"How did they fare?" "Better than I expected, I'll admit. You were right." "So they are on par with senshi, then." "Mhm. Looked like they barely even broke a sweat." "That is to be expected, against a weaker youma." "...are you sure about Tachibana? She was able to guide them, but..." "I am absolutely certain, yes." "You're very good at not giving me the whole picture, you know." No response. "Well, all right. I'll just have to keep an eye on things in the meantime. It's been pretty quiet in Natsuto." "It has. But of course, that cannot last. There will be more youma. Please continue your patrols." "Hai hai~."

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    At lunch, Yumi Tachibana sits alone in a secluded corner of school. She's done that a few times; enough so that her usual crowd won't worry too much. She'll have time to herself.

    Which is good. She'd really rather others not see this little gem. 8-sided, dark purple but just barely translucent. It retains none of that strange, twisting 'sensation' she'd felt throughout the entire... whatever that was. What was it? It seemed like some kind of side dimension layered over the top of the shopping district. And what was that /thing/? Did it create that space? Did that space create it? Why was she able to sense all that? Why did so much of it remind her of some desperate person getting kicked out of their home? Why did looking at that monster make her feel so angry? And what is this gem, the only part of that thing to /not/ dissolve away? For that matter, who left that note? Who knows where she is, /and/ knows how to find those things?

    Yumi stares into the gem as if she might find answers to her thousand questions in there, but none are forthcoming. Sigh. She'd settle for knowing why she could sense that whole phenomenon so easily. She's never been able to sense any kind of magic, so why that? And why that weird orb back in Rome? Think. What's the connection? Think, Yumi. The orb seemed like it was 'eating' the space around it, and producing those beetles. That weird other-space with the monster was like a warped version of the place it was parked. Eating space, distorted reali... ty...

    Light dawns. "...reality-warping. That's it. It's got to be." A soft smile tugs onto Yumi's face, and she hastily stashes the gem deep in her bag again, right beside the folded-up note.