Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 2, part 2

[Hello Purvis]

>"Kiku, drop it!"

[Oldmansour]

>"Kiku, drop it!"

>"Black seas...." Kiku murmurs, still staring at the paper as it transforms to ooze. "Hungry waters..."

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Drop it!"
>If she still doesn't drop it, take it from her and drop it.

[Oldmansour]

>"Drop it!"
>If she still doesn't drop it, take it from her and drop it.

>"It goes down forever..." her voice seems to be getting weaker.
>Held in the grip of a power that is beyond her, Kiku clearly needs your help. So you take a step forwards and grab the paper charm from her hand, careful not to touch the liquid ooze. Almost in the same instant that the paper leaves her hands, the ooze transmutes back to ordinary paper. Not taking any chances, you drop the thing to the floor.
>Kiku's eyes refocus, and her breath leaves her in a rush. Disturbingly, a faint blue vapor, looking and smelling almost like swamp gas, escapes her mouth as she does so. She stumbles backwards a step or two and sits down heavily, almost falls, onto the stairs behind her.

>Lily moves past you, and puts her arms on Kiku's shoulders. "Kiku? Kiku! Are you alright?!"
>The tiger youkai seems spaced for a few moments after Lily calls to her, then she blinks three times. She slowly looks at the winged girl, and her expression is one of a girl that just stared under the hood of the grim reaper himself. You hear Lily emit a choked sob, and she enfolds Kiku in a hug. "It's okay. It's okay, Kiku, you're back with us. You're okay now..."

[Hello Purvis]

>Put a hand on Kiku's shoulder and give it a firm squeeze.
>"We're both still here. You're not alone."

[Oldmansour]

>Put a hand on Kiku's shoulder and give it a firm squeeze.
>"We're both still here. You're not alone."

>Kiku's breath comes heavy and deep. Rather slowly, she wraps her left arm around Lily, and uses her other hand to give yours a squeeze. "I'm sorry..." she murmurs.

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's not your fault that it came for you, Kiku. What did you see?"

[Oldmansour]

>"It's not your fault that it came for you, Kiku. What did you see?"

>"Water. Black water. A sea with no shore, no floor. Just bottomless hunger. It spilled..." She releases her hand and presses hers to her forehead. "It was coming for me. For all of us..."
>You hear the sound of the door opening above you.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Do not worry. It shall not take us."
>"Ready yourselves. The enemy comes."

[Oldmansour]

>"Do not worry. It shall not take us."
>"Ready yourselves. The enemy comes."

>The tiger youkai gives you a rather shaky nod, as she visibly tries to pull herself together while a set of feet descend the stairs. Lily disengaes herself from Kiku, her smile full of comfort and reassurance, as Hironobu comes into view. He looks down at the still-seated Kiku. "Everything all right?" he asks.
>"We're fine." Lily assures him. "Just some last minute prep."
>Hironobu gives her a dubious look, but does not inquite furthur. Instead he takes you all in with a glance. "Are you ready?"

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"I am ready, at least."

[Hello Purvis]

>"May I have the key? It would be best if you did not touch the door. Some...less favorable suspicions have been confirmed."

[Oldmansour]

>"I am ready, at least."

>"May I have the key? It would be best if you did not touch the door. Some...less favorable suspicions have been confirmed."

>"I'm not prepared to give the password to our basement to anyone outside our organization." Hironobu responds firmly. "Even a Metal Tiger miko, which we've worked with many times before."
>Kiku seems momentarily confused at this statement, but she still seems fairly out of it as she comes back to her feet.
>"Now, if you'll stand aside?" Hironobu continues.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Then please take care not to touch the door. Use a pen or something to punch the buttons, just in case."

[Oldmansour]

>"Then please take care not to touch the door. Use a pen or something to punch the buttons, just in case."

>Hironobu gives you a rather puzzled look, but Kiku nods slowly at him. "Best be safe." she adds. The tall man seems to shrug slightly, then descends the rest of the stairs, passing by you and stopping before the door. He slides the keycard in his hand into the waiting slot, then produces a pen from his kimono. Placing himself between you three and the keypad, he inputs what sounds like a six number combination. With a high-pitched tone, the door unlocks with a clunk, and Hironobu pushes it open.
>Immediately, a wave of putrid air erupts from the room beyond, five times as worse as the smell out here. Lily chokes and makes a sound like someone trying gamely not to retch. You yourself gag, despite yourself, and recoil from the horrible, horrible smell.

[Hello Purvis]

>Hand to nose ACTION
>How does Hironobu seem to be taking this?

[Oldmansour]

>Hand to nose ACTION
>How does Hironobu seem to be taking this?

>You bring your hand up to your nose as fast as humanly possible. It's a slight improvement, but honestly, that stuff smells so bad, the memory of it could almost make you vomit.
>As for the human, he seems completely unfazed by the fetid reek. He pokes his head in through the door and glances to the left and right.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Don't go in there!"
>Don't throw up while saying that!

[Oldmansour]

>"Don't go in there!"
>Don't throw up while saying that!

>Swallowing heavily to ward off any potential retching, you call out a warning to the human in front of you. To his credit, he pulls his head back in rather quickly, then looks back at the three of you. He seems somewhat surprised at what he sees. "I can accept there are some things I don't have a sense for." he says dryly. "I never thought smell would be on that list."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Consider it...an expression of how unrefined our senses are..."
>Don't throw up!
>Does this smell seem to be getting less bothersome?
>Look through the door, do we see anything at all?

[Oldmansour]

>"Consider it...an expression of how unrefined our senses are..."
>Don't throw up!
>Does this smell seem to be getting less bothersome?

