Three Days - part 1, MGNQ, Hino, Canon

Authors Note: The thread this attaches to is 172, found here. http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/29650485/

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    “You shall be suspended from all duties, privileges, and responsibilities for three days.”

    Hino Setsuna flinched, good eye widening in confusion. Not only to have her request denied, but to be pulled from the roster like she couldn't handle the rejection. “I must protest, I--”

    She quelled under the hard gaze of the Warmaster, who was clearly not in the mood to listen to excuses at such a late stage in this little game.

    Three days...? What does... Oh. OH. Setsuna smiled, feel the scar on her lip pull, twisting the expression into little more then a sneer.

    Yes, three days should prove plenty of time.

    - - - - -

    Stalking into the hall, Setsuna's mind worked quickly, furiously. She hadn't expected to have to move this quickly, with so little preparation. Still, she knew those who hesitated were lost, and she had no intention on letting this one slip through her grasp.

    She nodded to the other girl waiting patiently by the elevator. “Iwakura-san. I take it your request went well?”

    The crimson haired girl flashed her a brilliant grin. “Yep, I'm all set to go! I can't wait, this is something I've been wanting to do ever since I was contracted! How... how about you, Hino-chan? How'd yours go?”

    Stepping into the elevator together, Honoka hit the 'down' button absently as she turned to her companion. She blinked, though, as it gave a low buzzer sound, denying her request. “What the-?” She frowned, leaning to look at the console. “Why is it- wait.”

    Glancing back to Setsuna, she cocked her head to the side. “Did... something happen? In there?”

    Setsuna looked to the side, inwardly sighing to herself. “I... my request was denied. And I was suspended.”

    Hanoka's eyes widened. “Suspended? Over a transfer request? Where'd you ask to go, the moon?!”

    The other girl simply shook her head.

    “Well... I don't think there's much we can do then, Hino-chan. The building isn't designed to let you walk around freely if you don't have your ID any more. Do... would you like me to walk down with you?”

    Setsuna shook her head, realizing that while she had been given a chance by the Warmaster, clearly it wasn't going to be easy. “No, but thank you. I think a nice walk will give me a chance to clear my head.”

    - - - - -

    It... proved to be a much longer walk then she had originally thought. A half hour walk down endless flights of stairs, one foot, one step, at a time. It gave her plenty of time to think, and she had confirmed two things, at least.

    Fist, all the doors the whole way down had be barred to her. Before, she had never considered how much freedom her badge had given her; being a contracted girl gave her a lot more access then the pencil pushing office workers on the lower floors. Now that she was missing it, though, it's like there was a whole new world that she had never noticed before. Magnetic badge readers as far as the eye could see, and there were everywhere; doors, windows, even the fire escape!

    She had stopped trying the doorknobs after the first ten floors, and given up on knocking on them trying to get someone's attention by the twentieth. It was a strange feeling, being able to see into hallways and sometimes offices, watching for a moment the people inside, but not once had anyone glanced her way, like she was a ghost. If it hadn't been for the security cameras installed discretely into the corners at every fifth flight, she'd think that no one knew she had essentially gotten trapped in here.

    Second, and this was not to understated in the least, she had decided that she had really, really, REALLY FUCKING HATED stairs. While she had to climb quite a few of them in her carrier so far, as Vindicare standard M.O. tended to involve getting up high and staying there until your target found your sights, she was really starting to reconsider swapping to Eversor training. Just because they always seemed to prefer elevators, from what she had seen.

    Secretly she suspected that they were just trying to get ambushed while in one, giving them the perfect excuse to cut a bloody path out again.

    She'd take that over stairs any day, is what she was getting at, here.

    Still, the important thing was to not get distracted. To focus. She had been denied a lot of useful privileges and resources that she had banked on accessing, but had been given in return perhaps the most precious thing of all; time. Three whole days worth, an eternity, assuming she didn't dawdle and waste the gift.

    With that in mind, though, she had finally reached the first floor.  Iwakura-san had been kind enough to open the doors into the stairwell for her, up on the fifth floor where the Warmaster's suite was, but now there was a slightly different problem to deal with. A large caged security gate blocked her path, with another one opposite. It was said the building went fifty up, and fifty down, but she had no real desire to explore what lay on the other side of the gate opposite. Her legs were killing her as is, and once she got out, she'd have to find some place to sit and stretch her legs a little. For now though, she had the first gate to deal with.

