Naoko, not content with simply hanging out in the library for much longer than he needed to, decided to leave through the same door that Hoshi did. When he got a look outside, he could see that Hoshi was already out of sight, but that wasn't what really caught his interest. Instead, he noticed that he was in a hallway, with the left side leading to the area he found himself in upon entering the floor, and the right side obviously leading to the other side of the floor. Aside from that, he could see that there was a door on the other side of the hallway in front of him. It seemed promising, so he decided to peek in and see what was inside.
It was, of course, yet another room. This one was, however, a bit simpler in regards to its contents. Aside from the solid yellow walls, this room had tall, single tier lockers on the wall to the right of where Naoko entered from, as well as a number of goods which seemed to suggest that the room was meant for physical activity. There was a rack on the wall with varying sizes of weights, from particularly heavy-looking ones all the way down to little 2 pound weights. There was a metal storage shelf which contained various goods, most notably different types of balls. There were even some mats in the room, either laid out on the ground or rolled up and placed by the walls. It looked like a nice place to work out in, especially when compared to the gym in its current state.
Inside the room were Kimi, who seemed to be looking around aimlessly, and Mine, who was practically jumping with joy. Unlike Kimi, though, she didn't seem to immediately notice Naoko's arrival.
"So. This place," Kimi said unenthusiastically. "It do anything for you?"
"Huh?" Naoko asked. "I don't know yet. I just got here."
"Well I think it's fantastic!" Mine said, moving between Naoko and Kimi. "Finally, a place where I can do all sorts of training and not worry about hitting anything!"
"Yeah, sure," Kimi shrugged. "Afraid this place doesn't do much for yours truly, though. Let's be real here, this place is weird. It just feels like a room you'd find in an elementary school gym."
"Really?" Naoko asked. "I don't see it. I mean, where in an elementary school gym would you find dumbbells? I've never heard of a school gym having those."
"I guess I haven't either," Kimi conceded. "But that's not what I was talking about. I was talking about that shelf with all those balls and shit. Does IMONO expect us to wanna play with a goddamn rubber dodgeball? Not to mention, you got those big-ass lockers over there."
Kimi gestured over to the lockers Naoko had seen when coming in. As opposed to Kimi, who seemed more incredulous than anything, Mine seemed genuinely curious.
"Oh, yeah. What do you guys think those are for?"
"Probably to store stuff," Naoko replied. "Without opening them up, I'd imagine they might have some workout clothes or something like that in them."
"Presumably, they're mostly here just so that the jocks among us have something to shove the nerds into. Hahaa!"
Kimi laughed heartily at her own attempt at humor. By contrast, Naoko didn't really think it was funny, and didn't see a reason to laugh along with her. Especially since he noticed that Mine looked really uncomfortable by her saying that.
"...Kimi," Mine said, noticeably slower than usual. In fact, her body language in general had become much more subdued. "Kimi, you shouldn't joke about stuff like that."
"What?" Kimi asked between chuckles. "Just because it's an old joke doesn't mean it can't be funny. Well, actually, I guess the fact that Mariko exists makes it less accurate. But hey, that doesn't mean it's not funny."
"It's not funny, though," Mine replied, wiping a hand across her forehead. "It's just a bad thing to joke about."
"Kimi, I think you should apologize," Naoko suggested. He had a feeling where Mine was coming from.
"What? It was just a joke," Kimi insisted. "Besides, this is the 21st century. Even if it's not just an old joke, it's not like something like that could happen in our lifetime."
"Yeah, I…" Mine paused for a moment, still noticeably bothered. "...I guess so?"
She glanced over to Naoko with an unsettled expression. Naoko frowned sympathetically as she did so, and felt as though he needed to do something about the situation, to keep things from getting too ugly. Luckily, Mine was able to take the first step.
"Okay, um, this place looks all good," she said in a somewhat forced manner. "I'm gonna check back here later. Would either of you know where the nearest ladies' room is?"
"If you go back to the stairs to the second floor, you should be able to find it," Naoko said.
"Got it! I'll find my way from there!"
Mine left the room quickly, through a door on the left-side from where Naoko entered, which allowed Naoko to turn his full attention towards Kimi. Kimi, despite the worrisome behavior of Mine, didn't seem to care, which actually got a bit of a rise out of him.
"I'm serious, Kimi. You really should apologize to her," Naoko said.
"Why?" Kimi asked. "What the hell did I do?"
"That joke made Mine really upset," Naoko pointed out. "Haven't you figured out yet she's claustrophobic?"
Kimi took on a look of surprise. "Wait, really? Y'know what, that'd explain a lot."
"So? Are you going to apologize?" Naoko asked expectantly.
Kimi sighed. "I mean, if she is, I guess I feel bad for her," she admitted, "but it's not like I have to, right? Think about it. If one of us were afraid of spiders, would I not be allowed to make jokes about a man that can do whatever a spider can? Hmmm?"
