pokebox | TESTRUN SHIT

But one thing remains the same, correct - you don't remember seeing anyone else?

[All three sages nod.]

That's correct. I didn't see anyone at all.

Neither did I.

That's right; there wasn't anyone here and there wasn't anything abnormal that happened. At least, I can't remember anything abnormal happening.

[All right. So they all remember being here, yet none remember anything happening, nor do they remember seeing each other... Furthermore, they didn't see anyone, yet obviously there's someone here.

That's...odd, to put it gently. Hmmm.]

I'll bear that in mind, then, but for now I think I'll see whether our mystery man is still inside the tower - however he may have gotten there.

[He smiles a bit then, tossing his head.]

I'll send down one of my Pokémon if I need assistance, if that's all right with you?

That's perfectly fine. We'll be down here if you need us! Just follow the trail and you'll be in the tower.

And be careful, don't go messing anything up in there!

[Because you know, knocking something over would be so much worse than a bomb going off. Anyway, the sages part and allow enough room for Tsukiyama to pass.

Should you continue out back, the Bellchime Trail looks very peaceful. There are plenty of trees with leaves in a wide variety of autumn colors, though a good number of those leaves are on the ground. Aside from the smoke coming from the tower, the place is incredibly peaceful, and very quiet.]

[Out back we go, then - after offering a brief gesture of appreciation to the sages, of course.

The trail back here is rather nice, though; the quiet and the open air would lend itself well to reading, if he were to be here for leisure. It occurs to him vaguely that Kaneki would probably like it, because Kaneki appreciates things like this in the same way he does; it's almost enough to distract him, though he's able to shake it off after a brief moment's pause.

He looks the place over for a moment before reaching for one of the Pokéballs at his belt; the last time he was anywhere with lots of foliage on the ground, someone had been using it to his advantage - namely, there were tripwires everywhere. The one he decides on is the one containing his starter, Alessia; if there's anything amiss on ground-level, it's better that she find it before he does.

That said, though, he'll be scanning himself for anything amiss with the entire setup; does it look like anyone's been through here recently?]

[No, it doesn't look like anyone's been through here recently, but that might be because a lot of the leaves on the ground look a little... odd. They're definitely leaves from the trees, if you know enough about leaves to try to place them, but they're not wet like the leaves underneath. It looks like a bunch of trees dropped a lot of leaves all at once.

...Oh, and there's something sticking out of the leaves near the end of the trail, if you care to take a look at that. It's black, about the size of your palm, and sharp, so be careful!]

[...monsieur does he look like he knows jack shit about leaves

he's not exactly going to assume that somebody carted in a bunch of leaves because reasons, they came from the trees because of course they did

...that said, though, Alessia doesn't seem to be behaving particularly oddly, so he's going to assume the place is free of tripwires, wild Pokémon, or little children dressed like ninjas who jump out of the leaves to challenge him because the children around here seriously need a hobby. Something does seem to catch her attention near the end of the path, however - ]

Oh, what's this now...

[He'll just be attempting to pick th-

...AH. RIGHT. GODDAMN IT. HIS SKIN DOES NOT ACTUALLY BREAK KNIVES HERE ANYMORE, GIVE HIM A MOMENT.

While he is doing some impromptu first aid involving a handkerchief from hammerspace because he is, in fact, a fucking idiot, Alessia will be checking out that black thing that is currently lying on the pavement. What is it, does it smell funny, is it food, etc.

Because she is a helpful snake.]

[TSUKIYAMA PLEASE....

Well, don't let your snake eat it, it's very definitely Not Food. It does smell pretty funny though, and unless your snake likes the smell of chemicals she probably won't eat it anyway.]

[Oh. Oh, wow, no, that thing is very definitely Do Not Want, holy shit.

Tsukiyama will find out exactly why when he picks it up, too (thankfully without slicing his fingers open this time); god this thing...smells strange, doesn't it, and it's not a good sort of strange, either.]

...Alessia, be a sweetheart and see if there are any others around here, hm?

[It shouldn't be too difficult for her to find a few more pieces scattered about the trail. Some are out in the open like that piece, but others are under that new layer of leaves. The pieces vary in shape and size, but they all have the same smell.]

[...As he'd thought, actually. Whatever this was, it was here before the leaves fell, possibly in one piece; that said, these are...a lot of leaves to have come down at once. It might be expected if there was some sort of windstorm, but the weather has been clear for the past several days; presumably it came from some other force.

One of the bombs, most likely.

All right, so we're looking at chemical explosives, from the...scent of it, and presumably one of them may have gone off nearby, or at least close enough that the shards would end up out here.

Good to know.

Since there doesn't seem to be anything else obviously jumping out at him out here, however, he'll call Alessia over to him as he approaches the doors to the tower itself. Let's try opening them.]

