Based on what was suggested to them by IMONO, they could potentially use some portable radios - or, to use their more cutesy name, walkie talkies - in order to solve their communication issue with Bankei and Haru. The problem was, they didn't know exactly where to find them. Apparently, they could search either of the storage rooms for them, so many of them went to do just that, with Naoko specifically going to the "secondary" storage room. Still, which one they'd be in, or if they'd even be there at all, seemed uncertain. It seemed like even IMONO wasn't sure, which was actually kind of strange to Naoko. Whoever or whatever IMONO was, weren't they supposed to know everything about the place they were in? At least, that's the train of thought that Naoko ran through his head. He certainly thought it made sense...though it also seemed possible that he didn't really know what he was talking about. It easily could've gone either way.

Naoko pushed open the door to the secondary storage room and stepped inside. Behind him were Takeshi, Hoshi, and Kimi, a trio which he admittedly hadn't expected. Mostly due to Hoshi and Kimi, two people who Naoko felt wouldn't really be on the best of terms. Still, all of them seemed more or less fine with the arrangement, at least on the surface, and the three shuffled into the room behind Naoko and joined him in their search.

Unfortunately, the room itself didn't seem like it would bear much fruit. Inside the room were several miscellaneous items, big and small, but aside from those, the only thing particularly interesting about the room was the odd-looking machine on what could best be described as a counter built into the room's side. The machine was big and metallic, with a coin slot and small lever on the side, plus a large chute that dispensed items came out of. It was probably one of the strangest singular items Naoko had seen in the facility thus far, but it and the previously-mentioned items felt like the main "draw" of the room. Sure, there were also some boxes here and there, but they were cardboard boxes, rather than those plastic storage containers, and none of them looked like they'd contain radios.

Naoko frowned at the sight of the room. "Do you think they'll be in here?" he asked aloud.

"I'm not entirely sure," Hoshi admitted. "We may as well do our part, though." From there, he stepped forward to one of the boxes and began to look inside. Naoko felt like it'd be smart to start doing the same.

He walked over to the closest box he could see and crouched down to inspect it. It looked to be closed up tight with a line of tape (most of them were, notably), which looked like it'd be very troublesome if they all hadn't come prepared. He brought out a small knife from the kitchen and carefully stabbed into the line of tape, sliding it across it until he could open up the box without resistance. And inside of the box, he could see…...matchbooks?

Naoko did a double take as he looked down at the sight in front of him. What the hell was a box filled entirely with matchbooks doing in the room? "Huh," he said, looking up and turning to address the others. "This one's filled with matchbooks."

"Hm. I suppose that's mildly interesting," Hoshi replied, opening up a box himself.

"Mildly?" Naoko asked. "I dunno, it seems kinda weird to me. Why would we be given so many?"

"Kinda obvious, isn't it?" Kimi replied, taking her sweet time to open a box herself. "We're stuck down here. Those are enough matches to last a lifetime, probably."

"Fair enough," Naoko replied, not really finding any fault in that assessment.

"Of course," Kimi said. "Speaking of, though, why the hell haven't we done this before? For all we know, these boxes here could have the best stuff in them. Such as, for example, something that could get us out of this hellhole."

"You really think something like that would be left out for us here?" Naoko asked confusedly.

"Well, it wouldn't necessarily be obvious," Kimi explained in a huff. "It could just be something that we could use to, I dunno, cobble something together."

"I've got duct tape here," Takeshi alerted them. "Does that count?"

"Hell yeah it does," Kimi replied. "See? I can't believe we haven't opened these up. Seriously, it's not like you guys don't have the time."

"Well, you do too," Naoko pointed out. "We're all in this together, aren't we? If you wanted to open these up yourself, you totally could've."

Kimi looked like she was going to snap back with something, but stopped herself. She seemed to realize that Naoko had a point. She turned her back on him and opened up the box she had sat herself next to, only to sigh upon seeing its contents.

"Wow. More trash bags, huh?" Kimi said with weary sarcasm. "I guess this was a waste of time, then."