"I'm not asking for you to censor yourself," Naoko explained. "All I'm asking for you right now is to apologize. You made Mine really uncomfortable, and I think it'd be best you hash it out with her."
Kimi gave Naoko a pouty look and crossed her arms. "Y'know, you're lucky you saved my bacon just a couple days ago, or by this point I'd tell you to leave me the hell alone."
"Okay?" Naoko said confusedly. "So, is that a yes?"
"I'll seriously consider it," Kimi offered. "How 'bout that?"
"That works...I guess."
"Well, alright then," Kimi said, seemingly content with this. "See ya."
From there, she left from the same door that Mine used. It was worrying, to say the least, considering how Mine was clearly upset with what Kimi had said. The fact that Kimi wasn't particularly interested in apologizing for it didn't make matters any better. Still, if Naoko could get an apology out of her, he felt like that would be a real step in the right direction for her. It wasn't like this was the first time she had upset someone.
Naoko left through the door he had come in through. Wanting to see what else he hadn't yet seen, he moved to his left through the hallway and found himself in a somewhat more open area, where he could see from where he entered some things of note up ahead. For one thing, there was a hallway that was blocked off near the end by a shutter door. Naoko had seen those before. Those were how lower floors were blocked off before they could enter them. It was unfortunate that they only got one new floor, but there wasn't much they could do about it, it seemed.
To the right of the hallway was another door, though it was quite a bit different from the ones Naoko had been used to seeing. Most of the single doors were made out of what was probably PVC or something, but the door he was looking at was clearly more metallic in composition. It looked sturdier, and more secure. It even had a prominent lock, which made Naoko wonder what the hell was on the other side of it. It wasn't like there was anything else interesting in his line of sight. The area he was in was connected to various corridors, but those seemed to only go between or around the rooms he had already been in.
He tried to open the door to see inside. Luckily, it was already unlocked. Opening it up, he immediately noticed the interior of the room it led to, as it was a sight that Naoko legitimately wasn't expecting. The room had, on the opposite end of the entrance, two things of interest. On the left side, there was a large desk which seemed like it was meant to have a lot of items on it, but the only things on it at the moment were a cup with various writing implements held in it, a work lamp plugged into the wall, and, off to the left side, a small black box. The box was open, revealing its contents to be three keys, each of which had a small tag with a number on them, labelling them 1 to 3. Their purpose was obvious enough, given what was to the right of the desk.
That would, of course, be the other major thing of interest, though technically, they were three separate things. They were each identical square spaces dug into the walls, side by side, and were disturbingly similar to jail cells. It wasn't just the metal bars and reinforced bar doors, even. They each had in them a bed, a small shelf, and an area off to the side with a toilet and sink. It was obvious that each one was meant to be stayed in for an extended period of time.
He wasn't the only one that had an interest in the room, either. As he entered, there was Yori, Mariko, and Eryu, all of which were giving the place a good look over, seeming just as curious about the room's existence as Naoko. As he walked in, it looked like Eryu was in the left-most cell, while Yori and Mariko observed him from the outside.
"What the hell?" Naoko said aloud, getting the others' attention.
"Naoko, hey," Mariko greeted him. "This place is weird to you, too?"
"I wouldn't say that it's weird, exactly," Eryu said, leaving the cell. "It's more just interesting."
"I would say that it's convenient," Yori chimed in.
"Convenient?" Naoko asked.
"Exactly," Yori responded. "It's like when we talked about having that party, and then we found that pool on the second floor. Just yesterday we had to confine Haru to his room, and now we have actual holding cells."
"Does that mean you're going to have Haru put into one of these?" Mariko asked. "Doesn't that seem, I don't know, a little cruel?"
"I guess it would be a lot less pleasant to be here rather than in his actual room," Naoko agreed.
"That's a fair point," Eryu responded. "At the same time, though, it could be a lot safer. After all, a big reason why he's locked up is because he's shown himself to be violent. Right now, if someone wants to give him something, they have to, at the very least, open the door to his 'cell.'"
"That's true," Yori said. "Granted, whether he would actually try to take advantage of that for any reason remains to be seen. Still, given why he's in said situation in the first place, it's something to consider. Perhaps we should try asking the others what they think."
"That sounds like it'd be the 'passive' approach," Eryu commented. "Not a bad idea, really. It'd be good to get people talking."
"If that's the case, then maybe we should gather everyone up somewhere and talk about this," Yori suggested.
"I don't see why not," Naoko shrugged. "I've seen everything here, I think."
"Should we group up somewhere on this floor?" Mariko asked. "I don't know this place very well yet."
"Well," Naoko began, "there's the bathrooms, some sort of flower room, a library, an exercise room, and this place. Out of all those places, I think the exercise room could work. It seems spacious enough."
