[X] Leave Arisawa for now. Asagami barely knew her, so intruding may seem rude. Ask Kon if he knew anything about the Fairies first.
Internally sighing, Fujino tried to push the thought of Arisawa out of her mind, for now. Even if it looked like Arisawa was upset, there wasn't anything Fujino could do to fix this, right now. They weren't that close, all things considered. They had met only a few days ago, and Arisawa had only started helping Asagami look for Misaya because she hadn't had anything better to do, at first.
If anyone here should be going to check on Arisawa, it would have to be Kurosaki Karin. She would have known Arisawa for longer, so if she wasn't going to check on Arisawa, then Fujino certainly wasn't close enough to do so.
Focusing back towards Kon, Asagami continued that conversation, instead.
"I feel like we should keep the conversation around here, so Arisawa knows where to find us." Fujino began. "Though perhaps we should be cautious of anyone overhearing us."
"If you say so." Kon replied. "So, this incident you were-"
"Hold on, time out." Kurosaki replied. "This is weird."
"You're going to have to be more specific." Kon replied. "Everything about this is weird. What's the one you have problems with?"
"You have Ichigo's voice and his face but your speak like you're nervous and trying to avoid offending people and it's weirding me out. Is there a way you can stop using my brother's body?"
"Ah. That." Kon accepted. "Yeah, sorry, I can't really do anything about that. I mean, I can leave this body and get others, but I kinda need a body to talk, and if I leave Ichigo's body unattended and something happens to it he's not gonna be happy with me."
"...Tch, fine." Kurosaki muttered. "Go on, Asagami."
"Thank you, Kurosaki." Fujino nodded in her direction. "Kon, do you know anything about fairies?"
"Never heard of them." Kon replied. "Why? Is this incident involving them?"
"Yes." Asagami confirmed. "I believe Tsukabichi described them as hand-crafted magical beings. There's been a few of them around Karakura around recently."
"Someone made them?" Kon asked, and Fujino nodded in confirmation. "Well I'm going to guess there's a reason for that?"
"They have the power to take memories." Fujino explained.
"...Well that's, uh, not good." Kon noted.
"You said that the Shinigami would've wiped memories when that took that Rukia person?" Kurosaki spoke up. "So you'd know a bit about memory erasure already?"
"I'm not sure about how similar it is." Kon replied. "But yeah, that's a thing. Rukia's done it a few times that I know about. Like, uh... Karin-"
"Don't call me Karin." Kurosaki interrupted. "You're not my brother and it's weird."
"Sorry, my bad, not gonna do that again." Kon frantically assured her. "But, uh, yeah. Rukia might've tweaked your memories a few times. Not sure. I feel like she's why you don't remember being attacked by Grand Fisher at your mother's grave-"
"Hold on." Kurosaki interrupted. "I... Feel like I should ask about this. And also about my brother going to save someone from Shinigami. But I'm going to have time to do that later, and Asagami's here now, so let's keep on track with that."
"Thank you, Kurosaki."
"Alright, focus." Kon replied. "Yeah, I do know a little bit about memory erasure. Not enough to know how it might apply to this situation. Is there anything else?"
"I believe they were at the school I go to, out of town, not long ago." Fujino explained. "I never noticed any myself, but there's significant evidence. People not knowing why they woke up somewhere, and similar situations."
"And now they're here." Kon finished Fujino's thoughts. "Any idea why?"
"When I first came to Karakura, I came looking for someone who went missing from my school recently." Fujino explained. "Ouji Misaya. She's been involved in a few situations recently. Right after a rather noteworthy incident, a teacher she spent time with died, and she disappeared at the same time. Someone said they saw her taking the train to Karakura."
"So, what you're saying is, there's a connection?" The artificial soul replied. "They're here following her?"
"They're connected to her in some way, yes." Fujino clarified. "The fairies do seem to be trying to keep people from remembering seeing her. Either the person who made them has them following her for some reason, or she is the one who made them."
