What Draws You In » Places

         Ayase found the towel rather interesting. It was still clean; an indication that it hadn't been used and was well preserved as time passed. The logo was a bit faded but still readable. It was the logo of Fujioka Galar that she had seen almost twenty years ago when she first heard of this place. She handed it over to Sen to dry himself, lest he catches a cold.

"Well, aside from the logo, nothing much could point why this place shut down. After my own investigation and your own, I think the clean spots and the dirty spots vary within this hotel, depending on how people died or how it was affected by whatever caused this place to shut down." Ayase replied, remembering the cockroaches and the body she saw.

Scanning the place a bit more, she saw the elevators and headed there. It obviously wasn't working but she wanted to check it out anyway. There were two of them, possibly so that they have more means of transporting people around. Peeking at the small opening, she saw that both cabs were on the floor they were at, meaning that people may have used it to escape during the calamity.

"Maybe some survived the incident after all. I should have just set up an appointment with them in that case. Though, I suppose it would be hard to find them now."

Wanting to find out more, she called the others to her side and pointed to the elevators. She asked Ryuko to help her open her side and Sen and Rachel to open the other cab.

"Let's check what's inside here. Maybe a poor bellboy got stuck here and he's carrying around some batteries. Who knows but at least the possibility is there right?" As she gripped on to her side of the door, she can already see that her chosen cab was very dirty and there are some things hanging on the ceiling.

         Rachel smiled back to Sen, as he greeted her. She wanted to tell about the shower rooms, but the man and Ayase were talking to each other.

She didn't know what to say when Sen asked her about the towel.

"It's not... not mine... I... I guess so" she answered when she realized the man really needed it. 'He must have been caught by the rain I escaped' Girl thought. "...but wait a second, please" she added and walked towards Ayase. She showed her the towel and a sign printed on it. "We've been to shower rooms." Rachel started talking. "We found nothing there, but the corpse of a poor maid and the towels in one of the cupboards. Look at it. There's a sign, probably a hotel logo..." Girl handed over the towel to Ayase.

"But the most interesting thing was that the place is so clean... Beside the corpse that is. It seemed that the place had not changed for the last 20 years. There was some cocrete dust on the floor, but it really makes an impression!"

As Ayase was checking out the towel Rachel added: "I think he needs it more than we do" She pointed her head towards Sen "if you want to check it more, Ryuko's got the spare one."

         Ryuko kept her stoic face up. After entering, she tossed the flashlight to her. "Here, catch. We're splitting up." She said in a monotone voice and pulled up her gas mask.

"Alright, time to put your skills to the test."

"You go find what you can around the shower area. I'll take the remaining area and the sauna, are we clear?" She went off, first to the dead body of the maid. She gave it an experimental kick to the side, to find that the body had decomposed- it was a skeleton now. She frowned, squashing around two to three cockroaches that were originally stuck to the bones of the body. They had tried to scamper off, only to be crushed under her red sneaker. After that, with caution- and looking out for more bugs- she started to fumble around the skeleton, eventually finding an ID. Pocketing the ID away, she stood up and headed back to her original position when they had come in.

With the cracks in the wall, the afternoon sun was shining down. Using that as her only source of light and trying to heighten her sense of sight somehow, Ryuko started to look around. Floor was dry- Of course, it's gone 20 years without anyone using it. Looking at the walls- she didn't dare touch them-, it seemed to have grime on it as well. Finishing her exploration around the shower room itself, she proceeded to the sauna.

Upon entering the girl's sauna- she was sure Ayase had covered the boy's sauna, right?- she was surprised to find that it was actually kinda clean and was still somewhat maintained. It surprised her. 20 years? Still alright? She was gonna have to figure that out next time, though it wasn't exactly her main goal.

Walking out, she turned to Rachel. "What've you got over there? Any luck?"

         "You have a point." Ayase thought it best that they all stick together, as suggested by Rachel who had decided to tag along with the couple in tow. She took some shots of the broken glass on some of the rooms as they walked around. The place was indeed dim but, so Ayase was able to manage well. She navigated across some of the rooms, being careful not to step on broken glass.

They reached one of the locked rooms and Ayase thought it would be nice to check it out. She gave the door a strong kick but it didn't budge. She resorted to the room keys and found one that matched: Room 213. She opened the door and a strong scent of desolation wafted through the corridors.

This room didn't have any windows and the balcony was closed so Ayase had to use the flashlight. She shone the small illumination on the bed and saw a couple of skeletons buried under the debris. Something was lodged onto their heads which was probably the cause of their death. She noticed that some of the dressers are in a disarray while there was a doodle on floor, probably made from one of the bodies' nails.

She turned to the group and asked. "Well, it seems like this place probably shut down because of an earthquake. What do you guys think? Ryuko-chan, you look like you have a few observations." She pointed to the stoic, headphone-wearing girl, asking for an opinion. While waiting, she also asked the others with her. "Aside from this, what else could have made those beams fall?"

         "We don't have to roll it that far, just enough to create an opening that we can pass through so, let's do it!" Ayase bent down in a comfortable position to roll the pillar away. With the help of the two, they managed to roll it enough to enable the door to open to a space where they could fit in.

The room inside was a bit messy and dusty, with skeletons littering the ground everywhere, all crushed by debris. Ayase looked up at the ceiling, covering her nose with a handkerchief, while she looked at the ceiling in case something falls from above, as she led the two inside. Fortunately, nothing looked like it was about to fall so she checked every corner of the place with the two girls. She wasn't able to come up with any useful files though. All of it was just old employee cards and such. One of the skeletons had a set of keys for rooms on the second floor so she took them. "Let's go." She motioned for the two girls to leave when something on the wall caught her eye. It was a floor plan.

"Oi!" She called the scientist in the lobby. "The floor plan is in that room, if you're looking for it." She pointed back at the room earlier. She turned to the two who helped her and asked. "Well, guess I'm headed for the second floor. What about you guys?"

         Cold. The first thing she felt was coldness all over her. Ryuko started to open her eyes. "Where the hell am I?" She asked herself mentally. As she began to sit up, but then regretted it as her hand slipped on something-- "OW!" She yelled out in pain, looking up at her hand. It had a cut on it and worse, it was bleeding. She looked over to where her hand was before and saw a glass shard. "Why the hell are there glass shards here?" Then, carefully, she started to get up again, groaning. "Why the hell am I here?" She looked around. Looked like a bar. In fact, it looked like a bar that hasn't been touched in years, and it looks like a storm passed through it. Though some of the wine bottles remained untouched....

Ryuko blinked as she realized something. While she was thinking of how she got there, strangely enough, she couldn't remember anything. Just her name, age, gender....but nothing else. She frowned. "Do I have amnesia or something?" She sighed. "Maybe a walk would clear my mind or something..."

After a few minutes of walking around- and getting lost- she reached the main lobby, seeing a girl with waist-long black hair, tied into twintails, and a brunette, who she guessed must have been a journalist. Sighing, she just placed a hand on her forehead, muttering something. "Why can't I remember anything..?"