tenminutes | AFTERLIVING ONLY: IC INBOX

You know where headquarters is.

[ Haruhi's trying to beat her world record, which is why she'll be in front of headquarters in about three minutes or so, knocking on the door first. If she needs to say the password, she'll say it later. ]

Hey, Yuri! It's Haruhi, open up!

[ ... Apparently it's not 'later' just yet. ]

You have to say the password, stupid. I'm not letting someone in with a crazed NPC on the loose!

There is no God, Buddha, or Angel.

[ Haruhi lets out an exasperated sigh, her voice clearly annoyed as she speaks. Geez.. ]

[ The door opens up after that. ]

What is it?

I have two questions for now. Well, it's not really a question, but something I want to know.

[ "For now" being the key words there, since she might have more questions after she gets some answers. She's already asked her questions before to other people, but some of them were left unanswered, which is why she decides to go to the person who's been here the longest.

She then steps inside the office, watching the doors close behind her before continuing. This is important, and this sort of thing needs to stay between them. Not that she minds if Yuri tells anybody who's been here pretty long in the SSS. ]

I want to hear everything you know about Guard Skills.

What's the second one?

[ She's not saying she won't answer, but she wants to know what both 'questions' are before she answers anything. ]

If someone showed love towards an NPC, would they be able to love you back?

If love was something even computers could replace so easily, it wouldn't be as valuable as it is.

[ That's all Yuri's saying about that, she's not going to argue with Haruhi on it. So she'll go back to the Guard Skills. ]

The Angel Player program feeds into the world. It basically acts the same as how we can create things out of dirt, but it's more immediate and efficient because it does most of the hard work for us by using computers. Since it's our memories that form them, it's pretty much obvious that if you had a copy of something that worked into programming of the Angel Player network, you'd be able to add anything you can imagine into the framework because the programming would provide the 'memories' for you. [ That's how she's assuming it works anyway. That's the only way that makes sense to her. ] If you have the disc, you don't actually have to know how to program or code or anything. You can input the information, but it's hooked up to the registered user. I've made a Guard Skill setting before, but it's..

[ There's something obviously in her pause there. She's considering being honest about it or not. In the end, she decides to. ] If you make a mistake, it's not always easy to recover from. I said it's not possible to get injured or sick or die in this world, but... Let's just say if you don't understand what you're doing you might put someone in a coma they might not wake up from.

But if you do know what you're doing, you can create weapons and skills that materialize, like < Hand Sonic > which is a light sword or < Distortion >, which acts as a force field that can stop bullets. There's one that can create after-images, making it look like the person teleports when they move. < Howling > can shatter your eardrums if you aren't careful. Then there's < Harmonics >, which she used to create a clone of herself but she didn't have a way to put it back in. The clones duplicated themselves because they all had access to Guard Skills, but since they were created with offense in mind, they basically just tried to kill all of us unless we did as we were told. I added in < Absorb > and < Time Wait > to fix the flaw in < Harmonics >. She coded in wings too, but I think that was just Otonashi thinking they'd look good.

If there were any added after that, I would't know. The shadows appeared for the first time a little after she recovered.

[ Haruhi folds her arms over her chest as she listens to this carefully, nodding after each sentence. Her second question wasn’t as important as the first, but it’s something she can definitely use to her advantage. It was something that she can use to take a step ahead of the others. Having this information in mind is essential; after all, Yuri’s been here the longest.

The brunette then smiles for a second before she slowly shifts into a more serious look, though that glint in her amber brown eyes don’t disappear.

She does notice that pause, though doesn’t say anything about it. Besides, she should at the very least be polite and let her finish.

Haruhi knows that she’ll have to up her game if she want to stop her. It seems that these Guard Skills are using the tactic that the “best offense is a good defense”. Which means she’ll have to prepare carefully.

But the last sentence bothers her…

If that sort of thing lead to a shadow attack, and the programmer wants this NPC back because they can do that sort of thing, then there’s only one conclusion. If they don’t get find the NPC soon, then things might get messy.

Worst case scenario: the shadows might return again.

Haruhi doesn’t want that, even if she can protect herself from it now. She then clenches her hands into tight fists before unclenching them, letting out a deep sigh, bowing in the politest way possible. ]

Thank you very much.

[ She turns on her heel, about to leave, but then she remembers one question. There was one piece of information that actually interested her.. ]

Ah, before I forget.. I just want to make one thing for certain. So how the clones think when < Harmonics > is used depends on what the original user was thinking when they used it, right?

[ And she’s pretty sure that < Absorb > and < Time Wait > are exactly what they mean; thankfully, Haruhi’s pretty confident in her ability to understand English. ]

The intent in creation, yes.

[ She pauses for a moment, deciding she should.. probably mention something important. ]

They're defensive skills. The currently existing ones all exist to defend against the SSS, except for the two that I put in and Howling, which was created by the clones. The clones in this case were actually made with the intent of killing the giant fish rather than any attack on us.

I see.

[ She nods in response, looking quite determined as she speaks in her serious voice. ]

Again, thank you very much.

What did you need to know for?

It was mentioned on the post about the NPC, that's why. Besides, I need to know as much I can before I decide on doing anything rash and regret it.

What do you think? Of the NPC situation?

Me?

[ Her voice is curious as she speaks, her hands on her hips as her amber brown eyes narrow slightly. ]

I think it's interesting!

That's it? Really?

What, did you expect me to say something long-winded and detailed, Yuri? Because sorry to disappoint, that's not happening today!

No, I was just wondering.

[ Sometimes she doesn't really get Haruhi. She's honestly trying to understand it. If it's just because she's interesting than because she wants to protect everyone or anything like that, Haruhi's definitely even more of a giant question mark to her. ]

Go ahead. I'm not sure what I want to do about it, I'm waiting for things to play out a little more.

Well, I'm pretty sure that the truth will be figured out in time. But I highly doubt that certain people are going to let this sit for too long.

Obviously not. I didn't say I wasn't going to do anything, but I'd rather wait and see before we do something stupid because some of us want a WcDonalds playplace.

To be honest, that wouldn't be half bad. I mean, it would be better than asking to get a box of pencils or asked for a picket fence.

...As stupid as most of us are, I don't think anyone's stupid enough to ask for a box of pencils.

Well, I’m just saying that there’s something worse than having a knock-off McDonalds.

Knock-off? McDonalds sounds more like a knock-off to me. That'd be like if you called Zenny's "Denny's" or something...

[ She comes from the land of Macrosoft Windings. ]

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