Ai
Ai manages to blend in well enough, sitting on a nearby bench, looking for all the world like she was waiting for a check-up, or waiting to visit a friend, perhaps. Casually, she begins to listen in on the conversation.
"Ah, yes, the attacks last night. We attempted to mobilize as quick as possible, but our forces, I'm afraid, are not quite as entrenched in the region as I'd like them to be. We're too spread thin. I've requested that my subordinates in Sendai send more forces down to Minatodai, but they won't arrive for another week until the region is completely secure. The recent Zoanthrope attack on Sendai has made matters problematic in regards to deployment. You have my deepest apologies."
"Miss Richards, if I may, my primary concern is for the patients of this hospital. It's a risky enough profession without Zoanthrope attacks directly on here. Might I request at least a small unit to be based at the hospital directly?"
"I'll see what I can do, Mister Matou. I may be able to pull some men from the Seito patrol to protect the hospital until further notice, but I cannot promise too much too soon. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"....no, thank you. That is....all the reassurance I need. Thank you. I'm surprised you came down here, I must say. Don't you have more important things to be concerned with?"
"As the head of the Eden Foundation, my concern lies with protecting the citizens of Japan from further attacks by the Zoanthropes. I'm aware of the work you conduct at this hospital, especially for children. It's my duty to ensure that neither you, nor your staff and patients face harm. I must apologise again, for last night's disturbance. I will do everything in my power to ensure it doesn't happen again."
Ai notes that the man is holding something back. Very subtly, very quietly, he's held something back from Ursula. It's something in his eyes, something in his gait. But what could it be?
"Ah. Are you here to speak with me also?"
Ai suddenly notes that Ursula's eyes aren't on the hospital administrator anymore, but on her instead. The lady studies her with a calm almost-smile, waiting for her to respond.
Ragnar
Splitting off from the others, Ragnar decides to follow the Eden soldiers, in order to see if they're looking for something. As he follows a pair of random soldiers heading down a corridor, Ragnar seems too focused to notice the cleaning cart heading down the corridor intersecting this one. Though he doesn't get hit, Ragnar manages to step back just in time to bump off a bottle of window cleaner and earn an earful from the janitor. As the janitor picks up the bottle, glaring at Ragnar as he pushes the cart away, Ragnar continues down to where he saw the soldiers walk, having seen them turn left into a different room, only to overhear something.
"Sir, you're disturbing the patient! Please leave!"
"We're here looking for anything to do with that Zoanthrope attack last night. We'll just be a minute."
"Y-you can't be in here!"
"He's right, we can't be in here. Let's just check one of the empty rooms, alright?"
A scoff and an irritated huff later, two uniformed soldiers are ushered out by a male nurse, a harried expression across his face as he quickly pushes them down the corridor. It's up to Ragnar if he wants to continue following them or to see what was in the room they just left.
Ito
The Makai Knight, meanwhile, has a poke around the place. Not following Ragnar, not listening to the conversation, he focuses on seeing what his Madou Ring can find, looking for magical signatures while Ito focuses on anything obvious to the naked eye.
To a mundane observer, nothing out of the ordinary. No secret latches, no hinges behind things, no vending machines that might be concealing doors. This place is as you might expect a hospital to be.
To the ring, however, the world looks fairly different.
Magic. Magic was everywhere in Touto. Everywhere in the city. The place is full of it. Perhaps because a load of magical girls lived here, or maybe because the whole city's on a leyline; however it got this way, magic is everywhere here.
However, the ring's capable of focusing it down, paring it down to just the hospital, just what needs to be scanned. And what he finds is.....nothing.
Not some sort of gap, some sort of vacuum as if there were nothing here. No, there's something here, but something else, something artificial, is interfering, preventing you from seeing it clearly, like magical static, making any conclusive reading here difficult if not impossible to get.
The mere existence of interference proves someone is hiding something here. The question is what, and the other question is how they're stopping you from seeing a damn thing.
Maki, Haruko and Amelie
You three head left, helping Maki search for anything that the Zoanthrope might have left behind; some scales, some lenses, anything. Of course, it wasn't exactly one of those cartoon birds that molts everywhere, nor was it really dropping anything but heated air directly on your exposed faces. And of course, there's nothing on the walls that suggests a hidden passage; no pressure plates, no oddly-hard soil, no plastic, no weirdly-placed edges in the wall, though there might be a few false windows that you might have to go in and check later but you suspect are probably real windows, just shuttered. Maki seems a little frustrated by now.
"Okay. I'll check by this bush. Can you guys watch my back, make sure nobody's looking for us? We'll look suspicious if someone catches us."
Almost as soon as Maki turns around to search, however, a girl rounds the corner on the end of the parking lot. You can make out enough of her to see; it's that girl from a couple of days ago, Naomi, one of Maki's friends. She said she lived in Seito, too; not too far from Touto, but it's enough of an oddity to ask questions about. Do you go up to her and ask how she is or do you tell Maki?
Sato and Agatha
You two decide to stay put, searching around the entrance area. After all, the Zoanthrope fell around here, so it's likely that there's something here, something hidden. Sato takes the subtle approach, poking at things, a lamppost here, a fake-looking car there. Nada, zilch, nothing. The blade, as far as you can tell, hasn't really found much either, though the hospital seems far fuzzier than it really ought to be.
As for Agatha? She almost immediately contacts the sewage system underground with her poking around. Well, that's going to be problematic; with these many sewage pipes in the area, you might not be able to find what you're looking for underground. On the plus side, if there is something with the hospital, it'll be under the hospital proper and not in the parking lot; too many pipes to build around, unless they exit through the sewer.
And then something catches both of your eyes. A faintly glowing mote of light, somewhere in a bush, towards the edge of the lot. It might be nothing, might just be a trick of the light, but it might be something worth checking out.
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Topic: Rise of the Magic Girls: Rebirth [IC]: The Spider, Snake and Bat (Read 44012 times)