Now that he'd gotten a chance to cool down, Jad was actually rather embarrassed by the argument he had gotten into earlier. After receiving the news she had under the circumstances she did, anyone would have been spoiling for a fight. He knew that. Yet he'd still managed to be goaded into a fight by Rei, the girl he had rescued from the depredations of his ex-classmates just hours previously.
She wasn't as much fun when she was angry.
Mostly, though, he was feeling guilty for calling her names during the fight. And for allowing himself to yell insults at females in general. He really did actually like girls, and he didn't really think they were plotting to take over the world. He just couldn't stand their mood swings and ability to hold grudges.
Yet somehow he'd still managed to shackle himself to one who had both of those qualities in spades. She had already agreed to work rather closely with him on a matter of great importance to both of them. And really, she was probably going to be more important when it came to this project.
He was just praying he'd survive it.
However, today's meeting of conspirators were all people he figured he could deal with, so that was fine. The group consisted of him, his three best friends, two of Ami's friends, and the doctor he'd met briefly earlier. Rei was still too pissed off to be of any use, and Ami was watching her.
Jad didn't think the two girls were going to be of much use. From what he'd seen of them, both were exactly what people had been trained to think of when they heard the word 'blonde'. They were nice enough, but inclined to be silly. They both also seemed to have rose-coloured glasses welded to their faces. Jad hoped they could keep those. They were rather rare in this day and age.
When Neph finally arrived, Jad called the meeting to order. "We are here to plot." He stated bluntly. "There are a group of people who need to be brought down to the slime they are. However, that's not going to be easy. We're going to be up against the best spin doctors money can buy, and we need to beat them.
"The short version is this: Earlier today, Rei Hino was attacked by a senator's son and some of his cronies. This was done with the implied consent of her father. I'm mostly worried about getting the attackers themselves in a position where the streets are safe for girls without political clout, but if I can get her father, I'd like to do that too. She's agreed to help us, which is good. She'll be a better leader for this crusade than me, when it comes to rallying the populace. Any ideas on how to do this?"
"Why don't you just tell everyone the truth?" Piped up the girl with the red bow. Minako, Jad recalled her being introduced as. "If everyone knows the truth, that's all our work done, right?" She elbowed her friend lightly, and the other girl piped up.
"Yeah, the truth really is the best policy." She nodded her pigtailed head decisively.
"Usako," Broke in the doctor, Mamoru, "Our job is to make sure that the truth does get told. The other people are going to try to spread lies to discredit us."
"Oh, oh, I know!" Minako responded, putting up her hand. "We need a witness. Where did the attack happen?"
Jad looked at her in surprise, shocked that such a sensible suggestion had come from such a silly source. From the look of his friends, he wasn't the only one. "It was in the park off of Main Street, the one closest to that little art café."
Kunz frowned. "That's not good. There're a lot of trees in that area. Plus I don't think it's anything people go to reliably. We won't have a lot of luck finding witnesses if there are any."
Neph nodded. "There are some office buildings around, so someone might have been planning on taking lunch there. I wouldn't bet on it, though. It's too good of a spot for a mugging."
"What about apartment buildings?" Zoi mused. "There are a couple of them that overlook that area. Someone there might have seen them."
Jad was doubtful. "Even if they saw anything, most of the people who live in that area work for the families of two of the attackers. Even if they saw something, they'd back down once they realized it was their boss' son on the hook."
"We should get them all onboard." Minako said, with the gleam of a crazy plan in her eyes. "A total worker-driven revolution for those companies! Just imagine all of the stories I'm sure those people know about how horrible the kids really are! They could do all of our work for us!"
Kunz blinked at her, shocked that even this bubblehead could come up with something that bizarre. "Can we get back to planning something that will work, please? This isn't some drama where crazy things like that just happen. Even if those stories exist, we won't be able to get them from the workers."
The blonde subsided with a huff and a pout. Only Zoi noticed the way her friend opened her mouth to retort, before closing it after her boyfriend touched her hand and shot her a look. He considered that carefully while the others continued to bounce ideas off of each other for a bit.