"Huh," Takeshi responded mutely. "Actually, that reminds me of something. This might sound kinda dumb, but since we've been in this place for a while now, how exactly are we going to be spending our time?"

Hoshi looked up from what he was doing over at him confusedly. "What do you mean? Are you saying you don't know what you're supposed to be doing?"

"Something like that, sure," Takeshi replied. He clearly began to notice Hoshi was still giving him what seemed like a rather curious look, because he tried to explain himself further soon after. "Should we, say, be spending our time looking for a way to get out of here, sorta like what Kimi was talking about?"

"A way to get out?" Naoko asked. "I don't know about that. If we constantly acted like we were looking to get out of here, IMONO would notice, and I don't think it'd end well for us."

"So, we'd all benefit from keeping our heads down, as it were?" Hoshi gathered. "That makes sense, I suppose. Still, while we're here, we may as well do something, and I don't think it'd need to be as knee-jerk as looking to escape."

"Do you have something in mind?" Naoko asked.

"Why, yes, I do," Hoshi replied contentedly. "Here, we have a lot of things available to us, but not all of it seems particularly worthwhile. However, aside from all of, um…" He got up and began gesturing to the room and its contents "You know, all of this stuff, we also have each other. We could certainly spend time together, as friends."

"Wasn't that the point of that party you guys threw?" Kimi pointed out. "Because we all know that didn't go well."

"That was partially due to what happened between you and Haru, you know," Naoko reminded her.

"Yeah, well, I was referring to the murder. I'm about 99% sure that takes precedence over whatever nasty encounter yours truly had with a certain violent oaf."

"We wouldn't need to do anything extravagant like that," Hoshi explained. "We could find smaller activities to occupy our time. If nothing else, we could just...talk."

"Makes sense to me," Naoko replied.

"You guys do that more than enough as-is, though," Kimi argued.

"How else would we be able to interact with each other?" Naoko countered. "We can't be doing everything by ourselves. I mean, right now, we're all talking and working together, as a group."

"Yeah, but is what we're talking about important to what we're doing at this point?" Kimi asked.

Hoshi looked around the room. "I suppose you have a point there, Kimi. Still, it looks like our search here is almost over, and aside from some miscellaneous supplies, there's not much in here of note."

"I guess we might as well keep talking until the others are done with their business," Naoko supposed.

"Talking about what? Talking?" Kimi pointed out.

"It might sound silly, but I think we might as well try spending more time with each other for as long as we're here," Hoshi said. "We seem to be in agreement about that, except for you."

"We?" Kimi questioned. "What about Takeshi? We've been talking about this little proposal of yours for a while, and he hasn't said a word about it."

Takeshi looked over as Kimi said this, just in time to meet the gazes of the other three. From what Naoko could ascertain, he seemed more confused than anything about being singled out like that. "Why would I be saying that much in the first place? I agree with what Naoko and Hoshi are saying, and I don't really have anything else to add, so...what should I be saying?"

"I dunno. That you agree?" Kimi shrugged.

"Well, yeah, I think that's a given," Takeshi replied. "I guess I didn't say it earlier because you guys were kinda having a conversation, and I didn't wanna butt in."

"You're saying you're not interested in speaking to us until spoken to?" Hoshi inquired.

"Something like that," Takeshi answered. "Mostly, though, I just don't wanna talk unless I think I can contribute."

Hoshi nodded in understanding. "Well, that's fine. Honestly, I think that sort of approach suits you. No offense."

"None taken," Takeshi replied. "Still, if you guys wanted me to add my thoughts, I guess I could. Can't guarantee they'll be all that great, though."

"If you have something to add, then sure," Naoko said approvingly.

"Alright, lemme think," Takeshi said, bringing his hand to his lower lip in contemplation. "I guess if we were gonna spend time together, we could find ways to bond over...mutual interests? Maybe that sounds kinda simplistic, but, I mean, it might work for, y'know, some of us."

"I think it could work for a lot of us, actually," Naoko replied. "I think we, in general, have a lot more in common than we might think."

