You shake your head, turning to face her fully. "She believes that this had to happen, I think."
Mami looks at you quizzically. "That doesn't make sense!"
"She's a precog," you say. "And before the explosion... there was a note. 'This was, and remains, necessary.' She...
believes that this was necessary. If she can see the future, or maybe
a future, then I'm guessing she's trying to shape it."
Mami's lips firm into a thin line. "That's no excuse."
"It's not," you agree. "Whatever that future she wants is... its
present requires Sayaka's house burned down, or letting everyone else in there suffer... or me out of the way, or something. I have a
few problems with all of that," you finish, sharp gaze meeting Mami's.
She nods slowly, eyes hard. "She needs to answer for what she's done."
"Yes, she does," you say firmly. You can see Mami's inner turmoil, though... despite her simmering rage, despite the territorial conflicts she must have been in, you don't think she's ever come up against someone quite so outright murderous. Teenaged girls don't
usually go around setting fires, jaded and hostile or no.
"C'mon," you say, bumping her lightly on the shoulder. "We need to find her first, or all this is moot."
"I suppose so," Mami says.
"Coming, Homura?" you call, raising your voice. Your shout is shocking loud in the eerie silence of the frozen world. The black haired magical girl looks down at you from her perch on the building, and you can see her nodding before hopping down with her hair trailing behind her.
The three of you prowl towards the Mikuni residence carefully, walking up the main path to the front door while you stretch your senses as far as they will go to examine for
any traces of magic. The three of you reach the house without incident, and without sensing anything magical, either.
Wordlessly, the three of you decide to circle around the house, simply observing it from the outside and peering into the windows. From what you can see, it looks like a perfectly normal house. Perhaps a little messy, but considering that Oriko has, presumably, been living largely on her own for a while, it's only to be expected.
Behind the house is an enormous backyard planted full of rosebushes. There's a table and chairs set up back here, too, for the occasional afternoon tea or some such, you guess.
After circling the house once, you glance at the others. "Shall we check inside? Maybe there's some clue as to where she is?"
"I don't see the point, if you do not sense her inside," Homura offers. "I know where Kirika lives."
"I... agree with Sabrina," Mami says. "We should check to see if there's anything inside."
"Fine," Homura grunts. "There's an open window on the second floor, around the back."
You nod, and the three of you proceed over to find the window. It is, indeed, open, but just a crack. Mindful of how the note had been trapped, you glance over at Mami, but she's already speaking.
"I'll use my ribbons on the window, OK?" she says.
You nod in agreement. "Yeah, I was just about to suggest that."
More golden ribbon spools out in Mami's hands, and twists upwards like a snake doing a particularly neat trick. The ribbon reaches the window, and the three of you tense in anticipation as contact is made and colour blooms along the window frame.
A heartbeat.
And another.
And... nothing happens.
The ribbon, moving hesitantly under Mami's control, pulls the window fully open. Once again, nothing happens. "I'll... go check it out, OK?" you suggest.
Mami frowns unhappily. "One of us needs to, I guess, and it shouldn't be Homura, since she's holding the timestop. I... I'll... Um. Be
careful."
The blonde gestures, and the ribbon at the window blossoms out into a full webwork ladder, branching off interweaving ribbons that anchor themselves against the walls. You nimbly climb up the ribbons, and, very carefully, poke your head through the window to look inside.
You take a few careful minutes to look around, senses hyperalert and ready to spring back at any moment, but as far as you can see, it's just a bedroom. One that's done up nicely in a pastel lavender. The canopied bed is... alarmingly frilly, with veils drifting downwards. On a hint of paranoia, you carefully bring a single Grief marble forward to nudge the veils aside, and you find that the bed's unoccupied. You even check the wall just under and above the window for more mines.
No traps or anything that you can see.
"It's clear, I think," you call back, before clambering fully into the room, still ready to call the Grief marbles to shield you at a moment's notice.
You take a cautious step further in, watching carefully for any trip wires that might connect you to a trap, and a sharp eye on where the ribbon connecting you back to Homura drapes.
Rustling of the ribbon ladder heralds Homura climbing into the room, followed by Mami.
"Well, we're in," you murmur. "Room by room?"
Homura nods silently, while Mami answers, "I suppose so."
The three of you spread out, roaming through the rooms of the house. It's almost melancholic, somehow, with the house oddly still and empty. Every closed door is treated with suspicion, and opened at a distance with Mami's ribbons, while the three of you stay vigilant, avoiding touching anything if at all possible.
One of the rooms turns out to be a study, richly furnished with what you think is a mahogany desk and shelves filled with books. On the desk is a photograph of a younger, laughing Oriko and a distinguished looking man hoisting her on his shoulders. You glance at Mami, and move to block the photograph from her view.
Moving on, you find another room, this one furnished, at a guess, for Oriko to study in. There's a few school textbooks lying around, but more interesting are the glass jars. One is half filled with some black powder and what looks like glass marbles, while another has some traces of yellow powder. There are also various tools on the desk, along with some wires and bits of electronics lying around.
Homura peers down at the desk. "Gunpowder," she observes quietly. "Charcoal grinder," she adds, pointing at the glass jar, and a little motorized assembly you hadn't noticed before.
You nod in agreement. A simple mill grinder. "Here's where she made the bomb, then."
Mami just shakes her head, looking at the paraphernalia of destruction on the desk, her hands twitching.
Eventually, the three of you move on, after examining the room in detail. It
looks like Oriko doesn't have the materials to produce more bombs, but that means little. They could be hidden elsewhere, or already deployed, for all you know.
"Mami, could you check the fridge?" you suggest, when you reach the kitchen.
"The fridge would make an excellent place to hide a bomb," Homura points out, glancing at you.
"Yeah... We should probably get out of the house or something," yoy acknowledge.
"Well... I
could," Mami answers. "Why do you ask, Sabrina?"
"To see if there's fresh food in there," you reply. "If Oriko's abandoned the house..."
"That makes sense," Homura nods, walking out of the kitchen, presumably to look for a way out.
The tremendous glass doors opening out to the rose garden slide open without any issue, and the three of you retreat to a safe distance, with Mami leaving a ribbon snaking behind, ready to open the fridge.
"Do it," Homura says, when the three of your are squatting behind a tree. Mami nods, and frowns, presumably feeling out the fridge with her ribbons, before prying it open. All three of you tense in anticipation of an explosion, but nothing happens, and you relax slowly.
You creep back into the kitchen, now with the refrigerator door hanging wide open. As it turns out, it's almost empty of food, with one lonely head of cabbage and a carton of milk sitting in the corner.
"Well," you say. "This isn't
conclusive, but it's suggestive."
Mami shakes her head. "If she isn't even living here any more, then what next?"
[] Continue searching the house
[] Search elsewhere
- [] Where?
[] Write-in
=====
Hmhm. Another phone-typed update.
