> > Sure it is. You can't expect people to try to work hard to befriend you if they don't know you.
>
> So Tom's to blame for not trying to make friends, but other people can't be held responsible for not trying to befriend him?
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Do you try to befriend every person you run into? Most likely only if you believe you'll see them again. You expect much the same from them, too.
> > It is, and that's why Chiaki has learned she must *make* people around her at ease, since they won't be when she first meets them.
>
> Or she could not wear the sword.
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Chiaki has lived with a sword by her side since her early teen years. Without it she feels naked and vulnerable. She can fight without it, but she feels more comfortable with it close by.
> So news-stand cashiers don't get at all nervous when she asks for a paper?
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Not any more nervous than when an armed police officer does. Which means not perfectly at ease, but nobody runs screaming from her yet.
> > Chiaki would point out that her solutions are readily available to anyone, short of swordplay. She also would believe Tom lacks the discipline to carry it through, though.
>
> How would a normal person use trickery to disappear from an airport on high security waiting for their arrival?
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Hide in the aircraft until the right time, dress as a flight attendant or pilot or a different passenger, stuff one of the air marshalls in a bathroom and steal their clothing and credentials. Or her personal favorite, go to the bathroom while the plane is still at its origin gate and never come back.
> > Most experts would hopefully tell them that would accomplish nothing.
>
> Tom's not that trusting, and he does know the people after him. Would Keiko have passively allowed her old unit to take her into custody?
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No but she's far more devious, untrusting, and slippery than Tom could be. There would be two unconcious U.S. agents in the Paradopolis hotel room (she wouldn't kill them, she knows every cop in the world would never give up looking for her) and she would have disappeared.
