ho are they, these mysterious girls? are they foreboders? or seers into the future? or are they wisdom embodied? we asked ourselves just these questions when we prepared the research lab deep within ohtori. we, the scientists, wanted to know. on november 24th 1999 we set forth to discover, and mayhap to learn. when we first saw these girls we knew right away that there was a subject to be studied. the way they talked and what they knew evoked in us a curiousity. as we watched more and more of them and concentrated on every word, every movement, we began to understand them in some small part. but then they would throw a screwball at us and we would have to hypothesize anew. after awhile, we realized that we alone were not enough to crack the shell of these girls. we gathered all who we knew were great thinkers, and some that were almost. we looked far and wide for any and all who might be able to unravel this mysterious being that was a shadow girl. each master thinker was set upon a shadow girl, to hypothesize their every doing. their mission: to unlock the secret behind these curious and wise shadows. their tools: great minds that shone with brilliance and knowledge. hour after hour they thought and questioned, using their minds as great axes, trying to chip away the shell that protected our answers. they grunted and growled, working up a sweat and drinking as many nourishing and revitalizing drinks as we could bring them. days turned into weeks, into months. this had become, to us, more than a lab, but an overzealous pursuit that could not be left on its own. but to our devastation and amazement, we were only met with despair. for these great thinkers, these minds, even as a whole in scientific matromony, could not figure out what made these shadow girls tick. so, finally, we gave up, not learning one thing more than what we started with. perhaps there is one that knows where the spring of wisdom that is called "shadow girl", flows from. to them we leave our questions and hopes of answers. until then, our research we lock away, the shadow girls we can but only contain within the halls of ohtori, and troubled sleep we take.