[Unfortunately, the doors don't look like they're in any condition to open. They're very tall doors and they're clearly very heavy and well-built, but they look a little... charred. It looks like the doors suffered some heavy damage and getting them open just by pushing on them doesn't seem to be a possibility.]

[Damn it.

All right, so we have doors that are...presumably welded shut from the inside. He could try to break in somehow, but with his luck that'll just piss off the Bell Tower Host Club out there and he'll be theirs until he can pay it off.

Fortunately, he is Shuu Tsukiyama and he has never been stopped by the idea of unconventional entrances, so he's going to look around before trying to kick the door in like a damn barbarian. Pacing the exterior of the place, then, circling it a bit; how are the windows looking?]

[You're in luck! The windows are unharmed and while they're a bit high off the ground, they shouldn't be too difficult to break into! Opening them without breaking them might be a bit of a problem though, there isn't any way to do that from the outside.]

[What matters is getting the window open in the first place; it's easier to replace those than it is doors.

So he'll let the damage to the doors be Seth's problem; after a moment's thought, he recalls Alessia and lets Léa out. She is thankfully no longer a Surskit, but a rather pretty Masquerain; he'll send her up to check out what's visible though the window before he tries to do anything about entering - there's been a lot of smoke around, and parkouring up just to end up in a damn room on fire isn't his idea of a good time.]

[Smart man. There isn't much to be seen in the interior of the tower; the first floor is very plain and simple, with stairs leading upwards towards the back. The door is indeed welded shut, though it looks like whoever did it isn't very familiar with welding or fire in general. It's sort of an awkward x-shaped mark across the door. It looks like you could have busted in without too much trouble.

There isn't anything else to note; getting in through the window shouldn't be a problem and there isn't anything on fire to worry about.]

[It takes Léa a while to convey that to him, given that she is in fact a bug and he has no powers that allow him to directly speak to such; however, after a few moments of awkward conversing, he...will actually vault up anyway, despite the fact that the doors are easily opened. Doing that should limit Seth's escape routes a bit, assuming he's still in there; he has no doubt the guy has other ways out of here, but if those can be disabled it'll be easier if he can't just open the door easily.

So! It takes some convincing but he manages to talk poor damn Léa into opening the window for him, if by "opening the window" we mean "he gets her to smash it with her face"; after that, it's a matter of looking at his shoes, shrugging because eh, they're good enough, aaaaaaand up we go. Unlatching the window from the outside through the opening Léa has provided and actually getting inside without falling off the damn building is a bit of a production, but fortunately he has years of experience of breaking into pretty girls' apartments!

...yeah.

Either way, it's an experience that may or may not require a second jump once he's gotten the window open, but he manages without killing himself and jumps down after just...chilling on the sill for a second and making sure nothing's going to happen at the sound of the window breaking and Captain Freerunner making an appearance.

All clear?]

[All clear! Nothing jumps out to attack and there aren't any sounds from anywhere upstairs, so it seems like you're good to go, Tsukiyama! So now what? Are you going to continue upstairs or take a look around down here?]

[He'll recall Léa for the time being, switching her out for Alessia again; he wants something that will recognize the scent of those chemicals, if she comes across them again.

While he really wants to go charging up the stairs like gangbusters, he suspects that isn't the smartest of ideas, not when we're dealing with bombs; on the other hand, he might want to actually move his ass because we're dealing with bombs and it's possible Seth might get impatient...hmmm.

He'll cast around a bit while he's deliberating; is there anything of interest down here that would catch his attention?]

[Aside from the door, there isn't anything to note. The rest of the room is completely unharmed, and what few marks there are on the floor are obviously from the poor attempt at welding the doors shut.]

[All right, then - up the stairs we go. He's fairly quick about it, at least; it's probably a bad thing, how much he's enjoying this, but as it stands he's practically bouncing. At least Alessia is keeping up...]

[The second floor is pretty bare. Like the first floor, there are stairs leading up on the other side of the floor, but most of the floor is untouched. There's no dust anywhere, but that might be because of the sages keeping the building up. Should you choose to proceed toward the stairs, you might see some more of those dark pieces scattered near the stairs.]

[...Near the stairs?

Okay, either this person's explosives are the most harmless things in the history of ever, they were trying to assemble them as they went, or...there's a third option he's not seeing.

Is there a window around here, and if so, is it latched?]

[Well, there's a door underneath the stairs! Investigate?]

[...WOW, SO THERE IS. God, people really need to stop hiding doors in places that doors shouldn't be, in Tsukiyama's opinion, but at least these aren't made of fucking meat. Because ghoul technology is really gross.

Let's check the door out, then; if it's unlocked, he'll be sending Alessia in before him to make sure there's nothing he should be aware of, like tripwires or...the complete absence of a floor or something. If it's locked, he'll cross that bridge when he gets there.]

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