>Hironobu does not laugh, but he does look back through the doorway, probably looking for something out of place. He does heed your advice, however, and refrains from poking his head inside again.
>It does not. You hope this doesn't soak into your clothes, you might never get it out. Even RIN might not be able to stand being around that. But as that thought crosses your mind, you see Lily extend her gloved hand towards the open door. You sense a faint build up of energy from the winged girl.
>"Spring Lily Flower Breeze!"
>A strong gust of wind blows past you, sending your long gradient hair billowing. A wind that smells like cherry blossoms, new grass, tree sap, running water, and sunshine. Lily's called forth the scent of Spring, to combat the foul reek of the demonic presence. And it also, somehow, brings the image of squirrels playing with kittens to your mind's eye.

>Look through the door, do we see anything at all?

>Hironobu is still standing in the doorway, but from what you can see above and around him, you can see very long metal racks holding cardboard boxes, and a bare concrete floor. From here, at least, it looks almost like a warehouse in there, and there are no obvious signs of otherworldly invaders.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Oh, that's much better. Thank you, Lily."
>Does Hironobu react much to that?
>If we can without pushing, try to step around him and enter.

[Oldmansour]

>"Oh, that's much better. Thank you, Lily."
>Does Hironobu react much to that?
>If we can without pushing, try to step around him and enter.

>Lily gives you an 'Aw, shucks' look. Kiku looks at the winged blonde with curiousity. "Your power extends to making the air smell better?" she asks in an arch tone.
>"For starters!" Lily chirps brightly. "I just thought to myself, 'I wish I could make that stink go away!', and the words just... sorta came to me." She giggles then, a sound somewhat at odds with the situation, as she smiles. "I wonder what ELSE I can do?" Kiku offers no reply to this, just turns her head away, her face dark.

>Hironobu seems rather surprised at the sudden blast of air from behind him, but he tilts his head back and draws in a breath through his nose. He turns back to Lily and gives her an approving look. "I always thought it smelled a little musty down here. That's much better."
>"Happy to help!" Lily replies.

>You approach the door to the record vault, and Hironobu steps to one side, allowing you full access. As you cross the threshold, you have the sensation of being splashed by water. Foul, reeking, sludgey water. The flowery smell of Lily vanishes, but the horrible reek does not replace it. It seems the two cancel each other out in here. Replacing both is, indeed, a rather musty odor, not entirely unlike what some old libraries and bookstores smell like. There are many rows, each at least 40 feet long, of those long metal shelves, holding almost innumerable boxes, some cardboard, some plastic.
>A flat cinderblock wall is present about 10 feet to your right, a sign on it marked 'A'.

[Hello Purvis]

>Try to extend our senses again now that we're inside, and see what we can detect.

[Oldmansour]

>Try to extend our senses again now that we're inside, and see what we can detect.

>You extend your senses outwards, but the sensation that returns to you is... unpleasant. It is as though every inch of the chamber you're standing in has been drenched by dark water, interfering with your ability to detect and localize otherworldly presences. Much like Kiku said, you have a sense that there are two distinct presences down here, but the interference put out by one, or perhaps both, of them, keeps you from pinpointing their locations. They seem to be coming from everywhere at once- every box, every bracket, every rivet, every brick. This is a rather unnerving sensation.
>Fortunately, for whatever reason, you do not suffer the same sort of attack that Kiku did.

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's, or they, are everywhere. Trying to hide themselves. Step carefully. Hironobu, it may be best that you leave, lest it try to come for you."
>Does anything seem visually awry?

[Oldmansour]

>"It's, or they, are everywhere. Trying to hide themselves. Step carefully. Hironobu, it may be best that you leave, lest it try to come for you."
>Does anything seem visually awry?

>Hironobu casts one more look back and forth then gives you a look that seems to say 'if you say so.' Then he says it out loud, taking a few steps backwards, allowing Lily and Kiku to move up behind you.
>You see the occasional box on the floor instead of a shelf here and there, but as you've never been down here before, this may be normal. An analysis of the wall around you does not reveal anything too interesting, save for two stains. One near the door, dark and black, much like an oil or grease stain. The other is less defined, kind of a milky color, and barely noticeable. There are chips and signs of wear, but nothing else out of the ordinary.
>There also appears to be what seems like a pool of liquid in one of the aisles between shelving brackets, the sixth and seventh on your left, to be specific. There are numerous boxes on the bottom shelf of the sixth rack, so you do not have a clear view of the liquid.

[Hello Purvis]

>If the grease stain is closest, examine it. Grease generally doesn't manifest out of the aether onto a wall without there being lots of machinery about...

[Oldmansour]

>If the grease stain is closest, examine it. Grease generally doesn't manifest out of the aether onto a wall without there being lots of machinery about...

>It is the closest, indeed, so you go in for a closer examination. With the ambient interference, you can't be certain of the accuracy of this, but the stain does not give off any stronger sensation than anything else around that you can detect. Upon closer examination, you would guess this is actually some kind of oil. You're not an expert, but you've been around Nitori and Marissa enough to know an oil stain when you see one up close, even if this one isn't as dark as some others. Although this doesn't entirely answer how a single oil stain could get on a cinderblock wall in a room with little or no obvious machiery active.
>It seems more a smear, you would guess, than a splash. As though something oily rubbed this spot, leaving this less than an inch long smear behind.
>"Somethin' catch your eye, Lotus?" Lily asks you as she walks past the Saigyouji male, shaking her head in surprise as she passes through the doorway then frowning slightly.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I am just wondering where this grease streak came from. It seems out of place."