"Great!" Eryu said happily. "Let's gather everyone up, then."
After a little while, and after people seemed to have become content with their examination of the floor, everyone convened over to the exercise room, as Naoko had described it, in order to discuss their new discoveries. The general mood seemed okay on the surface, but Naoko still had a bit of worry in regards to Kimi and Mine in particular. He had a feeling that Kimi hadn't yet apologized to her about the joke she had made, and he wasn't sure how things would be between them if that were the case. At the moment, the two weren't really standing near one another, so at least for the time being, things wouldn't be too awkward. Hopefully, anyway.
But that wasn't supposed to be the focus of their conversation, obviously. Instead, it was the matter that those in the cell rooms previously discussed.
"So, this floor," Mareo said aloud, attempting to start a discussion. "It's rather interesting, isn't it?"
"Oh, totally," Ishi agreed. "We got flowers, books, and loads of, like, I guess you'd call it exercise equipment."
"Those are the main points of interest," Yori replied. "However, that's not all. There also happens to be a room with three holding cells in it."
"Holding cells?" Takeshi asked. "Like in a prison?"
"Exactly," Mariko replied. "It's...really weird."
"I'll say," Takeshi responded thoughtfully. "Why would a room like that be in a place like this?"
"You could ask that about a lot of what we've found in this place already," Hoshi astutely pointed out. "Just above this floor, we have a pool of all things."
"Yeah, I get that," Takeshi responded. "The idea of having jail cells feels different, though. I don't quite know how to describe it, but that's kinda how I feel."
"Maybe they're here because of Haru," Ishi suggested. "Y'know, he's 'locked up' right now in his room, and now we have actual, like, cells."
"But he's only been locked up since yesterday," Naoko pointed out. "How could it be constructed so quickly?"
"I dunno," Ishi admitted. "But hey, y'know the gym? IMONO made a big platform in it after, like, two days or so. Those cells could've been made in, I dunno, a day?"
"No, they're built into the rock of this place, and they have running water," Eryu argued. "I doubt even IMONO could do something like that in a single day."
"Seriously? Damn, I thought I was onto something there," Ishi lamented. "So, they're not there for Haru?"
"Probably not," Yori replied. "Still, that's actually what we were interested in talking about. We think that it would be beneficial to move Haru into one of those cells."
"Really? So you're all in agreement on that course of action already?" Mareo asked.
"I wouldn't say that, actually," Mariko replied. "I feel like if we did, it'd be, I don't know, a little cruel. He's already stuck in his room, alone. I'd imagine that's already hard on him."
"Of course it'd be hard on him," Mine responded. "Being in one of those cells sounds awful, but...I mean, do we really want him to be comfortable in his room? Him being in there is supposed to be a punishment, right?"
"Well, it's that, and a way to keep him away from the rest of us for a while," Eryu pointed out.
"Ah, yes, of course," Yori said. "That was something else we talked about. I personally think it's best we err on the side of caution. Right now, interacting with him at all means opening up the door to his room. Considering why he's in there at all, this is worrying."
"Well, I suppose that sounds logical," Mareo said. "So, we would have to take Haru out of his room and into one of those cells?"
"It'd probably not take everyone to do that," Naoko reasoned. "Probably just a few of us."
"Well, if you're doing that, I bet I could help," Mine volunteered.
"Sounds like a great idea to me," Eryu replied. "So, are we in agreement on this?"
"Eh, I don't really care," Kimi answered apathetically. "Throw 'im in one of those cells, it's fine."
"I guess I'm alright with it, sure," Takeshi added.
"You've made a decent argument for it, so I'm inclined to agree," Mareo stated thoughtfully.
"I'm still on the fence, I think," Mariko said. "Is that okay, or…?"
"I see where you're coming from, yeah," Naoko replied. "We wouldn't exactly be doing him a favor, would we?"
"No, we wouldn't," Eryu agreed. "I get why Mariko feels that way, too, but...Hmm...Do we have the majority of us voting yes?"
"If we count Naoko and Kimi as being in favor," Yori said, "that should be at least six to ten."
"You can count me as being in favor," Naoko replied. "And Kimi seems like she's open to it. Mine might be, too, actually."
"Uh huh," Mine answered.
"Then we're doing it," Eryu responded. "Glad that's settled."
"Heh," Kimi laughed, a bit of a smirk on her face. "Eryu, counting on democracy. I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere."
"If there is, I'd rather not hear it," Eryu remarked unamusedly.
Kimi rolled her eyes at this. "Whatever. Is that it? Is this 'meeting' adjourned?"
Naoko thought about it for a moment. "I don't think there's anything else to really talk about for now."
"I guess not," Eryu responded. "Alright, then. That's it for now."