"You've been awfully quiet, Lancer. You maybe got any theories as to what's going on?"
"I think you have put too much stock in the Otherworld making some semblance of 'sense' to you," Lancer says in response to Saki's question. "The Otherworld, at least the Otherworld I am familiar with, if a fickle, capricious place, that cannot be afforded any amount of goodwill or made estimates of. In my time, we always had to expect the unexpectable when venturing into the Otherworld."
"Lancer, how are we supposed to expect something if it's unexpectable?" you ask. "You can't do that. You can expect the unexpected, but if something's unexpectable then by definition you can't expect it."
But maybe this is what Lancer meant, when you find yourself in front of one house in particular, and your cowlick is going absolutely wild. "Okay," you say as you bring your team to a stop just outside of that house. It's been hit by whatever in this labyrinth is causing things to be upside-down pretty hard, and it looks like it's been completely turned inside-out, more like a modern art piece than a place where people could actually live in real life. "Whatever we're looking for, it's in here."
"Are you sure?" Despite your cowlick's current behaviour, Saki still doesn't sound too sure. "It doesn't look any different from the other houses."
"I'm sure of it," you say. "This is the place."
Now, how do you get in? Your first though, of using your black hole to eat your way inside, is one that you quickly dash. While it would be fitting, since there doesn't appear to be an opening you can use to gain access, you're sure there must be one somewhere. Not to mention, the last time you used your black hole on something inside the labyrinth, it ate what appeared to be a hole to the real world in your target. For how weird things are inside this labyrinth, and for how little you want something from inside it to slip out into the real world, you'd really like to not have to use your black hole again in here if you can avoid it.
On top of that, if your black hole does actually tear open holes to the real world when you use it inside this labyrinth, then what about whoever lives in this house in the real world? Wouldn't that just leave them with a big hole into a labyrinth? What if they're still inside their house when you do it? What if you accidentally opened a hole up where they were?
Suffice it to say, you end up deciding against using your black hole. But where does that leave you?
"Hey, earth to Kazumi, I asked you a question!" Mirai's words snaps you out of your musings and back to reality. Er, not reality reality, but, well, you know. "I asked if you had an ideas?"
You're forced to shake your head. "The only idea I had was to use my black hole and see if that would open it up," you say. "But there's several things wrong with that idea, so I decided against it. After that…?" After that, you really don't have a clue. "What about you? Didn't you and Saki come up with anything?"
"Best idea I had was to blast a hole in it with some lightning," Saki says. "Or maybe have Mirai use one of her teddy bears to tear the, uh…" Saki's voice trails off, and she stares at the house for several seconds before she manages to say "The door down. I'm sure there's got to be one somewhere, if this really is just a twisted reflection of a house that exists in the real world, so it's just a matter of whether we're willing to be patient enough to look for it, or if we'd rather just get this over with as quick as possible."
"There you go again," Lancer says, chiding Saki. "Assuming that the Otherworld plays by your rules. For all you know, there is no counterpart to this house that exists in the real world."
"Lancer, you're not being very helpful right now," Saki says. "If all you're going to do is tell us that we're wrong, why don't you try to come up with some way of opening this house up for us?" When Lancer returns Saki's words with a stony silence, Saki says "That's what I thought. Now if you'll excuse me-"
"Don't be rude," you say to Saki. "Lancer's just trying to get you out of a mindset where you're thinking about this place like it's actually the real world, and not just a labyrinth made in the real world's image. She's not doing it to be mean."
"I know, but she could at least be a bit more helpful about giving us ideas, rather than just shooting mine down."
"Let's just try to find a door, for starters,' Mirai says. "I don't mind using one of my bears for that." Mirai taps her foot against… Actually, what is Mirai tapping her foot against? The ground is up down there, so what is she actually tapping? Either way, her teddy bear emerges from what you think is the ground above your heads, and falls flat on its stuffed butt in front of Mirai. Without missing a beat it picks itself up, dusts itself off, and salutes Mirai. "Um…" You can hear the confusion in her voice as she says "See if you can find the door into this place. If not, let me know, and I'll get you some reinforcements."
While the bear looks around for an entrance, the four of you all stand back and watch. "So, uh… What do you think we'll find inside?" you ask, to no one in particular. "A witch, maybe? Or something else entirely?"
"I'm going to guess that it won't be a witch," Saki says. "I mean, Mitakihara is a dry city, and the only puella magi around know how to keep themselves from turning. We, uh… We also did a pretty good job of cleaning up Asunaro, so it's not like there's anywhere nearby that a witch could have migrated from. Based on that, we can also assume that leaves matured familiars being right out."