"You don't know?" Kon asked.
"I don't know Ouji well." Fujino admitted. "She has been going through a rough time recently, so if she's trying to hide and be alone, she might do something like that, I'm not sure."
"Wait, you don't know her well?" Kurosaki asked. "I thought you were looking for a friend."
"She's not a friend, no." Fujino confirmed. "But Misaya hasn't had it easy, in these recent times. The only person who was really her friend died as well, a few months ago. If the only people looking for her were her friends, then she wouldn't have anyone right now."
"...Well that sounds like it sucks." Kurosaki accepted. "But why did you specifically come and do it? I mean, you're... You know."
"Blind?" Kon suggested.
"Shut up." Kurosaki replied. "I was trying to be polite."
"My bad." Kon apologised.
"But yeah, that." Karin finished. "It's so much more of a hassle for you, specifically, to come trying to find someone."
This was a bit of a predicament, Fujino had to admit. Kurosaki was raising excellent points about this, and it wasn't exactly easy to prove those points wrong, not without revealing more about Fujino's past than she was comfortable admitting.
But on the other hand, could she really just brush off the issue without it seeming like she was trying to avoid the issue?
...Well, Kurosaki had already demonstrated that she didn't want to be rude once already, so perhaps Fujino could lean on that.
"Consider it a personal issue of mine." Asagami decided on. "I have my reasons for wanting to find Misaya, and I don't want to talk about it."
"...Fine, I guess." Kurosaki replied. "Still weird and all. There really wasn't any other way that didn't involve a blind woman going around alone."
"I made my choice." Asagami replied. "And there was nobody else available, regardless."
"What do you mean nobody else?" Kon asked. "I mean, if you're looking for a classmate, is there any reason nobody else at your school could've come along?"
Fujino took a moment to consider that note, before deciding that the information was harmless enough.
"I go to Reien Academy. It's holiday dates don't line up with public school holiday dates. Technically speaking, everyone else in my school is at school."
There was a moment of silence, which Fujino could only imagine was people judging her.
"I did have a valid reason to not be there." She defended herself. "They know I'm here. I'm listed as away for medical reasons. It's not as if I'm some delinquent skipping school."
"Well, I guess that explains that, then." Kon accepted. "And you looked like you were getting annoyed there for a moment, so I guess we'll drop that topic now."
"Thank you."
"And in that case, moving on." Kon continued. "Fairies. Ouji might've made them, or they might have been made by someone following her, either or and you have no idea which. And anyone who would have seen her can't confirm anything because the fairies would have taken their memories."
"That is what we have been able to piece together." Asagami confirmed. "Do you know anything that might be relevant, or anything that might help?"
"Well, my first instinct for people not me would be to go see Urahara, because he usually knows a bit, but you've done that already if I'm getting the right idea from Tatsu- Arisawa."
"He didn't seem to be aware of the fairy when the girl there first brought it to him." Fujino explained. "Tsukabichi did examine it while we were there, and that's why we know as much as we do."
"Hm." Kon mused on the subject, for a moment. "Did they say anything else about it?"
"Tsukabichi did notice that it looked like the craftsmanship was sloppy." Fujino mused. "It had started degrading after it existed for long enough, but degraded too slow to be intentional, I think?"
"That's certainly something." Kon replied. "If it's crafted poorly, then it'd make sense if whoever was making it was new to the whole supernatural thing. Or maybe that's just by Urahara's standards, which could be higher than I thought. So maybe that could say Ouji is the one making them and she learnt recently."
"Perhaps." Fujino replied. "Or perhaps the person looking for her only managed it recently. I don't have enough information to say for sure."
"Good point." Kon replied. "Still, if it's crafted, then it's got to be made of something, right?"
"Like what?" Asagami asked.