    The thing was a heavy duty job, with large thick bars covered in mesh, which she assumed could be electrically activated if the building was in lock down. It mostly worked to prevent people from wandering in from the lobby and going through the back spine of the building, but now it was preventing her from leaving, too. Swearing at the incompetence of people who wouldn't let someone clearly deprived her ID actually, you know, leave the building, she shook the gate, frowning at the security camera she could see perched in the corner.

    With a crisp click, the gate unlocked defiantly, causing her to half-stumble as it swung open in her grasp. Directing a glare at the camera, at the girl she didn't know but KNEW was now snickering at her, Setsuna pushed past the gate before it could swing back on it own. The last thing she needed was a metal door hitting her in the face. Shoving open the main stairwell door to the bustling lobby on the other side, the contemplative silence she had been enveloped in was broken with a babble of noise.

    The main lobby to QB Heavy Industries main branch office was always busy. Even in the middle of the night, there tended to be a unusually high number of civilian office workers, building maintenance crews, housekeeping, and of course the magical girls themselves. The last were usually instructed to use other, more discrete entrances during the night to not arise suspicion, but in the middle of the day like this it was a bustling beehive of movement and voices.

    And in the midst of all this activity, in an alcove just outside the main flow of traffic, stood Rea Ashford, Vindicare Rank Leader. She was standing directly across from the stairs, arms folded, looking bored.

    Ah.

    The small mystery of the stairwell gate cleared up, Setsuna noticed Ashford-sama nod a greeting to her, then jerked her head to the side. Toward the big, re-enforced glass double doors that made up the entrance to the building.

    ...Oh. Well... Setsuna pursed her lips, glancing toward the front desks placed deeper into the lobby. Right now they were manned by a mixed group of magical girls and office staff, all of whom were well trained to deal with the mad press of hundreds of requests from guests and staff needing their attention at the same time. She had hoped that she'd be able to slip inside, maybe meet up with some of her squadmates to have them grab some equipment from her personal locker, but...

    The Rank Leader shook her head firmly, mouth set in a flat frown. She nodded again toward the doors, holding up three fingers. It looked like she was going to be insistent about this, wasn't she?

    Sighing, Setsuna pushed off the stairwell wall, headed toward the front doors. Seemingly satisfied, Ashford-sama straightened up and disappeared into the crowd, her short form blending in in a moment. She snickered as she watched her boss slip away; what'd she have to do, get a box to see over the crowd?

    Pushing open one of the thick, bullet-proofed glass doors, she stopped a few feet down the wide, broad stone entrance steps into the building. Turning around to glance up toward the top, where she had started this mess, she pondered a moment the building she had worked at for the past two years.

    “Wh-what? Look out!”

    Stumbling back a couple steps, Setsuna blinked out of her introspective mood to see a blue haired girl frowning at her, hand gripped to her own arm to prevent her from falling, other arm filled with a notebook and large envelope.

    She recognized the girl, a Callidus that had joined a few weeks after she did herself. She didn't really know her all that well, but to be honest she didn't really know most of her Officio outside of her squad on more then a name basis. She was just kind of a outsider, really. “Ah, I apologize Yuki-chan, I was not paying sufficient attention.”

    Seeing pens and other items scatted below, she leaned down to help pick them up. The blue haired girl blushed, waving her off with her free hand. Snatching up drawing supplies and other items off the ground, she smiled at Setsuna. “Oh, Hino-san, it's ok! I can get them!”

    Sitting back on her heels a moment to watch and make sure the other girl didn't get run over by someone coming up the steps, Setsuna nodded, standing back up. “I am sorry, I have a lot on my mind right now.”

    “That's ok! I'm sure you've had a rough day! It's ok, I've got this, don't let me hold you up, if you've got some place to be!”

    As the girl finished up, Setsuna turned to continue down the steps. “I do, actually. See you later, we shall have to chat again sometime.”

    Turning, she slipped into the crowd. She had a phone call to make.

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