"Some overlapping traits, yeah," Kimi supposed. "But it's not like this is our first day here. We've known each other for over a week now, and I wouldn't say the majority of us have really, y'know, clicked. At this point, we're definitely not gonna hit it off with each other just 'cause we're alike."

At that moment, the door to the storage room practically flew open. From the other side of said door, two feminine figures, clearly belonging to Ishi and Mine, stepped into the room. Both looked markedly happy and upbeat, which in itself was nice to see, but clearly didn't sit well with Kimi.

"What's up, my dudes?!" Ishi exclaimed. "Yo, Naoko, Hoshi, catch!"

The two of them were carrying with them small black devices that Naoko didn't need more than a glance and context clues to know were exactly the items they were looking for the whole time. Both of them spent no time throwing one each to Naoko and Hoshi. Ishi threw one to Naoko, and he caught it, albeit narrowly, since he hardly expected it. Mine also threw one to Hoshi almost immediately after, who unfortunately wasn't so lucky.

"Ah!" Hoshi yelped, clutching his nose.

Mine immediately brought her hands to her face in shock. "Oh my god, Hoshi, I'm so sorry!"

"No, it's...it's fine," Hoshi got out. "It was an accident. I just...I need a minute."

"Maybe you should see Mareo about that," Takeshi suggested.

"Oh, don't be silly, Takeshi," Hoshi waved him off, clearly trying to play it cool. "He has more important things to do."

Naoko looked away from them and towards Ishi. "Ishi...did you two rehearse that?"

"Rehearse? No, but, uh, I guess we should've," Ishi said. "Here's some advice for next time, Mine: throw underhand."

"Yeah, okay," Mine replied, flashing Hoshi an apologetic look.

"So, why did you do any of that?" Naoko asked.

"What, the whole throwing thing?" Ishi asked. "I guess that was kinda, like, spontaneous. Otherwise, we were just laughing it up earlier, and I suggested we spring the news on you guys in a fun way...I guess we could've done better with that."

"Definitely," Hoshi said quietly.

Naoko looked over at Hoshi concernedly. "Are you sure you don't want Mareo to check you out?"

"That would depend on where he is," Hoshi replied. "Then again, it's not like I necessarily need to go to him. We should be able to find the painkillers on our own, right?"

"Well, if you need him, he should be on the third floor by now," Ishi said. "We're supposed to test something real quick."

At that moment, a light crackle came from Ishi. Or, rather, it came from yet another handheld radio she had on her person. "Hello? Are you picking me up?" Mareo's voice was heard through it, making Ishi smile as she brought it up to her face.

"Tin Man, this is Redhead," Ishi replied humorously. "We hear you loud and clear."

The radio crackled again, and there was a slight pause. "...What?"

"Nah, I'm just kidding," Ishi said back. "I'm here with Mine and the secondary storage room boys...oh, and girl."

"Well, I'm on the third floor, so if you're on the first floor, then these have exceptionally good range," Mareo replied.

"Awesome!" Ishi said happily, putting her radio down and addressing the others. "This is great! We can just hand these out, give one to Bankei and Haru, and everyone'll be connected!"

"Everyone?" Naoko asked.

"We have enough for the eight or so people that'll be using them, yeah," Mine shrugged. "Oh, and I'll be one of them, so…"

"So here you go, girl," Ishi replied, handing her the radio she'd been using. She then turned to the others. "I guess that's it then. Naoko, I think you've earned yourself a nice break."

"Cool," Naoko said, looking between her and Mine, the latter of which still looked rather guilty for bruising Hoshi's nose.

"I guess that's it then, huh?" Mine supposed. "Well, then, I guess we should be going."

"Yep. Bye guys!" Ishi said. Her and Mine left the room from there, and the four original and current occupants were left to their own devices, more or less.

"Well, that just happened," Hoshi said mutely, his hand now removed from his nose.

"So, they're friends now, huh?" Takeshi observed. "I guess that makes sense."

"I'm just surprised it hasn't happened sooner," Naoko added.

"I just had to open my mouth," Kimi lamented.