"Arrgh, this is getting us nowhere!" Jad fumed, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. "The only thing we have so far that would work is the idea the two girls pressed on us, to tell the truth. We were going to do that anyway. The thing we're trying to figure out is how."
"What do you think would work best, Minako?" Asked Usagi, turning to her friend. "You probably have the most experience with publicity here." Four of the guys in the room turned to look at her with confusion.
She flipped her hair insolently. "I'm a pop idol and model, duh. Of course I know about publicity. Well, there are press conferences, and newspaper interviews, and TV celebrity shows, and tabloids… but none of those would really work, would they?" She mused, considering. "The widespread press and celebrity shows none of you have access to. Tabloids are always suspicious as sources. Oh course, I have access to them!" She finished, brightening up.
Only Zoi, specifically watching the group, noticed the look exchanged between her and Mamoru. The man then favoured her with the expression of an adult explaining something to a youngster. "Minako, that's not going to work. All they have to say is that you were suckered by a sob story and everything loses credibility."
"Well, we need the truth out quickly. What about starting with a smaller newspaper? Then, when they get their view out, we'll at least have proof that we said our part first." Usagi broke in.
"It's not desirable, but it'll work." Kunz said finally. It was the best idea they'd come up with yet. "So who do you think it should be? Who do we start with?"
Zoi watched the conversation between Minako and Mamoru with fascination. If it weren't for his years of experience as a bird watcher, he didn't think he'd be aware that they even were communicating. Long practice in luring wild things, however, had trained him to the subtleties of body language. Having a puppy had honed his skills some, so he was able to follow part of the argument. Mamoru seemed to want Minako to say something, but she didn't want to comply. The look on her face reminded him of when Jad had ticked off that… brilliant… reporting… student…
"Jad, what about that girl from the university? The one that runs the paper? The one that called you a 'chauvinistic opportunist with the finesse of a pregnant hippo'? She's strongly feministic, so she'd love to print a story like this. She also despises you, so she won't seem like a sympathetic sucker. Isn't she in line for some sort of award too? That means her work will be watched closely by the regular newspapers as well. Get her onboard and she'll do half our work for us. She's brilliant at propaganda."
Everyone turned to look at him. He caught a brief flash of approval from Mamoru and another of gratitude from Minako, but the expressions were gone before he even registered them. Then all the faces just mirrored the surprise that his buddies' held.
"That's a really good idea, actually." Neph mused. "Covers all of our bases, and the disdain she holds for you will help cover your brother's tail too."
"The only problem is, if she dislikes Jad that much, how are we going to convince her to help us out? I assume Rei is still in too much of a huff to ask her herself. Will she be willing to assist Jad?" Kunz felt compelled to point out the flaw in this plan.
"Only one way to know! Ask her!" Chirped Minako. She looked around the table at the guys, who just sat there with bemused looks on their faces. "Well, what are you waiting for? Someone go ask her!"
"Um, we don't know where she lives. Or even where to start looking for her." Zoi pointed out, entertained in spite of himself. He couldn't help the sense of enthusiasm she infected him with.
She crossed her arms and glared adorably at them. "Really, boys. Do I have to do everything?" Zoi ruthlessly suppressed a chuckle at the slight blushes on his friends' faces. She probably really hadn't meant to imply what she did…
But he couldn't help but wonder if she knew exactly what she was doing.
Minako pulled out her cell phone and dialled a number, wandering into the other room distractedly. The rest sat around awkwardly, not interested in making small talk. Jad was obviously getting his story in order from earlier. Kunz and Neph were quite obviously bored. The couple, Mamoru and Usagi, were engaged in one of those conversations couples have sometimes that are too quiet to actually hear and too vague to be understood by outsiders. Zoi was watching them thoughtfully, still trying to reconcile the two different views his eyes and ears gave him about Ami's friends.
Finally Minako came back in, waving a piece of paper. "I got it! I got her number! I thought that if she was as good as you say then my PR agent might know of her, and he did! He got it for me!" she handed it to Jad, smiling triumphantly. At his look of consternation, she glared at him and put her hands on her hips. "Now look here, mister! I did not just do all that work for you not to call her! Go on!"
