Subject: Hōkago Tea Time
Date Filed: Saturday, May 22, 2410
Filed By: Field Operative #24-381 (dv'IR NATASHKAN, Azalynn)

Kate,

It's a slow Saturday morning, so I thought I would bring you up to speed on a few more items of interest. There are some people here who aren't members of the band, but about whom you should know before you come here. (You are coming here. Right?)

Ui Hirasawa
Date of birth: Eryue 22, 276 ASC (February 22, 2395)
Blood type: O

Yui's younger sister, a year behind her in school (so she's in Azusa's class, and the one I'm undercover in). Her desk is right in front of mine. What a sweetheart this girl is. A lot like her big sister in that respect, although she's completely different in others. Ui is also big-hearted and kind, and picks up new skills fast, but unlike Yui, she doesn't forget something for every new thing she learns. She's industrious, punctual, domestically competent (more than competent - I'll get back to this in a minute), and a gifted student in most subjects.

Though not a member of a band, she took up the guitar after Yui did so that they would be able to talk about guitarist-ing together (which was probably not very successful, since Yui doesn't really know any of the technical parts of being a guitarist). Interestingly, although Yui is devoted to her Les Paul, Ui's a Stratocaster girl, like you. I haven't heard her play, and she's so modest she claims that she's terrible at it, but I don't buy it. I have yet to see Ui be terrible at anything. She's also a great cook and a naturally charming hostess; she runs the Hirasawa household in the absence of their parents, which is apparently most of the time (some of their friends actually don't believe they have parents - our friend Jun has a theory that Ui just claims to be the mother whenever Child Services visits, and she keeps such a nice home that nobody ever questions it).

Interesting side note: Despite the 15-month difference in their ages, Yui and Ui look so much alike that they can impersonate each other. All Ui has to do is wear her hair like Yui normally does, and even their closest friends can't tell them apart until one of them speaks.

See? When Ui lets her hair down, people often think they must be twins.

I know Ui better than I know anybody who's actually in the band, which wasn't really my plan when I came here, but you can't sit within one desk of her in homeroom for more than a day or two before you're her friend. I've been over to her place a couple of times and took the opportunity to observe her sister's habits. I feel a little guilty about using her like that, but I console myself that it's not the reason I'm going, just a bonus. Besides, if I came clean, she'd tell Yui - they're incredibly close, which is really pleasant to watch but complicates making her a co-conspirator (see also why I haven't tried to bring Ritchan on board).

(As an aside, this adventure is reminding me of all the things I miss about high school. When this assignment is over I think I'll just stay here and graduate again. You can never have too many high school diplomas!)

Weirdly, Ui's name means "worry" or "dismay". I can only assume that Mr. and Mrs. Hirasawa (if they do, in fact, exist) did not really intend to imply that their second child was a source of angst, and were just that stuck for a name after the birth of their first child (whose name, perhaps tellingly, can mean "only", as in "the only one"), so went for the cheesy rhyme.

Nodoka Manabe
Date of birth: Shieryue 26, 274 ASC (December 26, 2393)
Blood type: A

Notes: Nodoka has been Yui's best friend (some would say "keeper") since kindergarten, and a good friend of Ui's for nearly as long. She has a reputation around the school for being diligent, responsible, and mature. She's on the Student Council (of course), and is generally the member of that organization who has to deal with Ritchan's chronic inability to do the bureaucracy thing right, but I expect that after a lifetime of managing Yui, putting up with Ritchan is like a vacation for Nodoka.

Anyway, I don't know her very well - I'm trying to avoid drawing the notice of the Student Council - but she's such an old friend of both Hirasawa sisters that it's impossible to hang around with either one of them and not run into her sometimes. She seems really nice in spite of her Responsible Position and whatnot - upright but not uptight, if I may be allowed to coin a phrase. Ui likes her a lot, and she strikes me as a solid judge of character. I'd like to get to know her better if I can figure out a way to do it without endangering my cover.

Sawako Yamanaka
Date of birth: Eryue 31, 268 ASC (January 31, 2387)
Blood type: B

Notes: Ms. Yamanaka is a music teacher at Sato Academy. She's notable in the context of this report mainly because she's the faculty advisor for the Light Music Club, which means you'll end up interfacing with her one way or another. (She's also the faculty advisor for the Wind Ensemble Club.) As such, you should be warned. She seems like a nice enough lady - she's very polite and mild-mannered with the general student population and her faculty colleagues. Don't be fooled. When she was a student here, she was the guitarist and lead singer in a previous Light Music Club student band.

It was called Death Devil.

This is the real Sawako Yamanaka:

She represses it for the sake of her professional reputation, but she's still pretty metal. Trouble is, all that repression leads her to do some fairly bizarre things that wouldn't happen if she just let herself be herself. She has a weird obsession with dressing HTT up in costumes, for instance, despite the fact that they aren't really that kind of band. Now that the founders are juniors, they seem better able to resist that kind of thing, but last year her costumes were directly responsible for Mio's, erm, unfortunate stage moment.

Despite that, the girls in the band all seem very fond of her, and in fact she's popular with the students generally, but I have to say Ms. Yamanaka worries me a bit. She's... not entirely stable, and not always in the fun way. She bears closer scrutiny, particularly since we'll almost certainly have to deal with her in some official or semi-official capacity when we make proper contact with the band.

Hmm. Text from Ui: "Going bass shopping with Jun. Want to come?" ... Are the freshman girls starting their own band or something? I'd better check it out.

When you get a chance, give me an update on when I can expect you. Your semester ended yesterday, right? Don't leave me hanging here...

-- Az