As the members of SEES turned up one by one, Youhei gave them each an encouraging smile; whatever Yoromatsu had in store for them wouldn't be pretty. Of course SEES have once again waned in strength, roughly down to the same core members that had been here since the beginning; despite his conspicuous absence, Shirogane counted in that measure. Perhaps the Kirijo Group did something with those who left, ensuring their... silence. Scary thought, but then again knowing Yoromatsu, it probably wasn't anything to worry about. The meeting got on easy enough, with four out of the five members present and presided over by the Chairwoman herself no less; it had been a while since she turned up and Youhei found that he still couldn't quite look her in the eye... The punishments meted out to the others were quite lenient, he thought; community service had never really seemed like punishment anyway. The only exception was poor Yankee Doodle having to do the shopping on his lonesome... perhaps it would be worth giving Leo those Japanese lessons sooner rather than later.

Just as Yoromatsu was starting on the real meat of the meeting, he received a call, excusing himself from the room to apparently meet this new recruit. [b]'... Based on prior statistics and an unhealthy dose of pessimism, I give this supposed recruit... three days before they quit?'[/b] He cast a lopsided grin around, trying desperately to avoid the issue that had them all so grave. God only knew how Maede was taking this and Youhei couldn't summon the courage to look her in the eye either. Shirogane's stealthy entrance didn't do much to lighten the mood and the scraps of conversation coming from the stairwell only served to highlight the heavy silence. Luckily Yoromatsu returned fairly soon, sparking the conversation off properly this time. As he and Ikeda talked, Youhei leaned forward on steepled fingers, wondering how the group had changed so much and yet so little. Over the last few days he had witnessed or been told about extremes of personality in Ikeda and Shirogane that no-one could have predicted and poor Maede seemed to have shut down with Takahiro's kidnapping. The situation had taken its toll on all of them, bar perhaps the blissfully ignorant Silverstone. Even Youhei himself was feeling some wear and tear, finding it harder and harder to keep smiling as things got progressively worse around them. Not for the first time did he find himself missing a certain ex-SEES member and the relaxing ease of teasing her... But moping simply would not do.

Youhei forced himself to sit up straight, focusing his attention on the task at hand; if he had time for regret, then he would use that time to contribute instead. [b]'I vote for continued exploration of Tartarus. Whomsoever took Takahiro is, as you say, most likely connected to the Shadows; as far as we know, they come primarily from Tartarus and are difficult to track elsewhere. Therefore the only logical course of action is to go on the offensive and search for any clues within the Dark Hour school grounds.'[/b] Now that gave him a thought... [b]'Hang about... What happens to those on school grounds when Tartarus appears? Could he be being kept on campus?'[/b]