"I dunno I'm not an expert. But it's like... I'm an artificial soul. I was made. But I wasn't just made from nothing. When you're dealing with spirits and stuff, you need some sort of spiritual matter to work with to make the stuff. Sometimes you can just use your own Rei- Actually let's just say spiritual power, getting into specifics would take a lecture and I'm bad at those- Sometimes you can use your own spiritual power to make do, but if they're poorly made and fall apart quickly, I'd wager that the fairies either need something more, or the person making them would run out before too long."
"I see." Fujino mused. "I suppose that makes sense."
"So where are you going with this?" Kurosaki asked. "Could you get around that by chopping up ghosts or something?"
"Actually, maybe." Kon admitted. "They're invisible to people who can't see ghosts, so their existence is comparable, at least. It wouldn't surprise me if you could harvest a ghost's spiritual body and use it to make another spiritual body. But I was thinking more..."
He trailed off for a moment, as if deep in thought, before he continued. "I didn't really listen to too much about what Rukia told Ichigo about Shinigami duties and whatnot, but I vaguely recall her saying something about Ley Lines? Like, there's specific areas of the land where you can just get spiritual power straight out of the world, or something like that. If someone was running short on how much they had, that might work as well."
"Do you know where one would be around here?" Fujino asked.
"Uh... Maybe the abandoned hospital?" Kon suggested. "I feel like that place has a tendency of attracting Hollows and ghosts, but that might just be because people have died there a lot. Death does that to a place, even if it's been a while since anyone actually died there. Heck, graveyards attracts a lot of spirits, and that's just where the dead bodies go after dying."
Fujino took a moment to consider the conversation before she spoke again. "In other words, it might be worth investigating the abandoned hospital and graveyard, because we might be able to find some link between whoever is creating the fairies at those locations?"
"Probably." Kon replied. "And if Ouji's the one making them, maybe you'd run into her right away like that."
"Then perhaps we should go to one of those locations now." Fujino mused. "Would you be able to lead me to either of those locations?"
"I could." Kon replied. "I'd prefer not to get involved but just showing you the way shouldn't be too much of a hassle-"
"Hold on." Kurosaki interrupted. "I also don't want to get involved, don't want it to look like I'm getting involved, and don't want to push off that conversation anymore."
"...Which conversation?" Kon asked, a note of fear in his voice.
"The conversation where you tell me everything that Ichigo's been up to, and then take me to go see that Urahara guy so I can get what he knows about Ichigo, and I can figure out how much I need to yell at him for endangering himself when he gets back."
"That's fair." Asagami replied. "Arisawa should know the way to those locations anyway. I could ask her to show me the way. Unless she also wants answers from-"
There was heavy footsteps from behind Fujino, and she stopped talking, in case the approaching person wasn't supposed to hear anything.
"I'm back." Arisawa's voice came from behind Fujino, as she walked closer. She still sounded somewhat upset, but less so now, fortunately. "Did I miss anything important?"
"Asagami's heading to either the graveyard or the abandoned hospital to look for any signs of the person making the fairies." Kurosaki filled her in. "I'm grabbing the artificial soul and finding Urahara and finding out just how much danger Ichigo's in right now and how much he's been in while I didn't know."
"Have fun with that." Arisawa muttered under her breath, low enough that most people would have missed it if they hadn't been using their ears to compensate for a loss of eyesight. Then, speaking up, she continued. "Let me know if anything important comes up. I'll escort Asagami, I suppose."
"Thank you, Arisawa." The purple haired girl replied.
"Where are we going first, then?" Arisawa asked.
Fujino took a moment to consider it. If the person making the fairies really was at one of those locations, an abandoned hospital was actually a building, so it could make sense that they would set up base there. Then again, doing so inside the location that drew Hollow attention might be problematic.
It might have been more convenient to just be near the area, and under that logic, the graveyard was just as valid a pick as the hospital. If the culprit needed to enter the location to get whatever they needed, even moreso, considering a graveyard would be easier to enter than a building people weren't supposed to go into.
Weighing the options for a moment, Asagami reached her decision.
[X] The Abandoned Hospital
[x] The Graveyard
