Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 3

[Oldmansour]

>Nod
>"Of course. I would certainly rather my doctor be overly cautious than not cautious enough, and this is hardly much inconvenience. I appreciate your care and concern."

>"And if anything changes, any sudden headaches, any double vision, I don't want you taking any chances, either. Get yourself checked out right away."

[DracoOmega]

>Nod
>"Yes, of course."
>Maybe.

[Oldmansour]

>Nod
>"Yes, of course."
>Maybe.

>Gamely keeping your eyes from shifting, Utsuho appears pleased by your assurance. She removes her glasses again. "All right, then. I think we're done here for today. I'd still like to advise you avoid anything too stressful for another day or two, just to be safe." She smiles. "Of course, that's sound advice pretty much all the time."

[DracoOmega]

>"Sound advice indeed."
>Also almost certainly impossible. Pity, that.

[Oldmansour]

>"Sound advice indeed."
>Also almost certainly impossible. Pity, that.

>Utsuho consults her notes one more time, then speaks, "All right, well, thanks for seeing me. And take care on your way home."
>Being the Hero of the Heart comes with certain risks.
>And certain curious times as well, as while you have no sensation on your extra senses, a glance at your ring shows a yellow swirl of color in the middle of the gem that was not there before.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>...Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Too bad there's nobody we can ask about-wait, yes there is.
>Purpose, are you there?

[Oldmansour]

>...Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Too bad there's nobody we can ask about-wait, yes there is.
>Purpose, are you there?

>Hard to say. This is a new one. So you ask a second opinion.
>Yes, Hero?

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Do you need me for anything else?"
>My ring has changed. There is now a yellow swirl in the jewel. Do you know what this means?

[Oldmansour]

>"Do you need me for anything else?"
>My ring has changed. There is now a yellow swirl in the jewel. Do you know what this means?

>Utsuho shakes her head. "I have what I need for now."
>It may be reacting to an external force. There's still much about your power that I do not know, but from what I have observed, your ring reacts to certain people. I don't fully understand yet why those people. However, if its color has changed, perhaps it is reacting to the person you are with in the same way it reacted to the others.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"I'll see you another time, then."
>Let's find out.
>As we head out, keep an eye on the ring.

[Oldmansour]

>"I'll see you another time, then."
>Let's find out.
>As we head out, keep an eye on the ring.

>Saying your goodbyes with the nurse, you depart the infirmary, keeping a discreet eye on the jewel in your ring as you go. Sure enough, the swirl of color fades as you put some distance between yourself and Utsuho.

[DracoOmega]

>Did our ring exhibit any sort of similar change in color when it reacted to Rin, or even Kiku or Chie for that matter?
>But those were accompanied by a sensation as well, yes? While this was not?

[Oldmansour]

>Did our ring exhibit any sort of similar change in color when it reacted to Rin, or even Kiku or Chie for that matter?
>But those were accompanied by a sensation as well, yes? While this was not?

>You didn't notice any change in color with Rin, and your ring didn't change color when it reacted to Chie. With Lily, however, the gemstone had a purple light before Lily's ring emerged. Likewise with Kiku, the jewel turned yellow before her ring manifested itself.
>Yes. In every experience before, you had a sensation that your ring was reacting to them. With Utsuho, there was no such sensation, merely the color. And even the color was different. With Lily and Kiku, the color was solid. With Utsuho, however, the yellow coloration was a spiral.

[DracoOmega]

>Do we believe the spiral in our ring manifested only shortly before we noticed it, or is it possible it had been there for a much longer period of our appointment and we had simply never looked in that direction enough to catch it?

[Oldmansour]

>Do we believe the spiral in our ring manifested only shortly before we noticed it, or is it possible it had been there for a much longer period of our appointment and we had simply never looked in that direction enough to catch it?

>You can't be sure.

[DracoOmega]

>Try walking discretely back towards her office, without actually putting ourselves visibly in front of the doorway. Assuming the swirl returns, at what distance do we notice the response starting? And if we concentrate upon it, can we sense anything unusual?

[Oldmansour]

>Try walking discretely back towards her office, without actually putting ourselves visibly in front of the doorway. Assuming the swirl returns, at what distance do we notice the response starting? And if we concentrate upon it, can we sense anything unusual?

>Experiment time.
>You take a few measured steps back towards her office, keeping your eye upon the jewel in your ring. But even when you stop just on the other side of the windowed door, your jewel's coloring remains consistant and yellow swirl-free.

[DracoOmega]

>Was it still exhibiting the swirl at this distance as we were leaving?

[Oldmansour]

>Was it still exhibiting the swirl at this distance as we were leaving?

>No. It stopped almost as soon as you left the room.

[DracoOmega]

>Oh. Hmmm...
>On a different note, is there any place around school where we could reasonably expect to have a conversation in private at this time of day?

[Oldmansour]

>Oh. Hmmm...
>On a different note, is there any place around school where we could reasonably expect to have a conversation in private at this time of day?

>Very curious.
>Certainly. The infirmary is one, as are certain classrooms if they're empty. There's a number of closets around the campus that can be ducked into for a chat, or for other purposes. Certain club rooms would also be empty, depending on if their club is meeting on that given day or not. There are also a number of places outside of the school buildings themselves where people go to seclude themselves, but these are not used frequently on stormy days such as this. Likewise there are hallways not frequently traveled.

[DracoOmega]

>Find some place relatively discrete, but not so isolated that it would be strange for us to be found there, then pull out our cell phone and give Kiku a call

[Oldmansour]

>Find some place relatively discrete, but not so isolated that it would be strange for us to be found there, then pull out our cell phone and give Kiku a call

>There is a washroom just down the hall from where you are, so you head in that direction. After checking the place for other occupants, and finding none, you produce your cell phone and dial the number you acquired from Kiku last night.
>After two rings, you hear a click and receive a recorded message of "The number you are attempting to dial is either out of your service area, or has their phone turned off."

[DracoOmega]

>Hopefully she did give us the right number... though she also said she didn't use it much. Maybe she forgot to turn it on?
>We haven't received any text messages during class today, have we?

[Oldmansour]

>Hopefully she did give us the right number... though she also said she didn't use it much. Maybe she forgot to turn it on?
>We haven't received any text messages during class today, have we?

>Kiku didn't seem the type to make an error like giving you the wrong number. But if she doesn't use it much, perhaps she did indeed simply forget to turn it on.
>Checking your text messages, you do find one in your inbox, but it is from Marissa. It is timestamped just after the beginning of second class.

[DracoOmega]

>Check the message

[Oldmansour]

>Check the message

>It reads, "Don't fall asleep in class now, Sleeping Beauty. "

[DracoOmega]

>Well, at least we managed that bit okay.
>Give Lily a call.

[Oldmansour]

>Well, at least we managed that bit okay.
>Give Lily a call.

>Minor victories sure beat none at all.
>You dial Lily's number, and someone picks up on the seventh ring. A sleepy voice mumbles something that sounds like, "hello?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Hello, Lily? It's Byakuren. I hope I didn't wake you...."