"So that just leaves… Whatever this is," Mirai says, gesturing to the twisted nightmare all around you. "If we're right, and this whole place just spontaneously sprung into existence because of Sidonia putting a massive knot of dark magic into the city's leylines, then whatever we're looking at is probably equally as gnarly. Maybe we'll have to fight an actual sentient lump of Grief, or maybe there isn't even anything for us to fight."
"How would that work?" you ask.
"Well, like, what if we get to the end of whatever is inside this house, and there's nothing we can really do about it?" Saki asks. "Say it's just a really big lump of Grief. We're not in any position to clean it up for ourselves, are we? We'd have to leave it like that."
You look to Lancer. She's got the same runes that the Quintet's Lancer servant has, and you know she was instrumental in developing the Quintet's method. "I don't believe that," you say. "If there's a big lump of Grief waiting for us at the end, we could have Lancer clean it up for us, couldn't we?"
"Maybe." The longer it takes for Mirai's bear to locate the entrance, the more impatient she grows, until finally- "What the heck is taking so long?" She stomps her foot on the not- ground, on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum when she says "Seriously? Why's my bear taking so damn long to find this stupid entrance?"
"Uh…" Saki's voice dies in her throat as she locates the most likely cause. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we didn't give the bear an umbrella," she says, pointing to the Grief-stained puddle of fluff and stuff lying there on the ground. She strains herself to ask Mirai "Try again?"
"Damnit!" Mirai stomps her foot against the ground, and as several bears come tumbling from the sky, she barks at Lancer "Make umbrellas for them this time!"
"Maybe ask nicely next time," Lancer says. But, to her credit, at least she makes the umbrellas for Mirai's teddy bears. She could have just as easily not done that, and let the bears melt a second time. But if she did that, you'd never get anywhere, would you? When Mirai says nothing, Saki nudges her, and Lancer adds "You're old enough that you should know how to show gratitude to someone when they do something for you."
"You're right," Mirai says. Though probably only because Saki made her say it. "Thank you for making umbrellas for my bears." You can almost hear the words "Much better," in Lancer's smirk. But she says nothing, and just distributes umbrellas to each of Mirai's bears in smug, satisfied silence. The search continues for several more minutes, but eventually- "They found something!"
You look up – and thank goodness your vision is still tracking normally so that you can see up when you look up – and see one of Mirai's bears, waving to her with one of its stuffed limbs, as it gestures to a door that looks nothing at all like a door. Are you sure it's even a door at all? It has to be; if it's the way in, then it's got to be a door, right?
"So, what now?" Saki asks Mirai. "We found the way in, so...? Do we try our luck inside? Or should we send one of your bears in first to see if everything's… You know, safe for us in there?"
"I'll send one in, just to be on the safe side," Mirai says. She gives a whistle, and all of her teddy bears turn their heads towards her. "Have one of you take a look around inside," she says to her bears. "If you see something, come running and tell me what's up, okay?"
Her bears all give a salute, and one of them takes charge, leaping inside the open door entrance to the strange house. Again, you're left wondering "Whose house do you think this is, really?" you ask Saki and Mirai. "I really only know what Akemi's apartment building looks like, and I'm not too sure if that more western style of building is common around here. Did either of you get a good look at what the houses by the park looked like before we went in?"
"Honestly?" Saki says, "I saw at least a handful that… Actually kind of looked like this." You find that hard to believe. "I mean, not really as messed up as this, but I did see a couple that really looked like modern art projects. I bet they were all designed by the same architect." More to herself than to you or Mirai, Saki muses "I wonder if they're a local, or if they're just someone whoes style is popular in Mitakihara for some reason."
Saki looks to Umika, and asks her "What do you think? Should we try to get a few houses like that put up in Asunaro?" When just looking at her doesn't quite get the point across, Saki cuddles up to Mirai – it really almost looks like bullying, with how much taller Saki is than Mirai – and says "I'm talking about us maybe getting a place together after this mess is over with. You know, if we didn't want to just live out at the base the whole time after it's rebuilt."
"I don't know…" Mirai replies. "Having a place together would be nice, but… I mean, we're both broke as fuck, and without our parents paying for our tuitions, we'd be up shit creek without a paddle. Unless they were willing to buy us a place, I don't know how we'd ever afford one; heck, even renting one would be out of our price range."
The sound of an explosion silences any further conversation Saki and Mirai could have had. "That came from inside!" Mirai says, though the black smoke billowing out from the open door hole opened up in the side of the house.
"What do you think that was?" Saki asks.
"My bear probably wandered into some sort of trap," Mirai replies. "Damnit! I wish I could see what's going on inside there! Stupid Niko, couldn't be assed to sync my familiars up with my phone, could you…"
[ ] Wat do?
