by the white-haired man. He deployed powers I recognized as those usually used by the unquiet dead, even though he was a mortal, and was able to resist a lightning bolt I summoned down on him. However he was not ready for my skill at MMA and I tossed him into Office Lady as it emerged from the club, and it twisted him into a Helix.

Fat-San, who had already endeared himself to me by expressing his distaste for the Kanezawa Group's actions inside the club deployed some kind of charm which slowed the creature, allowing me to destroy it with a massive application of very vulgar fire magic for M-chan's benefit. I don't know what made me be so restless about her but I think maybe I just wanted her to know that there is actual wonder in the world, and at that point, what I had was a fireball.

Unfortunately, the attack left no remains of Office Lady for analysis. In future, I must figure out how to slay a hollow in a way that I can bring back to KK for an autopsy. I'm sure she'd appreciate it, and maybe we could learn something. I took M-chan back home and told her something of the world of magic. I think I cried on her too. I was a little emotional. Swapped cards with Fat-San. He might be useful in future as a fellow collector of esoterica.

I phoned M-chan's mother and told her she'd be staying here tonight. She seems nice, and was understanding. M-chan is sleeping in the guest room for now.

Must burn the case and kit that I left in there with distance fireballs. Will do that when I've finished this entry.

School again tomorrow. Urgh. Definitely going to need MA to get through this one. There's no way I'm getting to sleep yet and it's already midnight. After I burn the case, I'm going to write some fanfiction.