Keine Quest (Part 3): Broken History

[DracoOmega]

>"Hmmm. And, to your knowledge, nothing has happened there since?"

>"Nothing at all," she replies. "It is rather unlike her, I admit."

[Hello Purvis]

"That does put an interesting spin on the problem. I had been presuming Yukari was simply being her usual mysterious self."

[DracoOmega]

"That does put an interesting spin on the problem. I had been presuming Yukari was simply being her usual mysterious self."

>"Not an unreasonable assumption. Still, I think even she would have done something about that, were she able. Unless it, too, is part of some plan only she understands."

[Hello Purvis]

>"It wouldn't be the first time. Thank you Yuka, you've helped me a lot, I think. If it is alright, I'll leave you in peace now."

[DracoOmega]

>"It wouldn't be the first time. Thank you Yuka, you've helped me a lot, I think. If it is alright, I'll leave you in peace now."

>"Very well," she nods at you. "Enjoy the evening." She turns back to the sky, again.

[Hello Purvis]

>"You as well."
>Pick our way out and head back to the crater.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"You as well."
>Pick our way out and head back to the crater.

>Yuka gives you no further acknowledgment, and you decide not to wait for one.
>You take off back for the crater, and arrive at it soon enough. Rumia seems to be playing something akin to hopscotch, leaping unsteadily from one rocky outcropping to the next. Mokou has found a flatter one and is currently sitting on it. She looks up at you as you arrive.
>"So, how'd it go?" she asks.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Excellently. I've learned what's in there. This is where Yukari lived. Or, perhaps, lives."
>Check this history of this area for signs of Yukari.

[DracoOmega]

>"Excellently. I've learned what's in there. This is where Yukari lived. Or, perhaps, lives."

>"Really?" Mokou looks around the place. "Would never have guessed."

>Check this history of this area for signs of Yukari.

>You can't detect any signs of her being here within the last 7 years, and can't tell much of anything before that. It seems likely that if she's anywhere at all, she's still inside the barrier.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Me either. I thought she was just elsewhere...well, being Yukari."

[DracoOmega]

>"Me either. I thought she was just elsewhere...well, being Yukari."

>"Yeah, wouldn't surprise me," Mokou agrees. "So, what do you figure she'd doing in there? If she is in there, of course."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I don't know, possibly trying to hold on."
>Consider devouring the history of the otherworldly energy, to see if we can detect what is under it.

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't know, possibly trying to hold on."

>"I don't think I like the sounds of that idea," Mokou says

>Consider devouring the history of the otherworldly energy, to see if we can detect what is under it.

>You don't think you could devour it any more than you could devour the boundary between a river and its shoreline. Given that you now know Yukari's involved in it, you suspect it literally is a boundary between two different timelines.

[Hello Purvis]

>Not the boundary, so much as the event that makes the boundary necessary to begin with.

[DracoOmega]

>Not be boundary, so much as the event that makes the boundary necessary to begin with.

>The point of origin for the event that created the fissure itself is out of your reach, much like the other two were. As for the boundary, you wouldn't even know where to begin, since it seems to span timelines, rather than existing inside a single one. You suspect you wouldn't even be able to affect anything inside from out here. That may have been the reason it was created in the first place.

[Hello Purvis]

>"There's not a lot I can do for her in there, either..."
>Resist the urge to put a rock on top of that pillar.

[DracoOmega]

>"There's not a lot I can do for her in there, either..."
>Resist the urge to put a rock on top of that pillar.

>Mokou frowns. "You think there's any way to get inside?"
>You resist the urge to start weighing alternate timelines down with heavy objects.

[Hello Purvis]

>Shake head.
>"It resists physical contact. I don't think I can cancel the barrier, which would be bad in any event, and I can't prevent the event from happening to begin with because its origins are completely outside of history as we know it. Unless she hid a back door somewhere, which would demand the question of why she didn't use it herself..."

[DracoOmega]

>Shake head.
>"It resists physical contact. I don't think I can cancel the barrier, which would be bad in any event, and I can't prevent the event from happening to begin with because its origins are completely outside of history as we know it. Unless she hid a back door somewhere, which would demand the question of why she didn't use it herself..."

>"Yeah... that does sound kinda... Think anyone else would know what to do with it?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Patchouli or Sanae might know something about the barrier itself. But, I don't think this is within their abilities to do much about it."
>Fight off the temptation to poke it with a stick.
>"I wonder what danmaku would do to it?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Patchouli or Sanae might know something about the barrier itself. But, I don't think this is within their abilities to do much about it."

>"Well, Yukari is... well, Yukari," Mokou says.

>Fight off the temptation to poke it with a stick.

>Actually, beating with a blunt instrument might be somewhat satisfying at the moment....

>"I wonder what danmaku would do to it?"

>"Want to find out?" Mokou raises one hand.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I can't imagine she didn't think of it..."
>Shrug.

[DracoOmega]

>"I can't imagine she didn't think of it..."
>Shrug.

>"What's she doing in there, anyway, you figure?"
>"'sides, if anyone has some answers for where all this vanished to, I figure she would."

[Hello Purvis]

>"I literally have no idea."
>Walk closer to it, maybe something can be seen within.
>"All I can imagine is that this...thing is targeted at her, and this is all she can do to hold it off."

[DracoOmega]

>"I literally have no idea."
>Walk closer to it, maybe something can be seen within.

>You walk closer to the pillar. The surface of it is quite opaque, but you feel a strange connection to the history inside, the closer you get.

>"All I can imagine is that this...thing is targeted at her, and this is all she can do to hold it off."

>"That's a pretty disturbing thought," Mokou says.

[Kasu]

> Check the history for signs of Ran.
> Check the history for signs of Chen.

[DracoOmega]

> Check the history for signs of Ran.
> Check the history for signs of Chen.

>You see no signs of Ran.
>You think Chen may have passed by her a few times since the barrier went up, but can't tell anything beyond that. It's been a while since she was here, at the very least.

[Hello Purvis]

>Ponder that connection. How is it different than our typical one, and how is it strange?

[DracoOmega]

>Ponder that connection. How is it different than our typical one, and how is it strange?

>You think... the history on the inside is more in tune with your own. Or at least a piece of your own, suspended in a sea of another.

[Hello Purvis]

>"What in the...?"
>Get closer.