Burning Bright

Omens

"Why are there two of the same drawing...?" Segawa asked, looking at the drawing she had found in the lighthouse and the one Isurugi Miina had in her sketchbook. "What's this..." She was disconcerted.

"What is it?" Torako asked, moving to have a look for herself. "... Where did you get that torn one from?"

"The 'lighthouse'! It was in that room we explored. Isn't it weird?" Segawa said. "R-Right, Yarai should..."

"Yarai isn't back yet..." Matsumoto said.

"! Ah, right. He's still resting somewhere..." Segawa said. "..." She stared at the drawings. 'What's with this drawing...'

They decided to take the drawings to Akira and the others to see what they thought of it.

"What's the meaning... of this..." Akira said, looking at the two drawings side by side.

"The stains on the one Segawa-san found show it's pretty old," Torako said. "And it was found in the same room as those computers that seemed to be around fifty years old."

"I agree, it looks pretty old," Mariya said, examining the one Segawa had found.

"Is it a copy...?" Akira asked.

"Nah, the lines are scratchy, so that's not it," Mariya said. "Both were drawn with a pencil..."

"Show me," the vice president said.

"Eh, Vice-prez?" Akira said, but they handed both the sketchbook and the scrap of a drawing over to her.

"Look... at the edge of this drawing," she said, drawing their attention to a side of the scrap that had a very uniform tear with what appeared to have been square holes on the edge. She held it next to the binding of the sketchbook. "This is from the sketchbook binding."

"I see, it's the same..." Akira said.

"Wait a minute..." the vice president said when she noticed something else.

"What...?" Akira asked.

"Hey, when you hold it against the fire... the lines seem to be off a bit...?" the vice president said. "This second drawing looks pretty similar, but it's different..."

"B-But isn't it too similar? It's totally Miina's art..." Yamato said. "But Miina was never at the 'lighthouse', right? Then why..."

"Segawa... Fukui..." Mariya said.

"Eh?" Segawa said.

"Yes?" Torako said.

"You said this piece was found at the 'lighthouse', right. Can you tell me more about that tower?" Mariya asked.

"Sure... but why?" Segawa asked.

"It might give us a hint..." Mariya said. "To solve the mystery behind this drawing."

"Mhm, let's see... the 'lighthouse' was a rather strange tower..." Segawa said, holding her chin. "It was built at the coast and looked like a lighthouse. I think it was about 15m high. There was only one entrance, which was closed by a robust iron fence. Inside there were a lot of rooms along the wall. It had six floors and every one was built the same..."

"Well, not every one..." Torako said. "Judging by the placement of the doors, some rooms seemed to be larger than others, but I think what really stood out was that there was no elevator."

"Yes, normally you would have an elevator in such a building, right? But that tower didn't have one," Segawa said. "There was only a staircase."

"A tower with only a staircase, huh... That sure is weird," Mariya said. "Okay! Anything more you noticed?"