Angry Desu !jVJAZ.LN/Q 2008/11/08 (Sat) 19:47 No. 11076 “... We'll head to the hospital,” You say after a slight moment of thought, “I don't know what sort of things we'll find there, but if it's anything like out first trip to the mall... Well, I just want you to be prepared, okay?” The girl nods, her face serious, and you feel a sense of reassurance at how she takes the information. “We'll meet at Letty's home, it's a good staging area.”
Reisen frowns slightly and looks at you, “You've been overly trusting of her lately,” she states, “I thought you wouldn't trust her as far as you could throw her?”
“mmm...” You hum, then shrug. “I still don't,” you say, “not exactly anyway. I ran into a talk between her and Sakuya some while back, and she told me a few things that made me at least trust her motives - if not much else.” Reaching up you place your hands behind your head and look up into the night sky outside the mall. “There's stuff she's not telling us, but it seems true that there's a lot of things she doesn't know herself... and that there is someone else behind the scenes somewhere, though neither she or Sakuya know who they might be.”
“I'm... I'm not sure I like that.” Murmurs the purple-haired girl and, frankly, you agree with her.
“Not much we can do though,” is your reply, “They told me...” you pause, choosing your words carefully. “They told me what they were, lets say 'informed', about regarding the goals of the shadows.”
At that Reisen's head spins to lock her eyes with yours faster than you can blink. “They what?” She demands, “They know what those monsters are after?”
Shaking your head you sigh, “Not... exactly. It doesn't really matter to much at the moment anyway since the only way we know of they can accomplish it involved taking out anyone who experiences second days - and we pretty much had that impression already. Now we just have one more reason to make sure they don't get any of us - that's all.”
Nodding thoughtfully Reisen glances at the floor. “You're right,” she mumbles before looking up again, “I guess we all need to find out more before we can really understand what's happening, right?” You nod and your friend smiles - the two of you stay like that for a moment, silent and slightly embarrassed, before eventually Reisen bids you farewell and turns away into the darkening gray street.
The next day finds you nervous and, from the way Marisa and Reimu seem when you see them in school, you're not the only one who remembers the mall expedition. The morning itself seems to drag on and on with dull, repetitive lectures on several subjects you're not particularly interested in combined with the low level constant talking of Minoriko - as well as Shizuha's repeated muffled admonishments against talking in class.
“So anyway, you wouldn't believe the size of hi-” Minoriko's voice cuts out mid-word as the clocks strike eleven and the second day arrives. Well... most of the clocks anyway, the one at the head of the class, for example, was a full five minutes slow and showed it - from what you understood the Second Days began at a given time as determined by the stars and to some extent the earth in general, not when the mechanical timepieces known as clocks decided to show that time.
Standing up from your seat you stretch once and glance around. Nothing... different... so far. So this wasn't the Forest Second Day at least, nor could you see an obvious white screen blocking the window. It was dark outside, certainly but... Ignoring it for now you made your way down to the building entrance, running into Reimu on the floor below yours. Once there you fling open the doors and stop still at the brand new landscape outside, but you quickly overcome your surprise and push on outwards to where Marisa was waiting at the front gate. It's weird but you're starting to get the hang of simply ignoring the terrain of the Second Day to some extent, you're aware it's changed into some dark expanse apparently within a giant cavern of some kind, but this is merely an incidental fact to you right now. Far more important is getting to Letty's, where you will have much more time to examine your surroundings while everyone gets ready.
You had less time than you had expected actually as, somehow, Letty and Reisen had made it back from Reisen's school far faster than you had expected them to. Either they had cheated with a traesto gem - unlikely given how they were rather uncommon - or Reisen had somehow been already on her way to Letty's when the Second Day hit. Actually, it wasn't like you knew her school timetable at all, so that second one was entirely possible for her to have managed. Either way you made yourself some time to have a brief look around this new environment from the windows and garden of Letty's home. It was, as far as you could tell, one giant cavern of some kind... though you knew from the trip here that it was more like several large caverns, as your group had been forced to make their way through a few buildings and smaller cave-like areas in order to bypass a giant cavern wall that had blocked this chunk of city off from the chunk your school was in. Light came down from a mixture of large, glowing, crystals and from various holes and cracks in the great ceiling above. Well, it also helped that the lights in a good number of buildings seemed to be working despite all reasoning stating they shouldn't be. Hell, you had even asked Letty about this and she had responded by simply reaching up and unscrewing a glowing light-bulb from it's fitting - letting you and Reisen both gasp in surprise at the fact that it continued to glow with a heat-less light even when she held it in her hands for you both to examine.
After having declared your intent to explore the hospital the trip there had been... Well, the same-old thing really. There didn't seem to be any particular dangers to this Second Day, though you all heard the explosions of bursting geysers of some kind in the distance none of you actually saw any such thing, nor did the occasional procession of skull-faced comical 'ghosts' do anything but simply pass you by. Although, that said, the look of horror on Marisa's face every time any showed up was simply quite priceless. Soon enough your group reached the Hospital and breathed a collective sigh of relief that, unlike the mall, this place was not ringed with a horde of shadows - though you could clearly see groups of them entering the building from various entrances in a steady, if staggered, stream.
“That's weird,” Marisa comments, “I don't see any coming out anywhere... so either the place is filled to the top, or they're all going somewhere once inside.” Reimu and Letty both nod, while Reisen seems to be counting under her breath.
“fourteen... fifteen... ” She nods, “We have plenty of time to get inside,” she states, “Each group is entering a new entrance about fifteen seconds apart. With five entrances, that's just over a minute to get inside without being spotted - if we're careful.”
“Not too bad then,” you mutter, “Now we just have to pick a likely looking way in...”
[ ] Main Entrance (Outpatients / Minor inccidents)
[ ] Rear entrance (Warehouse / Medical research)
[ ] Ambulance bay entrance (Accident + Emergency)
[ ] East wing entrance (General Wards / Operating theaters)
[ ] West wing entrance (Mental wards / Rehabilitation)
