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Shortly after Faith finishes cleaning up, there's a knock on her apartment door.
"Hey! It's me! You decent? Is it okay for me to come in?"

Minato blinked once. Then twice. He was about to say something before Faith hung up.

After a moment, he sighs. He carefully adjusts the collar on his shirt.
"....dirty thoughts, go away, dirty thoughts, go away."

"Don't need to tell me twice!"
9-19

"Um.....sure. I'll call the family lawyer, we'll head over right away if possible. I'm not going to be any use to you if I came alone, right?"

Later, Nighttime, Touto University Hospital
You are all at the scene of last night's fight, right in front of the hospital. The staff have come and gone, but the Eden Foundation troops have not, with two posted at each entrance and who knows how many inside. The head honcho of the Foundation left hours ago after having a long talk with the administrator; you feel as if that was a missed opportunity, as was not speaking with the administrator of the hospital. Nonetheless, the people you did talk to did give you some intel that the hospital might be associated with the Zoanthropes, and Ito finding tunnels under the hospital did something to help you come to that conclusion.

Unfortunately, your intel sources amount to a terminally ill teenager and a teenage boy who came to visit her (and you're pretty sure that this plot is from some anime), and a deranged homeless man who was ranting about mole people. On the scale of credibility, somewhere between using a tabloid and Wikipedia for your college papers. In a word, unreliable.

So you've decided to stake out the hospital in the hopes of corroborating what little eyewitness evidence you have, and maybe spotting a Zoanthrope or two. Spica and Lapis said they'd be on their way to help stake out; after all, even if Spica's a little on the hasty side, at least her pet can sense Zoanthropes and confirm your suspicions.

Where you are around the hospital, of course, is up to you, as is what you're doing there.

Bertholt knelt alongside the elder, clasping his hands over his heart, regarding the goddess with a mixture of awe, sorrow and obligation. He too had prayers to make, and something to ask of the Goddess, the words of which could only be heard by Bertholt.

He spoke in a calm whisper, with all the intensity of a gathering storm. Bertholt often prayed, when the times were difficult, when they had suffered setbacks that had made it ever-more difficult to succeed. This habit of his had begun years ago, long before he became a priest in the priory, as a young boy. Even now, he'd pray to carry himself through the chaos; in the dark of night, after the others had gone to sleep except those on watch, Bertholt would pray for guidance. He'd prayed on the eve after the battle in Vaster's palace, after the fight in Anecca, after they'd found Rina's hanging, bloated corpse.

The burden of the fate of Izzarra's people had lain on many different people in this group; on Martyn, on Sharne, on all those who had tried, again and again, to convince the leaders of nations to help the people of Izzarra. Now it lay on Bertholt, and Bertholt was no great orator, nor bore any great power, political, military, or magical, to persuade the elders to help Izzarra. All he had was his heart, and what proof and words his allies could give him.

And so he prayed.
"Great Mother Rhea, the way forward is dark, and the obstacles upon it treacherous to traverse. I shall do what I will, to protect your flock, not to earn favours, but because it is the right thing to do. I know it in my heart. This path, I will not turn away from. I swear it; for Roux, for the others of this group, for those who have died for the sake of Izzarra, and for the people who still suffer there.

Even if I do not know if I will succeed, I must carry on.

I lay myself down before you, Great Mother. Most humbly do I implore you, give me the strength and the will to do what is right for the people of Izzarra, and aid me in helping liberate them from their plight."

".....I'm just going to.....not."
Bernie slowly slinks away as well. She was a violinist, not a bodyguard, and certainly not capable of helping Alex with whatever harebrained plan he intended to pull with the hurricane.