"Those two girls I bumped into that day," Yuriko thought as she looked up at the ceiling that night, unable to sleep. "Kairi and Suki Saito."
"Two cousins who could be mistaken for twins. They were almost cast out after breaking the ribbon, but rumour has it that they made a deal with the upper echelon and disappeared, only to return with completely different personalities."
She turned onto her side as she thought, "I've been tailing them for the past two weeks, trying to find anything that could tie them to Lloyd's theory, but so far I've come up with nothing."
"And to make it worse, they're starting to get suspicious of me," she thought with a sigh. "I ran out of clumsy excuses, so I had to back away for the last three days. Who knows what they've been up to."
"Is everything okay, Yuriko?" a voice asked from behind her, so she turned to see who it was.
She had been so lost in thought that she had forgotten it was just Taki sleeping on the bedding beside hers.
"You keep squirming. Are you sick?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Yuriko replied. "I just can't get to sleep. It's nothing to worry about."
"Oh, okay," she said before tucking herself back in.
Yuriko did the same, thinking, "I have to look for them tomorrow."
She stared at the ceiling again, this time letting her gaze softly linger ahead.
"Where are you now?" she thought. "Are you still alive, Pops?"
Her eyelids started to feel heavy.
"Will we ever see you again?"
She turned onto her side and closed them, wincing as flashes of times long gone played back in her mind, as they did every night.
Sunrise came sooner than she would have wanted, but she forced herself up, yawning as she rubbed her eyes.
The room was almost empty, with everyone else already awake, but she was used to it by then. In fact, it gave her comfort.
As the ladies ate their breakfast around the large shared table, Yuriko looked around, trying to find them, but she couldn't.
Coincidentally, she was sitting right beside a girl well known to have been their friend, at least before they changed. They were still close, so she was sure that if anyone knew where they were, it was her.
"Hey there," she said, turning to her. "You're Riku, right? You're friends with Kairi and Suki."
"Yeah. Why do you ask?" she replied.
"I was just looking for them and thought that maybe you knew where they were."
"You mean you didn't hear," she said. "The two of them left yesterday."
"Really?" Yuriko asked, shocked.
"Yeah," she replied. "It was a bit sudden though, especially since they told me once that they were planning to stay until the New Year's festival."
"Did something happen?" Yuriko asked.
"Not that I know of," she replied. "For a while they were quiet and secretive, nothing like the friends I grew up with."
"I'm sure it's nothing serious," Yuriko said, trying to comfort her. "By the time you go back home too, I'm sure they'll be back to normal."
"I hope so."
The rest of the morning, all Yuriko could do was think back to them.
"Why did they suddenly leave? Are they doing this to maintain their secret?" she thought to herself. "If only I didn't back away, I could have learnt more."
These thoughts persisted until later in the afternoon as she was doing the laundry with Takae, Leina, and Taki.
Then Leina stood up and turned to Taki, saying, "Taki, let's go and grab the next bunch."
"You guys stay here," she said, turning to Yuriko and Takae.
They nodded, and the two of them walked away shortly afterwards. Takae looked around to see if anyone was watching, then she formed a sign with her fingers at Yuriko.
She responded with a different sign, then the two of them traced a pattern of light with their index fingers.
"Tower Series: Number 34: Neural Interface," they thought simultaneously.
"What's up?" Yuriko thought. "Is something wrong?"
"I got a package from Miyuki today," Takae replied with her own thoughts. "It came with some interface tags and a letter."
"What did it say?" Yuriko thought.
"She said that Lloyd finally got a bite," she replied. "He said that some merchant he was arresting a while back whispered that he was being framed by the ones pulling the strings."
"The council? Why would they frame one of their own?" Yuriko asked.
"No. He stated that it was someone else. He didn't outright say it, but Lloyd is assuming that it was the upper echelon of the shrine from the wording the man used," she replied.
"That man was then convicted and banished from town, but not before they took away any chance he had of exposing whatever it was that he knew."
"Did the Doshin ever find out about what Lloyd learnt?" Yuriko asked.
"He says that so far he doesn't suspect they've caught on to him," she replied.
"That means it's up to us to find out whatever that guy was trying to say about the shrine, right?" Takae continued. "If any major emergency comes up, we can use those interface tags she sent us to link to them."
"How many?"
"One for each of us," Takae replied.
"Wow, she's really getting good if she's able to make five spell tags at once," Yuriko thought.
"Don't get too comfortable," Takae thought. "We can only use them once until she can send more, so we have to be careful."
"Right," Yuriko replied. "Oh, and there's something else."
"Those two girls I was tailing left the shrine three and a half months before they planned to. Do you think it's connected?"
"We have no way to prove that," Takae thought. "I guess we have to find someone else who's changed and see what we can gather from them."
They noticed Taki and Leina coming back with the next batch of clothes, and the two of them simultaneously said, "Sever link."
Yuriko looked over at Leina and thought, "I have to bring up as many of these girls as I can with her. With how long she's been here, I'm sure she knows most of them, but it would be too abrupt if I say it now, right after the first two left."
"I'll just have to wait a while," she thought. "This is more than just us now. We need to figure out what's happening to them."
"We might be the only ones who can."