Looking like a man heading to his execution, Jad sighed and took out his phone. He dialled the number and everyone waited with baited breath to see how thinks would turn out. "Hello, is this Miss Motoi? This is Jadite Takano…"
"Yes, the same Takano that you ripped a strip off of in the university cafeteria."
"No, I really didn't find it all that funny, to tell you the truth."
"Well, I'm glad you found it funny. But that's not why I called…"
"No, I'm not stalking you! My friend's girlfriend's friend got it from someone she works with…"
"Yes, that does sound suspiciously like stalking, but I swear I'm not."
"Look, I don't want a date. Promise. Though being unfavourable compared to the overweight child of a sasquatch and an eel is a new one."
"Look, I have a story for you. Something happened today and I need your help in making sure that everyone who should be in trouble due to it is."
"No, it was not my fault… Hey! I'm not the bad guy here!"
"Fine, but you get one drink and one dessert. I'm not paying for you to down coffee and eat cheesecake all night."
"Call me a cheap bastard all you like, but that's my offer."
"Fine, fine. I'll see you in a half hour."
"Okay, bye."
Jad glared at the people in the room as he hung up. "That was not as funny as you seem to think! Quit laughing at me!"
Jad had just shooed them all out of his house, since he had to go meet with the reporter. Zoi took his leave of his friends rather hastily. He waited till after his buddies had turned to corner to go catch up with Mamoru and the girls.
He knew he wasn't making noise, but Mamoru turned to grin at him as soon as he started in their direction. "Thought I'd be seeing you now. What tipped you off?"
Minako looked at him appraisingly, but Usagi seemed a little baffled at the conversation.
Zoi shrugged. "There was a big difference between what you said and how you said it and what your body language said."
Minako pinned him with a look. "What did our body language say?"
He looked straight back at her unflinchingly. "That there was no silliness in you tonight."
She nodded, seeming impressed. "Good eyes. I can't answer your questions today, though. I have things to do, groundwork to lay. I'm not going to do Jad's work for him, but planting goes better if the field's been prepped."
He nodded, and she left, disappearing quickly into the night. He raised an eyebrow at the other male in the group. "Will she be alright by herself?"
Usagi smirked. "Ask your friend Kunzite if she can take care of herself. She'll be fine."
Mamoru nodded. "She's good. So what did you want to know?"
"Why?"
Usagi snorted. "It's your friend's crusade. We may do a lot of the work, but we don't want you depending on us. Besides, we don't know yet how effective we'll be. We won't promise something we can't deliver. None of us have done this before."
"Oh." Zoi blinked. "That makes sense."
"Plus we didn't want to put all of our cards on the table yet. Jad's going to be working closely with a very emotional Rei for a while. He has no tact. As well, so far two of Usagi's other friends have beaten up two of yours. If something needs to be smoothed over, we want it done quietly." Mamoru added.
"Hunh. I'd never have thought of that, you know. If that's the case, why are you telling me this?"
"Simple." Mamoru grinned. "You already figured it out. Better to tell you everything than have you stumbling around half-informed and making assumptions. If you don't mind me asking, how did you notice?"
"Oh, that was easy." Zoi said distractedly, still mulling over all he'd been told. "I've been a birdwatcher since high school. The body language is similar."
Mamoru blinked before grinning. "I think this time I'll let you off the hook." Zoi glanced at him quizzically. "You know, for calling us birdbrains."
He laughed at Zoi's flush. "That's not what I meant!"
Usagi elbowed her boyfriend in the ribs. "We know. He's just like that sometimes. Keep this to yourself, 'kay? We'll let the others know when they need to. For now, this is best."
Zoi nodded. "I can do that. Besides, this'll be more fun."
I think that the phone call, espeically the bit about stalking, is my favourite part so far in the series. And I remembered shortly after posting the last chapter something that I wanted to say in it.
Disclamier: None of this is any reflection on any real person. The fact that Takanobu Ito is the name of the actual owner of Honda is a weird coincidence. I have never met the guy, and any discussion of Jad's family is in no way based off of him of his family.
Pretty lucky guess though, eh?